The Arrival through the Inauguration.

Arrival. 

The trip over wasn't bad. I met all of the BU kids at the gate for Paris. The 8 hr plane ride to Paris wasn't bad either; we got dinner and then a few hours later a small breakfast. The dinner was awesome! The girls in my row and I each got our own small bottle of white wine to go with it (it was a shrimp

 dish). After arriving in Paris, we took a small plane to Lyon, where we then had to take an hour long shuttle to Grenoble. After the shuttle, there were two ways to get to the hotel. 1) Take the tram, which is 1,40 euros, or take a taxi, which is 8 euros, but a lot easier with all the luggage. So, what does a group of 20 BU kids (each with at least 2 huge bags, who don't really speak French and don't really know the way) decide to do? Take the tram.... Yeah.... Enough said.

For the first day and half, we just wandered around le centre ville (downtown). We bought French phones and got a tour of the town and the campus - Université Stendhal Grenoble 3. We also got free, delicious meals on BU's tab (and always with wine - how ya like them apples?). On Friday, the day after arriving, our host families came to get us. I found out I have a housemate, Jennifer, who I coincidentally sat next to on the Paris flight.

My Host Family - Ma famille d'accueil 

Jennifer and I live with this amazing couple, Claude and Christine, and their little Yorkie, Plume. Christine and Claude are amazingly French, very traditional and eccentric. We live in a three story house, where Jennifer and I have our own floor on the top. The house is so cuutee! Each room has its own theme and decorated very chicly. There are even real shutters, that we have to close and open everyday! The house is very old and everything creaks when you walk around but it's still so cute! 

The first couple of days with the family, Jennifer and I started assimilating to the French culture. Jennifer made the rule that we speak French all the time with us and only speak English with the group. But after a few days, we realized we'd never get to know each other, and quickly had a bonding sess. We went shopping at this huge mall, that connected to the French Wal-Mart, Carrefour. It's so intense! 

On Sunday, we met the group again for lunch. We ate at a Tunisie restaurant, and we were supposed to take the

 téléphique up to the top of the Bastille and then hike down, but "les boules" as they're called are closed until February, so we climbed up to the Musee des Dauphinois and stopped there because it started raining. The group split up and I stayed to watch a Italian concert that was playing in the church at the museum. It was so awesome! There was a translator to go between Italian and French! 

On Monday, we went to the campus to take placement tests. In our school for foreigners (CUEF), the way we pick classes is by taking a placement test to see where we were with our French and see which French classes we should be put into. Then we get to pick 4 other electives from a set of 8 classes. So, the first week, we go to all of the classes, see which ones we like and then start our schedule the next week. So, after placement tests, we got more free lunch with BU and then went shopping again, 

whoops?

Inauguration Day

So, the plan of the day was 1) find out the results of our placement tests 2) orientation for all of the CUEF 3) go to one class in the afternoon with everyone.  We got our results and then started the orientation (oh, before that, some French news guys came up and interviewed a bunch of people in our group because we're Americans in France for the inauguration.) Anyway, about 10/15 minutes into the orientation, this prof runs up the front and tells something to the 3 profs up there. The guy talking goes, "OH SNAPPPPP. There's going to be a demostration today so we're going to cut everything short because we need to evacuate the school because its going to be blocked." 

So, he finishes his speech, a lady talks for 2 minutes, then the last guy is talking for a minute, when the other profs run back up the front, putting on their coats and stuff, and the guy is like "UMM... GET OUT OF THE SCHOOL!" (ok maybe, I'm exaggerating a bit, but they were def running around, throwing on coats, and trying to get the hell out of there).

Apparently, the students were protesting a law that was changing in the school and were going to block the school, so if we didn't get out, we would be stuck at the school for who knows how long, so they were evacuating the entire campus. So, we ended the orientation early and didn't have class. Bienvenue à France.

So, we went to a cafe and talked for 2 hours, then watched the inauguation with the group, went to another cafe, had a drink, went to a place for dinner at 9 and got home at 11:30. Basically my day was spent eating, drinking, and talking. C'est parfait.

La Bastille. (The next day)

We thought we might not have class again - apparently, two years ago, the students blocked the school for a month straight, so you never know - but we showed up and alas we did. So, we had our first language classes in the morning, and then the first classes in the afternoo

n. After the history class, that ended at 2:30, a few people and I decided we didn't want to go to the cinema class at 3, so we peaced. Since it was a nice day, I suggested we hike up the Bastille. So, began our trek up the ridiculous mountain. It was

 pretty awesome, the view was amazing, and since the Bastille is an old fort, there were lots of tunnels for me to explore, which was fun. 

Whew, from now on, I'll to be better about blogging, cuz this one was ridic long and super condensed at that... 

A bientot!