To the West Coast!

I will be traveling again in a few short days!

Friday sees my arrival in Sacramento, CA. There I will visit a friend from college for two days. I then head to Long Beach to attend the American Astronomical Society Meeting where I will be presenting the research I did as an undergraduate. I will see many people there that I already know, so it is expected to be a good time. The final stop is a night in Los Angeles. At some point, I hope to see another friend that lives in LA, but the plans for that aren't concrete as of yet.

At some point, I better end up with at least my feet in the Pacific Ocean.

There is an impending trip across the country.

I will soon be able to utilize this space for comments on my travels again.

In just over a month, I will be in California for the American Astronomical Society meeting in Long Beach. I am getting excited as I start finalizing my plans for that adventure.

Minor travels and memories

I went to Philadelphia on Friday to see The Decemberists.
At present, the concert is up on NPR.
It was a great show, ripe with Democratic-Party-slanted references. I commented afterward that it was certainly the best political rally that I've ever attended.

Saturday, I went to the metro-D.C. area to visit a friend that had just moved there. I hadn't seen her since graduation so she requested that I show her my France and Poland pictures. While telling her story after story of my adventures and comparing our trips abroad, I realized that I'm losing the lessons I learned in France when I'm not constantly reminding myself of them. So far the loss is just of the small things, like my confidence in wandering around alone. I find myself more afraid to do that in the United States than in countries where I can't speak the language.

Anyway, the rate at which memories are leaving is impressive. That being said, I recognized all of the pictures and could tell the tales. However, it's a bit unnerving that I had to think about what they were. The fact that the memories aren't all constantly there is what is bothersome. I did and learned so much this summer; I desperately don't want to forget these things. I suppose that this isn't something that I can fix. I guess that's why I kept a journal of my adventures (having learned this before about adventures).

Ah, the memory. It's such a strange phenomenon. It's a good thing I have several friends that research it and routinely discuss it with me.

Perhaps I shouldn't be so hard on myself while becoming nocturnal.

This whole blog thing is amusing. People write whatever they want in them. I have friends that use them for outlets for all sorts of things: advice, writing, etc. Mine is obviously mostly selfish and about my travels, including the catastrophes I encounter.

I was reluctant to start this. It was suggested that I should write a blog. For a long time I didn't know what I should write about that would be of any interest. Then I started traveling and being without telephone service, so the topic was obvious. It's hard to write in the times when I'm doing nothing but being a less-than-adventurous graduate student. Let's be honest, I get excited about physics, but I'm not about to drown you in details of that. At least, not here. I keep that one for in-person dialogues.

I hit the "Next Blog" at the top of the page and came upon one devoted to screenshots of English female newscasters (including weather forecasters). It's just bizarre what people put in these things.

The strange thing about all of this is that I'll admit how unnerved I become when walking by glass doors at night or how I run after a missed bus or how I get lost in foreign cities and the whole world can read that. But why would anyone want to? The majority of the people reading this are family and friends. It's a way for such people to keep tabs on me while I frolic all over the place. I don't think for a second that my observations and experiences are interesting to anyone who can't imagine me doing all of the stupid things I end up doing. I assume that those family and friends keep reading this because they think something here is interesting.

I sit here and read strangers' thoughts and wonder if I'm as inane. That right there is motivation to stop since this has no practical usage. Then I remember that, in the end, I keep doing this for myself. Ah, so selfish. For one, it's great to have the memories preserved somewhere. I also do it because I love writing. The only decent writing I've ever done stems out of experiences I've had. If this is good for nothing else, it gives me a place to put thoughts into words, no matter how inconsequential they are. Perhaps, in time, they'll turn into something more. But why is there the need to share publicly? I have no idea.

Now, I'm going to go watch the sunrise.

I get nervous walking to the bathroom in the dark of the nearly-empty observatory.

Arizona is severely different than Pennsylvania, but everyone knew that.

There is certainly a beauty in the isolation here. The cacti are quite fun, too. Unfortunately, they don't grow at such high elevations (I'm up around 6700 feet). The most amusing thing about this elevation is that the short hike up to the observatory is not easy. I find myself panting by the time I reach the top (halfway up if I have my backpack).

Kitt Peak National Observatory was constructed in 1958. Since then a number of telescopes have been added. I'm working at the Coudé Feed, which is a telescope for spectroscopy. It is on the side of an observatory with a 2.1-m telescope.

This is the 2.1-m and the Coudé Feed. I use the mirrors hidden in the tower and the shed on the roof to the right of the dome. They reflect light down a light tube to another mirror then into the spectrograph. There the light bounces around and is separated. I'll go into more details when I can draw you pictures or point to the specific parts of the instrument.

So the first day I was up for about 27 hours straight. I learned how to manage the telescope and all of that stuff. I discovered that nothing in this place has really been updated unless it is technology. The furniture is almost entirely circa 1960, see example to the right.

On the second day, my advisor and I visited some of the other telescopes (the massive 3.5-m WIYN and the solar telescope). The McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope was probably the best adventure. We went in all of these places that we probably shouldn't have...like the tunnels that move around the glycol that cools the telescope. But who doesn't want to climb around in underground tunnels?

So the days pretty much consist of sleeping then around 12 hours of observations. During those 12 hours I do homework, read, and waste time on the internet. It's such an exciting life. It's actually pretty great. I get to be in absolute seclusion (there are others in the building using the other telescope, but they don't bother me). I get to see some of the most beautiful sunsets, night skies, and sunrises that I have ever seen. The best part of this is that I'm reminded that this is actually what I want to do with my life.

How touching.

I love the line "You see yourself like a star shining bright" in one of my favorite songs. I'm a sucker for lyrics involving astronomy.

I keep rewriting this entry. It's been more observations on people and life than I can count, but those observations keep changing. What now is so worthy of posting?

I found myself eating a dessert of Nutella and strawberries this evening. It reminded me of how right my choice to spend part of the summer in France was. In fact, the whole act of purchasing Nutella has revived my memories. It sounds so silly, but I ate so much of that stuff over there that it reminds me of my host family, crèpes, and a cool, peaceful evening in Paris. I don't know if I'll ever be able to dissociate Nutella and this summer. I hope the chocolate, hazelnut spread will also remind me of one of my roommates at OWU who walked into my room one day extolling the virtues of Nutella with a huge grin on her face after having just acquired some.

