Ooo La La Lyon: Integration Week

9/5/16-9/11/16

Hotel de Ville

This was the first week of my senior year of college!!! This week I started at ISARA with just the other international students. There are about 20 of us this year spread out in the three different options (VITEA, Agroecology, and SDFI). I am in the SDFI option. This week comprised of a lot of french lessons, and a tour of Lyon.

This is ISARA

On Monday we all met each other and played a name game so that we could meet everyone. The majority of the international students this year are from Brazil! I had one of the Brazilians as my partner for the week. His name is Antoine. We also got an introduction to what being a student at ISARA would mean.

ISARA is a private college
They expect us at our desk at least 5 minutes before the class starts
All of our classes are MANDATORY!!

if we need to miss a class due to an illness we have to have a medical certification
if we miss for personal reasons it must be pre-arranged and approved with the professor

My class schedule changes every week
NO eating is allowed in class

Some of these will take a bit to get use to, but all thing said and done it is not that big of an adjustment.

Figs are the Croix-Rousse market

On Tuesday we had an all day walking tour of Lyon. The tour guide for this trip was our french teacher from ISARA. We started off in front of the Hotel de Ville, and walked up to a farmers market on the Rue de Croix-Rouse. On the way up to the market we saw this super cool mural on the side of a building. This mural is of famous french people in the windows. We went up a tone of stairs to get the the market, and one of the starts was painted with bright colors.

Finally we made it to the market. At this market there were a tone of produce sellers. I talked with this one guy who was selling peaches and nectarines all in French. I had stopped by his booth because the nectarines that he was selling were so BIG! I talked to him about Oregon, and Astoria. By the end of the conversation he ended up giving me the nectarine because I had a "Beautiful Heart" After the market we went to a park to eat. Our french teach bought us some french cheeses to try, some baguettes, and some sausage.

The next stop we made of to the Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourvière. I had been to this church last week, but this week I got to go inside. It was so beautiful inside. There were different pictures and statues depicting different stories in the Bible. I did feel a little awkward because people were in the church for religious reasons and then there were people like me just walking around and taking pictures and reading the stories for the different statues. After that we went through the gardens of the church, which lead us back down the hill and to another church called Saint-Jean. At this church there was this super cool star chart clock. The hands of the clock depicted what starts or planets would be in the sky on that date. I am not sure how accurate it was, but it was cool.

On Wednesday and Thursday we just had french lessons. On Wednesday we had to do presentations about something on the tour on Tuesday. Antoine and I did our presentation on the framers market. It went as well as it could with only having 2 hours to prepare. We also split off into groups based on out french levels and discussed some of the history of Lyon, and what ideas we had about Lyon/France before coming here. We had a bit of a story time when our teacher talked about the festival of Lights that happens in December. The summary of the story is that the people of Lyon were sick with the plague and they prayed to Saint Mary to heal and protect them. Then they were healed! To give thanks they would bring statues up to the Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourvière. One year the weather was so bad that they could not do it in September, so they moved it to December. However, when the day came in December the weather was bad too, then just before they were going to cancel the weather cleared and they were able to celebrate. After this the people of Lyon started to put little candles in their windows. Then in the past 15ish years the festival has grown to what it is today.

Friday was an unexpected field trip into the French alps. I wrote a bonus blog about it, so go check it out! I had so much fun getting to see all the cheese and cows!

Group photo at the Confluence

On Saturday I hung out with a girl that I met at church, her name is Rachael. Rachael is an intern with a nutrition lab in Lyon. We went to this music/dance/food festival in the center of town called Musiques du Monde. We got there just in time to see a parade of the different countries. Each country had their flag, followed by people play native instruments, then people doing different dances from their counties. It was super annoying that they don't clear the streets for a parade because people kept walking in front of me while I was trying to watch/take pictures. Then Rachael and I went to meat up with some other people form the other Oregon group. We then went on a boat ride to the Confluence, which is the point where the two rivers in Lyon meet up and become one river. We took a group picture in front of the Lyon sign. There we met a group of German students studying in Lyon. They were hilarious to talk with. They were really interested in Portland and all the weird stuff that happens there. They also talked about Trump, and how at this point they believe that anything can happen (it was awkward). Also one of these student was rooming with one of the other international students that I know from ISARA! Small World!

Then finally today (Sunday), I am spending the day resting and getting ready to start classes tomorrow!