New Year, New Objectives....

Gosh it's been a long time since I typed up anything here.
Well, before Christmas was fun - there was the 'Fete des Lumieres', a festival of lights to celebrate the conception where everyone puts candles in their windows and everything is generally very pretty. There were illuminations in town, the main buildings had video projections up on them, or 3d projections, there was a candlelit procession, a huge ferris wheel and skating rink in one of the main squares, the metro trains were lit up in different colours for each carriage. That was all very fun. We got all excited about Christmas - Esther and I went to visit Eleanor in Cologne which was fantastic - we went to lots of Christmas markets, had an eventful night of attempting to go out, I grossed everyone out by quite liking sauerkraut and we missed our connection from Paris home, but it was all fantastic and I can't wait til Eleanor comes to visit in Lyon. The Cambridge posse+hangers on also had a splendid Christmas meal, I did the lamb (spectaculour) and there were all the trimmings (3 sprouts each..), although the 'mash' was like glue and the gravy dish cracked, and we had mulled wine, the lot. Afterwards we all slobbed in my room in a drunken stupor watching Love Actually. I took part in my choir's Christmas concert, in a packed-out church. It was really good to perform in a choir before, and apparently we sounded good. I get the CD soon and am interested in hearing it! We sang Dvorak's 'Te Deum', Handels Hallelujah chorus and Franck's 'Panis Angelicus' (which unfortunately got spoiled by one of the violinists being a whole bar behind..
The only slightly pants pre-Christmas thing was the talk I had to give on 17th century French literature. I had no idea what I was doing. I hadn't read enough but somehow managed to type 6 pages of complete rubbish in French - at least twice the length of the longest Cambridge essay I've ever written in English... I had to present it to a class of Masters students, and when I did, I forgot how to breathe, sped up and made no sense whatsoever, prompting tumbleweed when the teacher asked if anyone had any questions for me and a general desire for the ground to swallow me whole.. The teacher did compliment my french though, and gave me a good mark for it, before correcting some of the blindingly obvious mistakes I'd made, like not actually answering the question and stuff. It kind of spoiled the end of term for me, as I was busy staying in working on it instead of enjoying the run-up to Christmas and relaxing, getting presents and stuff - nobody got any cards from me this year and I would like the talk to take at least some of the blame.... hmm..
I left on the 17th and went straight to see Tariq, rushing about to get there early, only to be greeted with 'You're not supposed to be here yet'... men... I was due to be at home for 2 weeks but spent so much time rushing about from one house to another, trying to cram in quality time in equal doses with everyone that I hadn't done anything I wanted to do myself and although we had been together all the time it didnt feel like I'd spent any time with Tariq! So the night before I was due to come home I decided to stay an extra week and I'm really glad I did.
There was a week of classes and exams after I got back and since then I've been on holiday. I'm just spending it doing lots of reading up for my dissertation and trying to be a bit less of a hermit (although that bit isn't really working so far....). I might just up and go away to Annecy on Monday. We're all being really positive at the moment. We all said January would be the start of our year abroad and it seems to be working. We're making more friends, doing dissertation work, being more healthy (everyone's on a diet and we all compare method notes..) and generally trying to do more. I've become the Vice President of the foreign students association and we're hoping to put on an interesting term of events this term, with Chinese new year parties, film nights and the like. I'm becoming really good friends with Camille, who is going to be the Lectrice at New Hall next year which will be great. So, in other words, so far, so good!
x

Oops I did it again..

Right… really not a lot of point me sticking to the same sort of format for this to keep up to date with all I’ve been up to, seeing as it’s been so long, but I’ll give you a whistlestop tour.

My parents came to visit from the 19^th-29^th October, during half term. I made a big lasagne, skipped class, and we got tipsy. They stayed in the visitors’ residence (Palatial-plus v good value, for anyone interested..). I pretty much carried on with my classes, fitting them into what timetable I had. We went into the Old Town, did a couple of tours in Old Lyon and Fourviere, went to the cinema museum, chilled lots, found a nature park to the north of Lyon which is huge and does all sorts of outdoor activities and went cycling and stuff, and tried in vain to discover some of Lyon’s surrounding towns (found a town, but there was nothing there so we turned it into a hunt-the-lunch exercise and then went home), and squabbled lots (nothing changes…). It was nice having them here and showing them MY town, and getting to see places I hadn’t got round to visiting yet, too. They got to see what I get up to here – and even came along to watch my Capoiera class (cue lots of photos of my bum – little brothers are wonderful…). We drove back to the UK all together – I navigated – and, ok, so we took a little longer round Paris than they had on the way here, and yeah, we had to sweat it out in some traffic, but hey I am responsible for giving my brother his first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower and I think that’s pretty damn cool. WE made the train and everything so it was all good. Blimmin long way tho – poor dad! I would have helped out if a) I’d been insured and b) my most recent driving excursion didn’t involve a write-off.. The next morning I squeezed in a trip to the opticians, a visit to chez Tariq to say hello, all before catching a train to Victoria to catch a coach to London, with my rucksack with a weeks clothes, and about 10 bottles of booze in a bag (v v heavy!) I met Eleanor at Cambridge coachstation with her man and they helped me lug said alcohol up to New Hall. That night Eleanor had her 21^st birthday bash in the dome. It was wicked. It was so nice seeing everyone again and hearing them tell us how different it was without us, how we should never have gone and how they didn’t want us to go again. Lots of that evening is a blur but I know it was good because the photos are hilarious and Eleanor keeps apologising to everyone. I left the next morning having not really said goodbye to anyone and barely speaking to others, unfortunately – had a nice breakfast with SarahJane, a friend from school, before getting on yet another coach to go and visit Tariq. Seven hours on a coach with little room when one is slightly hungover was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Tariq and I had a really lovely week – I stayed there til Friday. We managed to get drunk together at last, went to see two plays and a film, I squeezed in a haircut and some shopping, and we went out for a swanky meal on my last night when I was told I was (quote) ‘absolutely stunning’ – which is always nice to hear. (Obviously that’s not the sum total of conversation but you get the idea). Friday night I went out for a meal with parents and grandparents, which was really nice. Nan and Grandad had their first Tapas experience, and the Paella was nearly half as good as the one Tariq and I make, and we all had a really good time. I’m really glad I got to see them and chat and tell them what I’d been up to in person.

