Making New Friends
July 9, 2019
Day at the Beach Tuesdays are my day off, so my host sister invited me to go to the beach with a few of her cousins. There were five of us in total and we all squeezed in a taxi to go to Monoco Beach. Unfortunately on the way there, we got stopped by a police officer who fined us for fitting too many people in the backseat. Thankfully the fine was not too hefty, and our little run in with the law did not dampen our excitement. We had to pay 1500 francs each to enter the beach, but unlike Voile d’or, it seemed like a place that attracted more locals than tourists. While my host sister and the rest of the family was busy taking photos, I got comfortable under one of the straw umbrellas that are scattered throughout the beach and took out my sketchbook. Apart from improving my french, one of the goals I had for myself this summer was to do more art, which has always been a hobby of mine. While I was painting a coconut tree, these two guys came up to me and asked if I could paint them... Read More
Getting to Know the Diops and Settling Down
June 28, 2019
Meeting the Family On Tuesday, my aunt invited over to her house to meet my cousins. We had briefly spoken on the phone, but only basic introductions were being exchanged, the pauses in between questions filled with anxious laughter. My aunt has four kids, her son lives in... Read More
Exploring the City and My Two New Families
June 23, 2019
Tourist Destinations On Monday, Richard who is another student from APA, invited me to go downtown with his host family. His host sister has a car, and after our class, she drove us to our first stop: the African Renaissance Monument. With us were also her adorable son Theo, and... Read More
Intro to Dakar!
June 23, 2019
Senegal was one of the first countries I learned to identify on a map. My mom always said that it looked like Pacman, engulfing Gambia whole. Our apartment was always filled with art from Senegal, an allusion to my mother’s time in the Peace Corps and a reminder of my own... Read More
Castles and Princesses
May 8, 2019
One of my absolute favorite things about studying abroad with APA is that they have built in pre-paid trips to other cities in France for us to further explore the culture and history. Our first one was to the north of France to Normandie, which I had already visited in high... Read More
Cheers to the Freakin’ Weekend
April 10, 2019
H A P P Y A P R I L ! It’s our second to last month but we couldn’t be happier to be here! This past weekend in Paris was one for the books! I’m definitely paying the price as I’m sick in bed typing this but definitely worth it. Friday night I... Read More
Dinner Time Chez Isabelle
March 25, 2019
Let’s just start out with that I love food. So much. She is the shoulder I cry on, the friend to laugh at my jokes, the comforting hug in the middle of the night. Because of my commitment to my relationship to food I have since our first week evolved to a dairy machine,... Read More
Morocco: Almost kidnapped… Spas.. and Stitches!
March 18, 2019
For the first half of winter break some of the other students in the program (Greg, Yuki, Chris, Lexi) and I travelled all the way to Fez, MOROCCO! A RyanAir flight later and booking an AirBNB with just one bed we were on our way. Since there are just so many photos I thought... Read More
New Year, New Semester, Who dis?
January 25, 2019
On January 24th he asked me what day it is. “C’est 24 Janvier” Wait.. Wait.. Wait.. Let me just stop right there. This daydream of me reinacting this iconic Mean Girls scene with the French equivalent of Aaron Samuels is not what happened today …or... Read More
“And then he said…welcome to Paris”
January 7, 2019
The goal here is not to be too mushy. But saying goodbye is hard. We’ve all heard it: “It’s not the place, it’s the people.” And that could not have been a more true statement for the end of my semester abroad. That and the color yellow. And 80s pop... Read More
Of finals and news reports…
December 11, 2018
Under the red and gold holiday decorations, the barista keeps his eyes glued to the tv screen above the booths where a group is sipping coffee, necks craned to hear the news on l’Assemblée Nationale. In the 14th, life outside the café windows proceeds as normal, afternoon... Read More
Meal Times
December 3, 2018
Now, I’m no cook, baker, food blogger, culinary expert…but I do love food. To be honest, baking/cooking kind of stresses me out. Even if I put on some good music, have a recipe prepared, and feel confident, something always ends up getting burned. I suppose I’m... Read More
For the Time Being
November 20, 2018
There are only so many more times I am going to be able to look out of the train window and watch the Paris streets come alive below, so I put down my book. It’s kind of like I don’t want to take any moment for granted at this point, and I’ve found that just... Read More
The Not-Enough-Time Stressin’
November 13, 2018
So it’s Novemeber, huh? No idea how that happened. It’s been rainy and…humid (?) here in Paris as October melded away and the colors of the leaves really arrived and I had to start thinking about my winter coat situatuation. This past week was jam-packed with... Read More
Travel: some Non-Wisdoms
November 5, 2018
In my list of reasons to study abroad in Paris, “getting anywhere from there” was very near the top. I’ve been trying not to treat these four months like my last time ever in Europe, but I also want to take advantage of the time, the place, the motion (ahem). I have taken... Read More
