A Brief Overview of First Two Weeks in Grenoble

I've been living in Grenoble, France for two just under two weeks. I've learned the layout of the city using a map and my bicycle. I've found many wonderful people from all over the world, including here in Grenoble. I've rock climbed and hiked mountains. I've played and listened to great music. I've tried many types of wines and cheeses. I've been to the highest point in all of Europe. I've been busy.

And I love this place.

This may prove to be difficult, but I would like to start from the beginning and walk through my time here, then afterwards will discuss some of the aspects of France, Grenoble, and my new life that I find intriguing.

So here we go!

I woke up exhausted from travels my first day, but full of adrenaline and excitement! I had used a pillow case stuffed with jackets as a pillow, and wrapped myself in a tapestry for blankets/sheets. I did this for a couple nights before I suited myself up with some proper bed-clothes. Classy. I had no food, so I got dressed, showered (not necessarily in that order), and headed out to adventure and explore. I walked through the campus on a beautiful path lined with trees, fallen leaves, very chill looking benches of stone, and. . .French people! I found the beautiful campus and rented a MetroVelo, the cities' very cool public bicycle rental service! I have rented the bike for 3 months and it is my primary means of transportation. I also have a map and have used the two, following landmarks and tram-ways, to explore the city. I intend on getting a 3 month tram pass during the winter months. 

 

After getting my bike, I went to find the primary gear store close to my home. . .and bought the climbing guide-book (topo is what we call them) for Grenoble and the surrounding areas. I've used this to find seven different climbing areas, thus far. I was very hungry at this point and went downtown for food, to Notre Dame (I did not know it was called this at the time). Grabbed lunch, then went to go buy some food/necessary items for living comfortably at Casino Geant (not a casino, as I had previously thought was very odd to have on the main strip). With pots, pans, toothpaste (oh yeah), and baguettes in hand, I went home! Home. ha. I saw a big party on campus on the way, made some food, and went out. I stopped for a moment when I heard. . .English! There was a group of students from my residence walking together, and I joined them for my first night out on the town!! Good friends! Met so many people and had a very nice time. And that was, essentially, day one.

A bolt!

I spent the last few days of my first week searching for climbers, seeing Grenoble on my bike, finding different rock climbing areas using my topo, and going out with friends in the evening. I never stopped doing anything, and since I've gotten here there hasn't been a day that wasn't filled in some way, learning, seeing, doing, meeting friends. On day two in Grenoble I literally just rode my bike semi-randomly asking people if they were rock climbers and getting their contact info if they were. It was a crude system, but I'd basically look at their shoes/backpack/bike/clothes, in that order, to judge if I thought they climbed or not. And it totally worked! But no one was really down to go, unfortunately. Well, I just had to go find some rocks. So I checked my topo, looked up the route on my map, and headed out! And I found them! They were beautiful, tall, limestone, and unlike anything I'd seen. It was a really serious hike up the mountain and it was a really fantastic time for reflection, exploration, and personal time. I really, really enjoyed hiking to find them. It honestly just wouldn't have been the same with someone else there. :) In a good way. 

An amazing apple I ate at the top of the hike, Grenoble in the background. The Alps in the background, and pre-Alps on the left and right. And below is a beautiful panorama from the hike. :)

^^^^The rocks!

 

I went on my first “pub crawl” which was really fun, took this photo on the right that night. It was for international students. I met tons of people also here studying abroad, as well as some locals. At one of the bars, there was actually a stage with microphones. I asked about it, and they said it was open to musicians so I got to play on stage and jam for people my third night here. So fun! I met some wonderful people that night that I've continued to chill with since. I've also met some friends on campus jamming and stopped to talk and chill for a couple hours. Super cool, I found more people to play music with! One evening I was walking home and saw a picnic/party on campus with a slackline there and stopped to check it out. I ended up meeting two guys from Poland that brought the slackline and we've been out climbing 3 times at four walls together now! Super awesome!! Very cool dudes and I'm super stoked I ran into 'em. 

And that first Friday, I had my first class! First morning pic to the right. I took what's called FLE Intensif, Intensive pre-semester french for study-abroad. It was a really good way to start things off, one class for a week with homework each night to get my head back in to school mode. The class was interesting and I met many other study abroad folks, as well. In the class, we discussed argumentation techniques, practiced writing and giving presentations, acted out skits, learned about French media, worked on vocab, and reviewed/learned verb conjugation, grammar, and articles. I feel like the class helped me a lot and I'm glad I took it. 

 

The first weekend, on Sunday, I took a trip to Chamonix, France, organized by the university. And it was totally paid for for everyone in the FLE class!! It was incredible! The bus ride, a tour guide, and a ticket on the Auguille du Midi to Mont Blanc. We stopped by this large, beautiful lake, Lac du Bourget. It was pretty amazing, and it turned out to be the largest and highest natural lake in France! After that we drove to through the mountains, following a strangely light-colored river, to Chamonix. I found out later the coloration was due to glacier melt. We arrived in Chamonix and got some grub, checking out a cool local gear shop while I was there. I also learned the difference between different types of ice/mountaineering axes, which I've been interested about.

