Blogs from Nord-Pas de Calais, France, Europe - page 23

so i started real classes this week, not just the intensive french classes i was taking last week. i still have intensive french, but now it's only once a week. as for my other classes i'm taking translation, and that's split into once class for french to english and one class for english to french. english to french is hard, i had it today. but in the end i'm only supposed to be tested on my translations from french to english, much easier. i'm taking a whooole lot of french literature: francophone lit., sexe et litterature, medieval lit., contemporary et moderne lit, another french lit. i had francophone lit today, it seems to be alright, there are other exchange students in it as well so we can kind of support each other and ask questions together, ... read more

So here we go. A new school year, a new blog. Well, not new, but more of a reprise après une longue pause, if you will. It was certainly no picnic getting all of my things from the Brussels airport to the Brussels-Midi station to the Lille-Europe station. Though I was grateful to have the big suitcase so that I could bring everything I needed at once instead of having things sent over, it definitely isn’t the easiest thing to maneuver. Chelsea, a friend of mine, and I decided to name my suitcases. The big, ugly suitcase with the grandmother’s couch green floral pattern on it was dubbed Marge. The smaller, black American Airlines suitcase became Bessie. Finally, my fading leather duffel was named Frank. Anyway. Rewind. When I finally got onto the train heading for ... read more

hmm ok...another blog entry. i hope i'm not sucking too much at updating this. i try to do one every few days, but oh well. i'm on my second weekend in lille, i went out last night with a bunch of the international students to celebrate the end of intensive french classes and that was really fun...and then today i went to le musee de beaux arts with my friend ivi. this weekend is le weekend de patrimoine, and admission into museums, churches, historic sites, etc. is free. all over france. it's so cool. things that are normally closed off to the public are opened and whatnot, so tomorrow i'm going to see la maison de charles de gaulle (because he was born in lille) and then to the zoo, and then to the opéra. i'm ... read more

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just a short entry tonight i think. i've been really busy the past few days running around and doing errands like applying for a bank account, trying to get student discount cards, applying for my temporary residency card, etc. i've come to the conclusion that the french government decided to make official processes as slow and painful as possible....and it doesn't help that they go on a 2 hour lunch break and return at least an hour after they say they're going to. i'm just a bit frustrated with how inefficient this country is compared to japan and with how much crap i have to do to get settled in. i know it will get better though. i realized today how much i dislike not living around mountains and water. mons en baroeul, the area i ... read more