It's been a quite a while. Like a lot of time. I won't make any excuses, it was mostly just laziness, plus a few adventures that would require blogs of their own to cover all the stories. But, the conclusion is finally here, including weeks 8, 9, and 10!

Food

At the end of Week 8, a friend and I decided to head to Germany for a short while and go exploring. We also stopped in the Alsace region, so there's plenty of food to show. First, on one of the several trains to Strasbourg, just on the border with Germany:

This trip was one of specialties. After leaving Wednesday afternoon, we had until Friday to eat as many regional specialties as possible. Therefore, in Strasbourg, I made sure to eat some tarte flambée (or flammekeuche, the German name), a doughy flatbread with crème fraîche, onions, and lardons (bacon bits).

After staying the night in Strasbourg, we took a short trip to the other side of the border and to the South a little to Freiburg. Now came time for the German specialties. Having traveled to Germany and Freiburg specifically before, I was mostly there to introduce my friend to the cuisine and tourist attractions while taking the opportunity to eat some good old käsespätzle, an eggy pasta covered in melted cheese. Easily found anywhere (but in our case from the Freiburg markthalle), it's truly a sight to behold:

Spätzle is not a regional specialty, though. Freiburg lies near the Schwarzwald (Black Forest), which means it's one of the best places to get a Shwarzwälder Kirschtorte (literally Black Forest Cherry torte). The torte is comprised of layers of cherry jam, chocolate sponge cake, and whipped cream.

Less spectacular in nature but still in the spirit of the Black Forest comes Week 9. I didn't eat anything all that special, except for this vegan French clone of the kirschtorte found in Lyon:

To be completely honest, I didn't like it as much as the one I had in Freiburg. It wasn't because it was a vegan clone, it was simply not the right proportions (and it probably didn't help that it had been sitting around all day since being made in the morning). In the background is the cake my good friend got. I don't recall exactly what it was, but I remember it was almost entirely white chocolate.

The next meal I have to share is somewhat bittersweet. No, not the meal itself, but the setting. It's time to talk about the farewell dinner, the last time some of us would see each other, at least for a while. For this, I decided to go back to the basics. For the plat principal, chicken and potatoes (and a jus d'ananas, pineapple juice):

And for dessert, chocolate mousse:

But, the cuisine doesn't end there. While this may have been one of the last meals I ate in France, it wasn't the last thing I ate before arriving at home. That award goes to the Premium Meal on my Condor Airlines flight home. I present, for your consideration, an airplane dinner:

There's a lot to unpack here, and I mean that both figuratively and literally. From the top left to bottom right (not in order of consumption): quinoa with ham, butter and cheese, strawberry mousse, a small chocolate, a salt and pepper shaker, chicken and veggies (trust me), and a pretzel roll. Also, apple juice. Surprisingly, I enjoyed this food and the overall flight more than any other I've taken. The temperature inside the plane was nice and the food was actually surprisingly good. But I could practically smell the fish and chips getting closer and closer as the flight progressed.

Sightseeing

Strasbourg, like many other European cities, is a city of history. One of the most prominent historical locations is the Cathédrale Notre Dame, an impressively large cathedral. The pictures don't even give it justice, I had to crane my neck just to catch a glimpse of the top.

Afterwards, the air conditioned Palais Rohan was a welcome, quiet break. The familiar architecture hides not just one, but three museums, the musée des beaux arts (fine arts museum), musée archéologique (museum of archaeology), and musée des arts décoratifs (museum of decorative arts).

After our bus ride to Freiburg and a night of much-needed sleep, we took a short tram ride and hiked up to the Kanonenplatz (literally cannon plaza) to be greeted by a breathtaking view of the Freiburger Münster and much of the city:

After hiking back down, eating our fill of kirschtorte and käsespätzle, and exploring some of the other attractions (such as the crocodile statue below), it was time to call it a day. The last day of the trip.

