First day in Lyon!

So my job in Annecy doesn't start until the 24th of August, but the people who were hosting me (valeria y Leo) went on vacation to Barcelona and I couldn't stay in their house without them. So this morning I found myself without a place to stay in Annecy. I sent a few emails and decided to head over to the nearby city of Lyon to visit my friend Sarah who I met at Byu-I. I enjoyed a fun train ride through the beautiful french countryside, ruined only slightly by the fact that I was sitting next to a lady with a small shitzu that kept panting very loud and irritatingly the entire trip.
When I arrived at Lyon, Sarah had arranged for one of the kids from her Institute class to pick me up on his lunch break. His name is Nathan, and he's a really cool kid. We talked for about an hour as we walked to the park and ate lunch. We became good friends and I'm excited to see him again this wednesday night at Institute. Anyways, then he had to get back to work, so he handed me off to another kid from the Institute that I could hang out with until Sarah got off work. This kid's name is Justin, and he's an American from Las Vegas. Justin is 24 years old and served his mission in Tahiti, so he speaks perfect French, although with a Tahitian accent. He's here in Lyon attending a cooking institute to get certified as a professional chief (so you can imagine how good lunch was today). He took me around the city to the various crazy import stores of various countries to buy special ingredients that he needs for his various cooking projects for school. Even though my backpack was heavy, I didn't mind tagging along, because I was just enjoying the view of the city. Lyon is the second biggest city in France after Paris, and after a tiny town like Annecy (which is the size of Rexburg), Lyon seemed mind-blowingly huge. We had to take two metros and two busses from the city center to get out to Justin's dorm. Then I waited in Justin's dorm while he took care of some things, and then Sarah arrived. The three of us went out into the city, and Sarah gave me a great tour of the various old cathedrals and castles and theatres around the city. We went to eat at a very nice and very delicious restaurant, one of Sarah's favorites, and she explained to us several cultural differences between the French and the Americans. I appreciated that even though she speaks perfect English (obviously, since I met her at Byu-I) she respected my efforts to try to speak only in French, and she helped me to understand every time there was a word or phrase that escaped me. I appreciate how she did it, because if someone doesn't understand something, it's much better to explain it still in French but using different words until they get it rather than just giving them the English translation. Associating words with their translations in your head isn't as effective as learning them in context solely in the target language.
Anyways, after we ate, we walked around Lyon until about midnight, admiring the architecture. Then Sarah headed back to her house, and Justin and I returned to his dorm where I am now. It's three in the morning and I'm strangely not tired. I want to go back out and keep exploring this awesome city!