Facts.

Things the French do right:
Wine - We've begun to whine (pun intended) when we have to pay more than three euro for a bottle of wine. And this doesn't taste like Barefoot. One day I'll splurge and buy a super nice bottle and spend all of ten euro. Additionally the Lyonnais have a joke that there are three rivers in Lyon: le Rhône (real river), la Saône (real river), et le Beaujolais (not real river). Le Beaujolais is the main type of wine here, and the Lyonnais joke that they drink so much that it's a river.
Markets - We went to a great outdoor market yesterday and I bought a TON of food that was delicious and fresh for barely anything. I bought an enormous head of lettuce (which I would show you, but for some reason I can't upload pictures to this blog right now) for 70 cents. Plus there was a man at a cheese stand selling me fromage who told me, "Joli accent!" (translation: "Hey, nice accent!") As if selling cheese doesn't make you enough of a hero in my book...he's an example of how I haven't had a single bad experience with the French yet.
My professors - I have two classes. One, a cultural class about what the French national identity, is with Pierre Dairon. All of the girls have already fallen in love with him; he's probably 30 and very charming and good-looking, etc, etc. And I can gush all I want about him since Mark has his own hot French professor to talk about. Win, win! My other professor is Laurent Douzou who is teaching my class about France during WWII. It's basically prepping me for the thesis I'm writing next year. And I pity everyone who isn't in his class. It was absolutely amazing today, and he was fantastique. He's a well-known scholar on WWII France, and he was so animated and so funny. Plus we barely have to do any work for him.
The French language - For some reason they're all really good at it. Go figure.


Things the French do wrong:
Showers - Ever wonder why there's that stereotype about French women not shaving? Because it sucks to shave when there is neither a door nor a curtain and you have to adjust the shower head so you're hopefully standing under it and not spraying the entire bathroom. It just doesn't seem worth it by the time you're done with one leg.
Showers - Seriously. Appreciate your curtains and non-detachable shower heads.
Showers - Plus the word for shower in French is "douche." Yikes.


Everything else is going well. My room is pretty nice; it's small, but has a loft which is where my bed and closet are. All the rooms are different because the hotel used to be a convent/multiple buildings, so no two rooms are exactly alike. Some people have nice views of the city and the river, but I look into a bush.


You have to walk ages to get to class, but it's a very nice walk around the river, and I can't complain. I can complain about the massive hill we have to walk up to get to the hotel (think San Francisco), but I won't! And it's really not so bad, just tiring when you're lugging groceries up it.


It's actually strange to sit down and write in English. I don't speak English at all during the day; I've only been speaking it at night when I'm with the other students - for instance when we went to a bar last night. Even when we're not with the professors, we speak in French. It's great, I actually feel like my French is improving. I never feel very confident in my speaking abilities, but I haven't felt too bad about them so far!


I don't have any funny and/or witty stories this afternoon, so I'm off to do the homework that I've already been assigned. Woo!