The trip to Freiburg was one of the last major trips I made. After a few days in Lyon, I went to the French Alps again and was greeted with the usual pleasant view:

And then it was back to Lyon to pack, and to leave. Shortly before our last day, the entire class had a picnic in the parc de la tête d'or, this time in another corner of the park:

And then, just as soon as it started, and with a flurry of train rides and a flight, it was over.

Spending

A lot of the costs during this time period were for travel, though I did splurge on food, despite friends taking us in for a night and feeding us. At the time of writing, I've lost track of several of the receipts, so some prices are estimated. Also, I took out some cash to use in Germany, as their credit card infrastructure doesn't tend to accept international cards, so it was more difficult to track spending.

• Approximately 8.95€ for "chili" before leaving
• The first train from Lyon to Strasbourg cost 89.60€ (round trip)
• From there, the trip across the border and back was 23.50€
• And finally, the round trip bus ride to Freiburg came out to 6.99€
• A couple euro for a slice of kirschtorte from Gmeiner
• 1.80€ for a single-journey Strasbourg transit ticket (for the night we arrived)
• 3.60€ for a day ticket the next morning
• About €25 for dinner plus a drink in Strasbourg (at Au Brasseur)
• 12€ for sushi once I got back to Lyon
• An 18€ tourist t-shirt (because you have to have one)
• About 5€ at a vegan pâtisserie for a piece of cake
• 6.50€ at a shop near the parc de la tête d'or for a sandwich and some gummy candies
• 5€ for juice for everyone, to bring to the picnic at the parc
• 5€ for ice cream
• 15€ for chocolate to bring back home to my family
• 7€ (estimated) total for bread during this period
• 22€ of miscellaneous (read: I forgot) purchases

The subtotal for the final three weeks comes to 256.94€, with a non-chocolate total of 229.94€. Of that, 125.49€ was spent on travel. Split among the three weeks, that's about 76€ a week, so overall not that bad.

Conclusion

This is it. This is the end. After all the delicious food and amazing views from the train windows, it has to come to an end. The last few weeks I got more adventurous, exploring the city and going out with my friends at night, all before it abruptly but not unexpectedly ended with the flight home. But the whole time I was in Lyon, I wasn't just sitting around, wondering what the future might hold. No, I was planning, calculating what I would do next.

But those are stories for another time.

For now, this is me, signing off one last time. Goodbye.

I started writing this post earlier than usual, while the events were still fresh in my head. It was about 5:30 PM on Friday, and I was in my bedroom. I heard a loud crash, something like a pallet full of heavy objects falling off the back of a truck. It was not a pallet. Close by, a bomb had exploded, injuring several people in the area, and when I say close, I mean uncomfortably so. It took almost two hours before I even learned what had happened, and a little longer to tell everyone I was okay. So, I am okay.

With all that said, I don't want to dwell on such a terrible event during an otherwise wonderful week. So, without further ado, the much-anticipated trip to Vienne!

Food

Starting the story at the end of my Saturday trip, I went to a local restaurant and ordered a salade entrée and a burger plat.

The salad was great, although a little difficult to eat due to the shape of the bowl. And in case that wasn't enough, the plat also included the same salad, just without the chevre, bacon, tomato, and bread.

Also not pictured is the pêche sirop à l'eau which I've gotten often before. One item that I struggled to find was the essential dessert: ice cream. Restaurants had small portions of fancy ice cream that didn't catch my interest, all the stores that would have a small stand outside were closed, and the local Carrefour City did not have anything less than a 6-pack of ice cream cones. So, naturally I got what I could:

Once I got back, I did make sure to get some budget-deductible chocolate ice cream from the best glacier (ice cream store, not a slowly moving block of ice) in Lyon, Nardone.

Sightseeing

Vienne isn't without its tourist attractions, of course. And it just so happens that I picked the perfect day to get most of them almost to myself. Among the highlights were the roman amphitheater, currently closed to the public.

They also have some pretty great parks:

And the Cloître Saint-Andre-le-Bas isn't too shabby either. I lucked out and had the entire place to myself the whole time I was there.

