Countless Wonders

Day Twenty-Six

This is short and sweet because I actually returned early from the ski trip with my host family--explanation to follow in next post...and I have a LOT to update but way too much to start this late so I'll leave you with a teaser of something I want to highlight because where I was in the Alps was breathtakingly beautiful when the skies were clear.  I'll just say that you don't need to go to a religious retreat to have your faith burn with fire...just take a step outside and see the beauty He has painted in nature to recognize His sovereign, almighty power. 

I spent the past four days exploring/skiing by myself because the rest of my host & extended family are expert skiiers and we couldn't ski on the same hills.  I was honestly kind of depressed/lonely that first day but that all changed after the second day when I stopped caring about that and started soaking/meditating on everything around me!  On the second day, I took my iPod and listened to Chris Tomlin's "Burning Lights" CD as I was skiing and I'm including the lyrics later in this post of one of his songs that was all too perfect.  I can't even explain how humbled and grateful I was when listening to this song and seeing just one speck of the miracles of His work.  I'm so thankful that going skiing in the Alps was more of a spiritual experience than anything, praise God.



 

You reign in endless power above the world You made
Across the sky is written Your majesty and praise
And still You move in mercy and hear the humble heart
For every soul that’s searching, Jesus there You are

Your beauty fills the sky
Your glory reigns in brilliant light
Great God of countless wonders
I will lift my eyes

The mysteries of heaven and all Your works displayed
Every star, every ocean, the universe proclaims
For every sun that rises, Your faithfulness to me
Like the changing of the seasons, like the river to the sea

No one can fathom all Your mighty works O God
Just one glimpse of You and I am overcome
You open up Your hand and pour out once again
Your everlasting love

Your beauty fills the sky
Your glory reigns in brilliant light
Great God of countless wonders
I will lift my eyes



 

 

Short & Sweet

Day Twenty-Two

Because I won't be in classes next week, I went ahead and did the required homework assignments so I could hand them over to a classmate today so they would be in on time.  It felt nice to do some homework, lol.  I also did laundry and because utilities are so expensive here, I'm only allowed to do ONE load PER week.  So I stuff everything together and can't seperate whites and colors.  I washed them in cold..but my white sweater is now gray.  I guess it's really not that bad, good thing I don't have any red shirts that leak...but still.  :(  And I'm not very experienced with doing laundry, which makes it nice that my host mom has these detergent tablets that you just throw in to the mashine and they disintegrate.  So I don't have to measure anything out!  Haha, yay for me.  Went out to lunch at a Taiwanese place with my friend Sophie who I met at the scavenger hunt as well.  She's from Missouri, if I remember correctly.  Then had class where we went over le subjonctif (which actually isn't as bad and now I feel more comfortable with it) and then talked about fast-food, haha.  After class I did some packing for next week and then headed out to Bible study where we had a baked potato bar, some boiled vegetables, and homemade chocolate truffles!  I'm so stuffed.  The study was on the Trinity and really being able to gain a better understanding of how God is three in one.  Now I've finished packing and so I won't be posting for a while.  I'm not going to take my laptop so in a way, I'm forcing myself to really embrace a week with my French host family and their extended family skiing in the Alps.  :)  Many pictures to follow.  For now, here are some that didn't get posted yesterday.

Emi and I at dinner with our yummy soup!

Sakura and Emi

Mina, Sakura, Emi, and I about to see Les Miserables!  Kind of hard to take a self-group photo lol

Yeah..a store for chic rainbow colored toilet paper, lol...

Les Miserables

Day Twenty-One


Yesterday had my first sessions of the cultural classes.  I chose French News/Media and Francophone Studies.  The first one is with my actual teacher, Ludvine, and she is amazing.  BUT!!!  Everyone in the class has to give a 10-15 minute oral presentation on a news article when it's their turn and then the class will participate in a debate.  That's going to be terrifying when my time comes around.  That's a long time to present a news article in English--let alone FRENCH!  But, that's a worry for another day.  After classes Dave and I had a meeting with the directrice of the French language immersion program for the university and we finalized the dates on when we'll be spending a week doing some training with the French military.  Also, she asked us how things are going and such.  She's very sweet and everyone in the office is very helpful and friendly.  Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to impress her with my French, of course I made a fool of myself by answering questions she apparently never asked, lol.  But like I said, she was nice about it.  But jeez, way to get yourself to feel like an idiot lol.  Afterwards, met up with two classmates and found a restaurant in Vieux Lyon with an entree, plat, and dessert for 14 euros--great deal.  Unfortunately, this place wasn't impressive.  The side dishes were bland.  The best part was the salad, bread, and dessert haha. 

