avril

it's been a while. 

life has been its usual mad amazing whirlwind. 

i've had classes at the institut every monday to friday and i really do feel like i've gotten much better. i'm at the point with french where i don't have trouble communicating ever but i tend to beat myself up over messing up or forgetting small details- but every day i feel more and more confident and competent in french. whilst part of that improvement is due to class, a large part of it is coming simply from being immersed in french life, doing everything from talking over the many complicated eurail ticket options with the very patient people working at the gare, to bantering with the employees at the hole-in-the-wall sri lankan restaurant where they know by now to start making nutella sandwiches on naan as soon as we walk in on any given weekend night. i find myself absently talking to myself in french instead of english half the time. it can be frustrating when i make mistakes or blank on a word, but i'm getting there. i'm getting there. i'm getting there. 

outside of class, i've been hanging out with friends and trying to make the most of my very limited remaining time here! 

a couple weekends ago it was sunny so a few of us spent the afternoon lounging around on an island in the middle of the loire. 

some other highlights of the past couple of weeks: our uzbekistani housemates gifted us fancy patterned bread. 

i turned 19! it was a wonderful day spent with wonderful people. even spending most of the day in class wasn't too bad since marit and i started the morning off on the right foot by grabbing chai lattes and muffins at our favourite overpriced coffeeshop.

courtesy of our friend loes, who has a car, and the institut, for giving us wednesday afternoons free, we've instituted the new tradition of château wednesdays. two weeks ago, it was château d'azay le rideau.

last wednesday we went to chenonceau, which was every bit as storybook-perfect as i had imagined it would be. 

today we went to amboise, but i haven't yet uploaded those photos unfortunately. it was beautiful, though, and the town was charming. 

the main excitement in my life recently, however, was last weekend's trip to dublin! it was incredible and i still can't quite believe it actually happened. i can't think of any better way to have spent my birthday weekend. that'll be another post, for sure. stay tuned. 

xo

m

p.s. OUR EURAIL PASSES ARRIVED! 

and in a 48-hour planning blitz, marit and tamar and i have now successfully booked every single train and hostel for our two weeks of backpacking! now comes the fun part, aka planning how to fit everything we want to do/see in each place into the short time we have there. suggestions on (extremely low-budget) things to do in munich, florence, nice, marseille, or barcelona are more than welcome!

2013 in moments

• taking a break from the world amidst the late january cold and going running in bright floridian sunshine along the jungle trail with marit. dipping my feet in the indian river. coming home with a tan and the taste of tangelo ice cream still lingering in my memory. 

• the first lunch in rome- with georgie, wandering off along side streets and settling down at an outdoor table ordering pasta and pizza. how lucky we are to be here, at this junction of longitude and latitude and checkered tablecloths. we are tipsy off of independence and sunshine and vino rosso della casa. we buy fake ray-ban wayfarers for 3 euros and it's the funniest thing in the world. the tinted lenses of my sunglasses make the world look rose-coloured, or is it already?








• sharing a sacrilegious but delicious pasta dinner with my family over passover in florence. getting to see teddy for the first time all semester. laughter and home-cooked food in a rented apartment. 

• lying on my back on a rickety dock at deep creek lake at night with some of my best friends. heads together, bodies pointing outwards in a mandala of limbs. trying for meditation and silent coexistence and ending up in laughing fits. moonlight on tree branches hanging over the glassy water. talking about what we're grateful for, talking about favourite memories. pointing out constellations. 

• that first weekend exploring córdoba, enjoying the cosiness, but also the sense of wonder and possibility, of finally feeling settled in a new place. we are on top of the world, doing everything and seeing everything and life feels like it's just beginning to unfold. overpriced agua con gas at a café next to the feria. unseasonably warm weather. late nights with new friends. biting into a chocolate-covered alfajor. so much newness and everything glitters. 

• being reunited over thanksgiving with my ~ride or die~ crew of best best best amigas and getting to hear all about everyone's lives this year. we're far-flung but it makes me unbelievably happy to know that everybody is finding their niche and living the life that suits them. 

2013 has been up and down but mostly wonderful. i've spent lovely times with old friends. 

and new friends. 

and family. 

i've seen some incredible places. 

and i've done work that i'm proud of, from long days of human rights fieldwork in a foreign country to 30-hour weeks of retail at home. 

and now the work has paid off and it's time for the next big adventure. this time tomorrow, i'll be on my way to israel, where i'll be living for the next 8 weeks- spending the first 10 days on a birthright trip, spending a month volunteering on an organic farm, and then backpacking around. 

to quote neil gaiman, 

I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you'll dream dangerously and outrageously, that you'll make something that didn't exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now), that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind.

it's been real, 2013.