After my nine month stint abroad in France, I’ve returned home to Salt Lake City, Utah. It’s been about two weeks and I’ve had time to reacquaint myself with the ins-and-outs of everyday life in the United States. Who would have thought that after just nine months, I would need time to readjust to a country that I have called my home for my entire … Continue reading Signs of Reverse Culture Shock – France Back to the US
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
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)
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
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
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)
I can’t believe yet another week has gone by since I’ve moved to France. I was talking to a friend on video chat the other day about how my sense of time and space has drastically changed since leaving the US. On the one hand, I feel as if time is moving more slowly because it takes me about three times the amount of time … Continue reading The Minutia of Living in France Part 2: My Cellphone Debacle and Other Shopping Insights
There is a lot of minutia to living. There are things that I tend to forget about because they’ve become so ingrained in my everyday life. These details, from going to the store, to opening a door, to turning on the stove rarely cross my mind when I’m in the United States. Yet because it is my first time in France, I feel like each … Continue reading Minutia of Living in France Part 1: From Banks to Insurance to Red Tape
Transplanting my life to Nancy, France has put a slight hiatus on my blogging streak from this summer, but alas here I am, albeit slightly jet lagged. Between leaving the US and arriving in France, I’ve experienced a whirlwind of emotions. I’ve been here for roughly 3 days and these are some of the things I’ve learned thus far. 1. The act of leaving gives me … Continue reading 5 Random Things I’ve Learned in My First Days in France
With cellphone cameras and social media, the days of physically printing a photo seem long behind us. But alas, every once in a while you might find yourself in need of a print. In my case, I needed a passport sized photo for a visa application to live in France. Since I was planning on using this photo for an application, I decided that I … Continue reading Travel on a Budget: DIY Passport Photos
