Big Day in the Lab

Well the boss had been gone the last two weeks (visiting researcher in Japan) and today he came back. Now I would like to remind my readers (all three of you) that we are, generally speaking, fairly productive. The problem with chemistry, science, and research in general, is that it's a lot of hurry up and wait. Emphasis on the wait. If you get too far ahead of yourself, you risk wasting time, energy, and resources (never good). So there's always a limit to how "productive" you can be in any given amount of time because you need to have some kind of results before you can move on.

So there we all are looking at our lab books and our crystals (or not, as the case may be) and trying to decide how best to make it sound like there's more than there really is. Or rather, how to show our efforts to their best advantage. Anyway. So we're all also kind of drifting around the various parts of the lab. No one wants to run into him first. But you can only be vaguely evasive for so long. The boss decides to set up individual meeting times with each of us, to discuss "where you're at" (aka what the hell you've been doing for two unsupervised weeks) and "what your next steps should be" (aka what you ideally should have already done). Guess who got to go today? Yep, yours truly.

Apparently, I'm on track. Do I now have enough to keep me busy for the next 2 years? Of course. But I managed to escape with what a grade school would call "Satisfactory". Score one for Jackie! The other side to this is that meeting with the boss is like meeting with a tidal wave. He just overflows with ideas of what you could do.

Goodbye Narnia, Hello Middle-earth

I have finished the Chronicles of Narnia! Anyone who has read them knows this really isn't much of an accomplishment, but all the same I can now say I have read the whole series. And I definitely have my favorites.

First, a little background: The books were originally published in the order The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; Prince Caspian; The Voyage of the Dawn Treader; The Silver Chair; The Horse and His Boy; The Magician's Nephew; and last The Last Battle. Now there are all kinds of scholars who argue the merits of reading them in their original publishing order. Lots of junk about how The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was clearly meant to be read first and that chronological order is really not that necessary. However, an old letter from Professor Lewis to his son mentioned a preference for the chronological order (he also said it didn't think it mattered what order they were read in). I personally like the chronological order because it makes it easier to follow some of the leaps in Narnian time.

At any rate, my favorite is The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Followed by The Horse and His Boy. The Last Battle gets third because although I like some of the beautiful imagery in the end, I'm not big on "end of the world" stories. They scare me too much and I don't have a dog to cuddle with. Prince Caspian ties with The Silver Chair. I will admit that Prince Caspian is a much better character in Dawn Treader; he's really dense in his first book, but then again so are Eustace and Jill. Magician's Nephew comes next because again the imagery is beautiful. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe comes dead last. I just don't like that one, which I hate to admit because most people like that one the best. *sigh*

Well, anyway, now I'm going to go back to Middle-earth. Parts 2 and 3 of Lord of the Rings are beckoning.

Adventures

It was a cloudy day outside the GSRC. The researchers were researching. The reactions were reacting. The sonicators were sonicating. All was normal. Until something disturbed the quiet halls of academia. That something was a fire alarm. 

Now the great and sage professor had told his pupils on countless occasions, "We don't do fire drills. If you hear a siren, it's real. Just get out!" So it was with great haste that the young student made her way down the winding path of the stairwell, followed closely by her confused foreign comrade, who had never heard the formidable call of the fire alarm. 

With great patience the little community of scholars gathered outside their ivory tower and waited for clarification. A fire truck and a small delegation of the local police arrived, only to foster the growing curiosity of the group. Finally an agent of the Health and Safety Department was found and the scientists were enlightened. They finally learned as they filed back to their respective places of study the cause of all the commotion. 

Apparently if there's too much water flow in a particular tube in the mechanics room it automatically sets off the fire alarm. Fantastic. 

Summer Projects

Well here I am. On campus in the summer. Another adventure is underway. I have two summer projects that I'm working on.

Summer Project 1: Reading

I've always got an incredibly long reading list, but this summer I particularly want to read the Chronicles of Narnia Series and parts 2 and 3 of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. I'm taking a class next fall about Lewis, Tolkien, and Williams, and I've got a bad feeling that I'll be the only person in the class who is not fluent in Elvish. I have seen both the "regular" and the extended editions of all three movies and read the Fellowship. So I'm probably about on par with a normal person's understanding of LOTR. And trust me, that's accomplishment because last fall I didn't even know who Legolas was or how to spell Gandalf. Sad but true. Right now though I'm working on Narnia because I'm borrowing the series from my sister. I had previously read the first two but that was a long time ago, so I just reread those and today I finished book 3, the Horse and His Boy. I really don't want or need all the other people in the class shunning me as the loser who hasn't even read the Narnia series or heaven forbid be the person who hasn't read Lord of the Rings. So this is definitely getting priority on the reading list.

Summer Project 2: Don't Starve

The situation: No more meal plan. Also no freezer and limited fridge space.
The conflict: I like eating.
The solution: Microwaveable easy mac.
Haha I'm just kidding. I eat more than easy mac. I went to the grocery and got myself some bread and sandwich stuffs. And poptarts (I Looooooove poptarts). Also got a fruit bowl thing with pineapple, strawberries and kiwis. Cuz you know I've got to at least try to eat healthy. I do of course have the cosco bulk box of easy mac. Yum. I had soups but I finished those last night, so no more until I get back to the grocery. The major purchase was Jimmy Dean fully cooked sausage patties. I was leary but Mere eats the bacon all the time (she doesn't even microwave which I think is gross). As it turns out they're not bad. Yesterdays breakfast was two sausages cut up on a bagel with some cheese. Delicious. So I'm not starving yet. Dinner is still a work in progress and tonight I think I may treat myself to some Which Wich.

The Calbert Report

Now go back and reread the title as "the calbear repour" if you didn't the first time.

Thank you.

First on the agenda: Where in the world is Jackie San Diego? Aka Jackie still wants to kick some people in the housing office. Stupid lazy overly complicated bureaucracy. grr. Yes I am still in my room on the 5th floor of the honors dorm and will be there until an undetermined time on one of two semi-determined dates. Becky and Casey (the suitemate) both left today so its fairly empty and frighteningly quiet. Plus the tv's gone.

