Cosmic Bowling, Del Arte, and Le Ciné

Friday night, I met Nathalie, Eve, and Elise at my Tuesday school around 5pm to go out for a night of bowling, dinner, and a movie. They'd been talking about it all week, and I had been looking forward to it as well, so on the drive over, we all acted like excited little girls:) We drove west towards another suburb of Lyon called Brignais. This is actually the town that my friend Hannah lives and works in.... but we didn't go into the nicer old town bit, just straight off the auto-route and through an industrial zone to the complex with a restaurant, cinema, and bowling alley. As you know, I don't get out much into the other suburbs of Lyon.... or get driven around much in cars, so it was sort of weird to see the more industrial areas surrounding Lyon from the auto-route. There's a huge oil refinery and other factories with smoke stacks and all their glory. But- I guess it's no different than what you'd find around many other big cities....I just hadn't ever really seen this side of Lyon before...

On our way there, we talked about everything from the upcoming vacation time to religious beliefs. They're all going skiing (in different areas) with their kids and husbands during the break and we talked about my trip to Italy with Victor. This lead to a discussion about what I'd be doing when I went home in May.... if I'd be moving back home with my parents or moving in with friends or in with Victor. I said that I'd be moving back home for at least a little while, but didn't know what was next... depended on a few things. But, I found out that all of them lived with their husbands before they were married... and even had children before they were married. Apparently.... being asked to move in with someone or to have a child together is taking place of getting engaged and getting married in France. This is so unlike in the United States where, for the most part, there is still a set way of doing things- you get engaged, you get married, you have children. Obviously there are more and more people who go "out of order" and do what they want regardless of our cultural traditions... but it seems that in France.... people who go "in order" are in the minority. All of my teachers moved in with their then-boyfriends first, had a baby, and then got married. They said they did this mostly so they'd all have the same name...and for other legal reasons... and less for religious or family values. They said they would be a loving family regardless of the marriage title. Many couples go much longer or even forever without being married. The divorce rate is very very high in France... so I think marriage scares people a little bit.

This then lead to our discussion on religion (because people don't put so much value into marriage and marriage before children). France is a majority Catholic country and has obviously been so for a very long time (just take a look at all those huge Catholic Cathedrals I've visited!). France is also laique- or there is a strong separation between church and state. French politicians would never say "God bless" and the Ten Commandments would never ever be put up in a public work place or school. Virginia's moment of silence would definitely not fly. Unlike the United States where we have freedom of religion, France has freedom from religion. No one can tell them how to believe or even influence their belief system. They are free to not hear about religion in a public place; it has its place in the privacy of a person's home/family/church. (If you have heard about the ban on wearing Islamic head scarfs in French schools, this is the principal reasoning for it).

But on the other hand, there has been a sharp decline in practicing religion at all in France. My teachers all discussed their dislike of the Catholic hierarchy, the fact that only men are allowed to be priests, etc., and all of their unanswered questions about faith. They like the idea of the family values and the traditional holidays, but otherwise... that's about it. The United States is, in comparison, a majority protestant country... my teachers commented that they'd like to see how a typical church service is done in America... they think it might be something they could relate to more. But, it's very interesting how different our two societies are in terms of religion... we have many more "believers" in the United States... more people who attend church regularly, who have weddings in churches, more religious communities. On the other hand, we also have a lot of people who push the boundaries of our own separation of church and state.... more fundamentalism... etc. Hmm... food for thought I guess...

Anyway- we finally fought our way through Friday afternoon traffic and got to the bowling alley. Eve had never bowled, Elise maybe once, and Nathalie a few times. I was supposed to be the American expert (haha). We chose our bowling balls, shoes, and started playing. After we all went a few times, the lights went out and on came the black lights and strobe lighting for Cosmic bowling. We ordered pre-dinner apéritifs (the French just love their pre-dinner drinks). This time I had a kir instead of whatever weird drink I ordered the last girls night out. By the end of our game, Nathalie had won with a score of 75, I was in second place with 49 (eek I didn't even hit 50!), and Elise and Eve with something in the 30's. We had fun, so that's all that matters. However, I did have to suffer a few jokes about being American and losing in bowling:p

After bowling, we went just next door to an Italian restaurant chain, Del Arte. France has very few chain restaurants... most people still opt for the locally owned tried and true, mom and pop bistro/auberge/café/brasserie (and in Lyon's case, the bouchon)... so I was surprised this was the place they took me to. Although they joked that it was a food factory (busing people in and out), it did have pretty good food. We all had salad, pizza, and dessert. We spent forever sitting and talking.... and waiting for our movie time to arrive (10.30!). This time our conversation roamed around what French people thought of Americans and what Americans thought of the French. They were appalled that there is the stereotype of French women having hairy armpits.... they gasped and so "NOOO! That's not us, that's the Germans!!!"