The majority of my afternoon was taken up by a visit to the musée gallo-romain (Franco-Roman Museum). The museum itself is built on top of the archaeological site, which you can wander around to see the structure of a city, specifically Vienne when it was a part of the Roman empire. Inside the museum building one can find more mosaics  than anyone (except the Romans) could ever need.

Just before I left, I took one last walk down to the river, and the lighting just before sunset was already amazing.

Spending

Finally, I have some chocolate to deduct, so here we go:

• 8.40€ boeuf (beef) pasta with quatre fromages sauce early in the week
• Another 8.40€ container of pasta, this time quatre fromages pasta with bolognaise sauce
• 7.80€ total for tickets to and from Vienne
• A totally unimpressive sandwich and some water for 2.72€ for lunch
• 19.40€ for dinner and the sirop
• 1.28€ for the bag of schtroumpfs candy
• Salad for lunch Monday at 4.31€ (Fun fact, it came with 4 receipts, two of which were coupons, so I've found the CVS of France)
• Once I got back to Lyon, 4.20€ for 2 boules of ice cream from Nardone

The subtotal comes to 56.51€, minus 4.20€ for the chocolate ice cream (both boules contained chocolate), for a total of 52.31€. The trip was incredibly cheap, especially thanks to the museums being free of charge for 18-year-olds or younger.

Conclusion

Life has its ups and downs. This week was a rough rollercoaster ride, starting with nothing out of the ordinary, then a tragedy, and then a thoroughly enjoyable voyage. It's been one of the more tiring weeks I've had, having even broken my step record that I set on my first day in Paris while walking around Vienne. I'm still not sure what I'll do next weekend, which is longer than usual, but I sure hope it'll be even more fun! See everyone next week!

I'm no longer sick! Followers of the epic and action-packed previous blog posts will be excited to know that this week is even more exciting: I ate tacos!

Food

No, seriously, that's what I'm talking about this week. After traveling several thousand miles (several thousand kilometers) to France from the U.S., I took advantage of their great food and ate... tacos. But not just any tacos. French tacos. There's no point in dragging it out anymore, they're basically burritos:

I ordered the Menu Étudiant, which for just 5€ along with proof that you're a student gives you a medium "taco" and a boisson of choice (I chose a Lipton Peach Iced Tea). The "taco" admittedly tasted pretty good, I chose marinated chicken as the meat and barbecue as the sauce, which they spread on the inside of the burr- I mean, taco. In addition, inside the "taco" they stuffed french fries, rice, and cheese. Not too bad, and it did feel a little like home with the french fries, cheese, and barbecue sauce.

The taco place has a rather unique name: "O'Tacos." And the name reflects my general opinion of the place: it's an identity crisis. It's a taco place with an Irish name in France, and to top it all off they have pictures of New York on their walls. And on their sign they included "Really Serious Food" (not translated from French). In all fairness, I looked up the history and it turns out that they expanded into locations around the world in places like New York, so the pictures started to make sense.

The next day, I had a quesadilla for lunch, from a taco place that actually serves what every American would call a taco. I didn't take a picture, but the chorizo, salsa verde, and cheese tasted great, and trust me, if I had included a picture, that would only serve to make you jealous. It was great!

I definitely preferred the quesadilla (which can't be directly compared to a taco, but the name can: Taco Taco is much better than O'Taco) over the "taco," but if I was near an O'Tacos and was hungry, I have to admit it's a safe bet for a good lunch.

Sightseeing

Given I've only been feeling well enough to leave the house for two days, there's no way I could have done any sightseeing. Kind of. I did spend some time at the Musée des Beaux Arts (Museum of Fine Arts) on a class field trip, where I snapped a couple pictures before leaving after about an hour.

There's no particular significance to these paintings over the others, I just liked them. The museum is a good afternoon activity, with rooms upon rooms of paintings and sculptures.

