France lost.
And that is pretty much all I remember about last night.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Around the world around the wirr-uld...
It has been a very multicultural past few days.
For those of you who don't know, my host sister Julia is in school for theater production. She doesn't act and never has, but she's part of a theater group and goes to a special school just for people who want to work in theater. She essentially does all the public relations and organizational background work for various productions that her theater group puts on. WELL, Julia's group had been working with a theater group from Burkina Faso, Africa on producing a play together for a while and this week they came here to do it! Wednesday evening, my whole family went to see it. It was a very interesting experience. I couldn't understand most of what was going on because everyone (French and Africans alike) spoke incredibly fast, and the Africans had an accent that was hard for me to comprehend. But it seemed to be mostly about French politics as related to genocide. And there was a lot of cool African dancing included. I enjoyed it.
Thursday night, Molly, Amanda and I met up with my friend Zé from my translation class. Zé is one of the most interesting people I have ever met. He is British, (here on exchange from England) but he was born in Cameroon as a result of his white mother being bored of her life in England, packing up her shit and moving to Africa, and falling in love with a polygamous African man. Here, in Lyon, he drums for two samba groups, is part of the kayaking club, and takes salsa dance lessons.
Zé proposed that we go to a salsa club, and we did. It was a lot of fun! Zé taught me some salsa moves. Then we met these two French girls named Laurie and Clemente. They are AWESOME. After hanging out at the salsa club for a while, they took us to a club called 'Road 66.' It was a cool place; there were people dancing, but also lots of places to just sit and drink and relax, which La Marquise (the boat) lacks. They also had pool tables! After dancing the night away (they played generic American hip hop and rap, as well as some electronic stuff), we played a game of pool: Me and Zé vs. Laurie and her boyfriend. Zé and I lost, but it was a lot of fun.
Last night (Friday), we all went to Rachel (a girl in our program)'s apartment to celebrate Clair (another girl in the program)'s birthday. I was actually incredibly exhausted for some reason, but went anyway. I'm very glad I did. We played charades. Then we played a game that involved picking up a cardboard cereal box off the floor without using any part of your arms and allowing ONLY your feet to touch the floor. You get three tries, and if you fail on all three, you're eliminated. After everyone takes their turn, the box gets cut in half, until eventually (if you make it that far) there's just a flat piece of cardboard on the ground. It is A LOT harder than it sounds. There ended up being three of us left at the very end (including yours truly) and we all succeeded in picking up the flat piece of cardboard so then we were all timed to determine the winner. I am happy to say that I won! I picked it up in 4.6 seconds. After that, we danced to 80s techno and Justin Timberlake. For some reason there was a really cool and really attractive girl from Greece there named Demitra, and after bringing sexy back, Demitra taught us all some traditional Greek dances. It felt really great to be be hanging out with friends, low key, playing games and dancing around, which is something I really miss from the States. It felt like home.
Tonight is the France/England semi-final Rugby World Cup game! This time it's being shown on the big screen in Place Bellecour. If France wins, it is about to be the fucking craziest night ever. It will mean that France will be in championship game. And if England wins, we'll just go party with all the Brits here that we know and love. It's a win win. I'm excited. I'll let you know how it goes.
Gros bisous à tous!
Meg
For those of you who don't know, my host sister Julia is in school for theater production. She doesn't act and never has, but she's part of a theater group and goes to a special school just for people who want to work in theater. She essentially does all the public relations and organizational background work for various productions that her theater group puts on. WELL, Julia's group had been working with a theater group from Burkina Faso, Africa on producing a play together for a while and this week they came here to do it! Wednesday evening, my whole family went to see it. It was a very interesting experience. I couldn't understand most of what was going on because everyone (French and Africans alike) spoke incredibly fast, and the Africans had an accent that was hard for me to comprehend. But it seemed to be mostly about French politics as related to genocide. And there was a lot of cool African dancing included. I enjoyed it.
Thursday night, Molly, Amanda and I met up with my friend Zé from my translation class. Zé is one of the most interesting people I have ever met. He is British, (here on exchange from England) but he was born in Cameroon as a result of his white mother being bored of her life in England, packing up her shit and moving to Africa, and falling in love with a polygamous African man. Here, in Lyon, he drums for two samba groups, is part of the kayaking club, and takes salsa dance lessons.
Zé proposed that we go to a salsa club, and we did. It was a lot of fun! Zé taught me some salsa moves. Then we met these two French girls named Laurie and Clemente. They are AWESOME. After hanging out at the salsa club for a while, they took us to a club called 'Road 66.' It was a cool place; there were people dancing, but also lots of places to just sit and drink and relax, which La Marquise (the boat) lacks. They also had pool tables! After dancing the night away (they played generic American hip hop and rap, as well as some electronic stuff), we played a game of pool: Me and Zé vs. Laurie and her boyfriend. Zé and I lost, but it was a lot of fun.
