So my time here for 2009 is coming to an end. I go home on Monday the 21st! I could not be more excited :)
I had originally considered (wayyyy back to last year) about not coming home for Christmas. I was thinking that it might be too hard to leave all of my friends and family, JUST get used to life in France, go home for Christmas, and then have to do it all again. And yes it might be hard to leave everyone again, but the time i'm going to have over this Christmas with my friends and family is going to DEFINITELY make it all worth it!
Life in Lyon over the past few weeks has been pretty tame in comparison to Exam time at McMaster. As an International student, I get treated a little differently, so instead of doing some exams like the french students, I had to do written assignments instead. So out of 9 classes, I only needed to write 3 exams during the actual exam period. I had one oral presentation in 20th century lit this past monday, one french to english translation written exam this past wednesday, and then i will have one english to french translation written exam when I get back to france in January. Luckily though it turns out this exam isn't until January 12th, so I get to spend almost 3 full weeks at home!
As I had a lot of time to prepare for my exams, I feel they went pretty well! And now that they're over for December, I have lots of time to just relax, hang out with my friends before we go our separate ways for Christmas, and of course.... PACK!
The only bad thing about the french schoool system and having exams both before and after christmas is that i'm going to have to study over the break, as well as write a 10 page essay :( which is too bad, but could be so much worse!!
I have so many plans to see as many people as I can over the break, and it's going to be so hectic, but definitely fantastic, and I absolutely cannot wait to get home!! I'm pretty much only packing presents to bring home, and then on the way back to France will pretty much just be food!
It's been SNOWING in Lyon!! Something we've been told is pretty rare around here. But over the last week, it's snowed 3 or 4 times! And on Thursday night, some actually stayed on the ground for a few hours!! It really made me think of home.
So it's farewell Lyon for 2009, see you in 2010!
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Roma, Italia :)
Ciao Bella!
One of my key Italian phrases, as well as Buongiorno! And that's about it.
This weekend was a weekend of firsts. It was the first time we'd flown anywhere to visit, the first time we'd stayed in a hostel, and the first time we'd gone to a country where we had NO idea about the language.
Ps. It was just Virginia and I on this particular excursion :)
I've never felt better about my french speaking abilities than when we came back from Rome. In Rome, if someone started talking to me in Italian, I felt like an idiot tourist. I was so relieved to come back to France and to be able to understand everyone around me!
Although in Rome, being such a tourist city, most people either spoke English or French. I was also pretty proud to be able to offer two languages of communication.
The Hostel we stayed at, was a really nice one! (not that i have a lot of Hostel experience, but it was much nicer than what I was imagining). It was called the Yellow hostel, and it was all English speaking. We checked in right when we got there friday morning (although our rooms weren't ready until later), and we could leave our backpacks in their luggage room which was very helpful. As we found out later, the room itself was actually pretty nice! Our floor and room was "the Godfather" themed, so we had some paintings on the wall. The room had three bunkbeds with storage cages underneath them, where we left all of our stuff we didn't need throughout the days (I had brought a padlock). The beds were comfortable, and there were clean washrooms and showers right around the corner. The staff was really friendly and helpful. They had laptops available for rent, and the first 30 minutes per day was free! The Yellow also had it's own bar with pretty cheap drinks for those that were interested. All in all, a very excellent first hostel experience!
Now for the actual trip details! So we dropped our stuff at the Hostel and set out for the day! It was about 1030am by the time we got everything figured out. Friday was supposed to be rainy all day, with Saturday being beautiful, so we decided to save the Colosseum until Saturday. Friday we started out with the Vatican. We took the metro all the way to the Vatican, where we went in some of the (not surprisingly) very religious tourist shops. We stepped into St. Peter's Square, and it was absolutely beautiful. There was an absolutely gigantic lineup to actually get into the Basilica, but we overheard it didn't take very long, so we pulled out our lunch, and did some waiting. It didn't take very long, but long enough for it to start raining pretty hard.
Once inside, we saw the tombs of the popes, and of course the Basilica itself. In retrospect, we shouldn't have seen it first, because after seeing St Peter's Basilica, all other churches paled in comparison. It was the most beautiful church I have ever seen. It was absolutely gigantic, with HUGE, beautifully decorated ceilings, paintings and sculptures everywhere. I am always in awe for how these beautiful structures could possibly be erected at the time they were. Amazing. here's some pictures to describe the beauty better.
Our next destination was the Piazza del Popolo, but on the way we found a lot of interesting things. The Castel Saint Angelo, Piazza del Tribunali, and lots of other things. Perhaps the BEST thing we found along the way was a Gelateria! Gelato has got to be my favourite thing in Rome. We ended up getting Gelato Friday AND Saturday! Friday i got chocolate and raspberry, and then Saturday i got lemon, chocolate with rum! It was all soo delicious!
At the Pizza del Popolo we walked up to a lookout where we could see a ton of Rome. It was beautiful :) From there we went to the Spanish Steps, and the Tinita dei Monti. The Spanish steps are apparantly the longest and widest steps in Europe.
From there we decided to make our way home, actually get into our rooms at the Hostel, and go for dinner. On the way (in the rain again :( ) We saw the Fontana del Tritone, San Carlo Quattro Fontane, the Repubblica, and the Santa Maria degli Angeli. The Santa Maria Degli Angeli was pretty amazing, it looked completely in ruins from the outside, very unspectacular, but the inside was beautiful!
Somewhere between the Fountain and the Repubblica was where i lost the button for my camera. Unfortunately it's pretty difficult to take pictures without this button. It's possible, but I have to use a bobby pin, and it takes about 5 minutes to actually take a picture. My camera has had a pretty good life though, I suppose I was due for a new one soon anyways. At least this happened in December, not September!
For dinner with the two American girls from our room, we went across the street to a little pizzaria cafe. We had some genuine Italian pizza which was pretty delicious :) After that, virginia and I went back to our room, and exhausted, were both asleep just after 9am. It was a long first day in Rome!
Day 2
Day 2 we woke at a much more reasonable hour, and were on the road again by 9am! Today was a big day, as we were going to see the Colosseum! On the way there, we saw the Santa Maria Maggiore and San Pietro in Vincoli (both Basilica's, where the second is most known for the statue of Moses by Michelangelo), and the ruins of Domus Aurea. Unfortunately we were quickly distracted by our first glimpse of the Colosseum!
The Colosseum was absolutely breathtaking, and gigantic! We wandered all the way around it, and then bought a ticket to go inside. It was really neat to see, and you could even imagine what it could have looked like when it was first built.
It really is amazing to imagine just HOW this magnificent structure could have been built all of these thousands of years ago. They must have had secret machines we just don't know about :P. It could seat up to 50 000 spectators! And they actually did use it to watch the gladiators. Parts of it were recreated to give visitors and idea of what it could have looked like.
This (other than the Gelato) was my favourite part of the whole trip :)
Next we moved onto the Piazza Campidoglio or Capitol hill. I thought this building was particularly majestic, with all of it's stairs, and statues before you even get into the building! Here's a picture that will explain better :)
Next was off to the Trevi Fountain. On the way we encountered the Quirinale. This is the official residence of the Italian President! It was very well guarded.
The Trevi Fountain was hidden amongst many little touristy streets. It is a spectacular fountain! This was also the busiest place in all of Rome. There were TONS of people squished into this square to see the Trevi Fountain. Here Virginia and I (well virginia actually, because mine was broken...)took lots of pictures, and we both made wishes and threw pennies into the fountain :)
After the Trevi fountain we continued through the touristy streets to the Tempio Adriano (temple of Hadrian in english), on the way to the Pantheon.
The Pantheon was beautiful. It was in the middle of a square (sorry, Piazza). We took a ton of pictures, and went inside, where there were beautiful paintings and sculptures. The Pantheon was built as a temple for the Roman Gods. Here we got our Gelato for the day, sat on the fountain, and just took in the sight of the Pantheon.
After the Pantheon, we decided that we had seen all that we specifically wanted to see, so for the rest of the day, we just wandered where we felt like, did some christmas shopping, and of course, saw more sights!
We went to the Piazza Navona where we found Rome's Christmas Market, and some entertaining street performers. My favourite was the old man who danced with finger puppets, and had apparently been coming to that square since 1909!
We also found the Cat ruins. Rome has this weird thing with cats. They're on the postcards with the famous monuments, and apparently, tons of cats live in these ruins, that are now called the "cat ruins".
Another highlight of the trip was dinner that night. We ended up at this really cute restaurant that we had come across earlier that day as well. It was called Pastarito! It was adorable and strictly Italian. Virginia and I got these GIGANTIC plates of pasta, and it was soooo delicious :) Somehow we managed to eat it all, but I don't know how.
After dinner we decided to take one last look at the Colosseum, it was lit up for the night. It was still just as gorgeous :)
After the Colosseum, we wandered through the many tourist shops on the main street on our way back to the Hostel. Our last day in Rome.
Click on the Title for More Rome Pictures!
P.S. I had too many pictures so I had to make two albums! Day one is linked through the title, but here it is again just in case.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=20835&id=1642740063&l=4e2546ccb4
And Day two:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=20912&id=1642740063&l=6f22d3443c
One of my key Italian phrases, as well as Buongiorno! And that's about it.
This weekend was a weekend of firsts. It was the first time we'd flown anywhere to visit, the first time we'd stayed in a hostel, and the first time we'd gone to a country where we had NO idea about the language.
Ps. It was just Virginia and I on this particular excursion :)
I've never felt better about my french speaking abilities than when we came back from Rome. In Rome, if someone started talking to me in Italian, I felt like an idiot tourist. I was so relieved to come back to France and to be able to understand everyone around me!
Although in Rome, being such a tourist city, most people either spoke English or French. I was also pretty proud to be able to offer two languages of communication.
