Update: I'm Still Here

Number of New Years Resolutions made: 7
Number of New Years Resolutions kept: I think we're down to like three now.
Was blogging more often one of these resolutions: No
Should it have been: Probably
Excuses for not writing: I'm busy. I have too much other stuff to do. The only warm place in Lille is my bed. This whole business of a website where I just talk about myself feels weird and I'm getting self-conscious. The novelty of France is wearing off and it's finally not feeling like I'm just visiting. It's finally feeling like I live here and I have a job and friends and a life here. It's feeling less like a foreign country and more like home.
But do I want to write: Yes
So am I going to stop making excuses and write: Yes

Expect more posts in February, everyone.

Playlist: December

Happy New Year, everyone!! Here's the last monthly playlist of 2015, inspired by:

- The director of one of my schools saying that he's a huge Bruce Springsteen fan and that he wants to teach the kids The River in choir (all the teachers were like "director no" but I was like "DIRECTOR YES")
- Songs that we hold very specific memories and emotions for everyone who listens to them.
- Finally getting back into the mandolin madness of Judah and the Lion
- New music from The 1975
- Getting introduced to Grimes (thanks Beth!)
- Hearing a surprising amount of Édith Piaf in Paris
- And then just a bunch of Christmas songs I like

Shuffle and enjoy!

Lille Marché de Noël

There are a bunch of different lists that claim to be the "definitive list of Christmas Markets in France." Strasbourg tops every single one of them, partially because it's the oldest, partially because it's one of the largest, partially because it's really close to Germany and therefore has a leg up on everywhere else. But quite a few of these lists also include the Christmas Market here in my home-for-the-year of Lille. Some even rank Lille in the top five. These, my friends, are the lists you should trust.

There's even fake snow!

Lille has everything you want from a good Marché de Noël. It smells like sugar and pine, there are 83 different booths all nestled together in Place Rihour like a cute little village, there's a giant ferris wheel and a giant Christmas tree a few steps away at the Grand Place, and it's a five minute walk from the train station and literally right in front of a metro stop. It's perfect.

Review: Six Disposable Cameras Used in Spain

I like taking photos. I like to think I take good photos. I love to use sites like Instagram and Flickr and this blog to share my photos. It would be terrible for me if, say, I were to accidentally put my photo-taking apparatus, my iPhone, in the washing machine the night before a 10-day trip through Spain. Unfortunately, that is exactly what happened.

A trip that I'd hoped would include some wonderfully Instagrammable moments turned into a foray into the world of disposable cameras. And now, finally, after the three weeks it took for Carrefour to develop the film and the three more weeks I just flat out procrastinated writing this post, I can finally share that foray with you. This post is part "let me review something and help you if you're choosing to buy it" and part "I didn't get to post these on Instagram but I still need to feel validated so I'm posting them on my blog and forcing people to see them that way instead." I'm not even sorry.

I ended up using six different types of disposable cameras on my trip. Here's how they all fared.

Playlist: November

This is a shorter playlist than past months, because unfortunately some of the songs that defined my November (Taylor Swift's song 22 and Adele's entire album 25) are not available on Spotify. But I hope you enjoy the songs that are available! This month's music was inspired by:

- Hearing songs that I had listened to in French class...in real life?
- Finally getting around to listening to Hotline Bling...and then not stopping.
- MADE IN THE A.M. (I like One Direction in case you hadn't noticed)
- Wondering if the All-American Rejects were still together and finding out they released new music LAST MONTH.
- Vitas becoming important in my life again.
- And Braden Holtby.

Shuffle and enjoy!

On the Attacks in Paris

I've been writing a lot over the past few weeks. In my journal. In this app on my phone called Collect. In multiple drafts for this blog. And I'm not going to publish any of it.

I feel somewhat obligated to post about the terrorist attacks in Paris. I mean, I'm supposed to be posting about my time in France, right? Well, this has really impacted my time here. Long after this program is over, I will remember where I was and what I was doing the night of Friday, November 13th, 2015. I will always remember how even with heightened security in the days following the attacks, I still felt the need to be more cautious than ever. I will always remember how I was still going to work and going about my daily life while just an hour north of me, Brussels was on lockdown.

But the truth is, I'm not ready. I don't want to just write verbatim what I was doing that night. Most of my night was spent around people who were distraught and terrified and heartbroken. I will be part of their memories of what happened that night just as they will be part of mine. Those emotions still feel so raw that I'm not ready to write it all down in an organized, reader-friendly format.

Maybe on an anniversary of the attacks I'll share more of the story. But for now, just know that I am okay, and Lille is okay, and I certainly had a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

I'll leave you with a few articles I've seen or had shared with me over the past couple of weeks that I thought were interesting, and with something that one of my nine-year-old students said after mentioning the Charlie Hebdo attacks earlier this year: "I hope next year isn't going to be like this."

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/11/paris-beirut-terrorism-empathy-gap/416121/

http://www.vox.com/2015/11/16/9744640/paris-beirut-media

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/paris-attacks-why-the-rapid-sharing-of-anything-vaguely-inspirational-after-a-tragedy-is-so-a6735891.html

http://conversations.e-flux.com/t/judith-butler-precariousness-and-grievability-when-is-life-grievable/2826

Playlist: October

Hi everyone! As per usual, here's an end-of-the-month playlist so you can listen to what my October was like. It's weird--on the one hand it feels like I've been in Europe for a really long time, but on the other it feels like time is passing really fast. (Halloween is TODAY??? I'm turning 22 in FIVE DAYS??? WHAT.) But anyway, here's the mix of the month, inspired by:

- Songs that I heard in stores everywhere (yes, including the Madelyn Bailey cover of Titanium, which is strangely popular over here from what I've seen)
- NEW ONE DIRECTION
- The one English-language song performed at an open mic I stumbled into earlier in the month
- My "going to work" playlist which was mostly just Walk The Moon's newest album
- Watching Arrested Development alone on a Friday and feeling inspired by Lucille
- Being reminded of the existence of Naughty Boy
- Favorites off of Josh Ritter's new album Sermon on the Rocks
- Listening to a record of Paul Simon's Graceland at the AirBnB in Granada
- Much-awaited new music from Adele
- And selections from possibly the strangest mix of songs ever heard on Halloween.

Shuffle and enjoy!