It's just not in the stars for this group.

It's very strange seeing everyone's Facebook pictures of snow in Minnesota! It's actually warmed up a bit here in France; it's been t-shirt weather here for the past few days. All the more reason to hop on a plane and come visit me, right? ;)

Early Thursday morning, we departed on our final (!) CSB/SJU group trip that was made possible by last summer's awesome exchange rate (dollar to Euro, 1.2). Lyon is the second-largest city in France (next to Paris, of course) and it is the capital of French FOOD. "Lyon" also means "lion" in French, so there were lion statues everywhere throughout the city. I stopped there on my way to Tours a few weeks back, but I didn't get to see much of it. Thursday morning was filled with a photo shoot of massive proportions on the train; Mickey and I were alive, awake, alert, enthusiastic while Katie and Evans were sleeping next to us, so we had quite a bit of fun. Upon arriving, we all went straight to our hostel, which actually wasn't bad. You never know what to expect when you're staying in a hostel, but Katie, Regina, and I had our own room (complete with bunk beds) and shower (but the toilet was down the hall). The hostel was actually an interesting experience; it's the first one I've stayed at and it wasn't bad at all. It was in Vieux Lyon (the old area of town) on a hill, and we had an amazing view of the city from the balcony.

We had some time to explore Lyon after we arrived; basically, we were on a mission for lunch. Katie, Mickey, and I found a small 24/24 (24/7 - weird for France) café where one of the women working didn't know what a café au lait (coffee with cream) was! There was much confusion, but the other woman working had her thinking cap on and poured some milk into a cup of straight coffee. (20 minutes later, Beth and I found a place that knew what real coffee was. Phew.) While we were searching for a place to eat, I found this epic FAIL AT LIFE pictured to the left. First of all, the "apostrophe s ('s)" is never EVER EVER used in French, ever. This is bolded and highlighted many times over in my French I notebook from high school. Also, just...what??? "Le banana's"? It just has no meaning in French! English! Anything! Blah!

Moving right along. After finding real coffee, our group met up again and we started our tour of Lyon with a guide from the city. It was actually an excellent tour; it was a shame that it started to rain and everyone was chilled to the bone half-way through. She talked a lot about the Roman influences on the architecture of Lyon (which was surprising because Lyon is pretty far north of the coast), les traboules (passageways between streets in Lyon that were used for hiding/escape purposes during the Revolution and other eras - we got to go through a couple of them!), and the Cathedral. There was an astrological clock inside the Cathedral that sounds four times per day most days, and we got to watch it - it was actually really neat! There was a rooster on top that "crowed" at 4 o'clock, mechanical figures that moved, and a complicated face that gave much boggling astrological information.

After the tour, we all needed a little break, so we returned to the hostel for a bit to nap (and post my Rome blog). We had dinner reservations in Vieux Lyon and it was fantastic. Beth had to explain most of the French to us (she knows a lot about food) with the help of my pocket French dictionary which has a section of terms specific to dining! Perfect! I got French onion soup, a chicken and rice dish, and crème brûlée, which was all fabulous. It's hard to explain; food in Lyon is at a completely different level from all else in France and the rest of the world. Every bite you take is accompanied by a sigh and much deep thought on how you ever survived without this food in the past. This also brings up a great French invention that I haven't really talked about much before: Le menu. This is a great option that most French restaurants give their customers; the "menu" is a specific list of a few options for the appetizer, main dish, and dessert. Sometimes, there are a few different menus, each at a specific price. It's a great deal because you can get several courses for 12-20 Euros (typically - but if you eat at a very fancy restaurant, it can of course cost more). Usually, though, it's a great idea to take advantage of le menu. Sometimes, it's not available on Sundays and holidays, like much else in France.

Friday morning was spent at the Deportation Museum; this was a very somber but well-done WWII museum. The parts about the Holocaust and concentration camps hit everyone especially hard. I noticed this before at museums in Paris, but again, it was very apparent that there was much suffering happening in France and surrounding countries during the war and everybody turned away from it. When you see the videos and pictures, it's hard to understand why people were not as informed and disturbed as they should have been if they had understood what Hitler was doing during the time.

Luckily, lunch was another great gastronomical experience that day. We went to a restaurant that is popular among locals; there are several places like this where you sit down and they give you only a couple of options for your meal depending on what is fresh or good to eat that day. A few of us chose the "wrong" appetizer: The pâté dish (consisting of a "slice" of meat and fruit in a bread crust) was just okay (I'm sure it was wonderful by pâté standards, but it just wasn't my thing) but the fish was excellent - luckily, we all share dishes.

