Changes in plans: part 1

     The original plan was to leave France again in January when my visa expires, work 3 months and then come back for a couple months until we figured out what to do next. Without a visa, I'm allowed to stay up to 3 months at a time but only twice a year. Or, on and off for a grand total of 180 days. Even if I extended my visa, by signing up for more classes or getting married, I still would not have the money to stay past its expiration date, so leaving for the winter was something we already knew would happen.

So I was finally finding things to do with my long boring days. 

I found 2 volunteer agencies:

     One is casual, come whenever you can, directed by an American woman, we bring lots of flowers to nursing homes and sit with all the old ladies and help them make little bouquets to have in their rooms. Sometimes these old women are funny, there's one who always wants to pose for a picture with her flowers. Sometimes its sad, some women are so old and they tell me they're too tired to hold the flowers, one lady cried, saying she can't do anything anymore, and she just feels like dying. Its heartbreaking. 

     The other is very formal, I had an hour and a half interview (in french) to see if I was qualified. Its an association that hires volunteers to give companionship to elderly sick in the hospital. I was supposed to start Oct 29th

     I even got a call back from the parent/student organization I had offered my English services to. I got an interview to be the teacher (paid) of an English conversation workshop for high schoolers every Wednesday.

     I found an English speaking expat (foreigner) group. Mostly women, most of whom are what you call trailing spouses, like I essentially am. They meet several times a week for various activities.

But then we took a look at my bank accounts one night and realized that, with the travel plans we already had, I couldn't afford to stay until January. After doing lots of math and budgeting and talking we decided it was best for me to leave before the holidays. I called up my manager at Stanford and my travel nurse recruiter and we quickly set up a contract. 

The new plan is: I'm flying back to the US November 30th, staying with my parents for a week and starting back to work in California on December 7th. The contract goes all the way until March 29th, which was part of the original plan. I'll just be gone 5 weeks earlier than I wanted but 4 months of paychecks will help us immensely in the long run. 

This had a negative effect on a few of my job/volunteer prospects. 

     The formal volunteer agency that I had to interview for was disappointed to hear they'd have much less time with me but still tried really hard to get me in on a team of volunteers because she really wanted me. But in the end she called me and said it wouldn't work, it was just not enough time to really integrate well.

     The teaching job I actually almost had. It was to start Nov 4th and they were willing to have me for just 1 month. But when she called me to offer me the job I was in England for the night and my phone didn't work. When I got back the next day and called her back she had called someone else to do it and this person would be there for the whole school year.

   One good thing, almost 2 months ago I posted in french craigslist to be an English tutor and just today someone finally responded. She's a college student and her English is actually really good so we decided to turn it into a language exchange and she'll help me with my French too. 

I will get to see Adam twice during those 4 months I'm gone. He is coming to visit me in the US in January. We'll meet in Florida and stay with my parents, his mom and stepdad are coming down to Florida too. So everyone will get to meet each other. 

Then in February Adam has a business trip to Vietnam so we're taking the last 2 weeks of Feb to go on vacation in Southeast Asia. We've had a hard time deciding what to visit, you really can't go wrong there. The tentative plan is a little island hopping in Thailand, visit Angkor Wat in Cambodia, and end in Southern Vietnam (the meeting is in Ho Chi Min City), where Adam's dad will meet us since he lives in China.

So I'm gonna keep you hanging like at the end of a chapter of a good book. That was just part 1 of our changes in plans. There's another change in plans but its still way too complicated to post about. So that will probably be decided and announced in late winter or early spring.

And before everyone starts making assumptions, no, I'm not pregnant! There are other exciting things in life besides that. 

Traveling and boredom

While I sit and type and try to kill yet another fly because Europeans don't like to install screens in windows, I'll update everyone on our latest travel adventures, and my life in between. 

First I have to tell you what it took for me to get WiFi in my apartment. We didn't install it when we moved in because I was about to leave for the US and Adam doesn't really need it when he can use the Grenoble hotspot with his phone service. So when I got back I wanted to install it because I knew I'd be bored a lot during the day. On August 29th i went to the wireless store and subscribed to the service, they said the box with the router would arrive within 7-10 days. A little slow but that's France. The next day we found an amazing deal on a Groupon-like website for the exact same Wifi service for a fraction of the price. I immediately went back to the store and asked to cancel the service. But this is France so its not so easy. He told me I had to WRITE a letter and send it in the mail to the main office in order to cancel my service. And then in 7-10 days when my box arrives, make sure to be home so that I can refuse to take the box, and the mailman will understand and send it back. So that's what I did, and I waited a week for the letter to be sent to call about starting the new service. When I called they said they had received my letter but it would take another few days for the cancellation to go through in order to start my new service. It took me another week to get ahold of them again because everytime I called the automated service would hang up on me because there were too many calls on hold and calls like that are charged a few cents a minute. When I finally got through 3 weeks after starting this process they said they would ship the box with the router and i'd recieve it in 5-10 days. Well it happened to arrive when we were in Turkey. (UPS sends you a text with an arrival date) Usually when you aren't home to receive a package they leave it at a little general store nearby and leave a note in your mailbox. Thats what I expected. When I got home there was no note in my mail box, when I did the online tracking number from the email it said that it was delivered and signed for. Well I sure didn't sign for it. I asked my neighbor and she didn't sign for any box. Where the hell was my box? I called UPS and they said they gave it to another neighbor on the 2nd floor. She coincidentally knocked on my door later that night to give me the box. So on October 2nd (remember I started the process august 29th) I finally installed Wifi into my apartment! and we're only paying 2 euro a month! Oh France. I will always be confused by your administrative processes 

Spain: 

I accompanied Adam on a business trip to Madrid. While he worked for 2 days I explored.. Then Adam and I rented a car and drove up to Basque country in northern Spain by the border of France. I learned to drive a stick shift and I hate it but its necessary when you live in Europe.

We got into San Sebastian from Madrid pretty late and followed the address given on the Airbnb website. The host said it was on a street called San Francisco. We got to a street called San Francisco Javier, it was the only street in the town with the words San Francisco so we thought it must be right. I call the host and ask which building is his, his directions made no sense based on my surroundings so I started asking people on the street while Adam walked all over the neighborhood. Nobody I encountered spoke English, one guy didn't even speak Spanish, just Basque. My Spanish is limited, mostly to vocabulary related to having a baby, but I finally managed to find a guy on the street who would talk to my airbnb host on the phone and then he drove with us and showed us where to go and walked back home. Super nice guy, and a little drunk. Turns out the street we needed was spelled in Basque, San Frantzisko, which is why Google didn't find it.

