Far and Away

Featured image: Me at L’Orangerie, looking at Monet’s water lilies Before I began this semester, I never would have imagined that on Thanksgiving, I’d be sitting at a table staring down a 20-pound turkey. And yet, that’s exactly what happened a few days ago when my host family decided to reconnect with their American roots (they lived in the United States back in the early 90s) and cook an entire Thanksgiving meal. That evening, the apartment was filled with old…

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Featured image: Nuts and spices at the night market in Marrakech August, September, October, and now November. I said it in my last post, and I’ll say it again here: time has been flying by. Since my last update in October, I’ve visited the Loire Valley with my host family, gotten some real work done at my internship, and even gone to Morocco for a weekend. Now, instead of leaving the apartment in just a t-shirt, I don’t think twice…

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Featured image: The Eiffel Tower at night, a few weeks ago Sometimes it’s hard for me to believe just how quickly my semester abroad is going. Between four classes, an internship, and exploring the city, time does not slow down unless you force it to. These pauses normally happen during a way-too-late-night conversation with a friend or when I have a moment to sit on a quiet park bench and journal. This also happened a few weeks ago when I…

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Featured image: standing on top of the Dune du Pilat during an excursion in Bordeaux The other day as I was video chatting a friend from home, she asked me to describe Paris. After some moments of reflection, the best I could come up with was: Paris? It’s, uh, very Parisian. And though at the time it sounded silly, I later realized that it was true. Paris is very Parisian. Here, the people smell nice, but aren’t always as outwardly…

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