The Hostel we stayed at, was a really nice one! (not that i have a lot of Hostel experience, but it was much nicer than what I was imagining). It was called the Yellow hostel, and it was all English speaking. We checked in right when we got there friday morning (although our rooms weren't ready until later), and we could leave our backpacks in their luggage room which was very helpful. As we found out later, the room itself was actually pretty nice! Our floor and room was "the Godfather" themed, so we had some paintings on the wall. The room had three bunkbeds with storage cages underneath them, where we left all of our stuff we didn't need throughout the days (I had brought a padlock). The beds were comfortable, and there were clean washrooms and showers right around the corner. The staff was really friendly and helpful. They had laptops available for rent, and the first 30 minutes per day was free! The Yellow also had it's own bar with pretty cheap drinks for those that were interested. All in all, a very excellent first hostel experience!
Now for the actual trip details! So we dropped our stuff at the Hostel and set out for the day! It was about 1030am by the time we got everything figured out. Friday was supposed to be rainy all day, with Saturday being beautiful, so we decided to save the Colosseum until Saturday. Friday we started out with the Vatican. We took the metro all the way to the Vatican, where we went in some of the (not surprisingly) very religious tourist shops. We stepped into St. Peter's Square, and it was absolutely beautiful. There was an absolutely gigantic lineup to actually get into the Basilica, but we overheard it didn't take very long, so we pulled out our lunch, and did some waiting. It didn't take very long, but long enough for it to start raining pretty hard.
Once inside, we saw the tombs of the popes, and of course the Basilica itself. In retrospect, we shouldn't have seen it first, because after seeing St Peter's Basilica, all other churches paled in comparison. It was the most beautiful church I have ever seen. It was absolutely gigantic, with HUGE, beautifully decorated ceilings, paintings and sculptures everywhere. I am always in awe for how these beautiful structures could possibly be erected at the time they were. Amazing. here's some pictures to describe the beauty better.
Our next destination was the Piazza del Popolo, but on the way we found a lot of interesting things. The Castel Saint Angelo, Piazza del Tribunali, and lots of other things. Perhaps the BEST thing we found along the way was a Gelateria! Gelato has got to be my favourite thing in Rome. We ended up getting Gelato Friday AND Saturday! Friday i got chocolate and raspberry, and then Saturday i got lemon, chocolate with rum! It was all soo delicious!
At the Pizza del Popolo we walked up to a lookout where we could see a ton of Rome. It was beautiful :) From there we went to the Spanish Steps, and the Tinita dei Monti. The Spanish steps are apparantly the longest and widest steps in Europe.
From there we decided to make our way home, actually get into our rooms at the Hostel, and go for dinner. On the way (in the rain again :( ) We saw the Fontana del Tritone, San Carlo Quattro Fontane, the Repubblica, and the Santa Maria degli Angeli. The Santa Maria Degli Angeli was pretty amazing, it looked completely in ruins from the outside, very unspectacular, but the inside was beautiful!
Somewhere between the Fountain and the Repubblica was where i lost the button for my camera. Unfortunately it's pretty difficult to take pictures without this button. It's possible, but I have to use a bobby pin, and it takes about 5 minutes to actually take a picture. My camera has had a pretty good life though, I suppose I was due for a new one soon anyways. At least this happened in December, not September!
For dinner with the two American girls from our room, we went across the street to a little pizzaria cafe. We had some genuine Italian pizza which was pretty delicious :) After that, virginia and I went back to our room, and exhausted, were both asleep just after 9am. It was a long first day in Rome!
Day 2
Day 2 we woke at a much more reasonable hour, and were on the road again by 9am! Today was a big day, as we were going to see the Colosseum! On the way there, we saw the Santa Maria Maggiore and San Pietro in Vincoli (both Basilica's, where the second is most known for the statue of Moses by Michelangelo), and the ruins of Domus Aurea. Unfortunately we were quickly distracted by our first glimpse of the Colosseum!
The Colosseum was absolutely breathtaking, and gigantic! We wandered all the way around it, and then bought a ticket to go inside. It was really neat to see, and you could even imagine what it could have looked like when it was first built.
It really is amazing to imagine just HOW this magnificent structure could have been built all of these thousands of years ago. They must have had secret machines we just don't know about :P. It could seat up to 50 000 spectators! And they actually did use it to watch the gladiators. Parts of it were recreated to give visitors and idea of what it could have looked like.
This (other than the Gelato) was my favourite part of the whole trip :)
Next we moved onto the Piazza Campidoglio or Capitol hill. I thought this building was particularly majestic, with all of it's stairs, and statues before you even get into the building! Here's a picture that will explain better :)
Next was off to the Trevi Fountain. On the way we encountered the Quirinale. This is the official residence of the Italian President! It was very well guarded.
The Trevi Fountain was hidden amongst many little touristy streets. It is a spectacular fountain! This was also the busiest place in all of Rome. There were TONS of people squished into this square to see the Trevi Fountain. Here Virginia and I (well virginia actually, because mine was broken...)took lots of pictures, and we both made wishes and threw pennies into the fountain :)
After the Trevi fountain we continued through the touristy streets to the Tempio Adriano (temple of Hadrian in english), on the way to the Pantheon.
The Pantheon was beautiful. It was in the middle of a square (sorry, Piazza). We took a ton of pictures, and went inside, where there were beautiful paintings and sculptures. The Pantheon was built as a temple for the Roman Gods. Here we got our Gelato for the day, sat on the fountain, and just took in the sight of the Pantheon.
After the Pantheon, we decided that we had seen all that we specifically wanted to see, so for the rest of the day, we just wandered where we felt like, did some christmas shopping, and of course, saw more sights!
We went to the Piazza Navona where we found Rome's Christmas Market, and some entertaining street performers. My favourite was the old man who danced with finger puppets, and had apparently been coming to that square since 1909!
We also found the Cat ruins. Rome has this weird thing with cats. They're on the postcards with the famous monuments, and apparently, tons of cats live in these ruins, that are now called the "cat ruins".
Another highlight of the trip was dinner that night. We ended up at this really cute restaurant that we had come across earlier that day as well. It was called Pastarito! It was adorable and strictly Italian. Virginia and I got these GIGANTIC plates of pasta, and it was soooo delicious :) Somehow we managed to eat it all, but I don't know how.
After dinner we decided to take one last look at the Colosseum, it was lit up for the night. It was still just as gorgeous :)
After the Colosseum, we wandered through the many tourist shops on the main street on our way back to the Hostel. Our last day in Rome.
Click on the Title for More Rome Pictures!
P.S. I had too many pictures so I had to make two albums! Day one is linked through the title, but here it is again just in case.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=20835&id=1642740063&l=4e2546ccb4
And Day two:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=20912&id=1642740063&l=6f22d3443c
Monday, November 30, 2009
Paris!
Paris!!!! What an amazing city :)
This was my second time to Paris, and I got to see some completely different things! (the first time was with my family in the summer of 2005 I believe). So between the two trips, (and maybe another one in May!) i've been able to cover quite a lot of the city!
After getting an early start, Virginia and Babette and I met Babette's friend (and now our friend too!) Virginie at the train station. We left at 7am and had a sleep filled two hour trip to Paris on the TGV.
At 9am, Virginie's sister (who we stayed with) Emilie, met us at the station. Emilie goes to l'ecole du louvre in Paris! (an art school if you weren't sure :P). Pretty awesome eh? Emilie showed us all around Paris, and was nice enough to let us stay with her in her apartment which is just outside of Paris.
We started our visit at Emilie's second home the Louvre. We didn't actually go IN the museum (just the entrance, we would have needed a whole day just dedicated to wandering the Louvre. But we did go down to see the inverse pyramid, and all of the surrounding stores. It was crazy! there's a little mall in the basement of the louvre. Which is crazy i thought, complete with a Virgin Megastore, Esprit and Europe's first (and only apparently) Apple Store!
Next Emilie took us to the Galerie Lafayette. An absolutely gigantic french department store (i believe it was 8 floors), where you can go up onto the roof to get a full view of the city of Paris! This is definitely a secret of Paris, as the view was absolutely beautiful, it's free, and there were hardly any people up there! (we also went at 10am). I would definitely recommend this :)
We wandered the side streets in Paris, and stopped for lunch before going to see the Eiffel Tower! It was Virginia's first ever trip to Paris, so she was seriously excited (we all were really). We took the super extensive Paris metro, (thank god we had an excellent tour guide with us, or we definitely would have gotten lost!) We tried to avoid all of the vendors as best we could (hundred of guys throughout the city at ALL the big tourist attractions selling eiffel tower keychains!) We decided we would come back later that night to go up the Tower, to be able to see the city lit up at night.
It was a pretty crappy day weatherwise, so while we tried to spend as much time outside as we could, sometimes the weather wouldn't let us. Our next stop was to the other end of town (more commercial) called La Defense. Here we went to a HUGE shopping mall, and Paris Christmas markets! We could see the Arc de Triomph from the top of these gigantic stairs. Here I got to try Vin Chaud, which is actually very good! Although very difficult and time consuming to make properly. Babette's father makes it a christmastime :)
Next stop was the Champs D'Elysses. Emilie really wanted to take us there at night so we could see the street all lit up :) She was right, it was absolutely beautiful! All of the stores were decorated for Christmas :) We wandered up the street to the Arc de Triomph and then back down the other side :)
The last stop of the night was back to La Tour Eiffel, to go up! There was a MUCH smaller line at this point, BUT we chose to go where there was no line at all, UP THE STAIRS!!! We were feeling pretty brave, plus it was cheaper hahaha. We made friends with the security guard who liked my Canadian flag on my back pack.
