French Train Adventures 2014!!

WHEW hey kids! HOW are ya doin today? Great, I hope--February is half way over (?!?!) and I have stories to catch you up on, so I guess it's a fantastic day to be alive. I spent the past two weekends training my way through France AND IT WAS FANTASTIC and I really think we should all invest in high speed trains in America!!!! Like how great would a train from Madison to Milwaukee be? SO GREAT LOL MAN TOO BAD WE NEVER HAD THE OPPORTUNITY FOR THAT. (sorry, really old political joke/dig at Scott Walker, my fave person, but the protests were three years ago today so I had to slip one in there somewhere).

My first train adventure brought me to the absolutely marvelous city of Paris, where I saw the sun every day and ate macarons equally as much. While I was there, it was coincidentally the very end of soldes. For those of you unfamiliar with them, they are a government-required, country-wide sale in basically every store on any clothing article you could possibly dream of. Naturally, I had to remind myself that I still had to eat for the remainder of the year so I didn't buy a Burberry trench that was 30% off, but still worth 3 months rent at least. Oof. I did manage to find a killer leather jacket, and when I wear it with red lips, I can feel all my months of studying the French finally pay off.

Paris had more than just soldes to offer, of course--two of my good friends from Madison, Kelsey and Jenny, are studying there so I got to see them and remind myself that I actually have friends across the ocean (sometimes it seems like you guys are just figments of my imagination, especially at this point in the game). Notably, Kelsey and I voyaged to Refuge des Fondus, a fondue restaurant in Montmontre that famously serves their wine in baby bottles. Our dinner that night was 100% bread, cheese, and wine, and we certainly weren't complaining. And, in a small world story, we were sitting next to a pair of friends, one of which is actually studying abroad in Aix! We have plans to meet up later in the week, so holla to new friends found in a fondue joint!

truest love of them all

don't hate it 

The second train journey took me to the French/German border, to the city of Strasbourg with my friend Robert for a Valentine's weekend extravaganza. I had the best food there, and the cathedral is actually awe inspiring. I know I've said this before, but they honestly dumbfound me--they're so intricate and so old and just how!!?? I of course did my German roots proud by eating a lot of sauerkraut and sausage and drinking beer at the same time. The sauerkraut gets filed under "life changing" because it was the best I've ever had, and trust me when I say I've had a lot (Wisco4lyfe).

Being so close to Germany, I of course had to get there somehow. With my marathon now less than two months away (ahahahhah what), the natural solution to this goal was running. Getting there and back was easy, but I got hopelessly lost in the town of Kehl while on a hunt for a German flag to snapchat all my friends (wahtever, sue me). I have no idea how many miles that ended up being, but it turned into a three and half hour thing, so I guess I'm ready to run now HAHAAAAAA ugh.

I ran to Germany and all I got was this stupid picture 

oh and speaking of weird athletic things the Lindstrom kids did this weekend, my brother did something stupid at swimming sectionals so yeah whatever that's cool/equally unsurprising...JK HE KILLED IT AND I SCREAMED FROM FRANCE but that's not shocking.

That about wraps it up for my train adventures 2014!!! I actually will go on more train adventures next weekend, but this time in Switzerland. Bummer, I know. And then there's a school break, followed by a trip to Istanbul so I mean I guess I'll have busting fat blog posts soon!!!

luv u guys,

Sarah + statue

Sarah's First Game Day Since 2012

As the title suggests, this was my first taste of any sort of game day since 2012, really. I don't count last Super Bowl because I prefer to refer to that as the "Beyonce concert that changed my life". Before living in France, one of the 196 countries out of 197 where football means a sport you actually play with your feet, football games were my ish. Not necessarily for the football, either--coming from West, where trips to the playoffs come once every 30 years, you had to find other reasons to love the sport. That meant a reason to see all my friends on a Friday night and to flood the McDonald's near the stadium after a loss to eat french fries/generally terrorize anyone that was trying to causally eat there.
Obviously/thankfully, in college, I found myself at a school with a phenomenal football team--three trips to the Rose Bowl says something, regardless of the outcome of the games. I grew to love football more, as there was something to actually cheer for. Gamedays of course didn't hurt the cause; I've yet to find a better way to spend a fall Saturday than surrounded with 80,000+ of your closest friends, jumping around.