Tomorrow looks to be a combination of Hectic and Tiring, with chances of Research in the afternoon. Be sure to bring along your Problem Solving Skills folks because we could get some pretty befuddling Packing storms throughout the day.

News of the weird: It seems my brain only cares to remember random factoids about specific randomly selected people. If you're not one of those randomly selected people, I seem to be capable of holding entire conversations with you without knowing your name or even how it is you know mine. A rather severe drought of name-memory was ended today when I finally stalked around facebook until I identified the poor boy.

Word of the day: vamoose. v. to depart quickly.

And now for The Bright Side, brought to you by Purex 3-in-1 Laundry Sheets! The curtains had very strange and inexplicable stains on them, in addition to looking like Kansas during the Dust Bowl. So into the wash went and now they look nice and fresh and clean.

And to end off our night, I saw a puppy going for a walk today. Good night America!

NRJ

The one awesome thing to come from this stupid "let's take business french it'll be so useful" idea of mine: NRJ.com. For our last project for the class we had to pick a french company and do a presentation on it. You know, powerpoint, 10-ish minutes, not that hard. Not a lot of guidance either, but that's a different topic. I did mine on Lacoste (the little crocodile shirts). The two guys who went the same day as me made me look great cuz they didn't know about the powerpoint requirement. haha. yep.

So Friday's presentations were much more like mine and this one guy (who's name I cannot remember for the life of me) did his on this french radio company, NRJ. It started as an acronym but it's not anymore. Pronounce it like "energy" with a french accent and you'll be good to go. So get this: they have online webradio stations. NRJ Pop, NRJ Rock, NRJ Reggae, etc etc etc. Now prepare yourself for: NRJ French. Yes. A free webradio station that plays round the clock non stop music exclusively in french. Can you say AWESOME? I can.

Curse you, beautiful sunshiny day

How am I supposed to get anything done on a pretty day? Worse than the internet trying to trick me into procrastination, the warm sunshine is just begging for me to nap on the horseshoe. Which I one hundred percent shouldn't do; there are far too many things that really really really ought to get done for me to go laying about and daydreaming. Humph. Maybe if I wish really hard and cross all my fingers my homework will do itself and my laundry will magically be clean and folded neatly in its drawers.

Oh I know, but a girl can dream right?

Holy Cow

I decided that I was going to head off my itchy eyes right from the get-go this year and bought allergy medicine today. Now I'm a bit, uh, reluctant to spend money so I went for the cheap CVS brand allergy tablets. You got 48 tablets for the same price as the 24 tablet box of name brand whatevers. And it clearly says "For allergy relief: sneezing, runny nose, itchy watery eyes, itchy throat". Great! That pretty much covers my basic anti-allergy medicine needs right?

WRONG.

When the back of the box says "marked drowsiness may occur" they are not kidding. I have been practically asleep on my feet all day. Oops. Really glad I only took 1 instead of the recommended 2. Geez. Moral of the story: don't mess around with allergy medicine. Always put down the money for the non-drowsy kind.

Science Quotes

Statistics: The only science that enables different experts using the same figures to draw different conclusions.
Evan Esar 

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I found it!) but 'That's funny ...'

Isaac Asimov (1920 - 1992)

There are no such things as applied sciences, only applications of science.
Louis Pasteur (1822 - 1895)

hehehe. 

Bummer

The real problem with spring break is that it ends. Going to class again is such a bummer. I don't really mind sitting through class so much, or even the learning thing. It's the whole homework thing that has to go. Oh and the getting up part. If I could stay in my nice warm bed and learn from there, it would be much better for sure.

In other news I'm reading Fellowship of the Ring and enjoying it.

Google Trends

This kind of stuff always peaks my interest.

Harry Potter reaps 5.2 times the number of searches as Lord of the Rings.

People search for "free movie" 17 times more often than "buy tickets".

Paris Hilton is 12.5 times more popular than Nicole Richie.

Katrina still gets 1.5 times more searches than Haiti.

3 times as many people searched for "physics help" than "biology help" and 1.36 times as many needed help with  chemistry than with physics.

Peace Corps is most often searched for in Washington DC, followed by Madison WI and Portland OR.

Sound Familiar?

You might work in lab if you're more afraid of what's on your hands before you go to the bathroom than after.

You might be a science major if your notes include the words "various math steps later".

You might be science kid if you have ever considered ditching class to go to a seminar.

You might be a chemist if your experiment would be illegal in your parents' garage.

You might be a physicist if you have ever been disappointed that your intro physics book didn't include the quantum mechanics appendix.

You might be a biologist if you have ever grown something that could wipe out an entire third world country.

You might be a science major if you think Schrodinger would be an epic name for a cat.

Or Earl and Meyer for a set of dogs.

Funny Story

     

Ages ago in Pchem (ok like two weeks ago) I turned to my dear friend Lindsey and I said, "Dearest friend Lindsey, I have procured an apartment for us for the upcoming academic year in a most favorable location, near a park". (Now you know me better than to think I would actually say it like that but just go along with it, ok?)

So she responded, "Oh really? Do tell!"

and I said, "Oh yes. We are to have 306, of Legare."










And do you know that she very specifically neglected to tell me until just today that the apartment I had procured with so little thought happens to be the very apartment which she inhabits at this very time? I cannot even begin to tell you my surprise!

Wait...what?

So my roommate considered going to the baseball game today. Then we realized that neither of us knew how to get tickets for sporting events. Because we're band kids. How sad is that?

For the forecast, I am now hoping it rains soon so I can wear my adorable plaid rain boots. Unfortunately today is far too bright and sunny to get away with wearing them.

In current events, I have a fairly busy weekend ahead of me. Volunteering as a returnee at the Study Abroad Pre-departure Q&A session today, tomorrow I'll be at a bball game in the afternoon (men's), carolina scholar weekend dorm tour at 5, immediately followed by bowling with the research group. Oh and sometime this weekend I need to do 3 lab reports. Hehehe.

Now back to the olympics...

Yay for me!

