Best Run Ever

I swear, I fall more and more in love with this place every time I leave the apartment. I went out for a run today, but instead of going on the flat sidewalk along the tram line, I went the opposite direction. Close to my apartment there is a huge hill, within a few minutes it becomes a forest, and you're completely surrounded by trees. Twenty minutes later, you're in the countryside. Farms, cows, horses. The trees clear out and behind you see the mountains and it's gorgeous. I kept going, stopped and stared at some cows for a while, kept going, started running down a hill. I would have kept going further but I had been out for an hour, I was starting to get hungry. Plus, I'm in awful shape and it had long before turned into more of a glorified walk than an actual run.

But then I found this little trail just off the road and I couldn't resist, so I went up, kept going for a while. It was totally quite, no one was there, I sang and danced, then exercised a little bit of self-discipline and decided to start heading back.

Figs! Then I found a tree full of figs. Hidden trails and accessible fruit trees: my two favorite things, that's literally all I need to be happy. So after like 20 of those, I wasn't hungry, instead of going home I veered off onto another little road, and all I saw were corn fields and green and mountains and...gah, to borrow an expression I normally hate: I couldn't even...

I hate myself just a little bit for not bringing a camera. There was this tiny little lake at the end of the road, a protected natural area of whatever town I was in. I went there, sat on a dock, stared at a duck, listened to birds.

Then I actually decided to go home. I was about halfway down then first hill when I noticed another trail, so... I got distracted. I climbed up it, and it opened up to this huge field of grass. It was a postcard picture. Definitely going back there to see how far the trail goes.

So now, three hours later, I'm finally back. I'll bring a camera next time. Probably not the most interesting thing to read about, but for me it was heaven.

Les Alpes!

Today I was sitting in my room on my computer and the woman I live with stuck her head in and asked if I wanted to go up into the mountains for a short hike with them. Uh, yes please. It was one of those places you can't really get to on a bus, I would have never even thought to go there if they hadn't taken me. It was amazing. Within 15 minutes we were completely out of the city and in the countryside, within 40  we were in the Alps, my head kept swiveling around trying to take it all in. As always, the photos don't do it justice, but I sort of tried.

Lyon

I went to Lyon with five other TAPIF-ers yesterday. We didn’t really plan it out too much, which wasn’t surprising since we had decided to go the night before. 

Up there you see Notre Dame de Fourviere

 We got there at noon, took the obligatory “Only in Lyon” sign photos, found a huge market and had lunch. I got an empanada and figs.

The sign says you're not allowed to climb the letters. No one cares about said sign. 

We're all there, I promise

GOATS!

I'll figure out what all these sheep things are eventually. I see them all over Grenoble. 

We saw church ruins, which according to the sign “date back to the earliest Christian times. The church of Lyon, founded toward AD 150, was the oldest in the west apart from that of Rome.” There, you have been educated. 

 We took one of these things up to see the Theatres Gallo-Romains on the Fourvière hill which was in the center of “the most important city of Roman Gaul.” Then walked to Notre Dame de Fourviere which was a beautiful church. If you walk behind it there’s an amazing view of the whole city, so we just stood and stared for a while.

We walked down and went to Terre Adelice, a popular organic ice cream shop which had more flavors than I thought possible, old classics like Roquefort (old stinky cheese), wasabi mustard, and basil.  I opted for Lavender.

Then we just wandered around a little bit, went to a book store. There was some sort of skate park set up in the city center for the weekend so we sat and watched that for a while and then went to dinner which took a while to find. We finally settled on going to a Japanese restaurant. (Empanadas, Yakosoba, samosas, sushi… I’m in France right?) 

Then, exhausted, we made our way back to the Gare. We all had open tickets and hadn’t really planned our return, which was not the best idea. There were two routes back to Grenoble: a direct route that takes about an hour/and hour and a half, and the long route which takes two and a half hours. We made the 9:15 bus, which happened to be the long one, so we didn’t get back to Grenoble until 11:40. I got on the tram, a shirtless mad with a stereo and a beer got on and danced for a few stops, a bachelorette who was saran wrapped to a chair was carried into the tram at one point… I don’t  know. I finally collapsed in my bed around 12:30. I’m still really tired from yesterday.

Overall though, a good trip, although it made me miss traveling with my Mont people a lot, I kept thinking “ah, so-and-so would have LOVED this!” But it was a great way to get to know the other assistants a little better. 

Week #1

It's Friday right? Or Thursday? I can't seem to get my days straight anymore. In any case, I've already been here for a week which is hard to believe. The first half of it passed in a sort of jet-lagged haze, I didn't really start doing anything besides food shopping and unpacking until a few days ago.

I opened up a bank account, I got some ID photos, I filled out my OFII forms, I found my schools, I emailed my schools, I got a tram pass, I bought a French sim card, I ate sushi, I found a hill and walked up it, I watched an Indian woman defend her PhD and ate samosas and pizza afterword, I found a library which made my day.

