Je Suis Arrivée!

So far things are going well. I flew out of Dulles on Tuesday evening, and my flight was fairly uneventful. The most interesting part was at the very end just before we landed in Frankfort, when I asked my seatmate about his diplomatic passport. I learned that he was a career foreign service officer currently serving as Chief of Mission at the U.S. embassy in Sudan. That was pretty cool in itself, but while we were talking, I also realized that I went to elementary through high school with his daughter. So DC and such a small world! 

Defeating the maze of two airports and multiple tram-lines, I finally arrived at my apartment building around 4pm (Lyon time, which is currently 6 hours ahead of the East Coast) yesterday afternoon. My landlord was on her way out the door to the market when I arrived, so she quickly showed me around the apartment and then left me to get settled in. She was very sweet and insisted on preparing dinner for my first night when she returned. We had a nice meal of bread and a few types of spread, salad, and green beans. She also had some aspic, which was basically a loaf of chicken and carrots suspended in a sort of broth-flavored gelatin and served cold. I gave it a fair try, but I wasn't really a fan. We finished off the meal with peaches with a mild, soft cheese (sort of a cross between mascarpone and ricotta, if that makes sense) and a sprinkle of sugar on top. It was really lovely to have dinner and to start to get to know each other better.

Today was my first full day here, and I woke up early and went for a jog on a great biking/running path that runs along the banks of the Rhône river. It was beautiful out, and it definitely helped me to start feeling a little more normal when right now nothing is familiar yet! Afterwards, I met up with a student, Fanny, with whom the university put me in touch as part of their international buddy program. We stopped to pick up a pain au chocolat and then wandered for a few hours through the old part of the city and along the other river in Lyon, the Saône, exploring narrow streets and expansive plazas, ornate cathedrals and churches, and out-of-the-way "traboules."

Breakfast - yum!

La Place Bellecour

Across the Saône

Along the River

 

Fanny was very nice and also very patient with my limited French. I've always kind of loved situations where two people don't fluently speak the same language. There is usually a lot of gesturing and explaining (and re-explaining), but somehow in the end you can always understand each other, no matter the language barrier.  

This afternoon I went over to the school to complete my registration. While I was waiting in line, I met a Chinese woman about my age named Ling (I think?). She was very friendly and spoke French (she's been in Lyon for a few months now but was enrolled in a different program and decided to switch) and English. I'm hoping we have class together after the placement tests next week because she seemed like a kindred spirit (Anne of Green Gables, anyone?). We exchanged contact information and made tentative plans to get together this weekend! First day and making friends...off to a pretty good start.

That's it for now.  I promise shorter posts and more pictures down the road, but figured you wouldn't mind a little extra detail, right? Right.

Miss you all!