Yesterday I woke up at 7 to meet up with Katie and run at the local park. I took my camera to take some pictures of parts of it. That was really good and what kept me running and motivated was knowing that I was going to buy a pastry I had seen in the window of a local boulangerie on my way back to the apartment, lol. By the time I got there, my hands were frozen because it is FREEZING to run that early with the drabby, windy weather and the man behind the counter was unimpressed with my cold hands and enthusiasm for what I was buying...oh well. I'd rather find a boulangerie with a friendly owner next time, hopefully make a habit of it too. I'd love to actually have a place where I could become a "regular." That's such a foreign concept to me, lol but I've always dreamed of it! Cleaned up, had a really good breakfast, and did my devotional before meeting up with Amelia to go out for lunch. We went back to the brioche sandwich place and for 4 euros I had a fresh sandwich, cookie, and drink. Sweet deal. Then had class and unfortunatley, it got pretty dry at the end. But we went over French etiquette for the table and discussed food today. Made me hungry for my plans after class. I met up with Sakura and Emi for dinner. Sakura took us to a pretty famous place that was really reasonable and had a great atmosphere. Their specialty is a tartine which is essentially half a toasted baguette with various specialty topppings. I had a complete lapse of common sense and ordered the tartine trois fromages et poires, which is 3 cheeses and pears. Unfortunately, I could only eat one section of my tartine because two of the cheeses were goat cheese and bleu cheese. I feel like the only cheese that is tolerable for my taste buds is cow cheese. Everything else smells so bad and tastes so distinct/strong, my senses just find it revolting. I could smell it from other people's plates as well. That was pretty unfortunate. Sakura was so sweet and took my blue cheese section in exchange for part of hers which was cow cheese with some kind of syrup and pralines. That was really good. We had yummy soup and dessert as well. I could eat French dessert forever...and ever. I was so close to getting a tarte framboise (raspberry tart) but I decided to get their dessert du jour which was a homemade cheese cake and it was....marvelous!! Afterwards, we met up with Mina to watch Les Miserbales! After Pride and Prejudice, it is definitely my favorite movie. The music is absolutely beautiful. I caught myself wanting to sing along numerous times. It's ridiculous (and wonderful) how music and lyrics evoke such emotion--that's why I LOVE IT! It was very cool to read French subtitles. Learned some new vocabulary from it tonight :) Tomorrow will be a long day and then Saturday I leave for a ski vacation with my host family and their extended family in ....THE ALPS!! Then after that, I'm on vacation and headed to...ITALY!! Don't worry, I'm giving thanks every second of every day for the amazing opportunity that this semester is offering me.

La Salade Lyonnaise!  Greens, croutons, poached egg, ham

Me & Rosaura!

Classmates practicing French over dinner!



Beautiful view at night



Park where I met up with a friend to go running this morning



main gate entrance of the park

The internet is acting up, so I wasn't able to attach more pictures.  Until next time, which might be a while! 

Blessed

Day Eighteen

Today I woke up the earliest since I've been in France!  (to avoid torturing my fellow cadets back home, I won't say what time that was.)  I actually did want to go on a run as well but I was waiting on a package delivery this morning where I would have to sign upon its reciept.  Which was delivered and I seriously have the best family.  My mom, of course, overdid it with her care package but I am definitely not complaining.  But no more packages because the shipping costs are absolutely ridiculous.  But if you're reading this--mom and dad, I LOVE YOUU!  And that's not relative to how much Korean food you send me, that's unconditional! I don't even know if I'll be able to finish all of this, but don't worry, I'm a problem solver :) --I did my first French homework which was just passé composé and l'imparfait conjugations.  I made strawberry toast for breakfast and watched a Francis Chan video--he is so convicting, I definitely recommend looking him up on youtube.  (short blurb: I was able to hear him talk at the Passion Conference at the start of the new year and it was down-right phenomenal!!)  Got ready and was out to have my first meal in a restaurant--solo! 