Unfortunately the Top floor was closed due to extreme winds, but you can only climb up to the second floor anyways (I believe....). So we climbed the 670 stairs up to the second floor of the Eiffel tower! It was Crazy windy, but had amazing views :)
After a VERY long day, we made our way back to Emilie's apartment where she made us dinner, and we all got some much needed sleep.
DAY 2
Day two started out a little more leisurely, we woke up at a reasonable hour of the morning, had some breakfast, and THEN went on our way. Day two was actually COLDER and rainier than day one. But we made due, and still had a great time! We took the metro right to Notre Dame, where we wandered in and out of the millions of tourist shops. I got a lot of Christmas shopping done there!
After that, Emilie took us to a small park outside of a nice church where we ate the lunch she packed us! (She was EXTREMELY nice :) ) After that, we went to Montmartre, to see Moulin Rouge! Unfortunately it was under construction, so the pictures aren't as nice as they could be. We also stopped at Starbucks to warm up and where I bought the most expensive Hot Chocolate in history. Unfortunately we seriously needed to warm up a little bit, so I sucked it up.
We walked from Moulin Rouge (through Pigalle, the "Red Light District") where we saw, but didn't go into, many "interesting" stores....... We made our way through a whole entire walkway of tourist shops to Sacre Coeur, the most beautiful church. We walked up the stairs of Sacre Coeur where we met the most impressive robot street performer ever :) He attracted quite a crowd, and he would put on a show for whoever put money in his jar :)
After sacre coeur, we decided we were all parised out. We went back to Emilies to get our bags and just relax for an hour before our train home. All in all, an absolutely wonderful trip!
Click on the Title for ALL the pictures!!!
This was my second time to Paris, and I got to see some completely different things! (the first time was with my family in the summer of 2005 I believe). So between the two trips, (and maybe another one in May!) i've been able to cover quite a lot of the city!
After getting an early start, Virginia and Babette and I met Babette's friend (and now our friend too!) Virginie at the train station. We left at 7am and had a sleep filled two hour trip to Paris on the TGV.
At 9am, Virginie's sister (who we stayed with) Emilie, met us at the station. Emilie goes to l'ecole du louvre in Paris! (an art school if you weren't sure :P). Pretty awesome eh? Emilie showed us all around Paris, and was nice enough to let us stay with her in her apartment which is just outside of Paris.
We started our visit at Emilie's second home the Louvre. We didn't actually go IN the museum (just the entrance, we would have needed a whole day just dedicated to wandering the Louvre. But we did go down to see the inverse pyramid, and all of the surrounding stores. It was crazy! there's a little mall in the basement of the louvre. Which is crazy i thought, complete with a Virgin Megastore, Esprit and Europe's first (and only apparently) Apple Store!
Next Emilie took us to the Galerie Lafayette. An absolutely gigantic french department store (i believe it was 8 floors), where you can go up onto the roof to get a full view of the city of Paris! This is definitely a secret of Paris, as the view was absolutely beautiful, it's free, and there were hardly any people up there! (we also went at 10am). I would definitely recommend this :)
We wandered the side streets in Paris, and stopped for lunch before going to see the Eiffel Tower! It was Virginia's first ever trip to Paris, so she was seriously excited (we all were really). We took the super extensive Paris metro, (thank god we had an excellent tour guide with us, or we definitely would have gotten lost!) We tried to avoid all of the vendors as best we could (hundred of guys throughout the city at ALL the big tourist attractions selling eiffel tower keychains!) We decided we would come back later that night to go up the Tower, to be able to see the city lit up at night.
It was a pretty crappy day weatherwise, so while we tried to spend as much time outside as we could, sometimes the weather wouldn't let us. Our next stop was to the other end of town (more commercial) called La Defense. Here we went to a HUGE shopping mall, and Paris Christmas markets! We could see the Arc de Triomph from the top of these gigantic stairs. Here I got to try Vin Chaud, which is actually very good! Although very difficult and time consuming to make properly. Babette's father makes it a christmastime :)
Next stop was the Champs D'Elysses. Emilie really wanted to take us there at night so we could see the street all lit up :) She was right, it was absolutely beautiful! All of the stores were decorated for Christmas :) We wandered up the street to the Arc de Triomph and then back down the other side :)
The last stop of the night was back to La Tour Eiffel, to go up! There was a MUCH smaller line at this point, BUT we chose to go where there was no line at all, UP THE STAIRS!!! We were feeling pretty brave, plus it was cheaper hahaha. We made friends with the security guard who liked my Canadian flag on my back pack.
Unfortunately the Top floor was closed due to extreme winds, but you can only climb up to the second floor anyways (I believe....). So we climbed the 670 stairs up to the second floor of the Eiffel tower! It was Crazy windy, but had amazing views :)
After a VERY long day, we made our way back to Emilie's apartment where she made us dinner, and we all got some much needed sleep.
DAY 2
Day two started out a little more leisurely, we woke up at a reasonable hour of the morning, had some breakfast, and THEN went on our way. Day two was actually COLDER and rainier than day one. But we made due, and still had a great time! We took the metro right to Notre Dame, where we wandered in and out of the millions of tourist shops. I got a lot of Christmas shopping done there!
After that, Emilie took us to a small park outside of a nice church where we ate the lunch she packed us! (She was EXTREMELY nice :) ) After that, we went to Montmartre, to see Moulin Rouge! Unfortunately it was under construction, so the pictures aren't as nice as they could be. We also stopped at Starbucks to warm up and where I bought the most expensive Hot Chocolate in history. Unfortunately we seriously needed to warm up a little bit, so I sucked it up.
We walked from Moulin Rouge (through Pigalle, the "Red Light District") where we saw, but didn't go into, many "interesting" stores....... We made our way through a whole entire walkway of tourist shops to Sacre Coeur, the most beautiful church. We walked up the stairs of Sacre Coeur where we met the most impressive robot street performer ever :) He attracted quite a crowd, and he would put on a show for whoever put money in his jar :)
After sacre coeur, we decided we were all parised out. We went back to Emilies to get our bags and just relax for an hour before our train home. All in all, an absolutely wonderful trip!
Click on the Title for ALL the pictures!!!
American Thanksgiving!
So Virginia and I already celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving in France, but now (thanks to a very special American named Hannah!) we got to celebrate American Thanksgiving in France too!
This thanksgiving was very festive, as for the American's Thanksgiving marks the start of the Christmas season! We were also cooking in a REAL kitchen (thanks to Pasan and his apartment), for WAY more people, so it really felt like home :) We cook for many hours while listening to Christmas music from Hannah's hometown radio station online (Charlotte, North Carolina!).
Our Thanksgiving feast included me, Virginia (the Canadian representatives), Hannah (the sole American), Pasan (From Dubai, but who goes to school in America), Babette (Holland and now France), Omar (Mexico), and Giacomo (Italy). It was Babette, Omar and Giacomo's first ever thanksgiving :)
Like traditional thanksgiving, we made WAY too much food, but it was all soo delicious! Everyone contributed, and here's what was one the menu!
Pasan (the cooking thank that he is) made A TON
- pumpkin pie from scratch! (pastry and all)
- turkey thighs (that was the closest to a full turkey we could find), which he glazed himself as well
- Garlic mashed potatoes (my favourite!)
Virginia made a slightly modified version of stuffing, but JUST as delicious (we didn't cook a full bird, so we couldn't exactly do traditional stuffing...)
I made steamed veggies and momma's homemade cheese sauce (which turned out pretty well if i do say so myself!)
Hannah made deviled eggs, and homemade macaroni and cheese (a thanksgiving tradition in her family)
Omar made sangria, Giacomo brought the wine, and Babette brought a delicious chocolate cake! (it was a little harder for the first timers to make part of the feast, but we didn't mind at all!)
We also bought two pre cooked chickens from the grocery store as well :) Oh and there was gravy! we can't forget the gravy!
All in all it was a VERY successful thanksgiving dinner! Everyone ate waaay too much, and of course still had room for dessert. We also came back the next day for thanksgiving lunch AND had enough to take home a full plate for dinner :)
Well done everyone!!
Virginia had to help make Pasan's pie crust pretty!
Halfway through making all of the food!
And it's all there! Holy crap. Yes it took 7 of us 2 days (3 meals) to eat all of this food.
Giacomo, Omar, and Babette's first Thanksgiving!
Please click the title to see more Thanksgiving Pictures!
This thanksgiving was very festive, as for the American's Thanksgiving marks the start of the Christmas season! We were also cooking in a REAL kitchen (thanks to Pasan and his apartment), for WAY more people, so it really felt like home :) We cook for many hours while listening to Christmas music from Hannah's hometown radio station online (Charlotte, North Carolina!).
Our Thanksgiving feast included me, Virginia (the Canadian representatives), Hannah (the sole American), Pasan (From Dubai, but who goes to school in America), Babette (Holland and now France), Omar (Mexico), and Giacomo (Italy). It was Babette, Omar and Giacomo's first ever thanksgiving :)
Like traditional thanksgiving, we made WAY too much food, but it was all soo delicious! Everyone contributed, and here's what was one the menu!
Pasan (the cooking thank that he is) made A TON
- pumpkin pie from scratch! (pastry and all)
- turkey thighs (that was the closest to a full turkey we could find), which he glazed himself as well
- Garlic mashed potatoes (my favourite!)
Virginia made a slightly modified version of stuffing, but JUST as delicious (we didn't cook a full bird, so we couldn't exactly do traditional stuffing...)
I made steamed veggies and momma's homemade cheese sauce (which turned out pretty well if i do say so myself!)
Hannah made deviled eggs, and homemade macaroni and cheese (a thanksgiving tradition in her family)
Omar made sangria, Giacomo brought the wine, and Babette brought a delicious chocolate cake! (it was a little harder for the first timers to make part of the feast, but we didn't mind at all!)
We also bought two pre cooked chickens from the grocery store as well :) Oh and there was gravy! we can't forget the gravy!
