Newness

Wow.  The last few days have been WHIRLWIND for me, so here's a little recap...

Christmas eve was a great success.  We went to mass which was a little bit more family oriented than your average Christmas Eve mass, although a fair number of kids were still getting pretty restless about halfway through.  After mass, we had a little pre-dinner apertif and snackies, until Florence's sister showed up, and then we started dinner, which was really light, but really yummy.  Apparently, when Florence was growing up, they really didn't do much in the way of a special dinner on Christmas Eve, but Lionel's family always had a big blowout kind of dinner, so they have reached a sort of compromise between the two.  To start off, we had eggnog à la Terra and Dia, taiwanese salad à la Wei-Ching, this creamy avocado thing à la Lionel, and shrimp.  Then we had smoked salmon and, for the very french (I haven't gotten this french yet), foie gras.  Dessert was a bûche de Noël, which is a (generally chocolate) cake in the shape of a log that is a necessity at Noël in France.  We also had biscochitos à la New Mexico, snow cake à la Taiwan, and lemon tart that Florence's sister is apparently quite famous for.  Delicious and highly multicultural little dinner.  

Dinner/chatting/drinking wine lasted until about 12:30, at which point, everyone put their little shoes and/or slippers under the tree and went to bed.  I, being the little kid that I am at heart, was awake at 7am ready to go enjoy the fabulousness that is presents on Christmas morning.  I made myself stay in bed until I heard the real kids get up and start being awake and whatnot before joining in the festivities.  I haven't really done Christmas morning with a little kids in quite a while, and I was amazed at how giddy they get.  Christmas here is much more low-key in terms of presents than some of the Christmases I celebrated in my childhood, but Mathias was really just having a blast with everything.  I even got him to sit down and do the Cars puzzles that I got him with me.  In terms of presents, I got a couple little things, which was nice because I really don't need anymore stuff...especially after seeing the luggage that Dia hauled out of my apartment this morning, but more on that in a minute.  Florence got me a red and green scarf (which is less christmasy than it sounds), Wei-Ching got me a bracelet, the gave me and Wei-Ching matching mugs, and Dia gave me this funky thing to hang pictures in my room.  Now I need to print out more pictures!  Woo.

Anyway, the rest of Christmas day consisted of watching xmas movies with Dia, making pancakes, and then having dinner with a bunch of the other Oregon students who weren't traveling for the break.  I was really glad to do that.  I've kind of fallen out of touch with a lot of Oregon people, which is a bummer.  I really just don't have classes with most of them, and so I end up hanging out with the people I do have classes with, because it's easier to make plans and such.  But I really do like the other Oregon people, and it was nice to spend an evening eating yummy food, drinking wine, and chatting away about all kinds of good stuff.  

If you think that was the whirlwind part of my week, I'll have you know the madness is just beginning.  Since Christmas, I took Dia around Lyon and we went on a mission to find cute brown boots, which Dia was more successful at than me, but I was ok with that.  Then, my friend Molly cut my hair and I now have bangs and the rest of my hair is more layery and fun.  It is weird to have bangs, because I haven't had them in ages, but it's kind of fun.  On the way back from Molly's, I found a wonderfully cheap pair of brown boots, and also found the fabric store and bought red fabric for a Prince Charming cape.

Then, Detective Nikky Flippers flew in from New Mexico, and it's been a blast ever since.  Especially because he came bearing presents.  Namely, FRONTIER TORTILLAS!!!! (which I threatened to leave him at the airport if he forgot).  But also lots of gum, red chile, black beans, and Buffet's piñon candy, which I wanted to share with my host familia, who are all quite fond of piñon.  He also brought tons of pink satiny fabric, a blonde wig, and a tiara to turn me into princess Aurora.  YES!!!!

Anyway, he, Dia, and I squished into my little bedroom and hung out and watched movies.  And this morning, Dia unpacked and repacked her luggage, which was quite an adventure, and then we saw her off at the train station.  From there, Flipper's and I took the metro to Hôtel de Ville and did the tour of the shopping district of Lyon.  We were mostly in search of stuff for the Sleeping Beauty/Prince Charming costumes, but all we really ended up getting for that was some eye shadow.  We also came home with a blow dryer for me (because I hadn't bough one yet as I never blow-dry my hair, but now that I have bangs, I actually have to put a little effort into doing my hair...ugh), a shirt and a rhinestone-encrusted bowtie for Flippers, and a wonderful pair of green boots for me, which are pretty much exactly what I've been wanting, and only cost 15 euro, so probably the best buy ever.  Oh, and we also bought a comb and hair cutting scissors because Flippers decided that he trusted me to play with/cut his hair, which I just finished.  It was fun!  

