Francophile in the West

Last week, I flew down to Denver for an exploratory trip to my soon-to-be new home. The big goals were 1) find an apartment and 2) discover the city. I am very happy to say that I successfully did both! Seeing as my last experience with finding an apartment took place in France and was a two-week wild goose chase before the stars finally aligned (and remember, I had to do everything in French!), I was extremely nervous about only having four days in Denver to find a place to land in August. I had heard that the housing market in the city is exploding and that places get snatched up fast. Fortunately, though, I did lots of research before I left Vancouver and had three appointments set up to see apartments during my first full day in town.  After arriving in Denver very late on Tuesday night, I woke up early on Wednesday morning (7/17) and headed out to pound the pavement and check out my options. The first place? A 300-square foot studio, much too far from campus, too expensiv

I spent the past week vacationing in Southern California with Kris! That was my first visit to Los Angeles and the surrounding areas. We had a great time exploring downtown, hanging out with some good friends from the Bay area, and meeting up with Kris' old high school buddy in Camarillo/Ventura for the 4th of July.  We also made the trip a multi-day celebration of our 4th anniversary. :) It was a wonderful week of museums and art displays, swanky bars and good drinks, beaches, hiking, new places, friends, and SoCal sunshine. Ventura , CA for the 4th of July Dirty feet at mile 2.5 of our 9-mile hike near Camarillo . As you can imagine, my feet only got dirtier. :) The beautiful people of Santa Monica Santa Monica Pier At the Griffith Observatory . See the tiny Hollywood sign in the background? I got to meet up with my old friend Roomie K! We had fun wandering  around the observatory and catching up over coffee. So good to see her! At th