After an hour and half train from Lyon Saint-Exupery station to Grenoble gare, Jean and me finally arrived to Grenoble, France. At first, we were a little bit lost since it was our first time in the city and were not able to communicate because of the language barrier. In Grenoble, very few people speak english and if they do speak english they prefer that you try to speak in french otherwise they won't try to help you. After arriving and trying to figure out how to get to our residence we decided to take a taxi from the gare to our residence, which is called "OUEST Residence". The taxi was about 12 euro.
When arriving at the residence our first experience was to wait in line. After waiting for about 30 minutes we were finally helped, however no one knew english, so it was a bit difficult and frustrating at the beginning. But, we finally received the key for our dorm. The residence is pretty good, even though the rooms are small, you have your own bathroom inside the room and a fridge if you want to have it ( you will have to pay an additional fee for the fridge, but it is worth it ). The kitchen is shared by floor, it is very organized and cleaned since every morning there is someone that cleans the whole kitchen. However, the residence has the worst internet connection ever. I was without internet for about 2 weeks and a half because it is very difficult to install the software that is required and you have to wait until you are registered at your school in order to get a password. For me it was also a challenge because I have a MAC and in order to have internet connection in your MAC you have to go to the EVE building which is in the school and they have to do a configuration on your computer ( no body tells you this, so after 2 weeks I was able to find out how to make it work).
The first day was a long day in Grenoble and why not say it, a little frustrating and overwhelming, but I also have to say that it is worth it. We arrived at school and our advisor was traveling so we were very lost and disoriented. We had no idea when our classes were supposed to start, our schedule, were to get our ID's, etc. Somehow we arrive at the international office and we were lucky because a lady helped us and gave us information on the procedures we had to make until our advisor got back from his trip. The first step was to open a bank account. Opening a bank account took us about 3 hours, so you have to be prepared to have time. I have found out that here in France everything takes time and people are very patient, which is very different from what we are used to in the United States. Also, opening a bank account the first day is crucial since without your credit card and account number you can not do anything here in France.
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