Anyway, that's the update on life in Lyon lately.  I feel like things have been SO crazy and I can't believe it's almost new years and then before I know it, Flippers will be leaving (sad) and I will be finishing up the last of my classes, and then traveling (hopefully...there may be a small snag in my plans...boo) and then starting new classes and then in less than 2 months, I will be home for a week!  Seriously, I feel like I've been counting my life in relation to that trip home because I need it so badly.  No matter that the trip will go by incredibly fast and then I'll be back here and back to work and school and life.  I feel like I can't even think about anything after that at this point because that's like this light at the end of the tunnel.  Not that anything is wrong or bad or anything.  Things are great, and I'm clearly keeping busy and having a good time, but I need some family/friends/New Mexico therapy that I just can't get anywhere else.

Wow.  Gotta stop now cuz Flippers and I were thinking about going out tonight and it's already almost nine and he's all ready and has fallen asleep and I'm still in my post-shower/hair cutting PJs and neither of us have eaten dinner.  And watching him sleep is kind of making me think a little power nap might be nice before hitting the dance floor.  Hmm...I guess maybe it's a good thing things don't really get hopping here until at least 11...

And, I'm off!  Biz.

Mamacita, donde esta Santa Clause?

That's my favorite Christmas song, after Silent night and the Mariah Carey Christmas CD.  Although, this Christmas remake of Purple Haze is making me smile a lot, too.  I really do just love Christmas music, and especially really weird Christmas music à la Peter C.  No one will get that but my mom, but oh well.  Ok, seriously, if you have iTunes, go into the radio, and in the holiday section you will find "Xmas in Frisko".  Listen to it, and be amazed.  I am now listening to Reggae Days of Christmas.  YES.

Anyway, it's Christmas Eve, and so far it's been an interesting day.  My friend who's visiting fell in the shower this morning while I was at the grocery store, and we almost had to go to the hospital, but she's ok.  In a lot of pain, but not concussiony or anything, thankfully.  After that little craziness,  she bought me a poinsettia as my Christmas present.  There is a flower shop underneath my apartment, and I've passed by this window everyday and looked longingly at the only poinsettia that I've seen in France, and so she decided to buy it for me.  The thing should be made out of solid gold, the amount of money that was paid for it.  I guess we had to pay for it to travel first class to the states.  Which is so strange considering that I am used to cheap poinsettias everywhere I go at Christmastime.  

One very expensive poinsettia later, we made eggnog, and this time I dared to do it with raw eggs.  The concept is kind of terrifying, but it does taste better.  And, if you add rum, that will kill all the bacteria, right?  Of course.  We also made some of the cooked kind because my friend (Mad Buffalo hehe) is a little freaky about raw eggs.  I hope the familia enjoys it.  Also, we made biscochitos last night!!!!!!!!  Best thing ever.  Now if I only had some posole, I would really be happy.  But I am going to just be happy anyway, because I have a fabulous host fam, a fabulous roommate, and a great friend visiting me, and we are going to have a very merry Christmas.  And Mad Buffalo brought the Charlie Brown Christmas special, so we are gonna watch that and make pancakes for breakfast tomorrow.  And maybe go hang out with some of the other study abroad people who are family-less in Lyon for Christmas.  Yay friends!

Well, I should probably finish getting ready to go to mass and have dinner and everything, but I want to say Merry Christmas to everyone and I hope you are all doing fabulously and getting to spend time with the people you love the most.  And eat some delicious Christmasy food for me.  Especially posole and gingerbread cookies if you have them.  Some special Christmas messages:

Mommy:  I'm glad you are getting to have your relaxed Christmas this year.  Also, the pictures absolutely totally made my day (and Mad Buffalo's, as well).  I love you and miss you like crazy and I will call you later.  *MUAH*

Nana:  I miss you SO much!!  I hope the decorations at Manzano are beautiful and you get yummy yummy food.  And I hope my present gets there soon!  I think you are gonna like it a lot!

Daddy:  I know you're not a big Christmas celebrator, but I hope having Sofy around got you in the spirit a little bit.  I love you and miss you!

Sofy:  Big giant Christmas hug from your sis!!!  And since it's dad who's reading this, give her a big hug and kiss for me.

Boe:  Merry Christmas!!!  I love you SO much and I miss you and I hate not getting to see you for Christmas.  HUG!!!!

GG:  You better be taking pictures of luminarias for me!!  You promised!  I love you hun!!!

NapoleOn:  Feliz Navidad, mi amor!!!  I love you so much and I hope you are having fun back home!!!

