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
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