Non, mais vraiment....

So Friday morning was our group scavenger hunt. It wasn’t something I really wanted to do, seeing as it started at 9am on a Friday morning and all, but Steve had set it up and was super excited about it, I’m super competitive in all things in life, and I had a good group. It was Me, Rachel, Hannah and Lindsay. Lindsay was the only one I didn’t know before, but she was super presh and also made a map of all the directions and all the metros and such that we had to take to get to each place efficiently. We basically had to accost some french people and get them to take pictures of us and with, which was awesome. It was actually a lot of fun, despite being so early, and then not winning (I’m still a bit miffed about that). So pictures!

Parc de la tete d'or

Gare Part-Dieu...plus creeper in the background

the claw goes everywhere

sur Fourviere

amphitheatre greco-romaine

place de terreau plus un homme italien

Boulangerie Kayser

statue de Jacquard

So after that, Rudhdi, Emily, Karen, and I decided to go to the Park de la tete d’or. It was one of the places on our list for the scavenger hunt, but obviously we just kinda went, took a picture and then left, so it wasn’t all that fun. So we walk to the parc and and its vraiment beautiful. Everyone is outside and happy and laughing, so I’m thinking, wow this is just like Hyde Park in London. Then we see a reindeer….WHAT? yup, we look over to the side, and there is a herd of reindeer looking animals. We come to realize that this isn’t just a park but a zoo as well! It was pretty awesome. For as many times as I’ve been on safari (True Life: I’m a World Bank Brat) I cant think of a time that I’m actually been to a zoo. Its kind of bitter sweet you know, because I’m used to seeing animals that have free reign over the land they live in, but here they were all fenced in and in glass cases. Tellement different, but still pretty interesting to see.

Karen, Emily, and Rudhdi with the leopard

asian elephant!...i whip my trunk back and forth

we interrupted their "sexy temps" i think

Rudhdi et les giraffes. best day of her life

Karen, Emily, and I with our Barbe a Papa (cotton candy)

Afterwards we decided to have a nice quality sit-down meal on the top of Croix-Rousse. Because honestly, you can only eat a baguette and cheese for all your meals for so long you know? and this place was awesome! It was owned by this cute Algerian man, and you basically got a platter of all the food there and your entree (i got the orange chicken...class). Then we tried some mediteranean desserts that were to die for (i got some turkish delight, wassssup narnia???). He made a comment about the "mixite" in America, considering there were two white girls of different heritage, a black girl of african origin, and an indian girl all together eating dinner. I think he thought it was awesome that America was so good at embracing different cultures, and it honestly makes me wonder sometimes about France. As much as I love it, I always have to remember that its just so different here. You're not supposed to take your cultural baggage and impose it on others when you travel, so this trip is as much about me trying to understand french culture as much as it is about me taking it in. This makes thinking about my thesis a bit harder, because I'm definitely treading on sensitive ground when talking about race and ethnicity here, where people dont really regard it as something that should define you (just being French should). But either way, the food was great, I tried some vegetables that I never thought I would! A big step for me I think.

Friday night was somewhat of a bust. We tried to go out to the boats, but the Ayers Rock boat counterpart had trop du monde (too many people) so there was no point waiting in line. The boat we ended getting into was empty. Like literally empty. UVA just colonized it. And we have really cool people in our group so it was fine, but vraiment, the music they played was wack too. Here I am trying to get my "alors on danse" on, and the DJ is playing some techno version of the marseillaise (not really, but you can imagine).  So we rentrer-ed chez nous and called it a night. 

the "i'm just here for the party pics" face

on the pont avec Becca, Emily, et Mark

 

Saturday Morning was a “wake up early and do some homework” kinda morning, which is what I did. I’d say it was pretty effective and efficient but brought me back down to earth that I wasn’t just here vacation. I went to the Marché at the top of Croix-Rousse with Emily and Rudhdi, which is always such a joy. I wish we had more Fresh markets like this in the states. I got a bunch of stuff for pretty cheap (although I’ve basically eaten it all, eeeeek) and then we checked out the other market. It was kind of like a vintage market, which old books and toys and playthings, jewelry, etc. I got really excited when I saw all the Tintin books (tintin was my confiture back in the day) and the playmobil sets. We went back home and I decided it was a good time to go play ukulele in front of L’opera and L’hotel de ville before our boat right later that afternoon. It was pretty nerve-racking at first…I planted myself in a shaded area next to a footpath, so obviously I was seen and heard by everyone who walked by. I got a lot of weird looks, some smiles, and some “you’re messing up my walk right now” looks, but I soon just ignored all of it and played. Its probably why I love the ukulele. Even after what, 3-4 years of playing, it can still take me away make me feel calm and still even when the world is moving around me. One awesome moment was when I was playing a Sugababes song and this woman, her two daughters and her baby stopped by the steps next to me to sit and listen. They were there for about 5-10 minutes as I played through a couple of songs before they left, and she bought me a bottle of water and told me I had a nice voice! Right as I was about to leave, these young boys came by and started trying to sing with me. I just kinda laughed, but really, it wasn’t a sing-a-long. Haha I’m kidding (kinda). They did say afterwards that they hoped to see me on X-Factor one day, which was nice haha.

