The Latest

Important news: this week is so so much better. Just as I was saying with my last post The Start of Something Strange, life has been looking up—as long as I continue to look up. As so far, it continues to do so. I realized, while talking with my host mom last night, that last week was my low-point. Everyone, supposedly, has a low-point when they move to a new country, with all the adjustment, but for most people, you pull up and out of the low-point. Last week was my low-point, which means there is only one way to go and that is UP. (Or down, if you are Addie). As evidenced by this, once again, lovely photo of the river.

So here we are, together in this upward direction. The heavens are before us. We are looking at Lyon and realizing the beautiful city that it is. The uniqueness of its layout (between two rivers and two hills). The beauty of its rivers. The way one eats here. The architecture. It is nothing like home. And yet, France is nothing at all like I imagined it. My friends and I keep remarking on how it is somehow just like home. People are people everywhere, even if the culture is very much different than home. Life is life, work is work and school is school. And it is not so strange, not so different from home. Only so different too. So basically, that explained nothing. Sorry.

Relaxing morning in the kitchen of my home-stay family's house! 

A pretty building

More pretty roads and buildings

Last weekend I stayed in Lyon and explored. Friday my friends Sara and Mathieu and I explored Croix-Rousse. I showed Sara "le Mur des canuts." We enjoyed a lunch of beers and burgers and then took some nice pictures with the amazing view. Finally, we checked out Part-Dieu (the big mall) and went our separate ways. I ended up making my first pasta dinner here for myself and watching Gilmore Girls (I brought myself one season!).

Old bookstore I found Friday

My first chocolate éclair, SO GOOD

 Le mur des canuts (from afar)

Saturday, Sara and I went to the market in Croix-Rousse and also the market along the Sâone. It was a beautiful day. At Croix-Rousse, the market extends everywhere, along streets, through the square. I ate my first kebab (which is NOT what you would think); it is a sandwich with slow-roasted meat, various spices, and a lot of places put French fries on top with lots of different sauce options. It is kind of like a gyro but not really. We checked out the loot: there is clothes, shoes, mops, bras, hats, fresh fruit and veggies, crepes, kebabs, jewelry, books, anything you could need or want. Sara bought an adorable sun hat and I bought a bowl to keep my jewelry in! After, we shopped for groceries at the market on the Sâone. We had a very terrible experience with some guys on the métro in between, which I may recount in the future. Needless to say, that is one thing about living in a city (specifically a French city) that I do not love.

An interesting event in Bellecoeur, raising awareness for those who still suffer from post-war dangers (like leftover land mines and such)

A cat café in Croix-Rousse (ADDIE)

Sara with our Monacos!

Spelling can be difficult in English.

Happy at the Farmer's Market!

We were so tired after all that walking that we stayed in at night. Finally, Sunday was a day of rest. But the end was filled with good food and good people. Amber, Sara, and I went to l'Épicerie. A really cute tartine place. (A tartine is a piece of toast or bread that is topped with all sorts of stuff—for example my tartine was topped with Brie, honey and walnuts but one could be topped with anything from plain butter to smoked salmon!). We ate and I had the BEST cheesecake. It was in a little Mason jar and it was all very adorable. [See the pictures after] Here we are at the beginning of Week 2 at Lyon 2, Week 4 in France, and Week 5 away from California. More to come soon!

Our tartines at L'épicerie!

Desserts :) 

The best cheesecake you will ever taste

After dinner candy

The bathroom in l'Épicerie

Bathroom door! 

The restaurant itself! And a guy makes eye contact with the camera.

Thanks for reading!

The Start of Something Strange

Hello again.

I am starting to get the swing of things here in Lyon. I was talking with my "résponsable" which is a fancy French work for advisor of my program. She works here at the university with us and has been with the program for over 20 years. Anyways, she was comparing learning a foreign language to being a baby who is learning to walk. A baby learning to walk stands up on two feet, walks for a few feet, and falls back down, ready to crawl again. But the next time that baby stands up, he or she walks for a little bit longer before he or she falls back down again. Over time that baby learns to walk and falls less and less. Learning a language, she said, is like that. There are days when everything flows out of your mouth easily like butter, and then other days when you are choking on a piece of chicken. I've definitely experienced both ends of the spectrum, but I feel myself walking a little longer each time. I have successfully called a phone company, ordered my dinner (and my various other food escapades), grocery shopped, been asked for directions, and the greatest of achievements: had a real conversation with French college students. I haven't understood every word of what people have said but enough to understand what is happening, and when talked to directly, enough to respond somewhat intelligently. At dinners, I have begun to understand more and more of what my host family is talking about amongst themselves.

