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The Baltard Feline Show
The posters were everywhere. Blown up on bus stops. Tacked to community bulletin boards. Stretching across Nogent’s main street at its busiest intersection. Put on by l’association des Chats de France,...
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Anniversary
A month ago, everyone on the blogosphere was writing New Year posts—looking back on the year that was coming to a close and forward to the one that was about to begin. I wasn’t ready to do that then....
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Voyage au Nord
At the end of January, I packed a weekend bag, got up early on a Saturday, and hopped on a train from the Gare du Nord to le département du Nord. My destination was the town of Valenciennes, the...
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Grève surprise
Having lived in France three times now, it’s easy to trick myself into thinking I’m some kind of an expert on everything French. But there are, and always will be, surprises. After my semester studying...
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Chocolate sandwiches, Carl-naval, and rain: Snapshots from Northern Spain
In mid-February the girls’ school (along with all the other schools in France) went on break for two weeks. The Nogentais set off for a week of skiing in the Alps, and I hopped on a plane to Northern...
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A Strange Kind of Homesickness
Going back to France this time was a grand project. A challenge. Something motivating and exciting. I hadn’t felt that motivated and excited in a long time—probably not since the last time I was in...
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Shifting focus: A Week in Portugal
Cara used to thrive on travel and adventure, on discovering a new place for herself. She would wander for hours over cobblestones, climb steep hills, power up narrow stone staircases in old towers,...
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Freshly Pressed
I got home late Thursday night to find my inbox flooded with over 100 WordPress notification emails for new likes, reblogs, comments, and followers. Either I’m being massively spammed…or….maybe…could I...
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Approach me as you would a cat
Approach me as you would a cat. One you don’t know but sometimes glimpse at twilight on your way home. Don’t get too close too soon. You might scare me off without meaning to. Slow down. Get down on my...
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5 years ago, 5 years later
Five years ago I was about to turn 20. I had just finished my sophomore year at Whitman where I had recently declared my French major. I was about to start blogging. And I was about to move to France...
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Running. Updates & Upgrades
Physically, I hate running. It takes me back to middle school P.E. — feeling fat, slow, unathletic, and sweaty. Metaphorically, it’s all I’d been doing for years — ever since I graduated from Whitman,...
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