| Where To?: California |

Being born and raised in Souther California {only a little ways out from Los Angeles}, and with parents who are absolutely obsessed with traveling, you would think that I've seen quite a bit of my home state, which is the third biggest state in the country, and therefore has quite a bit to see.

Oddly enough, when pulling up a myo map and trying to put down locations I've been to in the US by memory, I discovered that most of my experiences in CA have been centralized. Of course I've been to nearly every city within 100 miles of LA, but everything out of that area has been to national parks {we're total camping buffs, which got me accustomed to long road trips and made me a pro when it came to car sickness} and the one point way up north that is San Francisco. 

To me, this seemed like a direct challenge from my parents to go out and explore California myself, before I leave it forever. I've already made some tentative plans to road trip up our coast with some friends next summer {whether these turn into an actual plan or just turn out to be a sort of teenaged fever dream is yet to be seen} and I'd like to see some of the things I've missed out on. Having spent an entire lifetime itching to get out of my state without ever having really seen much of it seems unfair, doesn't it?

So, in the end, this is a glorified list of places in California I have seen, have yet to see, and would like to see. Let's enjoy the Golden State together, shall we?


1: San Francisco

Honestly, San Francisco is kind of a touchy topic for me, for a variety of reasons. However, despite past personal experiences I've had within the area, the city is undeniably one of the most beautiful and interesting places in the state, and it would be terrible of me to not give it another chance. {Besides, I haven't taken my cheesy Golden Gate Bridge selfie yet. I need that selfie in my arsenal.}



2: Big Sur

Hello, my inner outdoorsy buff! Big Sur is one of the few 'wild' places {aka national parks} that my family hasn't dragged me to yet, which is a shame, because it's lovely! And also huge. I'm more of a forest person than a beach/ocean person, and Big Sur has both, so yay !

3: Lake Tahoe

Anybody who's worth anything in suburban SoCal has been to Tahoe at some point in their lives. I haven't. Go figure. Anyway, Tahoe is beautiful, and has everything from boating to hiking to skiing. The lake itself is vast and has a small island in the middle {Fannette Island} which hosts the remains of the Tea House. 

4: Mammoth

YES there is a place with snow within reach in California. It's Mammoth mountain! Skiing and snowboarding are your go-to activities during the wintertime, when the mountainside is coated in gorgeous, powdery snow, but whenever you get tired of isolation and sweating inside of your parka, there's 

5. Yosemite {and similarly, Bishop}

Now, here's a place I know well. I've never done any of the really exciting things to do in Yosemite–like, for example, climb Half Dome with my dad, because I'm very mortal–but I've spent many weekends and summer nights camping, hiking, and horse-back riding around this area. Sometimes I wonder why my parents don't just buy a cabin here. {Sadly, we haven't been in a while! Need to nag family about that.}



6. Joshua Tree

In terms of camping, it doesn't get much more idyllic than the aptly-named Joshua Tree National Park. It basically never rains, and although you do have to watch out for rattlers, the serenity and isolation of the park is a welcome break from the modern world. Plus, it's alway fantastic for star-gazing–one of my family friends owned a telescope that he would bring out with him when we did group camps, and we'd have fun pretending that we could figure out which random clustering of stars was which constellation.

| French Study Masterlist |

Hello! As most of you know, I'm currently studying French. One of my greatest dreams is to study abroad in Paris, and I thought I might as well put together a little post organizing all of my main resources and some extra tips for those also studying French. Whether you're studying the language of love for recreational reasons or travel aspirations, you can make the process much easier and faster with hard work {and a few of these resources!} I hope it helps. ♥

General:

• About.com {Grammar & Vocab}

• Bonjour.com

• Duolingo

• Memrise

• Transparent French Blog {includes culture}

Vocabulary: 

• New French word daily

Grammar:

• French Tutorial Index

Entertainment:

• My French language playlist collection {8tracks} 

• Harry Potter et l'ecole des sorciers PDF {c'mon, it was necessary}

| 2015 |

Guess who literally forgot that she had a travel blog for a solid seven months?? This gal.

Since the new year rolled around, I've been incredibly stressed, but I've also been learning how to use my dad's really expensive and nice camera. It seems like the more I'm forced to stay in school, the more I want to get up and leave, ha ha.

In some more exciting news, I've signed on to take a trip to China in the spring of 2016 with EFTours and some of my closest friends! I'm already on the payment plan and it's totally draining me oh god ha ha. It's a trip around Xi'an, Beijing, and Shanghai for a week–and next year could honestly not come sooner. I'll be a senior then, so it'll be my sort of last hurrah as a high school student–and hopefully one of my last big events before I take my gap year of world travel before settling in to university life. 

A lot of people seem to get the impression that I have my entire life planned out and ready to go, but honestly, I have no idea what's going on. I'm petrified that I won't get into my college of choice, that I won't like living in the city, that I won't be able to afford tuition... And what's worse, I have no idea what I want to major in. So many of my friends struggle to find something they're passionate about, but I have the opposite problem. I'm flaky and easily distracted, always trying to decide between my many hobbies to settle on something that I could actually do for the rest of my life. For years, I wanted to be a novelist who didn't stay rooted to any single place and just traveled and submitted manuscripts as she pleased... But now I'm slowly starting to realize how unrealistic that is, and it's a draw between zoology, fashion design, graphic design, animation, business, international relations... My crippling indecisiveness just worsens under pressure, which is why I'm relying so heavily on this gap year of mine. I'll be doing 6 months of volunteer work and 6 months of just travel, and I'm at that point where I feel dangerously done with school and just want to do that, ha ha.

This year feels so much like a filler for me. I'm tired of everything related to my hometown and just want to up and leave, but I think I've been more or less trained to be submissive and obedient. It's frustrating! 

On another note, I'm going to try to make more consistent blog entries here, so that I have some material to fill in the blank spaces between my adventures. Have a lovely spring, everyone!