This is it...

Well, the title pretty much sums it up. This is it. I leave Paul's house for the train station in 45 minutes. It's been crazy. Yesterday we toured Vieux Lyon (the old part of the city) in the morning and then met up with our correspondants in the afternoon. We walked a little bit (I made a special trip to a store to get a present for my brother - and no Mike, I will not tell you what it is until I get home). Then we had a farewell party at Clémence Fabrizi's house.

It's so sad to be leaving, because chances are that we'll never see any of these people again. But we'll try to. So it's off to Paris, and I don't think I have internet access, so this is probably my last post.

Au revoir!

Photos

Photo time! This is just a minute sampling of my photos, but it will do.

Laura saying Bonjour to Lyon


The Bell Tower in Pérouges (the Medieval City)

Wine

Geneva, Switzerland

Me in the United Nations Conference Room

Lunch!

Cathedral Saint-Jean in Lyon (and no, I did not Photoshop this)

Paul and I at Parc de la Tete d'Or

Clément and I (one of my ten-year-old groupies)

And the computer's kind of sluggish at the moment (have no idea why - it was fine a minute ago), so I'm ending here. I have a photo of the Lyon landscape somewhere....maybe another post tomorrow.

So today in the morning we visited a neighborhood of Lyon called the Croix-Rousse. Formerly the home of Lyon's finest silkweavers, it has a large history, and a guide took us around the neighborhood and told us everything (literally - in the heat it was a little boring at times). Then after lunch we visited the centre d'histoire de la résistance et de la déportation, basically a museum of whatr we call the Holocaust. It was quite interesting because Lyon was the center of the resistance for France. Also, the building that the museum is in was the Gestapo's headquarters when they occupied Lyon. When you go downstairs, you can still see writing on the walls from the prisoners held there. Quite moving.

And then we had our farewell dinner at the school. We only have one day left before we go off on our own to Paris!

Au revoir les enfants!

Ok, so it's still amazingly hot here in Lyon, and the heat didn't really help with this afternoon's activities. But first this morning the 18 American students and 2 American teachers visited l'école Sacré Coeur, an elimentary school. We split up into groups of 2 and were shoved into classes of students, some really young and some a bit older. I was in a class of 10 year olds, I think the oldest in the school. Unfortunately the teacher had lost her voice, so the kids were basically doing worksheets. But I got to see simple math again (no derivitives or integrals there!) and see a rehearsal for tomorrow's musical.

Then there was recess, and basically we Americans were mobbed. Three of us (including me) got involved with probably about 40 kids and played tag (they called it touche-touche and constantly ran after us: you can only run in circles for so long) and variations on sharks and minnows and dodgeball. Then everyone left for lunch and after eating, the Americans went with the oldest kids to a huge field where we had an Olympics type thing set up. It was so cute to see the kids be so attached to us (I had two hanging at my arms the whole time).

And I just realized that I only have two more days here left in Lyon. It's quite distressing.

Heat

So apparently before the Americans arrived in Lyon, the weather was miserable. It had rained every day for two months (I know, hard to believe, but that's what they said). But after raining on Tuesday when we arrived, it's been beautiful here. Too beautiful. At some point rain is appreciated, and I think we've reached that point. Steadliy climbing all week, today temperatures reached a miserable 102°F.

But the heat didn't completely stop activities. We hung around until 7 last night, when a bunch of French and Americans met downtown for Fete de la Musique. Basically there were bands playing everywhere all over the city. And I got to order at a French Subway; that was interesting...

This morning we visited a huge park in the center of Lyon. And it was not just a park. In addition to trails, it had a lake, botanical gardens, a zoo, multiple rose gardens, it was incredible! Then we came home and ate lunch, and I ate the best pineapple and watermelon ever.

Finally

OK, so it's been a little while, and I don't have that much time, so this post will be a brief (or not so brief, depending on perspective) overview of the past three days.

6/18

So our first day in Lyon; we started off by having to take public transportation to the school. Since it's a private school, everyone lives all around the city, so it was just me and Paul on our bus and metro to the school in downtown Lyon (of course there were tons of other people there who I didn't know). Then we left our French companions behind and just the Americans went to a middle school to talk with French kids. They thought we were aliens or something - it was quite amusing. Then we ate our packed lunches (everyone's was absolutely huge - I guess stereotypical Americans eat a lot?), and met up with the French kids for a cruise on Lyon's two rivers. Later that night Paul and a friend took me on a walk around their Lyon suburb Ecully.

6/19
The second day we were accompanied by the French as we traveled to Perouges, a stone city dating to the middle ages and to le haneau du vin, a wine museum. Perouges is kind of hard to explain - I'll put some photos up. We ate lunch at Perouges (everyone's lunch was smaller because we all had to tell our hosts that we really don't eat that much!). Then it was off to the wine museum where us kids were not allowed to even touch the wine, let alone taste it or buy it. When the teachers were tasting wine, we were served grape juice. But we got to see the vinyard - kind of cool. Later that night a bunch of French and Americans got together to celebrate two of the French's birthdays. To say the least, parties are the same across the Atlantic.

6/20
Yesterday was a trip to Geneva, but none of the French students came with us. Honestly, we all loved it there. It was so pretty. We had a walking tour in the morning (when we went past all of the international organizations I kept looking for IBO central, but I couldn't find it). Then we ate lunch on the banks of the lake. I was a little worried about my tuna sandwich (I haven't liked tuna back home), but it was really good! Then in the afternoon we toured the UN @ Geneva, which was really cool. We got into three conference rooms, one of which you see on TV and in the news all the time, and two of them actually had the placards set up for all of the countries! Then we went back to Lyon, and when I got bqck to my house, I was surprised with tons of people there. My host family was hosting ab art exhibition, so I got to meet a lot of people and see some great artwork.

So that's it. Today has been pretty laid back, mainly because there is a huge music festival here tonight. I promise that I will be better with my updates!

Finally Here

Yeah, so it took us three travel dqys to get to Lyon. Our Pittsburgh - Washington flight was delayed, we missed our connection, and had to stay in D.C. until Monday at 10. Then we flew to Frankfurt, missed another connection, spent a few hours there, split into two groups, and finally made it to France.

But it is all amazing (and if you are wondering why I am typing with no contractions, it is because all of the keys are rearranged on French keyboards and I can hardly type the right letters, let alone figure out how to type apostrophes). The family is great, the house is awesome, dinner was really, really good, and I cannot wait to see what I will do tomorrow.

Departure

I'm leaving for the high school (subsequently the airport) in 15 minutes.  So excited!  My bag was 10 pounds under the 50 pound limit, which gives me a little room to expand once I get to France.  But the lovely exchange rate at the moment may put a stop to that plan.

More updates later, once I get to Lyon!