Fluo Party, Wine Tasting in the Beaujolais, and a Delicious Home-cooked Meal!

The first day since my last post was a Monday, and you know what that means... Cosmo! In addition to Cosmo tonight, there was also a big Erasmus party that was "fluo themed" (aka a fluorescent paint party!) Some of us went to Cosmo for a little while before heading to the party. You could get body paint when you got there and some of the IBP club members from France gave everyone a "mission" when they got there. My mission was to get a free drink from the bar, which was hard enough since it took so long to even get through the crowd to the bar, and then it was impossible for me to reason with the bartender in French as to why I shouldn't have to pay for the drink. Unfortunately, my mission was not accomplished! The night was really fun. We danced a lot and again, we were there until the morning. We caught the first tram home, and I was so happy that I got to sleep late because I had no classes the next day!

some of the girls at Cosmo before the Fluo Party

getting crazy in the metro station on the way to the party!

On Tuesday, after sleeping until noon, I met up with Virginia to get some food from Brioche Doree and then meet up with people at the school to go on a wine tasting! The IBP had organised a wine tasting for us in the Beaujolais region of France which is about a half hour outside the city. It was so cool and the village we were in was so cute and very French-looking! Once we got to the vineyard, the woman who lived there told us about how they make their wine and then gave us some wine to sample and goat cheese to taste. We tried a rosé, white, and two red wines. The wine and cheese were so good and she kept refilling our glasses so quite a few people got a little tipsy! After a while, an adorable little dog came running in and everyone took turns petting it and loving on it. Of course she wasn't as cute as little Chloe, but it made me miss her! Something weird that I experienced in this vineyard was that the bathroom did not actually have a toilet--it was literally a hole in the ground with a bar to hold onto while squatting. It was really gross and I decided not to use it and wait until we got back to Lyon. The bus ride back was fun. Some people were pretty drunk so they acted crazy and we got some really pretty views of the French countryside! After getting back to Lyon, I went with Virginia and Julie to get tacos from Hotel de Ville, which were delicious. I think I am starting to develop a bit of an addiction to these tacos!

on the way to the wine tasting!

I loved playing with this cute little dog!

On Wednesday, I had my first test of the whole semester so far. It was in my French Language class and I thought it would be really hard, but it was a lot better than I had expected! Later on, there was a buffet for international students. It was fun to see everyone but the food wasn't all that great. I had expected actual food and went to it really hungry, but it ended up just being appetizers. They were still ok though!

On Thursday, a few of us went to my friend Ciela's apartment to have a home-cooked meal. She is staying with a host mother, so she had an actual kitchen which was nice! We made chicken, potatoes, and vegetables and I was really impressed with us because it ended up being delicious! After dinner, there had been a Latino-themed party that I was really looking forward to, but I wasn't feeling great and wanted to feel good for Paris (and I had to get up at 8AM the next morning), so I decided to go home and rest instead of having another late night.

dinner at Ciela's!

On Friday, I had to go to a medical examination with a bunch of other IBPs for something called the OFII. Certain consulates make you do it and the two of us from Boston had to. It has to do with immigration, so if I wanted to become a French citizen, I probably could! At the examination, they just did all the basics--height, weight, blood pressure, x-ray, etc. It didn't last that long and when it was over, I got lunch with some other girls at Subway. I got to miss my French class because of the medical exam so I got some time to relax which was nice! Later on that night when I was at my dorm I found out that I had received a package from home! I was so excited when I opened up the package to see that I had received my winter coat, some candy, and lots of other stuff! I started to get myself packed because the next day, I was leaving to go to Paris for the weekend. After that, I went to the stairs with some friends. It was fun for a while, but there were some sketchy guys hanging around our group and I ended up getting my wallet and camera stolen out of my bag without anyone even noticing. I was really upset about losing my camera and didn't know what to do since I was leaving for Paris the next morning and had no money and no camera! Luckily, I had only had about 5€ in my wallet and I managed to get my debit card cancelled as soon as I got back to my dorm. I guess I was lucky because the situation could have been a lot worse. I'll just need to make sure I'm more careful in the future. And luckily the weekend turned around and I had an amazing time in Paris...

