Later that week Chelsea and I were invited to Lisa’s for another amazing dinner – yes Alycia this time I have photos! It started out again with casual appetizers and pastis (which is an anise-flavoured liquor with about 45% alcohol – it’s drank with water), followed by amazing salad and a yummy dressing, then the main course, a pie and the cheese. I’ve included a photo of the cheese platter! It’s amazing.
Our evenings with Seb, Dennis, Lisa and Ben are ALWAYS super fun, with good conversation, amazing food and just a classy feel. Ben is from England and is working in Lyon as well (him and Lisa are together) amongst us we speak a mix of mostly French with various English words popping in here and there. Sebastian is fluent in English and will be doing a masters presentation in English soon which Chelsea will be assisting him with.
Something else that I’ve started in France here in addition to my running, biking and climbing are some exercise classes. I was at residence one day and in my natural competitive behaviour I started some wall sit competitions and then continued teaching some girls how to properly do push-ups, bridges and sit-ups. In addition one of the biggest complaints of the exchange students is how our school doesn’t have a gym. A couple girls approached me and asked if I’d be interested in starting a workout class. So we now have a solid group of girls who work out 3 times a week (lead by yours truly) It’s had quite the success and has future expansion plans such as yoga (led by Heather from the states), some intense dance workout and there’s been talk of learning Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” – which I have yet to see but I hear is quite the feat and she only did it in one take (in high stilettos). We’ve coined the program “Fit in France”.
Chelsea and I took a quick day trip down to St. Etienne to visit one of her friends – another Lisa - from London which was super fun – but super cold. We saw some interesting art; as art always seems to fall into that category as it can never be defined as really good or really bad. However we end up at an exhibit with new inventions slash modern art which was REALLY cool. We managed to make it back into Lyon to visit a happening (French) party with Sebastion, Dennis and Lisa (Chelsea’s old roommates).
I’ve included a couple photos here – one for Natalie – Chelsea actually took the photo because she’s also a science-bio-water girl, but I’ve included it for you! It’s an aquarium floating garden – if I remember correctly it’s also a naturally water filtration system using the plant and fish! The other photo I’ve included is one for Keegan and my dad it’s a plane that they’ve designed that runs off solar power and hydrogen http://www.lisa-airplanes.com/fr/ for more details. SO COOL! The remaining photo is our own artistic addition to an already existing exhibition!
Hello again! Just to let you all know I’m still having an amazing time in France here – but I’m sure you could have guessed that. I’m beginning to get more familiar with the city and its vibe, as well as school is starting to maybe prove for a little work. Let me talk about my favourite things about the city – besides the fact that there are boulongeries, patisseries and cafes on every corner, and besides that the wine and cheese are cheap, and besides the fact that I have a beautiful, huge climbing gym 10 minutes away from me.
My first favourite thing is the transportation system – they have buses, trams, metros and trains and it’s easy to use – although not super cheap (1.60euro) – but amazingly efficient, cleverly designed and comfy. Although due to my cheap nature and my desire to explore all the little streets I rarely use it. However the BEST thing about the transit system here is their bike program. I’m sure many of you know about this (and many of you probably know it exists in Montreal all as well). There are locations everywhere and you just pick up a bike when you need it and drop it off when you don’t! Depending on what kind of membership you have it’s usually the first half an hour is free, and then the following hour is 75 cents and then 1.25 euros – which is nothing! However the catch is you need to have a bank account in order to get a card – alas it’ s not plausible for me… although I might be able to get one through a friend –I’m working on it!
One of my favourite people here so far is Florian, who I met through the climbing gym who has been awesome in inviting me out and has been a great climbing partner. He’s currently studying engineering at a school in Lyon and lives with his sister and 2 other roommates. The fact that he climbs much better than me is great and gives me lots of opportunities to practice French and leading.
Florian’s lent me his sisters’ bike until she needs it back (I’ve had it for almost 2 weeks now). :D I really am lucky. It’s a great bike – it even has front wheel suspension! Every time I use it I get to trudge it up 4 flights of stairs which I’m thrilled to do because it’s so awesome to enjoy life on a bike. I find it’s a perfect pace for this life. I’ve gone on lots of little tours around the city, down the cobbled streets, alongside the crazy European drivers (agh small cars make so much more sense!), and to and from the climbing gym; which is really good because I go often in the evening and it’s just located on skirts of a sketchier part of town so with a bike I feel much more safe.
One of my other favourite people here is Esther – an amazing girl from Spain who the instant we met it was obvious we were going to be good, fast friends. (I believe the 2nd phrase out of her mouth was “…when I slept on the beach…”). We already have had a couple adventures such as walking (in our fast paced manor) to check out a chocolatarie on the other side of town (as suggested by Patricia Salat – ps. AMAZING! Thanks ), double biking to the climbing gym, and swapping identical (I swear!) stories (in French) during (an English) class. Her determination to only speak French is awesome and something that I haven’t found in any of the other exchange students.
Wow! How time flies! I think I’ll have to accept the fact that this blog will always be a little behind! So let me do a little recap… photos will have to wait as my internet connection is shaky! sorry!
