Internet-less in a foreign country

Bon matin everyone! (or nuit still, for most of you in the US) I’m sorry it’s been so long since I’ve posted, we were having technical difficulties involving the internet at my house and my computer’s spontaneous inability to access it. It was serious stuff.

I still have no idea what was wrong, the computer genius (to French standards, which is not exactly saying much) just left after possessing my darling Macbook for the entire week. Even now, I have no idea what was keeping it from accessing any internet at my house as I don’t speak techie and certainly not techie French. The point is that it works. I’m ecstatic.

The question remains, what did I do that whole time? Without Facebook, email, online television, my blog, etc, I had nothing to do. I felt disconnected with my family, friends, and entire life back home. It didn’t help that I have no homework yet, have read all my books and magazines, and was raining every day. On top of that, I had no phone yet, so was unable to contact my friends in Lyon to get together. I found myself sleeping out of boredom. Saturday I didn’t leave the house, and moped around all day. But Sunday, despite the weather and the fact that I got about 4 hours of sleep (jet-lagged STILL) I decided to get outside and explore a bit. On my way back from school earlier the first week, I saw that there was a long river walk along one of the two rivers that borders my neighborhood. I walked along it, and looked at the brown, churning water, as well as the cliffs on the other side, on top of which sits the Basilique. Even though I see it every day, I still can’t get over how beautiful it is. It looks exactly like the castle on the Disney logo, only a lot more intricate. The cliffs also, according to my French Culture and Civilization professor, house Roman ruins. I have yet to see them, although I don’t exactly know what she meant by “ruins”. There is an ancient-looking wall going down the cliffside, but there are also some caves that look like they could possibly be made out of stone. In Europe, it’s hard to tell which things are the oldest; there are so many.

A funny thing about France (and the rest of Europe, I’m guessing) is that people are very insistent on not working too much. They always close the shops and offices for two hours at lunch, and absolutely nothing is open on Sundays. When they have bank holidays on Thursdays or Tuesdays, the take the Friday or Monday off too, just for good measure. The word for this in French literally means to “bridge”, between the weekend and day off. Personally, I think this last policy is awesome, but do you really need TWO HOURS to eat lunch? I’m all for leisurely meals, but this seems a bit extreme. Maybe I just need to adjust.

Anyway, my point is, on this walk, I discovered the French in Lyon have discovered a way around one of these cultural eccentricities. Further down the river walk, I saw some tents along the sidewalk, and found that it was a little street market. It extended several blocks, vendors selling fruit, vegetables, clams and mussels, flowers, and cooked food. I didn’t have any money, and they were starting to pack up anyway. But somehow, it made me feel a bit better, knowing that even though I was completely cut off from my home, I could at least get a bite to eat on a Sunday.

Keep in mind that this post was written a few days ago, when I was internet-less and in the depths of despair. Not really the depths, just above the middle-area of despair, really. But all is well now! Have a lovely weekend!