WHOA lansi

I’m almost half way through the month of February & I haven’t yet had to stop buying meat because I’m running low on money! That’ll probably all change next week, but it’s fairly exciting for me for the moment. I guess going a little further out of my way to the discount grocery store is paying off! haha.

Anyways, enough about me being broke. I think it’s fairly common knowledge by now that I make no money here, but hey, I’m in France & my spoken French is better than it’s been in years, so I’m pretty sure it’s worth it. I’m officially a certified Barista! This kind of seems like old news now seeing as most of you know via Facebook, but it’s exciting none-the-less. I got to take off my En Formation badge 2 sundays ago. I still am working on getting faster since I still don’t get to be on the bar a whole lot, but at least I’m not worrying about the test any longer. The only drink I really had to show them I could make was a cappuccino (which they weighed to make sure it wasn’t too heavy). I also had to prepare a French press & then present a coffee, talk about it’s origins, treatment method, the story behind the stamp (yes, there’s a story behind each stamp), talk about how we do a coffee tasting & talk about the coffee itself. & then they went through a series of questions about all things Starbucks. It was like an interview…which is unfortunate for me. As anyone who’s ever interviewed me knows, I’m awful at them & get so nervous I forget very basic things- like taking off my coat inside). All in all, it went pretty well & I passed so it’s done. Yes!!

That weekend, my friend from Republique Starbucks, Tonia, invited me to a surprise party at her house. It was for one of her roommates & a bunch of ppl from Rep came that I haven’t seen in a while so that was nice. I also met this girl from Toronto that I almost punched after she said (for about the 5th time): “I can’t believe you live in Calgary. I mean, Calgary. I could never live there”. Of course, she’d never been to Calgary before…or anywhere west of Ontario, actually & referred to Ontario (namely, Toronto) as the center of Canada. (Oh, I’ve never been past central Canada). I’m sorry…but last time I looked at a map of Canada, Toronto wasn’t in the centre, but I do love how ppl sometimes refer to it as such. Oh, & thank you for judging my hometown when you’ve never even been there before. Personally, I would never live in Toronto, but I can understand why people would & would never insult YOUR home…but that’s cool. Please don’t tell others you’re Canadian…you’re giving us a bad reputation. Yes, I’m a little bit bitter. Honestly, WHO SAYS THAT?

Anyways, I got paid that weekend which meant I bought a ticket to Geneva for the Tuesday.It was an INCREDIBLE city! I absolutely loved it! It’s so beautiful-alps, lake, lovely streets…& it’s very French, which I appreciated. I take for granted being fluent in French until I head somewhere like Italy, where I can’t speak the language. I guess it gives me a look at what most people experience when they backpack around the world. I’ve never before noticed so many languages all in one place. At one moment, I could hear people speaking French, English, Italian, German…at the very least those 4. Les Genevois didn’t JUST speak English, it was ONE of the languages they spoke. I bought swiss chocolate (of course) & the vendor spoke PERFECT unaccented English…& French also, of course.

After almost missing my train in the first place (I actually had to run to Part Dieu to make it & jumped on the train 30s before the doors closed) & getting on the wrong part of the train & having to switch at the first stop, I made it to Geneva. I spent the morning/early afternoon wandering in the old own, up & down the hilly pedestrian streets, admiring the imposing Cathedrale St Pierre & then wandering down to the waterfront to get a closer look at the famous Jet D’eau. It’s pretty cool, I have to say. There were so many sailboats & it had that waterfront smell I love, even though it’s just a lake (albeit a fairly large one). Then I headed up towards the botanic gardens & the Palais des Nations. I decided to walk instead of take the bus. For one, it’s cheaper, but I also feel like I get to know a city better if I walk. It was quite far & took me about an hour, but I wasn’t really rushed since I knew the Palais des Nations wouldn’t be open until 2pm. I also wanted to see the International Red Cross Museum, but sadly it’s closed on Tuesdays. I did a tour of the United Nations though, which was pretty cool. You have to show your passport to be allowed in & then they make you a visitor badge that you have to wear as you’re walking around. The tour guide was very informative…He knew so much about the buildings, to how the UN operates, to its history, etc etc. It was really interesting. The building itself is beautiful, as are the grounds. I got a few pictures that are pretty good, but I think it’s somewhere you have to visit. I mean, even just the hallways are pretty exquisite. After the tour, I wandered back into the old town & had a hot chocolate outside in this pretty little square. (mmm swiss hot chocolate).

