Une Gourmande à Grenoble: October 2009

So this little Texan is experiencing the shock of her life. I've never really lived through a real winter, and let me tell you: brrrrrrr! It is so dang cold here! I thought I was prepared for the cold, and I thought that I loved winter, but now I think I'm a cold wimp. It's only Autumn here, and I'm already wondering how on earth I'll stand it if it gets any colder! I've been told that it got cold abnormally fast, and will probably be warmer next week, but still, fall here is like winter in Texas!

So my mission tomorrow is to buy a new (very warm) jacket, some thicker sweaters (all I packed are long sleeved t-shirts), and some boots (my poor feet). I really want to go to a market here called St Bruno, but it's really best on the weekends, and my weekends are packed. This weekend I went on a super long hike on Saturday, and next weekend I'm going to Provence. It doesn't help that we have midterms coming up. We're supposed to be studying, but it's so hard to make myself study!

The hike Saturday was really awesome. I went with the CUEF (Centre Universitaire d'Etudes Francaises) and there were about 30 students, with 3 guides. We took a bus into the Vercors, and then started hiking! I had a blast. It was so cold though! I saw snow, well I should say I got snowed on- a lot! I also wore my brand new hiking boots, and today my ankles/heels hurt really bad.... at least the shoes are broken in now! I had planned on doing another hike today, but I just couldn't, because I'm so exhausted.

Instead, I went with a friend to her church. I've been wanting to try out the different churches before I decide on one to stay in, so I was pleased that she invited me to come. It was a "charismatique" church- that is to say it was very lively, people spoke in tongues, and all that sort of thing. It was my first time to experience a church like that, and it was very interesting. I did find the worship style very odd though, and ce n'était pas ma tasse de thé. (10 points to whoever translates correctly first!) I don't think I'll be going back, but I'm glad that I went and got that experience.

Pictures:
The village we went to was one of the sponsoring villages near grenoble for the olympics in '68

At the top, looking out over Grenoble

SNOW!!!!!

Me, Natalie, and Isabelle before the hike

Salut tout le monde!

Sorry, it's been a long time since I last posted, but I've been super busy, which is good! I've really gotten into a good routine here, and I like it a lot! Just a quick note to everyone who reads this- I love getting comments. So if you want more, show some love and comment!

Okay, some cool things that have happened to me....

I found the swing dancing here, and I go every tuesday night! The DJ is kinda lame, he plays the same dang music every week, but I'm just so happy to be able to dance, that I don't really care :) The dances are at this place called the Shag Cafe, and it's on the far west side of Grenoble, so it takes like 30 minutes for me to get there by tram. And since the buses don't run at night, I have to ride my bike to the tram stop, and then take two different trams to get there! It's totally worth it though, and the dancers here are really nice. They don't seem to mind my bad french at all!

I also started going to a bible study here, and though I've started with the English one, I'm also going to try the french one. It's every monday night, and so far I really like it. There are even some french students who come to it, so they can work on their english skills. It's so nice sometimes to be able to speak in English, but I feel like I've been speaking too much English. I'm going to try something new, starting this week: I'm going to designate Wednesdays to be French only days, and I'm going to try very hard to avoid all things english on Wednesdays for the rest of the semester (including the internet!) I think this will be a good exercise for me, and help me to stop reverting to english when speaking french gets too hard.

Some more cool news: I got a little job! Starting this thursday, I'm going to be giving English lessons to a french boy who is in his last year of high school. They're going to pay too, which is nice!

As far as big activities, since last time I wrote, I've been to Chamonix and Annecy, and I also went paragliding! Chamonix was a charming town, quite kitschy, but still very enjoyable because there weren't too many tourists. Mont Blanc was awe-inspiring, even with all of the clouds! Thankfully it didn't rain on us that day, though it did threaten! We took the téléphérique up to Aiguille du Midi, and got some really great views, and then spent the rest of the day just wandering around Chamonix, and pausing to grab a coffee in a café. I do really want to go back to Chamonix for ski season though, that would be so cool to ski Mont Blanc!

Paragliding was a phenomenal experience, and just an absolute blast! I went with 5 other girls from my program, and we went into the Belledonne range, in tandem with instructors. They controlled the Parapentes, and we just got to sit in the air, enjoying the view! It was sooooo cool! I want to go again, but it's super expensive.... I'll just have to make friends with the people who own the company or something!

Saturday, we went to Annecy for the Retour des Alpages. It's the one day of the year when the people who live up in the Alps bring down their artisanal crafts and food and animals, and there is a huge parade! It was a lot of fun, even though it did rain, but that was only in the morning. When we arrived, we were supposed to have a guided tour of the city, but the guide must have cancelled on us because of the rain, so we went on a boat ride instead. The lake of Annecy is the 3rd largest lake in France, and one of the cleanest too- cool! After the boat ride, we walked around the city looking at the different stalls, and eating LOTS! I had this thing called tartiflette, it's a specialty of this region. It's made with potatoes, reblochon cheese (another specialty) and sausage all mushed together. It was divine! At 2:30, the parade started, and there were all these people dressed in traditional alpine clothes, and lots of animals too! The St. Bernards were especially cute, as were the geese!

Okay, some photos:
Chamonix-Mont Blanc