Adventures Around Lyon (and France) Part 2

I've had a lot of adventures in the past month. (Month? Have I really been in France for over a month now? I can hardly believe it.) I can't go into the details for each one, so I'm going to display some of the highlights.

Sept 9: Le Défilé de la Biennale de la Danse

Every other year, Lyon has a huge dance festival, kicked off by a parade. We went to see the parade as dancers marched through downtown Lyon. It was really crowded, but fun to see the dances and costumes. 

Sept 10: The neighbor who lives across the street from me also provides housing for international students. She invited us, her current lodgers, and former students who have lived with her to a crêpe-making party. It was truly a cross-cultural experience I will never forget. There were students from France, the U.S., China, Japan, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and Peru all eating dinner together.

September 15-16: Les Journées des Patrimoine

The next weekend, Lyon celebrated its heritage by allowing the public to visit all of its museums and cultural sites for free.  On Saturday, My housemate Huong and I visited the stylish opera house, the sumptuous state rooms of Hôtel de Ville, the City Hall, and la Musée des Beaux Arts. On Sunday, we visited a small island on the Saône, Île Barbe, which had a medieval church. 


September 22-23: Annecy

This trip should warrant a whole blog post of its own, so I will explain it in some detail. We visited Annecy, which is a town in the Alps, next to Lake Annecy. It's only a 2 hour train ride away from Lyon. Annecy has such a beautiful landscape of mountains framing it, and the town itself is charming. It's canals and bright, old-style buildings reminded me of pictures I have seen of Venice. But what made it better than Venice was how clear the water was. Lake Annecy is one of the cleanest lakes in France.

The first day, after we missed our train at 8:40 a.m., we discovered two things: 1. French trains leave earlier than the time listed on the ticket and 2. You can use your tickets for the next train, as long as it's during the same general time period. 

We made it to Annecy by noon, because we took the next train there. We headed towards the cheateau, which has been converted into a museum. I believe it used to house the Ducs of Génève from the House of Savoie. The exhibits in the museum ranged from interesting to odd. Honestly, I appreciated the architecture of the building and its atmosphere more than the art it housed. 

After the chateau, we wandered the city for several hours. We saw Annecy's famous Palais d' Île, which used to be a prison. That night, we had a fancy dinner at one of the cheaper restaurants in Annecy. 

The second day, we mostly relaxed by the lakeside, enjoying the view of the mountains. We perused for food at the local market, and then had a picnic in the grass by the lake. That afternoon, I went on a one-hour boat tour around the lake. The tour, which was given in French and English, pointed out the highlights of the lake area, explaining the history and geography of the neighboring villages and mountains. I saw so many chateaus scattered around the lakeside. The aristocracy clearly loved this area, and I can see why. It's gorgeous, calm, and peaceful. 

A chateau by the lakeside which I saw on the boat tour

View from the Chateau at Annecy

Sept 29: Beaujolais

Saturday, I went to a winery in Beaujolais on a trip organized by EAP. We visited a farm owned by a French couple, who make wine and bread for a living. They were so kind and welcoming to us. As soon as we arrived, the husband explained to us how to engage our senses in order to appreciate wine and offered us some of their own wine.

 Next they served us a grand meal, which was probably the best meal I've had in France. Our first course was a salad with terrine, which is similar to a pâté. For the main course we had slow-roasted pork in a mustard sauce, served with potatoes. This was so incredibly delicious. The couple explained to us that they had cooked the pork in the oven for 10 hours! They also told us that all of the food came from local farms, and were local specialties. With dinner, they also served us more wine. Even better, they are an organic winery, which tickled my environmental conscience. Then came the cheese plate, followed by three types of pastries for dessert: a sweet bread, a cookie-like flaky pastry with chocolate chips, and finally  sugar cookies. We topped off our two and half hour with a tiny cuf of expresso with sugar in it.

After stuffing ourselves, we took a tour of the winery. The husband explained to us the process of growing the grapes, harvesting them, and making them into wine. We also watched the wife bake many loaves a bread in their large oven. They were even kind enough to give us a loaf a break each for the road. 

I've really enjoyed the many adventures I've been having in France, but definitely the nicest part of being here is just enjoying the atmosphere, especially in places like Beaujolais and Annecy, which are surrounded by gorgeous landscapes.

