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It has been a couple days since I've written my last entry, but I'm back again!
This past Monday, my summercourse started. I must admit, that this was quite a transition after my incredibly amazing weekend filled with amazing band performances (and learning what happens when you have a festival + rain). When I got back to rainy Lyon (yes, it does rain here!!) without the amazing company I had on the festival nor the great music, I was not looking forward to the next day. On this dreaded Monday, I had my placement test that would determine in which level I would be placed. I was very worried that I would not get the level I needed, but as it turns out, I actually did (too) well on my test and got placed in a B1 level. Actually, as I am writing this, I am doubting between staying at that level or going to a lower one, since I feel that B1 is too high for me. However, the level under B1, A2, is probably a bit low for me. To be continued...
While I was at this test, I met a nice Swedish girl with whom I
a lovely lunch in small odd cafe (I also discovered the expensiveness of Lyon and I still wonder how on earth the French pay for their habit of long lunches in restaurants). Tuesday, was the first day of class and this is where I discovered that B1 is quite tough. I have a nice teacher though, who only speaks French in class (which is difficult, but you learn a lot from it too). Interestingly, I think about 2/3 of the students attending the summercourse are asian and in my class, I'm a minority as I am the only european! Very weird experience. Unfortunately, what happens at a lot of sitations where there are people from various backgrounds happens here as well...thus the Asians stick to the Asians. Interestingly, although the Americans tend to stick together as well, they seem to be more open for mingling with Europeans (but that might be since most Europeans speak English, since they lack 1 common mothertongue).
On Wednesday, there was scatterhunt-like activity organised in the area close to the university, where we got to discover some quite nice places around there. Besides that, the activity was not that great, but that was due
to failling groupdynamics.
In between this all, I went supermarkt hunting in Lyon. I had already visited the big carrefour supermarket, but I find this one to be quite expensive! Besides these big supermarkets, Lyon has a numerous small supermarkets that sell most basic things, against high prices! Fortunately, after some research I found a cheap supermarket, with prices more suitable for students! Another thing I discovered that those small foldaway steps we had 10 years ago (Ah, childhoodmemories!) are still not disregarded here, as I see many people (not only kids) use them.
I am gonna end this blog now, since unlike in Holland, I actually have to travel a bit to get to university. Although it is only about 15 minutes total by bus and by foot, this time does include Lyon's crazy morning rush hour traffic, which can easily double my 8 minute busride... Goodnight!
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