Mary-Est-En-France

Friday

The first day of the new year! I spent much of my morning writing letters to friends and family. Now that I know where to find some post boxes and where to buy international stamps, I’ll be sending out letters more frequently. Yes, I did miswrite the date on nearly all of them haha.

I took some time out to make myself a nice meal. It’s been stressful adapting to life here and I feel like I’m just starting to get some footing. I feel more confident with public transport, I have been able to get my own food, and I’m starting to find out where to buy self-care products. I’m gaining independence little by little. I enjoyed some tacos with avocado slices (my treat for the week), fresh oranges, and some chocolate chip cookies. I’m not a big cook, so things didn’t turn out quite as planned, but it was a good way to spend some time reflecting.

A lot changed for me in 2020, as I’m sure it did for a lot of people. I’ve had to navigate graduating college, managing a new phase in life, and adapting to a new country all throughout a global pandemic. I want this next year to be filled with more positive personal growth. I’d like to spend more time reading (and less on TikTok), more time learning political theory, and more time honing my language skills. We’ll see what we can accomplish! As we all set our aspirations for the coming year, please be kind to yourself! 2020 was hard and it’s okay just to need some time to recover.

Thursday

I slept half the day away! I looked at my phone and discovered I walked over 12 miles in Lyon the day before. Phew! Exhausting, for sure. I decided to take it easy and stay home for New Years. I had a few invitations from folks around me, but after seeing videos of absolutely huge gatherings happening on Snapchat I was feeling grossed out.

Instead, I rang in the New Year on the phone with my lovely friend Syd. We chatted while I watched the ball drop on Animal Crossing. It reminded me of when I was a little kid and would play every year with my best friend. We were always so excited to get the New Years letter with an extra 1,000 bells inside!

So strange to think that I entered 2021 a few hours before all my friends and family. Wishing everyone out there a better year than 2020!

Take care of yourself! 💕

Wednesday

I took a little trip to Lyon Wednesday! I took the 10:16 bus out of Anthon to Meyzieu where I was able to catch the tram into the city. I was excited because as I left home, snow started to fall! My first snow in France! I was over the moon. Watching it cover the fields as we whipped by reminded me of car rides back to Ann Arbor in the winter.

I arrived at the Part Dieu station about an hour later. I pushed my way through the crowd and out of the station. My first stop of the day was the Tête d’or park on the north side of the city. Created in 1812, this park is the urban park in France! It hosts a zoo, rose gardens, greenhouses, and beautiful golden gates.

I crossed the Rhône into the 1st arrondissement. This area was known for silk weaving, butcheries, and bistros. I wandered about and enjoyed all the local graffiti.

I decided to put my post-COVID lungs to the test with a march up the hill to the Basilica. It was such a different experience from the year before. I remember the sweltering summer sun on our backs as we climbed the massive hill. My fellow history lovers and I stopped to marvel at every little sign post on the way up. Now the paths were devoid of others and the winter sunny poked shyly from behind a patch of clouds.

I made my way back down into town, taking the route I walked with my friends the year before. I stopped for a bit and listened to some music at the old Roman amphitheater. I remember last summer they were hosting a music festival on the stage. Weird to think that after all this time, we’re still using this incredible structure.

I still haven’t gotten to see everything I’d like to in the city! I plan to go back again now that I know how easy it was. I was able to pick up some groceries at Monoprix before I headed home, which was awesome!

Tuesday

I spent the morning cooking up some pancakes and listening to the news. I love listening to the PBS Newshour everyday and they finally uploaded the Monday night episode. I made extra so I could warm them up in the future with my new toaster oven!

Around 3:30, one of my coworkers from Pont Cheruy picked me up so we could go on a walk together. She’s originally from Italy and has been working in France for a few years now, teaching Italian to middle school students. It seems that she’s faced a lot of the same challenges that I have- students refusing to participate, low language levels, and exasperation with curricular expectations. We started our walk in Crémieu and went for about 3 miles before turning back. The walk was incredibly peaceful. We were surrounded my huge cliffs and were beside a swift stream. We agreed that we would start going on walks more frequently together and made plans to visit a larger city on Saturday.

