Annecy

Five assistants and I took a day trip over to Annecy. It's an incredibly picturesque little town a couple of hours away by train. As always the other assistants were great and overall it was really fun: lots of laughing and talking and ice cream. Although I was a bit disappointed: as pretty as Annecy is, once you walk around the old part of the city and the lake, there isn't much to do, so we ended up leaving earlier than we had planned. But even so it was really fun, and like I said, beautiful place.

Stage

Ah le stage, the official beginning of our time as language assistants. It was essentially a two-day training session which was both mentally exhausting and incredibly fun. 

The exhausting part: 

Day one we sat in a big room for nearly three hours where nicely-dressed French people talked at us about aaaaaaall the administrative stuff we had to do. They explained the French education system, our job as assistants, the importance of a RIB (bank-related crap), housing, the paperwork needed for non-EU assistants to send in to make an appointment for our obligatory medical exam so we don't get deported, the paperwork we need to bring to said medical exam, the paperwork needed to sign up for the mandatory French sécu (insurance), how to send in said paperwork, what kind of proof of housing we need if we live alone, rent a room, or live with a family... geez, just writing this list is exhausting. Honestly France...I swear you are responsible for half of the world's deforestation. But it was to be expected, France is notorious for its bureaucracy. I think all our brains melted a little bit after that. Last year when I was in Montpellier, we had a similar meeting, three hours in a boiling hot room listening to a language I then only half-understood talking about paperwork and photocopies and signatures, ack. That was the one time in my life I legitimately felt I needed a drink. This reminded me of that.

After all this we took a bus to Autrans, a little village/camp place in the mountains. We hadn't been fed lunch, as we had expected (we were told they would provide housing and food for free, considering they asked us to be there before 10:00 we expected lunch. Fooled by the French!) so we were starving and we didn't get dinner until 8:00 pm, where we had chips, bread, and potatoes au gratin. I just wish there had been more carbs, it just didn't quite feel French enough. They should have put it all on some pasta or something.

Day two we had more specific training. We were split up into groups by region and what level we were teaching. There we met our main dude, he has a title of some sort but I can't quite remember what it is, he's responsible for our administrative stuff. In any case, he was a really fantastic guy, very open and helpful. We filled out some paperwork with him (surprise surprise) and he explained some of it a little more clearly. Then after lunch we had a practice class, where he "taught us French" as you would a classroom of 6-11 year-olds, and we learned a French song about dipping a mouse in oil and it coming out as a snail, apparently a classic learned by all French children (listen to is here) ... I don't know. In all I think we were in "class" for like five hours that day.

The incredibly fun part: 

Meeting all the other assistants from all around the globe! Put a bunch of lonely polyglots who love to travel together in the same area and it's bound to be fun. Honestly they're all fantastic, and although I had already had a chance to meet a handful of them before, it was great to meet the whole gang. I had been worried that TAPIF would be a relatively lonely adventure, but it's turning out to be quite the opposite.

Before our first torture session on day one we had a group scavenger hunt around Grenoble. After the first torture session, as I said, we drove up to Autrans. The drive up was beautiful, and once we got there we were free to do as we pleased until dinner, so we wandered around for a few hours, found a little store (thank God) and ate (because the French don't know how to feed people), and then had dinner (see above). (I'm still trying to figure out how the French still have hair, they never seem to eat protein. Or vegetables. And only rarely fruit). Afterwords a few assistants and I sat around a talked for hours, mostly about all the things that want to kill you in Australia, and about koalas who apparently all have chlamydia or something, how Canadians have milk in bags, and a lot of "wait, what do you call this in Australia/the UK/Canada/the US? That's so weird, we call it such-and-such."

The next day we had breakfast at 7:30 (bread...bread...jam...cereal. Really France?) BUT! Big news! I finally tried Vegemite. One of the other assistants is Australian and, like a proper Aussie, brought her own tubes of the stuff. It was...confusing. I chewed it, I thought about it. I chewed it some more. Hmm... Salty, but more than that. In the end I decided that I don't really like it. I could get used to it I suppose, but... meh, not my thing. I'm glad I had it though.

