Here We Go!

The past 2 days have been crazy!

Yesterday morning, Mom and I got up early to visit a local market - unfortunately, it wasn't as exciting as we anticipated. However, we did buy a small basket of yummy raspberries that we snacked on as we walked around the Centre-Ville. After breakfast at a café in the Place des Jacobins, we headed back to the hotel for check-out.

We hopped on the tram (yes, the tram) to go to the Halles de Lyon, which ended up being SO much fun. It was essentially an indoor marketplace that sold a variety of cheeses, meats, chocolates, wines, candied fruits, etc. We wandered around the many, many stalls and admired all the fancy little stores. Mom was in awe by all the interesting things we found - typical!

Candied fruits - including peppers and avocado!

We ended up having lunch there at Maison Malartre, which was delicious. Huge emphasis on the "delicious".

My salad first course with warm cheese on top

Salmon, cooked to perfection Provencal-style

Then, we walked over the train station so Mom could make her 4pm train. It was so hard to watch her head toward the platform while I walked away toward the tram.

I finally got to the hostel where my program is staying for orientation around 4:30 and settled in. After a long introduction meeting, we had dinner at the cafeteria (which was not good - I've been spoiled with the best food lately so it was a hard adjustment).

Today, we woke up early to meet at the university for another meeting and then a group of us walked into Centre-Ville together for lunch. We even got our TCL passes, which we can use all of September for the metro, tram, and bus in Lyon!

 Throughout the day, I kept noticing things that were very "French" now that I was with fellow American peers: the old windows which lock and unlock very differently from the American ones at home; "la bise", or kisses, as a greeting instead of a hug or handshake; the number of pharmacies around (at least one green cross per street); French restaurant hours (lunch is only served 12-2:30 and dinner 7-12); the no-doggy-bag policy; the slow-paced service at restaurants (which is a blessing and a curse, I might add); the people people-watching while sitting at cafés...