8.5 months 14 countries 31 fellow Americans and dear friends I don’t think I understood the gravity of the decision I made when I committed to the Study Abroad Program in Versailles. My life will never be the same. This year was not just a trip, I truly moved to France and lived there. Three … Continue reading
After a group meeting to cancel our French bank accounts Wednesday morning, Dana, Dillon, and I bought some delicious things at the market and had a picnic in the gardens of the chateau. Dillon brought oysters that the vendor informed him were still alive but were definitely safe to eat uncooked, so we did! He … Continue reading
I basically just forgot to write about my last day in Greece, so, before I talk about Italy, here it is: Lisa, Tess, Carlos and I took a ferry Saturday morning back to the mainland, but this time to a port in Rafina, a town that is closer to the Athens airport. Tess taught me … Continue reading
I’m exhausted. I just “backpacked through Europe” for three whole weeks, which is really quite a long time to travel and live out of a backpack. Let the record show that now at the end of it I am actually glad to be back in Versailles. Ten days out of these past three weeks were … Continue reading
I will be home four weeks from yesterday. What. We have definitely begun the “end of the year” phase now. We had our (only) final exam last Friday for structures and then right away starting Friday night we worked worked worked all day every day (and into the night at times, of course) until our … Continue reading
To put into practice some of our newfound structural knowledge of tension and compression and shearing et cetera, we were assigned a group project to construct a one-meter-tall tower out of only paper and glue that would be attached to a base and would basically act as a cantilever as it was loaded along the … Continue reading
Sierra and I just got back this morning from three full days and four nights in beautiful Verona, Italy, which is possibly most well-known as the setting for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. We stayed in an absolutely delightful bed & breakfast because those are far more common in Italy than hostels or hotels. Our aim … Continue reading
Our entire class took one final field trip this Wednesday to the new Louvre museum in Lens, France (an extension of the Louvre in Paris). It was built just recently and is in fact still receiving its finishing touches. The main exhibit hall, la galerie du temps (or the gallery of time) is long and … Continue reading
After a series of flustered days at the beginning of last week in which I dropped (and broke/spilled) a full glass bottle of cidre on the stairs at school, simply forgot to do one homework assignment and didn’t leave enough time to finish another, and had to back out of a design critique with my … Continue reading
I recently got to spend eight days with my parents! They arrived the Monday after history week and left this past Tuesday. Due in part to my professor’s illness but mostly due to a freak mid-March snowfall, I did not have any of my scheduled classes or activities on Monday, Tuesday, OR Wednesday of last … Continue reading
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