No Class! Wait... No Class?

This week we were surprised to discover that the intensive french speaking course we were planning to take had no room for the DU students. Apparently, Erasmus students get priority because their credits are more difficult to transfer, so instead of class this week we had seven extra days of complete freedom!

Things we decided to do with that time include: sleep in a lot, eat, take some naps, eat again, go to the Carrefour, eat, etc. See a trend?

Besides all of the eating and sleeping, we actually did some pretty cool stuff this week (A note to my high school English teacher: if you're reading this, I'm sorry for using the word stuff. I couldn't resist. I'll use a really sophisticated word later to make up for it.)

On Tuesday we decided to go on a day trip to Brussels since it's just a short thirty minute train ride away. One of the girls, Emily, actually lived there for a few years when she was younger so she knew all of the best places to visit.

We started out at the Grand Place, which is basically a concentrated dose of unbelievably beautiful buildings. There were also artists selling hand painted renditions of the Grand Place, and vendors selling flowers.

After exploring the Grand Place for a few minutes, we went in search of the Tourism office and some authentic Belgian waffles. We found both and were not disappointed with either.

Mine is the dark chocolate one. Big surprise.

We then went to visit one of Brussels' most famous landmarks, Mannekin Pis, which for those who don't know is a statue of a baby peeing. All of the tourist shops in Brussels offer miniature versions of the statue, funny t-shirts and every manner of souvenir you could want with Mannekin Pis' image on it.

He's wearing a Belgian football (soccer) uniform. Classy.

The rest of the day in Brussels was spent exploring some of the hundreds of chocolate shops there, eating Belgian frites and taking in the scenery. I didn't buy any chocolate (I know. Who knew I had self control?) but I'm sure I will be back in Belgium at some point during the next few months.

CHOCOLATE EVERYWHERE

This week we also visited several museums, including Lille's Republique des Beaux Arts and a museum in a nearby suburb, Roubaix, called La Piscine. It is located in a renovated pool/bathhouse and exhibits paintings, sculptures, fashion, interior design and industrial art.

La Piscine

My favorite section was the collection of fashions, which included pieces by Yves Saint Laurent, Dior, Prada and more. It was such an interesting combination of things that it was impossible to get bored.

On Saturday, Andrea and I decided to take a short trip to a city on the English channel called Boulogne-sur-Mer. Andrea is a mermaid (yes, you read that right. She works as a mermaid at the Denver Aquarium) and has been missing being around fish so we decided to go to the aquarium there (called a musée aquatique in French).

Andrea loves fish.

We also walked on the beach for a while and ate at a seafood restaurant nearby. The weather was convivial for most of the time we were there (see, told you I'd make up for using the word stuff) and we enjoyed sitting in the sun as we ate our seafood lunch.

Boulgone-sur-Mer is only about an hour away by train so we decided to head back around mid-afternoon and have dinner back in Lille. Before catching our train we stopped for some ice cream on the beach and basked in the sun for a few minutes (something somewhat rare in Lille).

And with that our week of freedom has come to an end and classes will (finally) be starting tomorrow! I had almost forgotten that the study abroad component was actually supposed to include an aspect of study.