Since I got back it’s been the same as before really, although I’ve noticed a slight increase in focus. I keep coming up with things I want to do with my spare time, and have even started working a bit for my dissertation. It’s only slight but I hope it carries on – I’m still not managing my time as well as I’d like and can’t get everything done like I want unless I do. I’ve started having slight problems with one of my flatmates – she tends to throw odd bits of my food away, or else they go missing and I KNOW it’s her – she was here alone over the holiday, and when I came back a big bottle of coke and my vinaigrette had gone and she’d thrown out my parmesan. I’m going to have a word, possibly on the next English day! Flatmate number four has moved in at last – Hoa, a Vietnamese girl who I have introduced myself to but that’s about it so far – she seems to be in and out of her room all the time and I think her boyfriend was here too and might still be. Esther and I found our first Capoiera class for two weeks really hard, and nearly chickened out, I’ve braved the gym for the first time but don’t really like it as it’s all old and strange equipment. I’m in the throws of sorting out my ‘caf’ form, which will give me a rent rebate, which is always nice. I found out in my last 17^th century seminar that I have to lead one of the seminars in early December, about one of my authors for my dissertation, but on a specific topic. That’s quite scary right now. Esther and I have got into making soups – we’ve done carrot, tomato and pasta, and veg so far, and our next one will be Moroccan chickpea – and we’re enjoying using the veritable plethora of foodstuffs that my parents brought me (thanks mum and dad!), including umpteen green thai curry sachets (not, it must be said, as good as yours, Eleanor..), and HOBNOBS. They’re the best bit I think. It’s turning cold here now – apparently it’s possible this will be a white Christmas at home and we’re wondering if it will snow here – at the moment we just have this biting wind. Apparently there is a specific wind that blows through Lyon from the Alps and goes down to the south of France. It only blows in the day time, which this might be as its quiet at night. Esther and I have decided we’re going to Cologne for the first weekend in December to experience the Christmas markets which should be fantastically cool, and we’re getting excited about Christmas and wondering about what presents to buy and stuff. We’ve just been to a housewarming party at Suzana and Gemma’s. It was really nice to chat to French people who genuinely were interested in us and what we had to say and even helped us out if we got stuck – it feels a bit like students at the ENS are all a bit tied up with work to do much else, and we haven’t managed to make friends with many of them yet. I hope we get to meet the people we met tonight again, as they were really nice.
x

One month ALREADY??

Well it doesn’t feel like I’ve actually been up to a lot this week, but I have been here for a month now, which is rather exciting – it doesn’t feel like it at all though, until I actually think about it – the WEI feels like quite a while ago, and the weather has changed enough to indicate I have been here a little longer than a week…

Last Thursday’s Capoiera wasn’t as difficult as the first week, it seemed, this was probably because there were some new faces so they couldn’t do many new things. Afterwards Esther and I watched a video (we’ve made this a ‘thing’ now) and sat in my room relaxing. I have Fridays free so I went with Suzana, a course friend of hers, and Esther to Ikea, just to browse and have a natter. Suzana’s course friend was French but she seemed to initiate conversations in two languages which was a bit tricky to get your head round but we managed. We got back about 8pm and as that was finally the long-awaited fajita night, I got to work, with Esther helping me prep. We had the works – and too much of it – I made guacamole, and we had chicken fajitas, tortilla chips, salsa, salad, Ophelie made a tomato flan to go with it (?) and there was loads left over – even considering there were 6 of us! We (Camille, Ophelie, Esther, Ophelie’s boyfriend Flavien and a friend of theirs and I) sat around nattering in French about films, books, music and food and drinking cider. It was really nice, and luckily they could manage the spice!

On Saturday Esther and I went to the municipal library to get a membership which would entitle us to take out books and DVDs. It wasn’t quite as spectacular as we had thought it might be, though as the video range was much wider than that of DVD’s – not helpful for laptops – and there were very few even of the videos that we hunted for. This was mostly because they’d already been taken out but for some of them they just didn’t have them. At least we’ll be able to get books out there if there are problems getting them out from the library here. After the library we went and had a 2h ‘browse’ in Sephora before we went to Carrefour to get things for that evening. At one point we had to stop and think what Cambridge would say if it saw us, spending two hours in a makeup shop before coming out, discussing the possibility of taking up sewing or knitting, before going to a supermarket for cakemaking ingredients….. That evening we had planned an everyone-brings-a-course dinner with Suzana and Gemma and we were in charge of cheeses and dessert. We bought far too much stuff (including rum, and if you’re going to have coffee after dinner, of course you need Baileys, and Kahlua, and there may be a custody battle over the oven dish at the end of the year..) We got an assortment of smelly cheeses and what we needed for our dessert before heading back to make it. We made Bread and Butter Pudding, but with Brioche and rich rummy chocolate custard… It was so easy to make but looked aammaazing. I suggested, as it looked like nice weather, we could ea outside on my balcony, and we ha hilarious near-death experiences getting it out there. It wouldn’t fit through my room door so we had to take it onto the roof of the block below and climb over fences and all sorts with it. We got it there in the end, slightly scratched but still.. Suzana and Gemma arrived armed with food for their courses – Suzana made starters – bruschetta with tomato and mozzarella and lots of basil, Gemma made main course – spaghetti bolognaise following a passed down and very intricate painstaking recipe, and then we had the cheeses and dessert, and everyone brought a bottle of wine too, and we made it through the lot. It was all really nice and the weather held up enough for us to stay out there til the end, in just dim candlelight, nattering away with music filtering out from my room. The table arrangement is definitely something I’m going to try if Tariq comes here again. Unfortunately we didn’t have time for coffee as Gemma and Suzana had to get the last metro (rats, all that Baileys and Kahlua left over…) so Esther and I just watched a film and saved the chairs when it started to pour about half an hour after they left..

