I have a badge!

Its official.  I have a badge for the Ecole normale superieure de Lyon.  Now I can go in early to the lab and stay late.  I am sitting in an office with another graduate student from France and a post doc from Greece.  There are also a couple of other foreign graduate students that hang out in the office using the other computers.  One is from Germany and the other I think is from India because of his accent.

Tonight we were joined by a woman from China and another post-doc from Italy to play a board game that is popular in Germany.  It is called "The Settlers of Catan" and  you try to build roads and houses to control different resources. You barter and trade with other communities. You also spend a lot of time drinking and eating! 

It was mostly a collection of the non-french speaking students and post-docs.  People have told me that this would happen.  The international students tend to congregate together either because of the language difference or the fact that we don't have anywhere else to go.  We don't usually have families with us, going out to mingle with the general population takes a better level of French that I have, and we are all trying to get enough work done to finish up our education.  That means we all spend long hours in the labs and only interact with others doing the same.    Looks like we may make Thursday nights a game night.

It changes your perspective on the students visiting our labs in Boulder. I have a new appreciation of the difficulties encountered by foreign students, not only the language, but also the change in culture and changes and the lack of the normal daily necessities.  Towels, pillows, laundry soap, ... and foods.

Tomorrow I am going to get a metro pass so I can tour the city whenever and for however long I want to.  The pass is good for all the subways, above ground trams, and buses.  I have only visited about one tenth of the city.

I have not even visited the large parks or the other University in the north end of Lyon.  I still need to explore the Roman ruins up on the hill.  I walked past them last April when I was here and did not get a chance to go in.  There are also a few museums that I would like to visit.  Hopefully paying for the pass will make me use it. I will also get the bike pass to use one of the over 500 bike stations in town.  The combination of the metro and bike pass allows me to use a bike for upto an hour without extra charge.  I can get almost anywhere in an hour on a bike here.