So, I’ve been in Grenoble since Tuesday. Actually, that's a lie. I officially arrived on Monday. My boyfriend drove me up from Arezzo in Italy, but since we set off Sunday at around 11pm and didn't get here til 4pm Monday doesn't exist for me. It was only supposed to take 7 hours for flips sake. 'We got lost' just doesn't seem to cut it somehow
Monday night we stayed in hotel Les Pattinoires (which btw is very simplistic, but cheap and has free wi-fi) and Tuesday I moved into my new accommodation. I'm staying in the ‘résidence Home’, which I was assigned by CROUS, the student lodging agency. What I didn’t realise when I applied for this residence was that it’s a ‘studio’ apartment, i.e. the kitchen is in your bedroom. I’m afraid that’s just me being lazy and not reading the descriptions properly. Though it’s actually not too bad because you can hide the kitchen part behind a sliding door and you also have a mini corridor and a decent bathroom with a bath/shower. However, the kitchen consists purely of two cupboards, a sink, a small fridge and two electric hobs. Huh. How can a student survive without an oven or a microwave? How is one supposed to cook a pre-made meal? Or…a PIZZA?! Well, at least there’s Domino’s and Pizza Hut. Yeah, who would’ve thought. And actually Domino’s is dead cheap…I haven’t tried it out yet but the ads say that you buy one pizza and get the second one free, 7 days a week. And some days, get any size pizza you want for 7.99 euros. Awesome.
There is also another downside to not sharing a kitchen. I didn’t realise it when I was staying in Belmont, but a communal room like a kitchen is actually your first place to make friends. I’ve been staying here 4 days now and, while I heard them, I hadn’t met a soul in the building until this afternoon. I’m a big talker and was literally on the verge of having a huge melt down. So I decided to just force people into having a conversation with me. I mean, the worst thing that could happen would be for them to say ‘go away’. I almost jumped on the first person I saw in the hallway. Fortunately, she turned out to be a highly likeable Spaniard who asked me if there were any communal rooms in the building, as she too wanted to meet people living here. Then, a couple of hours back, I heard someone moving in just up the corridor. I waited for the parents to leave then went up, knocked and introduced myself. The new tenant, though temporarily shocked, was really nice too. An Italian girl from Vicenza, so also had something to talk about. And she actually seemed quite relieved to be meeting someone too.
Outside of the residence, I had already met people mind. On Wednesday I went to see the campus and have a beer at EVE (the student union), where I invited two Italian guys and an English lad to sit at my table. They were also sound. Then I was contacted by a Brazilian girl who had found a list of email addresses and wanted to know if anyone wanted to meet up. So I had a lovely walk and beer with her and some Portuguese guys. Funnily enough, though, haven't made friends with any French students yet. Huh.
So the first few scary days are over and now comes the fun part. Am off to a party that the Spaniard invited me to. Laters.
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