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.

Crazy ACTION-PACKED weekend adventures

Well, hello there. It's Monday night, I have to finish some schoolwork (including hand-writing a page-long response to my reading, Camus's "L'hôte"), but since my weekend was, as the title of this entry suggests, JAM-PACKED with ACTION and ADVENTURE, I wanted to get it out there before I forget it all. (Also, for the first time, I'm going to post pictures here before I post them on facebook. Blog readers, prepare to feel all privileged and exclusive and whatnot.)

Anyway, we ended up getting out of class a bit early on Friday (at noontime instead of 13:45) so I had plenty of time to return to the apartment and deposit my stuff from class before our 15:24 train to Arles. After that, I spent a fair amount of time trekking around the city with my overnight bag trying to remember how to get to Gare de Lyon Part-Dieu (the train station). Eventually I made it to the café where Kelly and Amanda, my fellow travelers, were sitting outside having lunch with some of our classmates. I bought a pizza from the boulangerie next door only to discover that it was not vegetarian (I thought it tasted like ham; the meat-eaters in the group who ate it after I offered it to them told me it was salmon. I haven't eaten meat for like 8 years, though, so what do I know?) Anyway, I finally managed to get quiche, a lemon tart, and some Orangina from across the street, so it all worked out okay.

We caught the train to Arles with no problems. The countryside on the way down was beautiful - picturesque towns perched on hills by the river, newly-planted fields stretching out to the horizon, clumps of barely-green trees flying past the windows. We arrived in Arles three hours later and were immediately thrown into the midst of Feria, or the Easter Festival. Arles goes absolutely nuts during this time, with extra bullfights, a carnival, lots of music, and tons of food. We walked around and immediately saw the ancient Roman arena where bullfights are still held today. It was smack-dab in the middle of the city and pretty un-missable:

The ancient Roman arena located in the center of Arles

After that, we set off to look for a restaurant Kelly had read about as being vegetarian/vegan-friendly (a big draw for us, since I'm vegetarian, Kelly's vegan, and Amanda's open-minded). We finally found it after circling around for quite awhile (which ended up being a common theme of our time in Arles). All the restaurants were cooking giant pans of paella outside in the street, and ours was no exception; the man cooking offered us some little shellfish from the paella, but what with our dietary quirks Amanda was the only one who took him up on his offer. We got dinner (and I got my first sangria - it was very different from what I'd expected, as there was cinnamon in it) and ate it sitting on the wall of a fountain in the square. Afterwards, we walked around Arles for awhile, admiring the scenery (gardens, churches, carnival, Roman theatre ruins) and cheerfully embracing the sketchiness ("Americans! You are welcome!" - random guy in group full of random guys) until we almost got pickpocketed (we think), at which point we didn't enjoy it quite so much.

At any rate, around 8:30 or 9:00 we started to search for the youth hostel we were staying at for the night, and our search took us past Les Alyscamps, an old burial ground just outside of Arles. There was a large crowd gathered at the gates, which was a little out of the ordinary because Les Alyscamps closes at night. We were standing nearby wondering what was going on when a woman came up to us and explained half in French, half in English that they were about to pray a vigil on account of its being Good Friday. She invited us to join them, which we debated for a little while, not wanting to be disrespectful and intrude, and also not wanting to have to leave early and interrupt the procession. When we explained that the curfew for the hostel was 11, the woman told us that we could leave early if we needed to, and that all we had to do was tell her and she'd open the gate for us and let us out. "It'll be an interesting experience," we decided, and we joined the group. It was pretty cool. We sang with the rest of the group and there were readings about the Passion as we prayed the Stations of the Cross. We left about five stations in to get to the hostel, and the man who ended up letting us out pointed us in the right direction.

We made it to the hostel, got our sheets, and made up our beds. Towels for the shower cost 50 cents, so we actually split one towel between the three of us, each paying a grand total of about 17 cents (yay for penny-pinching!). The room at the hostel was actually not bad at all, and we had it to ourselves for awhile until two Italian girls joined us. They went out again almost immediately though, so we had the room all to ourselves until we went to bed.

