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.
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.
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