I just spent an amazing weekend in Switzerland with my friend Valerie. It was snowing - hard! - on my way into Lausanne on the train, and the whole time I felt like I was in a picture postcard. Unfortunately, you guys won't get to see that postcard, since about an hour after I arrived, I was handing my (digital) camera to Valerie and it slipped ( Read more... )

I have a lot of beef with my high school. Suffice it to say that despite some really top-rate teaching, all the gossip about elitist East Siders isn't totally off the mark. But a recent article my mom told me about just cracked me up. It's about Andrew Trees, my 10th-grade American History teacher who was idolized by many (mostly male) students for ( Read more... )

Line 3 and 3bis, which I did on Saturday, were very exciting. Because line 3 is my line! I'd already walked a good chunk of it - a kind of annoying, commercial chunk between Saint-Lazare and Parmentier, as well as the walk up to Père Lachaise - but that didn't keep me from totally digging it, especially the part in the 17th arrondissement, which is ( Read more... )

First of all, I did Line 2 on Thursday and the photos are up. (Here's the map.) It was a cloudy day, but the walk was OK. A lot of it was sort of ugly, but you get to see a different side of Paris from Line 1. I did Line 3 and 3bis yesterday... Picasa links will come soon.

Also, on Friday night I went to see Le Vrai Faux Mariage de la Caravane Passe ( Read more... )

I finally got my travel reimbursement for the last five months!! Not only did I get my usual paycheck, but I have an extra 207 Euros on top!! This is good because after all that traveling, I was on my last 80 Euros... and that was including a financial contribution from my parents (without which - thank you parents!! - I would be like my other ( Read more... )

I got inspired a few days ago and decided, since Paris is getting nicer outside and I still need sources of free exercise, to walk the length of all 14 Paris metro lines. I did Line 1 this morning, and took a picture at each stop - you can see them (and some fun historical Paris trivia!) here, or you can check out the Google Map of my route.

Ligne ( Read more... )

I'm back! Whew. This has been a lot of traveling and I will need some time to unwind. But here are my pictures from Sweden. The only main event that was not included was a day we went ice skating - hopefully Sarah will put up some pictures soon. I fail at ice skating... but I probably haven't skated since I was 12, so that's fine. And it was really ( Read more... )

First of all, I just want to say that real film cameras are great, because then you get your pictures back and it's really exciting! I just got 4 rolls developed, from my trips to Germany, Nice, and Rome, and the albums are up.

The first Germany album (my digital pics - have been up for a while)
The new Germany album! With all my pictures from ( Read more... )

So as not to dwell on my broken iPod (sigh), I had a good time in Rome! I walked a lot, the weather was great - not really warm, like upper 40's, but sunny all day and very pleasant. I ate a lot of pizza. I saw some pretty amazing things, including stumbling by accident upon the Baths of Caracalla (I was a bit lost), which I didn't even know ( Read more... )

Ever since I've been in France, whenever things seem to be going really well, something really annoying gets thrown in my face. For example: I get an apartment? My laptop breaks. I think I can get my residence card? No, won't be ready for another week. I finally finish all the administrative crap? I start getting letters from the CAF asking for ( Read more... )