orientation/day off

ok let me start by saying the food here is amazing and i will probably be mentioning it in every post, so be prepared. they have bread at every meal and who doesn't love that! tonight, we had quiche. so good.
oh and for those of you were might have been concerned, and extra info for those of you who really couldn't care less, my last piece of luggage arrived! super excited about that.
now you may be wondering what i've been up to for the last couple days.. first off. yesterday we had an orientation to give us lots of information about the university of lyon. some of it i already knew because i'd read the booklet we were given. some of it didn't pertain to me. some of it was important. but mannnn that meeting was long. 4 hours! i was definitely not prepared for that. and of course it was all in french. and we only got a 15 minute break after like 3.5 hours. buttttt i did use that break to get an amazing tress a chocolat i believe it was called (kinda like a pain au chocolat aka chocolate croissant). so after that we were pretty tired. we walked around a tiny bit, i got to see where my friend kirstin is living (and her amazing view!) and then i headed home in time for a break before dinner.

today we had a day off. i slept in till 10 which was great, but was kind of confused when i woke up due to the lack of light (i will mention other differences i've run into in a minute). but anyways, my room is essentially like living in an attic (sort of), so i have a skylight instead of a real window. well this skylight has an amazing shade that seriously blocks out all light. well i didnt close it entirely the night before last, so when i woke up this morning i didn't get why it was so dark at first. well that's not entirely true. first i woke up before my alarm and saw light coming through my door. i had no idea what time it was so i was afraid i had accidentally left that light on overnight. a couple minutes later my alarm went off and i suddenly realized what was going on. but anyways. i just wasn't used to such a good shade because my blinds at home let in a lot of light. but moving on. today after lunch with my family i met up with friends at this gorgeous park, le parc de la tete d'or (golden head) (p.s im not putting accents in this blog, too much effort). there were deer that seriously looked like bambi. and we all decided it would be a great place to study if it's nice out. then i made it home for dinner which was fun because i also go to learn a couple words i shouldn't say.. well i didn't really learn them so much as marc-philippe sort of tried to tell me and veronique pointed out that these words were rude. it was great.
but yes. i LOVE it here. seriously.
and ok, i said i'd mention a few differences between here and home.
for one, as i've mentioned before i have to walk up 36 steps to get to my room. i am really not used to this. but also all french homes go up rather than out. but the second set of stairs, seriously, i fear for my life. i walk down them SUPER SLOWLY holding onto the rail at all times because, come on, it's me, and there's definitely that chance i could kill myself falling down the stairs.
next, the buses/trams/metros/whatever only run till about midnight, rather than the 2am that i'm used to in santa cruz. which means my friends and i have already taken a taxi once, and especially since i live further, i'm not sure what that's gonna mean for me in the future as far as going out at night.
finally, the shower is interesting. for one. the shower head doesn't mount to the wall. at least not at my house. for another, the glass doesn't go all the way around, so you just have to be careful not to spray water everywhere.. which isn't that hard, but still. and finally, this house seems to have lots of mirrors, especially in the bathroom. which means they have a wall size mirror (i believe it's a closet) which you get to stare at while you shower... which means i guess i'll really get to know when i lose my tan.
alright i think that's all i've got for now. tomorrow i have my placement test bright and early which means i should probably study a little bit... meh.

p.s. i've figured out how to post pictures, but i can't tell while i'm writing this if they're actually showing up where i want them too.. so just work with me.

