By bus, train, boat, and plane.

The Girls are in France

she invested in a cute bag

Post 3: COVID-19

I am so sad that this semesters study abroad students were all impacted and had to return home and cut their travels short due to the shutdowns of COVID-19. I was sad to leave all my new friends and wondered how was this online learning thing going to go? Was it going to hinder my grades/learning? Will I still get to finish? Will my credits transfer? Will I graduate on time? 

I had my last weekend trip to London, and when I got back to my apartment I had to make flight arrangements to come home 2 days later. Once returning back to Colorado, where I am from, I was able to finish all of my online courses and SKEMA, the school I was attending, was very understanding with the time zone changes and worked with us, allowing a larger window for our exams to be turned in to accommodate for students that were not in France anymore. 

I think what I am most upset about with this whole thing, is the plans I made to travel with friends. Tomorrow I was supposed to be starting a 2-week road trip across Morocco, with a few French students that I met in one of my classes. I am extremely bummed that we won’t be getting to do it, but it gives me a reason to go back and get to see the people I met and go on an epic adventure once the world is healthy again! 

I am glad to be home with my family in this time of crisis and cannot wait for our world to go back to normal! 

I hope everyone is staying safe, and had the best time abroad while it lasted. 

Who wants to plan a trip for once all this is over?! 

Post 2: Weekend travels!

Genova/Portofino, Italy: 

This was my first weekend trip of the semester and I  just went with a big group of people that I had just met that week. We took this bus called a FlixBus ($26) from Nice to Genova, Italy where we stayed Saturday to Monday in an Airbnb. We had amazing Italian food all weekend long. We took a 1-hour train ride to a near city called Portofino which had beautiful site seeing and lookout areas above the ocean. Going with a big group was nice, but it is also a little hard with so many people sometimes. So, I suggest traveling in groups of 5 or less.  

 

Budapest, Hungary:

Weekend trip #2 and I will definitely be going back in the future! It was beautiful (even with the rain and fog) so I can only imagine what it looks like with clear weather and sun. Here we did a ton of walking. The main places we stopped at were the Gellért thermal baths, Buda Castle, got some good luck at the statue, Fisherman’s Bastion, River cruise down the Duna River, checked out the House of Parliament, and met some cool people from around the world. Budapest has food that is to die for, stew, goulash soups, and mulled wine to keep us warm in the 30 degree weather. 

 

Monte Carlo, Monaco:

Monaco is another place I got to visit. It was a 45 minute train ride from where I lived in Juan Les Pins. Round trip about 17 euros. This is a place you want to pack a lunch and bring it with you because the least expensive thing in this country is a 6 euro Coca Cola! They are know for their luxury shopping and yacht club, as well as their Casino. I went to the aquarium and it was actually the cheapest aquarium I have ever been to, 10 euros for students, and absolutely incredible! 

Stuttgart, Germany and Strasburg, France: 

Had a fun filled weekend in Stuttgart, Germany and Strasbourg, France. We ate amazing food and saw awesome sights. Met up with a friend we met on our weekend trip to Budapest and of course walked a ton. We went on one of the last open to the public conveyer belt elevator, climbed to the top of the Strasbourg Cathedral, and ate in my first Michelline Star restaurant. In Germany, they have these giant stuffed raviolis, by far my favorite food I have had abroad. 

Cannes/Nice:

Stayed in town this weekend and my best friend from high school who was an exchange student came to visit me from Italy! I haven’t seen her in two years and we picked up right where we left off. Checked out the night life in Nice. We had a day trip to Cannes for a day of shopping and a trip to Nice and saw Promenade Des Anglais, Marche Aux Fleurs, Place Garibaldi, and walked up the stairs to the lookout of Bellanda Tower.

Walks, wine, and charcuterie boards on the beach by my apartment happened quite often.

Prague, Czech Republic: 

Na zdraví to the best weekend in Prague. I was able to stay with my friend Haley who is doing study abroad, which was a great way to save on housing while I was there. In this quick little weekend trip we saw the crawling babies, Charles Bridge, Prague castle, Katedrála Svateho Víta, John Lennon wall, dancing building, Prague astronomical clock, NH Prague hotel to ride the gondola to the top for an amazing view. Haley took me out to her favorite stops and we grubbed out on some delicious food along the way. I highly recommend going to Prague if you get the chance, I loved it there and will definitely be going back one day!

