France
Update: Check out “Every single item on my packing list” for…(wait for it) every single item on my TAPIF packing list!
Just wrote a nice long version of this post and it was deleted, so here’s a quick rundown of some learned-the-hard-way things I wish I’d known a year ago, for anyone who’s doing some last-minute packing for TAPIF:
Just gonna recycle this photo of me, a year ago, with everything I took with me to France
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Since finishing up TAPIF, I published a few articles in other publications about travel, finances, and environmentalism. Check them out here: How to Find A Job & Travel The World, Gently This article will be of particular interest to anyone who’s thinking of doing TAPIF or who wants to think more about how to travel in aRead more
The students are still working on figuring out if I really don’t speak French and have been hard at work trying to get me to trip up. One persistent student’s attempt:
“So what do you watch on TV?”
Me: “Uhh…Friends?”
“What about when you go to the grocery store?”
Me: “Mmm…”
“Do you know what French kiss is? It’s very famous!”Read more
Pretty much anyone who knows me learns early on that I care about the environment. A lot. Like at the age of 25 I’m still not sure what name I should go by, but I know that working on environmental issues is what I will do with my life in some form or another, no question.
However, travel has been a huge part of my life, and it’s not exactly great for the environment. It’s also a huge part of this blog, hence an existential crisis about whether I’m doing more net harm than good.
I’m developing a campaign for my town to reduce carbon emissions and I’ve been reading a lot about the role of personal action in mitigating climate change. Air travel is a huge contributor to a person’s carbon footprint (the amount of carbon emissions someone’s responsible for).
As someone who’s second generation, I was born into flying more than my fair share. A large chunk of my family, including my grandparents, still live in India, meaning that ever since I was a baby, I’ve been flying halfway around the world to see the people I love. I also find myself feeling more and more at home here and know that I’m going to want to come back.
George Monbiot calls these “love miles: the distance you must travel to visit friends and partners and relatives on the other side of the planet.” While I know how privileged I am that my family prioritized this time and was able to afford to do so, I also wonder how I can cut my impact, especially since I’ve been spending the past couple of years gaining more and more love miles.
= infinity love miles. Goodbye planet Earth.
This guilt is absolutely a “first world problem”: the 2-3% of people who are able to take flights are responsible for 5% of global emissions. However, this is also a problem with worldwide impacts that are just going to get worse as air travel continues to expand. We need practical solutions. What to do?Read more
Bethune had its own Carnaval celebration, which was more family-oriented than the one at Dunkerque and yet, was still marred by troupes of people in blackface.
My feelings exactly.
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While in Strasbourg, I was able to see green roofs and tons of bike lanes, and I got to try out some veggie alsacien food that kept me going through all the exploring.
Footprint: 59.6 kg of CO2
I’ve talked a lot about I’ve done almost no research anytime I’ve gone to a new place since starting TAPIF, but this time, I had heard a little about Strasbourg before going. Namely that the cathedral is probably the prettiest in Europe.
I finally got around to checking out a French chateau. It only took more than 20km of hiking to make it happen.
I have one class of 4emes and try to do something a little more challenging with them. Also, apparently their tastes are radically different from the slightly younger kids, so I try to take that into account too. This week, there were local elections going on, so I decided to do a lesson where we talked a little about current issues.Read more
I’ve been focusing on doing more games and avoided doing bingo all year, but decided to finally give it a try and was pleasantly surprised. I also got to prank the students and hear about what they’d do if they were president.Read more
Guides
