Coming into the home stretch...

Well it is December - I only have 2 classes and 4 finals left for school. Things are ramping up and winding down. On Monday & tuesday I have my last 2 classes then it's a bunch of studying.

On Saturday I had my first real adventure outside of Lyon. It didn't involve washing dishes - I went to Avignon with one of my friends. It was really neat. First - I got to drive. I haven't driven since the end of August & I had never driven in France. The last time I drove in a foreign country (Czech Republic) I got pulled over & the policeman took all of my money. That didn't happen yesterday. I also didn't kill anyone and we all made it in 1 piece. I did get my picture taken - flashed - a couple of times because I was speeding - but good luck finding me... All in all it was a successful trip. It was 2 hours away. The day started off kind of chilly but it was a sunny day. Since we were further south it was a little warmer. Avignon is a walled city. One of the popes built the walls. It is one of the best examples of tourets and something else still standing in the world. Like everything else here it was really old. They have a palace of the popes there. In 1309 (700 years ago!!!) a pope (Clement V) built a castle/palace and in 100 years 9 popes lived there and the castle expanded. In the 1400's there was a fire & then the church turned over the property right before the Feench Revolution. It only took 29 years to build - Amazing since some of the walls are 17ft thick. I learned a lot of things. Like the pope was the only person allowed to have his own knife during dinner parties. Also you were only allowed to eat the food that was directly around you - no passing. The dinner parties were between 4 and 9 courses. In 1352 the papal mass for All Saints Day was held there. During a papal installation ceremony dinner they used 39,000 eggs - lots of other stuff too but I only remember the number of eggs for some reason. We toured the palace - it was nice. It was also the first place that let me use my student card to get a discount - I finally wasn't too old to get it!

There was also a bridge there. It starts across the Rhone river but after a great flood - much more than half of it disappeared & I guess they just never fixed it.

When we got back to Lyon - this weekend is the fete des lumieres. The festival of lights. People create light installations on buildings & stuff. There are like 2 or 3 million people here to see it. Too many people in my opinion. What I saw I wasn't impressed with but I didn't really see much. On Tuesday the 8th is the official day so I will see what I can see then. Hopefully all of the tourists will be gone.

Sunday - today... We were supposed to go watch fireworks but it was raining so we didn't go. Annabelle made an onion tart for dinner. It was really good. It's not something I would have done on my own - but it really worked. All that was in it was a crust, onions, cheese & black olives. Simple but delicious! Then we started hanging up Christmas decorations.

More later... Happy St. Nick's Day!

38 days...

For anyone who reads this - that means that I can still recieve mail or packages or money for the next 38 days! just putting it out there. I am thankful - please don't get me wrong. Very thankful for those of you have sent me things or helped me out - but I am still here for 5 1/2 more weeks! That's all. Happy Thanksgiving!!! It will just be thursday here.

Friday...

It was one of the girls' birthdays so we had a little surprise party at her apartment. My surprise was the Red Bull & Vodka I decided to buy. It did the trick. I am so late to the pre drinking thing. I wish I knew about it much earlier in life. When you don't have an in with the bartender - it can cut your drinking budget in half!! Its amazing all of the important things I am learning over here!! So we went out & it was a good night. SO good I didn't really get out of bed the next day. Needless to say we decided to postpone the hockey game for another 2 weeks.

I am starting to realize that I am running out of time here. I already know that I have run out of money but as of today (11/25) I only have 38 days left. Its going by fast. Some days too fast - others not fast enough. I bring this up because there is a list of things that I would like to do before I leave. My roommate Annabelle is from Lyon. She has lived here all her life - with the exception of the year she spent in Australia. Anyways I ask her questions about stuff to do here all the time & it turns out that she has never been or seen or done them - so I am turning her into a tourist here in Lyon as well. Its good, she gives me inside information about where the cheap stuff is or how to get places. Its like having my own personal tour guide.

Algerians...

Monday was an awesome day. I was messing around on line & then I checked the school website only to discover that my class was cancelled. Damn - that's so sad. Well it was like 70 degrees and not raining for once so we went to the park. It has a zoo in it. It was really neat to see all of the animals & the gardens - on such a beautiful day.

Tuesday - I had another French test. Not going to comment on it. There were some surprises though.

Wednesday - Another class was cancelled today - more sadness... There was a bus trip organized by the school to Beajoulais for the Beajoulais Nouveau celebration. I really wanted to go but the tickets were sold out before I could get one. Oh well. So I wen tout for dinner with some of my friends. While we were walking from Bellecour to the restaurant we noticed that there were alot of police out. Tey also happened to be dressed up in their full riot gear. Wierd but that didn't stop us from finding soething to eat. It was at a "traditional' Lyonaise buchon. I had a salad Lyonaise & a steak with some pepper sauce. It was pretty good. After dinner we went to a bar to watch the France vs. Ireland match for the a spot in the 2010 World Cup. THe bar was crowded & I couldn't really see the tv - except to see Ireland score. I left at halftime. On the way back home it became evident to me why exatly the police were dressed up... that night also the Algerian's were playing Egypt in Sudan for another spot in the wold cup. Well aparently the Saturday before when they played the Egyptians attacked the Algerians. There were 17 people killed (fans) and 3 of the players were injured from rocks being thrown at their heads. Well the match ended with an Algerian victory around 8:30. It was about 10 when I left the restaurant and before I got to Bellecour you could hear all of the cheering. There were people running in the streets with Algerian flags on. They were driving their cars all crazy in the street honking their horns and blaring their music with flags tied to their cars or haanging out the window. When we got to Bellecour -that's when it got scary. There were so many people. They were burning things in the square, they were all over the place & just yelling & being loud. Poeple were blocking traffic in their cars & standing all in the street. It was like a car wreck, you didn' want to stand there in watch but you couldn't help yourself. I decided that it was a good time to get on the Metro. I would rather get home before them :) So that's what I did.

Thursday - I heard that there were a total of 20 cars burned by the Algerians in Lyon the night before. I can't even imagine what would have happened if they lost. So today was the first officialy day of the Beajoulais Nouveau. I went to celebrate with my friends. I was told that it would be like a free pub crawl - it wasn't free & the wine wasn't that good. So we we ended up finding some cotton cavity instead & watching all of the drunk frenchies. Then it was time to go home before the Metro stopped running. All & all a good night.

Gargoyles

On Saturday Annabelle & I went on a walking tour in Lyon. It was to see the gargoyles that are on the various buildings around Lyon. They were mostly on and inside the 3 main churches. It was very interesting. I learned more about the history of Lyon. I didn't know that the gargoyles were used as gutters and thier life span is only about 150- 200 years. Most of the ones now are purely used as decoration and have no legit purpose. It was still neat to see them. The ones inside of the Cahedral St. Jean were really neat. I don't know how long it took someone to find them & the stories that went along with them were really cool too. It's really amazing how old this place is.

Sunday I went to Annabelle's family's house for dinner. They are so nice. I guess after Annabelle told them that I was moving in with her they were curious about me. She told them about all of the problems I've had since I 've been here - but I am sure that they were still concerned. I would have been too. Well they were great. We had a wonderful meal. I had pumpkin gratin for the first time & it was really good. Her mom is a great cook. Then we went to see 2012. It was in French & I didn't understand most of the dialogue but I got what was happening. I just didn't know why. So after the movie she filled me in. It was a great day but it made me miss my family.

It's been a while - Sorry...

Ok so school is still boring - not much to update. I don't think anybody really wants to hear about that anyways.

Other stuff... It rains too much here but I'd rather have rain than snow. its not cold enough for that yet anyways but its been cold & rainy for the most part. Last Satuurday I went to a tiny tiny cafe to watch Annabelle's advisor play with his band. He is also an english teacher and his songs were in english. It was good - just cramped. Then I met some of my friends for a birthday celebration. I only intended to stay out for a little while but I ended up getting home around 6am. That way I just waited for the Metro to start running again & I didnt have to take a cab. It was fun but a long night. Sunday I didn't do much & was very lazy which set the mood for the rest of the week. I felt like I was coming down with something but it has yet to turn into anything. I just feel shitty & tired & very unmotivated.

This weekend I am going to meet Annabelle's family. They invited me over for dinner on Sunday. Should be fun - I'm looking forward to it.

New Address

Here is my new address in case anybody wants to send me anything...

Please address it to Annabelle Kay - otherwise the mailman won't know what to do with it. You can put my name on it somewhere, just not the first line please.

Annabelle Kay
29 rue des charmettes
69100 Villeurbanne
FRANCE

Thanks!!

