The other day, sipping on a macchiato while struggling to finish my art history final paper in a café near the Sorbonne, I overheard two abroad Americans chatting. They were discussing their excitement to return to the States—eager to see friends and family, ready to be home. As I listened to them rationalize why they […]
Last week, I reunited with my family’s former host daughter, Lola, in Kraków, Poland. Unlike my usual weekend getaways, this trip was a full-fledged week of living with Lola’s family, allowing me to be more of a visitor than a tourist. I participated in all kinds of Polish Easter traditions and experienced Kraków with someone […]
Every day, I walk seven minutes down Rue Orfila to the Gambetta Metro Station to take Line 3 toward Levallois. The transit part of my commute stays the same, but my short walk often changes. I vary which side of the street I take and when I cross, picking without rhyme or reason. Lately, however, […]
When I first saw the theme for this issue, I wasn’t sure what I could contribute. Weed is illegal in France, and without a trip to Amsterdam under my belt, I have no funny stories or observations to share. I briefly considered writing about Europe’s smoking culture, but there are only so many ways to […]
There’s always something to do in the kitchen—something to chop, something to peel, something to stir. Last weekend, after tiring myself of reading, painting, and walking around my host family’s country home, I wandered into the kitchen, where my host dad’s sister was preparing dinner and the next day’s lunch. Eager for a task, I […]
Despite my love for Eliot Dining Hall, I spent much of sophomore fall hopping between different Houses’ dining halls—not for camaraderie, but for answers to Stat 110 p-sets. Each week, hours of my life disappeared in crowded office hours, hovering around a teaching fellow in hopes of getting a single question answered about probability, Bayes’s […]
On Housing Day my sophomore year, as I walked into Eliot Dining Hall for an enhanced dinner, I was greeted with the smells of lobster ravioli and fresh apple crisp and the excited energy of new and old Eliotites mingling for the first time. Little did I know that this space in my new House […]
If you had asked me four years ago to envision my ideal 21st birthday party, I would have described a glamorous soiree like the one Rory’s grandparents threw for her in Gilmore Girls—my favorite show at the time. Two years ago, I might have dreamed of a birthday bash at Bar Enza. Two months ago, […]
It’s 8:30 p.m. on a Tuesday, and I’m dodging pedestrians and street signs on Rue de Bonne Nouvelle in Paris as I jog at a relaxed pace. Suddenly, the runners around me speed up, and I find myself sprinting down the road, passing neighbors at a speed I didn’t think was possible after running nearly […]
More often than not, I love spontaneity. However, a weekend getaway spontaneously becoming my first-ever solo trip was not the type of spontaneity I typically embrace. As a person who “doesn’t usually seek out alone time,” I was about to embark on a four-day weekend in Madrid, Spain completely on my own. I confronted this […]