Our room at l'auberge de jeunesses (the youth hostel)

The next morning we woke up very early in the hopes that we could catch the bus to Le Parc Ornithologique de Pont de Gau, a bird park in the Camargue (the region of France around the Rhône river delta). We ran literally all the way across the city to the train station (where the bus supposedly left from) only to read on a sign that the stop was now in front of the Monoprix (a supermarket chain) down the street. We ran to the Monoprix, where another lady waiting for the bus told us we wanted to be back at the train station. We said no, we'd just come from there. The bus driver then told us we wanted to be at Clemencau, in the middle of the city. We headed for Clemencau and promptly got lost and had to ask some street-sweepers for directions. They were really nice and just walked us there. But because it was Feria, the Clemencau stop was closed. We finally figured out that the stop we wanted was actually only about a 5 minute walk from our hostel, and that we had just run around for half an hour for nothing. Needless to say, we missed the bus, but it ended up being all right, since we were up early enough to spend all morning at the open-air market (which only takes place on Saturdays). We got some breakfast and strolled around, browsing and occasionally buying things. I bought the best-smelling tea in the world from a spice-and-tea stand.

Tea at the market. The one I bought is in the front row, six from the left (almost out of frame). It's green and blue and awesome.

After the market, we visited a few of the sights in Arles, including Espace Van Gogh, a former hospital where the artist stayed that is now a museum dedicated to his work (I think that's the story, anyway), the church and cloister of St. Tromphime, a couple of art galleries, and the remains of some Roman public baths. We got some ice cream at a place called Soleileis, which Amanda's guidebook had recommended as having the most interesting flavors in Arles. (I got "fagoli" - honey, nougatine, and olive oil. It was pretty good, too.) They had sorbet, too, so Kelly was able to have some dessert as well. After that, Kelly and I dropped Amanda off at the Corrida (bullfight) and went to a café, where we sat for two hours resting our feet, doing some reading (Kelly), and taking advantage of the free wifi (me, using Kelly's ipod). We arrived to pick up Amanda from the Corrida just in time to watch the dead bull get dragged out of the arena by its horns (ewwwww) and to see the bullfighters leave the arena being begged for autographs by adoring fans, which led us to wonder: what do bullfighters do when they're not bullfighting? They have celebrity status so I'm sure they make excellent money - definitely enough to live on - but, as Kelly said, "Do they just go around Europe traveling from ancient arena to ancient arena?" It's a mystery.

We picked up Amanda, got food, walked around, got more food, and then went back to the hostel for the night, exhausted from our early morning. We went to bed before midnight and got up early (once again) to go to the Camargue. This time we actually made it to the bus in time, and we arrived at the bird park about 20 minutes before it opened. We spent the time walking around the fairly deserted stretch of road on which the park was situated, watching some water birds in the surrounding marsh lands (we'd already seen some flamingos - which are native to the Camargue - from the bus) and watching a dog "herd" horses on a nearby farm. We got into the park just as it opened and started walking. We weren't very far along the trail when the man walking up ahead of us whistled and yelled something to us in French. We couldn't figure out what was going on until we realized he was trying to show us this:

Mystery creature at the bird park.

I thought it was a muskrat but that idea was soundly denounced by everyone else present (including some British tourists), since they all said it was some sort of beaver. While we were watching, another one jumped right out of the water and ambled right past us, not seeming to care that we were there. It was pretty cool.

Also cool were the flamingos. I'd expected to only see a few, and probably from a distance, but they were EVERYWHERE, and they were LOUD.

Me and only a few of the flamingos we saw.

We went through maybe only one-third or half the park, since we really wanted to get to Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer (on the Mediterranean) before we continued on to Avignon. So after some debate about how best to get there (there was no bus during the time we wanted), we started walking. We had been assured by the woman in the tourism office in Arles that the walk was "very easy," only about 2 kilometers. WRONG. The walk from the park to Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer is actually 5 kilometers (just over three miles), which gave rise to all kinds of other adventures. Upon fianlly arriving, we headed straight for the Mediterranean, which was a bit underwhelming in the the clouds and drizzle, although on the beach we did get to chat a bit with an American couple from Wisconsin (and I put my feet in the Mediterranean!)

It was a tad chilly. And there was a spot on my camera lens, apparently.

We walked around a little and got lunch at one of the many restaurants near the sea before catching the bus back to Arles to get the train to Avignon. And, I kid you not, literally as soon as we got to the bus stop the sun came out and the town was bright and sunny and beautiful. I bet the Mediterranean wasn't underwhelming then.

We arrived in Arles in late afternoon and promptly discovered that the YMCA where we had reservations was waaaayyy outside of town. In lieu of trekking all the way there/being a slave to the bus schedule, we decided instead to just fork over a few Euros and stay at a cheap hotel in town. We found one, Hôtel du Park, a block or two away from the tourism office, and, not feeling like running around comparing prices, just booked a room there. (75 € altogether for the three of us - not bad.) We were a little concerned about what the quality of the room would be, since the reception area was rather dark and smelled like stale cigarettes, but the room was actually very cute and bright. We dropped off our stuff, changed into clothes that were more weather-appropriate (it had warmed up a lot since the morning), and headed out into Avignon. The first thing we did was visit the Palais des Papes (Popes' Palace), which was, to say the least, intense:

Not a very good picture, but to conserve my camera battery I'd shut off the viewer screen, which made centering, etc. pretty difficult.

