Entry 4

Salut! Ok ok.... I promise I'll get better at this. Its been forever since I have taken the time to sit down and update this. I am in a better class now in school. It is still the intermediate level, but the teacher writes everything down for us and everything moves just a little bit slower. This is good for me considering the year and a half intermission from french I took. Things are getting a little bit easier with my family. I can understand more. The best is when I talk with Isabelle (my host mom) alone. We had dinner together the other night and ended up talking for almost two hours. It is amazing what we can talk about with a little patience. Ok so what I have been up to the last two weeks.... well.... school, went to Geneva, found a gym, Valentine's Day, went hiking, and went to a town called Annecy. Geneva was incredible. Two friday's ago, I got out of class at 4:30pm and headed to the train station. We had to go to the SNCF station to pick up a friend's ticket I bought on my credit card. My ticket was already with Emma, who was waiting at the gare (train station). So I'm trying to get my credit card to be read by the machine.... its not working.... and Kristen is in line for help in case I can't get it work. I can't. I go get in line with her... my phone rings.... turns out our train isn't at 5:45... it is at 5:32 and we have 17 minutes to get there. It was like out of a movie. We go the ticket with 12 minutes left, rode the 10 minute tram to the gare, jumped off the tram and ran. We got on the train no more then 30 seconds before it left. How we made it?? No idea. Switzerland was incredible. For our first trip, it had its bumps. The first hostel we went to was full and then the next one we came to was also "full". I proceeded to beg the man until he gave us a room. I think the problem was the rooms are not supposed to be co-ed and we were a group of girls and boys. They ended up putting us in a room with a french lady... when we got to our room she was already in bed and with no clothes on. Slightly uncomfortable... but whatever. I got a little bit confused on the exchange rate between swiss francs and euros... needless to say I took out about the equivalent to 360 US dollars... awesome. Other than that... our trip went smoothly. We walked around beautiful lake Geneva, went to the UN headquarters, went to the Red Cross museum, had fondue, went to an Irish pub where we listened to live music and encountered enough drunk English boys to last me the rest of the time I am in Europe. It was a very exhausting, but successful trip. Switzerland is a really amazing place. It is so great to be in a place that stands for so many great things. We had an enlightening weekend. This week... I finally went to the school gym and got a membership. The first couple of days I swam laps (lots of speedos), but the third day Emma and I went to the weight room. Bad call. Apparently girls don't do that kind of "manly" exercise in Europe. We were the only two girls in the entire place. The trainer in there kept coming up to us and criticizing everything we were doing. It was incredibly uncomfortable and sexist feeling. So we left. After that we found the most beautiful running path I have ever been on. It went along a river and ran under towering mountains... everyday I see mountains I haven't seen before. It is amazing. Valentine's Day was fun. We were all missing special people from home, so we decided to all go out together. The boys made reservations at a nice Italian restaurant. We had wine and cheese before, and then went to dinner, then out to the pubs. Needless to say we were all a little tired for school the next morning, but it was well worth it. Friday, I skipped school (i know i know) with Emma and Matt. We hiked for just over 5 hours. I have never been so sore in my entire life. We hiked up for about three of those. The hiking trails here are so extensive and take you to so many scenic places. It is great exercise and incredibly rewarding when you finally reach the top. Saturday, Emma, Glendon, and I went to Annecy. It is this quaint little town on the shores of Lake Annecy. Lake Annecy is a crystal clear glacial lake in the middle of the Alps. This city is the reason I decided to come to Grenoble to study. My mom and I came here when we traveled in france. We (my mom and I) took a boat to the middle of the lake, went swimming, and I fell in love with the city. There is a market on Sunday that takes place on all the streets in the center of the city that are along side the canals. It is a truly charming place. We stayed with Emma's friend from high school who is there for a semester long internship. She started dating a french boy from work and so we made dinner with the two of them and then hung out at a wine bar with their Swedish and British friends from work. It was a nice relaxing weekend. I was a little homesick because everything made me think of my mom. She is coming to visit in two weeks though and then my dad and brother after that... so I'm fine. She thinks I don't want her to come... but I can't wait. She is going to love it here! Also, I think it will be very funny to see my dad and brother interact with the french! Ok well it is late and I still have homework.... I miss you all... I will try and be better about keeping this up to date. Don't lose faith! hah! Ciao!