Fall Break

Well this past week we had Fall Break. It was nice to have a week off of school. I wish I had the rest of the weeks off too. I think that I learn more when I don't go to school & the lessons that I've learned so far this trip they can't teach in school. Anyways -I decided that it was going to be in my best interest to find a new place to live. I met a French girl - Annabelle - when we first got here. She is really nice, she is an english teacher - in a middle school right now. Well when I told her that I was looking for a place to stay she offered to let me stay at her place. I decided to take her up on it. So this week while I didn't have school, I moved. I didn't want to let my old landloards know until I was almost done moving because I didn't know how they were going to react so I made many trips with my yellow duffel bag on the train. When I wasn't moving, I was playing tourist in Lyon. It turned out to be a lot of fun!!! Who Knew! On Tuesday I found a really big market & they have all kinds of things - it's like the 7 mile fair - but good! Then I went & checked out Fourvier, the basillica here. It was really gorgeous. It is up on top of a big hill & the weather was beautiful as well. Then on Thursday there was a thing for all of the regional producers of stuff here in the Rhone Alps region. They all brought all of their artisinal things so we could eat & drink them for free. Well it turns out that I was quite tipsy before lunch - and that was after going through only 1 tent. It was awesome. I tried olives, escargot, cheeses, jellies & jams, bread, fruit and of course wine. Great afternoon. Then like the day couldn't have gotten any better, my friend called me & told me there was another wine tasting even across town!! After I slept off a little of what I did that morning, I was ready to go again. The Salon des Vins is a ot of the independent wine producers in France have booths set up. I believe that there were over 450 booths - ALL WITH FREE WINE. Not just one kind either! Now it was humanly impossible to taste all of the wines that night so I had to go back again on Friday. Some of the wines were good, alot of them were watery - kind of wierd. I was starting to scare myself - I think I am turning into a little bit of a wine snob. I was easily picking out the smells in the wines. It was wierd - but cool. I didn't know that I knew all that stuff about wine. Anyways that adventure made for 2 good nights out.

Today is Saturday - my first whole day in the new place & Annabelle and I are going to buy some groceries. I think we will be celebrating with a pizza this evening. I have some wine that I bought -I know its going to be good!!

Happy Halloween!

From Mosquito Bites to Frostbite

For the last 2 weeks I haven't updated my blog - there haven't been many good things to say. Hopefully I am experiencing a turnaround. I am in the process if moving again this week & hope to be settled by the weekend. It is going to be much better from here on out. I am making a concious decison for it to be this way...

Since I have had such a hard time lately I have been composing a list of "good" things about this place in my head. They are the following:

1. Duplo Bars - Delicious!

2. I get to sleep in. My earliest class starts at 1pm. It's great

3. There are less city lights here so you can see more stars at night - I like this.

4. Cappuccino

5. Pain du Chocolate

I would like to see the list grow & I am hopeful that in the next few weeks it will.

Saturday I really needed to get out of the house so I met Stephanie to go to the market in Croix Rouse. People here are wierd, they like to bump & push you wherever thye are but when the train comes they like to just stand there and think about getting on it until it makes the noise for the doors to close, then they just step on like the train isn't leaving. God forbid you happen to be behind soem of these people. They like to congregate by the closest door to where ever you are too. So we had to go around them. Stephanie made it on the train with no problems - me however, that was another story. (Isn't it always) Well my arms made it on before the doors decided to slam shut on me. I had to pry the doors open to get in. Those doors snap shut. I have no idea how I was able to pull this off. It was in the morning & I hadn't had any coffee - but somehow I live to tell the story! When we finally made it to the market we discovered a big carnival set up too. I guess it was too early for all of that but it looked like it had some potential. We looked at all of the fruits & veggies. I bought some tiny red potatoes & gorgeous looking mushrooms. Don't know what I am going to do with them yet but they have the potential to be parts of a good dinner.

Sunday we headed back to the carnival. It was kind of fun. There were all kinds of scary rickety looking rides and games & cotton cavity all over the place. One lady made one so big I had to take a picture of it - It might possibly be the biggest cotton cavity I have ever seen in my life. The girl who was holding it looked at me wierd when I was taking her picture - but I don't really care. It was at least twice as big as her head!. That was picture worthy. So all & all it was good night.

Think Good Thoughts

So this week I have been trying to get my mind right - or at least better. It was a busy week. On Monday I had to present for my class. The teacher doesn't like to teach so she gives us al articles to present to our fellow classmates. I don't know why she's even there but that's besides the point. So it went pretty well. 1 down 2 to go. Tuesday I had another French test. It went ok. I studied alot of things that weren't on the test but I think I did ok. I like that we have 6 tests and not just 1 but they seem to come pretty quickly and keep coming.... I'll find out how I did next Tuesday. Wednesday I had my mid-term for Corp Finance. I was really nervous. I don't know why - but much more so than in the states. Well I finished - there were 4 questions I found to be really challenging - we'll see how I did in a couple of weeks. They don't use scantrons here so he has to read all of our tests - who knows how long that's going to take. Maybe I'll find out before i leave.

This week it has decided to get cold - really quickly. We have ows in the 30's at night. It is amazing that growing up in Wisconsin how I don't have a sense of winter anymore. I guess I have been living inthe south for too long because I can't take this. I thnk what makes it worse is that the window in my room doesn't close all the way so I have a constant stream of cold air coming into my room. Thursday night is when I figured this out. I tried to McGuyver a solution but it is ony temporary. This is where the Google Translate comes in. I wrote a note to George - Ana's son about how cold it was & I asked him to fix the window - which probably will not happen but I amso asked for another blanket. I got a big comforter this morning! Now hopefully I won't have to sleep in a shrt, sweatshirt, long pants w/ 2 pairs of socks on with my head under the covers. I don't thinkn I've ever woken up with my nose cold before in my life. They also told me that the heat doesn't work until after the 1st of November but I turned it on out of desperation last night - I was going to trck myself & then a funny thing hapened. The heat actualy came on! But only for a little while - I left it on & it worked a little while I was sleeping because when I woke up this morning - it was actually almost plesant in here. I hope my trick works again tonight.

Well today is Friday & I don't have class so I will probably hang out downstairs for most of the day. We'll see what happens.

The last week was pretty rough.
It started off with little sleep. I had to get up early to go meet some group members to work on a project on Monday. Then I decided I had had enough & went home & took a nap. I ended up sleeping through my class. I felt bad because it was my day to bring the snack – oh well.
Wednesday I was slapped in the face by the reality of the mid-term that I have next week. Corporate Finance without a calculator – how is that possible – we will find out. In search of a financial calculator in the greater Lyon area…
Thursday I was tortured by the usual European Economics. Snooze…. Then after that there was a party for American students at the city hall. I was excited because the invitation that they sent us said dinner & drinks. Wow – except there was no dinner - Just drinks & tiny tiny snacks. Something got lost in translation FOR SURE! I did get to see the inside of Hotel d’Ville. It was nice but I thought there would be more to it. That it would be more grand. I only saw 2 rooms – maybe they weren’t the good ones. Then I went to a party that was being held by the International Office at school. It was just starting to get fun when I had to leave because I had to make the last train home for the night.
I am in need of an attitude adjustment. Things here aren’t what I thought or wanted them to be. I am struggling on being ok with what I have – instead of always wanting more. I know that this is an amazing opportunity and I am trying to make the best of it. I just thought it would be so much more. I wanted to travel so badly but finances will not let that happen. Now I have to figure out what to do with myself. I have been washing dishes in the restaurant downstairs but its not a real job. If anybody has any suggestions for different ways of looking at this or the winning lottery numbers– I am willing to consider all things at this point.
This weekend all of my friends went out of town. I spent most of the weekend downstairs. There are some funny people that come in every once in a while. You never know who you are going to meet.

