Beaucoup de choses!

Ah! I missed a day... And I was doing so well! C'est la vie. Lots to catch up on!!! Met a bunch of other assistants yesterday--six of us wandered around Vieux Lyon yesterday afternoon being totally blown away by the view of the city from the Fourvière, which is a huge old church that looks out over the whole city from atop a GIGANTIC mountain of a hill. (We took the funiculaire up so we wouldn't die from the heat and walked down.) Lyon is just soooooo beautiful, and I still can't believe I'm actually LIVING here. Here's my attempt at a panoramic shot of the city with my camera...

We got some delicious lunch, although I can't say the same of the dessert. Patrick, another assistant, and I were feeling adventurous and ordered l'île flottante (floating island), described to us by the waitress--well, translated via Patrick--as whipped egg whites in sweet cream. Um, suffice it to say, it was basically a floating marshmallow chunk in a yellow-ish sauce. Not my favorite French dessert and one I'm going to steer clear of in the future but hilarious all the same. :)

Some people came; some people left; a few of us went out for a delicious pizza dinner and then got beers (only one euro!) and went to sit down by the river. Apparently it's legal to just walk around with open bottles here--ah, Europe! I have to admit that we mostly spoke in English, but here's hoping that will change as more of us get comfortable speaking in French... Made it home without once consulting my map, which was good since it's basically falling apart at the seams!

I went off to my school this morning to officially sign in, but I didn't end up being able to meet up with my teacher. I did get complimented on my French by the school disciplinarian who thought I was from London! So I was feeling confident and ended up just walking into a BNP bank near my school and opening a bank account with very little trouble!!! Well, there was something going wrong with their computer system so I couldn't sign up for my bank cards or a checkbook yet, but I'm going back tomorrow to do that and to get my relevé d'identité bancaires, which I need to get paid and to set up my account to pay rent and to basically do anything at all with my money. But otherwise, it was really easy and the guy who helped me was super nice!

Zipped home for lunch since most of the metro lines are working now and cancelled my bank appointment at the branch near here for tomorrow. Also popped in at the grocery store to get some bread and found this amazing juice that's a mixture of raspberries and grapefruit! For those of you who don't know, those are basically my two favorite foods so it was kind of amazing to find them in a juice together! Never heard of anything like that before. The jury's still out on whether I like it or not--tastes a little different. Had a delicious lunch and ran into Damien before I had to leave again. He had gotten the mail and I received my results from the written French test I took at the university last week (in case I want to take French classes, which it turns out I can't since I'm babysitting every night). I was all nervous that it was going to come back with me at a basic beginner level, which would be really sad and pathetic after taking 8 years of French and studying in Paris. But never fear--I got a ranking of C2, which is "Experienced Autonomy", the the second highest out of the six levels!!! I'm sure it would have been different if there had been any oral component or listening comprehension, but it's still nice to know that I can read and write French at a relatively high level!

Then I trekked back out to my second school, which is out in the middle of NOWHERE. Literally. It's not even on my map. I took one of the metro lines to the bitter end north of Lyon and then, because of the strike, had to walk through this random suburb/forest area for 45 minutes. Thankfully there were signs for the school or I would have been completely lost. It took me longer than I thought so I ended up being a little late meeting the teacher. And apparently on the phone earlier this week the secretary had told me to meet a different teacher at 10 this morning. Riiiiiight. Clearly not what I heard/understood. Although, honestly, I really don't think she told me that--she just kept shuttling me to different people and the teacher I finally did talk to definitely said 1:30... Anyway, whatever. It was fine. Some random woman (didn't catch her name or her job title) took me to the teacher's room. On the way, she ALSO complimented me on my French (woo-hoo!).

A male teacher, Paul something or other (I'm such a visual person, even in English, that's it's impossible to catch all these names when they just mention them once off-handedly), talked to me for a bit. He also thought I was from London--not sure why. Maybe it's a good thing that I don't have an American accent when I speak French? Who knows. I think that's what I'll go with... Then he asked if I wouldn't mind coming to his class to meet the kids. I freaked out a little but went with him, and the kids were hilarious. He had them ask me some questions, mostly along the lines of where I was from, what my hobbies were, why I was in France, etc. A couple of them are really good at English, but they're so shy and self-conscious! Ah, middle school. Don't really miss that... I did decide that I don't think I'm quite "cool" enough. They kept asking who my favorite bands were and my favorite songs and movies, and I realized that everything I was saying was SOOOOO ten years ago. Sigh. I also need to do some research on French music and movies and pop icons because I'm sadly completely ignorant in that area...

Another teacher, Andrée Roussillat (she wrote her name down for me because I think she's the English department head there and will be my contact for that school), stole me for a bit and I went through sort of the same intro. business with her kids. She seems a little stricter and also told them that I didn't know ANY French. None of them bought it, I don't think, but they did keep asking if I knew even just a little bit... Very cute. She took me back down to the teacher's room after class and said she wasn't sure when I would be able to start because they have to see what my schedule is at the other school and see what kids have free periods to meet with me. They seem a little more disorganized there, but then that school is double the size of my main school and is HUGE. I got totally lost trying to get out. I literally couldn't find an exit and ended up going through the cafeteria trying to look like I knew where the hell I was going. Finally made it out and back to the metro. I think I walked maybe 5 miles today--no need to go running! Maybe I even earned another crepe... Mmmmmm.

Now off to my first night of babysitting/tutoring for a 10-year-old boy, Philip-Emmanuel, and a 13-year-old girl, Aurore. They're adorable but completely over-programmed by their way too organized mom. She has my two hours a night with them scheduled down to the minute. Good lord.