London.

Sunday, I woke up around 5:45am to catch the tram at 6:45am to the train station. I only got 2 hours of actually sleep. I can't seem to sleep the night before traveling. I don't know why. Then, I had to catch the 7:30am bus to the Grenoble airport. I got to the airport around 8:30am, where I was told that my flight to Luton airport was canceled. Thanks, EasyJet. So, they put me on the next flight on, which was at 2:50pm to Gatwick airport. I said, okay. I'll keep myself busy for the next 7-so hours. Then, sometime later, I was told that my flight was delayed another hour due to snow. Fuck. I waited some more. I finally got onto the plane at 4:00pm. On EasyJet planes, they don't really provide you with anything. They really just provide you a seat from point A to point B. All food and drinks costed money. The plane ride took only about an hour and half. I got to London around 4:30pm, since it's an hour before France, but then had to take a bus to the train station, and then a train to central London. My cousins met me at the Victoria train stop. We went out to eat and for drinks. It was nice. I'm staying with my oldest cousin for the first couple of days. I was extremely exhausted from waiting all day. I passed out that night for 14 hours. Amazing. :)

I'm a little mad because I wasted 15 pounds on my train ticket from Luton airport to central London and I paid another 16 pounds for my train ticket from Gatwick airport to London. Damn.

Monday, I went to the National Museum. It was a 20 minute walk from my cousin's place. It was actually really cool, which a bunch of cool historical stuff, sculptures, etc. I spent most of my afternoon there. Then, at night, my two other cousins that live in London came over for dinner and we all hung out for a bit.

Today, I went shopping on Oxford Street to do some shopping. I got off at the Tottenham stop at around 2:00pm and got to the Oxford Circus stop at around 6:00pm. It took me about 4 hours to get through about a 20 minute walking section, but I was shopping and there were an outrageous amount of people. I bought some sweet stuff today. I tried to buy things that are only found in Britain, like Topman, Uniqlo, Petroleum, etc. I really like this sweet brand, Uniqlo. So clean, so simple. Also, it's not extremely expensive either. I got back to my cousin's flat. We don't have heat. The boiler is broken or something. It's pretty damn cold in here. I hope it gets fixed soon!

Tomorrow, I'm planning on checking out the other part of Oxford Street that I didn't make it to today. I have to be back to my cousin's flat at 2:00pm-ish, because we're leaving for Bradford tomorrow. Bradford is where my aunt and uncle live. I'll be there until the 29th. If I don't update for a while, it's because they do not have internet up there.

I hope everyone is having a great holiday!

Avoiding priorities.

So, I'm procrastinating packing. I have no idea why I do this every single time. I just need to throw some clothes into my suitcase. Simple. Then, why am I procrastinating?

Anyway, something that been bothering me a bit is that I really haven't talked to Anne in over a month. I don't know if she's just real busy, doesn't want to talk to me anymore, or anything in between. I use to talk to her like once a week during the first couple months, but these last weeks, no communication at all. I shouldn't really care. I shouldn't let it bother me.

London bound.

I'm leaving tomorrow for London. I have to wake up at like, 6:00am, take the tram to the train/bus station, get the bus at 7:30am, then wait for my flight at 10:30am. I arrive at Luton at about 12:30pm, and then I have to take a train to central London and arrive at about 1:30pm. I'm staying at my cousin's place. It should be nice. The 23rd, I leave for Bradford, where my aunt and uncle live. I'll be there for Christmas. I return to London on the 29th until the 3rd, when I return to Grenoble.

I don't know why but there's this uneasy feeling about leaving France. I can't seem to pinpoint why I'm feeling this way. It could be that I'm homesick and I'm not actually going home home for Christmas. It could be that I'm actually sad about leaving France, but I have no idea why. It could be that I'm going to miss the people that aren't coming back after break. I don't know, but it's a weird feeling.

It should be an interesting break. England, here I come!

I think I'm French now...

So, I had a big weekend. I went skiing for the 2nd time ever on Saturday. I took lessons again. I still go way too fast and need to work on my turning, but once I master the whole, turning thing, I'll be fine. I never knew that skiing is that hard on your body. Damn. Saturday night, my body was a mess.

