Take Two

Okay, so I forgot how to get to the blog I started last week, so I just made a new one with g-mail.

Anyways, so I finally arrived in Grenoble last Monday after way too much travelling and a wonderful weekend in Lyon. Lyon is a wonderful city to visit; honestly, I may have had more fun there than I did in Paris (just maybe...). It's beautiful, full of fun, and we met some really cool people while we were there- and of course, being with Kati and DC was the best!

Grenoble has been quite the adventure so far. Liz and I got up at 5AM to make our train and didn't even have a chance to eat until dinner time. Trying to find our housing was intense (Thank God we had Gaelle to help us...). We took a tram to a bus stop, a bus up the mountain, then lugged three months worth of stuff up two flights of stairs to get to our building. The building isn't anything to brag about- tiny rooms, sub-par kitchens, holes in the ground instead of toilets- but the view is absolutely amazing. It's crazy to say that I literally have to hike the alps just to get to my room, but it's so incredibly beautiful that I don't even care. People are living here from all over the world and I've made some really cool friends so far.

Grenoble itself is a cool city... much more laid-back than Paris. It's really easy to get to know people and I haven't felt overwhelmed at all (except maybe with the whole language barrier thing...). There are mostly college students here because there are so many universities. Grenoble is divided up into many small schools; it's not like having one huge university like USC taking up the whole city, so it's very different but still a lot of fun. It's weird not having football season, though.

Even though it's only been a week, I can tell that I've changed already and I'm very happy with that. Studying abroad is the best decision I've made (minus having to leave little Arnold in his last few days...) and it's really got me re-thinking the route I want to take with my life. So, I guess we'll see how I feel 3 months from now!