I'm feeling much more positive about life this week. I'm visiting my boyfriend Rowan in Germany, because I have a 10 day holiday from school and thought it would be a good opportunity to travel to Dortmund to check out his way of life. It's all very nice and leafy, I will post another blog about that when I get back to Lille.
As for the past week or so, things have really been looking up. Not only have we found a lovely, affordable flat but the bank have started being nice to us and finally sent out letters for us to sign so we can get our bank cards. Hopefully mine will be waiting for me when I get back from Germany. Me and Hannah have spent a lot of time in Ikea recently, trying to work out what to do with the empty space of an apartment we now live in. So far I've bought the world's most uncomfortable 39euro mattress, and bed side table and a kitchen chair. Our landlord has agreed to go to Ikea and pick up bedframes and desks for us, because my car is too small and Ikea's delivery is like daylight robbery. I would be really grateful of any cheap solutions to make my bed comfier? Our kitchen was practically empty as well. But after some debating with the landlord he agreed to put some counters in and buy us some electric hobs so we can continue our wonderful diet of pasta and veg. Yum yum.
The biggest task, finding a fridge. We looked on leboncoin to see if anyone was wanting to sell fridges, but they all looked a bit dodgey. So one night over a bizarre Brazilian chocolate concoction, one of the Belgian girls we met in the Foyer told us about a second hand furniture shop near the local supermarket. So we went there the next day and found a little fridge freezer for 90euros. Without hesitation we bought it, mainly because we knew it would fit in the car. So we set off, then thought how on earth are we going to get this up the stairs into the apartment? Luckily the landlord was visiting us that night to take more rent money off us. So he agreed to carry it up for us. Then he asked where we'd bought it from and we told him. And apparently that place is run by ex convicts and prisoners who are paid to restore broken appliances. This did worry me quite a bit but he assured me that it wouldn't be a problem and it was a serious rehabilitation program.
Another must-have when living in France is home insurance, or assurance tous risques locatifs. which we were dreading buying because in England it wouldn't come cheap. It's the law in France to have insurance. We managed to get a quote for 60 euros between us for the year. BARGAIN!
To celebrate a successful week, me and Hannah went on a little afternoon out on Sunday before we headed of on our travels on Monday. We went for lunch at this restaurant Hannah had been going on and on about since we arrived because she had been there with her boyfriend over the summer. And let me tell you, it didn't disappoint. I had a tartine, with vegetables and loats of parmasan mmmmmmm. Then we went into Vieux Lille to have a walk around and take some photos. (I'll upload them to Facebook) It was a lovely little day out, and felt like a true reward based on the weeks successes.
No comments:
Post a Comment