Sunday in Lyon by Charlie Hamblet (Sunday, 26 May)


Sunday was the first full day in France, so it was also the first day to be full of activities. As it was the weekend, we were still with our host families for the day rather than together in a group. 

My family started off early with a morning mass. The mass happened to be at the high school we are doing the exchange with, Lycée Saint-Marc, and my exchange student was singing as part of her choir at the mass. What no one had realized was that this was an extra long mass, as it included both a baptism and a first communion. France has mother's day slightly later than the US does, and today was that day, so after the mass, my host family and I went to lunch at a restaurant in Lyon, where we ate local dishes.

In the afternoon, my host and I went go-karting with one of the other exchanges and hosts, and the  two hosts' friends. We did a handful of laps for qualifying and then had a full 12 laps of racing. While both I and the other host finished in the bottom half, we still had a great time. After the race, we watched the Monaco Grand Prix of Formula 1 as it was projected on the huge wall in the karting building, with chairs and couches set up.

We then met up with another of the exchanges+hosts and took a bus to head into the city. We got off at the Place Bellecour, a large plaza in the center of the city. We sat down at a cafe and had a snack called "pomme dauphines" or "dolphin apples" which are fried potato balls. My host and I then split up from the group and walked around the city for a bit, visiting the old hospital-turned-shopping-center/cultural-site. We also breezed through a grocery store to buy "saucissons", which are little sausages that taste a lot like beef jerky and are a staple of Lyon snacks.

Finally, we returned to the village of my host family and watched the evening news while dinner was made. We had spaghetti bolognese for dinner and cherries for dessert. As I sit writing this, we are watching a French police comedy, RAID Dingue, and will soon head to bed to prepare for the first day of school, and the early wake-up that comes with it, tomorrow.





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