9/6/11

Today has been another for the record books.

Professor Canovas took us to the area of the city that started to be more inhabited in the middle ages. After showing us a picture of what the city looked like back then, he spoke to us about the people of the time. He said after the decline of the Roman Empire the city started to gain momentum as a trading town due to its easy access to the rivers which converge, and flow directly into the Mediterranean. The Peninsula was the most crowded part of the city at that time because it is where the warehouses had been where all the goods were transported up the river and more people came to dwell there. The entire city on both banks was surrounded by a wall because it was still a time of uncertainty. He took us to the oldest church that is still in use in Europe. It was built on the eastern edge of town at the time in the middle of fields and other small monasteries around it. It was basically the welcoming committee for any merchants into the city. The monks would take the merchants in and take care of the goods. The church became a strong force in the city. Because of their money and strong structure, it became in a way a government. They would build bridges for cities and then use a toll to get the money they loaned back. This wasn’t just in Lyon, this was all over Europe. The word for Pope in Greek to this day still means “bridge builder.” Churches were also a major part of social life back then. They were usually protected by a large wall, so in times of danger people would conjugate behind the church walls for safety. Also markets would pop up around churches, and lots of charity work from the monks would draw poor people in.

The church we went into was a beautiful example of Romanesque architecture. It was built of lightly colored stones and columns all through the church. The four massive columns were granite from Egypt. They were thought at one time to be instead of four columns, two columns that were once used in a Roman building somewhere around the city before it fell. Once the paganism started to disappear as a religion, the Christians recycled a lot of the things they had used around the city. They even recycled ideas. At the time, paganism and Christianity were not completely separate. On the outside of the church there is a freeze of astrological signs. Inside the church there were half goat, half lion creatures that were part of pagan mysticism.

We had the opportunity to see one of the only surviving relief sculptures of the time. The sculpture was over 900 years old and told the story of Soloma dancing for king Herod, and the death of John the Baptist. It was incredible to see everything that I had read about again so close. I honestly never saw I would see a piece of work from that era though. They are so few and far between that are still surviving.

Overall everything is still going wonderfully. I am constantly overwhelmed with how beautiful it is, and how much I already love this city. I have never been anywhere more incredible.

Tomorrow is the placement exam and all the girls and I are anxious. Conovas says that we should not be nervous, that it will all work out better than we anticipate. But, all the same we are still going to study tonight just in case. We got a chance to walk a little around the university today. Our campus is incredible. It was a university built in the early 19^th century. It’s the classic French grey stone with the curving blue roofs. Very ornate, and very old. It seems fairly easy to navigate so far, but I guess we will see. There are quite a few students in our program, which is also comforting. I suppose I’ll be meeting lots of people from everywhere who want to study French. I am still a bit nervous to start speaking to actual French people. We decided we needed to start speaking French with each other more so that we had a chance to get better with speaking the language before we have to others.

I’m pretty tired today, so I don’t know what else to write. We have been walking quite a bit. Its hard to get used to walking everywhere. I feel so much better though. The food is healthier (and Canovas is very strict about eating healthy and natural foods, which he loves to teach us about), and we get more exercise so I feel a lot better. Granted, I just got a box of macaroons to share with the girls tonight. Oops. Oh, we got our phones today as well. I pulled out money to buy it but I have to go back to buy any minutes. But, if you want to call me anyways, from the US you dial 0.11.33.627.651.553. The cool things about French phones, is that if someone calls you, you don’t get charged. Only if I place the call to I get charged. I know I have magicjack and we will use that once I get internet, but I figure I would give you that number for emergencies.

Well. Bye bye. Love you.