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!