It's such a simple thing, but why question something that triggers memories of a time when my biggest worry was how many croissants is too many? I have also obtained some strawberry juice, which brings back memories from both France and Poland. I get a good smile out of that, too. I found that strawberry juice is more plentiful here in the United States than I realized, although all places in which I have found it have been Mexican restaurants or the Mexican food aisle of the grocery store.

Granted that I am amused by the fact that a mere food can trigger such strong memories, but I think that knowing that those memories are good lets the Nutella, strawberry juice, or whatever new food I discovered, be even better. I'm probably making something out of nothing, but I needed a reminder of my adventures. I guess I really just needed to remember that my life isn't just about physics; sometimes it is easy to lose sight of that. The moral of this story is that sometimes it is easy to lose sight of everything that actually matters in the end. I think I need to do that less. You probably do, too.

I know my life is not just about physics, I spend a lot of time doing other things...like playing viola, for instance. I make my debut in the Lehigh University Philharmonic Orchestra on Friday. We're playing both Friday and Saturday nights. This concert includes Shostakovich's epic Symphony No. 5, Beethoven's Overture "Creatures of Prometheus", and also Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 ("Emperor Concerto"). Come one, come all. I'm not afraid of self-promotion. Honestly, the Shostakovich should be reason enough to come, but on top of that we offer our conductor conducting from the piano in the concerto. If all goes well, it should be fantastic.

Aside from that non-physics activity, I like traveling (with or without physics being driving force) because it is a way to see more than just what's in front of me. I find these experiences very important, and hope that I can continue to have them. Speaking of which, on Sunday, I'll be heading to Arizona.

How to end an entry appropriately? Clearly, the best answer is by complaining about how there is a stink bug flying around the light.

I was offered a violin position in a mariachi band the other day.

Since this started as a way to talk about my travels, I must first mention that there will be travel posts within the month. My current travel plans for the next year go something like this:

• Tuscon, Arizona -- Kitt Peak Observatory -- October 19th-26th
• Long Beach, California -- American Astronomical Society Meeting -- January 2009
• The banks of the Danube River -- Lehigh Philharmonic Orchestra Tour -- May 2009
• Split, Croatia -- International Conference for Physics Students -- August 2009

I'm still traveling, which is exciting. I want to take advantage of this as much as possible while I can, especially those free trips.

* * *

What else can I do with this blog? I do so much more than travel; I think it might be worthwhile to throw in a few things outside the realm of travel once in a while.

I promise soon there will be thoughts and reflections on graduate school. Trust me, I have a lot.

I have to also introduce you to the most disturbing aspect of the internet that I have found lately. Please greet my traffic feed. It's over there on the right side of the screen. It shows me where my readers are. The fun part about that is I can zoom in on them. I tested it out yesterday at school. I was pinpointed to Lehigh's campus, but at least it didn't get my specific building. I'm amused. I pretty much know who is looking at this thing anyway, so it is just a way to see those random worldwide hits.

Oh, by the way. I'm in Philadelphia! Tonight is a short trek over to Camden to see Weezer and supporting acts. Excitement! But before that...shopping. That's right, I'm going shopping.

Now I am caught up on my travels, but what about the rest of my life?

I suppose I should apologize again for my tardiness.
My regrets, dear Internet. You've longed for my tales of going to Nashville to accept an award. I am so sorry to have kept you waiting.

Less than eleven hours after landing from my Polish adventure, I was back at the airport (reportedly, my suitcase was there, too...but I was going to have to do without the amenities in it).

I got to Nashville early, even though my flight from Philadelphia was delayed taking off. On the short trip to Philadelphia I sat next to a flight attendant who pretty much thought that she was sitting next to greatness by talking to me because I do stuff with physics.

Anyway, I made it to Vanderbilt, after getting ripped off by a cab driver. Vanderbilt is beautiful. The only drawback is the ridiculous humidity of the region. It turns out that the only obligation on me was to have lunch with some administrators and two of the other finalists for the award. I had a free weekend in Nashville.

One of the other finalists was there with his brother, and they were kind enough to let me tag along on their adventures. They are from Kansas and seem to be really great guys.

We did various ridiculous things throughout the weekend. Friday night we went to drag races, which was beyond hysterical. Video:

We tried to visit every bad tourist attraction that we could find. This included the Pantheon (yes, in Nashville) and Grand Ole Opry (which was ridiculously expensive, and we just went in the gift shop). There was also a wax museum that we tried to infiltrate, but that was certainly not worth the cost either, especially since I've been in a wax museum this year.

It was a good trip. I met some nice people, made some good connections at Vanderbilt, and added another tally to the list of "Free Trips Due to Physics". It's a growing list.

Next post will include the beginning of reflections on graduate school.

By the way, if you know how to please feel free to subscribe to my RSS feed. I'm going to be more regular. I'm now taking fiber via Quaker oatmeal. No, really. I decided to keep this ol' blog 'round for a while. I hope to extol some witty remarks upon your screen that make it worth your while to read.

So, I am a bit late on finishing things.

To continue my Poland saga:

Sunday was not much of a day. I overslept and missed out on the bad talks that morning. My heart wasn't broken. The poster session in the afternoon was probably more of a letdown than the talks because there were so few. There was a workshop on physics outreach. It turns out, OWU physics and astronomy has the right idea, which is less than surprising. Essentially, you go to students and either set things on fire or play with liquid nitrogen. Both of which, I play with as often as possible.

Monday was essentially a waste of a day. There was a 9-hour meeting that we had to go to because we were representing the United States. It was good to have a say in matters, but it was evidently clear that the International Association of Physics Students is pretty much the European Association of Physics Students. The fun part is that they base the amount of dues that each country has to pay on the Gross National Product. The United States gets the raw end of that deal...sending a handful of students each year and having to have to pay the most. Somehow, we managed to get that revised by drawing the attention to the European nature of the conference. After the meeting ended around midnight, I got a kebab. Tasty Polish food again.

