Joyeux Noel

i arrived back at my host parents at about 5pm.. rather than the 3:30 or 4 i had planned on. i came in, said hi to everyone quickly, then excused myself to shower because i felt rather gross after having spent the entire day on a train.. i decided i would like to look at least somewhat presentable for the evening.

20 minutes later when i arrived back downstairs, i was finally able to fully register everyone who was there. my host parents of course. my host mom's brother and his wife. his daughter, her fiance, and their daughter. all of my three of my host siblings, and my host sister's husband and baby. both grandmothers. and later my host sister's husband's brother and his girlfriend showed up, and one of the grandmothers went home. anyways.

my host dad asked if i was hungry, and i quickly answered yes. but my host mom told him to wait a minute because we were just about to eat anyways... well turns out they had had a nice christmas lunch, and it was time for dessert.
she then handed me a couple gifts, i was so surprised! turns out they had gotten me a pair of socks (since they thought it was hilarious when i told them i have practically a million pairs) and a sweater shirt thing. i then realized i had left the swiss chocolate i had gotten them upstairs, so i would give that to them later. 
then i finally got some food. i started off with raspberry mousse, chocolate mousse, a meringue, and two different types of cookies. all of which were delicious and made by my host mom i believe (and you wonder why i want to keep living here?). but as delicious as it was i was really hoping i would be getting some real food later, and when i checked my phone and saw that it was 6 o'clock at this point, i realized it was a pretty safe bet that there would in fact still be dinner (the french eat late).

dinner's specialty was escargot (which i had never tried before) and foie gras (which i had also never tried before). as much as i knew i wanted to try escargot (and still want to really try grenouille - aka frogs) considering how long i will be staying in france, i was a little bit nervous. i have to say though, after getting over the fact that i was eating snails, i thought they were pretty good! i actually kind of surprised myself by enjoying them. but hey, you mostly taste all the garlic sauce that it is cooked in. i think i ended up eating like 6 of them.

i wasn't quite as big a fan of the foie gras. but hey, you win some you lose some.

there was also some smoked salmon, shrimp (which i reallyyy enjoyed), bread of course, some wine, and maybe one or two other things.

and then of course dessert. two buche de noel. basically an ice cream log. one was chocolate, the other raspberry. both delicious.

basically there was a bunch of traditionally french food. yay! and i'm pretty sure i ate more dessert than dinner. haha

after some people had already left, i brought my computer downstairs so that my parents and hostparents could have a chance to "meet" over skype. my host parents were very impressed with my mom's french.

after everyone had actually left, i chilled downstairs for awhile with my host parents and marc-philippe (who is home from university for winter break). and before i knew it, it was midnight and we were all heading upstairs. mannn was i exhausted. as much fun as the evening had been, people could tell i was tired after my 8 days of travel and a couple people even asked me if i was tired. but i still managed to go upstairs and skype my family for about another hour.. which had started with a phone call to my friend kristen in an attempt to wish her and her parents a merry christmas, only to find she was actually hanging out with my family instead. so that was fun :) by the time i realized it was about 1 am, i realized i should probably finally go to sleep. sunday would be a day to relax, write a blog, not worry about doing much.. but monday would mean the start to studying for my last two finals. funnn funnn (but not really).

oh and here is my host parents christmas tree! with a creche underneath. when my host mom first set this up, she brought me over, and was so excited she could explain the characters to somebody again.. since her grandson isn't quite old enough yet, and her kids are all grown.  i thought it was cute :)

and the first decoration my host mom put out... back at the end of november i believe, but i finally took a picture. it made me so happy when she put it out, i do love christmas decorations :)

Swiss Miss

as i believe i have already said, my first week of winter travels continued in switzerland. in basel and lucerne to be specific. both are very small towns, but quite charming, especially with a little bit of snow and a lot of christmas lights.

