Week 3

We have finally found some semblance of routine and familiarity with this completely new, exciting place. On Monday we had a few classes offline, so we shuttled back and forth for our classes. We also had a few repairs done in the house. Google translate came to the rescue when there were no french speakers around. This week, we tried new many new things. I decided to go to Leclerc and Lidl to check the prices. I think we will stick to Carrefour for now. I also tried a croissant and we made cheese garlic bread from a baguette! We have finally settled into the rhythm of commuting to classes and preparing for them. This week I also got to visit Rangoli, which is an Indian shop here. You can find everything from Patanjali products to Kurkure here. I bought aloo choley and rajma in the hopes that I will eat something flavourful. I also bought cheese flips, chocolate waffles and barbecue chips. All of these were delectable, but I couldn’t help but notice that too many of the crisps available here were only salted, with no flavour. Some other crisps were peanut flavoured. I also tried a bagel. The bakery lady called the ‘tandoori chicken bagel’ spicy, and people were scared if it was going to be too spicy. It was cold though.

I got into an association at college called Tics and Pics. Sports has also started and I’m wondering what I want to do. On Friday, all of us trudged to college early in the morning, only to realise that our class was online. On another day, the metro wasn’t working and we got late. We also got to witness a hailstorm on one day, although I wish it snowed here as well. We got our student cards and welcome bags from ISTC! The garbage is not collected every day in Lille. I think they clean it only once or twice a week, so it is usually just kept outside the home, ready to be kicked so that the whole place gets littered. I also spent one entire morning just telling Emma, one of our roommates from Italy, about India and its culture and traditions. She patiently listened :D

Saturday was the most interesting! We took part in the Erasmus Amazing Race and finally got to see many places and scenes in Lille. It was a beautiful city tour cum competition, which we won! Our group had people from Italy, Greece and Algeria. We also met other foreign students who were in Lille. We also tries Pizza and Burrata, which were a little bland for our taste, but great nonetheless. I have noticed that they don’t skimp on portion sizes here. Our roommate had COVID this week so we spent most of our time in our rooms, but she is negative now so things are better. We will begin the process of creating our French bank account for ease of payments next week. Excited for the new week and for the month-end. We made a few acquaintances, but both Aparna and I feel like there’s a slight racial bias among all the Europeans in our class. I also had the opportunity of roaming around Gambetta and the shops are simply exotic. They sell everything under the sky, in the most vibrant, exuberant shops with gleaming colours. They even have great thrift stores! Looking forward to the next week!