"Beautiful Places Make Beautiful Stories."
This should be the motto for this summer.
Here's the sunrise out of my bedroom window that I woke up to this week in Lyon
And here's where I love to do my homework, sitting in a hotel windowsill overlooking the eastern part of the city
Lyon's street advertisements
Last week, the whole program went to le Musée de la Résistance and had a presentation from a french professor on WWII in general. It was very interesting to hear the history of the war...from the point of view of a person from another country (and in a different language).
We watched film clips of the trial of the nazi Klaus Barbie, also known as the "chief butcher," which took place in Lyon.
Afterwards, we had a presentation by a man who worked as a resistant with "Le Coq Enchaîné," a magazine that secretly published resistant views throughout the war.
Walking around the museum we saw the exhibitions, which showed where specifically in Lyon the Axis forces occupied. It was eerie to see how the war affected this new "home" of mine. Lyon is no longer just a European city in a history book, but my city too.
Here is a map of how each building was used by the Axis forces.
Later that day, I paid a visit to the Musée des Beaux Arts right by where I'm living. I found my favorite Monet painting!
Later that week with my class we went to a nearby town named Ecully la Demi Lune to take an art class.
This week, (my last week of the program!!!) we went to the Musée des Tissus to see the incredible costumes of the opera. These costumes were mostly silk, as Lyon was the silk production city of France.
I paid a visit to the Parc de la Tête d'Or again and went to a little island in the lake where there is a piano! The piano is in a pavillion and anyone can play it as they wish. There was some excellent music played.
Thursday, my class had our final presentation. Each week of the program, we have had to watch and memorize French skits from YouTube videos (usually of comedians) and perform them in class. We've been assigned classroom scenes, scenes of divorce counseling, scenes from restaurants, and many others.
We've had to learn to speak and act like the French people in the video. This has been tough! Often times you can barely decipher what they are saying in the video because they speak so quickly and slur their words. We are supposed to perform the skit for the class, and this week my class performed them for the rest of the UVA in Lyon program.
Here's a link to one of my favorite videos we performed, 3:30-5:00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsyKMH9Sdho#t=3m30s
(A quick summary: the couple is unhappy and the husband claims that his wife doesn't like his mom. He asks her why she gave his mother a cane for her birthday when she had never had a problem walking. She proceeds to claim it was merely a "sculpture" for her entryway. She then points out that his mother gave her a wig for her birthday.)
Last night we went to a discothèque on a boat! The DJ was called "soul beat" and he even used a synth piano. I saw some of the most incredible dance moves by the French people.
It's hard to see in the photo, but in the basement level of the boat the level of the river water is halfway up the window
Today, my last day in Lyon before heading to Paris and Spain, I walked around Lyon for the last time.
Place Terreaux
This was followed by our program's farewell dinner. Of course, we sang the good old song.
My professor, Erica, and me.
Off to Paris I go!
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