First few days in France

Next I flew over Bangkok, we had the option of getting off or staying on, as it was only stopping for an hour. I decided to get off, as I didn't want another 10hrs in that plane without some sort of a break! I was night time the whole time there, but still very hot.

Dubai was next, and more exciting as it was daytime (5am), so I managed to get a good picture of the city, with the massive buildings in the background.

Then Finally a 7hr flight to Paris, with some lovely European countryside to see out my window, complete with snow topped mountains!

Once I finally got to Paris, I spent a stressful hour or so in 25+deg heat lugging my bag to Joyce's friends apartment where I was staying, and then Joyce and I went for a walk along the Seine, starting at the Notre Dame.

We then went out to an Italian restaurant for dinner (I was a bit worse for wear by this stage having hardly slept for a couple of days) but it was great to have a nice dinner out after all of that plane food!

After a 3hr train ride to get to the city which will be my home for the next few months, Grenoble, I finally made it up the hill to my residence, this is the lovely view that you get on the way up.

Grenoble is a city set in the mountains, as you can sort of see in that picture, it is surrounded by tall mountains that will be covered in snow in winter! An interesting fact though, it is actually the flattest city in Europe! I don't think that they counted my residence as part of the city in this instance.. (photos to come!)

My friend from Otago and I went on a shopping trip to buy food yesterday, we couldn't believe how cheap some things were!

4 Euro for ALL of those croissants and pain au chocolats!! We were tempted, but didn't quite have the capacity to do them all justice!

My university is very nice, it is quite new, and very highly ranked, apparently quite a feat for such a new school which is great.

A lot of windows and great facilities, I will try and get some pictures of the inside (if I don't look too weird doing it!)

The city of Grenoble has many new, and much more old buildings, with a great transport system of 30 metre long trams that slide noiselessly around the city, which we haven't quite worked out how to pay for yet and probably never will, so they are effectively free!
Classes start next week, so just exploring until then, pictures of my room to come once I have got it looking presentable!