Officially on vacation!!!

Happy New Year!!! Bonne année!!! Feliz año nuevo!!!

I probably should have posted that about 3 weeks ago lol. Anyway, well today I had my last exam (which was crap by the way) and now I can finally breathe!!!

Alright, so a few things have happened since my last blog post. I went to the Fête des Lumières in Lyon. Fantastic! I enjoyed it more than last year:) and had great company. Let's see, I also turned 23! (getting old-ish lol). My holidays were great too! Christmas day in Annecy followed by a few days in Grenoble with some fellow Trinis (we also went skiing!), then back to Chambéry for one day, then New Years in Lyon. It snowed a few days before Christmas ... the snow then melted, no snow ... then boom! 30 cm snow of snow in one night, just in time for the rentrée (4th Jan)! I've since changed my footwear lol. January has been a lot less fun /à la limite assez stressant! because I was pretty busy with uni (project, business game and exams).

Anyway, the next thing on my agenda is ... Spain! Well, that's if the Préfecture gives me some sort of récépissé/carte de séjour in the next 10 days! Ahh, the usual ... sigh. *Patience, patience*

Here are some pics from December and January. Enjoy!

Christmas lunch in Annecy

Sign at the youth hostel in Grenoble. Interesting English lol

Téléphérique in Grenoble

Chamrousse ski station

Pics of Chambéry - nice day, beginning of January

Les Eléphants - in Chambéry of course!

And then it suddenly snowed! --> no class + no buses = I stayed home :-)

I've arrived at uni! Umm, perhaps I won't take that dangerous path/descent with all that snow!

Ski station? Nope, snow at the Université de Savoie
The library is in the background

Oh look! A snowman at uni!

Winter in Jacob Bellecombette

La Croix du Nivolet in the distance

The snow has finally melted. Today was foggy.
This is the same field that looked like a ski station.

CAF : "Vous êtes étudiante."

That was the first line of a letter I received from the CAF (Caisse d'allocations familiales) a few days ago.

I really wasn't expecting the CAF to reduce my housing benefit. Last year I had a good job, a low rent thanks to the logement de fonction, and received 135€ per month from the CAF. This time around, I have no job, am a full-time student with a higher, yet normal rent, and will now receive ... 87€ per month. As such, I now have to reimburse the outstanding money I received since September.

Why the change? Apparently, "vous êtes étudiante" = you will receive less money lol :( Anyway, I guess it's still better than receiving nothing ...

The snow has begun

View from my window yesterday morning:
Well I wasn't particularly thrilled. However, fortunately it didn't snow heavily! Similarly, I appreciate that the snow didn't begin earlier in November like last year. :-)

Folliet

Chocolat viennois - 3,10€ @ Folliet, Chambéry
Best hot chocolate ever?! My taste buds were surely delighted! :-)
I'll have to return to sample some of the other delicious-sounding treats on the menu!

Update

A lot has been going on lately. I don't feel like blogging when I'm stressed / matters are unsolved ... hence the delay. Anyway, here's the gist of things:

I'm back at uni! :-) Lol, feels good to be productive! Anyway, so far so good.

I'm no longer an English-language assistant. My contract got renewed (same two collèges like last year). However, I resigned because I didn't have enough free hours in my uni timetable to fulfill my teaching requirements. In addition, given that the Préfecture also sent me a letter asking what I'll be doing "réellement" this year, "soit assistante... soit étudiante", perhaps it wouldn't have been possible to do the two again ... at least not on a student carte de séjour. Anyway, I sincerely hope that my schools don't go without an assistant this year!

Similarly, I had to give up the apartment reserved for the language assistant. I went through some stress to find suitable accommodation, but now I'm sharing an apartment with three colocataires in Jacob Bellecombette, just a 10 minute walk away from the university. I found the apartment on www.appartager.com.

I've met up with a friend from back home who's now teaching in Annecy! It's cool having someone from Trinidad in the same region :-)

This September, like last year, I got the cold (not swine flu!). Oh, not to mention that I've gotten the cold again! It's October, ridiculously cold (from summer to winter in one week!) and I've got a pretty persistant cough... which will soon go away!! Just about two weeks ago a uni lecturer held one of my classes outdooors! (The classrooom inside the building was really hot!) Anyway, that's no longer the case. I guess it'll snow in November (like last year!).

After roughly three weeks of walking around with an expired récépissé (no fault of mine!!!) and the letter from the Préfecture asking what I'm really doing, I finally received a new récépissé on Friday. :-) Hopefully I'll get the carte de séjour before it expires.

Journées Européennes du Patrimoine 2009

Les Journées Européennes du Patrimoine or European Heritage Days were this weekend in France. This is an excellent opportunity to : visit places which are usually not open to the public; go on tours/guided visits; and choose from a wide variety of activities which are often free or at a reduced price.

I returned to Lyon this Saturday for this event and went on the following tours with a friend and her mom:

- Vieux Lyon : Renaissance et Traboules (10am to midday, €5)
- Vaulx-en-Velin : Usine de tissage de soie (3pm to 5pm, €2)

Here are some pics!!!

Place Bellecour, statue of Louis XIV
According to the tour guide, the queue du cheval is a good meeting place.

View of buildings around Place Bellecour

Le Rhône

City bicycles

Cathédrale Saint-Jean

Tax was determined by the number of windows you had.
Result = people got rid of some windows

La Maison du Charmarier, which was occupied by high churchmen
There is a well on the right of the photo.

A lion which was bought at an annual auction.
Apparently there are several other lion statues around Lyon (I've yet to see them!)
This one is outside the Musée des Miniatures.

Upward view from inside a traboule in Vieux Lyon
A traboule refers to a passage through buildings connecting different roads. They have been quite useful in the past (e.g. transporting silk, escaping an enemy during WWII, etc). Many traboules are private, but there are a few which are opened to the public during the day and closed at night. I don't think the residents would enjoy having people walking through their building 24/7!

Rue du Boeuf
Given the statue, perhaps there was a butcher at this location in the past?

La Tour Rose, from one of the traboules

View through the traboule with the Tour Rose (pink tower)

More sealed windows

Les Guignols

Another upward view from a traboule to give an idea of the space

Holes to allow air to circulate through the traboule

Horloge astromonique in the Saint-Jean Cathedral

Weaving factory in Vaulx-en-Velin

A one-day TCL transport ticket proved to be a wise purchase considering the amount of travelling done around Lyon! From the 8ème district to Bellecour, morning tour (from Bellecour to Vieux Lyon), lunch at Toutes les Couleurs (restaurant for vegetarian/organic food in Vieux Lyon), afternoon tour in Vaulx-en-Velin, return to Vieux Lyon to meet some people and chat a bit, then back to the 8ème for dinner, drinks alongside the Rhône river (by the péniches), followed by catching the last métro and returning to Chambéry by car.

I wanted to visit the Abbaye d'Hautecombe (in Savoie) today, but unfortunately didn't go because I got the cold (not swine flu!). Anyway, guess I'll do that another time. At least I was able to take advantage of one of the two days of the Journées Européennes du Patrimoine. :-)

Une année!

Today is exactly one year since I arrived in Chambéry last year! :-)

Wow, time flew fast!

P.S. This day last year was nice and sunny, and fortunately so since I had a particularly heavy suitcase, and some other luggage to tug around. Today it rained (and was cold!) but that was ok, because going to Lyon for a few days doesn't require travelling with a 32kg bag lol.