stoopeed americans, puh

After spending a good amount of time switching between shutterfly (the online photobook maker... such a nifty site for anyone who wants to make custom calendars, albums, and more with their own pictures) and a few wedding dress websites (hey, an engaged girl can look and tell now, right?), I got ready for my afternoon with Corinne and company.

I hadn't gone outside much this weekend, as I was making myself stay in and rest up, so it was a nice surprise to feel the warmer weather and sunshine on my face as I walked to their house. Luc was in the garden and Corinne was doing house work. Lucie swung open the door with a big welcoming smile. Before Julien and I got to work they all came to see if I had brought any pictures from my trip and to hear all about it (too bad they can't read my blog!). I'll have to send them some pictures, but I did get to retell some highlights from our trip:)

Julien and I worked on pronouns and verbs for a bit; he was amazed that we used "it" for so many nouns. In French, every noun is either feminine or masculine, and therefore is replaced with "him/her" in certain cases where pronouns are used.... although it sort of depends on the situation, and to make it more confusing, the pronoun may need to be placed somewhere else in the sentence. English, however, is much simpler. Anything that isn't a person or living thing with a gender identity is called "it." When given the sentence, "John put his pen away," Julien tried to replace the nouns like this: "He put him away." Although this is nice poetic personification for the pen, in non-artistic language, we would normally say, "He put it away."

During our little grammar exercises, Julien asked me if all Americans were like a girl he saw on tv, who when asked if she could find Iraq on a map, said, "What's an Iraq?" I laughed and said.... no, I guess there are ignorant people everywhere, but we aren't all that stupid. He then asked, "Do you know where Libya is?" I said, yeah of course.... it's that little country in the middle east off of Saudi Arabia. He laughed as I was saying this and it dawned on me that, huh, do I actually know where it is? He went to get his globe, and sure enough, it is not a small country but a rather large country situated between Egypt, Tunisia, and Algeria. I guess I was getting it confused with Qatar or Yemen or something... Now, had I been given a map, I would have found it fairly easily, but I had to say to him, "Nope, guess I'm just like all the other stupid Americans haha." He said he doesn't really think we're stupid.... but from the sound of it, they learn a lot more world geography than we do. He could name and place every African country I named off on a map he drew! Wow!

After our lesson, I got to feel a little bit smarter when I was able to answer tons of questions by all 3 kids about English song lyrics. They sing all these American pop songs, but have no idea what they're saying! Our song session was interrupted by the parents who said, "Enough bombarding Lindsay with song lyrics! Let's go on a bike ride!"

So we all went out, except Julien who went to a friend's house, on a nice Sunday afternoon bike ride. While we were riding, I passed a few students who yelled out my name from across the street. I felt a little bit like a celebrity;)

When we got back, we had a nice chat and cookie tasting. They asked me questions about Victor and if he had fun seeing where I lived. They asked if he was surprised by Lyon or Saint-Priest... and I said, actually he was slightly surprised by where I lived. They said, you know, we were surprised by where you live too. I said, I was surprised when I first moved in, but I've never had a problem or had anyone hassle me. I don't put myself in a lot of unsafe situations by going out late and I keep my head down, walking with purpose if I do. It's been a really nice living and working experience here overall. They said that they really haven't minded living in Saint-Priest because there are some really nice neighborhoods, but they're about to start looking for a house to buy. The one they are in is rented because they are still in the process of selling their house in Marseille. They said unfortunately there aren't many houses for sale in the neighborhood they live in now and are thinking about moving to the north side of Lyon, closer to the parc de la tête d'or (and understandably so, I'd want to live up there too! Who wouldn't want to live within a few minutes drive to the zoo?!). But they also have concerns about moving the kids out of their schools again and Corinne likes being so close to work.... so it sounds like they're still trying to decide what to do!

Luc drove me home on his way to the Apple store to look at macbooks, lol. I did some video chatting and am just about ready for bed. That bike ride wore me out!

Hope you all have a nice week:)

Reste cool!

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)