Home Again! Home Again! Jiggty Jig!

So I got into Seattle last night at about 6 and that means to god ol' Port Townsend for Christmas and then to Spokompton (fo' shizzle) for New Years, then back to Seattle on the 2nd to try and set up my new apartment, a studio in the Murphys (thats on-campus housing for all the non-SUs). Some time in there I have to go through all of my stuff (and I mean ALL) and throw out/donate what i dont want/need and spend some conciderable time with the my families, not to mention get over my jet lag / culture shock. So for all of you out there thanks for reading and now you can just call me on my old cell to chat or what have you!

London and Amsterdam

So all will be relived to know that I wasnt sold into prostitution when I was in Amsterdam (which is what I think Gram was afraid of) and had a great time there as well (but not too good) , but I'm getting ahead of myself, first I went to London...

So I decided to spend my last few free weekends in France, or as the case maybe not in France. My friend Kaitrin and I got a cheap flight direct from Grenoble to London and stayed with her aunt to make the cheapest trip to London ever, which is still not THAT cheap, but really fun anyway. We went to all of the things that we didnt have to pay for. We saw Big Ben, Abbey Road, the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens (which I had never seen before) and walked around alot. We also got shown around the London night scene by a real Londoner (Kaitrin's aunt Lucy). and then flew out really early on Sunday morning. But it was an excelent day in London, but I am glad to be going back on the 15th for a week!

Thanksgiving here was really great too. The French dont celebrate Thanksgiving so we didnt celebrate on Thursday, but rather Friday, when we didnt have classes. We all made on dish and ate at our program cordinator's house and generally had a good time. I made the Mashed Potatos and the Apple Pie, and I helped a bit with the Turkey too. It wasnt exactly a home Thanksgiving but it was pretty good for a Frenchified one.

This last weekend I went with my friend Brandon to Amsterdam. Again because of the 8 hour train ride, we only really got two nights and one day in the city. As much as Amsterdam gets the rap for being Europe's "City of Sin" I really liked it for some other reaasons as well. We went on a 3 hour long "Free Tour" by the same company that I did a tour with in Munich, which was awsome. Then we also went to the Heinikin Brewrey (which was reallky pretty cool, or maybe I thought it was cool because they gave me 3 free beers) but what I was really excited to see was the Anne Frank House, which I cant really even describe except to say that it was really something that you have to see for yourself. It was pretty funny when I bought her diary in Dutch at the Museum shop and the sales girl kept talking to me in Dutch (I nodded and said "Ya" alot) then she was like "OK your obviously English, why did you buy this book in Dutch" to which I replied that I wanted to have it in the original language, and then she also told me that there are a few entries in English, so I will have to look for those.

This is probably going to be my last blog before I am home and can talk to you all in person! Hope all is well there and I cant wait to get home! Pray for me while I take all these French Cumulative Finals!! God Save Me!

A Whirlwind Week

So this last week in France everyone was on holiday for the entire week, celebrating the festival of Toussaints (All Saints), you see in France even though the government is not religiously affiliated, when they tried to abolish the Catholic holidays everyone raised holy hell (dont mind the pun), and so now they are the secular state with the most holidays because they have both national holidays and Catholic holidays, which is fine by me ;) So the entire University had the whole week off, except the CUEF (which of course is the part where I study). We just had Wednesday off, although most of our profs canceled class anyway (knowing that if you dont leave France for the week you starve, because nothing is open-everyone is on vacance!) So I did actually go to class but only Monday and Tuesday.

The Friday before last I went to Marsaille tout seul (all alone) because everyone needs a little private time, and I really, really, really needed to be by a large body of water (preferably salted). So I went and the sea air gave my soul strength, and I spent alot of time at the Chateau d'If (which is where most of the first half of the Count of Monte Cristo takes place), on Saturday, which is a prison island, kindof like the midevil version of Alcatraz. It was beautiful while I was in Marsaille, the high on Saturday was 31 degrees, in celcius, which I think is about 90 degrees in for us. It was warm enough that I wore a summer skirt and was not cold at all. I saw so many sailboats out on the water and it was such a beautiful day that I wanted to go sailing SOOOO bady, and I was very sad that I had not the oppertunity to do so. So on Sunday I packed up my things and had breakfast down on the wharf (a crepe of course) and went in search of Gram's and Denny's friend Roger, who has an apartement in Marsaille and a flat in London. Gram only had his address in Marsaille and the address and phone in London, so my oroginal plan was to look him up in the phonebook and confirm his number with the address, but France is not like the US (need I forget) and there are not phone books in every phonebooth (I have heard that you just have to call the operator, but doing said transaction in French is terrriflying!) so I found the address on my map and just went, then I had a moment of crises when I wondered if I should ring the bell to get buzzed up, so I called Gram, at 1 in the morning PT time (sorry Gram!) but that was ok, because it turned out that Roger was there and is a very nice man who I was very pleased to meet. We went out to lunch before I caught my train and he also graciously invited me to stay with him in London before I head home (I fly from Paris to London, and it was a snap to change on flight to a few days earlier), which is great because we all know how much I LOVE London!

