September 23-26

Well... It's been an interesting week... Nicolas LOVES the fact that I'm not a huge girly girl. So he has taken it upon himself to make us a daily sports schedule.

Monday: 30 minute jog
Tuesday: Tennis
Wednesday: 30 minute jog AND tennis
Thursday: Tennis
Friday: Rowing

It's safe to say that my body is in extreme physical pain. My forearms are beyond sore.

The fun part of tennis is playing on the red clay courts, the horrible part about that is being so sore when you slide on the court you are convinced your body is going to rip in half. I'm not even being that dramatic.

For some reason, this week it has been unreasonably hot. Today it was 81 degrees out at 5 pm, which is the time we finished tennis. I was dead.

So I decided to cook for the kids, what they consider an "All-American" meal. I made fettuccine alfredo with chicken and broccoli. Honestly, it was the most disgusting thing I have ever made. I bought the wrong cream for the sauce and it was runny and thin instead of thick like it should be. But they LOVED it. I repulsed. But they thought it was amazing. I'm stilling laughing about it.

Thursday when we played.... It was 80 degrees again. I'm just in so much physical pain. The thought of working out physically makes me sick to my stomach after playing tennis today. 

On the plus side, today on the metro I saw a nun, in a full on nun outfit, complete with a cross that was about 5 inches long, she was wearing aviators. 

I know I've been slacking this week with updates, but to be honest other than tennis not much has happened this week. 

On that note, I've discovered Lyon is not very tourist friendly.... Te French really hate Canadians too, which I still have yet to discover why, it makes me laugh though because Canadians are the nicest people ever. 

Also I know my French is improving because now I can read the signs homeless people have asking for money and food. So yeah, I'd say I'm making progress. However my humor does not translate well here. I need to go to England where they will understand my dry humor. Except Aude. She thinks I'm hilarious, or she's laughing at me .... A lot. 

Cool video

So Nicolas and I were watching skiing videos, and his friend sent him this one. It's a sick video of skiing in Japan. 

http://www.kwg.tv/go/?73dd9de

They skied there last winter, there's do much dry powder I guess it's amazing...

Enjoy! 

September 21-22

Oh. 

My.

God. 

I am pretty sure this is the prettiest place I have ever been. 

Grignan. 

So we went south to Provence for Nicolas' family birthdays. It was an absolute riot. It's a requirement to give your kids cool names in this family... 

Xavier. 

Astrid 

Sixtine 

Victor

Just to name a few..... 

Anyway, Saturday evening we got to the house, wow..... This place is amazing. We had an extremely French dinner. Which was good but some of it was disgusting. I'm not even going to pretend otherwise.... 

So they own a bed and breakfast type thing. So there are like 5 or six mini condos... 

So Aude, Hippolyte and their cousin Xavier and I went back to put a movie on for the boys..... I'm not going to name names but a certain middle child left the sliding door open while we were eating dinner.... I went to shut it but as I did a massive black car came barreling in. He just looked at us and then it started making this noise. I thought it was Hippolyte crying in the other room. It honestly sounded like a person. Once we realized it was the cat and not a kid we were laughing/screaming. This went on for about ten minutes. It was running around the condo screeching then finally jumped out a window..... The best part. He came back and was screeching again outside at like 5 am. 

The stupid thing came back again..... 

So Nico's mom is one of six. Bridget (his mom) is the oldest as well.... And some of her siblings are much yonder.... 

 This year they had a Decade birthday party.... 

10- Apolline

20- Elise (Nico's cousin) 

30- Isabel (cousin) 

40- Seb (brother)

50- Dominique (aunt) 

60- I don't know his name but he was my favorite guy at the party (uncle) 

There was no 70 and 80 

90- Nicolas' grandmother, who is in the early stages of Alzheimer's and had me sit next to her and was chatting my ear off..... In French, then half way through the conversation she looked at me and said "oh damn you're the British nanny ! I'm sorry I was talking in French!" 

Everyone just laughed, it was adorable.

For some reason, the French can't tell the difference between British and American accents. I will tell them I speak English and they will ask what part of England am I from..... His one cousin who's like 35 and has the cutest kid ever! Lived in London for 5+ years and he asked me if I was from London.... 

I get it if you confuse British with Australian, New Zealand, or South African accents but American.... Really? 

Anyway, his family his so nice but does not speak much English. Well they speak it but not all of them so well. Most are good, then there's a few that I just could not understand to save my life. 

Anyway, back to the party, I was put at the kids table, which I'm not complaining about but every French person so far thinks I'm like 17. So Nicolas' mom put me next to her godson Max and her other nephew Victor because they spoke english. They were super nice! They thought I was 16-17 like them, yeah it was really awkward telling them that I was 22. Especially since they look older than me.... Super nice guys though, girls ages 16-17 I'm serious, you should probably come visit me and check them out for yourself...  