Tuesday was the last official day of the conference. The British friend I made left Monday, and the American one left Tuesday afternoon. She and I walked around Krakow and explored where we hadn't been.

We walked through the center of Old Town and saw some pretty old buildings...pretty aesthetically and pretty old in age. We also saw this:

Krakow is quite beautiful. As I said, lots of pretty old buildings. This was one of the towers in Old Town. I just liked this picture in black and white for some reason.

Obviously, this is a clock tower. It looked ridiculously beautiful at night with the lights projecting on to it. I hate light pollution, but I love illumination of architecture. It's a hard toss-up.

There are a ton of cathedrals in Krakow. Naturally, they were the most beautifully constructed structures and stood out from the rest of the buildings. The rest of the buildings tended to be attached in a row along the street. The cathedrals were all set off from the rest of Krakow. There were some courtyards in the center of blocks that you had to get to by walking through some shifty passageways. I would have loved to explore a lot more. Back to cathedrals! This is the church dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul.

This is the view from Wawel Hill. It is the quintessential Krakow tourist sight.

I don't think this picture does the view any justice. It was just one of those scenes that you won't forget. Anyway, Wawel Hill is probably the highest point in Krakow, and it has a lovely view of the Wisla River...as you can see.

This is a view of the square on Wawel Hill. I should note that this is where Krakow had it's castle and such things. Hills are easily fortified, especially when there is a river on one side.

That night's party was hugely melancholy as it was the end of the conference. I talked to some nice guys from England for the vast majority of the night. There were lots of interesting conversations about astronomy techniques and the benefits of a conference of all physics students. There were many comments of how I (and at least one of the other Americans) should attend next year. Next year, the conference is in Croatia. What other reason will I ever have to go to there? I'm seriously considering that one.

The next day, I walked around the city with another English physicist that I had become acquainted with. She offered me the opportunity to spend the night in her hotel room instead of the dorm/hostel. I was extremely grateful. We stayed in a lovely three-star hotel very near the center of the city.

The next morning, I went to the bus stop by the hotel only to see the bus to the airport drive by without stopping. After returning to the hotel, I found out that the bus stop was "out of order". At about 6 a.m., I was not really understanding this one. I ended up taking a taxi to the airport. After that I left Poland.

I must say, it was an amazing experience that I am so lucky to have gotten for free. Networking is very important in physics; a lot of that was done, as well as having a very good time.

Soon to come: Nashville.

Side note: Blogger won't let me use accents over the o in Krakow or the l with the slash through it in Wisla. Frustration.

My Polish vocabulary is increasing rapidly. I know the words for "ice cream" and "waffle" now.

Since I've been busy with the conference and forming new physics acquaintances (some worthwhile, some not), I haven't had much time to update.

Thursday was the beginning of it all. I got to meet the third winner of the SPS. I'm quite excited that I got to meet her and her roommate that goes to Cambridge. They are both extremely nice and were willing to allow me to tag along on their venture into Krakow.

The architecture here is pretty exciting. It's subtle and obviously very eastern European. I'm enjoying the change from the architecture I typically identify as European.

This is just a typical street in Krakow. Alright, so it's not "typical"...this is in the city center which is known for it's more touristic approach to Polish life.


Friday was the fun of my presentation. Here's my debut as a lecturer at an international physics conference...even though the conference may really just be a week-long party for physics students...

Let's just hope those that see this on my résumé don't know that last tidbit. Anyway, I took my talk very seriously...unlike some others that don't know that talks at conferences should be on original research.

That night was the "National Party", which involved us all bringing food and drink from our countries for everyone to sample. It was fun to see everyone so excited to share their cultures. There was a lot of country pride going on. It was quite the fun night.

The fun had Friday night was harshly contrasted by the sadness of Saturday. This was Auschwitz-Birkenau visit day. I took a bunch of pictures, but I honestly don't know if I ever really want to look at them again. I'll put two up to just begin to show the expanse of the place. I won't, however, mention much about it. It was intensely sad, and the words of another cannot even begin to describe the emotions one gets when walking through the halls of these buildings.

I have a tendency to get upset at intensely sad places, so I wasn't surprised when I just was overwhelmed and didn't want to go to Birkenau after having spent several hours in Auschwitz. Alas, it was part of the trip.

Auschwitz was small compared to Birkenau. This picture doesn't even begin to show the size. It went on as far as the eye could see in most directions.

Saturday night was then a night to go into Krakow. The other American, her English roommate, and I went into town and saw Polish nightlife. They love the tragically bad American and English pop here. I don't think we heard a song all night in the club that wasn't in English.

And now, it's time for some sleep. A recap of Sunday-present will be up soon. Hopefully, I can get some good pictures in.

The first meal provided by the conference was mystery sausage. I can't wait to see what's next.

Along with this wonderfully free trip are free excursions. One of the choices was the Wieliczka Salt Mine, which I've seen time and time again on the Discovery and Travel Channels. Unfortunately, this trip was already full when I registered for the conference. For that trip I am going to Auschwitz. I have been reminded several times already that this will be a deeply emotional experience and that I should be mentally prepared for it.

Because I couldn't go to the salt mine with the tour group, I went today.

First, let me say that the fact that I know no Polish is really a hurdle---a really high hurdle. I had to get on a bus and go to another town to get to this place. I went alone. It was an interesting experience. Somehow or other I managed to get to the salt mine. I then got to stand in a ridiculously long line (over an hour) to get an English-speaking tour ticket. I could have skipped most of the line and jumped on a French tour, but I was worried I wouldn't understand too much. When I got into the tour, I quickly found out that I was seemingly the only American and there were a handful of British thrown in, but the vast majority were actually Polish who spoke English and didn't want to stand in the ridiculously long Polish line. Clever. Anyway, I somehow made it back to Krakow. I don't question this.

Here's some salt growing on rock salt. I like crystals. This is a cauliflower growth pattern for obvious reasons.

This museum was absolutely ridiculous. It was so over-the-top tacky; I loved it.

Aside from just the salt deposits there were lots of salt carvings from over the years.