we spent an evening wandering basel, when i located the christmas market. i. love. christmas markets. i don't care that i don't buy anything, they are just so cute! and i particularly liked this one. the little huts were all close together and decorated beautifully, each with a wintery character or symbol on the roof. i swear if i were rich and had tons of space for stuff i don't actually need, i would totally have bought a little something from the majority of the booths. or put a little christmas market with only the best booths in my mansion. but, seeing as this is not the case, i decided to just enjoy it while i was there. we also later found a church with students caroling, so we sat to listen for a bit before heading back to our hotel for the night since the next morning we would be getting up early for our day trip to lucerne. i might add that this room was supposed to be for two people.. so it was two twin beds pushed together. but seeing as we are poor college students, we decided it would be ample for four of us. which meant we each got about half of a twin bed to sleep on. comfyyyy. well at least the comfortors were really nice :) and the room was really warm... sometimes too warm once you were dressed to go outside haha.

well our trip to lucerne started out a little rough, with us missing our train due to a little bit of difficulty getting to the train station. not to worry, there was another one an hour later.. though we did have to buy new tickets unfortunately. and though in general it was a lovely day, this would not be the roughest part for me... but i'll get to that later.
we arrived in lucerne to discover it was quite cold. and that for some reason sperm was quite popular on greeting cards.. not quite sure what that was about.. but hey, maybe you understand and could explain it to me?

we found a river very quickly upon leaving the train station complete with cute bridges crossing it and cute buildings lining it. it really is a beautiful city.

we then checked out a church.. i forget what kind.. some kind of catholic though. it was quite pretty as well. but to be honest, most of the day was simply spent wandering around the city.. no complaints though.. after rome and all the tourist attractions, it was nice to be able to wander around a small town without any real plans for the day other than to simply, well, see the city. i must admit, i really do like visiting small towns. big cities have their perks, but i also find can be quite overwhelming after awhile.

there is a big wall in lucerne though, which we decided to go see.. it was soon after this that my day went slightly downhill (literally in fact). when we were visiting this wall, well first we saw some animals. i forget what they are called. llama like though. how interesting!

but the drama started after seeing the fake llamas. as i have said it was quite cold in lucerne, with some snow and ice on the ground. well we were walking down a little hill, and i decided to walk sort of on the edge because there wasn't ice there for me to potentially slip on. bad idea. turns out there was a lot of mud which of course made me slip.. just what i was trying to avoid! i ended up with mud ALL over the left side of my jeans, all over kirstin's gloves that i had still been stealing, all over my new camera, and holding back a tear or two trying to laugh off the ridiculous situation. what made the situation better? i had miraculously managed to completely avoid getting mud on my jacket.. and considering that would be a b**** to clean off, i was pretty happy about it, and my friends were pretty impressed with my skill. yes, that is what we are going to call it, thanks. never had i been so happy it was cold out so that i always have leggings on under my jeans.. because i decided i would rather be a little cold and lose the jeans, than continue to walk around town embarrassed pretending i wasn't a 20 year old covered in mud.... i was also glad i had worn two scarves.. seeing as i had kirstin use one to clean up my camera as best she could before we got to a bathroom to do a slightly better job.
(i will post a picture here once i get a copy from tania.. seeing as how my camera needed to have mud cleaned off of it, it was not possible to use it to capture this glorious moment at the time.)
alright, here is the much awaited picture:

oh, and this all happened before lunch. i knew my klutzyness would come through at some point.
well once i was mostly cleaned up, i felt a little better, and we went to eat lunch.. just at a cafe/cafeteria place.. but it was pretty good actually. mmmm warm cream of celery soup.

more wandering of the city followed, including finding the lion and the lake:

that's supposed to be water behind us.. it was completely frozen

oh yknow, just chillin with the alps behind me

the slip meant that later in the evening before dinner and leaving town we found ourselves at an h&m (i am sooo glad they exist in like every city) so i could buy another pair of leggings to feel a bit warmer.. and so nicole could get a couple clothes since she realized she hadn't quite packed enough for her eurotrip.

 we definitely found a library before we found h&m.. so went in to look it up. haha
oh and there was a church or something next to the library, and when the bells started ringing mannn were they loud. but you could actually see them swinging!

