the beginning of a daily routine

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so i've now been here for 1 month and 2 days and i am just now falling into a daily routine. i knew it would take me a while to settle in, but 1 month, wow. i've started running 5 times a week with a friend (thank god, the pastries are so cheap and irresistible here!), and i now have a set class schedule with some "homework" i'm supposed to be doing. homework really isn't so obligatory over here, especially for the exchange students). i have homework in my french for non-native speakers class, my translation classes, and my one-on-one conversation course (we have to write in a journal). and that's it. in my other courses i'm supposed to be doing reading.....but i'm way behind in all of it because i can't read french quickly and because the texts are not simple children's books. other than that, i try to cook as much as possible, so i'm often going grocery shopping....i watch a lot of movies with friends, chat on the internet, just hang out around home during the week. on the weekends i usually have 1 day for homework/cleaning/laundry/errands and 1 day for relaxing and discovering a new place in or around lille, and then meeting up with friends, and 1 day for the wazemmes market and more homework and relaxing. i love my 3 day weekends. after one, the thought of having to go back to school is really bizarre.....i have 4 days of classes and 3 days of weekend, so it makes a nice balance.
it's starting to get a little chilly here, and of course our heaters barely heat the room. it will be just like growing up in the house on porter's point rd. piece of cake..
so this particular weekend i went to a city called boulogne wit my friends ivi and hanna. it's the largest fishing port in france, and it was also the base for Napoleon's british invasion. malheureusement, we really only went to the beach and the downtown area, we didn't seek out any historical sites, but next time i am there i plan to do so, also, there is this cool aquarium thing there, supposed to be the largest in france, i'm also going to go there next time i'm in boulogne.
so we took a loooong train ride there so we could look at the pretty land. it was so refreshing to be able to see ponds and rivers and cows and horses and big hills that ressembled moutains. i was so happy with the train ride before we even got to boulogne. i would have been content if we just turned right around and went back to lille. but....instead we walked to the beach, oooohed and aaaaaaahed a bit, taking pictures, and then we set down a blanket on the beach and ate the lunches that we had packed for the day. it was much fun. after that it was a mixture of shell collecting, drawing sand art with sticks, and more picture taking. once we had had enough of the beach we went off in search of the city center.....and found it. it was this cute little street, only open to pedestrians, it was lovely (reminded me a bit of church street!) we found this nice café with some live music going on and sat and had some warm drinks before catching our train back. overall it was a lovely little day trip. so nice to get out of lille. that was the first time that i had left lille since arriving a month ago......crazy.
and then today i went to the wazemmes market, got really cheap cute dresses, came home, did my laundry, cooked, did my homework. i feel incredibly productive....and thrilled about finally having some structure in my crazy french life.
well....c'est minuit, and i must get up in the morning for my french class for exchange students. i'm so exhausted from the weekend.
bonne nuit! i will try to update more regularly.

xoxo.

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Photos

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sand art!

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city center-ish

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some old church.