The winery's sign. Biologique means organic in French.

Our welcome to the winery

Wine for sale

Loaves of bread cooked in their oven, destined for our stomachs.

Dog guarding the grapes in the vineyard

Adjusting to France and to Life

Right now I am a couple weeks behind on this blog, but I will get to everything I've seen. But I wanted to address a more serious topic than sightseeing today, one that I've had a lot of experience with lately: growing up.

Before this trip, I didn't think I had much growing up left to do, to be honest. I had already lived away from home, at college. I had already held a job and learned how to sign a lease. At home and at school I am mostly independent and (I thought) competent.

Ever since my parents dropped me off in Lyon, I have missed them, and I've missed home, but that's nothing new for me, since normally I go to college in a city that is a 7 hour drive from home.

However, here I've had to do more things for myself by myself than ever before, and on top of that, I've had to do them in a foreign language. At school, I always had at least 2 meals a day provided for me at the dining halls; here, I have to shop for groceries and cook my own food. I've never had to take care of as many bureaucratic and administrative things at home as I have had to here. It's mostly because I am an international student that I have so many official things I have to take care of, but I also think France is a more bureaucratic country than even the United States. UCLA's bureaucracy pales in comparison to the amount of paperwork and waiting in line I've had to do here.

For example, to receive my long stay visa that allows me to stay in France and visit other countries, I had to go to a specific office in Lyon with, among other things, my passport, an attestation of housing, a photocopy of the passport of the woman whose house I am living in, her electricity bill and a photocopy of it,  a passport-style photo of myself, my immunization records, and a receipt for a specific 58 euro stamp that I had to buy from the French government.

These bureaucratic nightmares have been stressing me out, yes. But what's more stressful is the holes I keep digging for myself. Somehow due to the stress of living here and speaking a different language, I have succumbed entirely to absentmindedness. In the past few weeks, I've managed to damage both my cameras, lose my French cell phone, and, worst of all, leave my credit card at a cash register.

I'm not proud of how forgetful I have been acting. It's frustrating for me, because as soon as I start feeling comfortable here, I make another mistake. But I think, if anything, I've been learning to grow up faster here than I have ever before, because I usually have to fix all my mistakes myself. My parents can help me to a certain extent, but not as much as if I were in California. For example, I had to go buy a new French phone. Then I spent a day going to three different phone stores until I got to one where they could restore my former phone number.

The most important thing I've been learning here when it comes to growing up is that, if I make a mistake, even if it's a really bad one, I can't just go into my room and try to hide from it. I have to go deal with it.

I know this post is making my trip sound a lot less perfect than it has seemed in all my other posts thus far. I thought I would add a dose of realism to this blog. But, in truth, despite all of the mishaps, I continue to walk the streets of Lyon and gaze around me, awed by the beauty and excitement of France. I am realizing what the term "culture shock" truly means. Things can seem disconcerting here, but I am learning to appreciate them as aspects of a different culture that I am trying to understand.

Learning to grow up doesn't just consist of depressing experiences, either. I've also learned how to navigate a foreign city, all by myself. Taking the metro everywhere has made me feel far more independent than I feel even at home or in LA, where public transportation cannot get you very far.

I'm also learning how to travel as an adult. My friends and I went to Annecy this past weekend, a charming town nestled into the Alps, next to a large lake. Making hotel room reservations and train reservations by ourselves, without help from anyone, made me feel like I'm really an adult now, since it has always been my mom who has made these plans for me.

At Annecy, I had another grown-up feeling moment, which was my favorite part of the trip. Today is my roommate Huong's birthday, so we decided to celebrate that last weekend with a nice (expensive) dinner out in Annecy. We had a two-hour long, three-course meal that culminated with singing Huong happy birthday. We even ordered wine. Just knowing that my friends and I can go out to dinner and enjoy ourselves while having good food and good wine made realize just how much I have grown up. We didn't really need to do anything fancy. The food we had was good, but not gourmet. But the company was enough, and I think realizing the value of friends over material things, especially when you are in a strange place as I am here, is really a life experience that will stay with me.

Dinner at Annecy

Adventures Around Lyon Part 1

My last post concerned the academic life here, so now I'm going to discuss my exploration of the beautiful city of Lyon. Since coming here, I've learned a lot more about this ancient city.

