i don't have my little book where i write what i did so i can't quite remember everything that i've been up to. tomorrow we're off to brussels for the day. i can't quite believe that it's almost time to go home. i think i should be arriving july first in edmonton around 10.47 in the evening. i'll update more later with actual things that i have done. i did go for hot chocolate on sunday at this famous chocolate store from the 1800s that tasted like melted chocolate. so delicious. tomorrow the huge mega sales (les soldes) start in france. everything, everywhere is on sale. it should be quite crazy. today we had our french final. it was slightly tricky but seeing as we either get pass or fail, i'm pretty sure i should be alright. and today i bought my very first french CD by this guy named raphael. it was a memorable and wonderful experience and i saw a bunch of music by canadian bands and it made me think of home. i managed to get some very strange bug bites on my face. very attractive. tonight we sat in one of the dorm rooms and drank wine and ate chocolate. i love france. the end.  ¶ 12:25 PM 3 comments

  updates below!! what fun!!  ¶ 4:10 AM 4 comments

  for those of you who are interested, i'll bring you up to speed on what i've been up to lately. i haven't been keeping a journal (i probably should be) so this is a good way for me to record everything that has been happening. but alas, someone is waiting to use this computer (there's only one computer for the entire residence) so i will have to continue this later. ooooo suspense!! i think a bunch of us from edmonton will be staying up really late tonight to watch the game. it's kinda of funny because there's a big group of people from edmonton here and then there's a big group of people from north carolina here and those are the two cities going head-to-head in the game tonight. oh. what a small world. anyways, i'll definitely try and update tomorrow. salut!!
***new material***
it's currently 3.57 in the morning and i'm with a bunch of gals from edmonton and we have the hockey game on a laptop and we're cheering the team on but it doesn't sound like they're doing so well. anyways, starting from last tuesday... after school we went out for dinner with our tutor group to and it was incredibly delicious and wonderful and we spoke french the entire time!! and we tried this beverage called kir which is black currant liqueur and then white wine... it's incredibly delicious. then it started to rain and i walked home in the rain which made me so giddy for some reason because i realized i wouldn't want to be walking home in the rain anywhere other than in france. wednesday we traveled into belgium to visit the city of bruges. it poured the whole day which kind of womped because i discovered that my jacket wasn't waterproof but the city was quite beautiful and it reminded me of amsterdam due to its canals and bridges. and they had a tintin store where i went a bit crazy with things to buy. thursday during the day i finally finished reading da vinci code so that evening i went to see the movie en français. it was quite good but i think i prefer the book version. friday i got ready to depart for luxembourg!! a group of 5 people (3 from north carolina, one from pennsylvania and myself) left around 5 in the evening and transferred in brussels. in brussels we couldn't find our train listed on the main board so we were confused but couldn't find anyone to ask so we just found the platform that we thought was right... which fortunately ended up being the right one. however, near the end of our train ride (which was full of clever card games) we discovered that our part of the train wasn't going to luxembourg so we had to change train cars. it was all very interesting. we finally arrived in the city of luxembourg in the country of luxembourg around 9 in the evening after which we checked into our hotel. now, we got a steal of a deal for our hotel. we each had to only pay 40 euros for 2 nights in this incredibly huge hotel room and amazing breakfast. i am tired and this hockey game is too intense. i will finish later. salut!!
***new material***
well the oilers game was quite a letdown but we stayed up until just after 5 in the morning, eating microwave popcorn listening to the radio via the internet. anyways, continuing on from luxembourg...we arrived friday night to the greatest hotel ever called le chatelet. to get to our room we had to first climb 2 normal spiral staircases and then a tiny tiny tiny spiral staircase in which you had to use your hands to climb up. it was a very interesting procedure but we had the whole top floor to ourselves and it was quite lovely. the first night (friday) we walked around the city of luxembourg and saw a ton of old buildings and beautiful bridges and many, many new cars. after a good night's sleep, we woke up