and the walk past the river again was even cooler when it was all lit up :)

 and then we went to find a cafe to get a little nourishment because we were hungry and it was still too early for dinner.. the waitress was pretty excited about my hot chocolate:

funny thing, we ended up being there for quite a while and eating dinner there anyways!
and finally, it was time to head back to the train station to go back to basel. they had a pretty classy train station too:

so back to basel we went. we woke up christmas eve day to snow fall and realized that we would be in for a white christmas... but as excited as i was i was really hoping it wouldn't stick. i already knew people were having trouble getting back to the states and other places.. and i didn't want to have trouble getting back to lyon the next day because of the snow.

we had a pretty laid back day, spending most of it in the hotel room because it was so cold, and the rest searching for chocolate for gifts. i actually bought more for other people than myself.. impressed? seriously though, swiss chocolate is so good.
kirstin and i tried to go back to the christmas market one last time, but unfortunately it had already closed. but we did wander around the city a little bit more so i could get a few pictures since i hadn't been carrying my camera the first night:

we knew we would be spending the evening in, watching christmas movies supposedly.. but seeing as we couldn't agree on which ones, we watched my big fat greek wedding and little women instead.. at least one of them had some christmas in it?! haha

it was the next morning, christmas morning, that was i was both excited for and not looking forward to at the same time. but it started a little earlier than planned. we were woken up at about 5 am i believe when carolers were walking down the street.. singing loudly to their hearts content. it interested us for about as long as they walked past our window, and then we all climbed back into bed and went back to sleep.
well my train back to lyon was at 10:06 am.. and i did not want to miss it. so after getting up a little later than i meant to and quickly packing, i had to say goodbye to kirstin (the part i wasn't looking forward to) and head to the train station. i had a little trouble getting to the bus that would take me to the station, so luckily i had just enough credit left on my phone before it ran out for tania to help me out, and then found someone who spoke english who could finally tell me i was in the right spot. i ended up getting to the train station without a ton of extra time to spare.. found a train that said it was heading to mulhouse (which is where i would be transferring), and was really glad there happened to be a train person outside the door so i could verify that it was in fact the right train even though it said it was leaving 4 minutes early. it was not in fact the right train. oh right. i forgot to mention that the basel train station has a swiss side, a german side, and a french side since it is so close to the border. turns out i was in the swiss side, and my train was leaving from the french side. freaking out because i had about 5 minutes to find my train, i started running. i found a desk and the guy told me what platform and where to go, but that i better hurry. so off i sprinted (so glad all i was carrying was a backpack... why do i feel like this has happened to me before?). i found the train, got on.. thought i might accidentally be in first class.. got off.. noticed the door starting to close. oh no. so i just pulled the door open again. jumped on. and hoped i really was on the right train and not in first class.. because with less than a minute to spare, it had better be right. thank goodness it was. so in the end i got to mulhouse just fine. but my next train was running about 40 min late.. remember i mentioned not wanting the snow to become a problem? well it did. by the time i got to lyon it was an hour late, and so i didn't get home till almost 5. but hey, at least i made it!

survived a week's worth of travel, exhausted, but ready to see my host family and how they celebrate christmas. also realizing though, that i don't think i want any of my trips to be longer than a week.. in part because i don't think i would have enough space in my backpack!

When in Rome

rome was a whole new ballpark for me. it was like nothing i had ever seen before, and yet had that familiar european feel to me. i couldn't understand anything anybody said, which actually through me for a little bit of a loop, realizing that i have grown very accustomed to france.. maybe not understanding everything, but at this point at least always getting the gist of things.

kirstin, her sister tania, and i arrived in the rome fiumencino airport after having spent the previous night in basel (where we would be spending time later in the week). after trying to navigate the airport as well as carrying all of our stuff (kirstin's bag was particularly heavy and difficult to carry), we finally found tania's friend nicole who would be joining us for the rest of the week.

