So I figured that I would write one blog post before I am off to the South of France! Tomorrow morning, Isabelle, Maggie and I are leaving for Marseille, Cassis, Nice and Monaco :)

This weekend was filled with a lot of walking and even more amazing food. Isabelle came all the way from Thiers to visit and cooked up a storm! In return, we took her on a tour of city and enjoyed the beautiful weather. The leaves are also beginning to turn which made it soooo much more beautiful.

While in the Parc de la Tete d'Or, we saw several things including synchronized pelicans and wedding photo shoots!

Today, Isabelle and I went to church at the Basilique Notre Dame (the big church on the hill that I showed in a previous blog). Afterwards we visited the ruins of an old roman theatre and then walked through Vieux Lyon to pass by an Artist's Exhibit and a Fresh Farmer's Market along the river!

So it was a great weekend...and I'm looking forward to an even greater week in the South of France! I promise to take lots and lots of pictures.

Until next time...

Megan

Apartment photos...enfin!

Voila mes photos! We finally finished making this place look like a home...and so I can now show you the photos!! To see the rest of the photos, click the link on the right...

It feels so great to be finally settled :) It is getting much colder her by the day, but I am sure that it is even colder in Canada!

All the kids in my classes are so cute. Most of them are around 17 or 18, but they seem so much younger than me! It's just weird because I feel like I was 17 just yesterday.

Last night, Maggie and I went to see a French movie called "Meres et Filles." It was a really good movie, and we both found it a lot easier to understand than we had thought it would be.

So everything has been going really well! I hope that you like my appartment!!

Until next time...

Megan

Soooo the last week has been quite busy. They weren't kidding when they said that you would face a "paperwork nightware" in the first few weeks. Im convinced that the French people invented paperwork.

So other than struggling to activate my bank account at the oh-so-confusing bank machines, getting in trouble on the train for not stamping my ticket and having to go back to the train station several times to bring various necessary papers, the week was good!

I have posted some photos of the train station where I am teaching, in Amberieu. It is definitely a very cute train station and a very cute town, but I am glad that I am not living there as it is quite small!!

This past Saturday I was invited to my future roommate's current house for an Ethiopian dinner! As you can see from the picture, it was certainly a feast! It was an amazing meal and my first time trying Ethiopian food!

Just tonight, we signed all the paperwork for our new apartment and finally got the keys! I have not posted photos yet because I want to show you the apartment when we have finished decorating it. So my next post, I promise some photos of my new place!

Until next time...

Megan

How many English Assistants can you fit into a bar?

Well, about 60 apparently!

So on Friday night, around 60 of the English Assistants all working in Lyon met under the tail of the horse at Place Bellecour. And somehow we were able to find a place where we could all sit! We ended up at a patio right beside a cathedral (see pic).

It was here that I had my first glass of Beaujolais...and this made me very happy. If any of you are red wine enthusiasts, it is definitely worth trying some of this stuff :)

At the end of the night, myself and 4 other assistants took a cab back to one of their places (one of the only ones who has actually found a place to live already!) And after a great sleep, we all got up and went back to Place Bellecour to meet up with some more people and then it was off to the Zoo at le Parc de la Tete D'Or!

So all in all, it was a great birthday/post birthday. Looking forward to great week!

Until next time...

Megan

Birthday Blog

As most of you know, today is my birthday! And so far it has been a GREAT day!

First of all, I didn't have to work today....awesome-ness. AND when Amy got home from work, she brought me a present that one of the teachers sent me. AND his daughter made the wrapping paper herself. even more awesome! (see pic)

Maybe I should talk a bit about my first day at school yesterday. All of the teachers were so nice, I worked with 4 different classes and it basically just involved the students asking me questions about myself or Canada! Sure, I was asked about igloos and caribous, and if i play hockey/watch hockey/love hockey. I think they were a little disappointed when I told them that I do none of the above!

So the first day was really good...I will be working with 7 teachers in total, mostly just helping to prepare the students for their oral english exams at the end of the year! I have a feeling that I'm really going to enjoy being on the other side of that table for once!!

As soon as I got home from school, I had to leave right away to meet up with Maggie to see the apartment that I had mentioned in my last post. I somehow was able to make out what I wrote on the corner of that newspaper! And I am sure glad that I did.

The apartment is in a really nice neighbourhood in Villeurbanne, just beside Lyon. It is not far from the main train station and just a subway ride away from the downtown. The apartment itself has a combined living/dining room with walk out to balcony (man, I sound like a real estate agent!), 2 good size bedrooms and a kitchen. THe rent is really reasonable too and everything is included (even unlimited phone calls to landlines in 80 countries...including Canada of course!!)

