The 5 Most Beautiful French Châteaus

When I was scrolling through my Instagram this morning I ran across a photo that was a link to an article Vogue had posted.

The article was about an Australian couple who are renovating a gorgeous château in the South of France. So I decided to do a round of up of the most amazing Châteaus France has to offer. (Let’s be real, pretty much all French Châteaus are winners.)

5. This Winter Wonderland Château

Photo Credit: Pinterest

It reminds me of the house in Taylor Swift’s Blank Space music video. Enough said.

4. The Château that Inspired this Post

Photo Credit: Vogue

Between the creeper vines growing up the house and the amazing driveway, I am envious of the owners of this estate.

3. This Grand Château

Photo Credit: thegoodlifefrance.com

This Château is majestic in the grandest sense. With the light layer of snow all around and the beautiful architecture, I am having serious house FOMO.

2. This Beauty

Photo Credit: green-landscape.com

Though this picture is worth a thousand words, LOOK HOW MAJESTIC. This should be in a Disney movie.

  1. Valentino Garavani’s Château de Wideville
Photo Credit: iTunes/ E!

Remember on the Keeping Up With the Kardashians episode of Kim and Kanye’s wedding when the whole clan casually were invited to Valentino’s Chateau for a celebratory wedding brunch?

Well I do, and I must say GOALS. This Château is jaw dropping. From the beautiful interior, to the amazing gardens, Valentino’s Château definitely secures the place as #1.

And since this is the #1 Château here are some more amazing pictures of the grounds and of my favorite episode of Keeping up With the Kardashians (no regrets).

Photo Credit: iTunes/ E!

GOOOAAALS

Photo Credit: iTunes/ E!

And of course, Versailles is amazing in every sense, but if it was in the list, there wouldn’t be much competition.

My Summer in Paraguay

This past summer I went to Paraguay for seven weeks as part of a program called Amigos de las Americas. After a one week training period in Houston, TX, I flew for 16 hours to the country’s capital, Asunción.

From there I met with all 50 of the volunteers, who were from all over the U.S. We then went through a more in-depth training, got our partners, and left for our communities.

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My partner Elizabeth and I were in a community called Costa San Blas, in the Department (kind of like a state) of Paraguarí. It was a beautiful, rural community, with roughly 800 people. We lived with our host family, which consisted of a mom, dad, two sisters and two brothers. Normally, only the mom and the sisters were around.

The community is living in poverty, but we were lucky enough to have running water and other appliances. We had a shower (though no hot water) and even had a washing machine! Surprisingly, we also had a T.V. and huge speakers, almost as tall as me.

A big part of their culture is music and dancing, so they would constantly be blaring their favorite songs and dancing as much as possible. It was so cool to experience.

As Amigos volunteers, Elizabeth and I were required to implement a project in the community, work with our partner agency, SENASA, to provide latrines to those in need, and hold camps for the younger kids at the school.

It was a busy summer!

The seniors at the school were building a playground for the younger grades to play on, and we adopted their project as ours. The kids still did all aspects that they planned – our job was to fundraise and buy paint to add some color to the playground.

We fundraised by holding a soccer tournament in the field behind our house. With the help of the senior girls, we made empanadas which we sold, along with other food and drinks at the games.

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Teams were charged, and the losers bought beer for the winners. With the money we made, we went out and bought paint!

For the latrines, we went around the community and met families in need, who we then taught how to construct the facility. Elizabeth and I helped distribute the materials, and the latrines were built!

Out of all our duties, the camps were my favorite. Held at the school while it was in session and behind our house over break, we worked with children from grades K-6 for two hours each day. We would play game after game, including duck-duck-goose, and games just from their community.

I loved spending time with the kids, and getting to know them all. They always looked forward to the camps, and it was the cutest thing ever.

At home, Elizabeth and I mainly hung out with our host sisters, Leila, 11 and Rocio, 6. Feisty but adorable, they would take us around the community, showing us every nook and cranny, and introducing us to different community members. Back at the house we would also play cards – I must have played at least 100 games of UNO.

