Week 9: Fun with friends in the kitchen!

This week has brought many opportunities to be social, and I took advantage of almost all of them. I certainly had my fill of friends and fun this week!

Monday was probably the least fun day of the week - I had a midterm in the morning, which kept me from an hour of my three-hour-long class, and then I went to the two other hours of said class. Thankfully that was it for classes that day, but then in the evening I tried to get to Zumba only to figure out it had been cancelled (and I had walked the entire 15 minutes to school for nothing). Not the best of Mondays... but thankfully that was only the start of the week.

Manon came over for soup again on Tuesday - we had some lovely tomato soup and grilled cheese :) - and then we met up with some friends at a movie theater. We wanted to see a movie called "Samba" with one of the actors from the famous French movie "Intouchables," but it was so popular that all showings were already full, and so we went with a romantic comedy called "Tu Veux ou Tu Veux Pas" starring Sophie Marceau (Braveheart). The film ended up being a great experience for all of us - it even got Walker thinking about a jazz tune he had heard that resembled the main tune of the film. All in all, a great Tuesday night.

Wednesday night was wonderful! I got the chance to go over to Amandine's house for some quiche aux courgettes et pesto (zucchini and pesto quiche) and a movie! Sure, I've hung out with friends before in America... But there's just something that makes the occasion special, just because I'm in France. Watching Amandine's favorite movie - Moulin Rouge! - in French was a cool experience, and of course got the songs stuck in my head once again :)

Les filles françaises - the French girls! :)

Manon and I are ready to eat the lovely quiche!

Thankfully the next day my 8:00AM class was cancelled, so I didn't have to get up too early. I still had two other classes and one midterm (English to French translation this time), but Thursday classes always end nicely with the professor I really like for French class. On my lunch break I made sure my room was all tidied up, because not too long after I got home for the night, the Wisconsinite I met in Ghent a couple weeks ago came to visit me here in Lille for the weekend! After I met up with Laura at the metro station and chatted a while, we got her set up at her accommodations for the night.

We got a bright and early start on Friday. Laura got to mail some of her things home to make her backpack a little lighter, and we got to explore the heart of Lille. After we checked at a local mobile carrier to see if Laura could get a French number (with little success), it was time for me to head to my four-hour 17^th century French literature exam, which ended up going okay (a tiny bit better than the 19^th century French literature exam). Then it was time to have fun! Laura and I made deep-fried tequila shots, and then I tried my first real tequila shots with salt and lime (which were excellent!). After that, we headed out to dance the night away at a local club called Smile. The night was such a blast!

Deep-fried tequila shots!

Saturday was the official start of the vacances de Toussaint or fall break week, and so Laura and I took it easy. We did some grocery shopping, and then a while later Amandine and Manon came over with some movies for us to watch (“NewYear’s Eve” and “Love Actually”), and it ended up being a great night in!

Sunday was the second day of break, and it was a nice relaxing day as well. I went to mass in my residence again in the morning with my Japanese friend Ayano, and then Laura and I made a semi-American-style brunch in the kitchen. Amandine and Manon even made it over again for a lovely morning. We had a great day!

Amandine and Manon over for brunch.

An American-style brunch: eggs & "bacon" (ham), coffee, toast, and strawberries. Thanks Laura for your direction! :)

The only thing left for this week is to plan some minor details of our trip to Paris starting tomorrow and going to Tuesday! Can’t wait to see what vacation week brings! À bientôt!

Week 8: Living the daily French life

Low-key and relaxed has been the name of the game this week… But that’s alright – it’s given me a chance to get my life in order, and also to enjoy just being in France in general. In addition to the usual schedule of classes, I had a midterm exam, but other than that, it was a pretty run-of-the-mill week (you know, for being in France!).

On Monday I got an offer to try my hand at professional translation, and so I said why not? It turned out to be an awards application with environmental vocabulary, and so it was a little challenging, but I loved the challenge, and I think it was a cool first experience with actual translation. I got lunch at one of the many student restaurant/cafeteria establishments around school, and it was really nice because we actually spoke all in French, and our French friends were even there to correct us when we slipped up :) And the day ended with a nice evening: Katherine and Maria came over for a lovely spaghetti dinner, and Katherine shared the details of her trip to Morocco from which she had just returned.

