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Published: January 19th 2007
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Well hello all,
Firstly, I apologize for the delayed update on what i've been doing since I left you all about a week ago. Things have been hectic getting the dorm set up and everything organized, and internet access has been quite sporatic since i've been here, but as i've continued to get settled in, I finally have access to internet, and should be reachable more often over msn (or the far superior Skype - which many of you should download).
The few times i've been able to talk to people, i've been on the internet at random cafes, or surprisingly McDonald's! What may surprise you more than McDonalds' free wireless internet network is the fact that McDonald's seems to be extremely popular here! Despite France's reputation for fine cuisine, the french do not seem able to kick the McDonald's habit, and the two nearby McDonald's "restaurants" are uber-busy ALL the time! But enough about McDonald's, i'll start talking about this place called France!
When people ask me how France is, I don't really know how to respond, except that I think that it's a little overwhelming at the moment. The area i'm living in is considered to
be "Vieux Lyon" (or for those of you who don't know the french translation - Old Lyon). Most of the roads are cobblestone, and there seems to be old buildings everywhere you turn. On the tour we took yesterday, it came to my attention that many of the buildings in Vieux Lyon are upwards of 500 years old! There's a particularly nice view of a church which sits atop the hill by my residence (this hill is actually more of a cliff, and probably has an incline of close to 90 degrees). At night, lights shine on the front of the church, and it's quite beautiful. Also, there is a massive cathedral - which is about a 10 minute walk from my house - and it dates back to the middle ages (or the 12th century). Pretty amazing sight when you walk in as the ceilings of the church are probably close to 75-100 feet tall! Certainly not something you see everyday in Canada.
A little bit of information on Lyon. Well, I had assumed that Lyon would be around similar size (both in population and geography) as Edmonton, but it's quite a bit bigger. What is considered to
be Lyon is about 1,000,000 people, and the city is pretty huge (although i'm not sure it's bigger geographically than Edmonton because of the fact that Europeans seem to be much better in the space management department). When France was taken by the Germans in WWII, less than half of Lyon was under German control. According to the information on our tour, La Resistance was quite prominent in this city, largely in part due to the existence of long 'traboules.' The layout of Vieux Lyon is such that there are very few connecting streets running perpendicular to the river. Being that Lyon was a major silk manufacturer hundreds of years ago, these shortcuts allowed workmen and craftsmen to transport clothes and other textiles through the city while remaining sheltered from the rainy weather that Lyon often sees. Now you can see how La Resistance used these tunnels as a method of evading German soldiers and passing messages along. I'll add pictures of some of the traboules in a second here.
The area of Lyon that i'm living in is also divided up by two rivers; the Rhone (which is one of the longer rivers in France) and the Saone
The Saone River
This is about a block from the residence (the river is on the right side, just out of view). (which is a branch of the Rhone and travels all the way to Paris). There are quite a few bridges along each of these rivers, and the rivers are lined with residential apartments/flats - a stark contrast from Edmonton's river valley.
The school i'm attending is called Universite Catholique de Lyon, and the building is only 2 years old (surprisingly). It's actually a great building, and everything seems really cool - we just had our orientation today (tuesday). In the orientation, they had a 10 minute powerpoint presentation (which I thought would be totally boring but wasn't!) which basically introduced everyone who is in the business exchange program here in Lyon. And in each stage of the presentation, they introduced each region being represented by the new exchange students. So for example, they introduced all of the Mexicans who are here on exchange. There are so many Mexicans that they probably comprise almost 30% of the total number of exchange students here! Also, there are 4 of us Canadians here, and when they introduced us, they played the "I am Joe and I am Canadian" commercial! It was by far the most well received portion of the presentation as
The Saone River (2)
This is the view to the right of the last picture. everyone was laughing hysterically (although i'm skeptical they all understood the significance of some of the things that were said).
Other than that, things are going pretty well. I would love to send each of you a personalized e-mail about my time here thus far, but i've barely had enough time to write this journal entry, let alone write one for every person I know, so this will have to do! I always forget what to write whenever I do things like this, so expect fairly regular updates on here. Also, I need to get people's addresses so that I can start sending postcards! So i'll assume that if you want a postcard, you'll send me your address. Also, if any of you needed my address (for whatever reason, i'm not sure what) here it is:
Maison Des Etudiants Saint Bernard
28, Rue de la Quarantine
69005 Lyon, France.
Well, i'm going to try to update this thing as often as possible as there is lots to talk about - as you can see! But I miss you guys lots and hope you're all doing well! Talk to you soon!
Patrick.
P.S. When are the
Place Carnot
This is the square that my school is situated in. Pretty scenic, and there are lots of little shops and cafes around. Oilers going to pull their heads out of their asses? Looks like it was a good time to leave town 😉
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Sarah
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Hey Patty! Welcome to the wonderful world of blogging, this is pretty awesome! Lyon sounds beautiful. When did Stuey (Stuie?) get so tall!?