I had an excellent time in Belfast! It was so nice seeing Roxy again, and I absolutely loved the city.
Because of train times, I go to the airport well in advance and ended up just chilling and reading quite a bit. After awhile, I thought it might be better to buy a sandwich for dinner as they eat much earlier in Northern Ireland than in France, so I'd actually be arriving after dinner time. It was a good forethought! After dealing with the disorganization that is CDG and easyjet (what a combo!), I finally arrived safely in Belfast. Luckily, being on an EU flight with an American passport meant that I got to skip the long EU passport line and go in the "All passport" line which included just myself and an older American couple. Unluckily, I got a million and one questions about why I was visiting, how I knew Roxy, what we both did, etc.
That evening, we just sort of chilled out and caught up, talking well into the night. We laughed over past experiences and over some new ones. It was so nice.
Thursday, we took a train to the coastal town of Bangor where we had a delicious lunch (and an extra large coffee for me!). We wandered along the coast, looking out over the harbor for quite some time before looking in a few shops. We spent a good deal of time in a used bookshop where I forced myself to only buy one book. Having some time before our train, we sat in the park, soaking up the sun where a very cute puppy came over to play.
That evening, I accompanied Roxy to her Brownies meeting. She's a Scouts leader. The girls instantly fell in love with me, and they basically were hanging all over me before long. One girl was trying to do an American accent, but then apologized saying it was Australian. No, dear. It was actually Belfast.
Friday morning, Roxy had an exam, so I wandered around a bit by Queen's University. I got an extra large (and cheap) coffee from Starbucks and browsed some of the shops. I then visited the Ulster Museum where they had a very informative display on "The Troubles". I enjoyed the museum and could do it at my own pace (aka quickly) without feeling guilty, because it was free. I then sat in the Botanical Gardens for awhile reading before I met Roxy and some of her friends for lunch.
After lunch, we walked into the center of town to see city hall and check out some of the shops. We went down to the river so I could see some of Belfast's tourist sites including the Big Fish (yes, it was a big statue of a fish called the Big Fish) and some peace statue thing. We got some drinks and chilled out by the river before making the long walk to where they built the Titanic. I'm such a Titanic geek, so I really enjoyed it. We say the dry dock which is the same size as the actual ship part, and it was just so HUGE! Roxy pointed to a nearby building and said that that was the height of the ship in all. I was in awe. They're currently constructing a Titanic museum, and I must go back to visit it!
After trekking back into town, we met Roxy's parents for dinner and then headed home to watch the first Pirates of the Caribbean on their big screen. As in her dad has a projector that projects the film onto a huge screen. It was so cool.
Saturday, we went to a local bakery so I could get some goodies to try (and a cheap lunch for the airport) before heading to the airport.
In all, I had an amazing time. It was nice visiting a new town, but the trip wasn't just about that which was relaxing. We didn't keep a hectic pace since it was more about catching up with each other. Roxy's father was also thrilled that I got such a good impression of Belfast.
Also, the accent was so difficult to understand at times. Roxy needed to translate some things for me, and when she wasn't around, I had to ask for the person to repeat what they said over and over. On top of that, some of the words are just different. Like "supper" there means bedtime snack, not dinner. That led to some confusion on my part.
Upon arriving back in Valenciennes, I literally threw my bag in my flat and raced back out. Brazilian had invited us for dinner at his place in Le Quesnoy and my ride graciously agreed to wait and go late so I could go with her. It was a lovely evening though with a group of people I don't normally hang out with besides Brazilian. We chatted and laughed and ate some yummy Brazilian inspired quiches.
I met up with some of the same people the other night for dinner, and I met a lot of new people as well. Out of the 11 other people there, 10 were engineers. Well, at least I'm working at an engineering school, so I wasn't completely lost all the time when the conversation changed to work. Okay, yes, I was mostly lost. Still, I had a good time. One of the girls even spent a year and a half in Youngstown, Ohio! Wow. Small world. Looking forward to seeing them again.
Other than that, I'm just listening to lots and lots of engineering internship presentations. Oy. I have a long afternoon ahead of me. Tuesday, I had the last class of the year with the first year students. We played Time's Up, and some of them had me cracking up again. In the one class alone, I had the two Germans and the student who lived in the US for 6 years. Their English is amazing, but their knowledge of pop culture is often lacking. The most hilarious moment came when the one German was using Twilight to describe something to the other German. He was like "Dude! I don't f*cking watch Twilight so stop trying to describe f*cking Twilight!". I know I shouldn't support vulgarity, but they're some of the few students who don't sit there swearing in French when they don't know something.
And this weekend (a nice long one), Paris. Can't wait. Meeting up with some K&K peeps!
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