Ok excuse me while I do just a little bragging: A on my first physical chemistry exam, A on my first physical chemistry lab report. Boo-yah! K so out of my class of 46 persons, I was one of 17 to get an A. Now before you all go saying, but Jackie, I thought you said this was a weed-out class. Trust me it is. Another 16 people failed the test. It seems to have been one of things where if you got it, you really got it, but if you didn't, you REALLY didn't. I've been reserving judgement as to whether or not I like pchem until this first exam, because it's all well and good to say a class isn't that bad, but until you've taken the first test, you don't really know. So I give myself official license to like pchem.

Also in the good news category, I feel rather validated in my career choice (research chemist) in that pretty much everyday I feel like I'd rather just go to research all day. You have no idea how much more productive I could be if I didn't have to go to class and do homework. Sigh. Oh and I got to watch Kristina use the UV-vis spectrometer which was pretty cool, except it was having issues. It's kind of grumpy and only likes certain people. Apparently Kristina is not one of them.

Oh and as my final good thing of the day I had hot chocolate from Starbucks and it was yummy. Thank you and good night.

Just another typical day

TGIF. I'm so ready for the weekend. And check this: no lab reports this weekend, and no basketball games. I need the break. Today was a good day overall, except for the continuous downpour of rain. In business french we've moved on to marketing, which I find rather more useful than the types of french businesses and how to start a business in France. Trust me, I have no intention of ever trying to start my own business, let alone in France. Physics is still retarded. This woman just can't teach. I'm sure she knows her stuff, but her ability to teach is non-existent. However, today was cool because I made friends with this guy who sits next to me.

Research is going well. Can't really know if what I'm doing is working because I can't identify it based on XRD alone. Not being able to identify is generally a good thing, because it significantly increasing your chances of having found something new. However, this also means you have to give your samples to Mark (the crystallographer who can pretty much identify anything), which means you won't really know what they are for a few weeks at the earliest. This can make it hard to move forward. So right now it's kind of a waiting game. I also have 4 more samples that I'm in the process of cleaning in the sonicator. And by monday that will go up to 6, because I just put in 2 more reactions today.

Oh and success of the day: there's a mac in the main room that nobody uses, that is never on and I wasn't even sure could turn on. But I get tired of going to the mac in the XRD room to check email or whatever (plus I feel bad using that one cuz everyone needs it). So today I tried turning it on and was able to get it up and running, and hooked up to the internet. And I found an extra mouse for it. Score one for Jackie.

King Google

Ok I might need to just invest in Google stock. I use:

• Gmail
• Blogger (owned by Google)
• Google Earth
• Google Analytics
• Google Wave
• Google Chrome
• and of course Google the search engine

Seriously if Google decided to just stop, my life would be basically over.

Nerd Jealousy

This is terribly nerdy. One of my friends changed her profile picture to a picture of her wearing her lab goggles and I was like OMG! I have to have a picture of me in goggles! So this is what I got:

 Ta-da! Think of me what you will, but I don't hate this picture. Even if my glasses are a little crooked (which is kind of their normal state really).

Rainy Yucky Day

Problems I have with today:

1.) It is disgusting outside. Rainy, windy, cold. Not acceptable.

2.) I'm spending most of it being uncharacteristically productive, but not in an enjoyable way. I'm doing a pchem lab report which is making me want to run into walls.

3.) I probably won't finish the lab report today and will have to spend tomorrow working on it as well.

4.) I had a peanut butter and jelly bagel sandwich for lunch that has decided to pick a fit with my stomach. My stomach is incredibly disappointed in my lunch choice and has decided to be incredibly uncooperative and distracting.

5.) I still haven't gotten my nap.


So I vote for a do-over. Today would be much better if I could erase my to-do list, change the weather, and add a happy soundtrack.

Interview Oopsies

K, so I went to the Career Center and picked up (and took home) a copy of "Job Choices 2010: For Science Engineering & Technology Students" (published by www.jobweb.com) from their lobby. This morning I was perusing the obligatory article on interviewing. Every career success magazine has one and they all say the same thing. Be on time; dress to impress, but be conservative; answer questions honestly but positively, etc. What made them unusual was their inclusion of a half page section entitled "What were they thinking?" They are simply too funny so I felt I had to share. Real employers told jobweb.com that real job seekers:

• came a day late for their interview
• asked the interviewer for a date
• talked on their cell phone in the middle of the interview
• wore a prom dress to the interview
• wore a sequined suit with a gold cowboy hat 
• brought their lunch and ate it during the interview
• told the interviewer that they were only there "for practice"

And this one's a jewel:

• told the interviewer: "Times being what they are, I can't be too particular, so I'm interviewing with you." 

Please don't be one of these people! 

Again, I didn't come up with these, so check out www.jobweb.com for more. 

Normalized

Another cartoon based off Pchem notes. Enjoy.

My handwriting is chicken scratch at best, so the dialogue is as follows:

Teacher: Class, this is our new student, Psi.
Sine: He looks like a nerd!
Teacher: He's not a nerd! He's been normalized. Sine, you're normalizeable; you could get normalized too if you'd just learn your calculus!
Sine: Oh yeah? Well maybe I don't wanna be an acceptable wavefunction of a system!
Etothex: Can I be an acceptable wavefunction?
Group: NO!

Degenerate Eigenfunction

If you don't get the joke, please don't ask. It was based off the notes we took in PChem today and it's mostly only funny if you have taken PChem. Ok, it's probably not that funny at all. But I think it's hilarious and in the end, that's what matters. This is what happens when you take a really boring class (aka stats) immediately following an interesting one (aka pchem). More to come.

Levels of Accent Confusion

I realized today that most people don't really think of having an american professor as a luxury. Most people sort of expect it, especially considering USC is an american college. I however take A LOT of mathy, sciency type classes. Mathy sciency classes tend to, but are not limited to, be taught by people from a foreign country. This often comes with a ridiculously confusing accent. So here's my handy-dandy Richter Scale of Accents:

0- No accent at all! Maybe a slight hint of southern under there but really the only thing that could confuse you is the material he's teaching.

1- Accent is so slight that you may not notice at first that they're not american. Maybe a random word here or there could throw you off.

2- Accent is definitely foreign but he/she has obviously been either taking a lot of english classes or has been here FOREVER. Shouldn't give you too much trouble but keep an eye on their grammar.

