This past week has been quite a blur of activities. I am finally starting to fall into the schedule of things and I am incredibly happy to be here. Grenoble is an amazing city, the
CUEF seems like a great school, and I really like the campus environment in general.
I am living with a host family in
Echirolles, another city just outside of Grenoble. They are very kind to me and we're starting to get to know each other a bit more. It's been a bit difficult being outgoing with them at times. They have a tendency of looking at me like an alien sometimes when they cannot understand a word of my muddled French. I'm getting a bit better though (I hope!) Every night I watch a comedy show and the news with them. I'm finding that I really don't have a problem understanding the news stories anymore- just in a few days!
Last weekend, I went with my host family up into the top of la Chartreuse, one of the three chains of the Alps here. We drove super fast up the winding roads and watched as the green grass slowly began to be covered with snow. As we reached the top, we passed several ski resorts and lodges. We then spent basically all of Saturday afternoon lounging around at one of the outdoor cafes, watching people snowboard and ski. We walked along one of the paths a bit and I enjoyed listening to some French 5 year olds fighting over who would be the lucky one to use the red sled next.
We took our placement tests on Monday and I am happy with my placement for now. B1.6, whatever that means! We had our first language class today and it seemed extremely easy, which I'm sure was just because it was the first day. I made friends with Kyriaki, a girl from Cyprus, and we met up with some other students for lunch in town. We returned just in time for our Art History seminar, which was so interesting! The professor seemed very knowledgeable, understanding, and had a funny dry sense of humor. I'm very excited for that course.
Tomorrow I have a language lab and then Culture et Societe. After dinner, I'm meeting our group downtown, from where we will depart for our overnight journey to Venice just in time for Carnival. It should be quite beautiful and exciting!