and ate the greatest breakfast ever. considering that in france everyday we get bread with jam and pseudo-nutella, having fresh meat and orange juice and cherry tomatoes and cheese and crepes was a real treat. we then walked to the tourist office and figured out where we could go and how to get there. we also purchased this luxembourgcard that only cost us 6.40 euros each and gave us free entrance to all the musems and all the transportation (train and bus) throughout the entire country. what a steal!!! we first traveled by bus to village of echternach and saw a really lovely church and went around the main square. then to get to another village (vianden) we had to transfer to another village called ettelbruck. in this village we walked across a bridge into germany for about 15 minutes. what a thrill!! then we finally got to go to vianden. this village was awesome. we hiked around and finally made it up to this huge castle on a hill and we toured inside and it was amawing. and then we hiked back down to the village and took a chairlift over the river and up a huge hill. there were certain moments where i was scared for my life but we made it and got some amazing views of the area. we then took the bus back from vianden to luxembourg with a bunch of tweens and it was very interesting to see them interacting. oh tweens. that evening we went out to an italian pizzeria for dinner. i had the biggest pizza on the face of this planet and it had tuna and onions and cheese and tomatoes. so delicious. while we we're there, the italy vs. usa world cup football game was on. and seeing as i was with a group of americans and as there were many italians in the restaurant it made for quite a funny time. after dinner we walked around the city again and everywhere you went there was some sort of television being displayed and people congregating around it to watch a football game. it felt very community-like. we woke up a bit later on sunday, had the glorious breakfast again and then just walked around the city of luxembourg. we went the casemates which are these kinda cave-like tunnels that used to be a really old fortress. it was nice and cool, temperature wise and it was also quite nifty. it felt...historic. we then went to luxembourg's philharmonic concert hall. the design of the building was incredibly nifty. for the rest of the day we just walked around and took it easy. we caught the train back to brussels around 4 and then made it back to lille at around 9. i would highly recommend visiting luxembourg. there's definitely a lot that we didn't get the chance to see so i will be going back sometime in the future. monday was classes per usual. in the evening i made a spontaneous decision to go see marie antoinette because it is french related and it seemed proper to see it while in france. although i am neither a kirsten dunst nor a sophia coppola fan (although i do enjoy her movies) it was an interesting movie with amazing costumes and food arrangements. the music was also quite excellent. after getting home we got the laptop set up and listened to the game. sadly we did not win and those from north carolina reminded us of this fact the next day. tuesday we slept in as french class was in the evening. after french class i went shoe shopping but i could not find any shoes in my size. it was somewhat frustrating. tuesday night we went to pirates of the caribbean bar and had the most fun ever. i shared a fishbowl with 3 other people. the fishbowl is a drink with a fruity taste with gummies inside and the drink is in an actual fishbowl. and i also tried a peach kir. also very yummy. it was really fun and then everyone on the french program was in this room in the back and we were all dancing. party time. wednesday (yesterday) was another fieldtrip day. in the morning we voyaged into belgium to ypres and we visited the flanders field museum. it was quite moving and very intense. we then went back into france to dunkerque where we first went to a suburb of dunkerque called saint-malo where we went to the beach and put our feet into the sea. we then went into the actual city of dunkerque and did some browsing around. yesterday was la fete de la musique throughout france. this is a festival/party where everyone who wants to play music comes out in the evening and plays their chosen instruments on the streets and in the square throughout the city in several cities throughout france. there were so so so many people out all over lille and everyone was having a great time, listening to different genres of music and dancing along. everything is going quite well here. french courses are getting a little intense and our final is this upcoming tuesday. this weekend i'm off to a small town called le touquet situated on the english channel and i plan to do some hardcore studying there. hope all is well!! salut!!

