Days 6-8 (or so)
Jun. 10th, 2008 09:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bebootsNote: This entry is now Friends locked to make my mother less paranoid. :3
Days 6-8 (or so... I've actually lost count. I'm recounting the first week I've been in Lille, in any case)
So... it's not Monday. D: Sorry. It's actually Tuesday, right around 9:30 in the evening as I'm typing this. :) I'm just happy to have finally achieved internet access! I spoke with the nice French student who lives down the corridor from me on the second floor of Galilée, and he has not yet received the internet cords he promised me... however, he has leant me one of his own (as he broke his promise), and I have managed to connect it all on my own! :) Thank you, Monsieur, for your help!
All right, I shall now narrate the most interesting points of my stay thus far in the lovely city of Lille. (This will be difficult, as much of what I have been doing is awesome and fascinating and seriously guys you should all go on this trip next year.)
First of all... where the heck am I? I'm in Lille (from the word "l'île", or island, as it was once encircled by canals, way back when), which is located in the far North-East corner of France, fairly close to the Belgian border. (There is a handy map locator on the wikipedia article for the city: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lille ) So close, in fact, it's actually faster to go to Brussells by train that it is to get to Paris. Even so, it takes less than two hours to get to either place... less than two to Amsterdam, less than three to London, and almost no time at all to get to a lot of famous WWI sites. On Thursday, in fact, we're going to Brugge (in Belgium, called the "Venice of the North"). :) So, if you want to go anywhere in France... or anywhere in Northern Europe, really... make Lille your base of operations.
Lille is also a really nice city. There is the usual laundry list of awesomeness - old buildings, large trees, gorgeous archetecture, good food... There are also really crazy drivers, but I didn't expect anything less from France. ;) (Hey, mum, remember when you were driving me to the airport and we saw that crazy car in front of us cut off that giant semi-truck to get at an exit at the last minute, across three lanes of traffic? I saw worse within half an hour of my arrival here. I was in the taxi, in fact. D: ) The metropolis of Lille makes it the fourth largest city in France at 1.2 million people, but the city itself (where I am) only has a population of perhaps 40,000 people (although I'm not sure of exact numbers - I haven't been counting. ;) ).
My dorm (Galilée) is actually one of the nicest on the campus of the Université Catholique de Lille (which is in turn like one of four or five universities/colleges in the city). I'm going to upload a short video of me showing you my dormroom (it's loading slowly in the next window, and I'm not sure how long it will be. Perhaps I will post a link along with my next entry, which will hopefully be soon. I apologize in advance for my shoddy filming. I am very satisfied with my lot, here. :) ... except for the lack of the wifi. D: But if that's the only thing that's wrong with my dorm, I'll be happy.
I have made several new acquaintances, mostly among the group of Lille exchange students. I'd like to give the shout out (in no particular order) to Trysta, Yan, Naveed, Heeran and others from Canada! To Heather, Allyssa and others from the States! To the awesome people from the Netherlands and Mexico! To Tiphaine and other Lillois who have so aided me! (I'm sorry for not naming you, but I have trouble spelling people's names. D: )
Back to the subject of Lille. Yan and I were going to go to Paris this past weekend, but due to many factors (including exhaustion/jet lag, nervousness at striking out on our own, and the awesome Saturday and Sunday markets around Lille) we didn't go. We're still going to Amsterdam this weekend, and will probably make it to Paris the weekend after that.
I mentioned markets. The markets are awesome. Well, we went to a second hand book market at La Place du Générale Charles de Gaule (or just "La Grande Place" (the Big Place)), which had loads of interesting second hand books, post cards, and BDs (Bandes Dessinés - comic books) which I would have loved to have bought, if only for their historical value... but some of them were expensive, and I would have had to walk back to my dorm through the rain with them, and it would have been a hassle, and I had already spent like 60€ on brand new books from Le Furet Du Nord (a giant, new book store, which I spent far too much time in)... but I have every intention of going back on a sunny day. D:< (Oh, and Ashley: do you want an Iron Man comic in French, y/n? Danielle, Ian, do you want French X-men? They were selling them for like 7€ apiece!)
Oh, and while we (Yan and I) were at La Grande Place last Saturday, we literally ran into a Gay Pride Parade. It was... interesting. We had fun watching them (they had moving dance stages on trucks, and were playing really awesome music, and getting crowd participation), but then the guys who were standing near us began accumulating a growing pile of empty beer bottles and were getting rowdier and rowdier... so we made our escape. But it was cool anyway.