The day had started out a bit cloudy, but as it progressed I was able to see more & more of the mountains. They’re still hard to see in the photos, but in person I did get a little bit of a glimpse! An hour or so before my train, I headed back towards the station, grabbed the best chicken schwarma I’ve had in a while from a little hole in the wall recommended by Lonely Planet, bought some Swiss chocolate & caught my train home to Lyon. Great way to spend a day off, if you ask me!!

Thursday night, Kate & I were supposed to go out with her friends, Fatah & Steph. We went to hers & predrank a bit (well, we TRIED, but just couldn’t force down the awful rum she’d bought). We were all dressed up & trying to take a velo’v, but after 3 attempts to buy a card on 3 different machines, we gave up. We were both in heels & didn’t want to walk so we decided to have a drink in a little bar. Fatah & Steph texted us that they were going to the boats so we went & met them, but it was pretty lame so we didn’t stay long. I walked up to Cordeliers with Steph & we took the metro together. She’s from Sweden & is the sweetest girl! It’s her birthday this friday, so that should be fun!

Saturday night, I went out with a bunch of Starbucks people. We met in town & walked over to les Berges to go to Q boat. Being the jerks they are sometimes at the boats, they wouldn’t let us in. So then we walked all the way back to l’hotel de ville to go to Ayers. We waited in line to get in & it was so packed you couldn’t move. So we waiting in line to get out & headed up the street to Barberousse. I’d never been before but I’ll definitely be going back. It’s this pirate shooter bar. So we all shared lots of rum based drinks & did a cucaracha, which they light on fire & you drink through a straw. Needless to say, it was not an early night & me & my shift supervisor (who also came out) were more than a little bit tired when we opened the next morning.

Monday night, I met Kate, Rachel, Jamie & a few new people at Place des Terreaux & we headed to the Wallace Pub. It’s an English pub that apparently specializes in different kinds of Whiskey. I decided I’d stick with my demi pèche, but the had Québecois beer AND live music…I dunno how Québecois beer ends up in a Pub, but I’m not gonna argue with it. haha.

I’d read in a blog about this great patisserie in Bellecour called Pignol, so I met Kate & we decided to check it out before doing some shopping. It was AMAZING. Not only were the pastries delicious, but they were also pretty much art. It took us a good 20 minutes to decide because everything looked so amazing. In the end, I chose a Caramel Meringue & Kate chose some kind of delicious tart. We already have plans to go back with our friend, Rachel.

Pignol

Bonne Année, Happy New Year to everyone!! Hope you all had very happy holidays.

As for me, Christmas in Lyon was a little bit lonely to be honest. Karine ended up at her mom’s & told me in the morning that I would probably be able to join her after work. She just had to call her mom to let her know. She warned me that seeing as things were complicated with her family it may not be the best Christmas Eve, but I was pretty excited about spending it with a french family, none-the-less. Unfortunately, I got a message from her after work saying that, in fact, it wouldn’t be possible for me to come. So, instead, I made the trek back up to Croix Rousse on my own.

My parents were driving up to the lake that day & now have internet there, so I stayed up until midnight to talk to them for an hour or so that night. It was nice, seeing as my grandparents were there & everything too. Christmas Day was pretty uneventful. I wandered into the city center (which was deserted…I’ve never seen so few people at Place des Terreaux. I’m so used to there being hoards of people surrounding the statue, having their pictures taken, that it was almost eerie). I wandered around for a little while before having a kebab & then later catching up on my journaling in a little café before heading back to Croix Rousse to chat with my parents.




Once again, it was nice to see them all (oh the wonders of ichat & being able to actually SEE my family & not just talk to them on the phone). We “exchanged presents” & they passed me around so I talked to my whole family. It was nice, but quite different. There was no brunch with the family, or excitedly opening presents around the tree or even anything that came anywhere close to resembling a turkey, but it’s supposed to be about family right? & I did see my family quite a lot over the holdays…

The next morning was my first opening shift at Starbucks so it was early to bed for me. Aside from that, there was nothing too exciting going on here for the next few days. Karine stayed at her mom’s until Sunday night when her & Mamadou finally came home. That night her mom, brother & sister also came for dinner & we made a nice evening of it. Her sister spent a year abroad in Quebec…All she really had to say about it though was that it’s cold & the people are nice.