                So after that, I walked up that blasted hill again to meet the group for our “Boat Cruise” on the Soane. I got there and all the other girls were dressed really cute in dresses and such, and I felt like a bit of a bum in my capris and shirt. This was a boat cruise after all…Right? WRONG. Haha This was no cruise boat, which, but more of one of those boats that foreigners use with the person that tells who what you can see on your right and on your left. It was still pretty cool, but it was a bit like a lullaby if that makes sense. I just wanted to go to sleep halfway though. But much of the entertainment came from watching Steve and Kelly’s super presh kids Liam and Jordan. Literally the cutest little boys with the biggest blue eyes you’ve ever seen. Parfait.

                Afterwards we decided to treat ourselves to icecream, so we found a sweet place (pun intended) called Regal Glace. It was literally the best. I got a combination of “Cookies” (the server guy sounded so cute when he said it with his French accent) and Citron, which tasted like Italian ice. I was raving about it literally all the way home. It’s a little sad how much good food can instantly make me feel such ecstacy haha.

                Well après ca, we had l’envie to sortir (get your French-english dictionaries out for that one). So a group of us decided to hit up a place called Boston. Its pretty strange, this affinity that the French have for irish pubs. We walked in and saw a large open dance floor (check-plus) but no one there (it was early after all). It was nice though because we got to sit, eat some fries, and just talk in a group a little bit. After midnight, we basically started the danceparty. It was literally the group of us 8ish girls at first, and then it grew to the entire dance floor being full! It was the discotechque atmosphere I had been craving, although the music wasn’t all the way there. The dj, however “was not a jukebox” and explicitly said “NO SHAKIRA” which just ruins my groove. I’m trying waka waka and she-wolf all night naturally. We kept screaming for Nicki Minaj and Weezy but to no avail. But it was a fun night none the less.

I’ll get caught up with the days sooner or later!

Cheers,

Abena

Jusqu’ici, tout va bien

I’m starting to think that I’m never going to get over Lyon. You know that feeling where you’re supposed to get homesick and all that stuff. Well obviously I miss my friends and family a lot, but I’m still like 150% enamoured with this place and could see myself here for much longer (if I was 345% richer, obvi). The only think I can’t be bothered with anymore is this hike straight up the Croix-Rousse (the hill upon which our hotel is situated) multiple times a day. It gets steeper as you go up, as if its laughing at you for deciding to take classes in the summer or for going out one night every time you walk back up to your room. 

she feels my pain.

So rude. But anyway, Updates on this great trip.

                Wednesday was Pierre’s class at 2. Megan, Karen, and I left a bit early in order to get some food from the Boulangerie at the bottom of the hill before making our 40 minute walk to IEP. That walk is honestly getting easier, but my legs are already killing me. I think it’ll take another week to get fully adjusted to all the walking. We eventually met up with a lot of the people in Madame Spay’s lyon class and then split off to IEP. Class was quite weird. I mean, this cultural stuff is generally speaking my confiture (jam), but again with the 2.5 hours, it wasn’t gonna marche. It felt quite long because we didn’t take a break this time. And then it got worse. It was pouring outside by the time class was over. I’m not talking like cats and dogs, and but like elephants and wildebeests. Rough life. So. 8 girls, 4 umbrellas, and a 45 minute walk from home (that turned into an hour and a half). Pierre just kind of peaced and left us, but we later figured out that he had to pick up his girlfriend.  The walk home. It. Was. Mis.  Amanda and I are pretty fast walkers though, so we were huddled and bouge-ing like our life depended on it haha.

Karen showing us that its actually raining INSIDE the building. merde.

IEP is real innovative with its solutions to flooding. a little blue bucket (it may not be obviously but that floor is a river). double merde.

