Well, after two weeks of feeling uncertain about where I will be living and discouraged about my obstacles with the phone and bank, I am happy to say that those issues have been resolved! Last week I decided to commit to living in an apartment with my roommate Ana from CISL, the hostel-like temporary housing we resided in for two weeks while searching for apartments, and Ona, a Spanish exchange student we met through ILP (Intensive Language Program). Ana goes to UCSB and is a fellow Bay Area lady but we did not know each other before this program started. She is only here for one semester so Ona and I will have to find someone to replace her for the second semester here (preferably someone French).
Ona is from the Catalan region of Spain and will be here for the whole year like me. She speaks better French than English and since we are all here to improve our French, we will only speak with each other en français. I realize that it is not as ideal as living with native French speakers, but at least we will eliminate the tendency to speak English around each other. Hey, maybe I'll even learn a few Spanish phrases here and there.
Our apartment is in Croix Rousse, the 4eme arrondissement of Lyon. It was formally known as the "silk-weaving district". It's a little far from where I will be taking most or all of my classes, at l'Institute d'etudes politiques, 2 metros and a tram, but it's a hip area that I feel safe in. There's a farmers market there 7 days a week, although I'm not sure how long that will last as we continue to creep into Fall and then Winter.
The apartment itself is in a typically old building but the inside is modern looking. I have yet to see it with furnishings (Sunday is the big day!) but it has a big kitchen and a beautiful view of the city, two things I can't complain about. Below is a picture of the view from our apartment.
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| View of Lyon and the Basilique de Fourvière |
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