French Thanksgiving, Final Exams, and Christmastime in Lyon!

Since my last post, I've been soo busy! It's getting close to the end of the semester and final exams, so all of the teachers have been piling on the work. I have had so many presentations, papers, quizzes, etc.

The Monday after my last post was another crazy night at Cosmo! I danced on the bar and table pretty much all night. At one point, I actually fell off the table because it was so slippery from all the beer that had spilled on it, but luckily one of the guys helped catch me before I hit the ground, so the only damage that was done was a huge bruise.

at Cosmo with Josh and Jeannie

with Jeannie at Cosmo

The next night, some of us went to Ben's for dinner. It was great to have a good home cooked meal (when I cook for myself here it usually just consists of pasta made in the microwave or a salad!). He made us a traditional English meal--cucumber sandwiches to start, mince and potatoes with gravy and carrots, and a Victoria sponge cake and ice cream for dessert. It was so good!

family dinner at Ben's! (with Juni, Josh, Anna, Ben, and Virginia who was taking the photo)

The next night, the BDE (the student council who were the ones to bring a donkey into the school that I mentioned in my last post) had a big party, but tickets sold out fast and a bunch of us from IBP couldn't go. So instead, we made our own fun and went to a bar in Vieux Lyon called the Smoking Dog. It was a really cool English-pub style bar and it was really fun!

Then the next day was Thanksgiving! Obviously they don't have Thanksgiving in France, but a bunch of us from IBP got together to have a big Thanksgiving feast after class. A few of us were from the US but a lot of other friends from other countries joined us too to experience what Thanksgiving is like. We knew cooking a full turkey would be impossible in the miniature French ovens, so instead we had pieces of sliced turkey that we heated up on the stove. We also had potatoes, gravy, corn, green beans, carrots and peas, pork, and some French things to give Thanksgiving a bit of a French twist--croissants, baguette, and baked brie with cranberries. Then for dessert, I made chocolate cream pie, which my family has every year for Thanksgiving! It was my first time not spending Thanksgiving with my family or in the US but it was so much fun and I loved celebrating it with some new friends!

Thanksgiving feast!

with fellow American Anna and Erika

with Meera, Ciela, and Erika at Thanksgiving!

our Thanksgiving feast

my Thanksgiving dinner

chocolate cream pie (slightly falling apart but still delicious) and hot chocolate for dessert!

The next night, we continued our home-cooking streak and Ben came over to St. Bernard and made dinner with me and Sandra. This time we made chicken fajitas which were awesome because I've been craving Mexican food all semester! After dinner, I went over to Julie's apartment where she was hosting a "Wine and Cheese night". Everyone brought a bottle of wine and a type of cheese or other snack to share. I brought some rosé wine and two different types of cookies. This was the second "wine and cheese night" that Julie has had and it was so much fun! We all just hung out at Julie's for a while and then we all took the metro over to Vieux Lyon to find a cool bar. Once we got to a bar, me and Ciela were both exhausted so to keep ourselves entertained, we took Bobby's phone and had some fun hacking his Facebook! We had him post some weird statuses, send friend requests to about 50 people in IBP, message a bunch of people, and "like" a bunch of pages like Hannah Montana, One Direction, and Tampax. Unfortunately once he saw everything that we had posted, he deleted it all. We stayed until the bar closed at 3AM, and Ciela didn't want me to walk home by myself, so I went back to her apartment with her and her friend who was visiting and slept over.

