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 :)