Quote Day!

How can one conceive of a one party system in a country that has over 200 varieties of cheese?

Charles de Gaulle

French general & politician (1890 - 1970)

Manatees!!

"Barbara Manatee, manatee, manatee, You are the one for me, one for me, one for me, Sent from up above, up above, up above, You are the one I love, one I love, Oh Barbara!" ~Silly Songs with Larry, Veggie Tales

Sometimes referred to as sea cows, manatees are infinitely amusing water mammals, but that's pretty much all I knew by myself. Oh and they live in marshes, which is bad for them because boats come through the shallow waters and hurt the manatees. Well, my interest in manatees was recently renewed when a friend of mine posted some manatee pictures from a recent dive.

Here I bring you the knowledge gleaned from my questions to Caleb, marine science major, and manatee semi-expert:

He doesn't know what's up with the eyes, but the nose plugs keep poor Barbara Manatee from breathing in water. He also tells us that manatees are fairly friendly, if a little slow. They tend to be curious or indifferent to the presence of people, and enjoy having their bellies scratched.

Our outside research (aka Wikipedia) adds that they are grazing herbivores and are endangered. They have no natural predators but as I mentioned before they get hurt by boat propellors.

Save the Manatees!

Machu Picchu

Well, it wouldn't really be my blog if I didn't provide you with random and only marginally interesting information.  Today's topic? Machu Picchu. And no it is not a pokemon.

It's a place, as you can now see, and my current desktop background is a picture of it from NatGeo. The NG photo also includes a llama :).  Anyway, Machu Picchu (pronounced matchu peektchu) is an Incan site in Peru, and is often considered to be the "Lost City of the Incas". It's situated 8000 ft above sea level.

It was mostly-ish constructed in the mid 1400s but it was completely abandoned within a century. The natives were likely wiped out by smallpox from spanish conquistadors, although historians are pretty sure the spanish knew nothing about the city.

It lay utterly abandoned for centuries. There are some indications that in the mid 1800s the site was visited by and plundered by various europeans. There are also many claims for discovery of the site at the turn of the century, but it wasn't until American historian Hiram Bingham found it in 1911. He wrote numerous books and articles on Machu Picchu through out is life. National Geographic devoted their entire April 1913 issue to the site. Although more than one theory exists about the role of Machu Picchu in the Incan Empire, the generally accepted one names it as an estate of the emperor Pachacuti.

Today it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site but they are likely to add it to the List of World Heritage Sites in Danger because of heavy tourism.

A New Direction

So, I haven't exactly posted in a while. Ok a really long time. Stopped for a while cuz I didn't really have much to say after France, then I kinda picked up a little with school, but once again ran out of things to say. So here we are way later with the most recent post as like two months ago. Oops.

I needed a new theme, and the blog needed a face-lift for sure. My mother always refers to me as her "Scarlett" for my occasional inability to recognize that parades do occasionally get rained on. Minor side story: My senior year, in the midst of the marching band rehearsals, crazy ridiculous volunteering for clubs and such, and the academic, um, "thrill" of 4 AP classes, I somehow became in charge of organizing the Homecoming Parade, which is kind of a big deal at my high school. It was crazy and ridiculous and I'm still not sure how I pulled it off, but throughout the process whenever my mom asked what would happen if it rained, my immediate answer was, "It won't." It didn't.

Anyway, I don't always have such a lovely Life Will Be Perfect rose-colored sunglasses outlook, but I try. I gripe and whine like everybody else from day to day, but at the end of the day, tomorrow is still another day. Except of course if your math homework is due tomorrow. But I don't have math anymore so that's no longer a problem.

I'm also an EXTREMELY left brained person. It has its ups and downs. My idea of creative is clean lines with funky colors, and a slight chemistry theme. Yup. There you have it: Jackie's blog, take two.

Joy to the World!

I did something in lab today!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got to learn how to cut off a piece of silver tubing, use pliers to crimp one end shut, melt the edges closed, fill it with reagents, and seal it. And then we put it in the furnace! Yay!

