AL-LYON-SY – Page 2

Day 4

Bonjour!

This challenge continues even though I suck at writing consistently. It is now technically day 6 but I have been so completely out of everything. I shall make this quick then.

Day 4 of my happiness challenge fell upon day 2 of my trip to Paris. This day was packed with things to do. Jenn (my friend from Vancouver who is studying in Strasbourg) and I made a Goliath of a list of places to visit. However, the weather restricted us to maybe half of the items on our list. This was alright though. I was happy that I was not feeling sick for most of the day. I was also happy to visit the Louvre for the first time. After that we saw Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, le Jardin du Luxembourg, la Musée d’art Moderne and again the Christmas Market in Champs Elysées. It was a packed day and I was so relieved to be walking around with Jenn. She was absolutely so accommodating to my slow pace. Even in the rain and through all the walking we did, she remained positive. Overall, I was happy to have great company throughout the entire experience.

Okay, on to day 5.

Day 3

Salut!

(I’m horrible at posting but I’m just going to continue and pretend that this is me recounting the day as if it were that day. Am I making sense? Maybe not.)

My 30 Days of Happiness Challenge continues. Today is my first full day in Paris and so far it is amazing. The first stop today was to visit the Catacombs. The lineup to enter was fairly long and so the wait lasted about an hour. Thank goodness we stopped at PAUL before lining up to grab a few sandwiches because I might have started to become hangry. It was eerie, dark, and quite impressive. It was strange to see the bones of 6 million people. Every skull and bone unique to a person. How bizarre would it be to think that my remains could possibly end up in a place like that?

Anyway,

The next place we visited was, La Musée d’Orsay. Unfortunately for this museum, I had forgotten to bring my carte d’étudiant and this lead me to pay for a ticket to enter rather than reaping the benefits of being a student in France. Therefor, pro-tip: bring your student ID with you everywhere. Despite this minor setback, the museum was beautiful. I could not tell you anything significant about what I saw there but surely it was a beautiful place. One painting I did like there is called “Au lit et le chat”. At least, I believe that that was the title. The painting is a portrait of this woman in bed with her cat. That particular painting certainly resonated with me.

The day ended with a walk through the Jardin des Tuileries towards Place de la Concorde where lies the plaque indicating the place where King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette had been executed.

This day did not begin to have a theme of death and yet it happened to work out that way.

As we stood in Place de la Concorde, we found ourselves hungry and so we found our way to Le Marché de Noël des Champs Elysées. There we feasted on chocolat chaud and hot cider. The two beverages proved to be necessary in trying to survive the biting chill of the evening. Soon after a quick look at the Christmas Market, we made our way back to Karen’s apartment – Karen, being the friend from UBC who I was staying with. There, in her home, she made is the most delicious omelette which had mushrooms and truffles. I was spoiled that night. We ended the evening with a study session and a scary movie. I completely forget the name of the film we watched but it was definitely weird. It featured a woman who lived on a farm in The Walking Dead, and in the movie she ended up having to take care of this boy doll who may or may not have been alive. The movie might have been interesting if not for the fact that I fell asleep soon after the movie started.

I was happy to be with friends from back home in Vancouver. Throughout the day we talked about home and comparing our experiences in France to our lives in Vancouver. I was relieved to be in a conversation with people who shared my views on the experience of exchange.

Ok, à la prochain!

Day 2

Salut!

Wow I have already failed my 30 Days of Happiness challenge. However, I will definitely make up for this with a double post today.

Yesterday, I was happy about the fact that I was leaving for Paris. My day started off very rushed as I had class in the morning and I had not even packed yet. I managed to catch my train on time and all was good. My train arrived at the station by Disneyland Paris and a wonderful couple decided to give me their extra train tickets for the next time I needed to use them. That random act of kindness was certainly something to be happy about yesterday. Also, I found my aunt yesterday in front of Sacre Coeur and we had dinner together. We tried escargot together and it was an interesting experience. After, I met up with a friend from Vancouver and made our way to our accommodation. All in all, meeting with my family and seeing friends from home made me so much happier.

It is now 7:50 PM.

A la prochain!

30 Days of Happiness – Day 1

Salut!

It has certainly been a while since I have last posted anything on here. The reason for that is surely not because the workload is too much, but because I have been overly occupied with my perpetual state of sickness. Homesickness, food sicknesss, sick sickness. I am sick of being sick.