It’s not an urban legend…

So after 2 weeks of running around looking for a 55 euro stamp I finally found one! That’s completes all of my running around & after a month all of my initial paperwork is complete. Today I also found the internet. I am stealing it from somewhere & I only get it outside. So now I can sit on the steps when my battery is charged for a couple of hours. But its better than nothing at this point. I sat outside for 5 hours making up for lost time… I found out that if I plug in my extension cord in the kitchen it stretches far enough down the steps to get a signal. The only problem is that the steps are really hard. They are made of stone & they get really cold at night. I guess its all bout the trade offs.
Wednesday
I had Corporate Finance – it is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO boring. The teacher is hard to understand. The material itself is not fun but to have to get through his accent too is a challenge. We have a mid-term in 2 weeks. I hope I figure out what he is talking about by then… After class we went over to Gabby & Sheir’s to eat dinner. IT was really great. Gabby cooked Fajitas, Spanish rice & refried beans for us. It hit the spot. Then because the Metro strike was still going on, they walked me all the way back to school to catch the Metro back home.
Thursday
Today I got to get up early because my landlady was taking me to get my haircut. I printed out some pictures at school of what I wanted in hopes of making up for the language barrier. Well I now have short hair. I am glad because my long hair was driving me crazy – all I did was put it in a pony tail. It looked really shitty. I forgot that with short hair you have to do it every day. But it looks nice. It could be a little longer but it will grow. My dad always says the difference between a good haircut & a bad one – is 2 weeks. When we got back from running errands I helped downstairs at the restaurant. I made a pudding cake & some chocolate mousse.
I was sitting on the steps after school & I got a call from my friends – they were bored & wanted to come over. I have a TV. So they came over – I was watching a movie on the internet – Bruno. That movie is ridiculous! The signal I have is pretty weak so it takes a long time for me to watch movies. I usually don’t have the patience for them to finish downloading/buffering & give up in the first 30 minutes of the movie. 30 min of movie = roughly 3 hours in real time. That’s how bored I am. So after they got here we went to the store in search of playing cards or a game. We have a table so I thought it would be fun & cheap to play cards. Well we got to the store around the corner & found out they were having a sale on all kinds of stuff. They didn’t have any cards but they had champagne on sale buy 1 get one free so for 5.90 we got 2 bottles of Champagne. We got home & opened it & it turned out to be pink. It was called Kiss. It wasn’t bad. We watched a little tv & decided to eat some Dominoes for dinner. When we go there we discovered that the pizzas for 2 people (like a medium) were on sale for 5.99 from Oct 1 -11th! That is a deal. I can eat like 3 times from that pizza for only 5.99. I am going to be so sick of pizza when I leave here. Pizza was good as usual. The girls left & that was the beginning of my weekend.
Friday
Still in search of the Salad Savoyarde… It was really good and one of us ends up craving it sometime during the week. We have been back to the Irish Pub several times in search of it but they never have it on the board. Today wasn’t our day either. So we decided to go to Pizza Pino & have lunch. I had the special - chicken & pasta in a cream sauce with mushrooms with a tiny tiramisu & a coffee for only 10.90. It hit the spot. After lunch we decided to try & get tickets to a soccer game. I saw once there was a place across from school that sold them for a student rate. We headed all the way back towards school. We got tickets for a game on Oct 17th. I am excited to go see – Lyon has a really good team - Olympic Lyonnais.
We had heard that the blue line (B) was running so we decided to go to the mall. We went to Carrefour – the French Wal-mart. It really stinks in there. They have a big fish counter & you can smell it on both floors – even though its on the 2nd floor. It reeks. But its cheap. We walked around & looked at stuff just like u do at a regular Wal-mart. It was time to come home - it was like 7:00. Well the train we took to get there was only running until 7. We got to the train station & there were like 300 people waiting for the last train of the night. I quickly named it the sardine train. I have never been that close to people I don’t know in my life. It really sucked. I am thankful that we only had to ride it for 2 stops. I took pictures but they don’t really do the situation justice. The rest of the ride home was uneventful – which was ok. I got home & they needed help in the restaurant downstairs. George was gone for the weekend at a Portuguese festival so I washed dishes because people were doing other things. They were short handed. Before we closed I went into the bathroom & noticed that the entire floor was covered in water. Not good. There was a leak in the pipe that had been there for a little while well now the pipe decided it had had enough & it was leaking all over. This meant that we had to turn off the water. Not just to the restaurant but to the whole building. Yes that includes upstairs where I live. I was so looking forward to taking a shower when I was done but apparently that wasn’t in the cards.
Saturday
The water… Well nobody told me that it was still off when I woke up. I went to the bathroom when I got up & I couldn’t flush the toilet. That also meant that I couldn’t wash my hands or brush my teeth or take a damn shower. I went downstairs in my pajamas – which I never do to go see what was going on. Luckily the plumber was there fixing it & like 30 min later we were fully operational again. After that was over, I didn’t really have plans. It was kind of a lazy day which was a nice change. I went downstairs to the restaurant & hung out. Then I ran some errands with Isabelle – she works there. We had to go buy some meat. Well we bought the wrong meat & then we had to go back to the store & return it. Isabelle doesn’t speak French & neither do I. She speaks Portuguese. So we tried to have a little conversation on the way to the store around the corner. Then when we had to bring the meat back I had to go find a security guard & explain to him what happened. Normally they don’t take things back like perishable items but I think because he couldn’t talk to either of us – it was just easier to take the stuff back than to have to listen to both of us trying to explain ourselves. Well finally they gave Isabelle her money back but it took like 5 people in the store to do it. Then we went to another store & bought some more stuff & made it back to the restaurant. I helped Ana load up her car – she was taking more stuff to George at the Portuguese festival. I thought that they were going to be closed that night so I went to the movies with my friends. We saw the 500 Days of Summer. It was in English so the theater wasn’t too crowded. It had French subtitles but we just ignored them. It was really nice – it almost felt normal. Then Stephanie knew a girl who was having a birthday party & the people were going to meet down by the river before they all went out. So after the movies we went & bought some cheap bottles of wine & went to look for them down by the river. Well we never found them but it was nice to just sit there & relax for a little while. There are steps & a lot of people meet there & drink before they go out or that’s their final destination. It is interesting people watching – for sure. Then we all decided to go home. When I got home I wasn’t expecting to see the restaurant open – were they were & it was pretty full. I put my stuff down & started washing dishes again. I can’t believe I am saying this but – it gets easier the more you do it. It still sucks though. It was 1:30 when we were done.
Sunday
Today I thought that I was going to get up early & call Ana (my landlady) because we (me & my friends) were going to go to the Portuguese Festival & have fun. Well I woke up early & called & called & called but no answer. So she came & knocked on my door at 9:30 & asked me to iron her chef coat. No problem. Then I helped load some more stuff into the car. The whole time I was trying to ask her if I was going with her. She told me no – so I thought. Then when she was about to leave she asked me if I was going. I was still in my pajamas. I had to go run upstairs & change in like 5 minutes. My friends were still waiting to hear back from me if we were going or not. Well I grabbed my stuff so quickly I forgot my phone. We got in the car & still had to run some more errands. We met up with another lady somewhere across town & then we finally go in the road. It was like 145Km away. We got on the toll way. I had no idea where we were going or what to expect when I got there. We ended up in Lon. George kept calling & he was upset that it was taking so long for us to get there with the stuff. When we got there – we hit the ground running. They had a restaurant set up in the convention center & they were serving lunch but I guess we had a lot of the food that they needed. It was crazy. I had no idea what to do & there was only 1 person there that spoke English. I started by chopping onions, then tomatoes & garlic. The lunch rush was going & something pissed George off & he just started yelling at everybody. I tried to make coffee & some stupid French girl cussed me out. I asked what happened & she just made fun of me. Little does she know how close I was to snapping her in 2 I was? If I wasn’t so far away from Lyon & I knew how to get back there - I would have let her know about herself. But she wouldn’t have understood me anyways so it would have been a waste of time. It was too early in the long day for all of that & I found the dishwasher at that point in time so I got busy. When we got home it was 1:30 am. I slept…

Sorry I am a litttle behind - I will add more soon!

Address

Hey everybody - Here is my address in case you want to send me any cards or pic or whatever.

Bar Restaurant Le Lisboa
26 Rue du Bourbonnais
69009 Lyon
France

Attn: Stacy Martin

Time on my hands...

Well the pizza was pretty good. I am a fan of the 4 cheese myself.

Wednesday night I was supposed to go out with the girls but they ended up bailing on me. Fortunately I was able to find some other people to go out with. I met them down by the river - a popular drinking spot/ meeting place for all kinds of people. They were mostly American students that go to my school. It was a good opportunity for me to expand my circle of aquaintances. Well I was all dressed up & ready to go out. What I wasn't ready to do was walk all over the town paved with cobblestones in strappy wedges! But that's what I did anyways. The first place we walked to was the Australian bar, Ayers Rock. I really liked it there. They had cheap drinks & played really good music. It's amazing how happy it makes me to find "normal" things here. I am supposed to be experiencing new & different, which I am but I am learning that familiar & normal makes me happy!

After the Australian Bar we decided to walk some more to an Irish Pub. It was cool but too far away. The bar closed at 1 am and after that is when we decided to trek to the Pub. The pub was tiny. When we first go there - there were some musicians playing & singing which was neat but then when they saw the swarm of Americans that had decended upon the place they decided it was in their best interest to go home. I understood. Shortly after that it was time for me to go too.

Thursday I was a little hung over - European Econ was long & boring but then classes were over for the week! Which leads me to my next problem... At home I was a busy girl. I had 2 jobs & school. Sometimes I did other stuff like volunteer too. Here I have nothing to do. My room is small, I have no internet. Now the TV is broken too & we only get 1 channel, the news. It's ok because I like to know what's going on but only once a day - not all day long.

Friday - I had no school so I slept in. Then I went on my mission to try & find this damn 55 euro stamp for my visa paperwork. I have been to 9 stores looking for this stupid thing. I gave up looking around lunch time. On the way back home I saw a few shops that had some cheap shoes & 2 paire & a top later I met the girls for lunch. We ate at the resaurant downstairs - it was good - it always is. Then we browsed some more. Friday night there was a big party at the restaurant so i was down there till 1:30. I couldn't take any more French so I went to bed. I found out the next day that the party didn't end unitl 5am. I am glad that I went to bed when I did.