For lunch they gave us hunks of bread the size of our heads with some tuna straight from the can. And then just in case a pound of bread wasn't enough they gave us an extra hunk of it with cheese. Sigh...oh France *shakes head*. When I got home I ate like half a can of lentils, I was craving protein/anything that wasn't sugar or wouldn't turn into sugar in five minutes.

Then after the second class we hung out for a few hours. The bus was late, so we waited an extra hour.

So like I said, exhausting, but really, really fun. Mostly fun. Some of the other regions only have a one-day stage, I'm glad ours was two, it gave us a chance to spread out the information a little bit, and more time to sit around and talk among ourselves.

Scavenger hunt

Add caption

Ma ville :) Elle est jolie, non?

The presentation that wouldn't end

Autrans

Diner: bread, bread, chips, potatoes. Consider this a warning America, let's just say the plane will be carrying a little more weight on the way back

Proper Aussie, spreading the good word. And the word is Vegemite. 

Day 2

Lunch

View during the drive back

Best Run Ever

I swear, I fall more and more in love with this place every time I leave the apartment. I went out for a run today, but instead of going on the flat sidewalk along the tram line, I went the opposite direction. Close to my apartment there is a huge hill, within a few minutes it becomes a forest, and you're completely surrounded by trees. Twenty minutes later, you're in the countryside. Farms, cows, horses. The trees clear out and behind you see the mountains and it's gorgeous. I kept going, stopped and stared at some cows for a while, kept going, started running down a hill. I would have kept going further but I had been out for an hour, I was starting to get hungry. Plus, I'm in awful shape and it had long before turned into more of a glorified walk than an actual run.

But then I found this little trail just off the road and I couldn't resist, so I went up, kept going for a while. It was totally quite, no one was there, I sang and danced, then exercised a little bit of self-discipline and decided to start heading back.

Figs! Then I found a tree full of figs. Hidden trails and accessible fruit trees: my two favorite things, that's literally all I need to be happy. So after like 20 of those, I wasn't hungry, instead of going home I veered off onto another little road, and all I saw were corn fields and green and mountains and...gah, to borrow an expression I normally hate: I couldn't even...

I hate myself just a little bit for not bringing a camera. There was this tiny little lake at the end of the road, a protected natural area of whatever town I was in. I went there, sat on a dock, stared at a duck, listened to birds.

Then I actually decided to go home. I was about halfway down then first hill when I noticed another trail, so... I got distracted. I climbed up it, and it opened up to this huge field of grass. It was a postcard picture. Definitely going back there to see how far the trail goes.

So now, three hours later, I'm finally back. I'll bring a camera next time. Probably not the most interesting thing to read about, but for me it was heaven.

Les Alpes!

Today I was sitting in my room on my computer and the woman I live with stuck her head in and asked if I wanted to go up into the mountains for a short hike with them. Uh, yes please. It was one of those places you can't really get to on a bus, I would have never even thought to go there if they hadn't taken me. It was amazing. Within 15 minutes we were completely out of the city and in the countryside, within 40  we were in the Alps, my head kept swiveling around trying to take it all in. As always, the photos don't do it justice, but I sort of tried.

Lyon

I went to Lyon with five other TAPIF-ers yesterday. We didn’t really plan it out too much, which wasn’t surprising since we had decided to go the night before. 

Up there you see Notre Dame de Fourviere

 We got there at noon, took the obligatory “Only in Lyon” sign photos, found a huge market and had lunch. I got an empanada and figs.

The sign says you're not allowed to climb the letters. No one cares about said sign. 

We're all there, I promise

GOATS!

I'll figure out what all these sheep things are eventually. I see them all over Grenoble. 

We saw church ruins, which according to the sign “date back to the earliest Christian times. The church of Lyon, founded toward AD 150, was the oldest in the west apart from that of Rome.” There, you have been educated. 

 We took one of these things up to see the Theatres Gallo-Romains on the Fourvière hill which was in the center of “the most important city of Roman Gaul.” Then walked to Notre Dame de Fourviere which was a beautiful church. If you walk behind it there’s an amazing view of the whole city, so we just stood and stared for a while.

