First days

So far I have been living in Lyon, France for less than a week, 6 days to be exact. This is to be a compilation of my year partaking in the Erasmus scheme and all of what I learn in this duration.

Firstly, people from Europe are exceptional at languages, with many knowing two or three at least. This has been very handy as I am English and have very few language skills, something I hope to change over the course of these semesters. Most of the people I have met are friendly and help is readily available if you ask for it. I would say the rule is that, as long as you attempt even a few words in French, they are obliging and take pity on you. I had a rude awakening on my first morning when I left the lovely hostel that I had spent the night in (where mostly people were English/American etc), and got myself a taxi to what would be my home for the year. It was 6am, I had had no sleep and I really struggled with the taxi man who was not very pleasant to say the least. He was saying “you need to speak French in France, I don’t speak English” and calling me ignorant. (I think, or something along these lines anyway, I replied that “J’essaie” which means I am trying but he was not happy. When we got to my halls  he dumped my suitcase out of the minibus he said “Lyon c’est jolie?” which I understood and I said “oui, Lyon c’est tre jolie!”, he retorted “too pretty for you!” in English then got back in his cab and drove off.

It was not a good start, but I have come to see that as long as you attempt in French primarily, this is a rare encounter. I was just unlucky I guess.

The majority of my time so far has been one huge blur. One thing to note when you start one of these programmes is that you will spend a lot of money initially, something that I had stupidly not prepared for. I spent a lot of money in the first few days on public transport passes (I cannot describe how amazing the metro system is here in Lyon. Coming from the countryside in England, I have never been on the ‘tube’ in London (our only metro in the UK) and busses come irregularly, maybe once an hour if you are lucky. For 5€50 you can get a day pass which covers you for any city transportation on trams, busses, and the metro. Great!! I have got lost, a lot, so far and spend a lot of time with a blank expression on my face when people attempt to converse.

I find the amount of English and American products excessive. You only need to go to a small shop to find The english map printed on items of clothing, stationary and every other item immaginable. Walking into a library in Part Pieu yesterday I went to look at the education section, there was an entire section dedicated to studying English and English books etc. It is so important in France to learn English, and it upset me a little as in England we make little/no effort which remotely resembles any of what I keep seeing in France. 

Anyway more later, Au revoir

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