Inbetween

After a marvellous long weekend things headed downhill for a bit. I had woken up on the Saturday morning Jess and I left for Annecy with a sore neck. This had happened before and was only because I had slept funny...the kink worked itself out by the end of the day. But that was not the case this time. In fact, by the end of the day, the pain had moved into my left shoulder and I had a hard time sleeping that night because it was becoming so painful. This pain continued throughout Sunday and Monday where I got extremely fed up and went to buy some strange muscle relaxant from the pharmacist and hoped the misery would soon be over.

By Monday the pain had not dissipated, the relaxants hadn't helped and by the end of the night the pain was in my mid back as well (on the left side). I had determined I would call the doctor in the morning. I had been trying to avoid having to visit a health practicioner because I really didn't want to have to deal with emergency health insurance while travelling but there's only so much pain one can handle. And it's a good thing I called the doctor because by Tuesday evening the pain had spread around my side and into my chest, surrounding my lungs, and making it very painful to breathe. Let me tell you that it is one of the scariest things to feel like the breath is being taken right out of you and I was preparing myself to have to go to the hospital. I couldn't even lie in bed without being in distress and had to pace my room for an hour an a half before I could even try to sleep. At this point it was painful to laugh, cough, walk and now breathe. It had gone too far.

I made it to the doctor the next morning. It was a little different from Canada in that when I called the doctor I reached him personally, not a receptionist. When I arrived at the office I just sat down and waited until the doctor came and got me himself. He brought me into his office which was a wooden desk with papers all around and I sat down and explained what was wrong. Then he took me behind a curtain in the same room to an examination chair to check my breathing/pain, etc. At the end of the visit he gave me the perscriptions (as doctors normally do) but then gave me a bill which I pain in cash and he put into his desk drawer. So strange. At least I knew the forms were legit and I would get reimbursed, somehow, but it was definitely a different doctor experience.

Ultimately, the doctor didn't really know what was wrong so he just perscribed me with some drugs he hoped would help. I actually had to ask about potentially seeing a physio or massage therapist or a chiropractor. He said to try the drugs and if they didn't work by Friday to come back and he would refer me to see someone. They ended up helping and now the pain is gone from my back but I can still feel residue in my shoulder in neck. At this point (20 days left) I will just wait until I get back to Canada and see my massage therapist so I don't have to worry about reimbursement for emergency treatment here in France.

Annecy

After Venice I only had to make it through 3 days of classes before it was the Armistice Day long weekend. It was so strange to experience this holidays without seeing every second person walking around wearing a poppy on their jacket. However, I remembered the soldiers just the same and enjoyed the time away from school. Jess and I didn't have another major trip planned since travel was expensive at this time due to the long weekend, but we had decided to do some local exploration and check out the town of Annecy, France only an hour train ride north-east of Grenoble. It has been under either Swiss or French control for the last 100 years so has much influence from both cultures.

Annecy already had the reputation of being a beautiful town and oh did it ever live up to those expectations. First, the weather a balmy 16 degrees on Saturday November 13 and the sun was shining on us all day, reflecting off the turquoise-blue Lac d'Annecy and the snow capped mountains. We were able to walk around without our jackets off and bask in the sun's rays as we walked along the side of the lake watching the rowers, kayakers, playful children and just enjoying the amazing day we were given.

Our day mostly consisted of wandering around and exploring but we did discover a gelato shop with at least 30 different flavours to choose from, some tasty cookies, the old part of town and Le Chateau at the top of the hill (which ended up just being a museum inside that was not as interesting as we had expected).

I was glad we were able to get away for even just the day but it was kind of depressing when we returned to Grenoble since I realized I had no other trips planned until after finals, which was over a month away. In retrospect I lucked out because it didn't stay that way for long. But thats for another post, another day!

Venezia!

Somehow I manage to stay a month behind in my posts but I promise you I will be caught up by the end of this coming weekend.

