A little frustration...

5:40 p.m.

I just got back from a much need run. Listening to music and burning some energy got my mind off of home, the 8 page French paper I need to write, and my homework. Blah... Things in Grenoble are slowly wearing me out. I am not as excited about France as I was at first. Little things are starting to bother me. For example: Annie. Don't get me wrong, she is a great "host-mom," but I am not crazy about little things that she does. For one, she LOVES to gossip about who is sleeping with who, who is being scandalous with married men, and who is in love with who. I don't really care. She acts like life is a soap opera. It doesn't have to be. Another thing that has been bothering me lately. It is starting to bother me that I can't be more "independent." I want to make my own coffee in the morning. I want to wake myself up in the morning. I don't need to have a babysitter to do these things for me. I am twenty years old. I would never be okay with having a maid. Help every once in awhile is great, but I like to do certain things my own way.

The French as a whole bother me. French fashion in Grenoble is a joke. I just want to scream at the people on the tram every morning, "It wouldn't hurt you to wear some color! You are boring!" Gray, black, and brown are not the only colors that exist on a color palate.

I don't feel as free and as carefree as I do in the U.S. partly because Miranda has warned us over and over and over again to be careful. I find myself being overly cautious, which is not a lot of fun in the grand scheme of things. I want to be able to go for a run without being stared at. Apparently, French women don't think running is cool.

I like my experience here, on the whole, but there are just a few little things that are starting to drive me BONKERS!

Geneva, Switzerland

10:17 p.m.

Yesterday, I was in the Swiss Alps instead of the French Alps! I went with my AIFS group to Geneva. We left early in the morning, and we visited the United Nations building first. It was really interesting. Then we visited the Red Cross Museum. Not my favorite thing in the world, but nice to learn a little history, I suppose. Then, we went to the center of Geneva. The "old" Geneva. It was a very clean and cute city, but expensive. I have NEVER seen so many porshes, BMWs, and Mercedes just cruising around! I bought some Swiss chocolate, because I was told it was absolutely necessary. After I bought it, I understood why! :) DELICIOUS! Jenn and I ventured out on our own and visited St. Peter's Cathedral and got an amazing view of the city from one of the towers. Then we strolled down a few narrow streets until we were walking along the lake. We got some great pictures of "le Jet-d'eau" which is a huge jet of water that sprays up from the lake. Apparently, it is a huge civil engineering feat. Pretty cool to look at! All in all, a good day!

PARIS!!!

March 19, 2010

8:52 a.m.

BONJOUR! The past week has been a crazy one. From, going to the Opera "Don Giovanni," to ice-skating, to hiking the Bastille, to being sick. And now as I am getting over my cold, I am in Paris, France.

Yesterday, I got here at around 1:15 p.m. with the rest of my group by train. We got to our hotel, which is near the Gare de Lyon/Bastille. Miranda, our Resident Director, took us on a mini-walking tour by the Bastille (or where it stood before the French Revolution) and around the Marais quarter. We saw the Chapelle St. Louis, the Place des Vosagês (which is where Victor Hugo lived in addition to be a gorgeous little park), and walked into the courtyard of the Musée Carnavalet, which has a lot of fun history behind it. After, strolling around for supper and looking at all the fun shops, we met back at the hotel to go to the musical "Zorro." The dancing and singing were amazing. It was, of course, in French, but I understood what was going on the majority of the time! Sometimes, certain songs were in Spanish. At this point, I had NO idea what they were singing about, but it was a good time regardless.

Being in Paris didn't really sink in until after the musical. A couple of us ,who had not been to Paris before, decided to go see the Eiffel Tower at night. I can't even put into words how pretty it was. We sat and stared for about 40 minutes until it did the sparkle show. Absolutely amazing! J'aime Paris!

March 20, 2010

10:05 p.m.

Wow. My feet are so swollen from walking, walking, and more walking. But, I am in Paris, so I really can’t complain. Yesterday, Miranda took us to Palais Garnier, the famous opera house of Paris. This is where the story of the “Phantom of the Opera” originated. The Palais Garnier was decorated with ornate decorations, huge mirrors, and twelve different colors of marble. The intricate chandeliers and lighting made the receiving rooms breathtakingly beautiful.

From the opera house, we walked to Place Vendôme. The Ritz Hotel was in this square. The very same Ritz Hotel that Princess Diana left before her tragic car accident. It was at Place Vendôme that we found the first “meter.”

The Jardin des Tuileries was near the Place de la Concorde. Miranda took us through the gardens to Concorde, and we had a nice view of the Eiffel Tower in the day near another famous square.

The Tour Montparnasse has 56 floors. The skyscraper of Paris offered an exceptional view of all of Paris. It reminded me a lot of the Empire State Building in New York, or the Sears Tower in Chicago.

The Louvre is free for students on Friday nights after 6 p.m. (incase anyone was every planning a trip to Paris!) We went to the museum in search of the Mona Lisa. I was actually impressed with the size of her. Everyone complains she is so small, but I thought she was a normal portrait size. What I was disappointed with was the huge crowd around her. I couldn’t even appreciate the painting, just a glance, and then I had to get out of the way for the next tourist to get a picture of the subtle smile behind the thick glass protecting her. I saw a few other famous works by popular artists: Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Canova, Véronèse, and ancient Greek and Roman statues, like Vénus de Milo. I was really impressed with the pyramids that were recently built in front of the Louvre.

