University life

Well time seems to be flying by now! It is now 3 weeks today since I moved into my room here – it definitely gets better as time goes on, although I would give anything to have a sofa and a proper kitchen now!

Looking back on the past 3 weeks, I feel that a lot has been achieved – we have (almost) conquered the French administration system and can understand (the majority of) French lecturers!

Many people may be wondering what the university is like so I thought that I would give you an insight into the campus. There is not just one university on campus but a whole collection of them. The University I am studying at (Université Pierre Mendès France) is for law students and economics students. There are roughly 60,000 students on campus which means there is always a great atmosphere. There are big open spaces surrounded by views of the mountains which invite many students to sit and have a spot of lunch or do some work on their computers etc. I even saw one man juggling the other day! There are plenty of places to get food on campus ranging from the university restaurants (3 courses for €3.15) to sandwich and salad bars to cafes, to fast food places. In addition to all of these places to eat, there is a post office, a selection of banks, a place to hire bikes and a little shop.

The tram line goes straight through the middle of campus and into town which makes it a great way to get around Grenoble. I bought a year tram pass which has already been used more times than I can count – definitely a good investment!

My halls are about a 10-15 minute walk away from the law building and lecture theatres. It makes it a very easy to get into uni and still be able to come back to my room between classes if I need to.  The walk into university and back is by a footpath lined with trees which is lovely at the moment as all of the leaves are falling off and there are a lot of conkers!

We have been very lucky with the weather so far as it is still very hot and sunny! We had one day of storms a few weeks ago, and when it rains, it pours!