I LOVE RAIN I'M JUST SO HAPPY

huh...still pretty

And the funny part was that even in the rain, the river and the bridges and the scenery was still beautiful. Overrun with water and flooding, but still so pretty. We all basically decided that there was no way we were going on the tour of the Croix-Rousse afterwards. Fat chance. But thankfully, it was canceled any way. Needless to say my clothes and shoes were soaked, but we have these handy dandy towel dryers in the bathroom that worked really well as makeshift dryers. So I changed and did some homework and was going to call it a night. But as usually, I wanted to hang out with people, so went ended up going out to this place Ayers Rock, which is conveniently next to cosmo. I’m starting to think I was born with some sort of dancing gene because it makes me so happy to just be able to dance whenever. The music was alright…they played the Macarena…yeaaaah. But it was actually pretty funny. The best part was that we got to examine a classic phenomenon: the euro-lurker. If you’ve been anywhere in Europe you’ve probably seen him before. He always comes in one of two flavors, bald or balding, or greased hair that is either slicked back or spiked straight up like all the boys did in like 6^th grade. We were lucky enough to see both. And boy, were they lurkin’ and creepin’ that night. C’etait bizzare. We all just constantly had to save each other, and our UVA boys did well to body block any and all attempts from the lurkers at dancing with our group of girls. So great. Wahoos know teamwork. I had a good time that night, although we didn’t get into Shenanigans (Flanagan’s) afterwards (Its not a la mode here to be in large groups, and we were about 14 or 15 at that point).

Amanda, Sarah, Rachel, Hannah, me, and Shannon en route to Ayers.

                Thursday was a marathon. Thursday morning was Karen James’ class. Honestly, I don’t really understand this middle French poetry all that well, but KJ explains it so well. But it was fine. Totes wouldn’t have made it through the class without the pause in the middle. KJ just knows haha.

our classe de poesie!! cute!

After class we had our special lunch with Janet at her favorite French restaurant, Thomas. It was me, Emily, Megan, David, Karen, and Tara. The food was good and the conversation was great. Pierre’s group was like a table over from us, but we were in an enclosed area fancyyyyy. We’ve come to realize that Emily and I basically share a brain, so lunch was almost too funny. We’d both know that we were thinking the same thing, so if we looked at each other, it was over and we’d start laughing…definitely happened multiple times. Well after dinner we basically had no downtime before we went on a tour of the Croix-Rousse, the monster of a hill that we live on. We got to see a bunch of places and learn some of the history, and also spent an insane amount of time watching these old men play Petanque/Lyonnais boules, which is apparently like batchi-ball, a game I’ve never played. But then after that we got back and ate pizza and watched la Haine. I forgot how intense, but totally awesome that movie is.

                After the feel good movie of the year (jokes), I went to see Kate, since it was basically her last Thursday in Lyon before voyager-ing with her friends in the morning. I walked over to her apartment, I got ready there as she went to drop off her bags at a friends place since she was moving out of her apartment. So when she came back we set off to Johnny Walsh’s, known affectionately as Johnny’s. It was in Vieux Lyon, where I hadn’t been yet, which was awesome. It’s a super residential area on the other side of the Soane (whereas my life and school are on the other side of the Rhone…I gotta give the Soane mad props, its def cuter).  So before we entered Johnny’s we were shushed by the bouncer, since you’re basically not supposed to be loud outside. But inside was just precious. It was an Irish Pub, but on the inside there was a little stage in the front, and a brazillian man named Jose was basically playing guitar and every song that you usually sit in your car with the windows up and belt at the top of your lungs (don’t judge, everyone does it). Like no woman no cry, faith, some red hot chilli peppers, some beatles. It was legit, because it clearly had such a small stage feel, it was one man and his guitar, but we were just having the time of our lives singing along. And there is nothing better than watching French people trying to sing every word to English songs. But it was fun having the three American girls (me, Elizabeth, and Kate) and Kate’s Canadian friend Kristin all on the stage with Elizabeth and Kate’s French friends that I’ve hung out with before. After Jose finished (and played an encore because he is the man), we tried to find another place, but honestly, everyone had to be up early the next day, and decided to call it a night. I’d made plans then and there to take the rest of our program to Vieux Lyon at some point, because that’s where its at, son.  And this is the awkward end to the post. Peace!

                Next post on Friday and Today, tomorrow!

