I've been in Lyon for three weeks now, and I definitely feel as if I know the place. Getting around is easy and I am still in awe of all the beautiful architecture that is around every corner.
After having all of my classes at least once, I can say that school will probably be on the easy side. I am most excited about my Art and Architecture class. We pretty much just go around to museums and other places and look at art. I've already been to a couple places (like the museum of the Lumiere brothers who made the first movies) but you can never spend too much time in a museum. Some people may beg to differe, but I love history and knowledge.
On a different note, I have now done laundry twice. Laundry is a....fun experience. There are two washers and one working dryer. I heard the dryers don't even work that well. Both times, I have had to hang all of my clothes around my room; on my heater (the best place for them to dry), on my desk, hangers, door, pretty much anything that will allow them to hang. The downside (besides having my "laundry aired" literally) is that this creates humidity in my room and it fogs up my windows, Titanic style. Just kidding. I can open my window up, but then I let in cold air, and that's not really the best for drying laundry. I definitely do miss some things from the US.
I've also been to a lot of outings/events in these last two weeks. One of them was an international event. It felt like more of a fund raiser or something. Apparently it was some sort of international club that they have in Lyon. The ages ranged from 70's to my age. They had wine there and also a bunch of different cheeses. I definitley enjoyed all the cheese and the bread to go along. Free food - I'm there. I went with two girls I met, who live in the United States, Katie and Lauren. Katie ended up becoming friends with a french girl who invited us over for dinner the following week.
At that dinner, we had Lyonnais food. We started with a Lyonnais salad, which is a poached egg on top of lettuce and I think ham. There was also a really good vinaigrette sauce on it. Then, we had potatoes and deli meets with melted cheese on top of it. They call this cheese Raclette, and the girl who's house we were at, had this contraption in which you put a piece of cheese on a little plastic spatula like thing. Then, you put that in this oven-like warmer, like you would put a pizza in a brick oven fire, except much smaller and electric. It thens heats up your cheese, and then you pull it out and put the gooey, delicious cheese on top of your potato/meat. It was just plain awesome.
I also was able to watch the NFL playoffs at St. James Pub again. I had to watch the SF-NYG game on my computer and wasn't able to stay up late enough to see the end. I hate how the games come on so late over here. The Super Bowl will not be fun, as it starts at 12:30 at night, but I will watch the whole thing, even if I need to chug some energy drinks.
I've also found a church that speaks English. I visited them last Sunday. The service is a little old school (catholic/episcopalian) but not bad. I've found another one that I will try out tomorrow.
After going to church last sunday, I wondered around the city some more, finding my way to Notre Dame du Fourviere. I have wanted to go there since I stepped foot here, but just had not made it there. The cathedral sits up on a hill, and you can see it from anywhere in the city. The main chapel area is closed until March for restoration, but I was still able to go inside a lower chapel area and get a look around. I also snapped some photos from the outside.
I also made it to the Galo-Roman ruins, which is not very far from the cathedral. I was excited to see those as well. There are two ampitheaters there along with other ruins. It was so cool to be walking on and touching the same stones that people did thousands of years ago. It just kind of blows my mind. I was literally walking through history and touching it.
The IBP also had an event during which we ate some "Galette de Rois." Translated, it means Kings cake, and it is something that people have in January, usually the 6, to celebrate the coming of the three Kings. They bake a little figurine into the cake, and whoever finds/eats the piece with the figure gets to wear the crown. There were lots of cakes at our event, so lots of people got crowns. I found one of the figurines. I bit into a piece of cake, only to find something hard obstructin my bite. My figure happened to be a little baby Jesus lying in a manger. I felt a little bad for biting Jesus. I ended up eating a lot of cake/bread that they had. It was pretty good. It's not like cake that we have in the US, but it was more like a flaky~apple tasting thing. Food is so hard to describe. Again, you give me free food, and I will take advantage of it.
Also, me and the American girls had a pizza night last Friday. One of the girls has an oven where she lives, so we bought pizza, french fries, and these awesome chocolate covered waffle things for dessert. Yes, I know, very American. After figuring out how to use the oven, we were able to cook the pizzas that tasted pretty dang good. We ended up talking, eating, and playing card games until 3 in the morning. Lauren asked me if this is what I pictured myself doing in France, and I had to say that it was not something I had thought of haha. On a side note, the American girls call me "The Navigator" as I end up leading them anywhere that we go. Yeah, I know Lyon like the back of my hand. The same cannot be said for others.
This past week, I received a package from home. I forgot some of my snowboard stuff, so my mom sent it to me, and I was able to pick it up. I am so pumped to go snowboarding in the Alps! Only a week and two days now. I was also excited to hear that my mom had booked her flight to Paris. I am going to meet her there just after I am done with school. I am so happy to see her realize one of her dreams. I would like to be able to show her Lyon (my stomping grounds), but I just don't think that is going to happen.
So far, I am loving being in Lyon. I hope to take it in even more; become one with the French. One of my teachers made a really great point. She said that you don't know your culture until you leave it. I totally agree with her. You don't really know your culture until you leave it and see how it is different than other cultures. She also asked if we feel like we are more our nationality here than before. I have to say that I definitely feel American. Sometimes I wonder if it is tatooed on my forehead (I hope they can't tell I'm American that easy).
I am lucky that English is the world language. Everyone here knows at least two, if not three or four languages. It almost feels arrogant to know only English. It's like saying, "Yeah, I know my laguage is the dominant one, and that you have to learn English and I don't have to learn anything." At least I know enough French to get by, but I am still a long ways off of where I would like to be. I really hope my French will improve while I am here. I will also be forcing my child to take another language as a kid, whether it be French, Spanish, whatever. It is definitely better to be bi-lingual.
I took a good step towards being French today. I got myself a jersey of the local team, Olympique Lyonnais, as well as tickets to a game. I can't wait to see how the French do football. I will definitley be brushing up on my "football" knowledge while I am here. GOOOOAAALLLLL!
P.S. Yes, I know this was long, and I will try to update my blog quicker to prevent such things from happening again.....I hope.
Great post!
ReplyDelete