Sunday, went to Lyon for the Fête des lumières. I was supposed to take the train with Anne and Carlos, but I woke up late. Eeeek. So, they left my ticket on top of an advertisement sign at the train station. The advertisement was kind of tall, so I had to jump up and down to find it. People at the train station were looking at me funny, but I found my ticket. I got lucky and met Miguel, Nathalie, Charlotte, and Elisabeth who were taking the next train too. Lyon is pretty cool. It's like an enlarged Grenoble with more things to see. The Fête des lumières was sweet. They put on light shows with music, using the cathedrals as a background. It was interesting. They also had fireworks, which was nice.

I had a great, but busy, weekend. :)

Thanksgiving (Frenchie style)

Sunday night, Anne and I organized a Thanksgiving dinner. We started cooking around 4:00pm. There were at least, 10 people there to help us out, by cutting vegetables, preparing items for dinner, etc. It was nice of them to help us out. I really needed help, as I was hung over from going out the night before and tired as hell from skiing. We finished at like 8:00pm. We had, a ton of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, green beans, and carrots. I made some sick stuffing that night. It was fucking delicious. It was though, kind of stressful, as we were expecting over 30 people to show up, but it was a lot of fun.

Before, I thought Thanksgiving wasn't going to be the same without my family, but these international students have pretty much become my family. We are a pretty tight knit group.

Dinner was a lot of fun. They had Anne and I give speeches. All I said for mine was, "Merci." I didn't know what to say at that moment. Damn, it's stressful. :)

After dinner, we had a rave dance party. This should be a traditional for future Thanksgivings. :P

Thanksgiving in France. Succès.

No more!

I've been mopping around for the last couple of weeks. I guess this homesickness has really affected me, especially with the holiday season. I have been feeling really helpless, lazy, and basically, not like myself. I need to snap out of this phase that I'm going through. I need to live it up. Interact more. Be less of a recluse. Go out. This was inevitably going to happen while I'm here. I need to realize that I can't be with my family this holiday season and yeah, it sucks, but I'm in France for only a limited amount of time. Il faut profiter d'être en France. :)

Ski! Snow! Finland?

So, I'm going skiing tomorrow. First time. Fucking excited, but nervous. I hope I can take some lessons. It'll be definitely interesting tomorrow. :)

I met some Finnish girls tonight. I was in the kitchen and they were preparing the table and were talking in Finnish. I asked them, "What are you girls doing?" They were preparing a dinner for their other Finnish friend. I ended up spending like 3 hours with them. I ate a traditional Finnish meal, which consisted of mashed potatoes and Finnish meatballs, drank "hot wine," ate some Finnish desserts. They were all very nice. I definitely enjoyed their company. They might have been really pretty too. :P We mostly talked in French, but something we would talk in English. I'm really surprised by how well the Finnish and the Swedish speak English. It's like, speaking to another American. It's fucking insane. These Finnish girls can speak Finnish, Swedish (which is the 2nd official language in Finland), English, and French. They spoke all of them well too. Fuck, I'm jealous. I'm at like, 0.25 languages.

Well, I hope I don't break anything tomorrow.

Bitches love my new haircut.

I finally got my hair cut today and shaved for the first time in 25 days. I feel pretty good. It's nice to be clean. :)

Haircuts are expensive here. The cheapest I found was about 15 euros, student price for guys, which is like 25 dollars. I have no clue what it would cost a girl to get their haircut. I went to Jean Louis David and spent 21 euros, student price for guys. I think it's fucking expensive. I complain when I spent 30 dollars in the US to get my haircut.

Âllo!

So, Thanksgiving is turning out to be a huge undertaking. We reduced the size of the company to around 20, but still, it's going to be rough. Anne did some preliminary calculations last night (what an engineer!), and it's looking like... 3 kg canberry sauce (if it exists), 5 kg of bread, 8 L of gravy, and 6 kg of turkey. In addition, we need marshmallows, a shit ton of potatoes, green beans, carrots, onions, etc. This will be interesting.