All in all it was a VERY successful thanksgiving dinner! Everyone ate waaay too much, and of course still had room for dessert. We also came back the next day for thanksgiving lunch AND had enough to take home a full plate for dinner :)
Well done everyone!!
Virginia had to help make Pasan's pie crust pretty!
Halfway through making all of the food!
And it's all there! Holy crap. Yes it took 7 of us 2 days (3 meals) to eat all of this food.
Giacomo, Omar, and Babette's first Thanksgiving!
Please click the title to see more Thanksgiving Pictures!
Friday, November 20, 2009
November in Lyon
The end of November is almost here and I cannot believe it! Only 4 more weeks and i'm really excited to come home :) But before that happens, there's still so much excitement happening here! Here's what's been happening so far in November:
Fondue Day
On Nov 11th, it was Armistice Day in France, and instead of going to school where we have our remembrance day ceremonies, school and businesses are closed. So we decided to take full advantage of our day off.
Since our delicious fondue experience in switzerland, we decided we needed to share our new love :) So we bought frozen cheese fondue, lots of bread, and decided to throw in some chocolate fondue as well! So we bought tons of fruit to dip!
The girls (Hannah, Virginia, Babette and I) made lunch for once, melted some chocolate, melted the cheese, cut the bread and the fruit :) the boys got to chill and play the wii while we cooked :)
After stuffing our faces, we all just hung out and played Wii and card games :) An excellent day off!
Fondue supplies
relaxing after eating all of that fondue
Playing Wii
Girl's Night
The friday before hell week started (where i had a 25 minute presentation, a 4 page analyse du texte which i've never done before, a 7 page essay, and a test) we (Virginia, Babette and I) went over to Hannah's apartment for a girls night! We ordered pizza from pizza hut (which had real pepperoni pizza!) and enjoyed some girly movies and made cookies!
The really exciting part of the night though, was after the movies, after the cookes, and after cutting virginia's hair, we went for a walk around town. It was at least 15 degrees out that night. We had a good walk, and on the way home, we were walking through the place des terreaux (a large pedestrian square with a big fountain in the middle of it) we're walking out of the square when we hear some "excitement" so we look over, and about 15 naked guys come running into the square~! The streakers ran right into the fountain where they splashed around a bit. Half of them ran away right away while the others posed for pictures in the fountain! it was hillarious. One guy from the crowd even joined in for fun. It was an interesting event thats for sure :)
A fun start to the weekend full of work.
Making cookies :)
Streaker!!!
Beaujoulais Nouveau
Every year, the third thursday in November, Beaujolais Nouveau Wine is released. It is the only wine that can be sold the same year that it is produced. So we decided to go to one of the tastings! (Virginia, myself, Hannah, Pasan, Omar, and Giacomo) Virginia and I set out, and heard tons of cheering outside. Once we were outside, we saw tons of people cheering and honking cars. It turns out there was a soccer game between Egypt and Algeria as part of the African Cup, and apparantly Algeria won! So all of the Algerians were out cheering and celebrating. They were all over Guillotiere, stopping traffic and cheering and setting off fireworks. It was exciting!! Of course we stayed just on the outside, observing from a safe distance.
Virginia and i left to join the others in search of Beaujolais. But all we found were more cheering algerians. There were even more in place Bellecour, which is attached to Rue de la Republic, a pedestrian walking area. We were watching the celebrations and there was more honking and cheering. Then all of a sudden we saw people running away, and then heard loud pops! it was the riot police!!!! Luckily we were nowhere close to that, and very close to the metro, so we hopped on right away.
Part of the celebrations
So our night of Beaujolais turned into cheering algerians and riot police. It was quite the interesting night! But definitely one to remember!
Experiencing French Culture
Last week, Virginia and I decided that we needed to start experiencing more french culture. We have the bread/pastry eating down, but for living in france (apart from classes of course) we speak a little too much english sometimes. So we were telling our friend Babette this, and she, being the amazing girl that she is, told her friend Justine (who we know as well) and Justine invited us over to her room for a french movie night and pizza eating :) Justine also doesn't speak a lot of english, so we spoke french all evening! we even at dinner at french time (around 8pm) and watched this movie called Jeux D'Enfants. It was a really good night, and I even understood the movie! Not every sibgle word, but i wasn't lost at what was going on, which i was very excited about. And we spoke french and chatted all evening :)
A night at the movies
Friday after we had handed in all of our essays, done all the tests, did my presentation, we went to see NEW MOON! (the second installment of twilight for all of those non fans out there!) We really wanted to watch it in english so we could understand it perfectly :) So we found a theatre that plays the french version and the original version of each movie. So we got to see it in english, with french subtitles.
That's about it for now! I have an exciting few weeks ahead of me though, so there will be lots to write about! Paris, then Rome, the Fete des lumieres, Exams, then HOME!
Fondue Day
On Nov 11th, it was Armistice Day in France, and instead of going to school where we have our remembrance day ceremonies, school and businesses are closed. So we decided to take full advantage of our day off.
Since our delicious fondue experience in switzerland, we decided we needed to share our new love :) So we bought frozen cheese fondue, lots of bread, and decided to throw in some chocolate fondue as well! So we bought tons of fruit to dip!
The girls (Hannah, Virginia, Babette and I) made lunch for once, melted some chocolate, melted the cheese, cut the bread and the fruit :) the boys got to chill and play the wii while we cooked :)
After stuffing our faces, we all just hung out and played Wii and card games :) An excellent day off!
Fondue supplies
relaxing after eating all of that fondue
Playing Wii
Girl's Night
The friday before hell week started (where i had a 25 minute presentation, a 4 page analyse du texte which i've never done before, a 7 page essay, and a test) we (Virginia, Babette and I) went over to Hannah's apartment for a girls night! We ordered pizza from pizza hut (which had real pepperoni pizza!) and enjoyed some girly movies and made cookies!
The really exciting part of the night though, was after the movies, after the cookes, and after cutting virginia's hair, we went for a walk around town. It was at least 15 degrees out that night. We had a good walk, and on the way home, we were walking through the place des terreaux (a large pedestrian square with a big fountain in the middle of it) we're walking out of the square when we hear some "excitement" so we look over, and about 15 naked guys come running into the square~! The streakers ran right into the fountain where they splashed around a bit. Half of them ran away right away while the others posed for pictures in the fountain! it was hillarious. One guy from the crowd even joined in for fun. It was an interesting event thats for sure :)
A fun start to the weekend full of work.
Making cookies :)
Streaker!!!
Beaujoulais Nouveau
Every year, the third thursday in November, Beaujolais Nouveau Wine is released. It is the only wine that can be sold the same year that it is produced. So we decided to go to one of the tastings! (Virginia, myself, Hannah, Pasan, Omar, and Giacomo) Virginia and I set out, and heard tons of cheering outside. Once we were outside, we saw tons of people cheering and honking cars. It turns out there was a soccer game between Egypt and Algeria as part of the African Cup, and apparantly Algeria won! So all of the Algerians were out cheering and celebrating. They were all over Guillotiere, stopping traffic and cheering and setting off fireworks. It was exciting!! Of course we stayed just on the outside, observing from a safe distance.
Virginia and i left to join the others in search of Beaujolais. But all we found were more cheering algerians. There were even more in place Bellecour, which is attached to Rue de la Republic, a pedestrian walking area. We were watching the celebrations and there was more honking and cheering. Then all of a sudden we saw people running away, and then heard loud pops! it was the riot police!!!! Luckily we were nowhere close to that, and very close to the metro, so we hopped on right away.
Part of the celebrations
So our night of Beaujolais turned into cheering algerians and riot police. It was quite the interesting night! But definitely one to remember!
Experiencing French Culture
Last week, Virginia and I decided that we needed to start experiencing more french culture. We have the bread/pastry eating down, but for living in france (apart from classes of course) we speak a little too much english sometimes. So we were telling our friend Babette this, and she, being the amazing girl that she is, told her friend Justine (who we know as well) and Justine invited us over to her room for a french movie night and pizza eating :) Justine also doesn't speak a lot of english, so we spoke french all evening! we even at dinner at french time (around 8pm) and watched this movie called Jeux D'Enfants. It was a really good night, and I even understood the movie! Not every sibgle word, but i wasn't lost at what was going on, which i was very excited about. And we spoke french and chatted all evening :)
A night at the movies
Friday after we had handed in all of our essays, done all the tests, did my presentation, we went to see NEW MOON! (the second installment of twilight for all of those non fans out there!) We really wanted to watch it in english so we could understand it perfectly :) So we found a theatre that plays the french version and the original version of each movie. So we got to see it in english, with french subtitles.
That's about it for now! I have an exciting few weeks ahead of me though, so there will be lots to write about! Paris, then Rome, the Fete des lumieres, Exams, then HOME!
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Annecy!
Hello!
It`s November! I cannot believe how quickly my time is going here. I've been here for two months! I've been going to school, speaking french, traveling, it's been amazing :) I have a group of friends here now as well! We're all international students, but from all over, so i'm learning not just french now, but some Spanish, and some Italian, and hopefully some other languages as well!
My latest big adventure was to Annecy, France this past weekend. Annecy is a very small town about 2 hours north east of Lyon, (20 minutes away from Geneva!). It's a beautiful place on a lake where you have beautiful views of the mountains.
Virginia and I expanded our traveling camaraderie for this trip. Virginia and I went with our new friend Hannah (from America), her boyfriend Pasan (from Dubai, but school in America), Omar (from Mexico), Giacomo (from Italy) and two german girls and another girl from Mexico. (I just met those girls on the trip)
We went to Annecy just for the day on Saturday, and left early in the morning to get a good start to the day. Unfortunately the start of the day was incredibly cold and rainy. And not the type of rain that's bearable to walk through, it was pouring. and we HAD to walk through. We tried to brave it, but ended up taking shelter for an early lunch.
