Being sick abroad, holiday plans, and random observations

Mardi gras group shot- my host brother dressed up as an American cowboy

Hello, everyone! So, unfortunately I don't have as many photos to post here this week as I would've liked. I did go out for Mardi Gras, but I didn't feel very good that night, so I had an early night (Plus, as a Tuesday, it was a school night). The next morning when I woke up, I had a full-blown case of gastroenteritis (aka the stomach flu). For the next four days, I only left my apartment once, to go to the doctor. It was a really rough week. I ate so much rice because that was one of the few things my poor stomach could handle. My host mom was gone too, so it was just my host brothers and me and one of them was sick too. Luckily, my awesome host brother Alban cooked for me and gave me medicine. He also spoke English to me because I was way to sick to attempt French.

The girls drinking Alban's amazing hot cocoa

This was definitely the lowest point of the trip for me thus far. When you get really sick, you already want to be at home having your mom take care of you. This feeling only compounds when you're abroad because then you're in another country, in another home, feeling like complete ass and hating life. I really wanted to go home then and there. Luckily, this sentiment was really just because I felt so bad, but it was a brutal week for sure.

I haven't fared much better this week either. We have midterms this week in our elective courses. Everyone chose three electives (or more, if they wanted) to take for the term and we have exams for those and our vocabulary or translation course. They are actually examens blancs, which means they don't count for a grade. Their purpose is to show us what our finals will be like because the grade of the final exam dictates our grades in the elective courses. It's a good thing they don't count because I definitely didn't study for any of them. Last week, I was too sick to even pretend to think in French.

Dancing at Bukana, our favorite bar

Happily, this week is the beginning of my first vacation. In France, everyone gets four weeks of paid vacation off every year. They're staggered throughout the year. My first one is this week and then I have another week off in April, which is pretty sweet. I am going with my friends Van, MC, and Carl to Milan, Italy! We are getting there Thursday, the 21st and we get back March 3. We are also going to be going to Florence for 2 nights and maybe a day trip to Switzerland. There will be a lot of pictures to come. I can't wait to go. I've always wanted to visit Italy and here is my chance.

I was actually going to make this post about random observations and unexpected things I have discovered about France while living here and I totally got sidetracked. This post is also filled with random pictures of adventures in Grenoble. I am so ADD sometimes, even when writing. Well, I guess I can start now. This is such a confused blog. Haha.

Alban and me at the American Corner event

Ok, some random observations and discoveries (obviously, these are only my experiences in Grenoble and Paris and clearly not every French person/place will be like this):

• Toilet paper in France is pink. Who knew?
• In France, wherever you go, you always say hi and bye. I know, this seems fairly obvious. I tend to do this anyways, but the French are really quite picky about it.
• Almost all of the bathrooms are unisex and there's almost always two flushing buttons, depending on what it is. I think this is pretty cool because this is only just starting to appear in American bathrooms.
• The French don't really cuddle- this was quite a blow to me, as I am a big fan of cuddle puddles with friends. This is strictly a romantic thing, not something friends do. They probably would have no clue what a cuddle buddy is. 
• In terms of style, in general, the French people do actually dress really well. This is one stereotype that I've found to be true. They also really like blacks and greys, but not very much color in their clothes. 
• The French people I've talked to think that hugs are too intimate. They don't understand why Americans like to hug complete strangers. I personally think the kisses on the cheek are incredibly intimate and bizarre, so this is a good example of culture differences.
• There is a lot more street art and graffiti here than I expected. Some of it is really cool, but some is just like normal graffiti and it makes me sad because they're disfiguring buildings that are hundreds of years old. I know some people who are totally into the street art style, but that is not me.
• The French don't seem to view exercise in the same way. For the most part, the French body type is very thin, with no body fat or muscle and although they're quite active, gyms aren't very popular here. They don't see the point; they'd rather go ski or rock climb or something.
• French drunk people and American drunk people are the same. I hadn't expected this to be different and it's not.
• When you're translating something from English to French, you have to be very careful because it's super easy to say something was sexual or romantic. For instance, if you want someone to visit you, you can't say, Visite-moi! because that means visit me in the bedroom, essentially. You have to say, Rend-moi une visite! There are lots of things like that. I know because there have been multiple times when I am eating dinner with my host family and I say something and my host brothers immediately start laughing. The example above actually happened tonight.

You can tell he's really into it

Well, that's just a starting list. I'll continue adding to it as I experience more of France. I will try and do at least two blog posts about Italy as I am sure I will have a ton of pictures. 

As an ending note, today is Aaron's and my two-year anniversary. I just wanted to give a shout-out to him. I love you, babe! I am looking to more years to come with you. :) Bye, everyone!

