I am writing this all very much after the fact, but I figured better late than never, and this will be one of my last blogs! Em Deddens came to visit this past week despite the fact that it seemed as if the fates were conspiring to make sure she didn't! Thanks to Mr. Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland, Em's initial flight was cancelled. No one quite knew how much trouble the volcano was going to cause, and Em was put on a flight for the next day to Scotland with the plan being to bus everyone on the flight to London Heathrow. At the time, European airspace was opening back up and everyone figured they would be able to make their connections at Heathrow. Wrong. Poor Em. One bus ride later and Em is stuck in London ... read more

This entry feels very fitting as I spent a good part of my morning in the French welfare office--CAF. Most of the assistants apply for CAF since it offers monetary assistance to cover housing costs--l'aide de logement. Since our salaries are so low we usually get reimbursed a percentage of our rent. Unfortunately, since it takes forever to get things done around here, I probably won't get the reimbursed money until April, but at least it's retroactive and I will get one big lump sum. Better late than never. Especially now since there are only a couple of months left and most everyone's funds are running dangerously low, and by dangerously low I mean that there is a good probability I will never want to eat a PB&J again when I get home. But the purpose ... read more

After Shannon left on the 14th, my roommate and I took off for a week in Ireland! We spent 2 nights in Dublin, followed by 4 nights in Cork and then spent our last night back in Dublin before heading home! The following is a summary of our adventures: We flew out of Nice around 2:30 in the afternoon on the 15th. The flight out of Nice was incredible. It was a little overcast, and, when the plane took off, there was a good few minutes when the plane was flying below the cloud cover. It was like flying between two worlds--the sparkling, aqua-marine water below where you could still see the boats, and the blanket of clouds above with the sunlight piercing through in places as if there were holes. The flight didn't take long ... read more