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apparently all of the (few) post letters I sent to Taiwan have never arrived and have been sent to Mainland China or lost.. but most likely sent to Mainland China, as I recall with dread that when I sent the last one nearly a month ago some bitchy postal person had corrected me when I said, "I'd like this sent to Taiwan," by saying, "You mean China ( Read more... )

"Vos enfants sont très beaux. Ils sont adoptes?"Last week I went to a couple villages near Marsille (Mazargues, and Cassis) and Florence and it was lovely. I went hiking near Cassis and spent a few hours hanging out by one of the Calanques, which are absolutely gorgeous, the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen, then wandered back to the port ( Read more... )

finals week. I took a page from Sarah's book and went up to Metz this weekend (other side of the country) by slow train to use up a day on my eurrail pass and to force myself to study. It seemed to have worked; I think I knew what was going on on the orthography final, though sometimes you just don't know. The teacher was really nice about ( Read more... )

So ( Read more... )

Back in Toulouse. Had a crazy moment after Ilya split for Barcelona where Mike and I decided to just take the first train we could catch to Paris. It's pretty weird/cool to revisit a place.. I knew where to go and which metro lines to take, and it didn't seem to have changed much since the last time. I went to Belleville to do some Chinese grocery ( Read more... )

just posted some pics from Toulouse ( Read more... )

I've been in France for about a month and a half now, and it's been really good. It's stunning how time flies. I had an intensive language program class for about a month which ended a week and a half ago, now it's over I'm in a month-long break before the semester starts. A buddy from Israel came to travel in France and Spain a bit, and we went on ( Read more... )

I've been in Toulouse since Monday. It's a really lovely city, I like it a lot. I found a cute apartment not far from the city center that I'll be sharing with a girl from UCSC, my roommate from the UC arranged dorms. Unfortunately, lately I haven't been speaking much French, but I have my opportunities and I'm surprised by how much I can get along ( Read more... )

:) This turned out to be an incredible summer. There was a time when I couldn't imagine a fate worse than lolling about at home and not marching drum corps. But just enjoying where you are isn't bad either, and is a worth-while goal in itself. I learned how to swim pretty decently, got better at guitar (unfortunately I can't take it with me to ( Read more... )