I of course forgot to take photos of the inside...but there are a few of the outside and I will take more next week when we go back to finalize everything and post them for you all to see!

I've also added a photo of what im eating at the moment :) Very French!

Until next time...

Megan

Second day in lyon...and oh the adventures!

So my first day in Lyon was pretty uneventful. I arrived at around 10:30 am actual time (4:30 am my time) and I actually felt pretty good! The jetlag hit me a little later in the day...hence the use of the term "uneventful".

NOW, day 2 is one for the story book.

I got up early-ish from my pull-out bed in the mezzanine (wikipedia: a "mezzanine" is an intermediate floor between main floors of a building) and i began to look for some apartments on line to call and make appointments! After a few hours, I had only one phone number and no one answered...good start.

So I then decided to leave the apartment hunt for the time being and when Amy (the teacher im staying with) got home from school, she took me to get a bank account.

The dude we met with was SCEPTICAL to say the least. He did not want to give me a bank account to save his life it seemed. He wasn't even sure what to do with my passport. But Amy is very convincing, so in the end he did! But then their server was down and it turns out I have to go back there tomorrow to finalize seal the deal.

Next stop: cell phone store. The guy there didnt even talk to me, just to Amy (im pretty sure he was hitting on her, flirting is the same in any language) but in the end, i have a working cell phone only with no minutes left as of now because of what surpassed during the rest of the day!!

So by this time im reallt not frustrated at all...this is to be expected...im finding it amusing actually.

So then i head down on the subway to meet Maggie, the girl i am looking for a place with. When I got there, I wandered around Place Bellecour which is basically like a square in between two rivers and its reeeally beautiful. You can see some of the photos at the beginngin and ill upload all of the photos to my facebook page.

While walking around, I noticed in particular the style of the french people. The woman are VERY well dressed, but some of the men...well let me just paint a picture for you: middle-aged male, tight white leggings, tight white tank top, c'est tout. yeeeah.

So then i met Maggie (the girl I'm looking for an apartment with) and we got some newspapers to look at ads and found a cafe to sit at and discuss our immediate future... so that was all find an dandy...right up until i needed to get home.

Now keep in mind that where im staying is quite far from the downtown...no walking possible, and its uphill. So i trek back to the nearest subway stop, go down, buy a ticket, and then find out its blocked off. And by blocked off I mean there are liek 5 big burly french men standing only at the entrance i need (not the other 8) and are giving me a look like "if you pass, i'll eat you". So to avoid being their dinner (it was about 8 by this time and the french eat late), i instead sucked up the fact that I just wasted 1,6 euros and went back up to the street.

On the way up there, I get my first phone call on my "mobile". The woman on the other end is all like "you called about my apartment?" and i am CONFUSED because i have no idea who this is and how she got my phone number. Im thinking that this is some miracle from God and this lady knew exactly that she had to call my cell phone and tell me about her apartment. Well, this is not the case. Turns out she called the house I'm staying at and they gave her my phone number...so much less interesting. But please imagine me in the middle of the sidewalk, struggling to find a pen to write down the address of this place, scribbling on the corner of a newspaper i found in my purse, still confused as to how this lady got my number...

So anyways I walk to the nearest subway line about 4 blocks up, and it's blocked off too. Oh and the last bus leaves at 7:15 and its 7:26. So i call Amy.

She says to take a taxi, luckily i have cash on me. So hailing a cab is not the same here apparently... you actually have to go to a taxi station to get a cab, makes sense because otherwise i think ppl woudl get killed in the street. So i find the station which is not that far and there are no taxis. know why? because of the strike...everyone in the city is taking taxis...obviously.

Anyways while waiting i start talking to an older man who is waiting ahead of me and he asks me where im going. turns out he's on the way and suggest sharing a cab...good news! Way to save some money. Finally a cab comes and we both get in and i guess the cabby misunderstood and only finds out 10 mins into the trip that were going to separate places. He DOES NOT like that at all.

So he starts getting into an argument with this other french man in the cab with me and im trying not to laugh because the cabby is all like "what do you think this is, a public service?" and the man is all like "well, yeah..." So they're yelling and the man is telling the cabby that im not from here and he is giving me a bad impression of "les lyonnais" (ppl from lyon) and finally the cabby is like watever let's go.

So the man finally gets out at his stop and 15 mins, 25 dollars, an angry rant from the cab driver and a big tip later, i arrive at my temporary home.

And here I am, writing all of this down so that I do not forget the details and so that I can share bit of french culture with you!! I miss all of you and I will keep you updated as much as possible!

Until next time...

Megan