host parentals

its my last night here and im not even sure how that is possible. wasnt it just yesterday i was packing my suitcases to come to france? and now i had to do it all over again. except this time rather than being excited beyond believe/nervous/terrified/whatever else i said i was at this time nine and a half months ago, i am sad to leave france and all of the people and places i have grown to love so much. ok i am also kind of excited to see all my family and friends again, but a certain sadness continues to linger. at least when i was leaving the states i knew exactly when i would be returning, but i dont have that same assurance for my next stay in france.

this year was amazing. probably more than i could have ever asked for. and i realize that there are two people that have made this year incredible that i dont think i have mentioned in many of my blogs this year, so this one will be all about them. who might you ask? you guessed it. my host parents. veronique et francois. how i got so lucky, i have no idea.

so here's a little bit about them/some highlights from this year:
(in no particular order of when things actually occurred because this is just the order i brainstormed them in over the past week or two)

So cute.

Repeated after dinner conversation :
François : Laisse Minou, je vais ranger.
(véronique continues to clean up after dinner).
François. Laisse Minou, laisse.
(véronique finishes the cleaning up).
Can’t tell you HOW many times i heard this conversation :)

when i told Francois i liked cider after returning from ireland/scotland, he promptly went into the cave to see if we had any so we could have some with lunch. Sadly we didnt.

after not seeing her for 2 weeks, my host mom was so excited to see me (and i was excited to see her). She even made soup for dinner even though it was warm out (it's a cold weather thing apparently) because she knows i like it and she does too.

Véronique asked if i was tanned/burned from Ireland. I laughed a little and my host dad walked in and was like nope! that was from today. She didn’t look like that yesterday ☺ (i had seen Francois the day I returned, but not Véronique).

My host dad calls me the yogurt queen because i always choose it over cheese at night (i'm pretty sure he thinks i don't really like cheese. which is only half true. i just tend to eat a lot with friends when we each lunch by the quai).

Véronique keeps me updated on Louis even when i don't get to see him. she even told me she'd send me updated pictures after i leave.

Véronique has Healing powers. From actually being sick to simply coming home with a sunburn.

Francois gets excited if a guy friend comes over. Suddenly wants to know if hes husband matériel.

When Véronique hosts dinner parties she always has different color schemes and little doodads to decorate the table with.

Francois cooking pallela. super goooooddd.

Véronique presenting me to her friends. "Elle est ma petite americaine". and she usually has a big smile on her face.

Francois making faces behind Véronique's back. Véronique occasionally doing the same.

Véronique keeping me updated on scandals and anything else interesting.

Francois always forgetting an item when he is sent to the supermarché.

Véronique saying i am gonna be hard to beat next year (in reference to them hosting another girl in the fall).

Francois and his love of all things cowboy (note cowboy should be said with the french accent)

Gifts. Whether for thanksgiving (which i had not realized was a gift giving holiday but truly appreciated the appropriately colored scarf), or christmas, or my birthday.

Véronique notices details, Francois does not always quite as quickly. I'd lived here a while and my host dad turns to me at dinner and says.. your ears are pierced! another night: you are wearing makeup! both times my host mom and i look at each other and laugh because we couldn't believe he hadn't realized before.

Véronique being so touched when i referred to her as my « mère d’accueil » or « maman d’accueil » aka my host mom. originally it hadn't occurred to me to call her anything else. but i think she really was more motherly to me than other student's host parents anyways, and i was happy she liked the phrase so much.

so i had a dream while i was in Ireland that i was back in the states hanging out with friends. but i was really upset because i realized i had never said goodbye to my host parents. even after i woke up, i realized how unsettling that would be if it were true. And i hated having that dream with a month left in my stay.

