Grenoble

So I’m sitting in Grenoble, in my friend Rory’s room, listening to the four guys that live here in the basement argue over where the top of Bastille is. It’s pretty funny, intermingled with talk about throwing meat and cheese together to make some concoction of food, it’s quite the conversation.

I started my trip yesterday morning at about 5:45am, needing to leave by 7am on the train. I made it, slept on the train (which was only interrupted twice by phone calls from someone who will remain nameless) and had some decent conversations. It was nice because I held up in French with a girl who could speak English well, so I was proud. The downside was that in my haste and exhaustion I left my jacket on the train… goodbye jacket.

I need it too, I finally got to Grenoble at 3:30PM and it’s cold here (the tower above being in a park next door). But not before spending a few hours in Marseille, it was sweet. I read a lot yesterday, got about 200 pages into Terry Brooks’ new book.

But eventually I did get to Grenoble. It’s beautiful up in the Alps, a nice change of scenery (no palm trees) but soooo cold! I got picked up by Rory’s roommate Melissa (there are 8 people living here) and hung out at their house for a while, meeting Amy (the house dog). I was exhausted and sat around for a while, napped a bit, and hung out with Rory.

Getting ready for the evening's festivities.

We ended up going to the Sand Bar, this bar downtown that is nearly impossible to find due to the lack of lights or anything indicating that it’s there or open. But inside the floor is covered in beach-sand, crazy. It was pretty fun, I made friends with some police officers there and talked with them forever. They just started in September, pretty green. Nice guys though, too bad they aren’t in Nice in case I ever get into trouble… not that I’d ever get into trouble! I… er… look at the pretty photos!

See? How would you know this silent, dark place was even open?

This is how you serve beer.

So we got back last night, the kabob place was closed so I was ticked, and then watched some Tom Yong Goong, great movie. They were a weeee bit drunk so they enjoyed it even more. And tonight it’s a Halloween party that is supposed to be crazy huge, so hopefully it’s fun. The only problems for me are A) it’ll be a drunk-fest and I don’t drink that much, so I’m expecting the quality of conversation to drop a bit; and B) I have to leave the house by like 5am tomorrow to catch my train for Passau.

This sucks too because it’s gonna be 17, yes SEVENTEEN HOURS of travel tomorrow! I stop in Geneva, Zurich, and Wels Austria (which I’ve never heard of). I’m already tired; I’m going to die tomorrow. So I’m gonna try and sneak away from the party by midnight and sleep, but I have the feeling that it could be difficult even if I do sneak away as there are supposed to be upwards of 50 people here. And I doubt they’ll be quiet… oi.

So, we’ll see what happens. I’m gonna take a nap now, then upload this and some pictures. Hopefully you all enjoy my pictures of my trip so far, and hopefully I get some sleep. I'll leave you with a little preview of what I'm expecting tonight to look like:

White Trash Rory

A day with Andrew

So I had an amazing, though tiring Wednesday. One of the English teachers at my school is this awesome Nigerian named Andrew.

He married a French girl long ago, and now has two grown children and teaches English to the kids of Nice. Just a great guy all around, he offered to take me ‘for a drive’ in the countryside. What I didn’t expect was what we went to see (t’was amazin’).

Above is the first view I had of Gourdon, the last village on our trip and the most noteworthy. When we came around the corner and first caught a glimpse of it I literally gasped. It stands hundreds of feet above the valley which works its way south towards Nice, and the Mediterranean. I was shocked and really excited at the same time, because it looked like it was on an impossible ledge. The pictures do not do it justice, it needs a better perspective.

The roads in the mountains were all old donkey trails too, of course, so they’re crazily narrow. I don’t think busses have ever been scary to me, but they were the other day.

The village was once inhabited by farmers and the like, not a military installation of any sort from what I gathered. It’s simply high in the hills and beautiful. We walked around (which doesn’t take long) and checked out everything from the castle to the church.

This isn't the church, just in case you were thinking 'wtf n00b!?' Odds are you weren't thinking that at all.

Unfortunately to go into the castle costs money, so all I got was a sweet picture of its door.

The Eagles Nest is a nice little restaurant, but talk about a killer view! If I were an Eagle I would most certainly choose to live there.

Gourdon and the surrounding area is also famous for flowers, and not only flowers but the immense quantities of perfume made from them. We visited a few shops while we were there, and talked to the lady who makes the perfume (though in Gourdon she only makes candles).

Needless to say, the place smelled great. And it was fun to goof around and see what was up with the local mannequins.

What’s cool is that if you want you can go to where they actually manufacture the perfumes near Nice and order your own customized perfume. There are hundreds of variations you can make, and it takes like a day to make. Best part, it costs in the range of 30 Euros for your own personal scent. That’s the benefit of going to the people who make it themselves.

We also met this artist who was on display there in Gourdon. His art was kind of like a bunch of collages, and had a lot of popular figures (mostly American) in them. What was new to his art, he said, was the graffiti style stuff in it. I liked it a lot and wished I had the money to buy one. I guess photos will have to suffice.

We travelled up out of Gourdon a bit and got a better view of the village, enjoying the paragliders as they swooped around overhead. I hope to do it before I leave.

Talk about beautiful country though. It reminds me of my grandparents’ in some ways, but unfortunately Okanogan wasn’t built hundreds of years ago with ancient stones. That would make Okanogan way cooler though, I can tell you this much.

I need to go again, it’s beautiful. We then went down to a world-famous glass workshop and museum. It was pretty incredible. We watched them make a few glasses, then walked through and looked at all of the art.

I wish I could have taken pictures of the art, but all you get is what was for sale. Sorry.



And of course, the courtyard. Look, I'd have snuck photos if I could, but I would have felt dishonest. And we all know what happens to people that take pictures of glass art when they're not supposed to anyways, don't we? That's right. So I don't want to have that happen to me.
And so it was a good day, even though I was exhausted. I'm grateful to have people like Andrew that are so kind and generous with their time here. It makes life more interesting and certainly more beautiful. Because as awesome as our apartment may be, the view of the burned up car doesn't compare to the view from Gourdon.

Let the craziness begin!

So a couple of crazy things have happened recently. We'll start with less crazy and move up. First, my friend Lenny is packing up and leaving town tomorrow, this is sad.

We had a going away party for her which was fun, and it sucks because she's definitely one of my favorites and is of course leaving a month into life here. That's how the cookie crumbles though.

Speaking of crumbling... well first. Second crazy thing was having two gorgeous girls skate up and hand me a flier today. Turns out they were strippers, thus the gorgeous. These things don't happen in Cheney. When someone told me I lived in the Red Light district I wasn't so sure, although the transvestites were a good clue. But speaking of crumbling:

SOMEONE LIT A CAR ON FIRE IN FRONT OF MY APARTMENT LAST NIGHT!!!


Yes, this is not a joke. Someone lit a car on fire outside my window last night (where the picture is from). Unfortunately Noah didn't wake me up sooner so I could get better pictures. But thankfully the guys who put it out got to it before the gas tank went up. I


f this is not crazy, I know not what is. Apparently it happens a lot though, like last year when the Muslim youth rioted I guess a lot of them burned cars. Scooters get it more often though I guess. Just thought you guys would like to know.


What's funny is that I don't feel unsafe at all, I feel fairly amused. It was probably the funniest thing I've seen here yet. Ah France, how I love thee.