Exploring Lyon

So even though Elisa and I were exhausted from our previous day of travelling, we had to be up bright and early for an all day orientation held by our exchange program – the ORA (Ontario-Rhone Alps). It turned out to be completely worth it though because they gave us breakfast, lunch, a transit pass for the day and sent us on some pretty cool sights. There was no pizza in sight for lunch, but instead they gave us traditional French bread, meat, dessert, and of course wine! It’s so strange here because wine is served literally EVERYWHERE and you are never asked for ID.

In the afternoon we were split up into groups and we went on a scavenger hunt throughout the city where we would get to a location and someone would be waiting. They gave us a question and then we had to speak in French and ask locals the answer in order to get the next clue. One of the clues included a wine tasting to decipher the wine that was produced in Savoie! ....after lots of tasting, we chose our answer and stumbled out of the bar….just kidding hahaha…we all had a sip or two and then moved on…we also got to discover the most amazing French park called “parc de la Tête d’Or”…it was huge and had a small lake in the middle of it with water that was so turquoise…it was pretty cool and we ended up forgetting about the hunt and just took lots of pictures haha.

After losing the scavenger hunt (it was a close second) we headed home and started getting ready to go out with one of the French girls that was leading the orientation. She had just come back from an exchange in Canada and invited a few of us to go to the pubs that are on the boats in the Rhône river. The 7 of us ended up going to her house to meet some of her friends, and we had a fantastic time…we got to speak in “real” French with all her friends …meaning we learnt the slang and how real French students speak so we don’t sound so proper and foreign. That night we were also introduced to the French greeting….double kiss. It was a bit weird at first, but after a couple of people it was fine….so after a long night of wine and French, we headed home to crash into bed once more.

Since then, its been a lot of organizing, sorting out school, cooking, and getting to know the city ….tomorrow will be a trip to Ikea for some necessities and then we’ll be off to campus after that to start some school things :)