And a special shout out to Asian Glow:  I hope you made it home safely!!!  Merry Christmas!!  Lyon misses you!

Ok, if you didn't make it on that list, it's certainly not out of lack of love.  There's enough Terra-love to go around.  So to everyone else who is amazing and has kept up with this little blog, thank you and Merry Christmas!!!

Biz.

Can't say I didn't try

I tried les cuisses de grenouille yesterday.  For those of you that know me, you know I'm not a huge fan of strange foods, and that I'm a vegetarian, but when in Rome, right?  There are two things that everyone says should be tried as long as you are living in Frogs-legs-a-gogo-land: frogs legs and escargot.  Well, I can now cross frogs legs of my list and say that I'm not missing too much.  I still haven't gotten up the nerve to confront escargot.  I'm not a big texture-phobe, but I can't imagine the texture of a slug is something I'm going to enjoy.  Anyway, back to the frogs legs.  I went out to dinner last night with my colleagues from one of the elementary schools I work at.  We went to a restaurant in Perrouges, which is a little medieval village about 40 minutes from Lyon.  I went there when I was staying with the Roys three years ago, and really enjoyed it.  Last night, though, we didn't see much but the restaurant because it was dark and foggy and cold.  It was a nice little restaurant, but there wasn't much on the menu that was veg-friendly, so I ended up just ordering a salad with salmon and cheesy potatoes (luckily gratin dauphinois is a specialty in the region).  Four of the other teachers ordered frogs legs, though, and insisted that I try them, so I did.  In the end, not bad...a little tough or dry or something, but tastes more or less like something between chicken and fish.  Maybe it's because I haven't had meat other than fish in 5+ years, but I really wasn't impressed, even though everyone else who was eating them were all gaga over how good they were.  To each their own, I guess.  Luckily, the gratin was super delicious.  I love cheese and I love potatoes, and the two together equal a happy Terra.

To completely change the subject, I am officially on vacation!!  Yay!!  I had portuguese this morning, but after I finished my translation test (which I don't feel as good about as I did the grammar test, but I'm hoping the prof will go easy on me considering I am not a native french speaker, so translating from portuguese to french is kind of tough for me), I was done until January 11th.  woohoo.  I'm starting to get really excited about Christmas.  I spent yesterday dressing up my presents.  I LOVE wrapping presents.  I made fancy ribbony bows with Papillotes, which are these lyonnais chocolate candies that people here are obsessed with, and candy canes (which I was hella excited to find yesterday, because this certainly is not the states, and they do not have boxes and boxes of candy canes in a million different forms and flavors in every store).  They are so pretty!  It's a relatively simple set of presents, only for the host fam, Wei-Ching, and my friend Dia, but they certainly look pretty, so that's what really matters.  I also found an "alternative Christmas" station on iTunes radio, so I'm listening to weird Christmas songs, which makes me really happy, especially since I didn't think to bring my own fabulous Christmas mixes with me, and I love weird versions of Christmas songs.  Basically, my room feels quite Christmasy right now.  I hung candy canes on my ficus, and the presents are all arranged around it, and then I have two drawings of Christmas trees from the kiddos hanging on the wall, and then funky Christmas music playing...that's the spirit!

And I have all the ingredients for biscochitos in my kitchen and the family recipe in my email inbox, so Dia and Wei-CHing and I can make them for Christmas.  YAY!!!!  Happy Happy Joy Joy.

Ooh!  And I'm really excited because I was talking to Barbara, the director of the Penn program today, and I mentioned the New Years party and the dressing up in costumes and whatnot, and that lead to making things, which led to her telling me about a fabric store that is more or less like JoAnn Fabrics or other american fabric stores.  Which is AMAZING because I really heart fabric stores.  I'm not all that crafty when it comes to sewing but, I one of my favorite things ever is to buy fabric scraps and make headbands or belts or whatever out of them.  And, I was thinking it would be cool to find some green sparkly material to spice up our costumes.  And maybe, depending on how brave I'm feeling and if I find a store that sells them, I might try to make some fairy wings.   So that is going to be my project for the week.  Should be fun. 

On a less exciting note, I really have managed to get sick again.  It took all the energy I could muster to get up and go to my portuguese class this morning, and I still can't breathe through my nose and I'm all coughy and whatnot.  What the heck?  I don't get sick that often, and this is the third time since I got here in September.  I am not so much ok with this plan.  And the fact that it is currently -1˚C (30˚F) out, probably doesn't help at all.  Seriously, I think I actually feel the cold here more than I ever did back home, even if the temperatures are similar.  I definitely remember last year in the giant snow-dump of 2006, that I was able to be outside in a sweater and a coat and jeans and gloves and was more or less comfortable.  Chilly when the snow got under my clothes or if it was windy, but here I'm chilled to the bone all the time.  Even in two long-sleeve shirts and my peacoat and leggings under my pants and a chunky scarf and gloves, etc.  WTF?!?!

