Grenoble, Sassenage
The last day of classes in the CUEF – at last! I left the house for the first time this summer feeling excited and well rested. It was hard to believe that this would be the last time I would see my professors or classmates. In my grammar class we stuck to our schedule and did a Friday lab activity. We listened to a song Laisse tombé about a guy who gets in a bar fight only to lose his jacket, shoes, and pants. When we finished the lab we went back to the classroom to talk about French idioms together. When the end of class arrived, we gave a signed card to Louise and told her thank you before leaving to add each other on Facebook and Instagram in the hallway.
Sadly, the art visual class was not as sweet. We worked on a sheet about movies and had to act our scenes until the last minute of class. I was happy to be done with it. The professor treated us like children and it made me feel really disrespected. I was irritated by her desire to classify everything by race and gender. The first thing she pointed out about a movie was the race of its main characters, even when it was unrelated to the storyline.
I agreed to meet up at 2pm with a few other folks to head back to the waterfalls we had visited our first week here. On my way I picked up a little pizza at the patisserie near my house and a few sweet treats to eat at the falls. I grabbed a few items from home and a bottle of wine from Carrefour, then headed out to the train station.
Our trip ended up including just Ruby, Cécilia, Jamie, and I. We rode the tram and hopped on the bus to the Sassenage falls, arriving about 40 minutes after leaving the train station. To get to the mountain you have to walk through a tiny country village. We learned on our first walk through that the neighborhood church has survived since the 12th century.
The hike up to the sunny rocks was a little strenuous, but it was worth it. We sat down on our towels and enjoyed a gorgeous picnic lunch beside the flowing water, enjoying the cool breeze that it created. We climbed into the river and sat on the rocks, putting our feet in the water to cool down. It was really an amazing experience. I enjoyed getting to talk with new friends. I think it was only something I could have done on a trip like this. Going to another country and being stranded people people for a summer really bonds you together.
That night the sky was grey with clouds, we were worried it would rain. This was one of our last chances to go out dancing together as a group before the trip ended. I watched the window throughout dinner. We had a course of tomatoes with cheese and oil, which was followed by noodles with meat sauce. Luckily, the rain did hold off.
At about 9pm, I met up with Roy, Jillian, Clarissa, and Tara at Monoprix. We walked together to the wine bar, Tord Boyeaux. I love it there because there are so many amazing flavors of wine available. Tara and I started off by sharing a bottle of pear wine, which was sadly disappointing. Because everyone was enjoying the wine, we decided to go in on the 3 bottles of wine and a saucisson deal. We got blackberry, blueberry, and raspberry to split among the five of us. I cracked up when they brought out our saucisson because I didn’t expect it to actually be a thing. I was really thankful for the bread that came along with it as I got hungry. The bar played American music all night and we all enjoyed dancing (& occasionally doing wall-sits). As the night went on, more and more UM students arrived so it got to be a good sized party.
Around midnight we headed out to the other bars. I had had enough to drink so I headed to Barbarousse with Jillian, Clarissa, Tara, and Daniel. Roy, one of the CUEF girls, and Jasmine went to 365 together before meeting up with us. As always, we had some weird experience with the locals in the bars. We were having a good time when a huge group of men walked in wearing masks. One of the girls tried to take pictures with them, which I knew would be a bad idea. They followed her the rest of the night and I consistently had to shove one of the guys with us between her and them. I was thankful to have them with us. Despite that, we all got to dance along to YMCA, Allez Allez Allez, and our other favorites.
I left as the rain started with Clarissa, Jasmine, and Natalie. I walked them to the tram before turning back to my place. It was a really fun night.
Mary-Est-En-France 