Question: how many people does it take to stuff a voluminous wedding dress into a modest carry-on suitcase? Answer: two, if one is unsentimental and can bear the agony of rolling, folding, and crushing the garment into a form one-quarter of its original size while the other watches in horror. The non-sentimental character in this …
Tag: expat
getting to know you…sunshine blogger award
One of the things I've most enjoyed over my year in Cannes has been gradually building up a blog readership. I sat down one day full of ideas and wrote about how speaking a second language opened my eyes to the greater absurdities of life itself. Many of you seemed to relate, sharing humorous stories …
attention abeilles: hiking the massif de l’esterel
The best thing about waking up in the morning–or returning to my petit chez moi at any time of day–is the view from my balcony: the brilliant bay outlined by mountains. I come from the part of Missouri that's just barely not-Kansas. Deprived of elevation for so long, any hint of it makes me giddy. Mountains comfort …
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the land of oz: adventures in digital friendship, pt i
On Va Sortir. When I moved to Cannes, the website was recommended to me several times. You're new in town. Just try OVS! This site de rencontre, the title of which means let's go out!, apparently had a lively presence in town. Cannes is flanked by mountains and the sea, so I pictured the city's …
Continue reading the land of oz: adventures in digital friendship, pt i
embracing the absurd
That long, skinny vegetable. That colorful thing in the sea. That thing that you close with a key. These sound like lines from a fun board game, but are in fact desperate definitions I've uttered within the past week when the French term for leek or coral reef or lock escapes me. I can speak …
going somewhere soon
Hi, I'm Jessica. I will be going somewhere soon. That sentence lacks a certain...well, it lacks a lot. My plan was to have my teaching contract in hand two months ago. I'd have a flight, a place to stay, and an idea of what my life will be like over the next year. As it …
humble pie in lemon land
As soon as we saw the heart of the festival: a rectangular garden filled with revolving citrus sculptures underscored by tinny Broadway music, I wondered if I had made a terrible mistake.