Speaking of being cold, I think I'm gonna go eat me some hot soup cuz I never ate lunch and I'm cold.

Biz.

bye bye

Well, my first semester in Lyon is quickly coming to an end, and that means that all the semester people are getting ready to leave.  Almost all of the Oregon people are here for the whole year, but most of the Penn and an bunch of the UC students are only doing the semester, and I've found myself spending a lot more time with Penn and UC people than with the rest of the Oregon group for some reason.  That means that a big chunk of my friends are heading out in the next few days.  Sad much?

Last week, I went to dinner with a bunch of the Penn people at a Paul Bocuse restaurant.  Paul Bocuse is a really well-known chef here in Lyon.  There are a lot of boulangerie/patisseries that carry his name, four bistros, and one really fancy restaurant/culinary school.  We were actually supposed to have our Thanksgiving dinner at the school, but there was a problem with the reservation and we ended up elsewhere.  I was a bit disappointed with that because Florence kept telling me how fancy and amazing the food is (not to mention incredibly expensive).  Not that we didn't have a really delicious dinner.  Anyway, we ended up at one of the bistros because they wanted to do kind of a blowout fancy schmancy dinner before leaving town, and I got to join them, which was really nice.  Delicious!  A good way to say goodbye to Lyon, I think.  Or in my case, to say goodbye to new friends.  I've also had a couple more outings with various Penn people who are getting ready to head out, and it's quite sad to say goodbye to them.  I think my friend Jenn is quite convinced to work on coming back for spring break, though, which would be quite exciting.

I can't even imagine leaving right now, despite the strong desire I've had lately to be home.  It would be really nice to be with my family for Christmas, but even with all the stuff I've been going through, I'm definitely not ready to say goodbye to this place.  There are so many things I haven't done yet, and I can't wait for Lyon in the springtime, when it starts to get warmer to leave the comfort of my bed and get a bike and ride around and hang out at the park and hang out on café terraces and just wander.  Plus, I can't imagine saying goodbye to Wei-Ching or the Babots or Florence or any of the other great people I've met since being here.  I'm definitely of the opinion that one semester is not nearly enough time to really get to know a place.  At least not for me.  

In that same line of thought, I am really looking forward to the next few weeks here (even without all my friends who are going home, or the others who are traveling for the holidays).  I am excited for my friend, Dia, to come stay with me.  I'm really excited to celebrate Christmas with the Babots and to have the French Christmas experience.  And to add my own little New Mexico flair to Christmas by making biscochitos and egg nog.  And then my friend is coming from New Mexico, which I seriously cannot wait for....and not just because he's bringing Frontier tortillas, although that in itself is pretty exciting.  I'm really looking forward to showing him around town and taking him out on the town and going to Paris and seeing Cabaret.  SO much to fit into his 9 days here.  Plus, we are going to a New Year's Eve party that Flo's freind is throwing, which is Disney themed!!  That is SO cool.  Detective Nikky Flippers (I heart nicknames) and I are going to go as characters from Peter Pan.  Naturally, I wanted to go as Sleeping Beauty, but that costume would be a lot of work, and Peter Pan is easy and fun.  Although I might have to fight him for Tinker Bell.  Hehehe.  I love that I found people in Lyon who throw theme parties...it's like being back in Eugene and going to theater parties.  Plus costumes lead to great photos, and great photos are fabulous.  

Um...other than all that, it's still too cold to do anything and I think I'm sick again (what is this?  I do not get sick this often!), which is a bummer.  So I've been trying to find a balance between going out with friends and getting rest so that I don't spend Christmas couching up a lung or not being able to breathe.  So far, so good, and I'm feeling a lot better today than I have the past couple of days.  Good thing I got the box from my mom, though, because I definitely needed the emergen-c.  I seriously love whoever invented the stuff.

Well...speaking of trying to see friends, I'm going to a movie with Flo and Claudine, so I've got to get moving.  

Biz!!

brrrrrr

Wow.  It is COLD here.  Really, really cold.  Even in my room, which has a heater...I am in two long sleeve shirts and STILL I am freezing.  Or maybe I'm just still freezing for standing outside for like two and a half hours watching a soccer game in which no points were scored.  Not one.  And they just left it like that...no overtime...nothing.  Two and a half hours and I froze to death and I don't even get to celebrate winning OR be sad that we lost.  Now that is what I call anticlimactic.  For serious.  And now I don't even want to go out because it's too cold.  Even though it's a Saturday night and the last weekend that a bunch of my friends are going to be in town...the very thought of going anywhere near outside makes me want to crawl under the covers and never come out again.  I've decided I'm very pro the whole hibernation concept.  I mean, bears do it...why not me too?