now. it is the very end.
i returned my key and gave them a book with photos of california. in the front cover i wrote a little note, and then left post-its throughout pointing out the pictures that refer to places that actually mean something to me.
then we had escargot and lasagna for dinner. so i may have never gotten the chance to eat grenouille, but i did get escargot three times this year!
after dinner i printed my plane tickets (yes, that was one of the last things i did) and then my host mom and i fought my bags to get them to close and not be too overweight, and then it was time to say goodbye since i wont be seeing her in the morning probably. it all seems so unreal. i'm still not sure it has entirely hit me that i leave tomorrow.. minus the fact that i have officially said goodbye to everybody except my host dad who will be driving me to the airport in the morning.

its the little things in life

lyon is a city i will miss like crazy when i leave. one that i will always cherish and be able to think of as home.. even if i did only live here for nine months.
there are so many things i will remember about this place when i head back to the states, so many good memories.

so here is a list, though i am sure it could be even longer. sometimes its the little things that are the most important. and no, these aren't in any particular order.

francais and franglais.
boulangeries and patisseries.. and the fact that they are everywhere. how i am going to survive without consuming as many baguettes/flutes and pastries as i have this year, i do not know.
metros/trams/buses - tcl. seriously.
knowing places by public transportation stops rather than street names.
the ability to walk everywhere.
everybody always looking so put together.
my host parents.
the fact that even though i live a little far, i still have a bus two minutes away. a tram two minutes away. a metro twelve minutes away. a grocery store two minutes away. a post office two minutes away. a bank (ok at least the appropriate atm) two minutes away.
marchés.
fifty cent hot chocolates on campus.
parc de la tête d'or. parc de la tête d'or. parc de la tête d'or! and the animals there.
velo'vs.
prices as marked.
salsa dancing.
always having to figure out how to flush a toilet (seriously, every toilet is different!).
drinking cheap wine on the hotel de ville steps and on the quai.
having the cheap wine be called côte du rhône. especially when drinking along the rhône.
vieux lyon.
fête des lumières.
the juxtaposition of old apartment buildings on top of modern stores.
the ironwork on all the window sills.
Le Rhône et La Saône.
calling the man at one épicerie our "friend" because he'll open our bottle and sometimes give us plastic cups. we are very classy people :)
pretending i don't speak english/french to wierd people who come up to me.
speaking french.
bises.
patrick's scavenger hunt.
multiple course meals.
not getting carded everywhere/the drinking age being 18. then not needing a dd because no cars need to be involved to get home.
pinching myself wondering how this is my life.
never feeling lost because you can never go more than five minutes without finding a map.
eating too much nutella with kirstin.
the view from fourvière.
student prices.
showing people around.
my big bed.
monster munches.
jetting off to new places.
picnic lunches on the quai.
ditching boys during waka waka to dance with chloe.
salad and bread at almost every meal.
LU véritable petit beurre cookies.
barbarousse. mi barrio. dv1. even ayers rock.
experiencing my first real winter.. not that i need to experience it ever again.
christine and all of my eap peeps.
trying new food.
meeting new people.
snowball fights instead of going to class.
walking along the quai.

a few thoughts

so you walk into your eap office with this big dream of studying abroad. you see there are dozens of pamphlets for different countries and different programs. semester. year. summer. whatever works best for you, there is probably some program that will make you happy. they advertise meeting amazing new people, seeing amazing places, getting college credit, and having the time of your life. they can help you make a decision about what program makes the most sense for you. immersion or language and culture? they tell you where to find all the papers for the application. they make sure you know all the deadlines so you dont miss out. and theyll answer any questions you might have.

but they leave something out. where is the "WARNING: YOU JUST MIGHT LOVE YOUR TIME ABROAD AND WILL HAVE A HARD TIME GIVING IT UP"?

nobody tells you about how much you will dread packing. how much you will hope that there is some way to freeze time.
but maybe its for the best that they dont tell you this, because what if people made the decision not to go abroad at all because they dont want to deal with how hard it is when the year comes to an end?! well that would just be really unfortunate. plus, i guess they are supposed to keep all the pamphlets pretty upbeat ;)

i've had some thoughts though. learned a few things even.