Then it was time to hop on the Auguille du Midi, a massive cable car system that takes you from the valley floor to a half-way point on the mountain, and then up. . .up. . .up. . .all the way to the very top of Mont Blanc. It is fantastic, intimidating, and an unfathomable feat of engineering. I truly don't understand how they did it. Lots of dedication from devoted climbers and engineers, I figure. They literally built this massive facility with stores, elevators, a museum, a restaurant, a heli-pad, lots of viewing platforms, access to the top of the mountain, as well as a diving platform for wing-suit BASE jumpers, of which I saw 3 jump. I was living in a dream up there, having the time of my life. I was SO dang stoked!!! I was on top of a mountain! And I didn't have to climb there! Ha! It honestly just made me burn to climb it, seemed a little unfair. I made a goal that by next summer before I leave, I want to summit. It is actually a pretty good first mountain to summit because you don't have to climb back down, you can ride down on the telepherique. We'll see what happens. . .

The trip to Chamonix was fantastic; it really helped me gain appreciation for my school and how much they do for the students, especially for us study abroad folks. The school sponsors tons of events/parties/picnics for the students on and close to campus. We have free concerts and Salsa dancing lessons (which I had a freakin' blast doin'!) at the EVE (Espace Vie Etudiant, 'Student Life Space'). I got to see a really fantastic jazz band at a study abroad event, all students, doing some really classic jazz numbers, getting DOWN and keepin' it funky fresh. I'm excited to see them again and find out what they're called. It may be just a feeling, but I really feel like this university just fosters good vibes all over the place. The campus and beautiful and they really strive actively to make it a fun place to be. 

This past week I spent a lot of time trying to just get myself organized and acclimated to what was going on. I also rock climbed a lot. So yeah, I've been pretty in my element here. 

School is actually here, now, which is crazy. I've been through some courses, thus far, and it seems pretty cool. I have two weeks to officially decide on which courses I want to keep the rest of the semester. It's a really cool system for study abroad folks!!

I will wrap this blog up. Now that I have done this 'catch-up' blog, I feel a lot better. I was letting this blog stress me out because I had a lot of expectations for it and in waiting so long to get it started I feel like I lost a lot of the emotion and detail that I would have had from having started earlier. It's nothing to worry about now, I'm just glad I got back on it! :) 

SPOILER ALERT:

From now on you can expect to find more often, shorter blogs on more specific topics. For example, some blog topics to look forward to may include: 'Adjusting to Life in Grenoble', 'My Early Climbing Experiences,' 'Shopping and Feeding Myself,' 'Schhhoooooool!' and 'Transportation Systems.' There may be slight adjustments to the titles, but these are some topics I want to discuss. 

Hope you have enjoyed this blog and that it helped catch ya up! I know I've heard from/reached out to some of you back home! Don't be a stranger and shoot me a message! There's a lot of folks that I would love to talk to from home and I can't reach out to everyone. :) I'm six hours ahead, think of that if ya wanna chat. Hope y'all are doin' great!!!! 

Climb on!

-Hy :)

 

The Journey to France!

I made it! It has been quite the journey and a very long day, but I safely made it to my room in Residence Ouest in Grenoble!

The journey started in Morgantown. I bid my final farewells to some of my closest friends the last two days and final morning, then did some final packing up at my house in Morgantown. Before I left, I had to set up the drum set and rock out for a few, which felt really good. Hopefully that's not the last time I sit behind one of those for too long. . .

I left my house and went to my grandparents where I was meeting my mom and dad and had a very nice breakfast and visited for a couple hours. Dad, mom, and I then hit the road towards BWI, the international airport in Baltimore, MD. No traffic at all! It was great. We cruised, jammed to tunes, chatted, and had a really smooth ride. I arrived at the airport and we didn't get lost, just kinda walked right in, checked the bags, and said farewell to the 'rents! I really appreciate them coming out, it was great having them there to see me off. I was on my own then. I found where my flight was coming in and then had the last American cheeseburger with fries I'm going to have for a year. Mmm, yea. It was good. From now on it's just French cheeseburgers, I suppose. . .

Over the Atlantic, Baltimore to Iceland

The plane ride from Baltimore to Iceland was long, almost 6 hours, and I very unsuccessfully slept most of the way, so I wasn't really feeling top of my game when I arrived in Iceland. I had about 45 minutes to catch my flight, so I moseyed on over and hopped right on. Very smooth, again.