I also know what I'm doing now. I'm synthesizing new ruthanates and gallanates for basic research. In Calbert-terms, I'm making new stuff for the sake of making new stuff. Yippee!

Oh and my math professor gave the whole class a 1-day extension on the homework so now I have time to fix those draining tank problems. Woot!

AND as if my day wasn't good enough, I got my guard rail today! Now I don't have to worry about falling out of my loft anymore.

Could we just all have a round of applause for God for delivering such a well-rounded, wonderful day?

Physics in not Phun

...but it is funny. Today I had my double dose: lecture and lab. All the normal people are sitting there cringing on my behalf and my mom's thinking to herself, "Lucky!"

I am not lucky. Physics class is awful. I like my teacher, and I have a great TA. I know another sophomore in the lecture class with me, and overall the class doesn't seem too hard. The lab is going to be downright easy. No the problem I have with my physics class (and more specifically the lab) is what my problem usually is: There are just too many stupid people in the world.

Now I realize that I have an unusually low tolerance for people who ask dumb questions, but there was this girl in my lab today (who I'm assuming is a freshman and will hither to be known as 'Emily') who really just shocked me. I just didn't think it was possible.

'Emily' was that girl. The one that the is in books, and tv shows, and movies, and who is in all sorts of hypothetical examples, but who you didn't think actually existed. Like I really didn't think anyone ever actually asked the teacher if he was going to give them the answers. My teachers always say things such as, "Well, I'm never going to just give you the answer, but I'll help you work through the problem." So our TA goes and says something along these lines and she follows this up with, "But after that, you'll, like, tell us, the right answer, right?"

It was like that the whole class. And all we did was go over the syllabus.

It's going to be a long year.

Mmm New Dorm Smell

Ok besides being ridiculously tired, I'm very happy with my new dorm. It's big and spacious and fantastic. My only real problem is not enough storage. But I've got it covered. I'm next door to the science buildings, just up the hill from the band hall, and right around the corner from Strom. Perfect! I have a beautiful view of the stadium from not 1, but 2 windows (which have curtains now btw). My roommate is supposedly moving in wednesday. And thursday the cafeteria downstairs will be open. Yes! Life is good.

New director smell, not so good. Verdict is still out with me. He is much more, um, intense, than say Brozak. He really wants us to be the best band in the SEC, which of course we will be, but that's besides the point. I can tell band is going to be a lot more work this year, I'm just hoping that he also makes band a lot more fun this year too. He seems like a very serious guy, and I'm hoping he loosens up just a little bit after band camp. I don't know; we'll see.

Our first show, for those who are interested, will be Dave Mathews Band (and yes we're playing Ants Marching). The music is killer.

Back to School

Today is my last day at home. Phooey. I have to go back to actually doing something every day. I'm almost done packing. Just a few more things that have to get stuffed in. How I don't know, but I should be able to get it. It'll be so good to be back on campus and see everybody again. It feels like it's been ages since I've seen anybody. Tomorrow we have to leave really really really early in the morning so we can get to the dorm when it opens. I'm sure a bunch of people are going to move-in today despite the fact that housing says we can't, but I'd rather not risk it. It's not that big a deal. Ok, I better go finish packing...:(.

Jackie's Random Thoughts

This qualifies as one of my more random thoughts: can you give a cat a bath? Now, obviously, I have never owned a cat. I know people who do, and I'm sure they would all tell me that they have never even considered bathing their cats. I understand that for the most part, cats clean themselves. However. I worked in pet kennel and I assure you that I have never yet come across a cat that smelled good.

Dogs get baths all the time. Most people who have dogs can tell you some pretty funny stories involving giving Fido a bath, but they will all tell you that you have to wash your dog from time to time. And besides, they look so much better and they smell SO much better after they've been bathed with puppy shampoo.

