Le Retour des Alpages

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


Me and Olivier, after paragliding


Up in the Sky!!!


Me, Katie, and Catherine had a picnic at Vizille one day!


On the Lac d'Annecy with Kaycee and Delaney