Saturday - I woke up crabby. I think I am becoming more French everyday. I met Steph & we ate but it was really late. Most restaurants close between lunch & dinner. You have to find the ouristy ones that stay open. We had some interesting lunch. We ordered Quenelles? They were like big boiled hush puppies the size of a breadstick from the olive garden. They said they they were fish souffles. It was ok but I don't think I will put it on the list of things to order again. When I got home I ran some errands - picked up some bottles of water & other groceries. They still haven't installed the stove so its hard for me to make food. I am trying to be creative. The big find of the day was chips & salsa. I havent tried it yet but I am excited I found it.

Saturday night - We decided to go out. We finally all met around the Hotel d'ville - city hall. First we went to a bar that was really boring. One of the girls was meeting some people form her internship - we had a beer & left. Then we went to the Australian bar. I really do like it there. After it closed we were still ready to go for more. We walked down another street & found 2 more clubs - they stay open later - til like 5. The first on ewe went into was small but there wasn't anybody in there so we left. Then down ther street theyre was another one. It has a pirate ship theme. It was in the basement & it was crowded - very crowded. You couldn't even turn around without mushing into people. After a shot, that was cheap & nasty, we decided to leave. We ended up back at the first club we went into. We danced, had another shot, danced some more & decided it was time to look for kebabs. That was another adventure. They were all open before wer went into the club but when everything shuts down here - its like it was never there in the first place. It ended up being alot of walking for no kebabs. We some how found a hot dog stand - yes I ate a hot dog. It does taste a little better on a baguette but its still a hot dog. It did the trick though because I didn't have a hangover on Sunday morning!

Sunday was very uneventful. I slept in & then I was bored. I ironed some napkins for Ana for the restaurant downstairs. Then I discovered that the TV was down to 1 channel. I almost walked to Mc Donalds to check my e-mail then I remembered that it was crazy with kids running around everywhere screaming on Sunday's because everything else was closed & I ended up talking on the stairs to some other people that live there. It ended up being an ok night.

Sorry its been a little while since my last update. So this weekend there was a big party with students downstairs on Friday night so it was impossible to sleep. So I went downstairs & hung out for a while. When they left after 1:30 I helped clean up the disaster they left. Then Ana my landlord through a translator asked if I wanted to work Saturday night. They needed help because they were having another big party & she said that she would pay me. I said OK. I had no idea what I would be doing. I was hoping it would be something in the kitchen like prepping plates or plating stuff. Well I worked with plates alright. I washed hundreds of them & not just once! The restaurant was still open even though there was a birthday party for 60 people in the back. So I washed the plates (the old fashioned way, with a damn sponge) and they would fill them right back up again & send them out. Please keep in mind that I am in Europe & there are many courses in the meal. All I kelp seeing all night was a mountain of plates. Just when I thought I was finished & could take a break another 2 stacks would appear. I made up for 31 years of not doing dishes in 1 night. The first time I had a chance to look at the clock it was 1 am. The people finally left at 3 am & I went upstairs & went to bed. I was exhausted & my back hurt so bad. I’m too short for the sink so I had to lean over all night. Coming all the way to France to bust suds was not on my list of things to do – but hopefully when I get paid I can do something fun. While I was sleeping, the mosquitoes decided to have a buffet on my face. I have never had so many bites on myself. I only get them while I am sleeping too. I am defenseless!
Sunday we booked a walking tour of “old” Lyon in English. It was raining & I was still tired. I didn’t really want to go but I am glad that I did. It stopped raining just before our tour started. I learned a lot. This place is really old. It was founded by the Romans in 43 BC. I have never been in a place that old – that I now of. It was kind of cool to learn about some Lyonnais history. Since it was built by the Romans they modeled it after Rome. It was a very modern city. They had 4 aqueducts so they had running water & a sewer system. Then it was attacked & they destroyed the aqueducts. The people decided to move down the hill & reconstruct. They used the stones from the destroyed buildings to build the new ones. That’s why there aren’t too many buildings left on the hill. The built 3 churches; St John, St. Paul & another one. We toured the Cathedral St. John. It was HUGE. Possibly the biggest church/cathedral I’ve ever been in. It took 300 years to build. It was beautiful. It was very plain inside though & a lot of stuff like statues & tapestries & decorative things were missing. They were destroyed in the French Revolution. It is one of the only churches in France that is so empty. They are restoring the Cathedral currently. We also learned that there are some original stained glass windows. A lot of them were destroyed again in the French Revolution, also during WWII they bombed the bridge by the cathedral & it blew out a lot of the windows. They were replaced with newer patterns of stained glass but the church also decided that the original stained glass was too old school so they destroyed them & replaced them with regular white windows. Can you imagine?
Inside the Cathedral there was the 2nd oldest clock in France. It still works & it rings 4 times a day. Only 4 now to preserve it – it was built in the 17th century. It was really neat. On the hour at 12, 2, 3, & 4 the rooster crows & then other things happen, Gabriel the angel comes out & Jesus motions, a soldier goes around the top. It’s kind of like a story. It was really beautiful & detailed. The front is only the hours. It also is an astronomical clock so it has the lunar position. The minutes are on the side. There were so many people there it was hard to take pictures. I am going to have to go back to get some better ones. Its ok, I walk past it all of the time, it’s right in the middle of all of the restaurants & stuff.
After that we saw some of the traboules. They are passageways between buildings. Space is such a premium here they didn’t want to leave space between the buildings so they just built them right next to each other with “hallways” to connect them. We went through one that connected 4 buildings. It was pretty interesting. Now the French government made a deal that they will pay to clean & maintain them if the people who live there will leave their doors open from 7 am – 7 pm. One of my teachers said to go in the morning because the people who didn’t get that deal still have to leave them open for the mailman & we’ll get to see different ones that way. You go in on one street & come out on another one. It’s kind of neat. Especially if you know where u are going – they are like shortcuts.
Those were the highlights! I got my 5 euros worth! Then we saw a fried chicken place when we were walking around the other day so we went & ate there. Very interesting. The chicken looked like it was on steroids. It was ok for fried chicken in France. I don’t know that I will be craving it again though. We were all so hungry none of us took a picture of our bucket of French fried chicken.
Monday happened. I tried to get on the internet at school but ended up in the computer lab. The keyboard is a lot different so I only go there when I have to. I also went to the language lab to practice my French. Then I had Brand Management – I liked the teacher at first but I am not so sure how I feel about her now. I am going to wait another week to form my opinion. This week we had a snack sign up sheet. She felt that we were there late & needed snacks so all of us had to sign up. There are 4 spots a week. I thought I was in college. I don’t know that I was thinking…
Tuesday – That’s today. I had my first French test today. I think it went pretty well. I was able to finish – which was more than some people. I’ll find out next week how it went. It means there’s no homework. I’ll take it! The girls are coming over for Dominoes pizza & French TV tonight. On Tuesdays & Saturdays Dominoes has take out pizzas for 7.99 Euros. That’s like ½ price. I don’t think that there’s anything good on TV tonight but we don’t really understand it anyways.

Rest of the week...

So besides going to school this week I did a few other things. On Friday I went to get my discount train pass. It will allow me to purchase trian tickets at up to 60% off! Since according to my schhol I was born in 1988, I am still under 25, so I qualified. Now all I have to do is start planning my trips. If anyone would like to sponsor one or two, I promise you will at least get a postcard out of it. :)

Sometimes it is loud downstairs so instead of going to sleep I go down there and hang out. They have cheap Portugese beer. Well I guess all of the hanging around has paid off because I get to start working there tonight! I get to work in the kitchen because I don't understand what anybody says yet - so I guess I just get to bust suds or chop stuff. We'll see.

This weekend in Lyon there is a big celebration of the Lyonaise heritage & there are a whole bunch of tours & buildings open that aren't open to the public all of the time. I am going on a tour of "old" Lyon tomorrow afternoon & I am going to learn about the traboules & where they are. It should be neat. It's in English too so that wil be helpful. I also wanted to go on the gargoyle tour but it was sold out. Oh well.

Today for some reason I went back to the al-Quieda market with the girls. That was my last visit. I found another cute pair of shoes but its just too far away for all of that pushing & shoving. Too many people. I got some huge grapes & some olives too. I'm looking forward to trying them.

