A Weekend in Lille

So this past weekend a bunch of the people in the group went to Lille, France for the weekend. We took the bus for short money and got to see a bit of the Belgian countryside on our way there. It reminds me very much of pictures I have seen of European farms, with windmills slowly turning and cows grazing in the fields, but it was a blessing for me to actually be there, its much nicer in person. When we arrived we grabbed food and walked around the quartier for a bit before checking into our hostel. The hostel was unremarkable, from the outside it looked a bit like an old hospital wing or something of the likes, but it was close to downtown and near some historic attractions so we figured it would do the trick. We walked around the city and saw the Palais des Beaux Arts (a classical art museum), a lot of old, rather grand, churches, and of course a bunch of bars and restaurants. When we were walking around Lille, we saw a large group of rather drunk, college aged kids walking around in robes. For a while we were weirded out by the ceremony, but after we realized it was some sort of fraternity event we walked in for a closer look. Eventually, a part of the group settled in near a monument with a bridge and a moat around it. The older "brothers" then proceed to try to drop custards off the bridge into the mouths of the assumed pledges (regarde le photo en haut ^). The whole occasion was rather comical near the end when the pledges were completely covered in custard and the brothers and our group were getting quite a kick out of it. After walking away, even though some of us had lost our appetite at the sight of the custard, we decided to look for a restaurant to eat at. The bar that we started our night at proved to be a refreshing spot for more than one reason. First, the beer was cheap...which is always nice. Secondly, the Lille football club was playing a game that night against FC Socheux, the French club who recently transfered in American Internationale Charlie Davies! It was a very good game, and of course the bar erupted when the home team scored the game winner with 20 minutes remaining. However the most surprising event happened when I sat down and started talking to the bartender. Naturally, he almost immediately noticed my accent and after a bit called over an older man and woman. It turns out I was talking to the owner of the bar, his mother and her boyfriend. They were all very nice people, outgoing, and they loved "the chemin de vie Americaine" (the American way of life). So we chatted about culture differences and various trips they had made to the US in the past and my plans for the future in the ever-changing US-EU relationship. It was nice to meet some locals of another country outside of Belgium and really refreshing to see that America's international public opinion is being restored a bit. After a few boissons graduits, I said goodbye to my new friends and we left the bar in search of a night's adventures. After that nothing too exciting happened and we returned to the hostel at a decent hour. The next day was a bit cloudy and chilly, but we proceeded to walk around Lille and see it's centre square and monuments, mainly in honor of the World Wars and various kings of France. All in all, Lille was an excellent first trek outside of Belgium, I met some good people, saw some excellent historical buildings, and it was a good chance to hang out with the group a bit more. Tomorrow I start my internship at the Royal Military Academy of Belgium and I'm looking forward to letting, ya'll know how that goes! Ciao