Am I Gonna Need Breadcrumbs for This? (A Few Days in Strasbourg)

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I've been to some pretty amazing places, but I've never been to a city as picturesque as Strasbourg. Everywhere I turned were 13th and 14th century timber-framed buildings, swans in canals, and people biking across bridges, flowers in their baskets. I was half expecting to see Little Red Riding Hood or Hansel and Gretel wandering through the tiny cobbled streets. 

A View of "la petite france" from the Boatarama Boat tour

A View of "la petite france" from the Boatarama Boat tour

There is a quarter in Strasbourg called "La Petite France," a particularly fariytale-esque neighborhood where I spent as much time as humanly possible during my stay. The rest of Strasbourg was amazing too. It felt more like a movie set than a real place. The buildings looked like they were hundreds of years old. I kept reminding myself that the buildings were stacked and tilted ontop of eachother because they really were hundreds of years old. Turns out Louis XVI stayed at a hotel that looked modern to me. Shows what I know. 

I'm traveling solo, which is relatively new for me. Everyone told me you'd just meet people on the road and for some reason I didn't believe them. But sure enough, my first night in Strasbourg I met Molly. She is also teaching English through TAPIF. Molly was super nice and we stayed together for the two days we were both in Strasbourg. We visited the Cathedral and saw its famous astronomical clock move at midday, took a boat tour on the canal, and wandered down the city streets. I especially liked the city lit up at night.  The medieval houses looked so cozy with the bright windows and lights reflected in the canals. 

Thanks, Strasbourg! I'll definitely be back!

A Rainy Weekend on the French Riviera

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When I think of the French Riviera, images of sunny streets and bikini-clad French women come to mind. I picture couples walking arm in arm under the palm trees and having coffee at outdoor cafes under the sunshine. But it’s February and instead of sunny skies, I watched rain run down the airplane window when I arrived. Bummer? Maybe. I didn’t really know what to expect from Nice in the rain. Thankfully, it is still quaint and beautiful, even under umbrellas. 

After living on a relatively small island for the last few months, arriving in Nice felt more like London or New York than the lazy seaside town that it is. People were speaking Spanish. And Chinese. And English! We went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner simply because we could. We ate burgers and strawberry daiquiris and it was amazing. They even had a teenie tiny little shop which sold a few souvenir t-shirts. It was almost like the one in Times Square. 

We started our day in Nice by wandering through the flower market. By running from flower stall to flower stall, we stayed relatively dry. Even though our original breakfast plans didn’t pan out, we ended up treating ourselves to a giant, delicious brunch. And we picked the perfect spot called Pain & Cie. As we ate, we looked out the window and watched the people run past the flower market. For the rest of the day, we visited the modern art museum, the natural history museum, and did some shopping. All in all, not a terrible way to spend a Sunday! 


Bastia

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One of the most amazing things about Corsica is how beautiful the scenery is. After all, Corsica is called, “Ile de Beauté.” And riding the train from the south in Ajaccio to the north in Bastia had some of the most beautiful views I’ve seen. It’s cold enough now that there’s snow on the mountains almost every day. And everyday I’m blown away by how pretty it is. 

My friends Ella and Natasha and I decided to go to Bastia for the weekend. We met up with the assistants living in the north while visiting Corsica’s second largest city. Two birds ya know? We met a wonderful girl on the train and had a fun time chatting in French with a real Corsican our age. They’re hard to come by so we got her number.  

We left Ajaccio around 3:30 and got into Bastia at about 7:15. We stayed with Bailey, an assistant who was nice enough to share her home with three complete strangers. Her roommate, Christina, wasn’t there because she went to Ajaccio to stay at Ella’s. We were really wowed by Bailey’s place. It had a modern vibe, complete with dishwasher and full kitchen. Her shower has three whole walls, while mine only has two. I, for one, am a bit jealous. Taking a shower without flooding the bathroom can be tricky.

We chatted, had tea and munched on some delicious Moroccan bread while we waited for the other assistants to come over. Everyone was very cool and down to earth. They all seemed like a lot of fun and very very nice. We had a glass of wine and went out to grab some food at a meat bar. There were tons of traditional Corsican food, mainly meats and cheeses. I had a very good “bacon” cheeseburger.  The bacon turned out to be ham. So good try, France. But that’s just straight up ham. We called it a night and went back to Bailey’s. 

The next day, we wandered around Bastia. It’s definitely different from Ajaccio in the sense that there is a real difference between “old town” and “new town.” I think it’s more built up and a bit more industrial. It was a nice change. 

I loved wandering around from new town, across a large plaza to old town and then back again. Like Ajaccio, they have little bays, marinas, and a citadel. We loved the two little lighthouses beneath the old town. Lunch was British traditional breakfast at "The Flying Circus." It was so good. And instead of dinner, we ate giant ice creams at a family owned ice cream shop and fruity drinks by the port. 

The next day, we wandered around the market early in the morning. We bought beignets and some really good clementines and soon hopped on the early train back to Ajaccio. 


My Week in Edinburgh

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My Week in Edinburgh

"Magical" is not a word my pragmatic father uses to describe anything. So when he told me Edinburgh was magical, my expectations for this city went from high to through the roof. And I was not disappointed. I was expecting very dark, cold and rainy days. I thought the city would be almost ragged with old black spired architecture. I was so wrong.

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Don't Be A Sissy, Go to Paris.

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Don't Be A Sissy, Go to Paris.

I landed in Paris this morning. Was that this morning? Oh my goodness. It feels like a hundred years ago.  After grabbing my bag and going through customs I checked into the airport Hilton. The first thing I did was take a quick 30 minute power nap and then I forced myself to get up. If I had a 24 hour layover in Paris, I was going to see Paris.

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The French Visa Process is a Nightmare: Part II

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The French Visa Process is a Nightmare: Part II

My first time applying for a Visa at the French consulate in DC did not go well. I figured the lack of preparation on my end could have been better back in 2013 and that was why I had so much trouble. So this summer, I decided that I needed to be more detail-oriented this time, more careful. More something. I would be sure my second visa application went off without a hitch or I’d die trying. 

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How I'm doing this

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How I'm doing this

 I've been asked the same question lots of times since deciding to spend months of my life teaching English in another country: "You're going to teach English in France? How are you doing this?!?" The answer? A lot of planning, learning, and a little bit of luck. 

During my sophomore year of college I took an ESL class out of pure curiosity. ( ESL stands for English as a second language.) I loved learning foreign languages myself and thought it might be cool to learn how to teach a language I actually knew. Instead of being the student, for the first time in my life I got to be the teacher. And learning how to teach is hard. Luckily I had a wonderful professor who challenged me to push myself and work harder than I had in most of my required classes. 

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