Life in Lyon

Happy October from Lyon!

This is the first time I have seen fall in a foreign country, and I am in a blissful state.

After a honeymoon period of almost a week, I reached my first real problem in France: French bureaucracy. Moving from a tourist to a resident is a long process. This is not like college: despite living in a dorm, I can’t just unpack my suitcases and be an established member of the Lyon community. Even with all I have done so far, there is a lot to do in order to establish myself in Lyon, from getting my immigration medical visit underway to planning my first solo lessons. The hardest part, I think, was by far trying to establish a bank account. Even after I gave them all the paperwork they needed (FYI: I needed less paperwork to register to vote in the US than to open a bank account in France), it took them a week to get me my RIB, which just looks to me like a bunch of numbers on a page. I basically couldn’t do anything without a RIB: register with social security, get paid, or get a phone number (which I need to do EVERYTHING). And it’s very hard to get in contact with a bank that’s only open 4.5 days a week. And it was impossible to get in touch with them, as they don’t have an email address and I didn’t have a phone number.

Everything else about Lyon has been going perfectly well. I have moved into the dorm of my boarding school (because four years in a dorm in college just wasn’t enough!). I finished my initial observation week, where I met the lovely profs d’anglais I will work with this year. My students are enthusiastic and curious (for better and for worse, I have found). I got my class schedule, which will be hard to memorize since I have a different schedule every day that changes every other week. My neighborhood is incredibly charming: it’s the Lumière neighborhood, which is where- yes, you guessed it- the Lumière brothers invented cinematography. I’m two blocks away from the Institut Lumière, which is a museum/organization all about film- even the street signs are little clapper boards.

Lyon itself is surprising- I’ve been hopping all over the place, just getting to know this city (which got a lot easier after I got my public transport card!). But the city seems like a mixture of many places that I’ve been: the architecture reminds me of Tel Aviv, while the public transportation reminds me of Barcelona, and the easy-going nature reminds me of both Lisbon and Jerusalem. My neighborhood is generally calm as a residential area, but it’s not too far from the city center, which looks like it has plenty to discover. And Lyon itself isn’t far from many other exciting places: Sydney and I spent four days in Nice and Cannes just because we could! It was only 4 hours by train, and it was beyond worthwhile. Standing in the cool Mediterranean Sea, dotted with bright white sailboats and surrounded by the hills of Cannes, I felt a peace I hadn’t felt in a long time.

Overall, I’m happy. Content. Totally at ease.

But how could I not be? Life is good here, at least so far. When I make dinner in my tiny kitchen, the sunset behind the buildings casts a warm light into the room. I lie in bed at night with the windows cracked open, listening to the sounds of my new city as I fall asleep. And the weather is getting chillier every day, hinting at an autumn that is quickly arriving.

There is newness in the air.

The first night, I was terrified. The waves of realization at what I was doing were crashing into me. I then understood the incredulity in peoples’ voices when I told them I was moving to Lyon, a city I had never visited. While I had a friend to share this experience with and had the help of the teachers at the school, I felt utterly alone for the first time. Alone in a way that was naïve and helpless and stupid for thinking that I could do this. I felt far away from home and from normalcy. But when I woke up the next morning and went to my school for the first time, my fears lessened. I have never been one to fear newness and change. In fact, I feel like I look forward it. And, besides, this is what I wanted- when I was picking locations for TAPIF, I purposely chose a city that wasn’t Paris because I wanted to see what the rest of France was like. And there is still so much to get to know.

Now that we’re in October, I’ve started teaching at the high school. I’ve finished my week of observation, and I’m very eager to really delve into my classes. My students are mostly in seconde and in premier, or sophomores and juniors, but I proctor a one terminale class, which is seniors who are preparing for the oral exam of le bac (an end-of-year exam that is 1000 times scarier and more important than the SAT and ACT combined). And, get this- that class is about ENGINEERING. Anyone who knows me knows that this is a cruel twist of fate- I am a real idiote when it comes to anything with a calculator. My poor students! On Monday, I spoke to a class for the first time, and while I was nervous while giving my presentation (as anyone would be the first time they have to speak in front of a bunch of high schoolers they don’t know), I walked away feeling confident. Hell yes! I CAN do this! If I could deal with the monster that is French Bureaucracy, anything is possible.