WINE???

Bonjour tout le monde!

Today started with a rough 8 am class of Innovation and Management. It was a four hour class today, which is exceptionally long. We did some fun brainstorming activities and worked more on our projects.

For lunch we went to the classic dining hall. They had fries and a cheese and pepper panini thing today. It was decent. After we ate, Talia and I went back to my apartment to chill and Andrea went to the library.

We met at the tram station at 1:30 to go to a new area of Lyon. We went to Croix Rousse, which means Red Cross. The was inspired by a large red rock cross that used to sit on a hill. Croix Rousse was home to Lyon's silk industry. Lyon is currently the largest textile exporter in France. We toured two different apartments with traditional looms and talked about the lifestyle of weavers. Their work and their life heavily overlapped, and they worked extreme hours. Through time, the weavers became mistreated by the merchants who bought their products. The weavers were the first to protest for set wages, and since then Croix Rousse has become a symbol of power and protest. Because of their revolutions, the local government put a ban on how many people could gather together. This ban led to the creation of secret societies. Lyon has many traboules (I'm not sure if I explained these earlier, but basically they're passageways through buildings that create shortcuts), and they were used for secret meetings as well as running fabric from one part of the city to another. Overall, I loved getting to see Croix Rousse. Their history is very unique and yet not well known.

top left and middle: one of the looms we got to see. this one specifically made trim, and we got to see it in action.

the other four pictures are all around Croix Rousse. I think that the middle bottom photo is one of my new favorites from the trip.

After our walking tour, Andrea and I went home to chill and get some dinner. We had a party at 7:30, so we wanted to relax and have time to get ready for that. In our schedule it was labeled as "WINE ??" so we were all intrigued as to the details of our party. It ended up being organized by the international club, who provided a bunch of different cheeses and crackers, as well as local beer and mixed drinks in the colors of the French flag. We got to interact with some more French students, which is always so fun. We also played some games like Black Jack and flip cup. Some of the French students showed us this trick where you put alcohol in your mouth and light it on fire. It's just as cool as it sounds and it makes your mouth taste like a toasted marshmallow.

left: my BeReal for the night. middle: me, Parker, Andrea, and Clarisse. right: Roberta (the president of the club who threw the dinner for us), me, Parker, Andrea, Clarisse

this is the coolest thing I've ever done

We had to leave the party at midnight, because that's when the building closed. We decided to go to the campus bar for a bit longer. We played Just Dance for awhile, but I headed out early because I was tired.

Today was another really fun day full of history and new friends :)

À plus tard,

Maggie

(written for May 31)