Grenoble, Turin
In the grammar course on Friday we closed up our discussion on street art. We each did a little skit on either street art or ecology. It was fun to see everyone put on their little skit. For mine, Joyce and I pretended to be roommates horrified that the other had purchased cookies with GMOs in them.
Two weeks in the CUEF program finally brought an end to our first optional class. For culture and civilisation we had a short test. I didn’t think it was really hard, which was a relief because I hadn’t been able to study much the night before. The brevity of the test gave us all some time to go down to the cantine to grab a coffee before we went to the auditorium to watch a play our friends were putting on. I enjoyed my drink with Brenna and Jillian, then we marched over.
The play was put on by the students in the “oral perfection” option. They did a short rendition of the Petit Prince. It was really cute and super funny. It was fun to see everyone having a good time. They wore costumes and had different sets for scenes!
I had been excited for class to end because I had a 2:30 bus to Turin, Italy that afternoon. I was part of a group of 8 students who decided to split an AirBnb for the night and explore the city. I returned to my house with Jillian to grab my things, we grabbed a sandwich as Macdo’s, and hopped on the bus. It was roughly a 3.5 hour drive between Grenoble and Turin. I saw 6 different castles as the bus drove through the Alpes. I was amazed by the changing landscape outside my window. I found it really strange that I could travel just a few hours and have everything around me change so vastly.
We arrived in Turin a few hours before dinner. We took a half an hour walk between the bus stop and our Airbnb so we could see the city as we went. Street signs were different than in France, monuments were different, and everything was in Italian. I experienced a bit of culture shock on our walk. How could everything be so different just a few hours away? On our walk we saw an old prison (Museo del Carcere “Le Nuove” – Museum in a prison) that had operated into the 20th century. It was constructed by Emanuele II who wanted to concentrate inmates in one central location, today it sits next to an old railway workshop.
I was amazed at the size of the apartment that we got! Each of us had a bed to sleep in, there was a newly renovated kitchen and shower, and there was a wonderful courtyard outside where a nectarine tree was growing.
We all decided it was time to venture into centre-ville for dinner. Unfortunately, we had new clue where centre-ville was and none of us spoke any Italian. We wandered around for about 30 minutes before realizing that we had headed in the wrong direction. When we were finally better oriented, we were able to find a cute restaurant down town where the staff spoke English and French. Everyone ordered pizza and a drink. I thought it was really tasty. I enjoyed my food and was ready to explore after dinner. I was really thankful we were able to split the check because it can be really difficult to get the euros to come out even with a huge group.
After dinner we were all ready to try some gelato. I did my best to order in Italian, but my accent must have been horrible because the cashier automatically switched to English to take my order. (His English was flawless.) Because of the language barrier, I didn’t entirely know what I ordered. It ended up being a dark chocolate ice cream. Chocolate isn’t my favorite, but it was really good quality gelato. I felt bad because Ryan bought three scoops and the second he walked outside it flopped on the ground. Luckily, some Italian couple passed by and mentioned it to the clerks inside who remade the cone.
We kept walking, eventually finding a huge square with fountains, three castles, and a bunch of statues. I found out the next day that it was the square next to the royal palace. We walked through the city and found a bar near where we had had dinner. Sadly, there was no air conditioning and Italy was nearly 15 degrees warmer than it had been when we left Grenoble. I was so so thankful for my cold beer.
All of us were exhausted so we returned to the Airbnb for the night soon afterward. The place felt extravagant because each room had a fan (my room in Grenoble doesn’t have one.) I went to bed excited for the next day.
Mary-Est-En-France 