In France, all my school spirit I cultivated in high school and let blossom in college was left more or less squashed for the year. It's unheard of to have huge crowds at university sporting events, and I don't think the FAC even sells school merchandise. Thankfully, God smiled down on my suffering and blessed me with the best case scenario for my AIX(lolol)pat self--a Super Bowl with not one, not two, but FOUR former Badgers, including everyone's favorite, Russell Wilson (ps Russell if you're reading this, call me sometime k thx). A Montee Ball didn't hurt either...needless to say, I was pumped!!! Some of my energy could finally be channeled into something!!!!

no, Badgers

So last night, some of my American friends and I trekked to the most American bar in town, a place I usually avoid like the plague: the Wohoo. We were split pretty evenly down the middle: the Indiana kids were cheering for the Broncos because of Peyton Manning, while the Wisco kids rooted for the Seahawks because duh, Russell. (I guess I should note that most of us Sconnies were more impartial--we were pumped to see both Russell and Montee playing that it was hard choosing a side. However, at the bar, the Indiana kids bragging about Peyton was a lot to handle, so we chose to root more heavily for the Seahawks. Plus what's a football game without trash talking?? Boring, that's what) This was, of course, much more different than an American Super Bowl experience, and in a weird way, represented how much I still take pride in being American and the weird things we love (football, our way of measuring things, fried food etc), but also how much I love the French. The broadcast included the game and in lieu of the commercials, there were French experts on American football explaining in VERY basic terms how football works--they even had a mini field painted on the set where they would run demonstrations of plays, the plays you learn in middle school gym class.

I'd say that after a year break of watching football (I did try in the beginning, but honestly it made me sad and homesick), the first time in France was a roaring success. The Wohoo wasn't even that crowded! I mean, after the Indiana kids left because of obvious reasons, the French outnumbered the Americans. They even gave us free chocolate cake at the end of the night. And staying to the end to see this made the 5 AM bedtime very much worth it:

my kind of love/surprised the state of Wisconsin didn't blow up with joy

ANYWAYS that is the most exciting thing that has happened recently, unless you count Ryanair canceling my flight to Sevilla 24 hours in advance with no reason and no alternative. To make myself feel better, I bought a train ticket to Paris for this weekend because, in the immortal words of Audrey Hepburn, "Paris is always a good idea". OH AND HUUUUUUGE SHOUTOUT to the wonderful, perfect sister that is Tory Felker: SHE SENT ME BAGELS. BAGELS. I CRIED AND ALREADY ATE THEM ALL. #bagelsforever. Also, quick lil PSA: if you send me a package, I am no longer in need of peanut butter. I could make 243739 batches of peanut butter cookies and still have some left over. Thank you all for being so generous with all your love, I really do appreciate it!

mfing perfection, Tory rox

all my love in the whole whole world,

a bagel-eyed Sarah

under pressure

With many of my friends from America finally in the same time zone as me, and almost all with their own blogs, I feel pressure to update this more sooooo here we go!

Second semester has officially begun, and my life is now a five-day weekend with a quick two days of class. Feels good to know I can focus more on traveling this semester than studying hehehe JUST KIDDING MOM AND DAD I promise to be a good student!

The most exciting thing I've done recently would definitely be swimming in the Mediterranean last weekend with my friend Alex. (no, Lucy, we're not dating. Sorry!) Alex decided he is going to swim in the sea every month and last weekend, with Carbon's yearly "come back to the pool" email, I needed water to soothe my soul, you know? Plus who wouldn't want to say they swam outside in January? So he was nice enough to take me along on this month's swim. It took some (a ton) of courage (and maybe a beer), and the French people that drove by in their boats thought we had completely lost our minds as the water felt like ice. Luckily, I didn't lose any of my fingers or toes or ears and it only took me like an hour to completely dethaw.

pics or it didn't happen?

does it get any better? no

Hmmm what else...oh!! The new kids arrived the same day I came back from Finland so I've been getting to know them/scaring them with information I easily found while stalking them instead of studying/loathing them for not bringing me bagels/loving them because they told me they thought about it so I guess it's the thought that counts, right? I am so quickly transported back into my first couple weeks here and I am able to see more clearly than ever, how much I've adjusted to the French way of life and not just in the superficial "all I drink is wine and eat are baguettes" kind of way. I move at a slower pace--I'm actually late to things! Conversing in French comes almost as easily as conversing in English. Somehow I've ended up with more black and grey sweaters than I can count. I've come to fully embrace the differences between America and France, without resenting most of the things the French do differently (although I still would kill for Culver's and Target. Sue me) I'm sure there's more that's changed about me, but obviously I can't think of all of them/they're probably not even that obvious to me.

