Lots of stuff happened while I was in Lyon

...and it's probably foolish to try and fit the rest of it all into one blog post (it's gonna get all diluted and second-grade-book-report-summary boring), but oh, well. I mean, I have to write about it sometime, and like I said, writing about travels in France from my room in the US is just not as interesting as writing about them while I'm still in Europe. Granted, it would be even better if I were actually still in France, but England's not a bad runner-up. Plus, it's raining again (I'm not surprised; it's England, after all), and I've taken the day off from sightseeing in order to recuperate from the nasty cold that just slammed into me with all the force of a freight train full of bricks and lead and other really heavy things, so I've got the time to go back over the last few weeks and fill y'all in.

Okay...so...scrolling back through my iPhoto library to get some visual reminders...okay. Here we go. The Wednesday after my weekend in the south of France, our class went on a field trip to Beaune, a town that was, if I remember correctly, about an hour and a half from Lyon (very close to Dijon). It's known for its medieval hospital, Hôstel Dieu (don't pronounce the 's' in 'hostel'), or, more specifically, for the brightly patterned roof of said hospital:

Doesn't even come close to doing it justice. The colors are actually much brighter, especially when the sun's shining.

Anyway, we had a really nice day exploring the town and the hospital and eating lunch (the cold mushroom cream thing I ate = awesome. And since it wasn't vegan, I got to eat half of Kelly's too, since she couldn't.), and we all agreed that it was a lot of fun to do a nice outing with the entire group all together like that.

I miss everyone! =(
Also, why am I so freaking short?!

We all took the train back to Lyon afterwards, and most of us passed the time by napping, doing some reading for class, listening to music, or, if you're me and Amanda, trying to remember all the Kappa Delta info we had to learn for our new member test. Turns out we've already forgotten most of it, but what was most frustrating was that we couldn't remember the name of the shell that's supposed to symbolize the growth of Kappa Deltas. It was one of those things where it's on the tip of your tongue and you just can't remember it. It was incredibly annoying.

Anyway, the rest of the week passed without incident (except for the next day in class when I suddenly remembered that it was a nautilus shell and mouthed it to Amanda, who immediately knew not only what it was I was mouthing but what it was in relation to...ahh, sisterhood). One other cool thing we did that week, though, was attend an herb seminar from an American woman who's been living in Lyon for the past ten or so years and blogs about French cooking. We learned about different kinds of herbs used in French cooking and made herb broth, tarte aux fines herbs, and kir (with acacia flower syrup and verbena syrup rather than the traditional crème de cassis), and it was all delicious:

Behold my foray into French cuisine. Although, to be fair, I didn't really actually assemble any of this. I chopped parsley. That was my contribution.

That weekend was another long weekend for another Catholic holiday (Pentecost this time). Since everyone else had plans for the weekend, I decided to do a little traveling on my own. My plan included Grenoble, Annecy, and Geneva (aka Genève), and Chambery and Aix-les-Bains if I had time/wasn't too tired. Turns out that traveling in the heat and the sun is actually quite exhausting, so I only made it to the first three, but it was still a very nice weekend. I went to Grenoble on Saturday not quite sure what to expect. I'd come to France prepared to like Grenoble, since Aunt Michelle always speaks of it fondly and I was interested to see it, but when I'd missed the train there one weekend (my first attempt to visit it), Corinne had made a disgusted noise and said (in French) something along the lines of "Believe me, you're not missing out on anything." My host family lived in Grenoble for several years before moving to Lyon, and none of them had anything particularly nice to say about it. Mon père's evaluation: "The city is not pretty. The area around it is, though." Jacques: "It's cool when you're young and you want to ski and stuff, but other than that, it's not that great." Corinne: "It's ugly, it's dirty, and there's no history. It's a modern town, not like Lyon where there are old buildings and a lot of history. It's only for scientists and engineers. And the mountains just box you in." So, you can see why I wasn't quite sure what I was getting myself into.

The reality, as so often happens, fell somewhere between the two extremes. It certainly wasn't the hotbed of industrial filth Corinne had made it out to be. The streets were clean, and there were some pretty statues and fountains, but she was right about one thing: not much history. It wasn't a big deal, though, as I didn't spend much time actually in the city. I just walked through and got some lunch from an indoor market on my way to the famous cable cars of Grenoble, which I rode up the mountain to La Bastille, the 19th-century fort.

Aren't they cuuuuuute?!

I spent the rest of the day up there, admiring the views of the Alps, writing in my journal, taking in the smell of the flowers blooming on the trees (I don't even LIKE the smell of flowers, generally, since I think they tend to smell like a pile of compost someone spilled perfume on. But these flowers were literally the best-smelling flowers I've ever come across. I would go all the way back to Grenoble just to smell them again, seriously. And yes, I know I can probably find them in some other place. But I have no idea what they're called or anything like that, so returning to Grenoble seems like my best bet.)

At any rate, it was a really calm, relaxing, Zen kind of day (and, fun fact, the French use the word "zen" too...I heard it a few times while I was there). I'd love to go back someday in the future when I have access to a car, as I'm sure a lot of the more remote regions of the Alps are even prettier (albeit harder to access, especially when you're dependent on public transport like I was).

View from the parking lot area at La Bastille

I was too tired, as I said, to stop at Chambery on the way back...I'd gotten a lot of sun and was a little bit burned, and you know how a sunburn just saps all your energy. I went back to the apartment and I dunno, probably just ate dinner in my room and watched a movie (mes parents were in the country for the weekend so it was just me and Jacques).

