Here's what I'm going to do...

... when I have 5 minutes....

- sleep: at least try...
- be a geek with my camera and do VR panoramas of Alsace and the rest of the world!
- mount my DSLR on the telescope we have at school to take great pics of the sky.
- go hickiiiing !!!!

By the way, I'm looking for a place to spend New Year's Eve, preferably AWAY FROM EVERYTHING (with a lot of space and above all with no noise: no cars, no crowd, etc...). It seems that they have cool places in Norway ;) Remote enough ???

And this one, just because I love Grand Canyon ;)

For now, I shoud stop stuffing myself with clementines and go back to work... this satellite won't go to the Moon by itself...

Happy Halloween!!!

Ok, so I tried to find something scary to wear today, like a mask... and then I realized that my face was scary enough... (don't even ask for a picture!) Anyway, here is my special halloween link, so turn the volume up and watch carefully! Happy Halloween ;)

Acchhooo !

Found that one on the net today...

More and always more pics!!!

Somebody will have to explain me how it is possible not be able to fall asleep when you only had 3 hours of sleep the night before. I thought I would sleep like a log and... nothing! So instead of turning and turning in my bed, I uploaded my very last pictures... Enjoy!

Paris by night: Pictures of our trip to Paris to visit EADS. There won't be any pics of EADS or all the nice things we have seen there (first stage of Ariane...) since cameras and cellphones were not allowed. But I have great pics of happy people cruising in the streets, restaurants and bars ;)

Space and Aviation Museum - Le Bourget: We had the opportunity to visit the Concorde, the most beautiful commercial plane ever built.

Reims: We stopped there on our way back to Strasbourg. They have a very, very impressive Cathedrale.

Strasbourg by night: pics taken on my way back home in the early early morning.

The week-end after the first examination: well, I let you guess on that one ;)

The Russian BBQ: greeeeaaaat vodka!

Remote sensing and Wine tasting: Pics of our day at Mount St Odile, working on our remote sensing assignment and on some more cultural things ;)

The end of the week.... finally!!!

Well, actually I'm not sure that I'm going to see any difference between this coming week-end and the week that just passed but at least I can sleep a bit tomorrow morning.
I'm pretty proud of myself tonight : I went to the Post Office and didn't kill anybody! At some point I thought I was going to but I succeeded in controlling myself... couldn't keep my mouth shut though...
Today I read in the news that a cat lost in Delaware was found in Nancy, France... Ok so could somebody in the US tell me where are the 6 bottles of wine I sent 3 weeks ago????

Tonight we opened a nice bottle of Sauternes (sweet wine, same kind as Muscat and Gewurztraminer) to celebrate Chris' first week at ISU (Insufficient Sleep University). Daniel, who didn't have any food prior testing the wine is now talking to his steak: "come on steak you can do it!".


Obviously we all need some sleep here.

To finish, a little bit of space management:

A fridge for 3...

A random day...

For those who don't know yet, I have wheels now!!! Thanks to my grand-parents who let me use their second car for the time I'm in France ;) So it's not 2 hours in the tram anymore but 40 minutes... This is changing my life... and my budget too (about $6/gallon for gas here)!!

Today we had the presentations of the 2 different Team Project subjects that we'll have to work on mostly during module 4: TP1 is on Space Weather and TP2 is on in situ resource utilization on the Moon and Mars. I'm definitely going for the second one. The idea of manufacturing products on the Moon and Mars is definitely exciting.

On a totally different topic, I think I found the best diet ever! Chris had the crazy idea to buy scales. Of course I jumped on them (with a bit of apprehension...) and surprise!!! -9 lbs!!! I weigh 16 lbs less than last year at the same period... Conclusion: more beer, sauerkraut and brats ;)

Finally, don't forget the launch of SSETI Express this morning @8:22am CEST.

It's getting closer and closer...

On CNN website
On Le monde website.

Back home with no speeding ticket... I hope!

It was good to see Dad for a few hours between 2 planes and to celebrate his birthday (10 days late) with my grand-parents on sunday. Saturday night we went out to see Danny Boon's one man show. This guy is hilarious. His sketch on the French Postal Service is so true... Talking about the French Postal Service, I'm going to kick some butts next friday... Obviously some people here don't know what "USA" means... Or maybe they think that the fastest way to ship a box to the West Coast is by going thru Asia??? But I promise I'll try to stay calm at least for the first 20 seconds...

