Blogs from Lille, Nord-Pas de Calais, France, Europe - page 4

I am tempted to start this entry with a clearly untrue but still quite heartfelt “Only in France!” Let me elaborate. It’s January in Lille. Now, Lille winters are generally substantially milder than Ohio or Pennsylvania winters. It does not get as cold - in fact, it rarely gets down to freezing. Rather than snowing, it rains…which is miserable, but that is beside the point. The point, rather, was that this particular winter WAS cold. Uncharacteristically so. Freezingly so. For about two weeks, it got cold enough for the ever-present puddles that gathered in uneven spots in pavement and where there were missing cobblestones froze and remained frozen. Rain froze, it sleeted, it snowed. Lungs, hands, and noses felt the stinging, burning sensation of sub-zero temperatures. Normally, this would not bother me at all - au ... read more

One week it's sun and snow from a distance and the next it's in the thick of the swirly white stuff! In a particularly busy travel period of weekend trips it was up early Saturday morning and off to St Pancras for the Eurostar to Lille in France. This has to be the best invention in the world. Catch the tube to Kings Cross St Pancras, be ready 30 mins before departure, through French customs before boarding the train and an hour or so later you are walking out in the middle of town in a completely different world (with much better food). As Astrid and I only had 2 days to make the most of our weekend in Lille we found our hotel (right near the station) to drop off the bags before heading into ... read more

ok, i know im terrible at updating my blog. but i was on vacation in italy, and then my computer's hard drive crashed and so it had to be sent away and then i decided to shorten my stay to only a semester so i was incredibly busy dealing with all of that paperwork and whatnot, my apologies. my vacation was great. my mom arrived in lille saturday night and we went and had a nice meal out together before returning to my tiny room where we both slept! it was surprisingly comfortable, i slept on the floor and my mom got the bed and it worked out fine. on sunday we got up and went to wazemmes, the open air market. we bought hats and gloves and also some veggies for dinner that night. we ... read more

I decided to leave my last place in Sourdeval a few days early, as I’ve discovered that 2 weeks is an ample amount of time to live with one family. The kids seemed upset that I was leaving early, and had their own ways of showing it. On my last day, the little five-year-old kept coming into my/his room, and just hanging about the doorway, not really doing anything, just talking nonsense. I went to the bathroom across the hall, and heard a knock on my bedroom door. “Can I come in?” he chirped. Shaking my head, and knowing I might regret speaking up, I told Finlay that I was in the bathroom. Outside the door, I could audibly hear the wheels in his head turning. Then, after a pregnant pause, he says, “did you know ... read more

I believe I have already described my landlord once. To quote myself (if I may) a few blog entries earlier: “A short, stocky man in his upper fifties gentle, smiling eyes and a white ponytail…my landlord is a very nice and helpful man. He offered me a ride home the day I signed the lease, which I thought was nice, and he also brought me a small round table and two chairs (which I put on the right wall right after the bathroom door but before the kitchen nook), a (very crooked but still functional) bookcase, on which I put my folded clothes, and a full-length mirror. He is gentle, friendly, and owns several apartments around the Lille Métropole, which he rents out and cares for with his wife, who is equally sweet and personable.” I ... read more