The next morning I set off for Geneva, which was exciting - my first solo international journey! The train ride there was really pretty - at some points the train runs in ravines between mountains, and at other times it skirts along ridges on the sides of them, looking out over marshes, rivers, pastures, meadows...it's like a storybook setting. I took down the names of a couple picturesque towns on the way there, for someday when I return to France. (It WILL happen, I will make sure of it. France was too beautiful to visit once and never go back. I want to visit France as often as possible.)

Anyway, I wasn't particularly impressed with Geneva itself. Not that there was anything wrong with Geneva. And probably my lack of enthusiasm was at least partially my own fault, as I spent the first hour and a half trying to find a place to exchange my money (Switzerland uses Swiss francs instead of Euros) when I could have (should have) just exchanged it at the train station when I got in. And since I went on a Sunday, a lot of stores and museums (including the UN headquarters) were closed. But I did enjoy walking around, especially along Lake Geneva (or, if you're French, Lac Léman). The lake's claim to fame, besides being the largest freshwater lake in Western Europe (thanks, wikipedia!), is being home to the largest water fountain on earth:

It sort of looks like it's spouting from the boat, but it's not. Just trust me.

The major drawback about Switzerland, though, is that it's insanely expensive. My lunch, which I ordered from what was essentially an outdoor food stand, cost me 13 francs (roughly 13 US dollars...the exchange rate's pretty much even), and all it consisted of was a tomato and cheese panini (9 francs!) and a glass of beer on tap (4 francs...I'm not generally a beer drinker but Geneva's supposed to have really good beer and I was like, what the heck, while in Geneva, do as the Genevans do. After all, if you wanna really sample some beer, may as well do it in a place that's renowned for it, right? As it turns out, I still don't like beer. It was like drinking fizzy crackers. Not a fan.)

Anyway, my final verdict on Geneva was that it was fine to visit once, but I'm not exactly eager to go back. I mentioned this to Madison, and she was like, "Really? My parents went for two weeks and they loved it." So I was like, great, maybe I did it wrong somehow. But then I mentioned it to my host parents and they said, "Americans love Geneva for some reason, but it's not all that great." So I felt a little more justified after that.

Monday morning I soldiered on (despite having a pretty legit sunburn by this time) to Annecy, which was beautiful. The lake (Lac d'Annecy) is gorgeous, as is the Old Town with its canals and narrow, winding streets.

Lac d'Annecy

Vieille Ville d'Annecy

Basically all I did was walk around and look at stuff - no special activities or anything. I ate alone in a sit-down restaurant for the first time in my life, and I'm pretty proud of myself for it - I know that eating alone in a restaurant is high up there on a lot of people's lists of social fears, and I must say that while eating with other people is definitely preferable, it wasn't terrible. My waiter was really nice and my meal (ravioli and a glass of kir) was really delicious, so I can't complain.

After eating I decided to get some ice cream since everyone was walking around with ice cream cones and I thought it might be a good idea to follow suit, since it was really hot out. I tried to get a kiddie cone of mint chocolate chip, but it turns out in France that only kids can order kiddie cones (as the ice cream stand guy pretty nastily pointed out to me. Thanks a lot, jerkface.). I should have gone to a different ice cream place, though, as their flavor list was ridiculous:

Flavors include violet (yes, the flower), strawberry basil, orange flower, and Nutella.

And so I returned to Lyon that afternoon exhausted and incredibly sunburned, but happy with my weekend in the Alps.

The next week or so passed pretty much without incident; one Wednesday we were supposed to go to a chateau but that was canceled at the last minute, so we went to a fancy Lyon patisserie instead and Dartmouth paid (good thing, because my frozen chocolate soufflé or whatever it was was like 7,50 €:

Yum.

I also got to try some chocolate with REAL GOLD FLAKES on top. Yes. I have tasted the flavor of decadence, and it is AWESOME.

And that just about brings me up to my last day in Lyon, I think. Not much happened over my last weekend, as I was busy studying (read: procrastinating) and packing (read: trying to make myself feel better about not studying). But now I am DONE with classes (until June 25th, anyway, when I start my summer term), so yay.

And this was a pretty long entry so I'm gonna take a break. I'll probably come back fairly soon and bring this blog all up to date with the end of Lyon and the beginnings of England, since I'm still not feeling much like venturing out (stupid cold has stolen all my energy) but I'm not tired enough to nap or anything. So yeah. I guess that's that.

Only in Lyon...

Currently (and for the past half hour at least) there is a man playing the tuba outside. Well, not so much "playing" as just "making noise with." I have no idea why, but there is definitely booze involved. Unless that was a bottle of apple juice he was swigging. (I have my doubts.)

Anyway, I realize it's been awhile since I've updated. Maybe later tonight I'll come back and fill y'all in on my trips to both the Alps and the Côte d'Azur. Stay tuned.

Further adventures and blog-related demands

Arg. Another day, another pastry. I'm legitimately getting fat. And yet, almost all the French people I've met are not only not fat, but skinnier than the average person. It's a mystery to me. (And I'm not the only one.) This Wikipedia article claims, however, that "Americans [tend] to lose weight while visiting [France]." Um, WRONG. I guess this is why you can't believe everything you read on Wikipedia.

At any rate, in the title of this post I promised adventures. And here they are:

On Saturday, I unfortunately slept in until noon (...thirty) because I'd been up until 3:30 in the morning doing absolutely nothing after having returned around 1:45 from a girls' night with Kelly and Amanda at Amanda's apartment, which consisted of us eating, scrambling to complete various time-sensitive tasks, and watching Pride and Prejudice. Anyway, after a slightly sketchy walk home (a guy drove slowly alongside me with his window open for about a block...I pretended not to see him whilst maintaining a death grip on the whistle Maria and Cynthia gave me as a going-away present for "scaring off the gypsies"), I made it back to the apartment and really just killed time while continually telling myself to get some sleep. I finally listened to me, but I was too late, thus the waste of a beautiful Saturday morning.

