France Part Un

So I left off at Cerbere, where I had enjoyed the city by the mediterranean sea and finally got on my connecting train to Nimes from where I would go to Lyon.


Remember that the original train to cerbere was 5 minutes late, so I had to catch the next train to Nimes three hours later. When I arrived at nimes, it was almost midnight, and the last train to lyon left hours ago so I was stuck in Nimes and the next train was eight in the morning.


So basically, I had nowhere to go and everything was closed. I wasn't gonna buy a hotel room for seven hours of sleep, and the train station was locking up, they don't allow people to stay in overnight so I along with four other people who missed their rides settled down and slept outside the train station


It was a fun experience sleeping like a homeless dude (I definitely looked the part) and the sleep wasn't good because I had to sleep on my backpack in an awkward position but hey gotta do what I had to do to protect my bag!


So when the morning came, i awoke to find out that A - almost all the trains were delayed by one or two hours so the train to Lyon was at 10 not 8 am and B - the train to lyon was full. oh, f me.


After consulting my eurail guide, train schedule and map, I found that i could go to marseilles and catch the train to Lyon there. So I finally left Nimes around 9 30 or 10 and arrived Marseiles at 11.05. The express train to lyon was full.


BUT there was another regional (slower train, more stops) IC train to Lyon. The original departure time was at 11, so i missed it?? Nope, it was delayed for ten minutes.


Guess I got lucky this time... that was enough train mania in less than 24 hours for me.


Finally at Lyon, I met up with Aurelein, my host who found me through a post I made on Deaf Couchsurfing group and welcomed me to his place. Aurelein was hearing but he has a Deaf boyfriend, works at a Deaf School and uses LSF very well!


Aurel was a great host and we spent many hours chatting about language, connection with French and American education (Clerc, ASL from LSF, schools), signs, how people are welcome in others' houses guests/friends etc etc and of course, food! Lyon is well known for gourmet and I tried Andouille it was delicious too.


Aurel also showed me around for a couple of hours because the next two days he would not be home - sleeping at Bourg En bresse near the Deaf school where he worked. So he left me his keys and trusted me to his house... wow! I told him that this probably would never happen in America, but that is a big difference between welcoming guests in America and Europe even though we never met before this. The trust was very high, and I was not used to it being as an American but i learned the European - and french  - way quickly.


That was a small part of one of our many chats!


So home alone, i stayed in all day... of course not, I explored Lyon and first went to the fourviere and roman theatre, the centre, st jean area, la gullotine and others. 


I got around in Lyon by tram, it was operated by TCL and before boarding the tram you had to buy a ticket from a machine which I had no idea how to operate. Usually in other trams, you could buy a ticket from the driver or a conductor inside the tram, so I got in hoping to do the same. Then a TCL officer came down the aisle asking people to show their tickets as validation (I later found out they do this occasionally, during rush hour usually) so they requested my ticket and I told them I didnt have any.


The guy had a face that said "oh really well no you cannot do that" but his words was french so I had no idea what he really said. I wrote down "I no french, I english" and he didnt understand what i wrote... ok so I told him i would buy "pour tous" (One hour ticket) and he said no, and held up 4 then 3 fingers. huh? Was it seven? I wrote down 7 and he looked at me like i was stupid and wrote 43 euros. The ticket was 2, and I had to pay 43? No way, i took out 5 euros and told him I pay this for ticket and he said no I had to go to the machine so FINEE we got off at the next stop and went to the machine.


Somewhere there was a button that could change the language to english (which I couldnt find before) so allright man. One problem, the machine took coins not cash and I didnt have anz coins on me. I tried my credit card but the screen read strange french word rejectez more strange french words but i guess rejectez means... rejected?


I turned around to the guy and told him how do i do this? I give him money for coins and buy ticket? He was like no you pay 43 and would not let me leave... such an a-hole seems he wanted to take advantage since I was an american (I showed my passport after he requested it) and deaf and - to him, dumb too - but I wouldn't give in. I told him forget it I will go walk and he was all no you must pay ticket. we argued for almost 5 minutes and there was a lady behind us listening to the whole thing (The train officer kept on speaking even though I told him 50 times that I couldn't hear OR understand french) and I stepped aside to let her purchase her ticket.


The lady turned around, said something to the officer and gave me a pour tous ticket! My face lighted up and the train officer's face clearly was in shock - I had a ticket now, I wasnt gonna pay 43 euros and he had no choice but to let me go. I couldnt say thanks enough to that woman she said it was ok and didnt understand english but a smile was more than enough for her to understand.


Later that day at 18:00 I was to meet Sandra, Aurel's friend who lived 5 minues away. Sandra was deaf and contacted me on CouchSurfing too, but she was supposed to host a girl from Japan but at the last minute she could not make it so she was free to have me as company. She is part of 10 deaf french theatre group that will have a play in June (What is it? Sorry, I promised not to tell)


So I watched their practice for two hours and chatting with some people during short breaks it was nice to see French Deaf people in a theatre environment also their theatre style is a bit different from america's.


After the theatre, we were hungry so sandra took me to her home which was 5 minutes away from Aurel's place and had dinner salad with tuna, quiches and then strawberries, whipped cream and sugar for dessert oh boy was i stuffed, the french sure know how to feed/welcome their guests :)


Then we chatted until we yawned so I went back and agreed to meet again tomorrow after I visited IJS school in Bourg en Bresse - the school link http://www.afis01.fr/ijs.html


The visit was very enjoyable Aurel showed me around, I met some teachers, passed by students and finally got to a classroom full of kids ready to receive me!


They were excited to meet an Deaf American from Gallaudet so I told them about myself in ASL (I tried my best because I almost havent used asl in weeks so it was a different feeling as I had totally shifted to International Sign and bit of Irish, Netherland and French signs) To show the difference between ASL and LSF, but they still could follow me. 


I switched to International after that and talked about my experiences on the trip so far, the difference between America/Europe, Deaf life in America, ADA, rights, laws, videophones, Deaf Schools,  why we have that signs, why in ASL we spell so much instead of signing - even i caught mzself and wondered why too - just a bit of what we talked about with an open Q & A, it was fun for both of us.


After the school we walked to the kitchen where the Home Ecomonic class had prepared mousse and since it was tuesday, they made enough for the whole school and a visitor: the chocolate mousse... amie.


So Aurel and I went back to his house then met up with Sandra at her place after getting pizzas from a truck (Kind of like hot dogs, ice cream, tacos from a truck) and dropping me off as he had dance class for two hours and joined up with our chat (Another long one again) afterwards.


That concludes part Un of France, as the next day I went to Mannheim, Germany via Strasbourg (No crazy train stories this time whew). Part Deux will come when I visit Nice and Paris for real later!