my new favorite food

RACLETTE. It's what's for dinner.

It's kind of like fondue, but more delicious. You need a special little machine that melts the cheese in individual pans which you then slather onto your choice of cured meats (saucisson, prosciutto, etc) and boiled potatoes. According to my host mom, it's a specialty of the Haute-Savoie region, where I also had the ridiculous pleasure of eating tartiflette, a mix of cream, potatoes, and bacon (basically raclette but already melted and all mixed together). I feel like I weigh 1000 pounds, but it is SO worth it.

la vita è bella

Still recovering from a busy weekend in Torino. The city was a lot bigger than I expected it to be (probably bigger even than Lyon) and it seems like we chose the right weekend to go: there was a huge festival that featured stalls with regional farmers selling their wares, which meant a Sunday lunch feast like you wouldn't believe. Torino's also jam packed with museums, of which I only got to three: below you've got some pictures of the inside of the Palazzo Madama, once the seat of the royal family of Savoia. I'm thinking about sticking around Lyon for the next few weekends since it's literally been a month since I've done so! I'm all traveled out for the time being...

broken.

Tonight was one of my most awkward here at the Pellet home. Neither my oldest host sister nor my host brother were at home for dinner, so there were only 5 of us at the table. My two youngest host sisters (aged 8 and 10) were pulling what seemed like the normal antics, but the parents were especially on edge - even going so far as to hit the two of them on the back of the head. Both my host parents hit them each once, at the table, but it didn't really change anything about the way they were acting.

My host mother is an aggressive character - earlier, I scuttled into the kitchen to get a cup of tea since I've been feeling under the weather today. She told me off for not dressing appropriately, calling it idiote that I wasn't wearing a scarf inside the house. I was a bit taken aback that she would talk to me that way, but perhaps that language isn't quite as strong in French as it is in English?

At any rate, I'm pretty excited about my weekend trip to Turin tomorrow. I'm going with a group of American girls, only one of which I actually know. But it doesn't matter - I'll be thrilled to be at Italy again.

I must say that I feel quite guilty for spending as much money as I am on traveling when the only news you ever hear these days is that the economy is a mess. Am I being a good global citizen by not witholding my spending, or should I be more prudent about where my money is going?

3 countries in 3 weeks? systems are go

Turns out blogging is hard when you travel. And when you watch lots of TV shows online.

I made my first big solo trip two weekends ago to San Sebastian, Spain for their annual film festival. The city is absolutely gorgeous; once the beach getaway for the royal family, it remains a ritzy vacation spot, but also a hangout for Basque surf bums.


While I certainly had some butterflies in my stomach about traveling alone, everything went fine. The weirdest thing about going solo is eating -- although luckily, I was saved by tapas and bounced from one café to another and only eating one tapa at each.

Last weekend, I finally met up with my friends who's studying in Menton for a weekend in Avignon. While the weather was gorgeous, it was colder than we thought!

And now I'm planning a weekend away in Torino, Italy. I miss Italy so much and now that I'm surrounded by French people 24/7, I zone in on Italians the way I used to with French people back home in the States. I've met some lovely students from Bologna at the university, so hopefully I'll be able to continue practicing my italian with them.

Finding the Gaul within

Patrimoine. Loosely translated, it means "cultural inheritance" or "heritage". But here in France, and in Europe more broadly, patrimoine holds a significant weight that is difficult to describe. Evidence of this are the annual "Journées de Patrimoine", held this weekend, which open the doors of every site that could possibly be linked to the development of culture to the public, free of charge (for the most part). Thus, the last 48 hours have been chock full of historical and cultural enrichment, and thanks to all the walking I've done, I really feel like I know Lyon a lot better. To give you an idea, here's a quick recap of how I spent my weekend:

• Standing on the stage of a 19th century theater considered to be one of the most beautiful in France
• Hiking up the ruins of a 2000 year old Roman amphitheater - where productions are still staged to this day
• Getting a private guided tour of the Basilica that graces every postcard of the city
• Listening to a cello concert in the cloister of nearly 400-year-old hospital
• Riding an escalator past the orchestra pit at the Opera House
• Wandering through the hallways of a former military storehouse - now turned into the uber-modern School of Fine Arts
• Learning about the architecture of a wheat reserve built in 1728
• Walking along the top of a sixteenth century fort built under the orders of Louis XII
• Climbing the gorgeous staircase of the City Hall annex, which housed a middle school in the 1600s

And to think I only explored 2 arrondissements!

Mi ha rotto il cazzo, and other stories from the first week of class

When they tell you that French universities are disorganized, they are not exaggerating. It's three days into the first week of classes, and schedules, room numbers, and even course descriptions are changing left and right. I finally received my carte d'étudiant on Tuesday, bringing to an end the week-long quest that was gathering all the necessary documentation. And I thought the hard part was over.

As French students really don't have a choice when it comes to the courses they take (they pick a major and a minor, and every class for every semester is already pre-determined), it's pretty tough for foreign students to 1) find out the schedule of classes since French students don't need to work out their schedule and have to go to whatever classes are given to them - no matter when they find out when they take place 2) know what the subject matter of a course will be - they're pretty much all titled modern or contemporary Literature/History/Geography/Philosophy since, once again, it doesn't really matter to French students what the class is about, since they have to take it regardless 3) know how many credits each class is worth, because to french students, as long as they complete the required courses for their major, they will have the right number of credits.

That said, it is unsurprising that my adventures this week included: skipping a class in order to finally get my carte d'étudiant - only to discover that my student ID number (indicated on the card) wasn't working to give me internet access, sitting through a class about the theory of genre without understanding a word the professor said through her thick accent - and later realizing it was worth only a pointless 2 credits, and walking in on a Translation "Cours Magistraux" (lecture) -- only to realize it was being conducted in German.

This evening, my spirits got picked up by two lovely Italian girls, Veronica and Valentina, whom I met while unsuccessfully trying to decipher the schedules outside the Sécretariat. Valentina invited me to her birthday dinner this evening, where we had a delicious (albeit expensive) meal of lyonnais specialties in a typical "bouchon" - a brasserie à la lyonnaise. The two are heading back to the University of Bologna to take their exams, so I hope we still hang out after they come back. 

Annecy, and the craziest parade the world has ever seen

Orientation ended last Thursday night with a "soirée pub" organized by the OIP equivalent of Lyon 3. It was spectacularly awkward, especially with a history professor shuffling his way into our dancing circle after a few beers. With the day off on Friday, I decided to visit the Musée des Beaux Arts (free with a student ID card) which is housed in a gorgeous 17th century abbey. On Saturday, it was raining non-stop, but that didn't stop me and two of my friends from taking a day trip to the lovely little city of Annecy. It is the capital of the Haute-Savoie department (Savoy was once an independent entity and included parts of Switzerland and Italy) and rests on the banks of a beautiful lake. As a result, the old town has two canals running through it, leading some to dub it the "Venice of France". Annecy is a short 2 hour train ride from Lyon, and only 20 miles away from Geneva.

Luckily, the weather cleared up today just in time for the Grand Défilé of the Biennale de la Danse, Lyon's twice annual dance festival. The parade is the centerpiece of the festival, which continues until the end of the month. Each act was as breathtaking as the last, featuring innovative modern dance unlike anything I've seen before. According to the festival's website, it is the largest choreographed parade in Europe, and featured over 4,500 dancers. The costumes were absolutely incredible. Here are a couple shots from the day. As always, you can find more on my Photobucket site.