for one. take pictures. lots of pictures. but also make sure you really see what is behind the lens while you can. because whatever photo you might capture, it will probably never be the same/as amazing as what you will see in real life.
i probably taken a thousands pictures this year, some of which capture more than others. but mostly i am glad to have them so i can look back on them later and remember what was going on when the picture was taken in the first place. try and put myself back in the place where it was originally taken. i didnt really buy souvenirs this year, because those wouldnt really mean anything to me, but pictures? those mean something.

dont take anything for granted. not everyone will have the chance to see all the amazing places you will. sometimes i cant believe how lucky i am to have been able to go as many cool places i have been, or to meet the people i have met.. even if for just a short time.

above all, enjoy yourself and dont have any regrets. if you dont have the time to see something you wanted, think of all the other sites you did get a chance to visit and all the other things you got to do. plus, theres always next time :)

i've discovered this year that i like views. in a bunch of cities i have been to, i have done my best to get to the highest (or close) point so that i could see the entire city.
paris from montmartre:

passau (or maybe technically in austria?) i could see three countries from up here!):

grenoble from the bastille:

milan from the duomo:

lake como (from the funiculaire to the top of the hill):

barcelona (from the side of parc guelle):

todra gorge (from the top of our hotel):

bordeaux (from the top of the saint-michel tower):

edinburgh (from calton hill):

glasgow (from university of glasgow):

dublin (from the top floor of the guinness wearhouse):

cork:

nice (from parc du chateau):

monaco (from the jardin exotique):

cannes (from near musée de la castre):

and of course, the one i will never tire of even after having seen it a large number of times, and will miss like nobody's business. lyon, from fourviere:

see? im obsessed. and though there was a funiculaire or something option for a few of these, most involved a whole lot of stairs. and i cant even begin to describe how much i wish these pictures actually captured what was in front of me. oh well. at least ive got the memories :)

and just remember, every day is an adventure. treat it as such. :)

june.

hey there june,

i've been dreading your arrival since august, but i guess i need to come to terms with the fact that you are finally here.

i realize now that i have two options when it comes to thinking about stepping on that plane in ten days:
i can either be dragged kicking and screaming (ok, not literally) because i dont want to leave lyon/france,
or
i can come to accept that it is simply the end of one adventure and the beginning of the next. and how excited i am (really!) to see the family and friends it seems like i haven't seen in a lifetime.

im thinking the second option is probably the better one to go along with.

also one more thing june, i have a favor to ask of you. could you please make the rain and cold stop sooner rather than later? at first i didn't mind because after the heat it actually came as kind of a relief. but with allergies attacking me one hot day, and then it being cold the next, im afraid i might start getting sick! and with not much time left.. i'd rather spend it being healthy.

all the best,
ariane


it's wierd for me to start realizing that i may actually be beginning to reach that point where i am ready to come home. honestly, i never thought it would happen. maybe its just because im not doing much with myself on this rainy day, or maybe its just because my return is inevitable. but as much as i am putting off packing (though i mean seriously, its still too early to start packing.. i figure i dont need more than a week), i am also getting ready to start. though how i am going to fit all of my stuff in the bags i arrived with, i have no idea. i hope it isnt too difficult!

ok. that last paragraph i wrote this morning. as of this evening feelings have changed a bit. this morning i think it was the boredom and sweatpants that were getting me ready to go home. but this evening chloe came over, and after not having seen her for a week we took some time to catch up. and once again i realized how i am not really ready to leave yet. a couple tears might have even appeared. next week is going to be rough. i can already tell. so much to do, so little time.

honestly though, i cant even really begin to describe how i feel. torn between wanting to freeze time and stay here forever and actually being excited to get back to real life.

if anybody's got a solution to this big problem of feeling all mixed up inside, im all ears. but its hard, because i've come to realize that its only my eap peers who are going through exactly the same thing really know how i feel.. not that they really know what it is theyre feeling either.