We toured the palace and got dinner afterwards after searching for a vegetarian restaurant Kelly had heard about. (It was unfortunately closed due to its being Easter.) We ate at another place in town and then went to a place called Festival des Glaces to get tea and chocolates (Kelly), some hot chocolate (Amanda), and chocolate ice cream (me). We chilled there for awhile before going back to the hotel room, where we read and did homework for awhile before going to bed early.

We slept in this morning (until like 9:00...heaven!) and then headed out to a couple museums - the Musée Lapidaire, a museum of archaeological finds from Greece, Egypt, and the Roman Empire, and then to Musée Calvet, an art museum located in a renovated 18th-century mansion. After that, we visited the bridge commonly known as the Pont d'Avignon, which was largely destroyed by floods in the 1600s. As per French tradition, we sang the Pont d'Avignon song and danced on the bridge, despite the fact that we were all wearing skirts and the wind was super-intense.

A few minutes before setting foot on the Pont d'Avignon. You can get an idea of how windy it was by looking at our hair. (Well, my hair.)

After the Pont d'Avignon, we ate some lunch and got some more ice cream before catching the train back to Lyon at 16:12. And now I'm back in my room, in Lyon, wearing clothes that I haven't been wearing, in some form or another, for the past three days. (It's lovely.) I really do need to be getting down to work on my journal response, though, so I'd better wrap this up. Until tomorrow (which is my birthday, I just realized now), au revoir!

View of Avignon from the top of the Palais des Papes

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.

It's hard to write a title when your post is this random.

Oh, well, look, isn't the Dartmouth campus just beautiful all covered in snow after yesterday's first snow of the season?

No. No, it is not.

I have come to the conclusion that there is a distinct difference between snowing and just plain snow. I like the former. The latter can go straight to Hades. (I know that that's not possible for snow, being melty and all. But I can fantasize.)

So while last night was beautiful and all silent-night-holy-night-y, today I'm left with some dirty gray crud all over the ground, making it impossible to walk anywhere without running the risk of slipping and falling and looking like a tool that hasn't lived in New England for the past 20-odd years.

Before the snow came along to liven up my travels with all the risks associated with walking on it, however, I had to find other ways to entertain myself as I walked around campus. "Haven't you ever heard of an iPod, Renée?" you might say. Well yes, snarky inquisitor, I have. But it's hard to listen to your iPod when you consistently leave it at home. And while phone calls are a good way to pass the time, they don't work so well when the potential recipient of your call is already most likely asleep. (No good conversation begins with, "Did I wake you up?" "...Yes.")

At any rate, I had to make my own traveling fun. And so I came up with the following: three word movie summaries. Try it the next time you're in line to badger Santa with your increasingly selfish and elaborate list of Christmas demands. It's actually quite challenging and relatively amusing. (Not as amusing as, say, a phone call or a Lady Gaga song, but whatever.)

Pride and Prejudice: First impressions lie.
The Princess Bride: True love forever!
The Silence of the Lambs: Cannibals know everything.
Bend It Like Beckham: Hey! Soccer's fun!
Dune: Get the spice!
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End: What. The. Hell.
Pursuit of Happyness: Being poor sucks.
I Am Legend: I am angsty.
Crash: Everyone is racist.
Atonement: Liars kill people.
Roman Holiday: Italy is romantic.

See? Fun! And simple! I need simplicity after the term from hell. And finals. And after writing my literary theory paper about class consciousness and patriarchy in Gilmore Girls. Seriously, I will never be able to watch a Friday Night Dinner scene again without contemplating Rory's deep entrenchment in the middle class. I think I may have ruined (for the foreseeable future, anyway) this show for myself. Or made it more interesting. I'm not sure yet.

At any rate, I'm finished until March (woohoo!), at which point I will begin taking all my classes in French (oh $#!%). The bright side to that is that I'll actually be in France, which is I guess sort of a consolation prize for the major confusion I will be most likely be suffering at that time.

And Christmas is coming! The goose is getting fat! Please put a penny in the old man's hat! (What, really? I'm the only one that knows that song?) Except if you're going to put a penny anywhere, could you maybe put it in my Bank of America account? Kappa Delta dues really cleaned me out this term.

If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do. And as the song says (I'm paraphrasing here), if you haven't got a ha'penny get the hell out of the way, you're of no use to me.

Aaaannnd merry Christmas.