Another week in Lyon

We returned from Oktoberfest in time for my favourite day of the week in Lyon--Monday! Before heading out to Cosmo, I met up with Virginia for some dinner. We got these chicken tacos that were soo good! In France, their idea of a taco is a lot different than in the US. Tacos here are usually like a wrap and I get mine with chicken, some veggies, and curry sauce, and they always put fries on them too which I think is pretty cool. I actually really love the tacos here and think I will miss them when I go back to the US. After eating our tacos, we headed into Cosmo with a huge group of IBP students for another awesome Monday full of dancing on tables, €1 beer, and being with friends! While I was there, I met a cool guy from New York named Joel (but he pronounced it like Joe-elle). He said that he is going to be a famous movie star someday, so I got my picture with him in case! So if he makes it big, I can say I met him way back when! I stayed until the last group of us were leaving and when we were walking home, I started to feel sad that a month and a half has already gone by. But Natalia, who did a semester abroad before, comforted me by saying that even after the semester ends you will still stay friends with everyone and then you will have friends all over the world that you can visit!

at Cosmo on Monday with Sandra, Virginia, Ben, and Kristina

dancing on the table with Natalia

dancing on the table with Natalia and Antonio

with "Joe-elle", the future movie star

On Tuesday, I went with Anna and Virginia to a cute little French cafe for lunch. It was only about a 10 minute walk from the university and it had a ton of good food that was really affordable. There was pasta and paninis and sandwiches. I had already had lunch so I got a tarte au chocolat that was très délicieuse! Later on that night, a group of us went to my friend Julie's apartment for a girls' night in. We each brought a bottle of wine and some sort of snack. We hung out for hours talking about girly stuff, drinking wine, and eating French cheeses! It was awesome and we are definitely going to do it again soon! After that I met up with some more friends and went to a French guy's apartment to hang out. We played some drinking games and met some French people, so that was cool!

wine night at Julie's!

wine night at Julie's!

On Wednesday night, I went with Virginia and Kirsten to my friend Josh's apartment. Everybody has been going to see Taken 2 and saying how good it is. I still haven't seen the first Taken, so we went there to watch it. But by the time we were going to start the movie, we realised we wouldn't have time to watch it if we were going to catch the last metro home. So instead, we joined some of the other guys in his building to play poker! I still haven't improved much since I learned on the train home from Annecy but it was still fun!

The next night was pretty crazy! After booking bus tickets to Barcelona for Fall Break and getting dinner with Virginia at a new restaurant (I got a chicken burger and then we split a brownie for dessert), a huge group met up at the steps before going to a party! The parties here always have themes and the theme for this party was "F*#^ me I'm Erasmus" haha. Apparently in Europe, a lot of people have shirts that say "F*#^ me I'm famous!" We could never get away with that in the US! None of us really knew how to dress for this theme though. It ended up being so crazy and we danced and hung out there for hours. The time flew by and before I knew it, it was 5AM and everyone was leaving to get on the metro to go home. This staying at parties until 5AM is becoming such a regular thing here that it will seem so weird getting back to Elon where the parties are always over by 2 or 3 at the latest!

After that awesome night, everyone was feeling so rough the next day. Almost half of my French class was absent, and I'm amazed that I actually managed to drag myself to the school! After class, I dragged some of my friends to Brioche Doree for sandwiches because all I could think about all morning was how much I was craving tuna! After class, everyone kind of recovered from the party some more, and that night I went to the stairs with some people. It was freezing and we were all so tired so we decided not to go out after hanging at the steps for a while.