We walked down and went to Terre Adelice, a popular organic ice cream shop which had more flavors than I thought possible, old classics like Roquefort (old stinky cheese), wasabi mustard, and basil.  I opted for Lavender.

Then we just wandered around a little bit, went to a book store. There was some sort of skate park set up in the city center for the weekend so we sat and watched that for a while and then went to dinner which took a while to find. We finally settled on going to a Japanese restaurant. (Empanadas, Yakosoba, samosas, sushi… I’m in France right?) 

Then, exhausted, we made our way back to the Gare. We all had open tickets and hadn’t really planned our return, which was not the best idea. There were two routes back to Grenoble: a direct route that takes about an hour/and hour and a half, and the long route which takes two and a half hours. We made the 9:15 bus, which happened to be the long one, so we didn’t get back to Grenoble until 11:40. I got on the tram, a shirtless mad with a stereo and a beer got on and danced for a few stops, a bachelorette who was saran wrapped to a chair was carried into the tram at one point… I don’t  know. I finally collapsed in my bed around 12:30. I’m still really tired from yesterday.

Overall though, a good trip, although it made me miss traveling with my Mont people a lot, I kept thinking “ah, so-and-so would have LOVED this!” But it was a great way to get to know the other assistants a little better. 

Week #1

It's Friday right? Or Thursday? I can't seem to get my days straight anymore. In any case, I've already been here for a week which is hard to believe. The first half of it passed in a sort of jet-lagged haze, I didn't really start doing anything besides food shopping and unpacking until a few days ago.

I opened up a bank account, I got some ID photos, I filled out my OFII forms, I found my schools, I emailed my schools, I got a tram pass, I bought a French sim card, I ate sushi, I found a hill and walked up it, I watched an Indian woman defend her PhD and ate samosas and pizza afterword, I found a library which made my day.

I met up with some of the other assistants a couple of times, once in a bar and once we climbed up the Bastille.

Honestly though, there isn't much to say. Mostly I've just wandered around. A lot. And stared at mountains. A lot. The more I walk around here the more I like it. Grenoble is a little more hippy than most other European cities I've been to, which suits me just fine. Like I said in a previous post, it feels less pretentious. And between all the trees and mountains, it feels much, much more nature-ey which I love.

I guess it's only normal that I keep comparing this to my Montpellier experience. Everything about Mont was intense. The bad things were sometimes overwhelming, but the good times were absolutely amazing. The second we got there it was go go go. Jet lag? Too bad. No breakfast? Don't care, get on this bus, we're going swimming under a 2,000 year old historic site, and then we're going out to a bar. Everyone was awesome, relationships formed quickly, we were constantly together, constantly moving, planning. I could go on, but I don't see the point, you had to be there. It was such a unique experience.

This, on the other hand, is an entirely different animal.  Some things are the same, like the grapes. I can't get enough of these French grapes. I really want some grapes right now. But I ate all my grapes. What were we talking about again? Right, differences.

Well for one thing I've been here a week and I haven't eaten a single thing from a can. Considering that I basically lived off of bread and canned lentils, go me. (Although I'm still eating way too much immigration crab, I blame Carefour for making it so cheap, and whatever crap they put in it to make it taste so good). I live in an actual apartment and I didn't feel like crying when I saw my room. I have a kitchen, with an over and a microwave and burners that stay on as long as I need them to! I'm still getting used to living with people I don't know too well, but they're all incredibly nice and have helped me with all the admin stuff.

I also speak way more French, which I guess isn't saying much considering how little French I spoke in Mont, but here it's all French all the time. The people I live with are really open and like to talk. Not all the assistants are from anglophone countries so the last two times we've met up it's all been in French. I'm pretty sure I've spoken more French in the last seven days than I have in the last seven years. It's good for me, I know, but sometimes it gets mentally exhausting. At those times I lock myself in my room and watch Colbert and Fallon.

Overall it feels much... slower here. For now it's fine. I came here sick and jet-lagged so slow is good. It's also my second time here, all the administrative stuff seems less terrifying, I feel more relaxed. But I'm starting to get antsy, I'm excited to actually start working.

I also have to say that being here makes me miss all the Mont people terribly. It's not the same France without them here. Guys come visiiiiiiit!