On Sunday I did pretty much nothing all day apart from a bit of reading, maybe some tidying up, and eating with my flatmates. I couldn’t sleep at all that night – I stayed up til at least 1.30 anyway, and when I tried to go to sleep first the coffee stopped me then a mosquito started biting me on the hour, every hour, and each time, the itching would wake me up, drive me insane enough to turn on the light and try to hunt and exterminate it (with hairspray, naturally…..because that’s what you do in the middle of the night… you prance around your room in nightclothes brandishing a bottle of hairspray looking round the room with desperation in your (twitching) eyes..). I never could, and as I kept getting too hot cocooned for protection in my duvet, I’d have to uncover myself and it would just think I was presenting it another course. As a result I woke up late and very tired on Monday, and, bizarrely, found and managed to kill the thing, but – get this – I squished it while it was on the ceiling by jumping up armed with tissue – not while it was lazily chillin’ on the wall or anything – but on the ceiling??

On Monday I had 19th century French at 2-4 which seemed a little clearer as we had a different teacher – the other one had been purely for introductory purposes, and this one actually advised us on what to read.. At 6 we had our first ‘perfecting the French Language’ class which was a bit of a joke – it’s the first time it’s being done and even after 2 hours I don’t really understand what the course will involve or how it will help. The teacher was emphatic in saying it will not be a grammar or pronunciation class, so not too sure what it actually is. Having craved it, that evening was the first salsa class, which I went to, and it was great fun.

Tuesday was French class day – I went to a support class for foreign students – I’ve been put in the top class (go me!) after last week’s test and we went through the test again, addressing grammar points. I think it will be like a gentle revision class – the sort where you’re not sure if it will be helpful but don’t want to miss it, just in case. Later there was another class on how to prepare a French dissertation – which will help me for my English one as most of the principals are the same – and I will have to hand in a translation of my dissertation here anyway so it will help with that too. That evening I finally went to see ‘La Premiere fois que j’ai eu 20 ans (the first time I was 20)’ with Esther and Camille. I enjoyed it lots but yet again the ending was a bit random. I chatted to Camille about it on the way back as she’d read the book it was taken from, although the book is actually called ‘the first time I was 16’ – which seems to change the whole idea. We went and had a tea all together in my flat afterwards.

On Wednesday, because my voucher for opening a bank account had finally arrived, I went and bought a Petit Robert, a monolingual French dictionary at last. Esther and I went to eat in the canteen for the first time – they only have service at lunchtimes as lunch is the most important meal here – and it was bargainous! A full meal (pizza, salad, dessert) AND a bottle of wine for about 4quid! I had an Italian class that evening which was good fun, and we went over the tests from last week – I didn’t do very well, but the good thing was that I understood the mistakes as soon as we went through them – considering the test came after a three-month Italian drought that’s pretty good going, I reckon! Right after Italian I went off to choir. It’s getting better, and there’s a weekend away for the choir that I didn’t want to go on this weekend, so hopefully I’ll notice a big improvement next Wednesday.

Yesterday I had a class on 17th century literature before Capoiera in the evening. It was a bit tougher this week, with fewer people (some people obviously aren’t hardcore enough) and at the end we started doing little battle things, where the whole class stands in a circle and one pair at a time goes into the middle to ‘battle’ which was scary but good fun – and it’s especially cool watching the better people battle it out. We went back and watched a film afterwards. I’m feeling a little sore today and my knee is giving me a bit of jip – all those high kicks I guess. I don’t have anything on today so think I will just try and get some reading done. This is set to be quite a pants weekend – Camille, Ophelie and Esther ALL have their boyfriends here for the weekend, as does Suzana, and Gemma’s gone home for the weekend – so I guess I’ll be all on my tod – but this means I can (hopefully) get a fair bit of work done, and my family is arriving on Monday (yay!) so I can chill before what might be a crazy few days of sightseeing…

Donc, A bientôt!

xx

Italiais

Hi again!

I had an italian test today - random and wierd I know - but I've decided that the italian translation classes were a bit too hard so this arrangement, where I have two hours italian a week plus as long as I want in the language lab, is a perfect solution. The test was a bit laughable, as in I have forgotten SO much italian in the past few months, and Esther and I waited outside the wrong room for about 20 mins before we found where it was (and we still don't know how we were supposed to know it was where it was), but the teacher is really, really nice and I can tell we're going to enjoy it. I did nothing much all day today apart from getting caught in the rain in a tshirt and flip flops (I didnt look out of my window this morning) when I was late on my way to what happened to be a non-existant library tour. As today was Engligh day in the flat I didnt even speak much French.. Right after the Italian class I had choir which was better than last week but I swear I can tell everyones at least a key off target sooner than the director...hmmm. Ah well, at least I'm singing...

Yesterday was Foreign Students French Day. At least, the start of our 'perfectionnement' classes - we had a test - listening and comprehension and a bit of writing - and later an oral class - but the levels are soo mixed that its hard to tell what it will be like until they sort us into groups. However, the test was quite easy and the oral verging on boring - we had to tick boxes on a list of 'french' things for which ones we knew, and each talk about one in turn.. I had dinner with my roomies and watched a bit of bruce almighty with them (in english) before some revision of my own by watching la dolce vita (in italian..)

Monday I had 18th/19th century lit again and was still completely bamboozled.. I went communal shopping with Ophelie to Carrefour and because my PIN had arrived (at last!!!) I got to use those funky card machine thingys at the checkout for the first time! V exciting! I then dashed off to town as suzana, esther, gemma, danny and I were planning to see the avant-premiere of 'La premier fois que j'ai eu 20 ans' (the first time I was 20, a film after a book by an american author) However, it was sold out - and probably had been for a week - we didnt notice that the director and three of the actresses were going to be there to give talks.... so we went to suzana and gemma's local and just had a good natter instead.

