Homeless in Lille

So today I got up and met Emily and her mom in the center of Lille to go visit an apartment. They're both really nice and chill, so I think it'll really work out. We went and it was in a great location and seemed really nice, it just wasn't furnished. The rent was low enough that it'd be ok to purchase some furniture for it. It was pretty small, had a back bedroom, and then a mezzanine type bedroom over the living room area. So we headed back to the hotel to start getting the paperwork together for the application. We were frantically gathering about 7 different documents each, because we'd been told that they were showing the apartment to someone else this afternoon. We filled out everything we could and sent all the paperwork in, but haven't heard back.

This afternoon, we received an email from an agency that Emily had spoken with earlier in the week and they said that we could go visit another apartment. This apartment was absolutely incredible. It was huge and beautiful. The architecture and the decor were both so French. It's completely furnished and located right next to a lycée (high school), so it's a pretty calm street. It was much less studio-esque than the first, in that it had two really big separate bedrooms, a kitchen, bathroom, and living room. We really liked it, but the only problem is, the lady said that we can't move in until the 13th of October. So really, what are we supposed to do for the next three and a half weeks? We're going again to the agency tomorrow to talk to them some more and beg for them to let us in earlier. It's such a great apartment in a really young and lively area. Very tough to turn down.

I got to explore Lille some more today and really like it. It has a lot of Flemish influences and reminds me a lot of Belgium.

The center of the older part of the city is really pretty. Here's a shot.

There's also a really pretty tower that I'll have to go back and check out.

I'm meeting Emily and her mom tomorrow morning so I can go open a French bank account and then we'll go to the agency to talk about this last apartment.

I haven't done so well with food since I've been here. For lunch, I had a tartiflette which was described as a cheese and potato gratin. Sounds delish, right? Well, they forgot to write the part about the jambon, so there was ham all up in that tartiflette. Fortunately, I could pick around it. More strugs. Dinner wasn't bad though. I had a hot chèvre salad, which was actually pretty good. I tried a beer because apparently that's even more popular than wine in this region. I went for the Leffe, which is a light beer from Belgium. Not too bad. I'd get it again.

Took a picture of this sign for all of my Bethune family members. Representin' in Lille.

Well, it's 9:45 and I am exhausted. Time for sleep.

Luv,
Sarah