Here and There: beaucoup de photos.

So thanks everyone for all your encouragement! Just wanted to say that. Things with school are fine I think. Knowing people are taking the same classes as you helps a wholeeee lot. Anyways lots to tell---Saturday Janine's Uncle Akho had us over for lunch, from which we left at about 5pm. Long lunch, eh? He and his wife, Monique (she's French, he's from La Cote D'Ivoire), and their daughter Noemy (sp?) served us pre-lunch pastries, mixed fresh vegetables, baked chesnuts (DELICIOUS), potatoes, chicken, pineapple, cheese course, and coffee. That's why it took so long. They gave us lots of advice about Lyon, what to do in France, etc. Basically we got to practice our French a LOT. Then, after that, we got to go home to Perrine's cooking. And that night was amazingly amazing. She fixed a tart with zucchini, onions, carrots...geez, wish i remember exactly what was on it. and then! these pastry things with cheese and cooked egg inside them i think...FORMIDABLE! and then she had cooked this beautiful fruit tarte.
Anyways, later that night as well as the next morning, I found out how much I hate the bus schedule late saturdays and on sundays. Saturday night, missed it and had to wait 45 minutes for the next one. Sunday, was going to go to church...the same thing happened. So I got up realllyyy early and just enjoyed the beautiful day with my windows open doin homework instead! It was in the 50's which was refreshing for us. If I were in Texas I would've found it too chilly, but I just wore a tank, blazer and scarf and was fine! Unheard of in the winter here! Anyways, Perrine's "filleule" (goddaughter---she had to say godmother in english for me to get that one...) came over for lunch, and we had pork (i think), potatoes, dijon mustard---which is ridiculously strong here...just a bit of it made pain shoot up my nose! and to top it off, Perrine made a Apricot tarte with homemade vanilla ice cream and rasberry ice cream with raspberries from their garden. Afterward Janine and I went to le Parc de la Tete d'or (park of the golden head) because we had to se promenader a bit since it was so nice. But I need to explain that this park is no regular park...it's the largest urban park in France at about 290 acres...there are animals---like zoo animals---elephants, giraffes, crocodiles, monkeys....and there are also botanical gardens and greenhouses and huge fields to play and eat in. It reminded me of the movie "La gloire de Mon Pere" (My father's Glory) where all those people back in the late 19th, early 20th century in France just walked around parks dressed in their Sunday best, because everyone and their dog (and kid) were there at that park yesterday.
Anyways, today was my first day of class, and I was 20 minutes late. I'd like to say it was only due to the fog, but alas, I was also late and underestimated the amount of time it takes to get there...which is way too long. Like 35 minutes? Yeesh. It was just a French grammar class with other foreign exchange students, so not too embarassing. So you know how basically expressed much hate toward the French university system? Well, just for now, I am kind of liking it, because although the classes are 2-3 hours long apiece, it means that I only have to go once a week, which means right now I have Tuesday and Friday off. Let's hope that Friday stays open for traveling. Speaking of which, I'm hopefully going to book a ticket soon to go to Barcelona in the next couple weeks! Should be amazing. Anyways, that's it for me tonight. Enjoy the pics!