Cheers,

Abena

FAIS-LE

                Aaaah okay, I had too much going on for the past couple of days that I didn’t get to update, but that I can do now before I make myself some tortellini for dinner (so fancyyyyy). Okay, so on Monday, I actually had to start the “study” part of study abroad, which is kinda wack, but honestly, it could be like sixty-eight times worse. So Pierre walked us to class that morning, because we had never been to IEP (which is the SciencePo building in Lyon) before. I was in the front with Pierre because we were having exclusive chats about life, love, and baguettes…not really. But we did talk a lot about my thesis and the fact that he was there at Colloquium at UVA when I gave that presentation on Victor Hugo and exile. Basically we are both in love with my advisor Marva Barnett (because she is awesome) and he’s going to be my BFFL when it comes to this thesis. I’m going to get a heck of a lot of unwanted but necessary exercise because our school is about 40 minutes away walking at a leisurely pass, 2 miles each way. This is great because knowing myself I wouldn’t walk or run for the heck of it. I would only go anywhere if I really had to (as in mandatory) or there was a crepe stand or creperie involved somehow. Anyway Pierre’s class is gonna be legit. Why?

1.       He’s like the French Ari Blatt, which is parfait parce que Ari is pretty great

2.       We are basically studying a key component of my thesis (French identity and how it’s going to relate to immigration and SOCCER and such…huzzah)

3.       Did I mention he’s really great?

On the way back home we went to a little café and had some quiches for lunch. I had a quiche jambon which was bomb-ass. It’s kind of annoying because I know that I’m doing more inadvertent exercise now than I ever did all this year (True Life: I lived in Clemons library…and I took the bus there), but the food here is so rich that even if I’m not eating the same amount as I usually do, I’m still probably going to gain about 16 pounds cette été. C’est nul, cela. But anyway we decided to go out later that night because it was a Monday night….wait what? I basically became one of those mythical UVA creatures who does that. But we didn’t have class til 2 the next day, so we weren’t bothered haha. So a big group of us 4 week people (it would have been more if we had known the room numbers of the others…that has thus been recified) went to meet a group of the 6 week people to hang out before sortir-ing. The destination? Cosmopolitan. Cosmo is apparently very popular amongst americans, probs because they play great cheesy American music. Needless to say it was a good night. There wasn’t much designated dance floor space, but we made it work (basically colonized a corner and started bouger-ing). There was an overenthusiastic Frenchman who felt the name to take his shirt off. Though I laughed, this was how I really felt .

But we repped UVA well haha. 

Emily and I at Cosmo

Tuesday was my other class. My teacher, Karen James is such a sweetheart. Though I’m not a literature buff, I really like poetry, so I think I’m going to like this class. It funny because we are reading Middle French, which reminded me of Mr.Timlin’s Brit Lit class senior year where we basically had to learn Middle English to read the Canterbury tales. But Madame James brought us little snacks to tithe us through the 2.5 hour class (seriously, when has it ever been a good idea to keep college students cramped up for that long?? I have the attention span of a squirrel). Butter biscuits, mini tartelettes framboises (raspberry tarts) and chocolat…A woman truly after my own heart. Later that night was the fete de la musique, a huge music festival that happens all around France. Unfortunately, it was raining like a putain, so we basically didn’t get to see that much as a group because we were basically just trying to get out of the rain. But later on I had my big reunion with Kate Meeker and it was one of those things where my life just didn’t feel real haha. We were in Lyon, France together for the first time since like December. So weird. But anyways, shenanigans. I met up with a couple of her American friends who all viennent de Californie for whatever reason, but they were super cool. Invitation to rage in California? Check. Her giant (in height, obvi) French friend was there was well. He was quite blunt, which was fine, because I rather like people to be real to my face and not fake, but I felt like such a noob when it came to speaking French. That like rarely happens anymore, you know? Not that I’m like a beast at French or anything, but I can usually hold my own. I guess it was because he was actually French and not like American speaking French. He was really nice, and I’m sure if I had been better at French it would have been a better conversation, but honestly, I couldn’t really be bothered at that point, I just wanted to dance (we stopped by this spot on the Rue de la Republique where a dj was playing electro music…daaaaank) haha. So we parle-d un peu and then Kate and I headed off to meet her friend Elizabeth and her boyfriend and all his French friends. Needless to say, super chouette. It was just such a French night, you know? Instead of heading straight to Kate’s place for fêter  un peu plus, we were just walking around rue de la republique for like an hour juste listening to musique. Also, people’s PDA was out of control, but I guess its just as normal here as it was in England, if not more.  When we finally all got to Kate’s, we just hung out and the French guys showed me some awesome French musique. My friend Kelly Chung always says that there is “that time of the night”, you know where everything gets a bit wonky, or at acapella mixers, where everybody is arm in arm and singing harmonies and the backgrounds at the top of our lungs to the music playing (basically, where the night gets kind of surreal). That occurred this night, when we were all dancing in the kitchen to “suave mente” and weirdly enough, “I’ve had the time of my life” while cooking popcorn on the stove….like….what? 

