On a Fini la Moitie, Mais Comment?

(Editor's Note(s): I meant to post this on Thursday night after writing it on the train, but it has been hard to find internet in this city for my computer, and I thus am copying this directly over onto another computer. I apologize for the likely typos and lack of a picture this time, I hopefully will fix this by next time)

Ever since we were admitted to the Lyon program back in March, all 23 of us here have dreamed of les Vacances de Toussaint, or, roughly translated, the All-Saints week of vacation. A true highlight of the trip, this was clearly marked on every single program calendar we received, and always formed an important way to frame the semester. Situated just at the end of October, it seemed a perfect way to divide up the semester into two neat sections. Yet, despite hours of planning, it was always sort of a far off dream, a date way in the future that, once achieved, would definitively mark the passage of time. Well, it's here, and I'm writing to you from a TGV currently departing Lyon. I'll admit, I had a distinct feeling of nostalgia while walking through the city on the way to the train station, finally ocming to grips with the fact that I will be gone from my home-away-from-home for ten whole days. Even my host mother was mildly disappointed that I will be gone for the week, dropping a line of regret into her usual complaints about me needing to clean up my room and stop having so much laundry. It's a give and take relationship, but it's working out.

But, before we get ahead of ourselves here, let me first catch you up on a couple of the highlights of the week. First off, as part of the Penn connection with IEP, the university provides for us tutors in any subject that we would like for the semester in an effort to level the playing field between us and the natives. The students they pair us up with are usually grad students who have already taken these courses, and thus my first session with a French guy was this past week. Anyway, it was pretty boring until the end when we were heading out, and I asked him if he had ever been to the States, one of the standard questions in my French people repertoire. He sadly said no, but claimed that he really wants to because he loves baseball and wants to see an MLB game live. Now, my French was not quite up to my level of excitement, but I was stunned; a French person liking baseball? I cannot even find a pickup basketball game in this city (despite repeated efforts), and this guy plays baseball?? Long story short, he is bringing his glove after vacation, I'm finally going to put mine to use, and we are going to toss a baseball while discussing International and European Institutions. Color me happy.

Just as I thought that was my only bit of excitement from the week worth sharing, I showed up to my only class today (number two was canceled, again) lugging a backpack that might weigh as much as me across the city so that I could go to class and then head directly to the train station. The class started with only about half of the room full, surprising because it was actually a relatively nice morning, and I figured that if people were sleeping in through this one then they would never be there. Oh no, the professor announced at the beginning that some of our colleagues would be missing for the day, as they were taking part in a protest on this morning. Remind me why I was not invited?

But, the vacation has officially begun, and almost all 23 of us are peace-ing out of Lyon for the duration. Although no one is going back to the States, the list of cities on our collective itinerary reads like a must-see list of any travel guide; highlights include Budapest, Casablanca, Cairo, Florence, Istanbul, London, Madrid, Prague, Rome, and Vienna. The prevailing sense this week was that we were sad to leave Lyon and each other, yet absolutely thrilled to be traveling the world, each of us seeing places we have only dreamed of. Our French may suffer in the interim, but there is always time to catch up on that.

As for me, well, I'll keep you posted. There are four stops on my journey, and I will try to keep this updated at the end of each stop along the way (namely while in transit). Stay tuned.

We're rolling through the French countryside, and for the first time I am wondering how much I will miss this once I leave at the end of December. I still feel as if I just arrived, and now I'm halfway done? Thankfully, I have some vacation time to think it over.