Indian Summer Lyon Style

It has been a crazy few days. Getting oriented is not so much difficult as it is tiresome. We, as in the whole lot of us - more on them later - want to get TCL passes, which is the French version of a Metrocard. For 25 euros a month you can take any form of transport, be it bus, tram, or metro, an unlimited number of times. But, in order to get that, you need to jump through 16 hoops of fire and then balance on a chair on your head while picking your nose with both hands.

Mmmm, I love the smell of a disorganized bureaucracy in the morning.

As of right now there's a group of us:

Paulina, my awesome roommate.
Daniel, a 27-year old student from North Carolina who is the sweetest Southern gentleman anyone can find.
Eden, a dude from Hawaii Pacific who's pretty cool.
Sina, from Munich, who is super sweet. Her birthday is 2 days before mine.
Hannah, cool chick from Australia
Emi, our Baruch sister
Joe, a half-Japanese/half-UK kid who we call Texas. Because he goes to a school in Texas.
Brent, a laid-back quiet dude from Vancouver.
And we're just adding more as the days go by.

It's looking like an Indian Summer for Lyon. It's not outright hot - it's not hot absolutely everywhere you go, but when that sun hits my bed at around 10 am (because the curtains are fucked up - dont ask), it's roasting up in here. In the shade, though, it's quite cool.

At the time of this writing, I'm preparing to experience my first hardcore Thunderstorm a la Lyonnais. It is pitch black outside. And very, very angry.

Monday we had our first day of orientation. There was a lot of BS administrative information and then we had an hour break before more crap. During this hour, which ended up being 12-2 (love the French), we ate and had a beer. Yes, I had a huge beer at one in the afternoon. And then what happened? It went right to my head. So I'm sitting in this hot ass auditorium with another 250 people and it is boring as shit and I passed oooooooout. But so did everyone else.

We went to Carrefour, which is like France's Wal-Mart. It is MASSIVE.

It looks like my schedule so far is Monday-Thursday, possibly Wednesday which is great for weekend trips.

This language barrier is huge but really funny. Food shopping is such a trial but well worth it. Doing anything that involves the locals is just exasperating. I can imagine how interesting going to the farmer's market on Sunday will be.
"Uhhhh, je voudrais un kilo du fromage."
"Quel fromage?"
"Uhhh, that one."
"Quoi?"
"What?"
"QUOI?"

I shudder to think.

Dublin still seems like a go for my birthday. It's hard to believe I haven't even been here a week yet. It feels like ages.

More to come!

PS. I have my address and my mailbox. WHERE THE HELL ARE MY CARE PACKAGES FROM CERTAIN PEOPLES?

Gurvich Jenny
5 Bis Avenue Frères Lumière, Apt. R402
69008 Lyon, France