But so awesome. Then les autres left or went to bed, and I stayed with Kate for the night so that we could catch up…til like 4am haha. I’ll stop there for now haha, and then talk about the next two days in another post!

Cheers,

Abena

"Did you just pousser on that door?"

A fair warning that this blog will probably dip into Franglais de temps en temps (from time to time). Sorry 'bout it. That's just how I live these days so:

I think this is possibly one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Sorry if its gross. Seriously, I giggle every time I look at it. Like right now.

 So its about 6:40am Lyon time and I can't sleep anymore. Damn you, UVA-like environment for resetting my sleeping pattern so that I only sleep like 6 hours a night. I mean I'm not tired, just annoyed that I'm awake over an hour earlier than I need to be. But whatevs, I'm waking up to Lyon, so I'm really not that bothered.

So yesterday was day 2 in Lyon and I'm growing more and more enamored with the place. We had a 10:30 meeting time, so naturally ParanoiAbena woke up at 6 because she doesn't have an alarm clock (neither phone works yet...#simcardproblems) and couldn't figure out how to set up the wake up call on the room phone (Abena quite enjoys talking about herself and her alter-ego in third person), so that was her body's natural response. The first thing I did was take a shower, french style. Which is really not taking a shower at all, but sitting in the tub and holding the shower head above you as you try not to splash water everywhere because there is no shower curtain or anything. We discussed how this is probably why the French don't shave their legs. Its too much of a mess in the bathroom.  But after morning preparations, we headed out to the marché (market) to buy food for our picnic and stuff for ourselves. The marché literally never ended it was so long, basically stretching down like three or four streets. But it was awesome. Its basically like the Farmer's Market, only french and open every day except for Mondays. It was my duty to get les tomates cerises (cherry tomatoes), which I did pretty quickly. So I just indulges in the free samples afterwards. It was fantastique. We headed down later for our pique-nique, and I felt tres elegante et francaise because I had like four different kinds of cheese, a baguette, some cuts of meat, couscous (on dit taboulé), and les tomates cerises on my plate. Much better than the expensive McDonald's that I'd had two days before. I sat at the table with most of the professors, which was pretty legit because we had a constant stream of conversation. Pierre (loml...guess what thats short for. Anyone who's been around me for more than an hour, when all the weird comes out, will probably know haha) was teaching us french tongue twisters, which was funny. The best thing about French life though is that no one is in a hurry. We ate, and then just kinda sat and hung out for a while. There was no pressure to go somewhere or do something right away, which was just great. So after lunch we had a bit of time before our orientation of sorts, so I decided to be productive and work on the papers that I have for my poetry class. However, productivity isn't really the way I roll, so the work was frequently interrupted by sitting in my window sill with the ukulele and straight up dancing by my self in my room. Robyn would have been so proud:

But I got a page down out of two, so I'm getting there lol. I'll do it this afternoon I'm pretty sure (I'm a pressure thinker, lol). So then we got to the orientation, which was boring as ever, but necessary. After that we went to dinner at this fancy lyonnais restaurant where I sat at the best table. I'm pretty sure we were the only ones who spoke french (or franglais) for the majority of the dinner but it was cool.

sweet sweet sweet

I dont even want to think about how much it probably costs, because it was GRATUIT (free), donc je ne care pas.This was the first thing with all the 6 week people too, so I got to see some familiar faces. After dinner some of us really wanted to go out, despite the fact that we were doing to have class in the morning. It was like our first non-jetlaggy type of night and we just wanted to know what to expect I guess. So a bunch of us met in Amanda's room to chill for a bit and then headed up to Mark and Paul's room before going out. Of course the first place we go is closed, which is a bummer. I was really trying to get my dance on (but fear not, friends, I'm going to bust a bouge (move) very soon), so we went to the Irish Pub, Flanagan's, affectionately known as Shenanigans since...umm, yesterday, pre-departure haha. Shenanigan's is basically like a sports-bar, so on a normal night I guess it would be right up my alley. They had cricket and golf on the telly, which was awesome. It wasn't a big night since it was sunday, but I think it was alright because we were there with good company. I left with the early group and called it a night.