My way back home was a long long drive but a good one. I love driving, especially during night when there is almost nobody on the freeway. The sky was clear and the moon was low on the horizon... beautiful. It was just me and a few crazy Germans and guys from Luxembourg who obviously don't know that the speed limit in France is 130 km/h and not 130 mph!!! OK, I'm probably not the right person to make that kind of comments... ;) Anyway I made it before midnight last night so I was awake enough this morning to welcome our new friends from the SSP.

On a totally different topic, Nicole put her pics from the Redwoods online: here. Her pics are great. I should have gone there more often. This place is magic...

And here is the comic strip of the day...

On the road... again!

If you're looking for me this WE, try somewhere on this blue line...

But if the cops could stay away from it, it would be very much appreciated...

How do you know that....

- Chris is home?

• The windows in the living room are open and the temperature barely reaches 59F
• The shower head is so high that I almost need a chair to reach it
• By the smell of basmati rice and sushi in the kitchen
  

- Daniel is home?

• You can hear somebody shouting in Hebrew against his computer
• The phone is not on its base anymore
  
• There is some chicken and potatoes in the oven
  

- Olive is home?

• The network is saturated
• There is some empty packaging on the worktop and some frozen food in the microwave

EXCEPT today! I "cooked" one of my favorite dish: Tomatoes, Mozzarella, Bresaola and tons of Olive oil... cannot fight against my Italian origins ;)


Tonite, it was Indian food with mum and Jean-Yves. I'm living tomorrow morning for Nantes to see Dad saturday nite (8 hours in a train... do they have WIFI in TGVs???) and my grand-parents on sunday for lunch. And then I'm driving back sunday afternoon to Strasbourg (870 km - 540 miles) as I'm expected to be in class monday morning (they didn't mentioned that I have to be awake...)... Have a great WE!

Luxembourg

We left Strasbourg sunday morning for Luxembourg. We spent the afternoon there, visiting. Luxembourg is a beautiful city but there is not much to do really. However, they have nice bank buildings that look like castles. We had a great diner though and a lot of drinks... We all started to sing drinking songs from the countries we were from... And since people here are coming from about 23 different countries, this gives you an idea of our condition when we left the place... Monday, we (the ones who survived) went to visit SES Global (the place that take care of the satellites that enable us to watch our favorite programs on TV) and then left for Paris.
The pics from Luxembourg are here and the ones from SES are here.

I'll put the pics from Paris pretty soon but since my mum and step-dad are paying me a visit tomorrow afternoon, I'd better tidy the mess a bit (cannot even see the floor right now) instead of playing with pics.
Anyway I'm about to break a record here: almost 48 hours without a single beer! Go Olive, Go!

Back!

I'm back from my trip to Luxembourg and Paris... I spent the day in the bus trying to get over the few beers I had last night ;) I have tons of pics (as usual) that I'll post very soon (I'm already done with the ones from Luxembourg). More about the trip soon but for now my bed is waving to me ;) Good niiiiiiiite !

On the road...

Leaving in a few hours for Luxembourg and then Paris (Nat???)... I'll be back wednesday evening. I'm not taking any laptop so I won't be checking my emails (can you imagine???) but you can reach me on my cellphone. Have a good one ;)

Little life's pleasures...

This was yesterday, at about 5pm, Place Broglie. A cappuccino, a little bit of studying and a warm fall sun. Just perfect...

I have also decided to take guitar lessons again and I bought the nicest guitar ever (at least the best one I've ever had!). It's a Canadian one, made in Cedar and just by the feel of it, it's already a real pleasure...

Please help Daniel!!!

I'm very concerned here. Daniel is totally out of control! Here is what I heard so far (and it is only 09:15pm...):

"I'm going to have a brain massive ejection"
"You can stick this exam up your vernal equinox"

Obviously, there is much more damaging than radiation! But this is actually way more fun thant the Outer Space Treaty...

Time to make some coffee (for me, Daniel doesn't need any!)...

10:30pm update: "Do they think my head is a hard-drive???"

And I now have "I like to move it move it" in live in the kitchen... Heeeeelp!!!