Villeurbanne, Welcome to the Family

so yesterday was my last day in the dorms. kinda sad. i'll miss living with my eap friends, but yknow, its time for an even bigger adventure. butttt as a last day together before being separated, some of us wandered all over the city and got to know lyon a little bit. and by got to know, i mean i still have no idea where anything is, and probably won't until i'm wandering around by myself and in charge of the directions. we saw an amazing view, checked out a church, and looked at some roman ruins. and wished that it didn't manage to be hot only when we were walking all over town. then a couple of us headed back to the dorms for a little rest time before the evening festivities. for dinner, we went to a restaurant downtown that had a three course menu for 13.50 euros. it was AMAZING. i definitely plan on eating there again at some point. i had ravioli something for the first course. chicken milanese for the second. and this amazing chocolate mousse for dessert. seriously. so. good. we did the french thing and were at the restaurant for almost three hours, eating, chatting, and generally having a good time. the evening continued at a bar with dancing and then one of the rivers. i really think i need to learn to tell them apart, but i'll deal with that later. the night ended late and we ended up getting about four hours of sleep before we had to get up early and get breakfast and finish packing because host families were arriving at 10am this morning.
my host mom and dad (veronique and francois) were some of the first to arrive. they drove me to their home, making a stop to pick up some bread for lunch, as well as being sure to point out things such as the post office and tram stations, and attempting to explain the tram map to me - though francois will be accompanying me the first day to make sure i don't get lost (well for the first day at least. lets be real. it is me). we got to the house and i was given a tour. its very cute. three stories. and of course my room is on the top one. 36 STEPS. that's right.36. steps. turns out i wont be getting fat off of french food after all, because i'll be getting a workout just going up to my room. but i've got lots of space, including an extra bed if i were to have a visitor. it was amusing to watch the guys (emmanuel and marc-philippe) carry my massive suitcase up these stairs after a delicious french lunch. oh yea. veronique and francois have three children, though one is married (caroline) , one's moved out (emmanuel), and i believe marc-philippe will just be here until he starts school. but hey, i could be wrong. i never really know what's going on until the last minute anyways.

this family is very nice so far though, and asked what i might like or dislike for food. i was quick to mention that i really don't like apricots, but mostly i'll be open to trying new things :)
oh and they say my french is very good, which makes me happy. but we'll see how that translates to a placement test and then actually being able to take classes at the university. but at least for now, if they talk to me, i can understand and do my best to respond and be understood. if they talk to each other, i smile and nod and pretend i know what's going on, until they explain anything they might have just said. 

oh. for those of you who are interested. i finally posted some pictures on facebook. if you don't have facebook. find someone who does and is friends with me? otherwise maybe i'll figure out how to post a few select pictures on here.

getting stuff done

i honestly can't believe i have already been here for three days. yesterday i checked into the residence around 2 p.m. and learned and got to meet my roommate, kirstin, who it turns out is also from the sacramento area, but attends uc davis. we have gotten along great, and she even let me borrow shower stuff and a shirt to sleep in since my luggage didnt feel like showing up when it was supposed to.
sidenote: my luggage arrived today! well most of it that is. but i was super excited to get to shower with my own shampoo and put on my own clean clothes again finally :)
but back to describing the residence and my past two days. it honestly feels like a hotel/dorm here. i actually really like it, and was sad to learn that i will moving out saturday morning when host families come to pick us up. dont get me wrong, im super excited to meet my host family, but its been fun living around other eap students and getting to know them, and i was kind of hoping it would last at least until the intensive language program started, or perhaps throughout. but anyways. ive made some friends here and weve wandered around the city, taking tons of public transportation - which is super easy to take, but because it is me we're talking about here, i still have no idea how to get around by myself.
so the last two days have been super hectic. the food at the residence is terrible, which is unfortunate, but then maybe it makes me happier that my host family is picking me up so soon, because then i can get good food sooner! yesterday we had orientation, mostly just making sure everybody showed up as well as giving us some pointers for living in lyon. turns out there are more rules for girls than for guys - to keep us safe of course - who woulda thunk it! then we had dinner, which as i've just mentioned was terrible. i chose the beef option, which i actually learned this morning was cow tongue - i'm thinking it was a good thing i didn't find this out till much later. and the bread was very hard. trying to break it sent pieces flying. but it was rather amusing, and a bit of a bonding experience of course. then some of us went out for the night to wander around the city.
this morning we had to wake up early. breakfast ends by nine - it was also terrible, but perhaps not as bad as dinner. this cafeteria food could really use some work. and then we had to be at the university by 10 a.m. for orientation and other matters that needed to be dealt with. afterwords, if we already had our housing figured out, we were free to go to lunch and do whatever until 2 p.m. when we would figure out cell phones, and then 4 p.m. when we would figure out banking. my friends and i went to a cafe and all of our meals were delicious. definitely a step up from the past two cafeteria meals. and then we decided to do the cell phone thing on our own because we would look at different places for the best deal. turns out this was a pretty good idea on our part, because our plan seems a little better than everybody else's. this of course took forever, but at least its done.
we then had to go deal with opening bank accounts, which in this case was better to do with the group because they got us some kind of deal. who knows. i signed where i was told and decided i'd figure it out later because i was so tired me and the french language just wasn't working out. but after that taking forever i finally headed back to the residence, ready to go to my room to at least wash my face or something before dinner.
so that didn't get to happen. by the time i got back people were heading out to dinner, so i got to turn around immediately. but tonight at least the whole group was going out to a restaurant, none of this gross cafeteria business again. and this food was actually good :) though i didn't finish all of my lamb and the waiter asked if i liked it... i felt really bad, but was just super tired for the ridiculously long day to be in the mood for much of it, but promised him i did like it and hoped he believed me. afterwards a few of us went to vieux lyon for a bit and walked around and then finally headed back where i discovered my bags had showed up! (as i mentioned before i was super excited about this. two outfits for five days just isn't all that enjoyable.

