So, I’ve gotten more or less settled in Lyon now. I lucked out & found a place in Croix-Rousse, which is a really nice neighbourhood in Lyon. It’s a “colocation”, basically meaning I have roommates. It’s a little one bedroom apartment on the first floor so I don’t really have a room of my own. There’s a mezzanine tucked into an alcove & my bed is on that & then there’s another bed underneath. Karine has her room & then there’s a living room & a kitchen, bathroom…all that good stuff. So it’s small, but cute & really close to the centreville, so it’s really convenient. Plus, it’s only 300 euros a month, everything included…so it’s a pretty good deal.


Karine is really nice. I’ve been hanging out with her the last few days. We went to see an exhibit at the musée des beaux arts together on Friday. It was called Repartir à Zero (Starting from Scratch) and was dedicated to art from right after WW2. It was really well done & the museum itself is beautiful. It’s in a old palace (how typical of France…). I also went out “faire la fête” with her & her boyfriend & his friends on Thursday night & last night. Thursday night we went to this little African bar where there was a salsa concert. It was pretty good, but later we went to a club & I wasn’t really into it. The guys there (& her boyfriend’s friends) were a little bit annoying. Last night was fun though. We went back to the little african bar (apparently it’s their hangout?) & danced there. It was fun, but I either need to drink more or sleep in more or something because no one here goes out until midnight at the earliest & I am pretty much ready to leave by 2am, but they’re all still going. Drinks in bars are just way too expensive for me though (10 euros?! can you say rip off?!).
My other roommate is nice as well, but I don’t see her much. She works all day & then goes home on the weekends, so she’s really only here in the evenings & is then usually on her computer. She’s just doing 6 weeks working just outside of Lyon so she’s done at the end of this
week & then she’s going home. So Karine & I went & met a new girl who’s going to move in Nov 4. She’s a german exchange student. Her name’s Jeanine & she’s 25 & she has pretty bad French. She seems kind of lost here, but she’s really nice & kind of amusing. I don’t know how she gets by in her courses though because French profs just talk at you & you have to scribble notes as quickly as humanly possible before they move on to the next thing & she had to ask Karine & I to repeat most everything we said. Hopefully she makes some French friends & call photocopy their notes or something. haha.

Yesterday, Karine & I went shopping & I gave in & bought myself some boots. I’m starting to realize that I really left 85% of my wardrobe at home & really don’t have much to wear…woops. At least I didn’t struggle with my luggage in the trains…They are NOT made for suitcases. Hopefully this week I’ll have an interview with Starbucks…otherwise it’ll be time to start looking for a job somewhere else. It’s been nice just kind of relaxing the last 2 weeks & getting to know Lyon, but I’m not very good at the whole sitting around doing not much of anything. I like to be busy…so I’m really looking forward to working.