Classes

So I made it through my first week of real classes. Since I am here to go to "school" I feel like I should comment on it a bit. I am taking 4 classes. Monday = Brand Management, we like. My class is at 5:30 pm. My biggest problem is finding something to do all day before going to class. Tuesday = French, very easy too easy maybe but I have come up with other ways to learn French so I go for the grade. Wednesday = Corporate Finance. Right off the bat the teacher cancelled 3 classes. Then he tried to tell us we were going to have to come to school on a Saturday. That didn't go over to well. I guess we'll find out next week - what the deal is. Thursday = European Economics. I think that this will be my hardest class. The entire grade is based on a test at the end. He said that we can give a presentation sometime during the semester for extra credit. Mine is in 2 weeks. That is my scholastic week in a nutshell. Hopefully I don't have to mention it again.

Cappuccino!!

Well I know that I've talked before about finding a replacement for the Dunkin Doughnuts and after 3 weeks I finally have. It is fantastic & cheap. It is called Cappuccino! Those monks really knew what thew were doing & I am glad they shared their secrets. Unfortunately the day I discovered this miracle, Wednesday, it was at 3:30 in the afternoon. This lead to a bit of insomnia after not having any coffee for 3 weeks. For the first time sine I had been here I felt awake. it was amazing. Now everyday since then I have had 1 - before noon... Everyday should start that way :)

Real Classes

Well today was my first day of real classes & after last week I didn’t expect anything. But before I went to class I had some errands to run. I rode the Metro like I do everyday to school. I guess a lot of the newness has worn off because I started to notice things like homeless people. They just get on the train & start playing the accordion & sending their kid around to collect the money. In case you didn’t know, the accordion is really loud on the train. It’s weird but at least they are trying to work for their money. The other day a lady just busted out singing. I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to it but there are a lot of weird people on the train. Yesterday I saw a bot that had red lip gloss on. He got on the train & counted the number of steps long the car was & then stood by the end of the car for a minute just checking the wall out. Then he walked by the door & started writing down notes. Then he got off the train where I had to switch & I saw him again on the other train. He did the same thing. Then he got off the train at the stops & watched all of the people get off & then he would get back on the train again. I would have taken a picture of him because he was worthy of it but I was afraid of him. He was weird. I am glad it stops running at midnight because I can’t image what it would be like.
I was on my way to school early because I wanted to see if I had made it into my Brand Management class. We had to write a motivation letter to the teacher. Well surprise surprise, my name wasn’t on the list. The teacher told the secretary that she accepted everybody that sent her an e-mal. I sent mine on Sept 1st. Apparently I sent it too early. Again I was too prepared for this place. Well class wasn’t until 5:30 so I had other things to do. Today was the day I was going to drop off my paperwork for some French Government Assistance it’s called the CAF. I went to the counselors at school to help me fill out all of the paperwork so I had it all ready when I went because it’s all in French. Well, after all of the continuous problems I have had I don’t know why I thought that was a good idea but that’s what happened. So I met Stephanie at school & we walked there. It wasn’t far but we didn’t really know where we were going but we made it. So we get in & there are tons of people everywhere. There was a big line by the door so we got in it. That’s what you do here is stand in line & pray that they don’t cut it off before you get up to the front. Well today was my day! We made it to the front of the line & gave the lady our documents & she gave us tickets for another line. There were 36 people in front of us in the 2nd line. That’s what our tickets said. It went by pretty quickly. It gave us a chance to people watch. The people there didn’t look all crazy like the social services office in Greensboro. We were praying for a nice person who spoke a little bit of English at the counter. They called my number first & my lady, #27 ROCKED!!! It turns out that I didn’t have all of the papers that I needed but she found what I was missing & filled them out for me. Then Stephanie came to my window because she didn’t have the right papers either but her lady just gave them to her & turned away. My lady helped her fill hers out too. Well apparently we both qualify & each of us is getting 164 Euros a month deposited into our French bank accounts courtesy of the French Government. MERCI! That was one of the best experiences I have had since I have been here in France! It’s about time. I celebrated with a McFlurry at McDonalds!
After all of that excitement it was time for class. It really must have been my day because class turned out to be a nice surprise. I am actually going to learn something & something useful at that! I will be working on a personal branding project for the end of the semester. There are many parts that are involved that we will find out during the semester. I am looking forward to it. The teacher speaks really good English too. Also helpful!

Half Naked Boys!

Sometimes random things happen & you are lucky enough to be standing there with a camera in your purse. Well the other day I was waiting to meet someone in Bellecour and there were a bunch of students gathered there with blue trash bags & plastic hard hats. They were yelling but I didn't know what it was about. Then all of a sudden much to my surprise - they started taking off their clothes! Did I mention they were mostly guys? They put their clothes in 4 straight lines as they took them off. Then the police drove by & just as organized as they took them off, they put them back on again. I'm glad I had my camera!

After that show I went to get my French cell phone. I thought it was going to be as easy as getting a SIM card & call it a day. What was I thinking? For those of you who don’t know I bought a new phone before I left that was supposed to work all over the world. Well the French SIM card won’t work in my model of phone. Ha! So after I paid 20 Euros for the SIM card that I couldn’t return because my name was already in the computer, I had to shell out another 15 Euros for a phone that didn’t come with a SIM card. Then another 60 Euros for minutes. The good news is that Sprint will not be getting any more of my money for the duration of my stay & I get free unlimited texts within France & the best part, free incoming calls from anywhere so if you would like to call my # is 06 98 73 55 09. If you want to Skype call, its only .02 (in dollars) a minute to call. It’s pretty cheap, cheaper than anywhere else I know of.

On Thursday we doubled up on the French Culture & had our test in the afternoon. What a JOKE! That doesn’t even really begin to describe it. They kept saying it was going to be easy, don’t worry about it. So I didn’t. They knew for 2 weeks that we were having the test. Do you think they could have printed it before it was time to take it? Is that too much to ask? There are 200+ people sitting in an un-air conditioned lecture room for almost an hour waiting for the test papers to get there. It had to have been 90 degrees in there easy. So when the “test” finally arrived we had to throw 2 questions out right away, the first because there were too many answers for the bubble sheet. The 2nd because the right answer wasn’t on the test. After looking at the rest of the ridiculous questions I started. Then the teacher said halfway through that there could be 2 or 3 or 4 right answers to the questions. What was the point? It left me with little hope for anything close to an education from this joke of a school. I will leave it at that….

On Saturday I went to a market with some other American students & their landlady. it was really far away. It took me like 30 min to get to their house & then another 45 to get to the market. It was a Muslim market & the landlady warned up to keep our purses close & don't put anything in our pockets cuz kids pick pocket. I was like what the hell am I doing here? Then I found some cute shoes for only 8 Euro and a purse for 10. There was a lot of yelling & tons of people but nobody got me & I came home with some good stuff. Well when I came home & told my landlady Ana where I went her eyes got all big & she was shocked. She basically told me not to go to the al-Qaida market again – even with other people. I know it wasn’t the most fun thing I’d ever done but when she put it like that, I really can’t argue with her.

On Sunday we met at another market this one was much closer & safer & it turned out to be bigger & cheaper. Its my new favorite. It was HUGE! There was everything & it wandered all over the neighborhood. It was in Croix-Rouse. It is a place in the far north west of Lyon on top of a hill & you can look at the whole city - but I was too busy shopping. I found 2 more purses for only 5 Euros each & more shoes but they didn't have them in my size. I have learned that my feet are 2 different sizes, my left is 1 size bigger than the right. Who knew these things & what a time to find out when shopping for cheap cute shoes! I think there was some special neighborhood/district thing going on which was why there were so many vendors everywhere all over the neighborhood. Typically I think its just the fruits, veggies, meats, cheeses & bread. Then after we looked at all of the stuff we found the farmers market & that was ginormous too! Everything is pretty cheap too. 1 Euro for a plate of red peppers. 1 Euro for 2 kilos of little red potatoes. 1 Euro for a plate of carrots. Fantastic!!! I will be going back next Sunday.

Disco Pub Night...

Monday was Disco Pub night. We didn't have our French Culture class on Monday, just regular French language in the afternoon. The Pub night started at 10 & it went until 3am. I didn't stay that long though. It was all of the international students in the SELF program at school. It was in a tiny club. It was very hot & sweaty but it was fun. It was so hot inside many people were going outside to get air. They were also drunk & loud. It was Monday night & there are people who live above the bar. They were not so happy about all of the loud drunk students in the street & they started throwing buckets of water out the window. People were NOT happy. Luckily I wasn't one of them. Something good came out of Disco Pub night.... I was talking to the woman who is in charge of the program & she told me that because of all of the problems that I had when I got here that she would be able to refund me my first month's rent! That's great news. I think that things are finally turning in the right direction.

