Speaking of food, I went to two parties this week. The first, on Monday night, was organized by the UC office for all the students in the semester program, their families, and the teachers. Annick came with me, but I think she got tired of standing around listening to me try to speak French, because she wanted to leave almost immediately after arriving. I ended out going with her, so I could talk to her in French on the way home (her escape attempt failed). The second,
on Thursday night, was at the Hotel de Ville - kind of the Lyon equivalent of the White House. I think there are government offices there too, but we were in this gorgeous banquet hall, with chandeliers, paintings on all the walls and ceilings, statues, etc. I got to meet the mayor of Lyon, which was interesting. I think the first party had better caviar, though. The second was organized by the USA-France organization for all the U.S. students in Lyon, but there were also a lot of French people there (to practice their English, I assume). There's another huge party planned for the night of the election, where all the U.S students and Lyonnaise attending have a mock election, and watch the news results from the U.S. I think it's right in the middle of my fall break, though, so I may be out of the country somewhere. We'll see.I also went to two museums this weekend: the Center for the History of Deportation and Resistance (WWII), and the Museum of Fabric and Decorative Arts. The second was surprisingly interesting, considering I don't have a whole lot of interest in fabric or decorative arts. I watched a documentary on silkworms. At the history museum, I saw a photo of the building my classes are in - with a giant hole blown in the side, from where a bomb had hit it. Those damn Allies.
I watched Rush Hour 2 a few nights back. It was all dubbed, of course - including the outtakes at the end. This means that the French voice actor had to read his French lines, mess them up, burst out laughing, and then read them again, each time messing them up in new and interesting ways. It was rather amusing.
My family and I went to the Italian traveling circus Saturday night. It featured: two gymnasts, a trapeze artist, a juggler (who was pretty good, except for the half dozen or so times he dropped the ball), a strong man, three horses, a pony, a couple bulls who were leapt over by a pair of llamas and a droop-humped camel, and two clowns who smoked a cigarette before kicking each other's back-sides. I don't know how they made any money, because there were only a few dozen people there (and two thirds of them were with Lulu's class).There's a lot of old women here with maroon hair.
Classes started for the French students today, which means the foreign students no longer have priority for room selection. This week, our class changes location at least 5 times, according to
the schedule, and there's likely to be further changes. We were kind of worried that some of the students wouldn't be able to find the room today, because they'd been in Munich for the weekend, for Oktoberfest, and we thought they might be too hung over to remember. Two of them were late, but they all made it there eventually. Apparently they had a good time in Munich for the most part, for the 24 hours they were there (with 46 hours of train rides there and back). One girl has no idea where she was from 8 PM to 2 AM, but luckily the others were able to find her, and lead her to the train station. Another guy who they were going to go with missed the train because he got a craving for McDonalds. He caught the next train, ran into them by chance in Munich - and then almost missed the train back because he wanted Burger King. I hope you're all doing well there, and enjoying the American fast food (it's better).
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