Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey

International club

One thing that made my staying in France more interesting and easier was International Club. Honestly, I have to say that guys from International Club are just amazing. I heard about them already in the Czech Republic because they sent us a message about picking up service. I did not know about that but they provided picking up new students directly at the train station. When I received their email I was sure I wanted them to pick me up. Even though my landlord offered me taking me home from the train station on her own I chose International Club. I knew that it was an opportunity to make friends immediately in the beginning. I was travelling by bus. I was quite scared because most of my friends went by car to take their luggage but I went by bus alone with two huge suitcases. I sent a message to the guy who was supposed to pick me up and he answered I should go downstairs. Unfortunately, it was impossible because I had too many bags with me. Therefore we were trying to find each other at the station for a long time. The first person I met was Nina from Finland and then my housemate Cherry from India. I was quite shy my first day in Lille.

We already had first welcoming party from the International club that evening. I was totally impressed by activities they organized for us. Except for this first day, my staying started with an introduction week. I would like to describe my introduction week in a detail next time. It included iceskating, pub crawl, city tour, speed dating and many other activities. Except for this they organized few trip during the semester. We had a deadline for it and if we wanted to go with an International Club we had to register for it in advance. It was hard choice.

Trips

I already was not available for the first one. It was trip to Amsterdam. I had an English certificate exam at the same time. I was little bit sad about it but since David was studying in Amsterdam I was planning to go there many times during the semester. Second trip was the trip to Disneyland. It was clear choice for me because I totally love theme parks and I always wanted to go there. It was kind of my dream. This trip cost 60 euro I think but it was definitely worth it because I went there alone I would pay even more. We had a group discount thanks to International Club. Another trip they offered was trip to Versailles and to Mt St Michel.

I could not decide between these two. Both are castles. Afterwards, I did a research and I found out that Versaille is in surrounding of Paris and tickets are free for non-European students. Therefore, I decided to go there another date on my own and go to Mt St Michel with International Club because it is located in Normandie. It is funny that I am supposed to know a lot of information and facts about this region because I had a long presentation about it in French. Since beginning I was eager to improve my French in Lille – naturally. That´s why I took a class of Econometrics in French. But it did not go well. Since I already had a lot of econometric classes at Charles University, it was not anything new. Moreover, I did not really understand the teacher and presentations were in English.

IESEG (School of Management) was well-prepared for incoming students and they offered few classes in French. I wanted to take all of the ones for B1 or B2 to improve my French as much as it was possible. Although one class – Preparation for DELF was quite hard for me and the time did not suit me well. On the contrary, I participated in the class called: Decouverte de la France. It was not interesting at all. Every class we were just talking about regions in France and each class one group had a long presentation in French. Basically, I prepared only for the class when we were the leaders and then I did not pay attention much. Moreover, the teacher spoke super fast.

One of the last trips that International club offered to us was a trip to Prague and I would like to talk about it in a detail in another story because I went to Prague in the middle of the semester with the club and we had a lot of fun! When they told us about the deadline and date of payment for the trips, I was very lucky. Lucia was there on time and she was waiting the line. Therefore we just came and we paid for our trips. Unfortunately, not everybody could go for every trip because they had a lot of limits regarding the number of people. I bought Mt St Michel and Disneyland in the end because I wanted to go to Prague on my own and stay there longer with my family.

Mt St Michel

Trip to Mt St Michel was already in February. I did not check the location but I was terribly surprised that it was so far. This whole weekend was totally crazy though. We went to the party on Friday and we came directly to the bus to go to Mt St Michel. After coming back we decided to party again and around 3 am we found out that there was a special carnival in Dunkerque the day after. Unfortunately, we were not prepared for it and we were more than exhausted so we decided to skip it. At that time I told myself that I did not have to be everywhere. Although I perceived it differently after the carnival happened. Perhaps, it is the only thing I regret related to my exchange. I thought it was just another party and I really needed to sleep on Sunday. Nevertheless, later everybody was speaking about this event a lot. Moreover, they had amazing costumes! I heard many stories from this festival and the point was that everybody was happy, people were offering alcohol for free and the streets were crowded with a good music. No more regrets, I can not be everywhere.

As I already said, we were partying Friday night and I was surprised that girls and me came and we were not even late. Although when I got to the bus, I just wanted to sleep. I was sitting next to Juan. Subsequently, we found out that we would spend seven hours in the bus. Since I wanted to sleep, I did not mind. At the moment when I evaluate this trip I think that it was too much. When we arrived there everybody was just staring at the castle. It was so nice! Normally, there is water between the castle and the land but sometimes the water goes back and there is possibility to walk to the castle which was our plan. We were walking there and it was huge. We were quite a big group. We all took our audio guide and I was listening to it. The whole complex was really nice. When I see this picture I always remember that I was wearing my headphones there but few minutes later I lost them. Probably, I just returned them with the audio guide.

There were many places with a nice view and we were taking pictures everywhere. I would say that we spent there around two hours. When we got hungry we went to find a good restaurant to eat. They served one of the best pancakes at the castle. I took the salty one – with ham and cheese. Honestly, I preferred the one in Paris more. The prices were quite high because it was touristic place. After four hours or maybe less, we got to the bus again and they took us to another city called – Honfleur.

The city was nice but it was not exceptional. There was a port with boats and it was quite small. We were again hungry. Therefore, we went to the café and we had a coffee with pancake again. We ate the sweet one this time. They let us only two hours exploring the city and then it was time to go back. I am happy I have had the opportunity to visit such an astonishing castle. On the other side, we spent a lot of money for this trip in comparison to travelling on our own. Moreover, we were mostly in the bus because it was far away from Lille. That´s why I might not have gone there if I had known all the details about the trip. Although it is always fun with International Club. They prepared a breakfast for us and we were playing a lot of games in the bus. I remember that Mexican and Brazilian people went nuts in the bus and they were already drinking and singing all the time. I loved them already at that time. During this trip I also made on of the best pictures of my exchange thanks to Denis. He had a great camera and he taught us how to jump on the picture.