Tomorrow is Capoiera again so I'm bracing myself.. Might not be able to lift my arms again for a while to type so you might not hear from me for a while.. wish me luck!
x

This one is ENORMOUS...

Before you start reading this you had better make sure you are sitting comfortably...it's a long one.. It goes from tuesday before last, the 21st, until today. I spent all day typing it up one day and as I went to publish it, I copied it to make sure I had it in case it went wrong whilst publishing, and as I selected it something went wrong and the WHOLE THING disappeared. So think of how painful that must have been as you read, and I hope you enjoy it - theres some good stuff in here..

I spent all of Tuesday by myself and decided, for the first time, just to go for a wander in the city. I’m really glad I did – I had such a nice day just ambling around, and I started off heading for what had been my favourite bit when I visited Lyon in June – the Old City. As I crossed over the bridge and saw the river, it suddenly hit me that this is my HOME. Not just a place I’m visiting, not just somewhere I’m on holiday for a bit. This city is mine for the exploring. And that felt really nice and exciting. I had a look at some of the Bouchons (typical Lyonnais restaurants, but only a few are ‘certified’) ready for the weekend, when Tariq was coming to stay as his birthday treat, and at last had a browse in Sephora (hahahaa El!). I came back for dinner with my housemates, feeling quite contented.

The next day, Esther and I went to Ikea, which was fab. It’s quite a way out in a part of Lyon we’d never seen before, and we nattered all the way there, all the way through, and all the way back. I bought Herbert, my plant, and some dinky lights and art cards to brighten up my room. Then we went off to the cinema with Gemma and Suzana, the two other girls from Cambridge, to see ‘Mensonges et Trahisons’, which was good fun but the ending was too random to be a twist.. this seems to be a common feature! I had to leave straightaway because I was late for the first practise of choir. We’re singing two rather nice latin works – one by Dvorak, and the other by Cherubini. It was an interesting experience all singing in a common language, and I felt quite superior when everyone else got told off for pronouncing the Latin as if it was French, and I pronounced it with ‘t’s’ and ‘m’s’ like we would back home.. it was weird everyone singing in latin and then suddenly hearing the director teach us in French, but also really nice being somehow on the same level as everyone else as we all had to learn something from scratch.

I spent Thursday tidying my room and trying to put up my new lights, only to find that my walls are all different hardnesses. Typically, the one I wanted to put the lights up on was rock hard, and not even a hammer and nails had a chance. Said wall is now peppered with little holes from various attempts… oops! Still not found a way to solve the problem so the lights have been wrapped around shelves for now. As Renuka was leaving the flat the next day, I had suggested a curry all together – we hadn’t eaten all together yet and this was taken for some reason as a genius idea. It went really well and was absolutely delicious, with the bonus of Ophelie and Camille not really being used to Indian food, so while they picked, I gorged….it was so nice to have a curry! Now I want to make Mexican… After dinner I went into town to meet the cam lot at their bar and we went on to a club – they’d found out about a back-to-uni night. Unfortuantely this was a bit of a disaster… We didn’t get the tickets at the bar, thinking there was a chance they were trying to be sneaky – Suzana had read somewhere that Thursday was a free student night – and so had to pay €11 at the club, and on top of that, there was an obligatory cloakroom (apparently this is common) and I had to leave my bag with everything in it there for another €2…. We got a free drink, but it was tiny. To cheer us up, Gemma decided to get a tequila each and had to pay €24 for 4!! The place was really hot, and heaving….with international students.. French students haven’t really picked up on the clubbing thing yet, preferring to go to bars. The music was really random and trancy too, so we left after a couple of hours. We stood outside giggling at the man who was telling us to be quiet as it was a residential area, and this over the bass from the club which you would not have been able to sleep through anyway… There were staff everywhere, we’d even had someone saying ‘hello’ on the way in – we had thought he was just a sleazy man, but then he said it was his job to say hello… we want to go back now just to have him say hello so that we can tell him to shush in case he disturbs the neighbours…. (I guess you had to be there…) Esther and I got lost walking home again – seems to be a recurring theme..

I went to pick Tariq up from the airport on Friday, and had my custom made little sign and everything, only to find that his flight had landed early – apparently it was a ‘wicked’ flight – a really diddy little plane with free food and drink (daft lad didn’t take advantage – he thought I would have made a nice big late lunch..) We got back to the flat where Ophelie had made something with pork which I had while he finished off the curry from the night before. We spent the rest of the evening wandering round – I wanted him too see the bits of Lyon that had made me go ‘wow’ on Tuesday, and I think he understood. We decided to eat out and had a pizza (sorry Tariq but it IS funny…) and then just wandered before catching the last-ish metro home.

