Took the TGV Paris-Grenoble and was met by a student of the Sciences Po university, the one I'm attending, who helped me carry my things uphill to the student residence/college Le Rabot.
Honestly... in the running for the world's most uncomfortable college ever. Situated on a hill, it is accessible by a very infrequent navette (has 3 hour periods during the day when it doesn't come, doesn't come Saturday nor most of Sunday) or by a 15 minute walk up/downhill one an isolated and poorly lit street. Furthermore, the navette stops running at 20:30, so going out at night ensures you that walk (impossible with heels! :o) which isn't really ideal in the cold winter that's coming.
The first night I was in Grenoble, as I was walking home after a bar, a huge storm happened. Boom, I got slightly drenched and broke a shoe running :(
Furthermore... as much as I was looking forward to being independent again in the kitchen after a month of living with the family, I was disappointed to see this residence's definition of "kitchen": 4 gas stoves, two sinks, a table, 2 chairs. And, that is is. No sign of pots, cutlery, utensils... nothing. I mean not even an oven or a microwave. This "kitchen" is to be shared amongst around 20 people, all of whom are expected to buy all the things they need to cook and eat, and each time take them to the kitchen.
...
Moving on to the bathrooms (also in common of course):
Could you do this for five months?? And you'd also be taking toilet paper with you every time you need, for there is none provided :/
The showers, meanwhile, have a button to press for the water, to press each 10/15 seconds in fact, otherwise the water stops. And each time it makes suuuch a painful noise, seeming to plead: "nooo please don't use another 10 seconds of water... paaaaaaaaaaiiiiiin!!"
I'm not gonna talk about the room itself, because its faults are relatively insignificant. I could mention I'm surrounded by Koreans. So, really not ideal.
As I mentioned, the first night I was here I was invited for drinks at a bar, and I explained to a couple of people that I was hoping to move out of this prison. I had the luck of my life to run into people who had friends looking for a flatmate. They saw a few other people as well but I have just been confirmed that I can move in! I'm over the moon because this apartment, which I will share with two french guys and a girl, is truly amazing.
It is here: 2 Rue Vicat
If you can interpret the map, you'll see that to the west and to the north-east there are two pedestrian-only zones, which means the apartment is found bam, straight in the centre of the city. It is directly above the tram stop which takes me directly to uni.
It's 130 metres squared, very big and comfortable for 4 people.
It has a kitchen!! And a proper toilet!
There's a large lounge room with a bar and a balcony, which is quite regularly used by the guys for pre-drinks and/or after parties.
It's only around 250 euros/month of rent, including bills... very cheap for Grenoble considering the size and location.
There's heating in the room..... and a warm blanket =]
There's wifi.
The guy I'm replacing is leaving his bicycle which means I can use it if I need!
And did I mention I share it with 3 French? :)
So, I'm =] =]
Grenoble is a great city as well. I was told it only had 150,000 residents, but in Fact the shire includes around 400,000! It is the city in France with the highest number of bars & restaurants proportionate to its residents: there are over 400. The student population is enormous, at night you see hundreds of youth. It's really refreshing (brrrr... I keep thinking of how cold it's going to be in a few months!!)
So apart from having lived on sandwiches for 5 days and feeling a bit imprisoned, I've had a nice time here. I've met already a lot of people, and most of them French. I'm managing very well with French, I understand everything and it seems that becoming trilingual might be a concrete possibility by January 2012 :)
Ok, enough for now. Au revoir!
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