Ok, Courtney might have attempted to preserve our dignity by withholding these shots of us clowning around the Hotel de Ville, but I'm putting them up. Also a couple of pics from the apero with C's classmates.

Flowers at the Parc de la Tete d'Or

Here are a few photos taken from the Parc that I neglected to put up. Such beautiful colors! Sadly, it’s getting really cold here and I’m afraid they wont be around much longer this year.

Random

Since the last time we wrote I found a job, so time is getting a little more sparse. But there's just as much as ever to see and do. Above are some random pictures from things we've done.

One night at the Hotel de Ville, the city hosted a function for Amererican students in the city and someone passed the word on to me, so we took advantage of the free drinks and snacks. You usually also have to pay to see the inside of the building, which is incredible, so that was another bonus. Since the event was at night and I don't have a tripod, all of the pictures are too dark, but if you look closely you can get an idea for how grandiose and elaborate the building is.

Above those pictures are two of an area called the Guillotiere, which is at the end of the Rue de Marseille. It's an area with lots of immigrants, oriental patisseries, people hanging out on the street, cafes, and it's always very lively. The pictures show a line of men who are always hanging out in front of the curved building, a student residence. Behind them, close to where I'm taking the picture, there are usually more men and then veiled women with babies in carriages. I have no idea how these people make a living or what they do just in life. There's always something to see, though. It might be one of my favorite streets.

Of course I'm posting more photos of typical Lyon pastries, a random citrus fruit I found at an epicerie from China, which is the size of a cantaloupe, and then a hike we have to take every time we go grocery shopping. It always wears us out, but the view is so beautiful it's worth it. I feel so lucky to be in such a scenic area when doing something mundane like grocery shopping.

Here's one side note: we have this stereotype of French people saying "ooh la la" all the time. It's true! They say it ALL the time, but usually it's more like "oooh la LA la la la la," and it's more out of exasperation.

Et voila! Ca c'est tout!

This Saturday we finally made it to the Parc de la Tete d'Or, which is huge and amazing. In addition to being free, it has an outdoor zoo. We just stumbled across first some deer, then elephants, a giraffe, monkeys, a lemur, and more. There's also a lake with boats and canoes that the public can rent, two and four person bikes for rent, a tiny train that goes around the park during the day, ice cream stands, a puppet theater, and a merry-go-round, aside from lots of green space. Of course no weekend outing is complete without a pastry, so the latest is a Baba Chantilly. It wasn't the best, but was worth the try. It's a spongy cake soaked in some kind of alcohol with "cream," which is more like vanilla pudding on top. The first picture is a balloon advertising the Lyon Biennale of art, which is going on right now. We shamefully have not made any trips yet to see the exhibits.

Yesterday after classes ended I decided to stop by a patisserie by Place Bellecour again because it has such a great atmosphere and a seemingly unending variety of really fancy pastries. So I bought a Meringue d'Ete and a regular cookie and thought I would surprise Tom with both of them. However, we also have a really great patisserie two blocks away at the end of our neighborhood. When Tom got home, he also came with two giant shortbread cookies, one with lemon inside and the other with strawberry. If you buy a pastry, there's no point in saving it for the next day because you can just buy another that's more fresh. The only solution was to eat all of it, so we had a big Fat Fest and shared three cookies and the Meringue d'Ete.

The Meringue d'Ete is probably one of the top 5 I've tried since we've been here. There's a layer of meringue with nuts in it, then a layer of some kind of fruit that we don't have in the US, and finally a layer of sweet pistachio cream with more nuts sprinkled on top. It was amazing.

We finally have internet at our apartment, so now I can start posting all of the photos of the wonderful pastries I've tried, along with photos of everything else.

The last picture is of my university, Lumiere 2. The rest of the pictures are what I do and think about for a large portion of the rest of the day, when I'm not in class. PASTRIES!

The first was horrible. It looked like Neapolitan ice cream from a distance because it's brown, white, pink, and sparkly, but once I was close enough to see the reality, it was too late. I had already bought it. There's a big nasty piece of dried fruit stuck on some almond paste with some sugar. The next three were wonderful: une tarte pistache, un petit gateau chocolat, and un petit "cochon" gateau.

Random Goodness

Here we have another random happening at the Opera. I passed by this square and saw this band of kids with the random breakdancers and Tom walked through the Place Sathonay, right below our street, where there was a random Samba band playing with women dressed in elaborate costumes dancing. There's always something cool happening.

I forgot to add in the last entry that one of the hilarious things about Lyon is that at these skate parks where the tough kids hang out and practice, they also rollerblade. The last time I had rollerblades was when I was in 3rd grade and they were hot pink. I only think of the 80s and early 90s when it comes to rollerblades. Of course they're considered cool and tough here.