My state of being has been so close to rock bottom that I believe I can only move up from here. Hence, the commencement of my thirty days of happiness where I will share something happy. Because we all know that the world could use a little bit of happiness right now. Especially considering the turn of events with the American elections recently. The first thing I could say I am happy about right now is that I am a Canadian citizen. However, here is my first entry,

Today, I am happy with having the most supportive friends. Despite the nine hour time difference, we are able to communicate with each other and they continue to listen to all my shit. So bless them for having to hear about my problems while I am on what is supposedly an ‘envy-worthy exchange’. I am also happy to have received a book from my brother today. It was my birthday present from him and it seems to be such an interesting book. I have forgotten the title however the book concerns race and identity in America. Once I finish the book I shall talk about it on here! Hopefully by then I will remember the title.

It is 11:37 PM and I am tired.

À la prochaine!

Mar-sail away

September 17-September 18, 2016.

My first weekend trip outside of Lyon and I went to Marseilles avec quelques amies. The adventure began as soon as we stepped outside of our houses as we all struggled to reach the bus station. D’abord, we took the wrong bus to the tram station which lead us to the metro. Ensuite, we took the wrong metro vers l’autre direction. Then, we found our way back to the tram station we originally meant to go to. At that point we were very close to missing our bus to Marseilles. Luckily, our bus arrived 45 minutes late! The laissez-faire attitude on time here in France finally worked in our favour for once.

Soon we arrived in Marseille and found our way to our Airbnb. We stayed on a boat. This required us to take the most insane ferry ride to L’Ile du Frioul. The waves were like hungry arms of blue, trying to wave for attention.

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Then when we arrived to the port on the island, our Airbnb hosts greeted us. That couple was the most french couple I’ve ever seen. They were so beautiful and kind. They also helped us practice our french which was an added bonus. Bref, il faut que vous restez là.

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En fait, we began exploring the island and found our way to the beach.

This first photo was from this clearing we found. We were absolutely stunned. The area was fairly desolate and no one was really around except for the kind lady who took our photo. She unfortunately had to go through trying to take a photo with a DSLR. We ended up just using my camera, a classic point-and-shoot.

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This next photo, self-explanatory. It was a nice lookout point on our way to the beach. We were maybe 20-30 meters away? We stopped so much that all we really had time for was the beach. I am not regretting our time there though as that view is one that I will never forget.

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This next photo truly reminded me of home. Coming from Richmond, B.C., I am fairly used to being surrounded by water and seeing blue everywhere. As I was walking through the docks in Frioul, it reminded me a lot of the Steveston area in Richmond with the boats everywhere and the overall scent of saltwater.

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As for cultural excursions, we briefly had time to visit a few museums while we were in Marseille. The weekend we visited happened to be the Les Journées du Patrimoines. Basically, all museums were gratuit. I found this amazing mural by the entrance of Vieille Charité, which is this huge cultural centre with plenty of exhibits.

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Au fond, the trip to Marseille was a great first trip outside of Lyon. It was interesting seeing the differences between the two cities of Lyon and Marseille. Where Lyon is a fairly large and bumping city, Marseille is more relaxed. I would love to revisit Marseille in another season. Maybe when I return to Europe? It’s already Automne and the weather is rapidly changing.

Final note,

I clearly am not posting as much as I would like to. That being said, I will make sure to post every Wednesday from now on because at least now I have a fake deadline to work with and motivate me! However, if you do want a more frequent update, you can follow me on snapchat: patbatcat or Instagram: patriciaabatalla . I post daily photos for my weekly themes on Instagram so I definitely have a greater presence on there. I promise to post more on here though!

Justor? Justore?

I met a girl as I waited for my Political Science class in Sciences Po (a class that I would eventually not continue) and we bonded over the agonizing and inefficient ways of the university institutions here. She mentioned a term, “Justor”/”Justore” as a way to describe institutions of that sort.

So as to sum up my first month here in Lyon, I have already learned so much. Despite classes having only started two weeks ago, my experiences so far with the people around me and the community have been enriching my perspective on myself and on French culture.

First of all, the outlook on time is fairly different. For the most part, appointments or rendez-vous are taken fairly lightly. However, this is just what I have noticed in my university setting. I remember walking into my week-long intensive French course and waiting a solid half hour just to be placed in a classroom. As for my regular lectures (CMs) and discussion classes (TDs), it varies. For my first Political Science course (Politiques Comparées), the professor walked in almost twenty minutes late while I walked into a French grammar course ten minutes late and being locked out. Also, the way they organized the registration for courses is the most inefficient way possible. You could probably play a drinking game right now of taking a shot for every time I have used the word “inefficient” in this post and be done by the end of it. Anyway, simple necessities such as course lists and class locations could be disclosed online, if not at all. But no. The political science department seems to enjoy long lines of students waiting in their office, to hand out individual sheets of the same list of courses. The line could have easily been avoided and wasted way less paper if maybe they posted one sheet outside the door like other departments. Ultimately, what I have taken away from the mess that was the first two or three weeks of school is that I respect time more than I think I do. I also learned that being on time can have such a loose meaning here. Ca depend sur des profs et des departments. Trop bizarre. I tend to gamble on time here and it never works out.

via GIPHY

^ Me gambling on time.

