A week of repose

Before I start with the entry, let it be known that I have opened the comment setting on the blog. Anyone can leave comments--even if you don't have a blog. So, feel free to go through and visit the old entries and say something nice. Use discretion--not only 20 year-olds read this blog.

When I got back from Nice, I was in need of major down time. Traveling felt like less of a vacation and more like a strenuous math test I had been studying for all week. When I back to the Sanchez house, I felt like it was the end of a rough school week.

Thursday night, my friend Kathryn came over. She is really into surrealistic cinema like myself and is also studying Czech in school. That being said, I introduced her to Jan Svankmajer--a Czech director who uses stop motion and puppetry in his movies. We watched his interpretation of the story of Dr. Faustess. It was fantastic!

The next day, my friend Robin and I hit the bars to watch the France Ireland rugby game. It was interesting because there was an Irish bar down the street and tensions were high because half the people were rooting for Ireland, the other half rooting for France. France kicked Ireland's butt--why? One name--Chabal. Google it.

The following day, Robin and I made a day trip to Annecy. It was exactly like my other trip, paddle-boating, ridiculous deserts, ice cream, etc. Except, at the end of the day, Robin was nice enough to invite me back to her place for some Ratatouille. It tastes like Lasagna with lots of different types of peppers.

The following day, had friends over to watch another rugby game, this time it was Scotland vs. New Zealand. If you know anything about rugby, NZ doesn't lose. Ever. Especially not against a team like Scotland. By the way, NZ is owned by Adidas and they have the name "All blacks." They are pretty great which is why I loved to see my man Chabal (French national team) plow one of their players into the ground.

We followed that up by going to the Olympic Lyonais game. Soccer is one of my favorite things here in France--along with the bread and the public transportation. I love going to soccer matches and I find myself becoming more and more competitive over my Lyon team. I bought a scarf, but would like to have a jersey some day.

It's late at night, but the lights are so powerful at the field it seems like day.

Monday and Tuesday I explored the city. I spent my time out of the house as much as possible to give my family a little breathing room. When they weren't home, I did a lot of my own cooking. I made pizza from scratch and stuff like that. Nothing too exciting to mention.

Wednesday, I went to Geneva--my first out of country trip. Geneva was really great, but it rained the whole day. There was a church there that had been built over another church, which had been built over an ancient tribal burial/ritual ground. It was quite eerie, but we walked through the excavation and archeology site. It was fun, but the automatic tour voice in English was kind of ridiculous.
There was stuff in here from 2nd century AD!

The other great thing about Switzerland...

CHOCOLATES! One of these every few steps your take. Oh Lord, we had a hard time picking the one we wanted to buy from.

Anyway, we packed it home after a couple hours in Geneva. It's really pretty, but they don't use the Euro and we were careful not to exchange too much currency.

Geneva... cloudy

Infamous water spout

I didn't do anything to this picture. The clouds were like that. Pretty cool, eh?

Battlestar Galactica! The swiss Franc is doing poorly, so everything was pretty cheap in comparison. We all indulged. I bought this, the girls bought calendars with naked Rugby players.

Woo! Geneva!

Returning back to Lyon felt nice again. I brought my host family back some Chocolates. I think I finally won over Antonio, my host dad.

The next day I spent my time indulging in dorky American sci-fi and I baked a cake--from scratch. My host family really enjoyed it. I have also been reading the Boondocks in French. It's been pretty helpful for learning important phrases like, "leave me the hell alone!" or "would you like to borrow my fro-pick?"

I ended the night by going to an event at the town hall for American students. Yep--it was as awkward as it sounds. So a couple of us escaped after twenty minutes and went to a bar. It was one of the better times I have had out with friends since I've been here. After the bar, we went to an Afghan bar where you have to take your shoes off to sit down near the rug. There were people playing Afghan string instruments and playing drums on the floor. It was warm, friendly, and REALLY.... worldly. It felt a little forced, but I had one of the best pots of tea I've ever had. I will be returning for the tea--I'm sure of this.

So that brings us up to date. I feel like I could write an entire entry on this guy here named Morgan who is from Oregon. He has one of the most genuine senses of humor ever. He's really nice, sincerely curious about everyone, and it's kind of nice that I can get along with him because there are nearly no guys in my program. Even at the little party last night, I was one of ten guys in a room of nearly 100 people. It's not as nice as it sounds, actually.

Anyway, the weekend has arrived--not that it means anything 'cause I don't start school til the 8th of October. But, my friends who are going to other universities will be able to hang out late, so I am psyched to get started on the weekend.