So when I got back to Grenoble I had a scant 2 days of class before I headed to Barcalona with Nikki. We left super early on Wednesday to get there in the late afternoon (although it was dark), and have dinner with her cousin, Natchi and his wife and daughter. It was really great to get to meet some of Nikki's family (she has met a few of mine on weekend trips to PT) and also to have some natives show us around what I can only describe as one of the most beautiful cities! In the early portion of the last century, there was a man named Godhi who did alot of achitectual designing in Barcalona and the result is magical, it is like a modern fairy city made of sandcastles, with wide tree lined avenues and tourited apartment bulidings and movie theaters that look like Roman amphitheatres. Nikki and I walked down the streets and eneded up taking pictures of Insurace bulidings and the like just because the architecture was SO cool. We mostly walked a ton and got a real feel for the city and the one "touristy" thing we did was go to Sagrata Famillia (Holy Family) which is a church that they started in 1882 (the same year as Gram's house!) and are still working on today (this is not unusually, Notre Dame took 300+ years to finish) but what they have done is simply amazing! It is also designed by Godhi, and take it comming from someone who has seen ALOT of churches in her time, this one is totally different from anything youve ever seen. Its really modern, and is being created for a modern worshiper, and it will be increadible when it is finished in another 100 years or so (Nikki and I promised eachother that we would come back when it was done!). And in the meantime it is unconcrated so there are funny things like vending machines in the soon to be sanctuary and things like that. We also waited in an hour and a half long line so that we could see the panoramic view that one of the cathedral's towers has to offer, and it was deffinatly worth the wait!

So that has been my last week, and what lies ahead foe this weekend? Only God can know, because I sure as hell dont, so I am on my way to the SNCF (the French rail system) office to see what my student discount card can do for me!

A tout a l'heure!

So I'm a little behind...

So I am a little bit behind in my posting.

The last time I posted it was to tell about Aix and now I am going to tell about Lyon before I forget! I went to Lyon with Kaitrin, Kikki and Robert and although we only stayed one night it was a really good time. We left Friday after Robert and I got out of class and got to Lyon in time to see theis concert of a band that Nikki, Kaitrin and I had seen here in Grenoble called Mango Gadzi, they are a Greoble band and do this really awsome and compeatly indescribable music that I'm sure I will have everyone listening to when I get home. There was also the present surprise of having a very good warm-up band at the show called NoMad that would probably have to be classified as the same kind of music as Mango Gadzi but is totally different at the same time. The next morning we went to the Basillica of Lyon that sits on the top of a hill overlooking the city with amazing views, we also went to the Musee Beaux Arts which I thought very impressive for a museum so small, and I have been hard to please after my 2 week long art class in Paris with Dr.Weihe.

My birthday was good and I have to thank everyone for all of the presents and good wishes! Althogh as I am in a place where the drinking age is 18 I cant say that being 21 is much different than being 20. But I'll see about that when I get home. And for all of you who are curious I will let you know that my mom did indeed end me a Birthday Cake in France, contiuning her tradition since I have been away from home and that it was very tasty and didnt look mushc worse getting here than getting to Seattle!

This last weekend I just rested in Grenoble and didnt do much other than my homework and reading. Although I was thinking of going to Marsaille next weekend and I will certenly have something to say about that!

School keeps on going and I think that I am doing well, although it is hard to tell because we have no work handed in or anything to judge by until we get our final exams! Im excited that I am comming home soon, but still sad at the thought of leaving France.

Aix now, Lyon later

So last weekend I went "tout seul" (all alone) to Aix and had a wonderful time. It was really great to be able to go somewhere by myself as after getting to Grenoble I have just been with people all the time it seems (which is good too). But I just did alot of aimless wandering all over Aix which I loved as Aix-en-Provence (there is also Aix-les-Bains) is really famous for its street markets (read:I took alot of pictures of fruits and veggies glinting in the sun), and by connection, its street musicians. One of the other great things about Aix is that it is where Cezanne painted for the last 20 or so years of his life, and although there are very few of his paintings in Aix there is his studio, which I luckily happened upon by complete accedent.