I tried to do a load of laundry before I went to class yesterday. Tried – is the keyword. I put my clothes in, set the temperature, put the soap in and turned it on. 30 minutes later I went back to check on it & it said it was finished. I thought – Sweet! That was fast. I wanted to get my stuff out & hang it up before I went to class. Well I tried to open the door but it was still locked & I looked in the window & my clothes were still dry. I was like what the hell? I know I did all of the steps. Well I didn’t know that you had to turn the water on manually. Ha! After I did that – it started working. Obviously my clothes weren’t done before I had to go to school. I felt really bad leaving them in the only washer all day but that’s what I did. When I got home tonight they were in a bag on top of the washer. There is no dryer so I have to hang everything on a drying rack. Now that means I am going to have to iron all of my clothes before I wear them. What a pain in the ass! Whatever – it’s just one of many things I guess I have no choice but to get used to.

Well our French Culture class was cancelled yesterday too - because of the party. I am not complaining. Then we had a French Test yesterday afternoon. very easy. Other than that = not too much else going on. I wandered around Bellecour yesterday. I was trying to find the 2 Euro store. Ith's the closest thing to the dollar store. Well after about 30 minutes of walking we found it. It turned out to be worse thatn the dollar store. It was all junk - but I bought some tupperware to keep the fruit I am going to buy at the farmer's market this weekend.

My week...

What a difference a week makes! I am in my new place, its Friday night & I have nothing to do right now. I also don’t have internet access yet so I am typing my blog now & will publish it tomorrow when I go to Mc Donald’s for the free Wi-Fi. There is one really close to my place. So a lot has happened in the past week & I need to catch you up.
Monday
The beginning of school: We have our “intensive” introduction to French culture. It is for the next 2 weeks. A woman tells us all about Lyon & France. We will be tested on it but it is mostly her opinion of things like the best place to eat & when to get used bikes & cheap groceries. Some of it is interesting but at 8 a.m. its really hard to stay awake. I have also asked some French people about the things that she has told us & either they have no clue what we are talking about or they say she’s wrong. Oh Well. As far as housing goes, I was notified by the housing people at the school that they found a new family for me but I won’t be able to move in with them until Thursday. I am only able to stay at the hostel for 6 nights. It is not my idea of a comfortable place either. I was sleeping in a room with 3 other people, I had to go down the hall to use the toilet that 40+ other people use & the shower was the smallest thing I had ever been in & you had to press a button for the water to come on. In a nutshell, it was cheap & the cheapest price isn’t always the best price. I guess it’s not so bad if you are prepared for that kind of thing but clearly I wasn’t but it beat sleeping outside somewhere. So the girl at school that was handling housing for the real guy who is in charge of it who was on vacation, brought her mom to work because she spoke better English. Her mom took pity on me & offered to let me stay at their house until I could go live with my family. The family by the way, I was only going to be staying with for September. I was supposed to move with another family in October & then stay there for the duration of my stay. So I moved out of the hostel & into their house. It was nice. Nice to sleep in a bed in a room by myself, nice to use a shower where the water stayed on & you could wash everything without touching the walls.
Tuesday
Tuesday started with more French culture. Then we had to take our language test to find out which groups we were going to be in for our language class. Let me just start by telling you how unorganized this school is. It really doesn’t make any sense – at all. They don’t use the computer for anything; the people who are giving instructions don’t really know what’s going on themselves. It seems like their first day – EVERYDAY! Yet my teacher tells me that French people work harder & faster than any other country in the world. I really don’t understand how they can claim to be the epitome of efficiency when they don’t know what they are doing. It’s not even organized chaos. Then they tell us that the classes that we pre registered for are too full & we have to confirm our schedules individually with 1 person but don’t’ worry because we have 10 days to do it & there’s no problems. Huh? They wonder why there are 100+ people lined up outside of her office every time we have a break.
After school I went with some girls to Part Dieu. It is in the center of town & there is like a mall there. That is also the train station where I arrived in Lyon. We were on a mission to get some things done. There were 3 of us who needed to get student train passes. Well since everybody returns to school in September, there was a line that was like 2 hours long & they told us that we weren’t going to make it today & closed the line. So then we went to the mall. Another girl had to get a phone. Guess what – another line. When they finally called her name about an hour after she got there, it took another 40 minutes to get that all straightened out. I have discovered why there are so many French people on mood stabilizing drugs. I think they should hand them out upon entry to the country. By this time dinner was long overdue. There are sandwich places everywhere but I had already met my quota for the day at lunch. So we wandered down to the food court. The selection was pretty limited & I ended up having a cheeseburger & fries. I must admit their fries are pretty damn good here. Since there was endless walking going on I decided to have some dessert. Haagen-Dazs hit the spot. It was delicious! Then we stumbled onto Carrefour. It is the French Wal-Mart. Seriously, the same crazy people are there, they stuff is cheap & the people are ghetto. It was so crowded & ransacked. I guess every country needs somewhere to let them go & spend their money. I bought some school supplies. Still with nowhere to go I was hesitant to make any purchases. At least I know where it is.
Wednesday
Class now starts at 8. Not my favorite time of day. There is one thing that I very much look forward to most days. It is the pan au chocolate. That is a rectangular croissant with chocolate chips baked into it. Delicious! It makes you forget for a few seconds all the drama of the morning but soon enough its gone and you are back to reality. You may know about the relationship I had formed with Dunkin Doughnuts & their coffee. Well needless to say there is no Dunkin Doughnuts here. The coffee here is very different. Its like syrup or tar possibly. There is not enough room in the shot glass that it comes in for the sugar or cream so I have been having trouble trying to substitute. Coca Cola is all I’ve got for now. So a coke & a pan au chocolate & sashay into class.
Since the train pass mission was put on hold yesterday, after school we were back in action again. The day before we asked if there were places that would be less crowded so that was our plan of attack. The first station that we went to was closing 10 minutes after we got there so they closed the line again. We asked them where else to go & 3 trains later we were there. We got off in Croix-Rousse. It is a big hill & you can see the whole town from there. Our teacher had told us a story about something there earlier in the day so it was kind of cool to see some of the things she was talking about. However we tried to verify some of these things only to have the Frenchies look at us like we were crazy. We don’t really need help in that department – believe me. So we get to the train station & it closes at 6:30. There was a line of like 15 people in front of us. Somehow I begged in French for them to let us in the line. They were trying to cut it off right in front of us. Well I was successful! At this point I will take any victory. I wasn’t even sure if they would let me get his stupid pass to begin with. You are supposed to be less than 28 to get one. I was on a mission – the acceptance letter that the school sent me had the wrong birthdate. It said I would be turning 21 this year. After my negotiations we started making friends in the line. The lady that worked there was having a good time talking to us. Some people here really like practicing their English. Personally I appreciate that. We met a French girl named Annabelle. She was super nice & helpful. Another girl came back to say hi. She was up farther in line & heard us speaking English. She was also an exchange student, a smart one who already spoke French & she offered to help us get our passes. So after waiting & waiting & waiting it was finally our turn. The other 2 went first, we were the Americans & only 1 guy sort of spoke English so by the time it was my turn I was ready for him. I had everything out & ready and there were no problems! I couldn’t believe that it worked. I got my super discounted Metro pass. It is only 24.30 euros per month – instead of 40. As many things that have been screwed up since I got here, I kind of figure that they owe me…. After 2 small victories in the last hour, we all waited for Annabelle to get done & talked for quite a while after we were all done. She was super nice. She is a teacher. She teaches junior high English. We all exchanged numbers & e-mails & we are supposed to go out for drinks somewhere on Saturday night. It should be fun. I’m looking forward to it.
At 7:30 I had an appointment with the friend of a friend. He lives here in Lyon & is going to help me out of my homeless situation. His name is Olivier. He works for a major construction company here in France & some of his workers come here to work for the week & go home for the weekend & he knew a place where I could stay. We met at the big square in town it called Place de Bellecour. It has a huge statue of Louis the 14th in the middle of it. We went to go check it out. It is in the 9th district above a Portuguese restaurant. There are 8 rooms, 3 bathrooms & a kitchen/laundry/tv room. Its pretty cheap 350 Euros a month & I don’t have to pay for anything else - except food & laundry detergent. I guess we all share & when it gets low then someone buys some more. I was told it was like that with the cleaning & stuff too. The owner was supposed to be there but she wasn’t so I checked out another guys room. It was ok. It has a bed, bookshelf, desk & a little closet like thing with a mirror. His name is Fabian & I later learned that he speaks English too. So now the problem was solved & we went to dinner. On the map that they gave us at school there is only Lyon so I had no idea that there was more outside of it. Well apparently there is – and that is where all the rich people & soccer players live. We went to a seafood restaurant. Frutis de la Mer. It was pretty nice. There were all French people in there of course. Olivier translated the whole menu to me in English – it was hard & people were looking at me & rolling their eyes. Here there is not a lot of space so its almost like you are sitting together at the tables. So I ordered some fish – I don’t remember what it was but it was pretty tasty. It had artichokes & Spanish ham & some olive mashed potatoes. He took me back to Anne-Sophie’s and that was it. I was moving tomorrow.
This is a lot of work catching up. Not having internet access to make daily updates is really a pain in the ass. My landlord said that it would be installed sometime during September but I really wish that they’d hurry up already.
Thursday
Again school at 8:30 & more disorganization. I am starting to not care anymore. I’ll just do things my way since they really can’t seem to figure anything out. I had an appointment to pay my French Social security today & then they realized that I was right & didn’t have to pay. It only took 6 days & 2 appointments for that to happen. I went with my friends to pay theirs anyway & found a place to get my personal liability insurance that was really cheap & on campus so something good came out of it. There was more back & forth with lines & confusion but that’s how it is here. I am glad I brought extra hair dye because I am going to need it…
Well it was time to move & I hadn’t told Anne-Sophie that I wasn’t t going to go live with the family. I was hesitant to tell her because I felt like she tried really hard to help me & I didn’t want to seem ungrateful. So I got to her house & told her that I found a place to live on my own & that I wasn’t moving in with the family. She was upset & made some phone calls. Her mother told me that I was causing a lot of problems. I was upset because I still don’t see how ANY of this shit is my fault. Despite all of that, I wrote them a thank you note & left the gifts I brought for my family on the desk & left. Then Olivier picked me up & took me to my new place.
My room is pretty small & they told me that I would be moving into a bigger one on Monday night. The window is broken & doesn’t shut all the way but right now it’s hot so it really doesn’t matter. There is a guy who speaks English that lives here his name is Fabian. He works construction during the summers & is a ski instructor at some resort in the Alps in the winter. The problem is that he is only here during the week for work and then he goes home on Fridays. He was telling me all about this place. He was happy to meet me so he can start brushing up on his English before the winter & I was happy to meet him because he could translate for me. We ate some Dominoes Pizza for dinner. 4 Frommage (Cheese) it had blue cheese on it – it was pretty good. I felt bad for eating Dominoes here but everything closes around here pretty early so that & McDonalds were the only 2 options & I am not desperate enough to eat at McDonalds yet. So I guess I will have to stop & eat before I get home from school. The only big problem with my room is that it is hot so I keep the window open for fresh air but then the mosquitoes find their way in. Fabian told me that they will be dead in a month but then I won’t need to keep the window open either.
Friday
I didn’t sleep so well the first night with the mosquitoes & it being a new place so I was running late. I was afraid that I would be super late for school but I only ended up being about 20 minutes late. The Metro is right around the corner & it’s only 7 stops. It goes by pretty quickly. School was pretty uneventful; I got everything done today administratively so I “should” have internet access when I go on Monday. That will make updating this thing much quicker. It is now Sunday afternoon & I am still talking about Friday…
After school I stopped at the Monoprix on the way home. It is also around the corner. It has clothes & groceries. It is a much nicer version of Wal-Mart. Maybe kind of like a Meijer? Well I finally bought a towel – so I can stop using my pajamas to dry off with. It was the most expensive towel I have ever bought in my life – but I have a towel. I also bought a few snacks I can put in my backpack. I hadn’t eaten anything so I wandered around the neighborhood & found a pizza place. Well that’s what it said on the awning but I ended up getting a salad, a taco & a drink for 7 Euros. A taco here is not the same as a taco anywhere else I know of. Mine had ground beef, tomatoes, green peppers, cheese & French fries. They put French fries in lots of stuff here; Even sandwiches. Very interesting. It wasn’t bad. Then I went home & started working on this monster.
Saturday
This was the first day I got to sleep in. So that’s what I did. I woke up around 10:30 but decided to lay in bed until 12 ish. I got up & took the Metro to Bellecour and walked around a little bit. I thought that the Farmer’s market would have been closed but it wasn’t so I took a trip through there & bought some more raspberries & a couple of nectarines. Then it was time to eat. There are so many place to eat around there it is very very hard to choose what to eat. Thankfully every place has its menu posted outside & what their daily specials are. Thankfully I know the words for chicken & beef & that’s what I pretty much stick to. So I had a green salad with tomatoes, carrots & gruyere cheese. It was really delicious. Then I had chicken & French fries. It was a chicken leg roasted with tomato sauce on it – It was different but really good also. Then for dessert I had chocolate mousse. That was also pretty good. It was only 10 Euros for all of that. Gotta love the platte du jour! Then I decided to see if I could find my way back home. I walked for about an hour and voila! I made it. I felt good that my sense of direction still works here. Especially since I don’t understand any of the street signs; they are on buildings – they’re not really signs.
After I got home I needed to check my e-mail so I thought I would go to Mc Donald’s because I heard the one here has the free Wi-Fi too. Well I walked down there & ordered a Fanta to be polite & then I learn that its broken & won’t be fixed today. Sorry. I was supposed to meeting my new French friend tonight for drinks & if I couldn’t check my e-mail how was I supposed to know where to meet her? This posed a problem. So I drank my delicious Fanta – It’s my new favorite here. It tastes so much better than the one in the states. It has orange juice in it & it’s not too sweet & sugary. Anyways so after the Fanta I did some more wandering around the neighborhood. I found a shop that sold computer supplies & I tried to ask the guy who worked there if there was any internet around here. He ended up letting me use his computer for 10 minutes. So I checked my e-mail & figured out where & when I needed to go. It made me realize that people can help you. It may not be exactly what you want but somehow you get what you need. It may be possible that my expectations are very high sine I am used to doing everything for myself so I usually get what I want. Sometimes settling isn’t so bad. This epiphany could be realized out of desperation & it is possible that I will not feel this way when I get back but it is something for me to think about.
Back at my place I decided to give myself a manicure & pedicure & then get ready for the night. I met Annabelle at the Hotel de Ville. It is like the city hall but across the street from it is the Opera house. They had a live Jazz band playing outside & a lot of people were gathered around watching them it was really neat. We waited for another girl that was supposed to meet us but she never showed up. We went & had a drink & talked – it was very nice. Then it was time to head home because the Metro closes at midnight. I had boots on & the streets are like brick & cobble stones. I already walked home once that day & I wasn’t about to do it again. So when I was coming home, the restaurant downstairs was still open so I stopped in there for a beer. There are a couple of people who are regulars there and they speak English as well. I had a couple of drinks & then went upstairs to bed. Not too bad of a night.
Sunday
Well I slept in again today. I got up after 12. I went to dominoes & got another pizza. I tried to watch some French tv but I don’t necessarily know that it is helping improve my French any. Everything is closed on Sundays so there’s not too much for me to do. I was thinking about taking the Metro down to Belle cour & reading a book down by the river. The Rhone. They have parks everywhere around the city. So many places for you just to sit & chat or relax. I guess the Frenchies need something to do with all of their free time since they have so much of it. We’ll see.

