So much excitement over the past week!

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't posted in over a week. I've been so busy!

So last Wednesday, I had my first day of classes. The classes I'm taking are Integrated Marketing Communications, Marketing Strategy, International Marketing, Strategic Planning in Advertising, French Language, French Conversation, and France in the 21st Century (which doesn't start until next week). Even though I'm taking seven classes, it seems like I'm not in class that often because the classes here only meet once or twice per week. All my classes are great so far! My French classes are pretty hard (I probably should have been in a lower level), but it's going ok and hopefully it will help me improve my French more! Since I've been here, I've realized just how bad I am at communicating in French, but I feel like I'm slowly getting better and learning more everyday vocab. My advertising class is interesting and I have a funny British guy as a professor so I'm sure it will be a great class!

After classes on Wednesday, I went with some of my friends to one of the other Elon girl's apartment. We just hung out and had a "Wine Wednesday." We met her roommates and some guys in our program. It ended up being really crazy and so much fun! We were there until almost 4 in the morning haha. And during the course of the night, we adopted the phrase YOLO (You Only Lyon Once)! It was a really fun night and I think we're going to try and do it again soon.

Some of the Wine Wednesday crew!

Daddy, the "Dirty French" book was a hit as you can see!

All the girls lovin on Jeronimo

Four of the Elon girls doing our sorority signs

On Thursday, I had more classes and then at night, there was a big city-wide International Party where everyone dresses in something from their home country. Since I don't really have any clothes that look American, I struggled to find something to wear and realized one of my shirts said New York on it. I went to a little pre-party with some girls in my program from the US, Canada, the Netherlands, and Germany. It was fun but I was still so tired from the late night the night before (and after having some wine, I was struggling not to fall asleep!), so after the pre-party, I took the last metro back to my dorm. It was a good thing I did because they were out until almost 5!

With Kirsten and Virginia. I drew their American and Canadian flags on their cheeks!

With Kirsten and Virginia again along with some girls from Germany and the Netherlands.

I had more classes on Friday and then later in the day, I got dinner with one of the Elon girls. We couldn't pick where to go and didn't want to spend much money so we decided to be super American and go to McDonald's haha! It was actually better than the US McDonald's in my opinion because it was less greasy. I got a "L'petit wrap" and a little chocolate sundae. After that, we walked around a little and met up with one of the other Elon girls in Place Bellecour (a big plaza that's pretty close to the school) and went to "the steps," the big hangout spot for young people in Lyon. A bunch of other students from our program were there too so we met some new people and had a lot of fun!

in Place Bellecour with the castle in the background

next to the bottom part of the statue in Place Bellecour

On Saturday, me and another girl went clothes shopping for the first time in Lyon! We went to H&M that had some of the same things that were in the USA H&M when I last went there in August, and a lot of different things too. I got a few things that will be perfect to wear in France! We went to a couple other stores too, like Etam and some French stores. While we were on the big shopping street near Place Bellecour, we stopped to watch a group of street performers who did all this crazy dancing. It was pretty cool! For dinner, we went to Vieux Lyon near our dorm and as we were walking through, a lot of the restaurants weren't open yet (since French people tend to eat late, a lot of restaurants don't open until 7 or 7:30). We found one that was open and got some delicious salad, chicken and potatoes, and chocolate mousse for dessert! Later on, we tried going to the steps again, but as we were walking and when we got there, we kept getting harassed by French guys. It's normal to experience guys trying to talk to you or make kissing noises at you occasionally (which I still think is creepy!), but that night the French guys were crazier than normal. There were a couple guys who wouldn't leave us alone and one group of guys even starting barking at us (WTF??!!), so needless to say, when we couldn't find the other IBP kids right away, we decided to head back to the dorm.