I got out of seeing Black Swan... one of the other teachers had also heard that is was fairly depressing and we didn't feel like seeing that on our fun night out. So we opted for the more light Nathalie Portman comedy, No Strings Attached, or Sex Friends as it is titled in French (I don't know why they do that.... change movie names to something else that is also in English...). It was fairly silly... but oh well... at least I didn't have crazy ballerina nightmares!

I got home around 1:30am.... so it was off to bed for me before my day trip to Pérouges!

Hope you enjoy the bowling pictures:) (The one of all of us- right to left: Nathalie, Me, Elise, and Eve)

sun, shopping, and stuttering kings

I tried blogging this morning after sleeping in and cleaning my apartment.... but it was just too beautiful outside to sit inside! I left around 1:30 to go into Lyon to meet up with Hannah and her friend Mia. They were going to see the King's Speech at 4:20, so I had some time to kill. I decided I'd take another look at some shops while the sales were still going on...try to find some birthday presents or something. It took me over an hour to get into Lyon.... the tram was packed with lots of families with kids and bikes.... so I guess it just took longer with so many people getting on and off at each stop.

Once I got off and walked through Rue de Victor Hugo... I thought my goodness! I guess I wasn't the only one who felt cooped up this week. There were loads of people out! I went into a few stores, but it was just too packed to really look. I eventually met up with Hannah and Mia and we got our seats early for the movie (which was a good thing as it was packed too!). The movie was sooo good.... very interesting, funny at times, but also heart warming and uplifting. I highly recommend it! (It's about George VI, Queen Elizabeth's father, who had a stutter, but lead England throughout WWII). After the movie, we went to the crêperie I went to with Lindsey and Amy back in November. I had the crêpe tatin (warm caramelized apples with whipped cream, yumz). I took a picture to show you! (It's been so long since I posted a picture!!!)

Anywayz- reste cool. Going to go chat with me mum now. I'm tutoring tomorrow... but not doing much else accept readying for the week ahead!

Lyon Resistance Museum

This afternoon I took the tram to 14 avenue Berthelot. This was the site of the Gestapo headquarters from 1942-1944, led by Klaus Barbie. Today, part of the site is dedicated to the French Resistance movement, for which Lyon played a central role, in a museum called the Centre d'histoire de la Résistance et de la Déportation.

This is what I learned today.

Lyon was a part of the "free zone" from 1940-1942. Very near Lyon, to the southeast, Italy occupied an area of France. At this time, about three-fifths of France was occupied, leaving the rest as "libre." Something I didn't realize was that the Vichy government (led by Maréchal Pétain) didn't just rule over the "free zone," or what I thought was the "Vichy zone." The Vichy government ruled over all of occupied France, but in occupied areas, like Paris, German laws trumped the French laws. Pétain's rule was, therefore, most powerful in the southern "free zone."

Pétain collaborated with the Germans, and his French police and milice, or militia, carried out raids on Jews, Resistance fighters, and other "undesirables." From the beginning of this collaboration period, summer of 1940, many French citizens joined the resistance movement. Charles de Gaulle, who fled to Great Britain, gave a radio address calling for the French to resist Nazi Germany. However, as the French were still in shock of the invasion and the changes happening around them, many remained apathetic until 1942, when German forces occupied the remaining part of France, renaming the "free zone," the "south zone."

As you can imagine, France experienced food shortages, fuel shortages, disorganization in transportation, labor shortages (due to high numbers of French prisoners sent to Germany to work as free labor), raids and roundups of Jews, and more while paying host to the German army.... all of which played a part in waking up apathetic French citizens. Although not everyone took part in active resistance, most resisted passively by reading the different publications (newspapers, pamphlets, etc.) or by listening to the radio. I read an interesting "rule book" for the occupied citizens of France. One of the suggested rules was to pretend not to know or to forget any German that you knew when addressed by a German officer. Another rule was to keep only one copy of this document with you (allowing friends to make a copy if need be).

