Bonjour!

4 Elephant Statue in Chambery

I’m currently sitting in front of my open window looking out onto a gorgeous French afternoon while listening to Van Morrison. Tres bien. My first week of class is over and I honestly cannot believe that it’s been a week since I’ve been in this city. Only five more to go, time is already flying. Class is going better for me, the beginning was very rocky but as we move on I feel more comfortable. I’m actually picking up on writing and reading a lot quicker than I thought – it’s just getting to the speaking that seems to be difficult at this point, but it can only get better and I’m already better than when I started off. I’m looking forward to the level I’ll be at after my six weeks here.

City Hall in Chambery

Looking out over Grenoble at the Bastille

One of the things I’ve noticed the most that I really love is that everyone is more than willing to help, but not only are they willing to help they want to learn as well. So many of the people from the university offer to help with their French in hopes of improving their English, it’s really cool to be able to help each other out. People are just naturally curious and wanting to learn. We have two professors, one teaches three days a week, the other the remaining two; our professor yesterday started talking in class about their insurance, and we told her in broken French how ours was different. When we were on break she came over to where we were having our snacks and just talking and she wanted to know more about our health care system. It’s moments like that that I absolutely love. Curiosity is an infectious thing.

Yesterday after class we took a bus to Grenoble – which is about an hour from where we are. They had the Olympics there in the 1960s I believe, but it’s also the home of the Bastille. Which, from my understanding, if a very prominent figure in the French Revolution, it was such an immense fort on the top of a mountain – the views were spectacular! We also went into a museum and got to see AMAZING paintings. We’re talking paintings that are OLDER than our country! How bizarre is it to think that a painting can be older than our nation? It just puts things into perspective about how young America really is as a country. Also, I was about an inch away from a Monet painting. Needless to say I was a very happy girl!

An original Monet!

Tomorrow is a day trip to Geneva and I can hardly wait! I am so excited to get into Switzerland; I can barely put it into words. So this is my life right now, class in the morning, random activities in the afternoon and just overall enjoying my time here. Everyone I’ve met on this trip has been really great, we can all relate to each other which is really important. 

Not much more to report right now.
I miss you all and hope everything’s great!