There are many ways to learn a language. It can be a strictly academic pursuit involving years in school studying verb conjugations; it can involve a combination of years of study followed by a stint abroad; or, without any formal […]
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May in Montpellier: The “Joys” of the Slow Life
What do you think of when you hear the phrase ‘living the slow life’? If you are from the US, you may have a number of reactions, from ‘Yes, please!’ to ‘That sounds pretty boring!’ to ‘I can’t even slow […]
April in Montpellier: The Cactus, the Plague, and the Dumpster Fire
I’m still behind on my blog, but I’ll start off with a recent Nate-story related to a health scare I experienced a few days ago since it fits in with the subject matter of this post. I don’t have anything […]
March in Montpellier: The Epic Adventure
I was really on top of blogging our adventures in January and February. And then I kind of fell off the blogging wagon until publishing this post last week. When I recently shared our blog with a friend and sheepishly […]
Getting around Montpellier ‘sans voiture’ (without a car)
Bonjour, mes amis! It’s been too long. Last you heard from me, I was struggling with the French language so much so that I was told that I ‘speak French like Donald Trump’. Guessing that is a put-down! We’re now […]
A Perfect 10: Building a Dream Itinerary in the ‘City of Lights’
“I guess it goes to show that you just never know where life will take you. You search for answers. You wonder what it all means. You stumble, and you soar. And, if you’re lucky, you make it to Paris […]
“Never Again”: Can We Live Up to These Words?
“There are moments, there are times, when there isn’t a grey zone, when there isn’t really room for nuance, where, if you’re not resisting, you’re partaking.” – Timothy Snyder, professor of European history at Yale University I wrote the majority […]
House Sitting Our Way Through Europe
Terra: “I want to travel to castles, dine on duck confit and endless baguettes, go to the opera, lounge on sunny beaches, and (of course) have a strong wifi signal.” Nate: “That sounds great! I will start booking our trip.” […]
When a Problem is a Good Thing: ‘Whaling it’ at Fontainebleau
The last few days have marked an entirely new type of adventure on our trip. In this post I’ll discuss a number of unusual things from the weekend, including but not limited to 1) finding ourselves in the “Sea of […]
Budapest: Walking through the past to make sense of the present
Looking back on our 5 days in Budapest, I’m struck by the sometimes irreconcilable tension that we found in a city with an ‘up-and-coming’ feel in the midst of a mostly poor country that doesn’t seem to know if it wants […]