College, Friends, and God: Summer...a distant memory

60 degrees and below this week. 50 degrees and below next week. The warmth of the sun on my face last week now seems like a dream, a dream that I would like again, but have been forced to wake up from and face the reality of this cruel cold world. Nonetheless, France is enjoyable whether my feet feel like they are going to fall off or not. The past week has been a productive one. I have finally met some French people. The past month has been filled with my ever reliable Californians and other International students, but I was really getting worried that my French would really never improve because all of them speak English. So, two weeks ago, I decided to take a step forward. I answered an ad of a French girl looking for an native English speaker to exchange language lessons with. To say the least, she is absolutely amazing. I love all my conversations that I have had so far despite my lack of vocabulary and my struggles with grammar. The topic is always interesting and its fun teaching each other slang in our respective languages. She even invited me to a "petite soirée" tonight and I was introduced to many of her friends and her fiancé.

On to a more depressing subject...I am HOMESICK. I miss the people honestly. I miss you people back in California reading this right now. I also miss the food you're eating. I wish there was a super cheap plane that could just fly me back every weekend, but then I suppose this wouldn't be a total immersion program if I could just go home when I wanted. Don't get me wrong though, Lyon has quite a bit to offer and I don't think I would want to go home early if I had the chance just because I know that I have this once in a lifetime opportunity to embrace these experiences. Not to mention meet new people and create new networks which I am sure will come in handy in the future. If there is one thing I could change though, it would be the amount of strikes that go on in this country. There is a strike for everything and anything. Masses of people will gather in an area and literally march all through town. All the while they strike, they also interfere with the public transportation system and make it near impossible to get from place to place. I couldn't even get to class today!

Alrighty, it has been a long week. I have barely had enough sleep all week and have had way too much alcohol (which isn't very much at all if you know me.) I will leave you with a few pictures of Lyon. I expect the next blog will have a few pictures of the autumn themed food I am planning to make. Stay tuned.