And now I'm just sitting here playing my wake up mix and getting ready for my first day of class (...class, what?). As soon as I get a disposable camera/steal other people's pictures off facebook, I'll add them on here!

Cheers, 

Abena

Euro Traveller and First day in Lyon!

Okay so today was officially the day when my summer program was to begin! I was saying goodbye to London, and Bonjour to Lyon (by way of Paris of course).  Woke up at 4 to get ready for my trip, and took the train from Paddington Station to Terminal 4, before having to wait another thirty minutes for another free transfer to Terminal 5 (honestly, it was so annoying, I probably could have walked there quicker). I had to sit through PDA couple number 450942 make out in the only available seats next to me (side note- English people just don’t care where they are, they will kiss like no one is watching. In the portrait gallery yesterday, there were two people sitting on the bench in the middle of one of the exhibit rooms, wine in one hand, their partner’s face in the other, going at it like rabbits (with clothes on of course. But it was still a bit odd. )But of course the drama llama followed me to the airport, naturally.

I go to check in, and I’m told I need to go seek assistance. I seek assistance, and I’m told to go to the ticketing office. I’m half panicking, but I walk over as calmly as I can. The lady basically tells me that I have no flight, because the booking people changed my reservation, but didn’t change the ticket to reflect it. So because of something that actually wasn’t my fault at all, I ended up paying 51 pounds in order to get a new ticket. So annoyed. But at least I got on my flight on time, and the rest of my trip should be in order as well. This time I was a Euro Traveller (almost as cool as a World Traveller), but again, by sheer bad luck, I was in the back next to the toilets again. And this was one of those small planes, so I couldn’t recline, and all the air hostess’ s stuff was stowed behind me, so I could literally feel her digging into my back as she pushed all that junk in there. But whatever it was a short flight, which was lovely.

I get off the airplane, grab my bag, and just start to realize that I’m in a French world now, which is awesome. I walk for a thousand miles to get to the TGV station, and just by sheer luck, run into Emily as she’s coming out of the bathroom! So then Megan, Emily and I wait for our train. We later meet another girl on our trip, Karen, but all go into separate places for the ride to Lyon. The train ride was a cozy tour of the French countryside, and I got to take a little cat nap. There was an adorable French boy named Tomas (his dad called him Tomato) who was convinced the arms of the seats were a balancoire (see-saw or a swing). His French was really cute because it was so little, and probably at the same level as mine, so I understood him perfectly. And he would utter an English phrase every once in a while like “I NEED TO GO WEE WEE.” Precious. After getting off at Lyon-Perrache, we waited for our reserved taxi to pick us up. Silly me gave him my American phone number, which I guess caused a bit of confusion, but our driver Anis eventually showed up. He was quite a character and very chatty. We held our own pretty well as he asked us about ourselves and about America. Things I learned/that were said in the taxi, roughly:

1.       « Les Texans, ils sont bizarres. Ils aiment George Bush. George Bush, il est con »

2.       « Les filles américaines adores les hommes français. Si je viens à New York et je dis ‘je suis francais’, j’aurais une girlfrind toute de suite »

3.       Anis : « Vous etes lesbians ? » nous : « NOOOOOOOOOOOOON »

Basically, Texan girls are nuts, George Bush is an idiot, American girls love french men, and Megan, Emily, and I are definitely not lesbians (there was a Gay Pride parade going on in middle of Lyon that caused us to have to take a different route up to the hotel, hence that part of the conversation).
         We got to the hotel, and it was amazing. We went to my room first, which has the bed on a loft and the lowest ceiling possible (my fro gets matted down by it. I dont have a camera, but it will be documented at some point). My view is of the Rhone and the city on one side and another apartment building on the opposite side. Megan's room is similar to mine, but on the other side of the labyrinth like hotel. and Emily's room is on the third floor, with no loft, but a gorgeous view. All the rooms are a little different, since this used to be a convent (lol that statement makes no sense really, but i guess all the nuns needed different things to look at). We met up with the other 4 week Lyon people and did a walking tour with the professors. Lyon is so great already. It has all my essentials : A creperie, a boulangerie, and a discotheque somewhere (i'm sure of it). We then got food and went home to the hotel to eat. I'm probably jumping the gun, but i'm pretty sure we've got an awesome group of people and i'm going to have a fantastic time (minus the homework). I'm already in love with this city :)

Cheers,

Abena