Day Eight

Day 8: A place you've traveled to

This is La Rochelle, France.

If you have kept up with me since the beginning, you've seen the multitude of posts about my summer in France 2 years ago.

If not, I'll break it down for you.

This is by far the best experience I've ever had. I lived in a small beach town on the western coast of France and it changed my life. Living in a different country while speaking a different language with people who I've never met helped me to be more comfortable in my own skin. Adaptability is important in life, and I'm glad I had such a positive experience.

But here's some more information about why La Rochelle is awesome:
-It's famous for it's ports. There are three. The one pictured above is creatively named the "Old Port."
-There are 3 towers. The ones pictured above guarding the port are the Tour de St. Nicolas (Tower of Saint Nicolas) and the tour de la chaine (chain tower). The chain tower has a long chain that comes from it and attaches to the St. Nicolas tower to control ships coming in and out. A third tower (the steeple to the right) is the Tour de la lanterne (lantern tower), which is the only medieval lighthouse still standing.
-Most of the bars and restaurants are on the edge of the old port, about where the photographer is standing. I wonder where he/she grabbed lunch...
-There's a cool music festival every summer called the Francofolies. It attracts people from all over France and is similar to Bonnaroo. I didn't attend because it celebrates French artists only, which I wouldn't really appreciate. It also attracts some cool vendors, though, so I bought some cool souvenirs for friends there.
-There's a delicious ice cream parlor (glacerie) on the old port called "Ernest's." MAKE SURE YOU GO IF YOU ARE EVER THERE. I cannot stress this enough. This ice cream will fulfill your life.
-There's a bar called "Piano Bar." It's not what you think it is. In fact, it's the sweatiest and busiest discotheque you can imagine. If you meet a French guy who looks like a short version of Josh Duhamel and his name is Guillaume, befriend him. He can get you in for free.
-There's a bar called the Phare Cafe. You will meet lifelong friends here.

-A demi-caramel is when they put caramel flavoring in beer. As someone who really despises beer, this was truly wonderful. You can also try other flavors. I recommend strawberry and lemon also. Also, vodka caramel will get you in trouble. But I recommend taking shots of it with friends while saying "Santé!" This is basically like the french "Cheers!" but it literally translates to "health."

So if you ever end up in La Rochelle, hopefully this will give you a good start to an unforgettable trip. I can't wait to go back.

Day Seven

Day 7: Favorite movies


She's The Man.

This movie defines my freshman year of college. I watched it with my college friends and we found it absolutely hysterical. We made a drinking game (typical freshmen) where we had to drink every time there was an "awkward kiss" or we saw Channing Tatum's balls through his pants. Yes, this actually happens, but I'm not going to ruin the fun by telling you when it happens.

My friends and I used to watch this movie at least once every couple weeks. We would crack up and quote the whole thing. It brought my friends together, and then after we shared this movie with our high school friends, it made us all feel like the same She's The Man family.

In reality, I understand that this is a juvenile movie made to educate tweens on Shakespeare without making them pick up a book.


But I dare you to watch it with your best girl friend and not laugh through the whole thing.

Day Six

Day Six: A picture of something that makes you happy

This is Jump Mountain. She isn't exceptionally tall, and the only thing that really distinguishes her from other mountains is the small hump on the side. But I had a lot of happy moments under Jump's watchful eye.

I went to Camp Lachlan for 7 summers, which is in Rockbridge Baths at the base of Jump Mountain. When I moved to Richmond from Lynchburg when I was 10 years old, I had a hard time being away from my best friends. They all went to Camp Lachlan, so I started going when I was 11 to keep in touch with them. It's a 3-week long girls' camp that has only one session all summer so everyone's at camp at the same time. It's a boys' camp during the beginning of the summer, and then the girls go from the end of July to the middle of August.

I don't think I've ever been homesick while there, but I've certainly been campsick while home. It's hard for anyone to not feel perfectly at home there. Maybe because it's only girls there (aside from 5-7 "Buzzards" who are counselors during the boys' camp and then stay to take care of man things like painting fences and fixing leaks), but there's no pressure to be anyone but yourself. There's no point in wearing make up that you're going to sweat off. Everyone bathes in a lake since there aren't showers. There aren't even real toilets, but just a few "johnny houses" as we call them.

