Summer jaunts and French daydreams

Updates, updates, updates! Moving at the end of June was a success; Ma and Pa and I got everything hauled back home and Kris and I are all settled in our summer place with his friend. Work and class are going well; it's quite a treat to actually have a leisurely summer! I only work 15-20 hours a week and get to enjoy the Seattle sunshine the rest of the time. :)

Kris and I have been taking advantage of the nice weather by going on walks with our roommate's awesome Great Dane, Murphy, biking around town, and hiking near Seattle on the weekends. On the 4th of July, we biked all over Seattle (to the sports stadiums, though the Olympic Sculpture Garden and Myrtle Edwards Park, up to Ballard, down the Burke-Gilman Trail to the University District) and ended the day by watching the fireworks from the park under the I-5 bridge and eating Ivar's fish & chips and clam chowder. It was a perfect day; I wouldn't have spent it any other way!

4th of July over Lake Union in Seattle

We also recently took advantage of some free tickets to the Seattle Art Museum and saw a wonderful exhibit of modern Aboriginal artwork. Seeing those beautiful paintings really made me want to return to Australia! I will never forget that trip and how enchanting that country and culture is. The best part of our visit was that a woman was conducting a survey of SAM patrons in the lobby and the return for taking said survey was a free ticket to the museum! So, Kris and I got into the museum for free the first time and got an additional set of free tickets to boot. Awesome!

A random sculpture at the Seattle Art Museum- I loved the neon!

Since we're now living quite close to Capitol Hill, we've biked up the hill for a study session at Stumptown Coffee and will hopefully be making many more treks up there to enjoy the atmosphere and funny people watching of Cap Hill in the summer.

July 9th was a doubly fortuitous and special day: it was Kris and my 3-year anniversary, AND I also finally received my work contract (arrêté de nomination, comme on dit en français)! I will be returning to Nantes ville to teach at Lycée Carcouët for 12 hours per week, starting October 1st!! I am supremely happy and cannot wait to arrive back in Nantes at the end of September. It's such a huge relief to finally know where exactly I'm going and a bit more about what I'll be doing. 

About to enjoy our delicious 3rd anniversary dinner of
veggie risotto and scallops, made by yours truly :)

Finally, my ticket to Europe and the aller-retour tickets from Paris around Christmas have been purchased (my parents are literally the best)!! I am officially leaving the United States of America on Thursday, August 30th. First stop: Prague, Czech Republic with my parents and my aunt. Then, we're all off to Cologne, Germany for my mom's work conference. After the family trip portion is over in mid-September, I'm hoping to meet up with my friend (Roomie K!) and travel to Italy before finally arriving in Paris and taking the train to my beloved 'second home' of Nantes (Vancouver is 'home'; Seattle and Nantes are 'second homes' :) ).


Next up in the near future is a long weekend trip to San Francisco with Kris! I have to fly down there in order to show up in person at the French consulate and submit my visa application (so much bureaucracy, oh la la!), and I figured I might as well take advantage of the trip and explore a bit. Kris has been to San Fran before, but the only time I've spent there was the one day when I had to apply for  my visa to study abroad in France in 2009, and all I saw was Chinatown. I'm very excited to travel with Kris and see new places! We have a few key spots and fun restaurants on our list of things to check out; I'm looking forward to it!