My favorite statues include a plethora of gnomes.

I have another FANTASTIC picture of the gnomes that you just have to bear witness to in my presence because I want to see reactions. I wish I had a video of the display because it was priceless. Unfortunately, I didn't think that fast.

However, I did think fast enough at a mechanical model. I apologize for the camera angle because I was covertly trying to take the video without being blatantly obvious...as it's ridiculous. This is what I'm talking about with the tacky (as well as life-sized models of miners that were just so awful I laughed a bit harder than appropriate when I saw them).

The main draw to this place are the salt chapels. This is the most famous. It's the chapel devoted to Saint Kinga. She's all over Polish legend, but apparently was a real princess. Pope John Paul II also made her a saint. Because of that, the fact that he visited the mine three times (none while Pope), and he was Polish, there is also a statue of him in the back of the chapel. Apparently, they have services every Sunday morning in the salt chapel, as well as concerts and weddings. Nifty.

Everything in there is made of salt...floor, walls, alter, statues, chandeliers, etc. Yes, those chandeliers are made of salt crystals...obviously with light bulbs.

That about sums up the salt mine. It was ridiculously amusing for me. The bus trip back involved some amusing English tourists.

I got back to the dorm to find out that a small detail had been left out at my registration yesterday. I was to return the key to the front desk before I left. One would think that this would be an important detail to share. This means that the two other Americans that I won the award with that were supposed to room with me couldn't get into the room. I got a very condescending lecture from the registration people until I stated that they didn't tell me that and then I got no apology. Not surprising. Presently, I have no roommates, but I moderately fear returning tomorrow to find that I have a roommate.

What remained of the day was dinner and the Welcome Party. The Welcome Party was entertaining as we got coupons for drinks that said "Enjoy your beer! :)"

At long last, a recap of Paris! I'm in Poland!

There is no possible way that I could capture everything about my stay in Paris here, but I will include a few pictures. If you want to see more, ask me when I'm home.

I'm doing this now from Poland because I'm disturbingly jet lagged and just need to keep myself awake, but moving doesn't seem to be an option at present.

This is part of the garden right behind the Louvre, Jardin des Tuileries.

I spent a lot of time in Paris in gardens. They were the perfect places to watch people, relax, and eat---a few of my favorite things.

This is the inside of an old train station. It's now Musée d'Orsay, which is more modern than the Louvre, but not modern modern art. Think objets d'art and impressionists.




Here we have yet another garden: Place des Vosges. I really liked walking around the neighborhood that this is in. It's in La Marais, and is quite and beautiful. I liked the Mouffetard area for the same reason, but that wasn't as close to my hotel room.

It took me three tries to finally get into Saint Chapelle. The first time I was too late. The second time the line was atrocious. The third time it was raining and the line was small as a reflection of that.

It was worth the wait to be surrounded by light like this. I went on a cloudy day, as I said, it was raining, which allows for the stained glass to be read. I would have liked to stop by again on a sunny day and be bathed in colored light.

I climbed to the top of Notre Dame and the hill that Sacre Coeur is on (twice). This is the view from the former. Climbing the 422 steps was painful since there weren't any places to sit down like at Sacre Coeur. I survived. Somehow.

Now, behold! The quintessential Eiffel Tower picture. I enjoyed using my sepia and black and white filters on this monument. There was no climbing of the Eiffel Tower this time. The lines were long, it was expensive, and I've done it before.







THE CATACOMBS! I've been waiting a long time to see all of these bones. I wanted to see these the first time I came to Paris, but my group was lame.

Anyway, lots and lots of bones. The anticipation to see the bones mounts as one walks forever around the former quarry and then walls and walls of bones.

Finally, my favorite Parisian garden:
Jardin du Luxembourg. It's a bit on the touristy side, but it has wonderful places to sit and watch people. There are lovely flowers and statues all over. I quite enjoyed my time there.

That is Paris. Now I am in Krakow. It took me three flights to get over here. I got one hour of sleep. I am too exhausted to go out and roam around the city, but I can't go to sleep since it's about 3 p.m. here. I walked around the city for an hour to get from the train station to the dorms, so it's not as though I've seen nothing of Krakow. Because I was pulling around a suitcase and had three maps in my hands, I haven't gotten any pictures as of yet. It's not a good idea for me to go out right now because nothing is really making sense. I've been up for about a whole day at this point. I got a single hour of sleep on the plane because there were too many screaming babies.

So far my impressions of the four people I have met that are associated with this physics conference are that they don't care to be nice and meet others. Maybe I'm not the only one jet lagged? One guy criticized how the United States sends different people over every year. I don't see why that's a problem. I guess he doesn't want to make new friends. Hopefully, things go better than those encounters.

Now the rest of the day will involve working on my speech and settling in to this awful room. It's only bad because four rooms of two or three people each have to share two sinks, one toilet, and one shower. Brilliant.

Eventually, stories and photographs will come. Soon!

A post with my Paris adventures will be coming soon.
The timing of said post? Probably later this week when I get to a location where it doesn't take forever to upload photos.

Also, note that I will be updating here for my travels in August as well.

Thanks for reading while I was in France.

Counting down the hours could be effective.

All of the fun of friends coming to Paris has ended. I'm now alone once again.

Again, a short post. My apologies. Tomorrow is France's Independence Day, so that should be fun (parades, fireworks, etc.).

I return to the United States at 11:40 a.m. on Tuesday. I'm excited to come home...even though it's only for a short while.

I ate a baguette under the Eiffel Tower. How wonderfully clichéd.

I have seen every major tourist spot in Paris. It's now time to find the small things that will make this trip worthwhile (well, more worthwhile). In my wanderings, I've found a lot of interesting places. I will continue to do that.

Don't worry, when I get home, there will be a large update with many pictures for those of you that aren't going to get a shot to see all of my pictures right away.

And now, I take one friend to one train station and go to another to pick up another friend.

Every time I get lost, I end up on Île de St.-Louis.

Happy 4th of July to all of you who are in the United States.

It's just another Friday here.
All that I've been doing is going to museums, sitting in gardens, eating, and walking. I won't complain.

