Les enfants français

Je faisais du bénévolat avec les petits enfants à l’École Primaire Saint Joseph à Grenoble et c’est une grande expérience !  C’est pour une partie dans l’après-midi où je peux manger et jouer avec les enfants et parler avec eux en anglais et français.  Ils sont très intéressants et enthousiastes quand ils parlent avec moi et l’un l’autre.  Quand les enfants me demandent les aspects culturels américains, je suis content de répondre à leur questions et commentaires du sujet.

Je travaille avec les enfants à mon emploi aux Etas Unis aussi, et je vois quelques différences entre les enfants français et les enfants américains.  Je trouve que les enfants français sont plutôt indépendant que les américains parce que quand je joue avec les enfants à Grenoble, il n’y a pas beaucoup d’enfants qui vient de moi ou les enseignants avec les problèmes ou les autres choses intéressantes ou importantes.  Je crois que les enfants américains dans les écoles et où je travaille sont plus expressifs quand ils parlent avec moi. 

Les jeux que les enfants jouent ici en France sont différents aussi.  À part de la barrière de la langue, c’est un peu difficile pour moi de déchiffrer les règles parce que les enfants parlent très vite.  Quand je comprends, je me rends compte de quelques jeux sont familiers comme les jeux que les enfants jouent aux Etats-Unis.  Quelques fois, je crois que je connais les règles d’un jeu, mais ils me disent les règles différentes !  J’aime travailler avec ces enfants parce qu’ils présentent une nouvelle façon pour s’amuser.

Adam

Les amis en France

French has a lot of words; words with two meanings, words that mean the same thing, words that you say to your friends but not your teachers, words that you say to your teachers but not your friends. I would assert that there is no more useful/socially enabling word (in this case, phrase) than “Ça roule.” This golden phrase translates as “That works”, (or as I prefer, “Yeah homie, I can roll with that”, since it is an informal expression). When I arrived here in Grenoble, I was smacked with the sobering truth that French people were not going to come find me and befriend me. In the U.S., I already had a tight-knit group of friends assembled. However, they are currently several thousand miles away. Therefore, I had to venture out into the world and put forth an effort to find some people with whom I could practice my French.

It was at this point that the golden phrase came into play. I was waiting in the train station for an outbound train to Valence, when I saw a girl sitting at the train station piano (take notes America) playing “Hit the Road Jack” by Ray Charles. I asked her if I could play with her, and she replied, “Oui, ça roule.” I sat down and she played the base chords while I soloed in the upper registers. Afterwards she told me her name was Tamara, and asked if I could give her English lessons through Skype. (Side note: everybody wants English lessons here, it’s a great way to meet people!) She proposed an exchange of language lessons: English for her and French for me, to which I responded, “Ça roule.”

The purpose of this anecdote is twofold; first, to show that it is essential to go with the flow when in a new environment in order to make friends, and secondly to prove to my extended family that I am, in fact, socially functional on some level. In the U.S. and in anglophone countries, it is so much easier to meet people, since there is no language barrier. You don’t have to make a special effort to meet people because you both speak the same orthographic nightmare of a language (English). Additionally, when you are introduced to a new environment, everyone already has a fairly rigid social circle established. Therefore you must accept every opportunity to wriggle your way into said circle, even if that means saying “Ça roule” in response to literally every suggestion, as though it is the extent of your French vocabulary.

The concept of a social life during a study abroad trip is a bit misleading; you are here for a few months, and then you return home. Often there is little to no chance of returning to your study abroad location, resulting in the termination of those precious few friendships that you eked out of those difficult social situations by saying “Ça roule.” While my experience in France may be fleeting, I know that, if nothing else, making friends with native speakers will benefit my competency in French immensely. By living each day as if I would stay here for several years, as opposed to several months, it is much easier to meet new people. My advice to those having difficulty making friends in another country is to give everything a try. By making yourself available, you show others that you are willing to step out of your comfort zone in order to spend time with them. Excursion to a neighboring city with a classmate? Rock climbing class with other Grenoble residents? Greek dance lessons with a new friend? Ça roule, ça roule, ça roule.

-Peter

La Mine de l'Echaillon

We are so blessed to be able to be living in this amazing city! There are countless opportunities to go skiing, hiking, and biking.  Today, I had the opportunity to visit La Mine de l'Echaillon with my new friends Alexis, Katy, and Vincent! Vincent is French and does things like this all the time, and we are extremely thankful to have met him because he takes us on amazing trips like this one, helps us practice our French, and is just a really great guy!