Their arrival, coupled with the arrival of the new year and semester, really freaked me out as well. How on earth is it possible that my time here is almost half over? I won't believe it, I can't believe it. I now have two reoccurring nightmares that come up at least twice a week: one, where I'm paying for things with dollars instead of euros and the other where I'm physically trapped in Madison and cannot get out. Oof. Needless to say, I'm thankful that I decided to jump all in and study abroad for a year--sure, I had to miss game days, the many athletic accomplishments of my brother/basically brothers, along with other things, but I got a million new friends and priceless experiences in their place. Culture shock was rough at the beginning, but I can't even begin to imagine what reverse culture shock is like. Maybe I'll just stay here forever so I don't have to experience that.


LAWLZIEZ sorry I'm feeling deep and pensive today. I'm off to Sevilla at the end of the month to see my friend Julia which is the beginning of me actually seeing people I haven't seen since May!!! The semester brought like 425 friends over to me, 417 that are in Rome (literally think it's impossible to know any more people in Rome than I do right now) so the adventures that are on the horizon are unreal. Don't go far!!!

Oh also HUGE shoutout to the Tracy/Messner/Schwabe/Anna Jaye family for the care package that colored my walls and warmed my heart way too much. Yee always WEEEEEE

xoxo,

gossip girl

da holly jolly dayz of Christmas abroad

Okay soooo sorry for the complete void in December blog posts, I had finals (which were quite an interesting experience that we won't go into) and then I was traveling around with little to no time to update this bad boy! Just a warning: this WILL be the longest blog post to date so I hope you're ready for a marathon of adventures and mishaps!!!

Right after finals, I jetsetted off to Vienna, Austria to meet up with my London pal Lindsay HAYO. We both have come to terms that we will not be seeing all these beautiful Europe cities in their prime--it was foggy/misting/34 degrees when we were there BUT it was still possible to entertain ourselves. Literally up the street from our hostel was the Austrian royal "summer home" aka a huge ass palace with a massive garden AND because it was Christmas time, a fantastic Christmas market. Side note--the Christmas markets in Vienna a) all over the place and b) huge and wonderful and christmasy! We stumbled upon like seven of them just by walking. Back to the palace: we had our first encounter with Wiscawnsin tourists! They were sitting next to us on some steps of the palace and talked about a mansion in Oshkosh with "77 rooms and a Christmas tree in each room!" SO Wisconsin--from the accents to the fleeces to the grey hair with reddish/purplish highlights. Winners.

fog 4 dayz

markets 4 dayz

surriously markets 4 dayz 

The two of us also have an affinity for thai food and I'm not kidding you when I say we tried going to three different restaurants just to get our pad thai fix. At the restaurant we finally found that was open, and after trying to sort of interpret German (I know NO German and German is really the weirdest language so that was a challange), we were not disappointed. We even got serenaded by a trio of carolers! They gave us fortune cookies! What more could you want, really?! Don't worry though, we did definitely indulge in Austrian food/beer culture so thai food was a necessary last stop.

hi Linds!!! 

Christmas Eve: french couple invited me to their Christmas celebration and I obviously couldn't turn them down. So I caught a flight from Vienna at 6 AM to Paris to take the train down to Aix, something I could now do in my sleep. However, due to the disgustingly strong wind, my plane had to circle Paris forever, finally landing at the other airport in Paris, Orly. Needless to say, I missed my train (she missed the train!!!!!!!! *clap clap*) and was left stranded without any information on how to actually get to Aix in time for Christmas, so I definitely freaked out a little. Thanks to the nice ladies I found at the information desk, I caught a train from Gare de Lyon. Crisis averted.

The actual celebration of Christmas was unlike anything I've ever been a part of. Dinner on Christmas Eve was at Alex's parents' apartment in Avignon, an hourish drive north of Aix and holymacncheese it was bourgeois and I mean that in the most delicious way possible. The menu consisted of truffle mushroom soup (no words), a lobster per person (okay fine), probably seven bottles of champagne/wine (i can work with that), cheese (duh), foie gras (which I LOVE) chocolate from actually the best chocolate maker in France (he won an award to prove it), and in typical French fashion, a bouche de Noel. I obviously was still stuffed as a turkey when we dug in to the Christmas day feast, which was equally as impressive: poultry, stuffing, a weird meat substance that I can't remember the name of that was still delicious, a lot of bread, more foie gras, and not one but TWO bouches de Noel. Nomz for days. It was truly a magical Christmas and I have no idea where I'd be right now without Alex, Sebastian or their families for making me feel so at home in France :)

You guys still with me? Hope so!!!

