Grenoble
This was the hottest day we have had to far. According to the news report we were the hottest city in France. It is because heat is trapped in the basin surrounded by mountains here.
We started the day with a scavenger hunt hosted by the housing agency that placed us with our families. It was actually a good bonding activity. It gave me the chance to walk around for about an hour and a half with other UM students as we searched for hotspots in the city. On our “chase trésor” we found a flower garden, a few museums, monuments, and a tourist office. I would like to go back to several of the places we found. My group agree we would like to go to a bar on Friday night to watch the football game between the United States and France. I am excited for the chance to bond with everyone. We ended the chase at a small café near my house and we were treated to a refreshing violet lemonade by our professor. Before class we all grabbed sandwichs and apricots at Monoprix.
In class we talked about the building blocks of linguistics. We were there until about 3pm before we were released for the day.
After class I walked around near my house to look for good clothing sales. I realized I had not packed enough clothing for the heat and decided to take advantage of the sales. I asked Janine about the sales and she said they were likely because this is the time of year everyone leaves on vacation and the stores want to take advantage of people packing and leaving town. I bought two or three tank tops and a breezy looking shirt that I am excited to wear. I might go out and look at other places before the end of the week.
For dinner we had a salad with fresh greens, vinegar, and boiled eggs. I wasn’t sure about it at first but I gave it a try and actually liked it! (Just not the smell, RIP to my nose.) I was craving pasta all day so Gilbert must have read my mind. We had ravioli with porc inside. I actually had never had that before so it was interesting to try. The sauce was light and cheesy. For dessert we ate cold cherries from the market. At dinner we talked about mistakes people commonly make when speaking French that frustrate them. They said mistaken negation and wrong conjugations are the most annoying. We moved onto soccer where we discussed the controversy with the US women’s team not wanting to go to the White House after they win the finals. Then Gilbert talked about his days in the military and how impressed he had been as a young man by the quality of American soldiers’ gear and cars.
Mary-Est-En-France 