I'm getting a haircut. It's hard to describe what I want in French. I guess I should go in prepared.

Today, I'm going to start being a real student. Promise. :)

Boo! I'm back!

So, I haven't blogged in a while again. It doesn't seem like anybody is following it anymore, but I don't care. It's nice to blog.

Thanksgiving is this Thursday. France doesn't celebrate it. I got the chance to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving as a special Canadian guest about a month ago, but I think that Anne Thiel and I are going to hold the important one, the American one. I think we're planning on doing it on Saturday or Sunday night. Unfortunately, we don't get a break like in the US, so we can't do it on Thanksgiving. We're planning on feeding about 30 people, which means we have to buy a lot of turkey, green beans, carrots, cranberries, marshmallows, yams, potatoes, and gravy. :)

They're starting to put up Christmas lights downtown and they're installing the ice rink in the center. I do enjoy the early Christmas spirit, but it fucking makes me homesick.

On a happier note: I bought everything that I need for skiing. The ski season starts the 5th of december, so I'm pumped. I can't wait to get out there!

Okay, onto my "differences in France" rant:
What's really weird is that I can't find chicken at the supermarkets here. I can find, beef, pork, turkey, sheep, lamb, horse regularly, but I can't find chicken at all. It's so weird, coming from a nation dependent on chicken. Maybe I'll check out a charcuterie (butchery). Also, deodorant exists, but in liquid form? I can't seem to find it in the solid form. Weird. Those anti-sweat body sprays seem to be the in-thing. Pop selection is slim. It's coke, coke light, fanta, orangina, and sprite (if you're lucky). Pepsi doesn't really exist here. What does makes me happy is that Starbucks does not exist here. I think there's only a handful in all of France. It's all about the tiny, unique cafés. Also, the French subtitles suck when the French watch American shows, like Lost, How I Met Your Mother, Friends, Big Bang Theory, Gossip Girl, etc... I guess there isn't a translation to everything in English, but they lose so much meaning in each translation.

I promise, I'll post more. :)

Christmas Plans

So, I booked my tickets to England for Christmas. It ended being about 120 euros, round-trip. I really wanted to come back to the US for Christmas, but it's way too expensive. It would end up costing over 1500 euros, easily. I'll be with my cousins in London for a bit, then up to Bradford to see my aunt and uncle for Christmas, then back down to London for New Year's. It'll definitely be interesting this year. I mean, if you guys want to send me gift. Feel free. Talk to me and I'll give you my address. :)

I miss you guys.

Paris and other news!

So, I might have forgotten that I have a blog. Hah.

Well, last weekend, I went to Paris. The pictures are up on facebook. Check them out. So, I met up with my cousins from England, Mysie and Mylinh, and their friend, Gheeta. I had an amazing time. I am in love with the city. It's magnificent. Well, we did all the tourist things there, but to be able to see all the places that I've only read about or seen pictures of, was amazing. Also, Paris is just god-awful expensive, so I spent quite a bit there.

Friday - I arrived at like, 3:00 in the afternoon. After we got checked in, we went to Sacré-Cœur and Montmartre. It was beautiful. Then, we walked around the Red Light District, saw the Moulin Rouge, and attempted to get into the Sex Museum, but it was closed.

Saturday - We woke up early and visited all the tourist spots. We visited: Eiffel Tower, Champs-Elysées, l'Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre, d'Orsay, Jardin des Tuleries, Notre-Dame, and Hôtel de Ville. We went out to a nice dinner on Saturday night, at Restaurant Bofinger. I got oysters, escargot, stuff chicken breast with ravoli, and chocolate cake for dessert. Of course, we had wine. It was delicious. I think I spent about 50 euros on dinner. Shit.

Sunday - My train back to Grenoble was at 1:00pm, so I woke up early and I went to the Champs-Elysées. I had a café and did some people watching. It was nice. I also did some window shopping. Hah.

