how many visits does it take to get internet?

Compared to my last blog entries, the week after going to Beaujolais wasn’t all that exciting. It was pretty much packed with figuring out administrative things, like my class schedule, bank accounts, Internet, etc. Thankfully, I’m pretty much set with my bank accounts. And after exchanging tons of emails with my advisor, I think my class schedule is on the way to being sorted out! We’ll see how this semester goes, my advisor suggested that I take a quarter and a half worth of credits to get my money’s worth. So that means adding more hours to my schedule and now that I have it figured out (I think), about 30 credits here which translates to about 23 credits back home.

Lookkk! my babybel cheese came with a prize :P

kimchi fried rice! :D

my friend and i by the rhone :)

Getting my Internet figured out has been kind of a pain. Bottom line: It hasn’t gotten figured out…

my breakfast hehe :)

anddd lunch :)

To make things worse, my phone had run out of minutes, meaning I couldn’t text or call… So, I ended up having to go back to SFR, the company I have a contract with. I went in on Monday to recharge my phone, Tuesday to get Internet, Wednesday to return the Internet cause it didn’t work, only to be told to come back on Thursday. Thursday, I went back and was told to come back on the following Monday to get my money back. And even though I had recharged my phone, apparently I’d only charged about 10 minutes, and had to go back to recharge it on Saturday. And after going back on Monday, I was told that I had to come back in October to get my actual money back instead of having it just charged to my account. So far, SIX days spent at SFR… and going back for my seventh in October, sigh

Seven trips = no internet…

view by the rhone - basilique de notre dame and tv tower in the background of hotel dieu :)

But it’s been okay, since I have Internet on my phone, so I’ve been able to use my email there to figure out things with my advisor. The only thing I’m sad about is not being able to call home while at my apartment. I haven’t talked to my parents in weeks and only just got to talk to them last week while at my university. But that means calling them at 7AM their time and only getting to talk for about 10 minutes :( So, hopefully we’ll figure something out soon…

the university lights up at night! :P

taking pics at the university  :D

The last week was very chill and full of going to the river to hang out. So much fun and something I’ll definitely miss! But for now, I’ll just enjoy it! One of the highlights of the week was going to a Chinese restaurant with two of my friends. The food wasn’t all that great, but it was fun, and I ended up talking to one of the ladies there in Chinese. I’m definitely using my Chinese here a lot more than I thought I would! :)

the menu at the chinese restaurant

at the restaurant chinoise :)

round 1: eggrolls

round 2: rice with glazed pork and some fried chicken ball thingy

round 3: dessert - exotic fruits?

This week has so far been centered on going to classes. The French administration is definitely a pain to deal with, especially when they keep changing dates, and then basically thinking that it’s our fault for not keeping up to date.

sushiiii :D

there were a ton of people rollerblading down the road together

Classes are still difficult. It’s hard to catch everything the professor says and fully comprehend it, But I’m getting more and more comfortable with trying to speak in French (forcing myself to speak more French) and not getting completely nervous anymore, so that’s good :) Can finally communicate and understand people without getting completely barricaded by my nerves! Glad that’s happening after just one month, can’t wait to see what happens at the end of the second one! :D

hotel de ville

the statue in place terreaux

On Wednesday, after class, my friend and I went to Rue Mercière, this street full of restaurants, to get some sushi for lunch. Definitely not the same as Japonessa, but it was still good :) After lunch, some other friends and I went to the Museum of Fine Arts (Musée des Beaux-Arts). It was free entry for students, which is definitely nice. It was a huge building that apparently was a palace and then a monastery, if I understood correctly… It took us about three hours to get around the whole thing. But there were some works of art by some famous artists (Monet, Renoir, Manet, Gaugin, Degas, Rembrandt, Rubens, Rodin), so that was really cool. After wandering through the museum, we ended up at a café on Place Terreaux, the square right outside of the museum, and had some crepes and waffles. Pretty packed day for just being a Wednesday :)

