Francophile in the West

Last weekend, myself and three other Korbel in Geneva classmates went on a wild, 24-hour adventure to the United Kingdom to go to Stonehenge for the Summer Solstice festival. We left in the afternoon on Friday and were back in Geneva by the evening on Saturday. We packed a lot into those 24-ish hours, let me tell you.  After arriving at London-Gatwick airport, we picked up a rental car and my brave friend Paul took on the task of being the driver. Remember: drivers in the UK drive on the LEFT side of the road, which is insane. Fortunately, we rented an automatic car instead of a manual one, so that made things a bit easier. However, no matter what kind of contraption you're driving, leaving the airport and getting on the freeway on the LEFT side is super intense. I sat shotgun and played navigator. That in and of itself was really weird, though, since the passenger seat in the UK would have a steering wheel and pedals in the USA. Regardless of everything being backwards, we...

I've been gone for almost two weeks; it's time for some photos and updates!  Toronto I flew out of Portland, OR on Friday, 13 June and headed for Toronto to visit Natalie! It was hard to believe it had been over a year since I'd last seen her! We were so accustomed to hanging out every day when we worked together in Nantes. :) I had such a great weekend exploring the town with her and catching up with her and her boyfriend Jack. Toronto is a beautiful and lively city; I'm so glad I was able to visit, and I'm super grateful to Natalie for hosting and for being such an amazing tour guide!! We walked around town all day on Saturday, took a boat tour of the harbor on Saturday afternoon, grilled up a delicious dinner and went to a fantastic concert on Saturday night, and chilled and had some great coffee on Sunday morning. Across all of this, we had an excellent time catching up, laughing, and reminiscing about great times back in Nantes. Some photos from the ...