Photos, finally!

I promised to add some more photos to this blog in an earlier post. It had been super gloomy outside for the whole week, but I tried to take some pictures nonetheless. Then, yesterday we finally had some sun (and freezing cold temperatures). Conveniently, I also went on a walking tour of Lyon yesterday. There are a few other American universities who have programs in the same school (Université Lumière Lyon 2 is my school here), and the students from the UPenn program arrived on Friday and had a tour yesterday. The program director there invited me to come along, since I am the only one here from my group who arrived this semester. It was very nice! I got to see some new things, although a lot of them were places I had already been to. I.e. we met at the Place Bellecour, which is pretty close to me, and spent a lot of time in Vieux Lyon, or the old quarter, which is where I live. It was good to explore some new parts of Vieux Lyon, but also a little bit repetitive. More so it was kind of nice to know that I'm already getting to know the city (or parts of it at least) even though I have only been here for a week!

Here are some photos of Vieux Lyon (definitely one of my favorites, if not my favorite, parts of the city so far):

These are both of the Cathédrale St. Jean-Baptiste, the church where my host family goes every week. It's about a 10-15 minute walk down the street from me, and very beautiful! (the front is the left photo; the top photo is one of the sides)

The Saȏne River (the smaller of 2 in Lyon)

My apartment building! (the tallest pink one in front)

St. Georges Cathedral (left), and the Fourvière Basilica in the top-right. All on the Saȏne.

                   

Two staircases of buildings as seen from their courtyards, in Vieux Lyon

The rest of these are other pictures, either from the tour or other happenings of life in Lyon...

From outside of the front of the Lyon 2 (university) building, 

the Rhone River looking onto the presqu'ile (the "almost-island" in between the two rivers), 

with the Fourvière Basilica on the hill in the distance

         

Opera house on the left, Hotel de Ville (city hall) on the right 

aaaaaand my first legally bought alcoholic drink ;) 

a glass of wine enjoyed with my friend Ebru at her hostel! 

(Steve, and anyone else, you can make fun of me if you want - I know "that ship has sailed" for many at home!) I've been having a lot of fun here, though. Everything is so old and beautiful. I've been a little bit homesick, but have talked to a few of you from either Cincinnati or St. Louis, which has been refreshing. :) While I miss you all dearly, and have some difficulties with the language/life adjustment, I am trying to stay focused on the positives - just look at all the gorgeous things that I have seen so far! And I have so much left to discover here.

Speaking of which, I'm going to try to do some exploring right now. I have the apartment to myself today (because my host family is in Paris to demonstrate against same-sex marriage.... there may be another post sometime to discuss that aspect of the political climate in France right now. But that's another story for another day). Anyway, I'm on my own schedule, which is nice. It's just a bit difficult because almost everything is closed on Sundays here. So I may just walk around and enjoy the slow pace of the day. :) I'll let you all know how it goes!

Love and bisous (kisses) from France!