DAY 1 OF GROWN-UP LIFE

The next day I woke up feeling rested, and my arms were no longer hurting. It was officially my first day in Lille, the 23rd of August, 2023. I arranged more of my stuff and got ready to go out. Thanks to my university’s initiative called the ‘Buddy System’ that I had applied for, I got help from a local student in all kinds of things. That day I was going to meet G, my buddy. 

I met him at the campus metro station, since I had to start with getting myself a metro card. G  helped me buy a temporary one, and then we took the metro to Gare Lille Flandres (I’ll be calling it GLF for short; and ‘gare’ means ‘train station’). 

Being the first day in an unfamiliar city made me a bit anxious, but being with a local made it easier. We walked down the street right opposite to this yellow statue. It is a broad street lined with many restaurants, coffee shops, and other stores. The day was sunny and nice (something that I found out is very rare here), and a lot of people were out and about. I was carrying a backpack and later wished I hadn’t, as it was a bit hot after walking. I had packed everything from a water bottle to a an umbrella in my backpack. Sounds a bit too much, I know, but being on the safer side is always better. 

G showed me around those pretty streets. There are so many shops and food places! We checked out some of them. All the while, we were chatting about our cultures and countries. The first task on my list for that day was to buy a local sim card. So, he took me to a sim card provider, and helped me get a sim card. It was a good decision to carry my passport and  university  admission letter because I had to show it as proof of  identity. After that we also went to a local bank and got an appointment for me to open an account. 

These smaller streets were so pretty, just like what we see in movies. Or rather, these paved streets are such a common feature of European cities, that it becomes a backdrop in movies no matter where they shoot it. The Old Lille area is historically and culturally important. G told me that some of those streets were made way later than the buildings, and that space was actually for canals and was used for sewage disposal. There is a lot of Flemish influence on the architecture here, which is very similar to that seen in Belgium (I had a chance to visit twice and will tell you about it soon, too.).

They had these huge umbrellas covering outside-seating of restaurants and cafes everywhere. The thing that surprised me was that quite a lot of people were relaxing and chilling with their coffees and food in the middle of a weekday. And clearly, not all of them were tourists. In fact I’m pretty sure the people walking around, with that specific look of reaching somewhere, were the real tourists. The locals were the ones taking a break. 

Despite being a quite popular tourist city, the vibe of Lille is relaxing, calm and neat. This statue of the lady, called as the Column of the Goddess, is a very central landmark. It is surrounded by colourful buildings having bakeries, patisseries and bars at the ground floors. This place looked like the eateries were building outlets spilling people out into the square. 

It was in this square we bought some fries, French, obviously. They were tasty as fries can be, but I really liked the dips they offer with them. The dip makes the fries tastier. I was happy that I got a chance to eat French fries in France (which I did often over the next four months). 

We walked while eating, again something new that I had to get used to. Here, many people eat on the go, mostly for convenience. It was a bit tough to manage in the beginning, especially without spilling the food or drink. But now I’m much better at it. On the way, we passed a big garden. It had nice tall trees, with benches and a small statue in the middle. People were jogging on the walking track, some were cycling in the street next to it. There was also a canal (clean) where they had small boats. 

From here, we started walking back from a different road. The roads were all paved with grey, brown and white blocks, laid down in patterns. On the way, I saw a big cathedral, which I visited again sometime later. 

The next thing on my list was to buy some groceries and general household things. This was the first time I was shopping for daily necessities. The first thing you need to do as a grown-up is feeding yourself, because no one else will be doing that for you. I understood why my mom always says, “What to eat today? is a million-dollar question. And it’s very difficult to decide on an answer.” Even today, I am thinking of what I’ll be eating in the next meal while eating one meal, and going to sleep thinking whether I have enough milk for tomorrow’s coffee, or I need to go buy it first thing in the morning. A lot of energy goes in seemingly pointless thinking about things like “Should I buy a box of 12 cheese cubes or 24?”, or “Should I go out to buy groceries today, when I don’t really need to go out? Or should I go two days later when I have a class, and just eat bread tomorrow?” It’s difficult being a grown-up, is all I can say. Interesting and fun, yes, but tough. 

A hundred and one cheeses

I say it’s tough because you also have to stop yourself from spending on (logically) unnecessary stuff (which looks like the most attractive thing in the entire store at that particular moment). For example…

I have walked past this section every single time I went to this store…

But that day, I bought the basic requirements for my little studio, and we headed back to the campus. G had brought his car, so he dropped me off at my residence. I saw the stadium of Lille, where they hosted the Rugby World Cup matches later in the year. 

This was my first shopping in Lille – books and butter, coffee and cheese, potatoes and pillow, salt and soap, and water and yoghurt. It was a day of exploring the main parts of the city, at least those that I would have to navigate through in the coming months.