Lyon: Our House East (of the River Saône)
I have definitely lucked out that throughout my time at Northeastern, I’ve never had to a share a room with another student. And apparently, that luck doesn’t have to stop while on dialogue! The 23 of us are staying in a student residence near the university, where we each have our own studios complete with a kitchenette (très pratique) and our very own bathroom. Coming from the upperclassmen dorms in East Village this past year, I have had unbelievably high expectations for student housing, but Lyon failed to disappoint.
The building we are staying in is called GESTETUD Victor Hugo, with the latter part of the name referencing a nearby busy shopping street, Rue de Victor Hugo. This street is a one-stop shop for clothes, groceries, school supplies, kebabs, and more. I credit the plethora of food choices on this street in raising my confidence in my spoken French. I’ve learned that looking and sounding like a dumb American becomes less of an issue when faced with the pangs of hunger.
Although our class schedules are jam-packed between our daily French language and culture courses, we still have time to go on daily excursions as a group. These can range from tours put on by our host university (UCLy: Université Catholique de Lyon), grocery runs with fellow classmates, or a decadent welcome dinner courtesy of Northeastern. While I’m grateful for the free Rebecca’s café catering at Northeastern events, nothing quite beats an included three-course meal at a French bistro. And because the UCLy excursions include all of the students taking French classes at the university, we have had multiple opportunities to meet individuals from Hong Kong, Brazil, and the rest of Europe.
And miraculously, between all that, I have made time for some solo excursions too, with one of the highlights being the massive soldes (sales!) around Lyon. And make no mistake, these soldes are no child’s play. Twice a year, some crazy (yet fortunate) part of the French law dictates that stores must offer some sort of discount on a large portion of their inventory. These businesses often boast around a 70% or more markdown in order to entice you into their storefront. In the game of soldes…you win, or you win.