Our last stop of our night: Harry’s New York Bar. This bar was where the “Bloody Mary” was invented. For 13 euros, one could buy an original Bloody Mary while being surrounded with British and American people. The piano player and guitarist in the corner created an ambiance that one could only experience in an English-speaking bar. Classy with a twist of down-to-earth style. An excellent choice for something a little different and un-Parisian. The story is that Ernest Hemingway frequented this bar, against his wife’s wishes. The bartender would make Hemingway a drink with tomato juice and spices and/or tabasco-hiding the scent of vodka. I wonder if Hemingway’s wife, Mary, ever figured it out.

Today, the day started with The Sorbonne-the Université de Paris. We sauntered over to the courtyard of the Musée du Moyan Âge and then saw the Pantheon…amongst other things I cannot remember.

The Cathedral of Notre-Dame was enormous. We toured the interior of the church. Next time, I hope to up to the towers. Miranda pointed us in the direction of the most interesting bookstore I have ever been to. “Shakespeare & Co.” I bought a few of the classics like “The Picture of Dorian Gray” and “Phantom of the Opera.”

The Luxembourg Gardens were beautiful. The weather was nice, but I wish that I my feet weren’t so swollen. Around when we got to the gardens, my feet were in so much pain that I wasn’t enjoying myself.

The Musée D’Orsay, in my opinion, was way better than the Louvre because there was Vincent Van Gough, Monet, and Renoir. (A few of my favorite artists).

The Champs-Élysées and Arc de Triomphe were a picture stop. My feet hurt WAY too much to continue. Tonight is a chill night at the hotel, just trying to recuperate from the past few days.

Busy Weekend!

10:27 p.m.

This weekend was extremely eventful! I kept myself busy on Thursday night by catching up on current American films in the movie theaters. I watched Avatar, 2012, and The Princess and the Frog (which helped with my French because ‘il y a un peu de français dans le film!’). On Friday night, I went out to eat with Jenn’s parents, Jenn, Eva, and Laura. Jenn’s parents were visiting for the week and bought us dinner. It was delicious! They were so nice! It makes me miss the little things…like how most Americans are likable because they are much more outgoing than the French.

On Saturday, I hiked to the Bastille with Eva, Jordan, and Laura. My butt is still sore. It is 2.1 kilometers up…basically straight up steep inclines and stairs. By the time we made it to the top, we decided we needed to treat ourselves to some dessert, so we went to a boulangerie for a little pastry. Then we went back over to the Musée Dauphinois and learned about the people who have lived in the Alps and the means in which they moved around the mountains (skis!). It was really interesting to see antique skis and ski lifts. Some skis were from native tribes who lived in the mountains before European settlers. After the museum, we strolled down to a local café and I bought myself some “vin chaud”=hot wine. It is spiced red wine, that in every other experience of everyone in my group has been wonderful. Mine was not, unfortunately. It was WAY too strong. I asked Annie why mine would have been as terrible as it was, and she explained it was because the wine they must have used was probably a poor quality wine.

Today, I woke up this morning to snow. It was pretty to look at, but cold and wet to be in. Our group went with Miranda to Chateau de Vizille and the gardens of the Chateau. Vizille is a small town near Grenoble and the Chateau was turned into a museum about the French Revolution (because it began in Grenoble and then the people retreated to the chateau in Vizille for protection. It was really interesting. We didn’t get to see a lot of the gardens because it was so cold outside. I may go back on a nicer day.

Tonight, I went to a Grenoble “football” match. The football here is really American soccer. It would have been a blast except for the fact that my fingers almost fell off! It was freezing! The atmosphere at the game was a lot of fun regardless of the cold. The French really get riled up about soccer (as do all Europeans).

I came home and found Annie and her friend who is an English teacher to French middle school kids trying to correct essays. I helped. It felt good to actually know what I was talking about and having someone ask ME for help instead of the other way around. It was funny, because I imagine the papers I hand in to my French teachers look very similar to the papers I helped correct tonight. Red marks EVERYWHERE! But, that is fine with me. I’m learning.

8:29 p.m. (March 3, 2010)

I have occasional spouts of homesickness. I was listening to my IPOD on shuffle tonight and Garth Brooks started playing. I almost started crying! It was the strangest thing. I suppose it reminded me of the summer and singing at the top of my lungs with friends from Nebraska. It is the really little reminders of home that get to me. I could look at pictures of people, talk on the phone, or write in my journal about my memories of home, but when a strong memory is triggered by a smell or a song, it really gets to me.

The weather is rainy and wet. I hate it; it makes me tired and depresses me. I hope it is sunny again like it was for the past three days. Maybe, I was just too spoiled. I was walking around in short-sleeved dress yesterday, and I was almost too warm. Although, I suppose in March, there is no such thing as “too warm.”

I taught my French students today. It was really fun, because I brought my computer and played a few songs, and they knew them. America has a HUGE influence on other countries. They knew who Lady Gaga, Flo Rida, and Ke$ha were.

It is amazing how much one can get done without the internet. Tonight, I was without internet, and Annie was without a phone line or cable. I thought it would take me forever to do my French homework because I didn’t have my hand-dandy translator. I used a dictionary (like I am supposed to), and I learned more and finished much faster than if I would have done it online. I blame Facebook! In any case, tomorrow is my last day of class for the week. WOOT WOOT! I’m going “out” tomorrow night and on Saturday, I am planning on going skiing. Bring on the snow! (You will never again catch me saying that!)