but overall i love it here so far, and still don't think its really hit me that i'm here. i need to get a little better about speaking french instead of english. but we throw it in there sometimes, so i figure that's good enough for the first couple days.
anyways, that's about all i got for now, so stay tuned :)

Bonjour La France!

ok. so its 1:53pm on august 24, and i am finally getting a little bit settled. let me tell you, it was a much more complicated travel experience than i had originally anticipated.
to start, here's what was supposed to happen:
i  was going to take three flights on delta to get across the country to meet my international flight in philadelphia. plane one was supposed to be sacramento to atlanta. plane two was supposed to be atlanta to cincinnati. and plane three was supposed to be cincinnati to philadelphia. where i would then get on my first of two international flights with british airways. first from philadelphia to london/heathrow. and then london/heathrow to lyon. and my luggage was supposed to follow me through all of this, with me getting it and rechecking it before the international flights.
here's what actually happened. plane one was successful, i was impressed that it even basically left on time. plane two was where everything went wrong. to start, when we were all sitting on the plane just waiting for it to take off, it was ridiculously hot. the passengers were practically melting. now i don't know about you, but i'm used to freezing on planes, not melting. so to try to fix this they were checking out the air conditioning before landing. though it was still hot, they decided we were good to go. turns out they were wrong. we got about a quarter or a third of the way to cincinnati and the pilot decided it would be best if we headed back to atlanta, something about the cabin pressure not being right and therefore being unable to get to the appropriate altitude. problem number one. i ended up getting a direct flight to philadelphia. problem solved? not quite. my luggage didn't get this same treatment. so it took hours to figure out, but eventually it was determined that delta would be responsible for getting my luggage to the residence that i will be staying at for at least my first two weeks (minus the first night). i was to continue on with the original plans for my international flights, which worked out just fine. except now i only have one extra outfit, and no pj's, and i'm REALLY hoping my luggage actually shows up tomorrow evening at some point.
so my last flight landed in lyon, and i was supposed to take a bus to get to the servas host i will be spending tonight with. problem: that bus doesn't run anymore. at this point i'm super tired so i realize i need to sit down and compose myself for a second before i figure out what to do next. i can't figure out how to call anyone because me and foreign phones evidently aren't friends. i do, however, figure out the atm so i can get some euros. but everything works out, the french are really nice and helpful, especially if you attempt some french first, and i managed to take a train and then the metro where i then got picked up and driven to patricia's (the servas host) apartment.
oh but for the most part my flights were fine and i was actually able to get a little bit of sleep. and i even made a friend on the first international flight who will be studying in a different city in france for the first semester.
feel up to speed? i hope so. its been a long three days and i'm thinking its about time for a nap. 

Goodbye California

It's finally time, about 5 hours before I will actually be setting foot onto my first of five flights that will be taking me to Lyon, France. I've been dreaming of studying abroad for as long as I can remember, and it's hard to believe its actually the day I head out. I can't even begin to describe how I truly feel because excited, nervous, and scared just don't seem to cover it.
At this point my bags are almost packed, which has been more difficult than I had originally anticipated - between staying under the weight limit and actually being able to close my bags, I have had to decide what I really think I will need for the next semester/year.
Alright, well dinner is ready and there are a few things that still need to be done - like cards my mom will write in French for me saying where I need to get to next, just in case I'm too tired after my ridiculously long flights to be able to figure out how to say it myself - as well as making sure I haven't forgotten anything.
So until France,
Ari