Tuesday, May 30
HOT!
Walking the streets in Ann Arbor is like swimming in a pool with your clothes on... and even at midnight it's still 75F (and 80% humidity) outside... and 84F inside !!! I'm going to move in the freezer...
Monday, May 29
Lake Michigan
First week-end in Michigan and first road trip! Sunday, Bad (my new roomie) and I drove to the west coast and to Holland. Quite a long drive ;)
The west coast (of Michigan of course) is really nice and sunsets there are gorgeous. Lake Michigan looks a bit like the Mediterranean Sea, except for the temperature of the water ;) We first reached Grand Haven, spent a few hours there and then drove south to Holland. There, we landed on a sand dune and waited for the sun to go down. Just watching the lake and the sunset made me feel so good... The pics are here.
The west coast (of Michigan of course) is really nice and sunsets there are gorgeous. Lake Michigan looks a bit like the Mediterranean Sea, except for the temperature of the water ;) We first reached Grand Haven, spent a few hours there and then drove south to Holland. There, we landed on a sand dune and waited for the sun to go down. Just watching the lake and the sunset made me feel so good... The pics are here.
Saturday, May 27
You know you're in the US when...
1. People take the elevator to go up or down one floor
2. Cars stop for pedestrians
3. Strawberries look like tomatoes and taste like watermelon
4. You can watch 2 TV programs at the same time on 2 different channels
5. You can go grocery shopping at 11pm on a sunday
.... ;)
2. Cars stop for pedestrians
3. Strawberries look like tomatoes and taste like watermelon
4. You can watch 2 TV programs at the same time on 2 different channels
5. You can go grocery shopping at 11pm on a sunday
.... ;)
Friday, May 26
The French Postal Service is ruining my life... again!
Priority mail in France, how it works (or doesn't work):
1. Send a parcel (30lbs) from Strasbourg on May 11th in Priority Mail to Ann Arbor, MI (because you need your books asap for your internship for example)
2. Pay A LOT of money.
3. Wait, wait, wait....
4. Check online with your tracking number and realize that the Postal Service website cannot tell you where you parcel is.
5. After 2 weeks get VERY frustrated.
6. Call the Post Office (in France of course) and ask (nicely) about your parcel (thanx God you still have the tracking number - you know the one that doesn't work online...)
7. Listen to the nice guy telling you that your parcel left France on May 24!!!!!!!!!!!!!
8. Sit down, drink a bit and ask about the second parcel you sent on Priority Mail (for the same reason) on May 18.
8. Listen to the "not so nice guy anymore" telling you that he cannot find your second parcel because the lady at the Post Office probably forgot to scan it when you deposited it.
9. Collapse.
Now I'm asking myself:
1. When are we going to have tracking numbers for parcels that WE customers can use on their bloody website?
2. Thanx for doubling the shipping rates... What about the service and the efficiency????
2. 13 days to do Strasbourg - Paris in Priority Mail... How long in Eco????
3. Am I going to receive the parcels I sent in Eco to Atlanta before the end of my PhD (in 2011)???
1. Send a parcel (30lbs) from Strasbourg on May 11th in Priority Mail to Ann Arbor, MI (because you need your books asap for your internship for example)
2. Pay A LOT of money.
3. Wait, wait, wait....
4. Check online with your tracking number and realize that the Postal Service website cannot tell you where you parcel is.
5. After 2 weeks get VERY frustrated.
6. Call the Post Office (in France of course) and ask (nicely) about your parcel (thanx God you still have the tracking number - you know the one that doesn't work online...)
7. Listen to the nice guy telling you that your parcel left France on May 24!!!!!!!!!!!!!
8. Sit down, drink a bit and ask about the second parcel you sent on Priority Mail (for the same reason) on May 18.
8. Listen to the "not so nice guy anymore" telling you that he cannot find your second parcel because the lady at the Post Office probably forgot to scan it when you deposited it.
9. Collapse.
Now I'm asking myself:
1. When are we going to have tracking numbers for parcels that WE customers can use on their bloody website?
2. Thanx for doubling the shipping rates... What about the service and the efficiency????
2. 13 days to do Strasbourg - Paris in Priority Mail... How long in Eco????
3. Am I going to receive the parcels I sent in Eco to Atlanta before the end of my PhD (in 2011)???
Tuesday, May 23
Life is good in Michigan
Yep life is good… a bit chilly so far but damn good. Ann Arbor is a bit like Corvallis, bigger though. Everybody’s nice but talking waaaaayyyy faster than on the West Coast. I’m sharing a house with a girl from Montreal and a French guy. It’s funny to think that I have to come all the way from France to finally live with French/French Canadian native speakers ! The room I have here is in the attic (again !) but three times bigger than the one I had in Strasbourg. I really appreciate having 3 meters between my desk and my bed ;) And I can see the stars from my bed. I love it. Everything is just so quiet. No garbage collector at 5 in the morning anymore, no horn all day long… just the birds to wake you up ;)
My internship is going well, besides the fact that both my advisors in France and here are gone! I’m home at 7:30pm every evening, which for me is a significant change! No late evening at school anymore. I have to take it easy this summer.