My Weekend – le fin de Janvier
Lisa – Chelsea’s (old) roommate who is Canadian doing a year abroad in Lyon for Interpool – had her birthday and invited us along! It was at her (and at that time Chelsea’s) place. The room was full of interpool people (how cool is that?) and most (if not all of them) spoke at least 2 languages. One woman, who’s an independent journalist spoke 3 and read 5. I’m still in awe. There were people from Greece, England, Canada, Spain, France, and Morrocco all enjoying (yes you guessed it) cheese, wine and to-die-for appetizers (mum – I’ve got some new recipes for you!) The evening was fabulous and we (Claudia, Linda, Chelsea and myself) thoroughly enjoyed mingling with the guests munching on chocolates, cheeses, and other various tasty things.
Saturday Chelsea moved in – for details please refer to my prior blog on “A New Roomie.” Saturday night, instead of going out and getting wasted Chelsea and I went for a run through the windy roads while big fat snowflakes covered Lyon. Although Charlotte and Chloe thought we were a little weird we had a great time!
We got up early Sunday morning because I wanted to check out this HUGE market of antiques (lyon is THE place for antiques –my mother informed…) so I had done some looking on the net and found this one huge market which had 400 stalls on Sunday and was open at 8 am so I sent out the word to my friends (which I was presently surprised when they actually were able to meet us at 8am) to traverse our way to this market.
On our way we passed one of the many river side morning markets buying various veggies, fruits and fresh bread for munching on. We met up with our other Canadian Interpool friend Lisa and continued to way-out in the Lyonaise suburbs, only to find out that the bus that I figured we could catch (as we got closer to our destination, the maps got more detailed and I had to keep adding transportation – like we can’t just walk over there anymore) and so we found the bus that would go there (but it came in 45 minutes) so we found another bus that we could catch and it was PACKED with people and a couple stops in everyone poured out and across the street there was this huge market so we decided well why not? Let’s go check it out. And it was a BRILLIANT market, with lots and lots of cool things first there was the food (for super cheap), veggies, fruits, meat, juices, tarts, deep fried goodness, crepes, etc. Further in there were cheap clothes, things from India (spices, henna, incense), but the whole market had a very high Arab presence which was cool in itself! Even further in there were random small storage containers that opened up and spilled it’s contents out on the walk ways – anything from old televisions, to fridges, to beds, to old bikes anything and everything! It was great!
Being a group of 6 we ended up splitting up and I wandered off alone more than happy to get lost browsing the stalls. One stall in particular caught my eye first with it’s bikes and then with the jacket of the old man running it which read in big, bold, red letters CANADA on the back. I had been looking for a bike to own in Lyon although these bikes were probably a little too old, however I started chatting with the man, he asked me if I was looking for a bike, I said maybe but these look pretty old non? Which he replied – just like any good bargainer – a little old but look this is a good brand! I quickly asked him if he was from Canada and was thrilled to learn that yes he was from Montreal! We had a good little chat and Ussef (spelling? He’s of Arabian decent) happily told me that he’s here every Sunday so come back and visit! Which I quickly confirmed that indeed I would be back!
After returning home Chelsea and I our arms full of all our treasures found at the market we had a superb lunch with Charlotte and Chloe (who were recovering after a properly spent young adult Saturday night). I then was invited to go biking with my new friend Florian (who is my new climbing partner and is a SUPER cool guy) (his sister lent me her bike) to le Parc de la tete d’or. Let me translate – The Park the Gold Head. Now wait. Before you laugh think of what our parks, streets, and other various locations are named… Whoop-up drive? Nose Hill? Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump? Yeah, see not so weird after all is it? Ok but this park is a little better because it has a free zoo inside it, and a huge lake, and in the middle of the lake is an island which you can access by an underground tunnel (so much cooler than a bridge), a conservatory, a botanical garden, a little train that does a tour, bike race track (with curvy walls on the end), tons of paths, entrances with huge beautiful gates, and is surrounded by huge beautiful old buildings. And something even better than that? It may be only a couple of degrees outside but EVERYONE is out enjoying the sunshine. There are scooters, rollerblades, strollers, families, bikers, runners, football players, teenagers literally everyone and their dog out. It was packed – and it’s not even warm out! Plus rumor has it in the centre of the park there's a gold head...
That’s another thing I find with France (and probably other European cultures) the idea that their private places (ie their home and car) are small and practical and their public places (parcs, city centers etc) are large, practical for frequent use and many visitors, and they get properly used! Additionally having their cities and society set up like this inadvertently encourages people to get outside to use and enjoy these public spaces. I never want to be in a car here because everyone is out on the road, using the public transit – that is where life is happening! There’s always people out and about whither it’s beside the river, at the grocery store, at the local park, the bar etc etc.
As oppose to our country (Calgary specifically not so much cities like Vancouver and Montreal that I’ve visited) we find that people have large private places and small public spaces and if they’re not small they aren’t used that often. Consequently we find that we now have a more apathetic nation (for example lower poll attendance – this example I totally stole from my Italian friend Alessandra) because once you go home to your big, grand, warm house with lots of things to do – why would you ever want to go out again?
