The Rhône-Alps!

Since I got back from Christmas vacation, things have been looking up. I'm only working two days a week because my seniors are all doing internships between now and February break (I miss my seniors!), I got a ticket to visit home during the February break (and also start taking stuff home because we all know how much stuff I can accumulate in 7 months), and I've partially taken over my 5A class (7th graders) while the teacher is out sick for a few weeks.

So teaching has been going well; I was on my own with the 5A for the first time this week (only half the class at a time though), and got to handle a Doctor Who lesson on my own. The kids really seem to like it, and they didn't give me too much trouble which was good.

I got back from Chambéry Sunday night after spending an amazing weekend with one of my old French buddies from CMU who is an assistant over there. Basically, all I can say is MOUNTAINS. I think I need to move somewhere with mountains.

I spent all of Thursday on the train and got into town just before dinner time. Megan picked me up at the station and we went back to her place for dinner. We spent Thursday night catching up as she showed me around town a little bit (though the Christmas lights weren't on -- sad). We ended up actually talking until like 4 in the morning, and it was just the greatest thing. I forgot how fun it can be to interact with other human beings, haha!

On Friday, Megan had to work, so I headed off to Annecy (on Megan's recommendation that it was "the cutest city ever") and spent the day wandering around. (Annecy is, in fact, probably the cutest city ever.) I also discovered the most amazing food in the history of food -- the hot dog in a baguette (with mayonnaise). That night, Megan and I got pizza and watched a movie. We even made it to bed nice and early (at 3am)!

The architecture in Annecy was super charming

La pièce de résistance in Annecy -- the lake and mountians

Selfie!

Building in the middle of the canal (on a tiny little (manmade?) island)

On the little island

On Saturday, Megan showed me around the market in Chambéry. I was SUPER tempted to buy some mimosa, and I also got to pet a kitten (which was so awesome; I miss my cats). Then we decided to head over to Grenoble.

We packed up some snacks to take with us on the train -- some aged goat cheese that I had bought in Chambéry (baguette obligatory), some pretzels, and some cookies. Once in Grenoble, we wandered around for a while. We were disappointed that the cable cars that went up to the Bastille weren't working (annual closure for the month of January), so we kind of gave up on that for a bit.

Eventually, we decided to stop for coffee to look over our map and make a plan. And that's when we decided to climb a mountain.

Since the cable cars weren't working, we would have to take the trails up to the Bastille. Quickly, before we changed our minds, we headed out across the river to the start of the trails.

We hiked 1.6 miles (starting at an elevation of approximately 212m and ending up at about 498m). We were passed by runners, bikers, families with small children (you name it). Most often, we were passed by these people twice -- once as they passed us on their way up, once as they passed us on their way down (and we were still on our way up). Basically, I'm in horrible shape, so we had to stop often (you know, to admire the view and also not die) and it took us a bit longer than everyone else. Neither of us thought we were actually going to make it to the top (and if I'd have been by myself, I probably wouldn't have), but we did.

View of La Bastille from the city

Mountains

The start of the trek up the mountain

almost there (88m of altitude to go!)

The view from near the top

At the very top of La Bastille

Taking a quick break to not die

I know it's a pretty baby mountain that we climbed, but it felt like a huge accomplishment. The last time I climbed something even remotely this big was Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh (and Arthur's Seat is about half the height of the Bastille).

Anyway, after about an hour and a half of lying to my legs ("these are the last stairs", "we're almost done", "we're almost there"), we finally made it all the way back down the mountain where we headed for the train station and back to Chambéry for the night where we watched a movie and ate the cupcakes we had bought earlier in the day.

Today was another train day. There was even a delay, so that I missed my connecting train in Paris. It worked out though -- they got me onto the next train, and I had four whole seats to myself for the 4.5 hour ride home.

Teaching is going really well. I feel like I'm starting to hit my stride and am more confident with my students. I'm also starting to learn some of the signs that the teacher's use to help their students with grammar. Next week I'll be taking a group of 6th graders by myself on Wednesday to work with them more intensively, and hopefully my one professor will be back so we can continue with Doctor Who like normal.