On Sunday, I went with another girl to a cafe for pains au chocolat and then a big park called Parc de la Tête d'Or in the third arrondissement. There's a zoo in the park where we saw giraffes and monkeys and lots of other cool animals. We also decided to try some French ice cream. I got chocolate and caramel and it was so delicious. It seemed similar to Italian gelato. Also in the park, we finally found the big letters that say "Only Lyon"! We tried getting some pictures of us on the letters, but the local kids seem to think of it as a jungle gym or something and it was impossible to get any pictures without lots of little kids being in them too. We'll definitely get a big group to go back and take some pictures there sometime! After the park, we went to the Lumière brothers museum. The Lumière brothers were the first filmmakers in history and helped develop a lot of film technology. We toured the house where they lived and saw some of the short films they made and the equipment they used. It was really cool! For dinner, we decided to try cooking in the dorm for the first time! We made some pasta, which was pretty basic but good. And we had Reese's for dessert! (They don't sell Reese's here because weirdly European people think peanut butter seems gross. The girl I made dinner with was prepared and brought some Reese's and peanut butter from home.)

my delicious French ice cream! 

next to the big lake in Parc de la Tête d'Or 

a giraffe in the Parc de la Tête d'Or zoo. So cute!

On Monday, I had some more classes and then I went to Carrefour with a couple girls. I tried to grocery shop for myself for the first time ever, so I had no idea what to buy and it was made even harder by the fact that everything was in French. While I was looking through the meat section, I came across a thing full of all the really gross meats (brains, hearts, livers, intestines, etc). Kinda made me lose my appetite! Later on, I met up with those girls again and we got everything booked for Oktoberfest!! We will be going the weekend of October 5th, and we are staying in a campground right outside Munich. There are buses that take people back and forth from the campground to Oktoberfest, and at night at the campground, you can pay €5 for unlimited beer and sangria all night! I am SOO excited!! After getting that all booked, I went with my friend Virginia to a bar called Cosmo to meet up with some other people in our program. It was soo crowded so a bunch of IBP people hung out at a nearby fountain and waited until the bar cleared out a little. I discovered my new favorite cocktail (a sex on the beach), and the bar took up pretty much the whole space, so when everyone felt like dancing, we just climbed up and danced on the bar!! It was such a fun night!

Dancing on top of the bar at Cosmo!

Hanging out with some other IBP students at the fountain outside Cosmo

Tuesday, after class got out, I went to lunch with some girls in Bellecour. We got salads (we felt like we've been lacking vegetables in our diets because of all the carbs we've been eating!) and they were really good. Mine had a cool French cheese on it that was soft inside and went really well with baguette. That night, I decided to try cooking something other than just pasta for the first time by myself! I made salmon that I struggled with a little, but it actually turned out to be pretty good! I had it along with the pasta that I made in case I completely destroyed the salmon! Then I went to Cosmo with Virginia and a girl from Australia named Julie. They had €2 jello shots but other than that, it wasn't as fun as the night before. It was raining so not a lot of people came out and the cocktails ended up being really expensive. I think there must have been a special the night before. Then we went to a twin themed party where Virginia and I both wore black dresses, pink cardis, black tights, and silver accessories. We assumed there wouldn't be many people there because of the rain, but we already had tickets so we went for a little while. We got our free drink that came with our ticket, and then caught the last metro home!

the salmon and pasta that I successfully made for myself

with Virginia and Julie on our way to the twin party

On Wednesday, I got to hang out with some French kids and go to a little French dinner party! My friend Kirsten met a guy at a party who's also a student in Lyon, and he invited us over for dinner with some of his friends. There was all different types of home-made sushi which was SOO good! One of his friends also had a little puppy there who was so adorable and made me miss Chloe. Since everyone there besides me and Kirsten lives in France, they spoke in French most of the time, so I was a little confused but managed to understand a little of what they were saying! It was really cool to meet some actual French students since we don't have classes with them or meet many French kids at the school.

All the homemade sushi! It was so yummy!

Thursday, I took another trip to Carrefour and then at night, I met up with a bunch of the other IBP students and went to the Lyon vs. Prague football match. (And remember, since I'm in Europe, football is soccer.) It was the first pro football game I've been to and it was so much fun! I thought it was so much better than American football which one of the students from England loved to hear. The first half of the game, there were no goals, but in the second half, Lyon got two goals within about a minute of each other and they ended up winning the game 2-1! The section next to us was full of all the die-hard fans who were screaming and singing different cheers throughout the whole game which made the experience even more entertaining! I definitely want to go to another football match soon!

with some other IBP students in the stadium before the match!

about to head into the stadium!

the Olympique Lyonnais stadium!

This weekend there was something called Integration Weekend which was so fun and crazy and was basically a weekend-long party! Since this post is already really long, I'll describe the excitement of Integration Weekend in another post tomorrow....