First Week in France

The time has finally come, and I'm in Grenoble! Sometimes it's still a little hard to believe, but I'm slowly getting used to my surroundings.

The plane ride was not as long as I imagined it to be. After finding my seat, I immediately took a sleeping pill, and went into a pretty deep sleep (in a very uncomfortable position), only waking up for meals : ). Then at about 4 am (4 hours into the flight) horrible turbulence started. I thought something was going to break off the plane and we'd plummet down, but thankfully that didn't happen. Then the sun started coming out, we were about 40 minutes from landing - and that's when the reality started setting in. Scary!!

The weather seemed horrible, really gloomy. As soon as I stepped off the plane I got hit with a stream of cold air. This is no Kentucky!! We got on a shuttle bus that took us to a terminal, then went through passport check and then I got lost trying to find my luggage.

I spent about 3 hours waiting for my train at the TGV station. I validated my ticket at one of those yellow machines. Getting on and off trains with a massive amount of luggage is a pretty big pain - I had to move fast, there was a huge crowd, and I wasn't really sure how the train system worked in the first place.

I finally arrived in Grenoble that evening, my ride picked me up from the train station and took me to the hostel. That is where I made my first ERASMUS friend - Catriona from London. We talked for a bit in our room (she brought up Bush, but I was in no state of mind to discuss politics), and then I passed out before 9 PM!