While at said renound artist's studio I meet a really cute little French woman, of about 70 I think, and we began discussing art (in French mind you), and when they kicked us out of the studio so they could close for lunch (a very french thing) she invited me to her house for lunch, which is very near the studio, where she goes often as she is a trustee and donner to the privately owned and opperated museum. So I went as I felt that if she really was an untrustworthy person I could take her down (she was about 5'2" and like I said, a white haired grandmother), but happily that occassion didnt arise. We had a love lunch in her lovely garden talking of art and after lunch she asked to show me something. Turns out that she has a very small (and very blue) Van Gogh which I got to SEE. IN A PRIVATE HOME. It was probably one of the most amazing experiences of my life, if I had any less tact I would have asked to take a picture, but I'm glad I didn't.

So this weekend we (Nikki, Kaitrin, Robert and I) are off to Lyon, but first I have to get to class so more on that later!

SO...

Nothing to exciting to report as of yet, as I havent had the mulah to travel yet, but I will when I get my financial aide from SU...

Still things are going well here in Grenoble, we find ways to fill our time. The thing that we end up doing most is just hanging out in a park, or more often a cafe and just chatting. Mostly just the SU kids get togather, but every once and a while we adopt another into our little circle. In partiqular we are hagging out alot at a cafe called the XIII, the triez, thirteeen in frenchm, where we have become regualars to the extent that they will let us sit there for hours after only buying one drink apiece. Its one of the really nice things about French culture, the empahsis on knowing people, it is the same way with bakeries and resturants even, when you become a regular you are treated like one of the family, the servers know your names and what you prefer to drink and will go out of their way to give you really good service when they know they can depend on your patronage. At the bakery it is more likely to be something like the freshest bread, still warm from the ovens, rather than the baguette that was baked 2 hours ago.

I have also noticed how much better my french is getting day by day, i feel like my vocabulary has exploded since I got here. To the point where I can have disscussions about politics and religion and the things on the news with my host family and if I dont know a word, no matter how complicated, I can explain AROUND the thing that I want to say and then they tell me and so this is how I learn new words! I have also discovered that I am alot better at French than I thought I was, but that I just didnt really respond well to being put on the spot at no notice and without volunteering in class. It just takes me a second to gather thoughts and the right vocabulary around me.

Well thats it for now! Hopefully next time I write I will have gone somewhere exciting, and I will post pictures as soon as I get my computer!

A Day in the Life...

So, Hi there! I know I havent updated in forever, but I am having computer... issues. Meaning that my computer has been taken hostage by the French government and I have to write a letter to them telling them that I am a student and that I am leaving in December and taking my computer with me and I also have to find, somehow, the repcit for a computer that I bought two years ago, which wouldn't be a problem except that that paperwork is in storage in Seattle!!

So about Grenoble, I really like it.

The family I am living with is tres sympa (very nice) and my French is getting better by the day. In my host family there is a mom, Valerie and a dad, Stephan, and two kids, Maxance, 11 and Eloise, 5. I really enjoy being in a family with kids because Eloise dosnt hesitate to correct my French and Maxance is just taking English so he was super cute and asked me to speak with him for a few minutes every day and I also told him that I could help him with his homework. Other than the family there are also 3 other students living here (all French) and they are really great to hang out with because they are all just a little older than me and know all of the cool places that have live music and the like. There is also a dog, a little Apolapso, who is actually very cute and not annoying and also a cat, who is a gray one with one of those funny squashed-up faces.

My classes are going very well. They way they work is kindof cool. You are assigned a certain level of language classs that you have 4 days a week, then there are also 8 elective classes and you get to chose four of them. SU kids have to take the translation class, so that means I get to pick 3 more, but I cant decide (in usual Libra fashion) and I think I am going to take 4, the 4 being French and Francophone Literature, Contemporary History of France, French Politics and Economics, and Art History of France. Each of the electives (including translation) meets once a week in the afternoon, where the language classes are in the morning.

So as far as what I do every day other than classes, I and the other SU kids hang out alot at cafes and bars (because that is what you do in France) and I also spend a good chunk of time with my host family. Like yesterday for example, I went for drinks after Lit class with most of the other SU kids, then came home for dinner with my host family, after which Valerie (my host mom) as well as Alise and Baptist (two of the students who also live here) played Trivial Pursuit (in French of course), needless to say I lost worse than I have ever lost at TP, (those out there who have played it with me know how rare that is) but it was really fun and a good way to practice my French anyway.