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!

Week 5: Traveling, exploring, and studying, oh my!

This week was full of more adventures, big and small. Not only did I find my way through a couple of navigation challenges, but also I made it through another week of classes in French, and I also did lots of traveling on the weekend!

To start off with some day-to-day things, in my Teaching French as a Foreign Language class on Monday, we analyzed a listening exercise focused on a song that I absolutely love – “Paris,” sung by Souad Massi and Marc Lavoine. That was just the gem of that day for me, and classes went well throughout the week. I’m finding that I’m liking my translation classes more and more, and so I will definitely be looking into translation opportunities in the future, especially literary translation. My 17^th Century French Literature course was also a highlight in academics of the week – I loved how the professor pulled apart the text of the play (“Cinna” by Corneille) word for word, and deeply analyzed their significance. Finally, I started my French as a Foreign Language class (in the second highest level!) on Thursday, and the professor was the same lady I had had in my pre-semester intensive French course, and so at the very least, Thursday nights with that class will make it a great semester. So this week in academics went pretty well!

Monday night was pretty low-key, but I did splurge on some familiar ingredients and made my favorite salad from home, with spinach, chicken, toasted walnuts, goat cheese, pears, craisins, and honey-vinegar dressing. I shared my salad with some friends who made some pasta, and we made a meal out of it. It was a nice evening.

My favorite salad! Plus some pasta, and some pomegranate juice. Bon appétit!

On Wednesday I finally got my bank card, and ever since I have been trying to get a French SIM card for my phone, but I keep running into problems like the company wanting you to already have a French phone number to get a French phone number (thank you very much Virgin Mobile France)… but nevertheless, the struggle continues, and I hope to have a SIM card from either Virgin Mobile or Free Mobile by next week at the absolute latest. I cannot reiterate enough for students planning to study abroad in France in the future, for getting a bank account and then getting a SIM card right away to be two of your biggest and first priorities after getting here.

Tuesday and Wednesday also held my navigation challenges in store! After figuring out during the first few weeks that I’m not as good at navigation as I thought, and especially on foot, I had a friend challenge me to get to different places and take pictures as proof. Although it ended up only being two places to go to, I already feel more confident traveling and navigating on my own. Thanks Rob for the challenge – I think I won! J

Navigation challenge, day 1: the Gare Saint-Sauveur, an old train station that's now a modern art museum. Unfortunately it was closed when I got there, but I did make it there, and in pretty good time too! No Google Maps for me! :)

Navigation challenge, day 2: an address in Fives, one of the suburbs of Lille. This is a statue in the town, right off the metro station. It was my first time taking the metro alone!

Thursday was a fun night, partying with some Slovaks I had met before. It’s amazing how many Slovaks I have met here – almost more Slovaks than Americans! Friday was a nice night in, to make sure that I could get up for an early morning on Saturday, because…

…Katherine and I went to Mont Saint-Michel and two other cities in the north of France over the weekend! We booked the trip through a company called Cice Voyages, which offers students deals on trips to popular places like Bruges and Brussels, Amsterdam, and Berlin, to name a few. On Saturday we traveled by bus to the famous Mont Saint-Michel in the region of Normandy, and we got to see some pretty incredible views!

Our first stop on Saturday (as seen from the bus): the Normandy Bridge (Pont de Normandie).

Katherine and I on a bridge a little bit away from Mont St Michel. The actual island and abbey is the tiny thing on the left! 

One of the many gorgeous views looking out from Mont St Michel!

After all that walking around and all the picturesque views, we had a picnic dinner on a flowery bovine bench.
(They sure love their cows and sheep in Normandy...)

Then on Sunday, to make a good weekend out of it, they took us to Honfleur and Étretat, two cities in the north of France where a bunch of Impressionist painters like Monet and Boudin painted the gorgeous seascapes found there, and we had fun walking around the scenic port in Honfleur and hiking up the cliffs in Étretat. What a beautifully magnificent weekend!

The postcard-worthy port in Honfleur. What a charming little town!

Even France can't live without Ben & Jerry's!

My first official French macaroon, from Honfleur!

The rocky beach and famed cliffs of Étretat. It was a beautiful day, to put the cherry on top of a marvelous weekend!

At the top of one side of the cliffs and beach, looking out at another cliff.

The cliffs on the other side of the beach. Living life on the edge!

A war memorial in Étretat. What with visiting Dunkerque, Honfleur, and Étretat, we seem to be hitting up all the D-Day beach towns... or at least towns with war memorials. It is cool to see this part of history in person.

