Mes Rêves #20

#20: Visit the free zoo at the Parc de la Tête d'Or ✓ 

I love zoos. Today I had a free hour before class started, so I decided to find the free zoo at the Parc de la Tête d'Or.

Even though I had been to the park quite a few times before, I had never found the zoo. Last week I got pretty close, but all I found were these things and the botanical gardens.

Today I was determined to actually make it to the zoo. And I did. And it was awesome.

The hard thing about it being a free zoo is that there is no entrance, so I wasn't sure if I was actually at the zoo or not. Until I saw the flamingos of course.

Once I found the flamingos it was pretty easy to find my way around the rest of the zoo. Well, except to the zebras and giraffes. I kept seeing signs for them, but I couldn't find their actual enclosures. I did see lots of other animals, though.

These are lemurs from Madagascar (both the country and movie). I call this one "King Julien XIV"

It's hard to tell in the pictures, but these pélicans blancs were pink. And I'm no French or color expert, but even I know that blanc et rose are not the same thing.

 This is a red panda. Unlike the giant panda, it is not giant, it's red. And adorable.

 I call this one "Ryder" in honor of my sister's dog Ryder, which he looks like.

These turtles are from Florida, so to deal with the cold they hibernate. (...at least, I think that's what the sign said...)

 

It turns out that one hour is not enough time to see the entire zoo. But since it's free I will definitely be coming back. Also, I found out that you can visit the zoo kitchens for only 6€, so I'm going to have to come back for that, too.

A Quest

Not all those who wander are lost.

-J. R. R. Tolkien

Last Sunday my mom posted two pictures to my Facebook wall. They were both buildings in Lyon and she gave me the goal of finding them this week (I think this may have been another one of her tricks to get me out of my apartment.)

 

On Wednesday I was driving home from dinner with a friend and we happened to pass by the first building. It was random and awesome, plus I was excited to all ready be halfway done with my quest.

Unfortunately the other building was not as easy to find.

I had no idea where to even start looking. How do you find a building when all you have is a picture?

Google was my first idea. I performed a whole collection of searches from "Cool architecture in Lyon" to "Twisted Building in Lyon France". Surprisingly, I actually managed to find the building on Google maps.

I then set off on my adventure. It should have been an easy adventure, one that would have fit in a Dora the Explorer episode. I started by taking the metro to the very end of the line. The end of the line also happened to be a train station, though, so it was impossible to leave. All of the sorties (exits) kept pointing me back to the train station. Eventually I had to walk through the parking lot and over a fence to make it out.

Once out all I had to do was walk south along the Saône River until I ran into the building. Easy enough, right? Wrong. The sidewalk I was on only went one direction -- north. This was on account of the highway that I was walking along. The only way to go south was to cross the highway and river and walk down the other side. Of course the only bridge was a 20 minute walk north of me.

But I was on a quest, and I wasn't going to be stopped by a silly thing like having to walk the wrong direction. I also decided to trust fate to lead me to the building, even if fate took me there via a sidewalk that was more street than sidewalk or via an abandoned tram station.

As it turns out, I wasn't actually walking along the Saône, I was walking along the Rhône. This means I wasn't going north, I was going south, and I ended up walking right to La Confluence. I then just had to follow the line of weirdly designed buildings until I ended up outside of this one:

It's true: not all those who wander are lost, and even if you think you're lost, fate will lead you to where you are meant to be. Even if where you are meant to be is just a cool building.

Mes Rêves #4

#4: See Les Miserables at a French Cinema ✓ 

This is everything I knew about Les Mis prior to seeing the movie.

a) Les Mis is not a Spanish play. I first heard about Les Mis from my sister after she saw the play. She loved the play and she also loved Spanish, so naturally I assumed the play was about something Spanish. It was only about a year ago that I learned it is set in France.

b) It also has something to do with the French revolution.

c) Which apparently has something to do with bread.

To be perfectly honest, I didn't care all that much about Les Mis being made into a movie. I only put it as one of my study abroad goals because I wanted to see a movie in a French cinema and it seemed fitting since it is set in France.

At the time I also didn't know the movie is three hours long, otherwise I probably would have rethought my decision.

However, after watching the movie I feel like I've wasted so much of my time not caring about Les Mis. I was pulled in from the very first scene when the music just comes out full force. Anne Hathaway was amazing. When she sang I Dreamed a Dream I got chills and could feel her character's pain. And then at the end when they do the reprise I wanted to be able to join the characters and sing along with them because I felt like a part of the movie.

In fact, the entire metro ride home I had to keep telling myself that it would not be appropriate to break out into song, no matter how much I wanted to.

And maybe it's partially because I'm here in France so the story of the French revolution feels so much more real, but I thought the movie was spectacular.

Mes Rêves #21

#21: Ride the Ferris Wheel in Place Bellecour ✓

Yesterday I went to dinner avec une amie. Afterwards, we were wandering around Lyon trying to find something to do. Which is when we came upon the Ferris Wheel at Place Bellecour.

We paid for our tickets, got on the ride, and then I casually mentioned that I am terrified of heights.

The first time around, I may or may not have actually had my eyes open.  The third time around I was feeling pretty comfortable. By the fifth round I was actually enjoying myself and taking lots of pictures.  Around the tenth circuit I started to get cold and stopped counting the number of times we had been around, but I think we got to about 13 or 14.

While on the Ferris Wheel, we saw a really cool lit up pathway up a mountain. So we decided to go exploring and find out what it was.

However, even when we were only 100 meters away, we still could not figure out what we were looking at.