Finally, it’s nice to receive news from classmates scattered all over the world. Between Rocky and his jumping spiders in Maryland, the guys is Texas cruising around with their Buick, Ramon drooling over his JPL badge and our Italians trying to differentiate milk from orange juice in Japan, I’m having a lot of fun ;)
And in a few weeks I’ll be back in Oregon for graduation. It’s going to be the first time I attend one of my graduation ceremonies. I finally managed to be in the right country at the right time ;)
My internship is going well, besides the fact that both my advisors in France and here are gone! I’m home at 7:30pm every evening, which for me is a significant change! No late evening at school anymore. I have to take it easy this summer.
Finally, it’s nice to receive news from classmates scattered all over the world. Between Rocky and his jumping spiders in Maryland, the guys is Texas cruising around with their Buick, Ramon drooling over his JPL badge and our Italians trying to differentiate milk from orange juice in Japan, I’m having a lot of fun ;)
And in a few weeks I’ll be back in Oregon for graduation. It’s going to be the first time I attend one of my graduation ceremonies. I finally managed to be in the right country at the right time ;)
Friday, May 19
My last post from France
I guess I'm ready to go. Everything is packed and for the first time I don't leave any box at mom's or dad's. I'm defintely improving ;) I'm leaving for Frankfurt today and for Ann Arbor tomorrow. I managed to get my 2 visas done at the same time so I won't have to come back to France twice this summer (only once for my presentation). The 3 coming months are going to be busy between my internship at Michigan, my search for a place in Atlanta, the beginning of my PhD at GT and my internship presentation at ISU... New projects and a (new) life. I just don't want another year as the one I just had.
Time to go.
Time to go.
Tuesday, May 16
5 days of vacation in a row! youhooo!!
I left Friday morning for Port-Camargue (on the Mediterranean Coast) and enjoyed the week-end with mom, JY and Tom. Port-Camargue is the place we go when we have something important to celebrate or when we want to be all together. There are no words to describe how good it was. Mom was smiling again and we had a great time listening to my brother’s stories : I wasn’t expecting hotel management to be so much fun ! I had diner with Mee and Henri on Saturday night and brought them some Fat Tire and Black Butte Porter from Oregon.
Tom and I left for Lyon on Sunday afternoon. I met with Rob and his sister in the evening and we went out for diner «rue des Marronniers», a street full of memories and good restaurants… I spent Monday showing them Lyon. I still believe this is one of the most beautiful places to live in France but I don’t know if I could live there again. It was like diving into my past. Walking downtown brought back tons of memories… The place hasn’t changed much since 2002 but there was definitely something missing. Max was not there anymore. And a lot of friends were gone as well...
This afternoon I drove back to the campus. Being there reminded me Max and I driving on the tram tracks and cutting through the grass to go round the electric fence, the rush every morning to arrive on time at school, Max’s way of parking his 4X4 in front of my building, the terrible food of the Resto U, the (too many) chocolate croissants at the 10am break, the day I ended up with my car in the middle of the round-about because of a icy road… I stopped by ISTIL, my engineering school, to say « Hi ». I thought my advisor was going to have a heart-attack when he saw me ;) Surprise surprise ! It was really cool ! I also saw the school’s new car for the low milleage competition which is taking place every spring in France. Max and I were the first ones to work on the car 5 years ago. At that time, there was no injection system and it was only during our second year that we added an electric starter. So it was nice, this afternoon, to see that the school is still competing and that there are new students working on improving the car. Finally, I met the ISTIL guy who’s going to start his exchange year at OSU next fall. A new student for Max's scuba diving classes ;)
I enjoyed these few days off with family and friends. Seeing Burt in Lyon was great too. This year was just so crazy and I wish I had more time to meet with friends.
Tonite, I’m back to Strasbourg. I still have a lot of packing and cleaning to do... I'm leaving for Detroit on saturday afternoon. A new adventure, alone.
Pics from my last days in France will come soon...
Tom and I left for Lyon on Sunday afternoon. I met with Rob and his sister in the evening and we went out for diner «rue des Marronniers», a street full of memories and good restaurants… I spent Monday showing them Lyon. I still believe this is one of the most beautiful places to live in France but I don’t know if I could live there again. It was like diving into my past. Walking downtown brought back tons of memories… The place hasn’t changed much since 2002 but there was definitely something missing. Max was not there anymore. And a lot of friends were gone as well...