The main course was across-the-board amazing. There were two options; one was a seafood soufflé and the other was steak-and-potatoes. I got the steak; it was...AMAZING. I can barely describe it. Everything is just so fresh. There is a little taste of ratatouille (a vegetable stir fry) and spicy pear besides the mashed and baked potatoes...and the steak was PERFECT. And the SAUCE! If you love food, Lyon is definitely the place to go. They know what they're doing.

After lunch, everyone broke up and did their own thing. I went back to the hostel for a bit to relax; that's okay on the sixth straight weekend of travel, right? It gets kind of complicated with the room keys; Katie and Regina went with others to a miniatures museum nearby, so I had to wait until they got back to leave myself. That wasn't bad; I went for a nice walk across the Saône river (not far at all) to a teddy bear shop (!) and then back. I actually went to the miniature museum myself; it was really cool! The man who works in the studio on the top floor is very famous; he makes the miniature sets and props for many movies including V for Vendetta (the mask from the final scene - to the left - was actually at the museum!), Indiana Jones, Batman Begins, and many others. He also had a bunch of random little scenes on display in the museum, which was incredible - musical instruments, chess boards, food - I can't imagine spending my life making such tiny things! It was really cool to see how someone could make a living out of creating small things like that; there was a display of food that reminded me a lot of my "micro food" presentation from English class in middle school! It was a very interesting display, and I was glad I went.

Afterwards, I decided to walk by the river for a bit (the Saône). Turns out, a building right across the bridge was on fire - tons of people were standing near the bridge, watching. It's scary when there's a fire like that because all the buildings are hundreds of years old and they're all connected; there were people poking their heads out of the top floors of the buildings next door and I couldn't believe they hadn't evacuated yet! If one building starts burning, every other building next door, on the same block, and in the same neighborhood are at risk.

The fire kept burning all evening, long after I returned to the hostel. I hope no one was hurt. It was a lovely evening, and Katie, Laura, and I decided to head out for a real dinner (when everyone else opted for Pizza Hut - WHAT?!?!?!? Yeah). We wandered around Vieux Lyon until we found a restaurant that served something other than liver, brains, and intestines (all of which I sampled from other people's plates and liked but of which I could never eat an entire dish) on le menu. We found a great little place with delicious salade de chèvre (goat cheese salad - it was fantastic), poulet et riz (chicken and rice), and mousse au chocolat (chocolat mousse). We returned to the hostel and the Laura and I decided to go out for a little while. There was an Irish pub very close to the hostel. We met a girl from Atlanta, Georgia and a guy from Ohio who are working here. It was a very fun time! We moved on to another Irish pub and I met five French guys who didn't speak English. We carried on a conversation for awhile and then I turned in for the night.

The morning was beautiful! A few of us went with Beth to the ancient Roman ruins nearby on the hill, and then to the Cathedral. It was a little bit of a walk, but gorgeous all the same. There were many pictures taken on the ruins...

That afternoon, I wasn't feeling particularly well, so I spent most of my time resting. I wasn't too surprised or upset; I have been going for five weekends straight now (plus normal classes during the week) without a break so I needed a little pause; so did Andrew, who has a bad cold. It was hard to lay down and do nothing in a city I've never been to before but it was necessary. By evening, I was feeling better. Everyone dressed up to go to L'Ouest, a famous restaurant in France. The food was excellent (but maybe we were a bit detached because we had dined at fantastic places for the previous days). I'm glad we went, though; it was a great experience to eat at a modern but famous place.

The dinner lasted about three hours and we didn't get to bed until around one-thirty. We did have some great dinner conversation, as usual... This time, the highlight for me was probably Liz talking about previous study abroad groups who were very close and always hung out together, and then she said, "It's just not in the stars for this group." I don't think I've ever laughed harder. She then proceeded to invite all of us to her apartment next semester.

This morning consisted of packing and leaving: Another train ride full of pictures and homework. We are now back in Cannes, ready for another full week. It's interesting because about half of our group is begging to go home right now and half of us are counting our days and focused on making the most of them! (I am definitely part of that group.) It's hard to believe there is less than a month left, but I'm ready to soak up the rest of my time in France without wasting a second!