Bearcat Football is right around the corner!

Hey all!

Sorry for the long absence, it’s been kinda busy here. I’ve finished my first month of class, which was good. I got an A+, which here is around an 18/20. Here 16-20 = A+ so 18 is really good. Apparently teachers never give 20s, and I got 2. I’m proud of that. Otherwise, nothing really new to add about last months class.

Last weekend I went to Avignon, which was actually not that great of a city. It’s pretty dirty and a lot of “bad-boys.” The Palais du Pape was quite nice, and I’m glad I went back to see it, but otherwise there wasn’t much to do. If I hadn’t known anyone who was there, I would not have been able to stand it there.

One thing I realized is that despite our faults as a nation, with racism and such, I think we are more open to foreigners. Not that I’ve had any problems, nor am I saying that the French are rude, I’m just saying I think we’re more open to foreigners. Of course they have to speak our language when coming to the US where as most French do speak enough English that foreigners will get by. I suppose that if English wasn’t the “world language” or whatever that we’d know the world language too. However, it is and we do.

I’m watching the Spring Game replay on www.GoBearcats.com and we are looking pretty good. I’m getting pretty excited for football to arrive. I’m looking forward to working with the guys this summer/ fall and I’m planning on going to all 14 games. I’ve got all but Uconn down for sure.

Yesterday night I went to the Grenoble soccer match. It was pretty sweet, a couple of Red cards, a fight, and a 0-0 score. This pleased me because it guaranteed that Nantes moves up to Ligue 1 next season.

So I’ve watched about 20 minutes of the game and the 1st team offense has turned it over twice, to the first team defense. Is it good that the defense is taking it away or bad that the offense is giving it away? Grutza looks good, as does Anderson. Jones hasn’t gotten is as of yet, but I think he’ll be good too! I like to see the competition for the QB role. Personally, I’d like to see Grutza as the starter. Nothing against Jones or Anderson, but I think the experience is important, and I’m not sure that Jones is at 100% yet. Hope remains that we’ll have Mauk, but I don’t know what his shoulder will look like either?

Anyway, I’ll be going to Marseilles on Thursday Morning and spending a couple days just relaxing there. I’m looking forward to the break that Avignon didn’t provide.

Well, it’s almost midnight and I’ll be up around 7 so I should really be heading to bed.

Nathan

128 days! UC vs. EKU Thursday, August 28

Here are the awesome new Jerseys!

... And this one belongs to the REDS!

So this turned out to be a pretty good weekend after all. At first I had figured it to be a boring one where I’d stay home and rest some and hopefully do something more than sit at home bored and homesick (usually only comes now when I cannot communicate or am extremely bored). Instead I ended doing so much that I’ll probably be exhausted by Tuesday morning! I think this is a good thing. One downside so far to France is that I’ve not been able to do much exercising, though I figure to do more next month since my friends will mostly be gone.

I swear that it is always raining here, because for the last week or so, everyday we’ve had rain. This constant bad weather, in addition to spending time with friends, has taken all the time I could go run. I’m gaining weight I think. Boo.

Alright, on to my weekend. Friday night my host dad’s mother came to visit for the weekend, so after my relaxing time I went downstairs and got to meet her. She’s a very nice old lady. ☺ So after some conversation time, we went and had dinner.
During this time my host family decided to go to Switzerland, as you may already have read. So that’s what we did.

On Saturday morning, we got into the car for a 2 hour drive to Geneva and got there around noon. After arriving in Geneva, we walked to the awesome fountain in the lake in Geneva. After this we went and had lunch, the up to the Huge Protestant church. After that we walked around Geneva and then came back to Grenoble. I was exhausted!

So today, I woke up at 8:30 and went to an English speaking church about 5 minutes on the bus from my house (probably a 10-15 minute walk)[Sorry Scooter, if you read this ☹]. It was pretty sweet and afterwards the pastor invited me to join him for lunch, if I stayed for the French church that followed. I did and it was good. I stayed at the pastor’s house until around 4, when I felt that I had no idea how long I should stay and decided to come back. I was able to talk about a lot of interesting things with him, and definitely learned a lot from him!

That’s really about it, other than that the Reds won in the bottom of the 10th on back to back jacks by Edwin (who made the costly error to give up 2 runs in the 10th) and Bako to tie the game at 3-3 in the bottom of the 10th. Gagne who didn’t record an out, left after a walk of Hatteberg. Then Freel came in to pinch run and got to second via a infield single by Brandon Phillips. Then Griffey singled to right field to win the game 4-3!


Well, I’ll talk at you all lata. If you want me to post more pictures on here (they’re all on Facebook) let me know.


Nathan

World Traveler?

April 17, 2008

So, I realized today that I only had 5 days of class this month (well 4 now since today is done) and then I’ll be done with my first class! Geez the time has flown by. But that’s good because it means that I’m not focusing too much on home and how long I still have, though I still have a long time here. I think it’s like 55 days, though only 43 or so here in Grenoble. I do have 2 days in April, the 29th and 30th, before a possible trip to Marseilles. The next week I’ll have 3 days before another long weekend and a trip to Munich and I’m hoping to go to Dachau!

Then 2 weeks of classes, though I’ll probably skip that last Friday to get to Rome a bit earlier, then a final week of classes. After that I go to Nantes and then Paris to meet my dad.

April 18, 2008

I kinda got sidetracked last night and could not finish my post, so here it is.

Week 3 down, 6 to go! And after I’ll be traveling with my Dad.