I was curious to learn more about her perspective on French culture. She grew up in Italy and is very well-traveled, so I thought she would have unique insights. Of course, I had to know what she felt about laïcité. This version of secularism is unique to France and is much more extreme than the United States or that which exists in Italy. She admitted that she is often irritated by laïcité in French schools. Instead believing that the French should be more open in their discussions of race, religion, and cultural differences. It was so nice to talk to another outsider about these issues! Sometimes I feel like I’m crazy because the French see no hypocrisies in their system, or at least refuse to admit they exist.

As we went along, I shared that one of my goals is to start learning Italian and German in 2021. I thrilled when she offered to help teach me both languages! Apparently, she speaks five different languages. Just incredible! I’m really excited because I’m working on getting my Italian citizenship and it would be helpful to be able to read documents throughout the process.

Monday

Made some real progress on improving my sleep schedule! Just kidding, I woke up at 12. I was invited to a small get together with Louis (my neighbor’s son) and a few of his friends around 2pm. I got up, had some snacks, and went on over. I was the first to arrive, so I helped clean and get the basement ready for the other guests. In an effort to be more COVID safe, the get together was hosted in the basement and the rest of the family remained upstairs throughout the night. We decorated a small tree to make the space a bit more festive.

This was my first time hanging out with French people my age. At work, none of my coworkers are in their 20s and last summer all the other students were from countries outside of France. I was excited to see what a younger French gathering would be like because I am really only familiar with people my parents’ age or older.

It ended up being a lot of fun! We played board games, card games, and some drinking games at the end of the night. We ate snacks as we played and had raclettes midway through the evening. There was a small gift exchange after we had our raclettes. Some of the gifts included chocolates, books, and funny winter hats.

I struggled a bit more than usual to understand what everyone was saying. As with any other gathering of friends, people had inside jokes, spoke over each other, and spoke quickly. It was a struggle for me to hear and to process at the same pace that people were speaking. I found that I often heard and understood the first half of a sentence by the time the next one had already started. The kids also used a lot of words and phrases I just wasn’t familiar with. I knew that I wasn’t really familiar with slang, but dang I was proved correct in a big way. I deeply appreciated the people who stopped along the way to explain a joke or to ask comprehension questions. I felt included the entire night and it was great. I made sure to thank Louis for the fun night before I headed home to sleep.

Sunday

I woke up around 13:00. I think my sleep schedule may be completely ruined. Transitioning back to waking up at 6:00 will be difficult when school starts up again.

I spent much of the day resting and recharging my social battery. For those of you that follow the blog, I’m sure you noticed I published several posts that day. It was nice to share my misadventures with everyone back home.

I got to talk to a few of my friends throughout the day and catch up with them, which was wonderful. I enjoyed a wine and whine night with Anna to end the day. I got to try out some cheap and punny French wine while I was on the call.

Saturday

Hard to believe that Christmas came and went! It doesn’t feel like it was ever really here. I woke up at Catherine A’s house and we had a slow breakfast again. Célia had some Spanish to work on with a friend, so I asked if it would be alright for Catherine to drop me off in Anthon on the same trip. We packed up the car with my toaster and toaster oven and spend away. I made sure to thank her profusely for the dinners and the gifts before she left.

It was wonderful to have time to myself again. For those of you who know me, I really thrive when I have some alone time. My batteries were in desperate need of a recharge after two and a half days of French and formality. I had a mini-spay day, listened to some good tunes, and made tacos for an early dinner.

I had a lovely phone call with my family to reconnect and talk about our holiday. I was treated to a brief glimpse of Ann Arbor on the call- boy, do I miss my college town! I really missed getting to spend some time with everyone on the holiday. I snacked on freshly baked cookies from my toaster oven throughout the call and enjoyed seeing my cat preform little tricks at home.

I spent the rest of my evening watching Christmas movies and playing on my phone. It felt like a recovery day for me. I burned some candles, hung up my laundry, cleaned the place up a little bit. As the day went on, I gradually felt more and more relaxed.

Madame Bodet and Catherine J both sent texts inviting me over, but I opted to stay home and said thank you for the invitation. I wouldn’t have been any fun to hang out with Saturday anyway. I hope everyone out there is getting a bit of recovery time today!