I can't write for long because one of the girls that stayed in Aix for the second month of classes (which I would have done had some people not planned their wedding for the middle of the summer...) is coming to Paris for the weekend. I have to go meet her at the train station.

Oh, and my starspot talk for Poland got officially accepted. Looks like I actually have to do work when I get home. Great.

I find I have a large affinity for objets d'art.

I have really done nothing but sit in parks and visit museums so far. It's not a bad life, but my knees don't appreciate the sacrifice they're being forced to make.

Yesterday, I had the brilliant idea to walk to the Louvre...and then walk around the Louvre...for six hours. I then walked around the gardens behind the Louvre and then walked back (feel free to look at a map of Paris, I'm staying in the Bastille region), stopping at the quaint garden behind Notre Dame.

Today, I walked about the same distance to Musée d'Orsay, which has the Impressionists and newer art than the Louvre, but not modern. There are several rooms devoted to Monet. The one room for van Gogh was by far the most crowded. There was an exhibit of extremely old photographs from Great Britain and France. I quite enjoyed that one.

I am really quite sick of the crowds.

I haven't been taking too many photos because I'm pretty tired of photographing buildings, and I think it's generally silly to photograph art (I did get a few to prove that I was at the Louvre and Musée d'Orsay).

I haven't been very lucky with finding good, cheap meals unless they involve bread and fruit. So that is unpleasant. Also, the housekeeper keeps throwing away my empty water bottles...I refill them. Ugh. I need to start hiding them, apparently. It took me two days to catch on.

Internet cafés don't understand computers should be kept cool.

So, I made it to Paris.

Apparently, I know enough French to yell at a taxi driver for intentionally driving around to waste my money. I ended up walking about as far as I would have needed to from the train station to the hotel, anyway. However, I get a good story out of this. So, I get into the taxi and tell the driver where to go. He starts mumbling something, which I think is because it's a short drive. Well, he finds a blocked road and drives around in a circle. A very traffic-filled circle. He then takes the longest route possible, and I ask him where we are. I was not happy with the response and then asked him why he didn't tell me what was going on. He got angry with me and started muttering in French, some of which I could understand and didn't appreciate. Long story, sort of short, I ended up walking with my bags, which is what I was trying to avoid since they are not light.

I don't have the time to put the whole story in here, but so far the trip has involved a lot of unexpected things. A lot.

I've seen Notre Dame, Saint Chapelle (from the outside), Musée d'Arts et Métiers (Museum of Arts and Crafts*), Panthéon (from the outside), Jardins du Luxembourg (garden), a giant concert in a plaza (that involved the French police taking out a guy that was covered in blood and the people involved rushing to get away), and a giant market (where I purchased fruit of questionable origins).

*The Musée d'Arts et Métiers was awesome. First of all, it was free. Second of all, it had a pretty much the history of invention from 1700 on, technologically. There were old cameras and old typewriters and other old things. I got really excited for the old astronomy and physics equipment, which there was a lot of. The crowning glory: a cyclotron. Yes, the super-nerd took pictures of the nerd equipment.

My hotel room is just about as big as expected. It pretty much consists of a bed, desk, chairs, and a mini-bar (which is currently holding my questionable grapes). The bathroom is small, but does the job. Thankfully, the toilet is with the shower and sink. I've missed that. Unfortunately, I again don't have a washcloth. I could really use one. That's not to say I'm dirty. Don't get the wrong impression; I would just like to scrub off all the suntan lotion.

I'll be back eventually, but not as often as I would like. Internet should be cheap, but it's not.
I also just saw that the exchange rate got worse on my ATM withdrawls. AWESOME.

Goodbyes are hard when you know you need to move on.

I don't have any pictures or stories for you today. I've just been spending the sweltering days in Aix. I go to class, eat, and find other ways to spend money.

I've been constantly reminded that I am leaving in about 40 hours. I don't really know how I feel about this. I'm going to miss some of the people I've met, but I'm going to have a fantastic time in Paris (how can I not?). It's weird; I'm sad, but excited.

There are a few things that I certainly won't miss, but I'm not about to sit here and whine. I'm very fortunate for having gotten the chance to do this, even if some of the side effects include sunburn despite a constant layer of suntan lotion and too much pig meat. So I complained a little.

The moral of this story is that this has been a good experience that has gone too quickly, but like all things, cannot last forever. It's good that it can't last forever because I could really go for some grapes and peanut butter, together. A grilled cheese would be nice, too.

Flames and soap! I dare you to give me a better combination!

I see how it is. No one comments when I don't put up pictures. I have bad news for you, unless I can find an internet café in Paris that has computers new enough to have drives for my camera's memory card, you're out of luck. In fact, you'll be lucky if I update in Paris. Oh, take that. Don't worry; you'll get at least one letting you know I'm still alive.

I think it's about time I introduce you to my favorite road sign in the world: The French Construction Sign.

The first time I saw this sign was on the tour bus four years ago as the bus was driving around CDG airport.

Naturally, I had to get another picture of the sign. I also have a picture of the English equivalent. I hope to see some in Poland, too. I guess I'm going to collect pictures of construction signs.

As I said, last night there was a big fire in the center of town. Who wants to see a video?!
Everyone likes a good fire. Yes, that's me saying "OK". It was painfully hot, and my friend was informing me she was moving back.




To go along with the video, I must include a picture of the pre-fire mound of flammable things.

Please note the outfits in the picture. Before the fire, the costumed people danced their way down the Cours Mirabeau. When they arrived at the Rotonde they proceeded to dance for around an hour more before there were some speeches, which I couldn't hear.

After much waiting, there was a great fire. Here you can see the fire behind one of the Rotonde's lions.

Naturally, I had been standing too close to the fire. I think it actually gave me a little bit of a burn. I still like fire anyway.

So today was the day to see how soap is made. It is a simple, but time-consuming process that takes nearly a month for completion.

My host told my friends and me that his family's soap factory is the last such soap factory in existence, where the soap is made the old-fashioned, natural way. He gave us a bunch of free bars of soap. Some smell, some don't. The coconut overpowers everything; and it's all I can smell right now. My favorite is the bottle of olive oil soap that I've been using here. It's fantastic. He was very generous with the free soaps. We probably got 25€ worth each.