Last night (Friday), we all went to Rachel (a girl in our program)'s apartment to celebrate Clair (another girl in the program)'s birthday. I was actually incredibly exhausted for some reason, but went anyway. I'm very glad I did. We played charades. Then we played a game that involved picking up a cardboard cereal box off the floor without using any part of your arms and allowing ONLY your feet to touch the floor. You get three tries, and if you fail on all three, you're eliminated. After everyone takes their turn, the box gets cut in half, until eventually (if you make it that far) there's just a flat piece of cardboard on the ground. It is A LOT harder than it sounds. There ended up being three of us left at the very end (including yours truly) and we all succeeded in picking up the flat piece of cardboard so then we were all timed to determine the winner. I am happy to say that I won! I picked it up in 4.6 seconds. After that, we danced to 80s techno and Justin Timberlake. For some reason there was a really cool and really attractive girl from Greece there named Demitra, and after bringing sexy back, Demitra taught us all some traditional Greek dances. It felt really great to be be hanging out with friends, low key, playing games and dancing around, which is something I really miss from the States. It felt like home.
Tonight is the France/England semi-final Rugby World Cup game! This time it's being shown on the big screen in Place Bellecour. If France wins, it is about to be the fucking craziest night ever. It will mean that France will be in championship game. And if England wins, we'll just go party with all the Brits here that we know and love. It's a win win. I'm excited. I'll let you know how it goes.
Gros bisous à tous!
Meg
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Yaaaay Braden.
Alright here's the deal. I'm still a week behind in posting what's been going on in my life and I can't deal with it anymore. I am going to briefly summarize the epic extended weekend that was Braden's visit to Lyon. And then I'm going to be writing in the present. Here we go:
He got in on Wednesday. That night we had some drinks at James Joyce (Irish pub we frequent in Vieux Lyon, shows all the rugby games) and just chilled out.
Thursday we decided to show him the boat (Marquise, bien sûr) because we always go there and wanted to show him what was up. It ended up being awesome because it wasn't very crowded at all. Side note: on our walk to the boat we came across a lot of fun obstacles (bridges, children's play things (what are those things called, they're like wooden or plastic animals propped up on a giant spring and kids can sit on them and move around awkwardly? Well anyway, those), and staircases and had our way and photoshoots with them. Ruby, Braden and I all went back to my house at 6AM and we all slept in my bed (what else is new).
Friday, we woke up at 3PM. When nighttime rolled around we ended up in a park type area (not really a park, more like a small dirt square with benches and a statue) in the Hôtel de Ville (but near Croix Rousse-where I will be living in three weeks) area. Not at all shady (like Bellecour often is at night) and actually a really fun place to hang out. Lots of other (French) people our age were hanging out and drinking and having a merry old time. We met a handful of French people and it was a great. We ultimately met up with Flo and Nicolas and tried going to a few bars/pubs (we wanted to do something other than the boat) but nothing was that much fun so we ended up going back to their place, listening to Air, talking, kicking it. Nicolas is one of the most hilarious people I've ever met. He loves speaking in English, so he speaks to me in English and I speak to him in French. He thinks the word "awesome" is the best word in the entire world and practices saying it every 40 seconds (he has a lot of trouble pronouncing it correctly, aka "ah-some." He tends to say "aow-som.") He also, for reasons unbeknownst to me (and as far as I can tell anyone else) really likes saying "Legend... wait for it... dary." As in saying something is legendary. I had no idea what he was saying for a good 10 minutes, but I finally got it. Ruby, Braden and I taught him how to say and use "that's what's up."
Saturday we made an effort to wake up slightly earlier (1:00), despite getting home around 6AM again. Saturday was aow-som because France and New Zealand were to play each other in one of the Rugby World Cup semi-final games that night. Because this was such a huge game (a semi-final, we're in France, and the All Blacks are one of the best rugby teams in the world) it was broadcast on a giant screen in Place Terraux (the square adjacent to Hôtel de Ville). We went, and it was so much fun. I was actually cheering (loudly) for the All Blacks because they're basically the only rugby team I'm legitimately familiar with, and I was representing Kate's people... needless to say I was in the minority. I got a lot of stares. The thing is though, France won (they actually game up from behind in the last quarter (time wise) of the game) 20-18 and the city went NUTS. It was amazing to be out in the city with thousands of Frenchies celebrating their rugby team winning big.
After that we went to a place called Ninkasi (there are multiple Ninkasis in Lyon but each is actually pretty different, but in general it's), a brewery with a Northwest steez, then walked around looking for somewhere to eat and, I'm not gonna get into it, but we had the best possible experience anyone could ever have at... McDonalds.
Braden (sadly) left the next day. But it was a completely wonderful weekend, one that I won't soon forget.
Something I've become aware of from writing this post: apparently I love using parentheses.
Enormous amounts of love and French kisses to you and you and you.
<3 Mego
He got in on Wednesday. That night we had some drinks at James Joyce (Irish pub we frequent in Vieux Lyon, shows all the rugby games) and just chilled out.
