Welp, Week 2 has finally come to a close so now it is time to elaborate on my exploits. To start I had work on Monday. We finished up working on the tests and verifying them against what had been inputted into the system. Having successfully completed the tasks, we had, at least for the day, worked ourselves out of a job. So we received our security badges for the building and then I went home to begin the process of finishing unpacking and cleaning my apartment. Then Jakob and I went exploring south of our position and we saw a CAT! It was so very fluffy, I could have ceased to exist!
Then began the holidays. It was lovely, I slept in and then leisurely ate breakfast and lunch. Around 3pm we went to Vieux Lille (Historic Lille).
We tried to go to Notre Dame de la Treille but it was closed so instead we saw a large building in the distance and went to find it. Turned out it was the Chamber of Commerce, which is right next to the Opera house, the Vielle Bourse (Old Stock Exchange), the Grand Place, and the Goddess Fountain.
Chamber of Commerce
Opera House
Vielle Bourse
Goddess Statue
After seeing all those sites we went inside Furet du Nord, a bookstore and spent like 2-3 hours just wandering around looking at books. I purchased some for myself and am very excited to read them. To finish the day off, we got ice cream (Melon is the best!), then we went to 5 Guys. Which our coworker had great joy in telling us that it was named by Pres. Obama as the best hamburger ever.
After the short break it was back to work for the day. We basically put address labels on envelopes the entire day. To toot my horn, out of the 10-12 stacks we had to do, Jakob only did 3. With this claim to fame I may just become the most important office worker ever:) I kid. But I'm fairly certain that truly our real jobs are going to start next week. That isn't to say that what we are doing isn't important but we are a little bit overqualified to spend the entire internship putting labels on envelopes. However, if that is to be the fate of this internship...those envelopes shall be quite smartly labeled! Anywho after work, I stopped by the Carrefour and picked up a pastry and then went and read in the Jardin Vauben (Garden Vauben).
A Lunchtime Flower
Finally saw people doing Tai-Chi in the park
Some random dude came up to me and asked me a question which was confusing because one, in the states we don't do that and for another, I didn't hear/understand what he said because I was reading a book in English and my brain was very helpful and told me that the words being spoken at me were not English. It even supplied the knowledge that it was possible that they were French. Truly my brain is a genius. Anyways the experience made me realize that I should probably start reading more French books so that I'm not caught as unawares.
Then because France, the rest of the week was vacation. So Thursday I had another leisurely beginning to the day, then I went out adventuring. I was going to go to a museum after searching for a boulangerie but then I forgot my bus pass, so instead I went to find a boulangerie (it was closed) and then just wandered. Completely by accident I stumbled on a way to get to Vieux Lille, specifically the part that has Furet du Nord in it. I also found a Printemps (Like Macy's) so I browsed there for a while and then decided to go purchase a postcard and so I headed over near the Vielle Bourse, only to discover that when you went inside the Vielle Bourse, it was a small flea-market! I found all sorts of cool things, and there were some people playing chess in the middle! I thought it was very cool!
I also got Speed Rabbit Pizza, which is in my opinion the best pizza in France. It's more American, but with European ingredients which makes it soooooooooooo good.
Friday came along, and we made good use of it. We left around noon and went to Notre Dame de la Treille, le Musée de l'hospice comtesse, la Maison Natale de Charles de Gaulle, and the Vielle Bourse.
Lit the red candle in the second row from the top that is the most full and closest to the left side, following in the footsteps of my ever present 361 professor who always lights at least one candle in at least one cathedral.
We went back to Notre Dame so that Jakob could go inside, and then we went le Musée de l'hospice comtesse, which was a hospital in the 12th century but has since been turned into a museum of a 12th century hospital. It was very cool! It was very Flemish since it was built before Lille was a real part of France. Back before Louis the 14th cracked down on the North of France and it's non-French ways. So they had all sorts of architecture and pieces of furniture in that style, they also had Flemish paintings which are very interesting in their style. Take a moment now and look up Jan Van Eycke, a very famous Flemish painter, I'll wait......................................................Did you look? Good.
Lovely tile walls
The Apothecary Garden
A Globe of the Stars
This painting was used to explain what the order of the golden fleece was in one of my classes and here it is just sitting on the wall.
After the Museum we went the house that Charles de Gaulle was born in. It was built by his grandparents. A very cool house and I had the opportunity to witness what was probably French sign language. I wish I could say for sure but I haven't gotten around to learning ASL yet.
One of the most influential Frenchmen to live
That is his actual cradle, and this was literally the room he was born in.
A monument to him put there by the people of Northern France
After the house, we went the Vielle Bourse so Jakob could see it and then we went to the French version of a steakhouse. Very good, but not quite Texas Roadhouse.
Then came the day we were waiting for. Saturday, we went to Bruges, Belgium. It was soooo cool! We went all sorts of places!!!
Lovely Flemish Architecture
The Canals
Saint Salvator's Cathedral (I think, don't speak Dutch)
There was someone playing the grand organ when we went through the cathedral!! I apologize for the shakiness half way through, I was taking a picture while recording.
Courthouse
Belfry tower of Bruges
The Christmas shop that sells handcrafted German ornaments, nativities and CLOCKS!
The Chapel that has the relic of some of Jesus's blood from the cross. We did not go and see it.
From faraway you can still see the towers of the cathedrals and belfrys
Here's a picture of Jakob, who doesn't know that he's in my picture.
On our way back from the Windmills we accidentally stumbled on the Jerusalem Chapel which is on a private family estate of the Adornes Family. They have kept the property for over 600 years. Their ancestor who was great friends with James the III of Scotland and Charles the Bold of France built it after his pilgrimage to Jerusalem with his son.
Their Crest
Inside the Chapel. That is the tomb of Ansel and his wife (he's the one that was friends with Charles the Bold) the alterpiece in the back is cool because it shows all of the images of Golgotha. It's called the Jerusalem Chapel because it was constructed to mimic the Holy Sepluchre in Jerusalem. Ansel even brought back two relics, one of which was a part of the cross of Jesus.
Outside the Jerusalem Chaple/Family Estate
We went to a Free Harp Concert!! It was awesome!!!!
This was one of his compositions, all of his pieces were original and every harp and instrument he plays, hails from a different part of the world. I apologize for the cinematography, it is very bad.... and indeed, upside down.
This is the Golden Harp of Ur. Handconstructed replica of the oldest stringed instrument in the world dating back to 5000BC
Belgian WAFFLE
A Horse Fountain for Horses!!
Belgium is very nice, truly they are in my opinion more welcoming than as are the French. I think it's because they don't have one official language or culture. Most people in Bruges were speaking Dutch, but they could speak French and English as well. They were also very open to strangers, meaning that in France there can be a certain sentiment of hostility towards outsiders, doesn't mean that there is truly hostility, but that it feels like there is. In Bruges, it was very relaxed and easy to be there. There wasn't that feeling, it's truly a difficult feeling to describe so I apologize if it doesn't quite make sense.
Today I just went to church and came home and watched YouTube, cleaned and ate dinner. It rained today as well!!!!! Church was very good this week.
There were more people there as school vacation has ended and the ward members seemed just a little bit warmer which makes sense because we weren't completely new. They got over the strangeness and were more curious about us this time. All in all it was a very good week, albeit one without a lot work. Sadly June has no holidays so next Monday will be the last holiday.
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