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.
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.
ma cousine! comment ca va? i've been getting caught up on your adventures in Lyon! certainly sounds like LOTS of adventures alright, but to your credit, it also sounds like you are making the BEST of it!!
ReplyDeletekeep up the good spirits (and blog entries)!! and email me your address in france!
erin