This story gets happier, though, I swear! I met up with Kelly, Amanda, and Laura, and we walked around the city in search of a bio-restaurant Kelly had heard about. We finally found it but discovered that they didn't do take-out for lunch, so we resolved to come back some other time and instead headed off for le Parc de la Tête d'Or, since it was a perfect day for relaxing outside:

Kelly, Laura, and Amanda (and me, haha) at the park.

We spent a couple hours at the park lying out in the sun (I have the faint beginnings of a tan!) and watching the antics of some nearby children before strolling back toward Place Bellecour, taking in all the sights of this gorgeous afternoon.

Bridge across the Rhône to the Presqu'île around 5 pm.

I had thought about going out Saturday night with my friends (not anything big...just a movie or something), but since mes parents were away for the weekend and mon frère was out for the evening, I decided to stay home and take advantage of the empty house to Skype with Jessalyn. (I feel bad Skyping when ma famille is here because, due to the time difference, Skyping always has to happen rather late at night, and everyone else here goes to bed fairly early. I don't want to disturb them.) Anyway, it was nice to spend a nice quiet evening at the apartment, although I still stayed up too late. Oh, well.

On Sunday, we (the group) had planned a picnic for lunch. The idea was to meet in Place Bellecour with everyone bringing something to contribute to the meal, and then walk either to the river or the park to eat. However, we ended up hanging around Place Bellecour for quite awhile waiting for everyone to arrive.

While we were waiting, we watched a group of students walk up to the statue in Place Bellecour, singing songs. We remarked on its being a little out of the ordinary and watched them with amusement for a little while. A few minutes later, we were talking about something else when a couple of guys from the group came over and explained that they were doing a scavenger hunt for the program they were traveling with and they needed a picture with some Lyon girls (I guess we qualified). Would we help them out? they wanted to know. "Sure," we said. The next thing I knew, one of the guys had taken my arm and steered me over toward the other guy, and was like, "Oh yeah, you guys have to kiss so we can get 100 points."

And I was like, "WHAT NOW?!" Because kissing strangers on the street is not one of my top five pastimes. It's like number seven. Eight, maybe.

I jest, of course. But still, I was pretty surprised. It was not how I had expected to spend my afternoon.

But still, they were pretty nice and the guy was pretty easy on the eyes and I mean, it would get them a whole 100 points. So I did it. I'm proud of myself. I think you'll agree it's an excellent story (unless I told it wrong).

After this brief detour from my usual character, we decided to accept the group's invitation for us to join them as they went sight-seeing and completed their tour around Lyon. (But first, Kelly sang "I Will Survive" with them in front of the statue.) It was pretty cool to meet other students (they were all, I guess, engineering students involved in a travel program on their spring break) from all over Europe. I spent a good chunk of time talking to a girl from Belgium, and there were people from Russia, Portugal, France, Germany, and other countries.

We walked around the city completing tasks (such as doing some kind of weird line-dance thing in the middle of a pedestrian street), and we visited the Cathédrale St-Jean in Vieux Lyon. (I still haven't gotten to see the 700-year-old clock do its thing. I did, however, get a couple of good pictures.)

Statue, undoubtedly of a saint or someone with better morals than I, in Cathédrale St-Jean.

After the Cathédrale I returned home to do some work, although this meant that I apparently missed the crowd-surfing that happened immediately thereafter. (Kelly told me about it and I saw pictures.) I went back home, cleaned my room, and then spent a lot of time putting off doing my reading by thinking of other "constructive" things to do. Finally I could avoid it no longer, and I spent the rest of the night reading. Haha, that's a lie. I did do some reading, but it was broken up by checking facebook, checking blitz (Dartmouth's email system), checking my email, eating another delicious dinner avec ma famille, watching two segments of a French TV show with Corinne, and chatting with four people at once. (Don't ever say I can't multitask.)

Monday was pretty ho-hum. Mondays are long in terms of class time (but not as long as Tuesdays...I'm exhausted). I did some errands after school and then went avec mes parents to the Welcome Dinner (which was actually aperitifs and hors d'oeuvres), which was fun. It was cool seeing all the parents and students together, and it was also interesting to see the profs outside of school, especially our two Lyonnais professors: Mme. Villard is adorable and M. Bonivard is kind of a goofball. They're awesome.

I do feel a little bad, though, because when we introduced our host parents a lot of people used adjectives to say how great their families were. Of course, no one told me beforehand that we'd have to introduce our parents, or I would have thought of something nice to say, too, because Corinne and Philippe are wonderful and super-nice, but my lack of confidence in speaking French combined with a touch of natural shyness meant that I was just like, "My name is Renée. I live with Corinne and Philippe. I'm from Massachusetts." The end. I hope they know that it's not for lack of sentiment that I wasn't gushier, but lack of vocabulary.

At any rate, I stayed up until almost 1 in the morning finishing the reading I'd put off (and cursing Past Me for having done so). This morning I woke up at 8, started class at 9:15, and apart from an hour-long lunch break at 11 (during which I schlepped all the way over to Place Bellecour to take care of spring break travel stuff at SNCF), didn't leave the university until 15:45. That's a loooooong day, let me tell you. Luckily, Tuesdays are the longest day of the week, so it's all easier from here on out. And then on Saturday morning I'm flying with Rachelle to ROME for SPRING BREAK!

