Salut! 

Here is a mini-log of my first two days! I hope you enjoy!

Day 1

My first day in Paris (alone) was spectacular! I thought I was going to be lazy and just hang out at the dorm (since I had been walking 7 hours a day the last week), but I instantly got bored and realized that I was a dumbass for even thinking of staying in — I was in Paris for christ’s sake! So I left my dorm and went to eat at a cafe inside the Cite Universitaire (Cite U from now on) where I bought a big baguette sandwich and a coke for €3,90, so cheap! I then took the train to Jardin du Luxembourg where I went to read for about 1.5 hours, enjoying the beautiful day! It was about 70 degrees F the whole day, amazing! Jardin du Luxembourg is absolutely stunning and honestly a work of art… It’s hard to capture its beauty by photographs. It’s so enormous yet every single corner and detail is perfect - for example, the flower pots everywhere with perfect flowers, and things like that. Anyways, Jardin du Lux is analogous to Barton Springs for Parisians - it seems like every high school and college kid goes here on the weekend to enjoy the sun and lay down on the grass (as you can see on the picture). Anyways, on the way back, I decided to ride a bike back (in Paris, you can “rent” a bike for 45 minutes for free, and for €1 for 2 hours, and so on - it’s part of the incredible public transportation here). I went to the nearest Velib station and checked out a map before I left, confident in my map reading skills. Unfortunately, when Paris gains in public transportation, it loses in the complicated streets which change name every two or so blocks… And therein lies my problem! Not surprisingly, I got lost on my bike and ended up taking 45 minutes to get back to the dorm (when it should’ve taken 20 minutes). Once back, I realized that there was a Cite U wide party (for the end of the  year), so I decided to walk around the campus a bit. This was probably the best decision ever, because I instantly ran into the Denmark dorm, where they were holding a jazz festival! It was so incredible! They hired some unbelievable musicians… Anyways, three hours later it finishes and I go to my dorm and cook a meal and then ride around the area on another public bike. Over all, an incredible first day! I did so much more than I expected. :D

Day 2

I ate breakfast at the restaurant downstairs for the first time (it’s complementary with my stay :D) and it was good! I got a coffee (from a machine that had hot chocolate as well, so I got half cappuccino half hot chocoloate, haha, but it was good!), orange juice, croissant and a mini baguette. It was really awkward though because the guy at the end of the line asked me something in french and I had no idea what he asked, and I didn’t know what to do because it was supposed to be free! So I tried speaking in Spanish and he didn’t speak it… anyways, he was asking for my room number. It was super awkward and I suck at french, haha. Then, when I came back up to my room, my neighbor was leaving and she introduced herself. At first I didn’t understand her, and, being the nervous person that I am, I mumbled half the stuff that was coming out of my mouth… Then, when she tried to kiss me like to say hello (two kisses, one on each cheek), I did not see it coming at all (it’s been too long since I’ve done that) and that was the most awkward thing ever because I totally didn’t react! She leaned in and made this weird kissing sound… Oh man… Oh, and I already forgot her name, haha. I am the worst!

After breakfast I decided to catch up on some reading (for lab) and did that for a few hours. Then, since the Cite U party was still going on, I went and walked around and had an amazing Salmon Burger along with some other japanese specialty. However, because it was pretty rainy and cold all day, I decided to go back to the dorm and keep reading. At 6 I decided to go to the park across the street and read a little, which was nice (and, of course, the park is beautiful), then decided to go for a bike ride! I rode around and got lost (intentionally) and managed to stumble upon the Natural History museum! I was super excited until I realized that it was 8 and it was closing, haha — I’ll go back tomorrow or something. Either way I got to walk around the area of the museum and (like every park in Paris) it had a really beautiful garden/park! I managed to find my way back to the dorm (even though I had no idea where I was going) and went to the kitchen to cook some ravioli. I felt so inadequate cooking ravioli… Everybody next to me was making the most delicious meals ever! Granted, everybody was at least 30 or around that age, so maybe they’re more experienced? I’d like to believe so… There I met my first two “friends” (more like acquaintances which I talked to for more than 1 minute). One lady, Isabella, who is probably around 35, and a young man Enrique, who is about 28 or so. Both very, very nice and talkative :); it made me feel a lot better and more at home (since I’ve been eating and walking alone these last two days while everybody else has friends, haha). That’s one thing that I’ve noticed - everybody in the Spanish dorm is super nice and super friendly, I don’t think I’ve passed a person without them saying hello to me, and they all want to talk to you.  

Anyways, that’s my rant… I hope you guys enjoyed my log. Just FYI, I probably won’t do this every two days like I just did, but these first few weeks may contain a lot of posts, which I hope you enjoy.

Have a good week!

Bonjour!

I have been in Paris for 3 days and I am already loving it! I went around these last few days with my dad and started getting organized as well as familiarizing myself with the parts of the city which I’ll be around. The dorm is in a great complex (called Cite Universitaire) which is full of classical buildings, parks and even a soccer field and a tennis court. Hopefully there will be enough people to play soccer with every once in a while! I haven’t actually seen my dorm room yet because I haven’t moved in. As for the area around the dorm, I couldn’t ask for more: there’s a train and tramway station across the street, a beautiful park across the street as well, and much more.  I will post more pictures when I actually move into the dorm (today) and get settled in. 