Friday

Christmas morning! It was strange to wake up thousands of miles away from home. I really wanted to run downstairs and see my tree with the cat underneath and my family in the living room. I guess the holidays have been the hardest part of being away for me because you know what these days are “supposed” to look like. There’s a plan to be followed, a blueprint laid out. For everyday life, there’s really nothing like that. You shape your own existence no matter where you are, but holidays are different. You know who sits where, who arrives first, who stays the longest, and what movies are on the TV.

I woke up at 10 and had to wait for everyone else in the apartment to wake up after me. There was a slow meandering to the living room where the family started to open presents. Instead of taking turns, each member of the family opened all their gifts at one time. Célia went first, then Ines, me, then Catherine. They received clothes, perfume, jewelry, lots of Disney items, and makeup. After each gift, Catherine told me that women in France love jewelry, love perfume, insert item here and asked if I liked it. Most of the items were things that don’t really interest me, which seemed to disappoint her. I felt awkward for once again failing to conform to the French standard of femininity.

I was very grateful and excited to receive a toaster over and a pan from the family for Christmas. It made my day!

After opening presents and a Christmas brunch, we got dressed up in ugly Christmas sweaters and walked back over to the neighbor’s apartment for a Christmas dinner.

Before we got started with the meal around 7pm, we took some photos in our sweaters in front of the tree.

The meal lasted again until about 2:30 the next morning. The food was absolutely amazing. However, I found it a bit of a struggle to make through. I was receiving messages from friends and family back home wishing me a Merry Christmas and it was difficult to be so far from them. This was the first time I didn’t get to see my family open their gifts and I didn’t get to share even a phone call with them. I felt really isolated at a table full of friends and family that didn’t make much of an effort to include me in conversation.

I was thankful when we finally said our goodnights and were able to go back to Catherine’s apartment for the night. I was excited to get back to my place the next day to have privacy so I could call my loved ones back home. While Christmas was certainly an experience here and I am glad to have seen it, I’m happy the day is over.

Thursday

Christmas feels like a much more important holiday to miss than Thanksgiving. I really enjoy my family traditions and it felt strange to think I would be missing them for the first time. The preceding weeks hadn’t quite felt like the holiday season I’ve known throughout my life. There was no hustle and bustle through stores blaring White Christmas over the loudspeakers, no rushed trip to Meijer to grab extra tape or paper, no holiday movies on TV. It was kind of a bummer.

I was happy to get out of the house with Mme Bodet in the morning. We left around 8:30 to grab last minute essentials at the store. Our first stop was the boulangerie for fresh bread. Yes, French bread is amazing, but it is necessary to buy it fresh everyday if you want the right texture.

After a 30 minute wait in line, we were off to Grand Frais. This place was amazing! They had the largest selection of fresh fruits and veggies that I’ve ever seen. Their shelves contained so many diverse products that there were many I couldn’t even name. I was able to find some great sauces for Thai dishes I want to make in the future. We went to a few more stores to find mangoes, passion fruit, and Nutella before we headed home.

Mme Bodet asked me to come bake some Christmas cookies with her son and a family friend. I brought my recipe for some Czech desserts along because they were interested in making them together. I had to show them how to use measuring cups during the process because Europeans weigh the mass of their ingredients to be more precise. This was my first time making these desserts without my family and I have to say, I think they turned out pretty well.

I was feeling pretty tired already, so I took a two hour nap at home before the evening festivities. Catherine A arranged for me to attend her family gathering. She told me to wear my best clothes for the evening, because Christmas Eve is traditionally the more formal of the holiday. I wore my nice slacks, my good dress shoes, a new sweater, and a blazer. I felt pretty snazzy. A challenge I’ve consistently faced here is the strict adherence to gender roles. Women are expected to wear dresses in formal occasions. Suits and the like are generally not as acceptable for women. Throughout the evening I received my fair share of side glances and comments. I’m certainly learning to have thicker skin!

One of our hosts for the evening is a professional chef, so everything that graced the table was absolutely delicious. The meal lasted from 7pm to 2:30am. Guests remained seated at the table for the duration. This was a challenge for me. While Americans do have a large meal, it typically does not last this long at the table. We might nibble on snacks or appetizers throughout the night, but generally when we’re walking around the house or seated on the couch.