With just a day of rest from all the holiday hoopla, I flew off to Helsinki to spend a week with my absolutely wonderful Aunt Karen. She treated me to a short but sweet trip to Lapland, Finland, which is the province of Finland above the Arctic Circle!!!

holla homeslices 

We chose an interesting time to go mainly because there was only about four hours of daylight which is hard for anyone to process. The town we were in reminded me a little of the Dells--you can tell how much they depend on tourism and so that was a little depressing but the nature/skiing holy man did not disappoint at all. It was my first time skiing and it was honestly one of the most peaceful/hard things I've ever done and I loved it, to say the least. I may not know how to slow down, stop without falling, go downhill without falling, or turn most of the time, but cross country skiing has definitely stolen my heart. (Necessary mention goes to my friend Tess whose love for skiing can be rivaled only by my love of Shorewood hehehe miss you!!!).

if you go skiing and don't take a selfie, did it really happen?

how can you not love this

To get to and from Lapland, we opted to take the night train, which was obviously an adventure in itself. The train we were on both ways was, I kid you not, straight out of the 20s with a redecoration in the 60s with orange vinyl sink/mirror included. There were an abundance of Russians and a definite lack of sleep, but there was something a little magical about the night train and for me, a welcome break from planes.

sew modern lawl

OH and in REALLY exciting news, MY FAM IS OFFICIALLY COMING TO FRANCE TO HANG OUT WITH ME!!!!! They'll be here in a short 89 days, for my marathon (so that's in 91 days which is actually terrifying). I couldn't be more excited to see them weeeeeeee.

But for now, I'm ecstatic to be back in Aix, where the sun is always shining and I'm not at risk of losing my toes or my eyes freezing if I walk outside. I do still have two exams to take, so I suppose I should wrap this up and go study.

Until my next adventure,

selfie Lindstrom stlye

Sarah

in a holidaze ya know

Hello my balls of sunshine!!! I hope you are all fantastic and still in a semi Thanksgiving food coma! I realized I have yet to write about my time living out the movie Love Actually in real life, so here we go! I mean, if you're just laying on the couch, binge-watching Scandal, you should probably take a break eventually...right? Or if you're headed back to school, here's some cheer from overseas to put a smile on your face as you pull away from your own version of a cloud bed. Or here's something to distract you from the homework you've ignored all weekend. (no judgement). Whatever you need it for.

So we must preface this blog post by saying Love Actually is my all-time favorite movie. I can definitely recite it word for word, and I have strong opinions regarding the many different couples in the film. I mean my relationship with this movie can be described like by Jonah's with running or Mac's with horses: intense. (Hi Mac and Jonah!!! Miss you two!!!). Obviously, visiting London during Christmas time was a must for me. If you don't know what Love Actually is, go watch it. It's on Netflix (another great break from Scandal-binging). Then come back and finish this.

All I can say is London did NOT disappoint.

Obviously, Christmas is a magical time and I'm lucky enough to live on a continent where Christmas celebrations get started just after the middle of November. I had HIGH expectations for Christmas in London, obviously because of Love Actually. Even though I didn't run into Hugh Grant at 10 Downing Street, didn't find Alan Rickman slumming the streets with some slut named Mia, and didn't see a little ten year old boy breach airport security, the city was literally perfect. Since I'm running out of words, here's some pictures! My friend Lindsay is studying abroad for a year in London so she and two of her roommates showed me around their London--absolutely fantastic woof.

my fab Londoners!!!!

ain't the green but still decent I'd say

OH on the topic of the holidays: Thanksgiving. Even though Thanksgiving is looked over/most people don't even know what it is, my program was nice enough to give us Americans turkey and pie on the actual day. Honestly, it was perfect, even if the turkey was a little salty and the stuffing almost non-apparent. The pumpkin pie stole my heart 4 real (I mean the last time I had pumpkin pie was a year ago, so I don't have much to actually compare it to) and the gesture was actually so perfect. It did make me miss my family though (obviously), and skyping with them was hilarious. My grandma had my dad ask all her questions, even though I could clearly hear her, and a One Direction love life discussion spurred. Andrew didn't talk to me, just regressed to his eight-year-old self by sitting in the back and moving a lot while making strange faces. Overall very typical. Now that it's the holidays, I do find myself missing them more and more but for the weird things: I miss driving to run errands with my dad while singing along to the Rat Pack Christmas CD, especially their version of Baby, It's Cold Outside; I miss walking into the kitchen when my mom is baking holiday cookie boxes for the neighbors and stealing all the cookie dough scraps; and strangely enough, I miss finding Andrew in the kitchen after swim practice, looking like he's practicing for the World Eating Championships. (sorry that got long and cheesy, but the fam rocks).

