Phew, sweltering in computer lab!

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Hi all you special people, finally I've got time to sit down and write an update! Everything has been really busy here, since we only had a week to hang out before class started. Oh and by the way, french keyboards totally suck, so please excuse any speeling or grammatical errors 😉

First of all, partly just to gloat, gotta say how hot it is here at the moment. We don't have a tv, so no weather reports but my guess would be upwards of mid twenties every day! No need for any more than shorts/skirt and a singlet. People also dress up here alot more than at home.

SO onto the stuff we've been doing. Basically Cat (also from Otago) and Torse (my australian roommate) and I have been hanging out lots and seeign heaps of stuff in Lyon. On Friday we got the funicular railway, kinda like a cable car up the main hill in Lyon; its called Fourviere and there is a huge basilica up there. It completely over the top architecturally in my opinion, but amazing nevertheless. Lots of gold and gilt. From there we walked across the top of the hill to the old old Roman amphitheatres which are enormous. Big open air theatres basically set into the hillside. Boy do they trap heat, we couldn't stay very long, but are going back to the museum there on thursday when its free!! After that we walked back down the hill to the other cathedrale, through the old quarter, called Vieux Lyon. All narrow cobbled streets, and this is where the ancient silk trade was based. We snuck through several of the traboules, stone passageways linking streets and appartments. They have such a neat atmosphere, cool and quiet and almost reverent. We bought ice cream again at this point, the italian style sorbet stuff really is delicious, passionfruit and raspberry are my favourites i think!

The next day, Saturday Torse and I went shopping at Part Dieu, this giant mall just on the tramline from our appartment. Theres a supermarket there too, which actually is really fun cos everything is different, though it takes us about an hour and a half to figure out what we actually want. Then we went to Cats flat for a great fresh pasta lunch cooked by 'the boys' these french guys who are school friends of Leticia. Then we all trekked off by tram to IKEA in the burbs.

Sunday Torse and I crashed after wandering round the city for about 3 hours. There was a Renault formula 1 demonstration through the streets of Lyon and we got stuck on the wrong side of the river and couldnt get back home without an enormous detour. Needless to say the noise while we tried to sleep off our walk in the aftrenoon was somewhat offputting. That and the heat!! Its actually too hot to really even wear pyjamas at night. you feel like having about 3 showers a day. About 5pm we went to the Parc de la tete d'or (the golden head parc), a beautiful huge parc on the edge of Lyon where people go to hang out. We played french pictionary with a whiteboard with Leticia, the boys and another one of their friends Colline. It was great. SO relaxing and nice to just chill out. Wished you were all there. Great spot for a picnic.

Monday was supposedly the info day for uni, but we didnt really find much out, except we had to do another french test and come back today to find out what group wed been put in for the intensive french classes for these first 2 weeks. I dont have a group, just a meeting at 6pm tonight so I have no idea whats going on. Hopefully they dont think Im complete crap!!

Uni is pretty disorganised, but they have free internet so its ok.

Better cut this off, since its already huge, will try and write more frequently in future, lots of love, Samara xxoo

Tiff B: you kno how i said we met a kiwi girl and an aussie girl in the street, the kiwi girl was Jules!! I didnt realise at first cos she was introduced as Julia, but then I mentioned you, and they immediately asked about Jase!! lol very small world. xxoo

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