La fin

So I'm back at Mudd and getting back into research. It's hard to believe how quickly you can get readjusted after being in a foreign country. On the other hand I asked Terence at dinner the other night if we were allowed to put our elbows on the table at meals in America. So I've done a lot of thinking about whether or not it was really a good choice to go abroad. I've fallen a little behind in terms of classes for my major, my English has been set back a little, and somehow I'm having problems loading gels in lab. At the same time, seeing France gave me a viewpoint I could never have found elsewhere. Above all, it showed me a surprisingly different way to think. The lifestyle is a lot different, and it was really cool to see how the thought process can lead to so many of the differences I noticed. I can make up the missed classes, I can go back to English, and I can spend 12 hours a day in lab to relearn the basics, but I'll never have another opportunity like studying abroad. It was definitely a great decision, and if anyone reading this is on the fence about doing the same thing, you gotta go. I miss Paris a lot, but I really hope to get back there soonish, maybe even taking a job over there for a while between college and grad school. I'm finishing this post and probably this blog with my favorite photo of the semester, taken the last night I was in Paris. I think it was take number seven on the backflip in front of the Eiffel Tower project, and somehow Glennis caught me right before takeoff. I think it perfectly expresses the unimaginable anguish of having to leave the Paris that I had come to love. But I'll be back.

Plus de photos

So Glennis finally sent me the photos I had been asking for and here they are. The first is from Biarritz, at this awesome place where the waves were crashing. I wanted to be in a cool pose with the water breaking right behind me, but as you can see, I was a little afraid of getting soaked.

This one is from the opera we went to, with Alexa, Glennis and I all dressed up.

My last night in Paris, Glennis and I decided we needed to get a shot of me doing a backflip in front of the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately we weren't as fortunate as in Greece, and it took 13 attempts. It was actually kind of cool because she caught me at different points in the flip each time, but here's the good number 13.

Château de Vincennes

So I'm back at Mudd, but I'll update you on the last weekend in Paris. I went to the Château de Vincennes with my cousin on Sunday, and had French lunch and dinner with Glennis and Alexa on Saturday. We made a tiramisu from a recipe my host mom gave me and it was fantastic. We finished the whole thing in a half-hour. The castle was really cool. This is the castle within a castle: the fortress of the king.

And here's the chapel, done in the flamboyant gothic style.

After visiting the castle, my cousin and I headed back to the Latin Quarter, and I finally got a picture of the big statue of Saint Michael.

Glennis and I met up after I got back from the castle and hung out on the Champ de Mars in front of the Eiffel Tower. We saw this woman with a crazy hat and got a picture of her as she posed with some random tourists.

Photos (Enfin)

So not much to add from last time but I wanted to put up a couple of pictures. I'm still waiting for a few from Biarritz and from the Opera from Glennis, but I'll post them eventually. This is the Basilica of St Denis.

For our final activity today we took a boat along the Seine and finally saw the small Statue of Liberty:

See some of you soon!

Presque la fin

So I have less than a week now...I admit I'm used to semesters going by really quickly, but I feel like this one takes the cake. I'll be pretty sad to leave France, but also really happy to get back to the States. I miss sloppy, careless American food and making money. I'm really excited to start my summer job because some Russian team scooped my project while I was abroad and I'll theoretically get to pick up an entirely new one. Oh yeah, I don't have any photos today; I've been too lazy to upload them. I took my last scary exam today, which was for Medieval Art. I thought it went ok until I saw in my notes that illustrations are precious arts and stained glass is not. Oh well; I bet it didn't go too badly. I did really well on the bio exam for my second bio class, and I think the exam for the Arabic Literature class went ok too. Now I've just got Grammar tomorrow and then I'll be done. However between then and Monday I need to get ready to go, which will be tough. I still want to see at least four things in Paris, buy lots of stuff and do all my packing. And since there's a weight limit on the plane, I may end up needing to send things back to the States too. So basically packing needs to be figured out Friday. I'm not even worried about the exam tomorrow; I'm just worried about all the crap I have to do afterwards. Anyways, the last week: not much to say because everything was wrapping up and I was studying a lot. We did a visit to the St Denis Basilica, the first piece of Gothic art, on Saturday, and then ate at a great couscous place. Unfortunately there aren't a ton of exciting things going on now that it's almost over, but I promise to do a big philosophical essay at the end, maybe when I'm back in the States. I hope everyone's enjoying their vacations!

