Tuesday, July 26

They made it !!!


Hope those guys enjoy the view they have from there... We keep our fingers crossed.

You can find the first STS-114 Mission Status Report here and check here for live updates.

There are also great videos on the NASA website as well as on CNN.









Monday, July 25

Life is good...

A beer, Ray Charles, a few candles... so gooooooooood....

Sunday, July 24

Week 2... I kept moving...

Monday: I spent 15 minutes looking for my keys to finally realize I don't have any anymore... (call me stupid...)

Tuesday: I traveled from Morges (CH) to Ancenis. 8 hours of train during which I saw the country rolling past. Tom and I had diner to Courte-Paille in Carquefou (the menu "Grillardin" still exists!!!). We had a good time sharing stories and talking together.

Wednesday: I went grocery shopping. It reminded me the first time I went to Fred Meyer. It was kind of the same: looking for things and didn't know where to find them. But they have way more choice here. They also have those quiches I used to buy a few years ago and Reblochon doesn't cost $20 anymore ;)

Thursday: I spent the afternoon in Paris with Tom and Dad. The weather was nice and the place was crowded. It's amazing how everything seems so small and narrow now. I wanted to push the walls...


Dad drove me back to Ancenis with his new car, a Lexus Hybrid, a really cool one. When you drive in town, the car is using the electric engine. It is absolutely noiseless and so much better for the environment. This car also has a cool feature: you don't need to turn your head when the car moves back as it is equipped with a camera that shows you what's behind. That's really a car for geeks ;) But I kind of changed my mind about Lexus.

Friday: Did you know that some companies in France close during the all month of August and that people can take up to 3 weeks of vacation in a row??? Crazy people...

Saturday: For those of you wondering why I'm buying so many pairs of shoes, I think I now have an explanation... It seems that I inherited this from my dad... So as it is genetic, there is absolutely nothing I can do about it (never thought of doing anything about it anyway...) ;)
Here is Dad's collection (still missing a few pairs though...) so that you can keep things in perspective ;)


Sunday: Thank you all for your emails and phone calls... It was great!

I'll be living at dad's place for the next 3 weeks. I have the house for me... And if you see a crazy girl driving a reddish Nissan 4X4 on the back-roads between Sucé and Champtoceaux, no doubt, that's me ;)

Here is a comic strip that made me smile today:

Monday, July 18

First week in Lalaland

It has been a week since I left Oregon. I have the feeling this first week lasted for ever, probably because I moved a lot. Last Wednesday I went to see Mee, Henri and Margot who is now 9 months old and who is talking a lot ;) I went to Lyon too, got a hair-cut… the same I had last Christmas.

I had no problem readjusting to wine and food so far ;) France is definitely the place to go if you’re looking for good food. I forgot about the French grocery stores when I was living in the US and I’m pretty amazed by the variety and choice we have here.
The boxes I sent a few weeks ago are arriving slowly. I now almost have all my pairs of shoes (can’t live with only two ;)). However, coming back here is really weird. After having spent just 3 years on the US west coast, I feel like I always lived there. I almost totally forgot that I lived in France for 22 years before! I’m still thinking and dreaming in English and I’m looking for my words in French… There are other few things that haven’t changed either: I’m still spending a tremendous number of hours on my computer and I’m still watching CNN while having breakfast. But I really miss the people (God bless Internet, msn and Skype) and the places very bad.
Other than that I’m leaving tomorrow morning for Nantes with Tom to see Dad and Alex. I’ll post a few pics of Switzerland pretty soon.

The Redwoods

I wanted to go there before leaving the country. Nicole wanted to go out of Corvallis. So one morning we left with our backpacks and cameras and drove south. If I had realized before that this place was so close from where I was leaving, I would have been there every week-end! On the first evening, we had an earthquake while having diner… on the beach. But since nobody came to tell us to leave, we stayed there and waited for sunset. Being there, on this beach, with nothing else than the sound of the waves and the sun going down (ok, a Fat Tire too!) was just priceless.

It was this kind of moments when you stop thinking about anything and just enjoy the present time. So we just stayed there, took a lot of pictures and when it was finally dark, we drove back to the campground.
The day after we decided to go for a hike in the Redwood National Park. The trail was pretty easy and the gravel road leading to the trailhead was really fun to drive. We had a quick lunch on a river bank and enjoyed hiking on the trail surrounded by those giant trees. It was really impressive and we are now experts in walking while looking up ;).

We then spent the night at Patrick’s Point and drove back to Corvallis the day after. It took us quite a while to come back by the HW101 because we were just stopping all the time to watch the view and take pictures.
It was a really nice trip during which I really realized how much I love this coast. Those are the kind of places where you can just sit and stay for hours, contemplating. All the pictures are available here. Enjoy!

Thursday, July 14

The pics of Quebec are online!

The unofficial pictures of our trip to Quebec City for the FPS Annual Meeting are now online. I didn't post any embarassing ones (because I'm a very nice girl) but Dave has one or two that are worth A LOT!!!
It was a great trip and traveling with RD and Jim Wilson was a lot of fun. It was my first time in a professional meeting and I loved it. I also finally got to know some people better and I wish it happened earlier than 3 weeks before I leave the country.

Anyway, here are some quotes:
"I'm driving back", RD in the plane from Portland to Newark
"This place is a zoo", Jim Wilson arriving in Newark airport
"I could kill somebody today", me before going through security for the 1000th time in Newark airport

Enjoy the pics (here) and feel free to leave any comment.

Friday, July 8

15 minutes before boarding...

Here I am Gate D14 waiting for my flight which is already 2 hours late... Leaving is so hard. I just hope I took the right decision and that I won't regret it. I'm going to terribly miss this place and the people here. For now, I just have my tears, my memories and tbe hope that the future will be as great as my 3 years here.
Time to get in this f****** plane, take a shot of vodka and sleep till landing.