Remember, you can all comment now. So leave some words of love. Keep the US nice and warm for me!

Nice was.... nice?

Okay, so it's been a really long time since I've gotten back from Nice. To be honest, I haven't been looking forward to writing this entry because I have very little to say about Nice. I wasn't "there" when I was traveling because my thoughts were elsewhere. I was homesick and all I wanted to do is go back to Lyon--which is at least somewhat familiar--and rest.

We got there, I was already tired. We found a relatively cheap place to stay that had a hotplate so we could cook our meals instead of going out. I made spaghetti because the French forgot that you put tomato sauce on pasta. In the morning, we went to Eze, which is surprisingly boring for how much money you have to spend up there. I got yelled at for taking pictures 'cause everything is private.

After Eze, we went to the beach. I found an internet cafe to catch up with some e-mails and I also tried calling a friend from an international phone place. It didn't work out.

At night, I went and watched the Barcelona and Lyon game at a bar. Barce kicked our but because they have Therry Henri and Ronaldhino... nuff said.

I got on the train in the morning for Lyon with someone else. Three others stayed on to see more of the south of France. I had had enough.

It was pretty. There were beaches. There was lots of English. It felt really touristy.

That's all I have to say, really. You can look at the pictures, decide if it's the kind of place you want to be at. There are nice beaches, cheap places to stay, and lots of aggressive men.

And now, pictures:

We're off to see the wizard of Eze


Sunny, rocky, oceany. Eat your heart out.

And finally, at the beach...

That's it for Nice. It's a lot like Marseille, but with rich people and no callanques.

I'm so LUCKY LUCKY

First, allow me to explain the title of this entry. While traveling in Marseille, we stayed in a one star hotel that still had a TV. While we were taking turns using the world's worst shower, some of us watched this French program that was a bizarre combination of news and MTV. They'd talk about some sort of pop culture, get in a heated debate over a soccer player's abilities, and then make an abrupt pause for a music video.

Needless to say, almost every video was American or in English. One of the videos was by a group called Lucky Twice, (very telling that their one hit, "Lucky", will probably be their entire career). Anyway, the stupid song is a piece of catchy Techno trash were the lyrics are horribly trite and lame. For example, the starting lyrics are: "Laughing through the day--thinkin' you are never boring." Without reason, this horrible song has ingrained itself in my limited brain space. It's been nearly a week since I heard that song and I can't help but walk around singing it--feeling like an idiot. So, to understand where I am coming from in the past week, you must understand that I've been telling myself OVER and OVER that "I'm so lucky lucky."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoP5K-yX220

Right after I got home from Grenoble, I learned that my friend Brendan has taken a trip to Marseille by himself and was going to traveling alone. Marseille being one of the spots I really wanted to visit, I offered to come out there and split the cost of a hostel, etc. A seemingly good idea, the rest of the Grenoble travelers made plans to come down and hang out with Brendan and we formed a traveling crew.

The next day we met at the train station and, for the first time, we all made the train. It was a two hour trip because our train was going 140 mph or something like that. I wouldn't think that's cool except now I can tell people that I've gone to the bathroom while traveling 140 mph on the ground. Yeah--we all pick strange things to brag about.

Arriving in Marseille, I noticed immediately that it was significantly poorer than Lyon. Much of the city is under construction, some of it just plain falling apart. It's spread out, the transportation system is outdated and inadequate for their population, and their is no glamour or Euro-chic dressing like there is everywhere else. We took the metro to Vieux Port and took in the fish smell. Meeting Brendan, he explained how his first night he followed a Scottish band around and they helped him get into really exclusive mob-run clubs equipped with hundreds of enormous bouncers.

Finding a hotel was as simple as looking in Lonely Planet (the traveler's bible), and finding a room we could all split for 12,50 euro a piece (maybe 15 bucks). We dropped our bags off and split up for different goals. Some of us went to the Callanques--where one can see a lot of the indigenous parts of Marseille. It was really beautiful in a strange way. Below are my post card shots.

Castle in the sky...
We sail tonight for Singapore!


To get to the Callanques, we had to take the Metro as far west as we could. Then, we took a bus line to the end of it's route. Then, we had to take a shuttle (which was an unmarked van that was hollowed out for crouching) all the way to the end of it's route where it dropped us off and didn't come back for two hours. As one would imagine, the trip to a place like that is full of rocky, twisty roads. That did not keep our driver from flooring it, having us tossed from one side of the shuttle to the other. On the way back, same deal. We were kind of comforted by stores and crowds for once as the Callanques were almost too authentic of an adventure for me.

