I am an extrovert. Always have been. I love doing things with people, even if it's just sitting in the house and playing games. That one was thing I was looking forward to while in Lille, going out and exploring with people. Of course everybody has their own goals and their own timelines, so that wasn't always feasible. I often had to go by myself to see something. The first time I wanted to go see all the game stores in the area as I wanted to bring one back home. Noboday came with me the first time. I ended up going to two and not finding anything I wanted. The second time Marnisha came with me, and we ended up finding a place with games I enjoyed and a D&D store. So I was able to get Jungle Speed and a pair of dice.
Other times, it was I wanted to try this food place. While my roommate did often come with me, sometime she had other things to do, and as such, I was on my own. Found this great dumpling place, ate there at least 4 times during my month.
Another time was in a program wide trip to Brussels. Now, Brussels isn't a bad place, I just have little interest in the big things there. The cherub statue was crowded and I can't eat chocolate. So while waiting to meet back up with the group, I went exploring. Found this path along the restaurant the program rented out, and walked it. Along it were these amazing sculptures, and tours of kids walking down it speaking Flemish. There was this tunnel I was so scared of going down cuz it was so creepy and hidden. I went and found a few people and we went down, turns out, not that creepy but it did smell like pee.
All in all, I think this experience helped me grow to be more independent and get out of that mentality that you need people with you to have fun. Since I've been back, I've relied less on others to help me explore new things, and I can thank my trip for that.