In the morning, Ciela was such a good hostess and went out to buy croissants, Nutella, baguette, and some meat and we had a little brunch. Then I went home and did work for most of the day and went back to Ciela's that night for dinner with a bunch of people. Ciela had two friends visiting her from the Netherlands who were both so nice. One of the guys was really crazy and fun too. One of them made us a lasagna that was delicious and Virginia made her famous salad with brie and I brought some Milka cookies for dessert! We had so much fun hanging out and then we all planned to go to a bar. I was so tired though, and not feeling great (my breathing had been really bad all week, probably because it was starting to get really cold and my inhaler had run out) so when most of the group went out to dance all night, I went home and rested. The line "I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired" kept coming to mind. It was in a White Tie Affair song and in a movie, I think Wet Hot American Summer haha. I hate to miss out on fun times if I'm sick so I called a doctor on Monday to finally make an appointment. I had tried calling doctors a few days earlier, but couldn't get through to actually talk to someone.

hanging out at Ciela's

The next day, I spent most of the time doing work and studying. Then for dinner, Juni and Ben came over to have dinner with me, Sandra, and Kristina. We had the most makeshift dinner but it was awesome. We basically just combined a bunch of random things that we had. We made fish sticks, potatoes, pizza, pasta with olive oil, cookies, and Cadbury chocolate. Then after dinner, we all went into Sandra's room and watched 21 Jump Street which is probably one of the funniest movies ever. It was a fun night and a good break from all the studying that I had been doing all day!

The next Monday, I had a big quiz in International Marketing that is worth 50% of my final grade. We corrected them in class, and I ended up doing pretty well! I think my grade might have been one of the highest in the class which was awesome! Then that night was another fun night at Cosmo. A bunch of us went early at about 8 to get our usual table but when we got there, another group had already taken over our corner. So we grabbed the other back corner table. Everything felt out of whack since we were on the opposite side, but it was cool because the new side had a little alcove with couches right next to the table, so we took that over as well. I hadn't expected a lot of people to come because it was cold and down pouring outside but a lot of people came and it was a fun night! We left earlier than usual so we could all take the metro home instead of walking in the rain.

at Cosmo with Anna, Virginia, Kirsten, and Josh

some of the girls at Cosmo

with Virginia and Kirsten

Cosmo!

Cosmo!

The next day, I didn't have any classes but I had a group meeting for my advertising class that took up a lot of the day. After the group meeting, I went to Starbucks for a little while to meet up with some friends who were there doing work and studying. I got a donut with chocolate around it and it was so good! Then after that, I had my doctor appointment that I had scheduled. When I got to the address, I realised that it wasn't an actual doctor's office like I had expected and instead, it was just a guy's apartment with a room for his appointments that had the doctor's table that you lay on and some other medical things. I thought it was so weird, but apparently that's totally normal in France. He basically just listened to my breathing and then looked at my inhaler prescription and wrote me a prescription for the French equivalent of it. Walking back to my dorm, I saw that the Christmas market they had been setting up in front of the school was open, so I walked through it and saw all the Christmas decorations and checked out a few of the booths. It was so awesome, so I'll definitely be going back there to do a little shopping!

a little section of the Christmas market in Lyon

On Wednesday my final exams started. I had the written portion of my French exam and it went really well! Later that night, a bunch of us cooked dinner in Saint Bernard. Ben and Juni made mince and mashed potatoes and then for dessert Leah and Natasha made chocolate chip pancakes with nutella. It was awesome! I had to do a lot of work that night between studying for exams, working on a paper, and preparing for the two presentations I had that week. I ended up having to stay up until 5 in the morning! At least it was worth it because my French presentation the next day went really well! Not to brag but we were definitely the best group who presented that day ;) After classes were over for the night, a bunch of us went over to Virginia's to hang out. We decided to get some pizzas from Domino's and just chilled. I was so tired by the end of the night though since I had been up till 5 that morning doing work, I fell asleep literally within 30 seconds of getting back to my dorm. In fact, when I woke up in the morning, I still had on my clothes from the day before, I still had on one boot, and my light was on because I had been exhausted and fell asleep as soon as I sat down on my bed haha!

