Seeing as I’ll be living in France for 7 months, I decided to reactivate the ole travel blog to keep y'all updated (if I picked up “y'all” in North Carolina, I can pick up Ch'ti in Nord-Pas-de-Calais, right? [Ch'ti is the regional dialect in the north of France near Belgium–where I’ll be living!])

Anyhoo, I wrapped up my job on the Tom Niermann for Congress campaign (my former history teacher for whom I’ve been working this summer–check him out & support! https://www.niermannforcongress.com/) and headed back to Davidson for Homecoming weekend. It was great to see a bunch of college friends before leaving for the year– and maybe the last time that many of us will be back in the same place for even longer. Friday we spent in Charlotte, and two friends from my pledge class let a bunch of us crash at their apartment. Then we spent a beautiful day at lake campus playing spikeball, and went...

I am secretly back in the States, way behind on these blog posts–luckily this one is quick and easy! I met up with my highschool friend David (saw him at Oktoberfest in Munich as our readers will recall) In Paris, spent the night hanging out with him and his UCLA friends, then he came down and spent the afternoon/night in Tours with me David’s friend, David, Me on Arc de Triomphe with weird spire thing behind us

Showed them all over Paris and David all over Tours, had a lot of fun but not much in terms of pictures. The next weekend I visited Barcelona, where David is studying, stayed with him and more UCLA kids, experienced the Barca clubs, spoke with a theta, and of course went to LA SAGRADA FAMILIA which is the coolest Cathedral ever

I have loved Barcelona since visiting when my sister was studying in Spain. It was really great to visit again

I got busy back at Davidson. Sorry! Since it doesn’t look like I’m gunna find the time to do this right, I may as well make sure that I do it at all.
I went to Marrakesh, Morocco! It was just my friend Cam and I, and we had a great time.
We visited a lot of cool places, shopped in the souqs, and ate awesome north african food. I practiced my arabic!
We explored a cool religious school (non-muslims are not allowed in Mosques, so this is the closest possible equivalent:

My friend Shannon studying abroad in Fez, Morocco met up with us to visit a castle complex and shop in the souqs
All in all a great time. Highlights: hearing the call to prayer, interacting with locals (so nice/social/kind–very safe. However, they will do almost anything for your money… walking along, men will put a monkey on you and ask for money to remove it, or if you look at all lost tell you that you are going to...

I went to Provence! Very fun. Stayed in Avignon, visited Arles and Nîmes. Mostly saw Roman ruins, which was TOO COOL. Several amphitheaters, Roman baths, a theater;

but the coolest thing was Pont du Gard! It was a Roman Aqueduct supplying water to Nîmes that then got turned into a bridge during the medieval ages

Always fun to see Roman stuff, but kinda puts my Lego accomplishments into perspective. Luckily Pépette loves me now:

After my parents left Tours, I missed them so much I went up to Paris to hang out with them for a night! They graciously put me up in a cool oooold hotel and I showed them around la Sainte Chappelle on Ile-de-la-cité (the church that houses the crown of thorns and is so beautiful inside it would convert a satanist to Roman Catholicism [like a really rigorous order of it] especially if that satanist were a XIII century peasant who lived in shit and muck and little thatch cottages)

I then met up with my friend Shannon, who is studying in Morocco because she is crazy cool and actually speaks Arabic well. She was meeting friends in Paris but got in a day early, so we explored the city and hung out When the other girls from Dson showed up, we made some french friends and hung out with them (one was an extraordinarily bad rapper), and then I crashed at the girls’ airbnb (because they are...

My lovely parental units visited a few weeks ago! They stayed in Tours, where I showed them around, and we traveled around the Loire valley seeing cool stuff. This was a few weeks ago, so I’ll just post some pics:

Us checking out Chenonceau

Chinon

Creepy wine museum

Amboise was really cool–awesome market, pretty town on the Loire, amazing chateau, and Leonardo da Vinci’s final home / grave / museum

We ate with my host family one night which was fun, and finally got a picture of me with Nico/Laurence

Too much fun having L&P here. I know they’re my parents, I’ve gotta let them go, let them make their own mistakes, but its a scary world out there and I still feel better when they’re around for me to take care of. You never know when a monster is gunna tap you on the shoulder

Our group did a weekend trip to the north–Normandie, Bretagne– and right after, my computer thought that it would be fun to not function for a while. I completely get that impulse (I had class today? oops), but it was still annoying. After some long, late-night discussions, (and bringing in a counselor), my computer and I worked through our issues, and she is back to functioning. Anyways, due to this, I am way behind on posts–so here is my last month.

First: Normandy/Brittany! super fun weekend. We bussed up from Tours, and started by visiting the Caen memorial for D-day (le jour J in french, not sure why…)
That night we stayed in Arromanches, a charming little seaside town with crazy cliffs that makes you forget that thousands of Brits stormed the beaches seventy-odd years ago. You can still see remnants of the artificial port that the allies built to disembark. Apparently Normandy is...

I went to Dublin! It was great. Irish people are so freaking awesome. The cabbies are a lovely anachronism of nice and racist, the people adore americans (lookin at you, frenchies…), and their alcohol is splendid. If I didn’t want to get language immersion, Dublin is where I would retrospectively study abroad. Friday we went to the Guinness brewery, which was super cool.

Danny and Riley : a love story

I learned how to serve the perfect pint and got a certificate (not touristy at all) then took my pint up to the skybar with a magnificent view of Dublin and drank it. And then a few more.
Afterwards my highschool friend Michael Burcham (studying abroad in Belfast) braved the Ireland-NorthIreland border to join me for a few more pints in the Temple Bar district

Saturday, we had the best breakfast to ever break a fast
and then explored Trinity College, Dublin castle, and the town (if...

I went to Munich for Oktoberfest last weekend! It was very güt. I travelled with Danny Brooksbrothers Lessig, and was shocked that I didnt need any ID to get from Paris to Munich. I knew I wouldn’t need a passport cause of the schengan zone, but still…
but the airport was very cool
Also shocking: Germany is so incredibly clean and proper. France is beautiful, but its more “holy-shit-this-place-has-existed-for-centuries, cigarette butts covering flagstone streets, hey that’s where Marie Antoinette was guillotined, my god that’s a large cathedral/castle/tourist” beautiful. Germany is closer to the US, but with a pinch of euro and dash of futuristic yet still rural thrown in. Once there, Daniel Boone Lessig went off to stay in an airBNB like a girl while I met up with my pledgebrothers Graham Steele (not pictured he had to leave early), Grant ‘bambam’ McClure, Austin ‘connor’ Newsome...

Hi! Sorry it has been a while since I last updated. I’ve been in Tours a couple of weeks now, and have just been super busy. And, of course, the longer I put it off, the more stuff goes on the list…
I’m living in the home of the lovely Nicholas & Laurence Caillé. I keep forgetting to get a pic with them, so I just stalked them on facebook to find this:
they are great. Nicholas is a professional chef, Laurence takes care of babies during the day, and they’re expecting their first kid! (after I’m gone; I won’t have to share my room) Laurence is also a great cook, and I eat all my dinners here with them and Richard, a super sweet Swiss-German student living with them too (he doesn’t speak much french, which makes me look good) N&L are very into cuisine and fitness. They don’t really speak english which is fun. Their cat Pepette took a bit to get used to me, but now sleeps in my bed all...