Day 1

Bonjour! Today was my first full day in Lyon, France where I will be spending the next few weeks studying International Business and the French Language. I will attempt to also try to complete my previous blog from last year, but only if I have free time. I will also be reviving my "Where's Pascal" series, yay!

Where's Pascal?: Pascal is packed and ready to take on the world...again!

After almost 24 hours full of traveling, I finally arrived at the student apartments. The trip consisted of 4 connecting flights: Charleston to JFK, JFK to Dublin, Dublin to London, and London to Lyon. The flight to Dublin came with a lovely dinner of beef that tasted like pot roast, yummm! The tiredness didn't quite set in until I arrived in the UK, and I slept through most of the last 2 flights. After arriving at the apartments around 4pm, I had a sandwich and went to sleep at 5:30pm. I slept until about 2pm when I woke up, watched some Netflix, and had a snack. I was back to bed instantly. The blinds on the windows are EXTREMELY blackout ready, and you have to twist them with a handle to bring them down. So if I closed them all the way I could sleep all day and still think it's 2am. Around 7:30 I opened the blinds partially and would open them more and more every hour until I woke up.

American Fanta

My breakfast in Dublin at the airport, yogurt with granola and chocolate pieces, Irish fruit cake, and Fanta. Look how different the Fanta is in Europe!

Had to make sure I got a Bow and Black before leaving the UK!

I got out of bed officially around 10:30am and got ready to go to the Monoprix (local food/homegoods store) to buy essentials, like toilet paper because they didn't give us any! It was about a 10 minute walk to the store and the weather was great! It was kind of difficult to shop since everything was in French, but I managed to find some good stuff that will last me a while. While at the store, one cute guy asked me (in French) where the salt was, I just looked at him blankly and said "ummm, Anglais?" and then he asked me again in English and I told him I had never been there before, he then hurried off to go find his salt after calling back "Have a nice afternoon!" I hope he found it.

First day in France!

I came back and unpacked my groceries and my suitcases. Then my neighbor, Jessie (a fellow PC gal) came by to talk since everyone else was asleep still or just waking up (it was probably nearly 1:00). Later, all of the PC students that are here gathered in Jessie's room to wait to go out to dinner. Eventually we all went out with Dr. Kiley to a restaurant called 'Les Pampres Rouges' and got a three course meal for €16 and a glass of rosé. My appitizer was a salad with a sort of dressing on it that wasn't anything special, but then I had boiled potatoes with fromage blanc (I think it is supposed to be cottage cheese) but it was super tasty, almost like onion dip we have in the States. The second course was a sausage with a brown mustard based sauce and fries. The sausage was almost like a poorly formed hotdog. It was like pieces of pork encased in a skin and the closest thing I could compare it to in taste is haggis. It wasn't bad but it wasn't worth eating the whole thing. Dessert however, was AMAZING! I had a tarte praline, which was mostly like a shortbread cookie with an almondy sauce! So delicious! We then walked through a square by the Lyon Cathedral where we could see the Cathedral Notre Dame on its hill all lit up against the night sky; it was lovely! Well, that's all for day one! Tomorrow starts orientation so I'm hoping it goes well. Bonsoir!  

Basilica Notre Dame

Lyon Cathedral