So I knew this would happen. I knew that at some point I wouldn’t be able to keep up with this blog. But here I thought it would be because I’m just a lazy old cow who gets sick of doing things. But its actually been quite a busy week, what with school and all (again, with the study part of study abroad). So I’m going to go through the important parts of the last week, with stolen pictures from facebook obviously
Sunday highlights:
- Musée Gadagne with David, Rudhdi, Becca, and Calvin! We had to go for our Poetry class, and it was actually really awesome. I’m such a museum nerd, but it was so cool. We basically got to see what Lyon was like during the Renaissance, and how and why it became such a cultural and historical hotspot of France at that time.
- Basically a whole lotta nothing haha. We all sat around for a bit writing our commentaries on the museum, and pretending to read the poems (which are super dense)
- Degustation de Fromage! We got to taste a whole bunch of stinky cheese and decide which one we liked the best. Since I’m no food critic, my critiques went as far as “bon” et “pas bon” et “degoutant”. But basically, Beaufort was the best, and Chevre was the overall favorite type
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| mmmmm....fromage |
- I ended up giving an impromptu ukulele concert in the lobby of Villemanzy. I didn’t play too many of the weird ones, but people seemed to appreciate what I write, which makes me really happy :)
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| aaaah where's my hand? |
- Lowlight: having to wake up early to sickness and the black lung apparently. My nose was running like it stole something, and I was coughing like a chainsmoker. Pas bon fromage.
- Meeting with the American Consulat in Lyon. We got to talk to the Consul Mark Shapiro and another guy in the office Victor Vitelli (silver fox) about the diversity initiatives that they are starting in Lyon. We branched out and ended up talking about diversity in france in general, gender roles and treatment, affirmative action, and so much more. It was so interesting! Although I’m the opposite of political, all this culture stuff really sucks me in, so I was bombing them with a lot of questions (that they evaded like good politicians), but it was also obvious that they seemed genuinely interested in the diversity initatives.
- Lowlight: basically being sick for the whole rest of the day. I went to bed around 3pm on my floor because I was too weak to make it upstairs to my bed, and then later on at 9ish Megan (who is my mother on this trip) gave me some Theraflu. No sortir-ing that night.
Tuesday highlights:
- Taking the metro and the tramway to class for the first time because it was hot as balls. Like literally 97 degrees outside
- Wow I guess Tuesday wasn’t really all that eventful
- Watching Geordie Shore with Hannah. Or rather, watching like 5 minutes of Geordie Shore at a time with Hannah because the internet is sooooo slow was actually really fun.
- I wanted to go out, but my body was telling me:
SSo naturally, i listened.
Wednesday Highlights:
- Meeting with Emmanuelle quelquechose and Mark Villarubias about Diversity programs for Pierre’s class. Seriously, We are getting to meet so many awesome people. Mark was like the French version of a new Yorker, fast talking and all. (A little silver foxy as well if you’re into like an old version of Zorro…he had that soulpatch going on) But he was so intelligent and knowledgable and it was so clear that he had given this type of presentation before. I’m gonna try and get to know him so that I can interview him for my final project.
- Couscous dinner! It was in a very Maghrebin area of Lyon, and the food was awesome!
- We decided to go over the ponts (bridges) and just sit by the Rhone and chill after couscous. Like I’ve said before, Lyon is beautiful at night, and it was awesome just sitting, chatting, and playing in the playground with a small group of us from the program
Thursday Highlights:
- Longest day of my life, but also really awesome. It was Poetry all day with Karen James. We went up to Fourviere first. Saw the view of the city, and had class up by the Greco-roman ampitheatre. Then we went to Karen James’s house and had lunch with her lovely precious family, and then visited the Musée d’Imprimerie (the printing museum). We had a walking tour with this chic French woman (sidenote- when I’m past thirty, I’m moving to France so I can learn how to be chic and stylish as I get older. Literally, all these French women have it down pat) and this cute younger guy, probably our age. It was super interesting knowing what used to be where in this city that has changed so much (yet so little) over the years.
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| at the top of fourviere! |
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| Senior Portraits |
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| View of the city behind us |
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| hard at work reading poetry |
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| awesome apple tart that Katherine James made |
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| Musee d'Imprimerie! |
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| outside |
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| history |
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| one of the printing presses that they used |
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| picture of the class with the stylish older french woman, veronique |
- Getting crepes with Blake and Hannah was lovely. We (and Karen and David) tried to go to the fancy crepe place but it was closed and I almost cried….no, but really, I was like devastated. So we went down the hill to find cheap ones. The waiter was so pleasant and nice it was really just peachy.
- The hotel was dead, so Becca and I headed out to Johnny’s! I’d been raving about Johnny’s forever to everyone so it was nice to finally be able to take someone from the program with me! The atmosphere was great, of course, Jose the brazillian guitar player was awesome as ever. We got hit on by this balding man in the corner, which was just lovely (as in not at all, but quite amusing). He invited us to sit at the table with his significantly more attractive (french cute though) friends. I told him we would discuss it, but in actuality we basically just peaced.
I can't believe that its the halfway point of the trip already...I could stay here forever haha. I'll get back to more regular updating (of yesterday and today) after I finish some work.
Cheers
Abena
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