by the courtyard of the museum

hmmm familiar looking :P

statues in the museum

So far, my schedule has no class on Wednesays, and I will be sooo happy if it continues to be that way! The school administration is supposed to schedule a smaller class section for one of our big lectures, so I’m crossing my fingers that it won’t fall on a Wednesday, especially since I’m going to have 10 hours of class in a row on Thursdays… Wish me luck! (I’ll need it… It’s France, and French administration is terrible, so anything can happen..:S )

cannottt get over the fact of how talented artists were, making stone look like cloth!

entrance of the temple of ptolemy iv

view of the fountain in place terreaux from the museum

this was pretty cool, tons of coins from different times and countries

some of the coins featured in the exhibit

a coin with hotel de ville on it!

ahh cute hippo :D

one of the staircases in the museum

looks like it's all white.. but it's a ton of numbers painted on it. i don't really understand modern art...

hope

these paintings were gigantic!

see how big it is?! :O

one of the monets in the museum

another monet

rodin sculpture

degas

renoir

gaugin

yummmm

wine and classes... (not at the same time! promise!)

School started on Monday, so it’s been kind of a scramble to figure out courses and class schedules. But the Saturday before classes started, I went with seven friends from my orientation group to Beaujolais, a region north of Lyon, which is known for its wine.

On the train to Beaujolais!

So, we got on a train and took about a 40 minute train ride to Romanèche-Thorins, this super tiny village/town/thingy. It was just past 9AM when we arrived, and the vineyard we were going to didn’t open until 10AM, so we walked around looking for a café. It literally took us like less than 10 minutes to walk the entire place. The café was closed, but we found a really cute hotel/restaurant that was open. So, we went there and got some coffee from a really nice lady.

Our train

Our stop: Romanèche Thorins

Welcome sign to 'a unique journey in the history of wine'

Not the best weather =\ But that didn't stop us :)

That's about it... pretty much as far as you can see is as far as it goes.

After sitting around and drinking our coffee, we walked over to the vineyard. It was 18€ for the entrance to the main wine museum, the wine tasting, the entrance to a small museum at the train station, access to the mini train, the entrance to the wine factory area, a game of mini golf, and access to the gardens. We’d been pretty worried about what to do the whole day since the only train home was just before 7PM, giving us almost 10 hours in this super small village, but in the end, it was a lot of fun and we didn't have to look for things to keep us occupied!

Waiting for coffee in the hotel

Mmmmm coffeeee :D it's been a while...

The owner of the vineyard - apparently he's one of the most well-known wine merchants in France?

The entrance to the vineyard museum/main area

We went through the museum that had a lot of history about wine-making and the tools used. We were also the youngest people there. There was a huge tour group of a lot older people after us. Some things in the museum weren’t very interesting, like an automatic puppet show and a 3D musical movie about wine (both were so weird…). But finally after going through the museum, we got to the wine degustation where we tried a white wine and a red wine. We were all pretty hungry at this point, so I think we were most excited for the bread and salami that came with the wine.

Inside of the main reception area

Average age of the people at the winery

Wine cellar

Creepy puppet show

The creepy talking tree puppet

A cool exhibit in the museum! :)

Weird 3d musical movie about the wine - that's a group of people singing while biking.. in 3D!! (they really made use of the 3d, sticking tools and stuff towards the camera or pouring things into buckets with the camera at the bucket..)

yummm

wine tasting! :D

When we were finished with the wine tasting, we went to the restaurant and had lunch. FINALLY, I’ve gotten to eat some escargots in France! I’ve tried it back in Seattle, but it was something I was looking forward to here, because it’s sooo yum! And it definitely did not disappoint! It was so good! I’m definitely looking forward to more :P 

Lunch area

ready for lunch!!

