Novotel Lille Centre

... in the last two weeks:<br>A hell of a lot of rain,<br>Starting back at school and having loads of lessons cancelled / teachers not turning up (wooppee!!)<br>Erin's 22nd birthday and a night in the sleaziest French club I will probably ever come across (and will most likely not return to)<br>The purchase of a printer<br>11/11 - Remembrance day in Lille (photos attached)<br>Confiscating a girl's phone in a lesson and then hearing my own go off in my bag!<br>Preparations to go to Paris!!

... and lovely and many people seem to use it as a place to go running, so I will be sure to go back with my trainers on!<br><br>When my parents had left there were only 3 other British girls left in my residence, so the following day we went to the cinema to see "Mademoiselle Chambon", a typical French love story with very little dialect (which made it easier to understand), and an unhappy ending. I enjoyed it!<br><br>This week I have also been to ...

... examples of lesson plans, which is really useful. <br><br>At the weekend Erin's boyfriend arrived in Lille for a visit, so we did a bit of exploring of parts of Lille which we had yet to visit, such as the Citadelle, a massive architected park just on the other side of Vieux Lille. The Citadelle is really popular with sports enthusiasts such as runners and cyclists, and you can also hire scooters to whizz around on!<br><br>On our way into the ...

... we then went to Lille, the fifth largest city in France, by the way it is at the top of my list of places visited so far. Our hostel was based in Lille. We all went out as a group and found some really nice bars. There was a lot of dancing going on, and come to find out the next day, our professor told us we had been in the gay district of Lille. No wonder no one was getting talked to besides the guys. It was fun all the same! The next day we walked around Lille and ...

... but French, Spanish, German, and on Friday I even observed a "Couture" lesson, which is a strand of the vocational studies which my school provides and trains students on how to design and make clothes.<br>The week has been challenging but very worthwhile, if not only for my confidence in French but meeting other foreigners in Lille and branching out of my comfort zone.<br>Today to start off as we meant to go on, travelling-wise, we took the train to Brussells, went for lunch in ...

... until Friday as she "enjoys the company"!<br>On Sunday night we saw Lille by night and ate local food in a lovely restaurant with its own brewery in the cellar!<br>On Monday and Tuesday morning we did pratical things such as getting French phones sorted out, opening bank accounts and visiting the "foyer des jeunes" where we will be staying together in a studio apartment. Everything seemed very nice and we know that there are a couple of other English assistants staying ...

... up some wine at the local supermarket. I had forgotten how cheap wine/beer is in this country. I found some Australian wines (wolfblass) which normally costs an arm and a leg back home so I never buy it but here it was all under $7 a bottle!! I so wish we didn't have limits on the amount of liquor we could bring back because I think I would have gone to town to bring back a suitcase full ...

The bus rolled into Lille at about 8 PM after what was definitely an exhausting day. On the way, my seatmate and I watched The Illusionist. Enough with the American movies, I know. But I bring it up because it is set in Vienna, they talk about Budapest, and they end up in Prague. It was strange to realize that I'm planning on visiting all of those cities on my fall sketch trip! <br><br>After moving all of our things into the rooms (our program practically took up an ...

... the airport to give back the car. It was pouring with rain but I did find the guy and even with the big scratch on the right hand side it was no problems. Final km count: 11 547 not bad for 2 month driving. I then caught the taxi back to the hotel; we had diner and an early night we getting up at 5 am to catch the eurostar.

... qui sont venus de loin: les normands, les parisiens, la suisse, les gens de Comines et d'ailleurs... Un grand merci pour tous les cadeaux: la cadre numérique pour toujours voir vos tronches, le kit de survie pour que le changement ne soit pas trop brusque, la boussole pour ne jamais perdre le nord, et tous vos gentils mots! Merci à tous! Et spéciale dédicace à la Josette! Gros ...