Our original plans had been to take the train to Milan on Saturday, but fate had to mess with things: there was no cheap (or even remotely inexpensive) lodging available in Milan that night, and traveling on to another town was out of the question since our train would arrive in the evening anyway. We finally decided to fly to Rome instead. We booked the flight this weekend and exchanged our tickets today for tickets back from Milan (to Chambery, where we'll spend Saturday night before traveling back to Lyon on Sunday). Our travel plans are subject to change, but right now we're looking at this: Saturday, Sunday, and Monday in Rome (our flight leaves Lyon around 7 am and gets to Rome around 8, so we have pretty much an entire day there), Tuesday maybe at a beach (it's supposed to rain on Tuesday, OF COURSE. So these plans are, as I said, changeable.) Wednesday, heading up to Florence. Taking a side trip to Venice at some point, and probably seeing the Lakes District before getting to Milan on Saturday for the train back. It's a lot of stuff and we probably won't have time to do it all, but I guess I'd rather have lots of things to choose from than travel to a boring place. (Although, is there really such a thing in Europe?)

I am a little bummed that I won't be making it to Santorini while I'm in Europe, though. The prices of flights after this week skyrocket, so money-wise I just don't think it's doable. =( I'll see Santorini someday, though. I WILL.

In other travel news, Laura has proposed and researched a trip to Bordeaux at the end of May. It sounds like a lot of fun, and it will be easy on the wallet, too - the round-trip flight, accommodations, and wine tour only total about 160 € (just under $220 US). I mean, that's really not bad at all.

I still need to figure out what to do for the four-day weekend in May (yay, Ascension!). Anyone have ideas/suggestions/requests that I visit a specific place as you attempt to live vicariously through me?

Which brings me to the blog-related demand of the title. Comment! One of the main reasons I keep this blog is to keep in touch with everyone, and it's no use keeping in touch with you guys if I don't even know you're reading it. It's like writing letters and never sending them.

So, yeah. Start sending! =)

Time to eat the chocolate rabbit Mareike gave me for Easter. It's been staring at me all afternoon.

Man, I'm gonna get FAAATTTTTT...

A second birthday celebration, a long walk, and a lazy afternoon

I am un peu fatiguée and therefore I think a straightforward approach will be best for this entry, lest I ramble off into incoherency. So:

A second birthday celebration (the first one being, of course, my bar adventure)

If you can call it an adventure, that is. For most people, it was just a normal evening out. For me, though, the Princess of Non-Drinkers, it was quite an adventure.

Anyway, as I mentioned before, Corinne had a birthday dinner for me. Caroline came over around 7:45 and we all started on aperitifs, or before-dinner drinks. (Apparently people in America use this word also, so please forgive me if I'm explaining an already-obvious concept. But I'd never really heard the term before.) Anyway, Professor Tarnowski, the Dartmouth prof in charge of the program (my French literature prof) came a little bit later and we continued to sit and have drinks for awhile. I tried to follow the conversation but it's still a little difficult. When people are talking to me it's easier for me to understand; usually they'll slow down and enunciate a bit more, which is great. But I have a really hard time following the conversations of others because they talk so fast and, with speed, the words all run together (as they do in any language).

After Jacques (my host brother) got home, we had dinner, which was delicious, as always. I don't know if I've ever stated explicitly what a great cook Corinne is, but if I haven't, let me do so now. She's awesome. I don't think she's ever cooked a bad meal. We had a cheese souffle and salad with tomatoes, avocados, and olives (which I avoided whenever possible...I would say I dislike olives, but that's not quite true. The truth is that I detest olives probably more than any other other food on the planet, and I include most meats in that statement. But anyway.).

After dinner we had cheese, like usual - camembert, Roquefort, and one other type of blue cheese, and then my host family brought out a chocolate cake with two candles. ("One for each decade," Corinne said.) Everyone sang "Joyeux Anniversaire" and then we ate cake. And it was awesome. I had more for dessert tonight. Seriously, it was really fudgy and delicious. I could eat this cake for the rest of my life.

After cake, I got presents! It was sooo sweet of everyone. Prof. Tarnowski gave me a really pretty blue scarf, which I wore today. (I love the color and I didn't bring any scarves with me, so it was perfect!) Caroline brought me a bag of chocolates from a nice chocolatier and some yellow roses, which she helped my cut and arrange in a vase. And my host family gave me a candle and a nice card, along with a flat wire "wreath" of sorts which you hang on the wall and use to hold pictures. "All you need is a little nail," Corinne said, "and you can hang it up in your room." She said they'd noticed how many pictures I have in my room, so they gave it to me to display them, which I thought was super-sweet. And, as Corinne pointed out, it will be an easy thing to take back to the States with me.

All in all, I had a wonderful couple of days of birthday celebrations, although I really did miss seeing all my family and friends at home.

