‘Eric Halvorson’s Travel Journal’ CategoryPage 3

The Bleaching of American History

Many people say that Europe has so much more history than the United States.  In fact, that was the subject of my last post.  I described the layers that currently exist in France: layers in land, language, people, and buildings. Not only do they have more history, but because of that richness, they put huge […]

Layers

“French cities just have a lot more layers,” I explained to my parents over skype. “You mean, the buildings are more stacked up than in the U.S?” my dad asked. That wasn’t what I had meant, although it is kind of true, if not vertically.  French cities are generally very old.  Most of them were […]

Traveling Light

“Did anyone see someone leave here last night after going under my bed?” It was about 6 a.m., a time I consider exclusively reserved for being asleep, except in extreme cases such as urgent surgery and inflexible plane rides.  I had no intention of changing this tradition for an angry British voice in the early […]

A Different Kind of Vegetarian

The French hate trees.  They hate trees in the same way Americans hate cows.  In the US, we think feeding cows their natural food source is for weird people.  Since we have so much corn that we use it to drive cars whether or not it makes sense, we started feeding it to cows.  Sometimes, […]

Where Did All the Religion Go?

(Update: I thought I understood the law I was writing about.  It turns out, I missed many details, like the fact that there are two separate laws, not one.  See comments bellow.) In France, it is forbidden for Muslim women to wear a hijab in public.  This is something that usually shocks Americans.  However, something I […]

Fanfare For The Common Tourist

The Monastery of Mont Saint-Michel is a mind-blowing mass of rock, iron, and concrete piled on an island mountain off the coast of Normandy.  Around it sprawls an enchanted sand plane whose state depends entirely on the gaze of the moon.  At high tide, the mountain is an island surrounded by the English channel and […]

It’s A Privilege to Pee

I first became aware that it was a privilege to pee in Nantes while at H&M.  When I asked where the bathroom was, the girl paused, gave me a look, and indicated the bathroom outside.  With the urgency of a full-bladdered child (and precisely the same problem), I dashed outside to find a kind of […]

It was easier in December

New year’s resolutions are never so well kept as on January 1;  I never take better notes then at the beginning of a semester;  and when I move into a new place, my desk is organized, my cloths put away, and my bed is made (sometimes).  My instillation in France was accordingly miraculous.  In my […]

What My Runny Nose Taught Me About France

I learned something about France today that hadn’t hit me before.  I have been suffering from a cold for about three days, and my host parents asked me right away if I needed to go to the doctor, or the pharmacy.  I was more shocked than I let on.  Doctor?  I’m an American—in my country, […]

La Chaleur de la France

“Thank you for taking our son in as a guest,” my dad said over skype. “For us he is not a guest,” responded my host parents, “he is part of the family.” My host parents (in French, actually, welcome parents) are incredibly warm and welcoming, and have done a wonderful job of orienting me, making […]