Spending

As one might imagine, spending was low this week. No visiting the doctor, no medicine, just a little food.

• The previously mentioned 5€ for a medium "taco" (plus free drink) on Monday
• 7.10€ for the quesadilla Tuesday

A very low total of 12.10€, with again no chocolate to deduct. I'll have to fix that next week. Don't worry, I have a plan!

Conclusion

It's good to be back! I plan on eating food other than tacos for the rest of the week, so next week's post should be a little more interesting! In a place like Lyon, a taco does almost seem like a waste of a meal, because while you can find a great one, it will still pale in comparison to the wide variety of other food everywhere around you. See you next week!

So, I'm sick. I touched on it briefly last week but was still hoping I would be feeling well enough to go on a trip to Vienne or some other destination by the weekend, but unfortunately, that wasn't the case. As it turns out, I had bronchitis. I still have it, actually. So for the last week I haven't even left the house, except to go to the doctor and the pharmacy. I guess that's what there is to talk about, then.

Food

I didn't get a chance to visit any restaurants, so there won't be any pictures of trendy meals with swirls of an unknown colorful sauce around the plate, but I've got some badly lit pictures of home cooked meals, so that'll have to do. Thanks for my host family for keeping me alive during this time.

Also included in the Home Deluxe Super Ultra Meal Plan for One was a tuna salad. No, not a tuna salad, a tuna salad.

I don't know if there's a name for this dish, but it's an excellent combination of ingredients starring tuna and many vegetables. In the salad was a combination of olives, tomatoes, onions, rice, corn, and egg, served with a side of potato chips. This seems like the perfect type of meal to clean out a fridge. You can simply add vegetables and other items at random out of your pantry and it'll only get better. Definitely recommended!

Sightseeing

Yeah, this section is going to be completely barren. At the very least, you could simply imagine beautiful old architecture housing some of the world's best art, or a bridge over a murky river, or maybe a small church in a provincial town somewhere. Now stop imagining, and realize that you're actually lying in your bed. That's the authentic being sick in France experience.

Spending

I suppose this is as good a time as any to mention French healthcare costs. Given that my spending this week was almost entirely for medical reasons, it's a good opportunity to at least touch on their healthcare. Here's the breakdown:

• 45€ for a consult with a clinic doctor on Saturday (because the regular family doctor does not work Saturdays)
• 16.77€ for medication (antibiotics and cough syrup) at the pharmacy

That makes for a total of 61.77€, with unfortunately no chocolate-flavored medications to deduct. Thankfully, the above items should be reimbursed by insurance, so my spending this week will be a whopping 0€ (for the U.S. folk here, that's $0).

I did end up paying with my phone at the pharmacy (a different one this time), but I didn't bother trying at the clinic, especially given it didn't work at the other doctor. After paying (if you don't have insurance that they can bill directly), you get a feuille de soins, an itemized receipt you can submit to your insurance for reimbursement.

The only other purchase I made is a bittersweet one: train tickets to my departing airport in Frankfurt. Since I'll be leaving in a little over a month, I'm already getting everything ready so that the process of going home is easier. For 54€, I purchased a one-way ticket out of Lyon on the high-speed TGV, the last high-speed train I'll experience for a while. The trip should take approximately 6 hours.

Conclusion

It seems like only yesterday that I was at the study abroad orientation, and now the program is halfway over. I've already improved massively at French, had many chances to explore by myself, and taken great leaps with my friends to places like Paris for fun. But I'm more of a "study abroad program half full" person than a "study abroad program half empty" person, and sickness be damned, I plan to enjoy the rest of my time here. See you next week, hopefully with something a little more interesting.

Go to Paris, they said. Eat good food, they said. See art and breathtaking architecture, they said. Oh wait, no, it was me who said that.

Food

Starting off the week (technically this was Monday, I simply forgot to include it in that blog post), I ate a crépe caramel beurre salé (salted butter caramel crépe). While I thoroughly enjoyed it, I have to admit it just didn't taste as great as the chocolate one I had last time.