Nutella ice cream! :)

To top off the weekend, I won a panda pillow in a raffle on the bus! :)

So, overall, this week has been pretty fantastic. I would of course be remiss if I didn’t congratulate the Packers on a crushing victory against the Bears! J I’m excited to have taken such an opportunity to travel and enjoy myself, and can’t wait to do so again in two weeks at Disneyland in Paris! Other than traveling, we'll see what France has in store for me during the next week. À bientôt!

Week 4: Getting into the swing of things…

This week for me was a lot about getting used to things here, namely classes. Not that I haven’t already started getting used to the culture in general, because of course that happened from the moment I stepped off the plane, but more of daily life and becoming an adult getting ready for the real world.

The second week of classes was better and worse. It was mostly better, because I mostly had my schedule down and I knew where to go, but also worse, because I kept having to change classes around, and then I missed some classes just because no one had told me there had been a room change, for example. I have found out after only having two formal translation classes in my life that I am really interested in the nuances of how translation works, so that will definitely be something I explore as a possible (part-time or full-time) career. I have classes that differ somewhat in subjects, but almost all of the ten courses I’m in are either taught in French or the focus of the class is French. Overall, I am liking my classes so far.

Outside of academics, I’ve been challenged to make my own dinner every single night this week, and it went pretty well! Below are some pics of some of the meals that I made (or helped to make). I liked this challenge because it taught me a lot of basic things about cooking and food, and also I feel about an inch closer in the miles I have yet to go to become a “real” adult. Also, grocery shopping alone was what I didn’t know I needed!

Making a simple, traditional French dish: ratatouille!

Big dinner Tuesday night! - salad, carbonara, couscous, baguette, and of course some Orangina to drink! Thank goodness James and Grace shared the cooking (and food!) with me.

Noodles & eggs - one of my favorite dishes from home :)

This weekend was pretty spectacular in and of itself (and hopefully the last one for a little bit that included no international travel). Friday I had no class, so I slept in, had lunch with my friends Katherine and Maria, and then ended up spending the afternoon and evening with them. It was really fun, and my favorite part was definitely watching the movie Intouchables while sharing wine and chocolate. What a great night!

Saturday was a very fun (and very long) day! I started the day off at 8am by going for a 6K run. Holy cow, that was invigorating! It’s good to know that I can last at least that far… and I’ll need to be stepping it up if I want to actually run a 10K in Tourcoing (a neighboring city) in a few weeks.

At the Journée inter-résidence! Ivona, Rebecca, and Willy were a lot of fun to hang out with :)

Obstacle course!

Zumba - my favorite part of the day!

Human foosball!

Jumping over the spinner :)

Human bubbles!

A few hours after my run, around 20 students from my residence and I hopped on a bus and made it to a sports complex for a Journée inter-résidences (Inter-residential day), which was really fun! There were many different physical activities for us to participate in, including a wrecking ball balance game where you try to knock your opponents off a wobbly platform, a Wipeout-style spinning bar that you had to jump over and be the last one standing to win (but not quite as high in the air!), a human foosball area, a blow-up obstacle course, plastic bubble suits to play human bumper cars and roll around in, and last but certainly not least, aerobic step and Zumba sessions! All of it made for a very fun day, and despite the rain at the end of the event, we all had a wonderful time (and I’m definitely sore today!). After all of this physically taxing activity, we then got to go to a soirée to socialize more and of course dance the night away with students from the different residences around the city. Needless to say, today I have been pretty tired… Time to get some sleep to start off next week right.

On Sunday Katherine and I had been planning to do something to celebrate the French Journées de Patrimoine (Patrimony/Heritage Days - sorry, the link is in French), and so we went to see a French film called “Gemma Bovery” (2014). After that, I decided to take it easy for the rest of the day and get some more homework done (and write this post of course!).

Next weekend Katherine and I are hoping to travel and see more of Europe. After at least a few weekends of not quite making it out of the country (except for our little foray into Belgium last weekend), we want to make sure we start to travel while we’re here in Europe. We've been discussing where we want to go and whatnot, and so hopefully soon we'll get it all figured out. We’ll see where we actually get to in my next post J

After straightening out most of my classes and continuing my journey of growing up and getting used to life as an independent adult, and now taking a step back to reflect, I’m slowly starting to create my own life in the real world, step by baby step. Hopefully the future holds many bright stars and bold adventures for me. For now, I’m taking it one step at a time. On that optimistic note, I will see you on Sunday! À bientôt!