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.