Nancy et Metz

So I took my bio exam on Friday and it didn't go super well. I probably only studied 3-4 hours, so it's not a huge surprise. There was also an equation that I definitely should have memorized but didn't. Oh well; we'll see what happens. Friday night I watched the best French movie I've ever seen, "J'ai toujours rêvé d'être un gangster", "I've always dreamed of being a gangster" in English. It's four separate stories of people who really want to accomplish a small crime, but utterly fail. It starts out beautifully with one of the main characters getting out of his car with a pantyhose mask on and walking into a pole. Then yesterday the group visited Nancy and Metz, two towns in eastern France. In Metz, we saw a really cool Gothic cathedral, with some of the windows done by Chagall. I got a book on him from my cousin after graduating from high school and now I'm running into his stuff everywhere. He also did the ceiling of the main opera house in Paris. Here's one set of windows:

And here's a shot of the front of the cathedral:

Wandering around Metz we also spotted some gardens, so I took a photo for ma mère. Happy Mother's Day!

Before getting to Metz, we got a small surprise: Thermopolis, a French spa and swimming pool type resort. The thing about pools in France is guys can't wear trunks. Wendy tried to explain it to me as a hygienic concern, which I guess makes sense. In any case, all the guys ended up wearing "slips de bain", Speedos, or as I called them, "Man panties". So that was a little awkward, but overall it was a cool place. They had this whirlpool thing on the outside of the pool where you could just get pushed around by the current. There were also three saunas: one in which you sweat a lot, one in which you can barely see or breathe because of the mint-flavored steam (remember that episode of Friends?), and then one which was so hot I felt like my face was melting like that guy in Raiders of the Last Ark. Anyways, overall it was pretty cool and now I just have two weeks left here. So little time...Again, good luck on finals!

Biarritz

So I was going to wait to post this until I got a good wave picture from Glennis, but she's taking too long. I should also definitely be studying for my final exam in Gene to Protein, but I just don't have the willpower right now. Paris is gorgeous right now and I'm kind of sad I have to leave in a little over two weeks. But anyways, Biarritz. So as soon as we got back from Greece, Glennis and I had to get our things together for a train to Biarritz the next morning. Biarritz is in the southwest of France, really close to the border with Spain. It has the nicest beaches I have ever seen. Huge waves and always sunny, at least while we were there. Here's a picture:

We got probably the best room in the entire budget hotel, except that my bed broke whenever I sat on it. Clearly I've put on a little weightt during my stay in France. I ended up just putting my mattress on the floor most of the time. Besides hanging out at the beach, we also went to a casino. So my first gambling experience in a casino happened in French. It was pretty cool, and I had Glennis and Alexa there to stop me from losing all my money. I ended up turning 25 euros into 70 euros and then losing it all. After a quick consultation with my advisors, I decided to put another 20 euros in to win back what I had lost. In the end, I was up 7.50 euros in 2 hours of Blackjack. Very sad, but at least I didn't lose anything. In any case, Biarritz was awesome and my only regret was that we didn't get the chance to visit the chocolate museum there. There were definitely some interesting sites, though:

So we found this square with trees full of umbrellas. No idea why.

We also found a pool inhabited by vacuum cleaner flamingos. Again, no idea why.
Unfortunately we made a huge mistake and expected that we could pick up our tickets from the ticket office an hour before our night train back to Paris. Glennis really couldn't handle it, so I took a picture of her shame:

We ended up having to buy new tickets on the train, but we did manage to get the "couchettes", which are compartments with beds. So I actually ended up sleeping pretty well. When we got back to Paris, it was time to study for a paper on the Virgin and Child of the St-Chapelle, a really cool ivory sculpture. Not too much has gone on this week, things are wrapping up. And as I said before, Paris is gorgeous. Once I'm done with the exam tomorrow, I'll probably finally check out a museum again: either the Musée de l'Orangerie (lots of Impressionist works) or back to the Musée Rodin, to which the Camille Claudel collection has temporarily returned. We've got a mystery trip to Nancy and Metz this Saturday, so I'll be posting on that soon enough. Good luck on finals!