Ça veut dire quoi?

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!!