Last posts on Lyon

Welcome to Another Life

2007-11-11T14:37:37+01:00

ANOTHER LIFE
How do other people live in a foreign country?How do you manage when you arrive without a word of their language?Welcome to my nightmare did eventually turn into Welcome to my extraordinary life and eventually into Welcome to my normal life....I do have another blog site which is aimed at expats who live in Lyon, France - my adopted home city.Here you will find various things that are happening, some photos and some musings.....LivingInLyon

IRISH DANCING CLASSES - LYON

2007-10-01T13:15:00+02:00

IRISH DANCING in LYON

September 2008:

Okay..... if you have always wanted to do Irish dancing, or you would like your kids to learn... here is the link to a club that specializes in it - both softshoe and hardshoe....

http://www.sidh-dance-company.com/

There is a class for debutants on Tuesday evening between 20:00 - 22:00 at their danse school:

à l'école de danse A. PERGA (21, rue Léon Blum - 69100 VILLEURBANNE

CHOCOLATE

2007-10-01T12:55:00+02:00

CHOCOLATE

Here is an interesting article or two for those of us who are confirmed chocoholics.....

it's good news (provided you don't over indulge...)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7018055.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6266256.stm

I feel much better now!

Getting an education in France

2007-10-01T12:30:00+02:00

Hello.... are there any forward thinkers out there in the French Education System?????

Each day I am greeted with some new edict that seems to be beyond my comprehension.

Last week, only a few weeks into the start of the new school year, the new director of a Lyonnaise college/Lycee has put into action some really wonderful ideas - absolutely condusive to making going to school a wonderful experience - never to be forgotten!

Maybe this is an edict straight from the new Department of Education National - who are apparantly out to modernise and improve the current system - good luck!

School is open between 7:30 to 8:00 am for those starting classes at 8:00 am (more about this one later...)

If you arrive late - bad luck - you can stand out in the rain and freezing cold (no shelter provided anywhere near the school) and WAIT until the school re-opens its doors at 8:50am......

Bad luck if your train or bus is late (SNCF/TER don't really have a great record - and we haven't even started with the strikes yet this year....!).

The SNCF office actually has a section which provides late notes for students using its services so that they don't get reprimanded for tardiness....very forward thinking, don't you think?

Bad luck if you have a cold, bad luck if it's dark....

Last year there was an alarming increase in attacks on students coming to and leaving school - new security measures where put in place, many meetings were held with the Police and school administration and angry parents.....

and now...???

The kids can just hang around or go wander around and we can just wait for another attack.. very forward thinking!

The school has areas within the school where kids who are not in class can sit - undercover, dry and safe - but why oh why should they be available to students in the morning??? I've got no idea have you?

Another novel idea is that kids who arrive late in lycee are not allowed to enter their classroom - they have to miss the entire class. Bad luck if your train or bus is late. Bad luck if you have been sitting in traffic for an hour and a half trying to get your kids to school. Bad luck if you have a valid excuse. Bad luck if you had an exam that morning....

Of course, you could leave earlier to try to get to school on time - but then - you will have to wait outside in the rain/snow/wind and freezing cold if you get to school in 10 minutes - afterall, the doors are not open between 8:00 and 8:50!

What a dilema... it seems that the system continues on its weary path of being negative instead of positive - this is the way it works here in French education!

Now... starting early - good idea to counter the problem of not enough physical space in the school - stagger school hours.. but wait..... no, the kids still have to do a WHOLE day at school - that is, they finish at 16:30 for college and much later for Lycee..... even if you start at 8:00 or 7:30am!!! Then, don't give them lunch until 13:40pm.

The teachers don't understand why the kids are inattentive, sleepy and fidgety......????

I think that these working conditions are actually illegal out in Public enterprise! Maybe someone for the work ethics department should do a Time and Motion study? That would be interesting. But knowing the French love of paperwork and redtape - we wouldn't hear about the results for a very, very long time, if at all!

There's my big moan for the week!

Hope that there will be something happier to report soon....

Camping

2006-04-20T21:39:43+02:00

Despite having no electricity, no hot water, no furniture and no food, Leo & I decided to spend our first night in our brand new flat in Lyon. After a nice meal chez Maminou (delicious crepes !), we took a walk back to our flat and came accross the Albion, a nice pub, two minutes from our building. Our feet took us almost automatically inside and it suddenly just felt like home. On a board, the prices for pints of Carlsberg, Fosters (pouah!) & Strongbow. In a corner, a dartboard, a giant screen, and a familiar voice : the Sky football commentator we heard so many times in the pubs of the British capital. We stayed and watch the end of Arsenal/Villareal (quite a good game, for what we saw). I guess we're going to be regulars... Once the game finished, we walked home (5th floor and the elevator is due to work... tomorrow). There isn't much to do in a flat when you cannot put the lights on, apart from spying on the neighbours... so we just opened our sleeping bags.The big move is planned for this Saturday.