The city of lions.... and dealing with terrible French pizza

Place Bellecour

Hello, everyone! Wow, 2 blog posts in only 4 days! I am so productive! ;) Today, I am going to talk about visiting Lyon as well as the sad mess that is French pizza. First things first, taking a long walking tour while being starving and freezing is not fun at all. I know that must seem shocking to you all, but it's true. Saturday, I went with my group, API, to Lyon. Lyon is the capital of the Rhone-Alps region (Grenoble is part of that one) and is the third largest city in France, after Paris and Marseilles. Compared to Grenoble, Lyon is staggering in size. What is interesting about this city is that when the Romans first settled in the area, they built on the hill overlooking the valley with the two rivers. Afterwards, the city expanded eastward. When you enter Lyon, you start out with the modern areas and then work your way backwards in time. The modern stuff, not going to lie, is really quite ugly. I felt like I was in Detroit or something. That could also be my bias against modern architecture talking, but even so, since Lyon is so industrial, the modern areas are not aesthetically pleasing.

Beautiful old well and awesome door

Happily, those don't last forever and once you get to Vieux Lyon (old Lyon), it is actually quite beautiful. We started our day in Place Bellecour. It was once a royal plaza so the area all around it is super nice. We then walked through a typical French marketplace and that was a huge mistake by our guide because we were all starving. Lyon is known for having some of the best cuisine in the world and the food definitely lived up to the hype. I will get to that in a minute. Like I was saying, marching all of us hungry, cold students through the amazing market was not a good idea. I know I didn't enjoy the tour, mostly because all I could think about was sitting and eating in a wonderfully warm cafe.

One of the two rivers that run through Lyon

I did manage to still take a few pictures of Lyon during this time, which is good because some of the architecture is really interesting and unique. For example, to use as little ground space as possible, they basically stacked the buildings on top of each other and there are long and narrow roads that run through the buildings to connect them. Unfortunately, my hands were freezing during this part of the tour, so I didn't get a picture, but I did get a picture of the cool circular staircases that I saw a lot of. During the tour, we also saw this church that has this really cool moving clock. Every hour, it moves and rings. The outside facade also had no heads on the statues, which was kinda sad. Apparently, the Protestants took them all off during the wars of religion and for some reason, they never replaced them. That part, I do not understand. Why keep them headless? But I am not French, so what do I know?

The video wouldn't work so now all you get is a lame picture

Afterwards, we went to lunch. I don't know if I've described traditional French meals at a restaurant, so I will do it now. So, if you go to get lunch or dinner, you can obviously order whatever off the menu (la carte), but they also have a menu of the day. You pick an appetizer (called un entree in french, which is really weird), a main dish, and then a dessert for usually 15 euros or so. You can pick one, two, or all 3. I had a salad with yummy goat cheese first, then I got this fish (un coulin or something like that), which was amazing. I ate almost all of it. Then, I had chocolate mousse for dessert. French meals like that last a minimum of 2 hours, which is a very different experience from the way we eat in the US.

We also had a waiter who was crabby, typical stereotypical mean Frenchmen to some people in my group. However, he was super nice to me. I think it's because I was also flustered about ordering because I hadn't decided yet and that must have been endearing or something. I gotta say, I have a superpower of being cute or sweet or something.

Me in the Basilica's crypt- can you believe this is where they keep dead people?

Anyways, after that, we went up to the big Basilica on the hill which is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, who is a protectrice of the city. Unfortunately, the actual church was closed, but we got to go in the crypt, which was extraordinarily beautiful on its own. I can only imagine what the actual basilica looks like.

After exploring for a while, my friend Carl and I walked down the hill to the ruins of two Roman theatres (a big and little one). That was the highlight of my trip. I actually got to sit where Romans once sat! The history nerd in me was freaking out. I also couldn't resist dancing on the stage.

The red tart is pralines

After that, we went back down to Vieux Lyon and tried one of the specialties of Lyon, pralines. They make tarts and brioches and all kinds of things with them. I tried a brioche a la praline, which was super yummy! I don't even like nuts very much. I think I liked the pralines because they coat them in red sugar so they taste really good.

Doing a calypso in the Roman theatre. No big deal.

Anyways, that brings my day in Lyon to an end. Now, before I end, I must really discuss the abysmal state of French pizza. Now granted, I've only had pizza three times now, but only 1 was good and it was Italian pizza. The two french ones I've had were horrible. The one was eggplant and the texture of it was so nasty. The other one had anchovies. I've never had anchovies and I really wish that was still the case. Good god, they were bad. Super salty and nasty. I am just going to make sure I get my pizza in the Italian quarter and then I think life will be ok.

