Adventures in France: 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.