Cozy comes in a box

I am quite a happy camper right now.  Yesterday, I got a package from my mom containing lots of love and amazingness.  I probably could have waited until Christmas to open it, but I was too excited, and because she had told me it was cozy stuff, which I definitely need lately because it is COLD.  Everything in this box was perfect (so thank you mamacita!!!) and I now have a new, cute, cozy long sleeve hoodie to keep me warm; a cuddly stuffed animal, which is nice because, if you know me, you know that I love stuffed animals; amazing coffee; emergen-c, a necessity in winter, especially when you work with kiddos; incense, and now my room smells like New Mexico and Christmas; yummy smelling soap; a really good CD, which I am listening to right now; a hilarious book about bananas and their evil plans, hehe; and part of my Christmas present for my host brother.  YES!  Best box EVER.  And it didn't get lost like the last one (which is still wandering around postal land somewhere...sad), so that is a definite plus.

Also, I rocked my portuguese test last week, and almost all of my exams are done, and the only class I have to attend between now and Feb 4 is portuguese because I'm pretty much DONE with this semester.  The only stress left is the 10-15 page paper I have to write for constitutional law...ugh.  But I have some time to procrastinate on that one for a while, so that's a good thing.

And now that I have a slightly crooked but beautifully decorated drawing of a Christmas tree hanging in my room, I feel like I can be in the holiday spirit.  As usual, I still have a couple presents to buy, but I'm honestly glad not to be doing the crazy stressful Christmas presents thing this year.  I'm only getting presents for my host family and my roommate, which is pretty much taken care of.  I love the whole presents under the tree, excitement of Christmas morning thing, but at the same time, it's nice to have a chill out kind of Christmas.  Especially because I know I'm gonna be really homesick on Christmas, and this way my friend and I can just kind of chill at home and drink warm drinks and eat cookies and miss home together.  And then go out and explore Lyon some if it's not too cold out.

Well...I am going to a soccer game tonight, and I need to get ready and straighten up my room a little so that there's room for my friend to sleep on the floor if she decides to stay the night after the game.  

Bisous!

Things I'm really loving about Lyon right now:

~Little French children that I work with

~Christmas tree in my room drawn by said French children

~Complete strangers who are amazingly friendly

~Dancing until 2 am

~Being able to find a bike, ride it, and drop it off at 2 am

I would love to write more about all of these things, because today was a very fabulous day, but it is 3am, and I have class in 6.5 hours and I need to get some sleep.  So goodnight.  Bisous.

Just another Manic Monday

Well, I just slept through my alarm, missing my second day of work at my new job. Way to make a good impression. But I'm not gonna lie, I'm kind of glad to be back in my bed and now I have a little time to catch up on things before I have to start my day.

First of all, clearly I have started a new job. I'm teaching English at an elementary school, which is pretty cool. The only unfortunate part is that the two schools I am working at are not even in Lyon and it takes me an hour each way to get to one and an hour and a half to get to the other. It is definitely going to be an interesting experience, though. Especially because the majority of the kids I will be working with are learning English for the first time. That makes my job easier and harder at the same time. On the one hand, I don't have to do all that much because on any given day I am probably only going to be able to teach them a couple words. On the other, if I talk in English, which I am supposed to do, they have no idea what I'm saying. I really do enjoy working with kids, though, so I think I will end up liking this job a lot. You know, once I atually get up in time to go to it...hehe

On top of starting the job last week, I also had three tests, one of which I wasn't entirely sure I would be having. The first was in my Constitutional Law discussion class. Basically we had thrity minutes to write about three different topics...kind of a short answer kind of thing. Not too bad. I also found out that, for the lecture class in constitutional law, I have to write an essay and turn it in by the 15th of January instead of taking the exam. A 10-15 page essay on something we've learned. I really need to start working on that...

Tuesday night was my exam for my socialism class. I really didn't know what to expect or how to study for this test. It is the only test, and therefore our only grade, and the professor told us that he would give us the choice of two essay questions, with a special pair of qustions for foreign students. He told us that one of the questions last year was "what is social-democracy?" That's not vague or anything. So a couple girls from my class came over before the exam and we looked over notes and ate lebanese food from the restaurant across the street (delish!). It turns out we had a choice of three questions and they were much more specific than last years. I think it went really well. The question I wrote on was "Social-democracy in Germany and travaillisme (basically, the workers movement) in Great Brittain. Try a comparison." We had two hours to write, and I actually had a lot to say and I think it turned out pretty good, so I'm feeling good about that one.

