Grenoble
Well, today it was 40 C. I didn’t know that I could feel the heat melting my brain, but I soon learned that. The entire day was miserably hot, making it difficult to sleep and function. This heat wave is supposed to be the worst that France has ever seen. I’m not sure I can say I am lucky to experience it. Old cars are not allowed on the streets, public transport is free, and people are actually using fans.
Our grammar class started the morning off with a listening lab. The class got to hear a story about a blind man who hitch-hiked across the world. We resumed our theme of immigration and travel after finishing the lab. We talked about the reasons people can be displaced like environmental crisis, war, economic opportunities, needing to follow family, etc. Each of our groups presented on an artist who had immigrated to France. My group shared the story of Atiq Rahimi, a novelist from Afghanistan who fled war and violence.
I’m so thankful that our art class will be ending soon. I think my brain may actually be melting. The professor treats us like children, asking every sentence if we understand what she’s saying. We continued to talk about comic books in class, going over the popular series Astèrix. Books detail the adventures of a band of Gauls fighting against the Romans for their land. After a gruelingly boring two hours, we were released.
My stomach was growling after class and I knew exactly what I wanted – pizza. Jillian and I marched down to centre-ville to find a little Italian place. I love that there’s a strong Italian community here because the food is just outstanding. We were joined by Jamie and Lauren for lunch a little later on. I got a mushroom and ham pizza that was to die for. I don’t think I’ve ever had mushrooms that were as flavorful.
After lunch, Jillian and I headed back to my place to plan for Italy. The trip is coming up more quickly than I thought. I discovered that my ticket home is a day earlier than I had thought, which was really really frustrating and disappointing. Now I have to spend a night in Paris before hopping on the plane back to Detroit. I suppose it was better to find out now rather than the day I missed my flight.
Having received the devastating news Jillian and I trudged through the heat to Miranda’s office for a cheese tasting with the rest of the class. By the time everyone arrived, the wheels of cheese sat in sad puddles. A chef went through and described where each wheel was from, but I felt like my brain was melting so I didn’t catch much. When he finally finished his speech, we all hopped in line for our cheese plates and wine. Thank goodness each table got a fat pitcher of freezing cold water. It was so refreshing. Upon finishing all our cheeses Roy, Clarissa, Jillian, Eva, Daniel, and I scampered down the street for some ice cream. I got mango and raspberry.
I spent the evening hours writing a presentation for class the next day. We had to talk about a linguistic experience that we had had recently. I talked about traveling to Italy and how I didn’t know the language and how difficult that was for me.
I was still overly full from cheese and ice cream by the time dinner arrived. We started with a plate of cold meats and pickles which was followed by fried potatoes and salad. For dessert I got to have a little peach fruit cup. We talked about what I was looking forward to in Italy, the difficulties of traveling, and the difficulty levels in my classes.
Mary-Est-En-France 