Books I've Read & Places I've Loved: July 2018
Originally published on August 02nd, 2018
Well, July is over and my oh my what a month it was. This month felt a lot like June at the beginning, with the theatre internship most evenings and mornings spent watching The West Wing and struggling to write in my journal. Once tech week for the theatre hit, however, everything picked up. I saw opening night of The Music Man, and felt an overwhelming pride for how far I've seen the actors come. I went to France and Luxembourg, and that was really good for so many reasons. As you'll see, I didn't read anything, but I did a lot of other good things.
BOOKS I'VE READ
This month, like June of 2017, I didn't read anything. The first part of July was intense, and I felt bogged down by a lot of things, including reading and writing. I didn't post anything to this website the last couple of weeks, and fill that extra time with reading. So what did I do instead? I made myself live. I finished my internship with a theatre, and I went to France and Luxembourg. I got out of my own head. I forced myself to sit and not think about anything except for what was right in front of me. I have books ready to be read in August, but honestly I'm very happy that I didn't read anything in July.
PLACES I'VE LOVED
Paris, France
I had been wanting to go to France (and Paris in particular) since I was twelve. I'm so excited to write about my experiences in the three cities I went to, but for now I'll just say that Paris is beautiful, but it's beautiful in different ways than what I was expecting. Cobblestone streets aren't as common as I'd thought, but pigeons that follow you everywhere certainly are. The city doesn't smell like cherry blossoms or daisies or roses, it smells like a city.
Marseille, France
Marseille was probably my favorite part of the trip. A city in the south of France, Marseille is known for it's soap, which I found random yet delightful. While there, my mom and I went to a market place that had been set up right across from our hotel, where we bought souvenirs for everyone back home (and for ourselves, too). Speaking of hotels, our room had a terrace, and we spent part of both our nights there sitting outside and observing the goings on from above. It was truly a beautiful place, and I would go back in a heartbeat.
Dommeldange, Luxembourg
When thinking of things we could do while in France, I kept wondering if there was any way we could leave and go to a surrounding country for a little bit. I remembered learning about Luxembourg in Sophomore year World History (it's capital is Luxembourg City, which is very helpful when you need to learn all the countries and capitals), and figured that since it's such a small country, it wouldn't be hard to pop over for 24 hours. So my mom and I took a train, and spent one night in a Double Tree hotel while we watched TV in English for the first time in a few days and ate pizza. It was an odd way to spent our time in a new city, but it was fun nonetheless. In the morning we went for a walk in the nearby neighborhood, and it was quite beautiful. The walls were colorful and there were lots of flowers. To me, it actually felt a little bit like England, except almost everyone spoke German.
I came into July feeling very unmotivated with this blog. I've had it for over a year and a half now, and somewhere in June I lost my love for it a little bit. So I took a two week break and focused on two other things that I love- theatre and traveling. I needed to get out of my own head so that I could step back, see this blog for what it is, and come back feeling like I actually had things to write about. August is going to be good. I have posts read to go up that I am very proud of (some of which I have been working on since March). My motivation for this blog that I love so much is back, and I'm excited to see what the rest of this year has in store.