To prepare for the trip, Vincent told us to bring a flashlight and a helmet, which I was able to borrow from my host family.  He said we would have to hike up to the entrance of the mine, and that it would only take about 10 to 15 minutes, but that it would be pretty steep, and it definitely was!

The view from the top made the rough hike worthwhile.

It was really interesting because we could see all sorts of old mining equipment that had just been left there when they stopped mining.  Vincent said it hasn't been a functioning mine in over 50 years.

We spent a good amount of time looking around outside and enjoying the view before actually going into the mine.  Here is a photo of the four of us!

When we finally reached the entrance to the mine, I was amazed.  It was massive.  We went in and began exploring.  We asked Vincent how long it would take and were shocked when he replied that we would be in there for about two hours!  Looking back on it, however, that time flew by and it only seemed like we were there for half an hour.  We had a great time exploring the mine and even got to ride in a mining cart!

It was an amazing experience to be in the mine and see how everything worked.  We were able to see many items that were used by miners that had been left behind, and we could even tell when they began to dig in a certain area but stopped because they weren't finding the limestone they were looking for.  Vincent told us that the limestone they mined was the same type of limestone they used for the base of the Statue of Liberty! It was amazing to be able to connect this experience in a random mine in Grenoble to such an important landmark for us!  It was also really interesting because I grew up near several coal mines but never had the opportunity to see how they actually work because it was too dangerous to go inside.  I love that I was able to learn more about my area in Appalachian Ohio from this experience in France.

I think the fact that we did this also says something about French culture in general in relation to American culture.  Based on my experiences, specifically with my host family, it seams that the French are never okay with just doing nothing, which is great! If we hadn't done this I likely would have stayed in my room most of the day and studied or watched Netflix, and in America there's no shame in wasting your day on Netflix, (okay maybe a little) but here I am much more motivated to get out and do something every day because I know that when I sit down for dinner, my host mom is going to expect a good story about my day!

-Rebecca

Les musées de Grenoble

Bonjour tout le monde! I decided to do my blog post on the numerous museums that Grenoble has to offer because a) it’s a great way to get to know the city and b) ashamed as I am to say it, I had yet to visit any until this assignment, even though it’s already half way through the program. If you come here, do as I say and not as I do, and visit one (or all!) earlier in the program. It was a really rewarding experience and I regret not taking advantage of the opportunity sooner, especially since we don’t have easy access to such a plethora of museums back home in Athens.

The first thing I will mention is that if you decide to visit a museum on Tuesday, you will be limited to two of the 10 departmental museums Grenoble has to offer, as the other 8 are all closed on this day of the week. No matter though, because your options are the Musée de la Résistance (dedicated to Grenoble’s specific history concerning the resistance movement during the French Occupation of WWII) and the Musée de l’Ancien Évêché, which is where I chose to do my visit for this blog.

In case you aren’t up on your religious French vocabulary (I wasn’t), this name roughly translates to “Museum of the Old Diocese”. I also found a translation that said “Old Bishop’s Palace” which I think is more fun to say and gives a clearer description of what this site actually was in layman’s terms, but I digress! The museum was built atop the ruins of an ancient cathedral complex dating back to Roman-occupied Gaul in the 9^th century. I was interested to learn that these ruins were discovered in the late 80’s, when the city was excavating for a new tramway. In the bottom level of the museum, you will find the remains of an old baptistery as well as displays of artifacts from the time period that were found at the site. At the back of this level is the main attraction: the remains of the baptismal pool that was actually used about a thousand years ago. Even the ancient pipe system that was used to feed the pool has been excavated and put on display. The layout of this part of the museum makes it very easy to go on a self-guided tour, as there are many guideposts that explain both what you are looking at as well as its historical significance in terms of its cultural context at the time. Even though there were, again, some religious vocab words that I wasn’t familiar with, I was still able to get the gist of what was I was reading (there were pictures, too. That’s always helpful). This would be an easy way for students of most language levels to get an interesting history lesson on Grenoble outside of the classroom.