Tomorrow, I'm leaving for Nice, Monaco, San Tropez, Cannes, Marseille, Toulon, and Toulouse. We had a vacation for the week, so why not travel? I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures. It's supposed to be in the 70s for highs and 60s for the lows. I'm excited.

How do the French study?

I wanted to get some studying and work done yesterday. I really haven't done much for my classes. So, I went to the library. Closed. It's only open from 8-noon on Saturdays. On weekdays, it's closed at 10pm. Not going to even mention Sunday. Everything is closed Sunday. In addition, all the buildings on campus and all the libraries in the city are closed too. How the hell do the French students get work done on the weekends?

I had an interesting Saturday night. I definitely had my drinking pants on. It was fun! It was Alicia's birthday and bunch of anglophones went out. I met another American, Elizabeth, many Canadians and English. We spoke English that night, which was exciting, but at the same time, I still want to improve on my French.

Oktoberfest! Prost!

Let me just say that Oktoberfest was insane! Everything I expected and more. The maßs of beer, the people dressed in traditional Bavarian clothing, the insane amount of people from eveywhere, and of course, my favorite, everyone there was trashed. :)

We left Grenoble on Friday night and woke up in Munich the next day. We got into the Oktoberfest area at about 10. By then, it was a little too late to get into the tents, but the beer gardens were still filling up. So, we got into the Hofbräuhaus beer garden. About 8 of us got a table, thanks to Sebastian, who is from Munich and can speak German. :) Thanks, Sebi. Hofbräu beer was delicious. I think I drank about 2-3 liters that morning. Shenanigans and antics were happening everywhere. At one point, a bunch of our guys and I decided to dance on the table with their pants and shirts off. Oh! There was also this lady sitting behind us. She was definitely a cougar and definitely hitting on us. She even gave me a kiss. Eek. She was just decent though, so I didn't want anything to do with that. :)

Even in the beer garden, the atmopshere was amazing. Everyone's singing. People were dancing. Everyone was singing the two most famous Oktoberfest songs, Ein Prosit and Allee. I heard "Prost!" a lot, which is "Cheers" in German. We stayed in the beer garden probably until 2-3 in the afternoon. I got this fucking delicious chicken for lunch. Money spent on the morning: 40 euros. 30 for the 3 liters of beer, 10 for the chicken.

After the beer garden, a bunch of us went to see the city of Munich. This was the time for everyone to sober up. Haha. It's a really beautiful city. It's very modern. Sebastian showed us around for a bit. Then, we went to the Royal Garden and relaxed there until the evening. We then grabbed something quick for dinner (I got kebabs for 5 euros) and we went back to Oktoberfest. This time, 5 of us, Antonia, Josefin, Carlos, Matteo, and I waited in line for the tent, Hofbräuhaus festzelt. We actually got in after waiting for about a half hour. I was absolutely stunned by the sight inside the tent. I thought the beer gardens were insane, but inside the tents, it was epic. It was very decorated, with a lot of plants. It was really nice inside, aside from the masses of broken glasses, liters of beer spilled on the ground, the sweat in the air, and dirt/grim/disgusting on the ground. We got to a table and drank more. I probably had another 3 liters. Once again, trashed. The band was amazing and played real well. They played mostly popular songs. Everyone went insane when they played, "We are the Champions." Between each song, they played, Ein Prosit. It was so much fun. We danced. Sang. Drank our little hearts out. It was truly amazing. After this, things got a little hazy. Thankfully, I was able to find the bus and pass out.

What a day. Oktoberfest! I have to do it again.

God damn it, I wish this was a year long vacation!

So, I need to realize that school is actually happening now. It's not like I'm missing classes, but I need to take these classes seriously. I need to actual dedicate time for studying. However, I feel like it's still vacation time. God, this is hard.

Oktoberfest weekend! We're leaving tomorrow night, at about 10:00pm, hopefully sleeping on the 10 hour bus ride to Munich, arriving around 9:00am and getting in line for Oktoberfest. I don't know what I'll be doing exactly while I'm there. I definitely want to go to Oktoberfest, see all the different brewery tents, drink plentiful amounts of delicious beer, and eat some delicious food, but I also want to see the city. Drinking for the whole day is great, but I could also see Munich. I'll see what I do when I get there. Once we get there, we're free from 9:00am to 11:00pm. So, we'll see what happens.