Every day is perfectly scheduled. Wake up at 8am for flag raising, go down to breakfast, brush your teeth in a trough (yes... a trough), clean up the cabin for inspection, then make your way down to Devotions. Devotions is the only real time during the day that you remember that Camp Lachlan is actually a Christian camp. At Devotions, Nancy, the owner's wife, teaches life lessons and how to love each other and love yourself. Sometimes she reads something out of the Bible, but most of the time, she taught us the way my mother has taught me lessons, with stories and love. After Devotions, it's time for morning activities like tennis, horseback riding, riflery, archery, drama, etc. The bugle blows (by the way, Leebo the owner blows a bugle to let the camp know when it's time to do something else) around noon for lunch, and then it's up to the cabins for rest hour. I never liked rest hour as a kid, but as I got older I appreciated the time to write letters and nap in peace. Then, we got into groups for team games, like kickball, capture the flag, etc. And then, the best time of the day. Swim call. I loved getting in that disgusting lake and feeling like I was getting clean. Looking back on everything now that I know a lot about microbes, bathing in a lake really shouldn't even be legal, but no one at Camp Lachlan cares. We're too busy having fun. So after swim call, there's a little bit of free time before dinner. Usually people sit around and knit (a very popular activity there) or write letters or chat. After dinner, there's more free time until an evening activity called Camp Gathering. It would start with singing camp songs for about 30 minutes and then the activity would begin. Sometimes Leebo would tell us stories about how Jump Mountain got its name (an essentially Romeo and Juliet story about a couple Native Americans from feuding tribes who fall in love and jump to their deaths to be in peace together) or sometimes we would put on skits or something. Looking back on it, I have to credit camp for my love for performing. Then, we get together in a circle and sang one last song before heading up Cabin Hill for bed. Leebo would blow TAPS on his bugle and we would all scream "GOODNIGHT!" in unison loud enough for everyone at the bottom of the hill to hear us.


I loved the sisterhood and ability to be myself. I loved that I made new friends and kept in contact with old ones. When I turned 16, I became a counselor, and I loved that too. But when girls get older, drama happens, and I felt camp's magic slipping away from me. I was only a counselor for 2 years before I stopped coming back. It was hard being away for such a large chunk of time during the summer when I was trying to work and make money while out of school. I really miss how it used to be when I was a kid though. There are so many memories I have, and I'm sad to say that I don't keep in touch with many camp friends anymore. The ones who stayed for summers when they were in college got extremely close, and almost every Buzzard who was there when I was there is now married to a counselor.

Sometimes I think of going back and visiting, but I'm afraid if I go back, I'll realize how out of place I am now and will lose that magic forever. I'm so thankful that my parents were willing to shell out the money to send me there every summer. It made me appreciate them and I learned valuable lessons.

I hope that someday I will go back. I hope that my daughters will go there and experience the same sisterhood that is usually overlooked. I hope that Camp Lachlan will continue to teach little girls how to love.

Day Five

Day 5: A song to match your mood

Hall & Oates - You Make My Dreams Come True

This song reminds me of that one scene in 500 Days of Summer. You know which one I'm talking about. Oh, you don't? Let me remind you...

I always strive to feel like this guy. We've all felt this way for one way or another. From the cartoon bird on your finger to the marching band in the streets, this is one of my happy songs. I'm not particularly happy, but I'm not particularly unhappy either. So even though I'm technically this song doesn't match my mood, it makes me think of all the reasons why I should feel the way he does and all the things in my life that I should be thankful for.

Day Four

Day Four: Your parents



These are my parents, Steve and Wendee.

My mom is my rock. She is the woman that I hope I grow up to be. She's the most giving, selfless woman I've ever met. I can't imagine living in a world without her, and I hate thinking that someday I'll probably have to.

She knows the answer to everything and has told me since I was a child that it's all in the "Mommy Handbook" that will someday be passed down to me as well. She used to tell my sister and I stories about a fictional character named Harold-Zach (we kept fighting over the name) and his sister Julie. Strangely, the stories about him usually mirrored conflicts that my sister and I had experienced throughout the day, and they always came out with a moral.

When it was a hot spring day and my mom would pick us up from school, we would beg her to take us to Lickety Split, a local ice cream parlor. She would usually protest with "No we have errands to run," or a simple "Not today," but sometimes she would over-dramatically pretend to be fighting off the car's ability to auto-pilot itself to the ice cream shop. "I couldn't stop the car from pulling in the parking lot, so we might as well get some ice cream," she would say breathlessly as if she put all of her effort into fighting our Volvo station wagon's will to get ice cream.

Every year on my birthday she would wake me up by quietly singing the Happy Birthday song in my ear, and she went through great lengths to come up with creative and fun birthday parties. Whether it was inside out and backwards (everyone dressed accordingly, we ate cake before lunch, and we had to walk backwards into the house) or Lamb Chop (we made lamb puppets out of socks), I always felt as if everyone must be jealous of my mom's excellent ability to throw a party.

As I've gotten older, my relationship with my mom has changed, of course. She's still the woman I look up to the most, but I have a more casual and honest relationship with her. While I know she'll always do everything she can for me, I know that my demands are probably more complicated than ice cream after school. I can't wait for her to be a grandmother so I can re-watch her parenting skills all over again.

My dad is the most dependable person I know. He has always put his family first, and I know he would sacrifice anything for us. He is free with his money when it comes to family, and is extremely generous with any charity that reaches out to him. He believes in karma, but he's often cynical. When he believes something, he believes it with his whole heart, and I really respect that.

It's because of my father that I love Vietnamese food. We used to go to Mekong almost every weekend for years. Daddy/daughter dates were always important when I was growing up. Since I don't have any brothers, my dad thought it was important to show us how we should be treated on dates. He would put on a tie and blazer and open the door for me. Since he was out of town on business a lot of the time, those were some of my favorite times with him.

I remember when he bought a basketball hoop for our house. We would play HORSE after dinner for hours.

My parents have truly made me into the person I am. I'm thankful for their sacrifices, their struggles, and their efforts that they have put forth for me. I hope that I can someday show my children as much love as they have shown me.