There's a local cobblestone alley about a 10 minute walk from my apartment that is FILLED with the coolest French restaurants so I wanted to try one of them.  They all have a "formule midi" menu where it's a fixed menu of either (entrée + plat) or (plat + dessert) for a very reasonable price.  At this specific restaurant, it was 13 euros!  For a gourmet meal made by the chef--you really can't beat it.  Today I had le porc rôti (roasted pork) and for dessert, la tarte tatin (a play on apple pie).  It was SO BEAUTIFUL and good!  Haha.  Then I tried to walk off that amazing meal and headed off to class which was great fun with my teacher, Ludvine.  She's hilarious but she got pretty upset with us at the end of class because no one responded when she would ask questions and a majority of the class never contributed to discussion.  She's really cool--as long as we participate.  Thankfully, she wasn't lecturing me because when I talked to her after class about next week, she said I've done well with my participation.  Yesssss!  Class if 4 hours, it's difficult if only the teacher is talking.  So I had class and planned a dinner with two other classmates tomorrow night!  I'm excited because they're both super nice.  Rosaura is from Colombia and the other guy is from China.  By tomorrow, I will have memorized his name!  It's quite strange to look at my schedule for the week and the only thing I see are two meetings and then everything else are lunch/dinner/movie plans.  I am so blessed to have this opportunity to just embrace the experience that's life.  To actually be able to go about my day without a suspense/assignment/cadet breathing down my neck with something else I have to do.  I love my school, absolutely!, but this semester was very much needed.  After class I headed back home and started making plans for what I'll do with my "winter vacation" starting the 2nd of March.  Dinner tonight was avocado with mayo, pumpkin casserole of sorts, yogurt, and fruit. 

Funny story.  So last night I watched the French movie, Heartbreaker (L'Arnacoeur) and of course when I pronounced it, I was greeted by very confused facial expressions.  So then I tried to explain it by doing hand gestures of someone breaking a heart in half--that didn't work.  Then I said something along the lines of "someone who *hand gesture* un coeur...le couer...uhhhhh"  haha and I kept repeating the title, trying to work on my enunciation and then my hostdad was like "OHHH, L'Arnacoeur" in a perfect accent (which I obviously hadn't used) and we all started laughing, lol.  We were all apologizing for not explaining/understanding what I was trying to say.  But it was pretty funny.  Then I asked them what their favorite French movies were and we started a discussion on that and he showed me to their DVD collection and went through all of their movies (like 300) and started picking out the French ones and giving me a short synopsis on all of them and recommending which ones I should try.  That was very, very sweet of him.  I was beyond thrilled because I'm always looking for ways to have more conversation with them, but to not be so forced about it.   I'm about to try one of the movies, I'll give a review of it later once I've finished. 

Love from the parents!

You can't really find peanut butter here, so I specifically asked for that and some Korean bean paste!

It's an art

 

Yum

The outside of the restaurant, so cute!

Les Fleurs et Les Nouveaux Amis

Day Seventeen

This might be a little long [fair warning!].  Sunday I went with Anish (the English boy who is also on exchange staying with the host family) to go exploring.  We walked through the Sunday market and found across the river that there was an art market!  Man, if I had loads of money--my house would be a museum with art, lol.  We also went to a free Indian art exhibition that was really cool!  Everything was handsewn and under each piece they noted the amount of days it took to make the work!  The longest duration we found was for 450 days!  That is a lot of dedication!! We then went to Le Musée Gadagne which has three museums in one (the history of Lyon, marionnettes, and Renaissance architecture).  We saw old letters, manuscripts, textbooks, etc.  I cannot believe how beautiful European calligraphy was back then, haha!  It's a funny thing to be so amazed at but man, it really caught my attention.  Everything just seems so much more important when it's written in ink and in authentic cursive.  We saw various maps showing Lyon throughout the centuries and it was cool to see how Place Bellecour didn't change its location but everything around it slowly developed!  And I still can't believe that this city has been developing for centuries!  We then had lunch at the house which was salad and a very German-like dish.  It had a hot dog, two types of sausages, and ham with sauerkraut and potatoes.  It was very good and it's another French traditional plate.  After, I went to church and met someone who just arrived from Malaysia!  I thought I'd be late to the service but actually got the service time mixed up and was 20 minutes early instead!  Haha.  Came back to the house for dinner and we finally had the dish I'd been waiting for--lyonnaise salade.  I guess what I had previously thought was lyonnaisde salade, really wasn't.  This was the most American-like becaue it had iceberg lettuce and croutons!  It also had poached egg.  It was so good but I came to find that this was the main meal!  I could've eaten five more servings of it, lol.  If I eat salad as a meal, I need a pretty large portion but with a lot of bread, yogurt, and fruit--I was content.  I watched a French movie (Heartbreaker) which I had seen on netflix a few months ago with American subtitles and last night I watched it with French subtitles.  It's nice to see my progress :)