3- Accent is thick enough for you to easily identify their homeland. This one may require you to pay much closer attention to what they're saying but you should be ok.

4- Accent is thick enough to make understanding difficult. You aren't going to get every word but if you can get the gist of things you'll at least know what to study.

5- They're straight up speaking a foreign language. Good luck.

New Classes!

Yippee! Oh come on now you knew this post was coming... If you're not ready, and/or not willing to put up with the following level of nerdiness, feel free to find a "cooler" blog to read. For those of you who have already joined the dark side and received your complementary cookie(s), please read on.

So there was really no point in posting yesterday on the true first day of the semester b/c I only actually had 2 classes yesterday. Mondays are a good day for me. I don't do much. I had business french for the first time yesterday morning. Should be an interesting class; we're going to be doing a wide variety of assignments, eventually including writing up our resumes french style and searching for and writing a cover letter for a real life internship that we might be interested in. Wonderfully practical and there's only 6 of us.

Physics is still not phun, but it will be less ohmygoshwhatthecrapamIsupposedtodo than last semester. I now fully know the tortures of using a clicker and CAPA. Yucky but I'll live.

I also got to stop in the research lab yesterday and now I'm all set on when I'm going in this semester.

Pchem. In chemistry major lingo, pchem is physical chemistry. It is organic's bigger, badder, older brother who likes to eat undergrads for breakfast on top of its Wheaties. The ACS (American Chemical Society) sells bumper stickers that say Honk if You Passed PChem, and assuming I survive Pchem I and II, I want one. Really though it should be ok. The professor seems really nice, doesn't have a foreign accent, and counts attendance for 5% of our grade. All desirable qualities.

Stats is a joke. This should not be a class. For real. I can't believe I'm getting 3 credit hours for this. Today he went over the syllabus and then briefly explained what a mean is, and how stem and leaf plots can help you visualize data. Which he defined for us. The only downside is that he has a REALLY thick chinese/japanese/asian accent. So I don't really know what he's saying, but according to the syllabus I've already learned everything he's going to teach.

I have chem lab for the first time tomorrow (just a recitation) and phys lab on thursday. Yippee!

Too True

Nobody will ever win the Battle of the Sexes. There's just too much fraternizing with the enemy.

~Henry Kissinger

Oh Steve...

"a sad, sad effort" is a bit of an understatement, don't you think? The band showed up. We were so cold we could barely play. The cheerleaders showed up. They were at least in the sun, but they only had jumpsuits to keep them warm. We at least had layers. 30,000 fans showed up. We gave them more than a homefield advantage. Everyone came but the football team.

They had four days of practice out there. They were in great hotel right by the stadium. They had heaters on the field to stand by if they got too cold. They had all the equipment they were used to. In short, they had every possible advantage. But, once again, our team is just not capable of winning a bowl game.

Next year they'd better do well and take us to the Chick-fil-A bowl so at least when they epically fail, the fans will be warm and dry!

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.

Crazy week: Part 1

Crazy week...so we'll start from the beginning and go from there...

Wednesday I went to Azay-le-rideau and Villandry (both chateaux).

Azay is a really neat castle that's situated right next to the river so it has a sort of natural moat going for it. Very pretty and it was a gorgeous day. really pretty architecture, and the furnishings are incredibly gorgeous but of course no flash photography indoors. blurry photos are no fun. but it was still really really cool and olivier (the awesome are history prof) was with us. he is so passionate about his subject and his knowledge of everything is so incredible.

Villandry was that same afternoon (there's no classes on wednesdays in France) and it was also amazing. it may be my favorite chateaux based on pure beauty. The castle itself is nice and looks very nice, but its famous for its gardens. They are the most beautiful things ever, the flowers are all perfect and perfectly placed. It smells like heaven too. The entire area is filled with the perfume of all the flowers.

Then we were really hot and we wanted ice cream and they had all these really unusual flavors. Like flower flavors. I debated between rose and lavender, but I decided on rose. It was good, not a new favorite or anything, but it was sweet and cold and that's what I needed. You definitely feel like you're eating a flower, but it wasn't bad at all.

Ok so that's pretty much it...more later!

Amboise and Blois

Oh the adventures of the weekend...

So saturday I had the excursion to Blois and Amboise. First stop: Amboise...

Amboise is a really cool chateaux that was mostly destroyed by revolutioneers. I would love to go back in time and tell them that tearing down 3/4 of a major tourist destination is a bad idea and that the french people would regret their decision, but alas I can do no such thing. Olesya and I have decided though that we were born to be princesses.

Beautiful tapestries, intense stone sculptures, and amazing woodwork. And of course fabulous views. yep, definitely born to be a princess. We also got to see Leonardo Da Vinci's grave (it's in the royal chapel). Then after chateau-ing it up we went and visited Da Vinci's house (for those who do not know, he spent the last three years of his life sitting in the lap of luxury as the french king's new favorite). Very cool but we weren't allowed to take pictures inside.

Next stop: Blois. Blois was awesome just in that it was all still standing. Well sort of. This is yet another castle that went through multiple renovations, not all of which went to completion. Literally four different styles of architecture, all vastly different. You can literrally look around the inner courtyard and watch the renaissance take over france. Very cool. Can't wait to show you pictures.

Walked around a bit. Had the best lemon sorbet ever...like frozen lemonade on a cone...yummy! And then we got back on the bus and came home.

On an unrelated note, I'm reading this really awesome book right now. In english it's title is Life of Pi and you should go buy it and read it right now. Super duper good. Almost as good as the sorbet. Ok I'm done for now. Pictures on facebook later today.

Shopping

I have had much wonderful shopping here.

You've already heard about my two scarves (I'm thinking of getting another one) and my books (also thinking of getting another one).

You must now hear about my super fabulous buy. Before this totally gets eclipsed though I'll throw in the fact that I also got a cute little cardigan. Ok anyway on to THE purchase.

So it was really yucky and cold and AWFUL for like the past three days. Ugh. I hate rain and I hate cold and it was not going well for me. So a bunch of us were in this I-need-a-jacket/coat kind of mood so we went shopping. (this weekend is going to be hot ironically). We were in zara and noticing that the bomber jacket look is very in right now and were commenting on how we had seen them quite a bit since arriving in france. problem: leather is expensive. so we moved on to the next store. Pimkie.