This week was my last week at Starbucks République. I’m being transferred to Starbucks Villeurbanne in the suburbs. It means going 3 stops on the metro from République & a much calmer store where I’ll hopefully learn a lot more…Maybe even have a few conversations with people instead of just trying to make drinks as fast as humanly possible.

If Christmas here was lonely, then New Years was the complete opposite. I got all dressed up & met Anne to take the métro to her friends, Cédric & Ronan’s apt. I’d met most of her friends before at the Soirée 70s & Florent was down again from the North so it was nice to see them all again and ring in the New Year. I also met an American girl who had just arrived that day (poor thing, I dunno how she was still awake), so that was nice. All in all, it was everything New Years should be. Fun & slightly messy. We celebrated midnight with champagne, bisous all around & many “bonne années”. I’m quite grateful that I didn’t have to work the following day seeing as we didn’t really sleep until 5 or 6am so New Years Day was pretty much a write-off. I hung out with Florent for a bit, talked to my parents on ichat (wow, lots of talking to them over the holidays!) & had a “Quik” dinner. Yup, I know how to start the New Year off right.

I’ve had a few nice surprises from friends…cards & the like, but I think the most exciting news is that Alyssa is coming to visit me in Lyon in March!!! Quite an amazing “Christmas present” if I do say so myself.

Hope you all had a great Christmas & very Happy New Year. I wish you all the best for 2009 as well happiness, health, love…Mes meilleurs voeux pour 2009. Bonne Année, les amis!

Buongiorno!

Onto my latest adventures…Karine had her brother over for dinner for his birthday two Wednesdays ago (wow, time is going by so quickly). We had raclette which is a speciality of Savoy…a region just South East of here. Karine borrowed an appliance from her mom that you put raclette cheese in. Everyone has their own little metal container & the cheese melts in it & then you pour it over potatoes. Generally it’s served with charcuterie (cold cuts) & pickles. Seeing as I love cheese, it’s now one of my favourite meals. We also had champagne & chocolate cake since that’s tradition on someone’s birthday. Quite a good night, if you ask me!

I’ve been working mostly weekends at Starbucks. I only work 18 hours a week & am still training, but it’s pretty intense. The Starbucks here is like no other I’ve been in before, especially on Saturdays. It’s so unbelievably busy. There isn’t a free table & the line-up goes out the door & even reaches the street corner at times. Also, in France, they don’t clean up their cups & often order food “to stay” (“sur place”), which means they get a real plate that they also leave on their table when they take off. So there always has to be someone on staff who’s in charge of cleaning all this up. My second day, this was my job. I don’t think I had a breather for the entire 8 hours I was there. It was just nuts. They call this “coin café” & you’re also in charge of making up containers of whip cream & the bases for a lot of the drinks. Since that first weekend, I’ve learned to mark cups & ring it people’s orders, which is much more fun. I’m pretty sure I’d be a lot better at both if I was doing it in English, but I’m doing pretty well at the whole getting yelled at my 3 or 4 people at a time in French. My coffee vocab is going to be “nickel” when I come home.

That weekend Kate, Anne & I spent Friday night at my apartment eating pizza & chips, gossiping & watching the Devil Wears Prada. It was a nice night in. The best part was that Anne brought over delicious cookies that she’d baked. She’s quite the little cook, Anne is. We’re thinking of moving in together, the three of us, which would be nice…although I would miss it here, I think. Saturday night, I went to Kate’s & we took the metro to an American girl’s apartment she knows from school. It was her birthday, so we stayed there until about midnight & then went to a little bar near Vieux Lyon. It was pretty cute, but almost empty. So Kate and her Aussie friend, Eliz, really wanted to leave & go to this Aussie Bar (Ayer’s Rock) where all the Erasmus kids hang out. So we walked all the way there to be denied access because we were speaking English (at an Aussie Bar, the irony is something else). He didn’t say that’s why, but bouncers here are assholes & apparently this one is particular is known for his dislike of foreigners…Definitely not all that impressed. That’s when the France bashing started because both girls have run into some crap situations over here…Hopefully they’ll laugh about it later because exchanges are full of adventures like that. (At least mine was). Maybe I’m too tolerant of things like that…I don’t know. But, if I spent all my time getting pissed off about crap that’s happened to me in Europe, I’d be angry all the time.