So that led me to my all important question of is it possible to wash a cat? Does anyone do this? Because let me tell you, I would (but I'm also the kind of person who would be training the cat to go out in the yard like the dog). The answer, according to Yahoo! Answers, is Yes, people do wash their cats. And there are lots of tips there for how to pull it off. Personally I think it's a matter of starting young. If you start washing the cat as a kitten, using very gentle methods and lots of kitty treats, I think it would probably be just as easy to wash the cat as the dog.

I mean, after all, Calbert is no big fan of bath time, but he tolerates it because he knows there are biscuits involved.

What is the difference between a Jam and a Jelly?

The title is pretty self explanatory so I'm going to just dive in.

According to Dictionary.com :

jam: n. a preserve of whole fruit, slightly crushed, boiled with sugar.

jelly: n. a food preparation of a soft, elastic consistency due to the presence of gelatin, pectin, etc, esp. fruit juice boiled down with sugar and used as a sweet spread.

I would like to point out at this time that "jam" had twelve dictionary results whereas "jelly" had merely five.

wiseGEEK.com provides us with further analysis:

Jam is made from whole fruit and jelly is made from fruit juices. Jam is healthier for you. Jelly is generally sweeter than jam. Both are types of fruit preserves; other fruit preserves include confit, fruit butter, conserves, and marmalade.

Now you know.

Vacuuming and other such things

When I was in tenth grade, one of my very best guy friends and I were in the same french class (we've actually always been in the same french class prior to college but back to the story). Anyway, our teacher always went down the rows every monday asking what we did over the weekend. Johnny's answer was always cleaning. "I cleaned the bathroom" "I vacuumed the second floor" "I cleaned out the basement" "I cleaned out the garage". No really. Every time. It was always a big class joke. Now the joke's over. I have spent most of today cleaning.

I vacuumed the basement. I swiffered the first floor. Not that you can tell, Calbert took care of that pretty quickly, but at least now there's less fur-bunnies rolling around. I emptied and refilled the dishwasher. And I'm about to go bathe the dog, which I'm sure will make him uber happy with me.

Oh and I killed three spiders in the basement. I should have a parade.

France Picture

Azay-le-Rideau, from the side

Disagreeable Smells

Everyone smells things differently, but there are lots of smells that just about everyone agrees are disagreeable. And for every one of those disagreeable smells, there is someone out there who likes them. Like gasoline for example. My lab TA first semester loved the smell of gasoline, but I like many people don't like it.

My personal list of smells that I love that most people hate:

~Fresh paint: I love the smell of fresh paint and the stronger the better.

~Bleach/chlorine: To me this just smells clean but I've been told I'm crazy.

~Shoe polish: Can't really explain this one.

~Coffee: This isn't really that unusual, lots of people like the smell of coffee. My little weirdness is that I don't like coffee, just the smell.

Smells I don't like include nuts (except for peanuts), cigarette smoke, and "airplane smell". Buses don't smell too terrific either. Thoughts?

Home Sweet Home

Home is a wonderful place to be. Annelise and I chilled out and talked and caught up. I talked to Steph for just shy of 2 hours on Skype. Savannah and I went swimming and then out to eat (cool Italian place called Figo).

Yesterday Meredith and I watched Mamma Mia on Sing-Along-Mode. And yes, we sang along.

I have Giradelli (spelling?) fudgy brownies cooling while my giant puppydog stares gloomily in the direction of the kitchen. (He doesn't dare try anything with Dad home).

Oh and I have been mildly productive. I made my bed today. And I did laundry. Boo-yah.

Home!

Yeah, I'm home. Back in ATL. major relaxation in store. Woke up at 4:30 am this morning (france time) and guess what? It's currently 4:36 am france time. Full 24 hours with only naps to keep me going. Woah. So I'm pretty tired.

But it's so good to be back. I love travelling, and trust me France was the ultimate, but it's always good to come home and fall into your own bed.

Giving out souvenirs to the family was fun too. Like christmas in july. le noel en juillet. teehee. ok. seriously that's not funny; I should get to bed soon before I start making bad puns. Ok.