After we arrived in Paris, we enabled fiscally responsible student mode, and mostly made our own food:

And the most French meal anyone could ever imagine, some McDonalds before we went to Versailles...

Sightseeing

Despite the recent fire, our first order of business upon arrival in Paris was to visit Notre Dame. And even after that fire, it's still a sight to behold!

We took some time to explore, and after grabbing some food from Monoprix we settled down at Le Jardin du Luxembourg to eat lunch.

Shortly after, and with our feet already hurting, we went to see some of the most beautiful art in the world at the Louvre:

And see beautiful art we did:

To finish off the day, a beautiful sunset near the Arc de Triomphe. How we got there is a little hilarious. As we were leaving the Louvre, a couple of us became separated from the group and made our way for an hour here before realizing the other four members of the group had gone to the Eiffel Tower. Regardless, I have absolutely no regrets, especially as Metro stations in the area closed the next day due to protests by the gilets jaunes.

The next day, we took a couple metro lines and a train to the Chateau de Versailles, just outside of Paris. And what do you know, more art:

Of course, after every location we visited, add another hour of browsing the local souvenir shops and not buying anything (in my case, at least).

And of course, shortly before I took the train back to Lyon, I made an obligatory visit to the Eiffel tower:

Luckily, I had been primed by a classmate's stories of street vendors and their tactics, including one vendor who will simply grab you by your wrist, immediately start making a bracelet, and demand you pay for it. I ended up avoiding this by simply keeping my hands stuffed in my pockets the entire time, which also helps prevent pick pocketing in the crowded areas I was in. It also helps as a tourist to have a RBF put on whenever you're in a tourist location where you don't want to get messed with.

Last but not least, a quick photo of the Seine, the river that runs through Paris near the Eiffel tower:

And this is unfortunately where things turn south. In the afternoon Sunday, just a few hours after visiting the Eiffel tower, I started feeling some symptoms of sickness, like a sore throat and a mild headache, and it only went downhill from there.

Spending

• 7.00€ for the caramel beurre salé crêpe
• 4.55€ to pay for a friend's cereal when they almost lost their wallet
• 4.85€ for a poulet crudités for lunch Tuesday
• 4.40€ for a thon crudités for dinner Tuesday
• 8.40€ for another Avengers: Endgame ticket and 5.30€ for a tub of popcorn Tuesday night
• 50€ for a Carte Jeune from SNCF to reduce train ticket prices, that is still in the mail
• 102€ for TGV tickets to Paris and back over the weekend
• 6.99€ for a new water bottle from a store in the Lyon Part-Dieu mall to bring with on the Paris trip
• 9.90€ for a burrito shortly before leaving to Paris
• 60€ for my share of our Airbnb cost
• 2.00€ for a bus ticket upon arrival in Paris (I didn't have the right coins for the 1.90€ price, so I had to use two Euro coins)
• 14.90€ for Metro tickets in Paris (four 1.90€ t+ tickets and two 3.65€ regional tickets)
• 5.20€ on Friday for a sandwich from Monoprix
• 6.10€ for water while we were locked out (I had to buy more to meet the credit card limit, and completely forgot I had cash on me)
• 19.15€ for a large bag of mixed candy from a bonbon shop that we shared
• 7.67€ to buy some parts of a dinner we prepared one of the days in Paris
• 18€ for my ticket to the Versailles palace (technically, I paid 108€ but I'm being paid back by everyone else)
• 10€ for my first ever McDonalds (or McDo, as they call it here) near Versailles
• 4.15€ for a thon crudites club at the Paris Gare de Lyon train station before returning to Lyon

This week was very pricey, coming in at a whopping 352.56€! Unfortunately, there isn't even any chocolate I can deduct from that total. Of that, a full 228.90€ was dedicated to travel-related expenses (including the Airbnb), and there's no arguing that food expenses also went up since meals weren't provided by my host family.