next up was getting to our couchsurfers place, which turned out to not be too hard to find luckily once we'd gotten on the appropriate train and gotten off at the appropriate stop. we were greeted by our hosts, who then offered to make us some pasta. considering it was 3ish and we hadn't eaten lunch.. we accepted.
we had plans to meet up with a friend of tania's later that evening, and our host, daniele, decided to accompany us and show us the way. we agreed to meet at the spanish steps, and off we went. daniele told us it would be about a 45 minute walk, and we decided that sounded like a nice idea. turns out this walk was much longer than anticipated... buttt we got to see a lot of the city by night, including the coloseum, the trevi fountain, a couple churches, some other fountains, and a couple other cool things:

colosseum

trevi fountain

you really do see a lot when you walk seven kilometers... but hey, i'd say i earned whatever i ate this week! plus, i learned that in rome, people don't wait on the sidewalk until there are no cars.. you simply start walking and the cars will slow down to avoid hitting you. it's much faster to get around once you realize this is the trick!

eventually, however we did find tania's friend, and soon decided dinner should probably be the next stop since we were all quite hungry. daniele knew of this club/bar type place that you would pay 10 euros and get a drink and all you can eat at a buffet. this sounded good to us, so we set off in search of it. when we arrived around 8, we found out it wasn't really going to start until 8:30, and so daniele decided to show us some other sites. we realized however, we really needed to get some food immediately, so it was determined that obviously a gelato stop would be necessary before dinner. daniele took us to what he said was the best gelato place in rome.. and i must say, it was pretty delicious. i got lemon cheesecake and milk chocolate. mmmmm.

by a little past 9 we made it back to where we would be eating our dinner. i had never seen anything like it before. it was really nice on the inside, with a bar in the first room. when you continued into the next room, you found another bar off to the side a bit, a few tables around the edges, and a couple long tables with different pastas and plates to serve yourselves. oh and there was some live music on stage at the front. it was quite interesting. after a lovely evening with friends, we headed back to daniele's apartment... taking the bus this time thankfully since we all had very tired feet. and soon after taking a shower and getting ready for bed, we crashed. i mean we did have a full day ahead of us the next day.. and nicole was completely jetlagged from having just arrived in europe.

day two was very busy. we got up a little bit later than planned, but still managed to start our adventures by 10:30 i do believe. first order of business once we were in town was of course to get some food. aka pastries and coffee.. well, no coffee for me.
next we went to find the colosseum.. which isn't all that hard considering we knew we were close and it is pretty obvious.

we decided we wanted to take a tour, so we went to find out when they would be so we could plan our day accordingly. when we got there, a lady came up to us and told us that it would be possible to get a tour of the colosseum and the roman forum in english, and get in with no line for 25 euros (well it should have been 28 for me and nicole, 25 for tania and kirstin because they are european citizens, but the lady told us we could just pretend we forgot our id at home.. and therefore it would be 25 for us as well! ... also, i just got curious how much it could have possibly cost us to take this tour, and it looks like it could have been almost 50! we got a deal :)).. but we had to do it right then because there weren't going to be any other english tours due to the lack of english speaking tourists due to the number of closed airports because of the snow (it was really nice weather in rome while we were there though!). anyways. it sounded like a great idea and we jumped at the opportunity. for the colosseum part of the tour we were even handed speaker things so that we could wander a bit but still be able to hear the guide.

inside the colosseum

the roman forum

i have to say, i love the colosseum. and i am so glad we glad we found that tour. i think it was my favorite part of rome.. though now i really want to watch gladiator.

just some everyday gladiators.. nbd

after the colosseum and the roman forum, we went to meet up with our friends elliot, minerva, and tina. eating lunch with them didn't work out.. so we just met them at the trevi fountain afterwards. we promptly decided it was appropriate to throw coins into the fountain.. seeing as it was tradition.

more wandering the city followed, starting with more gelato, then including getting a view from above a large christmas tree, and wandering around some woods in fog.. not creepy at all... ;)

we all got dinner afterward, which was delicious.. homemade pasta included. and after saying goodbye to our friends.. just for now, ill be seeing them all next semester!... we headed back to our couchsurfer's house. we arrived back around 11:30 and found he'd been wanting to take us out.. so though it was past midnight by the time we left again, tania, nicole, and i headed to what turned out to be some kind of hipster dive bar.. interesting to say the least... by the time we got back somewhere around 3:30, i was about ready to pass out... and i mean we still had another big day in rome ahead of us!

