Remarks of the day...

1- My desk is obviously TOO SMALL!!!


2- It is not because it looks like water that it is water...

3- After all, sleeping is maybe not a waste of time.

4- I'm not 20 anymore...

5- Orbital Mechanics can give you a serious headache but the subject is definitely exciting!

Girls' night!

We finally had our night! I really had a lot of fun. We should definitely organize this type of night more often! And I'm waiting for the pics too! Alexandra? Amruta?
Anyway, thank you Vlado for driving us to Auchan (you're the best!), thank you Absolut for making such a good vodka and God bless the guy who invented Aspirin...

The Oktoberfest

I had the most unproductive week-end ever. But it was so good!!! I left school friday afternoon and met Sam at the train station. I was planning on making up for the hours of sleep I didn't have during the week when I saw Betty laughing loud in the car... I forgot about sleeping... 4 hours later, we were in Munich. We dropped our bags at Tangouroux's and left for our first BierGarten, which is basically a big park where people are enjoying some refreshments... For info, 1 beer = 1L...


We woke up early saturday morning to try to get a table at the Oktoberfest. At 9:30 am we were enjoying "breakfast" surrounded by a hundred of people drinking and singing...


The rest of the day was: drinking - sleeping - drinking again, etc...

Sunday morning we all decided to visit the city. Munich is definitely a very nice city, very... German too. You'll never see a pedestrian crossing a street when it is not his turn, everything is also absolutely clean. We went to the Olympic Park (Olympic Games of 1972) and to the castle. Then Tangouroux and I ran to the train station but arrived 30 seconds too late... Oooops ;) We then decided to go for... more beers (of course!) in the biggest Biergarten of the city.



After a last stop at the Oktoberfest, Sam (who also missed his train) and I went back to the train station. We arrived 15 minutes ahead of time (I couldn't afford to miss that one...). At 2:30am we were still waiting, frozen on the plartform. The train finally arrived at 2:45am... Needless to say that the night was very short... I made it to Strasbourg at 8am, jumped in the tram and I was seating in the auditorium for the first lecture at 8:45am... I spent the rest of the day hooked up to the coffee machine...

It was really awesome to see each other again... Thank you so much Tangouroux!!! We definitely need to do this more often (I still have a few neurones left) ;)

All the pics are here !!!!

Never underestimate a sugar re-entering the atmosphere...

Ok, so here is what happen when a bunch of grad students (some of them suffering from serious lack of sleep) try to make thermodynamics attractive to 15 years old kids... I don't know if we will succeed but at least we had some fun. Not recommended for people of a nervous disposition.

Don't ask me what he is doing...

Amruta and her levitating pen

Piotr, at the origin of the expansion of the Universe...

I'm coooold !

Is that winter already? In september? Temperature tomorrow morning: 43F (6C)... brrr! Hopefully the beer should warm me up next WE ;) Tangouroux, please remember that I don't have any sleeping bag or mattress on this continent, so I will greatly appreciate a couch or even a bed ;) Betty, if you stop by the US on your way back to France could you please bring me back a 6 pack of Fat Tire? Pleeeeeaaase! Joe and Sam, I will see you in the train (if I can catch it on time). Pije, are you still alive???
And for all my friends who are too far from me at this time, I'll have a few pints for you, I promise ;)

the sunday night cry:

I HATE ACCESS !!!!!!!

Coffee pleeeeeaaase!!!

I went to bed at 9:00pm last night however I spent the all day crawling... I'm just so tired... and I look terrible... I have spent a few hours checking universities websites, looking for the types of research conducted and application deadlines. I need to retake the GRE which means that I have to find some time to practice and go to Paris. I might have to retake the TOEFL as well even if I already have a US masters and 4 years of experience in an English speaking environment... Some deadlines are as early as the 1st of December so I really need to hurry up... The next 3 months are going to be just crazy. Anyway, if you're looking for me this week-end, I'll be at home all saturday glued on my laptop and at school most of sunday... That's for the fun... Time to crash into my bed again...

We are going to give you a hard time !

The proud girls of the MSS/MSM 06!

Just listening to the acoustic version of Hotel California (The Eagles).... and I want my guitar !!!!!!!! I spent the afternoon fighting with Access and the small application I'm creating for mum. Too bad I left my book on Visual Basic in Corvallis because it would have been very usefull right now... I have done a list of all the things I have do and it is pretty impressive... I'm tired just by looking at it ;) 24 hours a day is definitely not enough...
I might move my blog since I'm fed up with the ton of spam I receive each time I write a post. Between the ads for cheap gas (how are they doing by the way??? they highjack a tanker truck???) or the ones to help you lose a few pounds (I'M DOING FINE THANK YOU !!!), I think I still prefer the ones advertising free PhDs... ;) So we'll see but I might give TypePad a try or design the all thing by myself (not sure I really have the time though...). Anyway, I'll let you know. For now it's diner time here and I don't know what Daniel is cooking but it smells really good... ;) It seems that my stomach get the upper hand on my brain so I'm going to take a look at what's going on in the kitchen ;) Then I'll be on my paper... It's shaping well. I love that!

