The UK - England and Scotland Taryn and I got up at 4 :45 am to catch our train to London. Taking the Eurostar was great - so much easier and relaxing than flying. We got into London around lunch time and were supposed to meet a friend of mine from high school at 1 :30pm in Trafalgar Square. We didn’t end up meeting my friend for two reasons. First of all, we though the distance between the train station we were at and the square were within walking distance. Turns out it took us an hour to walk there. Secondly, those of you who have been to Trafalgar Square will understand, even if we had made it there on time, it is practically impossible to find someone there ! It’s one of the largest ... read more

Paris: capital of the world Thursday afternoon I took a 2 hour train from Strasbourg to Paris and met up with my mom and sister at the hotel we stayed at. It was great to see them!! I can’t believe 5 months have passed since I’ve arrived in France. I liked Paris, however, it wasn’t as glamorous or magical as they make it out to be in the movies (is anything ever as good as the Hollywood version?). The weather wasn’t the greatest (it was cold and overcast) which makes sight seeing a little bit less enjoyable. I think we saw almost all the top tourist sights. The first day we saw the Moulin Rouge, stopped by the Gallerie Lafayette (a huge department store), and shopped along Rue de Rivoli. That night we went to the ... read more

Please be patient, we're having some technical difficulties... The last month has presented me with a series of technological and administrative difficulties. One December afternoon, I was singing along to cheery Mariah Carey Christmas carol covers, when my itunes keep stopping and my computer began lagging. None of the programs on my computer would respond so I tried restarting it. This is when, what I came to know as the "folder of doom," appeared alone on a blank grey screen. I tried multiple times to restart it with no luck. I looked up what this mysterious symbol of a folder with a question mark meant on Taryn's computer and the news was not pleasant. My hard drive had crashed! Maybe the world was trying to tell me not to listen to Mariah Carey? Straight away Monday ... read more

I have been in France for almost 2 months! I can't believe how quickly the time is going now that I’m pretty much finished with all the administrative paper work, and am getting into a routine with school. I absolutely love the classes I’m taking. From Gender and Politics to Sociologoy of International Relations, my classes are a lot more specific and I find them mre interesting than what I was taking at SFU. Although, I must admit, I am now grateful for the million french grammar courses I took, and my professors that drilled the proper technique for writing a french dissertaion into my head! Most of my courses here don’t require reading or have assignments, they are 100% based on the final exam. This is a bit scary, but in the mean time before ... read more

On Thursday I had class until 12 and then I wanted to go to a swim class for triathletes at 12:30. I looked up the pool address in a trip planner type thing on the transit website and followed those directions. Two trams and a bus later, I could not see a pool anywhere around. I stopped and asked a man on the street where the pool was and he told me that it was on the exact opposite side of town. By this time I was already late, so I decided just to go back to the school (which wasn’t easy to find either now that I was in the middle of nowhere!) When I got back to the school I stopped by the sports office to ask the students who run it if ... read more