I (along with Mary and Katie) were standing around watching Tegan try on a brown leather bomber jacket (which she ended up buying) when I noticed a black leather jacket on the rack below. It's sort of a blazer look (almost). think fitted leather jacket with some seaming and zipper accents. less bomber more sleek. It was priced at 30 euros (give or take $40). Guess what came home. *happy face*

Yep. The grand purchase. hurrah. Ok off to do more shopping. (jk)

The crazy woman I live with

I'm starting to sort of comprehend my host mom. understand no, but comprehend yes. she's been moving my stuff everyday, like my back pack will be like 2 feet over from where I left it or random stuff like that. I couldn't figure it out for the longest time; I mean what's the point of moving it over a few inches? it wasn't like she moved it to a completely different location in the room: that could be attributed to a super high level of OCD but this just didn't seem to qualify. Then I realized that she vacuums everyday and she moves anything on the floor so she can vacuum. She vacuums btw like my grandpa: perfectly straight lines on the floor that do not overlap. Crazy.

I have been whining about the food for some time now about how it's always like all veggies and salad. Well last night I found out the reason for this. She serves me veggies and salads and healthy stuff because she knows I eat sandwiches (which I consider healthy) everyday for lunch. She's trying to make sure that my diet is balanced so I don't get fat. I would love to tell her that if my diet gets any more balanced, I'm going to starve. So I bought a six pack of Kinderbars (candy bar that is kind of like kitkat + 3 musketeers + nutella) to keep me satisfied. rawr.

Oh and apparently Im too loud in the morning (my side of this story is that she's a light sleeper and the walls are I kid you not an inch thick (I measured) and for goodness sakes I get up at 8 that's not soooo bad) so I'm no longer allowed to brush me teeth or anything in the bathroom in the morning. I have to use the kitchen sink. Yep. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

Next week though our schedules are so different that we're not eating together at all so I basically won't see her for an entire week. Ahhhh....

Hm

Pleqse exscuse qny typos in the follozing postm it is being zritten on q french keyboqrd becquse i, qt the institut right noz qnd their keyboqrds qre different fro, ours qnd i, only ,ildly concerned qbout your qbility to decifer it: plus if i try to do it zithout typos it zill tqke like tzo dqys to qcco,plish:

It hqs rqined here for the pqst three dqys qnd it is reqlly cold qnd zindy qnd frqnkly i, tired of it: zhy isnt it behqving like su,,er§ so,e friends qnd i hqve decided thqt ze qre tired of zeqring the sq,e light jqckets qll the ti,e (nobody brought heqvy coqts) and ze qre going in seqrch of blqzer ish things thqt qll the french women weqr lqter;

Bought tzo scqrves yesterdqy qt ProMod; very hqppy qbout thqt; also zent book shopping; two for mere (,y sis) qnd two for me; not telling the first tzo but the second two qre L'histoire de Pi (Life of Pi) qnd Les Confessions d'un Accro du Shopping (Confessions of q Shopqholic); they're level 6 qnd 7. thinking about getting another one. something like a level 8 or 9 just to try it qnd see if I cqn hqndle it becquse hqrry potter is level 6 qnd thqt zqsn't too hqrd.

Yep thqt's pretty ,uch it. ok I'll stop torchering you zith this crqzy ,essed up keyboqrd. Fro, noz on im only posting fro, ,y co,puter:

France looks like Ohio

My academic advisor slash scholar mentor Dr. Morgan gave me this book before I left (kind of a gag gift) that's a reproduction of a WWII GI Guide to France that the governement had written up. This book is hysterical for anyone who has studied french culture at all because it's just so wrong on so many levels. Like at the time it probably served its purpose very well and it was written in a very effective "regular Joe" kind of style, but really it's just the funniest thing on earth. One of the representations of France that this guidebook provided was that France looks like Ohio. Well they're not entirely wrong.

I spent a total of 8-9 hours saturday on the road to and from Mont St Michel and France does look rather like Ohio. Farmy, with some trees, and fairly flat with the occasional slight hills. Ohio. The major difference is that the cute little towns you pass have a heavy dose of frenchness.

Mont St Michel is super cool. Giant cathedral on an island in the atlantic. It did not rain while we were there so it was great. The prof who was with us was really super knowledgeable about everything and it was great walking around with him and learning all about everything. The cathedral is a victim of bad planning, wars, picky kings, and budget cuts. First of all most of the island is sand, not rock so the medieval builders had a hard time getting the building to stay up. Then they had a problem with france and england being in perpetual war and they had to build huge walls around everything. Then the kings were like hey let's make this a prison. And the monks were like, well we don't have a choice do we? and the kings were like nope. So there's about four different centuries of archetecture in this one building. Very neat.

We then went to St. Malo (where it did rain) but we had galettes and crepes and gelatto so it was ok.

It's Not Just the Electrical Outlets

France is weird. No really. Not kidding, it is WEIRD here. Like go back to the early nineties weird.

It's june right? Not in France. It feels like september. rainy and cold. Wednesday is supposed to be sunny so I'm going to do some shopping and get myself a scarf and a sweater. Stupid weather.

So electrical outlets aren't the only things that are different here (which by the way I don't understand. Didn't the electricity thing start on our side of the pond?). The locks are different too. Like if you don't lock the door a certain way it's not actually "locked" it's just "closed by key" meaning with the first one the door will not open from one side at all even with a key (this confuses me to no end) and with the second one you can open either side with the key (but not without). Really strange.

Also they don't have dryers here. They hang everything up on racks 40s style. So you can only do laundry when it's sunny. (still can't tell if my host mom is going to do my laundry for me or if I'm doing it myself...) They also have dishwashers but they don't use them. Ever. And they don't have air conditioning either. Like I understand to some extent that they don't really need it like 80% of the year, but really? It gets decently hot here in july and august (which by the way is when kids here have summer vacation). Strange.

Also nothing is open on sundays. I'm not just talking like government buildings and schools. NOTHING is open. A few cafes and the mcdonalds (which they call the MacDoh) and that's it. So no shopping on sundays (very sad).