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I know I made an impact this summer, and that’s an awesome feeling to have. I have a sense of accomplishment that I couldn’t achieve in any other way.

The fact that I built relationships with so many people, all in a different language and living so differently than what I’m used to, is pretty incredible to me.

I may not have changed the world, but I think I’ve impacted the lives of a few. And I’ve had an experience unlike any other, which I think is amazing within itself.

Jumping In My List

As an adrenaline junky and extreme sports enthusiast; I encourage activities that include lapses of free-falling. That’s why I felt so compelled to write about the 36th annual Bridge Day in Fayetteville, West Virginia.

This event attracted an estimated 400 jumpers and 10,000 spectators to the 800 foot drop of the New River Gorge bridge. One after one, the jumpers stepped off the edge of the bridge to commence their free fall.

Picture Credit: “www.xtremespots.com”

 

What is BASE jumping and why would anyone ever do it?

Well, let’s explain the easy part first.

B.A.S.E stands for buildings, antennas, spans, and earth. The latter of the two meaning bridges and cliffs. The basic idea is that the jumper climbs to the top of one of the four mentioned and jumps off of it with a parachute. Jumps are usually under 1600 ft and speeds can reach up to 120 mph – Dang!

When questioned whether BASE diving was worth dying for one anonymous jumper explained, “BASE Jumping isn’t worth dying for, but it is worth risking dying for.”

One jumper from New River Gorge explained that BASE jumping feels like “nothing else in the world is a thought that goes through your brain, it’s just pure serenity.” Another jumper said that she could “convince myself to do pretty much anything,” if she could convince herself “to do something like this (meaning BASE jumping).”

Most people probably won’t BASE jump in their lives, but I know I will.

 

Urban Exploration

Photo credit to startribune.com

Just the other day I was browsing some dank memes on Reddit.

I got really bored so I went to “reddit.com/r/random/” which directs the user to a random subreddit.

After three attempts I finally stumbled upon a decent-looking subreddit that I had never even heard of: /r/urbanexploration.

I spent the rest of my evening on that subreddit. The subreddit is dedicated to exploring ruins in urban areas. It’s all about people’s findings of abandoned monuments frozen in time.

Spanning from secret basement doorways that lead to a massive tunnel system that were likely used by Al Capone, to old Yugoslavian monuments from the 1960s.

Photo credit to Michael Mehrhoff

The subreddit is mostly crap, but every few posts is an amazing story. The stories are really just a bunch of captioned pictures in the order of their findings.

My favorite was the post titled “Bad Ass Bunker.” The album is a series of 31 pictures with detailed captions.

The person who explored the bunker was visiting his old friend in northern Germany, which was formerly GDR.

They found a massive bunker. Some of it was already explored and had been tagged by teens. But the further and deeper they went, the more they found.

Eventually, the bunker was flooded and they had to turn back.

Photo credit to Johnny Joo

Urban explorers find a thrill in going through these abandoned buildings. Some even travel around the world.

They love it because the building tells a story and they get to be the ones to figure it out. Like what is this place, who was here, why was it abandoned?

Urban explorers are each like a modern-day Indiana Jones. Some of the explorers are photographers that actually take photos of abandoned places for a living.

Photo credit to Daniel Barter

For those who want to get started, the subreddit is a great place to get advice and learn of new locations.

Keep in mind, in most cases breaking into abandoned places is trespassing, and a lot of people on the subreddit have been arrested.

But there are websites that can be found on the subreddit that help avoid this issue.

Time Travel

Photo Credit to s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com

Time Travel is real, and I can prove it.

Let’s start with my favorite, often referred to as the time-traveling hipster. In 1940, a photo was taken at the reopening of the South Fork bridge in Canada.

In the photo, everyone is dressed in very time-period-appropriate clothing; all except one man, who I call the Time-Traveling Hipster.

