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!