Thursday we decided to show him the boat (Marquise, bien sûr) because we always go there and wanted to show him what was up. It ended up being awesome because it wasn't very crowded at all. Side note: on our walk to the boat we came across a lot of fun obstacles (bridges, children's play things (what are those things called, they're like wooden or plastic animals propped up on a giant spring and kids can sit on them and move around awkwardly? Well anyway, those), and staircases and had our way and photoshoots with them. Ruby, Braden and I all went back to my house at 6AM and we all slept in my bed (what else is new).
Friday, we woke up at 3PM. When nighttime rolled around we ended up in a park type area (not really a park, more like a small dirt square with benches and a statue) in the Hôtel de Ville (but near Croix Rousse-where I will be living in three weeks) area. Not at all shady (like Bellecour often is at night) and actually a really fun place to hang out. Lots of other (French) people our age were hanging out and drinking and having a merry old time. We met a handful of French people and it was a great. We ultimately met up with Flo and Nicolas and tried going to a few bars/pubs (we wanted to do something other than the boat) but nothing was that much fun so we ended up going back to their place, listening to Air, talking, kicking it. Nicolas is one of the most hilarious people I've ever met. He loves speaking in English, so he speaks to me in English and I speak to him in French. He thinks the word "awesome" is the best word in the entire world and practices saying it every 40 seconds (he has a lot of trouble pronouncing it correctly, aka "ah-some." He tends to say "aow-som.") He also, for reasons unbeknownst to me (and as far as I can tell anyone else) really likes saying "Legend... wait for it... dary." As in saying something is legendary. I had no idea what he was saying for a good 10 minutes, but I finally got it. Ruby, Braden and I taught him how to say and use "that's what's up."
Saturday we made an effort to wake up slightly earlier (1:00), despite getting home around 6AM again. Saturday was aow-som because France and New Zealand were to play each other in one of the Rugby World Cup semi-final games that night. Because this was such a huge game (a semi-final, we're in France, and the All Blacks are one of the best rugby teams in the world) it was broadcast on a giant screen in Place Terraux (the square adjacent to Hôtel de Ville). We went, and it was so much fun. I was actually cheering (loudly) for the All Blacks because they're basically the only rugby team I'm legitimately familiar with, and I was representing Kate's people... needless to say I was in the minority. I got a lot of stares. The thing is though, France won (they actually game up from behind in the last quarter (time wise) of the game) 20-18 and the city went NUTS. It was amazing to be out in the city with thousands of Frenchies celebrating their rugby team winning big.
After that we went to a place called Ninkasi (there are multiple Ninkasis in Lyon but each is actually pretty different, but in general it's), a brewery with a Northwest steez, then walked around looking for somewhere to eat and, I'm not gonna get into it, but we had the best possible experience anyone could ever have at... McDonalds.
Braden (sadly) left the next day. But it was a completely wonderful weekend, one that I won't soon forget.
Something I've become aware of from writing this post: apparently I love using parentheses.
Enormous amounts of love and French kisses to you and you and you.
<3 Mego
Monday, October 8, 2007
WE ARE THE PEOPLE!
Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007 was a very magical day:
Tara (Burrows, for those of you who know her) and I had our cognitive development class together from 2:00-4:00pm. As we were walking from the Fac. Catho (where that class is) to a pub to have a drink and do our homework for our Culture class (that we also have together), we walked past Place Bellecour (I may have already explained this, but Bellecour is the center of Lyon. I go there basically every day. All the buses and metros run to and from it, and both of the schools I'm taking classes at are right near it. Place (the equivalent to our word 'square' when referring to a place) Bellecour is the square right smack in the middle of Bellecour. There is a giant statue of Louis XIV on a horse. When meeting someone, we often say 'meet you at the horse's ass.' The point is, it's THE meeting place in Lyon and it's in the center of town). Surrounding the horse were numerous United Kingdom flags and men (some shirtless, others wearing blue shirts) drinking, chanting, singing, yelling, and did I mention drinking? loudly and belligerently. As crazy as Lyon is, this is not a normal occurrence.
Tara and I had both noticed this earlier in the day but at this point we decided to find out what was going on. We approached the men, with caution. I finally figured out (it wasn't easy) that they were speaking English. I asked one of them who they were and what was up.
"WHHR DAY GLOSGOFUHTBOL TIM!"
...
"What?"
After a couple more repeats it was discovered that they were all (seriously about 250 of them) supporters of the Glasgow Rangers football (soccer) team (they were to play Olympique Lyonnais-Lyon's soccer team-that night). First of all, Glasgow is the biggest city in Scotland, and I have been there, and I (completely honestly, swear to god) could not understand a single word the people from there said when they spoke. It is truly undecipherable. It's English... but it might as well be Swahili. I've got a friend here named Sarah, from Glasgow, and she says that she sometimes can't even understand her own father.
For some reason, though, I could make out most of what these guys were saying, after a few minutes. Maybe it's the fact that I'm surrounded by so many different languages and accents on a daily basis that my ears have been trained to hear different sounds. Anyway, about 10 different men immediately bombarded Tara and me with drinks.