Today I woke up to the doorbell ringing several times with no answer. I slowly walked to the door and didn't see anyone outside but when I opened the door, I found a box for me of beautiful roses from Charlie!! I guess an international order takes four days to make its way to my doorstep, lol. What a GREAT way to start my day :) They haven't all bloomed yet so I know they'll last a while! Then I worked out, got ready, and met up with Madison (a friend from the international church) who's also here for a semester. We wanted to try a place called Frites Alors but found it was closed so we tried a local Indian restaurant. It was so good! For 7 euros I got a "sandwich," fries, and a drink. Lunch was so good and she's so sweet! Good company and good food, that's what I've come to find in Lyon! Then I went to class and it was so much fun. I love my professor who teaches on Mondays and Tuesdays. She's hilarious and always engages our class. She also makes sure we understand all the vocabulary that we're exposed to. I asked the girl I was sitting next to, Xiangwan, if she wanted to grab a snack after our class because dinner at the house would be late. She agreed and we actually ended up growing to a party of four with two other classmates, Luc and Elisa, who are also from China. We found a really cozy tea/coffee shop by Hôtel de Ville. We had some coffee and dessert and it was delicious! All we did was talk in French and they would talk in Chinese to each other some as well. It was so fun and I'm glad I asked Xiangwan to spend some time after class together! All of them know more French than me so it was really cool to learn some words and practice my French. I came back and had dinner just with my host mom because the dad was traveling for work and Anish had a night class. We had salad, boiled broccoli, yogurt, and fruit. And surprisingly, I was so full after the meal. Boiled broccoli with salt is good, lol. Plus, I always eat a lot of bread whenever the main course is just vegetables so that helps.



Indian art exhibition!



Outside of the museum!

 

Surprise box :)

 

Beautiful blooming roses!



This is a school that I walked by today.  If my elementary school looked like this...lol



Lunch!



Madison and I were very excited :)



Elis and Xiangwan!



Luc and I!



Coffee and dessert :)  I think this is my favorite dessert now, lol

A run and a hike

Day Fifteen

Yesterday was another good day in class.  We learned a little about the history of the French language and how up until it was established as the official language, there were more than 50,000 different dialects in the territory that is now France.  We went over how to physically describe someone in more detail than I'd learned in basic French, like specifying the shape of someone's face, body, nose, and eyes.  There was a lot of new vocabulary that I learned.  Again, I was pretty intimidated by the vocabulary that I wasn't following very easily.  Thankfully, a lot of other people had the same issue but I'm going to ask my teacher on Monday what she recommends I do: go to a lower level class or stay in this level.  I can handle the day to day lessons but I'm just a little concerned about when the quizzes and exams come around.  After class I went to the youth group and once again, there was a great talk on whether man really has free will.  We had a GREAT dinner of sloppy joe, baked beans, and homemade cinnamon rolls.  :)  I don't think I'll have cravings for American food because I'll get my weekly fill from these group meetings!  The people there are so sweet and very outgoing.  There were three new people I hadn't met before.  One from India, another from the Dominican Republic, and another who was French and wanted to practice her English (which was phenomenal!).  I also found out one of the girls there, Katie, was a runner!  So we made plans to run together the next day.

Thankfully I woke up early enough to wear I could have a small breakfast of some baguette pieces with jam and do my devotional before meeting up with Katie. We met at Place Bellecour and then headed to the Rhône River where we ran all the way to this huge park in the middle of the city! We did a lap around the park (which I know will be absolutely beautiful once spring comes around) and then parted ways, after planning to make this a routine once a week together. I think the run was about 3-4 miles in total. It felt really good; it definitely helps when you have an accountability partner haha. Then I got ready and met up with Amelia for lunch and some shopping at Part Dieux.  On our walk, we found an adorable traditional cuisine restaurant where we had the plat du jour and dessert for 14 euros. The main meal was roasted chicken in a special sauce with vegetables. For dessert I had rice pudding with raspberry--it was amazing. What I like about eating here is that the portions are the perfect size to make you feel content but not like you're going to keel over. And food is an art. Everything is about presentation. Even the water jugs they bring on the table are so pretty! They typically come in a glass wine bottle--just for tap water! We spent a couple hours shopping at Part Dieux to get some things for her. I got a cardigan sweater and knitted hat for 13 euros. This mall is huge as far as French malls go and it had +250 stores with a cinema and a grocery store! I bought some raspberry tea :) We made our way back after we'd bought a few things and after coming home, I started watching a French gameshow. It's essentially "taboo" between two teams but you can only say one word at a time. So the person with the word says one hint and then the guesser has to make a guess and so on. The winner became a finalist for the 50,000 euros. Then, for dinner we had salad and a homemade bread with olive and sausage bits in it. Then fruit and yogurt. Very good, as always. Now, I'm watching the 8th "Champs Elysées" Music Show with the most popular French singers. :)