  ¶ 3:13 AM 3 comments

  bonjour!! plans have changed for this weekend as i am now planning to travel to luxembourg!! party time!!!  ¶ 3:21 AM 3 comments

  i finally updated the entry below to include a more comprehensive overview of what i have been up to. enjoy!!  ¶ 4:01 AM 0 comments

  well hello hello. it's been quite some time since i last wrote. i apologize in advance if there are weird typings in this text as the computers on campus have the letters rearranged so it makes things interesting and definitely slows down my typing speed. much has happened since i last wrote so i'll start off from where i last left off. the night that i left england, we all went to pizzamania - all you can eat pizza and pasta and salad and pop for 5 pounds - it was delicious and exciting and we also went to drydock - the bar in a boat. it was highly amusing. i left leeds around 12.30 am and made it to london around 6.30 am on sunday morning. kate and the rest of the flatmates walked me over and waved as i pulled out - it was awesome. when i got to london i had nooooo idea where i was going but i thought i would be fine because i would just ask people. but i had forgotten to take into account that it was very early on a weekend. so nobody was around and i was lost so i just started walking around trying to find the right bus stop and after an hour or so i found the right one and lugged my suitcase onto the city bus - which was a double decker!!! and made my way to the waterloo station - and i kept singing that really great ABBA song while i was there. i got to the waterloo eurostar station too early so i had to wait outside for a few hours so i sat on my suitcase and read da vinci code which i cant seem to put down. then i boarded the eurostar but i don't remember much because i think i slept the whole time but i was sitting right next to a bunch of australian backpackers. it took less than 2 hours to get to lille and when i arrived i was met by one of the international centre interns and she drove me to the dorms. i live in the st. michel dorm and i'm on the third floor but that really means the fourth floor and thus i've become a queen of stairs here because they do not have any elevators or escalators anywhere. the stairs to the third floor of cameron will be much easier next year i suspect. the residence is really really old and kinda cool but also kinda creepy as the lights are on timers so they turn off all the time. we also only have one toilet that works on our whole floor but for some reason that hasn't been an issue yet. there is one other toilet but the toilet touches the door when it's closed so there's no room for you to sit. strange. we have a big garden/backyard and we have one computer for the whole dorm which is in the basement which seriously looks like a dungeon. *** new material*** well it's monday afternoon here and we have a break for a couple of hours before we go to the musee des beaux-arts which is apparently the second largest art museum in france after the louvre. last week was pretty fun but i'm still having small bouts of home sickness but they usually only last a couple of hours. last week went by pretty fast. every morning we have breakfast in the dorm which consists of toast, jam or nutella and then a hot drink. then french classes go from 9 until noon after which we head to the cafeteria for lunch. there are a few cafterias to choose from in close proximity but i have found that i like the salad bar (called freshup) and the sandwhicherie. after lunch we often have free time where i'll either go to the computer lab, tidy up, read, walk around or go grocery shopping. then we often have some sort of activity and then it's dinner at the cafeteria again and then we usually hang out or go out during the evening. i think i'm being too detailed so sorry if this is somewhat boring. so last week was pretty much just settling in and then twice we went to the pirates of the carribean bar. it's quite fun and has a student-life kind of atmosphere and i've been able to meet some interesting folk while there including some guys from spain on the first night and some guys from lille on the second night. i have come to realize that guys are much more likely to approach you here than compared to edmonton. it's funny. on saturday i went to disneyland near paris. it was quite a bundle of fun although it remains to be megamega hot (probably mid 30s) and there were tons of people. but it was a blast and the rides were very similar to those in disneyland and disneyworld except the space mountain was revamped and the indiana jones ride was a roller coaster and was excellent!!! sunday morning we went to the market d'oizemes and i bought my food for the day and in the afternoon we went to this huge park and sat and read and did homework. it was incredibly lovely. and lille has a free zoo nearby that i'll be sure to visit later. for each of the remaining wednesdays we are heading off to different places in belgium. this wednesday we're going to bruges, the next wednesday we're off to flanders and the last wednesday will be spent in bruxelles. i'm just about to finish the da vinci code so i think that sometime this week i'll head over with some fellow class mates to see the movie en français. oooo la la!! as well, lille has the largest book store in western europe (i think it has 5 levels) so i think i'll i shall be exploring that quite often. this upcoming weekend some people are thinking of going to amsterdam and some are thinking of going to nice. i haven't really made up my mind. but the weekend after that (my last full weekend here) i'll be going to a small-ish city (le touquet) on the english channel. but nothing is really set in stone - everyone is always changing their minds about what to do so i sometimes get a bit frazzled. anyways, my mom should be calling soon so i should run to the building where she can call. i hope everyone is doing extremely well and i shall talk to you later - salut!!  ¶ 3:35 AM 3 comments

  hip hip hello! it's been quite some time since i last wrote. since the last time, i went on 'the otley run', a huge mega pseudo pub crawl that lasted from 3pm until 2am. it was wild and everyone had wigs, capes, flags, soccer jerseys and face paints for their favorite world cup team. we went to over 15 different pubs/clubs and it ended at halo - this dance club in a really really old church. it was quite lovely. yesterday i slept in and then just hung around the apartment, and then did some errands around town. then kate went out for a year-end ball and i stayed home, watched a movie and went to bed early. today kate and i went exploring to headingley - a neighborhood of leeds. it had a lots of nifty stores and a lot of neat looking buildings. then we met everyone and went for pizza at pizzamania where you eat as much pizza and pasta as you want. delicious! i leave tonight at 12.30am on a bus and i'll arrive in london at 6.30am. i have to them somehow make it around to the eurostar station and should be in at lille in france around 1.30pm their time. i won't have as much access to a computer but i'll still try and update often. happy late birthday to fiona and happy early birthday to kristalee! anything new happening at home? anything big on the news?
adios. xx nicole  ¶ 11:58 AM 1 comments