This is my favorite machine.

Yes, I have a favorite machine. It was loud and old (like the rest of the machines in the factory). It cut the soap. First, it pushes the block of soap from the back and then from the side through some wires that slice the soap. It makes cubes of soap out of slabs.

After the soap, we were taken to the Palais du Pharo for a lovely veiw of Marseille and the sea. I have some pictures from the outside of the palace, too. However, they are not as impressive as the view.

We then were taken to Notre Dame de la Garde, which rests on the highest point of Marseille. The view was equally fantastic, but pales in comparison to the inside of the basillica.

Ridiculous, isn't it? Ridiculously fantastic.

This is the ceiling above the alter. The rest of the ceiling was a group of domes held up by gilded walls.

It's absolutely fantastic both inside and out. I was not expecting the inside to look like that at all.




Here's the outside. It's all white and grey with a glorious view of Marseille and the sea, naturally. It's also much larger than this picture lets on. I don't think it's possible to photograph the whole structure when on its hill. Anyway, this is the bell tower (there is a DRAWBRIDGE, too!). On the top is a gold statue of Mary holding the baby Jesus. They watch over the harbor and Marseille.

We then drove through the vieille porte section of Marseille (the old port, I put pictures of that up last time...we also didn't stop, so no pictures this time...the ones with all of the boat masts).

As for the rest of the week, I have no idea what I am going to do. Three days.

There are festivals involving music and fire here; I like it.

Saturday was the Fête de la Musique. I have to admit that I was disappointed. On the other hand, it was far too hot to go anywhere else. For most of the day I sat around listening to bad covers of bad American/British music. In sum, the event was really like a bad bar: drunken fools throwing beer bottles while listening to a bad cover band. It was a bit amusing to walk down the street and be completely surrounded by sound on all sides.

One highlight was an orchestra playing covers. The most amusing was Muse's Starlight. This song includes words like "live" and "blackhole". These gave the singer a hard time. Oddly, they chose to have a female singer...who pronounced these words as "leave" and "blah-hole". No one around me understood why I was laughing at that. The best part of their set was Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, which they played without words.

Yesterday was equally boring as it was far too hot to move. I regretted walking into town almost immediately after I walked out of the apartment building. I took some pictures of buildings, which I'm guessing are boring to everyone other than me. I went in the Museum of Old Aix which is in a building near my school. It wasn't what I was expecting, but it was still nifty. It's in an old hôtel particulier that is much better preserved than the one that my school is in. Unfortunately, I was pretty sure photographs weren't allowed. There were a lot of dolls and dishes from the nineteenth century. There are also these nativity sets, santons, that were prominantly featured. The amusing part of all of this is that most of these things were from Marseille, and not Aix. Close enough?

After that, it was far too hot to walk back to the apartment, so I sat in the cathedral for somewhere around two hours listening to choirs practice for a concert that night.

Later I had a conversation with an old lady who told me it was nearly 40°C (over 100°F). She then proceeded to ask if it gets that hot where I live in the United States. I confirmed this. She then assumed I was from the west coast.

Again, today it was far too hot to do anything, yet I proceeded to eat outside and spend money, my two favorite things here. I am quite excited because I finally went into the fabric store in town. There are some distinct patterns in the south of France, and I haven't purchased anything in them because nothing aside from the fabric itself caught my attention. I found the fabric and got some of that today. I have no idea what I'm going to make out of it. Probably an apron.

Tonight there is going to be a giant fire in the center of town for the Festival of Saint Jean. You can count on pictures of that one.

I get to go to work with my host after school tomorrow to see how he makes soap out of olives!

My Google Homepage indicates that the temperatures in Paris are to be about 10°C cooler some days this week (that's nearly 20°F different). That makes me wish I were there already. That doesn't happen until Saturday.

I drank a cassis and pomme (black current and apple) flavored Capri-Sun in Cassis.

Behold! I return!

Miss me?

I'll start with the fact that that heat wave that all of you had last week is apparently here (temperatures well over 90°F). There is not a single cloud in the sky and I needed suntan lotion just to walk back from school. Despite my best attempts, I think I got sunburn anyway. All I do is get sunburn. I think I may have "tanned" slightly. I don't like it. Maybe it is just freckles.

Moving on.
Tuesday night I had the brilliant I idea to go to town after dinner to watch the France-Italy soccer match. After walking around searching for a table for some time (there were many venues, but no tables), one was found off to the side of a café/bar. It was a table in a place with a television, so it was fine. The establishment was in a plaza that had several other cafés and bars with televisions set up, too. The crowd got really agitated at two events during the game, otherwise it was pretty quiet because the game was just bad. The two events: a red card to the French and the first Italian goal. I really would have liked to have seen the French score. Alas, I just get to say that I watched a soccer match at a café in France. I also had some kir, which is apparently Cassis white wine (Cassis = town on the Mediterranean Sea), cassis liquor (cassis = black current), and blackberry, raspberry, and peach flavorings. It's supposed to be a before-dinner drink. Oh, well.

After class on Wednesday I took an adventure to Cassis. A lot of other people decided to go there, too.

I swam in the Mediterranean. I was caked in salt to prove it. The water was extremely cold, but entirely worth it. I went in twice, which was a bad idea since the second time was around 5 p.m. and the temperature had dropped a bit already and the waves were getting more vicious.

This was where I discovered that PNC put a stop on my bank account because of international charges. That was especially fun since I only had enough money to get back to Aix. I didn't want to eat anyway. In reality, I wasn't alone, so I could have eaten if I really needed something.

Aside from having my credit card rejected, another fun moment was waiting for the train from Cassis to Marseille (naturally, the first train we wanted to get on was cancelled; I see a pattern). I was looking in awe as a TGV was coming from Marseille and headed for Toulon. The train à grande vitesse really is fast. While I was marvelling in it, another one passed in the opposite direction. I was probably about ten feet from it, and I almost was blown over by the wind it made as it passed. The near-stumble may have been in part because the train scared me, since I didn't realize it was coming. After that, I saw the sign warning of the TGV passing through the station.