Lunch :)

Dessert (after I already had a few scoops)

Hotel Dieux (a VERY old hospital that is currently under construction, I can't wait to see the inside after its renovations)

Happy Valentine's Day

Day Thirteen

Woke up, worked out, devotional, and then met up with Amelia for lunch.  We went to Brioche Dorée, kind of like a "boulangerie chain" (bakery).  Got a fresh sandwich, dessert, and drink for 8 euros.  Then I had class with my second professor, Dominique (go by first names here).  She was very sweet but the first part of class was lagging in enthusiasm.  We were given a paragraph by E. Zola in French and it was pretty dense, describing a pressing boutique way back in the day.  There was a lot of vocabulary I didn't understand and when she explained the words, I couldn't understand the French she was using to explain the definition!  I was a little overwhelmed and the comprehension questions were difficult as well.  That got me pretty frazzled, so we'll see if I even stay in this group next week.  I know next Tuesday our professors are going to meet and evaluate if we were placed in the right group level.  I'm in group 12 which corresponds to level B1/B1+.  However, I'm pretty sure I'm the lowest in my class just because everyone else seems to have the ability to flow when they speak French and I have to think a lot before I say anything.  After our break we discussed the different levels of formality in French starting from the most elegant (reserved mostly for literary French), formal, familiar, slang (spoken French), and vulgar.  It was pretty interesting.  There's slang to where some words are inversed in French.  For example, when referring to a bisou (kiss), one would say a zoubi.  Or for the métro, one would say the tromé.  Haha, I had never heard of this before!  Also, spoken French is really hard to follow!!  The French literally start speaking in ungrammatically (sp??) correct French when it comes to day-to-day conversation.  For example, instead of saying "Je ne sais pas" (I don't know), one says "Chu-ai pas".  They blend everything together to the point where it's unrecognizable sometimes!  Ou lala! 

After class I went to a crêperie (crepe restaurant) with Amelia and it was pretty good. Although I know next time, I'm ordering nutella instead of dark chocolate. But, you can never go wrong with chocolate! Tonight the student association for the French language immersion program set up a French movie night. It was called "Hollywood" and was a hilarious comedy of a French voice-over actress who comes to Hollywood to get the actress she voices over to remain a TV actress. Because if she quits, the French woman no longer has a job. You could definitely tell it was a foreign film because the American actors weren't the greatest and the humor was a little different, but it was still a fun time. I saw some of my Japanese friends from the scavenger hunt yesterday, so it was nice to see them! After that, went to dinner at a really great restaurant in Vieux Lyon called Le François Villon. It was really tiny and cozy and we thought we'd need a reservation but we didn't because there was more room than we'd assumed--in the stone basement! It was a really great setting and for 16 euros I got a great meal. Had my first glass of wine here, a nice glass of white wine! Had saucisson brioché fort the first course and for the second course, I don't even know what it was called! But it had sausage, potatoes, mushrooms, and cheese in a cream sauce that was really amazing and cooked in a stone pan. I also had a chocolate cake with fruit. Great way to end the day!

Lunch!  The raspberry tart was delicious!

Crêpe and cider!

A gorgeous rainy night with the basilique in the background from a bridge view!

Dave, the other cadet with me here on semester abroad

The cute restaurant!

 

Urban Land Navigation

Day Twelve

So I thought the cultural event today started at 1000 but actually it was set for 1315.  So, the morning opened up and I decided to watch a movie.  My excuse for the excessive amount that I watch (and will watch this semester) is that everything is in French with French subtitles!  Another method of learning :)  I watched Happily Ever After, it was cute.  I did a little walking around when I stopped by the school early and happened to walk upon another beautiful church!  What gets me though is how sad it is to see so many beautiful, large churches but to see them so empty.  :/ 

