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.