I finished my French course on the 27th of July, which also means that most of my international buddies left Lyon to either travel on or to return to their home countries. We have been a really interestingly composed group with Diego from Columbia, Ira from Russia, Tesi from the USA, Kelly from New Zealand, Giada from Italy, Nikki from Thailand and Daniel from Mexico.
Only Daniel who will study in Dijon and Kelly who is an Au-Pair for a year are now still with me…but by now we also know a bunch of great French, especially Lucie, Stephan and Michael.
I got to know the couple Lucie and Stephan via Tesi and I have to say they are incredibly nice and helpful. Besides teaching us French, they invited us to the house of Lucie’s parents, where we had great swimming pool and BBQ days. They introduced us to their friends, showed us the city and the Rhone-Alp area or just hang out with us. Their Lyonaise days are soon numbered as well because they will leave together to Canada for one year…but until then we will have couple more days to enjoy each other’s company.
Michael is my current Hospitality Club host and my third French flatmate overall (Elodie & Hugo in Santander were the other ones). So yes, I don’t live anymore with Myriam and her family even though I good time with them. But after almost 4 weeks I thought that I have been benefiting enough from their hospitality and it was time to move on.I asked Michael who has been introduced to me by Ira, whether I could stay with him until I will go back to Germany. He accepted right away because he prefers living together with someone and his flatmate is not in Lyon until September…lucky me!
Additionally he invited me last week to go with him for 4 days to holiday house 200km away from Lyon to the big annual reunion with his friends from all over France. So from last Wednesday until Saturday I spent my time sunbathing, reading “Le petit Nicolas”, swimming in the Lou-River, playing chess and French drinking games and just having nice conversations with all the people. It has been a great time and I herby would like to thank all of them once again!
I returned to Lyon last Saturday and I will stay here until the 12th of August. I will try to spend the last days to input some more French grammar and of course meeting with my friends here.
If I had to draw a resume by now, then it is overwhelmingly positive…my French is way better than before my arrival, I met great people and Lyon is a beautiful city! I am already looking forward to return here someday.
As soon as I get back to Germany the final preparations for Madagascar have to be taken care of…which means buying a rain jacket, hiking boots, health insurance, etc….and to see my Konstanz-Crew for a long time awaited reunion!
MGG Fabi
