We had a quick breakfast at a local restaurant and set off to meet the rest of our group, including our gracious hosts from one of the Grenoble universities: Jérôme, Antoine and Julia.
The University hosted a quick presentation about the schools in this part of the province and welcomed us. I particularly appreciated being reminded that I had made the right decision in coming on exchange and that the youth are the future because we are still willing to learn about each other. Rock on! We were treated to a lovely lunch and got to know some of the other ORA participants that we had not previously met.
We were given a scavenger hunt with extremely interesting clues... mainly because they were written in English and seemed to make use of French common sense. It always amuses me when students that profess themselves competent in French are spoken/given written materials in English. This English translation was clearly DIY and didn't make any sense. Our faithful tour guides, who were French, opted to ignore the clues and to show us the perks of the campus. This involved some beautiful scenery, a trip to the library where we were told off by the librarian, and a personalized welcome to the BDE (the French version of the Students' Union). Based on my involvement with the students' union at my home university, this was what I found most interesting about the first part of our day.
My experience of Canadian Students' Unions, in brief, has been the focus on events and business, an air of professionalism at all times (if possible) and a bit of exclusivity. This students union was one large room divided into « offices » with a half wall, one computer from (what appeared to be) the early 90's covered in post-it notes with positive messages and a large lounge area. One wall was covered in windows which were enormous and wide-open to the students sitting on the lawn just outside of it. There was a constant influx of people and an air of teamwork above everything else. They had an entire wall covered in posters of events that they put on throughout the year as a team.
 |
| The office |
 |
| Yearly Events |
The « government » portion of the French students' union is the Syndicat des Étudiants (a syndicat is essentially a union; this term is also used to refer to a labour union) which defends student rights to the Universities and to the government (which also happens in Ontario).
The size and scope of this student government is much smaller than I am used to, but it seems much more connected with the students (they literally open the window to say hi to each other) and they welcomed us all with open arms enthusiastically telling us about the events coming up. It felt a little more « high school », but not so « real world serious » than my home university; it was just an entirely different atmosphere than the business-based model that I know.
Our next activity was a trip up the Bastille Mountain, not to be confused with French Independance Day on July 14 (Bastille Day), even though Grenoble was one of the original locations of the French Revolution.
 |
| When the temperature heated up, I was hoping the mountain might be cooler with the higher altitude... I forgot we were getting closer to the sun! |
I also learned while on the mountain that Grenoble, a very wealthy area which helps contribute to the Rhône-Alpes stellar economy, was host to the 1968 Winter Olympics, is a huge skiing destination, and was a key contributor to the French Resistance during World War 2. I will be sure to discuss Lyon's contributions in a future post, but Grenoble resisted the German advance until the Armistice in 1943. While occupied by Italy, the University of Grenoble provided false documentation for young people and there were active demonstrations during the German occupation. Citizens of Grenoble had demonstrations and blew up Nazi artillery in the area, as well. Their efforts during the war earned them the title of « Compagnon de la Libération in order to recognise a heroic city at the peak of the French resistance and combat for the liberation. »
Back down the mountain again, we explored the « downtown ». A European downtown consists of pedestrian-only walkways, small streets with boutique stores and restaurants and random squares and excellent buildings seemingly coming out of nowhere. We had tea and coffee at the oldest bar in the Rhône-Alpes region, Café de la Table Ronde (Coffee of the Round Table) in Tribunal Square. Get it? Well, I thought it was funny.
We were joined by a few more familiar ORA faces who had just finished their Orientation Day, and after our very detailed and interesting private tour, we were all hungry. However, since it was only 6:30pm, no real restaurants were open to serve. It is impossible to find a real restaurant open before 7pm at the earliest because the French are accustomed to starting dinner around 7:30pm. We settled instead for French « fast-food » and I tried the raviole à la crème. Délicieux. I finished off by sharing pick-up lines with the hosts who thought that the used old lines in English were very funny when roughly translated into French.
Ravioli, Chartreuse cordial (whose secret is guarded by monks in the Alpes of this region since the 1740's; even locals don't drink this straight.... it's 70% alcohol and more commonly added to things or used for medecal purposes!), nanotechnology, noix de grenobles (walnuts) and Stendhal are all the products of this beautiful city.. and Grenoble was also famously home to Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Overall, it was totally worth the medley of transportation methods used to get there, and putting up with this awful rhume (cold) I have going on. I would love to go back and visit my Ontarian friends and to get to know this gem a little better.
Please excuse my use of Knowledge's Home on the Interweb Wikipedia for expanding on what I learned during the day:
No comments:
Post a Comment