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!
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| Ma Chambre! |
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| Parc de la Tête d'Or |
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| A doe at the park |
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| An emu at the park |
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