Friday was the last day of my French final exam, but since my group had presented the day before I was all done and just had to watch other groups give their presentations. Then once all the groups were done, we had a little feast of cookies, baguette, lots of cheese, and other snacks that people had brought and we watched a French movie. It was a pretty weird movie that was made in the 80s and took place at a ski resort and I didn't really understand it! At the end of class, I found out that my final grade in the class was a 17.5 out of 20, which is an A! (The French grading system is a lot different than in the USA and it is really hard to get anything over a 16, so I was really excited!) After that, I had to give a group presentation in my advertising class that went well. There had been a little competition and whichever group gave the best presentation won a bottle of champagne. My group didn't win but we came in second place! That night, a bunch of us just needed a chill night after a week of exams, presentations, and quizzes, so we order Domino's again and watched Fight Club in the dorm. There had been a Chinese boy watching a movie by himself before we watched our movie, so we invited him to join us. I've seen him around the dorm a lot by himself, and we could tell we really made his night by asking him to watch the movie with us. He even went to get his camera at one point to take a picture with all of us!

French class

I had to spend most of Saturday working on the big research paper for my France in the 21st Century class. And then at night, I met up with Anna, Virginia, Kirsten, and Ciela to get some dinner. We came across a little bouchon in Vieux Lyon where I got something called a querelle. It was kind of similar to manicotti with a really good sauce! Then for dessert, me and Ciela split a chocolate mousse!

I had to spend a lot of the next day working on my paper again. At a couple points throughout the day, it started to snow a little! I was so excited because I had been wanting to see some French snow at least once before leaving Lyon! Then that night, Ben came over to make dinner for me, Kristina, Sandra, and Natalia again. We made pasta bolognese, pizza, and salad. Somehow Ben managed to make a huge mess all over the stove while stirring the sauce into the pasta. It was like the Lisbon Indian restaurant all over again! The after getting the kitchen all cleaned up form Ben's mess, we went to the TV room where we were going to try and watch a movie. The same Chinese guy from a couple nights before was there, so we joined him to watch the end of Sin City.

Ben's great cooking skills...

Then the next day, I had my final exam for French Conversation. Me and Virginia were partners and we had to do an impromptu skit where we pretended I was a teacher and she was a student who is always late for class, so I got to scold her haha. I think we did ok on it! Afterwards, we went to Mezzo di Pasta for a little snack before doing some more studying. I got a brownie which was delicious. Then after doing some more work on my paper, I went over to Virginia's to hang out before going to Cosmo. When I was trying to get my ticket for the metro, a family of gypsies came over to me and were trying to get me to give them money and when I turned my back to them, they tried stealing my metro ticket! I'm really glad we don't have to deal with gypsies like that back in the US. Cosmo was so much fun that night! I hadn't expected a lot of people to be there because of exams, but it was actually pretty crowded! I danced on the bar for a while too!

so happy to see mi hermano (my brother) as soon as I got to Cosmo!

with Virginia at Cosmo!

Cosmo with Jorge, Denise, and Jasmin

Cosmo with Jasmin, Virginia, and Anna

Cosmo!

dancing on the bar at Cosmo!

Then on Tuesday, I had my next final--International Marketing. It was kind of hard, but I think I did ok on it! I had to do work most of that day too and for a while the next day. Then Wednesday night, after my big research paper was done and submitted, a bunch of us went to the Christmas market outside the school. It was cold and rainy but the market is so cool. Kirsten got some hot wine that I tried some of and it was really good! We also saw someone walking a goat on a leash that was dressed as a reindeer. It was so cute and pretty hilarious to see! A few hours later, a big group of IBPs went to Nick's apartment for a pregame before going to the ESDES party that night. The pregame was fun and the party was awesome! The school had rented out a sex club (that part was pretty weird) that was basically like a huge indoor sauna with a gigantic hot tub that took up almost the entire place. I spent almost the entire night hanging out in the hot tub and didn't end up leaving until after 5 in the morning! I think it was definitely the most creative party I've been to this semester and it was such a fun night.

I can't believe it's getting so close to the end of the semester. This has truly been the best 3 months of my life and I can't believe it's almost over. It's going to be so weird to go home and not be able to see all the friends that I made this semester. I know we'll all stay friends though and I will definitely be planning some trips all over the world to visit a bunch of them :)