The good thing, my résponable told me, is that one never regresses. One can only move up or stay where one is, one can never fall backwards down the hill. So I am very optimistic. I look forward to the day when I am able to completely understand my conversation partner and when I can understand overheard conversations on the tram. But for now, I am happy to mime out the words I don't know (like broom) and manage to describe the rest with the words I do. The process feels hard but it gets easier everyday the less self-conscious I am. I have also noticed something. The more I trust God, the more I dwell on the good of a day–the blessings of that day and not the struggles—the more I ask for help, the more comfortable I feel. Again, it is a lot like a child learning to walk. When I forget to trust in God and forget to breathe in the good that I have, I tend to fall, but slowly I feel myself walking. I am walking longer and longer on two feet. Soon, I will be a regular marathon-runner. Well, I might be getting a little ahead of myself there…..but you get the picture.

Have a happy day everyone. May the sun shine (or rain fall, whichever you prefer) on your life today and everyday to come.

The Longest Vacation and the Labyrinth of Lyon 2

As you can see from my title, I like alliteration. But this alliteration is a pretty way of highlighting two polar opposites. The good of this week: seeing the beauty of Annecy for the second time with my lovely friend Sara and the excitement of meeting another dear friend, Insaf, in real life ("in the flesh"). The bad of the week: trying to navigate the French university system that is Lyon 2 and failing miserably.

Let's start with the bad because it is always better to end with the good. This week has only just begun but we have already all discovered the difficulty that is being a foreign exchange student in a French university. The difficulty is a lot of things, but the long of the short of it is that because we are not students officially "inscrits" (enrolled) we do not have priority. Meanwhile, the French students do not get to pick their classes, but instead have a set schedule with times and classes.  So these past two days have consisted of sitting in lecture courses that I didn't understand or finding a class that I liked but then having not enough spaces for us foreigners. Also, for some inexplicable reason, every class I have looked at is on Thursday and so I have to make some choices. All in all, it is much more difficult than I expected. I know it will work itself out but as for now it is looking pretty convoluted [thus "labyrinth"].

A few other dissimilarities between Berkeley and Lyon 2:
1. There are no toilet seats on the toilets in Lyon 2. You just have to squat.
2. Toilet paper is outside all the stalls, so if you forgot to grab some, you just don't use any. Because the bathrooms are like little rooms and you can't ask the person next to you.
3. There are virtually no water fountains (you use the sink water).
4. Classes are two hours and it is frowned upon if you leave early or come late.
5. No trusty Telebears, you sign up for everything the old-fashioned way (it's paper all the way).

This blog post is becoming a bit negative, so let's look at the positives. I found computers in the library that I can use on my own, I finally called FREE and they are re-sending my SIM card to the correct address so I will have a French cell phone number soon, the cafeteria food is cheap and I successfully navigated it, and a French guy asked me why I drew a Christmas tree on my notes (I CANNOT WAIT FOR CHRISTMAS). I have also been having wonderful dinners with my host family and I understand more and more of what they are saying. Today I participated when I wasn't asked a direct question so let's have a round of applause for that!

(One more embarrassing story for good measure: my translation teacher asked me to spell my last name and I mispronounced the letters in French, and she said "We will have to work on spelling" which was a great start to the semester)

Now is time for the GOOD. I have had many good evenings with new friends, I got to meet my friend Insaf (who I knew from a French class at Berkeley-we did a Skype exchange with students in Lyon) and I went to Annecy with another friend from my program, Sara. Here are some pictures.