So while I was doing this yesterday I started looking into traveling and I think I’m going to go to Poland on April 30 and go to Auschwitz. There is another camp close to Warsaw, so I may go there too. I think that’d be something that wouldn’t necessarily be “cool” but interesting. I know it sounds awful, but there is a lot of history there, whether good or bad.

Tomorrow my family and I are going to Geneva! I’m pumped for the opportunity to go to Switzerland! Heck Yeah! Hopefully I’ll have time to go shopping and pick up a few souvenirs.

I’ll write more after tomorrow.

Nathan

2 weeks down, 7 to go!

I'm not trying to have a bad attitude. I mean this in a positive way this time... 2 weeks down yes, but I still have 7 weeks to be here! Plus two weeks (13 days) of traveling!

April 13, 2008

So it’s been a few days since I’ve written, and I suppose it’s about time that I send out another update.

Another week of classes has finished and it really is getting more routine. However, my sleep schedule is still pretty crazy! It’s leaving me exhausted most of the time, and I slept through church today. ☹ I’m kinda upset about that because I could use the fellowship. The good news is that I was able to hook up with a Canadian who is here for ministry working with an organization called FEU which is an on campus ministry similar, but not the same as, CRU. It’ll be interesting to get involved. I’m having lunch with Rich, the Canadian, on Tuesday and I’m hoping that it will be a good time to get to know him, and see what we can to together. I’m hoping he’s down with some on-campus sharing when the students get back from vacation.

Some awesome news came in today. My dad is meeting me in Paris on June 5th for a week of traveling in Normandy, Paris, and potentially to Benelux (see the post about my trip I planned to take after April). So I’m pretty excited about that!

I’m also planning on going to the soccer game here on Tuesday night if I can get some friends to go with me.

Well, that’s all I’ve got today, I’ll try to update everyday with some shorter messages instead of longer messages once a week or so.


Nathan

Pictures!

The view from my bedroom! :-)





From the front yard




And the mountain.





The House I'm living in.

Boys speak in rhythm...

... and girls in code...


That song doesn't really apply totally, and only one person should understand the meaning...


Well, another day down, and a little more French learned. I do think I’m starting to get the hang of everything here, though it still stinks for everyone around me to be talking and I don’t understand much at all. But the longer I’m here, the more I realize you just have to be thrown into the fire to learn how to deal with it. I know that in the end I’ll be the better for it if I succeed.

One thing I haven’t been doing is exercise. I spend a lot of time in my room doing stuff, and I don’t hardly get out and do much. I played tennis Saturday, Sunday, and tonight, so that was good, but I think I’ll get up tomorrow, run 3 miles, and do a boatload of push-ups and abs stuff. I’m sure it will wear me out, but make me feel great!

Last night was really good! I was able to talk to a friend and discuss some big things that have been on my mind recently. It was nice to talk with a friend from home. Though I’ve done it a few times, this was extra good for the day!
The rest of this week will be pretty boring, so I don’t know if I’ll update or not. I’ll see what I have to talk about.

Nathan



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Now playing: UC Band - Cheer Cincinnati
via FoxyTunes


^ Does that surprise anyone?

Rough week one... 8 to go...

Okay, I’m sorry that I haven’t written in a few days, because like has been hectic. And anyone who has talked to me knows that it has been a real struggle. I say that because I really miss home, and by home I mean UC.

I guess you could say I finally realized how truly important my friends are to me, and how deeply connected I am with my friends. Not having them around is probably the biggest struggle right now, and when (and if) I can get past that, I’ll start to do better here. We shall see.

Anyways… the first week of classes was both good and challenging. The classes are really challenging, but I suppose it is better than if the classes were a breeze and I wasn’t really learning anything, no? The toughest part is the rigorous schedule or four straight hours per day. It really does take a lot out of me.

After class, my friends that I’ve made through API, which is the program I went through to get here, usually go into to town and just spend some time together; it really helps me to get past my homesickness and to start enjoying Grenoble. I only have one picture so far, and it is stuck on my camera because I don’t have a cable for it!

I should probably tell you I placed into A2.8, which is the highest beginner level French course that the offer here. The best way for me to explain it would be to say it’s a lot like French 106 at UC or the second half of French 103, but only 100% French in class and absolutely no English. I should move up to the next level in May, so we shall see. I have no idea what I will or will not get credit for.

On a side note, I figured out my schedule for the fall, assuming I take a couple summer classes. I’ve planned to take French 300 and 310 (Grammar, and literature), English 340 which is another intro to linguistics course that I need to take, Anthropology 230 I believe (it’s a class on the languages of the world), and the social history of baseball. I assume that when I make a final decision about the Army, I’ll change this around to either allow for those classes or to appeal me to my interests in learning. I’m also waiting to see which teacher will teach when so I can take a class with Lorman.

I have also been looking at my schedule for the next two months, and I have a couple breaks where I am totally going to travel! At the end of this Month, I have about 5 days off in which I will travel to Luxembourg, Belgium, and either the Netherlands or Germany. I suppose if I do all of that, I’ll come back the 28. The following weekend I have Thursday through Sunday off (Meaning I have class on Monday) so I’ll probably try to go to Berlin that weekend. I don’t know yet, but luckily I’ll have some time to figure it out.

Well, I suppose that is about all I have right now. If you could, be praying that I can get past my need for my friends so that I could start to enjoy my time here more.
I’ll post sooner next time.

Nathan