Entry 10

Salut! Once again its been a while since I have written anything. Yesterday, April 10th, was the first day of spring in Grenoble.... I decided. It was 70 degrees and absolutely beautiful. All the trees are starting to bud and everything is that fresh spring green. In all of the public squares the gardens are filled with tulips. Needless to say it is amazing here right now. Ok...two weekends ago, I went to Barcelona. Matt, Glendon, and I rented a car and drove. We got there Friday night and met up with one of Matt's fraternity brothers at our hostel. Hostel Maritima... should be called Hostel hole in the wall. It was the grossest place I have ever stayed. That's what I get for letting the boys reserve the hostel. Nothing worked. We had a private room which was a prison cell with beds. The bathroom might has well have been right next to the reception desk because if you had to go to the bathroom/shower you had to walk past everyone. There was absolutely no privacy, everything was under construction, and it was filthy. However, we were in a good location. The first night we went out to eat and had the traditional Spanish meal of Paella and Sangria. That night we experienced a true Spanish discotheque. We danced to techno music until 5am.... needless to say it was quite an experience. On out walk home, this guy came up to Matt's friend Ryan and started this Spanish soccer chant. He put his arm around him and started hopping around. I looked over at some bystanders who were all pointing at their pockets. I looked at Ryan and the guy had one hand in Ryan's pocket trying to pickpocket him. I ran and put myself in between the two of them causing the guy to run off. Yeah that's right.... I saved the day. The next day we had lunch at an out door cafe and then started to walk down to the beach. That was the last bit of nice weather we had the rest of the time. It started raining so we had to take refuge in the mall. The rest of the afternoon was spent at the Barcelona mall. Some guy tried to sell us umbrellas. After giving us the umbrellas, he ran away before getting his money because the police pulled up. He later found us and made us pay him.... it was a little weird. That night we went to dinner, ate paella again, and then went to a hookah bar for the rest of the evening. The next day we got up early and went and saw the sights of Barcelona in the rain. I don't mean a little rain... I mean deluge. We ended up visiting this wax museum close to the hostel just to get out of the rain. I had never been to a wax museum before and I thought it was cool, but kind of freaky. That night we ate Paella yet again.... I'm a big fan... and my old friend from high school who lives in Madrid now came to meet up with us. She was on spring break and it was awesome because I hadn't seen her in about 4 years. Monday, we got up and went to the Olympic Village. It was beautiful. Once again it was miserably raining... so we decided to go ahead and head home. It wasn't the best weekend for sight seeing, but I was in good company and we had a really awesome time. I think Matt and Ryan were a little bummed out because they were supposed to go sky diving while we were there... but the weather just wouldn't cooperate. Last week was uneventful. We had dinner at Emma's house with her host sisters. We ate Raclette which is a french cheese. You heat it up in this thing that sits on the table and once its hot you pour it over vegetables and potatoes. It was amazing. I was supposed to go with my host family Saturday to their lake house, but I had a flu like thing Friday and Saturday. Saturday night, I went to Easter mass with Emma and her host family. It was kind of a long service, but really awesome and beautiful. There was lots of singing and lots of candles. Easter morning, I went with my host sister Alexia to meet up with her family at the lake for the day. We took a train to this little town where her cousin picked us up and we drive to lake Bouget.... the biggest lake in France. It was amazingly beautiful and their house is an incredibly old country home. On the inside, it looks like it should be a museum. All the furniture is really old and there are about 15 bedrooms. I have never seen a house like that. I had lunch with about 15 french people. We ate tons of food and lots of deserts. After that we had an Easter egg hunt and they had bought me some chocolate eggs, etc. It was very nice. We spent the day relaxing and sitting in the sun. They all talked to me in French and some of them tried to talk to me in English. The favorite thing to ask me was about all sorts of American TV shows that they watch. After dinner, I rode back to Grenoble with Alexia and her cousin. So far this week, I have just been enjoying the sun. There is a carnival right now in Grenoble that we went to. It was a lot of fun. We ate churros, cotton candy, and went on rides... all the things you used to do at carnivals when you were about 12. This weekend I think I am off to Cannes with Emma. Cannes is a small town on the Riviera. I am very excited for the beach! Miss you all! See you in two and a half weeks! Ciao!