gare - colline - radiographie: toussaint bis

the second half of the toussaint holiday was spent in lyon, the third largest city in france, aka the paris of the south. i loved it.

so the day after will peaced out, mandy and i bid adieu to the 'bourg and headed to Belfort, a small town in between the 'bourg and lyon, where we were planning to spend the night and taste the local specialty, a raspberry tart thingy. however, we failed to connect the date - 1 nov, toussaint - and the french style of totally shutting down for the day - which translated to: we arrived in belfort, walked (it was more of a hike, but it was a nice day, so thats fine) out to the hostel, only to find the reception was empty. they knew we were coming around noon, but failed to mention that the desk was closed during the day, so our options were either hang out in the sketch hostel (it was in a foyer de jeunes travailleurs = less than awesome anyway) until 16h or catch a train to lyon. we opted for the latter, even though that meant that we had to wait until 18h45 for the next train. soo we spent all saints day in a coffee shop, a kebab joint and in the gare, drinking instant cappuccinos. (love those things, so much happiness for 1E) it wasnt that bad, though - we caught up on our journals, wrote postcards and made friends with some old dudes in the kabab place. i love our random friendly encounters! in the month that ive been here, ive chatted with more locals all over the place than i did during the entire semester i was in paris. it's the little things that make this stay totally worthwhile - and the compliments on my french and the shocked faces when they learn that we're AMERICANS speaking french, no less!

so we finally arrived in lyon and decided to splurge on a taxi, since it was late and we didnt know too much about finding the hostel from the metro. the ride was beautiful - lyon is situated between the Rhone and the Saone, and all the old buildings were lit up and magical at night. i instantly fell in love.

the hostel was fine, although the girl that checked us in was pretty rude and there wasnt much hot water...but it's located in the vieille ville, atop a steep hill, with an amazing view of the city.
we ran into another eng assistant, Matt, that we'd met at orientation - he works in Privas, a tiny town in the Ardeche, but was also vacationing in Lyon, so it was nice to swap teaching stories with him.

sooo lyon was chill - on friday, mandy and i walked pretty much all over the city, starting with a market that was open everyday and was perfection - minus the shockingly revolting pigs' heads that were just hanging for sale in the stalls and the full chickens, heads and tail feathers included. we bought fresh groceries nearly everyday and either cooked at the hostel or picnicked. we also made friends with the dried-fruit-tapendae vendor (he gave us moroccan candies bc we're cool) and a wine maker from St.Emillion, near bordeaux. friday afternoon we met guiliana at the gare and went out for dinner and drinks in the vieille ville. and trekked up our hill. sat was chill (guili taked forever to get ready, but we love her anyway!): a walk in the old town, more markets (books!), big city shopping (H&M, Zara, all love), chocolate shops and italian cooking, grace a guili. that night we met some other italian guys in the hostel and just stayed in, chatting with them. sunday was grey and quiet, but the musees were open, so after picnicking in a park and playing on a jungle gym (me), we checked out the Musee des Tissus et Arts Decoratifs (lyon was a major player in the french silk industry) and le Musee des Beaux Arts (gratuit!). i went for a walk to see the city lights at night, guili cooked for us again, and then one of her friends from grenoble, an arabic assistant from syria, met us at the hostel and we chilled and talked french lit.

monday was the dreaded visite medicale day, but first mandy and i went to check out the roman ruins and a cathedral (known locally as the upside-down elephant) that were near the hostel. i never received the convocation from my school, but i knew that all the other valence kids had their visites, so on friday mandy and i found the office and i confirmed that i was in the system and had my visite on monday, as well (i guess my letter got lost in the mail or something...*tear*) so there was a mini Drome reunion party of all the assistants not from the EU - americans, new zealanders, canadians, mexicans, fun times. we were in and out very quickly, surprisingly, since everything else seems to take forever here...the exam consisted of eyes, height, weight, fam history of diabetes, vaccination record, breathing/pulse, and ... the mysterious x-ray. naked. ugh. i have no clue what they were looking for, the doctor hardly glanced at it for more than 5 seconds. but it was random and now i have a funny souvenir. and it's totally hanging on my wall, never mind whether it's creepy or not.

so will was part of the reunion, and the three of us (guili had taken a train back to grenoble that morning) separated from the rest of the group, who were being indecisive about getting food or shopping, and went to grab quiches and hang in a park. will busted out his guitar and we entertained some french kids with johnny cash, green day, oasis...and of course some improv en francais, a propos de la visite medicale. it was probably the highlight of the entire trip, and i almost peed my pants laughing at, like, three points. the train to valence was super crowded, but will and i managed to sneak into a first class cabin (!) and watch the first half of "Superbad" on his laptop. wonderfulness comes in the little things.

soo toussaint traveling was good times, internet withdrawl, doctors, markets, and randomness. the best kind of traveling!