Holiday Break – Paris / Kehl, Germany / Luzern, Switzerland / Milan, Italy (mom and Gramma)

Finally can check Paris off my bucket list! My mom and gramma finally made it to Europe after some complications, but my friend Haley came to keep me company on another spontaneous weekend trip! 

In Paris we went to the Musse D’orsay, watched the Eiffel Tower sparkle at the top of the hour, took an electric scooter to see the Louvre lit up at night, walked to the Notre Dame, walked the 1000+ stairs at the Eiffel Tower, Mona Lisa at the Louvre, and at fondue and wine out of baby bottles*** à A MUST GO if in Paris!!

Kehl, Germany, Strasbourg, France, Lucerne, Zug, and Geneva, Switzerland! 

Definitely a packed full week playing tourist with my 2 favorite ladies. We went to Kehl, because my my moms maiden name and my grammas last name is Kehl, so we thought it would be cool to get to say we went and stayed in Kehl, Germany! Gramma could not find any sweatshirts that said KEHL on them and there are no German restaurants in Kehl, Germany, everyone told use to go to Strasbourg, FRANCE for German food! The astronomical clock at the Strasbourg Cathédrale was more interesting to learn about then actually watch. It is incredible how the astronomical clocks work, and I have no idea how someone was able to come up with it. 

Switzerland was breathtaking with Lake Lucerne, cheese factory, Swiss alpes, chocolate factory making chocolate bars, lake Zug, and lots and lots of yummy cheese fondue. Switzerland is somewhere to visit after you’ve been saving up for a long time and know that once you go you won’t have very much left… or go with your mom! 

Being able to have my mom and gramma come visit and travel for 2 weeks was such a highlight and something I will never forget, I am so thankful they were able to come before the outbreak and shutdowns! 

London, England:

Last weekend trip of study abroad in London. Took pictures at platform 9 3/4, Covent gardens, Buckingham palace, went to the London aquarium, took a ride on the London Eye, went through Tower Bridge, walked all 311 stairs to the top of the Monument. Traveling with Kayley (my roommate) was quite the trip and I’m so happy I found such a great roommate. 

She will be a forever friend and I can’t wait to visit her, her visit me, and plan another adventure together! 

Post 1: School/Accommodation/Roommate:

I am studying abroad at the SKEMA Business School in Sophia Antipolis, France. This is located in the southern part of France in the French Rivera. If you like the beach and the mountains this is the perfect place for you. The school is located in the hills and a 30-45 min bus ride from where I live in Juan Les Pins. The classes are a lot different than at HPU. Each class is 3 hours long with a 15 min break in the middle, but you only meet one time a week. So, I have a pretty good schedule that allows me to have 4 day weekends every week and do weekend trips almost every weekend. 

If you are interested in going to school in France at SKEMA you are able to find accommodations on a platform called Studapart. Make sure to do this and I highly recommend to not live on campus. The rooms are very big, but don’t feel like home at all with only 1 light in the corner. I made the mistake of thinking it would be just fine to live on campus, but I later found out it was not enjoyable at all. It was convenient for only having to wake up 10 minuets to get to class, but that was about it. Especially if there are bus strikes going on you were just stranded on campus and you need the bus to go anywhere, even the grocery store! The bus strikes where extremely difficult to get around with at first, but after meeting more people, shared Ubers and locals are the way to go. When I first got here, they occurred more often, but they happen less and less now. 

Luckily on the first day of orientation I met who is now my new roommate and I was able to move into the open room in her apartment. We became friends instantly and have now gone to 4 different countries together and get along so well. She even lived on Oahu when she was younger right in Honolulu! Our apartment is steps away from the beach which makes it feel a little more like home. We are a 2 min walk from the train station which makes it extremely easy to go to Cannes, Nice, or Monaco! Train tickets are from 1.5 – 4.5 Euros, depending on where you want to go. These places are perfect for day trips when you have a free day. Check out my next post about my weekend trips and how easy it is to get around once you are in Europe!

 

Juan Les Pins, 1 block from my front door

Blog #1: Lessons in an unfortunate series of events.

To begin I would like to say that my trip to Paris, France was wonderful, amazing and one of the most meaningful experiences I will forever cherish, but let's say that it began with a rough start. I spent my first experience outside my comfort bubble thousands of miles away from my close family and friends; everything and I mean EVERYTHING that could go wrong on my first day did and I would like to discuss with my fellow HPU colleagues on how to overcome these challenges and maybe prevent them in the first place.

