Jour 17 - Pizza Mania

September 6th, Tuesday

Rainy rainy day today but during my break I was able to go to Building D to check my student card (student ID). Building D is so awesome! It looks like Hogwarts! <3 I wasn't able to bring my camera but I was too fascinated with the place that I had to take some pictures with my cellphone. So sorry for the pixelated pictures!

This is the staircase of the building. It's carpeted!

I had my first Fundamentals of Strategy class. Imagine, we were around 124 students! Wild number of students right? That's my professor. He's British!

Today I was also able to visit the library. It's pretty cozy inside! I think I'll be spending most of my time there during my idle days :)

Dinner was this. Haha! It's the instant margarita pizza. 

I actually added brie on my pizza! Tasted better :)

Kwi and I were still busy planning for our European adventures. We've been so crazy busy looking on train rides and hostels just so that we can maximize our time here in Europe!

xx

Jour 16 - Bloomberg + Eurotrip Planning

September 5th, Monday

My first official day of school - today I learned how to use Bloomberg. It's this software that professionals use in the financial sector of the business world. Uh yeah, if you were to ask me to explain it in simple words it's a software that has all the financial data possible! Stocks, bonds, commodities, reports, journal articles, you name it! Bloomberg has it all! I'm so fortunate that IESEG subscribes to this software (imagine paying 1500USD per month) very year and IESEG is allowing us to create our very own Bloomberg account!!!! <3 My heart melted when I heard this! For one whole term, I'll get to use this software that only professionals are allowed to use. Anyway, enough of me rambling about it - our workshop lasted for about 5 hours. But my excitement can only be stressed until a certain degree. I fell asleep towards the latter part. Haha!

I am excited to create my own Bloomberg account! :)

We had a funny dinner. Kwi and I bought this instant soup in a tetra pack two weeks ago - it had the word truffle in it so we were thinking maybe it's going to taste good. When we translated it again we finally figured out what it really meant - apple soup with truffle oil.

It was pretty good but I felt it lacked seasoning - I had to fix it up by adding salt and pepper :) Viola! Simple dinner since we were both so tired from the day. Oh I forgot to tell you that I walked 4 km to and from the train station today - I purchased the train tickets of my Italy trip with my dad <3 (shout out to Papa if you're reading this!). Aside from that, today Kwi and I bid goodbye to Auntie Rosie. My first two weeks in Lille wouldn't have been great without her. 

Aira came over after dinner and the three of us were busy planning our European adventures. While they were planning what was going to happen this weekend, I was planning for the Netherlands trip with Marguerite! So after searching for the best possible dates, we've been finally came up with a kick ass plan on October! It was really nice talking to her since I haven't heard from her in such a long time :) 

Because of our tight schedule, the girls and I need to really fix our schedules and reserve passes already before everything is too late! :o Anyway, I'm just so excited for what's going to happen this weekend!!!!! Hihi :P

xx

Jour 15 - La Braderie

September 4th, Sunday

Day 2 of Braderie and I spent it with Auntie Rosie and Kwi. I'll have to wait til Auntie Rosie sends me the pictures of that day!

It was raining really hard, even til evening. Before heading home to Rue Auber, Kwi and I checked this restaurant in Colbert to see if they still were serving moules and frites. We were at that time we were checking but when we got there by 17h30, it was all gone! We had no choice but to go to Rue Royale. We ended up going inside Le Galichon (I know, it sounds like lechon - missing lechon now haha). At first, we thought they were serving moules but apparently we came in too late. We had to check out their other dishes.

I ordered the Carbonnade a la Flamande. It's this Flemish beef stew in which beef and onions are simmered in Belgian ale until the meal is tender, the onions are sweet and the ale has cooked down into a rich, dark gravy. I'm guessing the Belgian beer that they used here was sweet because the dish itself is sweet. I they might have used Leffe.

 Kwi got Potjevleech - it's another Flemish dish. The name itself means "little pot of meat". There are different kinds of meat part of the pot - chicken, rabbit, pork and veal - all inside cold jelly. Yes, it doesn't really look appetizing but I must say it's quite good. One just has to get used to the taste cause it's a bit sour. 

 Lastly, Auntie Rosie had Gallete du Ch'ti. It's a savory kind of crepe with chicken, mushrooms and cream.

