A new friend!

Bonjour!
It is saturday afternoon and Lyon is still charming.  We have explored many different neighborhoods (and thankfully my legs are not hurting yet...).  Our preferences are now the 2eme, 1ere, and the 5eme.  It is very tough to find an apartment (especially not even knowing if i'm going to be here or not!).  I am certainly taking advantage of being in such an amazing place though.  In fact, last night we went to an apartment in the 4eme to "fait une visite."  It was a three bedroom and one of the 'colocs' was moving out.  I think the whole experience was pretty humorous actually.  We took the metro up there (first time on the metro, and it is very much a smaller version of the lines in Paris and not hard to navigate at all).  We knew we would get there early, find the location, have a bite to eat, then ring the bell.  Well we circled Rue Raymond about three times before we realized that it was exactly where we needed to be.  We found the address and went right across the street to have a nice dinner.  We ate 'en terrace' because the weather was so nice.  As we walked to the apartment, we shook out the pre-apartment visit jitters, and typed in the code to enter the front door.  It was an interesting entrance with stairs that were partially outside.  When we climbed to the third floor where we found ourselves facing two unmarked doors... Unfortunately we chose the wrong one initially and rang Monsieur Betrands doorbell, he was sleeping, and explained to us that it was the other door we were looking for (it definitely seemed like we were not the first ones to make this mistake).  Did I mention he answered in his quaint boxer briefs?  Anyway, we were greeted by Mathieu, 26, who works within the realm of informatique.  He showed us the apartment and then we sat down for a little question and answer session.  It is customary in France to offer your guest something to drink (something to know when hosting, right?).  After a couple minutes he asked who else we knew in the area...we responded, "just each other."  Well, somehow we got on the subject of Marissa's birthday being on monday and then fiound out that Mathieu's birthday is sunday and next thing we know we get invited to his birthday soiree tonight!  As we left the apartment we realized we had just made our first friend!  But...Marissa did not get the apartment.  Life is so unpredictable and I guess at this point we just need to roll with the punches.
There is always the option of heading to a cafe pour un cafe!
Another quick update: this afternoon around 3:30pm I will be meeting Genvieve Kourchid the former host mother of my neighbor in New York, who coincidentally lives here in Lyon.  She seems very nice and is coming to my hotel.  I am very excited to finally meet her and to have someone to contact during this next week while i'm here alone (Marissa is flying to Italy to meet up with her parents until 20 sept.).  
More updates and pictures to come.
A bientot.