Study abroad journals

Discovering my room

I am here in Grenoble! I love it; it is so pretty. Today when we arrived at the TGV station, we all had soooooo much luggage and it was difficult to carry, but somehow we managed.

Then we went to our new French residences. I am living at Le Foyer Des Etudiants, aka "the FDE". It is very nice. I have a room to myself and it is excellent!

When you enter there is a desk on the left and a lofted bed with a ladder leading up to the loft on the right. On the loft there is a bed and a small table where I can put my clock and some books and stuff. Under the loft on the left, there is a shelving unit with three levels. On the right, there is a decent sized closed for hanging my clothes and shelves where I can put my clothes; the closet has a door on it to cover my mess! Then in the middle, under the loft, there is a sink and mirror. There are individual showers/toilets in the hallway, kind of like my freshmen dorm, only cleaner! Hehehe …

The showers are different to American showers, here, you push the knob in and you have water pressure for a few minutes instead of a continual flow of water. At first I thought it was kind of crazy, but it seems like a good way of conserving water usage if that's what they’re trying to do.

The best part about my room is the view! I'm sure that every view in Grenoble is spectacular, but the one from my window is awesome! First of all, the window has shutters on it (I love shutters!); then you can unlock the window the opposing panes open like doors. When I look to the left out of my window there is a mountain right there! It seems so large to me, probably since I have never lived near a mountain before in my life. Then to the right, there is a gap between two apartment buildings and I can see a mountain further off in the distance. That mountain is huge! I wonder when it will be covered with snow. This is going to be great.

After I unpacked some of my things, three friends from the program came over and we took a walk around the city and then ate dinner on "Pizza Street." It was really good. My pizza had cheese, green pepper, and egg on it (yeah, egg; that's definitely not something you would see in the U.S.). After that I returned to my room because I am beat! Now, I'm going to go to bed.
I am in France. Bonne nuit!

J.E.