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!
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