This week, there are a few big events that I will try and take some pictures for. First, there is Mardi Gras tomorrow. Then, Friday, there is a party for Carnival. I have a mask I got today so I am all ready to go for those parties. A bientot, mes amies et ma famille!

Some fun experiences thus far... (warning: a little adult subject matter from a french play)

Hello, everyone! I am sorry that it has been a while since I've posted. Like I said in the last post, I am set into a routine now with school and my host family, so things aren't crazy, but they're still awesome. I decided I should post some of the funny, crazy, or silly experiences I've had thus far.

To start with, the French are crazy. I came to that conclusion my first weekend in Grenoble. As I wrote, I went to my host family's house in Alps. I think the Saturday night of that weekend, Chris (the other student living here) and my host brother Alban met up with some of Alban's friends. We then proceeded to bobsled down the hill. Into the town. In the dark. Alban's friends followed us in their car so that we could have at least some light, but it was still difficult to see. It was so incredibly fun, but also a little scary. Definitely an experience that stands out.

Another batshit insane experience was the French play I saw. Seriously, it is the most bizarre thing I have ever seen in my life. So I will attempt to explain. My host mom tried to explain to my friend Meddie and me afterwards, but who knows if I really understood. Anyways, the play was divided into two parts. It took place at a job site. There were three workers with masks on (not like Mardi Gras masks, just like a mask of a face). Suddenly, a Spanish soccer player comes in and starts talking about starting a worker's revolution or something. I don't know if he was a soccer player or if he was just dressing like that for no reason. Whatever. At one point, the workers leave and the boss lady comes on and starts having sex with some random dude before the Spanish soccer player comes in and talks with her. That part was awkward because not only were they miming that onstage, but they were making sex noises. After that, this girl comes on stage who is supposed to be pregnant, but her costume is very exaggerated. Like, her boobs would be like GG or something. Anyways, she flirts with the soccer man, but he touches her boobs or something and then she storms off in a huff. After that, the soccer man starts to convert the other workers to believe too, but the female worker murders him. She then proceeds to kill the other two workers after they try to start a revolution too. End of part 1. Okayyyy....

Part two was, I guess, something about the problems on France's highways. I guess there's a lot of corruption and prostitution that goes on. This one started with an older guy who looked like Kevin Kline in "French Kiss" yelling for about 5 minutes about something. Then, the whole cast changed into their new costumes on stage. After that, a cop got the soccer player man and arrested him for some reason. He beat him up. Then, this prostitute comes in and sings Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" in really bad English. Kevin Kline comes over and eats her out. I could not believe they mimed that on stage. I mean, the audience was made of older people and then a few kids. Yikes! I don't even remember how it ends. Seriously, the whole time I watched, it was, What the hell am I watching? haha. Although it was incredibly bizarre, it was an experience I won't forget.

Some other random occurrences... last night, I went to this organization called the American Corner. It is for French people who want to visit America and learn more and also to support Americans in France. It only opened about 6 months ago and last night was the official Inauguration. The US Ambassador to France was supposed to be there, but he was ill. I have friends who volunteer there and so I went. There were so many people. French people, at least based on my experiences in Grenoble and Paris, are pretty pushy for the things they want. I was being jostled like no other when I was trying to grab a glass of champagne. But they are very friendly at least.

After the American corner, we went to my apartment and my host mom made crepes. Her family has a tradition that after a long day of skiing, they eat crepes. So, I have had crepes a few times since I've been here. But last night was super awesome because my host mom made tiramisu crepes. She made basically a tiramisu filling to put in them because we were out of nutella and my host mom knows I am obsessed with Nutella. My host mom is the best.

We went to my favorite bar, called Subway, after the crepe nomming. It has a nice atmosphere and the drinks are uber cheap, like 1 euro shots and stuff. I met my first Italian guys last night. There were three of them sitting by us and they were nice. They were teaching my friend curse words in Italian, which was rather hilarious. To me, even the curse words in Italian sound pretty.

Another fun experience I've had is the tonic stretch class I take every week. My friend Niki takes it with me and it is a great class. It combines stretching with toning to both work your muscles and stretch them. I don't always understand the professor, but normally I can just watch her and I'm good. My favorite part of class is the last 20 minutes or so when we partner up and do partner exercises. Some of the stretches then are a little close, so it's a good thing Niki and I are both dancers and used to awkward stuff like that. We tend to laugh a lot during that section of the class.

Next blog post, I will discuss how France is different from what I've expected or other random things I have learned about the people here. Some of them are really surprising. A bientot!