Anyway, back to the subject of markets. I have also visited the famed Sunday market at Wazemmes. (Well, I say Sunday because that's it's busiest day. It's also open on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but it's smaller and not as many people go). There, you can find anything you could possibly need for like half the price you'd expect it to be. I bought like big packs of rasberries (two for 2€50), cheap shirts (ranging from 4€ to 10€) a nice purse for 10€, tights for 3€ each, and scarves for... 1€. I kid you not. (Just for reference, I think the exchange rate is like 1€ = 1,40$ Canadian). It's sweet. I may just end up buying everyone awesome cheap scarves in addition to post cards. :)
I have found that my spoken English grammar is deteriorating. It worries me, especially considering how bad it was before. That is all.
Oh, and I am actually attending classes as well. ;) This is for actual university credit, after all. I am in the "top" (most advanced) French class of the group of 105 or so people. I've had time to get used to the French accent now, so I'm having very little trouble understanding what they're saying (until they start talking about food, or details of something, or whatever). Also, as a linguistic note that my dearest sister may be interested in... There are a lot of signs in "ch'ti" around the city. "Ch'ti" is a "patois" language that was greatly influenced by French (not a "perversion of French", the Lillois will insist). I am perhaps going to go see a movie in theatres in a week or two, entitled "Bienvenue Chez les Ch'tis" (Roughly, "Welcome to the Home of the Ch'tis"), which is supposed to have fun with the differences between those who live in the North and the South of France.
Another cool thing about the program (besides the beautiful background of Lille, the field trips, and the interesting teachers) is what the schedules call our "tutorat" - essentially, we get split into groups of like half a dozen people, get assigned a tutor (a native of Lille) and we go shopping, hang out at cafés, check out old churches... all the while speaking in French with our friendly tutors. :) The leader of my group is named Tiphaine, and she is pure awesome. :)
I am quite certain that I have forgotten to write down many things (perhaps too many things), but I've been at this for almost an hour and I think that this is probably good enough to start with. :) Don't worry, I'm enjoying myself, and I'm not spending too much money... and I'm fairly safe. Don't worry too much, mother and father dearest!
So... coming up this week:
Wednesday Evening: a trip to the Théatre du Nord (Theatre of the North) to see "Alice" with a dozen or so other students.
Thursday Afternoon: a trip to Brugge, "Venice of the North"! (Along with historical tour, perfect for History majors such as myself!)
... and other such awesome French-ness. :D
Days 6-8 (or so... I've actually lost count. I'm recounting the first week I've been in Lille, in any case)
So... it's not Monday. D: Sorry. It's actually Tuesday, right around 9:30 in the evening as I'm typing this. :) I'm just happy to have finally achieved internet access! I spoke with the nice French student who lives down the corridor from me on the second floor of Galilée, and he has not yet received the internet cords he promised me... however, he has leant me one of his own (as he broke his promise), and I have managed to connect it all on my own! :) Thank you, Monsieur, for your help!
All right, I shall now narrate the most interesting points of my stay thus far in the lovely city of Lille. (This will be difficult, as much of what I have been doing is awesome and fascinating and seriously guys you should all go on this trip next year.)
First of all... where the heck am I? I'm in Lille (from the word "l'île", or island, as it was once encircled by canals, way back when), which is located in the far North-East corner of France, fairly close to the Belgian border. (There is a handy map locator on the wikipedia article for the city: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lille ) So close, in fact, it's actually faster to go to Brussells by train that it is to get to Paris. Even so, it takes less than two hours to get to either place... less than two to Amsterdam, less than three to London, and almost no time at all to get to a lot of famous WWI sites. On Thursday, in fact, we're going to Brugge (in Belgium, called the "Venice of the North"). :) So, if you want to go anywhere in France... or anywhere in Northern Europe, really... make Lille your base of operations.
Lille is also a really nice city. There is the usual laundry list of awesomeness - old buildings, large trees, gorgeous archetecture, good food... There are also really crazy drivers, but I didn't expect anything less from France. ;) (Hey, mum, remember when you were driving me to the airport and we saw that crazy car in front of us cut off that giant semi-truck to get at an exit at the last minute, across three lanes of traffic? I saw worse within half an hour of my arrival here. I was in the taxi, in fact. D: ) The metropolis of Lille makes it the fourth largest city in France at 1.2 million people, but the city itself (where I am) only has a population of perhaps 40,000 people (although I'm not sure of exact numbers - I haven't been counting. ;) ).