Anyway, the movie was long enough to keep me busy until 1315 where I met everyone to go on a "monument scavenger hunt" to further discover Lyon.  Putting my land nav skills to the test, granted we had a map and all.  They tried to put people with others of varying experience with French and I was in a group of four.  Two girls were Japanese, two were American.  We spoke mostly French and some English to complain on how freezing it was.  My competitive nature kicked in but we also had questions we had to answer, some of them impossible without actually asking a local.  It was freezing outside and part of me wanted to just say good day and be done with it, but we kept going.  I had seen most of the places on the course from my own exploration so that was helpful in leading some of the way.  It took us almost an hour and we actually finished first!  We didn't answer 3 questions becuase we weren't able to find the answer but we still ended up getting the prize!  (and were able to warm up with cookies and snacks)  We mingled with each other and that was really cool.  Most people reverted back to their native languages but French would come in just as easily too.  Made some friends and exchanged numbers, always a plus.  It just blows my mind that in a group there was a Mexican, Americans, and Japanese girls all speaking French with each other.  We planned to meet up for dinner sometime and I can't wait!  Today was a very good day (despite the weather).  Now I'm warming up with tea and about to start another movie, this time an authentic French film.  Tomorrow is my 3rd day of class and I'll be with a new teacher.  One teacher takes us Monday & Tuesday, the other on Thursday & Friday.  Very excited!!



Beautiful church

 

Pretty large as well and you can see how the street signs are on the actual buildings at each corner

My dream house would have a cobblestone neighborhood!

"If you're not first, you're last!"  Haha just kidding.  But we actually did get 1st place and here's our prize!

Stereotypes & Traditions

Day Eleven

It looked drabby today so I stayed in and did an Insanity workout, devotional, and made my own lunch.  Nutella, jam, and banana sandwich :)  I'm becoming French, though, since I followed up with bread, cheese, and yogurt!  Then I went a little eary to the school so I could get some paperwork from Dave.  Since we're in the intensive French immersion program, we have four hours of instruction on French language on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.  On Wednesday, we have a cultural class where we have the opportunity to choose and put in our preferences.  I put mine in and we'll see what I get!  That starts next week.  Then I met up with my classmates and we started class!  Today we started off with a dessin (a cartoon) of a French caricature.  I included a picture and it literally had every "typical" thing one would associate with the French.  We identified them, described them, and explained why they seemed significant in groups. 

Everyone is so friendly in class, I love it!  I can totally get used to this.  We then watched a cartoon video of the practice of (faire un bisou), where the French kiss each other on the cheeks as a greeting.  And really, unless you're family, they just do cheek-to-cheek.  It was hilarious because it explained where is commonplace to do it, the number of times that is normal, etc.  We had to fill out answers as the video went on and it spurred on a conversation about our first reactions to it.  For my professor, she said it is normal for kissing on the cheek as a greeting and it's bizarre to give a hug as a greeting.  Haha, I told her the opposite for the US.  After discussing our stereotypes for France, we had to write a short poem on one of the items in the cartoon and make it into a drawing of the item.  Of course, I automatically chose the frog (la grenouille) because with all the spirit posters I've done for my company back at WP, I know how to do a decent sketch.  :)  My classmates asked me to help them draw a snail and mouse (for cheese) once they saw my artistic abilities (ha...).  We also did some oral/written comprehension with a workbook for a little bit.  I loved class today.  Man, if all I could do was study French--I'd be a happy girl.  It's nice to not have to worry about things I could care less about, like IT305/EN302/etc, etc.  :)

After class I asked my teacher about the family vacation next week.  I told her I live with a host family and I was invited to spend next week with them skiing in the Alps and she said no problem, that's fine.  Am I DREAMING?!  When I explained it to my host family, they said it's normal because I'm here to learn French and so the teachers understand there's no better way to learn French than to spend time with your host family.  Now I'm worried about the skiing part.  I can count the times I've gone skiing on one hand and the duration in hours on one hand as well, lol.  That's a worry for another day, though. 

Also, tonight was a success at dinner!  I was able to explain everything that happened today.  We had the typical salad, bread, yogurt, and fruit.  For the main dish, it was Greek cuisine.  I can't remember what it's called.  But if I understood correctly, it was like a casserole of beef, eggplant, tomato, and other vegetables.  It was really good and I actually got too much on my second round, but of course I finished my plate.  That's one thing, the family always cleans off their plates (as in, uses bread to literally finish all the sauce from the plate).  I've done so as well.  Also, for each course, they wait for everyone to finish.  I'm a slow eater, so it's made for some awkward moments haha.  But they're nice and I'm not always the last one to finish.  I definitely appreciate having home cooked meals and being able to really indulge on traditional French cuisine!

The cartoon, some notes, and my frog poem!

First day of school!

