Slanted Rays

A truly ominous stairwell in one of my school's buildings Bonjour! I got my study abroad card! Thank you to all of the people who signed my card. You are all so amazing and thoughtful! I am having a great time on study abroad, but sometimes I wish that I could be back at Soka with all of you. I feel much more adapted to my life in Paris. This experience has been peppered with worries that I am not taking full advantage of this opportunity. I feel like I should be doing more, seeing more, and spending more. I have had to remind myself that all of the experiences that feel normal now--from taking the metro to climbing up a spiral staircase--were entirely new to me less than two months ago. I am growing and changing, all while gaining a better sense of myself. With that being said, living here has really taken a toll on both me and my physical possessions. The first casualty was a shirt that my mom tie-dyed for me when I was in ninth grade, which tore while I was adjustin

A beautiful field in Bruges, Belgium Hello! A few weeks ago, my program went on an excursion to Belgium. It was an amazing and adventurous weekend, but I returned needing to recover. In the meantime, exhaustion, procrastination, depression, and technical difficulties have conspired to prevent me from posting. Fortunately, things are better now, so I have returned to tell you about my weekend as a tourist. Smiling in front of the Eiffel Tower as though I built it myself Before leaving for Belgium, I spent a Friday afternoon seeing the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe with my friends. (Yes, it took me over a month in Paris to go and see the Eiffel Tower.) To top off our afternoon of tourism, we went to a macaron restaurant called Ladurée, and consumed delicious macarons and tea. One of my friends captured this image of me imitating a tourist seeing the Arc de Triomphe for the first time. On Saturday, March 9, we left early in the morning for Belgium. We arrived in

View from one of the clocks in Musée d'Orsay Bonjour! This weekend, I wound up going to BHV on three consecutive days. BHV is a gigantic department store with an extensive papeterie section and a bookstore. I learned about it from this article on the Damask Love blog, which is full of other recommendations that I need to check out. As always, I enjoyed spending an extensive amount of time looking at stationary and books. View of the massive BHV Marais from the metro station On Saturday, I spent an excessive amount of time trying to find Violette & Co., a queer and feminist bookstore that is supposed to be thirteen minutes away from my homestay. After the thirteen minute mark was long gone, I decided to take the metro to Marais, Paris' gay district and home to BHV, to visit Les Mots à la Bouche (Words in the Mouth). Les Mots à la Bouche is a gay bookstore that was, unsurprisingly, not very intersectional. Like, their website has categories for "Sélection