my favorite! - escargots! (snails)

sooo goodd

All clean and gone :(

Main course

Next, we took a like.. two-minute ride on the mini train to the gardens where we played 10 holes of mini golf. There were eight of us, so you can imagine how long that must have taken! But it was a lot of fun, and we learned to count in different languages. :P Between the eight of us, we had quite a few languages that we could count in! (English, French, Spanish, Hungarian, Chinese, Armenian, German, Russian, Japanese…not sure if I’m forgetting any…) After our round of golf, we walked around the factory, took some pictures, and then headed back to the main museum to check out the boutique. By that time, it was already 530PM, so we didn’t have all that long to wait for our train.

mini vineyard

Group picture in the mini vineyard! :D

Mini train 

On the train :)

The wine factory and garden

View from the roof of the factory

inside the factory

Wine from different areas of beaujolais

Being out the whole day was so tiring, I literally slept right when I got home and slept for 10 hours straight! Thankfully, I woke up in time for church. I was pretty tempted to skip, but my mom always tells me that if I skip one week, it’ll be easier to keep skipping rather than going, so I went :P My Sunday was actually pretty busy too. After going to the French service, I went home for lunch, then headed back to church to meet up with some American missionaries to go to an English service at the International Christian Community of Lyon that’s held every first, third, and fifth Sunday. I can’t even describe how nice it was to go to that service :) There, I met this girl who grew up in France, because her parents are also missionaries from the states. She studies at the London School of Economics and is just finishing up her summer internship at INTERPOL (Its headquarters are in Lyon, how cool is that?!). We ended up talking for a really long time, and then she and her dad dropped me off at the metro station.

the region of france that lyon is located

french countryside home

Then, I headed off to Bellecour and met my friend there. After eating dinner, we went to the movie theatre and watched “Friends with Benefits,” the movie starring Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis. It was in French, good, but definitely funnier in English…  French movie title translations are weird though, they are very…straightforward, you don’t even need to watch the trailer, just read the title. Example: The movie “Horrible Bosses” translates to “How to Kill Your Boss.”

more pasta - i need to learn to cook something else...

Monday was the first day that we started classes. I can’t even begin to describe how confusing and how much of a hassle choosing classes is here. It’s easy for the French students because they’re all assigned exactly what classes they’re in, but for the exchange students, we have to choose what courses we want to take, as long as they don’t clash with our obligatory classes. So, it ends up being pretty difficult, because there aren’t all that many choices of classes, they’re all worth next to no credits, and the times suck (8AM start times or 8PM end times…). Also, classes start and end on the hour, so if you have back to back classes, you end up being late for a class…

lunch at the university restaurant - only 3€!! :O

Also, a lot of the classes were cancelled or postponed, and there are no emails, you have to go to the board to check yourself. But since it was the first day, most people went to class to find out it was cancelled (like me). So, I ended up just using the internet in the library all day and trying to figure out my schedule. I think I’ve got it figured out! My time table looks pretty nice, I have like 8 classes, but no classes on Wednesdays! And actually two of my classes don’t start till October, so I’m pretty free right now. :D Definitely very different from UW. One of my classes. Theory of Crises, actually did start today and wasn’t cancelled, so I went to that. The professor talked REALLY fast, but it was really interesting. Some of the stuff he talked about was pretty similar to an International Conflict class I took back home, so it was pretty cool.

Night out in Place Terreaux :)
From L:R - Repping Hungary, Great Britain, United States :P

my class schedule!

Another weird thing that I noticed was that everyone in the class, all hundred plus students type every, single word that comes out of the professor’s mouth. It’s like sitting in the middle of a massive rainstorm… Though it was nice sitting behind someone with a computer so I could catch anything I missed :P After class, two friends and I went up to the professor and asked if there was any way we could get a copy of his notes, to which his answer was no :( But a girl in the class approached us and told us if we needed help, she could give us her notes. So nice! Definitely going to need that..

<3

Here’s hoping this school year won’t be too hard…