Lara et Eva come to Lyon!

Just spent a wonderful few days with Lara and Eva. Will write a quick summary.

Thursday:- Eva and Lara arrived at Lyon in the evening (by car). Went out for dinner pretty much straight away with some friends. We went to a "bouchon" (very Lyonnais). Plenty of tasty food with some house wine (it's the 'Bordeaux' way). Ended the evening with a drink at K-Fet, the on-campus student bar.

Friday:- I had school so Lara and Eva spent the morning visiting Vieux Lyon and other parts. We met up at 'Le Parc de La Tete d'Or' for a picnic lunch. The sun was shining and I finally got to see all the animals in the zoology parc!!! Tigers, giraffes, elephants, monkeys!!! I think they spent the afternoon shopping (Lara and Eva, not the animals). Had a fun night out in town! We went up to Fourviere, which is very beautiful by night. The view is quite spectacular. We then had dinner at a 'Savoyard' restaurant near 'Place de Bellecour' called La Grange. It was absolutely delicious. Eva and I shared a fondue. I don't think I've ever eaten that much cheese. Finally ended up in a 'boat' club...as in, a night club decorated as a ship. Lots of dancing, the french have strange taste in music...like, my dad would have a ball..a bit of YMCA, some Grease, Ra-ra-rasputin and finally (quite appropriately) in the NAVY!!!

Saturday:- The three musketeers (Lara, Alex et Eva) drove to le Chateau de Vaugirard, where Lara's aunt and uncle own a farm...and live in a castle!!! Arrived just in time for lunch (roast chicken and quenelle!) and then went walking around the farm and visited the castle.

Sunday:- Went to Monbrison for a quick visit. It's a small town near the castle. We couldn't walk around the farm much because it was a hunting day. More food...Marie-Caroline made us a very 'Lyonnais' meal. Tripe!!! hmmm well I tried it, but I think once is enough! For those who don't know, I ate cow intestines and stomach...Took the train home, arrived back at INSA just a couple of hours ago. Lara and Eva are staying with her family until Tuesday before heading back to Bordeaux.

Ciao, 'til next time

Alex xoxo

Quick post

Hello,

Just quickly, have been sick this week but am on the mend with plenty of rest. I was ordered by Alice not to go to waterpolo today (I really was going to go).

Lara and Eva just couldn't get enough of me last week so they're coming today!!! Staying here until Saturday and then we head up together to the castle I keep hearing about (where La's family lives!).

Anything else?

Classes have been good. Getting a bit frustrated because there are plenty of lectures and not many TD (tutes). It's very theoretical.

Oh yeah, I got into a program, Jeunes Ambassadeurs (http://www.jeunes-ambassadeurs.com/) which I applied for a few weeks ago. Very exciting, basically a lot of networking and visiting/getting to know the Rhone-Alpes region. There are plenty of events and visits organised throughout the year. Next week I get paired up with a mentor, someone from industry, and my first industry visit is at the end of the month to SANOFI PASTEUR (http://en.sanofi-aventis.com/), a very big vaccine making company. Yay!

Two very exciting things happened on Tuesday...incase you haven't heard. Obama is US President but, more imporantly, 'Viewed' won the Melbourne Cup! Alex's blog: with the latest global news updates!

Miss you all

xoxo

October Holidays!

Hello again! Well, have only just started studying and already I had a week of holidays for All Saints. So, I'll start from the beginning...

Left Lyon Friday afternoon to head for Bordeaux to visit my best buddy Lara. Decided to take a TGV which may not be the most effective form of transport to that side of the country. It took 6 hours, passing through Montpelier and Toulouse. For those who don't know their French geography (I didn't) this is not the most direct route to get to Bordeaux! Anyway...Lara was waiting for me at the station and we headed straight to her grandpa's place. She's driving, by the way, and very well indeed (was quite impressed becauseI know I would never drive in France, I can barely cross the road without almost getting run over!) His house is massive, a few stories high, plenty of empty rooms and VERY french! Didn't get much sleep that night as we had sooooo much to catch up on, you can imagine!