And so the story continues. After returning from Monaco I spent only 10 days swamped in midterms and group presentations/reports before Jess and I whisked ourselves away to Venice, Italy on Thursday November 4, 2010. We had both visited Italy on previous trips to Europe but my cities travelled were limited to Rome, Pisa, Florence, Naples, Sorrento and Capri so Venice was one I wasn't going to miss out on a second time around. Not only that but we managed to get our flight tickets for only 100 euro round trip and a hotel reservation for a hostel price of 20 euro a night! We definitely scored a deal. However, we spent the whole week leading up to this trip not only anxious about our school work but anxious about another French strike. Seemingly, Air France (our airline of choice) was planning a strike of their airport staff for the day we were planning to leave as well as the day after. To top it off, French transport unions had decided to strike the 3 days after which included the day of our flight home to Grenoble. Well weren't Jess and I just soooo pleased.

In the end things worked out fine and although there was only one Air France rep working the counter at the airport, it wasn't very busy anyways so we made it through and the planes still flew the skies. Luckily, the French transport unions actually shortened, or limited, their strike the following days so we were able to make it home (barely) but that's another story for later.

Jess and I quite enjoyed our 5 day weekend in Venice. It was a bit warmer than in Grenoble (12 degrees) but the sun was nowhere to be found. I heard later on that intense fog is pretty typical of Venice for that time of year but it did add a mysterious feel to the city on water. We voted against doing the super touristy things so Jess and I spent lots of our time just wandering around, shopping, and eating gelato and pizza. Of course we visited the Piazza San Marco and the Ponte Rialto but our favourite turned out to be the island of Murano or the "glass island." It was so easy to spend a whole day there just admiring the hand blown glass art and far to easy to spend our money on unique glass jewelery.

We had a project to submit online while we were in Venice so it was the first time we took our laptops on a trip and I would never do it again. Travelling on weekends has acted as our relaxation time and escape from the craziness that school brings and bringing our laptops and having access to email just didn't provide us with that same freedom. However, homework did NOT stop us from enjoying wine in our hotel room and picking up a delicious pizza (flat crust with roasted red peppers, eggplant, zucchini and cheese) to-go from the local Restaurante Palladio up the road...YUM, YUM!

We managed to avoid rain all weekend except it caught up to us our last night there. We were quite a sight running around the main island with our shoes soaked and broken umbrella in hand trying to find our way and duck into stores whenever possible to stay some kind of dry. After a tasty meal we decided to check out a live show about Venezia at the Teatro San Gallo. It was actually very interesting to learn all about the history of the city and how they became known for the strange masks and stories, although it would have been better had we seen it at the start of the weekend and knew more about the things we saw along the way. Either way, our last night was a good one and we tried to head to bed by 10pm since we had to get up at 4am the next morning to head to the airport....early morning flights were only our choice because we still had class to attend that day.

The airport story (long story short): Jess and I were informed only a day before our flight that there were no busses that actually ran to the airport early enough to get us there for our flight at 630am (since we were staying in Malcontenta which is outside of Venice). Thus, we had to figure something else out and were advised that the best idea would be to bus to one of the train stations and catch a taxi from there to the airport, which was still going to cost us 30 euro. We weren't happy about that but we were informed that there would be taxis at the train station at that hour and they were more reliable then hoping the busses would run on time. Boy was THAT a wrong assumption! We made it to the train station on time only to find out there were no taxis. After some waiting, panicking, then imagining of the worst case scenario and the amount of cash we might have had to dish out to get home for classes, a taxi waiting for a reservation at a hotel across the street called in another taxi for us. By this point we were running out of time and had about 45 mintues before our flight was going to leave. I feared for my life as we flew down the dark, slippery roads at 110 km/hr in a 70 zone but the amazing driver got us to the airport in 7 minutes (a supposed 15 minute drive). We made it through check-in in time but boarding had started and finished while we waited through the security line up. We heard "Spillett and Steingard" paged not one but three times before we cut in line and sprinted to our gate, panting and getting a dirty look from the gate attendant.

