WEEK FOUR

"Looking back at the past month, It feels as though I have finally made a home with my three other roommates. We rotate cooking family dinners and dish-washing duties, but we sure have impressed ourselves with our Betty Crocker skills in our petite kitchen.  As for outside of our apartments, Lille has been quite a place to call our home.  Walking past highly ornamented buildings on a daily basis is quite different from even walking down the streets of downtown Fargo and was almost over stimulating when I first got off the train.


Other than staying in Lille, traveling and taking note of other countries and cities has been quite an ordeal.      Each destination has their own spin on their urban development, preservation of historic buildings, as well as how to incorporate modern designs within the existing city.  Having now been to Paris a handful of times, Lille (France), Caen (France), Luxembourg (Luxembourg), Roubaix (France), Rouen (France), and Liege (Belgium), I feel as though I have only begun to fathom what Europe has to offer and I can't wait to continue my travels to compare city to city as well as culture to culture.  


This past weekend was the first trip where we ventured more than just a few hours away from Lille, but rather 14+ by train to Berlin, Germany.  Uffda to say the least, but well worth the trip.  The German way of life was a completely different experience from that of the French lifestyle.  Definitely a more forthright and outgoing culture compared to the more so reserved culture of the French.  The architecture was quite different from that of the many cities I have visited since being here.  With most of its historic buildings being destroyed during WWII, there was a definite contrast between the new(er) and old buildings of the past.  It seems to be a city with big plans to continue to grow and develop architecturally in the future.

This has truly become a whirlwind of an experience and with plans to tour Norway, Ireland, Italy, more of France and Germany, and who else know where, I can only imagine what I will see, who I will meet, and the experiences that I will make."   - Sara Kolpack

Notre-Dame: Paris, France

View from the castle's fortress walls: Caen, France

Calatrava train station: Liege, Belgium

Grande Arche: Paris, France

Normandy beaches  outside of Caen: Caen, France

Holocaust Memorial: Berlin, Germany

Reichstag which serves as Germany's seat of Parliment: Berlin, Germany

Olympiastadium: Berlin, Germany                                                                      

"So far in Europe I have been to Lille of course, Paris, London, Brussels, Marseille, and Rotterdam. They all have their similarities as European cities, with the layouts of the cities dating back centuries to when needs were centered around walking, horses, and eventually carriages and cars. This past weekend was spent in Rotterdam, surprisingly the newest city we’ve been to yet. It seems that 70% of the buildings we saw were new, most likely at least partially attributed to the Rotterdam Blitz during World War II destroying large parts of the city. There was a decent mix of the old and the new, and numerous old ships in the harbors alongside newer buildings. We stayed in the cube houses, and one of the other highlights of Rotterdam was the Erasmus Bridge, a large cable stayed bridge spanning one of the canals.

So far though, my favorite cities have been London and Marseille. London for its vast history, and its huge white stone buildings, pubs, and people; and Marseille for its cafes on the harbor, where people flock to have their lunches outside, and buildings built from the edge of the harbor up into the hills.  One of the charms of staying here in Lille is the ability to walk through the plazas of the city, down pedestrian streets of old buildings with the lower levels turned into shops, step into the boulangerie and buy a dessert, then sit down at an outdoor café to enjoy it with a drink or some coffee.  The biggest problem lies in communication… We are slowly starting to learn a some helpful phrases thanks to once a week French lessons, but I still meet with problems. Such as trying to get the time schedule for the trains to Rotterdam, attempting to tell the ticket man what I need in French and being met with- “English?” …Yes… and then being led to someone can communicate with me. Quite embarrassing, and unfortunately not an isolated incident, but it’s most certainly a learning experience… So far it has been difficult to organize schedules to work with the French students, but we just started a seminar with a mix of students from other countries, and there is an open invitation from their professors for our students to pop in on their studios whenever, and I know some students are planning on that. I know I hope to see how the French students approach design myself and meet some new people."   - Lisa Ostlund