Most people here eat sandwiches.

27 hours. Four airports, three countries. Four take-offs, four landings. Three seat-mates. One vegetarian airline meal, three savored packets of peanuts, two generic hot teas. One lost black iPod Nano, and one new Facebook friend.

I'm finally in Lyon for a two-week immersion French course that I signed up for online four months ago, 4000 miles away, sitting on my carpet in Evanston.

My aim is to get a grasp of basic French, a goal I've decided to prioritize. After Lyon, I'm off to Porto and Lisbon, Portugal. But for now, je parle francais, et je l'aime.

My first day en classe, aujourd'hui, I sat, bright-eyed and eager, fully engaged in everything I heard. Vocabulaire, grammaire, verbes, adjectifs, mots. Mon professeur is at least 7 feet tall, and is the right jazz of patience and persistence. My classmates are from Korea, Poland, Australia, Spain, Brazil and Belgium. We're in class at least four hours per day, every day. During breaks, we attempt to learn about each other by parsing together French phrases. When I'm not in class, I'm practicing rudimentary skills with a host family. I love it.

My right brain is exercising, I can feel it. Two days here, my language lobe is graffiti'd all over, doused in vocab and accents and all kinds of color. Two weeks may not be long to cement basic French into my eclectic communication mosaic, but I will take full advantage of my circumstances. I will let my brain get colorful tattoos.

Tonight I'm in my own room, une petite chambre chez Macabeo, my host family for the next several days. I've been sipping herbal honey-tea and nibbling on some of the best dark chocolate I've had in months. The bar cost 40 Euro centimes (60 cents).

Since it's late and I could probably stop eating chocolate, I'll post more tomorrow. Think: variety.
- People. Meet my host family. Preview: the daughter has a 'tude.
- Food. French food. Later, Portuguese food.
- Photos. The best part of travel blogs.
- Gritty. A couple of travelers mentioned interest in the details of my travel [money!] for trips of their own. [Mind your Euros, I'm a frugal voyager.] But let me know, and I'll send you a near-precise estimate...

To leave you now, some pleasant idées Lyonnaises:
- It is, apparently, 'very American' to wave at perfect strangers.
- The Lyon public bike system, Velo V, is quite user-friendly and cheap, at 3 Euros per week. Pick up a bike at any station, drop it off at another station anywhere in the city within une demi-heure. I'd love to see this in Chicago!
- Stripes! French stripes! They're all over the place. I dig 'em.