A Very Fun First Day

After a restless night of adjusting to a new room, overcoming jetlag, and dodging thoughts of "They all know you're an American, they all know you're an American", I woke up to a brand new day in lovely Grenoble! Today was the CEA orientation where all of us students studying abroad in Grenoble with CEA got together at the office and learned a little bit about the program and each other. It was really nice meeting everyone! Our program director, Patrick, is really nice and funny, and it is easy to tell that Grenoble is a place that he can call home. He knows so much about the city and the people! I wish I knew as much as he did. He told us that the French are very reserved when it comes to people they don't know, so when you're in the streets, don't make eye contact and smile. If you do that, they will think you are A) crazy, B) checking them out, or C) trying to sell them something. Although, I wish he had warned me that before I took the 20 minute walk to the office. Now there are at least 12 Grenoblois that think I'm a crazy pervert salesman! =P

The other students in the program are really awesome as well. Jessica, Katie, Lori, Z, Paige, Jimmy...they are all so nice, funny, and the best part is everyone gets along so well and everyone is ready for such a fun-filled semester! I am really excited to experience this journey will all of them!

For lunch all of us went out to a restaurant by the Grenoble Museum called Le 5. I had a delicious meal of fish with rice, smothered in a lemon sauce, followed by the most adorable dessert I have ever seen in my life: A small cup of espresso with a mini chocolate mousse, crême broulée, and pastry. Possibly the best lunch I have had in a very, very long time!

Sculpture and mountain view in front of the Grenoble Museum

Café Gourmand, the cutest dessert you will ever see!

After lunch we all went up to Stendhal University to visit the campus and some of the halls, and Patrick explained to us what the placement exams and classes would be like. I don't know if it's my love for French or my strange passion for studying, but I am really excited to start classes! I hope to meet a lot more people in my classes, and I just know that after these classes in Grenoble at this famed language university, my French will soon be la crême de la crême!

However, I do not even need to worry about school until Monday's placement exams...so I didn't! Instead we study abroad-ers went into town and went shopping at a small grocery store called Lidl, which is, I kid you not, an exact replica of the American Aldi. Except...well, French. While the others bought toiletries and cooking supplies for their apartments, I bought the only thing that I will ever need grocery-wise...Nutella. And even though Nutella is much more European than it is American, I still think of it as a delicious taste from home! =)

After shopping we went to visit Jessica and Katie's dorm buildings, which were very nice and pretty much what you would expect from a dorm. However, these were the first dorm rooms that I've been in that feature a gorgeous view of sky-high mountains draped in an even more gorgeous fog. And I thought waking up to a view of a parking lot in DeKalb was majestic!

All of us amis decided to take a dinner break and then meet up later for drinks, and we did just that. I returned home to a fabulous meal cooked by Mme. Messaoud, and I was also able to meet her daughter who is visiting for the weekend. Normally she lives in Lyon where she studies Italian. She was such a pleasant girl, I had such a nice time talking with her! She was so sociable, so easy to talk to, and she also adored the scarf that I made for her before I came over to France. She won't be here much longer, but I hope I'll be able to talk to her more in the future, in France or from the States!

After visiting with the Messaoud's I head out to the tram station just down the street where I found Jessica, Z, Paige, and Jimmy, and then we all went to a very nice outdoor restaurant called Pub au Bureau where we sat outside and enjoyed our drinks. Me, I sampled a delicious glass of red wine, my first technical legal drink ever! It was so nice sitting outside, breathing in the fresh Grenoble air, chatting with some friends and sipping a glass of wine...I felt oh so very French, and I loved it!