On Saturday we had intended to do a tour of the silk-workers Lyon but couldn’t quite manage a 10am start. So we ambled into town for the tour of Old Lyon and some of its ‘Traboules’ – passageways that go through and under residences – some for quite a distance – at 2.30. The tour only cost us €5 because we’re students and was in English, and 1h45mins long – so very good value! We started off in St Johns Cathedral, which took several hundred years to build and as a result the architecture at the front is in a very different style to that at the back (yes, I know, Mum – Architectural detail!!) There are lots of statues on the front façade missing because one time when the city was taken over the statues were used for target practise. Mary and St John are still there – they wouldn’t budge, and when one man fell to his death trying to push them off, nobody else wanted to try.. Inside theres a rather grandiose astronomical clock which we saw in action, and some beautiful stonework with, in one particular chapel, lettuces being eaten by snails as a symbol of life being eaten by time. The guide took us on through the city, explaining that it used to be made up from different villages with different ‘characters’, and that the two communities inevitably mixed a little.. one road in particular used to be inhabited by rather unsavoury characters – for one, because it had the palace of justice within earshot so anyone living there had to be able to put up with hearing screams of torture all day, and also because there was a house there where like-minded sinners used to meet to discuss how to save others and inevitably ended up getting up to what they tried to save others from.. The traboules were interesting – they have been opened up to the public during certain times of the day in return for maintenance and lighting by the councils – they run through residences quite often – and they are one of the main reasons why Lyon has been made a world heritage city. They also provided an excellent resource for the French resistance during the war, especially considering many traboules have underground tunnels of their own. It is possible to navigate around Old Lyon using only the traboule network if you know how, which the German occupiers didn’t find out for a long time. We also saw the Tour Rose, a Lyon landmark, a winding staircase inside a traboule courtyard, excessively tall so that the original occupying family could show off. However, it is by no means unique – most traboules have a staircase like it, but it’s maybe a bit prettier than most. We also found out why banks are called banks – because money exchangers used to sit on special benches – and when they ran out of money their bench got symbolically broken – hence ‘bankrupt’. After the tour we went and found a crepe – with lavender raspberry jam – mmmm! And went to get some food for a late picnic lunch. We headed up to Fourviere hill, the original roman settlement with a huge amphitheatre still used for concerts. We went into the church on the hill, which is generally slated in guide books but which we both thought was gorgeous – the inside is entirely mosaiced. Have yet to find out what stories the mosaics tell… Then, since I had been going on about it, we went to find the rose garden to have the mini picnic. However, I had forgotten that roses do not live all year, so of course by this time of year all there is to see are various rosebushes with labels of what kind of rose they WILL produce. Still, we had our picnic there…
Then we trekked down the hill – the hill is a really steep one, and apparently Esther and her boyfriend climbed up in the rain; I can’t imagine how exhausting that must have been! Going down was hard enough, and gives you wobbly legs afterwards! We went back to the ecole, not so much to get ready to go out but more to revise bouchon vocab – I’d booked a table in one and as lots of typical lyonnais food is offal-based, we wanted to know what we were asking for! So while Tariq looked up terms and wrote out definitions on a bright yellow post-it (hmmm, subtle!), I double checked where the bouchon actually was. Here is where the hitch occurred – I had been past a place called ‘La Merciere’ on my wanders which looked beautiful and romantic – all fairy lights and roses, and in the middle of a bustling restaurant sidestreet. Reviews were good and it was definitely authentic. However, I had somehow managed to book a table at ‘La Meuniere’ – equally authentic, but I had no idea what it was like or what the menu was like. Tariq seemed little phased – or at least in comparison to my waves of nervous nausea…We decided to go find the place, have a look and decide whether to eat there or try for a table where I had originally intended. We found it, and, sure enough, it was a little café-style place, with huge bowls of varying contents in the window, simple décor and a man with the most enormous moustache as head waiter. Leaving the decision to Tariq, he decided that, as the principle aim of the evening was to try proper Lyon food, this one would be fine. As we sat down the waiter put down a huge bowl of pork scratchings and some bread. We ordered a communard – kir with red, not white wine, and the waiter put down some cured meats. Tariq realised at this point, while looking at the menu, that the postit was in his jacket pocket, hanging up (bear in mind we’d sort of dressed up, too..). Luckily the menu had a few translations at the back. Tariq ordered a lyon salad selection, and I ordered a terrine with local meats. Mine arrived and god knows what was in it but it looked interesting and tasted nice. As for Tariq, first the waiter put down a huge bowl each side of him, one with a green lentil salad, one with a cold meat salad. Thinking this was something else on the menu, I asked the waiter if this was what Tariq had ordered. He said “Yes, there are ten dishes. We’ll go slowly…” Just as well, Tariq now knew now only to take a little of these two bowls. After a while, the waiter came and took away these two bowls and replaced them with two others. One with grated celery (French ‘thing’) and one with a beef salad. Not bad so far, we were thinking. The beef salad was really nice and tender. Then the waiter came to take these bowls away and replaced them with one bowl this time – of sheeps foot. Not that you could tell that that was what it was – it just looked like non-descript bits of white…stuff, white, wobbly, jellyfish stuff. Understandably, Tariq can’t really look at it, let alone eat it. Then the waiter came and took this away and replaced it with a bowl of calfs foot. This does not look any different, to be honest.. This bowl was taken away and replaced with a bowl full of… tripe.. By this point, Tariq is looking rather green, I’m apologising at least twice a minute and he’s taken to nibbling mine just to make it look as if he’s eating something – but I’m not really sure how he managed even that! I can’t remember the other dishes, or if there even were any – the horror has blurred it – mind you I bet he can.. For main course I had ordered oxtail with tomatoes and shallots, and Tariq, naturally more daring than me in terms of food, anyway, an andouilette. This had been described as a sausage-like thing filled with either pike, pork or tripe and roasted in a sauce so that it swells. It was HUGE. And what was inside looked like what had been inside those three bowls. I felt so bad – this was supposed to be his birthday treat! So we swapped dishes – but he couldn’t manage a lot of mine because he felt so green, and I tried really hard but just couldn’t eat any of his – but the macaroni cheese that had come with it was really nice! So we gave up and after a while we were asked what we would like as a cheese course. We had seen people being presented with huge wheels of cheese to cut from, but of course had no idea what was what as they had special names. I wanted to try ‘cervelle de canut’ – ‘silkworkers brain’ - described as a soft cream cheese beaten with herbs and shallots, and Tariq ordered something along the lines of ricotta. During the meal Tariq had told me to look behind me, and I saw a woman serving herself from a huge bowl of what I worked out was cervelle de canut – but it wasn’t until I had served myself quite a large amount that he told me what he meant me to see was her pushing her plate away in disgust… It was foul – like a really strong, bitter, blue cheese flavour, in liquid form. I had to try and swallow some of it down and was glad that his was nicer than mine at last! For dessert we ordered a cassis sorbet drenched in a really strong liquor – this was quite a challenge too.. and we didn’t stay for coffee.
Just to make it worse, Tariq insisted on us walking past La Merciere on the way home to see what it was like, and of course it looked gorgeous and beautiful and romantic and wonderful, and there was something on the menu he had specifically wanted to try, and there was even a family sitting in the terrace that had been on his flight and had just missed our bus. Well, at least we can say we’ve been to an authentic bouchon, and maybe I’ll take him to the right place next time!!