Lyon has two rivers that run through it: the Rhône and the Saône, which for pronunciation reference, both rhyme with cone. At one point the Saône empties into the Rhône, creating the Confluence, and a peninsula with both rivers surrounding it. This peninsula is called the Presqu'ile. 

Two weeks ago, I took a bus tour around the city, led by a professor of architecture at Lyon 2. She told us more about the history of Lyon, pointing out which neighborhoods of the city used to belong to the working class and which to the bourgeosie. We took the bus up to the cathedral Notre Dame de Fourvière, which rests on the top of a large hill overlooking the city, on the far side of the Saône. We took plenty of pictures of the view, and we looked around the cathedral. 

The view was breathtaking. Lyon was laid out before us like a map. I actually was able to recognize some of Lyon's geographic features. I really am starting to know my way around this beautiful city.

Partial view from the top of the hill by Notre Dame de Fourvière

When we went into the cathedral, the professor told us that the French, in fact, find the building to be ugly, because it mixes too many architectural styles. I still thought the outside of the cathedral was pretty gorgeous, but I could see what she meant about the inside. It has a lot of different paintings and decorations which are all very detailed and busy. Not very easy on the eyes.

Notre Dame de  Fourvière

Next, the bus took us to Vieux Lyon, whose medieval buildings are all preserved. The professor showed us a traboule, which is a passageway between houses. Only two districts in Lyon have them: Vieux Lyon, and Croix Rousse. She explained to us that the traboules had a rich history. They were first used by merchants in the Middle Ages to carry silk without exposing it to the rain. Later, they were used during World War II to allow Jews fleeing the Nazis to find shelter. The inhabitants of the houses would shuttle them from house to house through the traboules so that they were not discovered.

A Traboule

My next adventure occurred a couple of days later. Huong and I decided to check out the Roman Theaters, which are not far from Fourvière. It was really an amazing experience to walk around such ancient theaters. They're 2000 years old, and when you sit in the seats, it transports you right back to what it must have been like to sit there, watching a spectacle unfold. The smaller theater, the Odeon, was where musical performances took place. The bigger theater has a marble floor on the stage area, which is still mostly intact.

Above the two theaters was the ruins of an old Roman street, which we also checked out. 

The large amphitheater

I guess the Romans were short like me!

We had some interesting encounters at this ancient historical site. First, an older, unkempt French man carrying a radio hailed down Huong, asking her what her ethnicity was. Then he started telling the two of us how he ran some sort of program for young adults in which they went out doing activities. It sounded like some sort of dating service. But there was something not quite right about the way he talked to us. To put it simply: he was downright creepy. He asked us our names, ages, and where we were from. Then he asked me if I wanted a boyfriend. I told him very strongly, no thank you I already have one. He kept on encouraging us to come to his programs, and we just kept on saying "Non, merci, desolée." Huong and I had started edging away from him, and we desperately looked around for some excuse to cut the conversation short. 

The sun's going down and we want to take pictures, Huong told him, which finally allowed us to escape. But not before he kissed our hands (ew!!!). We made sure to circle all the way around to the other side of the large amphitheater when we left, so we didn't run into him again.

Next, we were admiring the view from the top of the amphitheater, when we saw some sort of group forming on stage. I still have not figured out what exactly was going on. There were several young men and women on stage, dressed in togas, and there were others on stage in normal clothes. One by one, the men and women in togas were invited up to the hooded leader of the group, who knighted them with a sword and had them swear allegiance to this owl sign on a stick.
It looked like some kind of initiation into a club or a reenactment of some historic event. Huong thought they might be part of a roleplaying group. To me, it looked like some sort of Greek life ritual, but that doesn't make sense since they do not have fraternities or sororities here. 

Some sort of reenacted ceremony? Or roleplaying?

I'm already about two weeks behind in this blog, so I'm going to post this now and continue writing about my adventures more in the next post. I've finally finished the Intensive Language Program here, two whirlwind weeks of French classes that culminated in exams. This weekend is les Journées des Patrimoine, which means that all of the museums and other attractions in the city are free and open to the public. There seems to be some sort of celebration or event every week here. Last week, there was the parade to open the Biannual Dance Festival here, which is still going on right now. I'm going out to have some more adventures, and I look forward to tell all of you about them soon.