Mc Donalds...

Here I am agiain sitting in Mc Donalds because it is the only place I can get some free wifi. An update is long overdue but beong homeless & all I have been a little busy. So I intende to recify that situation today. I was supposed to move in with my September family today but I have decided against it. I found a room to rent. It is in the 9th district right at the end of the green metro - the last stop. It's not close to downtown. It's only 8 stops to schoool but its cheap & I won't have to move again until I leave. It is above a Portugese restaurant.

Whatever. That's what I feel this trip has been reduced to - just surviving until the end of December. There are many things that have happened in the last couple of days but I am too pissed right now to comment. There is a guy here in Mc Donalds who is hogging the only plug in the wall & my battery is dying so this is it for now. I had no idea at the time but "What the French?" couldn't be more fitting for thie "adventure" that I am on. I am questioning my sanity when I decided to do this. Maybe tomorrow will bring more details...

Another day another sandwich....

Saturday I spent my day as a tourist. It was kind of fun. I saw all kinds of really cool stuff. I haven't taken my pics off the camera yet but I will post 1 0r 2 when I do. Lyon has 2 parts the old & the new. The new part looks like most other european cities I believe, nothing exciting really. That's where my school is & the other students from my school live there too.

The old part however is fantastic! There are tons of shops & restaurants & fountains. I also found the farmer's market. It was amazing. It is about 2 blocks long & it is right along the river. The one that starts with the S. I don't have my map in front of me (I don't want to butcher the name). Back to the Farmer's Market. That alone was one of the reasons I came. I was looking out my window on Saturday morning & saw it. I was excited that it was so close. They have everything there. I didn't take any pictures because I couldn't explain myself in French yet & I didn't want to have any issues. I saw the biggest Necarines I have ever seen in my life they were ginormous!!! They had everything there. Olives, fruits, veggies, cheeses, meats. I saw chickens with their heads still attached. They sell pigeons too. The flowers were so beautiful & relatively inexpensive. Definitely worth it. If I had someplace to stay I probably would have bought some. I can't wait to get settled in so I can go buy stuff & cook. I bought some raspberries & cherry tomatoes. All of the sandwiches I have been eating lately make me feel like I need to eat some veggies. They were delish! I believe that it is open every morning too. It was my first trip but definitely not my last.

