Sicily and Barcelona

Spring break starts after my last class today, and after a usual exciting Friday of violin practice, vegetarian cooking class, and tapas with friends, I'm taking off early tomorrow morning for Catania, Sicily, with my friend who lived there for three years, to stay with family friends of hers. After six days at the toe of the boot, we are going to meet my parents in Barcelona for Easter.
In simpler words, I'm about to start the best Spring Break ever.
I might not (and by that I mean "I won't) be able to blog until after Easter, so enjoy your holiday and happy spring!

Lyon, Continued

After our first night in the glass-walled albergue, we walked down the hill and across the two rivers the next day to arrive at the Center of Resistance and Deportation. The museum-college-community building combines a detailed and well-done museum to the victims of the Vichy (Nazi collaboration in France) regime and the brave people who resisted and fought against the Nazi invaders and French collaborators, including many Spanish Republicans fled from the newly-formed fascist regime here in Spain. We thoroughly explored the museum space on Friday morning, with a talk – in French - from a survivor as the culminating experience. The SYA France students translated for us with the help of their teacher, and we all came out full of respect for this brave individual who had fought for his country and his principles during the Vichy regime.

The conference also involved rotating discussion groups composed of one SYA student from each site in a library room in the center. The Italians would put in their historical views, the French would add theirs, and so would us Spaniards, using the three different but related events and opinions to come to a bit of a conclusion. Our topics of discussion varied from the basic facts – what happened in the bombing of Viterbo? – to historical memory – how is the event remembered? are there monuments, museums, documents? – to post-event trauma – exiles? deaths? – and ending in a full group discussion of historical memory, while oscilated from Europe to the United States.

All this was broken up by a French goat-cheese and tomato grilled sandwich, salads of the best sort, roasted spiced potatoes, a chevre-apple bake, crepes with chestnut puree and chocolate, Morrocan tea, and even an American food shop where we were served toasted bagels (our first bagels in almost 7 months!) with cream cheese and fresh crisp vegetables. I also couldn’t resist a package of Reeses peanut butter cups… Needless to say, Lyon lived up to its reputation as a gastronomical capital.

Another great experience of the trip was our connection with French students. On Friday we went to a public school a couple of tram stops from the history center for lunch and an afternoon discussion. We also found out who we would be staying with the following night – each of us chose a French host student! We learned a lot about the French school system, living in Lyon, etc – all wonderful conversations. The group of students two friends and I fell in with were all studying Cinema in the Literature track of study. We met up again on Saturday after lunch, this time leaving the group until the next morning, and they took us all over Lyon: hanging out in the art museum, sitting in the sun at the Roman theatre (two perfectly preserved stone theatres now a park), and at the country house of one of them, with a porch from which one can see the twinkling lights of the city at night. We left with each other’s facebook contacts and addresses, and I hope we can all keep in touch.

After making such great friends and enjoying ourselves so much in the quiet but busy historic city of Lyon, we were all sad to leave. But looking forward to a Friday night of tapas, my new discovery of a delicious bakery near school, and my departure on Saturday for Sicily with Heather, the future looks to be just as wonderful as my five days in France!

Cinco Días en le France

I hit the ground running after coming back from the conference in Lyon, and haven't had time to write about it yet. In addition I've been experiencing serious laptop issues (apparently 3 1/2 years puts it into the elderly category), but luckily I can update from any computer.

We took a train to Barcelona and a plane to Lyon and arrived safe and sound in France on Wednesday afternoon. After a bus ride to the center of town, we caught a subway to Old (Vieux) Lyon where we took the funicular - a chain-pulled diagonal trolley car - up the hill.

Walking out of the station, we were greeted with a huge baroque basilica hit by the afternoon sun. Just beyond the church was a panoramic view of the city. The old part began at the base of the hill, continuing to the Saone river, and then a newer, commercial and lively part occupies the peninsula between the two rivers. Beyond the Rhone is the residential and quieter part of the city, where the Center of Resistence and Deportation - a museum about the history of France during the Vichy/Nazi regime - is located. This Centre became our home base during the conference, where we met to discuss our respective country's historical memory and present the results of our prior investigation.

We checked in to the huge youth hostel, a little farther down the hill, whose central cafeteria/atrium had a giant glass window overlooking the entire city of Lyon. There we met our roommates and companions, the 8 SYA students from France and their Italian counterparts. Everyone was wonderful, and we descended into the city for a quick look around before dinner.

Lyon boasts a couple of lovely churches - the cathedral and basilica to start - along with windy old streets, cultural restarants and shops, and a nice arts scene. The weather was wonderful, so we stopped for some strawberry iced tea at an outdoor table while contemplating the Breton tunes of an accordian player.

We dined at a traditional Lyonais bouchon, which for me meant a delicious salad with goat cheese and walnuts for my first course, a rice and root vegetable plate for the second, and a merengue-ice-cream-cake for dessert. Everything - including the bread! - was absolutely delicious, a continuation of my love affair with French cuisine. In the conversation we learned a lot about the Italy and France SYA sites. I joke that my only regret about the trip is that I didn't go to SYA Italy - it sounds incredible! However, we all put in a good word for Spain as well.

After the meal, we went back to the hostel for a quick introductory meeting, after which we decided to wander a bit more and see the city in the dark. We also found a crepe stand - seriously, street crepe vendors are the best - and a tetería, where we sipped Morrocan tea until curfew. The conference hadn't even started officially and I'd already encountered a crazy melange of cultures and learned one French phrase really well: "Je n'parle pas français"!