April 23rd
Allen had an exam, so I was sort of off
exploring Lyon on my own which was fun. It's funny how being in a new
city where you don't speak the language makes everything take 3 times
as long, and your IQ drop 50 points. It's pretty embarassing.
Basically I went off knowing (in order of importance) “ou est les
toilets?,” (where are the toilets?) “ou est le metro,” (where
is the metro?) and, “Je suis perdu,” (I am lost). I could also
tell people “je ne parl pas Frances bien,” (I don't speak French
well.) but that was one I didn't really need to tell people—they
found out pretty quickly. It was really hot out so I bought some
sunscreen. That was interesting because I had to kind of play
cheraids with the guy. I remembered after that I had a dictionary in
my backpack. I then found my way to a museum (free for
students—sweet!) called Musee des Beaux-Arts. I think that's the
museum of nice art. That's one thing I love about Lyon: all the names
make so much sense. Anyways, it had some really nice art. I got a
little embarrassed when I tried to get a ticket from the bag check
lady, but I figured it out eventually. The museum was actually very
large, and it had this amazing court yard garden thing inside it (the
building went all around the block it was on, with a plaza on the
inside). They had an exhibit on Lyonnaise painters, so I checked that
out for a while before I went back to Allen's uni.
Later, I joined Allen in one of his
classes, which was cool. It was in English, and on something like
International law I think. I met more of his friends (originating
from Seattle, to St. Louis, to Newzealand and Australia, to Sweden)
which was cool. I really liked how so many people from all over the
world came to be such good friends. It's also exciting that all these
people were insisting that we come and visit them in their home
country. If I get away to Australia for exchange, I have about 4
people I can call up and ask to take me on a tour. It's wonderful.
