Wednesday 24 October 2012

Silly cats, moustaches and ice skating

Hi-ho!

This weekend past was actually a lot of fun. What I thought was going to be a normal weekend turned out way way way better than I could have imagined.

On Friday, there was a local wine festival-testing-thing in Grenoble. A couple of my friends and I decided to go. While we did taste a lot of different regional wines, the owners of the vineyards didn't seem to pleased to be giving us samples (as we were clearly not going to buy loads of wine). I, however, did buy a really nice sparkling wine! I also confirmed what I already knew, dry white wine is the best. Fruity wine is plain disgusting.



Friday night started off with some tacos. I really love the family dinners we keep having. It's a lot of fun to cook with people and a good way to start off a night of hanging out. After much guacamole and tacos were consumed, we decided to make our way to the house warming party of one of our friends. Ironically, he had been living in the same apartment for almost 2 months now, but no matter. A party is a party.

The party was really fun. My friend and his roommates had just gotten a new little gray kitten named Jimmy. "Jimmy zee silly cat", actually. He is so tiny and adorable. A lot of my time was spent in his presence. One thing about that night is that there was a french-themed party going on as well, so many people had drawn black moustaches on to themselves, at this point and time, I decided against it.
Several hours later, and a bit more alcohol consumed, I wavered.


I was only really embarrassed sitting on the tram riding home with that ^ on my face. 

Saturday night was the Canadians time to shine. We went figure skating. Indoor figure skating (as the weather here is still in the low 20s, suckers). It only cost 3 euros too! 3 euros to rent skates and skate for 3 hours. I shall return. I did honestly have a lot of fun, and it did very much remind me of home. Plus its something I can do moderately well, so I looked like a pro in comparison to others. :P


Sunday was a day of work. I worked on a presentation I had to give on Tuesday and cleaned my room. I did go out for Kebabs for dinner though. I also had salted caramel haagen daaz. One way to make a boring day way better.

Fun facts/ General Annoyances:
-Kebab should be France's national dish. They love them over here, every other store is selling Kebab. It's a hollowed out loaf of bread with shawarma-like meat, lettuce, tomatoes, white sauce, etc...It is really delicious

-3 days before a huge national holiday, the trains went on strike. Why god why? I think I'm in luck, I think my train is still going. I'm praying my train is still going.

-Today I was standing in line to buy vegetables at a market. I was just about to put my tray on the weight, when a guy totally cuts in front of me and puts his on the weight first. No one says anything. I gave him a "I'm standing right here" look, and he totally ignored me. As did the cashier. Clearly I must have died and ghost me is invisible to all French people.

* It wasn't a mistake either, he totally knew I'd been waiting in line for 5 minutes*
** Photo cred goes to Krista and Emily-whose pictures I stole**

Monday 15 October 2012

The France Principle (a math problem)

Two random musings

A math problem: 

1. If the level of attractiveness among individuals is higher in France than in Canada does that mean that those who are normally deemed attractive are now merely mediocre? I feel as if people in Grenoble (not solely French but other international students) are generally good-looking. Does this result in a bar being raised? Are once deemed "beautiful" North-Americans now average? Are the plain horribly disfigured? I fear my self-esteem has been lowered while my expectations have been raised.

A want ad:  Plain Canadian seeking averagely attractive European.

*But seriously. It's something in the water, most people are good looking.


2. In France, people generally dress nicer than they do in Canada. Now fortunately I'm in Grenoble (which is a sporty city so people don't dress as ridiculously to the nines). Still, my clothes from Canada are not as fancy or "in style" as though of others around me.

The predicament: I only brought one suitcase with me to France, thinking I'd buy more clothes once I got here. Since arriving I have bought some sweaters and pants etc. The problem is that they are a bit fancier than the rest of my clothing. This results in me not having other clothes to match them with. This then results in my need to go out and buy more clothing or shoes. Seriously, I feel as if I need to constantly buy things to wear with the other things I just bought. Oh and btw, clothes in France are EXPENSIVE!!! I would like to buy a nicer pair of shoes to wear with my nice new pants, but I don't want to spend the money. Thus France has screwed me once again.


Sunday 14 October 2012

Come back to me Jude Law, Retour des Alpages

I feel as if every week I write that nothing much has happened, but it honestly feels that way. I should write down the things I do each day, as a week later I can't seem to remember anything.

Monday 8th: Um....went to class.

Tuesday 9th: Accidentally got the time wrong and missed a class...oops. Hung out with Camila and Estelle at Estelle's place. Plus the trams this week don't run past 8 pm, so I have to book it from my later classes so not to be forced to walk 30 min home in the dark.

Wednesday 10th: Early morning grammar class followed by unsuccessful trip to sketch market. A bunch of my friends and I met up, but by the time we got there (around 1 pm), people were closing up their sketchy windowless white pedo-vans. Instead we all ate shawarma and went to H&M. 

*Very important side note* On Wednesday nights I have my other french language practice course. The week prior, I was pulled from one class and put into another. In said new class my teacher looked like Jude Law. I accepted my awesome fate. Horror of all horrors to come back this week to a new prof who is old and balding and does not look like anyone remotely attractive. God dammit France....god dammit.*

*Important other side not* My friend Camila, who is supposed to be in the class with me is now going back to her old class due to lack of Jude Law. Way to leave me alone. Por que Camila? Por que?

Thursday 11th: Today I had my first field trip for my "History of Grenoble" class. It was actually really cool. We went to the Archeological Museum of Grenoble (fo freeee!) and just had to look around for an hour or two. It was very interesting, the museum is built on top of a very old church (17th century old) and had a bunch of crypts and skeletons just laying about. Later that night I went out for pizza with  some people for my friend Will's birthday.
 