So the day kind of went something like this... 

Hands down, the most important thing, I helped Bridget cook lunch. Yes mother you read that correctly, I helped cook. And she said I was a fabulous assistant and I was welcome back any time. So take that mom for thinking I don't know how to cook! Hahaha

After that we set up for the party which was fun, and once everyone started to arrive is when I got overwhelmed... Holy crap, not being able to speak to them is one thing, but they kiss you on the cheek. I am still so not used to that. I mean when Nico's parents and brothers and their wives it was whatever but with the rest.... it was so awkward. And they don't actually kiss you, they just make the kissing noise and then you kind of rub cheeks... it is so weird. 

So once everyone arrived, we started drinking champagne, I think before lunch even started almost 10 bottles were empty... I'm not even kidding. And I only had 2 glasses, I swear. Okay I lied, I had 3... 

Around 1:30 we started lunch, the one thing I really don't like about French food is that everything is served cold. Pasta and meat especially. It really throws me off, and I am pretty sure it's insulting to ask if I could heat it up. Like we had steak for lunch, they sliced it from right off the grill and then refrigerated it. Why... just why would you do that?! 

Anyway, the food was fine, and after lunch we all just kind of chatted around, then the guys all went and changed into like workout clothing because they were going to play soccer.... I'm not saying that I don't think Sunday Night Volleyball is awesome, because it it, but holy crap this put family sporting events on a whole new level. One was the ref, there were team captains, it was insane. It was crazy intense too, like blood was drawn on more than one occasion. 

After that, everyone just kind of chilled. Adults were chatting and the kids were playing, so I was relieved of my duties and I read a book. This only lasted for about 10 minutes because there was so much yelling and running around. Slowly people started to leave, and by 6 there was only the six of us, Nico's parents, and his uncle and 3 cousins. We ate spaghetti which was awesome because it was warm not cold! It was around 7:30 by the time we left their home, it's only about an hour and a half away but Eleonore and Apolline rode there with their cousins, and we kind of forgot about that, so Eleonore had to sit on my lap for the entire drive, which would have been fine if she wasn't the most spastic sleeper on the planet. 

We finally got back around 9:30 and we all just crashed. Hippolyte didn't make it to his bed. He just sat down on the carpet and the next thing I knew, he was asleep. Also, I don't know what he's doing wrong because he's still kind of sick, and I'm freaking out thinking that maybe I just had a good 24 hours and then I'm going to be back to my death bed. 

Well that was my weekend for you!

Day ten thru I don't know like 13?

I don't know exactly what's been happening since Tuesday afternoon when I found Hippolyte on the floor like this.... 

That probably should have been te first hint he wasn't feeling well....

They don't call the flu here the flu yet call it gastro. 

Anyway, we were up all night and not in a fun way. Wednesday came around and we were all beyond exhausted.

DAY 11

Hippo was doing great the first part of the day but then the afternoon hit and it was the night all over again. 

The girls and I went to their racquet club to play tennis for the afternoon, and yes I won.

Novak Djokovic would be proud. Oh and I LOVE the racquet club. I will most definitely start taking lessons from the cute guy there.... Sorry not sorry. 

It was really cool the outdoor courts wee all red clay which I've never played on before, and I cannot believe I am dying this but I'm thoroughly impressed that Nadal has been able to win so many times on clay. Yuck gross now that's out of my system.... TEAM DJOKOVIC FOR LIFE. 

Anyway, Nicolas' cousins came over for dinner and they are so cool! In med school and so nice my age oh yeah and barely speak English. 

After all that I started feeling off. Yup you guessed it. This girl got the flu. 

Thursday was an absolute joke I just laid there in pain. Thursday night was possibly even worse because I'm up at 3:51 for the third night in a row because of the flu. I can assure you this, I am 100% sure that I am dying 

Yuck 

Friday, 

Both Hippo and I thought we were fine. Both of us were home from classes by 10:30. Not a good idea to go. I spent the day in bed trying to think of things worse than being extremely sick in France. Then it was granted to me..... 

I took a nap and left the window open. A freaking flock of mosquito attacked the left side of my body. I look like I only have acne on part of my face. Like really?! 

It is so hard not to scratch my face off..... 

I hate it. 

September 15-16 days 8 & 9

... I survived my first week. 

only 39 more to go! 

Today is kind of like my day off, even though it's not. I got to sleep in until 10! Which was crazy! But all the kids were busy today with birthday parties and stuff so I mostly just cleaned their rooms and my room (yes mother I actually cleaned my room without being asked) 

I went and toured the Hotel de Ville which is some sort of government building. It was gorgeous. 

