Life at Université Charles de Gaulle

The title I gave to this post is overbroad because I only plan to write about two aspects of campus life: my kitchen and the weather. This is mainly a result of my neglectful photo-journaling - I'll take pictures of the Lille 3 campus one of these days. But it is also because I've been here long enough to come to conclusions about these things.

To begin, I would like to apologize for any complaining I do about my kitchen. I just like food. I like to cook. I have no oven.

I actually miss my tiny oven on Rose Street.

I also don't have any supplies, aside from the little pot that I bought. I can't really justify buying a lot of kitchen things because I won't necessarily have a way to move them in a few months. I'm just a frustrated foodie and will probably continue to grumble about this for some time. Feel free to ignore me.

I've begun searching for recipes that I could actually make with the supplies that I do have. Unfortunately, any attempt at cooking is further thwarted by the fact that the power to the stovetop goes off after a couple of minutes if you don't keep hitting the power button on the wall.

Complaints aside, it is a nice little room. It's kept clean and there is a lot of natural light during the day. And the windows have a nice view. Depending on the time of day, I can have it all to myself - Europeans eat late dinners - and I've come to enjoy sitting down with a podcast and a bowl of soup.

Also, I wanted to include a visual aid to help along my description of the fridge...

Next, the weather in Lille is not at all like the weather in either Illinois or Kentucky. It's usually compared with the weather in London. It makes sense - Lille is also fairly close to the coast of the English Channel. 

It's gotten chilly here much faster than I'm used to (read: more time to wear sweaters!). More importantly, it rains a lot. It basically rains everyday at some point. Any time I check the weather, there is at least a 20% chance of precipitation. 

I'm not sure when I took this picture. It might have been Monday or Tuesday... or Wednesday. Some morning this week, anyways.

I don't mind the rain, really. There are days when it rains hard but, for the most part, it's not enough to be uncomfortable. You just learn not to leave your umbrella behind.