First Day!

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  Grenoble, Rhône-Alpes, France
Sunday, January 4, 2009

Today was my first real day in Grenoble.  After a much needed 10 hours of sleep I took an even more needed shower as my hair still reeked from cigarettes from the bar on New Year's Eve.  I met up with the rest of the kids in my program and my professor Victor, and we checked into the new hotel, Hotel De l'Europe, located in the heart of downtown.  Last night for dinner I had only eaten a Kinder chocolate bar for dinner because I was too worried about about missing my trains to go find something real to eat so the last time I had eaten was 11:30 am yesterday.  My roommate Kat and I walked down to a sandwich stand and I bought a panini.  Dear Lord, I will never eat a panini in America ever again.  It was unbelievably delicious.

After settling in Victor returned and we did a walk around Grenoble.  After an hour or so he left us to our own devices for the rest of the day.  Most of our group was excited to go do the short hike up the Bastille in Grenoble.  Dianne, Kat, and I did not share their excitement so we decided to do an urban crawl instead.  We took the tram (lightrail) to the University and then took it back into town.  After walking around some we decided we needed a snack and found a crepe stand in the middle of a square.  I had a Nutella Crepe, which was amazing.  We headed back to the hotel for a quick nap.

Later our whole group met up and went out to dinner.  Here is a short history lesson for all those interested: the Bastille (which is French for "fortress") was originally built to keep an eye on the border in order to keep the Italians out.   Nowadays underneath the Bastille is Grenoble's Little Italy.  Ironic, eh?  We found a pizzarea for dinner.  I ordered a Bianca pizza which sounded safe but much to my dismay I discovered that I needed to learn the French word for prosciutto.  Luckily it was only on top of the pizza and not baked into the cheese.  Normally I don't believe in "picking around the meat" but 1) I was hungry and 2) we had already been identified as the loud annoying Americans and so I decided to bite the bullet.  Next time, I will be more careful!

Tomorrow we meet up for a tour and orientation with Marie, our contact for API the study abroad agency we are using, and then meet and go home with our host families!

Post your own travel photos for friends and family Pictures

View from my balcony Place Grenett

Carnival at Place Grenett

Other side from my balcony

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