Ça veut dire quoi?

Well, once again I am very behind on keeping everyone (aka my mother... Hi Mom!) informed on my European adventures and I'm sorry. Going through tons of photos can be exhausting! But, because I was asked to participate in the alumni photography show at my high school I was forced to do it, which means that you get to see some! I still have tons more to go through, but I figured that I would include these in the mean time.

I am returning back to the US 2 weeks from today, which is crazy! It seems to have gone so fast, but now looking at these photos from my time here some of them seem to be from another lifetime. The photos from Paris are from way back in October which seems so long ago now.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy them!

Vacation in Paris was absolutely wonderful! I wish I could show you all the pictures I have taken, but unfortunately, I don't have a cord to connect my camera to my computer!!! I realized this when I finally decided to get around to uploading them. I'll have to go to the store and buy something...buuut, that's going to have to wait until I get paid again. It was nice that we got paid right before vacation, but also NOT the greatest thing for learning how to budget this brand new pay check...

It was definitely the best trip I have had in Paris thus far: We went to the le Musée d'Orsay, le Louvre, le Centre Pompidou, Sacre Coeur, place des Voges, and plenty of exploring in other neighborhoods, which was definitely my favorite part. We, being me and my two friends Flora and Tamara, were able to stay with a wonderful host who showed us some areas and even drove us around at night in his car to see the city! It was really fantastic. I'll try to get some photos up as soon as possible.

Now I am back to work in Lyon, which varies every day from being funny/amusing, to the most frustrating experiences. But the kids are getting more used to me I think. Most of them greet me at school, which is pretty funny. I'm starting to see more people around town and that has always proved awkward; no one knows if they can talk to me in French, and they certainly don't want to try to speak to me in English!

Getting to know the city better has also been great - Lyon is really very beautiful. Some fun things I have done lately include going to my first European FOOTBALL game, which we, L'Olympique Lyonnais, WON (3-0). It was great. The best part of that experience was hearing the crowd cheer "LOL LOL LOLlol lollll" because they call the team "L'OL" for short. Another very Lyonnais thing I have done recently is attend the opening night of Beaujolais Nouveau. This is a festival that was created for the Beaujolais region to celebrate the new wine of the season. But, because it is brand new, (aka it has been in the barrels for like a week), it isn't very good AT ALL. I was watching a TV show and they had a top ten "flop" list, which included Beaujolais Nouveau. They explained: "There is only one thing worse than one glass of Beaujolais Nouveau wine, and that's two glasses." But there was a ridiculous pyrotechnics show and a parade with a  band and people carrying torches, and of course some good old French house music. Overall, both were very French experiences.

But, not to leave you hanging in the visual sense, here is a Timelapse film of Lyon - so you can really see how beautiful it is!

À plus tard,
Kendra

 Happy 1st of November everyone! In France, today is a "jour férié" so everything is closed and I am therefore, once again, confined to my house. I have plenty to do today though, because I am going to PARIS tomorrow!!! Gotta finish the laundry, clean the house, strategically plan my outfits, and pack! Luckily I FINALLY got paid!!! Seriously, thank goodness, because if it hadn't arrived today, I would have been toast.

Yesterday, as you all know, was Halloween, which they definitely do not celebrate the same as back home. It is starting to become a bit more popular because of tv and stuff, but there isn't quite the same build up. Also, since today is a holiday a lot of people just go on vacation. There were a lot of students out last night though, and it was a pretty fun night actually! Even if I didn't dress up. One thing that was the most amusing to me is that most people, if they do dress up at all, dress up as zombies or other forms of dead people. Pretty much everyone looks pretty scary, or attempts to - no slutty bunnies around here!

The students at school were pretty interested in hearing about Halloween, but I only got to do the presentation I made once - my favorite class got canceled last week, so they didn't get to see it, bummer. But they all love hearing about the food and the candy most, maybe I'm going to need to do more presentations on food... I just wish the teachers would help me out a bit more - most of them seem to use my presence as free time. I don't know what the students are learning, none of them have told me, and since I am only with most of them one out of two weeks, giving them homework is not really an option. Also, none of them told me what to prepare for the week we come back from vacation, so looks like they are going to have to do something on their own (am I being unreasonably defiant??).

Nothing much more to report, after three weeks of work I have two of vacation (rough life, huh?), but to be honest I've been a bit bored. I think I need to find more to do... definitely going to start getting on the museums (Gosh, I'm SO AMERICAN).

I will do a nice post about Paris though once I get back.

Bonnes Vacances!!

View from my Collège

My "main school" is a middle school, in French: Collège Jean Moulin. Middle school is 4 years here, including the US 6th grade to 9th grade equivalents, so I mostly work with 9th graders, or 3ème année (third year) students, and other high level English classes. It's been good so far! I only had one bad class, but I think it was caused by an exceptional circumstance - the students were all freaking out and the teacher was late, but I didn't figure out what happened because I was just trying to keep them quiet! No one told me what happened, so let's just hope it doesn't happen again. Not tryna deal with overly dramatic french teenagers.

As you can see, the view from the school is pretty boss (the picture doesn't do it justice). Jean Moulin is in the 5eme arrondisement, known as "Vieux Lyon," or "Old Lyon." Most of the downtown area dates back to the 12th century. It's pretty cool! This means my school is right next to some main tourist locations, like Notre Dame de Fourvière.


 

Main Entrance

Fouvière was built between 1872 and 1884, and it's still very active, which has lead to a strange combination of art over of the centuries. The picture on the right is of an icon of the Virgin Mary, but it was made in like 1998. It's super weird, and her backdrop is a really bad quality digital picture of some random landscape. All the mosaics in the main church are replicas of ancient scenes from the middle ages and stuff, like the first king of the Franks, but it has a strangely art-deco aesthetic. I didn't really like much about it, but there was this really cool astrological/calendar/clock thing. The picture on the left is of the lower chapel, the main church is undergoing renovations so you couldn't see anything, but it's still really big.