Pie Appreciation Month 2013 was a success

I'm staying in Aix until winter break--exams are coming up and I actually have to study!! Strange, I know, studying on study abroad...it'll certainly be an interesting experience! But my winter break consists of going to Vienna with Lindsay (apparently they have one of the best Christmas markets in the world there!!!), Christmas with my wonderful French couple, and a trip back to Finland for a little family lovin with my aunt! I've said this before, but I literally cannot believe how lucky I am weeeeeee life is fantastic. Even if it DOES snow here and it DOES get cold--not quite what I signed up for, but that's okay with me. Still paradise.


Kisses from (a sometimes snowy) France!

I thought this was dandruff at first...deniallll

Sarah

We're gonna party all night!!!

Waaaaaazup guys!!! I know, it's been a while. Too long, I'd say. This blog post comes to you sponsored by the one and only HUMO HELL WEEK!!! WOOHOO!

We were good at being pretty and also good at "winning"

**If you know what humo is, you can skip this next part**

What's Humo, you ask? Well if you're asking, you probably either a) just met me or b) never met me. Humorology (Humo is the abbrev cause we hip over here) has been one of my favorite parts of college thus far. It is the largest student-run philanthropy at UW-Madison and basically frats and srats (ew that's a horrible abbrev) team up to create a 20-minute production to raise money for Camp One Heartland, a camp for kids with AIDS. Super philanthropic, super fun, yay life.

Humo hell week is the week before either auditions (which are this Saturday) or the two weeks before the show (which is in the spring). You basically devote your whole life to the show. Any interaction with people outside your cast is frowned upon and you get branded within your cast. Not really, but it is impossible to see anyone else. It sucks but also rocks at the same time. You also end up with the dances drilled into your head FOR ETERNITY. I can still do all the dances from my freshman year, and definitely all of them from last year.

**okay you can start reading again here**

My pal Ruska tweeted at me last night requesting a blog post, so Ruska, this one is for you, along with all the other humo addicts I've met ! I met Ruska through humo (duh) and it's humo hell week now (again, duh) so hopefully this distracts all of them from the fact they'll probably get a collective eight hours of sleep for the week or accidentally sleep until lunch every day of the week. Both bad (not speaking from experience, mom, I promise) but it's always FTK!

I don't have a pic of Ruska so this will work

Ruska specifically wanted to know about the nightlife here and yesterday I happened to indulge so this is perfect!!

The night started abnormally--I do not usually make dinner with my program director and six other kids in my program. But last night, we made moule frites chez Kelly! And it was really a fantastic job cooking on our part, even if the most helpful thing I did was wash moules and drink a borderline inappropriate amount of wine, which consequently led to me crying over how good this butter was. BUT IT WAS WARRANTED because I've had a lot of bad butter in my time (read: oxidized) and literally this butter was PURE fat and salt, with no other distracting flavors omg I really couldn't handle it. If your name is Sam, Wilson, or Olin, tell your mama that she taught me well and I impressed Kelly and now she wants to set me up with her friend who runs the cheese shop. I knew being a cheese taste tester would come in handy!!!!

boys working a good ratio comme d'habitude

yeah man I made that (ha)

Tears over butter...lol dairy state probz

OKAY ANYWAYS on to the actual nightlife. So I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before but Aix is expensive as...idk, Versailles (okay no but I needed an analogy). Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING that's not wine is cringeworthily priced. I've gotten used to it, a little, but also I've found the "cheap" places to shop, eat, and obviously drink. When it's nice out, so the first couple months I was here along with the random days that come in November, I usually start off at this cute little wine shop that lines a plaza. That's followed by sitting in the plaza/standing in the streets with my friends for like four hours. If we feel up to it, we continue on to clubs, but usually on nights we could get in for free or, in my case, when someone else pays for me. If not, we find some other shenanigans to get into lawl idk but it's always a good time, always. When it's cold, we actually have to sit inside bars and that calls for meeting very interesting people, many who have had much more to drink than me.