Tomorrow I'm leaving for Barcelona for the weekend, so I'm super excited about that.

(I will add more photos when my computer has decided that it's done being a butthead and will actually upload pictures without taking a million years and also erroring on half of them.)

Playing Catch Up

Oh dear, I've been a horrible blogger! It has officially been one whole month since I've updated!!! SORRY! Time to play catch up.

Last I left you, I was leaving on Christmas holiday. On the day I left (Friday), I got VERY little sleep. (I think I went to bed around 5am and got up at 7.) I went to school, and had just enough time to come home afterward, make myself some dinner, and grab my backpack before heading off to the train station.

I had decided to take an overnight train to Paris, and then an early morning train to Lyon as opposed to leaving on Saturday morning because it got me to Lyon probably a good 7 hours earlier, and I thought I could use that time to explore. And after having essentially pulled an all-nighter, I figured sleeping on the train would be no problem.

Boy, was I wrong. I went the cheap route and got a reclining seat instead of a bed. While the reclining seat was arguably extremely comfortable all things considered, I still didn't sleep well. Not all the lights were off, there were frequent stops (resulting in cold air rushing in the door and a fair bit of noise), and it was still fairly uncomfortable for sleeping (since I sleep on my side and not my back). Oh well, live and learn. Next time I'll splurge for a couchette (bed). (Or maybe next time, I'll just take a morning train instead of an overnight one.)

I got to Lyon alright (though I was starting to get sick -- a phenomena that literally started Friday morning right before I went to bed), and went to pick up my key for the apartment that I was staying in. I was planning on spending the full day wandering about, so I left my luggage in a locker in the train station (I'd have to pass by there to get the bus to the apartment anyway) and headed off to the tourism office to get a map.

Armed with a map and some information about the city card to look over later, I headed down toward the Christmas market (one of the largest in the country, I was informed) and wandered around there for a while. And then I pretty much felt exhausted, so I figured I'd try to head over to the apartment to get settled in and maybe take a nap before dinner. (I ended up falling asleep and not waking up until like 9pm...whoops! So much for dinner...)

The giant ferris wheel near the tourism office

The only way to keep your hands warm --  vin chaud (mulled wine)

Christmas market

The biggest cotton candy I've ever seen

The place I stayed was super nice -- the room I rented was a dorm room with 3 bunk beds, but I had the room to myself for the most part since it was so close to Christmas. The lady who was living there was also very nice, though I rarely saw her.

Sunday, I took the funicular up to Fourvière (the big hill/mountain west of the Saône river) where I looked around the basilica and roman amphitheaters. The basilica was quite lovely and had a nice space to look out over the city, and the amphitheaters were incredible. (Have I mentioned yet how I love old things???) You can totally just walk all in and around the theaters (there's two right next to each other), and it's just the coolest thing.

The basilica

Inside the basilica

 

The nativity scene

Overlooking the theater

The theater

On stage again! :)

After exploring Fourvière a bit, I headed down the mountain/hill into the old town where I popped into the cathedral. They were having a Christmas concert in about an hour, so I wandered the old streets for a bit until coming back to try to get a seat (ha!). I had no idea how many people would actually be coming, but the cathedral was completely packed -- standing room only. The concert was quite good (especially after the creepy guy who was trying to chat me up took the hint and left). There were a few different choirs -- a children's choir, a girl's choir, a boy's choir, and an adult choir. They mostly sang songs I didn't recognize, but they did sing a few Christmas carols as well (in French, of course).

The cathedral

 

Creepy guy took a picture of me

After the concert, I was feeling quite adventurous, so I headed to a traditional Lyonnaise bouchon (basically a restaurant that serves traditional food). Looking at the menu, I was torn between the andouille (sausage made out of stomach and intestines) and tripe. Mostly, I was a bit scared of andouille since my first (and only) exposure to it was when Angela accidentally ordered it and I took one whiff and declared that it would never make its way into my mouth.

In the end, I went with the tripe. It was...surprisingly delicious. The texture was a bit weird, but overall I really liked it. I even ate (almost) all of it! (The only reason I couldn't finish it was because it was so filling.) So that was pretty much my food adventure for the trip -- I would've liked to try more, but most of the bouchons seemed to offer the same three dishes (tripe, andouille, and some kind of fish). Maybe I just didn't walk far enough.