He is wearing a cardigan with a graphic tshirt. His sunglasses are very retro and his haircut does not really fit the time period.

The strangest part is what is in his hands. In his hands appears to be a DSLR camera which weren’t invented for another 50 years.

Film cameras were around during that time but they were mainly silver. His camera is black. The time traveling hipster has been debated over for years, but no conclusion has been reached.

In 2008, another unexplained mystery emerged when a Chinese archeologist opened up a 400 year-old tomb. The tomb is believed to be untouched by anyone since it was sealed 400 years ago.

But that makes it hard to explain how they found a small ring made of metal, shaped into a watch, with the time 10:06 and “Swiss” engraved on the back.

It was in the soil on the outer layer of the coffin. The ring is believed to be only 100 years old. The question is, who in 1908 would enter a tomb, not open the coffin, not loot the place, not announce the discovery, then close the tomb they were in.

The best answer would be time travelers. Maybe time travelers have a creed, and they gather research and try to leave little evidence behind.

Although another theory attempts to debunks this theory, saying it is more likely be some sort of “quantum strangeness”, where random object disappear and reappear in different places for unknown reasons.

I think that theory is far-fetched, and I’ll stick with time travel.

Of all the far-fetched stories, this next one beats them all.

It has the potential to be real, but odds are if it was, we would not know about it.

The story from Andrew D. Basiago seems to be loony. In 1970, the defense advanced research project agency A.K.A DARPA worked on a top-secret project known as Project Pegasus.

Basiago claims to be a child participant in the program. I say “claims” because all the websites are not what I would call factual. The mission statement which has not been confirmed by DARPA is to research and perform “time sensing”; it is the US time-space exploration program.

Several children were a part of this program, but I had trouble finding names. But Andrew D. Basiago says that on one of his temporal trips he was at the Gettysburg address, and he is in a photo, in which he claims to be the boy in the bottom left.

I looked at Basiago’s childhood pictures; there were very few, and in none of them he had long hair. But it would make sense that he didn’t have photos from the time he was a part of Project Pegasus.

This is either a massive government cover-up, or just a man who wants attention. Either way, the government doesn’t care, because it would be nearly impossible to prove, especially with his reputation.
Don’t take this too seriously. Most of these examples have explanations which kill imagination. I believe in time travel, and I wish I believed the stories. But whether or not I believe is not the purpose of article.

My purpose for writing this is to raise curiosity of time-space and open up minds to different views even if they are far fetched.

Volkswagen Scandal

Volkswagen is one of the largest automobile companies in the world. They are known for their reliable, sporty, and efficient cars.

But efficiency comes with a price – now that price has risen astronomically.

VW has been lying to their customers since their “clean diesel” cars have been in production since 2009.

Their cars have been programmed to cheat in emission tests in the United States, giving a false reading of true efficiency in some 11 million cars.

My recently purchased car, a 2012 Jetta Sedan TDI, is affected by the scandal. I have taken this issue personally because I chose to purchase a car that promised efficiency without an environmentally damaging cost.

Now I know this is not true in the slightest.

Even though my car is yet another material item, it is something I use every day for hours on end. I spent a lot of time thinking about what car company to purchase from, and I am now regretting my decision completely.

I feel violated.

Photo Credit: http://www.tflcar.com

Santa Cruzin’

I don’t consider myself a water person – unlike the bounty of surfers and ocean fanatics that I now surround myself with, I grew up inland and only ventured to the cold Oregon Coast 1-2 times each year.

Now in California I have many more opportunities to go swim in the ocean, or just be near the water.

However wonderful my opportunity is to many, even sometimes to me, when I heard I was going camping for a week at Santa Cruz Island, I was less than enthused.

The idea of being surrounded by ocean for five days straight, no matter how clear and beautiful I knew it would be, scared me. We were to be completely isolated – an hour boat ride away from land.

Photo Credit: http://www.nps.gov

My trip seemed to be the most popular out of the four – everyone wanted to go, and I even felt bad for taking up a spot when I wasn’t nearly as excited as some who couldn’t go.

