Finns, fêtes and forgetfulness

It's been a while since I posted, so here's the latest update from Lyon. On Saturday I went to an Irish pub (they are everywhere here! English ones too!) with a bunch of my German friends, and some of my Aussie friends also turned up. The pub was quite good, although I didn't actually drink. It was quite strange hanging out with the Germans, because most of them speak English and French as well as German. One guy even said to me that he didn't know which language to speak to me in! But I did get to practice my German, which will be vital for when I go to Erlangen. On Sunday, I went to a restaurant in the old town called Les Pampres Rouges, to celebrate Miranda's birthday. As well as the girls from Birmingham, Alex's conversation buddy, a lovely girl from Grenoble called Pauline, and a Finnish girl called Hanna, went to the restaurant. I had a delicious salmon and pasta concoction, and then had an ile flottante (floating island) for dessert. Overall a very enjoyable meal. We then wandered up to the Hotel de Ville and got the metro to Croix-Rousse (Lyon's old silk weaving district, and the highest part of the city) and chilled out on a ledge looking at the view. As for the rest of the week, it's been pretty average. Getting better at understanding the lectures, although I haven't made any notes yet because I've been recording lectures. I really need to listen to those recordings! On Tuesday Helen, Alex, Charlotte and I went to Hanna's flat for wine and cheese on her birthday. She lives in the most amazing flat in a really nice student residence! It was actually one of the ones that I looked at when browsing adele.org to find a flat. She has the most amazing view, it's really pretty even though it's quite urban. But you can also see the Fourvière (a huge basilica on the top of a hill) and the mock Eiffel Tower next to it. The best part is that she has a balcony! So we sat outside drinking wine and eating cheese until about 9:00. Good times :)

That was all the positive stuff that has happened this week. Now onto something a bit more negative. This morning I had one of my scatterbrained moments: I completely forgot about my English/French translation class, and only realised when Charlotte texted me telling me not to worry if I'm late. I decided not to bother going, but later I was really scared that I wouldn't make it to my 12:00 class on time, because there had been an accident on the tramline, so the line terminated at a stop that was 3 or 4 stops away from uni. I then had to get a replacement bus. Grrrr. And now I will say something that I never thought I would say about Lyonnais public transport: BLOODY PUBLIC TRANSPORT!!!!! Other than that, the week's been good. I need to start researching for my essay for Birmingham, but it would help if I had the slightest clue what I want to write about! The word help springs to mind.....