Our first course included small, light cheeses and sausages. It was followed by smoked salmon and little buttered toasts. Next, the muscles were brought out. Escargot was the next dish to make an appearance. Some of the guests thought I would balk at this, but I let them know that it was actually one of my favorite French dishes. I had the chance to taste it in 2016 when I traveled through Paris. Oysters were the next obstacle in the course. I had never tried these, but Thomas bravely demonstrated, adding vinegar and onions before slurping one down. I did the same, but learned almost immediately I was NOT a fan. Some time passed before another dish came around, but it arrived I saw that it was braised beef. It was cooked to perfection and almost melted in your mouth. Dessert consisted of a variety of 12 cookies and 3 different Christmas Logs.

After dinner, it was time for presents. Unlike many Americans, the French open the majority their presents on Christmas Eve. Everyone set to ripping open their parcels at once. Many people got Disney shirts, there was a lot of jewelry, and plenty of makeup. Our hosts announced they were buying their daughter a puppy that would be ready to pick up in February. I was happy to get a toaster from Catherine, I haven’t had one here.

By the end of the night, I was absolutely exhausted. We walked across the street to Catherine’s apartment and went to sleep.

Wednesday

Catherine A (from coworker MLK in Charvieu) texted me early in the morning to invite me on a day trip to Lyon with her and her daughter Célia. I was picked up in Anthon at 11:00 and by 12:15 we were pulling into the city center. Our goal for the day was to explore the shops and see some of the sights.

The big stop of the day was Primark. This store reminded me of a Marshall’s or TJMaxx. They had almost anything you could want from home goods to Disney apparel. The store was absolutely packed as folks attempted to fit in all of the Christmas purchases they had been unable to make during lockdown. I felt almost claustrophobic, as it was impossible to socially distance. I haven’t been surrounded by that many people since March. Célia and Catherine seemed entirely unbothered and spent their time milling about the Disney section. They bought PJs for themselves and all their friends. Catherine made sure to tell me that matching PJ sets were all the rage in France, especially for lazy days and insisted I buy some. I told her that I wasn’t really a PJs person, preferring sweatpants and a hoodie. She was aghast. I did find some helpful items for my house! I got a little basket for dirty kitchen rags, a cutting board, some cheap shoes for walking, and two new sweaters.

We spent almost two hours inside the store and by the time we were done, it was time for lunch. Due to COVID regulations, it was illegal to eat inside the mall. Instead, we all got a sandwich and a dessert to eat in the car. Catherine proclaimed that she had never actually eaten a meal in her car and that it made her feel like an SDF (sans domicile fixé or homeless person). Remarks like these are really common in France. In the United States, they would be considered impolite, off-color, and perhaps even offensive. However, in France comments (even derogatory ones) about race, class, and social station are really common and made in an incredibly flippant manner. It can be jarring to hear in conversation. Though this particular comment wasn’t one of the worst that I’ve heard, it was still strange to hear that someone would associate eating in a car with homelessness, as I know I’ve eaten in the car many times on the way to sports practices.

As we finished our less-than-formal lunch, Catherine drove us across the city to Place Bellecour. A huge open space in the center of the city, it is a great meeting place and an easy spot to start a tour.

Catherine had hear about a giant Christmas tree in the Hôtel Dieu de Lyon, a former hospital that was converted into a series of luxury shops and eateries. Sure enough, we located it right in the center of the magnificent building.

Something I really enjoyed about the city was its mix of modern and classic architecture. You could be walking down an entirely modern street and see a building from the 1600s popping out around the corner.

Because we had voyaged into the city, Catherine and Célia decided it would be a good time to treat ourselves to some Starbucks. We joined the queue and waited about ten minutes for our drinks. I got a gingerbread latte, not bad! We enjoyed our drinks as we continued down the street. I noticed as we walked that everyone was wearing their masks, even outside. I think it’s required in larger cities.

By the end of the day, I was ready to return to Anthon. We walked over 5 miles throughout the afternoon! I discovered that Catherine and Célia are much bigger shoppers than I am. I was content to visit just a few stores, but they enjoyed popping in and out throughout the day. I was more interested in stopping to stare at the wonderful facades throughout the city. I hope to go back to explore, read some more plaques, and enjoy lunch on the steps of a beautiful church.