Lyon Day 7

For the last day of our class trip, we met at 8:45am in the lobby to take a 10 minute walk to the Chamber of Commerce. It was a semi-interesting presentation by an American ex-pat who has lived in France for 10 years. Although I'm not exactly sure what his job was, he spoke of several industries in which France excelled in compared to the rest of the EU (agriculture, luxury goods, and energy). One statistic that stood out to me was the fact that France was rated #1 in life style. I can see how that makes sense as they seem to enjoy the finer things in life as a collective whole while Americans, on the other hand, are always striving for bigger and better. It's almost as if you have to train us to stop and smell the roses.

I've travelled all over the world and have been to many places, but this trip by far has been one of the best experiences I have ever had. It's interesting how I've been with a group of people for the past year, but it wasn't until now that I feel like they are my friends. Something about this trip solidified many bonds and truly made us a network. Then again, we drank wine literally every day and you know how they say that alcohol brings people closer together.

After our last event we were free to enjoy the rest of the day off. It was such a beautiful day to stroll around and relax. The best part of the day was drinking wine and champagne/Orangina.

I thought it was a great idea to blog about our time spent here. Even if we didn't write every day, it's good to keep the good (and bad) moments present in our minds so we can at least be aware and appreciate all the sights, tastes, smells, and people around us. I hope years from now I can re-live this trip and feel as happy as I am now.

Switzerland Day 6

WOW this day was hectic for me to reflect back on. First of all, Julia and I woke up extremely late and miraculously managed to brush our teeth and rush out the door with less than 10 mins to spare. Our class had already left by the time we woke up as we made a mad dash for the bus that was literally about to take off. I really enjoyed the applause as we both climbed onto the bus. Thanks guys.

My last memory of Switzerland was bittersweet one. I went to Zurich nearly 3 or 4 years ago and it was breathtaking. However, I remember being broke and choking at nearly every price tag I saw. This time I would be going to Geneva, the French part of the country, so I was eager to see a different side of the country. After sitting in a cramped bus for over 2 hours, we finally arrived in front of the WTO where they required a valid passport to even enter the building. We had an hour lecture about how the WTO operates and their main goals and duties. Afterwards, we had refreshments and snacks that overlooked the beautiful mountains outside the building. Unfortunately for us, our next stop to the UN was cancelled due to the a bombing attack in China at another UN location. Our tour guide, Ricky, made plans for us to visit the Red Cross Museum instead which was AMAZING if not one of the best museums I've been to. It moved me and definitely made me think about life outside the US. The exhibits were interactive and thought-provoking.

Lyon Day 5

Day five was a bit uneventful. We started off the morning by heading to EMLyon for another lecture. This time it was with an American ex-pat named Nikki Papadoulous who spoke about being an ex-pat in France. At first I thought the lecture and its topics were very straight-forward relating to cultural difference, but then I realized that I am very different than the rest of my class -- I'm bilingual and bi-cultural. I was fortunate to have traveled to many places in the world and experience all sorts of different people. In fact, it was shocking to me to have found out that quite a handful of people (who are over the age of 30) that have never been abroad before. Knowing the fact that globalization is the new norm (and that the topic has been beaten to death with now a blunt object), I thought it was a given that there are differences between culture and that people interpret and value things differently. Overall, I was very impressed with how adaptable she was as person. She's from New York, speaks Spanish fluently after living in Mexico for many years then migrated to France to be with her husband.

What I liked about her lecture was her explanation of how her French students behave compare to Americans. For example, French students are less likely to be outspoken during class and give their opinion for the fear of being wrong or stupid. American students, on the other hand, freely express their ideas and opinions and most of the time with confidence. It was interesting to hear that after her lecture, most French students would approach her in private to discuss their ideas. Another interesting factoid that I learned was that being "critical" as a person signifies intelligence in France. However, being critical in America can easily be seen as a negative Nancy and someone who needs a major attitude check.