 Things began going south literally and figuratively as I landed in Frankfurt Germany from Vancouver, Canada. I landed in a very large airport to catch a connecting flight that was to depart within an hour of my arrival. Usually, I would use my time wisely, but a few things got out of hand and out of my control. For example, to list the following:

1) My previous flight was delayed!

2) I was exhausted after 15 hours of flying, 10 hours of layover with no sleep

3) I did not know how to prepare or what to expect when I landed

4)  I got lost + left the connecting flight region of the airport, which meant having to go through security AGAIN

5) I did not keep track of time closely...and soooo yup, I MISSED my last flight to Paris (this is where everything would go wrong). 

If you find yourself missing your flight, my first tip to you, fellow traveler, is to go to the service center of the PREVIOUS flight. It’s important that you catch the next available flight as fast as possible and the service lines can be very long (30-45 min), so don’t waste your time and make sure you’re in the right line. In my case, the airline that delayed my flight was responsible to communicate with the next airline to get me to Paris. Just so that you are aware, once you talk to the service center with all of your previous flight information, they will probably reserve you a seat on standby. This means when you check-in for your flight, it will say that there are no seats available. That is FINE! Just print your boarding pass and they will give you a seat right before they start boarding. I lost so much time trying to figure all of this out. I ran across the unreasonably huge airport several times (note: make sure your carry on has wheels if it is heavy) and waited in long lines. I ended up catching my makeup flight 3 hours after my original time. Another important note: When traveling internationally, your phone may not be able to use data at all so you can use the airport’s WiFi, but sometimes it doesn’t work during their busy hours!

 Once you arrive at your destination, there are some important questions that you should ask yourself. What time are you landing? Where will you be staying overnight? Can you use data or phone service? My original plan was great: I would land at 3 pm and I would have 3 hours to figure out my transportation and my data plan before the office that held the keys to my housing would close. Sadly, I arrived 3 hours late so I had no time to get my keys that day. Luckily, I emailed the office quickly and explained to them my situation. They responded and were very kind to agree that I can use my room without signing any of the legal documents so I could have a place to sleep. All I had to do was contact my roommate to let me into the apartment. It was another great plan, but things went horribly. First, most of the stores closed at the time I arrived so it took me much longer to get my data plan and almost as if the airport was mocking me and my struggles, it went completely on lockdown as I was leaving due to some luggage issues; I only brought a carry-on, so it shouldn’t have affected me. Next, the transportation system by the airport was very expensive and I tried to conserve money by taking a bus service to reach the city and walking the remaining 30 minutes. I am usually very good at using my GPS, but with no surprise, it took me to the wrong location. I learned to never trust my GPS in a scenario like this. I was lost for a very long time as I didn’t know how to use the local buses or metro to reach my apartment and my roommate was getting upset because it started getting late and he was jet-lagged by 7 hours (I was jet-lagged by 12!!). I learned that you should just take an uber or a taxi from the airport even though it will cost about 50 € but they will take you exactly where you have to go quickly.

By the time I arrived at my apartment complex, it was past 11 pm and my roommate fell asleep and the office had closed. As I was waiting in the lobby, one of the residents understood enough English to try to help me. The problem was that I did not know which room was mine or even which building in the complex since I did not officially check-in. One of the managers finally arrived and he did not know any English. He was not very patient for complete strangers that did not know which room they were supposed to stay in so he got VERY upset and I got kicked out. That is when I was pretty much started panicking. I tried calling some nearby hotels, but they were all full, so I knew that I was spending the night out. I called my family and girlfriend for advice and they 🤷‍♂️. They calmed me down a bit and I found a bus stop with a charging port to charge my phone. At this point, I had spent about 35 hours in 3 airports and 3 flights and I decided that I was going to pull another all-nighter so no one could rob my luggage. Around 3-4 am, I had to use the restroom so I started exploring the magnificent city of Paris and I actually really enjoyed myself. I went to the Eiffel Tower for the first time around sunrise and it was just beautiful. At 6 am, my roommate called me to apologize and he let me into our apartment. It was great because I got to sleep for about 45 minutes before I had to get up to go to the first day of orientation!