Good Night everyone from the American desk of Jackie

Soldes

Soldes ("Sales") are the most wonderful things the world has ever thought of. And France knows how to do it right. The french don't really do the after-christmas sales or tax-free weekend anything like that. What they do have is a five week extravaganza in June/July that is to some extent regulated by the government, but isn't exactly standard, and which makes my life super fabulous.

So after class wednesday (the first day of soldes) Hannah, Stephen (pronounced steph-ahn) and I went shopping. It was crazy, but awesome. I didn't buy a lot (I've already done a bit of shopping as you know) but the stuff I did get was incredibly cheap. One shirt (a new favorite) was only 3 euros. I know right? We had a great time. Stephen was a good shopping buddy, but Hannah and I kind of felt bad for dragging him around so many girl stores. We tried to get into a men's or a shoe store every other store so he wouldn't be too too bored.

Random observation: french people are completely oblivious to other people around them. they really don't notice anyone else around them, stepping up in front of you when you're at a rack, even cutting lines. it would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic.

Well anyway, yesterday, Lucia Hannah and I took the bus to the H&M. OMG. It was literally three times as big as the one by my house (atlanta). Crazy huge. Made a couple purchases. Including a butterfly ring that was only a euro. *contented sigh*.

Today Hannah and I made a trip to the fnac (pronounced fuh-nack) for the books. Generally speaking it's kind of like a best buy, but they also have a fairly large book section. Got a french-french dictionary (a Petit Robert for anyone who cares) because I've wanted one for a while and the 4th Harry P (our new nickname for him) because well why not. Will probably start Accro du Shopping next though. Hm. Ok that's about it. Peace.

Music Festival and my Mon/Tues

Sunday was the Fete de Musique here in France and it is a huge deal. The entire country jams out for the better part of the day, all in celebration that it's officially "summer" (it feels like spring). I started out around 4 or so, at Parc Prebendes where I knew there would be a concert going on.

I btw became the person to know, because I had gone to the tourism office earlier and gotten a little schedule of events (complete with map) showing what was starting when and where to find it. Yep pretty sweet.

Then I met up with Mary and some other girls at Place Plume and we listened to a girl called Soem and then a blues group. We got kind of bored and started wandering. We met up with Jane after that and wandered a bit. Then was dinner (sandwich, not the best) and we listened to a reggae group (not really) followed by a british pop group called The Radiophones who had THE cutist drummer. What is it about drummers? Anyway I digress...

So we were pretty done with place plume then so we followed jane and met up with these french guys she's gotten to know (just ok looking) and then we met up with even more girls. Then the group redivided and my group went and got drinks (I got a pina colada). So then we went back to place plume for a while, and I finally headed home around 12:30, at which point I realized that it was about dinner time on the other side of the pond and called my dad. End of day.

Monday was very tired. Everyone was tired. Really really tired. Our teacher tried to be all "Tell me what you guys did this weekend" and we all just looked at her like "Really? What do you Think we did this weekend?" Funny. Then after classes Hannah and Stephen and I went and did a little pre-sale shopping. Eurodiff was having a pre-sale and so I got a pair of shoes, a shirt and a scarf all 40% off. We also mapped out our plan for tomorrow. Soldes are awesome. Today was spent miserably shuffling through a really long day of classes. Yuck. Great art history class though and afterword I talked to my mom on fb and played some foos with Wayne.

End of day.

Versailles!

or as my mother called it, The Big V.

It was HUGE. so amazing...so extravagent, so incredibly wealthy...Words really don't describe it.

It was an extremely early morning, only made worse by the fact that it was cold yesterday and none of us had planned on it. Then we made the horrible realization that Olivier (the coolest professor ever) would not be accompagning us on this excursion. He was replaced by a strange woman with a moustache. Who talked very very very softly.

3 hour bus ride later we arrived at the coolest place in the world. We were informed that we could wander freely (just get back to the bus on time) or follow our "guide". Madame Moustache (as I continued to call her the rest of the day, much to everyone's delight) led us into the first room and spent (kid you not) 45 minutes explaining it to the group. Now I love explanations, and knowing the history and the basics about what I'm looking at, but there are limits. It was at this point that we (Sylvia, Rachel, Olesya, and I) decided it would be better to wander freely and actually, you know, SEE versailles.