The next day, I met up with Virginia and Ben to get some of our Fall Break booked. We are planning to go to Barcelona with a big group, then some of them are going back to Lyon and we are going on to Madrid, Rome, Milan, and hopefully Florence! I am soo excited!! After that, we went to a place for lunch called Mezzo di Pasta. I had seen it so many times on my walks to Bellecour and had always wanted to try it! You could pick whatever kind of pasta and sauce you wanted and it came with a drink and dessert. I got pasta with a really good salmon sauce and tiramisu for dessert. It was really good! Then Virginia went to meet up with her friend who was visiting and me and Ben decided to explore a little. We ended up stumbling upon this really cool wine tasting near Hotel de Ville. You just had to pay €1 for a glass and then you could go to all of the tents and taste the different red wines from the Beaujolais region. There were about 20 tents and we went to all of them twice! Needless to say, we were a little buzzed! There were some other IBP people there too and some girls from my dorm. After the wine tasting, we all went to a nearby restaurant for some tacos. I know I mentioned earlier how delicious the tacos here are! Later that night, I went with a couple of the other IBPs to this guy Peter's apartment to hang out before going to the steps. We played "Never have I ever" and some other fun games. When we got to the steps, there were a lot of people there and it was really fun for a while! Then a creepy older French guy kept trying to talk to some of the girls and wouldn't leave us alone, so one of the guys in our group told the guy to leave. Then the French guy grabbed our friend and tried to fight him! It was kind of scary but everyone was ok. After that, me, Virginia, and her friend decided to get out of there and get some late-night McDonald's before going home for the night.

On Sunday, I just relaxed which I really needed since I've been sick since Oktoberfest and haven't really gotten the rest I need to get better. And I did some more planning for all of my upcoming trips! A weekend in Paris and then Fall Break! I love studying abroad.

OKTOBERFEST!!

Last weekend, I travelled to Munich, Germany for the biggest and craziest beer festival on Earth: Oktoberfest!! On Friday morning, I woke up bright and early at 3:30AM to finish packing and catch the first metro of the day to meet up with Kirsten and Virginia and head to the airport. I slept through most of our flight and when I woke up we had landed in Germany! We met up with Devon and Taylor who were on the same flight as us and managed to figure out the Munich public transportation to get to Stoke campsite where we stayed for the weekend. Stoke has campsites all over the world and is known as a fun place for young travellers to meet other people and party! As soon as we arrived at the campsite and were checking in, we were brought glasses of sangria. It was awesome! We got all settled into our tent and planned to do a free walking tour of Munich that the campsite offered. But somehow, they left without us, so we got some more sangria and hung out at the campsite for a couple of hours. We met tons of people from all over the world who were also studying abroad in Europe or who were backpacking through Europe. We met a lot of people from Australia (the campsite was mostly run by Australians) and Canada, and there were a lot of French people there too which was cool!

After meeting some people, we all decided to head into the city and explore a little. We knew the festival would be crazy at that point in the afternoon and we probably wouldn't be able to get into a tent, so we headed to the city center and Old Munich instead. First we got some snacks and I got a chicken sandwich on a bagel that ended up being so delicious! Then we walked around and explored a little. We saw some cool buildings and loved seeing all the people walking around in their traditional German lederhosen and dirndls! There was also one street where we passed 5 H&M's within about a minute of each other which I thought was funny! After a while, we decided to stop for dinner and have some traditional German food. I split a big serving of schnitzel with Kirsten and Virginia. I had never had schnitzel before so I didn't know if I would like it (and I wasn't even completely sure what it was!) but it was so good and by the time we were done eating it we all wished we had more! After dinner, we headed back to Stoke to party! We had some more sangria and met a lot more people. It got pretty crazy! There were some guys drinking beer out of an umbrella and at the bar there was a wheel that you could spin, and each number you could land on had some sort of crazy thing you had to do. Some examples are having to do a beer bong, make out with someone, drink out of a shoe, take off your underwear and hang it over the bar, let someone give you a haircut, and so many other crazy things! I knew it would end badly if I spun the wheel so I decided to stay away from it!

