Jason's Daily Notes

I walked into the city center. Got a sandwich from So Good for a breakfast/lunch. Then, I went to the post office (Le Poste) to ship my stuff. After a 15 minute wait, the woman who helped me could not speak any English. And I learned that my French is completely useless. I had to just gesticulate to tell her what I was doing and what I needed. I was slightly embarrassed, actually. But it worked (I hope)! That's 800g less in my luggage to carry around.

After buying some drink for energy and pains de chocolat, I returned to the apartment. It was cold (some snow had fallen last night, but it was melted away by the subsequent rain). I bundled up with a scarf over my turtleneck and walked aback out. Headed back to the north of town; Vieux Lille is a nice area. I withdrew some cash from the ATM there.

Back to the apartment around 4pm. I cooked some pasta for myself. I called home. (My mom and uncle will be gone from the end of March, so when/if I return to LA I'd have the house to myself!) It started to rain outside. Charly was back shortly before 6pm. He was exhausted from a wine and cheese tasting at his uni! We sat and browsed the internet for some time. He started cooking. I offered to help, but was rebuffed. His friend Sebastian arrived. Lucas didn't arrive until 8pm. He did, and we caught up (he's working at an e-commerce website!). The Frenchies quickly reverted to speaking French, and I don't blame them - again, I feel bad for making everyone speak English. I wish I could form French sentences, but right now all I can do is recognize words.

Sebastian drove us to the street (Solferino) with all the bars. We peeked into several bars to find one with a free table. At one bar, Charly ran into a friend he had also met in Tallinn (but who was also from Lille! Small world). He'll be coming to the mini-party here tomorrow.

We found space at Temple's Bar (one of the many Irish/English/Scottish themed bars in the area) and sat in the back. Lucas got the first round of beers, and I got the second. I was drinking Kasteel Bruin (brown), which was a really delicious full-tasting but sweet Belgian beer. (I later looked it up and saw that it was 11% ABV. No wonder I felt so knocked out afterwards!)

The game was a friendly match - France (Valbuena?) scored the first goal right at the end of the first half. They interviewed presidents Merkel and Hollande during halftime. In the second half, Germany scored two goals to win. Oh well. We drove back, dropping Lucas off at his place, which was nearby. I nearly passed out on the chair, which is how Alexi found me. Oops!