July 27, 2001, to August 18, 2001
Well hi everyone! I'm sure you all missed my crazy ramblings about life in Paris while I took my mini vacation. Well I'm back - this edition covers the previous 3 weeks (hard to believe I have been away so long), during which time I was partly still in Paris, partly in Seattle, and then back in Paris as a full-time tourist with my mom. So again my standard warning - if you have any pressing business, do it before reading :)
First, there are a few odds and ends to tie up after my last weekly update - I didn't leave France until Wednesday August 1. The Friday I sent my last update I went out to a movie in my little town of Palaiseau - I wanted to see "Amélie Poulain" again. It's a really really cute movie. I want to get it on DVD when I return to the States (assuming they release it there, oh heaven forbid they don't!). I was talking to the movie ticket counter girl for a little bit before the movie started, doing not too bad with my French I think (I delude myself into thinking so anyway) :) So when the time came to begin selling tickets for the movie I was waiting for (after the previous showing let out), she let me in for free! Ahhhh allies... The movie was just as good as I remembered, but I only picked up a few more things the second time around. It looks like I will have to watch it over and over and over to finally grasp all the French narration and dialogue, even though the gist of the thing is pretty easy to pick up.
That weekend I also decided to visit la Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie, which has an IMAX theatre and a 3D motion film (i.e., the whole theatre moves about with the action on screen and you feel like you're in the movie). The exhibits themselves were about nearly every aspect of science and technology you could imagine - the place was huge, far too big to do in one afternoon. I settled for making my way through the plentiful interactive exhibits on nuclear energy, hair (!), sound energy, automobiles, and a few other things. I saw a show at the Planetarium, which disappointed me as usual - I don't think planetaria take advantage of the medium enough; they spend too much time narrating and showing images unrelated to the stars, and not enough time showing cool pictures or spinning the dome image to make you dizzy :)
I also saw a short 3D computer-generated movie where they give you 3D glasses and everything. It was pretty lame, but you aren't there for the plot I guess, just to see the stuff jumping out at you. I learned that many movies were released in the 1950s in 3D and I wonder why they stopped being made. I suppose people are less into movies like "The Blob" and "The Creature from Black Lagoon" nowadays. I got to see an IMAX movie at la Géode (the IMAX theatre is in a huge building shaped like a geodesic dome) but the Cinaxe (the moving 3D theatre) had already closed. Since I didn't get to see the IMAX movie I had wanted to see (about ancient Egypt, instead I saw something about man and water), either, I have decided to go back this weekend and make it a double feature :)
On Sunday (the last Sunday in July) I wandered around the Latin Quarter of Paris. This is the area where most of the students live, and famous universities like la Sorbonne are there. It came to be called the Latin Quarter because in the past, educated people spoke Latin amongst each other and in classes. I found a movie theatre playing old American movies in English with French subtitles, so I saw Stanley Kubrick's "Lolita" and Francis Ford Coppola's "The Outsiders", which is based on a book I often read as a teenager. "Lolita" was not nearly as sensational as I'd always thought it was supposed to be, but then I suppose at the time it was released, the suggestion of the circumstances were enough to get people titillated; whereas now, even outright depiction of lewd or crude things doesn't bother people. Go figure. Actually, I sort of thought "Lolita" was more humorous than anything - painfully humorous really; the characters were so embarrassingly manipulated by their emotions and unable to stand up and think for themselves that I really found them all quite unlikeable. Someday I want to read Nabokov's book, upon which the movie is based.
That said, so commences my vacation-within-a-vacation... I took a morning plane on Wednesday August 1 out from Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport to Seattle, with a change in London. When I arrived, I was not noticeably jet-lagged, but by the evening it had set in, and it took me several days to get over it. This was the worst jet lag I have the recollection of ever having, and I think it is due to the inordinately long 12-some hour in-transit time in a westerly direction. Even on the return flight, which was just as long but to the east, it only took me 1 day to be cured of my jetlag, which is more normal for me. I was in Seattle alone for 3 nights, my mom arriving to join me on Saturday. I met up with my old roommate from DC last summer on Friday and scouted around town with her and her friends, which was great fun. We enjoyed reminiscing about the crazy things that happened last summer.
Once my mom arrived, and the conference began, Seattle was very busy. I was working as a volunteer at the conference, seeing tourist sights with my mom, and doing conference-y social things like the banquet and reception and whatnot. A special conference activity which both my mom and I were able to attend was a tour of the Boeing plant - we saw several assembly lines including planes in various stages of construction. Quite awe-inspiring. It was the closest I'd ever been to a plane on the ground, standing under its wings, sticking my head in the (empty) fuel cells....
Anyway, Seattle is a beautiful city (although quite hilly - all that walking!), and we were lucky with the weather. It did not rain at all while we were there really and "the mountain was out", as the locals say, (Mt Rainier was visible) on several days. One strange thing is that they have these huge (artificial) pigs on most street corners which have been decorated by local artists and sponsored by local businesses. They are *everywhere*. Truly a bizarre addition to the landscape. A second thing is that coffee is ubiquitous. Not just Starbuck's, but Seattle's Best, and some other place called Tully's, and a myriad of one-offs. Coffee coffee coffee - worse than in Paris :)
Some of you might be interested in the presentation ceremony for my award,
which took place bright and early at 8:25am PDST on Thursday morning,
August 9. It was a short little ceremony where the presenter - an
Important Guy
So anyway, after my 10 days in Seattle, it was time to return to France. My mom and I took the overnight flight, during which I had an awful migraine :( When we arrived in Paris we discovered they had forgotten to transfer one of her bags when we changed planes in London. They managed to deliver it the next night, but it was no fun for her. They had said they would deliver it the same night, but we think they could not find my apartment. But all is well that ends well. During my mom's week here (her first time in Paris), I played tour guide and took her to see all the "important" sights: the Louvre, Musée d'Orsay (impressionism), Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, les Champs Elysées, la Bastille, Place de la Concorde with the Obelisk, Notre Dame, Sainte Chapelle, Montmartre and the Sacre Coeur basilica. We took a Seine cruise one night too. We spent time just lounging around at cafés (including Les Deux Magots, where Hemingway and Sartre and Picasso used to hang out, although it was too warm out for their delicious hot chocolate), and also buying touristy souvenirs for family back home.
We also saw the Monet museum, the Rodin museum, and the Picasso museum, and took 3 trips out of Paris to see Mont St Michel (impressive), 3 chateaux (castles) in the Loire Valley - Cheverny, Chambord, and Chenonceau - (amazing), and Giverny (Monet's former home with a beautiful garden). All in all the week was great fun, although the hottest week I'd yet experienced in Paris - temperatures in excess of 95 degrees Fahrenheit! We made it through, however, and the last two days were quite comfortable and pleasant. My mom's plane left at 7:40am on Saturday August 18, however, which meant getting up at 4:15am to catch the 5:17am train from my town to the airport! I went back to sleep once I'd gotten back home :)
Well I will stop here and leave this past weekend for my normal weekly update this Friday. Hope you enjoyed reading (if you made it this far). At this point I have something like 25 days left until I arrive in Philadelphia - 4 weeks-ish. For the curious, my plane lands around noon EDST on Saturday September 15th. Drexel's fall term begins again on Sept 24 or something, so I will at least get a week to relax from my traveling and unpack and re-move in to my room. I'm back at work now and learning, learning, learning for the remainder of my time here. More updates to follow! Bonne semaine!