Blogs from Nord-Pas de Calais, France, Europe - page 24

so i've been here less than a week and so far i love it. i've just been hanging out and making friends and exploring lille. my room is becoming more and more personalized, i've started to the decorate the walls. oh, if you think of it...send me more pictures to put on my walls! address is: Caitlin Hoffmann B407 Résidence Universitaire "Robespierre" 1 Rue Lavoisier, Mons en Baroeul 59370 France my intensive french classes start tomorrow and go until friday. 9am to 1pm. im a little nervous, but mostly just excited. there's this really neat thing at my school called the international café. and its this guy who arranges a bunch of school trips and activities so that the international students at the school can integrate with the french students. it's way cool. i'm going to ... read more

Hey! I just wrote a whole blog and it got deleted!!!! So I will start again, this weekend I went to a different town called Lille with my host sister, her boyfriend, and the host brother who actually goes to school in Lille. This weekend in Lille there was a huge once a year festaval! I got to see so many things and hear so many things and it was all so amazing. There were so many people thought I had to link arms all the time with my host sister because I was so afraid to get lost! But every street was lined with street vendors selling many different things. I go to see many French scarfs and some pictures and just all different things. I really liked some of the African things that were ... read more

hey Everyone! I finally found some time to write a new blog. Everything is wonderful here and im doing really well. I thought I would tell you about the family im staying with...Marie Jose is the mother, she is extreemly friendly and helpful. She speaks some English which is really good for me because it is very hard at to moment to understand things in French. The host sister Marion is also very nice she always goes out of here way to help me out and she has let me barrow her camera until I get one. Her boyfriend Jovanie (I dont know how to spell it) is really funny and nice I really like spending time with them. The brother Timothy has been very busy because when I arrived he was on vacation with his ... read more

Hello, I will begin starting off with saying thank you to everyone who will be reading these blogs. I really hope that everyone enjoys reading these. I will be leaving for France on the 26th of August, next Tuesday. I will land in Paris on the 27th at about 2:00 in the morning in the states. I will be greeted by Rotarians and my host family(s). Something very amazing that happened yesterday, An exchange student from France named Fleurine came to the states a couple days ago. I happen to be staying with her parents when I go to France. We have been e-mailing and talking for about half a year just talking about the differences and similarities between the United States and France and the culture and what to expect and everything. It has been ... read more

I am going to fill in some of the other days esp. the map so check for them...but first... After spending Sunday and Monday in Luxembourg, I returned to northern France for one last stop before I proceed to Belgium. I decided to avoid being in France on the holiday, Monday (Bastille Day), which apparently has a splendid fireworks show in Paris every year--but I have been to Paris before so only new places this trip, ten years later! The train ride through Belgium, and Lille itself has been very gray (skies) and I must admit I am not terribly impressed with Lille. I have not been to England, but it seems drab here like some of those industrial towns I have seen in the movies, plus some of the people have adopted the punk style ... read more