Jour 38 - Aira's Celebration and Dog Sandwich

September 27th, Tuesday

This actually happened last night. Aira told us that she really wanted to watch a football game, in Barcelona. We told her that she had to (since she is the BIGGEST football fan!). And today, she finally purchased her ticket! I can't wait for her stories when she gets back from Barca next week! :)

Had two classes today (and a break in between). I decided to run an errand before I heading back to school. Kwi and I wanted Dog Sandwiches for our Paris day trip so I was the one who got them. Can I just share? I'm not really a fan of baguette but this store really makes soft ones! The deli sandwiches are so good! Also, the cheapest sandwiches I've ever had. I always order this one sandwich but I don't quite know the name! Haha. All I do is to point it out to the lady and she'll prepare it for me. Anyway, can't wait to share with you guys what happened in Paris! :)

xx

Jour 37 - Of OFII and Awkward

September 26th, Monday

Today Kwi and I were scheduled for our OFII medical examination. We had to be at the place by 8:30 so this meant us walking from our house to Lille Flandres by 7 am @_@ The thing about this is that we wasted 3 hours waiting for the whole procedure to finish. Oh joy! 

After, we went to the train station to reserve our other train tickets (again). Yes, this reservation process will never end I tell you.

It was a relaxing day after doing all the chores - I was able to watch Awkward! :) Try watching it as well - just go to sidereel.com for the links of the episodes.

Things to look forward to this week:

(1) Paris Day Trip on Wednesday! Yey! Another day there <3

(2) Trip to Lourdes and San Sebastian

xx

Jour 36 - Lunch at Tita Juliet's

September 25th, Sunday

Tita Juliet invited all of the Filipino exchange students for lunch today :) We all met up in the bus (in front of Euralille at 10:30). Oh and before that, Kwi and I went to the Wazemmes Sunday Market to buy some fruits. Kwi was able to convince me to even buy ribs! There was this vendor that was selling ribs for 5EUR. That was what we ate during our walk from our house to the train station. The people that saw us eat while walking were salivating over what they saw! :))

We got to Tita Juliet's just in time for lunch. She cooked some appetizers for us first. For the drink we had, she mixed two things! The base was this awesome violette cocktail drink with white wine!

The drink really tastes flowery - literally! Haha. Very gooooood though :)

Here are my girls - Aira with her glass and her matching cardigan! 

Some of the JTAers that went as well :)

Lunch today was so amazing! We had four courses:

(1) Appetizer

(2) Main course - dinuguan, sinigang, roasted chicken and turkey, ribs. Filipino food heaven <3

(3) Cheese, butter and bread 

(4) Desserts! - strawberries, strawberry sorbet, vanilla ice cream, clafoutis au pomme

I finally tried camembert! Good cheese, mild taste :)

I made Aira try the different kinds of cheese.. Uh, she didn't like them! She said she just swallowed them! Hahaha what a funny girl. She can't definitely stay in France forever!

Desserts <3

After lunch, we played with Nico - Tita Juliet's son, some outdoor sports like soccer, badminton, touch ball and dodge ball. We really loved this day cause it was sunny! 26 degrees :) Being in Tita Juliet's house makes us all feel like we're back home.

xx

Jour 35 - Sunny Saturday

September 24th, Saturday

Today, Kwi and I decided to just walk around Gambetta again and explore this street which we didn't really pay attention to a month ago. It's pretty neat how there's so many shops in this street! I super love it :) So many boulangeries and patisseries to try! And of course cheese storesssss! <3

We passed by Picard! It's this supermarket just full of frozen things. You name it - quick fix food, sliced ingredients, herbs, seafood, ice cream, etc. It was frozen food heaven! And in fairness, some of the things sold are very very reasonable. If I didn't have a roommate, I think I'd be buying in this shop often to look for great finds. It's the convenience factor that makes it really appealing to the people.

After Gambetta, we hit the pink part of the city (when I say pink these are where the famous shops are - e.g. H&M, Pull and Bear, Stratovarius, etc.). That place is evil!!!!! It made me look at the pretty clothes and ugh I'm dying since I want so many things but living in Europe is just so expensive :(

After shopping, we went to Euralille to try to look for digestive cookies (side note: we bought a pack each during our week long adventure in Spain and it's really addicting!!!!). Sadly, we couldn't find any :( Anyway, I was happy to find Wasa! :)

It was a sunny day today so as you can see, so many people were out! I guess this is their way of sunbathing! Haha

We were too happy with our buys that we forgot our main point of going out - to go to Lille Flandres and reserve train tickets! Haha so we had to walk all the way back to reserve some train tickets.