I might also be going to Paris the weekend of the 16-18th. Two of my English cousins are going and I might crash with them for the weekend. I really want to go to Paris. Ahhh!

Well, sleep time. Bon nuit, tout le monde!

It feels like home...

So, more updates:

I went to the pool today. I wanted to swim, but they wouldn't allow me. Apparently, you need to have a speedo and a swim cap. Damn, I might actually need to buy a speedo. Hott.

France is slowly, but surely, starting to feel like home. I really do enjoy it here. I like the way of life here. I enjoy the relaxed, calm attitude. I really like the baguettes for 60 euro cents, the crazy amounts of delicious cheese, and the amazing coffee. I do miss actual home, but it's been great here.

Oktoberfest this weekend. Pretty pumped, except for the outrageous price of beer. It's going to be about 9 euros per liter of beer. Damn.

Yesterday, I did the via ferrata at the Bastille. I thought it was going to be a nice, easy thing. No, not at all. My body is still sore from doing it, especially my upper back and my forearms. The first part was rated: Somewhat difficult. It was challenging, but I could complete it. The second part was rated: Difficult. Now, I could barely finish this part. It was insane. So physically demanding. I was scared shitless up there. Sometimes, I could feel myself shake uncontrollably. The Bastille is about 475 meters high. It took us about 4 hours to complete it, with breaks in between. Check out the pictures on facebook.

That's all for now.

I've becoming more and more French everyday...

Everyday is filled with a new challenge and adventure. I really do enjoy being here. It's different and I like that.

Let's start with school...
I started classes last Monday. School is completely different here. You don't have to offically enroll in your classes. You just show up to the classes that you want to take and take the exam at the end. That's how you'll get a grade. So, you could go to classes for the entire duration of the class and not take the exam, or show up for the exam for a class you never attended. In addition, classes start and end randomly. It all depends on how many hours the class actually meets. I have 1 or 2 classes that last the entire semester, but some that only last 5-6 weeks. Some of my classes start later in the semester. Here, they require a sports class for a grade. It's sick. So, I picked tennis for a grade and ski/snowboard for pleasure. It's going to be sweet.

Here's my schedule:
Monday 8am-12pm - Dynamics of system processes
Tuesday 10am-12pm - Tennis
Wednesday 8am-10am - Management of Enterprises (Marketing, Strategy, and Law)
Thursday 8am-10am - Thermodynamics
Friday 8am-12am - Conservation of energy and mass & Mass transport

Classes that will be included later in the semester:
P-chem lab, thermodynamics in electrochemistry, and this course that deals with the statistical analysis of tests that ChemE companies have to perform before and after building a plant.

Classes for me are kind of rough. I only have 12 hours of class a week, so I do have quite a bit of free time, but I do need more time to translate and learn the vocabulary. Also, the French are a bit more theoretical with their teaching and exams, whereas we are practical in the US.

In Grenoble, there are so many students. I think there are over 60,000 college/high school students in Grenoble, of which about 3000-4000 are international. There's a great student atmopshere here. They even have a bar on campus. It's amazing.

In other news...
Right now, I'm dangerously low on cash in Europe. It's been a hassle attempting to send money over. Thankfully, I found a way to do it and the money should be coming within 2-3 days.

I am going to Oktoberfest! I am pumped. All the international kids are going the weekend of October 3-4. We're leaving Friday night by bus, sleeping the entire way to Munich, waking up, celebrating Oktoberfest, then, leaving Sunday morning and arriving back to Grenoble in the evening. I think it's about a 9 hours drive by bus.

I'm tired and have an 8 am class tomorrow. I'll update some more tomorrow.

I love France.

In France, there is scented toilet paper. My ass has never smelled this great. I think I am in love. :)

How long have I been here?

First thing, fuck French keyboards. They're really making it challenging to switch between my QWERTY keyboard on my laptop and their AZERTY keyboard.