So then on Friday I had my first portuguese class in three weeks, and we had the test we were supposed to have three weeks ago, the first week of the strikes. That went pretty well, although I had spent a lot of time doing theexercises on new material that he had given us to do to make up for the missed class, and not a whole lot of time reviewing the old stuff. But all in all, not too bad. Written portuguese is going pretty well for me, even though I still have a hard time understanding it when I hear it, and I have some trouble getting the accent right. It's somewhere between a french and a spanish accent, but I'm having trouble finding the right balance. Luckily, the test was all written, so that ended up working out.

With all of this stuff going on, plus the fête des lumières this weekend, I am exhausted and have been sick since last weekend, and haven't had much time for anything else. Which I'm not sure is such a good thing. In terms of "how I'm doing," which my friend Caroline (one of two people here that I've talked to about my grandpa) asked me about last night while we were "studying" for test #4 that's on Wednesday, I don't even know. I haven't really even had time to breathe, much less stop and deal with myself. I would like to think that the fact that I've barely cried in a week is a good thing, but I'm not sure that's true. On Tuesday night, after the socialism test, I went out with a couple of girls who are here from California to have a drink in celebration of being done, and we sat ant talked for a good two hours and we got to the subject in a sort of round-about way and I sat there telling these two girls that I barely knew about it and Caroline almost started crying and I couldn't cry, which was a strange change from the month that I had spent crying a lot. And since then I've just been so busy that I don't have time to sit down and do my own thing. I did have something of an at peace, but mourning moment on Saturday night on my way home from the fête des lumières, which was good, but I kind of think I need to take more time to do that.

I do have to say, though, I have some of the most amazing people in my life and I am so thankful for them. I'm not sure what I would do without the great support and love I've been getting. My mom, of course, even though we haven't been able to talk as much as I would like because we've both been pretty busy and dealing with things. And my grandma, who is being amazingly strong through all of this. My dad, who I talked to for a while, and who apparantly sent me a letter, which i should be receiving soon, and which I'm sure will make me cry a lot but also be incredibly healing for me. My best friend, who made my mom muffins last Sunday and who has thought about coming out here in January just because she wants to see me (even if she doesn't make it because the logistics are kind of crazy and because I will be home for a while in February, it is amazing to know that I have a best friend who would pick up and come here more or less at the last minute just because she knows I am going through difficult times). GG, who has provided me with great music and tons of love through this whole thing, and who has just been an overall great friend. I love you guys all SO much and thank you for being there for me, even if it has to be from far away.

Well, now that I've finally cried a little bit and caught everyone up on my life, I suppose I should deal with starting my day since I have a bunch of extra time that I wasn't supposed to have today. I'm sure I can come up with plenty of stuff that needs to get done to fill the hours.

Bisous.

Fête des Lumières

Wow...I'm pretty sure tonight was one of the most impressive experiences of my life.  

To offer a quick history lesson, December 8 is the Fête des lumières (Festival of Lights) in Lyon.  The one sentence history is that it is essentially celebrated to thank the Virgin Mary for saving Lyon from the Plague back in the day.  The simplistic tradition is the the Basilique de Notre Dame de Fourvière (built in honor of the Virgin Mary) is lit up and the people of Lyon put little candles in their windows.  Of course, today things cannot be that simple, and the fête des lumières has become quite the spectacle.  It now lasts 3-4 days, and all the major monuments in town are lit up in some really fantastic way.  The main part of the celebration, though, is still on December 8, and the entire population of Lyon, plus a bunch of tourists, hit the streets and go out to see the various animations set up around town.

Walking around town was a little like the annual luminaria walk on Christmas Eve in Albuquerque (which I am going to miss terribly this year...hopefully I will get pictures *wink wink nudge nudge*)...only times a bazillion.  Everywhere we went was full of people, and most of the time I felt like I was just getting carried along with the waves of people.  I went out Thursday and Friday night for a little while as well, and I thought it was crowded then, but tonight was overwhelming.  I met up with Céline (my host sister from when I was here 3 years ago) and a couple of her girlfriends.  

We went first to Place Bellecour (essentially the center of town), where the statue of Louis XIV has been made into a snow globe, and their are neon signs on the base of the statue, which say "I Love Lyon" and "Only Lyon" (in English).  There is also a ferris wheel and there are kebab/crêpe/vin chaud stands all over the place and music and all kinds of stuff.  We spent at least 20 minutes trying to find another of their friends, and then took some pictures, and then headed in the direction of Hôtel de Ville.