My dorm (Galilée) is actually one of the nicest on the campus of the Université Catholique de Lille (which is in turn like one of four or five universities/colleges in the city). I'm going to upload a short video of me showing you my dormroom (it's loading slowly in the next window, and I'm not sure how long it will be. Perhaps I will post a link along with my next entry, which will hopefully be soon. I apologize in advance for my shoddy filming. I am very satisfied with my lot, here. :) ... except for the lack of the wifi. D: But if that's the only thing that's wrong with my dorm, I'll be happy.
I have made several new acquaintances, mostly among the group of Lille exchange students. I'd like to give the shout out (in no particular order) to Trysta, Yan, Naveed, Heeran and others from Canada! To Heather, Allyssa and others from the States! To the awesome people from the Netherlands and Mexico! To Tiphaine and other Lillois who have so aided me! (I'm sorry for not naming you, but I have trouble spelling people's names. D: )
Back to the subject of Lille. Yan and I were going to go to Paris this past weekend, but due to many factors (including exhaustion/jet lag, nervousness at striking out on our own, and the awesome Saturday and Sunday markets around Lille) we didn't go. We're still going to Amsterdam this weekend, and will probably make it to Paris the weekend after that.
I mentioned markets. The markets are awesome. Well, we went to a second hand book market at La Place du Générale Charles de Gaule (or just "La Grande Place" (the Big Place)), which had loads of interesting second hand books, post cards, and BDs (Bandes Dessinés - comic books) which I would have loved to have bought, if only for their historical value... but some of them were expensive, and I would have had to walk back to my dorm through the rain with them, and it would have been a hassle, and I had already spent like 60€ on brand new books from Le Furet Du Nord (a giant, new book store, which I spent far too much time in)... but I have every intention of going back on a sunny day. D:< (Oh, and Ashley: do you want an Iron Man comic in French, y/n? Danielle, Ian, do you want French X-men? They were selling them for like 7€ apiece!)
Oh, and while we (Yan and I) were at La Grande Place last Saturday, we literally ran into a Gay Pride Parade. It was... interesting. We had fun watching them (they had moving dance stages on trucks, and were playing really awesome music, and getting crowd participation), but then the guys who were standing near us began accumulating a growing pile of empty beer bottles and were getting rowdier and rowdier... so we made our escape. But it was cool anyway.
Anyway, back to the subject of markets. I have also visited the famed Sunday market at Wazemmes. (Well, I say Sunday because that's it's busiest day. It's also open on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but it's smaller and not as many people go). There, you can find anything you could possibly need for like half the price you'd expect it to be. I bought like big packs of rasberries (two for 2€50), cheap shirts (ranging from 4€ to 10€) a nice purse for 10€, tights for 3€ each, and scarves for... 1€. I kid you not. (Just for reference, I think the exchange rate is like 1€ = 1,40$ Canadian). It's sweet. I may just end up buying everyone awesome cheap scarves in addition to post cards. :)
I have found that my spoken English grammar is deteriorating. It worries me, especially considering how bad it was before. That is all.
Oh, and I am actually attending classes as well. ;) This is for actual university credit, after all. I am in the "top" (most advanced) French class of the group of 105 or so people. I've had time to get used to the French accent now, so I'm having very little trouble understanding what they're saying (until they start talking about food, or details of something, or whatever). Also, as a linguistic note that my dearest sister may be interested in... There are a lot of signs in "ch'ti" around the city. "Ch'ti" is a "patois" language that was greatly influenced by French (not a "perversion of French", the Lillois will insist). I am perhaps going to go see a movie in theatres in a week or two, entitled "Bienvenue Chez les Ch'tis" (Roughly, "Welcome to the Home of the Ch'tis"), which is supposed to have fun with the differences between those who live in the North and the South of France.
Another cool thing about the program (besides the beautiful background of Lille, the field trips, and the interesting teachers) is what the schedules call our "tutorat" - essentially, we get split into groups of like half a dozen people, get assigned a tutor (a native of Lille) and we go shopping, hang out at cafés, check out old churches... all the while speaking in French with our friendly tutors. :) The leader of my group is named Tiphaine, and she is pure awesome. :)
I am quite certain that I have forgotten to write down many things (perhaps too many things), but I've been at this for almost an hour and I think that this is probably good enough to start with. :) Don't worry, I'm enjoying myself, and I'm not spending too much money... and I'm fairly safe. Don't worry too much, mother and father dearest!
So... coming up this week:
Wednesday Evening: a trip to the Théatre du Nord (Theatre of the North) to see "Alice" with a dozen or so other students.
Thursday Afternoon: a trip to Brugge, "Venice of the North"! (Along with historical tour, perfect for History majors such as myself!)
... and other such awesome French-ness. :D
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Date: 2008-06-12 09:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-13 07:11 pm (UTC)