"Com haf a beer!"
"Com haf a vudkuh!"
"Com haf suma this, I donnow wat it tis!"
Overwhelmed and bemused, we finally decided to side with the least crazy looking person we saw (these men were incredibly nice, but not in the least bit attractive. Most were fat and shirtless, some were puking, some had very little teeth... etc). This decent looking, clothed guy was named Thomas, and he turned out to be completely amazing.
A few vodka/orange juices later, w
e might as well have been Scottish, born and raised. We were singing, we were yelling, we were kicking around soccer balls. By this time, Molly, Ruby, Lydia and Libby had joined us. Everyone was telling us to come to the game with them.
"We don't have tickets!"
"I'm buying you tickets!" exclaimed Thomas.
After spending a couple hours with Thomas, here's what we found out:
He owns, OWNS, 4 clubs, 3 bars, and 3 tanning salons in Glasgow.
He is LOADED.
He is genuinely incredibly nice.
Here's me, Tara, and Thomas in a giant hug of love. It's too bad you can't see the rest of the
crazy Scotsmen.
Long story short, he ended up buying me, Tara, Lydia and Molly tickets to this game. And we ended up going. And it was incredible. We were, of course, sitting on the Glasgow side, and I think we had the best time possible. Scottish football fans are crazy and hilarious. They kept singing all these Rangers cheer songs, and one of them went like this:
"WE ARE THE PEOPLE! clap clap clap clap clap!" repeated over and over again. They insisted on buying us as much beer as we wanted and they are more passionate about football than anyone else I've ever met.
The Rangers ended up BEATING Lyon 3-0, which, of course, was a huge deal. I ended up leaving the game with a Glasgow Rangers scarf (Thomas took it from one of his friends, gave it to me, and told me to keep it), and a newfound appreciation for European football and all things Scottish.
Molly took a lot of pictures that should be up on Facebook relatively soon, but here's one from the game that Tara took of Molly and me (looking shitfaced).
Molly ended up getting to keep that flag. It's now hanging on the wall in her room.
GO RANGERS.
Love to you all!
Meg
Tara (Burrows, for those of you who know her) and I had our cognitive development class together from 2:00-4:00pm. As we were walking from the Fac. Catho (where that class is) to a pub to have a drink and do our homework for our Culture class (that we also have together), we walked past Place Bellecour (I may have already explained this, but Bellecour is the center of Lyon. I go there basically every day. All the buses and metros run to and from it, and both of the schools I'm taking classes at are right near it. Place (the equivalent to our word 'square' when referring to a place) Bellecour is the square right smack in the middle of Bellecour. There is a giant statue of Louis XIV on a horse. When meeting someone, we often say 'meet you at the horse's ass.' The point is, it's THE meeting place in Lyon and it's in the center of town). Surrounding the horse were numerous United Kingdom flags and men (some shirtless, others wearing blue shirts) drinking, chanting, singing, yelling, and did I mention drinking? loudly and belligerently. As crazy as Lyon is, this is not a normal occurrence.
Tara and I had both noticed this earlier in the day but at this point we decided to find out what was going on. We approached the men, with caution. I finally figured out (it wasn't easy) that they were speaking English. I asked one of them who they were and what was up.
"WHHR DAY GLOSGOFUHTBOL TIM!"
...
"What?"
After a couple more repeats it was discovered that they were all (seriously about 250 of them) supporters of the Glasgow Rangers football (soccer) team (they were to play Olympique Lyonnais-Lyon's soccer team-that night). First of all, Glasgow is the biggest city in Scotland, and I have been there, and I (completely honestly, swear to god) could not understand a single word the people from there said when they spoke. It is truly undecipherable. It's English... but it might as well be Swahili. I've got a friend here named Sarah, from Glasgow, and she says that she sometimes can't even understand her own father.
For some reason, though, I could make out most of what these guys were saying, after a few minutes. Maybe it's the fact that I'm surrounded by so many different languages and accents on a daily basis that my ears have been trained to hear different sounds. Anyway, about 10 different men immediately bombarded Tara and me with drinks.
"Com haf a beer!"
"Com haf a vudkuh!"
"Com haf suma this, I donnow wat it tis!"
Overwhelmed and bemused, we finally decided to side with the least crazy looking person we saw (these men were incredibly nice, but not in the least bit attractive. Most were fat and shirtless, some were puking, some had very little teeth... etc). This decent looking, clothed guy was named Thomas, and he turned out to be completely amazing.
A few vodka/orange juices later, w
e might as well have been Scottish, born and raised. We were singing, we were yelling, we were kicking around soccer balls. By this time, Molly, Ruby, Lydia and Libby had joined us. Everyone was telling us to come to the game with them."We don't have tickets!"
"I'm buying you tickets!" exclaimed Thomas.
After spending a couple hours with Thomas, here's what we found out:
He owns, OWNS, 4 clubs, 3 bars, and 3 tanning salons in Glasgow.
He is LOADED.
He is genuinely incredibly nice.
