Other things

Life here is not all dog walks and drinking beer, as nice as that sounds. Here's a few other things we've been up to:

• Apartment hunting. Clay is online a lot looking at various realtors' sites in search of a place to rent near where we are currently staying. We are going to look at another place today.
• Language exchanges. We've been to three different events since we've been here with a mixture of foreigners and French natives. They are partly social gatherings and partly an opportunity to practice language skills, English or French. They all have have a slightly different format and focus, but what they all have in common is that we've met a lot of nice and interesting people.
• Physical therapy. I'm seeing a therapist twice a week as I was doing back in the states, working on rehab of my right shoulder rotator cuff. The approach is slightly different from what I was getting at Ivy Rehab. It's more "hands on," shorter sessions, and a lot less expensive which is good because I'm now paying for it out of pocket.
• More filming. The film crew came from Paris again yesterday to record some aspects of our daily life in Lille, including a trip to open a local back account. That's a big deal because we need it in order to get a phone and we need both a bank account and a phone to get taken serious by realtors in our apartment search. Not all banks are welcoming to foreigners. 
• Concerts. We've been to several local classical music concerts. There's a music conservatory in Lille with a wonderful performance space where we saw a violinist and pianist last week. The cathedral holds free concerts Saturday evenings.
• Shopping. We hit various local markets at least a couple times each week for fresh fruit and vegetables. The small, local grocery stores don't have much selection of that because most people shop at the markets. There's a lot more available at them as well, but we're mainly hitting them for fresh produce now.
• Cooking. The film crew guy showed me how to use the oven yesterday so I can finally start cooking something besides eggs in a frying pan. I've been saving up a lot of recipes I want to start trying out.
• Museums. We've hit two local museums after purchasing a year long couples pass that gets us in for free. That's nice because we don't feel that we need to try to see everything in a single visit. We can, and will, go back from time to time. We went to the Beaux Arts museum just to see an exhibit of 16th century Flemish paints featuring festivals, such as the Braderie, a local tradition dating back to that time that has now grown to being the largest flea market in Europe. It is coming up the first weekend in September.
• Learning French. I can't claim that I'm doing much, but we went to see the location of the class that I'm enrolled in starting 8 September. It will be three hours per day, five days a week for eight weeks. 
• Medical. Clay ventured into the medical world of France this week with a visit to an ophthalmologist. He found the doctor and made the appointment online. He had a very thorough exam and then talked to an English speaking doctor who had practiced in Miami. As with my therapy, we were paying out of pocket but the cost was so much less than it would have been in the U.S. 

That's all that comes to mind at the moment. We are staying busy and enjoying ourselves.

My first breakfast creation since learning to work the oven.

The conservatory's concert hall.

Bailey having a roll in the grass.

Gare Lille Flandres  (the train station for local/regional trains)

Gare Lille Europe (the train station for the high speed international trains).

There is also a big shopping mall located here.

Both train stations are nearby and next to one another. The local metro system is also in the same area.