Over the Atlantic, Iceland to Paris

This flight was more interesting. I sat next to two other guys that were independently going to France on study abroad, as well, so we chatted a bit and I scooped some good beta from one of them who had been there for a year already. It was daylight for most of this ride and I really loved seeing out the window from my seat. . .the clouds were fantastic. They were right below us like a big mossy bed; not something you see every day. I more successfully slept on this ride, which was shorter (only 3.5 hours). I then arrived in Paris!! It looked so. . .much like an airport. I had a solid ten minutes of anxiety as my bags never appeared. . .but then I realized I was standing at the wrong bag line and mine showed up rather quickly on the correct conveyor belt, which was good. :) I'm so smooth.

A video outside Garre de Lyon

I then made my way to the nearby train station and found Jim there (one of the study abroad folks from the plane), who I followed around Paris on the metro because he knew how it worked. It was really awesome running into him, as it made the process a lot easier. We split ways and I made my first junction from the RER to the metro, where I met a French guy named Alex. He was pretty cool, a climber, and we chatted and he helped me make sure I got off at the correct station. And then I was utterly lost. I was trying to find the train station to take me to Grenoble at Paris-Gare de Lyon. Well the whole thing is one massive labyrinth of stairs (oh my, ALL the stairs), corridors, gates, busy folks, and not a lot of direction, in my opinion. So I was standing there looking lost. Very lost. So then this other French guy (whose name I couldn't understand) who spoke no English at all came up to me and started asking ME for help. I politely explained to him that I had no clue what I was doing, to which he politely explained he could obviously see, and we teamed up to go buy our tickets. How grateful I was! He spoke no English but all the French, so we, after quite a while, managed to find the ticket booth.

First meal in France!

After I got my plane ticket, I went outside for my first time. Wow!! Paris looked amazing. I kinda just stood there and took it in, turning around in circles. Very cool. I walked to the nearby strip and found a brasserie where I could eat my first french meal!! Damn! It was goooood. I sat outside so I could people watch over my meal. They brought out a table cover for me and some nice silverware, so I felt quite fancy. I ordered my first ever legal beer (pelforth brune. . .mmmmm), the water came out in a wine bottle and glass, and the food. . .oh yeah. I got a chicken quiche, which also came with a salad and some delicious bread. It really took me back, you know. In eighth grade in Ms. Santoro's French 1 class, we used to have CFE (Cultural Food Experiences!). They were pretty cool, and usually she just brought in stuff to make crepes with. But one time we took a big field trip with all the French classes to Squirrel Hill in Pittsburgh and ate at an authentic (very authentic) French restaurant. I got a quiche. So, it really reminded me, today, of my first ever experience eating French food. I'm glad the circle came around!!

A La campagne, from the train

After my meal, I made the train in seconds flat. It was pretty cool. And they don't wait on you, that's for sure! I had a window seat on the train ride and was really excited to take in the French countryside the whole way. . . .But that just didn't happen. I was so exhausted. Even when we were within ten or fifteen minutes of Grenoble. I wanted to look outside but all I could do was sleep. And sleep I did, the whole darn way. :)

Et voila!! Bienvenue a Grenoble, Hyland! The mountains!! The rocks!! It's great. They're tall, man. Real tall. Many of them I can't see the tops of because the clouds get in the way. I remember waking up on the train and the first thing I saw was an amazingly huge rock face that towered above the city. . .I think I found a project for one of these days. It took me a while to find a map, but when I did I hopped on the tram and made my way towards my residence. This is where the only thing went wrong the whole trip. . .when I hopped off the train, I'm certain I dropped my water bottle on the floor and lost it. I'm a little upset. I've had it for over a year, I had a lot of stickers from Utah on it, and it also had my bracelet I got from my Adventure WV LEEd class. Definitely a serious bummer to lose those two things, especially the bracelet. And the bottle. I'm going to contact the public transportation office and see if someone turned it in or something, tomorrow.

And then I arrived at Residence Ouest, signed in, and went to my room. I'm in building D on the first floor, room 018. I loved being on the first floor my freshman year of college in the dorms, so hopefully I feel the same way here! I can see the mountains from my room, still, as well. So hey, I can't complain. :) The room is pretty small, but it's enough. I have a lot more room than the amount of stuff I brought can fill. The only thing wrong with the room, however, is that there is no seat on the toilet bowl!! It's pretty silly. I hope they can put one on there for me, but I already tried it out and. . .well. . .it'll do. Tomorrow I think I will go out on the town and purchase some things, look toothpaste, bed sheets and a pillow, thumb tacks, tape, etc. . .some of the stuff I didn't bring that the room doesn't come with to make it more homey.

Overall a very positive experience and I'm really happy to be here. :) I haven't met anyone yet (one of the people down the hall did tell me my music was too loud, however. . . ), so hopefully that begins tomorrow and I can start to do some stuff! I think I'll go find the local gear shop, as well. . .Anyhoo, I think that about wraps it up! Good journey, learned lots, and spoke lots of French! I'm gonna be fine, I think. Day one down, ready to tackle day two tomorrow!

Cool didgeridoo poster I found, Gre

French countryside during the train ride

During take-off! Let's gooo!

!

Outside the plane door

In line to board the train