Adventure Grenoble with Hyland Markle: 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!