First Week of "Class"

All of the SELF students are required to take a two week class on French Culture and Civilization. Last week we were taught by a professor who is Lyonnais, but lives and teaches now in London with her husband. She told us all about the Rhône-Alps region that we live in and all of the big holidays in Lyon. Unfortunately I am going to be missing basically all of them.
The big festival in Lyon is The Festival of Lights to celebrate Mary. The festival lasts a week long, but the festival culminates on December 8. The Lyonnais cover their city in little candles on balconies and buildings, send them floating down the rivers and walk with them up to Notre Dame de Fourvière. There are also tons of timed light shows on different buildings in Lyon. The other big holiday is July 14, Bastille Day, France's national holiday to celebrate the storming of the Bastille.
The class is pretty informative, but more interesting are all the people in it! There are those that I love and have already made good friends with... and there are those that we all chuckle on the inside when they raise their hand to say anything... but I'm really impressed with the eclectic group of people who are in the SELF program. Mostly, I am so jealous of those that are from countries that don't speak English. There are some kids from other parts of Europe, Mexico and Asia who will basically be tri-lingual after their stay in Lyon... incredible.
We also had to take a French placement test and some groups started their French classes last week. I am in one of those groups and tested into the second highest level which I was pretty impressed with!
Looking forward to continuing to learn about France and all its glory! Class with Mike Fodor (an American) next week who I only heard great reviews about from past SELF program people from Mizzou!