I’m back! As my regular readers might have learned (or guessed), our baby girl arrived at the beginning of July—on the 4th of July to be exact. Yes, our little firecracker is one of the five-percent of babies born on their actual due dates. She either decided to humor us in our amusement about potentially…
Tag: Europe
38 Weeks: The Calm before the Storm
Just over a week—that’s about how much time we have before our baby girl is here, changing our duo into a party of three. I’m sure some of you are saying, “you’re a first-time mom. How can you be so sure she’s going to be here in that time frame? Most first-time moms are late.”…
262 Days of Pregnancy
It’s hard to believe I’ve been pregnant for more than 250 days—and even harder to believe I’m halfway through the 37th week of pregnancy. I remember looking at the calendar when we first learned I was pregnant to find out when the 37th week would start. It stood out as a magical, target date in…
School’s Out for Summer
School’s out forever! That song has been stuck in my head since walking to Alliance Française this morning for my last day of French class. It was bittersweet heading into the building and my classroom for the last time. I am sad to not continue further with my classmates—especially since my French has seriously improved…
Alpine Adventures
It’s a busy week in Toulouse. Not only did the first Starbucks in the city open this morning (complete with people lined up well outside the door for hours to be the “first in”), it’s also a week marked by ongoing protests over changes to France’s labor laws. The reform under debate makes it easier…
A Tale of Three European Christmas Markets
I think I’ve dreamt about visiting a German Christmas market since I was in high school learning German and studying the country’s customs and cultures. Visions of stalls piled high with sweets and festive treats filled my head. The image of lights twinkling and decorated trees towering over snowy streets beckoned me from afar. Once…
Adventures in Hamburg: The Stadtrundfahrt
Ich spreche nur ein bisschen Deutsch. I speak a little German. For the first time since I started studying German, I was actually in Germany. The only problem was it had been about ten years since I last took a German class. Starting as a freshman in high school, I took five years of German….
Memories of Marseille
This weekend we celebrated an anniversary of sorts—two years since our first trip to Europe together. We took a European cruise in 2013 and that cemented, not only our love of world travel, but our love of seeing the world together. We departed out of Barcelona that trip, but our first port was Marseille, France….
Eat, Drink, Move (Repeat) 