Day Ten

Today was a lot more productive in the morning because I finally rolled out and went on a run!  Alongside the river there's a pretty large sidewalk for bikers/runners to use and it probably goes on forever.  I probably ran 2-3 miles, realizing that I would rather run WP hills than run along a river in an urban city.  I miss the change of terrain and the distraction of nature (mountains of trees, animals, etc) when I'm running.  So, it'll be a challenge to motivate myself but don't worry, during my time here I'm going to be spending a week doing training with the French military--so I'll stay in shape!  It is difficult, though, to do the Insanity workouts in an apartment when there's a lot of jumping movements, haha.  (I am conscious of the people living below me so I don't jump).  So, I did that and then came back and got ready for school which was easy because I already had my outfit picked out ;)  As a cadet, this moment was very sacred because I was able to experience something so normal but so unique--a first day outfit that wasn't a uniform!!  (picture to follow)  I got in a good devotional and then met up with my friend Amelia for lunch before we both headed to our afternoon class. 

My class has around 25 people in it, which I haven't seen since high school. The most you can have in a class at WP is 18! I'm the only American in my class. Everyone else is from China, South Korea, Colombia, Taiwan, and Saudi Arabia. The most interesting thing is that there's a man who is 56 learning French! I find it very admirable to see someone of his age still so eager to be a student and try something new like a language in an abroad program! My teacher is hilarious and she seems to really want the class to be an environment where people feel comfortable to talk. She is strict and I can't imagine people skipping class, being late, or texting. But that's not a problem for me. I'm so excited. I've been waiting so long for school to start and to only focus on French is AMAZING! At WP, all I wanted to do was just focus on preparing for semester abroad but that wasn't even slightly possible because of all the demands that come with 21 credit hours, etc, etc. Now, that is the case and I'm so happy. We started off with a sheet of various ice breaker questions and we had to go around and ask different classmates their responses and write down their name, age, and nationality. After, we went through and each person would stand up and the other students would basically throw out things they learned about that person. It was really fun. Everyone was super nice and enthusiastic. Also, it gave our teacher the opportunity to take note of who the introverts/extroverts are in class. I was a bit timid but after stuttering a little in French, I managed to participate a lot to avoid classifying myself as an introvert. They all got excited when I said I was from NY, haha. Later on, someone from class came to me and showed me his jacket that had a NY Yankees symbol on it but unfortunately I couldn't share much since he wanted to talk about baseball but I have no idea about any of it! Overall, class was a great success! I hope everyday is just as fun :)

The game!  Can't beat these seats for 12 euros!

Me & Dave cheering on Lyon!

First day outfit photo :)

Allez Lyon!

Day Nine

This morning I woke up and got ready to check out the Sunday market right outside my apartment and along the river.  It went on forever!  The types of products sold were repeated with multiple different vendors but that way, things were pretty cheap!  Essentially the local farmers' market with fresh produce, meats, cheese, bread, flowers, seafood, etc. etc.!  There were some samples too.  I tried a sample of cheese and wish I had known ahead of time that it was either sheep or goat (both don't agree with my taste buds).  I kept walking and tried to find a trash bag but to no avail.  So, I just tried to quickly swallow the cheese and I almost gagged, lol.  Bleghhhh!  Everything that I've eaten in France has been good except for that selective type of cheese.  Note to self: be wary of free, unknown cheese.  The flowers were so pretty and so bright!  I bought 14 roses for 6 euros!  I'm going to try and hide them and give them to my host mom on Valentine's Day...and if they look like they won't make it, maybe tomorrow lol.  I keep forgetting to give them their housewarming gift (a WP embroidered blanket), so that'll go nicely together.  I also bought some macaroons!  I've never had them but I remember reading about them in the play The Dollhouse in 11th grade English class!  Haha.  The wife was always eating macaroons.  I chose the 4 euros special and was hoping to get a good sample, but I was only able to have four.  That's okay though, I guess that's cheap for French bakery specialties.  I bought chocolate, pralines, vanilla, and caramel.  They're extremely sweet, almost too much to handle haha.  I'm torn between pralines and caramel as my favorite flavor.

I'm about to head out to the international church and then afterwards, Dave and I are going to see a football (soccer) game between Lyon and Lille!  I'll put pictures of that up probably tomorrow.  It's going to be a late night and since tomorrow is my first day of class, I'm going to head straight to bed!



View from the outside, it got really crowded in there!

The bakery vendor where I got my treats

Yum yum! 

They sold rotisserie chicken for 8 euros!!  It smelled so incredible!

Il y avais beaucoup du fromage!  [There was so much cheese!!]

Here are the roses and macaroons that I bought!