I just don't understand the french. It's not like we're just not on the same page; it's more like we're in different libraries. I think it's because they drink too much wine.

Lots of Info: Part 3

Sooo much to talk about, sooo I broke it up into multiple parts for my sanity and your convenience. Parts 1 and 2 cover general observations and classes. Part 3 will discuss my excursions.

There are lots of excursions/activities offered through the institut. Azay-le-rideau (it's a castle) is included through the USC program. The other castles I'm going to are Chenonceau, Bloir and Amboise, and Versailles (palace of the sun king). Tourraine (the area of Tours and the Loire (river) Valley) is filled with castles because throughout much of french history (like 3/4 of it) this is the area that french kings chose to live in. The thing to remember with french castles is that they are not and have never been private residences. If the king lived there, it was not just his home, but also the main governmental building. When the history books say a certain place was where court was held, they mean literally the king's court (all the important people) lived and worked in the palace. And even during those times, it was open to the public. Everyone, so long as they were dressed appropriately could go in and see just about any part of the building. That's why Versaille is so huge.

Imagine if the White House was where the President and his family as well as all the Congressmen and their families lived and took care of the nation's business, and on top of that, anyone wearing a suit and not smelling like rotton eggs could come in and watch Obama brush his teeth. That's what Versaille was like in it's hayday. Crazy.

In addition to the castles, I'm also going to Mont-St-Michel and St. Malo. Mont-St-Michel is a huge cathedral on an island in the atlantic ocean just barely connected to land by a road. St. Malo is the nearby area. Crazy cool. That's actually tomorrow.

Oh and not next thursday but the thursday after I'm going to a wine and cheese tasting here at the institut. yay goat cheese.

The institut also has a bunch of free activities. Like yesterday we went to the Musee des Beaux-Arts (Museum of Beautiful Arts) which was very cool. 17th/18th/19th century art (I don't really know). Both paintings and sculptures. Yep.

So that's about it..working on the get-pictures-on-facebook thing...Have a good weekend!

Lots of Info: Part 2

There's tons to fill you in on so I broke it up into parts. This part will focus on classes.

All of my classes here are language intensive, which means I focus on improving my french skills versus fulfilling general ed requirements for USC.

I placed into B2 (highest of the intermediate levels) which is a 6 or 7 out of 9 on the old system. So I'm fairly high up there I guess. I don't know and I don't really care. The class isn't too hard and it seems to be a pretty good fit so we're good.

Monday through Friday I have french language class for three hours in the morning which is mostly grammar. yuck. The afternoons are all different.

Monday I have a two hour lunch break (facebook anyone?) followed by atelier, which is more or less a recitation class for french language, then an hour break, followed up by civilisation which is a culture class. Haven't had one yet but it should be good. Tuesday is a full day. Only one hour lunch followed by civi, recitation for my oral expression class, oral expression class (way fun we spend the whole time working on prononciation and inflection etc), and ending with art history which should be cool. Wednesday I just have literature in the afternoon, which is sooooo boring. Normally I do well in lit classes and am semi-interested in them. This one is just boring. Don't know. Thursday it's oral expression and recitation. Friday I have nothing in the afternoons. Woohoo!

There are only 10 people in my class. About 6 of us are students (3 from USC, an italian, a spaniard, and a girl from Illinois) in college. There are 3 adults who are going back to school and there's an older canadian woman who is just doing french because she's bored. I don't like this woman very much because she kind of hogs the teacher's attention which is sort of annoying. Ugh.

Not sure if there's anything else to say about classes....Hm ok moving on. Please continue reading through part 3.

Lots of Info: Part 1

I have lots of info to share so I'm breaking it down into more manageable pieces. Part 1 will focus on life here in france in general, as well as my day to day existence.

Basic observation: french people own lots of mirrors, but I don't think they use them. Seriously I swear some of them don't look at what they're wearing before they put it on. Very funny and occasionally disturbing. Park = people running = really short jogging shorts and waaaay to much thigh. Think 1980s basketball shorts.

Parks are awesome by the way. They're everyway here. I walk through two to get to school everyday and there are always a ton of joggers as well as these little old ladies walking their dogs. The dogs by the way have learned to recognize a college student. They will literally sit down when they see you coming and refuse to move until you have petted them in passing, which of course we all do.

Food here is amazing. I have breakfast (bread and butter and orange juice) and dinner at the house and lunch at the institut. The institut has two cafeterias but when they say cafeteria they mean a room with a vending machine. So we (everyone) just goes to one of the hundreds of little cafes/boulangeries in the area. A boulangerie is like a sandwich shop more or less and I LOVE them. Today for example I had a Sandwich Chevre which is goat cheese (it's a specialty of the area and very good) and some lettuce on french bread. Costs like 2 or 3 euros and is like a foot long. Delicious.

At first I was mildly concerned about my host mom (that's what we call them, host moms, host dads, etc) and her idea of dinner. The first night she literally served me a small salad (just lettuce), a piece of bread, and water. I went to bed starving and confused. It has greatly improved though. Funny thing: I get the impression that she seems to think that we don't have vegetables in Georgia. A couple days ago she made this carrot salad thing and proceeded to explain to me what a carrot is. She did the same with this broccoli dish. I think she was mildly disappointed that I both knew what they were and ate them regularly. Yesteday we had radishes as our precourse and she was all happy to find out that I had not eaten them before, despite the fact that they are fairly readily available in Georgia. I lied and said I liked them. Our main dish last night was mussels (les mouilles?) and they were sooooo good. I think we were both glad to find out that we're both seafood eaters.

Funny comment my host mom made: I mentioned that I love french food and she was all like oh yes french food is so good and light, not heavy like american food. I nodded along because this very true, and she proceeded to say "that's why you're all obese". hahahahahaha

I do walk to and from school everyday and it does take me a full 20 to 25 minutes to do so, but it's not so bad. It's a good time to just chill and listen to my ipod. Plus a good long walk like that is my way of justifying dessert (omg sooo good).

Another random observation about france: it is Incredibly dry here. Like really really dry. My lips are so chapped (is that really how you spell that?) and and my hair is like hay right now. Such a change from the humid south.

That's pretty much it. Please continue on for parts 2 and 3.