1:15am update: Live of "Wake me up before you go go..." in my room (by Daniel of course)

For me it's going to be easy, no bed at all so no wake-up... How comfortable is my iBook keyboard???

02:40am update: I need a break... Do you think I'll get killed if I start playing guitar now???

Study day

Here is the proof that working too much seriously damages your haircut! (sorry for the quality of the pics, cellphone pics)

Anyway, believe me, friday night is going to be wild!

Sleeping, finally...

You have no idea how good it is to be able to lie down in your bed with no back pain... God bless the muscle relaxant. I'm going to buy thousand boxes of that stuff! For the first time in 5 days, I'm going to close my eyes thinking to absolutely nothing, just listening to Coldplay and Jack Johnson till the battery of my laptop gives up... Good nite.

I want to live life, and never be cruel
I wanna live life, and be good to you
And i wanna fly
I'll never come down
And live my life
And have friends around
We never change do we no, no
We never learn do we
So i wanna live, in a wooden house
I wanna live life, and always be true
I wanna live life, and be good to you
And i wanna fly
But never come down
And live my life
And have friends around
We never change do we
We never learn do we
So i wanna live in a wooden house
And making more friends would be easy
Oh, and i don't have a soul to save
Yes and i sin every single day
We never change do we
We never learn do we
So i want to live in a wooden house
Where making more friends would be easy
I wanna live where the sun comes out

We never change - Coldplay

I am a random error

I went to get my back fixed this afternoon. By looking at the X-rays and listening to the comments of the radiologist ("Are you an athlete?"), I knew it wasn't going to be fun... and indeed it wasn't... But at least now I can seat on a chair for more than 15 minutes without "dancing" on it...
I wasn't really in hurry to go home and study so I went for a walk in the city. And I realized that Strasbourg is THE shoe heaven! There are shoe shops every 50 meters! For those of you who know my addiction for shoes, you can imagine how my credit card is feeling ;) This was a nice walk. It is fall here and the city is just gorgeous when the sun is going down on the churches and trees. I sat for a while along the river and watched the people passing by. Everybody is such in a hurry... The roasted chestnuts merchants are starting to overrun the streets. Winter is going to arrive fast and with it, the smell of mulled wine. There will be other times to sit on a bench and enjoy the present moment...

Antidote for workaholics...

The Japanese found the solution... But please, if I reach that point, shoot me!

Strasbourg on Google Earth

Strasbourg is finally on Google Earth and so is my home. You will need to install Google Earth on your machine first (available here).

No vacancy!

Our place is full! Chris, our Canadian roomate arrived at the beginning of the week... I now have an Israeli spy and a giant Canadian bodyguard at home!

The living-room now looks like this:

And we also now have a huge amp that our neighbors (especially the ones downstairs) are going to love! (Yes Canadians travel with their amp!)
And I'm not the only one sleeping with my laptop and eating frozen or dehydrated food anymore! I'm almost feeling normal now, thank you Chris!

I spent the night with Kepler... and I got high!

5:00 in the morning... Time to go to bed... for 2 hours. I probably should start making a lot of coffee...

Field Trip and "Wine Sensing"

We left saturday morning (waaaayyy too early!) for Mt St Odile (about 40 minutes away from school) for our Remote Sensing/GPS field trip. It was good to walk in the woods even if it has been raining cats and dogs all day. I really appreciated not being surrounded by cars or buildings or in front of a computer all day long.


Here is a pic of Strasbourg from Mt St Odile. The quality is not great due to bad weather conditions and a dirty sensor but we can clearly see the runway on the left and the Cathedrale in the middle. Germany is in the back.


We finished the day with a wine-testing at the Cave du Roi Dagobert. I was a bit disappointed with the Pinot Blanc and the Riesling. The Pinot Gris and the Gewurztraminer, on the other hand, were really tasty ;) And I left with 4 bottles... My room looks more and more like a wines and spirits store with the German beer on one side and the white wine on the other side (so basically I'm surrounded by bottles) !


So even if I had to wake up early it was worth every penny. Les Vosges seems to be a good place to go for who wants to escape the crowd and the noise of the city. And there might be some good hikes too. I think I'm going to enjoy going back there from times to times.
However, as far as tomorrow is concerned, the first one who wakes me up is dead!
I'm heading for my so expected and so much needed 12 hours of sleep (I have been dreaming about those all week!)...