Here's me, Tara, and Thomas in a giant hug of love. It's too bad you can't see the rest of the
crazy Scotsmen.Long story short, he ended up buying me, Tara, Lydia and Molly tickets to this game. And we ended up going. And it was incredible. We were, of course, sitting on the Glasgow side, and I think we had the best time possible. Scottish football fans are crazy and hilarious. They kept singing all these Rangers cheer songs, and one of them went like this:
"WE ARE THE PEOPLE! clap clap clap clap clap!" repeated over and over again. They insisted on buying us as much beer as we wanted and they are more passionate about football than anyone else I've ever met.
The Rangers ended up BEATING Lyon 3-0, which, of course, was a huge deal. I ended up leaving the game with a Glasgow Rangers scarf (Thomas took it from one of his friends, gave it to me, and told me to keep it), and a newfound appreciation for European football and all things Scottish.
Molly took a lot of pictures that should be up on Facebook relatively soon, but here's one from the game that Tara took of Molly and me (looking shitfaced).
Molly ended up getting to keep that flag. It's now hanging on the wall in her room.GO RANGERS.
Love to you all!
Meg
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Yes my French mother loves rap music.
It's true. She does. And here's the story of how I found out...
Last Saturday, my family invited me to go with them to Annecy (a cute, small French town on the French/Swiss border. I'd actually gone to Annecy a couple times while I lived in Switzerland, and I was quite happy to be given an opportunity to go back).
Didier's parents live in Annecy, so we stayed with them. They are adorable, and after about 2 hours the mother told me that I has magnificent eyes and that I was a wonderful person. She also made many delicious, stereotypically French meals. I love her.
We got in just in time for dinner Saturday night, so we ended up just relaxing at the house, watching the rugby game (I believe it was Ireland/Italy but I can't be sure...) It was really nice to just spend a nice, relaxing evening with my French family. When I'm in town there always seems to be a kind of pressure to go out at night, which I love doing, but still... sometimes it's nice to just take it easy.
On Sunday, after eating a number of croissants and pain au chocolats, we (the grandparents not included) went to explore the town. Even though I had been there before, it was a while ago and I ended up seeing much more of the town this time around. First we walked along the lake. Even though the weather was rather dismal and dreary, it was still really pretty.
Here's my family (on the left) walking along the lake. There were also tons of boats, paddle and otherwise (as seen on the right), on the lake. It was a lovely walk. Didier and I talked about various laws in the US, mainly the drinking age and driving age, and how we think it's all set up much sillier in the US than in Europe. Elliot and I talked about Blink 182. Agnes and I talked about which places I like going to best when I go out at night, and Julia and I talked about theater in Lyon.
After walking around the lake, we went into town. The downtown area is neat because in the middle of town there's a river with houses literally IN it. Basically someone can walk out of their house and be in the water. I don't know, it looked really cool. There's also a small castle-ish looking building placed in the middle of the river, which I liked a lot:
It's common to have street markets in many places in France on Sundays, but apparently they're especially common in Annecy, and not just on Sundays. We walked around one for a while, tasting different cheeses and honeys, and trying on different hats and scarves.
Eventually we left town and took a 30 minute or so drive to a mountain top. In the car, Elliot was choosing the music. (Side note: on the way to Annecy we listened to a ton of: Ben Harper, Radiohead, AND that song Save Tonight by Eagle Eye Cherry, all played from Didier's ipod. I was very impressed). Elliot likes a lot of good music. He also likes some very loud rock that Agnes wasn't feeling. She asked him to change the music, and she then says, "Put some rap on!" An enormous smile spread across my face as I asked, "Agnes, you like rap??"
"Oh yes yes I love it, I think it's so funny! And I like the beats!" she exclaimed.
Elliot proceeded to play some French rap and Agnes proceeded to sing along, knowing almost every word. Here is a picture of her getting down.
She is fucking amazing. Also, at one point I noticed that she was wearing Diesel jeans. Man, I have such a hip French mom.
Anyway, after a very amusing car ride we made it to the mountain top. We went for a 2 hour hike where we were surrounded by views of the Alps and the French countryside. We also came across a lot of cows, which made me think of (and miss) my parents. Not the same as Swiss cows, of course, but pretty damn close. Here's a couple pictures of the view, but they don't really do it justice.
All in all, it was a very nice trip. I'm so happy I get to spend time with them like this, it really makes me feel like a part of the family. If only I could have hopped over to Switzerland to see everyone there! Oh well, next time.
Last Saturday, my family invited me to go with them to Annecy (a cute, small French town on the French/Swiss border. I'd actually gone to Annecy a couple times while I lived in Switzerland, and I was quite happy to be given an opportunity to go back).
Didier's parents live in Annecy, so we stayed with them. They are adorable, and after about 2 hours the mother told me that I has magnificent eyes and that I was a wonderful person. She also made many delicious, stereotypically French meals. I love her.