Conclusions

This post was a day late, but I have an excuse: I'm still sick. After leaving class early, I slept almost all day Monday, and when I woke up I was still too tired to even be able to pick up my laptop. After some Advil and a hot tea with honey today, I'm feeling well enough to write this, but I hope to feel even better on Thursday, when classes resume.

I believe I'll unfortunately have to cancel my plans for a day trip to Vienne (a small ville just south of Lyon) tomorrow during the fête de huitième mai/jour de la victoire 45 (World War II Victory Day festival), and continue to rest to feel better. Unfortunately, that means that next week's blog post will likely be a little less exciting, but I'll see what I can do over the weekend to make it interesting. See you then!

Edited 5/8 to remove incorrect reference to the rose window.

The third week was definitely a lot quieter than the others, so the post will be a lot shorter. Keep your eyes peeled for some more exciting and delicious content coming next week!

Food

Starting with Tuesday, I ate a delicious crêpe with chocolate inside and some vanilla ice cream on top. Definitely worth it!

It was accompanied by a classy glass of jus de pomme (apple juice). The crêpe was definitely one of the best I've ever had (the chocolate and banana crêpe I ate with my host family during our trip to the Alps is its biggest competitor), and I plan to eat more like it in the future.

Much later in the day, at around 10 o'clock, I got this monstrosity for dinner:

It wasn't the best pizza I've ever had by a long shot, but was still pretty tasty, and was an OK, but definitely not recommended meal for just before a three-hour movie.

Sightseeing

This week's sightseeing will not be accompanied by photos, because I didn't take any (the sights were quite distracting). We did visit Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse, a building housing some of the best restaurants and food shops in Lyon. Named after the famous Lyonnais chef Paul Bocuse (who unfortunately died in early 2018), wherever you turn you're bound to find something delicious. I ate some escargots there last week, so I was familiar with the location, but we did get to enjoy tasting quenelles (a Lyonnais specialty made with pike and a bread binding), saucissons (dried sausages), cheeses, and wine.

Spending

• 7.50€ for a delicious crêpe with chocolat and glace vanille (vanilla ice cream) and 2.50€ for a jus de pomme Tuesday afternoon
• 21.80€ for a quatre fromage (4 cheese) pizza and jus de pomme (apple juice) on Tuesday before the movie
• 2.70€ for a bottle of water for the movie late Tuesday night
• A 4.85€ campagne thon (what I had the first week, a tuna sandwich) for lunch on Wednesday
• 4.90€ for a croque feuilleté tomate mozza (a pastry containing mozzarella, tomato, pesto, and béchamel sauce) for lunch Thursday

As usual, the total: 44.25€ minus 7.50€ for the items containing chocolate (I don't remember the price of the apple juice I drank with the crêpe), for a total of 36.75€. That's a lot less than last week, partially because the school week was shorter so I mostly ate at home (those with a keen eye might note most of my purchases have been food...).

On the topic of payments, this week went seamlessly paying with my phone, and I was even able to split the bill at the crêperie for simplicity's sake.

Conclusions

I think it's safe to say I'm enjoying myself. More importantly, I'm enjoying the food. I still haven't settled on a perfect upload schedule but I'm noticing returning visitors every week so I'll try to keep pushing these blog posts out. See you next week!

This week started with a horrible tragedy: Notre Dame caught fire.

Despite the tragedy, several of our class members still visited Paris and Notre Dame, and luckily, it's still a beautiful sight. I, on the other hand, got sick and went to the Alps, but we'll get to that a little bit later.

Food

Starting off right on the heels of last week's blog, is a food the French are known for: escargots. In Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse there's a fantastic restaurant where you can get 6 escargots as an entrée (appetizer) or 12 escargots as a plat principal (main dish). You could probably get both for a total of 18 escargots, and while someone might judge you, I wouldn't. As far as I'm concerned, the more of these, the better!

Earlier in the day, I ate a chocolate cake, or more accurately, the Mont d'Or (Mountain of Gold). Some of the layers included a hazelnut biscuit, hazelnut pralines, milk chocolate "leaves," ganache, and mousse au chocolat.