It's sunday already...

Here I am, at 9pm on a sunday night, still at school. I've been here for 11 hours... Having breakfast at school on a sunday morning with classmates was new for me (usually I was having breakfast alone). And I'm also now supporting the coffee industry (sorry for those who think that coffee is the last thing I needed!). I missed the Belgian Formula 1 Grand Prix but at least our first assignment is finished (and McLaren Mercedes finished 1st so even if Raikonnen doesn't make it for the drivers championship, McLaren should be able to win the teams one). Working with a group of 7 people from different background and culture is challenging but this is definitely a good learning experience. And I really think that we did a good job and that we managed the editing part of the report pretty well.
Saturday, mum and Jean Yves stopped by for lunch on their way back to Switzerland. Having them for a few hours was awesome. This is the kind of moment I was missing the most when I was living in the US. Many students were driving back home on week-ends or for Mother Day but for me flying back to Europe for just 2 or 3 days was obviously not conceivable. So now I really enjoy having family not too far away and being able to spend some time with them on a regular basis. And I enjoy it even more as I know that next year it will be different. Mum brought me the last parcel I sent from Corvallis so it can snow now, I have all my pullovers!
So for now, I'm waiting for Daniel to be done with his group assignment and making sure he doesn't hang himself ;) Also, there is absolutely no way I walk alone thru the campus at night (absolutely no light in the streets...) with all the weirdos around...
Eventually, I'll be at home in 2 hours if I don't have to wait 20 minutes for a tram (remember we are sunday night in France...). The week end just went so fast...

Allellouiiiiaaaa!!!

We finally have internet at home! Jeeez! 2 weeks... And I had to go for a modem exchange today as well (would have been too easy to have something working right on the first time)... Anyway, I survived and (almost) killed nobody (there might be a guy from France Telecom who could suffer from ear drums inflammation, though...).
Does anybody know a good physical therapist here because I'm tired of waking up every morning with cramps...

Why making things easier when you can make them more complicated ?

Today I came back from school by bike and what should have taken me 30 minutes according to people here, took me 50 minutes. And I thought I was going to die. Biking here is like smoking an exhaust pipe! So I think I’ll take the tram instead and go biking on Sunday mornings when everybody will still be recovering from the Saturday night parties. I also “tried” to eat at the Restaurant Universitaire (university restaurant) at lunch. Bad luck… To have meals there you have to: 1. Fill the paperwork, 2. Go to the other side of the city to give the paperwork and be given a card (you have to include the usual never-ending waiting lines of course), 3. Put money on your card, 4. Get food. Welcome in France!!! It would have been too easy to just be able to buy tickets… Explaining the all process to the international students who were with me was a lot of fun too… Anyway, you definitely have to be patient in this country and get used to fill paperwork for absolutely everything. The problem is that I’m not really patient and that it gets even worse when I am hungry ;) But, that’s how things work here and I’ll try to deal with it for the next few months (can’t fight against the whole system anyway) and keep my mouth shut…

So far so good

I haven't accomplished much during this last 10 days. I have been goofing around quite a bit (partying a little bit too) but I think I needed it. I still have tons of things to do but I'm feeling more rested, both physically and psychologically, so I should work better and faster now.
Strasbourg is defintely a beautiful city and people here are really nice. However, I have a hard time getting used to the permanent noise we have here. Between the cars and the people, I feel like I'm in a ATR42 24/7. Birds don't wake me up anymore... and actually, I haven't seen any lately. But cars are definitely doing a good job in pulling me out of bed! I also bought a bike from an ISU student and I should be able to save 20 minutes of sleep everyday. There are a lot of bike paths here and it shouldn't take me more than 30 minutes to go to school. It will definitely be better than those 50 minutes standing in the tram, packed with other people...
During those last 10 days I met a bunch of new classmates and I think I found a good crew here. Students of the class '06 are coming from 24 different countries and I'm really looking forward to sharing experiences with them. I have also been attending a few presentations from students returning from their internship and it gave me a better idea of what could be accomplished in only 3 months and the kind of projects that would be available to us. So I'm now getting a better idea of what my internship will look like.
Matt came and spent a few days with me in Strasbourg. It was awesome! On saurday we went to Europa Park (in Germany, about 45 minutes away from Strasbourg) and I can tell you that roller coaster and beer are definitely not a good mix, especially on the next morning! Sunday, we toured the city and stopped for lunch in a lovely place located in Petite France. It was tough to see him leaving on monday morning but we promised that we would share a few other beers next June for graduation.
Ok, I think that this is it for now... I'm going to spend a quiet WE at home watching France defeating the Feroe Islands, the Formula 1 Italian GP (GO Kimi!!!) and working a bit as well.