Well, sylvia and I lost track of rachel and olesya in the crowd so we ended up seeing the rest of the chateaux by ourselves. We saw the grands apartements, the royal residence rooms, and the dauphins appartements. Booyah. We then took on the gardens.

For those who don't know, versailles has spectacular gardens that cover acres...really. And Sylvia and I saw all of it. In three hours. OMG. So tired. So then every saturday afternoon they turn on the fountains, which is incredible. So we saw many of the gardens again. Then we ran into Olesya, Rachel, Stuart, and two other guys (whose names escape me, but who all went to West Georgia with Rachel) and we all went to the Domain of Marie-Antoinette. We wanted to see her little farm thing, but we couldn't really find it. We DID get into the Grand Trianon (Napoleon's residence) for free (due to a combination of our student ID's and my french) which was cool but it wasn't what we were looking for. It was starting to get late, so we gave up on Marie's farm and headed back.

At 5:30 they had the awesome fountain show at the neptune fountain. So cool. The fountains start up and get bigger to music. Very cool.

A 3 hour bus ride later and I crawled into bed, exhausted but happy.

Chenonceau

Gosh I love castles...

Today we went to chenonceau. This was not a trip via the institute, but rather via Duffy (it's coming from our extra Duffy money for the knowledge of mes parents). Twenty minute train ride takes you directly to the castle. Right out front. Kind of funny really.

Lovely castle, goes right over the river. One problem: old castles require maintenance and that maintenance can last years. Maintenance requires scaffolding, my pet peeve. So I practiced a little Jackie-Cantwell-Photography-Magic (aka tips I got from the AJC living section). You can get great angled photos, side views, and vertical shots that just barely cut out the undesired section. Another great way to "cut out" scaffolding: stick a person in front of it. Literally place your desired model so that they (mostly their head) blocks the undesired section (aka the icky scaffolding) and leaves the rest of the beautiful tourist attraction in view. Perfect every time.

Also took some blurry pictures of the indoors. Oh and there was this cute little maze which we got totally excited about, because really who doesn't love a hedge maze? But then we got completely let down, seeing as we were rather too tall (the hedges only came up to our shoulders) and rather too smart (it would have been a difficult maze if we had been like, 5). Oops. Explored the gift shop. Nothing worth buying. Got back on the train. Went and got a chocolate eclair for no reason other than I wanted one. It was delicious.

This has been the 6 oclock news from FTDO. Jackie Cantwell, signing out.




PS: OMG VERSAILLES TOMORROW!!!!!!!

Thursday of Crazy Week

Wine and Cheese Tasting:

Ok prepare yourself for the revelation of the century (not really): I don't like wine. It's not just a certain type of wine either. We had dry wines, we had sweet wines, we had white wines, we had red wines, we had many different types of wine. And I didn't like them. Just not my thing. The average glass of wine has about 100 calories, the average chocolate milkshake has about 200. I'd rather have the milkshake than the two glasses of wine, sorry. A sweet wine has more calories than a coca-cola and I would definitely choose the coke.

Cheese however is a different matter: I LOVE cheese. We had goat cheese, cow cheese, sheep cheese, pasteurized cheese, not pasteurized cheese (which is not allowed aux Etats Unis)...and I loved it all. The camembert was a favorite. Love cheese. Could eat that stuff all day long...(on a related note: I have become adjusted to the goat cheese with strawberry jam combo and now find it an acceptable dessert).

Oh and if anyone was wondering, 3-4 glasses of wine DOES make me tipsy. I was a far cry from drunk but I definitely had a slight headache and standing completely still without wavering was starting to become a problem. I kind of knew that would happen though, seeing as my mom is also petite and her limit is really about 2-3 glasses.

Yep. That was the wine and cheese tasting. Any questions? No? Good. Moving on.