I do probably have more to say, but I got a minimal amount of sleep last night and training for a stupid marathon is stupid tiring. Oh!! I am slowly coming to terms that I will not be able to eat all of my mama's fab cooking come next Thursday so that's sad. Luckily she's fantastic and sent me pumpkin bread mixes, but nothing beats Lindstrom originals. Woof. So when you eat your Thanksgiving, indulge a little extra for me !!! And to my lovely humo pals, GOOD LUCK, I LOVE YOU, and plz take embarrassing photos of each other come Saturday night (or earlier) and send them to me so I can laugh.

This was way longer than I expected!!! Hope it proved a good distraction!!!

xoxo,

Sarah

Oh, worth noting that TVs dream couple, Leighton Meester and Adam Brody (Blair Waldorf and Seth Cohen) got engaged so if that's not a reason to binge on Gossip Girl and the OC, I don't know what is.

yelling obv because I love humo and engagements

To Finlandia and Beeeeeeyond!

SO in France, they actually give you fall breaks (if you're a student at UW-Madison, you understand the complete agony of having no break until Thanksgiving. It's kind of like torture. If you're one of my friends that actually has a fall break, I don't like you). I took this opportunity to head way north, to Finland by way of Paris with a surprise stop in Estonia.

**WE INTERRUPT THIS BLOG POST TO GIVE YOU AN IMPORTANT LESSON IN THE GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE**

I told many people that I was in Finland/going to Estonia and many of them responded with "where's that again?" so here's a map of Europe. Finland is circled, Estonia is directly south. I hope you all know where Paris is. If not, that's on the map too!

OKAY anyways, first up is Paris! Honestly I wasn't expecting to love it as much as I did. A lot of people told me they had such high expectations for the city that they ended up kind of hating it. I guess having low expectations as well as a sunny day to explore really worked in my advantage. After taking various French classes for eight years now, I've read a lot about the Paris monuments and whatnot. Actually seeing some of them in person actually took my breath away. I didn't stay long, only like 12 hours, but man I cannot wait to go back. 

my heart wut

feelin triumphant haha

someone give my friend Amy a dollar

Then I went to Finland! I think I caught the country at kind of an awkward time: it's not summer, it's not winter, so there wasn't much to do (no snow :( boo) but I enjoyed myself none the less. It was absolutely a blast to stay with my aunt: she's lived in Finland for 25ish years, so growing up, I saw her sporadically at best. Plus, my cousin (her son) just got married so I had many family stories to catch up on and pictures to see of her granddaughter. I spent the days wandering Helsinki, which is right along the sea and quite beautiful. It stole my heart for two reasons: one, it's easy to walk around and see everything and two: it has a lot of thrift stores!!! You never know how much you love thrift stores until you live in a city so bourgeois there's literally only one. I managed to find a fantastic nordic sweater, which I refuse to take off. Nothing beats wool sweaters in fall, even in France where I got weird looks on the train yesterday (haters gon hate I guess). Oh and Finns are known for having strong, strong, STRONG coffee so that didn't hurt their case either. 

what a view

that coffee almost gave me a heart attack

Saturday was a high holy day in Finland (All Saints' Day I think?) so the whole country was going to be shut down. Naturally, my aunt and I decided to jump ship (literally) and go to Estonia for the day! It's a two and a half hour boat ride from Helsinki to Tallinn, so away we went! Tallinn was one of the coolest places I've been to date: most of the landmark buildings were built in the 12/13th centuries, and parts of the original town wall are still in tact and snake through the city. The tallest building there was probably the tallest building in the world for a while! Like in the 1400s, but it's still tall now! In "tourist season" aka not when I was there, you can go up in the steeple and there's an awesome view of the city! I guess I may have to go back to Tallinn and Helsinki then...

"probably" the tallest building, at one point

sew many ancient churches

I'm back in France now, ready to tackle the rest of the semester! Weird that it's already November ah I have no idea how I feel about that. Can't time just slow the eff down so I can stay here forever? I was so happy to get back to Aix after my marathon day of traveling--I guess it really does feel like home here. It's not the same, but that's why I love it! I did miss a monumental event in Wisconsin though this weekend--necessary shoutout to my brother Andrew and the West cross country boys for getting second in state and to my basically brother Olin for winning the whole thing!!! Proud is an understatment :)

Okay that's all for now, I guess you'll hear from me next when I travel again--so the end of the month! I'm going to Nice and Monaco (for real this time) and London because why not?

xoxo,

did you know it gets cold on boats in November?

Sarah