1. 2 years ago 

   I woke up on a beautiful summer’s morning in Freiburg, one of my last few days in town, and I knew that today was going to be something special. My German class was going to have to wait (for the first and only time I might add), because I had other plans - my bike and I were heading West. To France.

   The border was only 30 km away - and the nearest “city” of Colmar only another 20 km after that - so it was certainly a doable adventure, one that I couldn’t turn down. It only took me nearly 11 hours to make it there and back (I may have gotten lost a few times), but it was quite the day riding through the many small towns and orchards of Southern Germany and Southern France.

   Unfortunately most of the pictures I took were on my Blackberry, which imploded on me recently so I will never be able to share those…shame. But I will mention that one thing that is ridiculously cool about rural europe is that there are these towns separated by a couple of miles of farmland scattered throughout the countryside. And all these towns are pretty much your typical, charming, picturesque, European countryside town. And I also thought it was absolutely terrific that in each of these towns is a clock-tower which can be seen from quite a ways a way, signaling that there is a town up ahead  - that latter bit was very important for me as I was improvising my way westward.

   I had myself a nice little picnic on the French side of the Rhine River after picking up a few groceries in Colmar - a lovely little town of which I was unfortunately too lazy to take pictures with my camera - and then managed to make it home to Freiburg for dinner. So it was a terrific and exhilarating day, and I hope I can share some of it with you.

   Sean went to France

2. Notes

So I, Sean Kesluk, left Los Angeles for a 6 month adventure abroad in Europe and South America. After a few weeks studying the Deutsch in Freiburg, Germany, it's two months up north in Hamburg working for the city's Jewish community center. After a brief foray into Sweden, I'll head South to Buenos Aires for some Spanish classes and volunteer work in a La Boca soup kitchen. After that it's back home to the States and national service with AmeriCorps NCCC. With a month of training at the VA medical campus in Perry Point, MD, it 's off to Baltimore for my first project, two months working for The Samaritan Women, a non-profit renovating a hundred-year-old mansion to use as a transitional home for women in recovery from heroin addiction and human trafficking, in addition to expanding a farm/urban garden to distribute produce to soup kitchens, shelters, and those in nutritional poverty. The second project will see us down in New Orleans, LA doing post-Katrina work with The Phoenix of New Orleans, a non-profit which renovates homes for Lower Mid-City homeowners who can't afford to do so.

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