Tuesday was cool because I didn’t have class until ten, and so I went to the open-air market in Wazemmes with James and Grace, and got some delicious veggies to make some ratatouille. The prices at the market are very cheap – I will definitely have to return there in the future, and I have those two to thank for showing me around! I then had a couple of classes during the day (but of course, as always, I had a nice long lunch break), and then got home and booked my bus tickets to London for the second weekend of break (Nov. 1-2). In the evening I went to the weekly Franglish exchange event again, and then I hung out with some friends with a mojito, and we had a great time. All in all, a great day :)

The middle of the week actually passed pretty quickly. Wednesday brought a couple classes in the morning and making some soup to share with Manon in the evening, and it was nice to cuddle up with some warm soup for dinner and cozy conversation with a friend. Thursday was a little stressful because I had class all day, and then I had to study for a four-hour-long midterm exam the next day… A Canadian friend of mine came over to my place and we had more spaghetti, and tried to cram in as much as we could for the test. I made sure to get right to bed to try to retain as much information as possible.

Exam day on Friday was a little tough. I woke up in the morning ready to go for the day, but still doubting myself a little as far as knowledge of the exam material went. After running a few errands like grocery shopping and getting an ankle brace (my foot had been giving me some trouble), I had my midterm for 19^th century French literature, which went okay – not the best test I’ve ever taken, to say the least. It got better when I got to hang out with French friends for happy hour (gotta love Speculoos milkshakes! :)), and some Slovak friends as well. It ended up being a pretty good Friday night.

The weekend was pretty quiet and slow for me. Saturday I took it easy because my foot was still bothering me and I would be running a serious race the next day. I did play ping pong for a while with friends, which is always a fun way to spend an afternoon. Then came Sunday! Rob, Walker and I had signed up to run in a 10K race called Les Boucles Tourquennoises, which was a race in the nearby town of Tourcoing, so we hopped on the metro early in the morning and got there early, only to find out that we were supposed to have gotten medical certificates which would give us the green light to run for such a long distance. So unfortunately we didn’t get to run in the official 10K race in Tourcoing, but that didn’t stop Rob and I from running 10K around the citadel park back in Lille, which was my first time running that distance in my life. Still a great experience!

Ran the 10K on Sunday for the Packers! GO PACK GO :)

Not too long after we got back to my residence, some French friends came over and brought ingredients to make some lovely bruschetta au Maroilles! (Thank you so much Amandine for the recipe and the ingredients! :)) Maroilles is the name of the traditional cheese that comes from Lille, and I had told my French friends I wanted to try the local cuisine. They obliged, and we had a wonderful Sunday brunch in my residence! Although I didn’t travel to any distant lands over the weekend, it did end up to be a nice breath of fresh air from classes, and a great cultural experience as well. I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend this Sunday!

My French friends Marie, Paul, and Amandine preparing the tomatoes, ham, and cheese...

Brunch is almost ready!

The finished product: bruschetta au Maroilles.
Bon appétit!

As for next week, I have a couple more midterms and a few more plans with friends, but it’s looking to be another low-key week. That’s alright though, because I have some exciting travel plans for fall break (the week after next) that include Paris and London! I’ll get back to you in a week – à bientôt!

Week 7: Studying, cooking, ping pong... and the Happiest Place on Earth!

This week has been a wake-up call to me. I have still been busy with traveling and school, but I’ve started to really look at how much money I’m spending and where I’m spending it, and realizing that I have to clamp down a bit. Even though this time in Europe is about both studying and traveling, I still have to keep a budget. On a positive note, other than that slight preoccupation with keeping a budget, I have still been having a heck of a good time here in Europe! J

Classes have been going pretty well. I have of course been taking to some courses more favorably than others (French as a Foreign Language and French to English Translation) and others have not been so easy for me (17^th and 19^th century literature courses, Didactics of French). I have now had my first French midterm, with many more to come, and so I have some studying and coursework to do. On the whole, academics have been treating me well so far, and I look forward to what’s to come (except for exams, of course).

As usual, I had friends over this week and I made dinner. It was fun to collaborate and have some delicious parmesan eggplant stacks with Maria!

Cooking some delicious, healthy dinner with Maria! :)

During the week, in addition to attending classes, I also went to a lecture given by a professional translator about her career, ran for a little under five miles (about 7.3 kilometers), and played lots and lots of ping pong. The translation career lecture was particularly interesting to me because as I’ve mentioned before on my blog, I am starting to consider translation as a career opportunity in my future, and the woman who spoke described lots of different aspects of her job, such as for whom you work (which tends to be either a translation agency or freelancing for yourself), different types of translation (generally speaking, literary or technical), and average wage rate (which apparently is 40 cents per word). Tuesday brought a nice run, which was the longest I had run since my 5.4km (3.35-mile) run last week, which took me further down the road to running a 10K next week, but since then, my foot has been hurting a little, and so I’ve decided to lay off running for a few days. As for ping pong, it’s a nightly occurrence here in my residence, which is why I joke with people that if I bring just one skill away from the entirety of this study abroad experience, it will be the ability to play ping pong pretty well! J In all seriousness though, a lot of us international students here have taken up ping pong as a way to hang out and have fun with friends, and we even invite guests over to join in the fun.