Blog #3: Staying in Paris for the Long Haul

What do you do when a quick, planned trip to France while taking a short summer abroad class suddenly becomes the fight of your life to return to your home and family? Here’s my story on how I survived when I was trapped in Paris. For the longest time, it has always been my dream to explore the streets that my family was originally from, a world that has become so distant in my life in Hawaii. I was very excited when I finally had the opportunity to go to France to take a French language and culture class for 3 weeks during the summer. I have lived most of my life in Hawaii as a French immigrant, but had never been to France since I was born in Brazil. I would learn that traveling from Hawaii to France and from France back to Hawaii was complicated. My parents were concerned about the immigration aspect of my trip and I did my research and got my documents. On the fateful day of my trip, I learned that the immigration office at HPU notified me that I might have missed something and wouldn’t be able to return to the US. I quickly rushed home and completed the last document that I needed. I had my boarding pass in hand, which showed that my plane was to take off in under 2 hours when I learned that I needed to pass an exit interview to obtain my entry visa into the US. Only later on did I find out how difficult this would be.

There are certain things one usually does when preparing for one’s first solo trip, such as budgeting, managing housing, and so on. Things one doesn’t plan to do is stay twice as long as they budgeted for and completely rework their plan for the trip...like I did. Luckily, I brought extra cash to survive, but I had to economize BIG TIME. 

Here is my how-to guide on how to survive a low budget lifestyle in Paris. The first thing I learned was that living in the city is expensive, like hundreds of euros you will never see again after only a few weeks kind of expensive. Therefore, I moved from the city and learned to love the countryside just outside of Paris. From this move, I also grew to love the long commute between my new home to the city and grew to love me saving money. Also, as amazing as the food was in Paris, it was really expensive too! The first thing that most would be tempted to do is buy ready-to-eat frozen foods since it saves time, but even those meals can be expensive over time. That’s when I learned the magic of grocery shopping. This was the first time in my life where I went shopping for different things that I could cook with. I bought lots of pasta, meats, and vegetables and cooked them myself. I found interesting recipes online to cook with and I tried different combinations of the ingredients I bought to make my dishes interesting to eat each day. From these experiences, I learned how to make it on my own.

By the end of the trip, I barely had 100 euros and if I had one more setback, I wouldn’t have known what to do. Luckily, I was able to reschedule my flight (over several hours over the phone) and I made it safely back to my family and friends.

Blog #2: A walk through Paris

One of the most memorable days of my stay in Paris was on a class trip to the historic Opera. It was one of the most beautiful sights I had ever seen, with its pristine architecture and elegant decay, that is until I stepped inside and saw even more beauty! From the walls to the ceilings, one could see the golden masterpiece shining brightly and captured me into a trance. Beautiful artwork wrapped the walls and tears formed from it all. The first thing I did was call my girlfriend Liz and showed her the amazingness that was before me. As I gazed upon the ceiling, my body started to spin as I tried to capture it all in. The ceiling was fifty to sixty feet high and gazing upon it felt like my eyes were bathed in warmth. It was an honor just to step in a room of such majesty, but it was only the surface of the true art that occurs every night on stage. The opera is typically booked months in advance, so none of my group nor I had the opportunity to see a show, but as we stood within the theatre seats, it was a mind-blowing feeling I would never forget. On our tour, we explored the hallways, enjoyed the art and took a breath of awe for each room in its own way. As the tour came to end, my friends and I planned a walk through the center of Paris and explored the city to see the sights of the greatest city in the world.

 My roommates, Drew and Micahi, some other classmates, and I joined together on a quest to march forward and take on the city. Before any great quest, we took a quick pit stop to eat lunch. We took the metro to a cafe in the center of the city near Notre Dame as that is where our quest began. As the tables and chairs spread out near the entrance and across the traffic of the streets, we inhaled the scents and aromas of the fine French cuisines of the cafe. My friends and I tried different dishes, excited to see what we could all try. I had the lasagna and my dish overflowed with different cheeses and vegetables that melted in my mouth. Everyone was excited about what they got too!