Second, I'm going to Annecy tomorrow! I'm fucking pumped. We even have a tour guide. Olivier, one of the BI people, who actually grew up there and will be showing us around. The train ticket only costs me 17 euros. They have this sweet thing here, called the "carte 12-25." You have to be between those ages and you can save up to 50% on most train trips. It's amazing. We're just going for the day, since we start classes on Monday and I have a 8 am, which is being held on the other side of the city. Sucks.

I'll hopefully have internet finally on Monday. Fucking PHELMA. They could have set up everything weeks ago.

It's been a while...

Hey everyone, sorry it's been a while since my last post. I'm still without internet at my residence and am fucking fed up with the French administration. I just have so much to do, like health insurance, renter's insurance, civil security, CAF, titre de sejour. On Monday, they told me that I will have internet. Donc, a bientôt!

Keyboards

French keyboards suck.

Ça suce... ma poya.

This sucks... my dick. Okay, it doesn't translate very well... Well, not at all, but I still enjoy saying that. Ça is "that," suce is "sucks," and la poya is "dick" in spanish.

Man, this not having internet thing is really starting to suck. I won't have internet until this Friday when I have my meeting with the advisor. I really want it. It sucks having to take a tram for 15 minutes to use it. And it's a public park, which is nice, but there's no place to plug my laptop in. Whatever, Friday will come soon enough.

This last week, we had our "Weekend de folie." Let me tell you, it was insane. We took a 3 hour bus ride to some place in the mountains. We first went canoeing. It was fucking intense. So many rocks. So much white water. I fell out at least 10 times. I have a lot of bruises on my legs from it. The best part though was there was a cliff where people were jumping off of, whihc was at least 10 meters tall. The climb up to the cliff was dangerous and the height scared the shit out of me, but it was such an adrenaline rush. After, of course, there was just a lot of alcohol. It seems my diet has been, French bread, nutella, some sort of fast food, and alcohol. I took some pictures, so I'll put them up soon.

It seems like, everyone is starting to come back to Grenoble. Grenoble is a huge student town, with several universities. I think someone told me that there were over 60,000 students once school starts. Intense. I'm a bit intimidated by the French people, but I'll be fine.

Weekend!

Right now, I'm at Victor Hugo park at the moment so I can get internet. I don't have internet at my dorm at the moment because I don't have my student card from INPG. It's only like a 10 minute tram ride to Victor Hugo. Everything is practically closed on Sunday here, supermarkets, French restaurants, clothing stores, pharmacies... except McDonalds and bars.

I had such an eventful weekend. Friday night, there were 6 of us who wanted to cook at the hostel. So, we all bought some spaghetti, sauce, cheese, bread, and ham. Our cooking wasn't bad. The only bad thing was that I had to share plates and forks, because there were only 2 plates and 2 forks. It was interesting. Then, we decided to drink at the bar. YES, THERE IS A BAR IN THE HOSTEL. It made me happy. :)

Saturday, I moved into my dorm. Thank god, Céline came to the hostel and helped me move all my stuff to my dorm. After, I unpacked a bit and went to the supermarket. I'm happy it's only like a 5 minute walk. So, I bought a pillow, sheets, soap, cleaning solution, and some food. It ended up being about 75 euros. God damn, everything in France is just god damn expensive. Also, I think because there are a couple of dorms nearby, they can get away with a huge increase in prices. I went to another supermarket just 10 minutes down the road and it was so much cheaper. Later that day, all the international students met up and we climbed up a mountain to see the Bastille. What a beautiful view of the city. It was damn hot. It took us about 2 hours to walk up there. I almost died and killed the turk, because we decided to take a shortcut, and let's say that the shortcut was not very safe. Thank god, I didn't fall backwards, because that probably would have not been pretty. I do have some sick scars from it. Haha. At the top of the Bastille, we were all sweaty and disgusting, but the view was just beautiful. I will put up some pictures on facebook.