Later in the week, I ate a chocolate banana cake of some sort, which was disappointingly cold and congealed. It was basically the complete opposite of the Mont d'Or.

Sightseeing

Following on the tails of the food section, on Sunday we visited the Market along the river. For once, I found something that's bigger in France: a rotisserie chicken stall.

Yes, it's an entire stall dedicated to just rotisserie chicken (and the potatoes that go with it, seen behind the chickens at the bottom).

The highlight of the week was definitely getting some R&R with my host family in the French Alps:

Unfortunately, I fell ill just a few days before we planned on leaving, with the worst sickness one could possibly get in France: a stomach bug. Without getting into too much detail, I could barely tolerate thinking about rice, and missed out on French home cooking for several days. While I recovered, we stayed in the mountains surrounding lake Evian on our planned vacation:

Not being used to staying on mountains in general, the thinner air was a little surprising and exhausting, but even weirder was the weather. The sun was usually pleasantly hot, but in the shadows, it was so cold the snow didn't seem to be melting at all.

Spending

Spending was lighter due to me being sick, and our vacation to the Alps.

• 3.60€ for a quiche for lunch Monday
• 37€ for a doctor visit on Monday (reimbursed by insurance)
• 12€ for surprisingly good French fish and chips (not sure what made them so good, but they were definitely not your run-of-the-mill fish and chips)
• 13.50€ for a bacon burger on Wednesday from the same place and 2€ for a sirop a l'eau (strawberry flavored)
• 3.10€ for an okay chocolate banana cake later that day (by the time we got to the pâtisserie many of the items had been sitting out for a while and were cold and congealed)

For a subtotal of 71.20€, obviously minus 3.10€ for chocolate items that do not count, and minus the insurance reimbursement of 37€, this week I spent 31.10€.

Interestingly enough, when I bought the burger on Wednesday I discovered we were able to split the bill quite easily among a fairly large group. Based on some internet sleuthing, I did not believe this would be possible or even polite. This, among other reasons like the quality of the food, will probably keep us coming there. They are a little pricey and the quality of food isn't the best we've found, but it's a safe bet for a good lunch.

I did try to pay with my phone at the doctor on Monday, but ran into an interesting problem. The terminal didn't support contactless, but that shouldn't be a problem, since my phone, the Galaxy S9, should be capable of emulating the magnetic strip of a credit card. Despite this, it would not register on the swipe card reader. I'll try again another time where contactless isn't supported, as I probably just didn't hold it in the right place (most card terminals appear to be the same here, or at least of the same design).

Conclusions

This post was a little late, because waiting for high-res images to upload over slow 3G is not my idea of a good vacation. The week was a little less busy than last week, and I'm feeling as though I'm settling in, and learning good habits such as the basic French decency of greeting strangers. Hopefully I'll be able to enjoy next week a little more. See you then!

The first week of my study abroad in Lyon is over, and it's time to do some reflecting. Not the type where you look into the mirror sideways to see if the several-course meals have added any weight, no, it's the time to remember what happened during the past week and describe it for people on the internet. Admittedly, it's probably a good idea to do both.

So, here's a summary of this week, on the topics of food, sightseeing, and spending. I probably won't talk much about the actual study part of study abroad, because it makes up only a part of the experience and much of it is similar to classes at home.

Food

Food is easily my favorite thing about life, so it should come as no surprise that I went to Lyon. Yes, I could have gone to any place in the world and probably would have enjoyed the food there, but why not go to the literal capital of gastronomy in France? (On another note, every city here is the capital of something; Thiers is the capital of knives, and Paris is the capital of France.)

After our first day of class, everybody in the study abroad program, including coordinators and professors, went to Brasserie Midi Minuit, where I ate chicken and mashed potatoes. Yes, we have those in the U.S., but not like this:

As for dessert, nothing less than a chocolate fondant (unfortunately, I was too distracted by eating it to take a picture).