The weather over the weekend was stunning! We went to La Rochelle, a two hour drive on the seaside, with Lara's friends, Eva (from Austria) and Rocio (from Spain). Strolled around, had a crepe and what not before heading back to Bordeaux. Rocio taught me how to roll my R's, the real spanish way with the tongue!!! Very happy because it's incredibly difficult but I think it was a loooooooooooooong drive home for Lara and Eva...rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr rrrrrrrrr rrrrr rrrr Got an extra hour of sleep with the end of daylight savings (Lara and I were very confused for a while but that might be another story).

Sunday was all about markets. They are a lot of fun and the food is so fresh and there is so much cheese...yum. Had lunch at the markets on the 'Quai de Bordeaux'. Choose from paela, couscous and everything else, never forgetting the bottle of wine! Spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Bordeaux, visiting a bit. It was such a gorgeous day and Bordeaux is very beautiful, quite different to Lyon. So lucky to be travelling around different parts of France!

Sunday night, we cooked. Lara invited her aunt and uncle over. Eva, Lara and I slaved away in the kitchen preparing a very 'french' meal from a very 'french' recipe book which, it turns out, was translated from english...hmmm?! Was lovely all the same, except for the onion soup...a bit of a blue string soup moment (for any Bridget Jones' fan)! Had Austrian apple strudel for dessert! Was also delish!

What else did we do in Bordeaux? Lara wasn't on holidays and I wasn't in a very 'cultured' mood so there were no museum visits but haircuts, shopping, studying, wine tasting and cheese eating....lots and lots of cheese (and wine). Left my lovely Lara just yesterday but will see each other next week when she passes through Lyon before we visit her family (just another weekend away!)!!!

From Bordeaux, took the train to Paris. Was snowing everywhere along the way!!! Had a few friends from Lyon who were also in Paris so I managed to catch up with Suresh. We visited Notre Dame de Paris, had lunch and...being a miserable, cold, grey, cloudy day decided to visit a cemetery. Don't worry, it's not so creepy. 'La cemtiere Pere Lachaise' has some of the most famous tomb stones like Jim Morrison, La Fontaine, Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde, Chopin and many others. It's also absolutely massive! The others left Paris in the afternoon and I came home to the lovely, warm, cosy cooking of the one and only, Mamie. Here until Sunday before heading back to Lyon and getting into the studies again on Monday. Hoping to visit l'Orangerie this afternoon.

I'm beginning to notice some themes in my blog posts...lots about eating and little about studying!!!

Better be off

Love from Alex

Not much to say

Hello. All is well in Lyon, just wanted to share a few things...

• There's a 'green' movement happening in France which is quite impressive. Whole aisles in the massive supermarkets are dedicated to organic and fair trade products...that's great but try to recycle glass, paper or plastic! It's pracitcally impossible!

• I got told off at the cafeteria at breakfast for taking yoghurt and fruit. It turns out I have to choose between yoghurt, fruit or orange juice...help!

• To 'rock up' somewhere is apparently an australian saying (I got a quizzical look when I used it)
  

• Could somebody please send me a packet (or two) of timtams?

• Had an amazing brunch in Vieux Lyon the other day. It was absolutely delicious. Also, crepes with chestnut cream are now my favourite!

• Canadians really are the kindest, nicest, most polite people in the world!

• Frenchies are crazy at mathematics...it's another level!
  

• Holidays next week, going to see Lara in Bordeaux and then heading for Paris again
  

Bonne nuit xoxo

...

