Run, run, run, run...

I love running, especially in Grenoble. It's the perfect weather, always about 35-40 degrees F with a breeze, to go running all the time. That might seem cold, but when you're sweating and getting your blood pumping, c'est parfait. I'm also learning my way around town, greeting the other tons of runners everywhere, and trying to comprehend French advertisements while attempting to improve my stamina/figure/athleticism. Man, I'm tired.

This morning, I was up at 5:45 to go snowshoeing with students from another university in town. I wouldn't have known any of the students because Kate has the flu (which really sucks, and I feel really bad that she's cooped in her house until she somehow recovers). But, I got to the bus station this morning only to find out that snowshoeing was cancelled because there is apparently no snow on the mountain. No snow?!? Of course, all the snow IS IN NEW YORK, NOT IN THE ALPS, where it should be. Well, our trip is rescheduled for sometime in February, which turns out really well for Kate!

I believe I'm going to go to the "French Coffee Shop," get un café, and read a book! Parlez-vous bientôt! Bisous.

Women with Doctorates are Generally Terrible.

Dr. Anna Nakina, orginally from Moscow, taught my Innovation and New Product Design class today. She is 26, graduated very early with very high marks, got her doctorate while working with tech companies including Nokia in Sweden, started her own consulting business, and speaks about four languages. Now, at her very young age, she's completed a doctorate, works for her consulting firm, does something with tech industries, and teaches Innovation and Design all over the world. She did something in Hong Kong, Japan, and Shanghai, but I lost track of everything. She's insane! Brilliant, but probably crazy!

She'll only be teaching our class four times this year, so she's more or less a guest lecturer. When she was introducing herself, I seriously just sat there catching flies in my mouth. I didn't know what to think, and of course, completely blanked when she asked if there were any questions about her experiences.

Now, I say that women with doctorates are generally terrible because they are. The lady who taught our "How to give a Business Presentation" seminar was so full of herself that the seminar turned into "How can I make these kids think about school and think I'm imparting some world-renowned genius on them?" Our professor today had the same kind of air about her, just the "I'm a genius and these kids should be amazed at the intelligence I'm sputtering out."

It kind of makes me wonder if they feel like they have to give that sort of impression in order to get the respect they really do deserve. I also wonder, if I get some sort of crazy doctorate and am teaching GLSers, because they're the best, thrity years from now about my crazy businessy ventures, if they will think I'm full of myself. Major props to many UT professors who have accomplished so much but are still extremely down-to-earth. It doesn't really matter, I'm seriously just honored to have world-renowned guest lecturers currently teaching me.

I'm tired of writing. My favorite and Kate's least favorite class, Economic Environment of the European Union (!!), is tomorrow.

C'est tout! Au revoir.

This is hard...

Life is hard, I know. If I could have just a little, measely penny for every time my mom told me "sometimes people have to do things they don't want to do" or "life isn't always easy," I'd be close to a millionaire. (We won't even start with other classic phrases such as "Make good choices" and "We're on your team, honey") Unfortunately for my pride, those phrases help and they are totally true. Life isn't easy, no matter how much fun you have in between the tough stuff.

1. Classes are going to be harder than expected. Who knew that Europeans studied? I seriously was under the impression that they just party a lot, which they do. It totally freaks me out that most of my grade in all of my classes is based on ONE exam. One final exam determines my academic success and possibly my admitance into graduate school. So what am I supposed to do if I just happen to have a mental breakdown right before?

2. Language is hard. It's hard enough coming to a foreign country and trying to meet a bunch of people, create a new set of friends, and go on trips with people you barely know. But, add not really knowing the native language, and you're in for an interesting experience.

Let's be honest, France is fabulous. I pretty much do something every weekend, and while I'm here, I will make it to Brussels, Rome, Paris, London, Manchester, Madrid, Spain, Geneva... and others. Not too shabby, right? But, let's be honest. The only terrible part about study abroad is leaving everyone. I miss my friends at school, and I miss my family.

Honesty is a great policy, and I miss Asher more than I could possibly put into words. I could go on for days about him, but I'll save the sap.

Ok, I'm think I'm done with that. School was great today. I had my first business presentation which went really well! I might be going snowshoeing with Kate and some other kids this weekend, so I'm really looking forward to that. Tonight, I'll go to Café Baynard for my weekly tradition of Irish music.

A bientôt! Au revoir.

Dude, Where's my Car?

I went to a little city called Valence (Vawh-lawnce) yesterday. It's about an hour and a half southwest of Grenoble by train. So, my friend Patrick from CEA and I left around 8 yesterday for the small, very beautiful city of Valence, but like both of my recent day trips, I'm completely pooped by 3 o'clock.