After some intense Google searching -- including a lot of Google Translate -- the best I could find was that this is a medieval wall. No one even mentions that it is lit up. A quest for another day!

Go Grease Lightning!

This afternoon my mom gave me some really good advice. She told me to stop worrying about what I'm expecting this study abroad experience to be and just appreciate it for what it is.

She's really good at this kind of stuff - making me feel guilty about things I should feel guilty about.

Because it's true. I've been so worried about having a life-changing experience that I've ignored most of the "little" things I've had the opportunity/been forced against my will to do.

After I got done talking to her I was so disappointed in myself, due to her very accurate observation, that I decided to spend the rest of the evening in my room being sad.

But then I thought to myself, 'Well, I'll prove her wrong! I'm going to go out and do something tonight!'

Which is probably exactly what she wanted. She's sneaky like that.

It was 8:30 when I remembered that le cinema was showing Grease at 9:00. I love the cinema and who doesn't want to watch Grease on the big screen?

So I left my room and went to the theater. However, when I got there I found out the theater was full. I didn't even have time to think about what I was going to do when a girl walked up to me and asked if I wanted to see Grease. In French. And I understood her! She had an extra ticket that she was trying to sell.

And I bought it. Without even thinking. All I knew was that I wanted to see Grease. Tonight.

I probably should have checked to make sure the ticket was real -- or at least for the right theater -- but I didn't. I gave her my 10€ and walked into the theater.

It is the best 10€ I've ever spent.

Apparently, the cinema takes its re-showing of old movies very seriously. Not only did they have a Grease Quiz, but they also had movie posters for the entire audience. The French Grease movie poster.

You know it's French because the 'e' has an accent mark.

There is something magical about sitting in a theater when the lights dim and the movie starts. It is extra-magical when the movie is an 80's musical.

Best of all, though, Sandy used my favorite French word -- reprendre -- during one of her songs.

It is little things like that that make me happy I leave my room.

Mon Anniversaire

The fun thing about the word anniversaire is you can use it pretty much whenever you want. For example, joyeux anniversaire means happy birthday, but it also means happy anniversary (such as a wedding anniversary).

A month ago, I arrived in Lyon, so joyeux anniversaire a moi!

In honor of my one-month anniversary I figured I should do something special today. That "something special" ended up being me helping some American boys figure out what to do with their trays at my favorite restaurant, holding the door open for some people, and giving up my seat on the metro for an elderly lady.

Oh, and I also went to class.

It was the perfect anniversaire.

In honor of this day, I bring you some of my favorite things from my life in France so far:

I didn't think I would ever find something I liked more than speculoos gelato (or the petit vennois near Versailles if you want real food), but then tonight I tasted St. Moret cream cheese. It is the best thing I've eaten so far, and I have eaten a lot of good food. I'm now considering leaving all of my stuff in France and packing my suitcase full of 50 pounds of this cream cheese to bring back to the States because I love it so much.

I also learned my new favorite French word -- reprendre. Despite the fact that this word has three French r's and is in the troisième group (the worst group to conjugate) I love this word. It literally means to retake (prendre means to take), but it can be used in the same way we use 'to take in' in the States, such as when you need to take in a skirt.

I don't imagine that I will have much use for this word outside of tonight's dinner when I told my host family how my mom tailors -- or reprend -- my clothes, but I still love this word. I might even try and make it into my own catch phrase...

I've learned a lot in the past month. I've learned how to not flood the bathroom when I'm taking a freezing cold shower. I've learned that the bathroom doesn't actually hate me, it was just initiating me into French life. I've learned how to close my wardrobe. And I've also learned where to go if you need to buy notebooks...

I can only imagine what my two-month anniversaire will bring.

Mes Rêves

There are 21 regions in France.

I turned 21 in December.

Disneyland Paris will celebrate its 21st anniversary in April -- yeah, Disneyland Paris and I are the same age, nbd.

Anyway, it seemed only fitting that I have 21 Study Abroad Goals.

I've spent the past month trying to finalize this list. I've changed it, re-ordered it, reverted back to the original order, and finally managed to finish the list. However, I'm afraid that if I don't tell anyone about mes rêves, I'll just keep changing them and never actually finish.

21 Things To Do Before I Return to the States (in it's *mostly* original order):

1. See the Saône River flowing North
2. Visit the Museo Nazionale del Cinema in Torino
3. Take a picture with every cathedral built before the 18th century in Lyon
4. See Les Miserables at a French Cinema
5. Make a wish on the star at Notre Dame in Paris
6. Try 5 different types of bread at 5 different boulangeries in one day
7. Eat gelato at the Roman Amphitheaters
8. Visit the cliffs of Normandy
9. SCUBA dive at a WWII wreck site
10. Visit the Musée Miniature et Cinéma
11. Walk to the top of Fourvière (and make it to the church)
12. Visit the Geneva Temple
13. Visit the Roman Coliseum
14. Finish a book in French
15. Order something at a store correctly and understand everything they say
16. See the Musical Fountain Show at Versailles
17. Visit a significant movie site of a movie filmed in Europe (I'm not really sure what this means, but I think I'll know it when I see it)
18. Visit the Count of Monte Cristo Chateau in If
19. Tour a castle
20. Visit the free zoo at the Parc de la Tête d'Or
21. Ride the Ferris Wheel in Place Bellecour

And if you're wondering what I'm doing up at 4:45 in the morning, it's just that I haven't gone to bed yet. I accidentally took a nap from 6:00 - 9:30 and when I woke up I kept thinking of important things I needed to do. The good news is that I have now cleaned my room, finished some work, and planned all of my trips. The bad news is it is 4:45 in the morning and I still haven't gone to bed...