September 16 Day 9 

The part of Lyon is the fact that 'Call Me Maybe' is at it's peak. It's like winter/spring 2012 all over again. Not that I'm complaining.... 

So the city has great transportation. You can use your bus or metro pass to rent these bikes out and then you just leave them at a different station. It's so cool! 

It's so cool! 

The only other highlight of the day was teaching Eleonore how to jump rope, thank you SST for that one. Apparently alternating feet while jumping will put you in with the cool kids at school. 

It's been a pretty standard few days, nothing too exciting! 

Sept 14 day 7.

Well Hippolyte and Eleonore woke me up at 6 am. Then again at 7 because they wanted to watch movie..... That was just lovely...

But at a more reasonable hour once everyone else was awake, Aude and I took the 2 little ones to the fresh market. It was insane. This put any and every farmers market in the US to shame. It took up the entire quai (which is a walk way that's next to the sidewalk but isn't cement it's almost like dirt in some spots, then cobble stone, then pavement... it sounds weird but I promise it's actually sweet.. But its about 40 feet wide and as long as the entire road which is about 8 or 9 blocks.

One of the guys working a booth asked me if I was Australian. It made my day. They had everything you could think of there. OH MY GOD, there was 3 booths dedicated to pesto! There was about 10 just for cheese and don't even get me started on the bread. It was amazing.... 

Afterwards hippo and Eleonore wanted to go to the park. 

I started to teach them about boats. Never to young to know about boats! Haha 

After the park we went home for lunch, and after lunch Aude was telling me about all the sites to see in Lyon. Apparently this weekend is the only weekend you can go and see some of the sites because they are either condemned or privately owned. So yesterday Apolline and I went to see a Hospital built in 1707 that they just shut down in 2010 and now are renovating into apartments and shopping and stuff like that. It was so creepy but so cool. We were only allowed in certain parts but it was so cool! 

After we got back we had a quick dinner just myself Apolline and Hippo, Eleonore ditched us for a sleepover with her cousin Astrid... But after dinner we watched Brave in 3D. OMG it is so good. 

that's it for now! 

au revoir 

September 13- day six

Remember when scooters were cool?

Yeah for some reason Lyon didn't get the memo that they aren't that cool anymore....  

I mean unless you are 11 years old in Marquette then the scooter gang is the only way to be cool the yeah sure go for it. Get a scooter. 

But everyone uses scooters here. And when I say everyone I mean EVERYONE. From kids who can just barely walk to old people who can barely walk. It's extremely humorous to me. 

Speaking of things that were cool back in the day.... MSN Messenger.... That is HUGE here. I was like can't you use Facebook chat? The logo is still those creep faceless blue and green people things. 

In my French class we talked about French stereotypes and then Japanese and American. The one girl named Now said "we don't sit around eating sushi in a kamoano" 

On a sadder note, all my Asian friends are leaving the French classes because they are doing some program and I guess they have already been in French classes for a while. I'm so sad!

They are so nice it's unreal, especially in comparison to the French who can be very rude. 

We had to present a picture we took this week and explain what we thought was going on in the photo. Or describe what you see, it pretty much was talk about the picture for 3 minutes in French. 

This was my picture. Here is the English translation of what I said:

This is a cat. 

He sees the ruins everyday. 

He is skinny because he is homeless. 

He followed me around for an hour. 

I named him Thomas O'Malely, O'Malley the Alley Cat. (No one really got that joke. I thought I was hilariously clever. Because the Aristocats take place in France...) 

Thomas O'Malley likes talking long walks in the ruins and enjoys watching the sunset. 

He is very suave with the lady cats. 

He likes it when you pet him and scratch him behind his ears. 

I know.... It's not my best work but it could have been worse. 

We didn't have a tour today so I went back to the flat.... 

Nicolas is apart of a rowing club like rowing crew... 

He had the brilliant idea that he should bring me along. The rowing machine at the gym is one thing but holy crap.... I would rather do pull ups than do that again.... J'ai trés horrible...

The most important thing that needs to be addressed is the fact that every single freaking guy between ages 20 and 30 are  jaw dropping hot.

Today Hippo and I were walking to the park whilst Eleonore was at ballet practice, he had to practically tell to get my attention because I was staring at this hot guy in through the window of a pharmacy. I mean it should not to be allowed for guys to be that attractive. 

While we are at the park a bunch of guys were playing soccer .... Oh la la. It was a struggle to pay attention to Hippolyte.... Well it would have been but he was yelling the whole time "Regarde! Regarde! Allison! I mean watch! Watch me!" 

And I mean how do you say no to this? 

To end the day, Eleonore and Hippo got into a screaming fight.... But in the end the night was a success, Nicolas, Aude, Apolline and i watched Skyfall. And now I'm rambling on... 