We got in just in time for dinner Saturday night, so we ended up just relaxing at the house, watching the rugby game (I believe it was Ireland/Italy but I can't be sure...) It was really nice to just spend a nice, relaxing evening with my French family. When I'm in town there always seems to be a kind of pressure to go out at night, which I love doing, but still... sometimes it's nice to just take it easy.
On Sunday, after eating a number of croissants and pain au chocolats, we (the grandparents not included) went to explore the town. Even though I had been there before, it was a while ago and I ended up seeing much more of the town this time around. First we walked along the lake. Even though the weather was rather dismal and dreary, it was still really pretty.
Here's my family (on the left) walking along the lake. There were also tons of boats, paddle and otherwise (as seen on the right), on the lake. It was a lovely walk. Didier and I talked about various laws in the US, mainly the drinking age and driving age, and how we think it's all set up much sillier in the US than in Europe. Elliot and I talked about Blink 182. Agnes and I talked about which places I like going to best when I go out at night, and Julia and I talked about theater in Lyon.
After walking around the lake, we went into town. The downtown area is neat because in the middle of town there's a river with houses literally IN it. Basically someone can walk out of their house and be in the water. I don't know, it looked really cool. There's also a small castle-ish looking building placed in the middle of the river, which I liked a lot:
It's common to have street markets in many places in France on Sundays, but apparently they're especially common in Annecy, and not just on Sundays. We walked around one for a while, tasting different cheeses and honeys, and trying on different hats and scarves.Eventually we left town and took a 30 minute or so drive to a mountain top. In the car, Elliot was choosing the music. (Side note: on the way to Annecy we listened to a ton of: Ben Harper, Radiohead, AND that song Save Tonight by Eagle Eye Cherry, all played from Didier's ipod. I was very impressed). Elliot likes a lot of good music. He also likes some very loud rock that Agnes wasn't feeling. She asked him to change the music, and she then says, "Put some rap on!" An enormous smile spread across my face as I asked, "Agnes, you like rap??"
"Oh yes yes I love it, I think it's so funny! And I like the beats!" she exclaimed.
Elliot proceeded to play some French rap and Agnes proceeded to sing along, knowing almost every word. Here is a picture of her getting down.
She is fucking amazing. Also, at one point I noticed that she was wearing Diesel jeans. Man, I have such a hip French mom.
Anyway, after a very amusing car ride we made it to the mountain top. We went for a 2 hour hike where we were surrounded by views of the Alps and the French countryside. We also came across a lot of cows, which made me think of (and miss) my parents. Not the same as Swiss cows, of course, but pretty damn close. Here's a couple pictures of the view, but they don't really do it justice.
All in all, it was a very nice trip. I'm so happy I get to spend time with them like this, it really makes me feel like a part of the family. If only I could have hopped over to Switzerland to see everyone there! Oh well, next time.
J'aime bien travailler, mais ça dépend des jours...
So, I'm more than a week behind in terms of posting everything I wanted to get on this thing. I guess that's what happens when one of your best friends comes to visit...
I wanted to write about what happened last Friday (so, 9 days ago). I've already talked to some of you about this, so bear with me.
So last Friday, we went out to the boat (which I finally found out the name of: Marquise) as usual. I ended up meeting up with Flo there and we danced and danced and danced, as usual. But then we (Molly, Ruby, and myself) ended up going back to Flo's apartment with him and his roommates. They actually have a really cool place near Hotel de Ville (a pretty central and very cool part of Lyon. Hotel de Ville means "city hall," and this part of town is where the Lyon City Hall is. Every town has a city hall but Lyon's is balling out of control. It's an incredibly beautiful, huge building with much historical art and architecture. There was actually a welcome reception for American exchange students in Hotel de Ville the night before, which was cool because we got to go inside; normally it is absolutely not open to the public). Anyway, we went over to their apartment.
The best part about this night was that everything we ended up doing that night at the apartment made me feel like I was kicking it at Thom's in Eugene, which I miss so much, and it made me really happy. Here's why it was like that:
We did what we all do best at Thom's, if you know what I mean.
We played video games, namely one that was very similar to Zelda.
We listened to countless songs that Thom has introduced me to, and that we listen to a lot at his house, and we did this without me even saying anything! For those of you who are familiar with the music, these guys played:
Hella Justice
Hella Daft Punk
Lucky Boy-DJ Mehdi
3 Wishes-Cuizinier
Ross Ross Ross-SebastiAn
Yo Relatives-DJ Assault
Travailler-TTC
It was amazing. The coolest part was that we were listening and singing along to all these French songs, that I listen to with Thom all the time, but this time I was listening to them with actual French people, who knew all the French lyrics and all that. I loved it.
But I will say this: in terms of the spleefs, Thom's still the best. :)
I wanted to write about what happened last Friday (so, 9 days ago). I've already talked to some of you about this, so bear with me.
