http://web.mac.com/otgrenoble/MARCHE_DE_NOEL_2007/le_march%C3%A9.html
and watching some nice Italian films this week for the Italian Film Festival.
And eating the chocolate I bought at today's Chocolate fair.
And going to Aix les Bains on Tuesday to go to the thermal bathss.
And going to Marseille and Aix-en-Provence a week later.
And going to Nice a few days after that.
And returning to Conegliano for Christmas.
And deciding where to spend New Year's Eve.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Saturday, November 19, 2011
amoureuse
This funny thing happened yesterday.
I assisted a course I've never been to before, because it's given by a professor I really like and admire, and thought I might as well learn something new as I had enough time.
The course is given in English, and is mostly for international students.
It was so... strange... to hear so much English. It felt wrong to speak English. The first few notes I took from his lecturing, my mind automatically translated them to French, because it was easier. Not to mention hearing myself speak English, it's now bizarre.
Funnily, it's not strange at all to write in English - I do that occasionally chatting to people from Oz, and of course blogging (even though Etienne, probably my best Grenoblois follower, kindly reminded me that I've been neglecting this activity!)
What's been happening? This month I'm more grounded in Grenoble.
With the exception of the weekend I spent in Switzerland to catch up with Alizee. It was lovely, we spent a day in Lausanne and admired the renownedly gorgeous lake and came across cute markets, then returned in Geneva. There we stayed with her cousin, who treated us to a lovely dinner of raclette, red wine and ice cream. We discovered Geneva's most Latin American salsa bar that night, and watched a movie on our return. The following day we had a big breakfast at a special bakery and tried all sorts of breads with butter/jam/nutella. We explored the centre of Geneva a bit, admiring the huge water jet in the lake and the cathedral, and before we knew it, it was Sunday evening.
The workload here has not been to heavy, but I'm starting to really revise now in my free hours, spending more time at the library with a bunch of other Italians. I'm enjoying all my courses.
It's getting cold!! I don't like it at all.. but at least it's still sunny. That being said, we're drawing up an autumn which has been really gorgeous a bit everywhere that I've been, Grenoble included of course. Unfortunately, the heating in our (old) apartment is not working at the moment, so I bought a heater for my room, but the rest of the house is still quite cold.
All good with the house, apparently we can have two parties in the same night, as I discovered last week - I "attended" the first party, from about 9pm to 2.30am, then as I almost was diving under my sheets, I hear the second party of friends coming over, who stayed a couple of hours more. Weird! :)
It's lunch time... belly says bye!
I assisted a course I've never been to before, because it's given by a professor I really like and admire, and thought I might as well learn something new as I had enough time.
The course is given in English, and is mostly for international students.
It was so... strange... to hear so much English. It felt wrong to speak English. The first few notes I took from his lecturing, my mind automatically translated them to French, because it was easier. Not to mention hearing myself speak English, it's now bizarre.
Funnily, it's not strange at all to write in English - I do that occasionally chatting to people from Oz, and of course blogging (even though Etienne, probably my best Grenoblois follower, kindly reminded me that I've been neglecting this activity!)
What's been happening? This month I'm more grounded in Grenoble.
With the exception of the weekend I spent in Switzerland to catch up with Alizee. It was lovely, we spent a day in Lausanne and admired the renownedly gorgeous lake and came across cute markets, then returned in Geneva. There we stayed with her cousin, who treated us to a lovely dinner of raclette, red wine and ice cream. We discovered Geneva's most Latin American salsa bar that night, and watched a movie on our return. The following day we had a big breakfast at a special bakery and tried all sorts of breads with butter/jam/nutella. We explored the centre of Geneva a bit, admiring the huge water jet in the lake and the cathedral, and before we knew it, it was Sunday evening.
The workload here has not been to heavy, but I'm starting to really revise now in my free hours, spending more time at the library with a bunch of other Italians. I'm enjoying all my courses.
It's getting cold!! I don't like it at all.. but at least it's still sunny. That being said, we're drawing up an autumn which has been really gorgeous a bit everywhere that I've been, Grenoble included of course. Unfortunately, the heating in our (old) apartment is not working at the moment, so I bought a heater for my room, but the rest of the house is still quite cold.
All good with the house, apparently we can have two parties in the same night, as I discovered last week - I "attended" the first party, from about 9pm to 2.30am, then as I almost was diving under my sheets, I hear the second party of friends coming over, who stayed a couple of hours more. Weird! :)
It's lunch time... belly says bye!
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
holidays!
It is undeniable that this semester I feel much less “grounded” in Grenoble than I did last semester in Milan. I guess in the end it is a more foreign country, but I’ve also travelled a bit more than I did last semester. October was an interesting month, during which I attended university only 8 days.
