I have always been very into helping the environment (I embrace the name "tree hugger", thank you very much). And so when I arrived in Grenoble, I was blown away by how eco-friendly the city is! Most of Europe is quite savvy with public transportation, but Grenoble is also embracing eco-friendly buildings. Just the other day, I decided to visit the "mall" (shopping area) near my house. I wish I had had my camera (I really need to work on fixing this problem!), but it's such a cute place. Lots of sportswear (we're on the cusp of the mountains, so lots of hiking and skiing here). I went into a store that sells local, natural products and wanted to buy everything!
The tram here is unlike anything I've encountered in the U.S. Here is a picture of it:
I totally took this picture (not). The people in the trams are so interesting, too. In America, often see many empty seats. Here, the tram is crowded (especially during business hours!) and comes every 5 minutes! Amusing story: When I first arrived, Mathieu and I rode a mostly empty tram, and so I sat down since I was tired of carrying my luggage. Then, these two old ladies boarded and went up to me. They told me to let them sit down right where I was sitting (even though there were lots of other seats available, I was sitting in the front row). Since they were elderly, I figured it was my duty to get up and give them my seat. They kept saying something about "Pshhh, elle est une jeune fille! Ça va!" or something like that. I guess I look young no matter where I go! Mathieu later told me that I could have just said, "Non" to them because they were just taking advantage of me... whoops! Next time, those old ladies won't know what hit them... "jeune fille" indeed! :) I'll stand my ground (err, sit my ground? hmmm...)!
Another environmental aspect about France (Europe?) is that the washers take much longer than in the U.S. Back home, everyone wants to get everything done in the quickest and easiest way possible, but that is usually not the best way (unless, say, you're visiting the dentist). Since I'm in charge of my laundry and the kids' laundry as part of my job, I learned how to do the washing here. You wash the clothes in very little water for TWO hours per load! Then you hang the laundry to dry. Very few people have dryers here (my host family does, but they only use it for about 5 minutes at the beginning). So economical!
Anyway, that's the end of my post about how cool public transportation, eco-friendly buildings and laundry are here! This is probably only interesting to me, but since this is my blog, you'll all have to endure my moments of nerdiness (which will be quite often, I assure you)!!
A bientôt!
p.s. (I still have yet to figure out how to do an accent mark over the "A" in this phrase... but that's what you get for having an English-language keyboard!)
Dee, about the keyboard bit, are you using windows? When I was taking Japanese I had to activate something in windows that made it so I can switch between English and Japanese when I am typing in order to do homework.
ReplyDeleteIn order to use one of these alternate keyboard layouts, you need to add it to Windows. Once you've done this, you can either set it as your default keyboard, or use alt plus shift to toggle between two or more layouts. The way to do this is slightly different for each operating system.
Windows 7
1. Open your Control Panel
2. Under "Clock, Language, and Region," click "Change keyboards or other input methods"
3. Click "Change keyboards"
4. Click Add
5. Scroll down to the language you want to add, click + next to it, then select the layout*
6. Click OK in each dialog window.
7. To use the layout, click the language input button on the taskbar (it probably says EN) and select it.
Windows Vista
1. Open your Control Panel
2. If in Classic View, click "Control Panel Home" in upper-left corner
3. Under "Clock, Language, and Region," click "Change keyboards or other input methods"
4. Click "Change keyboards"
5. Click "Add"
6. Scroll down to the layout you want to add*
7. If you don't see a list including the keyboard you want, click + to expand
8. Choose your layout
9. Click OK in each dialog window.
Windows XP
1. Open your Control Panel (via Start menu or My Computer)
2. Double-click "Regional and Language Options"
3. Click "Languages"
4. Click "Details"
5. Click "Add"
6. Under "Input Language" pick the language you want to add*
7. Under "Keyboard layout/IME" make your selection
8. Click OK in each dialog window.
Hope this helps.
Aww, thanks for the advice!! Sadly I am on a Mac computer, so I'll need to look into finding an alternative solution!
ReplyDelete**I mean "alternate"... man, the more French I learn, the crappier my English gets!!! hahaha
ReplyDeleteTry the Option key on your keyboard. I wrote/typed all of my HS and college French papers on my Mac and loved being able to get all the accent marks right. BTW...LOVE your blog! :)
ReplyDeleteEmily, that worked! Thank you so much!!! :)
ReplyDeleteGlad you got it to work. I switch my keyboard to Swedish with a click of the button, it's so easy. That's interesting about the laundry. Swedes don't use driers either, but some have warming closets to speed things up. My school had ultra energy efficient washing machines that weighed the amount of laundry and used the correct amount of detergent and water accordingly. It didn't take any longer though....
ReplyDeleteSarah, On you Mac there is an American flag on the top right. Click that, open international and click on French (and French numerical). You can toggle between the English and French. that way. I recommend opening the keyboard viewer as well. Typing takes a little longer, but it works. That's what I do whenever I need to type something in Hebrew, for school.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear this adventure is going well!