Once I was on the boat to the island, standing with salty wind blowing through my hair, watching the island grow bigger and bigger, I began to feel excited. No longer was I wishing I was on route to Yosemite, I found myself looking forward to the next week, and what was to come.

What I thought would be a long, torturous week turned out to be adventure-filled and an amazing time. The ocean, originally the object of my fear, was beautiful, full of creatures, and the best part of the trip.

Photo Credit: upload.wikimedia.org

Out of all the camping trips I’ve been on throughout my life, this one was the most fun. And not only did I explore caves, but I also explored my limits.

Photo Credit: i.ytimg.com

Car Chaos

This week, I stumbled across yet another technological advancement while reading news articles.

Since September 2014, Google has released roughly 50 self-driving cars out and about on the streets of California. These futuristic Lexus’ and Audi’s have been roaming the streets in hopes to prove that they are safe to drive themselves.

So far, there have been only 11 accidents that were minor and included no injuries.

“Not once was the self-driving car the cause of the accident,” said Google’s Chris Urmson.

In my opinion, although self-driving cars sound kind of cool, they also sound terrifying. What if we know something is wrong with our car, but we cannot control it because the car is in control of itself?

However, Google makes some very strong points as to why their cars are safer than human driven cars: robots do not get tired, they are not emotional, they are over-cautious rather than fearless, and these cars can see things human’s cannot always see.

Is this an unrealistic plan with too many issues involved? Or what our future will be like?

Photo Credit: extremetech.com

Journalism Competition

Photo Credit: staticsquaarespace.com

Monday, March 30th, OVS’ Journalism class took a trip down to Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks for a Journalism competition.

I have only been in Journalism for a little over three months now, so this is still all very new to me. Regardless, I was very excited.

After waking up at 5:30 a.m., we got some coffee and drove to the competition.

This competition is held each year and OVS has won awards almost every year they have competed.

I was competing in the Feature category with my fellow journalist, Daphne Psaledakis.

Our speaker told an interesting story about a Patagonian sheep herder traveling to the United States in order to earn higher pay so that he could support his family and his children can have a higher education.

It was intriguing and interesting, and something I had never heard a lot about previous to the competition.

Although I did not place at the end of the competition, some of my fellow journalists did. I was so proud of them, and even though I did not win an award, I learned so much from this experience that will help me to become a better writer.

 

Germanwings Catastrophe

Hundreds of airplane crashes have happened since the invention of airplanes. A multitude of reasons are responsible for these disasters; terrorist attacks, suicides, engine failure, technological failures, and extreme weather conditions.

This week, Germanwings flight 9525 came to an end shortly after it departed from Barcelona, Spain, en route to Dusseldorf, Germany, when the Airbus A320 plummeted into a remote region of French Alps, killing all 150 passengers and crew on board.

This catastrophe came as a shock to Lufthansa Airlines, the owning company of Germanwings, and to the Airbus manufacturing company.

There was no explanation for the crash until the black box from the Airbus was recovered earlier this week. In the recording, the pilot is heard yelling into the cockpit, insisting he be let in to regain control of the plane.

Now here come the accusations.

The co-pilot had locked himself in the cockpit when the pilot left for was seems to be a bathroom break. In the recording, the co-pilot can be heard breathing in a normal manner, dismissing the theory of a medical emergency preventing him from opening the door to let the pilot back in.

Not only was the pilot locked out of the cockpit, but when he initially left, the autopilot elevation setting was changed from 38,000 feet to 100 feet, the absolute lowest setting.

So far, all we know is that the co-pilot intentionally locked the door to the cockpit, all people on board were killed, and the plane is completely demolished.

Photo Credit: i3.mirror.co.uk

The black box recording raises a few questions to chew on:

Was the co-pilot suicidal?

A terrorist?

Or did he suffer a medical emergency which inhibited him from opening the door to the cockpit to allow the pilot back in?

… To be continued.