Turkey:

I accompanied Adam on another business trip to Istanbul and we flew out early to visit Cappadocia. We spent a half day in Istanbul with my Turkish friend and had a flight to Cappadocia that evening. Istanbul traffic is HORRIBLE. We thought we gave ourselves ample time to get through the city but we missed the airport shuttle, tried to call for a taxi but they were all full. So we found a Turkish airlines office and changed our flight because there was no way we would make it to the airport in time. Even if we had made the shuttle bus we'd have still missed our flight because the 45 minute quoted shuttle time was actually 90 minutes because of the traffic. So we were now on a 10:30pm flight, which then got delayed almost 2 hours. We didn't get to the hotel till 3am.

Then on the way back to Istanbul 2 days later our flight was delayed 3 hours due to storms and we didnt get to our hotel until 2 am. We had lots of stuff planned in Cappadocia so no time to catch up on sleep. (including the sunrise hot air balloon ride we work up at 4:50am for) And I didn't want to sleep away my 1.5 days in Istanbul while Adam worked so I just drank lots of Turkish tea.

Miraculously I got randomly upgraded to first class on my way back to France and after my wonderful 3 course meal I passed out in the big comfy reclining chair for the rest of the flight, waking up a few times noticing my mouth was hanging wide open. 

     Most esteem-boosting part of my time in Europe: When I travel, and since living in France, I try to look the least American as possible, dress like French girls dress, try to blend in. When I walked into the Blue Mosque, wearing the required headscarf, the guy at the front says "where you from?" i said "I'm from the US" he says "really?? you look like everywhere! You so pretty! You're originally from the US?" I said "yeah, but my family is Italian" he said "Ohhhh!! that's why! Usually people from the US are just so-so, but you so pretty! You look like everywhere!" ... mission accomplished!

What do I do when I'm not traveling? not much. I'm usually bored out of my mind.

Starting in September I started the job search. I was deciding which of my possible job options I would dislike the least, and that's what I'd go for. 

~I posted 2 ads on the french craigslist offering my services as an English tutor: no response. 

~I went to the school organisation next door and offered the same: "we have a wednesday class for high schoolers that already has a teacher but if she's absent you could fill in"

~I sent my resume to an job agency for babysitters that speak 2+ languages: no response (probably because I have no education in this, the French love certificates and diplomas)

~I was about to send my resume to an agency to look for jobs doing housework//laundry/grocery shopping for people who are too old/busy but my French friend said she tried that and they wouldn't consider her because she has no prior experience doing house cleaning. As if being an adult isn't experience enough. And she's French. So they surely wouldn't consider someone like me with a visa to deal with.

I found a language exchange group on Facebook and have met up with a few people that way. I've heard that french guys use it as a way to meet girls, I assume this is true since all but one of the people who responded to me was a guy. I met up with 2 of them though because I just need something to do with myself and I want to practice French. I met up with a French girl too and we've actually become friends. Its kind of like online dating, awkward. You meet up at an agreed on location and talk in a cafe for 2 hours getting to know eachother. I don't exactly know how to communicate with the guys for subsequent meetups without them thinking I'm interested in more than a language exchange. My french friend says even talking about my boyfriend doesn't matter, they might still pursue more (french guys aren't always the most faithful, or so I've heard) 

I've gotten some feedback on my french skills though. I'm pretty comfortable with normal everyday conversation now. One guy said I made almost no grammatical errors but my pronunciation and accent were bad. We spent the next 20 mins on the R sound. I'll never it right. Other french people say that my accent isn't that bad for an English speaker. So who knows. They can understand me and that's what matters.

Since I can't find a job and I have no money to go out with friends regularly, my friend gave me the idea of volunteering. I've signed up with 2 agencies. Both involve going to retirement homes or hospitals to spend time with sick elderly people, play games with them, do artwork with them, sit and talk to them. I start this week. 

We've got one October trip (roadtrip through the Alps and Alsace region of France) and one November trip (Morocco). Then I'll be out of money. 

Random observations and adventures in Europe

So there won't be any format to this. I've been keeping a list of random observations I've made or things that have happened to me in the past few weeks. Some of its in France and some of it happened during my week long solo trip in Prague and Budapest. I hope you enjoy

~I've explained before how the French smoke a lot. Like nothing I've ever seen before. Well an example of how badly they are addicted: I was on a train and it stops in the middle of nowhere for a good 20 mins. Finally someone comes on the loudspeaker and says "Sorry, we've stopped because somebody was caught smoking in car 11, we remind you that you are not allowed to smoke on the train, this is a non smoking train" There was also a family next to us on the train and at every single stop the parents would get out to smoke for the 2 minutes the train would be stopped. Ridiculous 

~Inside my apartment building is some kind of school organisation and since school starts soon people have been lined up inside and outside my building to get their books. My apt is on the ground floor and with no A/C I keep the windows open. The bottom of my window is about shoulder height on the sidewalk. Well I can't do this with all these people outside because one, they look into my apartment, and two, they smoke and the smoke goes into my windows and stinks up my apt. Hopefully this stops once school starts.

~I've also explained how business hours in France are, nothing open on Sundays, sometimes Saturdays and Mondays too, or another random day if they feel like it, especially in August. We were in Paris on a Saturday and decided to hit up the jewelry stores and look at rings. We found an entire street of jewelry stores, all closed, on a Saturday, in Paris. I expected this from a small non-touristy city like Grenoble but not Paris. So we found a department store with not so great jewelry just so we could look at something.

~When my friend was in town we decided to get pizza on a Saturday afternoon, after finding out the first 2 places were closed (on a Saturday) we sat down at the first place we saw open and figured we would share one pizza between the 3 of us as a sort of snack. No, not allowed. The chef got angry with us and said we each had to order something. We said, how bout 1 pizza and 2 salads, no. We each have to order a pizza (they're not big pizzas). I explained we weren't that hungry, well sorry, no can do. So we left. The next restaurant wouldn't let us share either. I still don't understand why

~In Prague I met a girl in my dorm the first night who was also a solo traveler and we decided to explore together the next day. She was very nice, but she was from India. We had nothing in common. After one day I became very bored. But then we spent the 2nd day together too. I kept trying to find a way to break away but she kept following. I felt bad, she didn't do anything to me but we were so different, my attempts at humor went right over her head. The 2nd night I went down to the hostel bar (which the Indian girl said was boring) and found a huge group of people from various English speaking countries playing games and hanging out. I had so much fun! But I can see why the Indian girl thought it was boring. Too many cultural differences. On my 3rd and final day in Prague I managed to break free and explore on my own and it was great! She also was going to Budapest after and I saw her there! I tried to hide behind a new friend and we almost walked right into her. I'm sure she saw me. I feel really bad. 