It is a beautiful place, small canals line the roads, there are two huge public parks that are full of flowers in the spring, and they have gorgeous architecture (which I'm getting really into and I might take my lazy Sunday to learn more about European architecture!). Like this, for example...

It's just a random house, but I decided that it is one of the ugliest, and most interesting, buildings I've ever seen! Also this lovely piece of architecture...

It's called le Maison des Têtes (the House of Heads) because, as you can see, the exterior is covered with carved heads and faces. It dates back about 300 years! This is one of my favorites of the gazebo in the first parc we went to...

There are about 100 more pictures, but let's not get carried away. One of my favorite things about French cities, and I mean every French city, is their storage of cars. Now, I really thought that people just didn't use cars that much and road the tram and the bus like I do, but lots of people have cars. What I didn't realize was that most French cities have parkings garages UNDER the city. Cars just inconspicuously disappear underground. The French don't simply plan there buildings well, they plan the whole city, that's what I call brilliant city-wide architecture. Americans, the cars don't just disappear, the French are just better city-planners.

Mon copain est maintenant en le Royaume-Uni!! He'll be eating crumpets and drinking cider by tonight. Mwwahaha, he's now in my circle of death.

Fruity Beauty

That's the name of my team's pre-teen girls' lotion product for our Innovation and New Product Development class. Our team is made up of 2 German girls, 2 French girls, and me, and I can take full credit for the name! You can tell that I have a 13-year-old sister though, and sometimes I still act strikingly similar to a dramatic, teenage girl who would enjoy a lotion product named "Fruity Beauty". Anyway, our assignment is to take a product and change the packaging to meet the emotional and personal identity needs of consumers. We chose lotion, and we'll tailor the package to make it more attractive to young girls (and women like me who like glittery lip-gloss and the like). We're thinking that we will change the shape of the bottle completely to shape different kinds of fruit and may even put a cute face/character of the package. Thoughts?

Our group met yesterday at GEM. It was surprisingly difficult to get ideas across. With different accents and simply different ways of saying things, a lot got lost in translation dispite the fact the everyone was fluent in English. "Mouth" easily got mistaken for "mouse," and we could never find a word to discribe the pump/squirt thing at the top of lotion bottles. Just getting to "squirt thing" took a while.

Note: I DO NOT recommend googling Fruity Beauty. Take my word on it.

Tonight, I am getting together with the CEA director to go over how I'm adjusting to French life (a formality), and then I'm going to a little party at my new German friend's apartment with Kate! Should be fun.

Parlez-vous beintôt! Au revoir.

Time, Time, Time.

I had a dream last night that it was already time to go back to the States (that's what a lot of Europeans call it, just the "States"). I was all packed up ready to go, and kind of sad that I never picked up the language. My concept of how long I'm going to be here is really confused right now, the time mechanism doesn't know whether to think I've moved here or if I'm just a tourist. This morning I decided that 5 months to be in a foreign country is extremely awkward. The time between 1 month and 6 months is rough because you're not a tourist, you're going to actually get to know the country, but it's also not like I'm staying here forever, need to find an actual apartment, and think about living a life here. So, it's awkward,

In other news, I have the rest of this week off due to oddly scheduled classes that change every week. Today, we are having a "family" dinner at my apartment with about 8 other CEA students, and I also have to meet my product development group to go over our presentation. Tomorrow, I will probably hit up a couple museums or just shop around; I have also been invited to a German dinner party at an exchange student's apartment. Obviously, she's German, is part of my product development group, and thinks I'm cool enough to come to her dinner! On Friday, oh I don't know, I might go exploring a little town nearby.

Classes were great the past two days. I learned that I'm a bit of a history buff simply because three hours on the history of the European Union is almost crack to me; Kate could have killed herself. Our spirited, English professor is bloody brilliant as well.

Ok, I'm off to actually send in immigration papers and get my GEM ID card,

A bientôt!

Random Updates

Today I officially start class, even though Innovation and New Product Development (my first class) doesn't start till 13h15 (that's 1:30 pm). We also already have our first class assignment. We were sent an email two days ago giving us a link to an innovation/design article that we had to read before class. I know everyone else hates class assignment before classes even start, but what else are you doing right before classes?

I now have two of my books, Perspectives in Global Business Ethics and Understanding the European Union. Those titles sound hardcore. I'm going to finish these classes are be an expert on the EU, it'll be sweet.

I bought a French book (obviously in French, not just by a French author) and ironically enough, it's by an American author. I wanted to go to Decitre (the French bookstore, very similar to a Barnes and Noble) to find Harry Potter in French, but instread, I found "Mange Prie Aime," any guesses on what book that is? Yep, Eat Pray Love. I'm excited to learn French through a nice, fiction read.

