If I could take one thing from France back home with me (putting aside the delicious pastries), I think I would bring Sunday's lunch. From about 1pm to 4pm everyday Sunday is the time slot where French families enjoy a long and delicious meal together. This tradition is something I think everybody in North America could profit from. There's nothing nicer than enjoying time with family around the dinner table, laughing, catching up on the weeks events and savouring the scrumptious food. A great way to wind down the week, there's an over all feeling of calmness, peace and contentment. It's hard to describe, but if you mix those three words together and toss in a handful of other almost synonymous words, you'll get a pretty good idea of this wonderful feeling. It's the reason I always look forward to Sunday's, you get a calm morning, a long lunch with family and friends and a relaxing evening. Truly the best and one of the most memorable souvenir's I'll bring back to Canada.

Life in Lyon

Bonjour tout le monde! Life in France has been pretty busy the last couple of weeks, but things are starting to slow down with spring vacation just around the corner. I'm having a hard time believing that I've now been living here for three months, between school and travelling around, time has just flown by. For this entry, instead of showing you guys a trip, I thought it would be cool to write a bit just about a normal week. Tell you about my, what now feels like, everyday life.

As I spend most of my time at school, I think it to be a good place to start. School here in France starts at 7:55am and ends at 4:40pm. When I first saw this I immediately thought, YIKES! That's an awful lot of school. But in all honesty, it isn't that bad. Considering we get a 1 1/2 hour lunch break and that classes only last 1 hour, the time goes by faster then you would think (although there are some exceptions, hence the reason I didn't use the word "quickly"). For example, french class:

A typical Monday morning french class:

10am: Class "starts."

10:05am: teacher (Mme Bouti) preaches her beliefs about how cod is a universel fish.

10:15am: teacher expresses her opinion on the strong relation between cod and the nuclear crisis in Japan.

10:25am: teacher tells us what a great man Cyrano de Bergerac was (my classmates and I believe she has a bit of a crush.)

10:30am: teacher explains what we are going to do in class today.

10:40am: Class actually starts.

Now mind you, the french teacher isn't mean, just a bit strange. There are plenty of great teachers here. I like how most of the teachers are very strict, a quiet class makes for an easy place to learn.

Elsa and Linda hanging out in the hammac. I guess I can officially say spring (maybe even summer)

has arrived.

From left to right, Sally, Me, Laura and Olessya (a Russian rotary exchange student) at an Austrian party. All the families who went skiing in february (in Austria) got together to look at the ski photos and enjoy some Austrian specialties.

My friend Christèle and I in old Lyon, with our ice cream

from Chez Nardone, a famous ice cream parlor. To start off we couldn't find the parlor, so I had to play the part

of the lost Canadian tourist and ask for directions, Christèle was too embarassed. But as you can see we found it

and got to enjoy a delicious ice cream on a hot day in the city.

A picture of Sally (another Canadian exchange student), Laura and Linda

hiking through the region of Beaujolais, known for it's wine and beautiful scenery.

A girl's night at my friend Christèle's house. We ended up making

ballon, ugh, I guess you would call them people. But to some it all up it was a great night with friends.

Laura and I walking down the streets of the Croix Rousse, a well known neighbourhood in Lyon.

So I hope you all enjoyed having a look into life around Lyon. But it is getting late and I should probably head to bed. So until next time.

Cathryn :)

Escargot

One down, one to go. Yes, I have tried escargot. I bit daunting at first, but it actually turned out to be really good. The herb and butter sauce might of helped, but there really was no gross taste or slimy texture. It was kind of like kalimari, but better. I would definitely put it on a list of foods to try while in France, it's tasty and makes for an interesting culinary memory. Now to find some frogs legs...