day three involved the vatican, st. peter's basilica, the pantheon, and a christmas market.
the vatican is big. and has a lot of cool artwork. and the cistine chapel of course... which you aren't supposed to take pictures of. and i have to admit, the chapel was different than i expected. i'm not really sure why, it just was. but it was pretty cool to realize i was in the building with the famous michelangelo painting that is always on postcards.. not that i bought one.

vatican

by the end of our time in the vatican (which was a couple hours i'm sure), i was starving.. i mean it was like 3 o'clock. but seeing as big sites close by 4 or 5, we decided to go see st. peter's basilica before getting lunch (i did make sure we stopped for a snack because otherwise i wasn't going to make it). the basilica was amazing. and we even got to see those guards in their silly outfits on the walk over.

st. peter's basilica

just a guard in a silly outfit.. apparently they are a pretty big deal still

when we finally got around to eating some lunch (around 4:30 or 5 i'd say), we went to a restaurant where the waiter was trying really hard to give us a deal.. that we just weren't really going for.. i think he was getting frustrated with us, but we knew what we wanted and were willing to take menu prices since it didn't fit with his deal. when the food finally arrived, it was ok, but i wasn't really all that thrilled especially after being a little annoyed with the waiter. but hey, i finally got some food!
we went to see the pantheon next, which was beautiful inside, but unfortunately had construction going on on the outside. i thought the big hole in the ceiling was interesting.

ceiling of the pantheon

we decided we needed some coffee/hot chocolate, so we went to find a cafe... which are not quite as common in italy as they are in france. but we found one that had coffee my friends enjoyed, and i got a hot chocolate. and what i mean by hot chocolate isn't chocolate milk that is hot. it was more like a large bar of chocolate melted and served in a cup. it was good, but rather rich.

next up was checking out the christmas market, which honestly reminded me of booths at the state fair, and looking for a restaurant for dinner. we checked out the menus of every restaurant in the square, and eventually decided on one. we got bruschetta, i got a spaghetti dish, and a glass of wine.. which i actually enjoyed! the meal as a whole was delicious. i was very happy with it, especially after having been a little disappointed with lunch.

after or amazing dinner we headed back to our couchsurfer's where we found them watching a movie. we just chilled for a bit, resting our feet, and thinking about sleeping. our new friends realized how tired we were and so decided to let us sleep. but first! we had gotten them a gift. a panitone.. because the other night we had returned to daniele just finishing up one. they decided to share it with us and we all moved to the kitchen to eat panitone, drink some wine, and chat. and soon some pandora was brought out as well (another cakey bready thing)! it was a nice last evening with them, and of course we realized a group picture would need to be taken before we said goodnight/goodbye... daniele had work early the next morning.

when we did wake up though/got packed/were ready to head out, we found francesco.. the other couchsurfer, had bought us each a pastry as well as a thing i forget whats it's called. something with a cheese filling that tastes like sweet cream rather than cheese? i dunno. it was amazing though. but soon we really did have to leave so that we wouldn't miss our train. but as a last minute gift to us, they had gotten us something as well. can you guess it? a panitone! to follow our new panitone tradition of course.

so it was a long 2 1/2 days in rome filled with lots of walking and not a ton of sleep, but it was fun. i was happy to be moving on to the next city though, not because i didn't love rome, but because i was excited to get to a slightly more relaxing city, with fewer plans/sites that needed to be seen. so off we went.. to switzerland!

forced to say goodbye

the end of the semester is coming to a close (well for those who are leaving a least, i still have a couple finals in january), and what does that mean? it means a start to new adventures as winter break begins (so get prepared to hear about lots of travels in the upcoming weeks!).