It seemed that no real business trip was lined up so we visited some random silkscreen printing workshop. One positive thing that I took from that visit was seeing someone demonstrating silkscreen printing right in front of my face. I've always been fascinated with Andy Warhol (and read his biography as well) and how he managed to turned silk screen printing into popular art. Apparently, the French have been doing it for hundreds of years since the silk workers in the age of the Renaissance. Neat.

Lyon Day 4

We started off our day working on our "Street Projects" before we met up to go to EMLyon. My project was to capture moments in the Farmer's Market near our hotel which I had the pleasure to do so the weekend I arrived. Unfortunately, despite being open throughout the weekday, the weekend has the most traffic and varieties of foods to purchase. I was anxiously waiting for the stand that sells roasted chicken legs, sausages (for under 3€), and potatoes but sadly they weren't there. We took a trip to Carrefour in hopes of capturing moments of the shopping activities there as well. Weirdly enough, the Carrefour was located inside a shopping mall where people and things remind me of the freak show that happens inside a Walmart.

After lunch we headed to EMLyon for our daily lecture discussing the integration of EU. While a majority of our class found the lecture to be interesting, I found it quite boring and was suffocating inside a hot class room. Maybe it's because I'm bi-cultural and have travelled the world, but I found this topic of discussion to be common sense.

The highlight of the day was going to Beaujolais (wine region near Lyon) where we enjoyed wine (of course), aperitifs (goose pate, duck mousse, flavored syrup with wine, and a type of bread mixed with egg, olives, and cheese), a three course meal, dessert and cheese. Our bus driver was this lady who got lost twice going up the hills, but she could reserve and turn tight corners like a haas. During this moment in time, I realized just how happy my stomach has been in France. For the past two semesters, I've lost considerable amounts of weight due to the stress of internship searching and keeping up with my studies. Not only did my appetite decrease, but my enjoyment of food and having any sort of cravings stopped completely. I'm truly loving the meals here and taking the time to savor all the flavors. I can recall thinking that eating was such a waste of time for me during my busy periods and how I wish I didn't have to stop what I was doing to eat. We ended the evening playing a French game of pouring a big bottle of water into a smaller bottle and eating all sorts of sweets (cheese, cream brûlée, pastries, and pudding).

It's so amazing being able to enjoy the cohort in this setting. It seemed that we wanted nothing to do with each other after final exams, but now we are more like a big family and having a great time.

Lyon Day 3

After spending a week frolicking about in the Netherlands and taking a couple of chill days in France, it was only inevitable that UTD would give us some morning classes to “learn from”. Today was our first day to go visit EMLyon which was about a 20 minute ride from where we stayed. Apparently, EMLyon is a relatively hard business school to get into as they only except about 200 or so students per year out of the thousands that apply. They’ve noted that their students are for the most part international and can speak more than one or two languages fluently which is quite impressive although not surprising since Europe has so many countries in close proximity with each other.

Our lecturer was a German expat by the name of Hans Schlierer that teaches mainly international negotiation skills and techniques. While the topic is nothing new, it was interesting to hear it from a foreigner’s point of view of how he views negotiation between different cultures. For example, Russians negotiate as a symbol of power. And if we were to put things into a theoretical perspective negotiation is an act between two or more parties and often time is when one party wants something that the other party has. Well, duh. Quite frankly, in my opinion, having classes such as this one is not very helpful in building skills. People can literally map things out into boxes and squares and/or have arrows pointing this way and that, but it’s only by experiencing the actual negotiation over time do you gain from anything. It’s funny that he had to condense his semester long lecture into the three hours that we were there but only half that information is really useful to learn from unless you actually go out there yourself and start negotiating. End of point.

After the lecture, we were given the choice to either visit Renault (the automobile manufacturing company) or EDF Group (one of France’s energy company). Since Europe is known for using a lot of green energy as well as being able to be relatively conservative in their use compared to Americans, I chose to visit EDF to gain a first-hand perspective on how they view energy. The bus shuttled us off and dropped off the first group going to Renault then proceeded head towards EDF. The office was smaller than I expected as we were led into their showroom where they featured interactive scenarios of using different types of energy (solar, wind, nuclear and water). EDF is not only owned by the French government, but has a majority of the market share in France as well. Nearly 85% of the energy that France produces is nuclear despite our common preconception that Europe runs on green energy. In fact, their interactive scenario allows you to play around with different mixtures of energy and factors in weather to allow you to see how much total output it makes. Not surprisingly, alternative forms of energy is not very effective.

