Hello all! This week was a very fun, but bittersweet, week. We finished our final project for our language class, so now it’s all focus on our finals in one week! Grenoble has been amazing as always, Wednesday we visited the big mall here and did some Christmas shopping. It’s so fun to see the center of town and all of the stores with all of their Christmas lights/decorations. It definitely doesn’t feel like Christmas yet, but we’re starting to get in the spirit! Thursday of course was thanksgiving, but they do not celebrate that here! It was very weird going to school on a “holiday,” and it was a little tough for me to be away from family. I’m a super family-oriented person, and this was my first thanksgiving away from everybody, so that was a little hard for me. However, I got through this homesickness because of our awesome director, Miranda who organized a thanksgiving dinner for our program. We had a traditional thanksgiving dinner in a nice restaurant, and it was so nice to celebrate with my second family that I’ve made here. We all shared some things that we were thankful for, and we feasted on amazing food. I appreciate the friends that I’ve made here so much, and I can’t believe that we’ll all be separating in 3 weeks.
Friday my friend Sam and I went on our last “big” trip of our time here! We traveled to Frankfurt, Germany mainly to visit one of the largest Christmas markets in Europe. However, Frankfurt had much more to offer than just their market, and I really enjoyed the city! We got in mid-afternoon Friday, and we visited their big cathedral. Honestly, it was a little disappointing compared to other cathedrals that I’ve seen. It was very modern (aside from the beautiful stained glass,) and it lost a lot of it’s authenticity to me. There was a great choral group rehearsing (see videos) that I did enjoy very much. After this, we walked around the museum embankment which is just a stretch of 22 museums along the river. We didn’t have time to go into any of the museums, but it was fun to just walk around and see them. We also took some very pretty pictures on the bridge which had a great view of the city. Then, we made our way to the Christmas market. It was crazy busy but absolutely amazing! The lights were so beautiful, and the ambiance was electric. we got to eat authentic German food like pretzels, stockworth, and beer. I bought some things at the market for my family and friends :). We spent about 3 hours total at the market because it was THAT big, but it was very fun and it really got us in the Christmas spirit.
Saturday we walked around old Frankfurt (Römer,) and we saw the Goethe House. Johann Wolfe Goethe was a famous author, and I read his book, Faust, in high school so it was really interesting to see his house. His family were all natives in Frankfurt, and it was interesting to see all the history. I really enjoyed the museum, and they even had an art gallery with famous German paintings at the end. It was very cool! Next, we had an authentic German lunch of Potato patties and apple strudel, and we walked to the Main Tower. This is one of the tallest skyscrapers in Frankfurt, and they allow you to go all the way to the top to see a great view of the city. It was so beautiful, and we got to see it at night with all the lights turned on. I really enjoyed this! Finally, we went to the Opera and saw the amazing lights there. We just walked around that area and made our way back to the airport. Our flight wasn’t until 10pm, and we didn’t get back to Grenoble until about 2am, so Sunday I slept, cleaned, and did homework. It was nice to have a day to just relax and catch up on things! I’m preparing for these big 3 weeks ahead with wrapping up classes and finals, but I’m also thinking about leaving and how bittersweet it will be! I’m ready to go home and see family/friends, but I will really miss Grenoble. I realized that the next time I will be in an airport will be for my flight home, and that was a little scary! I can’t believe it has been 3 months already. Thanks for following along, and wish me luck with these next couple of weeks!
Thanks,
Rachel