but unfortunately, it also means saying goodbye to some of the people that have made this study abroad adventure as amazing as it has been. without them, this experience so far wouldn't have been the same, and as much as i look forward to my next 6 months, it is saddening to realize that some of my closest friends won't be by my side for it. to be honest, when i first thought about studying abroad, and what friends i might have made, it never really occurred to me that i would be spending a lot of my time with other UC students, or that they would become some of my best friends. when i think about that now, it seems kind of mind boggling that i feel so close to people that i met just 4 months ago! never in my life did i think i would make friends that would become my new family so quickly. but i guess that is what happens when all of us are suddenly thrown into a new city, a new country, a new culture, and expected to suddenly become a part of it. we look to each other for support, because who would know better what you are going through than someone who is going through the same thing? when someone says they are homesick, even if you are not, you can understand and try to help them through it. or when someone says that as much as they miss their friends, they just couldn't imagine going home anytime soon, you understand that too. it doesn't necessarily matter which side of the situation you are on.

i also can't believe how quickly this first semester went by. beginning with the intensive language program that i don't think anybody really enjoyed, and then trying to figure out what classes to take and realizing that this was probably going to be harder than anticipated.
i remember the first week of classes when i went to a class i was sure i would be taking and realized that i didn't really know what i was getting myself into. everybody was already on the same page, talking fast and laughing at the same jokes. a project was assigned and i had no idea what was going on. and worst of all, i was the only international student. i walked out that day holding back tears realizing that this class i had been so sure i was going to take, just wasn't going to work out. how scary that had been! luckily i realized i would be able to take something else instead, and did manage to find classes where i didn't feel so completely and utterly lost. 

and look at us now! our french has improved, classes aren't as scary, this city is home, the public transit makes sense, and you finally feel like you fit in... well sort of haha.
i really do feel like i have three cities i can call home now: sacramento, santa cruz, and now lyon.

i have figured out couchsurfing. how to buy train tickets. and plane tickets. met tons of amazing people who i really hope i won't lose contact with as we go our separate ways.

its the end of one semester. and man has it flown by. but this is just the beginning. and i've been told the next 6 months will go by even faster. before i know it, it will be the end of my adventure.. but i don't really want to think about that right now!

oh and some inside jokes i will miss when certain people decide to not come back to lyon after break (i realize that these wont make sense to you readers, but keep in mind this blog is for me to look back on in the future too. so there ya go):
at least you're pretty
thanks mom
points

le 8 decembre et la fete des lumieres

it's the week before finals, and what are most college students doing? they are studying. reading. cramming. stressing. the works. is that what i am doing? no. is it what i should be doing? yea, probably. but hey, i have been told that if my choices are doing something cultural that i will only experience in france or studying, then i should skip the studying.

so, you might ask, what have i been up to this past week?
well, i have been doing just the opposite of many college students (not including those abroad).. well sort of. i have studied a little bit, and i have stressed a bunch. but mostly. i've been staying out till midnight or later almost every night doing nothing of the sort. and for those of you reading this, i am sure this must sound strange since it might seem totally out of character (me? going out every night when i should be studying? what? what has france done to this girl?!?!). but i promise you, there has been good reason for this lack of studiousness.

monday. as you may have read, i went to geneva. no studying there. but hey, there would be a full week ahead of me to do that.

tuesday. patrick and i finally accepted an invitation to eat at kirstin's house with her host family! it was lots of fun with soup, canelles (a typical lyonnais specialty), some salad (not normal, but i forget what kind), cheese, and of course some dessert (some orange cakey thing that was very good). it was a lovely evening and because kirstin lives in the center of town, we got to see a sneak peak into what the rest of the week was going to look like.

you might be asking, what am i talking about? well. this week was le 8 decembre and la fete des lumieres. really the 8th is a religious holiday about thanking the virgin mary for saving lyon from the plague back in the olden days. each year people place candles in their windows, and there is a procession up the hill to fourviere, which is lit up with different colors. the rest of the week is more for the tourists, and this entire city lit up.

if it is possible to be in love with a city, that is how i feel about this one. i am SO glad i decided to extend, because i honestly couldn't leave in a week or two and not know when i would be coming back. how i ever thought that a semester would be enough, i have no idea.

i will post a few pictures here, but they really don't do this week justice (look for more on facebook though). if you want to fully understand, you will just have to come see for yourself sometime... though i recommend coming before the last night.