Getting back to the main beach, we indulged ourselves in a lazy afternoon at the Mediterranean. Despite the fact that September is almost over, the water was warm enough for swimming. It was beautiful in a strange way because the beaches here are mostly stone and pebble beaches. If you want sand, you have to pay for it. You think I'm kidding?

Pebbles
Mediterranean sea. Salty... bleh.

We ended our day buying lunch at the Monoprix (grocery store) and having wine in our hotel room. It was a nice end to the day and it made it a lot easier to sleep. I got 11 hours that night, the most sleep I've had since I've been in France. In the morning... well, you know.

I'M SO LUCKY LUCKY

Then we went to Chateau d'If--the location of the story the Count of Monte Cristo. This was the first moment that I thought the trip to Marseille was really worth the effort. I love boat rides and being out on the sea. We had a lot of fun getting out to the island, except we made American asses out of ourselves when I encouraged Brendan to stand at the front of the ship and do the "I'm the king of the world" thing. Yeah, we stand out a little.

Oh Brendan...

At the island, we poked our heads around a beautiful historical monument. I couldn't help but feel a little like a narrator from the history channel walking through the Chateau, as if I should be walking slowly and talking to a camera about Louis' 40 visits.

Chateau d'If

Edmund Dantes himself.

After returning form the island, the group split as one stayed behind to check out the church on the hill. The rest of us piled into a hot, crowded train to Nice. With Marseille behind us, we wondered how Nice would be considering it was incredibly close.

Annec

Annecy:



So, because the French are terrific, I will never have class on Wednesdays. Ever. And this past Wednesday, I traveled to a place called Annecy, which is the Alpes region. We left in the late morning and returned around 9 PM. It was a day filled with beautiful skies, mountains, and lakes.

It kind of felt like the venice of the west. As soon as we got there, we were very hungry. We bought very big sandwiches of chicken bacon and "salade" with a balsamic sauce. They were pressed in a panini-maker which made them warm and delicious. We also had goat cheese chips, cold tomato soup, a bottle of wine, and the most absurdly delicious moose brownie ever.

We ate lunch at the park next to the lake.



After lunch, we decided to go paddle boating. It was the best call ever. We were out on the lake for a little over an hour and it was SO nice outside. I will now show you all pictures to make you insanely jealous:

Too bright


Mountains!

Big boat

Boat racing!


Anyway, we ended the day with a small meal of bread and butter, the tomato soup, and some cookies. It was wonderful.


GRENOBLE

Not quite as lovely as Annecy, Grenoble is a mountain town with many awe-inspiring images. Other than that, there is little to do in Grenoble so we moved on quickly.

We started the day off by eating lunch in a reputable small restaurant. For only 10 euro, we had half a chicken/duck and a plate of potatoes and cheese--the local specialty. It was delicious and alone, worth the trip.

After that, we climbed the mountain. Taking the pods to the top of the hill, we walked around for hours. We then returned to the hotel for dinner that we bought at the store. For dinner and breakfast food--only 5 Euro a piece. Not bad, eh? Finally, we ended the night with drinks in the city. I had a glass of Chartreuse that was about three times as much as they should have given me. It was delicious but no one else seemed to enjoy it. It did seem pretty heavy on the gin...

Anyway, we went to bed after exploring the city a bit pretty early. The hostel was only 19 euro an evening, so it wasn't so bad after all. We left the hotel at 11, bought last minute tickets back to Lyon at 11:21 and were home by 1 for Lunch. Tomorrow? Marseilles and my first time on the TGV. We may move quickly onto Nice or Avignon. Got to pack my bathing suit!

Here are some pics of Grenoble:

We had to take Pods to get there

Pods!

At the top of the first mountain

We got ambitious...

I love how everyone stays outside here!

Okay. that's it. I need to go back for tomorrow and charge this computer.

First week

Well, it appears things are really winding down here and we are in full swing of school and life. Esther, my friend from California, is all moved in. She's very nice and it's a lot of fun to help her with French (she's a first year student. this program will accelerate her French so quickly--i'm enormously jealous).

I already had to read a book (Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran). It's a movie, so check it out at blockbuster. I have five page paper due Monday... hip hip hooray. I have chosen my school (the Catholic University in Lyon) and I will begin direct exchange classes in the beginning of October. I will probably be taking an upper-level philosophy class in French.

Other than that, the food here is absolutely terrific as one might expect. It's all too expensive and I paid about 11 US dollars for a beer last night. It was kind of worth it 'cause I was watching Rugby. What an amazing sport. I have gone to a soccer game and Lyon kicked some butt. I will be going to another one soon because it's probably been the most fun since I've been here.

