La Belle Vie!

Hello All,
This is my first post on One Bouchon at a Time- sorry it took so long! My life has just been turned upside-down, sideways and twisted in all sorts of directions- all of which I am excited about!
Firstly, I've been in Lyon, France for one week now. ONE WEEK. I can't believe it. It feels like I have been here for a month. I love, love, love the city. But I will get to that in a minute.

Since I have been here one week, that means that I left California two weeks ago (I visited my great-aunt Mary in Washington D.C. for a lovely week before jumping the pond over to Europe).  So it's been two weeks since I haven't slept in my own bed, seen beautiful California, seen my friends from home and hugged my family! (Who I do miss dearly, but I got to talk to them recently).

I arrived the night before my program started and I got to explore the city by myself. Walking around that night was magical.... lights twinkling on the rivers, old buildings, adorable restaurants. Then a week ago the program officially started and I met up with all the other Californians- some are here for the semester and others for the year, like me. We are all doing the immersion program at Lyon 2, Science Po, or Bron (which is outside Lyon by a bit...). It's been a blast getting to know all the other students and I've already made great friends and had some crazy fun adventures!

And I must add that I love being able to go to a pub or bar. Our go to spot is an Irish Pub  called Jame Joyce in Vieux Lyon (the very, very old section of Lyon)- the first time I went was during a thunder/lightening storm and it was incredibly enchanting. I felt like I had been transported through time to another era.

When the program started we all stayed in the CISL (a long term style dorm hostel), but last Saturday I moved into my homestay. It's in an amazing location- just next to the Hotel de Ville. The streets are lively and there is always something to see. Last night I met up with a friend and we just walked around all of Lyon before turning in for the night. Lyon is incredibly walkable. That's one of my favorite things about this city- you can literally walk just about anywhere.... and believe me I have! I love walking- and it doesn't take too long to get from one part of the city to the other, it's super convenient.

I had an incredibly busy day today. To start off I went to by my metro pass (finally!), then I went to our first day of the Intensive Language Program (four hours of class!), bought my train tickets to go to Paris this weekend (whoohoo! no big deal or anything, just taking a trip to Paris...) and in the evening I hung out at a bar with some friends before heading back home for dinner.
C'est la belle vie!

Even though I love Lyon, I'm not so excited to start school. I know it will be very difficult at first- everything will be in French! And French is really hard for me- I've always had a hard time hearing the language and speaking. (Same thing goes for any sort of music... maybe I have some weird disconnection in my brain??) I did study French for a year at UCLA before deciding to study abroad in France, but its hard to jump into a language that I've only been studying for two years (over a period of five years) and be expected to function normally. yikes!
It's a struggle, but my goal for this year is to learn French- so here is goes!

Side note: I'm so excited to be connected to my Amigos via this blog and that even though we are all up to very different exciting things at this particular moment in time, we still have a very strong bond. I love you guys! 

Beaucoup de bisous et à bientôt!
Sasha