Active resistance members (for which 10-15% were woman, maybe more as many wives helped their husbands or sons) sabotaged transportation and electrical plants, burned bridges, or even participated in guerrilla warfare. There were underground paramilitary groups, called the Maquis, who received weapons, explosives, and ammunition from nighttime parachute landings. They also provided intelligence to Allied forces and carried out rescue missions. The resistance was made up of people from all different social classes, communists, anarchists, Jews, and many foreigners. The Jewish population only accounted for about 1% of the French population as a whole, but in the resistance, they accounted for about 25% of the resistance fighters.... and many Jewish or other persecuted people fleeing from other countries aided in the organized French resistance.

About 76,000 Jews were sent to the concentration camps from France, 13,000 of which were rounded up and arrested in 2 days in Paris (Vel d'Hiv). Of these 76,000, only 2,500 survived. At the time, there was an estimated 350,000 Jews residing in France, many of them were not French, but German refugees. And although France saw a lot of hate, apathy, and collaboration among its clergy, including, for example, a high ranking priest in Lyon, its officials, and its citizens, France is ranked third in the Righteous Among the Nations for the most non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.

The museum had row after row of documents, pictures, and articles written by, for, or about the French resistance and resistance fighters. Countless personal stories were told; a French school teacher hiding Jewish children and teaching them in her house so that they could continue schooling when the war was over, neighbors taking in families or children, resistance leaders imprisoned but rescued by their wives, and on and on. There were also many Lyon related stories... resistance fighters using the famous Traboule passageways in Vieux Lyon to dupe the Gestapo... pictures of floods of people celebrating in Place des Terreaux and Rue de la République after the war was over.... the destruction of the building at 14 avenue Berthelot, after the bombardment of Allied forces in 1944 (targeting train stations and the Gestapo headquarters)... bridges on both sides of Presqu'ile destroyed by bombings or resistance fighters...

The museum is a lot of reading- timelines and quotes every few feet, with the occasional side area to view videos that I couldn't stomach. I left feeling a little sickened, as one usually does after reading or seeing pictures describing genocide. But, one of the last quotes written on the wall went something along the lines of, "What we don't remember about the past, will surely happen again." And so.... I'm very proud that the city of Lyon has this museum to document an important part of its history, in the building that was once the cause of such despicable acts, in hopes that that kind of history will stop repeating itself.

I'm glad that I went. I walk around Lyon and see the Renaissance buildings of old Lyon or the Roman Ruins of Fourvière... but rarely do I picture the Lyon of the 1940's. It's amazing that it all took place here less than 80 years ago...

Ice Cream Corn, the Nouveau Beaujolais, and Audrey Tautou

So much to update you on!!! I just got home from spending the night at Lindsey's house, which is why you didn't get your daily post yesterday... but now I can tell you all about my avant-premiere experience!

Let's start from the beginning, shall we? I went to school (Berliet) and did two lessons on Thanksgiving and one with the number friends (in the youngest class). Murielle, the directrice, did most of the work for the first 2 lessons, creating flashcards and laminated pictures from the book I brought... I merely read the English while she went back to reexplain with pictures and French. I had talked a little about Thanksgiving last last week (since I didn't have work last Thursday for Armistice day), and so yesterday was mostly a Thanksgiving story recap and review of key vocabulary (Pilgrims left England, didn't have much food when they got the Plymouth, Squanto saved the day and taught them how to hunt turkey, fish, and grow corn and pumpkins, Pilgrims and Native Americans enjoyed a 3 day feast, which us Americans recreate in one day). With the middle age-group, when we asked what food the Native Americans taught the Pilgrims how to grow, they said "cones? Like ice cream cones?" and of course laughed hysterically.... I guess corn and cone would sound similar. They did fairly well with all of it considering how random this group of vocab words seems to them... and how difficult the words are in general to pronounce. Plymouth was never really achieved... but that's ok... I can't imagine when they would need to say Plymouth any time soon... or ever for that matter.

My lesson with the number friends went over well, as it has in the other schools. Who wouldn't like numbers with faces and names??? I also taught them the songs... which are just so cute to hear them sing with me. And then I gave out stickers that had little English expressions (Good Job! Wow! Excellent! Super! Super star! Goal! Touchdown! etc.). This was very funny...I'd give out a sticker, they'd say merci, and then I'd move to the next kid. After they said merci to me, they'd turn to their teacher and say... maitresse.... what does this mean??? Lol, and then she'd explain, even though sometimes the words would be/mean the exact same thing in French (super, excellent). And then they'd go ouuuaaai!!! I'm a crowd pleaser, what can I say.