Hey the sign has the title of my blog!

The University of Lyon 2 and Sciences Po

This past week I started the Intensive Language Program here, which consists of three classes: writing, oral, and university techniques, which varies in subject matter depending on whether we chose Letters, Human Sciences, or Political Science. I'm taking the Letters class, and I am enjoying that class the most. It's mostly a review of literary analysis, but from a French perspective. We're learning some different essay forms that they expect you to know as a university student in France.

Although these language classes are useful for improving my language skills and preparing me for real classes here at the University of Lyon 2, I'm ready for them to be over. I only have one week left of them, and then the week after next, regular university classes start. I still have no idea what those classes will be, and I won't pick until next week.

The French university system works a lot differently than in the U.S. By the time students have completed their baccalaureate degree at the end of high school, they have already chosen a subject to focus in. Thus, they come to college already part of a department. French students don't really get much of a choice of what classes to take or when their classes will be. So it doesn't matter if the department only tells them which courses are available a week before classes start. This complicates matters for international students, like me, who are trying to take classes in multiple departments. I can tell that trying to plan my schedule for the semester is going to be stressful.

It also doesn't help that the University of Lyon 2, where I am studying, has two campuses on different sides of the city. The one I've been taking classes at so far is right next to the river. The other one, Bron, is farther out, on the periphery of the city. Luckily, the house where I'm living is located between these two locations. Still, I will have to coordinate my schedule carefully to make sure I can actually make it to where I need to be at the right time.

To complicate things even more, there is also an autonomous school within Lyon 2, Institute d'Etudes Politiques, also known as Sciences Po, which is also offering classes. I'm going to try to take a combination of classes from Lyon 2 and Sciences Po, because I think it would be pretty interesting to see what french political science classes are like.

That's how the academic side of my studying abroad is going, so far. I was pretty proud of myself when I tested into level 6 out of 7 for the Intensive Language Program classes. I guess all the French I have been taking for 15 years is finally paying off. My comprehension has really improved here. Yesterday, I listened to a two-hour lecture by a Poli Sci professor on the current state of French politics, and I understood almost 100% of what he was saying. I am still struggling a lot with speaking French. I make a lot of grammatical mistakes, but I'm able to get my point across. I know I can do better if I keep practicing.

In other news, I may be signing up for an unpaid internship with a local environmental organization started by students. If I end up doing that, it will definitely force me to develop better speaking skills very quickly. Also, it would be cool to see the French perspective on environmental issues and sustainability, or what they call, "developpement durable". 

Pictures of the Lyon 2 Campus by the Rhône

La Vie Lyonnaise

Ever since I arrived at EAP Orientation, I have been extremely busy. This is the first day I have had to completely relax. Yet, as of just a few moments ago, I was pretty stressed out. My laptop was not charging, and seemingly nothing I did would change that, even though I tried changing the adapter, the plug, everything. I finally just took out the battery, put it back in, and restarted the computer, and now everything appears to be fine. I am so relieved  because I didn't want to waste my precious time in France trying to get my computer fixed. I've done a lot of things in the past few days, so I will just give you all the highlights.

The first three nights in the EAP program, I stayed at CISL, the Centre Internationale de Séjour à Lyon, which was a hostel-style building. That is the say, the accommodations were spartan. I am so glad to have moved to the house where I will be staying for the rest of the semester. It is so much quieter here.

Despite the noise, it was still fun to meet other EAP students from all of the different UCs.
There are nearly 50 students here for the immersion program at Lyon. Some, like me, are here for a semester, others are here for the entire year. Now that I am here, I almost wish I could have fit a whole year of studying abroad into my college plan, but I know I would miss home to much after so long. These past few days, I've been making lots of new friends and getting to know some fellow Bruins better whom I didn't know very well before this trip. It's nice to be around a bunch of Californians with similar college experiences to me while I'm here in this foreign city.

On Thursday, our first full day of Orientation, we took care of a lot of logistics. We had a 3 hour meeting to discuss rules, academics, and practical information. We signed up for French bank accounts. Then, our guides, Dona, a former EAP student, and Charline, a native French student here at the University of Lyon, took us to buy cell phones and monthly student transportation passes.