I met up with some of the other assistants a couple of times, once in a bar and once we climbed up the Bastille.

Honestly though, there isn't much to say. Mostly I've just wandered around. A lot. And stared at mountains. A lot. The more I walk around here the more I like it. Grenoble is a little more hippy than most other European cities I've been to, which suits me just fine. Like I said in a previous post, it feels less pretentious. And between all the trees and mountains, it feels much, much more nature-ey which I love.

I guess it's only normal that I keep comparing this to my Montpellier experience. Everything about Mont was intense. The bad things were sometimes overwhelming, but the good times were absolutely amazing. The second we got there it was go go go. Jet lag? Too bad. No breakfast? Don't care, get on this bus, we're going swimming under a 2,000 year old historic site, and then we're going out to a bar. Everyone was awesome, relationships formed quickly, we were constantly together, constantly moving, planning. I could go on, but I don't see the point, you had to be there. It was such a unique experience.

This, on the other hand, is an entirely different animal.  Some things are the same, like the grapes. I can't get enough of these French grapes. I really want some grapes right now. But I ate all my grapes. What were we talking about again? Right, differences.

Well for one thing I've been here a week and I haven't eaten a single thing from a can. Considering that I basically lived off of bread and canned lentils, go me. (Although I'm still eating way too much immigration crab, I blame Carefour for making it so cheap, and whatever crap they put in it to make it taste so good). I live in an actual apartment and I didn't feel like crying when I saw my room. I have a kitchen, with an over and a microwave and burners that stay on as long as I need them to! I'm still getting used to living with people I don't know too well, but they're all incredibly nice and have helped me with all the admin stuff.

I also speak way more French, which I guess isn't saying much considering how little French I spoke in Mont, but here it's all French all the time. The people I live with are really open and like to talk. Not all the assistants are from anglophone countries so the last two times we've met up it's all been in French. I'm pretty sure I've spoken more French in the last seven days than I have in the last seven years. It's good for me, I know, but sometimes it gets mentally exhausting. At those times I lock myself in my room and watch Colbert and Fallon.

Overall it feels much... slower here. For now it's fine. I came here sick and jet-lagged so slow is good. It's also my second time here, all the administrative stuff seems less terrifying, I feel more relaxed. But I'm starting to get antsy, I'm excited to actually start working.

I also have to say that being here makes me miss all the Mont people terribly. It's not the same France without them here. Guys come visiiiiiiit!

La Bastille

I'm ashamed to admit that in the past few days I haven't done much besides go food shopping and sleep, but today was the day I finally got my butt on the tram and went into the city.

The people I live with told me Grenoble itself isn't the most interesting city. True, architecturally it's not as striking as other European cities, but I like it. It makes it less pretentious, less...imposing. What really makes the area special, though, are the surrounding mountains. Grenoble itself is flat, so you see them constantly. 

The main attraction here is the climb up to the Bastille, an old fortress built in the 16th century. I hadn't planning on climbing up it today, but I didn't really know where I was going and then I got distracted and somehow I ended up going up a hill that led to the hike. 

It. Was. Fantastic. The view was absolutely beautiful the whole way up. I couldn't stop gaping. What's amazing is how close it is to the city. Like...it's IN the city. I mean we have great hikes near Seattle, but you have to drive an hour out before you reach them. Anyways, less words, more photos:

:D No shame, sushi avant croissants 

Some Robert Frost stuff right here

Surprise Family

Eight years ago I angrily signed up for a French class because the US education system required me to take a foreign language and I wanted to avoid the awkwardness of learning Spanish (with a name like Ola...) I hated it, I felt like I was wasting my time, it seemed even more useless than math. Who would have thought that I was slowly preparing myself for a job abroad? And even more surprising: who knew it would lead me to family? Apparently I have a secret cousin who lives near Grenoble. Surprise!

My grandma was at a family birthday a few months ago, and she told someone that I'm going to Grenoble, they started talking and in the end I had a name and a phone number of someone I was apparently related to.

Despite both my mom and my grandma explaining it several times, I still don't quite get how we're related. Our grandparents were siblings, I think? It's one of those weird cousin once-removed situations that I don't fully understand. Something like that. In any case I called her and we talked and she was really nice (and surprisingly didn't seem freaked out by the strange girl randomly calling her saying "hey there, you don't know me but we're related and I can't wait to see you in a month!")

She invited me over this past weekend to meet her and stay with her and her family. Her husband and her kids (7 and 11) only speak French, so it was more French than Polish...significantly more French, actually. To be honest, after only a few days here a lot of words come faster in French than in Polish, so I didn't mind. I find that I can switch between Polish and English easily, but switching from Polish to French and vice-versa is more challenging, I either speak one or the other or my brain malfunctions. The connections in there get clogged or something. I don't know, leave me alone, I'm not a neuroscientist .

The weekend was great. I watched her daughter's basketball game, I ate dinner with her family, I played with her two kids all day, I went to Coup d'Icare. I saw a part of the country I would have never seen otherwise.

Crazy little monkey