First? Yes, I'm about through my first full week in Grenoble since Jess and I returned from Spain last Wednesday. I'm going to try and catch up with this blog so I can be up-to-date on the information I post for you and the events will actually be current.
Well, once we got back from our Spanish gallivanting I really felt the need to relax, get established and start feeling settled in my apartment and in Grenoble. I still didn't know where anything was or feel confident in taking the tram so I had a definite need to discover such things before school started. At this point I can say I have been mostly successful and school still doesn't start until next Monday (Sept 20th).
First things first was food. I had gotten so sick of consistently eating out at restaurants and trying to find something that was decent priced, which proved to be more challenging than expected. Let me tell you that it is NOT a good plan to shop for all your apartment basics plus a full fridge of food all at once. Yes, I did think it was a task I could conquor and was later proven wrong. Friday afternoon Jess and I ventured out to Casino Geant (kind of like a Superstore). I later discovered this was prob
ably the most expensive place to buy groceries but it was nice to be able to get everything at once and not have to search through numerous stores. Needless to say I piled my full shopping cart of groceries into 3 of those enviro-savvy bags (since they don't give you plastic ones). When you have laundry detergent, milk, dish soap, glass jars plus a jumbo pack of toilet paper this becomes a bigger load than you might think. Finally we waddled outside with our bags and realized it was pouring rain. Getting soaked was really not my concern since I was more worried about how I was going to carry my bags from the tram to my house (5 min walk). In the end two French, 19 year olds actually took pity on me, when I had only managed to walk 1/2 block in 5 min, and helped me all the way to my apartment and up the 4 flights of stairs. Thank you humanity! I have some faith in you again.
Over the course of the next few days I attended orientation presentations for school for a couple hours each day. Since I decided to relax a bit and not skip town for the second weekend in a row I ended up with a lot more free time. Some of that was spent doing more errands and some spent trying to get rid of a sore throat but I had a definite highlight. Saturday (Sept 11) the Bureau des Sports (Sports Club at school) had free tickets to see the FC Grenoble rugby team play right in town! I LOVE that they speak of rugby as casually and as often as we do in Canada about hockey or football. Tickets are cheap and games are easy to find. One of the presenters today even used a rugby analogy in class....that NEVER happens at the U of A. I am a happy camper.
Other than that I discovered that some movie theatres in Grenoble have smaller screens than there are in some Edmontonians houses and there is very little leg room while only 30 people or so fit in the theatre.
In a sense I'm anxious for school to start but I guess thats mostly to know when my exams and assignments are due so I can get planning my weekend trips. The task right now is to try and find accomadation in Munich for Oktoberfest. Kind of had to wait until I had my school schedule just to make sure I could manage the trip but now everything is booked or $200 a night or more.
Note: If you notice a lack of photos posted on my Facebook it's because my waterbottled flipped and opened in my purse on my way to the rugby game...and my camera did not survive. I can turn it on and have access to my images and can take a few but many of the functions don't work properly. I'm hoping to find a way to fix it or else I'll have to suck it up and buy another (even though they're more expensive here than in Canada) because I won't last another 14 weeks without one.
Hope you all are enjoying at least some of my ramblings!
Well, once we got back from our Spanish gallivanting I really felt the need to relax, get established and start feeling settled in my apartment and in Grenoble. I still didn't know where anything was or feel confident in taking the tram so I had a definite need to discover such things before school started. At this point I can say I have been mostly successful and school still doesn't start until next Monday (Sept 20th).
First things first was food. I had gotten so sick of consistently eating out at restaurants and trying to find something that was decent priced, which proved to be more challenging than expected. Let me tell you that it is NOT a good plan to shop for all your apartment basics plus a full fridge of food all at once. Yes, I did think it was a task I could conquor and was later proven wrong. Friday afternoon Jess and I ventured out to Casino Geant (kind of like a Superstore). I later discovered this was prob
ably the most expensive place to buy groceries but it was nice to be able to get everything at once and not have to search through numerous stores. Needless to say I piled my full shopping cart of groceries into 3 of those enviro-savvy bags (since they don't give you plastic ones). When you have laundry detergent, milk, dish soap, glass jars plus a jumbo pack of toilet paper this becomes a bigger load than you might think. Finally we waddled outside with our bags and realized it was pouring rain. Getting soaked was really not my concern since I was more worried about how I was going to carry my bags from the tram to my house (5 min walk). In the end two French, 19 year olds actually took pity on me, when I had only managed to walk 1/2 block in 5 min, and helped me all the way to my apartment and up the 4 flights of stairs. Thank you humanity! I have some faith in you again.Over the course of the next few days I attended orientation presentations for school for a couple hours each day. Since I decided to relax a bit and not skip town for the second weekend in a row I ended up with a lot more free time. Some of that was spent doing more errands and some spent trying to get rid of a sore throat but I had a definite highlight. Saturday (Sept 11) the Bureau des Sports (Sports Club at school) had free tickets to see the FC Grenoble rugby team play right in town! I LOVE that they speak of rugby as casually and as often as we do in Canada about hockey or football. Tickets are cheap and games are easy to find. One of the presenters today even used a rugby analogy in class....that NEVER happens at the U of A. I am a happy camper.
Other than that I discovered that some movie theatres in Grenoble have smaller screens than there are in some Edmontonians houses and there is very little leg room while only 30 people or so fit in the theatre.
In a sense I'm anxious for school to start but I guess thats mostly to know when my exams and assignments are due so I can get planning my weekend trips. The task right now is to try and find accomadation in Munich for Oktoberfest. Kind of had to wait until I had my school schedule just to make sure I could manage the trip but now everything is booked or $200 a night or more.
Note: If you notice a lack of photos posted on my Facebook it's because my waterbottled flipped and opened in my purse on my way to the rugby game...and my camera did not survive. I can turn it on and have access to my images and can take a few but many of the functions don't work properly. I'm hoping to find a way to fix it or else I'll have to suck it up and buy another (even though they're more expensive here than in Canada) because I won't last another 14 weeks without one.
Hope you all are enjoying at least some of my ramblings!
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