Discovering Lille :-)

First of all, I would like to post an addendum to my last post, that may or may not be directed at my mother :-) : despite what it may have sounded like, I was perfectly capable of traveling safely and independently and not losing my stuff. I promise. In any case, when I got to Lille, Ian picked me up at the train station, and if you don't know who he is, he's the guy who will be in most of my pictures from Lille this summer. When I saw him, I felt suddenly like nothing at all had changed since last week when I was at MIT and he was helping me load some bags to go home: he was wearing the same shirt and was again helping me with that same suitcase (though to be honest I wouldn't have noticed the shirt if he hadn't pointed it out). I had no idea where I was going, and it was lovely not to need to figure it out for once. We got to my hotel without much excitement, and the girl I was rooming with for the night, Christabel, was already there and had told the front desk that I would be coming. I was exhausted because I had only slept a few hours in the plane and had been traveling for the whole day, but Ian had been here for days and by local time it was only around 3 PM, so I dropped off my bags and immediately went to go explore the city with him and Christabel. First of all, I have to say that the subways in Lille are absolutely gorgeous, so we were already off to a good start. Then we got off at the Republique des Beaux Arts and the first square we see already seems to be more beautiful and grand than anything we've seen in Boston. It's a national holiday and there are lots of young people on the street and everyone seems to have some cold bear, a cigarette, or a cone of ice cream in their hands (mostly ice cream). There are wide boulevards of just pedestrians and music and treats everywhere. It's around 75 degrees, sunny, and breezy, and as we wander aimlessly, we wander into pretty much every beautiful square and building that we should have seen were we planning out a detailed tour. Christabel left us pretty early because she was tired (she got in today as well) and from then Ian and I would just walk aimlessly and if either one of us wanted to go down a street or in a courtyard, we would. I had ice cream and then for dinner, after being wildly indecisive, Ian and I ate at a fun bistro in a central square of Lille, Unfortunately, I've come to realize that since middle school when I learned it, I have forgotten most of the practical phrases pertaining to traveling, ordering food, and first meeting French people and also that being able to speak about French poetry doesn't get me very far at a restaurant. I'll get better though: Ian and I established that the first day is for making a fool of yourself and getting ripped off, and we actually didn't get ripped off so we overcompensated with our foolishness. Anyway, the city is amazing: it feels like a grown up amusement park with all the slushies, ice cream, patisseries and chocolateries, and beautiful buildings. The place I live feels very distant and is almost like a suburb, but it is safe and exactly ten minutes to the center of the city by subway so I couldn't be happier. Christabel and I live at the other end of the subway line from Melissa and Ian, but the subways are so fast that it still only takes us around 15 minutes to get from one end to the other. So far, France has been terrific and today I get to start work!! I only hope that I'll be more or less presentable since I'm typing this super early in the morning/ in the middle of the night because I'm still jet lagged. :-/