Friday 12th: No class. Slept in. Met up with people, I think. I honestly don't remember what I did on friday (which would only mean I did nothing). I actually think I just sat and watched tv...can't remember. Friday night, however, I did hang out with people on residence. We all tried to go laser-tagging, but the place was booked so we ended up just playing King's cup and eating cheesy bread.

Saturday 13: Camila, Estelle, Krista, Emily, Will and I all took the train to Annecy. Again? I hear you say to your computer screen. Well, let me explain. Apparently once a year Annecy has a festival called the "Retour des Alpages". It dates back to when, during the fall, it got too cold for animals to stay outside on the mountains so the villagers walked them into town for the winter. Now its a huge folksy festival that ends in a parade through the town with animals.

 



It was honestly a lot of fun. Although very very crowded (claustrophobics beware). There was a lot of people in costumes, loads of St. Bernard dogs (Annecy has a dog club), traditional cider, tartiflette, sausages, music and crafts for sale.

I personally bought a pretty little painting of the town of Annecy to hang in my room. Once we arrived home from the festival I stayed at residence to watch a movie. Intending on taking the tram at 1 am, I found out that while the tram where I live goes until 1:45 am, the one on campus only runs until 12:50...oops. So Cayda had her first sleepover in Residence Ouest!

Sunday 14th: Didn't go to bed until 5 am, slept until noon. Well there goes my plans for a productive Sunday. Ate at "Quick" (the french equivalent of McDonalds or Burger King). It wasn't as good as I thought it would be. MacDo is better. After that, I planned on going to my little grocery store around the corner, which is one of the only ones open on Sundays. It was closed!!!! GAHHHHHH

Fun Facts:
-French buildings label their floors differently than we do in North America. Our 2nd floor is their first (they count the ground floor as "floor 0").

-Irish people have to mandatorily learn Gaelic in school (my friend Dom informed me of this).

-My room gets sooo humid that my veggies go mouldy after 2 days. Well there goes my dinner.

Saturday 6 October 2012

Hey!

Short post again as nothing very exciting has happened over the past few days.

I got re-assigned into a new group for one of my classes and my professor looks like Jude Law. Not too shabby.

I booked airfare, trains, etc... for my 10 day Toussaint (french holiday) break to London, Edinburgh and Dublin. Now I'm poor

I finally bought a knee brace after limping around Grenoble for the past month. Hopefully this helps.

Oh, and I'm sick. Stuffy nose, cough and all. 

Thursday night I went to an "Oktoberfest" night at a club. While it was very fun, it wasn't very german.  They maybe had 1 flag hung up on the wall. woo. hoo.

Today I went to the Sketch Market and bought a 4 pack of paper towel for 1 euro. SCORE!!! I also cleaned my room. Exciting, I know.

Hopefully tonight will be a little more fun. We shall see.

Monday 1 October 2012

My birthday...and the horrors of the french postal service

This weekend past (besides that fact that I had my birthday) was meh. It rained soooo much. I think the foretold month of gray, rainy weather has begun. 

On saturday, my friends and I decided to get up early and go to the sketch market....it was pouring rain. While fun, I didn't buy anything and just got really wet. The rest of the day was spent walking around in the rain and meeting up with my "exchange buddy" Samir. We got assigned each other so he could practice his english and I my french. Our meeting went well. He, my friends Krista, Estelle and I went to a tea shop and I had a really tasty green tea. The rest of the night was spent making dinner at Estelle's house. 

Sunday, my birthday. I woke up around 10 am (I wanted to sleep in!!) and then went to the university campus to meet up with my friends Estelle, Krista and Will (all others went to Annecy for the weekend). After hanging out for a while and playing a card game called Dutch Blitz (3 hours!!) we decided to go to an English pub, lovingly named Shakesbeer, to watch the finals of Irish hurling. So hurling is officially the weirdest sport ever. Look it up. It was interesting. After a pint of Magners and joining up with some others, we decided to go to the Italian quarter to get some pizza. Man oh man was mine good. I got "le moule", pizza with pesto and mussels. Damn.......just damn. Afterward I went home and skyped with my parents and Aliya. 'Twas a very good day.

Today is monday, and boy did stuff go down. Last week I decided to order some clothing online (I didn't pack very much as I only wanted to bring 1 suitcase). I figured the package would be delivered some time this week. At around 1 pm, right before my class, I get a call from an unknown number. I answer to some man asking me if my name is Cayda Rubin. I say yes, and he says he delivered my package and hangs up the phone. WOW, thought I, that's nice that they inform you of such things. HA. HA. HA.

I get a call from him again 5 minutes later. Now he is mad. He startes yelling at me about how he can't leave the package because the name on it is different than the name on the mail box. The mail box I use is under the name Anne Gonord. He keeps yelling at me saying he has to send it back because I wasn't smart enough to fill out the name right. Thankfully, one of the guys I live with happened to come down to see why someone was shouting and said he knows me and would take the package on my behalf. Thank god. When I finally get home from school I check the package to see how I spelt the name wrong. Sure enough the package says "Cayda Rubin chez Anne Gonord", but the mail box says "An. Gonord".

Are you f-ing kidding me??? The guy was tearing me a new one because I put the full first name instead of the abbreviated form on a mail box??? He was gonna send my package back for a completely minute and non-important detail like that?? I mean, I've already gotten mail from others sent to "Anne Gonord", this dude was a freaking idiot. 

Sorry for the rant. Had to get that out. Oy vey....just oy vey.

Fun facts:
-I made myself a really awesome dinner tonight


-I got sung happy birthday in several different languages on Sunday

-It's impossible to find a nice pair of shoes that isn't too expensive here. Same goes for non-ugly jackets