 With our bellies full, we marched on to Notre Dame. As we approached the charred building encased in a cage of metal and concealed by sheets of white. We have all heard of the tragic fire that destroyed iconic portions of the Notre Dame, but it brought us joy to see its resurrection. Hasty Frenchmen patrolled the streets with heavy weapons, while others restored the Notre Dame to what it once was. We were amazed at the grandness of the building. Next, we marched on with the Seine River through the first arch in the Lourve and on our way to the infamous Champs Elysées Avenue with shops popping and the shoppers dropping. As we walked across the various streets and parks to reach the Champs Elysées Avenue, it was a nice time for my group of friends to get to know each other. We have come from all over the world with such different lives to finally meet and enjoy our love for the culture of Paris together. We talked about our lives and our studies, as well as our cultures and our families. I learned about the silly marriage rituals from Russia to the great CN tower of Canada. Soon the sun began to set high, and our sweat strolled down our face.

 Paris is a crowded city, but it doesn’t compare to how crowded it was at the Champs Elysées. The stores from all over the world stood tall as the tourists and local people alike rushed busy like ants in a picnic. We stopped by all the stores along our way and checked all the French decor and knick-knacks. I was reminded of my home as I thought about all my friends and family back in Hawaii and the things that they would like. You have to be careful or else all your money will disappear! Soon we heard the music of the streets as the performers sang and the children danced to Bruno Mars’ music. We approach our final destination, a grand masterpiece, the greatness of Napoleon, the Arc de Triomphe. The line was long and the staircase to the very top was even longer, but the view was one of a kind. From the top, we could see the entirety of Paris and the long way that we had come.

Traveling throughout Europe

                I’ve been back home in Hawaii for a few weeks now and I must say, it really does feel good to be back. I missed the Pacific Ocean, the warm air and, of course, the food. However, a large part of me really misses being able to travel around Europe and living in France. The longer I lived in France, the more it felt like home. Every time I would return to Nice after a trip to a different country, it always felt like I was coming home, not like I was just going back to France. The scenery is definitely different from Hawaii, but just as beautiful. But the thing about living in the South of France and in Europe in general is the ease of travel to different countries and cities.

Cote d'Azur, France

                The school I attended in France was much different than a typical university you would find in the United States. For one, although I am in my final year of my undergraduate studies, I was put in the Grand Ecole program in France, which is a five year program to attain a Masters degree. My host university also had other campuses throughout France, the United States, China and Brazil, so the professors would actually travel between the six campuses. This meant that our course schedule had to coincide with our professors’ travel schedules. So a typical schedule for a student would be to have the same class from 8-5 everyday for three days and then not have that class for another three weeks. I decided to put my free time (which I had a lot of) to good use by traveling to other countries and throughout France as well.

              In the four months I studied abroad in France, I was able to travel to 17 different countries. There were three main reasons as to why traveling was so easy in Europe. First, probably the most obvious, is the fact that European countries are so close to each other. Second, are the price of airline and train tickets and the availability of low-cost airlines. And third, is the Schengen zone, which I will explain later.

Disneyland Paris, France

                It takes about 40 minutes to fly from O’ahu to the Big Island. It also takes around the same amount of time to fly from Nice, France to Milan, Italy. I’ve also taken the train from Nice, France to Monte Carlo, Monaco that only took about 30 minutes. It’s so amazing that you can take a short nap on the train or the plane and end up in a totally different country. The longest flight I took in Europe was from Dublin, Ireland to Nice, France, which took about two and a half hours. And when you think about it, that’s not very long at all considering that it takes over five hours to fly from Hawaii to the nearest state in the United States. Shorter flights means there’s more time to explore and no time for any sort of jet-lag to set in. This makes day and weekend trips super worthwhile because you aren’t wasting so much time sitting on a plane or a train and instead are able to explore as much as you’d like. During the month of November, my boyfriend, who was also studying abroad in France, and I were traveling so much that we joked that we only came back to France to do our laundry.

                With all the traveling my boyfriend and I did throughout Europe, you’d think we were millionaires or something. However, that is definitely not the case. We once had a flight from Athens to Rome that cost a whopping 8 euros, roughly $8.50. Crazy, right?! Yeah, we thought so too. That is the beauty of the low-cost airline market in Europe. Airlines like Ryanair and Easyjet offer super-low fares throughout all of Europe. However, these low fares do come with a catch. These airlines have very strict baggage guidelines and may even charge for things like printing your boarding pass for you. Their planes are also not the most comfy or

Danube River, Budapest, Hungary

luxurious, but they’ll get you from Point A to Point B. I was on a 25 euro Wizz Air flight to Budapest where you were only allowed to bring a small backpack for free, anything else would be an extra fee. As we were boarding, I saw a man who got stopped because his backpack was just a little bigger than the dimensions that were allowed. The ticket agents demanded he pay a 50 euro fee or else he would not be allowed on the plane. So ridiculous. But that’s the price you have to pay for a cheap ticket. So no, you don’t have to be rich to travel through Europe, it can definitely be done on a college budget as long as you’re willing to give up a little comfort.

