To be completely honest, these past couple days in France have been quite overwhelming. Thankfully we spent two days in a hotel in Grenoble so I was able to practice my french a bit without being thrown into it right away. However, saturday came around and my host family picked me up from the hotel and I was shaking, I was so nervous. I was placed with a single mom, Dominique with a 21 year old daughter, Chloé. It's actually quite perfect because I am a little rusty with my French so I don't have a lot of people surrounding me that I have to talk to but I have my own freedom when I need it and a girl my age to bond with. At first I thought they were going to be frustrated with me, having to repeat themselves or play charades until I understood what they were talking about, but they have been VERY patient. They even like to practice the little english they do know and it's fun to translate back and forth with the names of things. This has become our dinner tradition, translating and laughing at how funny the foreign words seem to us.
I start school tomorrow and I only have three classes :)) Language class 4 days a week (one day is FOUR hours of it!!!) Vocab/Translation class to complement the language and then Multiculturalism, taught in english. The tram is the most frequently used form of transportation throughout Grenoble, it goes EVERYWHERE and that's what I use to go from my house to school and all over the city.
I have quickly fallen in love with the city..between the spaces of the picturesque, european buildings you can see glimpses of the snow capped Alps and they are SO close that from my campus you can actually see ski lifts. My whole group plans on taking trips to the slopes on our days off and perhaps on the weekends. Hopefully I will get better:)
Unfortunately there are no Starbucks or any places to get coffee to go in this city, so what me and my friend Meagan do when we've had time is go to a local café and order a "noisette" which is a very tiny cup of coffee with a dash of cream which is what they typically have after lunch.
***Here are some interesting things I've learned while being in a French home:
1-there are two forms of "you" a formal form and casual, you must ALWAYS say the formal form to a stranger or someone you just met until they tell you it's alright to address them by the casual form.
2- you must always have your hands on top of the table, never in your lap or under the table
3- elbows must not touch the table
4- bread must always be on your place mat, never on your actual plate.
5- they always have a fork in one hand and a knife in the other, they do not just pick up the knife to cut something but use it as a tool at all times while eating.
6- when you walk in and out of the house you say hello and goodbye even if you can't physically see anyone, just to let the people around the house know who came in.
7- there are three keys to the front door. two skeleton keys and a normal key because they have locks for the handle of the door, the top and the bottom of the door so it's harder to break into places.
8- the cups are very tiny (child sized) and they may only have one or two glasses of water a day. They think we are crazy that we drink a lot of water either at meals or throughout our day...it's VERY hard to find water bottles to carry around with you -___-
9- milk is only used in meals or for cereal (which they rarely eat around here either).
10- yogurt is VERY VERY sour...I learned this the hard way, it tastes as if it's already gone bad.
11- they eat breakfast until 10am, lunch from 12-2pm (which is the biggest meal of the day) and dinner which is between 7-8:30pm..they do NOT snack. I haven't been able to find granola bars or anything like that to tide myself over until dinner :/
12- Instead of blinds or curtains to shade the windows they have mechanical metal blinds that are on the outside of the window and come down in one big sheet :/ (very odd to me).
13- When you are introduced to someone or see a friend you give them a bisou (a kiss on each cheek)...Thankfully I haven't done that yet!
14- showers consist of a tub and a hand held shower head, there is no spicket that comes out of the wall, so you must manually shower your body and you have to be careful not to spray outside the tub or else the whole floor is wet.
15- to the french, there is no reason to smile at a stranger unless you're interested in them romantically so (to me) it's like everyone has no expression or is mean mugging everyone they look at. It's been VERY hard for me not to smile at someone who I meet eyes with or when I say thank you to the cashier/waitress. Smiling is a very obvious clue to Europeans that you are American and therefore become a target for theft.
A close up view of the Alps and how close they are to us
Wow! You're giving me so much to take note of now. :)
ReplyDeleteIt's so wonderful that you're seeing all this. I'm SO jealous! Would love to come visit while you're there. Maybe next time so you will know the good places to go - and can give us a "tour".
Love you.. and ENJOY! Be SAFE!