Je suis ici!

We have arrived! I wanted to blog yesterday when we actually got here, but I wasn't able to find any free internet, which was very annoying. Right now I'm in a public park using the free WiFi provided by the city, but I can't use AIM or Facebook, which is SUPER annoying. I can, however, connect to Skype, so you should all add me on Skype. My screen-name is jillian.flood.

The flight to Paris was very cramped, but I was sitting with two girls from the program, so we got to chat. The food was pretty good. We got baguettes, of course! It was very exciting, eating our first French baguettes (we were on AirFrance, so it totally counts).

We landed in Paris at around 5 AM. By then we were exhausted, because the flight was so cramped and the seats were so uncomfortable that we didn't get to sleep at all. We took a video so you could see how AWESOME we looked.




We waited in Paris for a little bit, and then flew to Lyon. That flight seemed to take only about five minutes, and I got to chat with this tres attractif ski instructor. When we arrived in Lyon, the bags under my eyes seemed to have tripled in size and we were close to collapse. We just missed the shuttle to Grenoble (of course) and so had to wait about half an hour for the next one. Here's another fun video!



As soon as the bus started rolling along the highway, I fell asleep. For about fifteen minutes. Then I woke up, saw some cows, and then fell back asleep. For ten minutes more. Then I woke up, saw some sheep, saw that it was SLEETING and then fell back onto my backpack. I had a GREAT 25 minutes of sleep and then I was jerked awake by something or other, and saw these gorgeous mountains all around us. I forced myself to stay awake and take pictures and then we were in Grenoble.

From the train station (where it was POURING), we took a taxi to the Hotel, which is gorgeous. We have two balconies overlooking the Place Grenette, which is always bustling with activity. I'm rooming with Sam, a girl that I was sitting with on the flight to Paris. We are actually getting to stay an extra night in the hotel because we're living with the same family, and they're on vacation until tomorrow.

Sam and I are going to be living with a middle-aged couple, who have no children, but they have a yorkshire terrier named Plume. The woman is a cooking professor and her husband is an engineer and so far that's all we know, besides the fact that they vacation in the south of France and have a house with a garden in Grenoble. The housing coordinator also assured us that we are each getting our own room, so that is awesome.

But since our family isn't going to be able to pick us up until tomorrow at 6 PM, Sam and I are going to get to spend a leisurely night in our hotel room and then tomorrow my cousin Mary is picking the two of us up and driving us to her house for lunch.

Here is a picture of the delicious breakfast we had at the hotel this morning:


Today we got a tour of campus and filled out paperwork for our bank accounts and such. And we also got cell phones to make local calls. Tonight we plan on dining with a program assistant and so far that's all we've got. Oh! And we're going to get ice cream in la Place Grenette.

If you want to contact me, e-mail me because I cannot (at the moment) facebook any of you. My e-mail address is jflood@bu.edu .

Talk to you soon? Hopefully. Au revoir!