Day 27

Today I went into Grenoble with Clara and two of her friends Clementine and Marine. We shopped a little bit but I didn't buy anything, we went to a coffee shop called "French Coffee Shop" they have really good cookies I got a "Cookie Chocolat Noir," which was just a double chocolate cookie type thing and it was delicious, and then I got the best Nutella milkshake type thing called a "Friotella" it was amazing. I know that this post was only about delicious treats but when in France track down French Coffee Shop and get this drink! I'm starting to get to a level of french fluency where I can make jokes which is pretty good in my books!

                

       

Day 26

Today we went on a shopping trip to Lyon. We went shopping at Confluence, which is a mall where we went to Zara (where I got a pair of pants), a store called Mango and a book store called Decitre where I was able to find a book in English, because I need some reading material. I also got to have Starbucks for the first time in a month, it was crazy expensive but Clara's mom actually paid, I feel very bad about that because my frappuccino was around 5 euros!

Before we left Confluence we got subs for lunch which was super yummy!

Next we went to Place Bellecour where we went to store called Naf Naf, H&M where I got two tops, Sephora where I got a matte lip cream and waterproof eye makeup remover. 

Day 25

Didn't really do anything today, I hung out in my bed watching Grey's Anatomy online until about 3:00 when I went out with Clara's mom to bring her grandma to the train/bus station. We've had various grandparents here for almost 2 weeks so its strangely quiet today. After we dropped her off we went to Zara and I tried on some pants and looked around because were going to Lyon tomorrow to go shopping and sightseeing, and I wanted some ideas. On the way home we stopped at a little bakery which literally was heaven. We got a baguette to go with dinner and I got a little pain au chocolate which was delicious! For dinner we ate some soup in front of the TV and then I watched some TV, that I didn't completely understand, with Clara, her mom and her brother.

Day 23

This post was written yesterday and is being published today, so when I say today I mean yesterday.

Today was a pretty chill day, I slept in until 12 and Clara and her friends got their haircut before I even woke up. Later on we went to Clara's friend Agathe's house for her friend Julie's birthday. We basically just hung out, burnt a batch of cookies, painted our nails, took photos outside and Clara's friend Eglantine (Eggy) did our hair because she's really good at it.

Day 22

Today was the last school day before break which is awesome, school ended at 4:30 instead of 5:30 because the english teacher just didn't show up! I found out that Victoria can't meet up in Lyon on Tuesday which is super sad :( so were trying to organize it for the weekend after break, I really wish I could see her sooner tho because I'm starting to miss my friends and family. Luckily I don't have school for two weeks now which is great. We ate in the cafeteria today which I do not like at all, I like the sandwiches from the snack bar a lot better,  but I think you have to order them before lunch so they're a little harder to get. I'm gonna hang out for the next week and then were going on a little ski vacation the second week of break. Its Clara's mom's birthday so were just hanging out eating and talking :)

Day 20

Nothing much is going on today, its a sweats on sweats day I'm just chilling in bed watching Grey's Anatomy and online shopping. I Skyped my best friend Victoria for a little while because Clara's doing some homework. I wanted to go for a run but the weather is horrible so I'm staying in and taking it easy before the next two days of 8 - 5:30 school :( Also, I want to start blogging everyday even if its just short little updates like this!

Skiing at L'Alpe d'Huez!

I haven't posted in a week or more...more actually, because I'm lazy & easily distracted! This is a little update on last weekend. Last weekend I went skiing at l'Alpe d'Huez! I went with some more family friends or Clara's, I've met so many people since I've been here and they've all been so nice to me! We skied all day, and it was really challenging because some of the runs were so steep that I was scared to turn so I just kind stood there. Some of the runs were crazy icy but the ones that weren't had really nice conditions. I think that the sun here is brighter and hotter, I could feel my skin burning a little and I was sweating under my coat it was a lot different than in Ontario because instead of being -10 degrees it was like 0. It was such a great day!

Day 5/6 - School & Relaxing

I went to school for the first time on tuesday. The day was from 8:00 to 5:30 which was crazy long for me because my school day back home is from 8:45 to 3:15. We had a 15 minutes break in the morning and a 30 minute one in the afternoon, lunch was also over an hour long. The day was unnecessarily long in my opinion, with a shorter lunch and less breaks it could be like 2 hours shorter. The school is also really, really big, I don't get my own schedule so I just follow Clara around. The teachers here are honestly just pretty cold, I have to say I'm going to appreciate school in Canada when I get back. There are things that I like about french school tho, like the independence of not really having to ask if you need to go home or if you need to go to the bathroom. I pretty much understand everything in math and science, I get really lost in french, I've never learned spanish so I get really lost in that class and the teacher is really mean, and obviously english is a total joke...I'm better at english than the actual teacher and she's really mean as well.

Today Clara only had 2 hours of school, in the morning so I just stayed in a slept until almost 12. I took a hot shower, and then she came home and we had breakfast and watched Gossip Girl in french. I just hung out around the house for a few hours, its warm enough to go outside without a coat, so I went out and took a few pictures. Then I went out with Clara's mom and rented ski stuff for this weekend and we went grocery shopping.

Day 4 - first day in the city

Today I was supposed to go to school with Clara, but our morning was just a trip to the Musée de Grenoble and we were supposed to have English class in the afternoon but the teacher wasn't there so we didn't even have to go.

The trip to the museum was a cool way to start my school experience here because I got to meet people in a less formal way (AKA outside the museum as we waited to go in) and I also got to look around the city, Clara showed me some stores that she likes like Pimkie (a clothing store) and Kiko (a makeup store). When I met all Clara's friends and class mates they all kissed me on the cheek, which was interesting but not too hard to get used to. We spent a few hours with two of Clara's good friends at her house, they're really nice and funny I'm glad that I'll be spending time with fun people.

Day 1/2 - Welcome to Grenoble!

On Friday night I took a plane from Toronto Pearson Airport, Canada, to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France. I've never left North America, so when I landed all I could think was "I'm in Paris?!?!"

I'm on a three month exchange in France, staying with a great girl named Clara who lived with me already for 3 months in Canada. Her family is great, they are impressed with my french, its not my first language but I first started learning about 10 years ago. When I got off the plane it was around 7:30am in France. I waited for hours in the airport before taking the TGV to Lyon and then a different train to Grenoble. It was a long day, but I'm so glad to be with Clara and her family, they're really nice.

This is a picture of the flight tracker on the screen in the airplane. I flew with Air France.

EXTRAS

-I had my first French baguette, in Toronto we buy them at the grocery store and I'll probably never want those again.

-I'm meeting some of Clara's friends today!