After work, I ate lunch with the teachers. Murielle invited me to a Christmas festival thingy for the last Friday before the winter break. Apparently the teachers and parents bring in holiday goodies from around the world and the kids go around and try them all. So of course they want me to bring something American. I told them I'd try to make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (even though I don't think they have quick-oats in France, my mom is sending me a mix). But then, right before I left, Murielle asked me to send her the recipe so that she could try it before we made it as a class.... I was like... oops... now I have to dig up the recipe and translate it. So I did, and I threw in a translated recipe for pumpkin pie too because they kept asking what was in it (I guess it sounds so foreign to them to put pumpkin in a pie and eat it for dessert). After translating the ingredients for both recipes... I realized... there are very few Christmas cookies I can even make here! Hershey Kisses... non-existent, peanut butter sparse, crisco... non-existent, quick-oats...maybe.... Ah! I guess I'll just have to live with French pastries this year.

After a quick gchat with my mom and Vic... it was about the time I needed to head out to meet Lindsey at the tram stop. I went with her to her house to drop off my stuff to spend the night, we watched some French tv, and then went out into Lyon for a quick dinner before our advanced screening of De Vrais Mensonges (True Lies.... maybe ?) with Audrey Tautou. I realized as we were on the bus coming down the hill that I haven't really been in Lyon much, if at all, after dark... so I haven't seen how things are lit up. Thankfully I had my camera to show you some pictures. It really is a very pretty city, don't you think?

We were a little early for restaurants to be open (it was about 6:45, they open at 7ish). So we walked around a bit and decided to take respite in a grocery store.... which just so happened to be having wine tastings of the Nouveau Beaujolais. The wine comes from this region, so there are big festivals all over town and in the little towns of the Beaujolais region. Lyon residents are often quoted as saying Lyon has three rivers, the Rhone, the Saone, and the Beaujolais (as in...the wine is a-flowin'). Apparently it isn't known for being a particularly good wine, just a tradition.... but I thought it tasted alright.... but what do I know?

After our wine tasting, we went across the street to a cute little italian restaurant for pizza. Lindsey and I shared a yummy tomato/mozzarella salad and each had our own cheese pizza... that was big enough to feed 2-3 people. We both kind of made ourselves sick trying to eat it all (we didn't succeed, although I got pretty close). We figured we wouldn't be allowed to waltz into the advanced premiere with our cheese pizza... so no doggy-bags... if that's even allowed in France.

We ended up finishing our dinner at about 8:10... running to catch the metro... and running to get seats. We got pretty good seats considering... although the people by the aisle glared at us as we scooted in a little late. Had I had air to breath I would have said... oh don't glare at me, at least the lights are still on!

The movie was hysterical... I laughed out loud for 3/4 of the movie... got a little teary eyed at one moment... and thoroughly enjoyed being able to understand a movie entirely in French. (Quick recap of the story line: Audrey Tautou's character owns a hair salon, has a guy working for her that writes her a romantic anonymous love letter, she sends it to her depressed mother, who figures out it was from the guy at the salon, who figures out that Audrey sent it to her mother, who is now in love with the guy.... all while Audrey and the guy are falling in love with each other... kind of a weird love triangle story, but very funny as you might imagine... the mother's character especially was hilarious, as was Audrey's.)

Then, as if seeing a cute little film in French wasn't enough, all three main characters and the director came out for a question and answer time. The actors were very nice and funny answering questions about their roles, getting along on set, working for the director, etc. But about half-way through, I started to zone out a bit because I was really tired as it approached 11pm. They answered one more question.... and I thought, well surely they'll just escort them out, but no! They stayed down there to take pictures and sign autographs with people. We awkwardly followed Audrey around until she just about left the cinema and finally got a chance to ask for a picture. Obviously, as you can tell, she is a super tiny person... and we were really excited, haha. Then, we thought! Yes success, we can leave now. But, we saw the male actor and thought, why not, let's a get a picture. A guy had us take his picture with him, so we asked if he wouldn't mind taking our picture. The guy took the picture and said... oh it's perfect. The guy must have been drunk, because the picture is blurry... but oh well. You can still sort of see (up top).

We left the theater at about 11:15.... and the next bus didn't come until 12, so we went to see about taking the funicular and walking... but once we got there decided it would be quicker to walk back to the bus stop and take a more direct route home in the end. But... it wasn't that bad. There were tons of people out... maybe for the Nouveau Beaujolais... maybe that's just how it is on Thursday nights... but it wasn't too cold and we enjoyed looking at the sites all lit up.

We got home exhausted! I left pretty early this morning so I could get home to start cleaning the apartment for Amy's arrival tomorrow... and I'm still pooped! I see a nap in my future... among the other things I need to do!

Reste cool:)