Yep, I play ping pong on a regular basis now. Watch out for more ping pong photos in the future! :)

And for the big event of the week: I have finally been to Disneyland! And, to boot, it’s Euro Disney! (Disneyland Paris, to be precise.) What a fun day Saturday was! A group of friends and I got on the metro at 6:00AM to make it to the bus station where we would catch our bus, and from there For rides, we went on Space Mountain, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, Peter Pan, and Thunder Mountain, and we also took the time to make our way around just about the whole park and see most of the sights (and get some souvenirs!). We even got to take a group picture with Goofy, and watch the lovely end of the day parade! See all the photos on Facebook!

Our gang for the day! Yay for international friends! :)

Sleeping Beauty's Castle!

Our first ride of the day!

Group photo with Goofy!

The finale of the parade: classic Disney characters!
(Donald Duck, Chip & Dale, Goofy, and of course Minnie & Mickey!)

Sunday was a great wrap-up to the week: I finally got to Mass, and I had brunch with some French friends. It feels a little shameful to say that it’s the first Sunday I’ve actually attended Mass since I’ve been here, but unfortunately it’s true. Nonetheless, I have plans to continue going, and I’m now familiar with at least one Mass in the area. After Mass, a few French friends came over and brought authentic French food for us to eat! (Thank you Manon!) And then of course there was more ping pong in the evening, because we can’t get enough here J

Looking forward, I’m still planning where I’ll be over fall break, which is the week of October 27 to November 2, and planning out my weekend trips and such. So far a trip to Italy is in the works with Grace, and I’m hoping to find my way to Slovakia and Poland as well. I just have to keep in mind my budget, and keep up with having a great French experience in Europe. Wish me luck, and as always, à bientôt!

Week 6: Want to travel? Ready, set, go!

Traveling and planning has been on my mind a lot this week, more so than ever before. My friends and I have spent this week talking about all sorts of fun trips that we could take, and some of my weekends are starting to come together. But first, let’s start with how things are going in Lille this week.

On Monday, there was a nice informal welcome event for all the residents of my dorm. It turns out that there are two main RAs (or responsables de residence, as they’re called in French), and then four or so other people who are in charge of other specific things in the residence, such as entertainment, equipment, and events. So everyone gathered in the breakfast room to hear a talk from the main RA, and then there was free food to go around (so that people would actually come, of course). We even talked about the end of the semester concert, where anyone who plays an instrument or sings gets together and puts on a concert for the rest of the residence (I volunteered to sing!). It was good to see at least a few more of the 90 people living in my residence, and it was a nice event. Of course, after that, I had to go get the washing machine unlocked and my laundry out… Life goes on.

A bunch of us in the breakfast room sharing in the free food after hearing the talk from the RAs. 

“Franglish” was the name of the game on Tuesday night! I had a couple of classes during the day, and then in the evening, at a pub that’s about 5 minutes walking distance from my residence, there was a French-English exchange event called Franglish, which occurs weekly. The event was like speed dating in the format – one-on-one conversations, moving tables every few minutes – except that the focus of the event wasn’t dating, but getting to speak in English and French. So, we had seven minutes to talk in French and then seven minutes to talk in English, and then onto the next person. I met around five people in total, and we talked about everything from French and American stereotypes to how to get around Paris and good places to eat in Belgium. It ended up being a really cool event, and I want to take some friends with me to future events!

Wednesday and Thursday ended up being pretty low-key… I got everything in for the October 1st deadline for study abroad applications on Wednesday, so I should be all set to go to Spain next semester, at least for this first part. Next comes getting my Spanish visa from the consulate in Paris… woohoo! Both days, I had classes (Thursday is a heavy class day for me), but I got to hang out with friends and talk about traveling and make plans in between, so I ended up getting through alright. (For the record, I still absolutely love my French class that ends at 7pm on Thursday nights!)

