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Trip to France - Part 1: Saint-Malo

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I have been promising myself that I will write a post about our fabulous vacation to the land of the Eiffel Tower, the La Joconde (or the Mona Lisa), and c rĂªpes  before I forget all the details of the trip, but life kept getting in the way. It is almost one year since our trip, and  I figured it's now or never.  I will dedicate a few posts to this trip, starting off with this one! Flashback to January of 2016 - my then-10-year-old daughter had been begging to see the Eiffel Tower, so when we were trying to decide where our big trip for the year should be, Paris was on top of the list. We knew we had about 10 days we wanted to spend on our vacation, half of which would be in Paris, but the other half was up for discussion. We decided to spend that time exploring more of France instead of visiting another European country. After much research, we honed in on the Brittany region of France as our choice. Brittany, or Bretagne in French, lies in the Northwest corner of France.
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I'm busier than you are!

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It has been a while since I've had time to write about anything. There have been numerous occasions in the past few months where I've thought, "That would be a great topic to write about", and not having done so right then, I've lost track of what the topic was! I have to do better going forward! On that note, I'm starting with a post about the hype around "being busy". đŸ˜ƒ When younger, I did NOT want to be busy. I enjoyed sleeping in, playing with friends, reading books and generally being lazy when I didn't HAVE to do anything. Now, that concept seems unthinkable!  I feel like every minute that I have needs to be accounted for. Especially so since I am a stay-at-home mom, with my younger (and last) child starting elementary school last year. I feel the need to stay busy not just to keep my sanity, but also to justify to people that I'm not sitting around the house watching daytime soaps! (I'll not lie - the most annoying question s
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Are we all that different from each other?

I listened to two podcasts while walking this week. Two completely different topics, but parts of each seemed to connect with the other, in my mind. The first podcast I listened to was #AirbnbWhileBlack on NPR's Hidden Brain. This one was about claims that Airbnb users were facing discrimination on this "rental" platform - based on what their name sounded like and what color they may be, and how hidden biases play a role in The Sharing Economy. It was a very interesting listen because this is an ongoing struggle not just for Airbnb users, but people everywhere. Discrimination can be based on so many factors, is so wide spread, and can be so subtle that we may have seen it (or may have even been part of it ourselves) without realizing it! It is nothing new, and every country in the world has it. The caste system in India is still prevalent in so many little ways (and big ways, if you are in rural regions). Racism is becoming a big issue again here, in America.The list c
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Never forget

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A little over 15 years ago, in August of 2001, I got to visit New York City with my mom, who was visiting from India. My uncle, who worked (and still works) in the City, took us around to do all the usual "touristy" stuff. And, yes, we checked The World Trade Center off our list, along with the Statue of Liberty and other iconic sights of NYC. Little did we know what was to come just a month later. Shocking, unbelievable, devastating, heartbreaking - these words cannot even express the emotions of that day 15 years ago in September. I know that so many people, including me, can attest to the fact that they will never forget the moment they heard about the attacks on 9/11. I remember turning on the TV at home in North Carolina when I heard about the first plane crashing into the North Tower, and watching in complete disbelief as the events unfolded. I just remember thinking that it felt unreal. While my classes at grad school weren't canceled that day, students an
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Older and wiser?

Another post about self-introspection. I know some people feel like growing older is a scary thing. While I agree that it is scary in a way that time is passing by so quickly when I still have so many things I want to see/do/try, I do feel like growing older has brought a lot more positives with it than negatives. I think teenage years are filled with angst for a lot of us. I had a pretty good childhood compared to so many others, but I don't have many fond memories of being in my teens. Acne prone skin (which still hasn't changed, ugh!), awkward body, immature mind - don't miss any of it! I did not really know myself and felt very inadequate. Those were not happy times for sure! My twenties were a turning point for me. I moved to the United States at age 21. It was the change I so needed. Moving away from family and everything that I knew was hard beyond words, but thinking back about it, it was the best decision I could have made for myself! I cannot say enough ab
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The curse of being an over-thinker!

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I am an over-thinker. There. I have said it. And, I'm already thinking about what will happen now that everyone knows my secret! Ha ha! For as long as I can remember, I have been an over-thinker - one of those people that agonizes over every decision, a person that second guesses themselves at almost every step, someone who reads more into everything. If you are someone like me, you will understand how difficult it is to function this way. **  "I don't know what to wear"   Picking an outfit for a simple trip to the mall can become an hour long ordeal - should I wear comfortable shoes because I will be walking a lot? Or should I wear something more "fashionable" since I'll be going to some nice stores? Oh wait, it looks like its going to rain at 5pm today (it's 9am now), maybe I need to wear rain boots .. hmm, but those won't go with the outfit I've picked, so I guess I need to pick another outfit.. and so it goes!!  ** Ind
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The joys and struggles of being a stay-at-home mom

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This is certainly not a new topic, and I'm sure others have written about it more eloquently than I have. I just felt like this was something I wanted to talk about. My intent with this post is just to share my experience and it is  not to prove the superiority of stay-at-home mothers vs. working mothers, or vice versa. All mommies are full-time mothers, whether working outside the home or not. If someone had asked me 10 years ago whether I would ever consider being a "stay-at-home mom", I would have laughed in their face.  Coming from a family with a working mother, I had always assumed that I would continue to work after I had kids too. I went to engineering school, even got a masters degree and was making great progress in my career once I started working. I loved going to work, interacting with people, having deadlines and goals to work towards and actually achieving them, having the structure that goes with getting up every morning and having a plan for the d
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