Later that night, we all went out to the bar, after taking showers. We had the previous Brazlians, Spanish, Germans, Russian, Italians, Swedish, but we added another Swede, German, 2 Brazilians, and a Polish person to the group last night. I tried a beer, Welscotch, and am in love with it. For a pint, it was like, 6 euros. Fucking outrageous! But I had 2 of them. DELICIOUS! I might have drank way too much last night, but I think it's because I didn't really get to eat dinner that night. Haha.

Anyway, I think the international students are going to another bar tonight. This time, I won't drink that much. :)

More foreigners?

Today, I met a bunch of other students who are studying abroad with me. They're all going to INPG, but we're all in different schools. There are 4 Brazilians, 3 Germans, 2 Italians, 1 Turk, 1 Russian, 2 Spanish, and 1 Swede. Oh, there's also Anne. It's interesting to talk to them. I'm disappointed though, because everyone knows English and they all want to speak English. Anyway, they suck at speaking French. Only the Brazilians are the ones who want to speak French with me. The other people suck.

My mind is basically in French mode right now. I answer everything in French and want to speak it constantly. It's amazing. I even sometimes get stuck on my English now. It's sad. I found a new hobby of speaking English with a French accent. I think I'm actually pretty good right now. I might put a video up. Haha.

Fanny packs, tiny man purses, guy capris, and wearing jeans in 90+ degree weather is all the fad here. It's horrible. Haha!

Hostel!

This morning, I went to the train station to meet up with Olivier, Xavier, Céline, the 3 Brazilians (Léonardo, Joel, and James), and Anne. We were looking for another exchange student from Italy, but we could not find him. I hope that kid is going to be fine by himself. Anyway, the students helped me move from my hotel to the hostel. I moved in with the 3 Brazilians. This hostel is so much cheaper than the hotel. I'm getting 2 nights and free breakfast for less than 1 night at the hotel, which didn't offer a free breakfast. However, I'm now living with 3 other guys, in a dirtier hostel, about a 15 minute bus ride from the center of Grenoble. I guess it's not too bad for 2 more nights.

Anyway, today, I met with Céline and she took me on a tour of the campus of INPG. She showed me the PHELMA school and where my dorm is located. She also attempted to explain "renter's insurance, social security, and health care" in French to me. Didn't work out too well, but apparently, it's all really cheap and I get amazing care. Céline had to go back to work, so I went and got a bus pass for the year. It costs about 205 euros, but it works on all the city buses and trams. I also finally got a sim card and a pay-as-you-go plan for my phone. Thank god I unlocked my phone and am using it over here. It's so much cheaper. Phones in France are insane. At least, 40-50 euros for even the most basic phones. The phone plans are even worst. It's like, 26 euro a month for only 1 hour of calling and you have free texting from like, 6pm to 10pm. Any other texts costs 10 cents each. The plans just get worst as you go up in minutes. I am happy that I actually have a phone now.

I am becoming extremely mentally exhausted from these days. All day, I have to concentrate on everything people say and I have to think about everything I want to say. It's really challenging. I haven't felt this challenging in a long while. These first 3 days have been insane. :)

Pictures!

First thing, I finally took some pictures of the city. I'll put them up on facebook soon.

This morning, I wondered around the city for about 2 hours. I was looking for a razor and q-tips, but was unsuccessful. Sucks. I really need those items. Then, I met up with Olivier and Tatiana, the two who picked me up from the train station, and we looked at cell phone plans. Cell phone plans in France suck. It's so expensive, you don't get a lot of minutes, and barely any texts. I don't really know if I am going to be talking much on the phone, so I don't even know which plan to get. Sucks. After, we went to LCL to set up a bank account. I'm was trying really hard to understand everything the bank lady said, but she was speaking in bank terms. It was really confusing, but I got the majority of it. After, we met up with 3 Brazilian kids, who are attending INPG with me. Leonardo, Joel, and James. I really like them. It's interesting because they speak Portuguese, English, and French. So, when they don't know something in French, they'll try to speak English with me. Unfortunately, I only have the option of French. The four of us, with our international buddies, decided to go to a bar for an evening drink. I got the Allifgem Blonde. It's a pretty good Belgium beer. After, we went back to our places. I'm starting to like this place quite a bit. It's literally, surrounded on every single side by mountains. And now that I met some people, I'm starting to enjoy it. The only thing that sucks is that things in France are just so much more expensive than in the United States.