~I took a sleeper train from Prague to Budapest. In my 3 bunk cabin was me, a cool Australian girl my age, and a middle aged Russian woman named Olga that spoke NO English. Probably the best part of the whole trip. Olga was the nicest, funniest lady and kept trying to talk to us even though we didn't speak the same language. Offered us chocolate, offered us breakfast of salami, tomatoes and bread, showed us pictures on her camera of her and her friends. We couldn't understand anything she said but she kept talking. It was hilarious. In the morning when we got to the train station we got on WiFi and translated "it was very nice to meet you" and she was so happy. So my first sleeper train was a success, I slept comfortably and the company helped. I ended up hanging out with the Australian girl the whole day and we had lots of fun. We did a pub crawl and met more fun people. It was a great day.

~speaking of pub crawl, if you go to a bar in Budapest there is a bathroom attendant. You need to tip her when you walk in or else you won't get any toilet paper. She gives you a small handful. I don't know what you would do if you ended up needing more.

~So in Prague we took a day trip out to a town called Kutna Hora and visited this bone church. Monks decorated it with the bones of 40 thousand people, 30 thousand of whom died during the plague, if I remember correctly. When you walk in they give you a paper with the history. The first sentence being "this is a holy place and the resting place of 40 thousand people so please be respectful." Well there was this girl and her mom (either Czech or Russian) and she was wearing skin tight jeans, heels, and a tight lacy tank top. She had really greasy hair and fake extensions. Her mom was taking pictures of her in the middle of this church and she was posing all sexy like. Pulling her boobs up in her shirt, poking her butt towards the camera, sticking out her tongue. It was so gross. Someone I told this story to said she was probably taking pics to be a mail order bride haha

~If you go to Prague or Budapest, don't expect the overt friendliness of Western Europe or the US. Communist mindsets linger. I was told this by a person from Prague on my way there. Don't take it personally. They may look like they hate their life and they don't like helping you, but that's just how they are. It wasn't as bad in Budapest except for once we asked 2 different ladies at food stands to help us with the map and were immediately turned away. I didn't even get out the whole question. 

~The land on which Budapest sits is full of thermal mineral springs so if you go you must go to a thermal bath. It was so relaxing. The water felt amazing on my skin and my muscles. The minerals have a funny smell and there were so many people I'm sure it wasn't the cleanest thing to do and is probably a cesspool for bacteria but it felt so good. There were 5 different pools of varying temperatures between 28 C and 42 C (82F and 108F) My favorite was the 108 degree one. So hot but so relaxing. There was also a steam room that was 131F and I only lasted about 10 seconds in there, I couldn't even breathe. 

~The hot thermal cesspool of bacteria is most likely what got me sick the next day. It really could have been anything but its too much of a coincidence that the next night I had a 101.2 degree fever. Luckily I was in York, England by that time with my nurse friend and being the good nurse she is, she had a first aid kit with a thermometer and tylenol. I didn't let it stop me from enjoying York and the English countryside, I just loaded up with drugs and caffeine and pushed through it. When I got home finally on Thursday I napped for 2 hours, slept 12 hours that night, took another 3 hour nap the next day, slept 12 more hours the next night, and I think the sickness is finally gone today. 

Adam is still in Ethiopia until Sept 5th. I have nothing to do all week. I'm going to Geneva with friends one day. I thought about taking a train to Milan but I don't want to spend anymore money this week. I guess I'll have to finally start the job hunt. Who knows what I'll end up doing. I just need something to keep me busy all day while Adam is at work. I'm allowed to work part time on my student visa. So wish me luck.  

Back in France

I'm so glad to be back in France. I've been able to meet up with all my friends and I realized something very quickly: I lost a good chunk of the progress in my French skills that I worked (and payed) for the whole winter and spring. I had a feeling this would happen. This just means that I have to take the studying seriously now, watch some French TV, and speak it whenever possible. Unfortunately I don't have the money to take anymore classes. Which makes me sad because I really enjoyed them. 

I went to a cafe my first week back with my German friend, she has a French boyfriend and has made huge improvements in French since I left. Whenever I would talk to the waiter he only replied in English, even though I never once spoke English to him. When my friend spoke to him in French, he replied in French. This annoyed me. Is it my accent? I've been told its a little strong but my friend has an accent too. Did I seem to be struggling when she appeared to have no difficulty? Or was it that he heard the English accent and wanted to practice his English? 

I asked one of my teachers this back in the spring. Why, when I speak French to a stranger, do some people immediately respond in English? He said its one of 3 things. 
1. the older generation of French people were taught in school a mindset of "if you can't do something perfectly then don't do it at all." Therefore the older generation might get a little annoyed and speak English with you since your French is not perfect
2. Politeness is very important here and a French person might speak English with you out of politeness because they know its easier for you to speak English.
3. The younger generation is very excited about learning English and jumps at an opportunity to speak it with a native speaker. (this is why Adam is still not even close to being fluent after 2 years here)

So I need French friends to speak with. I love my friends here but none of them are French. We speak French together but don't always know how to correct each others mistakes. I am also going to look into language exchange. You meet up with someone who wants to practice your language and you switch between languages. My friend does this and said that most are just guys looking for a foreign girlfriend. There is also that French girl I met on the tram in January. We lost touch but I will text her one of these days, she was really nice.

I started reading Harry Potter in French. It took me one hour to read the first chapter. But at least it is something I actually enjoy reading. And is good practice. Its at a lower reading level and has everyday speech.

I will do these things in between my hectic, exciting and ever growing travel schedule. Here's a quick summary of that:

~Norway was fun, beautiful, chilly, and rainy. One of my travel nurse BFFs just happened to be in Norway too so we spent 2 days together
~Just finished up a road trip with one of my college BFFs through Provence and a little region in south western France called Lot. Then ended up in Barcelona where Adam met up with us and where some of our Grenoble friends also happened to be vacationing so we met up with them too. 
~Adam has a 3 week long business trip to Ethiopia so I decided not to sit around with nothing to do. Starting Saturday I will be doing some solo exploring of Prague and Budapest for a week.
~Then I'm meeting up with a nurse friend who will be traveling in northern England, where we will explore Manchester and York for 4 days and pop down to London for a day to meet up with some other Stanford friends who will just happen to be there too.
~2nd week of September Adam has a business trip to Madrid so I will be joining him and then we are staying through the weekend and renting a car to explore either northern or southern Spain... haven't decided yet
~Adam just found out about another business trip at the end of September to Istanbul, which I am the most excited about, because it has been high on my travel list for a long time.
~The fall has many possibilities but I'll save that for another time

