Happy with a secret

Oh how the time flies! I am now three weeks into this program, and I only have 6 days of classes left. I'm having a great time, and it's crazy to think back to the time I was so scared to be here. There's hardly been time for me to update this blog everyday and each day has a unique story of its own. I don't pride myself in being a good writer, because I'm not; and it's a shame that I can't justify how much fun I've been having merely through writing!


Last Sunday, a couple of friends and I travelled to a nearby town called Grenoble. It was actually the town I applied to live at for this program, but I got stuck with St. Étienne. After visiting Grenoble, I couldn't help but imagine how things would've been like if I lived there instead. It is far more beautiful than St. Étienne. It's cleaner, has canals running parallel to streets, and large mountains surrounding the town. We arrived lunch time so when we got there, we went straight to a restaurant. We chose a seafood restaurant and we got platters of a bunch of different fish and shellfish. It was a bit pricey, but definitely worth it. We went up one of the mountains by a cable car which led to a fort that was used centuries ago to protect a village. The view of the town was just.. no words can explain how beautiful it was, and no picture could ever do it justice. Before we left, we had dessert and coffee at Café de la Table Ronde - the second oldest café in all of France. Their crème brulée was delicious! We also met some new friends along the way. One of them being Brazilian, and the other being German. Quite the gentlemen, those two.

On Monday, I went canoeing and sailing for the first time! After class, we went to St. Victor (lake) and rented out some boats. Canoeing was really fun, and I never realized how much of an arm workout it is. It was really calm and relaxing up until the Brazilians chased us down and splashed us with water! We were soaked and I wore white pants. Smart move, Erika, smart move. The whole experience was pretty blissful, and it was great to be engulfed in nature for a change.

Tuesday was a pretty relaxing day. I finally got to do some laundry, and watched the Olympic football matches. We watched in the television room with Koreans and Brazilians during the Korean-Brazilian match. Needless to say, it was quite intense in there. Yesterday, we visited a castle called Château Andrézieux Bouthéon which was built around the 12th Century. It's placed somewhere in the country, in the middle of no where. Despite it's old age, it's been renovated and it was weird to see some parts being really old while other parts looked brand new. I'll never forget standing on the tower, admiring the beautiful 360 degree view of the area. Once we got back to St. Étienne, I overloaded a bit on groceries. I think I'm pretty much set for food until I leave next week.

Later that night, the plan was to go to a bar called What's Up. We did some pre-drinking with the Brazilians who hooked us up with very strong, but very tasty Brazilian drinks. After, we attended a going away party for someone in the program. Her place was incredibly crowded so we decided to hangout in her corridor instead. We soon got to the bar, then went dancing at the same kareoke bar we went to last week. Probably one of the best nights I'll ever have.

Ps. Annecy this weekend!