In Marseille, there was a giant fire. The bus I was on to return to Aix drove a block behind it. All I could see were plumes of smoke exitting a building (no flames). I can't find any record of this fire.

Apparently, worldwide there is a music festival on Saturday for the beginning of summer. Here, the Fête de la Musique is held in the only park in Aix that requires me to walk completely across town (or nearly). I'll be attending that tomorrow.

The really great thing about Aix is that there are free concerts the week before and the week after called Musique dans la Rue (Music in the Street). Last night was some less than stellar world music and tonight is tango, but it's something to do.

With that, I depart with my hostess on an adventure that I have no idea what it is. She told me, but I only understood about half of it. I think the word for dance was used.

Today, Nutella-flavored ice cream.

Howdy. Let's get onto the weekend's events!

During the routine café stint during the break in class, some of the girls in my class told me that there was a performance tonight for which they had free tickets and had extras, so I was invited. Briefly speaking of class, I believe I previously mentioned that I was in the second level. I was slightly disappointed with that placement, so was the rest of the class. The school realized that we really should have been in the third level class, so for administrative purposes the class level was changed and I am in the third level, which is "Advanced Intermediate" or something. Anyway, I had plans for Friday night. I was told that it was a ballet. I got there and it wasn't ballet. It was modern dance. Like most modern art, much of it was abstract, and I was disappointed because I was really hoping for ballet. Regardless of that, I got to see a cultural event for free.

For Saturday, I ambitiously decided to make my own trip to somewhere in France. I decided on Avignon and Pont du Gard. These two places really excited me because the former is a fortified city, and the fortified city I saw last time I was in France (St. Malo, and I know I'll be corrected on that one if I'm wrong) amused me so much. The latter is a Roman aquaduct that I saw pictures of in my Archaeology of Ancient Greece and Rome class textbook (Mom and Dad, it's in Roman Art, which is one of the books I put on your bookshelf if you want to read about it.).

Et voilà, Avignon! Here I pretty much just walked around the city while eating and taking pictures. The bus left for here at 8:30 a.m. and one of the girls that decided to come along didn't make it to the bus stop on time. It was just one other girl from my class and me.

The tourism office in Avignon told us that the best way to do a trip to Pont du Gard was to leave around noon and then take a bus to Nîmes and a train back to Avignon since we had return bus tickets to Aix from Avignon. The kind people gave us all of the necessary schedules, and we were set.

Again, there was walking around in Avignon and taking pictures of the walls and the buildings. Nothing aside from the picture above really stands out enough to put it in here.

I must mention that if I were to move to France, I think I'd want to live in this city. It's beautiful, fortified, and not ridiculously expensive.

The bus to Pont du Gard was next on the itinerary. The bus drops off passengers about half a mile from Pont du Gard, but the walk is entirely worth it as you start to see the stone arches through the trees.

This is a first look at Pont du Gard.

My reaction to this structure was very similar to that of Stonehenge: taking massive amounts of pictures and being stuck there for several hours with nothing better to do other than taking those pictures and spend money in the gift shop.

Want another view of Pont du Gard? Here you go! I was allowed to touch this one, unlike Stonehenge.

After sitting on the side of the road for about a half hour waiting for the late bus, the Nîmes was the next stop on this tour. According to the train schedule back to Avignon, we were going to miss the first train, but the second one was about an hour later. There would be just enough time to go to the Roman ampitheatre and then catch the train after walking around the town a bit. It should also be noted that the girl that missed the bus from Aix called us to tell us she was in Avignon while we were headed to Pont du Gard. We would catch up with her in Avignon when we got there before the last bus left for Aix and ride back with her.

We got to Nîmes and headed right for the Roman ruins.

In front of the ampitheatre were all of these tour buses. I automatically thought "tour group". There were signs all around pointing in the direction to get into the whole thing. As we walked, I saw shirt vendors and people sitting around as if it were a concert. I didn't think they held such things in such places. While walking further around, some American tourists were encountered that clearly couldn't figure out how to get in either. They informed me that there was a Radiohead concert there tonight. One word: ridiculous.

Apparently bullfights go on here when there aren't concerts.

After walking around a bit more we walked back to the train station. There we found out that the train we wanted to get on in twenty minutes didn't exist. That's fine, there is another train forty minutes later that will get to Avignon in time to make the bus.

Unfortunately, the sign indicating departures showed that our train was a bus. I inquired at the information desk and I was told "Today, that train is a bus". I was reassured that it would get to Avignon 25 minutes before the bus to Aix was to leave.

After a long wait, the bus shows up 15 minutes late. The bus was also driven by the only safe bus driver in France, so the bus pulled into the train station of Avignon instead of the bus station as my anxiety was sky-rocketing because we arrive about a minute before the bus to Avignon is to leave, which would have been fine if we were in the bus station. Our friend was on the bus, but apparently didn't think to try to stall the bus driver. When we get off the bus we take off running, and I make it into the bus station just in time to see the Avignon-Aix-press pulling out of the station. I run after it for much further than I thought I could run, but the driver doesn't stop. The girl I was with was on the phone with our friend who was now trying to get the driver to stop. He said he would if we could keep up. He made no attempts to slow down. We didn't keep up.

Stranded in Avignon would have been alright had I not had plans for a trip Sunday morning. There were no more buses back to Avignon until the morning. The only direct route is a taxi, which is not cheap since it was over an hour by bus. I apparently have pretty good troubleshooting and thinking-outside-the-box type skills because I realized we could take the train to Marseille and then the bus to Aix because those buses run almost all night. Train tickets were obtained ten minutes before the train was to depart. While standing on the platform, the train that was to leave after the train to Marseille leaves. A minute or two later the departure board changes to indicate that the train to Marseille is deleted. That is the second train that didn't run when I needed it to! Fortunately, there are two more trains to Marseille on Saturday nights. The next train leaves around 8:40 p.m. (the bus left at 6:45 p.m.). Finally, I was slightly relieved when I found myself sitting on a train. We arrived in Marseille a few minutes to 10 p.m. Fortunately, I knew the name of the bus that runs between Marseille and Aix, so when I saw someone at the desk, I was overjoyed. She told me that there was a bus leaving in about three minutes, but it was at the bottom of the hill. We took off with more rapid motion and found the bus with a minute to spare. After finally arriving in Aix there was no way I was walking back to the apartment. I sucked it up and paid for a taxi. That is my fiasco. I wonder if the moral of this is that I shouldn't plan travel on my own. That's foreboding for Paris.

