Puis-je vous aider? Day two à Grenoble.

This morning I thought I would get up early (miscalculation of jet-lag, due to said jet-lag), unpack and take a shower, all that jazz, before Claire (my host mother) took me into town to meet up with the rest of our group for the orientation. Unfortunately, I slept until 11 AM – the same time we were all supposed to meet downtown; this was when Claire woke me up, and called Marie (one of the API resident directors here in Grenoble) to tell her I was running late. It all worked out just fine, I missed a portion on the tour, but I arrived in time for lunch, the tour of the campus, and King’s Cake in the API office – all the important stuff!

I took the tram and bus home, it’s even easier than Seattle’s Metro, with Bryan and Annie. They got off at my stop, but walked from there. I took the bus, which drops me off very close to my house, maybe a ¼ mile, if that much. I got home, changed my pants, which were soaked from the snow/slush (wearing my hiking boots tomorrow!), and had some tea in the kitchen with Claire and Marguerite. When we finished, I meant to ask Claire if I could help her, she was putting away dishes: “Puis-je vous aider?” but it came out very garbled! She understood me, but said she was just about finished, and didn’t need my help, but thank you. I’ll try again tomorrow.

I’m sore, from lugging around luggage (I’ve never made the connection between those words before) yesterday. The metal tube into which the handle of my large wheeled bag retracts was bent when I picked it up in Paris, so I had to use the small handle on the top of the bag since I couldn’t pull out the long one.

Navigating through Paris was a slight challenge, but I was just fine. Once I found the RER (part of the Paris metro system) I used some broken French with a very nice women at a ticket window who marked on a map which trains to take and which stops I needed. Next, a very kind woman at an information station told me which exit (out of 17) to use to get to the train station. I bought my ticket, and then waited for about 4 hours for my train. I thought about going someplace else, but did NOT want to lug bags any further than I had to, so I stayed put. About an hour before departure, I found Annie, and then we found Nathalie and Maddy, followed by Isabella and Nicole. Yu Yeun, Nick, and Kristen were on the same train, but we didn’t see them until Grenoble. The TGV (train de grande vitesse = train of large speed, or fast train) direct from Paris to Grenoble took three hours, and our host families picked us up at the train station, assisted by Paul (our Professor from SU), Marie and Sara (API people).

Pierre-Jacque (host father) picked me up and drove to the family house in Corenc where I met the family and we ate dinner. Living in the house are: Pierre-Jacque (father), Claire (mother), Remi (son, 20), Benoit (son 17), and Marguarite (daughter, 13). There are three additional children, who are adults and have moved out. One, Clotilde daughter, is married and has a one month old baby boy. I don’t know much about the rest.

Tomorrow, our class is meeting up again, this time at the tram stop for the university, with Paul for class and a field trip to get cell phones and SIM cards. At some point we’ll go to a Carrefour, which Paul said is the French equivalent of Costco – we’ll see!

My mailing address here in Grenoble (actually just outside of Grenoble proper, about as far as Ballard from Downtown) is as follows:

10 chemin du renevier
38700 Corenc, France

I will also check my email regularly once my computer is hooked up to the family’s wireless network. I will also have a cell phone once I get a SIM card – though I’m nine hours ahead of Seattle, so calling (or texting which is cheaper here) can be difficult to schedule.