it really could be a mugshot, eh?

It's actually my ID photo that I had to take, and I found it a bit amusing. You're not supposed to be making any expression in the picture, but I'm hoping I don't look this hopeless when I put on my blank stare face in the metro everyday...Anyways, had a really good past couple of days. Been dealing with a lot of French beaurocratic stuff (of which there is a lot here...) but hopefully it'll be done tomorrow when I finally get my bank account and student card stuff straightened out. Anyways, something interesting---I had my first kebab yesterday. These kebab places are everywhere here by the way....I've even seen 4 of them next door to each other...I was craving something greasy, cause these things are basically like gyros with fries on them, (not the kebabs that are basicaly grilled stuff on sticks), but came to find that it still had a good amount of vegetables, which were delicious, but still a little disappointing as I didn't get my greasy food fix that I've been having ever since I got here since I don't have it too often anymore...later on I walked from Vieux Lyon to Bellecour and along the river (the Saone), and it was BEAUTIFUL. The city can look pretty depressing on a cloudy day, and not very pretty, but when it's sunny---man, it made me feel happy to be alive. Ended yesterday and today reading up on the Fourviere hill at the roman ruins (pictured in previous post...). Especially yesterday, it was beautiful and I could see the alps in the distance as the sun set. It's nice to go up there where it's quite just to relax the mind.

I've realized that I really need to start being more intentional about learning French...The longer I've been here the more I speak English, and I've really come to a standstill if not gotten worse with my language. Luckily I've made a couple French friends, so that helps a lot when I'm around them. I went bowling with some of them on Saturday night, and it was really funny because most of them had only bowled like once in their lives...I stepped up on my first bowl (and usually I'm really horrible or pretty good) and I got a strike. I turned around to see their faces like this :O which slowly melted into smiles and comments like "of course you got a strike...you're american." Someone even claimed that bowling was the most preferred sport in America, or something to that degree....it was also really interesting because they were making fun of my accent, which I took offense to at first, but then realized that I do it too, but of course it's not in a mean way at all. As one would say here "on rigole" or i'm just joking around...anyways, must get up for a 16th century lit class in the morning...YIKES!! A toute a l'heure!