We thought we were being really clever by taking a side street instead of the main road that runs between Place Bellecour and Hôtel de Ville, but it turns out that wasn't a very good idea.  There were a ton of people and it was pretty much impossible to move.  It would normally take maybe 10 minutes to make the trip, but it took us a good 30-45 minutes.  Plus, thanks to the motion of the crowd, we had to pass by the Théâtre des Célestins, which was the part I've really been wanting to see.  But there wasn't much we could do cuz the crowd definitely had it's own plans for us.  When we got to Hôtel de Ville, the crowds were even worse.  At one point, I was actually afraid for my life a little bit because we were completely coincé (stuck) in this little section of street and this guy decided to be clever and climb the scaffolding of a building.  In the process, he broke the neon sign of one of the stores and everyone started freaking out and then people were trying to go under the scaffolding, which made me a little nervous because of how many people there were pushing and shoving, and the possibility of the scaffolding not holding up.

We made it out alive and got to the Place des Terreaux, which is in front of Hôtel de Ville, and we oohed and aahed at the giant ball of stained glass that gets lit up from different directions and there are smoke machines and it's all very fancy.  I think I got some pretty cool pictures of it.  By this point, the girls were getting hungry and a little tired of being pushed around, so we made our way to the quais trying to find a restaurant or café or kebab shop that wasn't insanely crowded, but to no avail and we ended up wandering in the direction of Perrache, where Céline and her friends had to catch buses home.  It felt like we had been out walking around forever, but it was really only about 9:30.  They were ready to try to catch buses, though, so we kept going in that direction.  

After they left me at Perrache, I decided that I really wanted to go to the Théâtre des Célestins by myself because I had seen pictures of the light show there and it seemed really cool.  So, I stopped at the pancake shop at the Christmas market near Perrache to get some yumminess and energy to brave the crowd again, and dove in.  There were slightly less people at this point, but it still took me a while to make it from Perrache, across Place Bellecour, and to Célestins, where I stayed for a while taking pictures because it was just that cool.  Basically, they were projecting images onto the front of the building.  Using relatively simple images repeated over and over, they created king of a sliding puzzle effect.  I don't really know how to explain it, but it was really beautiful and I took pictures of all of the different patterns.  

Right about the time my camera battery started to die, they shut off the lights for a little while, and the crowd carried me off toward something else.  I was pretty much ready to go home, so I was making my way slowly but surely in that direction.  I ended up stopping at the hospital, the main court of which was filled with what looked like a vineyard, but instead of grapes there were lights, which changed colors.  It was pretty cool.  I hung out there for a while just kind of soaking in the atmosphere and thinking about my grandpa and having a very peaceful little moment.  Even amidst the craziness that was continuing around me, which was nice.

Finally, I got back out to the street, put my headphones, and made the trek home.  There were still SO many people out.  It was really quite amazing the amount of people I saw in the streets of Lyon tonight.  They were everywhere.

And that was essentially my night.  This description does nothing for the experience of being in that big of a crowd or experiencing these massive presentations of light and color and sound.  But I needed to write it anyway, and at least try to share it.  If you ever have the chance to come to Lyon, do it in early December and catch this.  Highly overwhelming and even a little frightening at times, but the experience is totally worth it.

I have a lot more to say, both about the Fête and abut life in general (because I've been crazy busy and unable to keep up--I'm sorry GG, I will try to do better so you have something to read on your daily persusals of this blog), but I'm starting to fall asleep, so I shall stop here and say à demain.  

Goodnight and GROS bisous!

hello to goodbye

Wow...the last 24 hours or so has been really intense for me.  Im still kind of running on adrenaline from last night and I am ridiculously excited about that, but then about two hours after I went to sleep this morning, I got a phone call that was, while not terribly unexpected, really upsetting and I really just don't know what to think, really.  My mom's been telling me I should write about the rough stuff that's been going on back home that has made being here so hard lately (which I've mentioned a time or two but not gone into).  I guess now is as good a time as any.

Forewarning: this is hard for me.  Really hard.  Bear with me if I ramble.

So this summer, my grandfather was diagnosed with lung cancer.  He started chemo (after a lot of uncertainty about the possibility and value of going through chemo) right after I left for France.  My grandparents have always been very present in my life.  Ever since I was about six they lived around the corner from me and we had steak dinners with them regularly, and they would babysit me when my mom had meetings, and we celebrated all holidays together.  And I have always seen my grandfather as this wonderfully worldly and strong person who has been all over the world and seen so many things.  Even this summer when he was pretty weak, he was stubbornly independent (source of much frustration for my mother) and very strong in his own way.  So it was really hard for me to even imagine him in a hospital bed in Manzano del Sol's care center, much less as weak as my mom has described to me in many long late night emails (which, despite being really upsetting at times, have been indispensable for me over the last few months).