Au revoir 

September 12- day five

I was woken up today by the adorable Hippolyte at the not so adorable time of 4:30 am.... He wanted his breakfast early this morning.

After the normal morning struggle to get to the bus stop on time, I headed to my French class. We walked to the part of Lyon that has the remains of the Roman Empire. The theater they built was amazing.

Also this cat followed me through the entire ruins 

Once back at the flat with the kids, later To find hippolyte in my bed asking why the dragon isn't on my computer screen. Translation being he wanted to watch 'How to train your dragon' 

Oh and Aude is on this new kick where she makes everything into soup. The vegetable soup tasted like baby food, according to Apolline, i thought it tasted fine. 

Their grandmother came over, she looks like Meryl Streep in the Devil wears Prada, she's super nice. After I cleaned up after the kids I walk into my room to find them all laying on my bed watching a movie on Netflix. 

Oh and I finally got a French phone today. It's a blackberry.... Didn't know those were still even around..... 

That's it today 

September 11th- Day Four

On Wednesdays French schools either don't have school or they only have a half day.

Shockingly I actually had some time for myself because I didn't have French classes. I walked around the few blocks near the flat.

I got to see the kids school.... Holy cow it's nicer than most colleges! It's so old and pretty. Then they had tennis today so it was fun to spend one-on-one time with them while some were in lessons or something. 

Eleonore really likes doing my hair. I think she's pulled out most of it though.... 

Hippolyte LOVES the American movies I brought. (How to train your dragon, finding nemo, etc.) even though they aren't allowed to watch that much tv he some how works around the system. And he keeps asking why he can't wear his Great Lakes shirt everyday to school. 

Oh so I should probably mention the food..... It's great. But some is really weird. 

1. RAW Radishes with butter and salt. Personally, i found it repulsive but they swear by it. 

2. Chocolate and bread. I'm not talking about Nutella. I mean a chocolate bar and a piece of bread. It's awesome. 

Other than that their food so far hasn't been any different. However, there's a little food cart, as it says "AUTHENTIC AMERICAN FOOD" the menu was tacos, chorizo,enchiladas... And a few other little things like fries... So apparently we are Mexican now..... 

So in France a common name for a girl is Sixteen. The kids had their cousin come over tonight and she's definitely that one friend you is just going to be trouble when she's older.... Funny kid though! 

That's all for now! 

First few days...

September 8th-Day One:

My first day consisted of sitting at Heathrow airport for 8 hours playing games on my phone and loving that everyone there had a british accent. But once I finally landed in Lyon, Nicolas and Apolline were there to greet me and all of my luggage.

I was supposed to be in Lyon around 6:30 pm, nope. Of course I had to have a delayed flight. By the time we got back to their flat aka my new home, it was about 9 pm and an hour past the little ones bed time. 

After a quick tour of the new flat, I attempted to start unpacking which turned into me going to bed....


September 9th- Day two:

It's almost like I didn't leave school. Waking up at 6:45 is not my favorite thing in the world.
Eleonore and Hippolyte were so tired from staying up so late! It was so cute.  I brought them some gifts from Michigan, Hippolyte and Eleonore have Great Lakes shirts, and Apolline has a Petoskey Stone necklace from Hanni. 

After they went to school, I started my french classes. 

my class this week consisted of myself, and 15 asians studying abroad. 

Part of the program is that they take us out into Lyon, and show us different things. Like this time they showed us the Confluence, which is a massive building with shopping, fitness center, restaurants, movie theater, and everything else. 

They also showed us some famous spots near the confluence, such as this bridge. you and your significant other lock a lock on the bridge and throw the key into the water, and it's supposed to be something like "together forever" or something cheesy like that. but it looks so cool!

then it was pretty simple after that, i got to pick up the kids from school we went to the park, ate, read stories, and i was in bed 10 minutes after they were. 

September 10th- Day three

Day 2 of the french classes, i think my favorite part so far is how the kids in my group are the most stereotypical asians ever. i think we stopped every time there was something remotely cool so they could take a picture. the best part is when they would pose for the pictures. I stuck out like a sore thumb. 

The tour took us to Croix-Russe, which if i had to get there again there would be no way I would find it again. 

We took a tour of the Maison des Canuts, and we were shown how they make things with silk, because at one time Lyon, was the largest distributer of silk in the world. 

After the Maison des Canuts, this part of Lyon has these different paths throughout the city and we followed the blue lion path. the markers are just little blue lions with an arrow pointing in the direction of where to go. It's actually quite cool and shows you a really cool version of the city.  

Over looking all of Lyon

The last two, are just of the square in Croix-russe. 

Well there are the first few days of my long long long trip.