Familiar faces...

...are pretty much the best thing ever.

My friend Sarah from Oregon has been traveling around Europe for the past few weeks, and I told her that she should come visit Lyon if she had the chance, and she worked it out so that she would come in yesterday afternoon and then leave again this morning. On Tuesday, I got a very happy surprise in the form of a phone call from her saying she would arrive that night. It was SO good for me to have someone around that I felt a homey connection too, especially considering I was starting to slip into serious homesickness. There are a bunch of other students from Oregon here, and occasionally we talk about the things we miss, like certain restaurants or places on campus or whatever, but it's really different to be able to talk about specific things, like common friends and the things that you have in common with a good friend. I don't know if that makes sense. I hope so.

Anyway, since she has been doing the touristy, visit all the famous churches thing that seems to happen whenever you go anywhere in Europe, we really just hung out. Yesterday afternoon, we wandered around town and I pointed out some of the major monuments and tourist attractions, but we kept on wandering and then had a YUMMY ice cream thing with Nutella and bananas and whipped cream (oh my!). Then we came home for a nap before I had to go to class (boo). Originally, I had planned to take her out to a traditionaly lyonnais restaurant to be the cool host, but Florence invited us to have dinner with the family, and seemed excited to have both of us, and the idea of a home cooked meal and family atmosphere was compelling to Sarah, who has been eating out and staying in youth hostels for two weeks. So, after my class, we sat down to dinner and ate quenelles, which are a traditional lyonnais dish, and probably what we would have ended up eating if we had gone out. Sidenote: before dinner, Florence was reading a book to Mathias, and Sarah and I got to be the audience. It was really hilarious. Mathias knew the story and he read the lines of the different animals that talk in the story and he was cracking up the entire time. I can't really put words to it, but it was fabulous to watch. Back to dinner...it was such a GREAT experience, mostly because of the various language barriers. Sarah knows a little bit of french, but it has largely been eclipsed by spanish, and Florence and Lionel know (and enjoy practicing) a little bit of english, and Claudia is learning english, but is still really shy about it. Everyone was just speaking in different languages and only half understanding each other, and it was simply amazing. And in the end, everyone had a really great time and there were hardly any awkward quiet moments. MUCH better than the two of us sitting in a restaurant chatting (not that that wouldn't have been cool too). After dinner, Sarah and I helped Claudia with her english homework, although really she is much better at english than she thinks and we only helped her a little bit with little grammatical/spelling things. Overally, highly successful evening.

For me, it was really comforting to have someone else's stuff all over my room, and a mattress on the floor and someone to chat with about all of our random thoughts on european life. I really do feel a lot better, and I'm kind of gonna miss the mattress taking up all of my floor space and those late night half asleep slumber party sort of conversations.

Also, I am thoroghly fascinated by and in love with my living situation, even more so than I was before. The Babot's are just such amazing people and they are SO welcoming and kind and...AH! Love it!! And Wei was so cool with me stealing the futon that is normally our couch and the three of us squishing around our little kitchen table at breakfast.

Anyway, I'm very happy right now.

Some random other thoughts that have been wandering around in my head:

(1) Florence is so cool (I realize that I have just kind of been saying this, but this is for a different reason)...On Wednesdays she and the kids have the day off, and she usually spends the day hanging out and running errands and being a mom/housewife. Every once in a while, though, she just decides to rearrange everything. A few weeks ago, it was the kitchen (which we tackled together), and yesterday it was the living room. I'm pretty sure that no piece of furniture in the room went untouched. I really like the new arrangement, and I just love that she does that. It really makes me want to do the same thin in my room, but my room is such that I'm not sure I could really move things and still have it work...Plus I think that the only other place my bed would fit is right by the window and that might get cold...We'll see though, I've kind of got the bug and I'm not sure how long I can shake it off.

(2) So I named this blog "vu de ma fenetre", which is a song title, but I don't actually see all that much from my window because I look out on a courtyard instead of the street, but I get the strangest noises. There is this guy right below me who is always sawing things and building random things, so I get those noises. Then, there's a lady upstairs who is a voice teacher, and so I often hear people singing and her playing the piano. Sometimes I hear kids playing in the courtyard too. Then there are always people talking at all hours of the night. I feel like around midnight, people gather down there and chat, but I never see anyone. It's bizarre.

(3) I'm making pancakes on Saturday morning and I'm REALLY excited

(4) On Tuesday, these two guys in my constitutional law class started talking to me, and they gave me a "french culture test"...ie they handed me a piece of paper and told me to write down the french singers/bands that I listen to. They were pretty impressed with my knowledge, and I even knew some people that they didn't go me. More importantly, YAY for having people to talk to in my classes, especially considering that they are in my "discussion section" of the constitutional law class and now maybe I can ask them to be my partner for one of the oral presentations, because I was really starting to stress about that.

(5) I really love tea. I realize this seems irrelevant, but there it is. Also, on the food note, I really love Prince cookies and they taste better in France than the ones I found in the states.

(6) I think my plant is dying and I can't figure out why. The leaves just keep falling off...I fail. Maybe I should have gotten something smaller...?

Ok...that's enough of that. Back to life.