Tripe!

The next few days passed in a blur of ridiculously good weather (sunny and in the 50s/60s!). I went and explored the Gallo-Roman museum (seriously the coolest thing on earth), took a bus ride around the city, spend TONS of time in the old part of town, and took a walking tour of the other big hill -- La Croix Rousse. I also spent a bit of time browsing in old book shops.

Antoine de St. Exupéry (author of The Little Prince) on the wall of famous Lyonnais

Fourvière Basilica from a distance

Chariot

View from La Croix Rousse

The famous Traboules (outdoor walkways) of Lyon

Where Christians were martyred

In front of the wall of famous Lyonnais

On Christmas morning, I boarded a train to Geneva where it was raining cats and dogs. And of course, I didn't think to bring my umbrella. Sodden, I showed up to my hostel where I checked in and dropped all my stuff before braving the rain to find somewhere to eat Christmas dinner. (The only restaurant open around the hostel was a pizza place.)

Pretty much as soon as I got to Geneva, my cold (which seemed to have disappeared while I was in sunny Lyon) came back with a vengeance. So I spent Christmas resting and hoping for better weather in the coming days. It was alright though -- I had counted on Christmas being a waste of a day since nothing would be open.

The next day, it was still raining. Not quite as heavily, but still pretty hard. Also by this time, I had done some more research into things to do in Geneva. I had done some initial research before I left, but I started looking for more specific hours. Turns out, almost everything that I was most excited about doing (CERN + its exhibitions, cable car up to Mont Salève) were impossible to do. CERN, though listed as only closed on Christmas (according to the tourism website) was actually closed from December 23rd to January 6th (per the CERN website). The cable car was not working because it was being repaired -- down from November 2013 until ~March 2014. And of course, there is no other way to get up to Mont Salève. Even train tickets to Montreux (listed at 26 Swiss Francs round trip online) would have been nearly 60€ round trip.

Rousseau island was home to many birds

Statue of Jean-Jaques Rousseau

Church near the train station

The famous Jet d'eau ("water fountain")

In the English gardens

Slowly but surely my health, energy, and drive to do anything but sleep and drink tea ebbed away.  And of course, since I was in a hostel (and would be staying in another hostel in Marseille), I became very conscious of how sick I was. I have been the person to catch a cold while staying in a hostel, and it's never fun. Between my lack of energy, lack of enthusiasm about the city (it's beautiful, but CRAZY expensive), and (let's face it) homesickness/loneliness being away from my family for the holidays, I was freaking drained. To top it all off, stress about grad school applications caught up to me, and I was pretty much miserable. So, I decided to pack it in and come home where I could curl up, drink insane amounts of tea and juice, and sleep the cold/stress/homesickness away.

Luckily, my tickets were refundable/transferable, so I was able to switch my train tickets with minimal fees (I basically just had to pay the difference between what I paid for my tickets and the price of the ticket home). The hostel was even nice enough to refund me for the nights I wasn't spending in the hostel (since you pay up front), and I had enough foresight to pay for travel insurance on my hostel reservations for Marseille, so I got all of my deposit back (all I lost was the 1€ for insurance).

Armed with the fact that I'd be home soon, I headed out on Saturday to the old part of Geneva. I had just enough energy to climb up to St. Pierre's Cathedral, spend a couple hours in the archeological museum below the cathedral, and find some lunch before my body decided it didn't want to walk anymore. And that was pretty much it. I had one afternoon of sunshine in Geneva (and made it over to the lake), but otherwise it just rained the whole time. The architecture was gorgeous, and I really wanted to like the city, but I mostly just found it to be lackluster. That may or may not have been due mostly to my mood. (My friend didn't really like Geneva either when she went, so perhaps it isn't just me???)



In any case, I'll put more recent updates into a different post. Sorry for being such a bad blogger! (I haven't even really been that busy; mostly just sleeping.) (I'll also update this with more pictures tomorrow -- for some reason pictures are taking forever to upload. I spent about 3 hours uploading the first 14 photos.)