J'adore cette vie

Day Eight

I've been meaning to update the blog but I try to do it at the end of the day and then at that point, I'm too tired or I forget.  So a quick recap of the past few days.  On Thursday I did some more exploring looking for museums.  All the national museums in France are free to students, which is amazing!  Apparently, before this was the case--university students never visited museums because they were too expensive so the government decided to make them free.  I visited le Musée des Beaux Arts, the second largest art museum in France after le Louvre in Paris.  Everything was so beautiful.  There were ancient Greek and Roman sculptures, Egyptian artifacts, Renaissance paintings, etc etc!  There was so much to see and I did my best to read the French informational captions.  The museum is located at Place des Terreaux, another large historical square.  There's a beautiful monument and on the other side is the City Hall, from what I gather.  Here's a picture:

The Museum (the building was a huge square with a large open courtyard in the middle)

Place des Terreaux

Eglise St-Nizier (was on my walk to the arts museum)

 

On Friday I had a meeting at school and boy, was it really inefficient.  It was essentially an informational meeting filled with admin and things we can do at the school.  Like our placement exam, everything was explained in French, Chinese, English, Spanish, and Japanese.  It took forever!  We could've just had a powerpoint or pamphlets and we would've been set!  Everyone was really bored and a lot of people actually left early, which was rude on their part but still.  Then they dismissed us and outside the auditorium, there were tables of snacks and sign-ups for travel excursions through the program.  There's a trip to Florence, Italy for 200 euros for 4 days all-inclusive!  And one to Paris for a weekend for 90 euros!  I'll probably go on all of their trips becuase they're such amazing deals!  I decided not to sign up for them just yet, I still have time to plan out all the logistics.  But during the meeting, they failed to tell us where our schedules would be posted with the classes we're in.  So, Dave and I went down to the English speaker and we heard the information from someone already asking the same question . We turned around to see 5 other Americans who were just as confused, haha.  We ended up finding our schedules and lo and behold!  I have classes everyday...starting at 1330.  Life is too good.  Classes should be about 4 hours long.  I really need to get some discipline though to make sure I get a morning routine of a devotional, working out, cooking, getting ready, and reading or something productive. 

 

During all of this, we met a girl named Amelia who's an American and we all hung out the rest of the day.  We went to find a place for lunch and ate at The Hippo, lol.  It was like typical steakhouse food and I got a fixed menu deal for 18 euros I got a main meal (le plat principal), a dessert, and a drink.   From the options I had, I decided on a steak with fries, crème brûlée, and a fanta.  I've tried the dessert before but have never really liked it.  I figured, might as well try the dish at its birthplace!  It was super good and I had a large portion.  Not the cheapest thing around but that's pretty much the normal.  The thing about France is that taxes and tip are included--which is nice.  We then looked around shops trying to kill time before we watched a movie, Happiness Therapy with Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence.  I thought it was a really weird movie.  It got better at the end but I wouldn't see it again.  Afterwards, we parted ways and I made my way to the international church's young adult Bible study.  I got off at the right metro stations and then realized I had no way of finding the address.  Thankfully, I walked right into a girl from the church!  It was such a great time!  We had salad, spaghetti, bread&cheese, and homemade oatmeal &chocolate cookies!  We had a great study on relationships and marriage and then just hung out afterwards. 

 

Dessert :)

Today I looked up a site for skiing on the Alps that Dave recommend to me.  It's 38 euros for a day all-inclusive (with travel)!  That's pretty legit.  But I talked with my host family and they're going on a week vacation to ski in the Alps that they invited me to as well!  I would just have to pay for my ski lift tickets but that's it--they even have clothes for me to borrow!  I'll only be able to go for a few days since I still have school but I'm looking forward to it!  I'd like to go again though sometime with friends, so the site is still a good resource.  I had lunch with the family and Hermine, one of the daughters who I finally got to meet.  For the l'entrée (appetizer) I had half an avocado with mayonaise, a main meal of baked bread with a sausage in it (really good!), bread & cheese, and fruit.  It was very fulfilling!  Then I looked online at the Lyon Opera's shows this season and the game schedule of the local football team, Olympique Lyonnais.  I went to meet up with Dave to buy some groceries, toothpaste, and try to find a sports store for cold weather gear.  I bought some French cookies (I am SUPER cheap when it comes to buying anything with my own money, so I got the cheapest versions of whatever I was looking at).  Haha but it's nice to finally eat cookies!  My host family is very healthy so the only thing I have to snack on is fruit and yogurt (which isn't bad at all, but sometimes you just have a sweet tooth craving!).  It was snowing AGAIN!  Three days in a row, and I was told it hardly snows here.  After freezing outside, I came back and made some tea and started working on those cookies!  :)