Don't go thinking I'm rich with all this traveling. I don't have a job in France (which needs to change) and don't have very much saved up in the first place. 2 volunteer trips to Madagascar before knowing I'd move to Europe really hurt my bank account's potential. 
I want to take advantage of my time in Europe to travel as much as possible before moving back to the US and having 1/2 Asian babies.
It is very possible to travel through Europe on a tight budget (if you're willing to compromise a little) 
~We stay in hostels or budget hotels/airbnb. Or when I join Adam on a business trip his company gives him a really nice hotel that I sneak into. 
~Luckily, flights within Europe are pretty cheap but still we fly the budget airlines with stingy rules. Trains are an option too but not always the best. Adam usually combines our trips with a business trip so that his flight back home gets paid for.
~We cook half of our meals ourselves in the hostel kitchen or snack on baguettes, cheese, fruit or granola bars all day when we plan to splurge on a nice dinner.
~We don't drink. This saves a lot. Its easy for us though, thanks to Adam's "asian glow" and my general dislike for most alcoholic beverages. Occasionally I'll have a beer or glass of wine if I feel like it
~We only pay for an attraction if one of us considers it a must-see or do. Otherwise we wander the streets, taking in the culture. Or hike, because its free and you get great views.

Same goes for when we are home in France. We both have sort of minimalist attitudes, Adam is better at it than me, so its easy for us to live on a tight budget.

With all the traveling I have there probably won't be another post for a while. I will be posting pictures to facebook of course. 

Missing France

So Adam tells me he enjoys reading my blog entries and that I should write more often. My plan was to wait until I got back to France to post again since this blog is about living in France but I guess I'll give one USA update. 

Now that I'm back to my normal life, the 4 months I spent in France feel like a vacation or a dream. And it really was both. I wasn't working, I was taking classes in something I love to learn, making friends with really cool people, spending everyday with my boyfriend. Sometimes it doesn't feel like it was real.

I've been back here almost 2 months and I really miss France. I see all my friends back in France posting pictures and I wish I could be there spending the summer with them and Adam. Summer is my favorite time of year and I'm spending it working like a dog right now. But then again its financing my super awesome life so I shouldn't complain. I do realize and appreciate that not many people get as lucky to live how I do and I never thought I'd even be so lucky. 

I miss speaking French and learning French culture. I was improving so much and I'm scared I've lost some of that improvement already. I've gone to a couple Meetup.com french speaking groups. I had dinner with my french nurse friend and her husband but for some odd reason I got shy and didn't speak very much French and I was kicking myself the whole drive home. 

I've been picking up an extra shift at the hospital almost every week. Each extra shift worked, in my mind, is a plane ticket or two. Working almost four 12-hour night shifts a week is exhausting and really messes with my internal clock so being awake when the sun is up is very difficult for me these days. I also have very little time to hang out with my friends which, at this time in my life, I'm considering a good thing because I'm not out spending money that needs to be saved. 

I also apologize to my friends for not keeping in touch like I thought I would since we're in the same country again. I'm really too tired to do much of anything these days.

But I have enjoyed delivering babies again and being with all my fun and crazy nurse friends. I had really missed the 5 am conversations that happen in a Labor and Delivery nurses station: vulgar and inappropriate but always highly entertaining. 

So 3 more weeks left in the US. 2 more left in California to work and then the last week I'm spending in Tampa with my parents. Time went slow at the beginning but now is flying by.

I'm not going straight back to France. I'm flying from the US to Norway to meet up with Adam for a 9 day Norwegian vacation. It will be lots of beautiful scenery and many outdoorsy activities.

I get back to France July 26 and have a few days before one of my college BFFs arrives for our 10 day southern France road trip that will take us from Grenoble to Barcelona with several stops in between. Then in late August while Adam is on a business trip to Ethiopia I'm planning on meeting up with some friends in northern England.

And then I have to find a job! So after all these trips are over with and I start my job search I'll post my next update. Until then I'll be a busy European explorer, I really do love my life!

Back in the USA

    I've heard that, when living in another country, the 4 month mark is the hardest. The newness and excitement have worn off and all the annoyances and homesickness that you ignored start to add up. For me, it was the annoyances and differences I was putting up with that were really getting to me finally. 

    The height of this feeling coincided with a weekend trip to London. I got to speak/hear English and be around a culture that is much more similar to my own. I came back to France for one last week of French classes and realized I had lost all motivation to speak/learn French or be in France. 

    Luckily this feeling wore off after 2 days and then it hit me that 2 days later I was leaving France for 10 weeks and I got really sad. 2 of my friends will no longer be in France when I get back and I am pretty bummed about that. 
    But although I was ready for a break I am no where near ready to move back to the US permanently, I can't wait to get back in July. 

French culture that I like better than US culture

    4 months is not a long time but I started to begin to understand French culture. In my French classes, the articles and news clips we were given for written and oral comprehension were related to something about French culture and we would have class discussions about it and how it related to/differed from our various cultures.
    In past posts I know I've complained a little about France and there are definitely things to complain about and get used to but I want to understand and embrace their culture and these are my 2 favorite aspects (and the 2 that I can easily explain in words. The rest is hard to explain, you really just have to experience it)

    ~Unlike in the US, they are not worried about everything always being the biggest, newest, fastest, bestest. They are not worried about keeping up with the Jones's and being materialistic. No one has big diamonds on their hands or cares about having a big fancy house/car. There's certain things that could definitely be improved but it doesn't bother them, its just how it is. I've discussed this with other US expats and all agree, its refreshing. Now, obviously not every American is the same and there are certainly materialistic French people, but in the overall sense of the 2 cultures, the difference is noticeable. 

    ~They work to live, not live to work. In the US, I've noticed, some people are proud of not taking a vacation day in 2 years. Its always work work work, whether we like it or not. In France, they get 5 weeks minimum of paid vacation, Adam gets 7 or 8. Businesses and schools close up shop for at least an hour every afternoon for lunch, nothing is open on Sunday, and sometimes Monday too. They will not stay open for 5 more minutes to help that one last customer. The legal work week is 35 hours. My french teachers said its becoming less like this in recent years, discussions are popping up about stores opening on Sundays, people are working longer hours, but all in all the attitude about work is just different.  

Coming back to the US

    Like I said, 4 months is not a long time to be in another culture and gone from your own, but it was enough for me to have a slight bit of culture shock when I returned. I was told from multiple people to expect it. My mom came back from Amsterdam after 5 years and didn't like it and wanted to go back to Europe. 