Eventually it stopped raining, and even the sun snuck out for a little bit. So we were able to take some nice pictures that were only a little foggy, but much better than all that rain. So we walked by the lake, and through Vieux Annecy, where some of our group had to purchase some warmer clothes. Hannah needed boots that weren't paper thin, Virginia needed pants because she had worn a skirt that day, and Omar was desperate for a winter hat.
We explored the little town, and saw beautiful old churches, an old Prison, that is what everyone thinks of when they think of Annecy (who knows it haha). We went in this AMAZING chocolate shop as well, where the shop owner didn't really like us, because we only bought one tiny chocolate each! Except for Giacomo who bought a chocolate bar, made from 100% Cocoa. I don't know if you've ever tried that, but don't. It's absolutely DISGUSTING, and i think it tastes a little bit like dirt actually. hahaha Everyone hated it, but it was interesting to try. Also interesting to think how any chocolate could be gross, but this one was. Although 100% cocoa is the best kind of chocolate for you, i've heard, with all of the antioxidants and whatnot.
Eventually the cold got to us, and we had to take shelter in a bar, where we all warmed up with some hot drinks. Unfortunately when we came out, it was once again raining. We had one more trek to do before we left. We walked up (where everything good always is) to a Chateau, and then continued on to a beautiful old church. We explored there for a little bit before we headed back home, a little early, absolutely freezing, and a little damp. But despite the weather, it was a great trip! Although i'm hoping for a little less rain for my next day trips!!
All of us in front of the Prison (that you can't really see....)
On the lake with the beautiful mountains!
It's pretty cold and rainy in Lyon right now, According to the weather people, it's supposed to rain for the next 2 weeks almost straight. According to the Lyonnais people, it's abnormally cold for Lyon right now. So we're hoping that this is as cold as winter is going to get here. But no snow yet! Which is a little better than back home :P
I mentioned before how school is much more relaxed here than it is back home. Classes are only once a week instead of 3 or 4 times a week at home, so there's a lot less work to do on a daily basis. Although November is the time for all of the big projects to happen, but i've gotten so used to not have to do a lot of work, it's not easy getting motivated. But I am of course! (don't worry parents! haha)
We have school off this Wednesday November 11th, for Armistice (what they call remembrance day here). So of course i'll be using that ENTIRE day dedicated just for homework :P And a fondue party, but thats not important. :)
I think that's all for now! I love reading comments when anyone reads this! So if you do read it, either leave a comment, or send me a short email letting me know you've read it! Feel free to ask my any questions about my trip as well! I like hearing from everyone back home.
once again, if you click on the title, or this link, you can see pictures from my trip!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=18792&id=1642740063&l=a4d89b74e7
Until next time,
Elisa :)
It`s November! I cannot believe how quickly my time is going here. I've been here for two months! I've been going to school, speaking french, traveling, it's been amazing :) I have a group of friends here now as well! We're all international students, but from all over, so i'm learning not just french now, but some Spanish, and some Italian, and hopefully some other languages as well!
My latest big adventure was to Annecy, France this past weekend. Annecy is a very small town about 2 hours north east of Lyon, (20 minutes away from Geneva!). It's a beautiful place on a lake where you have beautiful views of the mountains.
Virginia and I expanded our traveling camaraderie for this trip. Virginia and I went with our new friend Hannah (from America), her boyfriend Pasan (from Dubai, but school in America), Omar (from Mexico), Giacomo (from Italy) and two german girls and another girl from Mexico. (I just met those girls on the trip)
We went to Annecy just for the day on Saturday, and left early in the morning to get a good start to the day. Unfortunately the start of the day was incredibly cold and rainy. And not the type of rain that's bearable to walk through, it was pouring. and we HAD to walk through. We tried to brave it, but ended up taking shelter for an early lunch.
Eventually it stopped raining, and even the sun snuck out for a little bit. So we were able to take some nice pictures that were only a little foggy, but much better than all that rain. So we walked by the lake, and through Vieux Annecy, where some of our group had to purchase some warmer clothes. Hannah needed boots that weren't paper thin, Virginia needed pants because she had worn a skirt that day, and Omar was desperate for a winter hat.
We explored the little town, and saw beautiful old churches, an old Prison, that is what everyone thinks of when they think of Annecy (who knows it haha). We went in this AMAZING chocolate shop as well, where the shop owner didn't really like us, because we only bought one tiny chocolate each! Except for Giacomo who bought a chocolate bar, made from 100% Cocoa. I don't know if you've ever tried that, but don't. It's absolutely DISGUSTING, and i think it tastes a little bit like dirt actually. hahaha Everyone hated it, but it was interesting to try. Also interesting to think how any chocolate could be gross, but this one was. Although 100% cocoa is the best kind of chocolate for you, i've heard, with all of the antioxidants and whatnot.
Eventually the cold got to us, and we had to take shelter in a bar, where we all warmed up with some hot drinks. Unfortunately when we came out, it was once again raining. We had one more trek to do before we left. We walked up (where everything good always is) to a Chateau, and then continued on to a beautiful old church. We explored there for a little bit before we headed back home, a little early, absolutely freezing, and a little damp. But despite the weather, it was a great trip! Although i'm hoping for a little less rain for my next day trips!!
All of us in front of the Prison (that you can't really see....)
On the lake with the beautiful mountains!
It's pretty cold and rainy in Lyon right now, According to the weather people, it's supposed to rain for the next 2 weeks almost straight. According to the Lyonnais people, it's abnormally cold for Lyon right now. So we're hoping that this is as cold as winter is going to get here. But no snow yet! Which is a little better than back home :P
I mentioned before how school is much more relaxed here than it is back home. Classes are only once a week instead of 3 or 4 times a week at home, so there's a lot less work to do on a daily basis. Although November is the time for all of the big projects to happen, but i've gotten so used to not have to do a lot of work, it's not easy getting motivated. But I am of course! (don't worry parents! haha)
We have school off this Wednesday November 11th, for Armistice (what they call remembrance day here). So of course i'll be using that ENTIRE day dedicated just for homework :P And a fondue party, but thats not important. :)
I think that's all for now! I love reading comments when anyone reads this! So if you do read it, either leave a comment, or send me a short email letting me know you've read it! Feel free to ask my any questions about my trip as well! I like hearing from everyone back home.
once again, if you click on the title, or this link, you can see pictures from my trip!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=18792&id=1642740063&l=a4d89b74e7
Until next time,
Elisa :)
Monday, October 26, 2009
Geneva, Switzerland!
I just came back from my first big weekend trip - to Geneva!
It was amazing :)
Our original plan (not sure if i mentioned it before) to go to Switzerland, was to go to Geneva, and to Zermat. Although it turned out it would cost us more than 100 euros just to get to Zermat and back from Geneva, so we decided that it wasn't worth it (unfortunately, but it's still somewhere I'd really like to go in my lifetime!).
We left early Saturday morning, and came back Sunday evening. Virginia and I ended up staying with my Step-mom's cousin Caroline (who I had met once or twice briefly before). She was amazing :) She met us at the train station in geneva, and took us back to her place in Carouge (an adorable suburb of Geneva) to drop off our things.
We spent the day with Caroline wandering Geneva, seeing all of the sights, the University, the Old town, a really ugly russian church, the Jet D'eau, the Un buildings (including the WTO and UNICEF). We saw almost all of the parts of the city, which was fantastic. And of course we did some shopping too :) Caroline showed us the best and cheapest place to get chocolate is from the Grocery Store. It was the most gigantic chocolate section I have EVER seen. Maybe if you see me at christmas, I may have some swiss chocolate to share with you!
- Outside the United Nations Building! Could you tell?
Caroline took us to a really cute restaurant called the Cafe du Soliel for dinner, where we had a traditional swiss meal - Cheese Fondu. It was extremely delicious! We weren't really sure how to go about ordering and such, luckily the waiter was very helpful, and guided us through the evening. He recommended the cheese fondu (your table comes with a gigantic pile of bread for dipping) and dry meat. Also he gave us some water for before the meal, and recommended a nice dry white wine for the meal, as you aren't supposed to drink cold water after eating the melted cheese, as it causes the cheese to harden in your stomach....... nevertheless it was a fantastic experience, and I am now definitely a fan of cheese fondu :)
Eating at Café du Soleil!
The next day, we decided to tackle the Saleve. A mountain just outside of Geneva, and actually in France! We took the bus as far as it would go (just to the edge of switzerland) then walked into France to the mountain. It was a beautiful ride up the Telepherique where had amazing views of Geneva and the surrounding countryside. We took a nice hike up the rest of the mountain as well. Where we saw Paragliders take off. It was a fantastic day. It got a little foggier throughout the day, so we decided to go back down once we couldn't even see each other.
At the top of the Salève overlooking Geneva :)
All in all, it was a fantastic weekend in Switzerland, the only bad thing is now I just want to see more of it! Caroline was showing us her pictures from other places she'd been.
It's really too bad I don't have unlimited time and money......
Here is the link to the rest of my pictures, or just click the title of this post and it will take you right there!
I just figured out how to put videos on, (in April hahah) so i've come back to update some posts with videos I've taken. This one is of Paragliders jumping off the Saleve.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=17606&id=1642740063&l=954db93d6c
It was amazing :)
Our original plan (not sure if i mentioned it before) to go to Switzerland, was to go to Geneva, and to Zermat. Although it turned out it would cost us more than 100 euros just to get to Zermat and back from Geneva, so we decided that it wasn't worth it (unfortunately, but it's still somewhere I'd really like to go in my lifetime!).