My free day was Friday, no classes, and so I ran for just over 7km in the morning (longest distance yet!) and got a little bit of homework done (and enjoyed the actually functioning wifi in my residence). I also stopped in at school to meet up with some friends, and while I had wifi, I tried again to order my French SIM card – and it actually worked this time! So now I’m getting it in the mail by next Friday! J Then, in the afternoon, I met up with my friend Corrinne and had some lovely coffee in a Notting Hill Café (that’s apparently the Starbucks of Lille), and we sat down and discussed travel plans. We discovered that neither of us had much planned for the semester, and so we started a great discussion on where we want to travel during the semester. On the top of the list are the Amalfi Coast and Cinque Terre in Italy, and Montpellier in southern France, where we both have friends studying abroad through the University of Minnesota. (What a small world!) Then, and the most important part of the day, we booked train tickets to Bruges and Ghent in Belgium for Sunday!

On Saturday I had my Teaching French as a Foreign Language class in the morning, which was not ideal, but at least interesting enough to keep me awake (yes I actually did get to class on a Saturday morning, haha). After class, one of the French girls in my class was nice enough to get lunch with me and explain what I hadn’t quite understood from another literature class that she’s in as well, and we had a really nice time outside on the lawn. Then, on Saturday night, I went to a birthday party for Susie, a friend of mine who is Canadian but whose parents are Czech and Slovak, and we partied the night away and had an amazing time! (And it was my first time in a club – really fun!)

Sunday was the biggest day of the week in terms of travel – I went to Bruges and Ghent on a day trip with Corrinne, and it was marvelous! Since I had stayed up quite late on Saturday night, it was difficult to roll out of bed to get ready and catch a 9am train on Sunday morning, but I managed to get to a Paul café right by the Grand’Place by 8:10am, and then after each of us had had our small “breakfasts” of a double espresso and huge Speculoos macaroon, we got on the train and headed to Bruges.

A great way to start off the day - in a Paul café. :)

One of the first things that I noticed about Belgium aside from the sights of Bruges was that everything was in Dutch instead of French, and I thought that was interesting because I had been used to seeing everything in French, or at least being able to get around with French. This was the first experience I had in a while where I was out of my element in terms of language. After we arrived in Bruges, we decided to follow the water, so that we could try to take a boat tour of the city. We navigated our way around the main square and found lunch before too long at an amazing place called Lizzie’s Waffels. If you ever have a chance, I would highly recommend going there, as their waffles are extra-large but really light and delicious! To top off our experience in Bruges, we got some frozen yogurt in delicious flavors afterwards, and then we made our way back to the train station to get to Ghent.

First moment in Bruges! What a charming place it was already turning out to be.

In the main square in Bruges. These buildings are all so magnificently historic!

THE BEST WAFFLE I HAVE EVER HAD IN MY LIFE. So good!!

Frozen yogurt in Bruges (and our last stop before leaving): After Eight (mint chocolate) and Macaroon. Yummy!

We didn’t realize how much time it would take us to get back to the train station, and we made a wrong turn, and so we missed our original 2pm train, but we just hopped on the next one and everything went well. When we got to Ghent, we knew that the first thing we wanted to do was take a boat tour, so we navigated our way toward the water and found the place to get on the boat, thanks to Corrinne’s excellent navigation instincts. J The tour guide on the boat was friendly and funny, and we learned lots of interesting things during the tour about the culture and history of Ghent.

Gravensteen castle, as seen from the boat. Impressive!

An angel warning us to take care of the earth (hence the gas mask).

Ghent's replica of London's famous Big Ben, aptly named Little Ben.

One of the coolest parts of this trip was meeting another person who is actually from Wisconsin! We got talking with a girl on the boat tour who had an American accent, and when we proceeded to ask her where she came from, we found out that she actually comes from a town not too far from my hometown of Waukesha – Pewaukee!

It's so nice to meet another Wisconsinite and Packer fan!

After we said our goodbyes to our new friend, we looked for different things to do in Ghent, which of course included trying to find some good Belgian chocolate to take back to Lille. Normally in France and Belgium not many stores are even open on Sundays, but apparently this weekend there was a special shopping event where more stores than normal stayed open until 10pm on Sunday – which meant that Corrinne and I got to do some shopping! After we made our purchases, we grabbed a quick dinner at EXKi, a nice (but not too expensive) organic restaurant, and then we made our way to the train station to grab three different trains home. All in all, it was a great day – and we certainly did our fair share of walking!

All in all, this week has been pretty cool. Classes went pretty well, I’ve been traveling a little bit already, and it’s been really fun hanging out with friends and even making some new ones. I’ve been talking about future travel plans with friends, and of course I’ve been getting excited to go to Disney next weekend! I will also be staying in Paris for Saturday night, and meeting Corrinne and making our way around Paris for the day – Eiffel Tower, here we come! J I can’t wait to see Paris for the first time. Until next week – à bientôt!

P.S. Check out the rest of my pictures from Belgium on Facebook!