with Virginia and Kirsten in front of the really cool-looking church in Munich center

riding the pig outside the restaurant where we got dinner

The next day, we got an early start to go to the festival and hopefully get into a tent! Unless you have a reservation in a tent, it's really hard to get in and you usually have to wait outside for a while. We would have made a reservation but you need to do that months in advance. We got there around 10, but still had to wait in a huge crowd that pushed and shoved for over 2 hours to get inside!! There was no line, they just let groups in at random. Whoever said that Germans are efficient definitely didn't go to Oktoberfest! Once we got inside though, it was definitely worth it. There were people cheering and dancing up on benches, and as soon as we got in, one of the waitresses brought us each a huge "stein" of beer. We walked around for a while and got some food, and eventually we managed to grab a spot at a table. We sat there for a couple of hours dancing up on the benches and talking to the drunk guys that kept coming over to us! Some of the guys were nice, but some tried hitting on us and were so persistent when we weren't interested. It was also Kirsten's 21st birthday, so we celebrated that! It was really fun, but at 2:30, they made everybody in our section leave to make room for the people who had reservations.

the archway leading into the festival!

the outside of our beer tent

inside the beer tent

all of our steins (that's what they call the huge mugs that are the size of 2 pints)

After that, we walked through the festival some more and got a snack from a stand that had chocolate-covered everything (pretty much my definition of heaven). I got chocolate-covered strawberries that were by far the most delicious ones I had ever had! After that, half of our group went back to the campsite because they were so tired, but three of us tried going into another tent. We waited for almost two hours and then decided to give up and go back to Stoke when it seemed like we weren't going to get into the tent. It took us a while to find our bus and we almost missed the last Stoke bus of the night, but we managed to find it right as they were about to pull away! Back at the campsite, we got a free barbecue dinner and met some more people. We met some people who have friends at Elon who I know, which was really cool! We hung out for a while and got to bed earlier than the night before because we were all so tired!

we met some guys who were dressed like Smurfs!

On Sunday morning, it was raining so we slept in and then headed into the city for a little while before we had to catch our flight back to Lyon. We got some souvenirs and bratwurst hot dogs for lunch. Then we went to a little coffee shop where I got a hot chocolate and a little piece of chocolate cake. After that, we headed back to the airport and came back to Lyon! My weekend in Munich was so much fun, but it also made me realise how much I missed Lyon and all the people there! It made me appreciate being back, but it also made me sad thinking about how I will have to leave in a couple of months. I'll just need to make sure I really appreciate my time here and live every moment to the fullest!

Annecy Round 2, Cosmo Monday, and a crazy Animal Party!

There's been lots of excitement since my last post! My classes have been good and I still haven't been getting a lot of homework which I'm loving. I also decided to move to a lower level in French, and I'm really happy I did because I'm understanding it so much more now. 

The Thursday after Annecy, I went to an Italian restaurant with Kirsten called Pizza Pino. (This was the same restaurant that we had gone to with Virginia once after drinking a LOT of wine and acting kind of crazy!) When we got there, it wasn't crowded and there were a ton of open tables downstairs, but the waiter led us to an upstairs table where we were the only ones! It was pretty funny and we thought they had blacklisted us after the last time we were there! (Either that or maybe we just looked too American.)  The next night, one of the guys in my program from Idaho had a bunch of people over to his apartment and we all hung out until the landlord kicked us out for being too loud. We planned to go to the stairs and continue the party there, but somehow we all got separated and I ended up walking around a random part of Vieux Lyon with some others for about an hour. It actually ended up being pretty fun seeing a new part of the city and being with friends!