We left early Saturday morning, and came back Sunday evening. Virginia and I ended up staying with my Step-mom's cousin Caroline (who I had met once or twice briefly before). She was amazing :) She met us at the train station in geneva, and took us back to her place in Carouge (an adorable suburb of Geneva) to drop off our things.
We spent the day with Caroline wandering Geneva, seeing all of the sights, the University, the Old town, a really ugly russian church, the Jet D'eau, the Un buildings (including the WTO and UNICEF). We saw almost all of the parts of the city, which was fantastic. And of course we did some shopping too :) Caroline showed us the best and cheapest place to get chocolate is from the Grocery Store. It was the most gigantic chocolate section I have EVER seen. Maybe if you see me at christmas, I may have some swiss chocolate to share with you!
- Outside the United Nations Building! Could you tell?
Caroline took us to a really cute restaurant called the Cafe du Soliel for dinner, where we had a traditional swiss meal - Cheese Fondu. It was extremely delicious! We weren't really sure how to go about ordering and such, luckily the waiter was very helpful, and guided us through the evening. He recommended the cheese fondu (your table comes with a gigantic pile of bread for dipping) and dry meat. Also he gave us some water for before the meal, and recommended a nice dry white wine for the meal, as you aren't supposed to drink cold water after eating the melted cheese, as it causes the cheese to harden in your stomach....... nevertheless it was a fantastic experience, and I am now definitely a fan of cheese fondu :)
Eating at Café du Soleil!
The next day, we decided to tackle the Saleve. A mountain just outside of Geneva, and actually in France! We took the bus as far as it would go (just to the edge of switzerland) then walked into France to the mountain. It was a beautiful ride up the Telepherique where had amazing views of Geneva and the surrounding countryside. We took a nice hike up the rest of the mountain as well. Where we saw Paragliders take off. It was a fantastic day. It got a little foggier throughout the day, so we decided to go back down once we couldn't even see each other.
At the top of the Salève overlooking Geneva :)
All in all, it was a fantastic weekend in Switzerland, the only bad thing is now I just want to see more of it! Caroline was showing us her pictures from other places she'd been.
It's really too bad I don't have unlimited time and money......
Here is the link to the rest of my pictures, or just click the title of this post and it will take you right there!
I just figured out how to put videos on, (in April hahah) so i've come back to update some posts with videos I've taken. This one is of Paragliders jumping off the Saleve.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=17606&id=1642740063&l=954db93d6c
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Thanksgiving Weekend
Happy Thanksgiving!
This has been the hardest weekend yet here. It's hard to have everyone at home celebrating something together, all of your friends and family get to see each other, when you're stuck in some foreign country that doesn't even celebrate Thanksgiving! These last couple days were a bit tricky, with everyone at home being so excited about the first big weekend back home. Not to mention all of the delicious food that comes along with the Thanksgiving weekend!
But of course, there is no way that I could miss Thanksgiving altogether! So Virginia and I created our Own feast! We declared Saturday "Canadian Thanksgiving in France" Because grocery stores aren't open here on Sundays, and we have a full day of school on Monday.
So on Saturday, we got all dressed up, made Thanksgiving signs to post on our table in the Kitchen (letting all the french students know what the heck we were doing hahah). We went to the grocery store and got all of the things we needed for our Canadian Thanksgiving in France!
We lucked out because it seemed as though most of the french students had gone home for the weekend, so while we were creating our masterpiece in the kitchen, we were the only ones there! People only starting coming in as we were finishing up, and asking lots of questions about thanksgiving. Everyone know Thanksgiving in the States, and were wondering how it could be Thanksgiving already! We had to fill them in that we liked to have ours a little earlier in Canada :)
Here is what we ended up making!
Caesar Salad
Fresh Baguette and Butter
Pre roasted Chicken (from the grocery store because we don't have an oven in res :( )
Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Steamed Carrots and Green Beans
Homemade Stuffing
Apple Pastry
Fruit Tart
Chocolate Ice Cream
And voila! Our slightly modified Canadian Thanksgiving in France! We also carried on the thanksgiving Tradition of eating Waaaaay too much, But we did take a break between dinner and dessert to take a promenade de digestion down to the river. Although I would have much preferred to be spending it with my friends and family, think it was a pretty successful THanksgiving away from home.
One thing I learned from this whole thing though, I'm SO glad to be coming home for Christmas :)
- Virginia's sign, and a mini gourd!
- us sitting down to our delicious meal :)
- Our plates weren't big enough to hold everything so we had to use them all!
- The aftermath :) and two full Canadians :)
This has been the hardest weekend yet here. It's hard to have everyone at home celebrating something together, all of your friends and family get to see each other, when you're stuck in some foreign country that doesn't even celebrate Thanksgiving! These last couple days were a bit tricky, with everyone at home being so excited about the first big weekend back home. Not to mention all of the delicious food that comes along with the Thanksgiving weekend!
But of course, there is no way that I could miss Thanksgiving altogether! So Virginia and I created our Own feast! We declared Saturday "Canadian Thanksgiving in France" Because grocery stores aren't open here on Sundays, and we have a full day of school on Monday.
So on Saturday, we got all dressed up, made Thanksgiving signs to post on our table in the Kitchen (letting all the french students know what the heck we were doing hahah). We went to the grocery store and got all of the things we needed for our Canadian Thanksgiving in France!
We lucked out because it seemed as though most of the french students had gone home for the weekend, so while we were creating our masterpiece in the kitchen, we were the only ones there! People only starting coming in as we were finishing up, and asking lots of questions about thanksgiving. Everyone know Thanksgiving in the States, and were wondering how it could be Thanksgiving already! We had to fill them in that we liked to have ours a little earlier in Canada :)
Here is what we ended up making!
Caesar Salad
Fresh Baguette and Butter
Pre roasted Chicken (from the grocery store because we don't have an oven in res :( )
Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Steamed Carrots and Green Beans
Homemade Stuffing
Apple Pastry
Fruit Tart
Chocolate Ice Cream
And voila! Our slightly modified Canadian Thanksgiving in France! We also carried on the thanksgiving Tradition of eating Waaaaay too much, But we did take a break between dinner and dessert to take a promenade de digestion down to the river. Although I would have much preferred to be spending it with my friends and family, think it was a pretty successful THanksgiving away from home.
One thing I learned from this whole thing though, I'm SO glad to be coming home for Christmas :)
- Virginia's sign, and a mini gourd!
- us sitting down to our delicious meal :)
- Our plates weren't big enough to hold everything so we had to use them all!
- The aftermath :) and two full Canadians :)
Saturday, October 3, 2009
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October Already!
I cannot believe that it's October already! The weeks have just flown by so far. It's also hard to believe that I haven't had a full week of classes yet! (this coming week will be my first FULL week)
Classes are going well. I have a few classes JUST for exchange students, so the profs know that we ALL are learning french, and are here to improve our language skills. Those classes are very simelar to home, and are going perfectly excellent.
My other classes are a little bit tougher. About half of my classes are french litterature, taught by a french prof, to (mostly) french students. They don't consider (on a regular basis) that they need to speak a little slower than normal for the international students. Those classes are a little more difficult to keep up in, but I will definitely be learning a lot there!
Those classes are also pretty tough classes for the french students. They have three classes they have to take, where they do a 25 minute presentation for each class, and then they study for the final exam for ALL THREE, but only write ONE! (they don't know which one until the day of though).
LUCKILY the french profs remember us international students here. We don't have to do the presentations, or the final exam :) Which is EXCELLENT:) Instead we write a 10 page essay for each of these three classes, and that constitutes our final exam for each class.
In other news, Virginia and I went on our first out of Lyon outing today! We went to Vienne for the Day, which is a small city 20 minutes by train away. We managed to go for less than 10 euros there and back! We left in the morning, and then just wandered around the city! (it was pretty small, so very difficult to get lost) We found touristy things, and bought a 6 euro pass for all of the museums in the city! We went to a roman amphitheatre, an architectural museum, which had roman ruins (of houses and communities) we went to some churches, climbed lots of stairs, had an excellent picnic lunch, and ate some french pastries! All in all it was a very successful day!
In other travel news, Virginia and I have also booked train tickets to go to Geneva, for the end of October! We had originally planned to go to Zermatt as well, but found it was MUCH too expensive to go there as well in the short amount of time that we can go for. Hostels are also booked for this weekend which is pretty exciting I think :) We're going October 24-25, so check back after then for details about my trip!!
Lastly, Virginia and I JUST booked a flight to ROME! I'm especially excited about this trip, although I have awhile to be excited. It was cheapest to go in December, so we've booked our flight from December 4th to the 6th. I'm sure I will be mentioning it more, as my excitement grows! We have A LOT to pack into 2 days there, but I think we can do it, even if it means buying some Gelato for extra energy!
By the way, anyone who has ever been to any of the places I'm going to, or may want to go to, please reccommend anything to me! Places i should go, things i should see, places i should stay? Also if you think i should try and visit any places around europe mention those too! I'm always up for suggestions!
Link to my Vienne Pictures!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=16221&id=1642740063&l=e091c287c2
Classes are going well. I have a few classes JUST for exchange students, so the profs know that we ALL are learning french, and are here to improve our language skills. Those classes are very simelar to home, and are going perfectly excellent.
My other classes are a little bit tougher. About half of my classes are french litterature, taught by a french prof, to (mostly) french students. They don't consider (on a regular basis) that they need to speak a little slower than normal for the international students. Those classes are a little more difficult to keep up in, but I will definitely be learning a lot there!
Those classes are also pretty tough classes for the french students. They have three classes they have to take, where they do a 25 minute presentation for each class, and then they study for the final exam for ALL THREE, but only write ONE! (they don't know which one until the day of though).
LUCKILY the french profs remember us international students here. We don't have to do the presentations, or the final exam :) Which is EXCELLENT:) Instead we write a 10 page essay for each of these three classes, and that constitutes our final exam for each class.