I had most of last week off work & Heather & Zevi were going to be in Rome…so Monday morning on my way to work I stopped into the Boutique SNCF & bought a return ticket on the night train to Rome for the following night. So Tuesday, I packed all my stuff into my backpack & that night took the TGV to Dijon to catch the night train. Of course, the Italian night train started things off on the right foot by arriving 30 minutes late. I had an okay sleep in my couchette despite an incredibly creepy Egyptian man who was a little too touchy for my liking. I was supposed to arrive in Rome around 10am on Wednesday morning…Since the train had been 30 minutes late, I expected we’d arrive around 10:30am…This was not the case & this is when I learned how spoiled I’ve been by the ALWAYS punctual French trains. We got to Rome at 12:30pm & I set off for my hostel-Hotel Lodi. It was easy to find & I was welcomed by the nicest woman I think I’ve ever met. Her & her brother run the hostel & if you ever go to Rome, I seriously recommend staying there. She was so welcoming & sat me down right away to plan my stay in Rome. She was a wealth of information & wanted to make sure I made the best of my time there so it’s thanks to her that I had any idea whatsoever about what to see in Rome. It was great! Heather & Zevi arrived about an hour later & we took off right away to see the sights. In my three days in Rome, I saw so much. It was absolutely incredible.

We spent the first day wandering around the center…starting at the old entrance to Rome & walking down to the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain & the Pantheon. There really are no words..but since I took about 250 pictures I’ll let them do some of the talking for me. Sadly, they don’t do a lot of what I saw justice, but they give you a reasonable idea of how incredible Rome is. From there, we explored a few lively piazzas before heading to the grocery store near our hostel to pick up some food for dinner. We also picked up 3 bottles of red wine. I’m quite a fan of the wine in Italy seeing as you can find incredibly cheap bottles of it. Our three ranged in price from 99 cents to 1e79. Wine really is cheaper than water sometimes. That night we went out to a little bar & had a few adventures across the river before packing it in.

Thursday morning, we had a lovely little breakfast served to us by the same wonderful woman. I wish I could take her home with me. She made us each a delicious cappuccino (Italy has GREAT coffee), freshly squeezed Orange/Grapefruit juice & a croissant. It was quite enjoyable. We set off for the day, grabbing fresh pizza to go from a great little pizzeria we stumbled upon before making our way to the Colosseum. The Colosseum was amazing…we had a great tour followed by another great tour of the Pallatine & Forum. There is so much history & it was just incredible. You can’t seem to go more than a few 100m before seeing something else unbelievable in Rome. After our tours we had some gelato & wandered around a little (randomly stumbling upon the old Jewish Ghetto) before heading back “home”. We made another great dinner before heading to bed.

I must say the Italian night trains are an adventure. As I already said, I am way too spoiled by French trains & even French train stations (which have seats unlike Roma Termini). My train arrived in Dijon an hour late (which was quite an improvement from the 2.5 hours on the way there) meaning I’d missed my connection to Lyon. Luckily there are many trains that run often in France & I was able to get another one free of charge. Trenitalia certainly gave new meaning to the whole “time is just a suggestion” thing though.

I spent most of this weekend at Starbucks, with a side trip to a party in the most beautiful apartment in Place Bellecour. Two American girls live there now & are leaving in January & Kate wants the 3 of us (Anne, her & I) to move in there. Two of us would have to share a room though & even splitting the rent 3 ways, I don’t think I can afford it…One can dream though, I guess!

Christmas is starting to pop up all over the place here. They’ve been playing music for a good three weeks at Starbucks, but now the rest of the city is starting to get into it as well. The Christmas Markets are starting up & there are the little white lights I love so much everywhere. It’s quite pretty. This weekend is also the Fête de Lumières in Lyon. It’s this huge festival with amazing light displays all over the city. It was originally just Dec 8, but it’s become a lot bigger over the years & now includes the preceding weekend as well. I’m working TONS at Starbucks for the Festival. Mostly late into the night, but people stay out a whole lot later here than at home, so it really won’t matter too much.

I hope you are all well. As always I have yammered on for a lot longer than I intended so I apologize for the enormity of this entry. Bravo if you made it to the end! And to those of you in school-good luck on exams!!!