Grenoble, France is not well-known by Americans. It is not often mentioned on the morning news, it rarely makes a blip in Twitter trends and it is not the center of an internationally renowned soccer team. For 21 Boston University students who landed in France on Aug. 28, however, Grenoble is home for the next four months.
One of those students is me, Jon Hauser. I’m your classically adventurous and open-minded young adult who has been planning on studying abroad since starting French in middle school. While much has changed since I memorized maps of France and plotted my conquest of the French language, the need to discover something entirely new has remained exactly the same.
One way I have decided to discover something new is by chronicling my study abroad adventures while I am living, breathing, and, of course, eating in Grenoble. As a junior studying abroad, I hope to truly explore and express in writing everything of interest that I find roaming the streets of Grenoble right here in The Daily Free Press.
I can easily say that since I’ve landed almost a month ago, I have discovered a lot to write about:
1. The French procrastinate
I already knew going into this semester that I am a super organized, always-on-time, hyper-vigilant human being that loves when everything goes exactly as planned; but of course this side of my personality was challenged almost immediately. I quickly discovered that the Université Grenoble Alpes, the university where I am taking classes at this semester, is nothing like the moderately organized and up-to-date BU I have become accustomed to. It was difficult to sign up for classes, the classrooms and class times weren’t finalized until last minute and my sign-in for the university website did not work for three weeks. I was immensely stressed out, but in the end I had to realize I have to be a bit more patient here in France. As Marie-Eve Scheibling, my BU study abroad manager here in Grenoble, likes to say “Everything in France is done last minute, even including the professors, but in the end you learn that in the end it all gets done.” And quite honestly, as long as everything gets done, I know I will survive, hopefully learning patience in the process.
2. I have symptoms of being (BU-)homesick
When I arrived at BU freshman year, I barely felt a sliver of homesickness. With my parents only two hours away in my hometown of Cheshire, Connecticut, I had no need to miss them. Thus, I made the false assumption that when I left to study abroad in Grenoble I would not get homesick. However, after being here a few weeks, I can certainly say that I was wrong by far. I still do not miss my family, especially considering that they will be visiting in October, but I do miss my friends back home on Commonwealth Avenue. After two years of essentially living 24/7 with my BU friends and bonding immensely over experiences such as going to the Quidditch World Cup or renting a Zipcar to go to Six Flags, I find it weird having to venture out to try and make new friends at a new university. So now I am learning how to balance and maintain my relationships with my friends at BU through Skype, group chats, and the abundance of social media while also actually completing my goal of exploring Grenoble.
3. French food is to die for.
There is no better way to say that the food here is delicious other than by saying I would die happy biting into a brioche or savoring a regional Rhône-Alpes cheese. Considering an entire freshly made baguette costs about 1€, or a little over a U.S. dollar, I foresee lots of bread and cheese nights in my future. Only my weight at the end of the semester will really be able to divulge whether or not I took advantage of this, but so far, I will continue my trend of buying as many French pastries and treats as possible before returning to Boston.
Overall, the beginning of this study abroad adventure has been a success, despite the obstacles I have encountered. Will there be other obstacles? Yes, undoubtedly so. But I know that by the end of this experience I will have likely fulfilled the cliché storyline that every study abroad semester entails: learning not only about the host country, but also learning about yourself.
