Barcelona & Old Lyon

      Bonjour a tous! I want to first say that I am sorry it has taken me so long to blog again. This past weekend (8/11-10/11), I went to Barcelona (as pictured on the left) to visit my friend Matt! Craziest thing about Barcelona? I was wearing shorts! The weather, as you can tell from the photos, was absolutely gorgeous. I got into Barcelona around 17:00 on Nov. 8th and immediately started seeing some sights. However, it night quickly fell and we returned to Matt's residence building where I promptly fell down an entire flight of stairs managing to bruise my left leg in an ugly way. Worst part of me falling? A group of random people saw it and they probably

assumed that I was drunk (which would at least be an excuse but I don't even have that!). That night I saw the Arc de Triomph (it's the picture on the right) that imitates France's famous Arc (and I personally like France's Arc much more--go France!). Later, we met up with some of Matt's friends and went out to a bar where you pour your own drinks, not to mention you receive free popcorn. Heyoh! It was pretty cool because it was super chill and you could just relax and listen to the hubbub of Spanish being spoken while thinking your quiet thoughts in English. And that night? I stayed out until around 4 am. That's right, I'm a big girl now! Not really, I was exhausted the next morning because I woke up at 6:30 thinking I had school. But at least I got an early start on sight-seeing the second day! The photo of the market was actually shows one of my favorite things--a massive indoor/outdoor market in Barcelona. It was just amazing to see fresh fruit, veggies, meat, and fish and

 that doesn't even begin to cover all the chocolate and candy there, too! So the second day (Nov. 9th) was just a complete exploration of Barcelona by foot. Something that I've noticed is that everyone in Barcelona is beautiful, even the ugly. I'm not joking. We all know that some people are just naturally physically beautiful, right? Well, imagine seeing that in every person. Got that pictured? Okay, then welcome to Barcelona: Land of The Beautiful. Later that night we went out to a bar and heard a live beat-boxer. This guy was incredible. I've never heard someone do that before and I can honestly now say that it is a true talent. Well, after the bar and chilling, I went to bed and the next morning (Nov. 10th) it was time to catch my flight back to France. But here's the catch: I missed my bus stop for the airport. Oh, that's right, I missed my stop. So what did I do you ask? I asked the bus driver to pull over on the side of the road (which he kindly did) and I ran, hopped, and jumped over rails, roads and small bushes for 1.5 miles to make it back to the airport in time for my flight. I eventually got
back into Lyon (which is pictured on the left) only to realize that I had a 5 hour wait to catch a bus to take me back to Chambery. Therefore, I did a very natural thing: I stress ate a lot of chocolate while ease-dropping on conversations. One of the more interesting conversations I over-heard

 was between two older couples. The wives were talking politics while the husbands were gabbing about the new Thor movies and Marvel Comic movies in general. I also met a guy who has traveled the world and just got offered a professorship and is returning to Lyon for the job (to give you an idea of how cool this guy was? He had visited Asia, Russia, Central America, Brazil, Argentina, Europe and had just moved from living in Venice where he worked for the Russian government). Alright, I finally get home on Sunday at 19:30 and I shower in order to go to bed only to discover that I actually was going out with my house-mates to a local place in order to meet up with some people. We ended up leaving Melodie (which is were we were at) to go wake up Matt (because if you remember, he woke me up one time at an insane hour so I wanted to return the favor). But it turned out he was still up--at 2am, too!--so us girls and Matt, Alex, and Craig (those three guys live together) all stayed up talking until 4am and by 5am I crawled into bed. However, I had promised Matt earlier that I would go into Lyon with him on Monday, Nov. 11th (even though I went to bed at 5am on Monday night!). So, it is now Monday night and I've returned from my adventure in Old Lyon (the panoramic photo and

 the three of the churches are all things I visited today). And although I am now beyond tired, I'm glad I explored Lyon today because one of the cathedrals that I visited (it's the one on the right--the picture of an inside of a church) is easily one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen. The inside was covered in vibrant colors, gold, mosaics and old stone work. 
      Alright world, well, that's about all that's going on with me. Oh, a funny tid-bit, I went out on Thursday (Nov. 7th, the day I left for Barcelona) to catch up with some girls from my classes but here's the story: I ordered a beer but the three Asian girls I was out with all ordered tequila shots! I was shocked but never more so when the girls took the shots and then had no reactions because, according to them, "the tequila tasted like water". My reaction? Utter shock. What do the Chinese drink that makes tequila taste like water?! But that's the only thing they drank so it's not like anyone got indecent. Okay, that really is all I can think of now to tell you. I hope your day goes well! Bisous bisous!