Funday

Like Sunday but more fun.

This morning Olesya (who is also my current roomie) and I got up early (7 am) and started our super awesome day. No really it really was that good. Breakfast in the hotel (which as it turns out is not complementary but we probably couldn't have gotten it any cheaper). Then off to the Sacre Coeur (the Sacred Heart Basilica)! It was Beautiful. Inside and out. Gorgeous views too, but be warned: it's a bit of a hike. We give any and all stairs evil looks now. Totally worth it though. Montmartre is a very pretty area as well. Very typical "oo-la-la" frenchy.

Next stop Le Palais Garnier. This is the Grand Opera House. SOOOOOOOOO opulant. Everything is marble or gold plated and everything absolutely everything glitters. This is also where many parts of the Phantom of the Opera was filmed. And only 4 euros.

Louvre. The whole darn thing is just so amazing to look at it's unbelievable. I'll spare you the gushing over the outside though and just tell you what we looked at: some random french art, some really cool medieval art (we're assuming that that was also french), the napoleonic apartments, more art, the rubens room (boring), some statues, the venus de milo, the medieval louvre (the original foundations of the louvre castle that the current louvre is built on), a sphynx, winged victory, psyche and cupid, hermes, cardinal richelieu (these are all statues by the way), diana, (there were others but I forget), lots and lots of spanish/italian paintings, and of course the mona lisa. the crowd was INSANE. everywhere else the crowd was very manageable and not at all overwhelming, but...let's just say the venus and the mona lisa are different. asian people (no offense just a general thought here) tend to be VERY pushy and arrogant (with no concept of personal space) and they seem to feel that you do not matter. at all. now for those of you who don't know me, I'm rather short. Not like short short, just below average. Well below average does not cut it. I saw the mona lisa for like 1 minute when someone's head moved. Then it was gone. Pooh. Olesya took a picture above the crowd for me so at least there's that. I didn't really see anything astonishing about it anyway.

So our feet hurt really badly and we were starving (it was like 1:30 at this point). we went out and found this cafe/bar/food place and got sandwiches and cokes. Coke is expensive here (like 4 euros) but i needed caffeine. We ate this in the gardens of the tuileries (just outside the louvre). OMG. so cool. And then we went to the place de la concord. Neat obelisk and fountains. nice buildings nearby. *shrugs*. after that we went to the Sorbonne (the best french university period) but it was pretty anticlimatic. we then continued on to the Jardins de Luxembourg (the real destination anyway). These are beautiful gardens and there's a pretty sweet palace right there too.

After that we had done all of our must-sees and so we decided to take the advice of my Forber's Paris Guide (which has the most helpful map and metro map) and do the boat ride on the seine. This is such a good idea. Beautiful way to see the sights from a different angle. After we passed the Eiffle my camera battery died. Poor thing had been on almost nonstop since that morning. We grabbed dinner at a cafe across from our hotel. Amazing food, great waiter. And then we settled down into the hotel for the night. Cuz it was like almost 10.

Friturday

Friday and Saturday have merged into Friturday in my mind. Overnight flights can do that to you.

The flight: Huge Boeing 777 and I was dead center in the back. yay...not. the guy on my left was an american businessman who only spoke enlgish but thought the flight attendants only spoke french. the guy on my right was a french businessman who only spoke french but thought the flight attendants only spoke english. they speak both of course so this provided some amusement. I was very cramped, but well entertained. they had these in flight entertainment system things in the back on the headrest in front of you and you could watch movies or tv or listen to music or play games even. I watched charlie and the chocolate factory, pocahontas, and an episode of Les Experts (CSI with french voice overs). did not really sleep though I did try.

Met up with Olesya at the airport and we grabbed a taxi to our hotel. the driver was very nice and showed us everything. cheap too. we split it so it was only 25 each. our room is TINY though. and our bath room is hysterically small. You have to open the door to brush your teeth. and you can't turn around in the shower. oh well.

This brings us to Day 1 in Paris. Went to the Eiffel Tower first of course. Gorgeous but very very very crowded. Lots of pictures. We didn't go up because the lines were worse than an amusement park. Then we went in search of lunch which was hard to find, but delicious. Pizza place. Les Invalides was cool. Didn't bother going in to see the tomb. Apparently we didn't miss much. The we went to the Arc de Triomphe. Very cool. Champs Elysees was also pretty sweet. Oh Champs Elysees...da da de da da...

Anyway, then we went to Notre Dame de Paris (soooooooooo impressive) and Saint Chapelle. Then we went back to the hotel and met up with the group. Duffy took us to Montparnesse and it was so awesome. Seriously great views of all of Paris. Definitely worth doing. After that we went to dinner (crepes). *whew* What a day!

Please feel free to read my next post: Funday.

Night at the Museum 2

Just got back from seeing night at the museum 2. overall pretty good. about on par with the first one. had a lot of clever stuff in it. good for the kids and the history buffs. (I sort of fall into both categories). enjoyable, especially if you've seen the first one. probably less so if you haven't. anyway pretty good. anyway, I'd give it a B. didn't see any good previews...

Some of My Best Ideas Really

So Blog Post Ideas 21-30 contains some of my best really and I just HAD to post my responses.

21: I'm fairly certain that I have always been partial to blues and greens.

22: I don't actually have any rainboots. Rather sad.

23: Ok, I'm sure there are like a gazillion really good pertinent questions you could ask to really super important people, but I can't think of anything that I'm just desperate to know so I'm skipping this one.

24: 2 dogs: an English Springer Spaniel named Coach (short for Coach Bobby Knight) who passed away at the age of 13, and a black lab named Calbert (short for Calbert Cheaney) who will be 8 this July. My dad's a big Indiana University basketball fan.

25: favorite class: Basketball Pep Band. even if our team did play like crap at the end of the season.

26: Calbert could easily have a BA in Supervising. He can follow anyone around and supervise them doing anything. He's especially good at supervising my dad on the weekends and my mom around dinnertime. He's such a good superviser he can do it with his eyes closed, which he does most of the time.

27: I'm probably Violet (the girl who ends up as a blueberry). Not sure why, but she seems to be a little more fitting than the others.