We got home gone midnight French time but I decided to wait until midnight home time to open the birthday champagne to toast birthday number 22. I went out Sunday morning to get croissants, pain au chocolate and half a baguette to go with the bucks fizz for Tariq’s birthday breakfast. I took him back to the airport to see him off, then went back to the Ecole to have a cuppa with Esther and recount the bouchon horror. After dinner I went to watch Breakfast at Tiffanys in Esther’s room with one of her housemates – they had finally eaten all together – and went back to my flat to say goodbye to Renuka who was leaving for India the next morning, before getting a phone-call from a rather merry Tariq.

On Monday I had my first class, in 19th/20th century French literature. Esther and I found it a bit hard to follow, not the least because it was all about writers who had been insane and the link between insanity and genius. This was the first time it had dawned on me that students of French literature here are like students of English literature at home – and suddenly that seemed to make them a whole different entity. And also possibly made it all a bit harder, with lots more reading.. But it was weird thinking that this won’t be like studying French literature back home. After this I had noticed that there was a meeting for people interested in the language centre for studying Italian, so I dragged Esther along, and we found ourselves giving our names and details and being signed up for a 2h/week class.. not a bad thing though, I suppose, and the teacher seems really really nice. After this we felt hungry so went to the supermarket together and ended up making spaghetti bolognaise together, which was yummy, with a bottle of wine and mini magnum lollies and everything. After that Esther came to my flat and we finished off the champagne and played monopoly.

On Tuesday we went to Yoga. Unfortunately it was the relaxation kind, not the hardcore exercise version, so we don’t feel we deserve it yet, but it was funny trying to relax totally, focus on our breathing and yet still concentrate on understanding her instructions! After lunch I went to an Italian translation class. The students all knew each other already, and I worked out that they were in the ‘Agrégation’ – a very hard year preparing for highly competitive exams that they have to pass in order to be teachers. I told the teacher I had done two years of Italian at university and he told me I would probably find the class very hard as they would be translating old texts – 13th century or so – and that people who had studied Italian for eight years found it hard… but that I was welcome to stay! I did, and the text we were given didn’t look impossible – I had done something like it once or twice before – but I just couldn’t keep up with the class translating straight from Italian to French. I could probably spend time doing the homework, translating from Italian to English to French but the classes would be useless to me. And as I won’t be studying old Italian texts in my final year I have decided that the language centre course will be enough to keep my Italian going. That evening I went to Carrefour – a huge supermarket, to do the communal shop with Camille.

On Wednesday I spent the whole day writing this up only to accidentally wipe it before it got onto the site.. Wednesday is English day in the flat so I enjoyed watching Camille and Ophelie concentrating on what they were saying all day. Esther, Suzana and I went to see ‘Comme une Image’ (it WAS Wednesday, after all!) and Ophelie came along. We got in there a bit late but I don’t think I would have understood it much more anyway, and I didn’t really enjoy it much. Afterwards we went out for a drink at a very smoky ‘Café 203’ and I headed off for choir again, arriving late again but still before warm-up. I’m going to be late every week now as my Italian class is from 6-8.

On Thursday I got up super early to go to a 10-12 (ok but that’s early for me!!) seminar on 17th century literature, only to find it doesn’t start til next week. So I went to the bank to try to get some money out of my account somehow as I had to pay my rent, only to find that my Visa card and chequebook had arrived. That made my day. I was told my PIN number would arrive the same or next day, so that I could be dangerous in a matter of hours.. Having looked up how to write a French cheque (sad, I know, yes, but it is different here..you have to write where the cheque was made out and everything) I went and paid my rent. That afternoon I had a lecture on 17th/18th century literature, which my tutor gave. It’s focusing on correspondence – real and fictive – and this might now be an element of my dissertation. The emphasis on the 18th century is a bit irritating but still interesting. My tutor is really nice and introduced me to the other teacher who will be giving lectures, so I know who I can go to for help! From 6-8 I went to a Capoiera class with Esther – who has done it a few times before and loves it. However, she forgot until we got there (it was at the Sciences school) that she always ended up missing a layer of skin from her feet, sore and with a different muscle pulled each time she went to a class.. Warm up took an hour and included running, starjumps, running backwards, crawling on hands and feet, walking on hands and feet forwards and backwards, skipping, jumping over ropes, squat-jumping over ropes, cartwheeling over ropes, getting face down on the floor and ‘bouncing’ under a rope backwards and forwards… by the end of the warmup I was exhausted and very very sticky! The class went through principal moves one by one to music, in mini sequences. Capoiera is a brazilian dance/non-contact martial art so involves lots of high kicks and ducking and diving, often practically dropping to the floor! As we warmed down at the end, the instructor told us that there are two types of Capoiera, one which is very close to the floor (at this point I though, ‘phew, thank goodness we’re not doing that one!!’), and the one we are doing which is a lot more active and athletic and faster…. We went home ravenous and sore and ate like women possessed.

I had the weekend to myself as both Ophelie and Camille went to visit their boyfriends, and enjoyed being able to fill the fridge with whatever I wanted and washup when I felt like it. On Friday morning I woke up rather sore and unable to walk, let alone get up or down stairs. So I stayed in bed for ages. I stayed in all day, really, except a trip to the shop and a cuppa with Esther. That evening we met up with Suzana and Gemma in Old Lyon and went to a pub. Esther and I were still rather sore so couldn’t face an all-nighter and after a nice long natter and drink we caught what really WAS the last metro – we had to run for our connections and there were people holding the doors open for us, and the shutters at the station came down when we walked out..