So last Friday, we went out to the boat (which I finally found out the name of: Marquise) as usual. I ended up meeting up with Flo there and we danced and danced and danced, as usual. But then we (Molly, Ruby, and myself) ended up going back to Flo's apartment with him and his roommates. They actually have a really cool place near Hotel de Ville (a pretty central and very cool part of Lyon. Hotel de Ville means "city hall," and this part of town is where the Lyon City Hall is. Every town has a city hall but Lyon's is balling out of control. It's an incredibly beautiful, huge building with much historical art and architecture. There was actually a welcome reception for American exchange students in Hotel de Ville the night before, which was cool because we got to go inside; normally it is absolutely not open to the public). Anyway, we went over to their apartment.
The best part about this night was that everything we ended up doing that night at the apartment made me feel like I was kicking it at Thom's in Eugene, which I miss so much, and it made me really happy. Here's why it was like that:
We did what we all do best at Thom's, if you know what I mean.
We played video games, namely one that was very similar to Zelda.
We listened to countless songs that Thom has introduced me to, and that we listen to a lot at his house, and we did this without me even saying anything! For those of you who are familiar with the music, these guys played:
Hella Justice
Hella Daft Punk
Lucky Boy-DJ Mehdi
3 Wishes-Cuizinier
Ross Ross Ross-SebastiAn
Yo Relatives-DJ Assault
Travailler-TTC
It was amazing. The coolest part was that we were listening and singing along to all these French songs, that I listen to with Thom all the time, but this time I was listening to them with actual French people, who knew all the French lyrics and all that. I loved it.
But I will say this: in terms of the spleefs, Thom's still the best. :)
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
12 Euros? 12 EUROS??
So, I said in the last post that I love not having classes on Fridays, implying that I can go out and dance my pants off Thursday nights. Which is true, but last week Wednesday night was actually the big one.
During the day on Wednesday, my friend Nathan told me about how there was an Erasmus party that night and I should go. For those of you who haven't seen the movie L'Auberge Espangol, or just don't know, Erasmus is the program that basically everyone besides Americans uses for studying abroad. So, basically a big party for exchange students. A couple weeks before I'd gone with Nathan and Patrick to these UVA kids' apartment where tons of exchange students were kicking it and it was fun, and by Erasmus party I thought that's what Nathan was talking about this time around. Anyway, I convinced Molly and Amanda to come out with me and off we went...
I was eventually told that the party was actually at a night club. Hmm... okay... so Molly and Amanda and I took the metro where it was at. While we were waiting for the metro I heard these two British girls speaking English and I asked them if they were going to the Erasmus party. They said yes and asked if we had tickets. I said, "...tickets?" (This Erasmus party was proving to be 100% different from what I thought it was going to be). After talking to them more, I found out that yes, you needed a ticket to get in and it costs 12 euros.
...Fuck. Well, none of us wanted to pay 12 euros to get in anywhere, but at this point we were already on the metro on the way there, so I said we might as well just go check it out and see what's up.
We were waiting at the metro stop for Nathan and Patrick when a group of about 12 Erasmus students showed up. They were mostly Hungarian, Swedish, and German. We talked to them for a while and the leader of a pack (a boisterous Hungarian) kept trying to convince us to come with them to the party.
Me: We're waiting for some friends...
Hungarian: NO! Come vith us!
Me: Also, we don't have tickets...
Hungarian: NO! Vee vill pay for you!
Ho ho ho! Well, I figured we could not let this opportunity slip to get in for free. Also, I tried calling both Nathan and Pat multiple times, Nathan was completely wasted and I didn't even know whether or not they was en route, and I figured they'd call me if need be. So off we went!
Walking to the club was very strange. There were all these what seemed to be bouncers standing in the street on the way there that kept telling us to be quiet. When we finally got into the place, it was chaos. First of all, I don't think the Hungarian ended up paying for us because we were never handed any tickets. Second of all, they MADE you check your coat (and purse if you had one) which cost 2 euros. Well, somehow, I got past the guy who was checking tickets, but Molly and Amanda did not. He kept asking to see their tickets. In French, I did my absolute best to bullshit, saying how our friends payed for us and were already downstairs with the tickets, he let me in and they're with me, etc etc. Nothing was working. I desperately tried to figure out plan B. I ran downstairs into the club and found the Hungarian. I asked if I could borrow his and another guy's tickets to get my friends in. This was a bit of a to do, because once you get in you can get a free drink with your ticket... but I promised I'd give them back, and they conceded, so I ran back upstairs with the tickets and gave them to Molly and Amanda. The ticket checker saw me do this I guess, and said "No no no, that's gonna work..." I said, "Those are their tickets, our friends had them downstairs, please this has gotten so complicated...!" I was about to start pretending to cry when the guy smiled and said, "Alright alright, go on, have a good night." Success!