A long walk

This is pretty self-explanatory, but whatever. After school today, we decided to go to SNCF to make some travel arrangements for spring break (Italy!). I don't know why we went all the way to the SNCF near Parc de la Tête d'Or (a 40 minute walk from the university) when there's a very nice SNCF right on Place Bellecour, but whatever. It wasn't a bad walk and we stopped at a patisserie/chocolatier on the way. (I got some quiche. Quiche over here is soooo much better than quiche in the US. Pizza, on the other hand, is not nearly as good.) At any rate, I didn't feel like walking all the way back by myself, so I took the metro and got off at the stop closest to my house, after which I "explored the neighborhood" (read: somehow managed to get lost) between the metro station and my house. (The problem was that I always just head for the river, because as long as I'm on the Presqu'île I know that if I head for the Saône I can find the apartment practically in my sleep. However, the metro station is stationed pretty much in the middle of the Presqu'île, so when I got out, I was turned-around and headed for the first river I saw, which happened to be the Rhône. Oh, well.) I found a really cool-looking antique store in my travels, though. I'll have to head back there some other time. (I didn't go in today because it opened at 15h30 and when I was looking in the windows it was 15h30 on the dot and I wasn't sure if they were actually open yet.) The window displays were ridiculously awesome, though, and the store (from what I could see) was literally crammed full of silverware, costume jewelry, cameo brooches, serving dishes, etc...a good place to find little treasures. =)

A lazy afternoon

After my long walk and voyage of discovery, I returned to my room with the full intention of starting my reading for next week and then just giving in to the sleepiness that would inevitably arise from such an activity instead of just powering through. However, I remembered that I missed last week's episode of Bones and that, while hulu actually doesn't work in Europe, that Dartmouth has a program that changes one's IP address to make it look like you're in America; thus, I spent the afternoon catchin' up on mah stories. The 100th episode of Bones is tonight, but I won't get to see it until tomorrow evening, what with the time it takes to get posted online after airing on TV and the time difference and my classes. Oh, well. Thank God for Dartmouth and its nifty little technical loopholes.

And now I am going to bed because I am exhausted. Too much excitement in this past week. (I still don't think I've recovered from last weekend's adventures in the south. This weekend, I'm sticking around, though, although I may not be much less busy than I was last weekend. Weekend plans include: going to this French bio-food expo that Kelly discovered, having a potluck picnic on the river with some of my classmates then checking out one of the clubs located on a boat on the river, and possibly making the long trek to le Parc de la Tête d'Or to walk around, relax, and possibly visit the free zoo there. (I don't like to pay for zoos since I'm not sure if I really support them, but since it's free I don't feel too bad about it.)

And now I'm off to bed...too late once again, I fear. Hopefully I can catch up on some sleep this weekend.

Bon anniversaire à moi

So today I turned 20! No longer a teenager, nope, nope, nope. I feel like I somehow now command more respect. (Just let me have my little fantasy, mmkay?)

I just got back in after going out with some of my friends in the group tonight. We went to a bar (American...yay!) in Vieux Lyon and hung out for a couple hours (it really cleared out after the football - soccer for all you American football lovers - match was over). I got a drink to celebrate (the drinking age here is 16), and I remembered two of the main reasons I don't generally drink: 1. I don't really like the taste of alcohol (the drink was rum, OJ, pineapple juice, and grenadine, and it would have been PERFECT without the rum), and 2. it's freaking expensive. That one drink (which was maybe 1 and 3/4 cups, tops) was 7 € ($9). Yikes. It's Coca-Cola for me from here on out.

Anyway, my whole day was very nice. My classmates sang happy birthday to me when I got to school this morning, and Marielle (our TA) gave me a really delicious brioche. When I got home this afternoon, Mareike, the super-nice German exchange student who is also living here now, gave me a magnet from Paris (she went this weekend) and a little note written on an art nouveau postcard (coincidentally, she picked my favorite art nouveau design of all time: Le Chat Noir.) It was sooooo nice of her. She also gave me a little chocolate pastry/cake and lit a candle on top for me. I blew it out and then promptly dropped the cake but proceeded to eat it anyway. It was delicious.

Other than that, it's been a pretty low-key day. Classes lasted forever, but we don't really have any tomorrow; we have a group "outing" to a museum, possibly followed by lunch. This doesn't start until 10:40, so I have a little time to sleep in (which is why we all went out tonight).

This weekend, I'm gonna stick around Lyon and hopefully spend some time visiting and relaxing in le Parc de la Tête d'Or, as well as maybe spending a night out in one of the bars-on-a-boat-on-the-river things that they've got going on over here (drinking Coke, natch. I'm not made of money). But for now, I'm going to bed. I was going to try to get a little work done, but it's 1:30 in the morning and it's my birthday (well, technically not anymore, but you know what I mean). Reading be darned.

In which je fais une promenade

Okay. The plan is to make this a quick one, because it's already 11 and I really want to get to bed fairly...on time so that I'm not too tired tomorrow, because immediately after class I'm heading to the south of France! Unfortunately, the forecast calls for a fair amount of rain this weekend and cooler temperatures than we'd originally been promised, but, hey, I'm still going to the south of France, so I guess I should stop complaining.

Today was good. After class got out at 13:45, I planned to go pick up my train ticket at the SNCF boutique on Place Bellecour. Unfortunately, I'd forgotten to make note of my confirmation number after ordering online, so I had to schlep back to the apartment first. It turned out to not be such a bad thing, since I took the opportunity to move everything I needed to my purse so I didn't have to lug my giant schoolbag around.

Anyway, I went to the SNCF boutique and picked up my ticket. After that, I found a bookstore with a TON of English books on Place Bellecour. (As I was standing in there, staring at the familiar titles of crappy mass-market paperbacks, all I could think was, "I WOULD find an English bookstore in France.") Anyway, after that I went over to Amanda's apartment for a little trip planning with Amanda and Kelly. Some of the other people in the group were there also, planning for spring break; I didn't stay long because I'm not planning on traveling with them. They're going north, probably to Prague, Paris, and Germany (or some combination of the three). I want to head south. I'd love to see Santorini, and I'd also enjoy Italy, I think. We're trying to figure out right now if Santorini is possible, but Italy looks like a go. Yay!