Since this was the last night of Auntie Rosie, she even treated us to Gelato! :) (caramel and coffee)

xx

Jour 14 - La Braderie

September 3rd, Saturday

La Braderie is this huge street festival celebrated in Lille every first week of September. There's so many things going on - a marathon, 100 km of stalls (you name it food, flea market, etc), partying at night. Around 1 - 2 million people visit Lille just for the Braderie. The so called quiet town comes alive within these two days! Unfortunately, I was too scared to lugged around my camera and take pictures of what I saw. Good thing for the first day of Braderie, I was with Cam. I'm hoping she sends me those pictures right away so that I could share what I did that day!

Til then, you guys will have to wait :)

Cam invited me to have dinner with them in her dorm (along with the other JTAers in Lille). That's me and the rest of the people (not complete though). 

Foyer International, the dormitory I went to really looked like a maze. It had so many doors just to get to a certain area. I think Cam had to go through 3 or 4 different hallways just to take me to the kitchen. 

Cute! They all made an effort to make dinner. There was pizza, sandwiches, spaghetti and this tomato thingy! :)

They were also complete with different kinds of beers. Leffe and Buckler is sweet while Kronenbourg has a more malty taste.

We also had girly colorful drinks while we played Categories. We were laughing so hard because Cam would always have to drink something. Such a sabaw girl (sorry, Cam! :P Love you though!). There was this Spanish dude named Diego would even joined a few rounds of our game. Really fun night! We're hoping to have dorm hopping during our stay here. It's nice to have a little family away from home :)

xx

Jour 13 - Old Lille

September 2nd, Friday

Aira and I were supposed to go to the carnival today but as we were walking I was telling Aira about the most famous boulangerie (bakery) in Lille. Apparently, it's known to make the best baguettes in town! So we quickly went on for the search of Patisserie au Lion d'Or.

Notice all the tents? Everyone is preparing for the Braderie this weekend! Imagine, the whole of Lille will be filled with stalls, and kiosks of food, clothes, and other random stuff! :)

...And so our adventure to find the boulangerie began! When we got to Pl. Lion d'Or, we couldn't find the store. We actually went inside one of the boutiques to ask where it is. Haha!

Aha! Finally, here it is!

The eclairs look so delicious!!!!!

I wasn't in the mood to try their baguette since it was already afternoon. I opted to go for the Carre a la Creme <3 It sounded good! 

Super good stuff but then I felt that they placed too much shu inside that my tummy felt growling after eating more than half of it! @_@

I don't really have a sweet tooth so I was telling Aira I wanted something salty. (I actually wanted a red juicy hotdog on a stick, fish balls and peanuts! Er. Missing all the salty food in the Philippines). We were walking back home and we so happened to see Chinese food! I was so happppppppy!!!

Happy comfort food! OMG. You can't imagine how happy I was when I ordered this. I super love Chinese food to death!! Oh and guess what? I even made small talk to the lady (yes, I really tried my best to speak in Chinese but I was super stuttering!)

Check this out: they have French instructions for using chopsticks! :))

Before I go, I just had to take a picture of this other boulangerie. The line was still pretty long, considering we left old Lille around 17h30 already. Anyway, must try something in this store some time!

xx

Jour 12 - Fail Shopping Day

September 1st, Thursday

I still don't have school this week so I decided to walk to the city and just look around at the stores. Part of my shopping check list is to be able to buy blazers in Europe. I know it's going to be a challenge considering French women are skinny, but not petite like me ._. Well, it's still worth a try looking at what some stores offer. 

I hit both H&M and Benetton and I don't know but I seem to not like their collections. I guess this is a good thing? Haha more money for travelling! >:) I actually can't wait for my classes to start so that I could meet the other international students get to hang out with them!

xx

Jour 11 - Kebab Dinner with Anais

August 31st, Wednesday

I miss my roommate already! :( Shout out to Kwi, whichever part of Paris you are at! Anyway, she'll be back soooooon! It was good having to rest and sleep long hours for once. I think I slept for 12 hours! Haha. Lazy day! Night time, I met up with Marguerite's friend, Anais, who lives in Lille. She was so nice that she took me out and we ate in a Kebab joint. I got the Boeuf Gallete (beef wrap) with frites! Super good meal :) I forgot to take a picture of the restaurant but if I'm not mistaken it's called O' Delight.

So cute! The waiter was offering us apples for desert. The first thing I asked Anais was whether it was free. Oui, it was gratuit!! Fun dinner - we talked about the differences of my culture and her culture. She even told me different cities I should visit in France! :) She told me to watch out for the Braderie this weekend. Now that one, I can't wait to go to!!!!! Hello vintage shopping!

xx