I took a couple of days off to see Nancy and Strasbourg, which was worth it as they were fascinating cities and I went with a very interesting, clever and ambitious girl from the Chec Republic, and we had interesting Couch Surfing experiences. I also appreciated being at the house of the European Council and Parliament, and the Human Rights building; unfortunately, we didn’t realise we should have booked a visit ahead, and we didn’t really get to see much of the insides. Another (stupid) highlight was walking to Germany! Having never crossed an international border by foot, it was worth the rushed walk to Khel which nearly made us miss our (6-hour) train back to Grenoble ;)
Being (already!!) half way through the university semester, we had about 9 days off at the end of October. I took advantage of a rare opportunity of going on a 7-day cruise: from Italy to Greece and Croatia. Well... this was a dream come true, and a very affordable one considering the last-minute buy and the off-peak season. The ship was 4 stars, and included numerous restaurants and bars (both club and live music), a theatre with nightly entertainment, a gym, a spa and a few pools, a casino, etc etc. The food, all included in the price, was amazing, a true highlight. Breakfast until 11.30, lunch from 12.00 to 14.00, pizza and afternoon tea from 16.00 to 19.00, dinner from 8.45 and even a midnight snack! It seems like their goal was to ensure that every guest put on at least one or two kilos during the week. Dinner alone consisted of: entree, soup, first and second courses, salad, cheeses, and dessert (a-la-carte).
The destinations were we stopped: Mykonos, Athens, Corfu (Greece), Dubrovnik (Croatia) and Venice. Mykonos was the typical Greek island village, consisting of solely white houses with flat roofs. Athens, a little too cemented and civilised than I’d hoped, but the temples in the Acropolis were of course charming; we also visited the Modern Museum, recently voted the world’s best museum. Corfu, where I’d been over ten years ago, was... ok; the centre was full of shops, quite small. Dubrovnik was a total surprise, a really unique place for the town centre is enclosed by the walls of an ancient fortress. Furthermore, it is on a rocky coast, which slightly elevates it and the locals have taken advantage of the rocks to place little bars and cafes right on the shore.
I disembarked the ship in Venice, stopping by in Conegliano for a few nights to see Nonna Gina, which made her very happy, as well as my auntie and my friend Silvia.
Tomorrow I’m heading back to France, and this weekend I’ll be visited by Alizee, a French friend from UWA currently in the Netherlands for her own exchange (she’s already come to see me in Barcelona!). We’ll probably also spend a day visiting Switzerland (Geneva and/or Lausanne).
I took a couple of days off to see Nancy and Strasbourg, which was worth it as they were fascinating cities and I went with a very interesting, clever and ambitious girl from the Chec Republic, and we had interesting Couch Surfing experiences. I also appreciated being at the house of the European Council and Parliament, and the Human Rights building; unfortunately, we didn’t realise we should have booked a visit ahead, and we didn’t really get to see much of the insides. Another (stupid) highlight was walking to Germany! Having never crossed an international border by foot, it was worth the rushed walk to Khel which nearly made us miss our (6-hour) train back to Grenoble ;)
Being (already!!) half way through the university semester, we had about 9 days off at the end of October. I took advantage of a rare opportunity of going on a 7-day cruise: from Italy to Greece and Croatia. Well... this was a dream come true, and a very affordable one considering the last-minute buy and the off-peak season. The ship was 4 stars, and included numerous restaurants and bars (both club and live music), a theatre with nightly entertainment, a gym, a spa and a few pools, a casino, etc etc. The food, all included in the price, was amazing, a true highlight. Breakfast until 11.30, lunch from 12.00 to 14.00, pizza and afternoon tea from 16.00 to 19.00, dinner from 8.45 and even a midnight snack! It seems like their goal was to ensure that every guest put on at least one or two kilos during the week. Dinner alone consisted of: entree, soup, first and second courses, salad, cheeses, and dessert (a-la-carte).
The destinations were we stopped: Mykonos, Athens, Corfu (Greece), Dubrovnik (Croatia) and Venice. Mykonos was the typical Greek island village, consisting of solely white houses with flat roofs. Athens, a little too cemented and civilised than I’d hoped, but the temples in the Acropolis were of course charming; we also visited the Modern Museum, recently voted the world’s best museum. Corfu, where I’d been over ten years ago, was... ok; the centre was full of shops, quite small. Dubrovnik was a total surprise, a really unique place for the town centre is enclosed by the walls of an ancient fortress. Furthermore, it is on a rocky coast, which slightly elevates it and the locals have taken advantage of the rocks to place little bars and cafes right on the shore.
I disembarked the ship in Venice, stopping by in Conegliano for a few nights to see Nonna Gina, which made her very happy, as well as my auntie and my friend Silvia.
Tomorrow I’m heading back to France, and this weekend I’ll be visited by Alizee, a French friend from UWA currently in the Netherlands for her own exchange (she’s already come to see me in Barcelona!). We’ll probably also spend a day visiting Switzerland (Geneva and/or Lausanne).
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