Hanging out on the stairs Thursday night

On the stairs Thursday night

with Virginia on Friday

wandering around Vieux Lyon on Friday

After my day trip to Annecy, I told people all about it and a group decided to go the following Saturday... and convinced me to go again! So early on Saturday morning about 20 of us got our train to Annecy. On the train ride, I decided to try a Kinder Bueno candy bar, and ever since then I have been completely addicted! It's definitely my new favourite kind of candy and I'm going to miss them when I have to go back to the US in December. The only bad part of this day trip was that it rained for most of the morning. When we got there at 10:30, we were all starving but no restaurants opened until noon! So we just waited and kept out of the rain until about 11:30 and then found a little outdoor restaurant where we got hot chocolate/coffee and kebabs. It was so good!! After that, we walked around and explored a little. It stopped raining around 1, so the rest of the day ended up being really fun! We went back to the castle that I had seen on Tuesday and had fun seeing some of the weird modern art. Then we walked around the lake for a while and got some ice cream. We also decided to stop for a little snack around 4. We got some pizza and I tried a drink called a "kir" which ended up being pretty good! When we were on our way to the train station, we saw a carousel, so some of us decided to go for a ride on it! The train ride back to Lyon ended up being pretty fun! Some of the guys taught me how to play poker and we played for the whole 2-hour train ride. I wasn't very good, but I won a few hands! It ended up being a really fun day and I was glad I decided to go to Annecy a second time!

riding the carousel! (I think we were the only ones over the age of 5 on it. Notice the little toddler sitting between me and Kristina)

The next day, I decided to try my hand at cooking chicken for the first time. I found a recipe online that looked easy enough, but when I started making the chicken, I struggled a lot. Luckily, there was a French girl in the kitchen who helped me out. And while I was cooking a huge group of about 15 Asian kids came down to cook a big elaborate meal, and they laughed at me as I struggled (especially when I almost set off the fire alarm and one of the guys had to run around the kitchen opening all the windows! It was actually kind of hilarious.) At least it ended up tasting ok! That night, a big group went to the Lyon vs. Bordeaux football match! It was really fun and the game had a lot of action, but unfortunately Lyon lost this one.

getting ready to go into the football match!

The next day was Monday, which I actually look forward to in Lyon!! There is a really fun bar called Cosmo that has €1 beers on Monday, so it's always really crowded. A ton of people from IBP were there and I had so much fun hanging out with everyone. Me and a couple of my friends even initiated dancing on top of the bar! (There's not much standing room around the bar, so when everyone wants to start dancing, we have to get up on it!) After leaving Cosmo, a group of us weren't ready to go home yet so we tried going to the bar next door and a couple others nearby. Somewhere along the way, we picked up two random French guys who started walking with our group. Even weirder was when an old drunk woman who was probably about 80 started walking with us and tried talking to us in French haha. It was so crazy! A few of the girls in the group live in my dorm, so we walked back together.

with Virginia, Rodolfo, and Paris at Cosmo

dancing on the bar with Paris, Rodolfo, and Tess!

The next day, I went with Virginia to finally open up our French bank accounts. In France, housing insurance is really important to have and you need to have a French bank account for that. The woman that helped us didn't really speak English and we were kind of struggling from the late night the night before, but it ended up going pretty well and I think I'll only need to pay €1 for my housing insurance!

On Wednesday, there was a little party in my dorm around dinner time. A lot of people had just moved into the dorm because their programs started later than mine, so I met some new people. After the party, a group of us from IBP and one of the new girls we had just met from Wales went to the stairs to hang out before going to a big animal-themed party. The party ended up being so much fun and the music at that club was really good! We left around 4AM, but the metro doesn't start until 5, so three of us who live in Maison St. Bernard started the trek back to our dorm. We found out that it would take over an hour to walk back, so instead we rented bikes and drunkenly rode along the Saône river back to our dorm! It was the first time I had rode a bike in probably five years, so I was a little rusty and crashed into a few things, but in the end I made it back in one piece!

On Thursday, I met up with a few other girls to plan out our trip to Paris the weekend of the 20th! We will be leaving Lyon early on Saturday the 20th and staying overnight at a really trendy-looking hostel in Montmartre which is pretty central to everything. We want to see all of the cool touristy things like the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, the Tuileries gardens, and if we have time, Disneyland! We come back to Lyon on Sunday's last train of the night. I am soo excited!! Later on in the day, I got all packed, because the next morning I was leaving for Oktoberfest! After getting packed, I went to a birthday party for one of the guys in my program where we all hung out and ate homemade chocolate crepes. It was really fun! Then I went back to my dorm to rest up before my really early flight to Munich the next morning. I will tell you all about Oktoberfest in my next post... :)