The transportation system here is amazing! There are subway trains, trams, and buses that can take you pretty much anywhere in the city and the surrounding area. And they all are very punctual and run often. I wish public transportation back home were this good. The TCL is far superior to LA's metro/bus system, and much better than BART and AC Transit in the Bay Area. Lyon also seems like a relatively small city, compared with Paris or LA, so everything is close to a bus line or a metro station.

On Friday, with my friends Sasha and Charley, who are both from UCLA, I headed to Lyon's famous park, Parc de la Tête d'Or, a large park in the north part of the city. C'est énorme! We walked around for a couple of hours and only saw a small portion of it. Inside the park, there is a field with deer and emus (I think they were emus and not ostriches, but I wasn't sure). We also saw a pond full of fish and turtles. We traversed the botanical gardens, which were free and open to the public. They had a really cool greenhouse full of carnivorous plants. We didn't even make it to the zoo or the lake also contained within the park. 

That night, the three of us went to dinner at a creperie bretonne on the Presqu'ile. Then we met up with a few other EAP students at a bar on a cute side street. With them was an Irish girl, Phoebe, who is here on the Erasmus program. The bar didn't really feel French, with is blasting American music and very American drinks. I didn't have anything to drink- I was so not going to pay almost 10 euros for a drink!  Still, it was fun just to hang out there and talk about the differences between France, America, and Ireland. 

Afterwards, we met up with a larger group led by our EAP guides who took us to a boat bar/club docked at the bank of the Rhone. Yes, parents, don't be shocked, I did say the official guides to our program took us to a bar. I guess they realize that most of the people here are going to go out and party anyway, so they might as well keep an eye on us so that we do it safely. The boat bar/club was really fun because a group of at least 10 of us were dancing to a bunch of American songs, which made the boat were on rock from side to side a little bit. A few of us decided to leave early, and by early, I mean around midnight, at which time the metro already had closed. So we headed to a taxi station and took a taxi back to CISL. Since there were a bunch of us in the taxi, the ride wasn't too expensive. Still, I would rather avoid taking a cab again because I don't want to drain all my money that way.

In Lyon, for some reason, people do not hail taxis. Instead, you have to call one, or go to a designated taxi station. It's probably more efficient that way, I suppose.

Yesterday, I left CISL and moved in to the house where I am staying. Another girl from the EAP program is staying here, Huong. She is from UC Berkeley. There is also a Japanese girl staying in the house, Satomi. Since Sutomi doesn't speak English very well, and we want to all practice our French, the three of us have been communicating in French mostly. Just speaking in French more often has definitely been improving my language skills. In general, I have been understanding everything French people say if they talk slowly. If they talk quickly, I get the gist, but sometimes the details escape me. I've been able to get by so far, but I still could use a lot of improvement. Lucky for me, my intensive language program starts tomorrow, so I will definitely get what I am wishing for.

Huong and I made the long commute to the nearest superstore, Carrefour, yesterday. It's similar to a Wal-Mart in that they sell everything there. Normally, at home, I would cringe at the idea of shopping at Wal-Mart. However, here I'm on a budget, and they have the best prices at Carrefour. Plus they still do sell a lot of local and organic produce. Most of what I bought yesterday was grown in France, and here they are lot more transparent about labeling where the food comes from.

We lugged our overstuffed shopping bags back to the house, via two trams and one bus. We're lucky that the bus stop is just across the street from our house, or else we would have had to carry our groceries farther.

Last night, I had a really great time bonding with Huong and Satomi. Satomi is a classical music student, and she plays the piano extremely well. There is a piano in the house, which she can use to practice. Satomi played for us, and then she tried to teach Huong some basic melodies. We sat around talking about music in French and listening to Satomi play different songs on the piano. It was truly a one-of-a-kind experience that is only possible from studying abroad. I love moments like that here.

Today, I haven't done much really, apart from try out my own cooking skills. I've decided that salads are my new staple food. Right now, I can hear Satomi practicing the piano, playing some French classical music that I recognize from my ballet days, and it makes me really want to dance. Too bad I didn't bring my ballet shoes, mais c'est pas grave, I can dance in my socks.

I have ILP starting tomorrow, so I won't be able to update this blog as often, but I will do my best.

A Bientôt!

Ma Chambre!

Parc de la Tête d'Or

A doe at the park

An emu at the park