Since we're going to Tita Juliet's tomorrow for lunch, we decided to bake Clafoutis au Pomme for her. :)

Oh and we made one for us too! Hihi. I swear this cake is truly addictive. We added more the usual eggs and we found out that it made our cake cakey-er. We'll try to fix the recipe again so that we could get the soft, slightly chewy consistency.

Remember yesterday I mentioned about Lidl? Well, we were able to find a slice of cheese on sale! This is Tomme de Montagne - it's from Pyrenees, France and the rind is beer-washed so it has a nutty, mushroomy and creamy taste to it. It's quite good and different (cause I've never tried such a combination). This cheese is usually produced from the skim milk left over after the cream has been removed to produce butter and richer cheeses, or when there is too little milk to produce a full cheese. As a result, they are generally low in fat.

For our late lunch/early dinner, we made Quiche Lorraine - we were able to find a frozen one in Lidl only for 1EUR and what we did was to put emmental, tomme de montagne and salami on top. It turned out to be really good! <3 Imagine, by splitting this gigantic quiche, Kwi and I only spent about 0.50 cents each! That's definitely a good bargain!! :D

xx

Jour 34 - Gambetta, Carnival and Jardin Vauban

September 23rd, Friday

The initial plan was to go to the train station so that we could reserve train tickets around but we ended up making a detour and going to Gambetta first. We were walking and after a month of living in Lille, we finally saw Lidl!!!! According to former exchange students, this is the cheapest supermarket in town. Indeed, they are right! We only spent so around 1/3 of what we usually spend in Carrefour. Well at least now we know. I'll forever go there because they have muesli and fruits! <3

We were walking back home and we saw a cheese shop! My heart skipped a beat when I saw the cheese sale! FINALLY, I'll be able to try Camembert! Oh and I bought another kind of cheese that was on sale. I'll blog about it when I get to try the cheese.

I will definitely go back to this shop! <3

We were such in a hurry that from Gambetta, we went straight to rue Nationale so that Kwi could go to the bank and check on her her account. After we had to drop our groceries back home and walk super fast to school. That's why after class, I was really hungry! I took Kwi to one of the best kebab places in Lille - O Delice. I got the kebab poulet with andalouse sauce.

I just had to order fries with it because the last time I was in this store, I remember really enjoying the fries so much!!!!!

We met up with Aira after our late lunch/early dinner treat. The girls wanted to go to the carnival along Vauban. So we went - but the carnival had so little people already! It was a sunny day pa naman! Being a party pooper at rides, I didn't ride anything. Haha. The girls rode this ride - the Power Maxx (a 5G ride). The rides here in France are very expensive. Imagine this ride was already 4EUR!!!! 

I was a happy girl though cause I got Speculoos flavored gelato before heading home :)

We made a detour and ended up in Jardin Vauban. It's such a beautiful park! A perfect place for picnic. We're planning to have one soon! :) :)

Sorry I didn't take a lot of pictures cause I only had my phone with me today!

xx

Jour 33 - First Most Decent Home-cooked Meal in Lille

September 22nd, Thursday

We were back to reality - back to wearing thick jackets. We still had the post-Barcelona syndrome. We were game to cook rice for the first time! And something really good and Pinoy for our brunch (a typical Pinoy meal - ulam at kain!) Oh how I miss Filipino food! 

We cooked our beef patties! :)

Made sinangag!

And omelet!

Viola, happy happy brunch :D

Since we were gone for a week, we also had to do so much laundry. Haha!

I had French class that day and when I got home, Kwi had a surprise for me! She bought a slice of chocolate flan for us to try :)

And again, we were back to researching for our next travels.

xx

Jour 32 - Adios Barcelona! :(

September 21st, Wednesday

It was our last morning in Barcelona - :( :( 

We agreed to go back to Xurreria and La Granja for our late breakfast.

This is something I'm going to miss forever!

Our last stroll around town - saw this restaurant/meat shop with so many jamons hanging from the ceiling! Trivia: you see the little containers underneath each jamon? Well according to Fernando, the Argentinian chef, they were used before to make before. But due to hygienic purposes, people stopped using it already.  

A big big traveler's tip: if any of you decide to go to Europe and travel via easyjet or any cheap airplane, I suggest that you buy small empty bottles back home. I did not think about this that I had to buy little containers for my liquids. Stupid stupid stupid. I spent so much for something I could have spent so little on back home. Remember this tip!!

The ride back to Lille wasn't so good. I was feeling sick - I guess cause we've been traveling non-stop and that the weather change from Lille to Spain made my body feel weird. We got to Paris and we just remembered that our train back to Lille was going to be at night still so we had to look for something to eat. Another traveler's tip: always always stack up on food. Don't let this happen to you that you have to spend around 3EUR for a sandwich that isn't great. I personally am not a fan of baguettes because they tend to scratch my gums. I didn't have a choice though but to have this for dinner before going back home to Lille.

xx