braderie de lille and classes!

Where we last left off, I had successfully registered at the university but had not yet signed up for classes since the secretary for my program wasn't back until this past Monday. I was in Lille all weekend for the Braderie since J. was also on vacation. I didn't head back to Valenciennes until Tuesday night and thus couldn't go back to the uni until Wednesday. Before we get to that, a few words on the Braderie.

It was good fun. There were a lot of people, but the general consensus was that there were less than last year. We spent the weekend wandering the streets and the Citadel to see what the sellers had to offer. I wasn't looking for anything, so I restrained myself from making purchased. J. managed to find a few things he was looking for, so we weren't wandering around for nothing. My favorite part of the Braderie is the excuse to indulge in Northern specialties. Okay, so Saturday, we ended up stumbling upon a brand new American restaurant in Lille. Not quite Northern specialties, but we did enjoy our bagels with a huge portion of fries and a beer. Sunday, I even tried some famous moules frites (mussels and fries)! So, I only ate one of J's mussels. For the record, I abhor seafood. I didn't spit it out, so I'm considering it a win! My meal was actually carbonnade flamande which is basically meat cooked in beer. You can't go wrong there. Served long with fries and a beer, it was a yummy local treat. Other than the Braderie, we spent the long weekend just sort of chilling out, watching films, and eating. Good times.

   

Bagel and fries!

Moules frites!

Carbonnade flamande

Anyway, back to the student life. Wednesday, I went out to the uni after lunchtime to register for classes. I walked all the way to the secretary's office to learn two things: 1) She has the longest lunchtime ever 11:30 until 2:30 (it was only 1:30) and 2) she's actually not there on Wednesdays. Ugh ugh ugh. So much for that trip. Thursday morning, I trekked back out there only to find out that we'd actually be choosing our classes at the meeting the next day. Another wasted trip. My friend who started the program last year was the one who told me that you needed to sign up for classes with the secretary. Guess they've changed things since last year.

So Friday, I headed back out there once again. The meeting started late (surprise surprise), but we did actually pick our classes. I don't actually have a schedule yet unless you count the temporary handwritten one the secretary gave us that only has half the classes on it. Yeah, big help that is. Hopefully, I will have a real one in the next few days. At least I know how many classes I'm going to have and what they are. I'll post more on that in the next few days.

The director seems to have forgotten that he interviewed me a few months ago. I understand if he's forgotten my face, but how many Americans could he possibly interview? My guess is not many. Or more precisely, just one. He seemed so surprised that I had never learned another foreign language, and I was sitting there thinking "Umm... we've been through all this already!" but whatever. This also meant that he forgot that he had told me that I didn't need to take FLE (French as a foreign language), but luckily, I was able to smoothly talk my way out of that one. As I know the teacher on a more personal level, there's no way in hell I wanted to sit through his class that I attended a few times last year and felt was too easy to begin with.

In other news, Denise is back! Yay! I saw her and her boyfriend's new place in Lille, and then J. and I hung out with them a bit last night. Good times.