First Days in Lyon

I finally have some pictures!!! And I'm also going to add some pics to that last entry about Paris, so check it out. I've actually been buying internet at the résidence, since we've all been frantically searching websites for apartments, so I had some time to upload pictures :) Enjoy!

So our voyage à Paris was unfortunately pretty short lived, as we had to leave on Sunday for Lyon. We had to be at our résidence by 5:30 for orientation and dinner, so we bought tickets for the TGV (the high-speed train, which gets to Lyon in approximately 2 hours) for Sunday at noon. After a quick brunch at the only place open on a Sunday, a cute little bakery where we bought pain au chocolat, which is basically a chocolate croissant, we got a taxi to take us and our massive amount of luggage to Gare de Lyon, the train station in Paris. We got there, and failed miserably at trying to retrieve our tickets from a machine because it didn’t accept American bank cards. At this point, it was like 11:30 and our train left at 11:55, so time was running out. We finally realized that we could just get in line and do it in person, so once we did that we had less than 10 minutes before the train left! So we ran to our train’s track and tried to find car #8…to no avail. I didn’t find out until later how to identify which car was which, so as soon as there was some kind of announcement, we assumed that it meant the train was about to leave, and jumped in the closest car. I went to the end of the car to see if we could move from car to car, and there was a wall at the end, so I got nervous and asked someone which car we were in. #6, they said. So I stupidly suggested that we get out and run to car #8…we jump out of the train and run toward what we thought was car #8, and boom. The doors to the train closed.

There we were, 5 hours before our program starts, and we missed our train! We were inside the doors and because I second guessed myself, we missed it! Fortunately, a very nice French woman helped us change our tickets, and she told us that you can get in the train on any car, as long as you move to your right seats during the ride. Wish we had known that before, huh? Well, the story gets even better...We wait about 45 minutes for the next train, and while I’m punching our ticket, Ora says that she is going to go ahead and find our car. I look up 30 seconds later after I punch our ticket, and she’s gone. I look around for a minute, and decide that she probably just headed toward our car (#18 this time) so I start walking toward car #18. I get there, find our seats, and Ora isn’t there. A nice man helped me load our huge luggage, and I sat down, assuming Ora would find me. She never did. It wasn't until after we arrived in Lyon at Part Dieu (the train station), after I called our study center director and told her what happened, and decided to catch a taxi, that I finally spotted Ora outside the station. So all in all, there were some bumps, but we had finally made it!
As you can see, the train ride was absolutely beautiful. Basically, it was two hours of French countryside. It all reminded me of the village from Beauty and the Beast!

For the first few weeks of the program, we are staying at basically a dorm (not just for students though!) called Centre International de Séjour. It is a really nice new building, but it's in a not so nice part of town. We get free breakfast every morning which consists of bread and cereal, but we have to eat out for the rest of our meals. Needless to say, we've been eating a lot of pizza and sandwiches/paninis. There is a supermarché right next door that we've been buying fruit, cheese, and these amazing chocolate bars (called Kinder Bueno) from and smuggling into the Centre, because we aren't allowed to have food in our rooms. We ride the bus to our meetings at the Study Center (where we have learned about classes, opened our bank accounts, and learned about apartment hunting), which is at the Université, which is right on the Rhône river, then walk across the river to Bellecour, which is like the center of town.

Here is one of the buildings that makes up our university. I absolutely love all the architecture here - everything is so old and beautiful! All the buildings are like 3 times as old as America itself! And especially in California, our universities look so modern...It's pretty neat to walk into that building every day.

Last but not least, I'll leave you (my internet runs out in 15 minutes, and I'm going to add a few pictures from Paris to that last entry!) with a picture of Lyon that I took from one of the highest points in the city on our walking tour yesterday.

Bonne journée for those of you in America, and bonne soirée for those of you who, like me, are ready for bed! Wish me luck in my apartment search!