So, once we were all downstairs things started getting less stressful and more fun. The club was pretty cool. Big dance floor (often they're pretty small), big bar, biggish area with couches and stuff where you can just kick it, lots of cool things happening with lights and smoke machines, etc. Patrick and Nathan showed up and it was good to see them because I hadn't in about a week and a half. As more and more people got there the dance party realllly started. They played a lot of good music (Daft Punk and Justice of course, but also some Soulwax and Klaxons which made me very happy), and we danced and danced and danced. Also, I convinced the Hungarian to buy Molly and I a drink. After a while I decided to buy a drink myself. Now, usually when we got out we buy booze in the grocery store and drink before we go out because drinks at the club are just atrociously expensive. But, we hadn't done that tonight and I decided that I'd be willing to part with the 8 euros for a vodka/orange juice this one time. I didn't pay to get in, after all! After waiting about 20 minutes for the bartender to come my way, I gave him a 20, and with my drink got back 8 euros in return. TWELVE EUROS. MY DRINK COST 12 EUROS. That's the last time I buy a drink at Club Loft. Ugh.
Anyway, it was a very fun night all around. I met a bunch of new people, and danced the night away (as usual).
Much love to all! More to come soon.
During the day on Wednesday, my friend Nathan told me about how there was an Erasmus party that night and I should go. For those of you who haven't seen the movie L'Auberge Espangol, or just don't know, Erasmus is the program that basically everyone besides Americans uses for studying abroad. So, basically a big party for exchange students. A couple weeks before I'd gone with Nathan and Patrick to these UVA kids' apartment where tons of exchange students were kicking it and it was fun, and by Erasmus party I thought that's what Nathan was talking about this time around. Anyway, I convinced Molly and Amanda to come out with me and off we went...
I was eventually told that the party was actually at a night club. Hmm... okay... so Molly and Amanda and I took the metro where it was at. While we were waiting for the metro I heard these two British girls speaking English and I asked them if they were going to the Erasmus party. They said yes and asked if we had tickets. I said, "...tickets?" (This Erasmus party was proving to be 100% different from what I thought it was going to be). After talking to them more, I found out that yes, you needed a ticket to get in and it costs 12 euros.
...Fuck. Well, none of us wanted to pay 12 euros to get in anywhere, but at this point we were already on the metro on the way there, so I said we might as well just go check it out and see what's up.
We were waiting at the metro stop for Nathan and Patrick when a group of about 12 Erasmus students showed up. They were mostly Hungarian, Swedish, and German. We talked to them for a while and the leader of a pack (a boisterous Hungarian) kept trying to convince us to come with them to the party.
Me: We're waiting for some friends...
Hungarian: NO! Come vith us!
Me: Also, we don't have tickets...
Hungarian: NO! Vee vill pay for you!
Ho ho ho! Well, I figured we could not let this opportunity slip to get in for free. Also, I tried calling both Nathan and Pat multiple times, Nathan was completely wasted and I didn't even know whether or not they was en route, and I figured they'd call me if need be. So off we went!
Walking to the club was very strange. There were all these what seemed to be bouncers standing in the street on the way there that kept telling us to be quiet. When we finally got into the place, it was chaos. First of all, I don't think the Hungarian ended up paying for us because we were never handed any tickets. Second of all, they MADE you check your coat (and purse if you had one) which cost 2 euros. Well, somehow, I got past the guy who was checking tickets, but Molly and Amanda did not. He kept asking to see their tickets. In French, I did my absolute best to bullshit, saying how our friends payed for us and were already downstairs with the tickets, he let me in and they're with me, etc etc. Nothing was working. I desperately tried to figure out plan B. I ran downstairs into the club and found the Hungarian. I asked if I could borrow his and another guy's tickets to get my friends in. This was a bit of a to do, because once you get in you can get a free drink with your ticket... but I promised I'd give them back, and they conceded, so I ran back upstairs with the tickets and gave them to Molly and Amanda. The ticket checker saw me do this I guess, and said "No no no, that's gonna work..." I said, "Those are their tickets, our friends had them downstairs, please this has gotten so complicated...!" I was about to start pretending to cry when the guy smiled and said, "Alright alright, go on, have a good night." Success!
So, once we were all downstairs things started getting less stressful and more fun. The club was pretty cool. Big dance floor (often they're pretty small), big bar, biggish area with couches and stuff where you can just kick it, lots of cool things happening with lights and smoke machines, etc. Patrick and Nathan showed up and it was good to see them because I hadn't in about a week and a half. As more and more people got there the dance party realllly started. They played a lot of good music (Daft Punk and Justice of course, but also some Soulwax and Klaxons which made me very happy), and we danced and danced and danced. Also, I convinced the Hungarian to buy Molly and I a drink. After a while I decided to buy a drink myself. Now, usually when we got out we buy booze in the grocery store and drink before we go out because drinks at the club are just atrociously expensive. But, we hadn't done that tonight and I decided that I'd be willing to part with the 8 euros for a vodka/orange juice this one time. I didn't pay to get in, after all! After waiting about 20 minutes for the bartender to come my way, I gave him a 20, and with my drink got back 8 euros in return. TWELVE EUROS. MY DRINK COST 12 EUROS. That's the last time I buy a drink at Club Loft. Ugh.
Anyway, it was a very fun night all around. I met a bunch of new people, and danced the night away (as usual).
Much love to all! More to come soon.
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