One more update, I finally found a good news source. It's called Democracy Now. It's supposed to be an independent news source online that just streams live news, which is almost exactly what I wanted. Obviously, Fox or CNBC doesn't just stream their news, so you have to get a little creative if don't want to search for every little bit of news online. So, for all those studying in Europe, Democracy Now. org. It's probably left-of-center, but you go with what you got.

A bientôt! Off to class!

Lyon

Lyon is so beautiful. It is really just a lot like Paris but without all the touristy crap. It is truly a large, metropolitan French city that has a huge marché, a gorgeous basilique, and tons of little squares to go run around and put fountains in.

So, let's start from the beginning. Kate and I got off the train in Lyon and were completely overwhelmed with the size of the city and couldn't seem to find a suitable map other than the one in her huge French tourist guide book (I really wish I had brought mine). We go to the nearest tram stop thinking that the easiest way to hit all of our destinations is going to be by tram just like in Grenoble. After a minute or two, we realize that their are FOUR modes of transportation, a tram line, metro, bus, and some French word thing that I couldn't translate. Given all of the confusion, we just started walking. Did I mention that Lyon was a big place? It occasionally gets in fist fights with Marseille for France's second Paris. So, needless to say, it's a big place.

I don't even want to know how long or far we walked. My most educated guess would be 8-10 miles, not kidding or exaggerating at all.

However, it was totally worth it. We hit all of our destination spots including the GORGEOUS Basilique Forviére that was built in the 19th Century, Lyon's Notre-Dame, some ANCIENT ROMAN THEATRE RUINS, some famous squares and statues, and some of the oldest buildings in France. It really was a fabulous day, and I have to say that my favorite part was seeing the ancient Roman ruins. I have obviously never been to Rome or seen any Roman ruins, so to see it first-hand was really special in a I-can't-believe-I'm-here, I-can't-believe-this-is-still-here, and I-can't-believe-who-must-have-been-here kind of way. It is really neat; everyone should have a goal to see ancient runins. It puts a perspective on history, how the history books may actually be telling the truth, and how far we've come, but how much we've lost along the way.

It's now the morning after going to Lyon, and I'm still pooped. Best exercise plan ever, seeing Europe!!

Au revoir!

Following are some of my favorite spots, the Ancient Roman Theatre, the Fountain Bartholdi (which was sculpted by the man who designed/made the Statue of Liberty, Frédéric Bartholdi), and the Basilique Forviére.

French Objectivists

Yes, you read right. The French are Objectivists, I have decided. Essentially, trades are only made if they benefit both parties, and social interactions are a type of trade. You trade time and energy for someones friendship and they do the same for the mutual benefit of both people. So... the French like to take this a step further and apply it to everyone they meet. In a store, for example, a French store clerk is not going to help me if I'm not polite and make him/her feel good. Also, if I don't somehow learn to contribute to this country in some way, I am doomed to be an outsider and France, herself, will never like me. If I cannot learn the language, then why would the French want to deal with me? Maybe if I had superpowers.

So, it really comes down to the fact that I cannot contribute to French society the way I would like to... yet.

It seems silly, like a twelve-year-old girl complaining that guys don't like her. I know it's a problem now and the world will end if your lab partner won't call you after school, but let's be real. Obviously, she'll get her braces off, learn to grow her hair out, start doing crunches every morning, and stop eating (sarcastic) till she gets what she wants. The same with me. France hates my American accent, American clothes, and the fact that I cannot seem to get off at the right tram stops, but I'll learn French, learn to wear super-tight skinny jeans, strut in 4-inch stilletos everyday, and wear a permanent I'm-better-than-you-because-I'm-hot look on my face. Then, they'll have no choice but to love me.

I should be doing crunches, right?

Just a GEM orientation debrief... We had a career talk today and took language tests. The test took forever, and I was pretty disappointed in how much French I had forgotten in two years. Whatever, I'm here to learn.

This is pic of Kate and I at un café listening to Irish musique!

A demain!

Orientation!

Today, Kate and I went to orienation at our beautiful Ecole de Management! I'm really, very impressed with our school. We have kids from all over the world and many speak several languages. I officially start class on Monday, when I'll take International Finance, Emerging Economies, International Ethics (blah blah blah), Economics of the EU (this will be super fun, especially with Kate and I freaking out about Economics!!), Product Development, and French.

Speaking of languages, I talked with a guy from Germany today who spoke THREE languages not including French, which he'll be learning while he's in Grenoble. I explained to him that I only spoke one language and that many Americans only speak one. He seems appalled. It is appalling!

One more thing... the Alpes were TRES TRES BEAU today!! They were completely white with snow, it was quite magical.

