Provence pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2063485&l=8a364&id=9805505
Grenoble + Cooking Class + Parapente pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2062981&l=c94ea&id=9805505
So today I went parapente-ing! It was AMAZING! So fun! It’s like parachuting…you just run (or really more like walk) off the side of a mountain and the wind just picks you up! Amazing views, so quiet and peaceful up there. And then we did cool tricks spinning around and sharp hairpin turns. So much fun! Lots of pictures on Facebook and more to follow when other people send me the pictures they took of me!
Parapente!
This past weekend we went to Provence with the BU group! Saw Arles, church and cloisters there, nice views of the city, the huge ampitheatre and old theatre. Also saw Van Gogh sites as he lived there for a year or two and painted many famous paintings there, even though he was Dutch (for Steph). Went to the huge market and had maybe the best picnic ever in a park right under the old theater. Local cheese, one covered in herbes de provence, awesome olives, big baguette, fantastic figs, etc. Ate dinner at an amazing restaurant with the group where I had the best dessert maybe ever: île flottante. I loved it so much that I asked the waitress if they share their recipes and she told me how to make it and then wrote it down for me!!! I’m going to make it every day for the rest of my life. No, but really, I’m definitely making it over xmas break at home! Dinner was excellent (pasta and salade chèvre chaude) and wine was plentiful. BU sure wines and dines us well on trips! :D
Clare and me in Arles
Sunday we went to the Camargue region on the coast. We went to Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, a famous pilgrimage site. Saw the huge, old, fortified church there, hung out and picniced on the beach, and we went horseback riding ! For three hours on the beach. I had a really good time. I got a nice horse (Nino) and it was really pretty and perfect weather. We trotted some too which was fun. Only problem was Clare fell off her horse i.e. was violently bucked off. So that sucked a lot and kind of put a damper on the whole experience. But I enjoyed it nonetheless! The landscape there is totally different: incredibly flat, like out west in many ways with horses, cattle, and western-looking vegetation. Really interesting! Also, there are flamingos in Provence. Who would've known!
Friday night hung out at home and cooked dinner with Kelly, Clare and Mathis (host bro). It was fun and funny as usual, making fun of each other for the way we say things, etc. Mathis at one point said to me “I’m just tickling you” and held out his hands doing the tickling motion, when he meant to say “I’m just teasing you.” It was hilarious.
I’m sick of not saying words correctly in French. I told my family last night at dinner that they should correct me all the time because there’s no reason I shouldn’t pronounce every word perfectly as long as it doesn’t have an “r” in it.
Justine, friend from Brandeis currently studying in Genève, is coming to visit this weekend! Very excited!
I hate French bureaucracy. The 4 of us staying for the year in Grenoble waited in line to get our carte de séjour, only to be told we needed an additional form even though it wasn’t required last year. So we waited at least half an hour in a different, barely-moving line to make a new appointment, only to have the door closed in our faces because it was 11h15 which is when they apparently close. So annoying. So now we gotta get all this stuff from our families (copies of their bills and ID cards, etc.) and go back to make a new appointment… Grr.
Life’s still great otherwise! Hiked up the Bastille with Clare last weekend. Weather is lovely, leaves changing colors, snow on the mountains sometimes, absolutely gorgeous. Food still impeccable! Gtg now to eat a triangle-shaped brebis (sheep) cheese and go to an international student night! Bonne soirée!
QUIZ!
Sorry it's another one like this, but the answer this time is completely different.
Grenoble is the most ______ ________ city in France.
