ON FEELING UNACCOMPLISHED

This week I was asked to write a summary of my experiences as an Erasmus student. Automatically my mind went to the things that you do as an Erasmus student. Parties. Friends. Travel. Having the best year of your life.
And I felt like the past seven months have been wasted time. Because I didn't party a lot. I didn't find a ton of friends. I didn't even travel as much as I wanted to. Nor am I particularly happy with my French.

So I can't help but ask myself why. Is it my fault? Is it the clichés' fault?

NEW NAME AND RECIPES I LOVED

As you may have noticed, I have been making a few changes to my blog lately to steer it in a new direction. This has a few reasons, the most important being that my time in Lyon is slowly coming to an end and I will move back to Austria some time in May. I have come to really enjoy blogging during my time in Lyon and am eager to continue. But only writing about the town I currently live in isn't really enough for me, I also want to share my travels, experiments in the kitchen and my attempts to live more consciously with you.

TOWARDS THE BORDS DE SAÔNE

The last days have been cold and miserable and even though blossoms are appearing everwhere I go, it doesn't feel like spring if an icy winds blows through the thin layers I am optimistically wearing. Winter (if you can call it that; we haven't had snow once in Lyon) has left me coughing, and doubting myself and my capabilities.

This is not me, and I am only understanding this today, on my warm and sunny evening walk while realising how much I am craving the sun.

LE MARCHÉ AND MY FOOD JOURNEY

Living abroad changed me. Every time. I live in a new place, meet new people, learn a new language. I have to adapt to a different culture. For me this doesn't mean that once I live in France I become a French person. But finding myself in those new surroundings I see myself more clearly. It becomes easier to tell what doesn't make me a French person. And I can distiguish the layers the different experiences in my life have added to to my personality. Home - Austria, my family, my friends. Work experiences in social work with both animals and people. Ireland. Norway. Salzburg - university. Now France.