Update

Le Quatriéme Jour,

I really love learning French! Just sitting listening to a French podcast, learning the words, and saying them to yourself has to be the best therapy ever. I'm positive that I don't need therapy for anything, I'm a happy person, but it's just really relaxing. I just think about conversations in French or how I would say a phrase and try to work it out. I'm sure it works some part of the brain that isn't used very often. So, I'm becoming super smart, right? Sure, whatev.

Today, I tried to go to church... but got lost and distracted by a French bookstore (ou librairie). I remember that being very confusing as I first started learning French. A library is a bibliotheque and a bookstore is a librairie. But, most more words than one would think are strikingly similar in English and French. Think technology and technologie, dynamic and dynamique, cord and corde, and then there is computer and ordinateur...

Anyway, I walked around a bit, went on a run, and found the best shopping area ever just about five or so blocks from my apartment (apartement en français, learning is easy, right?). Then, we (my roommates and two other CEA guys) saw Love et autre drogues (Love and Other Drugs), you know, with Anne Hathaway and Jake... I can't possibly spell his last name. It was super interesting and slightly frustrating to watch an American film in French, especially since the French speakers absolutely do not capture the personalities and sarcasms of the actors. It's sad. It's also completely possible for French women to be really annoying when they speak, even though that goes for anyone.

Well, the movie was great and now I've seen my first movie in France!

Les Mots du Jour: the "cool" way to say girlfriend is "copine" and the cool way to say boyfriend is "copain." J'adore mon copain...

C'est tout pour aujourd'hui! Au revoir.

Climbing le Bastille

It was beautiful climbing to the top of the Bastille. Obviously, it was a French fortress. It sits at the top of a huge hill in the Grenoble valley. The climb up is about 1.5 miles and a pretty tough incline. Check it out! I'm now going to watch American TV online. :)

Princess Diary

Our CEA study abroad group is quite the lovely bunch. It's funny that we are ALL business majors of some sort, be it Marketing, International Relations, Mathematics and Economics, or Finance, we're all part of the same flock. Thus, even in France, I still live in a business bubble! Seriously, I think we've got a really great group. It's only about eight of us, but I think we're all little bookworms (in reference to an English bookstore in town by the same name), with a little outdoorsy side and a love of saying French words.

Things that are adorable...

1) French kids. They're kids... only speaking French. I melt due to the obscene cuteness.

2) Little old men who stop in the street to tell you (in French) that Grenoble it the best place in the world due to the culture, climate (apparently he's in a different city, it's freakin' cold), the mountains, and the people.

3) Rapunzel is "Raiponce" in French. The advertisement for the movies and are everywhere, and can't help but think of my cute cousins who love Rapunzel and would be really confused looking at the signs.

4) Un café gourmand. It's a small cup of coffee with three itsy bitsy desserts all on one plate. Parfait. Coffee and dessert!

Important things about Grenoble...

1) The French revolution (the most recent one) started here at a town meeting place. The meeting place was moved to a nearby town after the rebels were run out, but the original idea of revolting originated in my city. Anarchists.

2) We are completely surrounded by snow-capped mountains. It's absolutely gorgeous. You can even look around and tell where you are in the city based on your orientation to the mountains since each mountain range (le Belledonne, les Chartreuse, et les Vercors) looks a little different.

3) They are still celebrating Christmas with lights streamed across the alleyways and huge ornament-like balls hung in the square.

4) Apparently they have a HUGE mall and TWO H&Ms. Kate and I flipped. Zara, maybe? I hear they have a neat supply chain.

Oh, this is now, officially, my princess diary due to the need to find Julie Andrews, convince her that I am a long lost grand-daughter of some sort, meet a gorgeous prince charming (that may already be a check), and have a huge walk-in closet. Grenoble=Genovia, right?

Parlez-vous bientôt!

Blog Ground Rules.

1) Post at least ever other day

2) Be interesting and relay important, relevant information

3) Cherish every moment spent exploring a foreign country, and be sappy about it

AC en France will most certainly develop into the best blog ever. I'll be talking about school, French culture, the massive challenge of learning a language in less than five months, traveling around Europe, and trying to keep in touch with family and friends. Keep in mind that although my specific topic (studying in France) will drive the blog, I'll probably be talking about books (on my Nook of course), fashion (because I'm near the fashion capital of the world and secretly want to be a runway model!), movies (especially weird artsy French ones), and brainstorming future professional plans (that's sounds like garbage).

This begins Day 1, Travel Day. Knoxville to Chicago, Chicago to Madrid, Madrid to Lyon, and Lyon to Grenoble (where I'll see Kate!).

Je vous parlerai bientôt!