A New Roomie

A New Roomie

As some of you know my reason for choosing Lyon was because my dear friend Chelsea was going there as well. In the summer of 2007 I met Chelsea (from London, Ontario) as I took the train to Trois Pistols a small town in rural Quebec to learn French (with the program J’explore (myexplore.ca for those of you who are interested – amazing, government bursary program!)). She was the first person to talk to me and ended up being my roommate for 5 weeks of the intensive program and quickly became one of my best friends.

For her degree (environmental science, with a French minor) she had the opportunity to do a semester abroad, and for mine I had to, so we agreed way back in 2007 that we should do it together. Well low and behold here we are in Lyon together again!

She is also somewhat the cause of why I didn’t apply for residence and how we were lucky enough to end up with Chloe and Charlotte. And also the cause of an amazing dinner party, birthday party ... and pretty much what I’m saying is everything that was supposed to happen has happened! We had both committed to finding a place together, however looking on the internet from Canada from 2 different locations in Canada is somewhat hard, and close to impossible etc etc. Anyway she (and her boyfriend Warren who came out to help her get settled in) rented a room in a flat for a month that she found through a long story.

First, let me tell you a story which will help you explain why I love this girl so much. (Yes I’ve asked permission to share with you this entire story with the promise that I will never give this website address to her mother). This was one of the first stories that Chelsea shared with me when we met up in Lyon... so her and her mum had gone to get haircuts and upon exiting the salon her mother was aghast and upset with her own hair cut, while Chelsea had received quite a nice haircut and wasn’t bothered at all with hers. They had both received bangs, however the stylist who had done Chelsea’s mothers had been a little too snip-happy and it was very much a fringe (that didn’t even go halfway down her forehead). Chelsea kept insisting that it didn’t look that bad, and her mother (who like anyone gets a little emotional sometimes) said to Chelsea “Your hair does not look like this!” Well what did Chelsea do to prove to her mother that it really wasn’t that bad as she so believed? She went and cut her own bangs to match her mothers...

Hahaha! She is crazy in all the right ways, we are always laughing, learning and are willing to have a little fun I’m so glad I get to run amuck with her in France. (As a footnote, her mother didn’t talk to her for close to three days, I think she (the mum) thought Chelsea was mocking her – which she wasn’t). Anyway we had previously discussed living together and possibly sharing a room as to cut down on costs and save money for traveling (I can hear all your eyes rolling at my penny pinching ways – fyi Chelsea is totally the same person as moi!) and so I suggested her moving in... and now I have a new roomie, cheaper rent, a partner in crime and a running partner. C’est fabulous! We are both committed Frenchies and stumble through the language together making anything we do last 10x longer compared to if it were in English. The four of us are jiving quite well together and I’m currently sitting with the three of them – all enjoying a lazy end to a full weekend. (Which ended with another superb supper).