Saturday night I met up with the other students from my school, Stephanie & Daniel and we went out for dinner. There are so many restaurants here its really hard to choose. Most of them have their menu's out for you too look at. Some specialize in different cuisines or ingredients. We decided to pick the busiest one cuz it had to be good. It was. I had chicken with a white wine sauce & some shallott thing that tasted like stuffing sort of but had a really different texture & it had a piece of bacon in it. Pretty tasty - the bacon made all of the difference. Doesn't it always? We skipped dessert because we were going to go out drinking. I decided that as long as I am at this hostel I can eat whatever I want. There is this hill that I walk down to get to everything it's about 1/4 mile long & its VERY steep. It makes for a ridiculous workout.

Sunday - was a sleeping day. I got in at around 6 this morning & slept until 4 pm. I felt bad for sleeping the day away but its not very restful. There are 3 other people that sleep in my room so there is a lot of moving around & noise. I can't wait to get in my own room somewhere.

Tomorrow I have to go to school for orientation, pay my French Social security and hopefully get my housig situation straightened out. Franck gave me the # to one of his friends who I will call. He rents out apartments - hopefully I can find a great one for a steal if the family doesn't work out tomorrow. We'll see. I keep telling myself this is going to be the worst part & it is going to get so much better from here. I am trying to be patient.

So I have to go to school tomorrow & I heard that the Metro is going to be striking. The Metro is the train/bus/tram people. If they are not running I have to walk all the way across town & it could take me an hour to get to school - or longer I'm a slow walker. I talked to the guy at the front desk & he said that the line I have to take is pretty automatic so it shouldn't be affected - but if I do have to walk it wouldn't surprise me... It would be pretty typical of the trip so far.

Well hopefully I will have some exciting news tomorrow - unitl then I am going get some more sleep - I've got a big day ahead of me!!!

Calluses

So...

I am still alive. I have some new calluses from schleping my luggage but I am no longer homeless (temporarily). I am having a weekend experience at a hostel. So far so good. It kind of reminds me of that call phone commercial about vlad & deter. It's amusing.

I took a short nap when I arrived & then made myself to exploring. It was like 7:30 when I left so I didn't venture out too far but I saw some really cool stuff. Tomorrow is going to be a good day. I ran into a guy singing in a square. It was nice - then he busted out some Bob Marley & told me that everything's gonna be alright. I'm choosig to believe him. I am very much looking forward to a good night's sleep. I am sure there will be some improvement on my attitude. All in all I think I'm handling this pretty well.

It's funny that I haven't talked about the food yet. Well earlier today I was sitting in Mc Donalds - out of necessity! They have free wi-fi & they are right around the corner from school. I had no desire to see if "French" fries taste any different. Anyways since I've been here all I've eaten has been sandwiches. Wierd I know cuz I don't really eat them at home. What I've learned is that they are #1 cheap #2 pretty good! The ones from the bakery are definitely better than the crappy one I had from the gas station so no more gas station food for me (hopefully). Maybe tomorrow I will venture out & eat something off of a plate!!! Who knows what's going to happen.

Here we go...

Got on the plane - no problems. That's where it ended. I made it to London with little sleep on the plane.

I had a super long layover & couldn't stay up so I found some chairs that didn't have an armrest & took a series of cat naps. Then it was a short ride to Paris. I found my way to the train station and called my family before I boarded the last train of the evening to Lyon.

The Larabas... Well they weren't aware that I was coming. They didn't speak english. I tried to convey to the woman that her daughter gave me her call phone # & told me that they would pick me up from the train station. Then I told her my train got in at 11 pm. I would be the one with the huge orange suitcase. I guess out of that conversation she got my train would arrive at 9pm so that's when she went to collect me. Needless to say - I wasn't there...

When I arrived in Lyon I went outside to try & find here but I had a feeling that she wasn't there. I went to the office at the train station & they didn't really speak english but they knew who I was. The kept trying to call her cell phone but she didn't answer. I was very very very tired from the 24 hours I had spent travelling already & asked the ladies at the train station if there wasa a hotel nearby. Fortunately there was one they were overbooked but because I was pathetic, they gave me one of their rooms. It was 70 euros. OUCH!

I dragged all 100+ lbs of my luggage to the hotel & the man at the front desk was very very nice & helpful. He spoke english so he called Mrs. Laraba and let her know where I was. My laptop battery was dead by this time & my phone for some reason doesn't work over here. JOY!!!!!! I never could have imagined that I'd have such bad karma. I plugged in my laptop when I got to the room but the coverter I bought didn't really seem to get along with the outlet or the plug. It kept getting really hot & wasn't doing much of anything. I thought it might have been because of the dead battery - I foud out later when I was sleeping that wasn't the case when the thing popped/exploded & shot out of the wall. Its broken now. I'm just glad my room didn't start on fire.

Anyways she called & said she would pick me up in the morning. I got up & went downstairs and said bye to the nice man that helped me & she came & got me. She doesn't speak english - did I mention that? The conversation was interesting & frustrating but we very slowly started to understand little thigs about each other. She brought me home, I put my bags in the house & we had some breakfast. Coffee, which was much needed & some bread. I must say it was pretty tasty. Then she did some things around the house & we finally headed out to go to school. She had told me again that the woman at the french school had never confirmed that I was coming to stay with her.

We got to school and there were a lot of people in the International student registration office. I was happy when I ran ito the other 2 students from my school. It sounded like they got into their apartments ok but there were others who were having problems. Mrs Laraba went in the office & talked to the housing woman. I didn 't understand what was going on. Then the housing woman said that I never sent her a confirmation & I was to go back to Mrs. Laraba's house & get my bags & she would find me a new place to live when I got back. Huh???? What the French??

Talk about an uncomfortable car ride back home... Then she tells me its going to be ok - don't worry , no problems. What the hell ever. She speaks french, she has a place to sleep tonight! So then she dropped me off back at school & I had to drag my 100+ lbs of luggage around again. Did I mention that I had to vacuum my clothes in space bags to get them to fit into my suitcase the first time & since I had to get into them to get my pajamas last night - now everything doesn't fit anymore so there are clothes hanging out while I'm wheeling my stuff around. Got back to the International Student Registration office and alas - It's lunch & they are closed. UNTIL 2!!! The woman asked me if I wanted to come back - except it wasn't a question. I left my luggage there & walked around trying to find somethig cheap to eat for lunch. I found a gas station & got a sandwich & a cherry coke (it doesn't taste the same - not a fan FYI) then I wandered back over to the school.

So the housing woman said that she's working very hard to find me a new family. She's called & left messages for the new one but they haven't called back yet. She said that she would send me an e-mail & let me know something - otherwise on MONDAY she will work on somethig else.

Now I am sitting at McDonalds (they have free wi-fi) waiting until 5 pm so I can go back to school to get my luggage. I don't know where I will go with it when I get it. She gave me the address to a youth hostel - if I go there I have to be there by 8 pm.

I am running out of words. This is truly unbelieveable. I keep telling myself it has to get better but it has yet to - there just keeps being more of the same or worse...

Last minute packing...

It usually works out ok until the weight limit realization sets in.

1st attempt my dad had to sit on my suitcase just to get it closed. Then it was weighed - it could have had its own social security number, it weighed 92 lbs. For those of you that don't know 50 lbs is the free weight limit. If you go over 50 you have to pay and you can't go over 70 lbs or the bag can't fly. I think you might have to buy it its own ticket.

The 2nd attempt resulted in 74 lbs. Close but not close enough.

Now my suitcase weighs 67 lbs and I no longer know if my clothes match. I'm sure there will be more later I still have 3+ hours until I leave...

Away we go...

Well I leave in less than 24 hours and my suitcase is still empty. I'd say that is pretty typical of me. I think that from all of the travelling that I did for work, packing is one of my least favorite things to do. Either way - I know that it will get done tomorrow.

The last few days have been really good. Its been nice to be around my friends & family. I feel like I'm ready to go & start my adventure. I still have a couple of errands to run & things to do tomorrow before I leave. My flight leaves O'Hare at 10 pm. It's my first time flying out of the International terminal. I'm excited. I have already checked in online, picked my seats & checked out the in flight movies. There are a couple I haven't seen yet that I have wanted to so that's good news. British Airways makes for quite the expensive movie theater - but as long as it keeps me entertained - it's all good.

I have heard from my family. I don't know if they speak english or not but they did say they were picking me up from the train station. I am flying from Chicago to London then I have a 6 hour layover and fly to Paris. When I ge there I need to clear customs & catch a superfast train to Lyon & I should arrive there kind of late Thursday night.

I am going to school Friday to check in & whatever else I need to do - not sure right now. I was checking the weather & it supposed to be HOT - like 96 with sick humidity. Kind of like NC. I can't wait for fall. Hopefuly it comes quick.

Well I guess you'll hear more when I do!!! Look out France ~~~ HERE I COME!!!