Academic rambling. #gradschoolproblems

I am experiencing an academic crisis of conscience. If you are here because you appreciate my stories about falling on my ass or my inability to learn French, this post will disappoint. GET OUT NOW! A few months ago I wrote a long rambly post about how I wanted to be able to help others […]

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Origins

I wrote this last fall and for reasons I can’t identify, I never posted it. Since I will be returning to Ghana for spring break in a few short weeks, it seems especially appropriate now, even if it is a bit different from the vast majority of posts on this blog. – “Morning is the […]

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Blogging about blogging, caffeine, and being a bad friend.

Of all the shit I have purchased since my arrival in Paris, the €20 coffee maker was probably the best. (In perhaps a bit of a contradiction, I would say that splurging on a nice duvet was probably the second best purchase.) I have very little to report on life in Paris because I spend […]

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Notes on visiting Auschwitz

My fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Lieber, made our class of 34 kids stand up. One by one, she read off the list of reasons that people were killed in the holocaust. We were told to sit down when the description applied to us. In the end, I was one of two people left standing. It’s […]

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So what exactly are you doing with your life?

Today we are going to play a game called, “It’s my blog and I do what I want.” This post is long and devoid of pretty pictures and contains only tangential references to Paris. It’s filled to the brim with WHOTHEHELLAMI questions and a tiny bit of “This is what I think about the world.” […]

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London Detour

As a self-appointed Road Trip Queen, I think there is considerable value in exploring the expanse of what actually comprises the US. I remember seeing an advertisement for a trucking company in the final stretches of one of my trips. “How far have you gone today? Want to go farther?” I was just crossing the […]

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Paris Photobooth: Exam Stress Relief

Graduate school in Paris has turned out to be a bit heavy on the graduate school and light on the Paris. Papers and exams, it seems, are universal concepts and they followed me here. Or, rather, I chased them here. Because I chose to come here and be a student again. Because I really thought […]

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Graduate school and drowning have more in common than you might think.

Graduate school is structured to demoralize you. By design, it takes a gaggle of people who have long had a certain level of confidence in their ability to tackle academic pursuits, and kicks them in the knees, then spits on their faces. In theory, if you withstand the abuse, it does something really nice to […]

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