Bonjour from Lyon!

Well, this was supposed to have photos, but for some reason it wouldn't post with them. But, you can check them out on facebook. Sorry!

I can't believe I've already been here a week! After a journey which felt surprisingly long for someone who has flown back and forth between Asia and the US a few times in the last year, I arrived directly in Lyon last Friday morning. I went straight to what I was hoping would soon be my apartment, and found that everyone working there was at lunch. So, I sat for an hour in the lobby, waiting, and then threw myself on their mercy. They were so helpful and wonderfully patient with a very tired me who spoke very little French. They sent me to a bank where I would have to open an account and buy home insurance, and then to another building down the street where I could pay my rent in advance. Then, I got to go into my apartment, brush my teeth, and passed out, still in my clothes, for the first time in days. It wasn't until the next night that I got to go out and explore Lyon at all.

Here's a brief introduction to Lyon: It's basically the second largest city in France and is near the alps. On a clear day you can walk to the top of the hill overlooking Lyon and be treated to some views of Mont Blanc in the East. Despite having travelled around France once before, this is my first time in Lyon, and I'm already wondering how it never made it onto my radar before. The city is really beautiful. The older parts are nestled in-between and around two rivers, the Saône on the West and the Rhône on the East. To the West of the Saône is a hill where the Romans settled over two thousand years ago, and you can still find the ruins of the roman amphitheater hidden away on the top of the hill. Also, much more noticeable is the gigantic basilica Fourviere that was built a bit more recently and looms over the city.

The older part of the city, Vieux Lyon, is at the base of this hill, West of the Saône. There you can find a lot of renaissance buildings, a huge Cathedral (St. Jean), and a lot of touristy shops and
restaurants. Maybe it's because I'm used to traveling in Asia, but I'm really impressed with how little English I see written, even in the shops on the touristy Rue St. Jean. If I'm struggling to communicate most people will slip into some English, but for the most part people

are content to speak French with me when I go out. I should also really mention how unbelievably wonderful and helpful everyone here is. Without exception everyone I've spoken to has been really kind and patient with me. One man, who didn't speak any English, tried to direct me to a shop where I could buy an electric adaptor, because he didn't have any in his store. Since I couldn't understand him he literally walked me a block down the street to show me the store he was referring to. People are just really friendly. Another man told me that All French people love Americans. I don't know how true that is, but so far people just seem really excited that I'm here, trying to learn their language and are excited to tell me how to say things like 'thirteen' in French.

So, between the two rivers is a narrow strip of land that I've spent a lot of time wandering about on. There are a few pedestrian streets that are full of street performers, big stores like H&M, and many many ice-cream shops. There are also many smaller winding cobble stone streets where I've seen a plethora of boutiques of every variety. And, of course, all of these streets empty out into beautiful squares with plenty of fountains and cafés where you can rest.

Then, to the East of the Rhône is the more commercial district- sort of the Lyon equivalent of NYC's mid-town, although it's clearly a lot less American, and a lot more European. All of this is within walking distance from where I live, which is about a block to the East of the Rhône. My neighborhood has a lot of tree-lined streets and a ton of halal eateries and south asian clothing and book stores, so I'm basically feeling right at home. On Friday the street was filled with men in Kurthas walking about, although I haven't seen a mosque, or heard the call to prayer.

I've generally just been wandering a lot. My first few days I would just pick something I'd see in the distance- an adorned rooftop a few streets over, or a fountain at the end of a street I was crossing, and just walk towards it. I've been criss-crossing Lyon for a week now, and have gotten a pretty good feel for the different parts of town. I'm still finding new things all the time, but am becoming familiar with the major land-marks and streets. My first few days (and now still, to a certain extent) I've had a lot of errands to put myself on- find a lamp, find a pillow, get an alarm clock, etc. so this has really had me walking a lot- today, for example, Dan and I walked 5 miles without even realizing it.

Dan arrived two days ago, and was immediately on a better sleep schedule than I was. Our apartment is a little studio in a building reserved entirely for students. We live on the bottom floor, and our window looks out on a small road where there's rarely any traffic. We keep the shutter closed a lot because we don't want people looking in, or breaking in when we're away, but with the shutter open we get a good amount of light in our apartment. I tried to buy curtains my second day here, but with my extremely limited French I ended up buying a bed sheet instead (Draps, apparently, doesn't mean drapes...FYI). Ironically, the bed sheet is the perfect size for the window, so it's hanging up, and offering some privacy while still letting some sunlight in.

For those of you who didn't know, I don't really speak any French. When I came here I could probably order a crepe with about 75% confidence that I wasn't going to end up accidentally ordering something else. I'm also pretty much awesome and ordering a bottle of water. Other than that, my French is extremely limited. So I'm here taking French classes for three hours a day. Right now it's pretty basic stuff and is moving a little slow for me, since the basics between french and spanish are pretty similar (tu vs. vous, etc.) What I really want to do is get a better ear for understanding what people are saying to me, and really finally figure out how to pronounce
French! I can pick up just about anything, read it, and get the basic gist of it because it is so similar to Spanish, but I don't know how to pronounce even the most basic words. So, hopefully we're going to really start working on pronunciation in class. I think that my intuition for French vocabulary is pretty good (again, because it's so similar to Spanish), and I could probably get pretty good pretty quickly if I knew at all how to pronounce things. Right now I think that I pronounce things the way that a French character in the Simpsons or something would- some exaggerated caricature of what Americans think that French sounds like. Anyway, fingers crossed that I'll learn some French for real in the next three months!

Well, It seems like this is definitely long enough to suffice! Consider yourself updated!

Missing the USA and everyone a lot, even though France is pretty much awesome.

--- Catie