How to Get Over Being Homesick

Salut!

I have been in Lyon for almost a week now and I have been feeling less and less homesick everyday. As I try to navigate the city and the school system, I realize that it is okay to struggle in adapting to the culture. Here are ways that have helped me adapt to the city,

Get Lost
- As scary as this may seem, getting lost is a solid way of practicing your French skills when asking strangers for directions and practicing how to read a map. Here in Lyon, the direction North is certainly not towards the mountains like in Vancouver.
Call Home
- I have been so lucky to have such an amazing support system at home. Despite the 9 hour time difference, I know that I will always be able to call someone at home in case anything happens to me. It’s understandable to feel unsafe and anxious in an area where everything is just so frustrating.
Get Frustrated, then Accept the Differences in Culture
- Today I went to my orientation for the school and so much information was given. Mind you, all of the information was given orally in French and these people speak really fast. Conclusively, I still am unsure of where to really go and what to do about my classes. The entire experience so far is extremely frustrating and a lot of these feelings derive from the lack of communication and the language barrier. As much as I am able to understand their lectures, I think that with any new institution, it will take time to settle in and have everything together. My advice to myself or to anyone like myself, is to be patient and continue to float on through the system, wherever it may take me – as long as it is not home.
Go Outside
- I found that I am the least anxious when I go on an adventure and just get some air. Luckily for me, everywhere around me is an adventure. The weather has been fairly humid for the past week but it is now starting to remind me of the fall time in Vancouver, cloudy, wet, and chilly. Finally it is the perfect weather to go for a run and clear my head! Also, having some wine by the river or on the top of the hill is an amazing way to relax.
Cry
- Sometimes you just need to get it out of your system and that is okay.

My shameless plug:

Snapchat: patbatcat

^ I considered making videos here but I am way too insecure to be taking videos of my life here. The walls in residence seem pretty thin and I do not want to look like a tourist even though I most definitely look and sound like one. Thus, snaps of my day seem much rather fitting.

Instagram: @patriciaabatalla

How to Say Goodbye

Salut!

It is so weird. Here I am at the Vancouver airport, waiting to board my flight and finally ready to leave for Lyon. Over the last couple of days I have had to say goodbye to my closest and dearest friends and family. These last 24 hours have been particularly difficult as it is finally settling in that I will be away,

so far away.

So here is how I have been bidding my adieus,

At the Last Day of Work, Leave On Time

The last day of work was on Friday the 26th and I was unprepared for the emotions that had sputtered out of me. I worked at a day camp over the summer and saying bye to the kids was difficult enough after growing attached to many of them. Every tiny bear hug became a quick distant memory as each one of them disappeared into the new school year. Also, I grew very fond of my coworkers as they are the most incredible people I have ever worked with. Maybe I feel this way because I am new to a community centre environment. However, this summer has been so rewarding. Before I knew it, I needed to leave and I completely regret leaving on time.

2. Throw a BBQ, then not actually BBQ

The next day, I should have started packing but the procrastinator in me would rather go out and buy food to prepare for the BBQ. As it was also a potluck, the table soon filled in tune with the arrival of everyone. It became too big of a feast, which left the dozens of hotdogs forgotten. Oops. I would say more about that night but I think I might start tearing up again. To say goodbye to my friends had been so bittersweet. I would just like to repeat myself now, for those who are reading and that was there, THANK YOU and I LOVE YOU. I am so grateful to have the support system that I have and for all the letters and presents that I received. There was so much love in my house that night, I had hoped that I could just stay there with everyone for just one more day.

3. Just Do It

The last 24 hours leading up to now, as I wait to board my flight, have been overly emotional. I would like to say I am all cried out now but I’m starting to accept my feelings. As I cried to my mom about theoretical situations that may or may not occur, she assured me that I would be just fine. I certainly hope that she’s right. But then again, mom is almost always right.

4 months may not seem like a lot of time. I will be back at UBC next semester anyway. So maybe, how to say goodbye is to rather say see you later.

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