This afternoon I drove back to the campus. Being there reminded me Max and I driving on the tram tracks and cutting through the grass to go round the electric fence, the rush every morning to arrive on time at school, Max’s way of parking his 4X4 in front of my building, the terrible food of the Resto U, the (too many) chocolate croissants at the 10am break, the day I ended up with my car in the middle of the round-about because of a icy road… I stopped by ISTIL, my engineering school, to say « Hi ». I thought my advisor was going to have a heart-attack when he saw me ;) Surprise surprise ! It was really cool ! I also saw the school’s new car for the low milleage competition which is taking place every spring in France. Max and I were the first ones to work on the car 5 years ago. At that time, there was no injection system and it was only during our second year that we added an electric starter. So it was nice, this afternoon, to see that the school is still competing and that there are new students working on improving the car. Finally, I met the ISTIL guy who’s going to start his exchange year at OSU next fall. A new student for Max's scuba diving classes ;)
I enjoyed these few days off with family and friends. Seeing Burt in Lyon was great too. This year was just so crazy and I wish I had more time to meet with friends.
Tonite, I’m back to Strasbourg. I still have a lot of packing and cleaning to do... I'm leaving for Detroit on saturday afternoon. A new adventure, alone.
Pics from my last days in France will come soon...
Thursday, May 11
Just a few words...
Our presentation went really well, so well actually that NASA has decided to sponsor our work and model and to use it as a baseline for their work. Our two NASA experts were really enthusiastic and so were we ;) We now have to change the cover of the report and executive summary as well as the jacket of the CD to include the NASA logo on it. This is freaking great!! And this is definitely good for the school too. And I'm so happy to see our hard work and all our sleepless nights being recognized by ISRU gurus. But I'm so tired. I can't remember being that tired before. I could sleep for a week and this is probably what I'm going to do. Today was our last day at school and tonite was our last gathering. Everybody's now living for their internship. I'm really going to miss a lot of people...
I'm leaving for Lyon and the south of France tomorrow morning. This is going to be my last week-end in family before I leave for the US (in 9 days). Will be back in Strasbourg on tuesday night.
I'm leaving for Lyon and the south of France tomorrow morning. This is going to be my last week-end in family before I leave for the US (in 9 days). Will be back in Strasbourg on tuesday night.
Tuesday, May 9
It's almost time for show and tell
Here is the info:
The Masters 06 TP presentations will take place in the Boeing Auditorium next Thursday, 11 May starting at 08:45. This year, the titles of the two Team Projects are:
TP1 : SWORD - Space Weather Observations, Research and Distribution
TP2 : FERTILE Moon : Feasibility of Extraction of Resources and Toolkit for In-Situ Lunar Exploration
The timing for the day will be:
08:45: Tossing of a coin to decide which presentation is first
09:00 – 10:00: TP1 or TP2
10:00 – 10:30: Questions and discussion
10:30 – 11:00 Break
11:00 – 12:00: TP1 or TP2
12:00 – 12:30: Questions and discussion
12:30: Class Photo outside
13:00: Get-together in the Visitors’ Lounge and Pioneers Hall (or outside if the weather is good)
The students will then be leaving on their internships for 3 months. They will return to ISU at the end of August. You are all invited to attend these presentations and the get-together afterwards.
If you’d like to watch the webcast on your computer: http://www.isunet.edu/EN/354
And if you're interested in TP2 gear, don't miss the Fertile Moon Marketplace!!! You, too, can look like a space geek ;)
The Masters 06 TP presentations will take place in the Boeing Auditorium next Thursday, 11 May starting at 08:45. This year, the titles of the two Team Projects are:
TP1 : SWORD - Space Weather Observations, Research and Distribution
TP2 : FERTILE Moon : Feasibility of Extraction of Resources and Toolkit for In-Situ Lunar Exploration
The timing for the day will be:
08:45: Tossing of a coin to decide which presentation is first
09:00 – 10:00: TP1 or TP2
10:00 – 10:30: Questions and discussion
10:30 – 11:00 Break
11:00 – 12:00: TP1 or TP2
12:00 – 12:30: Questions and discussion
12:30: Class Photo outside
13:00: Get-together in the Visitors’ Lounge and Pioneers Hall (or outside if the weather is good)
The students will then be leaving on their internships for 3 months. They will return to ISU at the end of August. You are all invited to attend these presentations and the get-together afterwards.
If you’d like to watch the webcast on your computer: http://www.isunet.edu/EN/354
And if you're interested in TP2 gear, don't miss the Fertile Moon Marketplace!!! You, too, can look like a space geek ;)
Friday, May 5
Yes I'm still alive...
...even if it doesn't seem that obvious when you see me. I know I haven't been doing a great job in answering emails recently but I'll do my best to fix that this coming sunday.
The result of our hard work will be webcasted next thursday morning French time. I'll post further info with respect to the webcast beginning of next week.
The result of our hard work will be webcasted next thursday morning French time. I'll post further info with respect to the webcast beginning of next week.
