Francophile in the West

The girls and I had a great weekend getaway to Lyon! As soon as we arrived, it was easy to tell that Lyon is a BIG city. Lyon is the second largest city in France; it was quite invigorating to have that big city feeling and to have so much to explore!  V and N were able to skip out on work on Friday, so they arrived in the late morning, while C and I couldn't miss all of our Friday classes and so arrived in the evening. We all met up at an English pub for a drink (they had Banana Bread Beer on tap!! ) before moseying on to the Spanish bar next door for some late-night tapas and sangria. Yum! C and I headed out early the next day to get a jump-start on exploring. We walked along the Saône river and enjoyed all of the colorful buildings along the banks. Lyon had a surprisingly Mediterranean feel for a city near the mountains!  While wandering in a northerly direction, we managed to find a cafe that I had read about while doing some research about the city before we left.

Head's up: no pictures this time, folks (sorry). But more to come in just a handful of days, that I can assure you! End preface. As mentioned before, I was most excited to find out in mid-January that I had been accepted to the University of Denver's Korbel School of International Studies. I thought I was all set! But, I secretly knew that I should wait until I heard back from the UW and Johns Hopkins in March to get the whole story, even though I wasn't expecting to get into either school... Wellllllll... March came in like a lion and early last week, I received the news that I have been offered admission to both the UW and  to Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, starting with a year at their campus in Bologna, Italy.  Whoa. I was certainly caught off guard with that last bit of news. And I thought my decision was going to be nice and easy... Although I still have about three weeks before I must submit my official decisions to these

Where were we...? Ah, yes: Annecy Now, this city is something special. I arrived in town late on Monday night, and so basically just had enough energy to walk three blocks from the hostel and get a mini pizza for dinner before I crashed for the night. Again, though, I was up early the next day and off to look for adventure. I started off by walking through the heart of the old town and then walking along part of the waterfront of Lake Annecy. Such beauty!! Even though it was overcast the whole time I was there, for whatever reason, that type of weather was perfect for the setting in late winter/early spring. The mountaintops still had some snow on them, the lake was calm, and there were SO many swans, seagulls, and ducks floating around. The tranquillity and peacefulness of the place were so contagious. It was really lovely to wander around at my leisure and take photos of all the beauty I saw.  Old town is a beautiful neighborhood. The mountain/lake location of the