Hello again! Has been a family filled couple of weeks. After having dad at Lyon, Barbara and Mathew came to visit for a few days. Spent plenty of time together discovering Vieux Lyon and convinced me to try out the velo-v system. It's very good. Basically, there are stations every few hundred metres around Lyon where you can borrow a bike, ride to your destination and drop off at the next station. It works because you don't need to wear helmets here when riding (don't really know if that's a good thing!) but there aren't always bike paths around and the frenchies drive on the wrong side of the road (in fact they do everything on the wrong side, even laps in the pool!). Good fun all the same, I hope i'll use it more throughout the year...a little demonstration of my professional cycling:



1) relaxed riding




2) fast riding




3) Sunday riding





So, we then went back to Paris together. A bit of a family reunion for Mamie's 80th. Had a lovely lunch on Saturday to celebrate, visiting Versaille at night. Saturday night in Paris was 'La Nuit Blanche' where heaps of sight seeing places are open all night, lit up and all beautiful...pretty much the opposite of Earth Hour :-P . Came back to INSA with Anne, she stayed just 2 nights before meeting up with Barbara, Mathew, Roma and Bjorn in Rome. Took the velo-v again to Parc de la Tete d'Or, where I went running last week. Apparently I totally missed the fact that there's a free zoo in the centre off the park with lions, tigers, elephants, giraffes. I blame it on the fact that I don't wear glasses when I run...

This weekend, went to see the 'our bodies' exhibtion with Alice, Suresh and Tomas (2 australians, a candian and a swede walk into a museum...) Don't know if you've heard about it but it's an anatomy exhibition, going through all the systems of the body. Quite interesting. Came home and cooked quenelle with tomato sauce (quite proud as it tasted very good, if I may say so myself).

Otherwise, all is well. Joined the volleyball club. Just turned on the heating this week, leaves are beginning to fall off the trees. Looking forward to the ski season! Hope you're all well, miss you. Love from Alex

Love from Alex

Arrival at Lyon

Hello! Sorry for the not-so-regular blogging, it's been a busy few weeks so I'll get straight into it.

After Lara's departure to see her family in Bordeaux and the Pyrenees (I was quite sad to see her go but had lots of comfort food between my aunt and Mamie!), I relaxed in Paris, enjoying Mamie's wonderful cooking and fitting in a bit of sightseeing on the side (I am very sorry for all the food talk...).

In particular, I went to 'les Invalides' which has museums about French military history. It was originally built in 1670 as a hospice for soldiers returning from war. There is even a church in there, where the Pope celebrated a mass on his recent tour to France, and where you can find Napoleon Bonaparte's tomb beneath the massive dome.

Now, after all this holidaying around, I have finally arrived at INSA de Lyon to start studying (the actual purpose of this whole trip!). Lyon is about 600km south of Paris, in the Rhone-Alpes region. It only takes two hours to get here with the very fast train (TGV, do the calcs, it's really fast)!!! INSA is an engineering school north-east of central Lyon, about a 15 minute tram/metro trip from the centre.

I think I must be wearing a radar or something because within the first 10 minutes of my arrival at INSA I came across a fellow Australian gal, Alice from Sydney. Could not have been any luckier. She introduced me to her friends she met over French Summer School (swedes, irish, germans, norwegians...it was a while before I met anybody who is actually french at INSA) and helped me find my feet with all the admin things (she also took me running around the 'Parc de Tete d'Or' a very beautiful park but I didn't really get a chance to notice as I was too busy having a cardiac arrest, trying to keep up...it's been a while since I've been jogging!). I settled into my room, meeting my new room mate from mexico, Fanny. Then came organising my timetable and choosing the subjects I am to study. I am part of the GEN department (energy and environment). It has just been one massive, complicated problem that I am close to sorting out. I will mention nothing more on the topic!

My first weekend I caught up with a guy, Mihai, I met in Taize. He's from Romania and is also studying in Lyon on exchange. He's been here for a month already so he took me on a bit of a walking tour through 'Vieux Lyon' and up the the hill 'Fourviere'.