A few of just fun times:

an example of the architecture of Lyon

another beautiful view of the Rhône

the garden in the middle of Le musée des beaux-arts 

one view of Hôtel de Ville (on the left is the opera house)

A stray kitty that was really friendly-Vieux Lyon

Le Saône

Just can't stop taking pictures of the Rhône

This is for Bridgét, Syd, Mom and Addie (little mix is everywhere)

Then on Saturday I had a lovely afternoon-turned-into-evening meeting Insaf. We found each other outside of Perrache and nervously waved at each other seeing as it has been almost 2 years since we have Skyped for the class. But then we figured it out and we went straight to an American hug. First, she was my tour guide and photographer extraordinaire (really, she just told me where to stand and that it was time for another picture which was good for me). We walked through the Croix-Rousse (another hill bordering Lyon) and into Hôtel de Ville where we had ice cream. We walked by a dance demonstration for the Biénnale de la Danse (I spelled that wrong) that is happening this month (a big festival of dance). We made our way up to Fourvière and she showed me the Gaelic(?)-Roman theater ruins. They are so peaceful and I can not wait to go spend some time there. After that we got delicious Indian wraps in Vieux Lyon and ate on the quai (the edge of the water) along the other river in Lyon (le Saône). It was a great day! 

Le mur de canut- a trompe l'oeil 

Overlooking the city from Croix-Rousse

Insaf and I at the top!

Enjoying the Saône

The ruins-theater 1

The ruins-Theater 2

Finally, on Sunday, I visited Annecy again with Sara. It was a lovely trip, minus getting up at 5:45 to catch my 7am bus. But, we arrived easily after quick naps, and hit the town. Unfortunately, it was still early and it was freezing! So we searched for a café to get a hot breakfast and we succeeded at finding a place called Le café des ducs that served breakfast "Anglo-Saxon" style: a hot drink, fresh OJ, toast, eggs, and bacon. After a good solid breakfast, we went to check out the market that Amber and I saw last week. The market was  crazy and we bought way too much good food. Afterwards, we went to the river and enjoyed a French picnic lunch with bread, cheese, saucisson, strawberries, and three desserts (macarons, meringue, and a sugar bread-which we did not eat all at once). Then we took the paddle boats out on the lake and semi-got in. I am excited for more day trips like this one. 

A smiley faced hot chocolate

This is literally what Annecy looks like.

This too. 

There is so much ice cream in France.

The hugest zucchini.

The meringues we ate! (at the top)

Sara being cute and eating our fresh bread!

A cute red door!

A secret passageway down which we were adventurous

The lake, still obscenely beautiful

We're on a boat. We're going…slow…and

Thank you for reading. Until next time :) 

PRUNE, CISL, and a host of other acronyms

Something I have learned (and something that my study abroad program leader noted) is that French people in the university system love acronyms. So this entry will be an entry of acronyms, to the best of my ability:

August 27^th-30^th: CISL

If you were to say CISL to anyone in my UCEAP study abroad group (50 or so UC kids all from different campuses around California), you would hear an almost instantaneous groan. CISL (a student-centered hostel in Lyon) is where I stayed for the first three days of my program. It is also where some other people, who chose apartment instead of homestay, had to stay while they looked for an apartment to rent. The groans you would hear had nothing to do with the people who worked there, they were all really nice! It had to do with the fact that we only received breakfast (between 7am and 9 am) of yogurt “nature” (which means really really plain), a cereal that resembled corn pops, and “compote” (i.e. jam). Also, the fact that none of us realized that they don’t provide towels or hand soap so we had to pay 1, 60 euros to rent a towel while we were there. But mostly, the fact that it had THE most horrendous wifi I have ever encountered. I could barely send an email, Facebook chat never worked, and even trying Facetime or Skype was hopeless. Moreover, every 5 minutes you lost your connection.

So now that I have had my official CISL rant, these first few days were good despite all of this! We bonded quickly over all of our first-world problems (which actually ended up being harder than we expected and made me feel very spoiled to live in a place where I could always contact my loved ones). We all stuck together within the program and went out the first night to the river to sit with the other university kids on the Berges de la Rhone. It was really beautiful. In these first few days, the city was still a mystery to us and so, throughout the day, we would explore Lyon and try to get our bearings. Here are some pictures of the first three days J

The first night along the Rhône

My university-Lyon 2

Grand group of girls from my program :) 

View of the Rhône

Only Lyon! 

Apparently "Danielle" became "Tania"-he couldn't understand my accent….this Starbucks cost 5 euros by the way….which is like 8 bucks, not a good deal in France. 