In other news, Virginia and I went on our first out of Lyon outing today! We went to Vienne for the Day, which is a small city 20 minutes by train away. We managed to go for less than 10 euros there and back! We left in the morning, and then just wandered around the city! (it was pretty small, so very difficult to get lost) We found touristy things, and bought a 6 euro pass for all of the museums in the city! We went to a roman amphitheatre, an architectural museum, which had roman ruins (of houses and communities) we went to some churches, climbed lots of stairs, had an excellent picnic lunch, and ate some french pastries! All in all it was a very successful day!
In other travel news, Virginia and I have also booked train tickets to go to Geneva, for the end of October! We had originally planned to go to Zermatt as well, but found it was MUCH too expensive to go there as well in the short amount of time that we can go for. Hostels are also booked for this weekend which is pretty exciting I think :) We're going October 24-25, so check back after then for details about my trip!!
Lastly, Virginia and I JUST booked a flight to ROME! I'm especially excited about this trip, although I have awhile to be excited. It was cheapest to go in December, so we've booked our flight from December 4th to the 6th. I'm sure I will be mentioning it more, as my excitement grows! We have A LOT to pack into 2 days there, but I think we can do it, even if it means buying some Gelato for extra energy!
By the way, anyone who has ever been to any of the places I'm going to, or may want to go to, please reccommend anything to me! Places i should go, things i should see, places i should stay? Also if you think i should try and visit any places around europe mention those too! I'm always up for suggestions!
Link to my Vienne Pictures!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=16221&id=1642740063&l=e091c287c2
Friday, September 25, 2009
Pictures!
I'm trying to upload some more photos onto my blog, but it takes a long time, and I can only do so many. I've put all of my pictures on facebook, so if you'd like to look at some more, I've added the links. Let me know if you are able to see them or not!!
Thanks :)
(Just highlight to whole url, and copy and paste it into your browser!)
Je suis en France!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=14494&id=1642740063&l=58146a71c2
Journees des Patrimoine
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15599&id=1642740063&l=3c88ca1cbf
Exploring Lyon
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15717&id=1642740063&l=d7d0125c77
Thanks :)
(Just highlight to whole url, and copy and paste it into your browser!)
Je suis en France!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=14494&id=1642740063&l=58146a71c2
Journees des Patrimoine
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15599&id=1642740063&l=3c88ca1cbf
Exploring Lyon
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15717&id=1642740063&l=d7d0125c77
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Two weeks and on :)
I’ve been here for two weeks now. I’m now at the point where I can no longer think of this as a vacation. I’m starting school and learning just how much work is going to be ahead of me.
School is a lot different here. At Mac, we take 5 courses per semester. Thats normal. Here you take as many courses as add up to 60 credits for the whole year! So I have two full year courses, plus six courses per semester. It’s a little overwhelming. Also at mac, you may go to one course three or four times per week, where here you go once a week. I have about the same amount of hours of class as at home, but a whole lot more work to do on my own time. I have to keep up with 8 different subjects!
Already though things have been made a little bit easier for us as international students. We aren’t expected (in most classes) to do the exact same work as the French students are, we are allowed to tweak our assignments, and in some cases even skip the final exam!
I haven’t attended all of my class yet, as they started on Wednesday, but hopefully more profs will feel pity towards us students struggling to not only learn French, but trying to keep up in completely French classes integrated with mostly all French students.
My most exciting class is English Translation J It’s still taught in French, but I get to translate from French to English, which will give me a little bit of an advantage I hope. Here are my classes for the year:
French Grammar (full year)
French Culture (full year)
Literature of the middle ages
Literature of the 17th century
Literature of the 18th Century
Literature of the 18th Century (again :s)
Literature of the 20th Century
English Translation
French Grammar (cont’d)
French Culture (cont’d)
Literature of the 16th Century
Literature of the 19th Century
Literature of the 20th Century (again)
Literature of the 19th Century (again)
Litterature of the 17th Century (again)
Geography of France
It’s difficult to choose the right courses here, because not only must I make the courses work for me here, but I also have to keep into consideration how they will transfer back to McMaster. Sometimes I have to take two similar courses (both 18th cent lit courses) to add up to one course for McMaster. But i think i’ve finally figured it out to the best of my abilities for the year. Now hopefully the second term schedule will work out in my favour as well, but I have awhile before I have to worry about that.
Also at the two week mark, I’ve noticed some VERY very French behaivoir:
1) Everyone smokes, everywhere all the time. It’s forbidden inside now like home, but it still happens
2) The French are really really good a parallel parking.
3) In the metro stations they play 80’s English pop music all day long
4) The fashion really isn’t that good here :s Some people are impeccably well dressed, while others...... are not. The latest fashion is a skirt like thing that just all of a sudden has foot holes at the bottom. It’s odd and something i don’t think i’ll be conforming to.
5) People in general are very friendly here, and the people who work in the stores we go to don’t mind helping us, and putting up with our awful French. They’re usually excited to learn that We’re Canadians coming here to improve our French
We had a very exciting touristy weekend this past weekend! Lyon had something called les journees des Patrimoine. Where almost all of the touristy things in Lyon were free!!! Virginia and I put on our not so good walking shoes, and Headed to the Musee des Beaux Arts, where we found hundreds of paintings, sculptures, pottery, coins and much more from all over the world through all periods of time. It was pretty beautiful, and very interesting.
We also knew that there were a few Roman Amphitheatres in Lyon, but what we didn't know what where to find them. We wandered around where we THOUGHT they were, but finally had to ask someone
We found the "best" one, at the top of the hill, along with la musee de la civilisation. The museum itself was interesting, but the amphitheatre was absolutely breathtaking :) I'll post some pictures when I can.
Our First full week of school starts tomorrow, so wish me luck!
School is a lot different here. At Mac, we take 5 courses per semester. Thats normal. Here you take as many courses as add up to 60 credits for the whole year! So I have two full year courses, plus six courses per semester. It’s a little overwhelming. Also at mac, you may go to one course three or four times per week, where here you go once a week. I have about the same amount of hours of class as at home, but a whole lot more work to do on my own time. I have to keep up with 8 different subjects!
Already though things have been made a little bit easier for us as international students. We aren’t expected (in most classes) to do the exact same work as the French students are, we are allowed to tweak our assignments, and in some cases even skip the final exam!
I haven’t attended all of my class yet, as they started on Wednesday, but hopefully more profs will feel pity towards us students struggling to not only learn French, but trying to keep up in completely French classes integrated with mostly all French students.
My most exciting class is English Translation J It’s still taught in French, but I get to translate from French to English, which will give me a little bit of an advantage I hope. Here are my classes for the year:
French Grammar (full year)
French Culture (full year)
Literature of the middle ages
Literature of the 17th century
Literature of the 18th Century
Literature of the 18th Century (again :s)
Literature of the 20th Century
English Translation
French Grammar (cont’d)
French Culture (cont’d)
Literature of the 16th Century
Literature of the 19th Century
Literature of the 20th Century (again)
Literature of the 19th Century (again)
Litterature of the 17th Century (again)
Geography of France
It’s difficult to choose the right courses here, because not only must I make the courses work for me here, but I also have to keep into consideration how they will transfer back to McMaster. Sometimes I have to take two similar courses (both 18th cent lit courses) to add up to one course for McMaster. But i think i’ve finally figured it out to the best of my abilities for the year. Now hopefully the second term schedule will work out in my favour as well, but I have awhile before I have to worry about that.
Also at the two week mark, I’ve noticed some VERY very French behaivoir:
1) Everyone smokes, everywhere all the time. It’s forbidden inside now like home, but it still happens
2) The French are really really good a parallel parking.
3) In the metro stations they play 80’s English pop music all day long
4) The fashion really isn’t that good here :s Some people are impeccably well dressed, while others...... are not. The latest fashion is a skirt like thing that just all of a sudden has foot holes at the bottom. It’s odd and something i don’t think i’ll be conforming to.
5) People in general are very friendly here, and the people who work in the stores we go to don’t mind helping us, and putting up with our awful French. They’re usually excited to learn that We’re Canadians coming here to improve our French
We had a very exciting touristy weekend this past weekend! Lyon had something called les journees des Patrimoine. Where almost all of the touristy things in Lyon were free!!! Virginia and I put on our not so good walking shoes, and Headed to the Musee des Beaux Arts, where we found hundreds of paintings, sculptures, pottery, coins and much more from all over the world through all periods of time. It was pretty beautiful, and very interesting.
We also knew that there were a few Roman Amphitheatres in Lyon, but what we didn't know what where to find them. We wandered around where we THOUGHT they were, but finally had to ask someone
We found the "best" one, at the top of the hill, along with la musee de la civilisation. The museum itself was interesting, but the amphitheatre was absolutely breathtaking :) I'll post some pictures when I can.
Our First full week of school starts tomorrow, so wish me luck!
Friday, September 11, 2009
I will try my best to post at least once a week, so check back once or twice!
So it seems like we are finally getting settled in. We’ve had a very busy past couple of days (except for Sunday, where everything in France is closed, even most of the restaurants). We opened a bank account, got our student card, got a cell phone, got insurance, got our carte de sejour, and finally found that on campus, the internet is fantastic...... when my computer feels like cooperating with me.
The local (well more local than us) France students are slowly moving into our residence as well. For the first few days it was just international students. There is a French girl living beside me, and one living beside Virginia. They both don’t speak very good English, but really want to learn! Virginia’s neighbour is extremely nice and helpful, and we ask her a ton of questions all the time, from learning the local slang words, to where the best place to grocery shop is. We’re helping her a little with their English, but they’re helping us so much more
My neighbour is pretty nice, but not as friendly, she also wakes up at 6 in the morning, and the walls here are pretty thin, with squeaky floors so I hear her until she leaves :s – hopefully that won’t wake me up soon.