On Saturday I woke up even MORE sore and unable to walk. I had a nice long chat with Tariq, who was home for the weekend, and read for a bit. That evening we met up again, with the two other Cambridge students here in Lyon, Doug and Danny. We went for a pizza and swapped settling-in stories – Danny for example is in a rather dangerous part of Lyon and isn’t really enjoying himself but is stuck with what he’s doing now. We had a good laugh and got to know each other before going for a drink in Café 203 again, and catching the metro home – although I had promised Suzana and Gemma I would go out with them all night, they were still suffering from the night before – we had left them at the bar and they’d stayed another three hours…

Today Esther and I got up early-ish to go market hunting. The market nearest us wasn’t where we thought it would be so we went on to another, and it was HUGE. As we saw the spit-roasted chickens, we decided we’d have a roast dinner. We bought everything we needed – chicken and veg – for under €10.. and went home to get started. We had roast potatoes, mash, carrots, green beans and a very improvised oniony-gravy sauce with it and it was delicious. There’s still lots left over, and we are planning on doing a lot more market shopping now!

Right we’ll if you’re still there, you made it! Sorry this one was so long, but I hope you enjoyed it and I promise to try not to make them so long in the future!
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Wahey on the WEI!

• FRIDAY

We arrived about 9.30 after far too long a journey - we stopped about twice for long breaks, and left about 2hours after we were supposed to from Lyon! There were 7 coachloads of us, all with different names according to it's 'character'. Esther and I were in the queue (not that the french have a clue how to queue) for the cool bus, but it was too full so we ended up on the not-so-cool bus. At least our bags were on the cool bus. On our bus we all had to introduce ourselves individually on the mike and we sang songs (lyric sheets were handed out but there were two different ones and we got the one with the songs nobody wanted to sing on it..) and had a stripey monster drawing competition (but it went un-judged..), and played chinese whispers by tracing the outline of a picture on someones back and they had to pass it on and the person at the front of the bus had to re-draw the picture. We arrived at a school in Frejus for a Ricard reception with olives and peanuts before the appearance of plates indicated that food was available - this was pasta salad or tuna rice - both rather disgusting but hey. Then we were taken on to a huuuge campsite and got our bags out while the room leaders stood in line shouting out their numbers - we'd all been given a room number and team number. Bearing in mind there were about 350 students this was a bit complicated... Each house had 4 people in it. I was in a house with Pierre, Hugues and a girl I still don't know the name of even though we shared a double bed... As the whole of the WEI was a joint effort by the two Ecoles Normales here - the Lettres that I'm at, and the Sciences round the corner - most of the students were from the Sciences, like my whole 'house'. Anyway later that evening there was a disco and free beer and cider. Esther and I sat and chatted - it wasnt the best atmosphere for mingling - and giggled at the boys who thought 'Dancing'='Jumping'. I went to bed fairly early but as our little hut was near the disco we didnt get a lot of sleep....

• SATURDAY

Despite setting my alarm for about 8.45 - we hadnt been given a wake-up time - the brass band that we had with us, made up of members of the BDE, started playing at 7.30 - you name it, 'Run Rabbit Run', the theme from Wallace and Gromit, 'When the Saints' and, bizarrely, 'Silent Night' - with a person brandishing a megaphone and shouting 'DEBOUT! DEBOUT!' (get up!!) and marching round the whole camp village. So after a shower we stumbled over to queue for breakfast. This was my first proper French breakfast since I've been here - baguette, butter, jam, croissant, hot chocolate and Orange Juice. mmm. After breakfast we loaded onto our coaches again and headed for the seaside at Frejus-sur-mer. We got into our teams at this point - there were 10 in mine, mostly from the Sciences, including an English guy from Imperial here for a year as part of a sandwich course. We called ourselves team 'Lait Demi Ecreme' - Semi Skimmed Milk (don't ask me!) We were given WEI T-Shirts and told to get ready for the games - not that they had to - some people were already in the sea! Our first game was to taste a spoonful of a concoction whilst blindfolded and then work out what the ingredients were. We weren't very good at this one - Nil Points. Then came Spaghetti Rugby - Each team took it in turns to get as many whole pieces of spaghetti into a frisbee on the opposing teams side with the opposing team doing whatever they could to stop them or break the spaghetti before it made it to the frisbee. This was good fun and our team won - woo! Then we played a waterbomb game in a circle, passing the waterbombs first with two hands, then catching with two, throwing with one, and we didnt make it much further than that. Then next game was a variation on Dodgeball but the team we played against was really mean so we lost. Lunch was baguettes and an apple. I had one ham, one cheese - it's so wierd expecting normal cheddar and getting brie! Quite like it though... After lunch we played the 'Quest for the holy grail' - one 'damsel' (moi) had to be wooed in old french as artistically as possible by the other team members. Good to know that the French can't speak old french either.. By this time lots of people had stopped playing games, opting just to sunbathe instead. It was baking all day but the breeze from the sea kept us cool - and I didnt get sunburnt! yay! Then we played a game where you have to pass a tennis ball to another player, holding it under your chin. We also had to run to the sea and back first. Then a game where each player has to run a tight circle focusing on the ground 10 times and run a slalom course - this was quite hilarious. Then came an egg and spoon race - only the spoon was in your mouth and it was a relay - the eggs had to be transferred from spoon to spoon without being dropped. And the walking in between had to be as funky as possible.

After a quick swim we headed home for a nice shower before dinner - a three-course affair with crudites to start and meatballs and rice for main before ice cream. There was wine too, and we got to see the wild side of these hard-working students - apparently the WEI is the only time of the year they really let loose - it's after 2/3 years of hard work to get in for the first years, and before studies have really started. There were songs, and mexican waving, and downing, it was all quite fun. Until I asked someone what they were singing, and he told me but I didnt understand so asked what it meant and it was VERY rude.... Prizes were handed out to the best teams and we disbanded to wrestle to get our names on the lists for the sport we wanted to do the next day. We had a choice between Paintballing, Kayaking, All-Terrain Cycling, Windsurfing, walking or sunbathing. I missed out on the Paintballing and Kayaking in the crazy bombarding of the sign-up tables, and ended up signing up for a mountain trek. Then there was another disco, this time with cocktails (including Apple Juice and Vodka - one to try!), and Esther and I had a bit of a cocktail-fuelled boogie before heading for bed as we were shattered. I slept better that night for some reason...