    ~First thing, American accents and ways of speaking. Minus the few American students I talked to at school here and there, I'd really spoken English with only 1 other American the whole 4 months, Adam. I got to my gate in Geneva last week and sat next to a girl with that annoying American 20-something girl voice ("like, totally!") and I cringed. It was like nails on a chalk board. Then more Americans arrived to the gate with various American accents, less annoying, but still annoying, and loud. I discussed this with a doctor at work yesterday who lived in Spain for a year and he said the exact same thing. My mom completely understood too.

    ~Loud restaurants. This was surprising. Went out to dinner with my parents and the first couple times was slightly overwhelmed with the volume of the people and the music in the restaurant and just the restaurant itself and the lights and the colors and the TVs and people everywhere.  

    ~The food. Its been a week and a half and it still hasn't gotten better. Starting the morning after I returned, my body hasn't been happy with what I've been eating. I'm almost positive its the ultra-processed American food, which is just about everywhere here, even when its "healthy." I cooked a lot and with fresh meat and veggies from the market and all the restaurants in Grenoble use fresh, local ingredients. I just hope my body readjusts soon, I'll have to watch what I eat.  
    ~and just a nit picky thing, now that I'm back people come up to me and say "hows Paris?!" and it drives me a little crazy because I've never mentioned Paris, I always just say I live in France, and people only think of Paris. Its a big country with lots of other cities, and Paris certainly isn't the best representation of France as a whole, for anyone who's been there. All my teachers always got a look on their face when they talked about the Parisians. Its kind of similar to how we look at New Yorkers, not the best representation of Americans. 

3 months in France

Its been a month since I've written in here. I've been really busy. We moved. Enough said.

School:
School is going great. My french is so much better. I can have fairly complex conversations with people, slowly, with some stuttering, but confidently. When I'm speaking English sometimes I replace English words with French ones, not on purpose, but because it just comes to mind before the English word. I have to say, whoever made up the rules to the French language, I'd like to punch them, they are so confusing sometimes. My non English speaking friends say that English was much easier to learn than french.
 I'm sad there's only 3 weeks of class left. Its way too expensive to continue. I've made lots of friends. Its sad that when I get back from my 2 months in the US, most of my friends will be gone because they were only here for the school year or semester. 

Moving:
So before I got here, Adam and I decided that his 250 sq ft studio would be too small for 2 people. Its quite difficult to find an apartment here, I sent about 15 emails to apts on France's version of Craigslist and got only a couple replies. So we really didn't have much choice so jumped on the first/only apartment we looked at. We now have 400 sq ft and a separate bedroom. we downgraded in other ways though, the kitchen is smaller, has only 2 stove spots and no oven. The shower head doesn't have a thing to hold it to the wall so I have to hold it myself, which is extremely annoying. But that's normal here. And we're not in the busy hypercenter of the city anymore, which I liked. We did get a washing machine, that's a plus. But the French don't like dryers so the extra space we have is constantly cluttered with drying racks full of clothes that take over 24 hrs to dry. We finally got it completely unpacked and organised yesterday and I'm starting to like it much more. 

We previously lived on the 3rd floor, no elevator, with a narrow spiral staircase, on a pedestrian only street. We got a code for access to the road luckily. Moving the furniture wasn't as hard as I expected, we got help from Adam's friends. Except for when we locked ourselves out half way through the process and Adam's friend had to break in for us. Who knew an old knee x-ray would come in handy for breaking into apartments, but it works very well. 

Living in France
Another mishap, which i posted on facebook, I left my wristlet on the tram when I was going to class. It contained my credit card, student card, tram pass, 25 euro in cash, my french cell phone, and my house keys. I've heard stories of things being stolen here all the time so I gave up on finding it almost immediately after realizing I lost it. But I went to the tram office monday morning and it was there and every single thing was inside and I've never been more relieved or surprised or happy

The french are very secure online, especially with banking. I'm not complaining 100% because its a good thing to be secure about. But its extremely annoying to log into my account. I need all kinds of passwords and security questions, then I need one of those secure key passwords that lasts 30 seconds (which i need a password to get). Then they want only certain parts of my password, like, the 2nd, 4th, and 8th letters only. Or you have to play a game to match the word with the pictures, Or type in numbers that are scrambled. this is not only for bank accounts, which is the most complex, but for any online account logins too. But I'm sure their rate of fraud less. 

The French, and I think most Europeans, like to wear things that have something American sounding on them, but they never quite make sense... I've seen: 
"California Redskins,"  
"Redskins New York," 
"Florida Dolphins" with "Miami" on the sleeves  
"Detroid Speedway," (yes, a D at the end)
"sparkly love"
 a sweatshirt supposed to look like a university that said "North State" 
and my all time favorite, a t-shirt that said "Authentic Seaman" 
Its 2015, Americans live in Europe, they should be able to easily verify with an American before printing these shirts. 

I got a small little job. I am tutoring a 3 year old little girl. She's been getting english lessons since she was 2. She knows basic vocab now she needs to start making sentences. I'm not good with kids. I usually avoid them at all costs. I don't know how to interact with them. I researched all kinds of ideas for games to teach with, lost sleep thinking of ideas. I've done one lesson so far. Its difficult. 3 year olds are all over the place. Its really hard to get her to speak in English, she just goes on and on in French. Luckily I understand but I dont know how to get her to do what I say. If anyone has advice, I need all I can get!

Of course French business hours continue to get the best of me, its so inconvenient and by far the hardest thing to get used to, coming from the US where things are always open and everything is always convenient

I also just posted pics from our little road trip to southern france. We stayed in Montpellier and explored towns around there. The weather was perfect and warm and sunny, finally. Just what we needed after a week of moving and unpacking. I now want to move to Nimes, France, The prettiest little town I've ever seen. If anyone is ever in southern france, go there.

2 months in France!

Its been a while since I've posted on here. I've been kinda busy. I've got updates on school and more on French culture and the differences I've encountered. Therefore, this may be a little long, sorry.
    Good news first, I finally got my "carte de sejour" which is my residence permit, which means I'm officially legal in France and I can work part time with my student visa. It was a long, annoying process (like most processes here) and it was the last of all the official things I had to do!

School:

After 2 months I can finally notice a difference in my french skills. Not as much my speaking but my oral comprehension has increased huge amounts. I've learned tons of new vocab. I'm glad I didn't ask to drop my course level. I'm comfortably challenged now. My speaking is getting better too, though. Since all my new friends are from all over the world the common language among us is French so that's what we speak when we're together. Sometimes English, because of course everyone knows some English, but we only use that for complex conversations. I still wish I had more opportunity in class to speak it. Adam and I are supposed to speak it together on the weekends but we get lazy.

