First Impressions

My Favorite Mountain

Today, well yesterday technically, I arrived in Chambéry. It was a very long journey. I got up nice an early on Friday to get everything ready and then head to the airport. Luckily my mom and I were accompanied by my aunt and cousin to Chicago. The plane left around 5pm so

they served us dinner (chicken and rice - nothing very good) and then we were supposed to sleep which would make jet lag much easier to deal with. Of course, nervous/excited as I was I couldn't sleep so I watched Monsters vs. Aliens and the Office. All in all I probably got

about two hours of sleep. Then they served us breakfast and we arrived in Brussels, Belgium at 8am their time and 1am my time. Then after

some difficulties getting through security I got on my next flight. Both of my flights were only about half full and so I had empty seats next to me on both of them which was nice for spreading out. On that flight I met a girl studying abroad for the whole year in Lyon from Toronto, Canada.

She was very nice and

helped me find the right bus to get on for Chambéry. The bus ride was about an hour long and it was very nice. I think you get to see a lot more driving on the road with the big bus windows. It surprised me that the cars weren’t as small as I’d remembered from last time I was here. It seemed like there were quite a few vans and SUVs on the roads. We also saw a traveling circus complete with actual camels that were wandering and grazing. At first, near Lyon, I was pretty unimpressed with the mountains. They looked like they were about the same size as the hills I drive through in western Wisconsin to get to Iowa but as we got closer, the mountains grew bigger and were all

The View from my bedroom window

covered in snow. We drove past a lake and it was especially beautiful to see them reflected in the water. Sorry for not having pictures of that. I really was too exhausted to do anything. On the bus, I met a nice girl from Virginia named Claire also studying in Chambéry (she's in the picture above). We arrived in town around 1pm but neither of us could pick up our keys until the night watchman arrived at 6pm so we wandered

around town with our luggage. It is a very beautiful city but it amazes me that they can have so many stores full of useless little things but I still haven’t figured out where there is a grocery store

or where I can buy a pillow. Claire was lucky because she was not as jet-lagged as I was since she came from England where her parents live. We went to a Quick (the french version of McDonalds) because t

hat was the only free internet we could find and sent some e-mails home. We went to a fruit market and a boulingerie (a bakery) to get some fresh fruit and delicious french bread for lunch/dinner and then we came back to the dorm building and waited until 6. The room is nice. Its small but seeing as I only had one suitcase and a carry-on, I don't have enough

things to fill it anyway. I am kind of sad that it didn’t come with a pillow which is why I’m now sleeping on my lumpy coat but the desk and shelving area is very nice and I have my own ba

throom all to myself. We met a few people that also live here and they seem like cool people. We met a Brazilian and a German person who told us that there were all kinds of nationalities living there but only a few Americans which is less than I expected. That’s all for now... off to bed...