There is an AWESOME view of the city from there.



Next to Fouvière is the ancient remenants of the Romans' city at Lyon. This is the amphitheater, which is still in use! There are a lot of other buildings still standing near by and even another smaller amphitheater which the actors apparently used to practice in.

Looking at Fouvière and Vieux Lyon from Croix Rousse

2eme arrondisement

Croix Rousse is the hip part of town on a hill on the other side of the Saône River. It used to be where all the silk weavers lived/worked, because that used the big the big deal around here. Now they are all about being the "Centre Gastronomique." Unfortunately, this means that the french peeps go crazy for cream, butter, and meat. According to French people, these are the only food groups. Plus bread of course. And potatoes. AKA good luck trying to be vegetarian.

Last Sunday I went outside of Lyon to this small town named Bougey to "faire un petit randonée," or, "go hiking" with one of the English teachers from another school. He was a really nice guy, but clearly his "little hike" did not translate to a few hours in the countryside; we were there for 7. Walking, THE WHOLE TIME. Let's just say I didn't feel too awesome after that. At least it was really pretty. Bougey is wine country around here.

It was pretty cute... and very French.

A vineyard overlooking the town.

The Valley

DUH

Well that is about all I have been doing for now - I'm going to try and be more diligent posting because these big long ones aren't always the most fun. Later today I am going to an event for the film festival in Lyon, so that should be cool! The director of the film I am seeing, Final Cut Mesdames et Messieurs, György Pálfi, is going to be presenting the film! I also went to see Little Odessa this morning (directed by James Gray), and Tim Roth presented the film!

There he is!

Intense movie to watch so early in the morning, but it was very good.

Alright, À plus tard!

Bisous,
Kendra

But this time I'm in LYON!

And boy is it beautiful. I wanted to go on a grand picture-taking adventure today, but my battery was dead - womp womp. Tomorrow! Then I will be able to post some good pictures.

But in the meantime, here is a stupid list of things I forgot about France since the last time I was here:

1. Bathrooms don't have toilets in them.
2. Shower heads are hand-held, unless you want to sit the whole time.
3. Fork goes in your left hand, knife in the right, and they stay there.
4. French people use sounds as colloquialisms often - a lot of the time this = "fart noises."
5. They also say "faire peepee" when they need to go to the bathroom (imagine this from a 40+ year old... yeah, RIDIC).
6. I can't go to just one store to buy random things; toothpaste can be found at a super market, but you have to go to the pharmacy to get allergy medicine, and appliances require a trip to the ULTRA super market... aka, this is annoying.
7. Butter is a main ingredient. Paula Dean style, especially in Lyon ("La capitale gastronomique").
8. (speaking of bad ideas...) I've eaten bread and jam the past 3 mornings for breakfast. I'm going to buy some cereal this weekend for realz. I don't really understand how french women stay so skinny if they eat this same way, because we all know what happened the last time we went down this road, and it was a fat one.
9.Eurotrash! I really can't describe these people properly, you just have to see them - it's not even just the way they dress, it's their attitude and demeanor too. Most often outfits include tight and/or shiny things + faux leather, tans, and diamonds. Quite the sight. It's like a whole other level of "guido."
10. "C'EST LA VIE"

Ok time to meet some other assistants! Hopefully they don't suck. À Bientôt!

Biz,
Kendra

So I guess I am doing a really terrible job at posting; it's has been 21 days since my last post! And now this is going to be even more lame because I don't have the time to be super detailed since I am leaving for BERLIN tomorrow!!! Well technically we are staying in Paris for one night, and then leaving for Berlin on Tuesday morning, but whatever. I am really excited! I will have all sorts of pictures and stories when I return! We are going to be there for 3 whole days and 4 nights! And our hotel is in a really awesome location!

I went to Biarritz two weekends ago and that was really amazing and beautiful, and apparently like the Hamptons of France or something. There were 15 of us total staying in a hotel and it was right by the beach. It was so nice being near the water - I love the smell of the ocean, and finally my hair wasn't static-y! We layed out at the beach both days and enjoyed the hot weather and went out to a great dinner and club after, both of them right on the water!  It was so much fun and basically like a field trip for our normal group of friends to another city. I would definitely go back if I had time; it almost felt like Spain - there was even paella!

Well since I should be finishing internship applications I guess I will do a short update! haha.

So it has officially been three months since I arrived in France. That is such a long time, but it has really flew by! It is so weird to think of the time when I first arrived here. It was so cold and it was like no one lived here at all. Now that it is spring, besides there being more plants and trees alive, there are more people around and functioning! Now people open their shutters and you can hear people moving around in their homes when you walk around the neighborhood. Before it was always just so silent. It's really refreshing, and really makes me like the place more, which makes it difficult to think that I will be leaving right when it gets really nice and warm here. It's strange almost that I feel such a connection with this city after such a short time, but you really do adjust really quickly; I mean you just have to. I was basically auto-piloting myself to my bus stop the other day and when I noticed it was kind of amazing that I was doing that.

And while California and France are both western cultures, they are SO different. It is going to be weird adjusting back. I am so excited to see my family and friends again and be back in a more familiar place, but it will still be strange to not be in France, hearing French all the time, and baguettes, and cafés and the tram and all that. I'm excited to go back, but still sad to leave. Because really California is where I live; I really can't wait to have everything I own at my disposal again, especially all my clothes!

But no point dwelling on that now. I just need to enjoy the rest of the time that I have here. I keep forgetting that I still have Berlin and Southern France to look forward to! Both are going to be so amazing! I can't wait!!! :)