mon voyage en France

My first time traveling out of Morocco since arriving last September! It was a formidable nine day trip from Paris to Toulouse getting to visit quite a few people. It was easy to fly from Marrakech to Paris - and quite a surprise to go from my little town in the Middle Atlas to the center of Paris in one day. I got to meet one of my best friends from Dickinson and her family while they were on vacation, my mom and her friend coordinated part of their vacation with mine, then we visited my host family from studying abroad in Toulouse. It was very nice to be able to travel in a car from Paris to Toulouse. We got to go to Giverny, Orleons, Limoges, and Cahors on the way south. And near Toulouse we visited Albi, Gaillac, and Cordes sur Ciel. I was glad to be speaking French, visiting people, and so happy to be enjoying fantastic cheese.


Ile de la Cite, Paris




Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral




Stained glass of the Chartres Cathedral




The flying buttresses




Me and Karen in the bell tower




Marshall, Mom, & Me




Arc de Triomphe




La Tour Eiffel




Monet's lily pond at Giverny




St Etienne Cathedral in Toulouse




The flags of the Midi-Pyrenees and France




Vineyards of Gaillac




A nice countryside church with grape vines




There has to be a story behind this




Cordes sur Ciel, a village 'in the sky'




The Basilica of St Sernin over rooftops in Toulouse




My favorite bridge in Toulouse, Pont St Pierre




The France-Brazil World Cup match on the big screen in Toulouse's Place Capitole. So much fun!

training and birthday in Agadir

Wow, I haven't posted in a while. These are a couple of photos from my trip south to Agadir on the ocean last month. It was nice to be in a touristy city with nice weather and swimming. It wasn't exactly a vacation since we were going to a lot of sessions, but we did have time to enjoy ourselves. It was nice to have so many volunteers together - some of us hadn't seen each other since swearing-in almost seven months earlier. My birthday also happened to be during training. But not only mine - out of our group of about 75, 4 of us have the same birthday (what are the odds?). We even got a big cake!




Four birthdays on the same day (June 16) plus a few more close by.




Our nice hotel had three pools and this bouncy play area. Quite a fun change of scenery!