In other news, I'm going to have a sick upper body after this week. I've been hulling my heavy luggage around and carried a heavy backpack for 7 hours today. Haha. :)

Finalement, en France!

This one's going to be long...

Monday: It was the hardest day so far. I finished packing in the morning and spent time with my family and Anne after. I'm not good at saying goodbyes... It's just really hard to let go.

My flight: Long, restless, and boring. It was an 8 hour flight from Detroit to Amsterdam. I really should have gotten a good night's rest the night before, but that didn't happen. The reason I say this is because I arrived in Amsterdam at noon. I left at 9:00 at night. I did manage to fall asleep for about 4 hours and that's all I've been running on today. Amsterdam's airport Schipol was impressive. It's pretty much a huge, fancy shopping mall with airplanes. It looked so nice. Oh, I also exchanged about 800 US dollars for about 515 euros. What a crappy exchange rate.

Flight #2: A much shorter flight this time. It was only an 1 hour and 20 minute flight from Amsterdam to Geneva. Once again, Geneva's airport is impressive, but not as impressive as Amsterdam's.

Geneva airport to train station: Anne Thiel and I first had to figure out how to get to the train station, with our heavy bags. We got onto a tram and successfully got there. However, Anne had to pick her ticket from the office but the line was too long and the train was leaving soon. So, we barely made the train and she had to buy a ticket on the train. Close call.

Train ride: Geneva to Grenoble. Beautiful. The Alps, rivers, lakes, all the green vegetation. All so pretty.

Once I got off the train, Anne was meeting with her international buddy, Sophie. Sophie came with her mom. I was greeted the French way, with a bise. It was cute. I was surprisingly greeted by two people from the International Bureau for INPG Phelma. Tatiana and Olivier showed up. It was really exciting. I sent the International Bureau at least 4 emails and they never replied. They helped me carry my heavy luggage. They advised me on not staying in the hostel, since it's so far away. It's a good 10-15 minute drive from the center of town. So now, I'm in a cheap hotel for the first night. Anyway, they showed me around the city. They showed me where the students hang out, the campus of INPG, where to get good food, and things to do. It was really nice of them. Apparently, they'll be helping me out tomorrow with my cell phone and bank account. That is really nice of them. I know this is all very exciting, but the reality of being here for a year is starting to creep in. Damn.

Well, I'm going to finally get some rest after 4 hours of sleep and over 13 hours of travel. Good night. I'll try to update when I have internet again. :)

Less than 19 hours!

Salut, tout le monde! I started this blog to share with all of you my study abroad in Grenoble, France. So, get excited!

Update! I leave in about 19 hours from now. I am almost completely packed up and ready to go. I can't believe I was able to fit basically, my life, into 2 big suitcases, a backpack, and a small carry-on bag. I hope that my bags aren't over the 50 pound weight limit. Eeeekk. I should get some rest tonight, and in the morning, I can finish up packing and clean up my room a bit before I go.

Other than the mindless packing and preparation, saying goodbye to everyone has been one of the hardest things that I've had to do. It feels like I'm going to be gone for a lifetime, but in reality, I'm only going to be gone for a year. I'm really going to miss my family and friends. It's really hard leaving my little brother, as he's going to be going to Michigan State this year and I want to be there for him. My parents are freaking out quite a bit. It's also difficult leaving my close friends and my girlfriend. I'm absolutely horrible at saying my goodbyes. I mean, leaving this comfort zone that I have here is one of the biggest challenges I had to overcome. It really isn't easy to leave and go to an unknown area. Remember Mikey, it's only one year.

Otherwise, I'm excited. I don't know what to expect when I get there. I'll be living in a hostel for the first couple nights, until I can move into my dorm. I'll spend the first night in the hostel and if I feel like it's too shady for me, I might get an hotel.

I'm just going to take it one step at a time. :)