After I left Amanda's, I went in search of a place to cash my traveler's checks. After trying two banks, I was directed to the Bureau de Change. I swear, when I found it it was like finding water in the desert. I was like, "Thank God." Now that I know where it is, it's really easy to find. And the guy who worked there was also named René. He told me so when he saw my ID. I think I should make friends with him. I do still have like 7 checks to cash in.

I celebrated my newly cash-filled wallet by buying some postcards: three to send home to Mom and Dad, Tracey, and Jess, and like a billion for my ever-more-disorganized postcard collection. My errands completed, I walked back through Vieux Lyon (Old Lyon), stopping to admire the view (which I had to climb a huge, steep staircase to see):

The view from partway up Fourvière Hill: Eglise St Paul, the Saone River, and the Presqu'île

...or poking around in a couple churches that caught my fancy:

The interior of Eglise St Paul, the steeple of which is visible in the previous picture.

The interior of the 12th century* basilica about a block from the apartment. *It says 12th century, but it doesn't look 12th century to me. But what do I really know about Middle Ages architecture?

I really like Vieux Lyon. It's very peaceful (for a city) and very quaint and pretty. My host mother told me that it's inhabited by a lot of artists and bohemian types, and that it's also home to a pretty large gay community. I just wanna say that I think they all have the right idea. I'd live there too, if I could. I mean, why wouldn't you want to see this every day? :

Vieux Lyon, near Eglise St Paul

And seriously, that's not even the most picturesque part. Not by a long shot. I actually wandered into some rather sketch areas of Vieux Lyon today. But obviously I made it out alive and with my wallet intact, so not to worry.

Seriously, though, walking around the city today I felt so confident, probably the most confident I've felt since I got here. I dunno if it was the fully French conversations I had with the people I encountered in the SNCF boutique, the bank, the exchange office, and the newsstand (sure, I didn't say much. But I said it in French!), the way I knew how to get around the city, the way I could just pop in and out of side streets without fear of getting lost, or what, but it was a great feeling. It felt so good to head back to the apartment, walking happily along, smelling the delicious scent of a boulangerie and feeling the sun on my back and hearing the familiar sounds of the city. The only way I could have felt more French was if I had a beret on my head and a baguette under my arm. (And, you know, some degree of competence in the language. But let's not split hairs.)

And now I think it's time for bed. I'm still maintaining the fantasy that I'll get some work done tonight, so off I go.

Blah, blah, blah, France.

Today. An interesting day, today. It started out overcast, like pretty much every other day has so far, but by the time we finished classes at 13:45 (1:45 pm) it was gorgeous - warm and sunny. I'll even stick a picture as per reader request. (Hi, Mom.)

(The view from my balcony, looking up the River Saone)

After class, we went to the SNCF store (it's pretty much like a travel agency) to pick up our TGV tickets to Arles, and then we went off to find some chocolate, particularly chocolate fish, since tomorrow's April Fool's Day and fish are a symbol of the day. Apparently you're supposed to try to pin paper fish on other people's backs. I really hope no one pins one on me, because I won't know how to react (en français) and that makes for great awkwardness potential.

Anyhoo, we went to a chocolatier on Place Bellecour, the big square in the middle of the Presqu'île (the part of Lyon on the peninsula between the Rhone and the Saone...the name means "almost island"). I didn't get any chocolate fish, but I did get a truffle-y thing with praline in the middle. And, oh, yeah, it was BLUE. If you stick a blue truffle in a chocolate case, I'm pretty much gonna buy it, if for no other reason than the fact that it's BLUE. Seriously. Who can pass on oddly-colored candy?

At any rate, when I got home this afternoon around, I don't know, maybe 3:30, I was the only one in the apartment. It was kind of nice. Don't think that I don't like my host family; it was just nice to relax without having to be ready to think or speak in French at any moment. (Something a lot of people on the program have mentioned is how tiring it is - you never really get to relax because you're constantly trying to do everything in a different language; your brain is constantly working. It's sort of like doing homework all the time.) At any rate, I had been thinking of going for a jog since it was so nice out but I decided to take advantage of the empty house instead. And by "take advantage" I mean: admire the view, clean my room, listen to some music, and start on my reading for tomorrow. Exciting stuff, no?

By evening everyone was home, and I was happily distracted from studying by Brune, my host parents' six (seven?)-year-old granddaughter. She came into my room and poked through my stuff a bit. She really liked my mascara and wanted to put it on, so I put a little bit on the very tips of her eyelashes. (When I was little and I played with makeup, no one would ever put mascara on me because it so easy to get it in your eyes and have it sting. I thus grew up thinking of mascara as some kind of evil, painful thing, and when I finally started wearing it, I was like, "Oh hey, no big deal. Why did everyone make such a fuss about it?" And then a kid asked me to put it on her, and all I could think was, "Don't get it in her eye. Don't get it in her eye. Don't get it in her eye." It was a little nerve-wracking.)

Anyway, she was also really fascinated by my Neutrogena Wave Cleanser (no product placement intended), a little plastic thingy that vibrates to help get deep into your pores (or so the ad says). She washed her checks with it and then washed mine, and promptly freaked out because she realized that I have zits (or, as she calls them in English, "buttons") and was afraid that using the Neutrogena would give her zits, too. I told her she was too young to worry about that. Nevertheless, we rinsed her face off about six times.

After that, she played with my computer some more while I got some more work done. (We spoke English to each other, because when I speak French, she says she can't understand my accent. It was nice of her to say so, since the real reason she can't understand me is because I speak the worst French on the planet. But whatever. She did compliment me on my very nice English-speaking accent, however.)