Touristy Lyon picture!

August 30^th and 31^st: LPWDH (Le premier week-end de homestay-the first weekend of homestay)

On August 30^th at 10am, my host mom, Bernadette, picked me up at CISL. All of us homestayers were waiting in the lobby with our luggage and a stomach full of butterflies. I met her and the first thing she said to me was, “Tu es Danielle?” (Are you Danielle?) and I said “Oui, bonjour” (Yes, hello), she said “Bonjour, je suis Bernadette.” And I could not for the life of me remember how to say “Nice to meet you” in French so I just said “Bonjour” again like a parrot. She looked a little confused and said, “You speak some French, right?” in French. I said “Oui, je parle francais” and luckily, we had a conversation about ten minutes later that proved to her that I truly was able to speak French!

My first day in my homestay was great! I could tell already that I was going to like my homestay family. Once I got to the apartment with all of my stuff, Bernadette introduced me to her youngest daughter. I think meeting her was the first time I “bised” anyone, which is not correct French but which is what two of my friends kept calling the French greeting. You give others that you meet “bisous” (which means kisses) but instead of actually kissing them on the cheek you put your cheeks together and make a kissing noise into the air. In Lyon, it is one kiss on each cheek, but in other parts of France, it is more or less. Then they gave me a tour of the apartment and let me unpack. A few hours later, Bernadette and I went for a walk around Lyon and she showed me la rue de Victor Hugo (shopping), la place Bellecoeur (the largest plaza in Europe I think), and Vieux Lyon (which is the part of Lyon that has been around since the Middle Ages). I was able to carry on a long conversation with her and she bought me my first Lyonnais specialty-a dessert called “brioche praline”- which has pink pralines (sugared almonds) inside a brioche bun. It was so good!

After that, I met two of her other children and tried my hand at listening to a family speak together (it did not go as well as I had hoped). Then I went out with my friend, Amber, to meet her and a French guy, Alexandre, at le Parc de Tête d’Or (which is a beautiful park that also has a zoo!). Finally, I returned for dinner with Bernadette; we ate upstairs on her friend’s terrace and it was truly an mélange of language and culture. Her friend is Croatian and speaks Croatian, French and English. Her friend’s niece was there and only speaks Croatian and English, and Bernadette speaks French and a small smattering of English. So at any given moment, any of those three languages were being spoken. That is something else I love about being here in Europe, a large majority of people speak more than one language.

There were many more things that happened that weekend, but here are some pictures to show you:

Le cathédrale de Saint-Jean (seen on my walk in Vieux Lyon)

A deer in Le Parc de tête d'or

Sunday: Exploring the basilica de Fourvière with Amber

View from the top of the hill called Fourvière

Panoramic (view from Fourvière) 

September 2-12: PRUNE

This entry is getting long so I will keep this short. But the next step after this first weekend was….my birthday but I think I will put that on a different post! Or, better yet, you can ask me about it J It was a lovely day, although I started out being worried about it because I was away from home but my host family sang me happy birthday and made me a cake and I went to The Smoking Bar for my first “legal in the U.S.” drink!

PRUNE, however, is the next acronym because that is the name of our “stage” that precedes the actual French university classes which starts Monday. We had 40 hours of class (one class that worked on writing, one on oral presentations and one on the area in which we are studying) in two weeks and three long tests. I learned a lot in these classes, about French slang and how the university system works (it is very different from ours, but I will leave that for another entry). I also met a lot of different people, girls from Frankfurt and England, many others from UPenn, and Georgetown. Today was the last day and now I am free! And Monday we start real classes. Now you are all caught up. If you read to the end, you most definitely get a gold star. Bon travail!

I don't have any pictures of the stage itself (that would be boring….mostly people in classrooms) so here are pictures of Annecy, a beautiful lake town that I got to visit courtesy of the PRUNE program and also 33 euros.

Like a movie!

A swan=un cygne

The streets are adorable but also really crowded.

The old prison in the middle of the river

Every town here has a beautiful river or two

A cool bike with pretty flowers

Amber and I 

A bunch of cool outside of a shop

Beautiful buildings

More water 

One final apartment where I would love to live.