Chapitre Deux: All settled in

At Lac-Aix-les-bains

Now that I've been here for 2 full weeks, I'm finally all settled in.  I know which tram to take, I know where certain cafes and restaurants are, I know which markets to stop at to buy a delicious peach, I feel like a true Grenobloise (almost...).  Some of my classes have started, but I'm still deciding which classes to take so I'll save that for another post.  However, I have done 3 thing worth describing.  I've done some other things too, but all in good time...

I went to Annecy.  The CUEF, where I take classes, organizes trips for the international students.  This Saturday I signed up to go Annecy with 2 other girls from my program and a bunch of other international students.  Annecy is a lovely town about an hour away from Grenoble towards Switzerland.

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We left at 7:30 in the morning and stopped in a town called Chambery along the way for breakfast, which was also lovely.  Chambery and Annecy are both very old towns, with architecture and history dating back to the 1400's. After an hour in Chambery, we reboarded the bus and took another quick stop at Lac Aix-les-Bains, one of the biggest lakes in France (or so I'm told), which was nice.  The water was clean and clear, the sun was shining and the mountains were huge as usual.  Men in speedos and small dogs abounded, creating a very French atmosphere.  Soon after this stop, we arrived in Annecy.  I took a picture or two of the Lac d'Annecy and a swan... and then my camera died.  Eh bien, c'est la vie.  But let me assure that this was a truly beautiful place.  The buildings were old, well maintained and colorful, resting next to the beautiful canals and filled with flowers.  Picture the old city areas of Epcot in Disney world, except its real, not made of plastic!  After eating lunch (where we were conned into ordering our own pizzas while sharing would have easily sufficed), walking around, we boarded a paddleboat and peddled around the lake for a while.  The water looked so deliciously refreshing while we were paddling around that after our 30 minutes of boating, I donned my maillot de baigne and jumped in the lake with all the locals (verdict after the beach: most French women do shave).  After a full day it was nice to get back on the bus and watch the scenery (mountains and corn fields with a few vineyards and chateaux thrown in) go by.

Chambery

I joined a gym.  The program I am here with reimburses us for certain activities and programs we want to join.  One of the choices was a membership to a gym, which several of us chose.  At home I would normally just go running outside while its still nice out, but you get very strange looks if you run on the streets here.  People often assume that you're running away from something and need help.  "That girl must really be in trouble, she's been running away from someone for 3 miles now!"  There are some parks nearby that I can run in, but its nice to have the gym membership anyway.  It's particularly nice because I can now partake in french aerobics classes!  Superb!  French aerobic classes are hilarious!  In fact, they're very similar to American aerobics classes, you can do the body building classes, step aerobics, yoga/pilates, etc.  But since they're in French with loud American music playing, I never understand what I'm supposed to do.  Thus I must rely entirely on looking at everyone else, which is really funny.  In addition, one of the male instructors wears obscenely short spandex shorts while he yells at you in aggressive french and pulls people's legs in directions they're not meant to go.  Two days in a row I attended Abdo Fessier.  I didn't know what fessier meant and assumed that maybe it was some technique or method of exercise.  After the first class I looked it up and realized that it means "butt" (upper thighs and glutes to be technical).  All of a sudden things made a lot of sense, since my butt was really sore.  Next on my list of classes to attend: Aqua fun and Body Pump!

Famous statue in Chambery

I went to Quality Burger.  Quick - Quality Burger is a French and Belguim fast-food chain that I've been curious about since arriving here.  Well I finally went, and boy was it great.  Here's the story:  a few friends and I were walking around town after having dinner on Friday night when we collectively decided we needed to find a restroom.  The grand probleme de France is that there are not enough toilets here, so we decided to head into Quality Burger.  We ordered a medium fry, which came with a packet of salt, a packet of ketchup and 3 servings of grease.  We used the sub-par restrooms (apparently French women don't believe in toilet seats...) and then one of my friends decided to order le temptation which has been advertised on the tele recently.  After paying 4.50 euros and waiting 10 minutes, he opened the box to discover a bun soaked in grease and an otherwise degoutant burger.  It was not quick, quality or delicious.  Clearly, we should stick to McDo's in the future (conveniently located just across the street).

One of the cats, in my sink.  Yesterday it hung out in the bathroom, ALL DAY LONG.