28: Absolutely! I love a good storm. Calbert however does not.

29: I've thought about this and I really think I would be in Slytherin. I know I know it's the evil one, but really not everyone who goes to slytherin ends up evil. Gryffondor is known for bravery; well we can knix that one right now. I'm just not nice enough to be in Hufflepuff; I can only be Suzy Sunshine for small, isolated periods of time. I'm smart enough for Ravenclaw, but I'm not the right kind of smart. I don't like studying, being in libraries, or doing extra class work. I would be bored in Ravenclaw. Slytherin is full of people who know what they want and how to get it. They're the "go-getters". They also have a tendancy to be snobs and have a certain disregard for rules. We have a winner.

30: I once tripped on the sidewalk while wearing roller blades and tore up both my knees. It was awful. I still have the scars.

Blog Post Ideas 21-30

21. What was your favorite color when you were little? Now?

22. What one item is your wardrobe lacking?

23. If you could ask anyone any question (just one), what/who would you ask?

24. How many pets has your family had and what were they?

25. What was your favorite class last semester?

26. If your pet had a major, what would it be? (like a BS in Napology)

27. Which Charlie and the Chocolate Factory character are you most like?

28. Are you a fan of thunderstorms?

29. Realistically, which Hogwarts House would you be in?

30. What is the most embarrasing injury you’ve ever gotten?

Blog Post Ideas 11-20

11. What were some of your favorite childhood board games?

12. What movie (if any) in theaters do you want to see?

13. If you could take any movie and watch it on IMAX, what would it be?

14. What are some of the best/funniest Apples-to-Apples match-ups you’ve had?

15. What is your pet’s name? What’s the story there?

16. Are you a beach or mountain person?

17. Why did you start a blog?

18. What was the last meal you had?

19. When was the last time you had milk and cookies?

20. What is your dream car?

Once again, I'd love to hear your responses, so if you decide to use one, leave me a link!

Jackie's Garden

Today my mom and I went to lowe's to get flowers for this one flowerbed in our backyard.

I have a thing about flowers. I don't like plants that are just green. I want things that have big fabulous flowers all over the place. I also like semi-unusual looking flowers, which tend to be annuals (one year only), whereas my mom only wants perennials (the kind that come back every year) for obvious reasons. So everytime I go to lowe's to help pick flowers, I end up going "ooh, look at that one! Let's get one of those!" or "hey those are cool! let's get them!" and the answer is always "but those are annuals". Phooey! BUT...I managed to find the only cool looking ones so those are what we got. So we're calling the flowerbed mine even though it's not my flowerbed, and I didn't buy the flowers. But I'm not complaining. So here's Jackie's Garden:

Back row: Foxy (a Foxglove), Yellow Yarrow, Apricot Yarrow, Herman (Heliot Coreopsis), Vince (the verbena) Middle Row: Chilean Avens, unidentified herb, Jenny (the Queen Victoria Lobelia) Bottom Row: the mini-rose, Flora (a flower we lost the tab for), John (a blanket flower), Betty (giant pink daisy), Joe (another blanket flower), and the daylily.

I just had to name some of them. I mean, who really wants to be called a Queen Victoria Lobelia?

Foxy is my favorite:

But I really like the pink daisy too:

When I go to the Zoo

You remember my blog-post-ideas blog post? Well I've decided to go ahead and write one of them out. Namely the "When you go to the zoo, what animals do you absolutely have to see?" (#7) idea. Grab your safari hats because here we go!

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I have not been to the zoo in a long time, but I have been to a lot of nice zoos. Among my favorites are the Indianapolis Zoo, which has a lovely polar bear exhibit (or at least it did the last time I was there), the St. Louis Zoo, and Zoo Atlanta, which has a very nice panda exhibit. Overall, the zoo is not among my absolute favorite places to go. It tends to be overcrowded, with lots of completely uncontrolled small screaming children, overpriced, and it smells bad. However, I love seeing the animals. They make it all worth it. Especially if you are at your leisure to see them as you please, and not hurried along by a teacher with a field trip schedule to stick to.

Tigers (and big cats in general) are a must-see for me. I love their powerful grace and austere beauty. Feeding time is optimal. Basically, they're my favs.

Elephants are the bomb too. You gotta respect the ears.

Pandas are just great. Zoo Atlanta is pretty special in that it has pandas at all, and we were super ridiculously lucky when last year one of the females had a baby. Very rare. The baby is called Mei Lan. Isn't she cute?

I have a strange fascination with the platypus, so if a zoo has them, I will go see them.

So that's what I would go see at the zoo. What are your must-see animals?

Blog Post Ideas: 1-10

So I was brainstorming random blog ideas (my posts can only be classified as random) and I came up with a whole bunch. So now I'm sharing them with you! Enjoy and please leave me a link if you decide to use one; I'd love to read your responses ;).

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1. Provide a running commentary on the sports event you are currently watching

2. What your dog/cat/fish is probably thinking about right now

3. If someone ran up to you and told you if you could answer a riddle correctly you’d get $100, but if you got it wrong you’d get punched three times, would you try to answer it or just walk away?

4. What you wore today and why (this is only good if there’s an intense inner monologue to go along with your outfit)

5. If you were going to die your hair a completely different color, what would it be?

6. What major cities in the US have you seen? Which ones would you go back to?

7. When you go to the zoo, what animals do you absolutely have to see before leaving?

8. What song are you listening to right now? Why do you like it?

9. What color are the walls of the room you are currently sitting in? How do they make you feel?

10. If you had to play hide and seek right now, where would you hide?

No topic

I haven't posted in FOREVER. terribly sorry about that, but I've been busy. Finals and all that jazz. But now I'm home! yay! so now what? I'm home until the 29th (chillin mostly) and then on the 29th I fly out. where to, you innocently ask?

FRANCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yay! *does happy dance* Don't worry blog buddies I'll still be updating as often as I can (with pictures!) so you'll be able to keep up with all my adventures. feel free to do your own happy dance at this time.

...and now you're done. after that I'll be returning home for the remainder of the summer. so that's my summer plans. hope you guys had a fun cinco de mayo. (I didn't do anything; I had to study organic).

Cute Card From My Mom

Almost done with year 1!