Je suis en France!

Hey all!

I've made it to Grenoble! After a bit of an adjustment, things are going well. I figured a blog would be the best way to keep in touch with people while I'm away, so here's my attempt!

So much has happened in the past 3 days, I've learned more than I probably would in a month of classes, haha. I'll just touch on a few.

I flew out of Toronto on Jan 1st at 6:30 pm and was in London by 6:30 am England time (1:30 am Canadian). Then flew from there to Lyon by 10:30 am (4:30 am Canada). I was pretty tired, only slept a couple hours on the plane, but I had a lot of adrenaline to keep me going. Here's the family before I went through security.

After an hour bus ride from Lyon to Grenoble and a cab ride up the mountain, I arrived up at Le Rabot, my residence. The residences are spread out through the city. Mine's a half hour bus and tram trip to the school. But it's worth it for the view!

 Gotta say though, I didn't really think it was when I got there. It was pouring and I had to carry my 50 lb suitcase (literally...i just made the weight cut-off) up a huge set of stairs. In heals (come on, Im in France!).

My room is small, but I’m only paying 160 euros a month (about $250?), so I can’t complain. Okay…Im going to make one complaint.

But Im sure I’ll get used to it eventually.

The people in my res are really nice, I’ve met more people here in the first couple days than I did all of first term at my mac res, haha. They’ve been really great, definitely not the “snotty French" steryotype.

My French has been surprisingly okay, I’ve managed to understand people well enough, and communicate for the most part. I find it’s harder to understand people from France than Quebec, although I can’t quite distinguish the difference in accent.

The first day was honestly pretty overwhelming. Besides people in my res, there wasn’t much help as far as literature on where to find food, a bus pass, or internet. The secretary was very kind though and drove me down the mountain to the bank to open an account, so I could get a French credit card and get internet in my room. McDonalds was right next to it so I could use their free wifi to email home and chat with my family (thanks guys!). 

The downtown "centreville" area is GORGEOUS. All these fancy shops and architecture. It's just lovely! Ill get more pics soon.

I didn’t know where I was so I attempted to walk back at night. I completely lucked out, this nice couple called down the mini-bus as it was driving by and he let me on without paying. Most people are really helpful, it’s made this experience a lot better. So I ended back up at Le Rabot, and that was basically Day 1 in France! 

A bientot!