Comment-on s'amuse à Lille?

March has been a long month of lots of work and lots of play. First, let's talk about play. I've been able to discover a lot of new things in this city since returning from my trip, and I've come to appreciate Lille more than ever. I really do love this city!

Mandi and I have been spending many afternoons discovering cafés around Lille. We really like Café de Paris, which is a pretty standard French café, but the people who work there are very nice to us, it's not outrageously expensive, and the coffee is good. We also had some really good coffee at a place over by Wazemmes one Sunday morning. Look at this adorable sugar cubes they gave us! It says "veux tu m'épouser? oui ou non," which means "do you want to marry me? yes or no." Love them! All of the sugars have different phrases. I think I kept this one. I've really been enjoying our coffee dates and frequent walks through Vieux Lille, which is most definitely the best part of Lille. The Jardins Vauban (Vauban Gardens) are pretty, too. We ate lunch there one day before our Flaubert mid-term and there were all sorts of children running around doing a scavenger hunt. Too cute!

We've also been exploring some new bars. The Vieux Lille bar scene is twenty times different from the bars on Rue Solférino which the students frequent. We've been to Drugstore (funny name, I know) a couple times, which is a lot more relaxed and good for having a couple drinks and good conversation. Just a more pleasant atmosphere overall, however I do appreciate the fact that O'Scotland has like...23 beers on tap for me to sample.

I also had my first legitimate discothéque experience. Very French. We went to celebrate Monika's birthday, so it was fun being out with a lot of people from my residence, but I'm not jumping to go back en boîte anytime soon. I just am not capable of going out like the French. They usually go to the bars until around 1 or 2 AM and THEN head out to the discothéque. By then, it is most definitely my bedtime no matter what continent I'm on. They stay out until 4 or 5 in the morning...a little much for me, but it was fun for one night.

After that very French night, we decided that we needed to throw a North American party in our residence. Angela, Sadie, and I worked hard on music playlists, Emily made burgers (hand packed!) and fries, and we feasted. That burger tasted so delicious, I can't even describe it. After we cleaned up, we headed downstairs to the basement to listen to North American music and hang out. Mandi and Emily taught the French kids how to play Flip Cup, which was hilarious. I'll admit, I did my part and played for Team 'Merica one round. I was a good contributer, too, because I flipped my cup on the second try. Guess who won? Team 'Merica, of course. It turned into a hilarious battle of France vs. USA. In the eternal words of Tom Petty "she was an American girl."