here is a short description of what the rest of my week looked like:
wednesday. i went to the library to study a bit. this was a good decision to make, but a hard one, because as strange as this might sound after seeing my blogs about all the snow, wednesday it was gorgeous out! seriously. like 65 and sunny. here is a pic from kirstin's window:

yes, it is ok to be jealous of her view. i know i am.

after studying for a bit, kirstin and i went back to her place to take a break before the evening's festivities began. here is another picture out her window, just before we headed out:

the jealously grows a little...

at 6pm, there was a big show in place bellecour to start of la fete de lumieres, it was awesome. a small sample:

they were counting through the years they've done this...

hanging from a large balloon, an acrobat

after this, we headed back to her place to eat some pasta real fast before heading out again. this time, we went to see some fireworks over the rhone:

i didn't see much more that first night because we went to hang out at a friends apartment, which lasted longer than i anticipated, but was still fun. but i did get to see rue de la republique (a big pedestrian street) all lit up as i headed for the metro. which, by the way, was free wednesday night. and they were running until 1:30 wednesday-saturday at least (normally they end around midnight- 12:30).

 oh yea, and i ditched my slm class that would have been 4-8 so i could study and actually see all of the festivities. whoops. but hey, people ditch all the time and i'm not usually one of them, so i felt ok about it.


thursday. well, i went to my two classes, gave a presentation in one of them, and headed home. i was going to go downtown for an hour or so before dinner, but my bus was there (i often have to wait for it), so i just headed home because i was tired and knew i would be going out the next two nights anyways. plus, i figured, i should probably see my host parents since i hadn't seen them for more than 5 minutes in the past 3 days. i was rewarded with a really good soup for dinner too :)

friday. i believe i saw anything/everything there was to see on the presqu'il (the area between the rivers). mannn there were a lot of people. though not nearly as many as there would be saturday night. though it was more difficult to get around town then usual seeing as they blocked off certain streets (making them one way), so that to get to certain locations you had to go in big circles. but i saw a lot of cool stuff:

place de terreaux was my favorite (there were more designs than this):

 

 then place de celestin. it looked like the building was moving!:

 

 and i think next, was st. nizier:

 

and place des jacobins:

the statues aren't usually fishing haha

let's not forget the park in its firey amazingness:

and i promise you, these pictures dont do these things justice. especially the second two since they were constantly moving.

saturday. i left my house at 5:20 planning to take a bus to the metro to go see a parade at gare de vaise involving fire. well the bus didn't go as planned. and transferring metros takes FOREVER when you have to surface in between because everything is super regulated with so many people. well we saw some of the fire show, but it wasn't as exciting as i would have hoped and we wanted to see something at the parc too. so we left. and didn't actually make it to the parc because of the crowds. surprised? not really. but still kind of sad. christina and i did, however, find some the friends we had met in grenoble who had come to lyon to see the lights!

(i also tried to find some italien couchsurfer who wanted to meet up, but those plans failed miserably, and i must admit, i could have tried a little harder. but with sooooo many people, its hard to make too many plans). so christina and i took them to see some sights we had already seen but knew were really cool. i felt like a terrible tour guide since there were so many people and it was hard to get around, but we met them at the celestin, and managed to get them to see my other two favorites as well. plus a few others. so overall, i felt like we did alright. we eventually made it up to the croix-rousse (which i actually hadn't seen yet), though at this point, after seeing one wierd show, our friends had to leave. christina and i continued, however, and went off in search of a jellyfish light show (which was much more impressive in the brochure, in my opinion at least)

but we also found an cool egg, some animals, and the only lyon sign! which has been in three different places since i have lived in lyon. i tried to ask my host parents why it moves all over the city. they told me they didn't know, it just travels. haha

so after a 4 nights of lights, way too many crowds, and packed metros, i will be happy when the city returns to normal. this week was amazing, but i would love to be able to get places again!

and i guess, now that pictures are posted and this blog is written, i must acknowledge the reality that i have finals starting in two days that i am nowhere near prepared for. better get studying. wish me luck!