So my courses are month-long intensive courses. Not all students are there every month, so each month you get put in a new level, you have new, and some of the same, classmates and sometimes a new teacher too. This month the students are: 5 Chinese, 4 Korean, 1 Japanese, 1 German, 1 Irish, 1 Canadian, 1 Qatari, 1 Chilean, 1 Belarus and me, the only American. But its cool because I like learning about different cultures. 

Here's a funny story for my nurse friends: 
There are 2 teachers for my class that switch days during the week. One I like, the other, not so much. She's very old school, very French, very serious, and not always very nice. We were learning about medical terminology, which I happen to be familiar with since I worked in clinics in Madagascar (they speak french there). Also since medical words are Latin based, they're similar in all Latin based languages. The word was "asculte." My nurse friends will know that "ascultate" in English means to listen, you ascultate lung sounds. She asked if anyone knew what it meant and I replied "ecouter" which means to listen. She said "no, it means regarder" (to look). There is a dentist in the class too and we both replied "non, c'est ecouter" she said "no it means to look, you asculte someones eyes, or throat" after a few minutes of us saying no and her completely refusing to believe us we gave up. A few minutes later she asked what are the different ways to take a temperature. She said, armpit, forhead, ear. I said "under the tongue" she said "really? I've never heard of that before" I said "well that's how I always take my patients' temperatures" she says "what are you a doctor?" I said "no I'm a nurse" and she says "oh you're a nurse?! well then maybe you are right about asculte meaning to listen, I mean I'm no medical professional you probably know more than me" She completely recanted all she said about "asculte" and then referred to me for answers for the rest of the class.


Living in France

Apartment hunting
     So before I even got here Adam and I decided to put in our 3 (yes 3) month notice to move out of his apartment. Its only 300 sq feet and the internet and phone service have absolutely horrible reception. Once the notice is given you can't change your mind, you have to be out in 3 months. We're looking on LeBonCoin, its similar to CraigsList but not nearly as good, not nearly as many options. We've been warned that landlords never give you back your security deposit, so to deal with this, the French just don't pay their last month's rent. 
     A major difference and difficulty we've run into is finding an equipped kitchen. In France, when you move, you take EVERYTHING with you. This includes the stove/oven, refrigerator, microwave. Some apartments we see online only have a kitchen sink. Luckily, the newly renovated apartments have the oven/stove built into the cabinetry/walls. So that's what we need to look for. 
     Another random thing about apartments in general, since the French are very into energy conservation and since energy use is cheaper at night, water heaters are only turned on at night, at 11pm. If you run out of hot water at noon you don't get hot water again until the next morning. Our water tank in this studio is only built for 1 person use and there's now 2 people in this apartment. On occasion, if we both take morning showers, I'll run out of hot water while doing the dishes later in the day. I take shorter showers and keep the water pressure low to avoid running out.  

Doing Laundry:
     The laundromat we use has 10 washing machines and 5 dryers. For some unknown reason only about 5 of them are turned on on any given day. So I have to go down the line to see which ones are turned on that I can use. Also, French people, and I think non-Americans in general, don't really use dryers for their clothes. Clothes lines strung outside of windows are very common. I've seen it in Italy too. Most people I see in the laundromat take all their clothes straight from the washing machine and leave. Our Brazilian friend had a special drying rack installed in her laundry room, she doesn't own a dryer. Neither do our French friends. Its also very expensive to use the dryers at the laundromat. 1 euro for each 10 mins. So Adam and I just do 10 minutes in the dryer and then bring it home and put it on our drying rack to dry the rest of the way. 

Public Restrooms:
   Most of the public restrooms I've used in France are teeny tiny. Sometimes they're kind of gross but not always. But what I've noticed the most is that there are rarely toilet seats on the toilets. You can tell there used to be one at some point. I asked 2 non French people why this is and they both told me they heard they get stolen. Why in the world someone would steal a toilet seat is ridiculous to me, I'll have to ask a French person.

Flying:
     So in the past year I've been on a few planes that are mostly full of French people. Something funny I noticed, they clap when the plane lands. My guess is they're applauding the pilot for not crashing. Not everyone does it, of course, but I was pretty confused the first time I heard it. 
     Also, when a plane is delayed, they tell you why! Our first flight to Venice was delayed because the pilot was sick so a new pilot was en route to the airport. My flight back from Venice was delayed because there was an issue with a passenger on the earlier flight from Rome so it was late getting in from Rome. Its kinda nice. In the US you only know delay reasons if they have to do with weather. 

American Food in France

More food adventures. I seem to talk about food a lot. Since being here I've been in a state of constant hunger. Which isn't unusual for me but its never happened this often. I wake up in the middle of the night and munch on a baguette. I crave charcuterie, which is various kinds of ham, prosciutto and salami, every single day. At any given time we have no less than 3 different kinds of cheese in our refrigerator. If there's any country for a foodie like me, France is it. 

Wednesday the school hosted a wine, cheese, and charcuterie tasting. I'm not a fan of wine, I went mainly for the cheese and charcuterie. Ever since I moved here I can't get enough of the stuff. But I ended up actually liking the wine, too. It was a diverse group, only 10 people, but representing Canada, Germany, South Africa, Brazil and Iraq and Italy. I like meeting all these people of different cultures.

Speaking of different cultures, our teacher informed us that Thursday there was going to be a party for all the international students at the University. Everyone had to bring a traditional dish from their country. After saying this she looked at the 2 Americans in the class and said "USA, what do you have?" We looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders. 

I wracked my brain all week, everything American I thought of (fried chicken, BBQ, buffalo wings, ribs) was not possible to make. Either it doesn't exist here or I didn't have the capacity to make it at my apartment, or the money. Then I had the genius idea to make PB&J: easy, cheap and very American. I've heard from 2 french people that its the weirdest thing they've ever heard of. Stores here only just recently started selling peanut butter and if you search hard enough you can find it.

Well, Thursday comes and I proudly bring in my plate of PB&J cut into triangles only to find out that 2 other Americans had the exact same idea! It only then dawned on me that I could have made Mac N Cheese and then I could have stood out from the crowd. My teacher said that every year, it never fails, there's always at least 1 plate of PB&J at the party. 

There was a lot of good food there. Lots of Chinese, various South American dishes, some Middle Eastern stuff. My favorite was something from Romania, which had ground meat, sauerkraut, rice, and cheese. I went back for seconds on that one. I need to find this Romanian person and get the recipe.