For lunch between classes, a campagne thon (tuna on baguette with tomato, mozzarella, and egg) sufficed, but even better was the Buffalo pizza, a name slightly out of place in a Pizzeria, but still quite Italian in taste. It featured mozzarella on top of tomato slices, a layer of more mozzarella covering the tomato sauce below, and a drizzle of olive oil to top it off. All in all, quite delicious:

And last, but most definitely not least, some humble pastries. After walking around for much of the day, standing for over 3 hours taking turns folding, thwacking, and rolling dough, butter, and apples, respectively, was wearing, but it was well worth it:

On the top left, pain au chocolat, with three chocolate sticks in each. On the top right, some simple butter croissants. I unfortunately can't remember the name of the pastries on the bottom, but they were a delicious combination of apples rolled into a rose shape on top of some hidden apricot jam, tied together with a sprinkle of powdered sugar on top.

Sightseeing

There's plenty to see in the third largest city in France, and there's more than enough history to take in, from the early Romans to World War Two and beyond. While I'm sure we'll get tired of it eventually, the old city of Vieux Lyon is a charming, tightly packed collection of buildings from centuries ago, which now house apartments, bakeries, restaurants, and more. Winding through the buildings, you might even find some traboules, small walking passageways that provide access to areas inaccessible from the street and connect streets together. And if you're feeling adventurous like us and have a metro ticket in hand, you can take the funicular line through a steep tunnel up the hill of Fourvière.

On top of the hill, there was a beautiful view of most of Lyon:

On Saturday, we went to the Parc de la Tête d'Or. Inside the park, among other things, there's a zoo, a greenhouse, and amazing flowers everywhere:

Did I mention great flowers?

Spending

I'm living with a host family during my stay who provide most meals during the week, so I don't have to worry too much about finding food to eat. As such, most of my purchases are either lunch or small non-food items. The following is a list of most of the items I bought:

• 4.80€ for a campagne thon (previously mentioned, see food section) sandwich on Monday
• 5€ for a galette kebab (kebab meat in a wrap, like a burrito, topped with tartar sauce) for lunch Tuesday
• 2.90€ for an éclair au chocolat (chocolate eclair) after Lunch Tuesday
• 2.95€ for a cup of mousse au chocolat (chocolate mousse) as an afternoon snack Tuesday
• 11.50€ for a full (they don't really do slices) Buffalo pizza (previously mentioned) and 1.50€ for peach sirop a l'eau (syrup water, similar to an Italian soda) on Wednesday
• Lunch on Thursday was a pastry, paid for by one of my classmates in order to meet the limit for credit card payment (thanks!)
• I also got a ticket for the Avengers: Endgame premiere (which is three days earlier than the U.S.!) for 11.40€ with a student discount
• 3€ for a sirop a l'eau on Friday (raspberry flavor)
• 16.80€ for an okay burger with no ketchup (since it would have cost extra) and 3.70€ for a peach sirop a l'eau at an extremely overpriced touristy café on Saturday
• 3.90€ for coupe-ongles (nail clippers)

In total, I spent a whopping 67.45€ this week. 5.85€ of that was for chocolate, which obviously doesn't count, so for all intents and purposes, the total amount I spent is 61.60€.

One thing that I find fantastic about the French is their tendency to be early adopters, especially in the financial sector, which is painfully slow in the United States. Nearly everywhere I went, contactless (or sans contact) phone payments were fully supported, and chip and pin has been supported practically everywhere for years. Except for paying friends with cash (since it's apparently not possible/rude to split a bill here), and the Avengers: Endgame ticket, almost every single payment has been just with my phone.

Conclusion

I'm only a week in, with nine more to go, but I'm optimistic I'll be able to improve my French language fluency, visit many new places, learn more about my friends, and just have a great time (all while keeping my grades up before graduation, of course). See you next week!

Edited 4/26 to correct champagnethon to campagne thon