I spent the rest of the weekend with some family friends I'd never met before (or once, when I was very young). Henri is an archtitect who did some study with my dad (back in the day). It was lovely to spend time with the family after arriving to a new place and having such a hectic time in organising the year ahead. Henri knows Lyon like the back of his hand, a very good tour guide! Also, being an architect, he quickly re-arranged my room 'to create more space' and helped decorate with a trip to IKEA (with dad) and all, it's much warmer now (I don't mean that literally, they still haven't turned the heating on, my room is freezing!)

On Sunday we visited a very interesting place called 'the abode of Chaos'. Basically, it's an artist who began an on-line business selling artwork (not his own). He has now made art out of his own home and office (he has at least 200 people working for him). It's very dark, chaotic, political. What makes it so famous (or infamous) is the area it is located, Mont D'Or, because as you can imagine the neighbours are not so happy to have such 'chaos' surrounding them. It was really fantastic and interesting to see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abode_of_Chaos

So, after the weekend came school!!! It's actually been pretty relaxed as it's just the first week. I'm doing 7 subjects, plus I joined the waterpolo team (completely driven into it by Alice, it's actually really fun but SOOOOOOOOOO tiring, not to mention...the french get credit for sport!?!) and a language. Had a couple of classes this week and have found it challenging to say the least!!! Their style of teaching is completely different (they still use chalk and blackboards) and the content is crazy (they could be speaking in English and I think I would still be lost) but I'm sure things can only get easier and better...right?!?!

Dad came down on Friday night so we've spent most of the weekend catching up with him, Henri and the family. Last night we ate at 'Brasserie Georges', yet another gastronomical experience (very much appreciated, uni cafeterias can ! Today we will catch up with some other friends from dad's work. Barb and Mat arrive in Paris today, Anne will be there next week. I'll be heading up next weekend so we will all be together to celebrate Mamie's 80th birthday - quick aside, managed to get a 1st class train ticket up to Paris because for some reason it was cheaper than 2nd class!!! Quite excited!

Must head off, dad is waiting downstairs!

Will write again soon, let me know what you're all up to!

Love from alex xoxo

The end of the road...

Well...we are now back in Paris after a wonderful last (warm) week in Greece. The monasteries in Meteora were great fun. We visited all of them (there are 6 up in the rocks) by foot over a whole day. Lots of hard work and bush bashing as 'marked trails' on maps in Greece are pretty much non-extistent. Lara's good sense of direction (don't laugh, she was born upside down, hence in the northern hemisphere she's actually really useful!) and bush walking knowledge helped get us back to the hotel! Otherwise we learnt there's really not much else to do in Kalambaka other than eat good meat and baclavas (yes, our culinary experience continues!). We were eager to leave the beautiful Meteora for the ancient city of Athens, catching a 6.30 am train, that in true greek style didn't actually leave until about 7.30am and would continuously stop at random places...not stations!?!? Finally we arrived at our 12 euro (that's 2 times an ice-cream super cone!) a night hostel, not quite knowing what to expect but we were pleasantly surprised with a clean, useable kitchen and friendly hosts! We visited all the anceint sites...the original Olympic stadium, the Acropolis, Roman Agora, Ancient Agora and the Temple of Olympian Zeus. We also managed to fit in the Archeological Museum, hilarious parliament changing of the guards (they have ridiculous pompoms on the end of their shoes and have weird dances/marches!), Moonlight cinema at the foot of the Acropolis (Mamma Mia in Greece, Alex LOVED it, Lara was not so charmed), traditional Greek dancing and the planetarium!!! Overall a pretty charged couple of days but as you can see we didn't slack off over our vacation! With a smooth flight into Paris, we were met by Alex's uncle and came back to her grandma's. We visited Paris yesterday, going up the Arc de Triomphe and eating out with Basile, a friend of the Westcott's. Now Lara is off to Bordeaux to catch up with family and commence her studies!!! I'll upload photos soon, if you have a chance to check them out, we did take about 600 though so there might be a fair bit of sorting to do!

Weather in France is dismal!

Love from Lara and Alex