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.