Lyon Day 2

 Lyon Day 2: Sunday, May 18
 

View of Fourviere during the daytime

Needless to say, things were pretty rowdy the night before. Half our class was hungover after staying out until 3am at the King Arthur pub next door to our hotel. We meet around 10:30 in the morning and split up into two groups to tour Vieux Lyon (the old part of town). The best part of the tour was going through all the traboules (hidden passageways) that were used by the silk workers centuries ago. Today they are being occupied and lived in. Oftentimes, I am fascinated with walking on then same roads and being in the same structures that once was populated by those living hundreds of years ago. Another cool part of the tour was visiting a "house" that once belonged to one family, but is now housing 33 families as it had been converted into many apartments.

MBA girls having a picnic with food from the Farmer's Market

Discovering lunch at the Sunday’s farmers market was perhaps one of the best and most memorable things I did during my trip. I can still imagine the roasted poulet and potatoes that was sold by one of the vendors for roughly 5 euros. There were all sorts of cheeses, meats and fruits/vegetables to choose from. In fact, I’ve never had cheese so fresh and young before that it tasted like it just came from the cow. We took our purchases and headed back to the hotel courtyard to enjoy ourselves. Sundays are relatively slow in France (and Europe). 


Most (if not all) retail stores are closed so this day was best spent eating, drinking or walking around the city. I wanted to take this opportunity to relax by the river with a glass (more like plastic cup) of wine in hand. Is this what the European lifestyle all about?

View of Fourviere during the night

Lyon Day 1

Lyon Day 1: Saturday, May 1

Arriving to Lyon in the first day ended up exceeding my expectations. I've never been to France, and I never had a desire to. French is one language that has been hard for me to master (unlike Spanish) so that was one major reason for my disinterest in the culture.

Stacey and I have been traveling for the past week romping around in Amsterdam (totes love!!) and Brussels (hated it!). I think we were both dreading the fact that we have to "do more school" after a brutal first year in the MBA program.

MBA Girls by the end of Day 1

We took train from Brussels to Lyon that was a 4 hour ride. I was feeling pretty bad from the day before suffering from food poisoning and nausea, and Stacey was feeling pretty nasty from not showering that morning since the place where we stayed had no hot water. It was a nasty Belgian trip and I will never ever "rough it" again at the expense of saving money.

Wannie & I at the Fourviere Restaurant

My first impression of Lyon was that it didn't have half the amount of tourists and international presence compared to the other cities that I've been too. That is the first thing that I liked about it since I absolutely hate tourist traps and attractions. When I travel, I like to observe how their citizens carry about their lives without overpriced tours and immigrants opening up business selling knick knacks and crappy food. Lyon felt authentic and real. The city focused on one thing we can all relate to: food. Seeing our classmates again was exciting even though it had only been a week since we have last seen each other. There is something about being in a foreign country that made our class suddenly "click".


Our first event was traveling into the old part of town called Vieux Lyon. I've read in my travel guides that this place was where UNESCO declared it a World Heritage site due to being a part of something significant (such as the Renaissance) in the past. We took the funicular up to the Fourviere near the Basilica de Notre Dame de Fourviere where we were awaited dinner at the top of the hill.

My very first dish was a Lyonnaise salad which is one of the more famous types of dishes within this region (besides the blood sausage) that included a poached egg, bacon, and shallot vinaigrette. I can't believe that thing along was just to get started! Dinner overall took nearly 2 hours with a main dish followed by dessert and some coffee. Different types of wine were served throughout the night that seemed to compliment the dish. I can honestly say that I literally am in the food capital of the world. Check out what I had to eat below!