• SUNDAY

No breakfast today, just Brunch. While I was waiting - different sports had different set-off times and therefore, in theory, different brunch times, I wrote some postcards while I waited - despite being told I was due to set off at 11, a poster declared 11.30.. so I queued eventually and got my brunch at 11 - only to hear announcements for the mountain trekkers to hurry up... so I gobbled it down - it was all very nice - and hurried off to the bus. Naturally I wasnt the last..

We went to the Massif de l'Esterel and started climbing - well, walking - it was all easy-ish in comparison to DofE, but they wanted to get a move on so the pace was a bit challenging. The water just disappeared - it was so hot - and after an hour and a half or so we reached a quite little lake and sat for a rest and some brioche. After a break we started back, but this time took a road off to the side and climbed - yes, here was the climb - a narrow path with loose stones so I spent a lot of time looking at my feet and not the scenery! I couldn't say we reached any sort of summit but the view from the height we got to was very nice. We were out walking for about 3 hours in total and then headed back by coach before getting on the coaches to go home. The journey home seemed quicker, even if we did stop for an hour at one point and there were some bad singers who insisted on singing a round, and the video didnt work. When we got back Esther and I got lost on the way back to the Ecole - the coach dropped everyone off at the Sciences - but we still made good time home.

I was really impressed by the whole WEI. We paid €77 to sign up to the BDE for reductions with the BDE card and for the Christmas Dinner and Garden Party etc, as well as to cover the WEI. So we got 2 nights accomodation, all food and drink including alcohol, a trip to the Cote d'Azur, a day at the beach, 2 nights of disco and a day of an activity of our choice, with the choice including things like paintballing! And a T-Shirt! We worked out that the WEI was sponsored by a bank out here - we think there were two people on our bus from the bank there to see how their money was being spent. But still, it was really well organised considering the sheer numbers of students involved - and it was a really good idea for freshers. I wish we did things like that back home! It would really help them settle in and meet people. And it was really good fun! (Thanks for the tip, Shirley!) The only thing was that we didnt get to talk to as many people as I would have thought - but they were all so busy getting to know each other as it was that they obviously didnt want to concentrate on us foreigners! It was just like freshers week - all that 'whats your name, what do you study, where' stuff. But at least I will know a few more faces around here now, so I can say hello when we cross paths. It was a fantastic time at any rate.

Right thats plenty for you lot to be reading about. I'll write more when I have more sorted - like a bank account!

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Ohe! Il fait bien longtemps qu'on ne se voit pas!

Salut!
Well it seems I have an awful lot of catching up to do here! I've been here just over a week and so far have managed to sort some stuff out, with other stuff being rather obstinately impossible to sort out. I've got myself a French mobile number, been backwards and forwards to the International Students office as they seem unable to ask me for more than one thing at a time, and have got my confirmation of studies, my room contract and given in various documents. I've been trying to sort out a bank account with no luck as I was told I would need a confirmation of residence to do so - which, I was told, had not been signed by the director of the Ecole. So I waited. And today I was given another confirmation of studies... the only difference from the last one being that this says I AM here, not will be. And apparently this will be enough for the bank.... I was planning on getting an account today but for some reason have decided no other bank will do but Credit Lyonnais (well, while I'm here it seems only right..) and it's shut today. I have also decided what I will be studying - these being 'Perfecting the French Language', Italian language, and two literature papers on the 17th and 19/20th centuries.
Since arriving I've found out that there's a little hub of Cambridge here in Lyon - there's another girl at the Ecole -Esther, (and a boy too but not found him yet!), and two girls at another uni here - Lyon II - Suzana and Gemma. We all went out to see a film on Wednesday called 'Ils se marierent et eurent beaucoup d'enfants' - kind of like 'and they lived happily ever after' - which was really good (with the bonus of a Jonny Depp cameo, slightly ruined by another from Fat Les of 'Vin-da-loo' fame...). In the film the main couple eat a chinese takeaway and we all came out pining after chinese food - as you do in a french city reknowned for its cuisine.. so we went and had a chinese - it was really nice though! We're really glad we have met each other but at the same time we all want to socialise with French people too. Just nice to know theres a bit of a support network straight away. We have plans to make a trip to Ikea at some point too - my room feels a bit empty... Earlier that day I went to pick up some stuff that Shirley, the New Hall student who came here last year, had left for me - I went to visit a friend of hers and we had a nice chat and tea and I walked out with a bike, and a rucksack crammed with random goodies. I now at last have a duvet, hangers (who brings them??), blutack, pins, paperclips, LOADS of guidebooks, an oilburner, enough tea to last me a year of teaparties, spare adaptors... wow. That made my day - maybe even my week!
On Thursday and Friday, completely by chance, and not that anyone had told me, I found out there were two days of lectures on the not-very-well-known author that I want to focus on for my dissertation. So I went along on Thursday - 9til5 - ouch - and it would have been a whole lot more useful if it wasnt for the fact that the people giving the lectures were all experts on the subject and had 30mins each to try to say everything they wanted to. And there was a lunch put on - imagine the scenario - there is a buffet. You're surrounded by strangers. Who are French. And all experts on a subject that you will study but surrently know NOTHING about. Now make small talk. That was me that day. Luckily I had borrowed a minidisc recorder from a friend to record what was said but it will still take some sifting through I think!
I didn't go the next day of lectures because I had signed up for the WEI with the BDE - The Weekend d'Integration with the Bureau des Eleves - the student council. We left Friday afternoon and went down to Frejus, on the Cote d'Azur. See my next blog for details!
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