A Sweet Fix

I don't know why my favorite thing to update about is food, but it is. Last night, we had an amazing dinner. We had this creamy, broccoli soup and this homemade quiche with tomatoes, and cheese, and mustard- yes, mustard- and salad and fruit and cheese and bananas flambee. And my host mom turned off the lights when they did the bananas. It was hilarious and cute. They asked me if I wanted to try escargot because it's one of Isabelle's favorites, and I said of course. So I may be doing that sometime soon.

And, my professor wants to move me up to a more advanced group. That really made my day yesterday, because I thought I was doing horribly. He wants to put me in 30, but there are a lot of students in that group and he doesn't know if there's room. I told him if it's a choice between 27 and 28 (because there is no group 29) that I'll just stay in 27. I really enjoy the professor and it won't make any difference to UT if Im in 27 or 28. So, we'll see what happens. If nothing happens, Ill be happy. If something happens, I'll be happy. So it's a win-win.

Tomorrow we have a coffee and dessert thing at the API office for the new students. That will be fun- and I just met a group of them. Marie was giving them the tour of the city and they happened into the Internet Cafe. Theyre from Kansas, South Dakota, Michigan, and Colorado. Nice. I felt cool because Ive already been here (in Grenoble) two weeks and felt like an old pro, just happening upon some friends in the cibercafe.

Oh! so Tuesday we climbed the Bastille. A pied (on foot). Gothy, Susanna, Melanie, Jenna and I climbed for about 45 minutes in 35 degree weather (colder at the top) to see Grenoble from an aerial perspective. It was beautiful- and kind of dumb of us- because we went around 17h00- and were up there just as the sun set. It was great, and I got some really nice pictures. The Bastille was a fort built by the Romans when they still governed France. It's so cool, and there's not much else I can say about it. It's also quite a work out. Usually, they have the tele(somethings) working, those little bubble-like things that transport you from Grenoble to the top of the Bastille. But no, not in January and we did it on foot. I won't be working out for a while now. When we were walking down, it was pretty much dark and there were hardly any lights- just the reflection off the water from the town below us. It was great, and by the time I got back to my host home, I was ravenous. I think it was at least as many stairs as the Eiffel tower, and even steeper. So, Emmeline, India, Tante and Phil better prepare themselves for when they come in March- we have to climb the Bastille! (Ill allow us to take the bubbles back down, but climbing it is half the fun!)

Other than that, not much else is going on. People are falling ill like dominoes. Im glad Im almost out of it- (I thought I was until this morning... my RHUME came back...) but anyway.

Oh and my professor made a hilarious comment about perceptions of the French yesterday, he said "Les Francais aiment: le pain, le fromage, le vin, et les bises. C'est tout."
I thought that was hilarious, and almost true.
Groses bises,
Chelsea