August 24, 2001, to August 30, 2001
Now that the summer is winding down (here comes Labor Day), everyone in the office is gradually returning from their vacations - pretty soon it will be just as buzzing as it was when I got here ... which means more hands to shake in the mornings!! :(
Last Friday was the last day of work here for the woman who had originally given me my training in OpenCASCADE when I arrived. As there was back when Damian had his last day, she held a "pot" (pronounced "poh"). Anyway this time I managed to get it explained to me a little better what the whole thing is all about. Apparently when people leave it is their *option* if they want to have a "pot", which means them bringing in snack food and beverages (including wine) to the office for a mini-gathering. If the person does not choose to do so, no one thinks anything of it, it is entirely his/her choice.
I mentioned that that sort of thing is not done in the US and more likely the person's colleagues would use the company slush fund or get together a collection for a cake or some sort of mini-gathering. They seemed to misunderstand my point and think that that is because wine wouldn't be allowed at a company gathering. I suppose it wouldn't but I don't think that is why a person does not do things for their own holidays in the US - well they have their own birthday party but they don't bring in their own cake to their place of work unless they are in elementary school, and then it's cupcakes! :)
Last weekend it was significantly hotter here than usual. I think
Saturday was the first day it was hotter here than Philly/NJ :) Sunday it
was again hot, and I decided I had had enough of near-heat-exhaustion
wandering around tourist-like in the sun, so I stayed home at the pool
which is conveniently located next door to my apartment, and managed to
get a bit burnt on my back. Of course, no tan - I am just as pale as I
was before.
An interesting encounter with an animal on Friday night, coming home from seeing the Final Fantasy movie in French: I was walking down the road/sidewalk and I saw what appeared to me to be a large rat in the road. I was all ready to be grossed out when it turned and I got close enough to see it had spikes. At first I thought it was a porcupine (un porc-épic) but it was too small - hence, a hedgehog (un hérisson). It, in trying to skedaddle from my view, managed to get stuck in a fence. I stood there in a kind of disbelief because I had no idea how to help it. Then, two women walked by with a dog and I enlisted their help. Using two sticks (and breaking several others in the process) we managed to pull the critter out from the fence hole after which it curled up into a tight little ball. We had to use sticks because we could not touch the spikes obviously - but their very existence made the stick usage ok, because we could be relatively forceful in trying to get him out and they protected him from us doing any damage. They were also the reason several of our twigs broke. It seemed hopeless at times, but we *did* eventually get him out, so I guess that was my/our good deed for the night. We left him curled up in his little ball, with no apparent injuries. My first animal rescue!
Speaking of close encounters with animals - the other day I was walking down a crowded Paris street and happened to notice a dude coming toward me with a HUGE, well not huge but at least rather large, snake wrapped around his neck... I did a double take on that one.
So on Saturday I went down to the Opéra area of Paris. Their old opera house is extremely large and quite ostentatious. They do have a newer, more modern one in which they also perform, but the old opera house is left over from the reign of Napoleon III, I think. The area around it is mostly shopping, not as many tourists but a tourist-y vibe nonetheless. I ate lunch in a charming little cafe with wrought-iron chairs. The reason I was down there in the first place was because an old floormate, Liz, from Drexel had told me about this place called Fragonard, which sells perfume and has a "perfume museum". You can take free tours of it and the women who sell you the perfume at the end can tell you everything you ever wanted to know about how they make perfume. Plus they can recognize all the perfumes they sell by scent. I bought some called Arielle but of course I cannot remember what's in it hehe. It smells nice tho :)
In the afternoon (it was HOT), I went back to la Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie to ride the Cinaxe because I hadn't gotten to before and I really wanted to try it. It's a 3D full motion movie, meaning the theatre moves about with the action, kind of like Star Wars at Disneyland. The show was a sort of magic carpet ride. Overall a bit lame, but the neatest part was that it was in 3D; we got to wear glasses and see bad guys jump out at us and everything. It was very short, but only cost $3.50, so I guess overall it was worth the experience. After that I had some time to kill before dinnertime so I hung out on some grass where the Music Academy (which is nearby to la CSI) was giving a free concert, a brass quintet. I almost fell asleep on the grass, that's how hot it was, but luckily I was in the shade.
Then I had some dinner in a nice cafe where I had the hardest time staying out of the sun's harsh glare; afterwards I made my way to la Géode, the huge IMAX domed theatre, to see (my 2nd IMAX show of the summer) "The Egypt of the Pharoahs". It was apparently a National Geographic movie which had been done with Omar Sharif as a narrator, and was dubbed into French later. It was neat, because I have always had a passion for ancient Egypt and its architecture, but after the movie I was soooo tired from all the sun and walking that I went home and practically straight to bed by 11pm. As I mentioned, I did not do anything tourist-y on Sunday, just lazed by the pool.
Sunday night I went to see "Jurassic Park 3" in French (I had already seen it in English in Seattle). I think it was marginally easier to pick up the French given that I sort of already knew the lines, but it didn't buy me that much in terms of improved comprehension. To show you how biased in favor of American cinema the global movie market is, while I've been here in France there have been exactly 3 French movies out in the suburban theatre I go to, and countless American ones. And in fact, the newest French movie is "Absolument Fabuleux", and is based on the British comedy show "Absolutely Fabulous". Paris cinema is much more worldly but even so, I think Hollywood is the most prolific movie generator there is - but then, it's pretty much just sheer quantity, and not much quality.
Two small funny stories before I go - as I've said before street vendors are ubiquitous, in the subways and on the streets. You can find fresh fruit stands in many many Metro stations underground, which is neat. One thing which I thought particularly unusual was that I saw a man grilling corn on the cob over a strange hotplate kind of setup. Later, on a different day, I saw a discarded ear of blackened corn in a subway tunnel, and thought of that street vendor. The discarded ear of corn just seemed so out-of-place in the tunnel, it made me laugh.
An al dente horror story: I ordered pasta at a café the other day and it came back a bit on the al dente side of al dente. I hate when stuff like that happens, because you always hear these nasty stories about what happens when you send back your food to the kitchen. Plus, what if the French like their pasta a bit crunchy? Would I be making a terrible cultural faux pas, like asking for ketchup, if I asked them to cook my pasta a bit longer? So I kept my mouth shut and ate it. It was good, if a little, filling... :)
Well that is pretty much it for this week. Kinda shorter than normal. I have been having a minor headache for a few days - probably due to the sudden wet weather. 2 weeks from today is my last day at Matra. I have sooo much stuff to pack! Am considering the shipping route, at least for some of it, but we'll see how much of a hassle/expenditure that would turn out to be... See (most of) you very soon!