A Refusal to Give Into Polarization
The United States of America is headed in a new direction and I find myself asking the same question. How did we get to this point? As a person of color, a woman, a child of immigrants, a multi-lingual and multi-cultural person, an artist, an educator, a young person, a believer of science, a progressive, and many other identities, there are things that are happening … Continue reading A Refusal to Give Into Polarization
Bus “Tour” of Nancy and Quotidian Things: France Vlog 2
What I’ve been up to in the month of January, including cat sitting, bus tours of small towns, and debating in French. Continue reading Bus “Tour” of Nancy and Quotidian Things: France Vlog 2
Why I Press on Today, Tomorrow, and Always
Today is a day that many people all around the world, not just Americans, have been waiting for with bated breath. Whether out of fear or hope, there is an undeniable energy in the atmosphere. Even here in France, the teachers at my school chatter about the Inauguration in the staff room and at the cafeteria. Students from two separate classes asked me how I … Continue reading Why I Press on Today, Tomorrow, and Always
World’s Largest Tray of Cheese: France Vlog 1
I have no intentions of becoming a vlogger, but I’ve had some videos stored on my camera and phone. I figured the best thing to do was to just compile them into a vlog. Here are some random highlights from Fall 2016. Featuring: Strasbourg, Nancy, Metz, and Berlin. And a short clip of the World’s Largest Tray of Cheese in Nancy from September 2016. I … Continue reading World’s Largest Tray of Cheese: France Vlog 1
Places and the Moments in Between: Perspectives from Traveling
It’s 11:00PM and the ticket counter at the Luxembourg train station is closed. Doors shut, no attendant, ticket dispensing machines locked behind the sliding glass. I try not to let the panic set in as I start to wonder if I’m going to be able to get back to Nancy, France. I didn’t buy my return ticket ahead of time because I wasn’t sure when … Continue reading Places and the Moments in Between: Perspectives from Traveling
100 x 100 (100 Things in 100 Days)
As of this past week, I have officially been in France for 100 days. With the end of the year quickly approaching, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at what I’ve done in France thus far. Luckily for me, I’ve been keeping a daily journal so I won’t have to attempt to do this off the top of my head. It’s nice to … Continue reading 100 x 100 (100 Things in 100 Days)
Beating the TAPIF/Postgrad Blues
Hello blogosphere! I know it’s been a nice long while since I’ve posted anything. Not because I haven’t wanted to, but mostly because I’ve been dealing with what I like to think of as a little bit of the blues. Long story short, living in France isn’t as easy as I thought it would be. After getting ambushed by an emotional breakdown on the first … Continue reading Beating the TAPIF/Postgrad Blues
How I Paris-ed on a Teaching Assistant’s Budget
So, it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. Part of that is because the wifi at my place has been down for the last two weeks. The other part of that is that I have been traveling for the last week. French schools have roughly a two week break for the holiday of Toussaint during the last part of October, so I’ve been taking … Continue reading How I Paris-ed on a Teaching Assistant’s Budget
Orientation & Reorientation: My Identity Abroad
orientation | noun | /ˌɔriɛnˈteɪʃən / 1: the action of orienting someone or something relative to the points of a compass or other specified positions. 2: a person’s basic attitude, beliefs, or feelings in relation to a particular subject or issue. 3: familiarization with something. Last week I sat in a lecture hall with about 46 other English language assistants from all around the world (Canada, India, Ireland, … Continue reading Orientation & Reorientation: My Identity Abroad
Things You Should Know Before Biking Around Nancy (My List of Pros, Cons, and Tips)
I was never really a bike commuter in Salt Lake City. Probably because the Salt Lake Valley is a stretch of 500-square-mile suburban sprawl with wide roads made for big cars and hills that make people of average fitness level break a sweat. Nancy, on the other hand, is a manageable 15-square-kilometers (roughly 9-square-miles to us Americans) of relatively flat land that makes getting around … Continue reading Things You Should Know Before Biking Around Nancy (My List of Pros, Cons, and Tips)