After the baptistery, I went up to the first floor of the museum which starts a several stories tall introduction to the history of the department of Isère, starting in the Stone Age and extending onwards through time. I was short on time so I only got to explore the Stone Age area, but this was by far my favorite part of my visit to the museum. On display are artifacts found throughout the department, including tools, decorative objects and even the oldest human remains found in region. This takes the form of a partial human skull that archeologists have named “Alexandre”. The skull was found in 1983 in a cave (la grotte Joëlle) and is roughly 11,000 years old. Carbon dating has revealed that Alexandre was approximately 50 years old at the time of his death and measured 1.6 meters tall. Another one of my favorite pieces that I saw in this exhibit was a partially intact bone object with an engraving of a horse’s head on its surface. I am obsessed with the prehistoric cave paintings that have been found in France (I’m going to visit the Lascaux cave exhibit during spring vacation), and the style of this horse was completely reminiscent of the art that can be found at those sites.

These last two objects really drove home for me how much I appreciate the antiquity that you can discover in France and throughout Europe in general. While America certainly isn’t short on sites of historical significance, by virtue of being a relatively young country, we simply don’t have access to such profound links to our ancient past. There’s something spiritual about seeing something that old with tangible traces of humanity that I haven’t quite figured out how to articulate. Suffice it to say that this wasn’t a visit I will soon forget. 

Helpful tip: The Maison du Tourisme in the centre-ville of Grenoble has a really helpful pamphlet that includes the names, addresses, hours and a brief description of all ten of the departmental museums. It makes things so easy!

-Erin

Living with a host family

After nearly living in Grenoble, France for a month and a half, I must admit that I have learned more than I could ever imagine in such a short period of time. We all have been there, through the doubts, tears, adrenaline, ups and downs, frustration, homesickness, and the culture shock of living with a new family. For me, living with a French family has been one of the greatest learning experiences of my life. There are a great deal of differences within the family’s routines, culture, traditions, and lifestyle than my family back in Ohio. Even with our differences, when I take a step back and look at the big picture, we all aren’t as different as we thought.

Currently, I’m living with the Exterier family and we’re like three peas in a pod. I couldn’t be any more blessed and thankful for receiving such a wonderful, caring and generous family. In all reality, there isn’t a lot of severe or shocking differences to me, in comparison with my family back in Ohio. Personally, it’s the little things that make the biggest differences in a positive way. For example, before dinner the table is always set in a very particular manner. Who would ever think that it matted if a fork was facing down or facing up? Before I came to France, I didn’t even know that there was an up or a down side of a fork. Here it does matter. As my family explained it, the French place the fork on the left side of the plate with the prongs facing the table. Whereas the English leave the prongs facing towards the ceiling. Back in Ohio, in my family, nobody really cares if your fork is right side up, upside down, sideways, or missing. As long as everyone has a warm meal we’re all happy. It isn’t often that my family sets the table and actually takes the time to eat together. The majority of the time we eat in separate rooms, at different times, the living room or not at all.

Another difference that really stood out to me is the fact that my family here, in France, always takes the time to live, love, and enjoy life. No matter how busy or tired they are, they always find something to cherish or to be optimistic about for the day. I know back at home families, and even myself, are guilty for getting wrapped up in their own problems, life, studies and worries to not take the time to profit from the beautiful weather, a rewarding exam grade, a conversation with an old friend or even family. Ten or twenty minutes out of the day really isn’t that hard to simply take the time to enjoy, profit and appreciate life. Here is a simple example, within the Exertier family, naps are essential and good for your health. Where back at home, we felt as if they were a waste of daylight.

I really have opened up my eyes to what my family and I take for granted at times. In France, showers are short, laundry tends to be air dried, underwear is strung across the house, wine and cheese every night, bread with every meal, fruit peeled with knifes, conversation hour after dinner, electricity isn’t cheap and a whole lot more that I’m waiting to discover. Some things are difficult, positive, or hard to accept, but with an open mind nothing isn’t impossible to adapt to.

As for similarities, both of my families love to spend quality time with each other. Whether it’s watching television, chatting over a cup of tea or going to the grocery store together. The concept of family is extremely important to the Exertier family and my family as well. They both love to joke around and tease each other about one thing or another. My host father is just like my step dad, a hardworking man who loves to come home to his family. Any spare time that he has, he spends puttering around the house or taking a ride on his motorcycle. Same exact concept with my mom and host mom. They both are loving mothers who are always there for their kids as nurses, therapists and babysitters. Whatever they put their mind to, they accomplish. Whether it’s sewing, painting, knitting or gardening its phenomenal. Some days it’s a bit creepy how similar my family and the Exertier family are.

