My last day in Lille

When I was moving to France, five months of exchange seemed to me incredibly long. How can I survive almost half of the year in a really small city with raining every day without my family and closest friends? After, everything happened so fast like if it was just one week. Seriously. I still can´t believe it but today it was my last day in Lille and at the moment I am on my way to Amsterdam to spend six days of relaxing and studying for my state exams there. After I am finally going home to see my family!

When you feel happy time goes really fast. This semester was the fastest one. I wish I could go through it all over again! I am planning on writing the whole story about my feelings from Erasmus, but today I would like to talk about how I spent my last day in Lille.

I agreed with my landlord that I would pay accommodation only until 17th of May because after I would be travelling. That´s why I had to already pack all of my luggage before Barcelona, including cleaning the room. I was not really able to close my biggest suitcase so I just decided to postpone solving the problem.

In the end I had two big luggage, two bags and one backpack. I went for a trip to Barcelona, Paris and to the south of France. I arrived back to Lille from Nantes around 2. 30 am. I slept only few hours and I decided to get up around 8 am to arrange everything I wanted to.

I went to our house but unfortunately our landlord was not at home so I did not have opportunity to tell her how pleasant I felt in her house. She was really nice. Every time she helped me with everything and I had no problem with her. Before coming to the Czech Republic I decided to travel first to Amsterdam to spend few days there and on 2nd of June to take a bus directly to Prague. Flixbus had again special offers and I managed to buy my ticket just for 9 euros (Amsterdam – Prague). In addition, I can study for my state exams in Amsterdam (I really need to! ). It was also great opportunity to see Amsterdam again because I am probably going to move there in September.

My bus to Amsterdam was at 5 pm. I agreed with Andreas that in the morning when he is at school I can move my luggage to his place because he moved to the residence Campusea one month ago which is just 5 minutes from the bus station. It was a perfect plan. Firstly, I wanted to order Uber to move my bags to his place because I was not able to take it on my own. Although I was quite worried because it could happen that the driver would have just a small car. My whole problem was solved quickly because I talked to Francois and he offered to take his mini van and help me! I was really really really happy.

In Lille, I spoke mostly to the exchange students but I had also few French friends. One of the nicest french students was Francois (the best friend of Alberto). We met with Francois at our Corporate Finance class. I had to take this class in order to be accepted to the Amsterdam University because they require it for finance master programs. Our teacher said that we were obliged to make a group mixed with international students and French students. In the beginning I did not like it at all. Actually I had no idea that in the end I could be close with these people. I liked the fact that I was going to be in a same group with Alberto because I already knew him, but French people were not so pleasant. I remember first assignments and it was a big mess. As the time passed I started to like my group. We met many times at school, in our class and at the party. They were all the time happy and they never stopped doing jokes. At the moment every time when I am with these guys from my group I feel like I know them for ages and they are super nice. In the end it was not so serious with our finance class because we all passed the class even though I have to admit I know nothing about Corporate Finance. I wanted to see Francois and Alberto before I go to the Czech Republic so we agreed on having breakfast together.

In the van there were only two seats. Poor Alberto had to lie in the trunk. Hopefully we managed to put all my luggage into the car. Before we met I accomplished to put my two small bags into the big luggage. Therefore, I had just four bags in total. Alberto had a good idea to record my last closing the door in my house. I was excited about it because I am about to do small video from my exchange and thanks to him I already have an appropriate ending.

After that we found one café in Vieux Lille and I was enjoying listening to the stories of Alberto and Francois and also their future plans. I was surprised that they are not going to spend some much time in Lille as well because of internships and exchange. It is a nice coincidence that Francois is going to study in Prague at my university from September. If I did not go to Amsterdam we would be classmates again! Anyway, I am going to see him every time I go to Prague (hopefully). I had really good time with them and when they dropped me out in front of the school I felt happy to spend my last moments with Andreas.

We went for a lunch to the restaurant Soho. When I heard that it is all you can restaurant with Italian food I did not hesitate at all. How come that I did not know about this place before? In the Czech Republic I am not used to going to the all you can eat restaurant at all. The price of these types of restaurant is sometimes three times higher than going to the normal restaurant. In Lille the price is almost same as a price for normal meal. I already went to all you can eat Chinese buffet and it was awesome! Italian kitchen is my favourite one. I really love pasta, pizza, and the best meal are lasagne for me. In this restaurant, you get the card for non-alcoholic drinks and after you can choose pizza or pasta. The price of this whole thing is 13, 5 euro.

As a first dish we had a pizza. At the earliest you have two choices about the dough. There are two kinds of it – the one with herbs and normal one. After, you can put anything you can think of – sauces (tomato, gorgonzola, sour cream, barbecue), all vegetable (onions, peppers, tomatoes, corn…), meat (tuna, chicken, sausages, ham, lardons) and of course all the types of cheese (raclette, blue cheese, mozzarella, normal cheese, camembert…). When you are finished with your choices you just put your pizza into the small oven and they heat it for you. You can have a pizza of normal size or just a small one. We chose the small one as we wanted to have pasta afterwards. The funny thing is that if you do not finish your food you have to pay 5 euro. I do not really know if it is true because that´s what Andreas told me and I don´t believe him.

When we finished the pizza I had a big decision in front of me. Should I continue with the pizza or try pasta? I took again pizza because I totally loved it. Anyway I tried the pasta of Andreas and it was also amazing. It was almost similar procedure as with pizza. You could choose the kind of the pasta and after put whatever you wanted on it and they baked it and serve it for you. Except for the pizza and pasta bar they had a special place for all vegetable and another specialties so you could also make a salad.

I liked our lunch a lot. During whole semester we did not have time to go for a lunch in two people so we enjoyed speaking about some serious stuff. We were speaking about school, exchange, internships, plans for future and so on. I was quite impressed when I heard what everything Andreas managed to do before coming to Lille and I started to plan my future plans immediately in the bus to catch up with him. One thing I already noticed is that after travelling and studying/working abroad I started to feel that everything is possible and I can really do whatever I want to and wherever I want to. It is just the matter of determination and motivation. It makes me feel more confident and I am looking forward to my new adventures.

We almost forgot to have a desert. Just almost. They had again a huge selection – brownies, cookies, speculoos, chocolate, strawberries, bananas, marshmallow, ice-cream and so on. It was delicious! I would give the restaurant 10 points out of 10! I was also proud of myself that I managed to eat quite normally and I was able to walk after (not like french tasting in the beginning of the semester). And tomorrow I will finally start eating normal food with vegetable and fruit, no fast food and no dessert after every salty meal – hopefully!

After our lunch we had just one hour until my bus came. Saying goodbye is the worst thing ever. It was weird with everybody when I knew it might be my last time seeing together. After 5 months of seeing each other almost every day it is of course not comfortable to stop. With Andreas it was even worse because he was the one of my closest friends and since he is from Mexico it is not easy to see him. But we already made some plans and I believe we will accomplish it. The other good thing was that Andreas has excellent ability to make me feel good. I expected me to be depressed and sad but he told me so many supportive things that I had a blessed time. The unpleasant feeling came later in the bus. But as I said I already started to plan another adventurous plans and I am thrilled for all that will happen.

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