happy easter!

here's a post i've been chipping away at for a couple days. recap of vacation!

montpellier: luckily, ali saw a bit of good weather in during her stay in the south of france. i introduced her to most of my favorite french residents at a bar tuesday, dragged her to the ice rink on wednesday, and helped her cook an incredible american dinner for the host fam on thursday.

barcelona: was a blast, especially because i got to meet up with dan and his buds. ali and i stayed in a hostel on the other side of town, but that just gave me an excuse to walk around a lot. we also met up with my freshman-year hallmates, Marlies and Rachel, for an excellent fruit-and-veggie-based picnic on the beach. with dan and his buds, i went to a 6-story-tall club called Razmataz, which was insane. another highlight was tapas and sangria, which was delicious and at a fabulous restaurant, though a little rich for my blood ;-)

paris: again, had a great time with dan and ali. the first night, dan and i went for a long walk, got rained on pretty hard, but saw the eiffel tower sparkle at 1:00 AM from between the louvre and the garden of tuileries. stayed in a nice little hotel in the north-eastern part of our map, not too far from montmartre where we took a walking tour from the red light district to sacre coeur. i found myself repeatedly in scenes from the movie Amelie, which was awesome. tried escargot at a really nice restaurant, and had drinks at an underground bar that i still think used to shelter jews during the second world war.

berlin: i certainly would not have had the same experience if i had traveled with anyone other than minsoo, my suitemate from sophomore AND next year (i would meet up with ali and dan later in Rotterdam). he had tons of energy and didn't mind walking around all day, chatting and exploring the city. every patch of grass we found - which are far more numerous in berlin than in any other european city i've seen - gave us an excuse to throw my frisbee for a while. we found plenty of street food to snack on, and on the last day we cooked a delicious rotini bolognese at minsoo's hostel. of course, i ate a ton.

rotterdam: i got here sunday morning after an overnight bus from berlin. ali cooked us an incredible easter brunch, then dan and i cleaned up and took his guitar and laptop out to a bench on the lake a few minutes down the road. we sang and recorded songs all afternoon, which was a blast. later on, we met up with dan's friends from his program - real funny guys from random different parts of the world - and watched animal house. yesterday ali and i headed into amsterdam to show us around. we got a late start and did not see as much as i would have liked, but renting bikes helped us see a fair amount in a short time. it was good.

just a bit ago i arrived at ali's place in cambridge. that brings us up to date. i'm meeting up with friends from pomona in a bit to throw frisbee and see the town. much love and thanks for reading.