Exertier family has filled my life with so many wonderful learning experiences, knowledge, language development and memories. Most of all, they have stolen my heart. Within such a short amount of time, they have become my very own family away from Ohio. As much as I want to be a part of their life they want to be a part of mine. I have already faced the reality that it’s going to break by heart to leave them, but I know someday soon I’ll see them again. When I return to the states I hope that I can incorporate some of my own daily routines, which I’ve adopted from the Exertier family, for example, actually having dinner together, healthier cuisine, naps and taking time to enjoy the little things in life.

-Klaryssa

The Crêperie Experience

I have had such a great experience with the cuisine in France thus far in my study abroad journey.  Grenoble offers a wide array of places to indulge your taste buds, such as cool little cafés, upscale restaurants, or even food carts with different French specialties.  When in my hometown in Ohio, there is not much variety of food and ambiance, unless you do a little driving out of town.  Living in Grenoble is a lot different because so many places are within walking distance or a short ride via the tram.

One fun experience I have had with the food culture in Grenoble was at a local restaurant known for crepes.  On a quaint little street in the center of town, we found an eatery called the “Marin Marine Crêperie” close to when we first had arrived in Grenoble.  We got to our table and started talking and laughing, but noticed we were being rather loud in the restaurant.  A big difference from eating in French restaurants versus American ones is that French restaurants are reserved for a quieter and more relaxed setting.  It was definitely hard to keep a softer voice while conversing and eating! 

We finally got our crepes and they looked delicious!  I couldn’t believe how intricately these specialties were made and that it didn’t take long for the chef to prepare them.  I was reminded of home in this restaurant because I always love being in my hometown and going to restaurants with great food and fast service.  I decided to get a crepe with pears, walnuts, and chocolate drizzle, since I love chocolate.  Crepes can be filled with many things, such as fruits, meats, nuts, or other sweets.

Having been in France for over a week, we knew the process of paying the check.  Between talking and finishing up our food, it took us a little while to pay for our own portion of the bill, since in France, there is no such thing as having separate checks.  Having everyone throw and exchange money around the table is considered normal, so we had fun doing that.  I also remember us resisting the urge to tip our waiter because they do not tip in restaurants in France, unlike America.  This place was a lot like home as well because of the great and friendly service that was given to us, especially because the staff knew we were foreigners.

The French food experience is one to take in at a good pace because of the food, ambiance, and friendship.  I have learned eating in France is more of an art and a way of life that is integrated into the culture.  I plan to become a regular at the Marin Marine Crêperie because of the great times and memories it has given me during my stay in France.

-Adam

La Bastille

            I love to be outdoors. I enjoy running, hiking, and camping, so living in Grenoble is prefect because it is really easy to maintain an active lifestyle here.  Being surrounded by mountains provides so many opportunities to participate in outdoor recreation.  I consider our hometown of Athens, OH to be an active town, so I was really happy to learn that Grenoble is too so that I could continue participating in similar activities I do back home.

           

            Last weekend a friend and I hiked to the top of La Bastille, a fortress that allows you to look over Grenoble.

             

            You already have a gorgeous view of the mountains before you even begin the hike.  Right from the beginning you are given an idea of how great the view is going to be from the top.  The path leading up to the Bastille was less than a mile from our apartment.  Back home, I typically have to drive to locations to hike or swim.  In Grenoble, you have access to so many parks, trails, and hiking locations that are either within walking distance or just a few tram stops away.

           

             We were luckily enough to have really nice weather at the start of our hike. It was leisurely at first and I really enjoyed stopping to take pictures of the architecture.  Being able to see parts of history like the Bastille is my favorite thing about being in France.  

We continued our hike and we began to encounter a series of stairs and steep inclines.  I watched in disbelief as runners would cruise by us, making the ascent look so easy.  I watched in envy as I saw hikers and runners coming back down.  All of the struggling disappeared, however, when I saw the view from the halfway point.  If this was the lookout from just halfway up, I could only imagine what the final view would be like.

Making it to the top of the Bastille, you get a view that overlooks Grenoble.  You get a new perspective of this amazing city and it makes you realize how lucky you are to be living in such a wonderful place.

After taking in the view and beginning the hike back down, I promised myself that by the end of the trip I would run to the top.