Our res is also starting to feel a little bit more like home. It’s decorated, and I can call it MY room now. We’re getting more used to the atmosphere here as well, and less scared to go to the bathroom alone at night (there’s no bathroom on our floor, and the lights shut off automatically after about 2 minutes). It might take me a little bit longer to get used to the showers which are a little odd. They have the detachable head, but the only problem is that it attaches down by your belly button, so to wash my hair, I have to hold it above my head....
We’ve made a lot of international friends so far as well as French ones J I think we’ll make even more when school and classes actually start as well. I’ve met many international girls from our residence (which is an all girls residence if I haven’t mentioned before), Scotland, England, Turkey, Australia – all over! There is an international students association on campus called ERASMUS that organizes get togethers with all of the international students as well, so I signed up to maybe go skiing in January!
School is also slowly getting started. We had an information session on Wednesday to learn how to choose our courses, so we’ll be doing that on Saturday. We also took a placement test on Friday morning for mandatory grammar courses. We (as international students) have to take two mandatory classes, this one (FLE course) and a French culture course, both which start late in September. Normal classes start on Wednesday the 16th, which is pretty soon. I’m looking forward to starting school so we can get a kind of routine down. My days are pretty all over the place right now, still just trying to make sure I have everything prepared for starting school and living here.
That’s all for now, but I’ll keep everyone updated on how my classes are next week!
So it seems like we are finally getting settled in. We’ve had a very busy past couple of days (except for Sunday, where everything in France is closed, even most of the restaurants). We opened a bank account, got our student card, got a cell phone, got insurance, got our carte de sejour, and finally found that on campus, the internet is fantastic...... when my computer feels like cooperating with me.
The local (well more local than us) France students are slowly moving into our residence as well. For the first few days it was just international students. There is a French girl living beside me, and one living beside Virginia. They both don’t speak very good English, but really want to learn! Virginia’s neighbour is extremely nice and helpful, and we ask her a ton of questions all the time, from learning the local slang words, to where the best place to grocery shop is. We’re helping her a little with their English, but they’re helping us so much more
My neighbour is pretty nice, but not as friendly, she also wakes up at 6 in the morning, and the walls here are pretty thin, with squeaky floors so I hear her until she leaves :s – hopefully that won’t wake me up soon.
Our res is also starting to feel a little bit more like home. It’s decorated, and I can call it MY room now. We’re getting more used to the atmosphere here as well, and less scared to go to the bathroom alone at night (there’s no bathroom on our floor, and the lights shut off automatically after about 2 minutes). It might take me a little bit longer to get used to the showers which are a little odd. They have the detachable head, but the only problem is that it attaches down by your belly button, so to wash my hair, I have to hold it above my head....
We’ve made a lot of international friends so far as well as French ones J I think we’ll make even more when school and classes actually start as well. I’ve met many international girls from our residence (which is an all girls residence if I haven’t mentioned before), Scotland, England, Turkey, Australia – all over! There is an international students association on campus called ERASMUS that organizes get togethers with all of the international students as well, so I signed up to maybe go skiing in January!
School is also slowly getting started. We had an information session on Wednesday to learn how to choose our courses, so we’ll be doing that on Saturday. We also took a placement test on Friday morning for mandatory grammar courses. We (as international students) have to take two mandatory classes, this one (FLE course) and a French culture course, both which start late in September. Normal classes start on Wednesday the 16th, which is pretty soon. I’m looking forward to starting school so we can get a kind of routine down. My days are pretty all over the place right now, still just trying to make sure I have everything prepared for starting school and living here.
That’s all for now, but I’ll keep everyone updated on how my classes are next week!
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Je suis en France!
I made it here alive!
It was a long first day, which was really more like 2 days for us. Virginia and I left our families at the airport at 4:40 pm on Thursday, and landed in Paris at 6am France time. So even though we had been awake almost all night, we still had the entire day ahead of us :s.
Travelling lightly for a 10 month adventure is impossible, so we didn't try. There were 5 of us on the same flight, and we all had two HUGE suitcases, a backpack and some form of other carry on. i'm sure you can picture me and 4 other Canadian girls wandering through the Paris airport with all of our luggage, it must have been quite the sight.
Maneuvering through the airport was ok, because we had gigantic trolleys, but once we hit the train station we had to carry, lug and roll our things. Little did we know, that was the easy part! Getting our things ON the train was what was difficult. After many giggles, lots of grunts, and a few helping hands from strangers, the three of us finally got our baggage on the racks in the train (the other two girls had left on the earlier train) .
We took the TGV from Paris to Lyon (the high speed train) it was really cool, and super fast. Our only issue, is that we didn't notice that on our tickets we were given assigned train cars, and seats. and somehow we ended up sitting in first class!! Luckily no one came to kick us out, or claim we were in their seats, and even the people that checked our tickets didn't say anything, so we got to stay.
We arrived in Lyon about 1030am, and by this time the three of us are absolutely exhausted and have no idea how to get where we need to go. We end up taking a taxi, (who rips us off claiming we have soooo much baggage hahah) but got to the school to check in. Luckily as we're gettingout of the taxi, a guy (mark) walks by and notices the Canada flag on my backpack, and correctly assumes we're international students and that we really don't know where we're going or what we're dong. He was an american exchange student who had just gone through this same experience last week, so he was happy to help us carry our bags and lead us to the right place.
We got all registered and signed up, and then moved on to finding our res. It's luckily only about a 10 minute walk, and being cheap, we decided that we could do it with all of our bags. We did. Miraculously! although it did take us about 3 times as long as it would have without any luggage.
Our residence was actually pretty nice! It's hard to explain, so i'll just post some pictures of the res, and of my bedroom. Virginia and I got rooms beside each other on the 3 1/2 floor , and our other friend Jess is a couple floors down. We dumped our stuff, and then set of getting some necessities. Like toilet paper. Which is apparently not supplied in our common bathrooms.
Lyon is a beautiful city with many modes of transportation, buses, trams, streetcars, the metro (which is a subway). it's pretty fantastic, and we have a metro station about 30 seconds from our res :) Luckily we ran into mark again, and he told us how to get to a wal-mart ish store. I bought some pink toilet paper :) as well as a pink pillow case to cover my digusting tube pillow that came with my room.
We got all settled that evening, unpacking and decorating our rooms, so they look less like a cell, although we do have a huge window that lets in lots of light. We also made our first french friend. Liliane, is Virginia's other neighbour, and she wants to learn english, so we decided that we would help each other. She was really nice :)
After attempting to use the oh so crappy internet (in the internet room in our res, it's not available in our bedrooms) we turned in for our first sleep in FRANCE!! finally the end of a long day.....
P.S. Pictures to come when I find some better internet
It was a long first day, which was really more like 2 days for us. Virginia and I left our families at the airport at 4:40 pm on Thursday, and landed in Paris at 6am France time. So even though we had been awake almost all night, we still had the entire day ahead of us :s.
Travelling lightly for a 10 month adventure is impossible, so we didn't try. There were 5 of us on the same flight, and we all had two HUGE suitcases, a backpack and some form of other carry on. i'm sure you can picture me and 4 other Canadian girls wandering through the Paris airport with all of our luggage, it must have been quite the sight.
Maneuvering through the airport was ok, because we had gigantic trolleys, but once we hit the train station we had to carry, lug and roll our things. Little did we know, that was the easy part! Getting our things ON the train was what was difficult. After many giggles, lots of grunts, and a few helping hands from strangers, the three of us finally got our baggage on the racks in the train (the other two girls had left on the earlier train) .
We took the TGV from Paris to Lyon (the high speed train) it was really cool, and super fast. Our only issue, is that we didn't notice that on our tickets we were given assigned train cars, and seats. and somehow we ended up sitting in first class!! Luckily no one came to kick us out, or claim we were in their seats, and even the people that checked our tickets didn't say anything, so we got to stay.
We arrived in Lyon about 1030am, and by this time the three of us are absolutely exhausted and have no idea how to get where we need to go. We end up taking a taxi, (who rips us off claiming we have soooo much baggage hahah) but got to the school to check in. Luckily as we're gettingout of the taxi, a guy (mark) walks by and notices the Canada flag on my backpack, and correctly assumes we're international students and that we really don't know where we're going or what we're dong. He was an american exchange student who had just gone through this same experience last week, so he was happy to help us carry our bags and lead us to the right place.
We got all registered and signed up, and then moved on to finding our res. It's luckily only about a 10 minute walk, and being cheap, we decided that we could do it with all of our bags. We did. Miraculously! although it did take us about 3 times as long as it would have without any luggage.
Our residence was actually pretty nice! It's hard to explain, so i'll just post some pictures of the res, and of my bedroom. Virginia and I got rooms beside each other on the 3 1/2 floor , and our other friend Jess is a couple floors down. We dumped our stuff, and then set of getting some necessities. Like toilet paper. Which is apparently not supplied in our common bathrooms.
Lyon is a beautiful city with many modes of transportation, buses, trams, streetcars, the metro (which is a subway). it's pretty fantastic, and we have a metro station about 30 seconds from our res :) Luckily we ran into mark again, and he told us how to get to a wal-mart ish store. I bought some pink toilet paper :) as well as a pink pillow case to cover my digusting tube pillow that came with my room.
We got all settled that evening, unpacking and decorating our rooms, so they look less like a cell, although we do have a huge window that lets in lots of light. We also made our first french friend. Liliane, is Virginia's other neighbour, and she wants to learn english, so we decided that we would help each other. She was really nice :)
After attempting to use the oh so crappy internet (in the internet room in our res, it's not available in our bedrooms) we turned in for our first sleep in FRANCE!! finally the end of a long day.....
P.S. Pictures to come when I find some better internet
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