Oh yeah! In travel-related news, Fran and I booked a trip to Amsterdam this May! It's a short trip - just 3 days and two nights - because Amsterdam doesn't really require much more time than that ( Read more... )

Very, very tired. Very happy. Very appreciative of how amazing my life is, and how privileged and lucky I am.

Though I was too busy to host any Hospitality Club guests this month, I did meet up with an HC member tonight for tea. I have a weakness for anyone not from Western Europe or North America, so despite my long days and weak post-eight- ( Read more... )

Oh man, this is so great. Manning and I are going to be able to trade our apartment in Paris with someone in Budapest! We met this guy Adam (American guy, speaks fluent French and Hungarian, the bastard) at the Hospitality Club summer camp this past July, and he's very friendly and nice and responsible and all that. He was going to let us stay ( Read more... )

Manning, Kerry and I went to Amsterdam for three days sometime last week. It was an interesting travel experience because I did two new modes of transportation: rideshare and eurolines bus. The rideshare worked great - we were driven straight from Paris to Amsterdam in a slightly cramped but otherwise fine little car with a Dutch guy who lives in ( Read more... )

Sept 29 & 30: Hosting a Hospitality Club guest from Israel
Oct 3 & 4: Hosting two HC guests from Russia
Oct 6-8: Going to Amsterdam with Kerry
Oct 9-15: Kerry, Jon, and Kate visit Paris! Hooray!
Oct 18: Super important Carte de Sejour appointment
Oct 20 - November 4 (approx): Eastern European adventure
Nov 10-14: Manning's family visits Paris! ( Read more... )

Man, I have gotten really, really screwed the last 3 or 4 times I tried ordering plane tickets online. Not cool. I'm going to share an important piece of information with all of you ( Read more... )

After getting the word from Helene that it's not that unusual to arrive in Istanbul at 3am, I bought plane tickets! Manning and I leave on Thursday, October 20th, from Charles de Gaulle airport. We transfer in Ljubljana, Slovenia and arrive in Istanbul, Turkey at 2:50am on Friday, October 21st. The one-way tickets were just $133 USD (plus about ( Read more... )

I'm slowly starting to put together a plan ( Read more... )

I usually don't make mistakes like this, but Manning and I realized a few days ago that the trip I booked to Spain was going to overlap with our carte de sejour appointment at the prefecture! That was a big problem, as our plane tickets are totally non-refundable, the hotel is already booked, etc. After freaking out about it for a few days, our ( Read more... )

There's a sale going on right now with Eurolines (a bus company). I could go to either Berlin or Prague for 40 Euros, round trip. It's going to be in mid-to-late September, in between visits from friends ( Read more... )