After dinner, she spent a good chunk of time trying to scare me (and getting frustrated that "you're just being funny scared. You need to be real scared.") and having me try to scare her. ("You didn't scare me.") Then she played with the computer some more and Olympe, the youngest, wrote some random letters on my French literature syllabus (the first piece of looseleaf I had handy to give her). We watched three big boats go down the river. It looked like there were parties on all three; one was all lit up with teal neon lights. ("It's shiny!" Brune gasped in delight.) The two of them went to bed, I finished my reading, booked a return ticket to Lyon from Avignon, changed into my PJs, and sat down to do a little blogging. Or a lot, I guess, considering the length of this entry so far.

In other news, Corinne, my host mother, is planning a birthday dinner for me next Wednesday night (the day after my birthday). It's sooo sweet of her. She invited Professor Tarnowski, the Dartmouth prof in charge of our trip, and told me I could invite one friend, so I invited Caroline, my travel buddy. I'm looking forward to it. I'm also looking forward to doing something birthday related with the group - going out to dinner or something - since Rachelle's birthday is the day before mine and there was talk of doing a combined birthday celebration. I dunno, I guess we'll see. Either way, I'll have to find a bank or something soon - I'm down to like 20 € and I need to cash in more traveler's checks. (I only cashed one at the airport. I don't know what I was thinking. A $100 traveler's check only got me about 66 €. I guess I just wanted to get out of there so I could go crash at the hostel. But still. Bad decision, Past Me.)

Well, I should get off to bed. Class starts at 9:15 tomorrow and it's nearly midnight. I'm gonna look through my French guidebook for stuff to do in Arles and Avignon, read a chapter of my book (it was sooo hard to stop after one chapter last night, but I did it!), and then zonk out. I'm exhausted.

Dear Lord, I love the English language.

So. Today. C'etait pas mal. But it certainly wasn't good either.

Class lasted forever. FOREVER. We got there at ten and didn't leave until quarter of four, except for our hour-long lunch break. I went with five other people to a little café. They all got croque monsieurs, which looked delicious. (For those of you not familiar with French café food, a croque monsieur is a buttery ham sandwich with cheese melted on the top, served hot. It's probably the only sandwich you eat with a knife and fork.) I got a cheese sandwich. It was Swiss cheese, which is probably one of my least favorite cheeses, so that wasn't so great. But the bread was DELICIOUS. Toward the end I contemplated just eating the bread and leaving the cheese, but I didn't know if that would be some kind of terrible French faux pas. Oh, well.

After class, I went to the store (I forget the name, but it was a super-store type: clothes, groceries, cosmetics, stationary, etc.) to get notebooks and folders for class. After that, Amanda and Kelly and I went on an unsuccessful quest for chocolate. (I know, you're saying, unsuccessful? In France? How can that be? Well, I didn't want to pay like €4 for a piece of chocolate, that's how.)

I returned home, once again struggled with opening the front door, managed to open it this time, and gracelessly blundered into the apartment to find that there was company. I probably made a fantastic first impression, what with my hair all crazy from the strong wind and my face all red and sweaty from power-walking from the opposite end of the Presqu'île, but whatever. At any rate, I went to my room to do some work. That was, oh, four hours ago, and I still haven't managed to accomplish much in the way of homework. To be fair, some of that time was taken up by dinner. The company I mentioned earlier included three young kids who are staying here through next week. They're really cute, but they totally own me in terms of the French language. (Sorry, Nicole, if you're reading this. I know you hate that phrase - "in terms of" - and I totally didn't use it on purpose, I swear.) The oldest, Edgar, corrected me at dinner. It's depressing and inspiring at the same time - depressing because this nine-year-old speaks both French and English and can correct my French grammar, inspiring because if he can by bilingual at the age of nine, then by God, I can accomplish it at age 20.

The two girls are younger and SO CUTE. I was sitting in my room doing work and they came in to see me. Brune, the six-year-old, was enjoying making the cursor move on my laptop, and she was having a ball when I let her type letters onto my desktop stickies. (If you aren't familiar with Macs - hi, Mom - stickies are like virtual post-its on your desktop.) Anyway, Brune was loving that. She also seemed to enjoy asking me who the people were in the pictures on my desk. Meanwhile, Olympe (4) climbed right up next to me on the chair, and both girls recited their full names for me. It was adorable.

As far as improving my French goes, I'm still trying. At Corinne (my host mothers)'s suggestion, I write down new words every night - sometimes things I heard during the day, sometimes things I wanted to say but didn't know the words for, and sometimes things I just find while flipping through the dictionary. It's come in handy a couple times already, but my reading last night nearly doubled the size of the vocab list and I can't remember half of the words. Or, worse yet, I see a word and realize that I know what it means, but for the life of me, I can't remember. Of course, then I just look in my notebook again, so ce n'est pas grâve, I guess.

This weekend (Easter weekend), I'm traveling to the south of France with Kelly and Amanda, two other girls in my group. (Amanda is actually one of my sorority sisters; we were in the same pledge class.) It sounds like my family in the States will be having nicer weather, though - the forecasts for Arles and Avignon call for rain and temperatures in the 60s. Temp-wise, it's not bad, but the weather could be nicer. But the forecast has said rain for the past three days, and while it does rain hard at times, it's just cloudy for most of the time and sometimes the sun even comes out (sometimes at the same time as the rain, which is what happened this afternoon. I looked for a rainbow, but no luck.). Either way, it's gonna be roughly ten degrees warmer than Lyon, and I can definitely get on board with that.