Death is not something I've ever really had to confront, but it's also not something I am terribly afraid of.  I believe in a general interconnectedness in the universe.  I know that death is a part of living, and I think that in whatever way, people who die always stay with us.  But you can say that all you want until you have to confront losing someone who has always been in your life and who means so much to you.  So when emails from my mom started to talk about the inevitability of my grandpa's death, I kind of started freaking out.   I wasn't ready...and I REALLY wasn't ready to deal with it alone.  I'm not actually alone in any of this because I have amazing family and friends, but it's easy to feel like I am when they are all a third of the way around the world from me.

So that's what I've been trying to deal with while traveling around Europe and going to school and living in France and dealing with student strikes and rail strikes.  That's why I often get the urge to stay in bed under the covers all day long and that's why I sometimes have to fight the urge to burst into tears in class or on the metro.  And that's why when my phone rang at 8:30 this morning (just two hours after I crawled into bed), and i saw my home phone number part of me wanted to huddle down in bed more and not answer the phone, but I did answer the phone and I tried to pretend that my mom's voice was coming from next to me in bed instead of through a phone from thousands of miles away.

And I spent the day celebrating my grandfather's life doing something he would have loved.  I took a bus with most of the other Oregon students and some invitees (including Wei-Ching) and went to a small vineyard in the Beaujolais region run by this really sweet couple and we learned about wine tasting and ate an amazing meal, and then they showed us how they make break in this big brick oven.  It was a really fantastic experience.  

Despite the fact that I was celebrating grandpa's life in my own little way, I felt so strange hanging out with everyone and talking excitedly about the MC Solaar concert and getting to after-party with him and his crew--which I'm still really excited about.  As a sidenote, I kind of wonder at the fact that I was sitting in a VIP lounge in the Radisson drinking a cocktail and bise-ing MC Solaar while my grandpa was "flying away".  I know it's easy to read into things like this and look for universal connections, but it's kind of nice to think that maybe my grandpa was there in spirit nudging the situation along so that i could have that once in a lifetime experience.  Anyway, back to my train of thought...it was a very strange feeling day, because very few people that I was with had any idea of what I was (and have been) going through.  I'm not very good at making myself the center of what feels like pitiful attention...and I don't generally like to put my problems on other people unless I know that they are a part of that group of wonderful close people that I don't know what I would do without.  I don't know how to say, hey by the way guys, my grandpa is in the hospital and that's really hard on me, or hey by the way guys my grandpa passed away yesterday.  I mean...where does that fit into discussions about the strikes and wine and MC Solaar and whatever else it is that people my age who are studying in France talk about?  I haven't figured that out yet.

And so I have long email correspondences with my mom, and talk to her on the phone, and sometimes I talk about it to my friends back home on AIM, and I call my best friend, and I listen to the playlist I made called "Dealing", and I cry sometimes in my room, and I look forward to going home in February, and otherwise I try to experience Lyon and Europe and the universe to their fullest(s?) because everyone reminds me that that is what my grandpa expected and wanted me to do and that's what I'm here for and that's probably the best (if not the only) way to get through this given the circumstances.

And now I am going to go to sleep because I am emotionally wiped out and my body does not appreciate the fact that I got less than 3 hours of sleep last night.  

I feel like I should have some really deep ending to this...but I don't.  So there you go.

Holy shit

I apologize for the vulgarity but that's what comes to mind right now.

It's 6:30 am.  I just got home from something I'm still trying to convince myself really happened because it's just too much for reality.  The MC Solaar concert was last night and that in itself is amazing.  I have loved MC Solaar since French I at the Academy when we first listened to "Solaar Pleure".

To add to the amazingness, after the show we were hanging out and saw the guy who had opened for MC Solaar and so we went up and started talking to him in hopes of taking a picture and going on our way.  All of the sudden he was inviting us to the after party and then we were in this VIP area of their hotel drinking cocktails and then I was in a cab with my friend and MC Solaar and then we were at a club dancing until 6 am with his crew.  Seriously.  I do not have words to describe how amazing tonight was.  I just needed to put it out there that that happened before going to bed so that when I wake up I have some proof that I can look at and say, wow, that really happened.

And how I'm going to bed because I have to be at the university in 5 and a half hours to get on a bus and go to Beaujolais with the Centre Oregon.  So good night and OH MY GOD.

Bisous.  All my love.