La première semaine
This week has been a whirlwind of bread, confusion and expensive pints. I have befriended a strange group of individuals at my hostel - another exchange student from Italy, a French girl who I can't comprehend because she speaks so fast, and an Indian man who asked me if I am here to seek asylum, and makes me call him 'Uncle'.
Friday was my first day of meetings at the university which put me in full stress mode as I realised that nothing is straightforward in France. It has been disclosed to me that French admin people can't really be bothered to do admin which - oddly enough - creates certain problems for a hapless Erasmus student. I also realised that I won't be speaking as much French as I thought I would. I mainly met English or Australian people yesterday, and even the students with English as a second language conversed in English. Bof.
Lyon is strangely empty, almost eerily so. Coming from perhaps the world's most hectic metropolis to this relatively calm ville is strange. When I've mentioned this to people they either disagree or look slightly disappointed (I don't know why - it is true and it's not necessarily a bad thing). It's just made even weirder having lived somewhere distinctly overpopulated the past 5 months. Twenty minutes on the metro is considered a longue journey here whilst in CDMX that is a relative skip to the next neighbourhood. I have also found myself experiencing ~metro panic~ which consists of having to get ready for your stop 3 stops early, so you can avoid the deluge of humans literally pouring onto the vehicule. It turns out this isn't necessary here, as it is a normal-sized place, and I look mightily overprepared every time I step off the metro.
I'm also finding myself with less things to write about. Life isn't really in technicolour right now - it being winter and 10 degrees - but the whole sensory overload of Mexico meant that I constantly had all these things to process and scribble about. Maybe it will hit me in a few weeks, but for now I don't feel like I have so much to process. I'm trying to take everyday as it comes and so far that is working surprisingly well! Whilst a few months ago everyday was a veritable rollercoaster of emotions, I feel relatively stable here even with French bureacracy thrown in.
I moved into my flat yesterday, farewelling my strange group of 'friends' at the hostel. My old Indian friend started calling me 'Daughter' and proceeded cooking me a meal everyday upon my return to the hostel. I was hasty to accept these offers, mainly because I'm stingy and lazy. Despite the free food and strange company however, I was quite glad to leave. I have not seen much of my new colocataires, other than a nice Argentinian man who had fried egg atop pasta for dinner and an angry French builder who unleashed is (staunchly anti) avis about Europe upon my arrival.
It's all still new and scary and my moods swing up and down a bit. I optimistically arose at 9 this morning, confidentally striding to what I thought was a 1 hour lecture at 11am in SALLE 004. It was actually a 3 hour lecture which had started at 9am and I was too embarassed to enter upon realising this at the very door of SALLE 004. I proceeded to waste time in a cafe, and then pick up my 'Multisports' card which allows me access to a variety of classes for only 36euros! Nae bad and much better value for money than in Bristol. I'm tempted to start basketball after watching Coach Carter about a month ago (not a joke, it's a very inspiring film) but team sports have never really been my jam and usually lead to injury and/or humiliation.
I have quite a lot of free time which makes me feel guilty; I should be milking this opportunity as much as I can but I'm not really sure where to start. And lots of free time means I've developed the financially-stupid decision of laptopping in coffee shops, which does make me feel productive, but really is silly and a waste of those precious euros.
Tonight I am going to an international student party which I am sceptical of, not least because it is in a club named 'Bunker' which is the ex-name of Bristol's 'Gravity' or "Horny Hellhole" as one of my friends has dubbed it. I don't want to judge this event before I actually attend it, but I am. I had my fairshare of them in Freshers 2 years ago and I didn't wholely manage to avoid them in Mexico, but it's something to do and means I won't spend my evening being cooked for by a middle-aged Indian man who thinks I'm an asylum seeker, and neither embroiled in a tense Europe debate with my new flatmate.
Friday was my first day of meetings at the university which put me in full stress mode as I realised that nothing is straightforward in France. It has been disclosed to me that French admin people can't really be bothered to do admin which - oddly enough - creates certain problems for a hapless Erasmus student. I also realised that I won't be speaking as much French as I thought I would. I mainly met English or Australian people yesterday, and even the students with English as a second language conversed in English. Bof.
Lyon is strangely empty, almost eerily so. Coming from perhaps the world's most hectic metropolis to this relatively calm ville is strange. When I've mentioned this to people they either disagree or look slightly disappointed (I don't know why - it is true and it's not necessarily a bad thing). It's just made even weirder having lived somewhere distinctly overpopulated the past 5 months. Twenty minutes on the metro is considered a longue journey here whilst in CDMX that is a relative skip to the next neighbourhood. I have also found myself experiencing ~metro panic~ which consists of having to get ready for your stop 3 stops early, so you can avoid the deluge of humans literally pouring onto the vehicule. It turns out this isn't necessary here, as it is a normal-sized place, and I look mightily overprepared every time I step off the metro.
I'm also finding myself with less things to write about. Life isn't really in technicolour right now - it being winter and 10 degrees - but the whole sensory overload of Mexico meant that I constantly had all these things to process and scribble about. Maybe it will hit me in a few weeks, but for now I don't feel like I have so much to process. I'm trying to take everyday as it comes and so far that is working surprisingly well! Whilst a few months ago everyday was a veritable rollercoaster of emotions, I feel relatively stable here even with French bureacracy thrown in.
I moved into my flat yesterday, farewelling my strange group of 'friends' at the hostel. My old Indian friend started calling me 'Daughter' and proceeded cooking me a meal everyday upon my return to the hostel. I was hasty to accept these offers, mainly because I'm stingy and lazy. Despite the free food and strange company however, I was quite glad to leave. I have not seen much of my new colocataires, other than a nice Argentinian man who had fried egg atop pasta for dinner and an angry French builder who unleashed is (staunchly anti) avis about Europe upon my arrival.
It's all still new and scary and my moods swing up and down a bit. I optimistically arose at 9 this morning, confidentally striding to what I thought was a 1 hour lecture at 11am in SALLE 004. It was actually a 3 hour lecture which had started at 9am and I was too embarassed to enter upon realising this at the very door of SALLE 004. I proceeded to waste time in a cafe, and then pick up my 'Multisports' card which allows me access to a variety of classes for only 36euros! Nae bad and much better value for money than in Bristol. I'm tempted to start basketball after watching Coach Carter about a month ago (not a joke, it's a very inspiring film) but team sports have never really been my jam and usually lead to injury and/or humiliation.
I have quite a lot of free time which makes me feel guilty; I should be milking this opportunity as much as I can but I'm not really sure where to start. And lots of free time means I've developed the financially-stupid decision of laptopping in coffee shops, which does make me feel productive, but really is silly and a waste of those precious euros.
Tonight I am going to an international student party which I am sceptical of, not least because it is in a club named 'Bunker' which is the ex-name of Bristol's 'Gravity' or "Horny Hellhole" as one of my friends has dubbed it. I don't want to judge this event before I actually attend it, but I am. I had my fairshare of them in Freshers 2 years ago and I didn't wholely manage to avoid them in Mexico, but it's something to do and means I won't spend my evening being cooked for by a middle-aged Indian man who thinks I'm an asylum seeker, and neither embroiled in a tense Europe debate with my new flatmate.
Scenes of Lyon - January edition!
beautiful! and again so relatable <3
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