Unfortunately, it's looking like pretty much all the hostels in Arles are booked up, what with it being a holiday weekend (a long weekend here in France - we get Easter Monday off. Hooray for Catholic countries!) and Arles being famous for its bullfights (particularly its Easter bullfights, I understand). We've got Friday and Saturday covered, but we still need one for Sunday night. Got any ideas? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

I'm not sure how I feel about the bullfights. It would be cool to see one, I guess, but I'm pretty sure I'm morally opposed to them. Plus, I don't want to make Amanda go by herself (Kelly's not sure she feels up to seeing the bullfights, either). But still, moral opposition is a pretty legitimate trump card, right? It's why I've gotten away with not trying any meaty food here.

Besides, Amanda says that the Arles bullfights don't kill the bull (which I definitely would not be able to handle), but still, the idea of antagonizing some animal just for fun...I don't know if it's something I can get behind/monetarily support (with my €16 admission fee).

Arg, it's 23:03 (11 pm). I should really get to work on my grammar homework and then go to sleep. As a reward for getting through another day without any major incidents, I'm going to allow myself to read one chapter of my book. I was reading 2-4 chapters a night, but I realized that at that rate I'm going to run out of fun (read: English) books really quickly. So one chapter it is. I doubt I'll stick with it. I was thinking of maybe trying to find a French translation of a familiar English book in a librairie (here, a librairie is a bookstore and a bibliothèque is a library) and reading that. It would be educational but kind of fun, since I'd already have a basic idea of what I was reading and I wouldn't be getting graded on it.

And my English books are pretty much the only bedtime chill-out activity I have these days. Journal-writing is more of an exercise than a relaxing activity now that I'm journaling in French, and it takes me so long to look things up in the dictionary (yes, I'm old-school, no online-translator journaling for me - I learn better this way) that by the time I've done all the set-up for the anecdote I'm about to tell, I'm too tired (lazy?) to finish up. And then I proceed to read four chapters of my book. Bof.

Anyway, that's why I'm really liking the blog right about now. It's a nice outlet for my feelings/thoughts and a good record of my time in Lyon (more dependable than my journal, considering how terrible my French is). But now I really need to get to work, since there's only an hour left in the day and I still have some grammar work to do. (It's not a heck of a lot, but I should probably get started on my Thursday reading as well. And we still have to find a hostel for Sunday night. And I need to get back to Amanda about the bullfighting. Argggg, too much to do, too little time!!!)

La vie en France: It's all about the numbers

1 = number of phones I bought today (hurrah! phone-less no more!)

2 = the amount of phone numbers I have for said phone (it has to do with SIM cards and getting 5 € of free pay-as-you-go minutes...that's all.)

45 = minutes I spent sitting in McDonald's outdoor café today

4 = number of times I was asked for money by people begging as I sat outside ("Je n'ai pas des espèces! Je suis desolée!").

1,90 € = cost of a McDonald's cheeseburger in France (about $2.55 in the US)

1 = number of items on the French McDonald's menu called a "Chicken Shake" (We think it's like a shake-and-bake kind of deal: chicken with breadcrumbs and spices.)

1.5 = hours I spent in McDonald's taking advantage of the free wifi to plan potential spring break trips (Greece! Et peut-être les autres pays!)

5 = number of tries it took me to unlock the door to the apartment, even with my host mother coaching me from the other side

3 = number of pages I have to read (in French, obviously) before tomorrow

4 = days until my first potential trip out of Lyon (peut-être to the south of France! Ooh là là!)

8 = days until my birthday (just deposit the money in my bank account, thanks) =)

Day Two

So it turns out that yesterday when we arrived in the midst of a warm and sunny, albeit windy day, it was just Lyon lulling us into a false sense of security because today it is POURING. And thundering. And we have to lug our stuff all the way back to Lyon Part-Dieu, which involves a few blocks of walking and riding the tramway for several stops. Boo. Accuweather says we should have a two hour window of no rain between 1 and 3 pm (or, if you wanna get all French about it, 13h00 and 15h00), so hopefully we can make that work.

So far, though, I'm liking this trip. The hostel is really nice, aside from the fact that we don't have any hot water (or warm water. Or lukewarm water.), and I like the city. From what I can tell so far, it has a different vibe than American cities.

We haven't done a lot of real sightseeing yet, although we did walk around yesterday after getting dinner at a boulangerie et patisserie (bakery and pastry shop). I got cheese quiche and flan. The guy who worked there was very nice and didn't speak English, which forced us to use our French. He helped us out, though.

We walked around a little before heading back to the hostel for the night around 6. I stayed up until 11, though, to try and establish a normal sleeping pattern. I woke up around 8:15 this morning, so so far, so good. I'm a little tired still, but nothing a good night's sleep tonight won't fix. Hopefully.

I'm meeting my host family this afternoon. I'm still pretty nervous about this, since I don't feel like I have enough conversational French to really get to know anyone. Although I'm already realizing that I can get by with my French in public, so maybe I'm not as incompetent as I think.

Well, I should probably get up and get ready so I can head down to breakfast before it ends in an hour. And then I should figure out the best way to lug my stuff around so that both it and myself are not soaked through by the time we reach our destination.

Switzerland FTW

Zurich's airport had...
- 2 establishments boasting chocolate fountains
- complimentary chocolates on board every Swiss Air flight
- a Toblerone store that practically hits you in the face upon entering the airport
- no less than five chocolatiers offering free samples (truffles, Toblerone, fondue, nougat, etc.)
- a giant statue of a unicorn
- the cleanest, nicest-smelling bathrooms I have ever had the pleasure of using
- a view of the Alps
- did I mention the chocolate?

Lyon's airport had
- a shuttle whose radio was playing Tik Tok by Ke$ha.

I think we all know who wins this one. Je suis desolée, France.