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!