A few hours later, I was headed off to Luberon!

The first stop was Isle-sur-la-Sorgues. Here there were a bunch of water wheels!

There was the second largest market in France (second to Paris). Here I purchased fougasse that put Wegmans' fougasse and entire bread counter to shame as well as half a kilogram of strawberries. This was the best meal that I have eaten in France. All I need is some fruit and bread, and I'm satisfied. That is a surprise to no one.

After this was Roussillon, where my camera battery died because I foolishly forgot to recharge it the night before.

Roussillon is on top of a mountain and off to the side is a quarry of red, orange, and yellow rocks. The buildings of Roussillon are made out of this rock and are beautiful.

The rocks themselves make one wonder if they are in France. The colors were beautiful, and there was a hiking path, that I naturally had to take even though I was ill-equipped and full of strawberries.


This is for Renée.

I matched the rock. Had the color stratification been more rapid, I could have matched all of the colors on my shoes.

Commence the making fun of me.

After Roussillon, it was off to Gordes, which is another city on the top and sides of a mountain. I will soon have the pictures of this city when one of the others on the trip e-mails them to me, she kindly let me use her camera when mine was not agreeable. This is the single picture I have of Gordes at present. It is the castle in the center of the town. Here, like Roussillon and Isle-sur-la-Sorgues, there was just a lot of walking around.

Most of the streets in French cities are unpaved. Gordes claims the title for the first place to make me fall because of the uneven stones. I've stumbled, but recovered in almost every other town I've been in.

Finally, tonight at dinner, the little girl in my host family told me that they missed me this weekend. It was precious: Toi, tu nous manques.*



*For those that know French, a note: Yes, she used the present tense. She is eight and her homework sometimes resembles mine. Yes, that is how manquer is used; I was right the first time.

Mint syrup for pancakes and waffles in my drink?

My apologies dear friends and family for being scarce this weekend, but a phenomenal occurrance occurred! I actually had plans on Friday and Saturday nights! Well, I wasn't supposed to Saturday night, but we'll get to that (in a later post, sorry!).

Let me show you two images for now.

This evening, my host mother offered me mint syrup for my water and I just looked at her confused. Syrup? Am I missing the translation?

She whips out this bottle of bright green mint-flavored stuff. She pours some of it into a glass and then adds water. "I assumed you had this in the United States."
Do we? I don't think so, as I responded with my most-used French phrase "Je ne sais pas" (I don't know). I want a different phrase to take that title.

Anyway it was tasty, minty, and refreshing.

Please note a few things about this picture: the green drink, the candy bar behind the glass (bueno, with milk and hazelnut), and the ovalish white objects behind the nerd book. Those white objects are called calissons. I think they are delicious, and you will undoubtedly get to try these if you see me soon after my trip because I intend to bring a lot of them back. They're an easy "I was thinking of you while in France, but I didn't want to buy you something useless" sort of gift (so is Provencial soap). In other words, if you are reading this, prepare yourself for these things. Anyway, the candies are a bit tangy (lemon/melon), have sugary icing on the top, and a surprise on the bottom. Tasty.

On my walk home today, I passed by some interesting things. I'll leave most of it out, but THE SNAILS RETURNED!!! To satisfy Renée's request to see the snails, here is a picture.

They were all over the sidewalk, but I think the ones climbing on the mailbox were my favorite.

Anyway, it's late and this post is going to be insanely long if I recount my tales of the weekend. They'll come soon.

Once again, I am blown away by how old everything is here. It's fantastic.

I have to toot my own horn here, since I am far too lazy to e-mail or call the appropriate people to tell them this. I am a finalist for the Vanderbilt Prize for Undergraduate Research in Physics and Astronomy. I believe the winner knows who they are already after having read the e-mail again. Anyway, I get $500 and a free trip to Nashville if the award ceremony is held on a day that I am available. A nice big thank you goes out to the Harmons for getting me to apply for that award, too.

Back to France:
On my way to class I pass by some bushes. Amusingly, bunches of snails slime out from under the foliage and they and their slime are all over the sidewalk. The last few days have brought out some of the snails, but some cruel people step on them. If they were slugs, I'd understand. But the snails?! Instead of tiptoeing through a maze of snails, I am forced to walk through their remains. At least no one threw salt on them.

Not too much has been going on here. Class consumes the mornings, and I tend to walk around Aix spending money in the afternoon. There is a lot to see in Aix so I have done some more tourist-type adventures.

Roman baths:
Here is one view of what were the thermal baths.









Here is another view of the thermal baths. The fun part about the Thermes Sextius is that there is a modern-day spa on top of it. The Roman ruins were found during renovation, I believe. The same goes for the Cathédrale Saint-Sauveur d'Aix, which is the one across the street from my school (see below for my tour of the cloisters).

In the thermies, you can drink the water out of this fountain. Naturally, I drank it. It wasn't warm, which I found disappointing. I suppose it comes from a different source. I really have no idea.








On to the cathedral! This is it from the outside. Because the streets are so narrow I can't get a complete image.





Behold! Cloisters! I waited around the cathedral for a long time before the tour of these began because they couldn't find the keys. Anyway, all of the columns are different and at the tops of the columns are images from the Bible. It's pretty interesting to stand in places like the cloisters and the thermal baths and realize that these things have been around for so long. The craftsmanship is impressive.

Again, here are the cloisters with parts of the cathedral in the background. If you know anything about periods of architecture, you will note that this cathedral is truly a hodge-podge of styles. There are the Roman forum remains in the Baptistery that were discovered when renovations were being performed. The cathedral itself was started in the fifth century and additions have been made ever since. There is Gothic, baroque, Romanesque, etc. architecture throughout the whole place. It is quite fantastic to behold.