Of course we made it home safe and sound and off to class that afternoon but boy were we already worn out from the day by the time 7am rolled around and we had classes until 8pm that night. No....we didn't end up making it and skipped the last hour and a half of marketing. You try paying attention to a class you've already taken after that kind of day!

Bond. James Bond.

Well you can't say I didn't pre-warn you. This is basically where my blogging abilities have fallen off the bandwagon seeing as its been over a month since my last post. So much has happened since then it seems. Either way when I mentioned in my last post that I was getting really busy with school work, I was probably being too modest. Basically I got smoked with group projects, reports and presentations (at least 2 a week). This would have been more manageable had I not planned another weekend trip for October with my Dad and a trip to Venice at the start of November....more about those will follow.

Essentially I found out that not only is this semester the hardest of my whole degree program at GGSB but, the emphasis on being a Grand Ecole is actually more than I thought. It seems as though this gives the school much more status than I realized and thus, much more work. Anyone who wants to work in government/politics in Europe really needs to have graduated from a Grand Ecole and its definitely considered more prestigious than the Universities around Grenoble. This really didn't matter too much to me, considering I was barely aware, but it's nice to have that advantage on my resume if I ever decide to work in Europe.

My dad arrived in Grenoble on Wednesday Oct 13 and we left on Thursday Oct 21 for Monaco. This trip almost didn't happen. One, I was swamped with work and a midterm and project deadline got moved to the week after we were planning to escape to the South of France. Also, the French had continued to strike, interfering with life as I knew it, and were blocking off the gazole/diesel distribution channels throughout France. This might have been alright aside from the fact that my dad and I had decided to rent a car and were going to drive to Monaco. Thus, we were never really certain what was going to happen the day we were planning to leave; all we knew was a rental car would be waiting but we had no idea how full the tank of gas would be and if we would be able to fill up when necessary. Ultimately everything was fine and we had no problem finding diesel when we needed it. Definitely lucked out.

Monaco was incredible! Due to my mad navigating skills, we made it safe and sound to Monaco, more specifically, the Fairmont Monte Carlo. Yes....my father spoiled me and it was awesome! I was so happy to have a large and comfortable bed along with new sheets everyday. Also, there was the most amazing rooftop restaurant/lounge/champagne bar overlooking the Mediterranean that was breathtaking both at night and during the day. The moon reflecting off the sea was a beautiful sight and the warm air was a nice change from the chilly and rainy temperatures we had been getting in Grenoble the week before. In fact, the warmth was so unexpected I didn't have the proper clothes and ended up rolling up my jeans as makeshift capris. Glad we brought our bathingsuits since on Friday October 22 we spent the afternoon sun bathing, eating gelato and swimming in the sea. LOVED IT.

In the end the weekend gave my dad and I lots of time to relax, aside from the fact that I had to study for a French and Business Law midterm during the evenings. We got to see the famous Monte Carlo Casino where the James Bond Casino Royale was filmed although it was 15 euro to even get entrance and 25 euro minimum bet so we didn't bother gambling there. In fact, our hotel was backing right onto the side of the casino. I also received some eye candy in the form of beautiful cars; Aston Martins, Porsches, Lamborghinis, Ferraris....and I was in heaven :D In addition, we ate dinner over the marina, checked out the mini carnival between Monte Carlo and Monaco City, tried to make our way into Monaco City and spent some time walking the beach. On the Saturday we took the car for another adventure and went to visit Cannes, the location of the famous, international film festival. The weather was still gorgeous for this daytrip and so we enjoyed walking along the Boulevard de la Croisette and taking a train ride for a historical and celebrity tour of the city.

By Sunday we had savoured the time we had by the sea and had to make our way back to Grenoble. Of course, the ugly, rainy weather welcomed us home to the start of a week of insanity for me and my dad's last week in Grenoble.