World Is Round

My Last Night in Paris

I contemplated eating Chinese



But figured that would be a bit too ironic

Favorite Europe Photos

I'm flying to Beijing in just a few days ending what was an incredible two months in Europe.  I cannot believe how soon my life is about to change...

On Spain

This photo was taken at 4am in Barcelona, a city crawling with Americans on permanent Spring Break.  I wanted to remember that I spent more than two hours running after taxis in cheap stilettos, only to have them snatched up by other revellers who seemed to spring up out of nowhere at just the right moment. In that city and at that time of night, finding a ride home is purely a matter of geographic luck - geography meaning being one foot closer to a cab unloading its last fare than the twenty other people roaming the same street with the same intention. 

Lake Konstanz

Just a quick note - no, I am no longer in Paris.  My three-week post-post college vacation with my pre-college sister came to an end yesterday.  We were in Koln, Paris, the Dordogne, Bordeaux, Barcelona, Madrid, Granada, Sevilla, Lisbon, and back to Bordeaux/Paris/Koln in only three short weeks.  Needless to say, I'm completely exahusted. I kept a diary of sorts, part in paper, part in photos, and part in my head, so I'll be posting some stories from each of those cities on this site soon...

For the moment, I'm just chilling on Lake Konstanz in Germany...

Even in Defeat, the Parisians Throw a Great Party

In 1998, France beat Brazil 3-0.  In 1998, everyone was in love with Zizou Zidane, especially me.  I was a fifteen year-old American girl with bad French and every intention of renouncing her citizenship and adopting soccer as her new country.  I dyed my hair blue.  My heart bled bleu blanc rouge.

After watching the game last night in St. Germain de Pres, my sister and I hitched a ride to the Arc de Triomphe where revelers with glass bottles and firecrackers seemed intent on causing a full-out riot (they didn't).  I just bought my Canon a few weeks ago and in the style of wannabe war reporter was snapped a lot of blurry shops alongside all those photojournalists with their L series lenses, just trying not to get stampeded or lit on fire.

Even the French Eat Italian

Dom

When we arrived in Koln on Thursday night and came out of the train station with our mountains of bags, we were not prepared to see Kölner Dom, Cologne's most famous landmark right in front of us.  My sister was astonished - I think for Americans, seeing such ultra-modern buildings (such as Cologne's train station) alongside structures that may be hundreds or thousands of years old never ceases to amaze.
 

Dublin Doors

In Dublin

Not sure why, but my gmail isn't working so I'm posting here for friends & family.  I've arrived in Dublin safely and I'll be in Frankfurt in a few hours.

Love,
Jen

French Student Protests Against the CPE

I'm trying *not* to post a ton of About.com articles on my personal blog, but I absolutely have to post a newly retooled article on the student protests in France against the CPE.  A really good friend of mine teaching in Paris emailed me to say that "most of the opinions [presented] don't really even try to understand the french mentality" and the article was "polemically NOT comprehensive." I realize I made a sort of rookie journalism mistake of relying too heavily on English language media, mainstream media, and well, whatever Google was telling me, and in the process completely failed to give adequate time to legitimate arguments against the law.