In other news, my friend has been the first victim of crime. Many of her items were stolen from her apartment last night and I feel just awful for her. We're going to grab lunch later and fill out some police reports. FUN! It's pretty abnormal for this stuff to happen here, so I guess everyone is totally baffled.

Also, yesterday I went to a Holocaust museum here in Lyon and got to speak with some of the members of the French Lyonaise resistance during WWII. It was really interesting but all of the old men were fighting over nit-picky details. It was a little funny to watch them scream at each other with French curse words.

Anywho, I bought the first season of the French version of The Office... that's right... French Office... some of the jokes don't translate real will into American culture. For example, the Jim character hides Dwight's character's things in cheese instead of jell-o. And the racial tension between Micheal (white) and Stanley (black) is turned into a white-arabic tension in the French version. Nonetheless, still very humorous.

That's about it for now. I've met some fabulous people here in Europe and some not-so-fabulous people as well. In general, I'm not letting it get to me and I'm enjoying my time with my host family so much.

Take care, les americains. Je vous aime, and I will talk to all of you soon! Ciao!

Bonjor, France...

Okay, some first orders of business:

My family--I live in a beautiful town house in the 6th district (one of the two richest districts) in Lyon, France. I have my own room and there will be a Californian named Esther who is moving in with me today. It will be nice to have another American here. I'm currently living with the Sanchez family--the mom works for French social security, the father buys all the vegetables for Lyon from Italy, the US, Belgium, etc. I have a little brother (17) Hugo, who goes to high school. They are all very youthful, (by this, I mean they use the word "shit" as a comma), and they love to jump up and down and scream at the TV during soccer matches. They're great people and I am sure I will have nearly no problems with them.

The ceilings here are absurd. In almost every building, they are at least 15 feet tall--usually a bit higher. Yes, everything is beautiful here but that is exactly how I expected it. The only thing that's not so great is that Lyon lies in a gigantic ditch in France and all the clouds fall and settle right here. You may notice in my pictures on Facebook that it's very cloudy. I'm afraid it will be like that every other day. Otherwise, the sun is out and it's absolutely perfect outside.

Phone--Next order of business regards my phone. What a wonderful time I had going from shop to shop looking for the cheapest phone I could find. I found one that weighs about as much as the bacteria on it for about 29 Euros (aprox $39.50). There are two options when buying a phone: plans and pre-paid minutes (called Mobilcarte here). Plans are nearly impossible to cancel and you need a carte du sejour (kind of a green card--i wont have one for another two months) to get one. Most people recommend the pre-paid for Americans because its easy to cancel. Unfortunately, phone service here costs SO MUCH MONEY. Let me spell it out for you:

Pros to French phone service:
-Whether you are on a land line or a cell phone: incoming calls, messages, text messges, etc. are all completely free. You can talk all day and night if you want.

Cons:
-Nearly impossible to get or cancel your phone service.
-Costs way too much money either way.
-I paid 50 Euros (nearly 70 dollars) for about 2 hours of phone time that I can use within the next 4 months. Or, I can simply use 700 text messages.
-You get charged extra money for calling a land line from a cell phone or for calling a cell phone form a land line.
-There are far too many options for how completely awful the service is. It's a lot like someone laying about 300 blunt instruments on a table and asking which one you'd prefer to be beaten to death with.

Anyway, my number is 06 42 23 71 51. If you are dialing from the US, you need to dial 011 first and drop the zero at the beginning of the number. Make sense?

Public Transportation--On a lighter note, traveling will be really cheap and easy within the city. There are many different options to take here. There's the metro, the tramway (same deal, just above ground and goes a lot slower), and the buses. There's also a bike system I can use if I pay 1 Euro a year. I'll definitely be getting the bike pass any day now.

Alcohol--I know some of my college friends are wondering how absolutely trashed I've gotten. I hate to disappoint you but the only beverage I've had here has been water. A couple friends have bought what they thought was beer but only turned out to be a watered-down version of Natty Lite. That's right... watered down... natty light. I said it.

I don't think I will be drinking too much here. I'd like to get some wine, and I think I'll do that in moderation.

Anywho, it's the weekend which means it's time to go out with friends and see the city some more. It's easy to get around and it's very safe. I'm not really worried about anything too much here except not having the cash to get around. But, I have a metro pass for the month of September so I'm going to go make the most of it right now.

Take care my US friends and family. Stay safe. Don't be afraid to day dream.