Speaking of American (ish) food in the France, when asked if there's any food he misses from the US, Adam says Mexican and spicy foods. There's a quesadilla place down the street but its more like crepes with stuff inside that's not exactly Mexican.
 We had a sweet salsa-ish type thing at a French friends house once and asked what it was and he said it was Old El Paso salsa. Adam and I busted out laughing and the french people looked at us confused. We said it was nothing like actual Mexican salsa. It was still good though, so I went to buy some at the store, Adam and I like spicy, but the French seem to have an even wimpier taste than most Americans. The only salsa options were Mild and Extra Mild. 

We were taking a walk one night and passed a store with nothing but foods from the US, Canada, and the UK. They had British teas and cookies and beers, Canadian maple syrup. For the US they had BBQ sauce, hot sauce, Lucky Charms, frozen onion rings, mozzarella sticks, mountain dew, root beer, campbell's soup, twizzlers and skittles, aunt jemima pancake mix, corn bread mix. It was pretty awesome. I left with a can of A&W rootbeer and some cream of mushroom soup to use in a recipe. I almost bought a box of Lucky Charms until I saw that it cost over 9 euros! 

Besides all the cheese, the French are pretty healthy (oh and minus the smoking, that stereotype is very true. I HATE cigarette smoke. But you can't avoid it. Everyone smokes. All the time. Everywhere. Even if they only have 20 seconds to spare they'll light up and take just one puff. They roll up their homemade cigarette on the tram and have it in their mouth waiting, impatient to smoke it, then the moment they step off the tram they light up. As if waiting 5 seconds to step off to the side is too much). Anyways, I digress... And Grenoble is like Denver, next door to the mountains so everyone is really active. I love it. In 5 weeks I can count the number of overweight people I've seen on 1 hand. But an interesting thing I noticed on the food ads hung at bus/tram stops. At the bottom of every food ad it says one of 2 things: "for your health, avoid eating too much salt, fat and sugar" or "for your health, participate in physical activity regularly" ...random thought but just something i found interessante. 

Week 4: I survived my first month in France!

So my new intensive language courses began this week. They didnt have a class for my exact level so they bumped me up one. I would have preferred to be bumped down one, seeing as I haven't taken an actual French class in 8 years. Its definitely challenging. My oral comprehension is not quite on par with my classmates. The teacher talks too fast. I've seriously contemplated asking to be demoted but for now I'm going to try to stick it out. 

There's one other American in my class. Its nice to have one person to relate to and ask in English what the heck the teacher is saying. The other students are Brazilian, Colombian, Qatari, Syrian, Korean and Bulgarian. Its interesting to hear the different accents when these people speak French. Sometimes its hard to understand their French because of it.

French computer keyboards, not the same as american ones. The A and Q are switched. The Z and W are switched. The M is next to the L. You have to hold the shift key to type numbers and to type a period. its incredibly frustrating and its a good thing I'm in a classroom or I'd throw it at the wall.

One day we walked into the classroom and it was warm. I was like Hallelujah! But immediately it was deemed stuffy by the other students and the windows were opened for 10 minutes to get air circulation. That's the closest I've been to being warm here. Its really starting to get on my nerves this being cold all the time

Random tidbit about French universities, they're rather rundown looking. In dire need of a good power wash and some modernization. There's good reason for this: its virtually free for the French to go to college, so the money the schools receive from the government only covers the basic costs, teacher salaries, etc. There is no tuition money coming in. So no extra money to put towards landscaping, central heating and air, renovating the bathrooms so I don't feel like I'm in the bathroom of Dana's (only my college friends will understand that reference)

I discovered my new favorite French food. A crêpe with cheese, prosciutto, salami, and a fried egg. I've eaten it 3 times now this week. Crêpes were already my favorite. I've been making them with nutella and strawberries every 2-3 days or so.

I got a French cell phone! Its a super cheap smartphone but getting another samsung galaxy would have cost well over 600 euros. I now have gotten all of the important things out of the way. Except for my residence permit, which is also my work permit, but I've been told not to hold my breath on that one... Oh the French, they're lucky have have such a beautiful country and language 

Week 3: French Food and Skiing

I had a rather boring 3rd week. Highlights: I got health insurance and I got a French bank account a debit card (the concept of credit doesn't exist here). It was a long, annoying process for both of those things so I'm very relieved.

Food!
If you've ever been to France you should know that the food here is perfection, always. I've never had a bad meal in all the times I've visited this country. The baguettes and the croissants are addicting. The cheese: the stinkier the better.
     Each region has its own specialties and the Haute-Savoie region of the Alps that I live in has some good ones. All involve cheese, potatoes and cured ham (prosciutto) in a variety of ways.
     One night, after a long day of skiing, a group of Adam's friends gathered to eat something called Raclette. There's a special Raclette maker which has about 8 small shallow bowls and you melt a piece of Raclette cheese until its liquid and then pour it over boiled Raclette potatoes and then eat it together with a piece of prosciutto or salami. Its amazing. Its so popular even Dominoes advertises Raclette Pizza.
     Next new amazing dish I learned from my new German friend. You take a soft cheese called Mont D'Or, which comes in a wood bark bowl, scoop out the middle and fill it with minced garlic and white wine. Stick it in the oven and also pour that over Raclette potatoes when its all liquidy. Yummy.
     There's also Tartiflette. Which is like a baked casserole of au gratin Raclette potatoes, cheese, and cured ham. As you can see, lots and lots of cheese in all these dishes. I love cheese. If you try cheese in France don't smell it, just eat it. Like I said, the stinkier the better.
     Then one night we went to a restaurant and got something called a Potence. It looked like a medieval torture device, short, thick iron stick with spikes on it, each spike with a big chunk of duck meat. Hanging over a pot of french fries. Its set on fire to cook then all the juice from the meat drips onto the fries. Then you get dipping sauces for the fries. Probably top 10 best dinners I've ever had. I love duck, but only in France, its just not as good when I've ordered it in the US.
      Food mistake I made: don't try to save money and go to the grocery store and buy cheap grocery store brand baguettes and cheese. Not worth the money saved, you gotta go to the little patisseries and fromageries (bakeries and cheese shops)

Skiing
I'm learning to ski. I figured I should since I live in the Alps. I've gone every weekend since I've been here. You can see on my Facebook all the beautiful snowy mountain pictures I've posted. I bought all the equipment at a second hand ski store for under 200 euros. 
    Our first week we took the Ski Bus and the bus got stuck in the snow and we had to walk a couple km in the snow uphill with our gear, hitch hike with a car full of German guys, and we didn't get out on the slopes till 3pm. The bus got stuck at 9am. This 3rd weekend, I skied at a different location and on the way back on the Ski Bus it was the same driver that got us stuck! I was surprised he still had a job and that I made it back to Grenoble in one piece.  
     I only ever truly skied once in the US, in Lake Tahoe last year. It was a nice resort with a big lodge at the base and one at the top and places to sit and relax and lockers to keep your belongings. I've also seen the resorts in Breckenridge in the summer. Very nice. Well, I'm learning this doesn't really exist in France. Yes they have ski resorts but not like the ones in the US. There isn't really anyplace to sit and relax when you don't feel like skiing, no big lodge, unless you go to a cafe but then you have to buy something and sometimes they're very small and cramped and crowded. There are also no lockers. Unless you have a car or a hotel room there you must bring a backpack and ski with your belongings on your back. Also, the little cafes are not heated, like the rest of this country, there is nowhere to go and get warm. 

