Birthday Girl

Originally posted 11-3-2003

It’s crunch time. I have two papers to start and finish essentially by this coming Thursday. At that point I will leave for Italy, come back for one day, then go to Paris. Three days after that, I’m supposed to turn in my papers for their first draft corrections. Is this a joke?? All I know is that I’m going to Italy and Paris and we’ll see where the papers are after that.

Aside from that everything’s going well. The rain and cold we suffered through at the beginning of the week lifted later on to reveal true autumn temperatures and sun. Due to the heat this summer, a lot of the trees in France are dead or dying so the colors aren’t especially brilliant, but it’s nice, especially when it’s not raining. Thanks to everyone for their birthday wishes. It was hard to be away from home and the inevitable fun of a 21st birthday. It softened the blow to hear from people, and receive your thoughtful packages and flowers.

Birthday flowers in my living room

            Last night my friend Christi’s host family had a few of us over for dinner.  Her birthday is on Halloween and we were invited over to help her celebrate.  We went over around 6:00pm and carved a pumpkin that her family bought for us.  We named him Méchant le Terrible (pronounced ter-EE-bluh).  They had a fire in the fireplace and it was a real house, not an apartment.  They made fondue à la Savoyard for us, which was fantastic.  I learned it's a fairly simple dish: you take three kinds of cheese: (they used comte, emmental, and I think gruyère) and you melt them in a good heavy saucepan with a bottle of white wine and garlic.  We had black forest cake for dessert.  The family made me give a speech for Christi which they filmed. Thankfully, the whereabouts of this tape are unknown. * It was the perfect way to spend a birthday/Halloween.  French kids went out and trick-or-treated last night, but only in certain neighborhoods.  No one came to the house.  Most of the bars were having some sort of Halloween themed fête and offering free drinks if you came in costume.  It’s apparently only in the last 5 years that France has started to celebrate Halloween.  Now, my professor said, it’s declining.  It’s a commercial holiday and since there’s no meaning behind it for the French, it hasn’t lasted very long.  Nevertheless, costume shops popped up, Halloween candy was sold in mass quantities in stores, and lots of places decorated with pumpkins and witches.  All the stores had Halloween themed display windows, especially the chocolatiers.

Brooke and Jordan carve la citrouille.  

We were at Christi’s house until about midnight. I enjoyed sitting and talking with the family around the fire in a big house. The mom was quite a character. The daughter, Sophie, asked a lot of really good questions that opened up the lines for cultural comparison, which is always illuminating. She has been to America once, to Ann Arbor, Michigan, and she said the thing that surprised her the most was that the stoplights were suspended above the road. She thought that was nuts.

Méchant le Terrible

 On my actual birthday I spent most of the day reading my pile of books. I went into town to continue my quest for Euro shoes. I have narrowed it down to two pairs. I have decided that they must be red and I am going to choose between a pair of Pumas and a pair of Adidas. It’s tough so I need to sit on it for a while. It’s a big expenditure here to buy brand name shoes. Then I went home, ate a quick dinner and headed off to accomplish another Grenoble goal: going to a soccer game.

I've been dying to go to a game since I got here. Our local team is League 2 and dead last in it. Not so much a hot ticket, but I thought it would be fun. It was pretty cold and I could only get three other people to go with me, so we bundled up and caught the bus to the stadium.

A fun cultural exercise, I learned how to heckle in French, express outrage, cheer, and I learned that no matter how bad the team is, there is always a “Club des Fanatics” to support them in France. The Association Grenoblois des Fanatics (A.G.F. - they have offices, official meetings and weekly get-togethers, aside from going to games) was out in force that evening. They were stationed behind both goals with gigantic banners that said FIER D’ETRE GRENOBLOIS. They were jumping and cheering the entire match. They moved together with coordinated swaying and singing- literally hundreds of people moving as one united mass. For a non-tournament match against two inconsequential and not especially talented teams, it was well-attended. I loved every minute of it. We bought the cheapest tickets they offer, which provide you entrance to the stadium but not a seat, so we spent the first half lined along the fence with a bunch of old men who yelled at the ref and commented all throughout the game. A couple of them threatened to leave when we were down 2-0 but then we came back with 2 near the end of the first half. At halftime we snuck up into the bleachers and watched Grenoble blow numerous scoring opportunities and get a couple of lucky saves. We ended up losing 3-2.

The European game seems much more dramatic. People grab their knees and fall to the ground doubled over in pain when someone slide-tackles them.When players make mistakes like a bad corner kick or they trip over themselves, they get crucified. When the players take the field, both teams bow together to all sides of the stadium, like a cast from a play.

After the game, we caught the bus back into town and some teenage boys were fighting on the back of the bus, semi- playfully, and singing the fight song. Thankful to escape the rambunctious adolescents, we headed to a café situated near the town cathedral and ended up trading bad American jokes for bad French ones with some locals. I told my favorite joke but unfortunately it’s a play on words and those never translate right.

The birthday celebration chez moi the next day was a little bit hectic. Every weekend Marie T. watches her grandkids, Kelly and Roxanne, 4 and 2 respectively. The morning was pretty quiet but once they woke up… oh man. Roxanne was crawling around and took to hitting anything that would make noise. Kelly kept coming in to my room and asking me what I was doing (true response: avoiding you, given response: I’m studying). Roxanne is almost able to talk, but she still uses a piercing scream when she wants something, to express delight upon receiving it, or resentment that it has been taken away. She went through this cycle about 50 times during the course of the day so I got a pretty good idea of her vocal capabilities. Carole, another of Marie T.’s lovely daughters, came for lunch and to pick up her kids. The two women ended up getting into a couple of spats about how to cook the meat and how to parent. I entertained Roxanne and Kelly mostly. The meal itself went well. Things calmed down relatively, though I was tired after they left.

In spite of all the noise, it was nice to have a little celebration with my adopted family. Marie T. even bought me a present. I keep thinking how different life in Paris will be. I think it will be more impersonal and a lot more fast-paced. I will miss Grenoble, for sure.


* ....though I haven't ever searched for myself on YouTube.