London, England, United Kingdom

                So, onto the Schengen Zone. The Schengen Zone is made up of several EU and Non-EU countries throughout Europe that have no border control at their mutual borders. This means that once your flight lands, you are free to proceed to baggage claim without having to stand through the torturous line that is passport control, as long as you are flying between two member countries. There are several EU countries that are not part of the Schengen Zone, such as Bulgaria, Croatia and United Kingdom (pre-Brexit). I swear when we flew into London we had to wait in the passport control line for at least an hour and a half, and once you get to the border patrol officer, they grill you with questions about where you’re going, where you came from, how long you will be visiting even to personal things like how much money you have in your bank account. It did make me feel safe to know they really were being thorough, but it was a pain to sit through a line that was longer than my flight.

                All in all, I believe all the traveling, exploring and experiences were totally worth it. Every country brought new experiences and a new place to grow fond of. I’m so glad studying abroad gave me the opportunity to travel throughout such a beautiful continent, I don’t think I can ever mimic the experience I had otherwise. Lastly, here are some photos from some of my favorite places I visited throughout this semester. Enjoy!

Santorini, Greece

Cliffs of Moher, Clare, Ireland

Monte Carlo Hotel and Casino, Monte Carlo, Monaco

WSL Competition in France

Hi all,

Being back in Hawaii after my semester abroad, one of the first things I wanted to do was get back in the water and do some surfing. It reminded me of one of my absolute favorite trips we took during the past few months- to the Quiksilver Pro France! For those of you who don't follow it, the WSL is the World Surf League and they host competitions for the best professional surfers around the world.

My girlfriend and I were originally planning to go to Dubai, but when we saw the competition would be in France during the same week we knew we had to go. We go to every competition on Oahu each year and we would be so close to this one (well, we were on the other side of the country, but at least we were in the same country). We booked a train to Bayonne, a little coastal town on the Atlantic Ocean side of France, and after a full day and stop in Toulouse we made it.

The competition is held at a little beach town called Soorts-Hossegor just a few kilometers away from there. It was truly one of the coolest little beach towns we had ever been to. It had a little downtown street lined with surf shops and restaurants, which was currently packed, but you could tell it would have been empty on any other non-summer day. Other than that, it was all residential with a lot of nice big beach houses. The beach was gigantic, with massive dunes so you couldn't even see it from the street below them, like these below.

The competition was much different from what I expected. Having been to the Pipe Masters and other North Shore WSL competitions, I thought I had seen the beaches as packed with people as they can get. I really thought the France competition wouldn't be crowded at all, but I was so wrong! This beach was so packed we could barely find a place to sit. People came from all over Europe to see the pro surfers. We were actually only a few kilometers away from Spain, so there were a ton of Spanish fans there. They even did the announcements in Spanish after French and English. Of course they had the usual T-shirt stand, and I had to spend half my life savings on shirts.

 

The winner of both competitions (Quiksilver/men and Roxy/women) were both representing Hawaii! John John Florence and Carissa Moore won this one and as you probably know, John John went on to take the world title this year. The waves on this stretch of coast were absolutely incredible and you would never know it, so it gave these surfers a lot to work with. We later found out that Hossegor is considered the "Surfing Capital of Europe"!

It was a great few days at a town that I will definitely come back to in the summer some day. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to visit a non-touristy French beach town. On the way back home, our train made a stop in Toulouse again, but this time we booked it so we would have a night to spend there. We went on the official tour of Airbus Industries where they manufacture all their aircraft, and even got to see the assembly line of the super-mega-jumbo A380! Another great stop in France for anyone who is interested in aviation- the entire city of Toulouse seems to be based on the industry.

In conclusion, it was an awesome trip that reminded us of home a little. Of all of the cool countries that we travelled to in Europe, Brittney and I still agree that this trip is at the top of our favorites. If you have the chance to visit the Basque Country coast in France, take it!

-Woodrow Matthews
France, Fall 2016