Week 2 in France: Starting school, making friends, learning culture

So I promised week 2 was going to be more interesting than week 1. It is.

SCHOOL:
     I enrolled in a semester of French language and culture courses because a student Visa was the easiest to obtain. I arrived at the university Monday to see that 99% of the students were between the ages of 18-22 and there to study abroad and mostly knew each other. 50% American, 40% Chinese, and 10% other nationalities. Classes started officially on Wednesday, the language class was good, I was placed in the correct level for my French abilities. The equivalent of a 3.9 out of 6.
     First interesting experience: We had to introduce ourselves to the person sitting next to us. My partner was a guy from Mongolia. I have only spoken French to English speakers and French people who speak English. I'm used to substituting an English word with a French accent when I don't know the French word. Well, you can't do this with someone who doesn't even speak English. It was an interesting conversation that didn't get very far. 
     Then there's the culture classes, I was to choose 3 from a list including French literature, politics, economy, art, film, history, theater. I went to French History and French Film the first day. The classes are taught only in French, I only understood about 50% Then, the syllabus is passed out and it includes things to read, papers to write, projects to do, presentations to give. I immediately thought "F*** this!" I already did the college thing, I don't need college credit like these other college kids here, I did not come here to write papers and do projects. So the next day I switched out of the program and into a language only program, that is double the language classes and will get me fluent faster, which was my goal here.

NEW FRIENDS:
     On day 2 of school I happened to meet probably the only other student there who's here for the same reason I am. She's a really nice girl from Canada and we've been hanging out ever since. We both have switched into the language only courses.
     Then one day on the tram I was talking to my mom on the phone about school and a random French girl comes up to me and says "I couldn't help but overhear your conversation but would you like someone to speak French with?" She then proceeded to give me her phone number and we arranged to meet for coffee. Which we did on Friday and we plan to hang out more in the future.
     Just one of the many examples I've encountered in my lifelong attempt to shut down the stereotype Americans have about French people. They are some of the nicest people I've ever met and willing to help you out without even being asked. Like a lady at the laundromat who noticed our washing machine wasn't working and offered to call the company for us. 
     I've also met all of Adam's friends, who are of various nationalities: British, French, American, Brazilian, Portuguese. They are all a lot of fun. One night we went to dinner at the 2nd oldest restaurant/bar in France which has been in operation since the 1600's.

ANNOYING THINGS I'M LEARNING:
     1. Adam warned me about this, paperwork processing is a pain in the butt. It is all done in person, never online. And every time you go somewhere to register in something, they will need more paperwork than you have and you must go find it and return. I still don't have all of my health insurance because of this. I mailed my form for my residence permit and I was told it would take 2 months to get the return forms and I must have it all done within 3 months.
     2. Also making that process difficult, French businesses take time off for lunch and close up shop at some point between 12-2pm. Which is when I am always free to get things done and they are never available. Even some stores do this. If I'd known this I wouldn't have walked to the ski store so many times this week.
     3. For all photo ID cards, for the tram, school, etc. you must provide your own tiny photo. They do not take the picture there for you. They cut up a tiny picture that you provide, stick it on the card, then peel off a cheap laminating strip, and voila! Luckily these photos are easy to get, 5 euros at Monoprix (like Target) in a photo booth.
     4. Store hours are very different. We live in the shopping district of town. Everything closes at 7pm. By 8pm you would think it was 3am. The place is a ghost town. Nobody is outside. Everything is gated and boarded up. And all those gates and doors are covered in graffiti. No matter how nice the neighborhood. Same with Sundays. The only store in the whole city open on Sunday is Monoprix, but only till 1pm. Evenings and Sundays are meant for family. And stores that are open on Saturdays, like most clothing stores, are closed Sundays AND Mondays. Great for the employees. Something to get used to for an American. 
     5. I hate the cold. Always have. I grew up in GA and spent the last year in California. People from Grenoble, having grown up at the base of the Alps, are not bothered by cold whatsoever. Therefore, very few buildings are heated, and this does not include any of the university buildings. Everyone sits in class bundled up as if they were outside. Also, they seem to really enjoy eating/drinking outside at cafes in the middle of winter, with no outdoor heating units like in the US. They will spend their lunch hour sitting outside, when it is 30 degrees, not bothered at all. Meanwhile, my Canadian friend and I managed to find the only heated building on campus and plan to spend all our time there. 

First week in France

So I am no blogger, I'm not a writer, English and grammar were my worst subjects. Friends keep asking me how its going over here and why I'm not posting a lot to Facebook. So, per a suggestion from a friend, I think writing in a blog will be the best way to keep people updated on my life and adventures and tell everyone what its like living in France. I have no idea how to write a blog. So its going to come in short pieces, each about an adventure or hiccup that I've encountered. Week by week.

First of all, I have the best boyfriend. Adam surprised me by taking me straight from the Geneva Airport to a super nice luxury hotel looking out over Lake Geneva. And then pulled out a baguette, Swiss sausage, and my favorite French cheese. The hotel had a very nice pool and a mini, private ice skating rink where I taught Adam some skating basics.

I brought 4 bags to France: 2 large checked suitcases, and 2 carry-on bags. Keeping my tradition going, 1 of my checked bags did not make it to Geneva. I got it 3 nights later, finding out that it had gone to Norway instead. 

I unpacked my stuff into Adam's 300 sq ft studio apartment which is located in the center of town. I was worried it would be too cramped but actually its perfectly fine. Both of us are used to living with a minimalist attitude, with travel nursing, I had to live on what I could fit into my Honda Civic. I love our little apartment, aside from the fact its a little on the cold side

With Adam at work all day and my school not starting or another week, I spent every day wandering around Grenoble. Walking the streets, testing out the tram, visiting the school, and napping off the jet lag. Luckily there was a random warm front the first week, so I got a break before the real cold weather set in. 

The first week I was terrified of speaking French and having to understand what was said back to me. I broke out into a sweat the first time I went to the grocery store. With time this will get better.

I promise the 2nd week is more interesting. This is why I hadn't posted anything. There wasn't much too say about my first week