I’ve been listening to french all day every day, and I feel fairly confident in my listening skills, however, I am a bit worried about talking… I get a bit nervous and choke up, but maybe once I start practicing more it will get better. I hope I get to speak a lot of French, though, because I want to learn a lot!

I got my navigo pass (for public transportation) and a SIM card for my phone (tres chere!), so I am practically done with the important things. I was able to walk by and take a look around the Laboratoires de Physique of Ecole Normale Superieure (where I’ll be working); while it is old, it has a very “rustic”(?) feel to it and the lab itself is obviously very modern. I love the courtyard in the laboratoires de physics buildings, it’s a nice place to go and relax or maybe eat lunch. The great thing about the labs is that they’re all in a very “college” area (there are like 3 other colleges within 3 blocks) so there are a lot of cafes and squares, I love it! Yesterday I also got to meet the person that I’ll be working for (Alexandros Alexakis, super greek, haha). He seems like a super nice guy (yet serious, which is good), which I’m very thankful for. It’s going to be easier to settle in and get comfortable, which will hopefully lead to better and more confident research. More on that later, since I don’t actually start until Wednesday.

My dad and I basically walked around all of Paris these last few days — I’m so tired! Haha. There’s too much to see though! We walked for about 7 hours straight for 2 whole days and I still feel like I haven’t seen all of the important stuff (let alone everything, of course). This is exciting, though, because that means that I won’t get tired of Paris when I’m here for two months :). Unfortunately, I can only post a few pictures taken from my iPhone (and some from my dad’s camera) because I was too lazy to take my nice camera out and use it, sorry! I’m sure you’ll get to see a lot of pictures of Paris later, since this is where I’m staying.

A bientot! 

My first day in Paris! More to come within the next few days when I get settled down and everything…

Bonjour Paris!

I have finally made it to my final destination: Paris! I took an afternoon flight with my dad from Naples to Paris today and made it here nice and easy and relaxed. We were greeted by the great Jean-Louis Guenet (my dad’s mentor in genetics and the reason why we’ve been to France so many times) at the airport and taken to his house where he generously offered us lodging for these next 3 days before I finally move into my dorm. Jean-Louis is such a character, he’s so funny (and so nice). He talks to everybody in random languages just to mess with them (in the airport, for example) and has a hatred for the British that I’ve never witnessed, haha. Today we didn’t do much else but stay at his house and relax (and I worked on my blog, as you can see by the enormous influx of posts) so nothing really exciting happened. I did, however, have my first traditional french dinner: we ate beef and pork with vegetables (always with wine as the drink), which was followed by a salad, then by  4 varieties of cheese (still need to work on acquiring a taste for cheese…), and finally, for dessert, strawberries with cream. Delicious! 

Tomorrow starts my real Paris experience. I’m going to buy a public transpiration pass, so that I can take the train and metro, and check out my dorm and the surrounding area. So excited!

Until next time!

Ciao Napoli! 

Today was my last day in Napoli and my first day in France! Napoli (and the surrounding areas that I have seen) has been an amazing experience… I loved the city of Napoli, with it’s chaotic people, traffic, and streets, yet it’s classical beauty and incredible (and cheap) food. It really reminds me a bit of Argentina (although it’s definitely the other way around) so it is almost a bit nostalgic to walk around the streets of Napoli and go to little grocery stores or eat some baked goods in the corner store while the locals hang out and talk loudly with each other. While I won’t necessarily miss the chaos too much, I will definitely miss the architectural feel and geographic beauty of Napoli, as well as getting to walk around without any direction and losing myself in the alleys and tiny streets which posses so much character. 

This is probably a very naive and romantic view of things, but I feel like the people in Napoli, while they seem to complain a lot, enjoy life more… You see old men in suits just talking and watching people walk by while a mother of  two and her best friend and her kids enjoy a coke on the corner, and couples are walking around everywhere kissing and being very romantic. It’s something that is rather striking for somebody who lives in the United States; I feel like it’s rare to see people doing stuff outside… I don’t know, maybe because Austin is small and there isn’t too much to do downtown except 6th street… Either way, I feel like the mentality is different in Napoli; people just like to sit, relax, and observe — something nobody else seems to do these days.

Anyways, I am glad that I came to Napoli, it was a great experience and extremely beautiful. I hope to returning the future!

I’ll miss you Napoli!

Another panoramic. Taken from the beach of Positano, so beautiful!

Yesterday we went to the Amalfi coast and, as you can see, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so beautiful in my life! Driving in the mountain side and turning the corner only to see a whole town built on the ascending mountain walls, with a beautiful, blue-watered beach was absolutely incredible! And, although it rained the whole time (curse you weather gods), imagine how unbelievable it would’ve all been if it were sunny… Even without the sun, one can still see the stunning beauty in the towns. The Amalfi coast was really something spectacular to see, because, apart from the beauty from afar, the towns were full of tiny streets lined with flowers and old buildings, all under an incredible view of buildings on the mountainside in the distance. 

At first we stopped by Sorrento, one of the cities that line the Amalfi coast, where my dad did some scuba diving on the bay while I stayed on board the boat. This was a really great experience (for the both of us). For a surprisingly small amount of money, my dad and I were able to see Sorrento from the bay as well as witness some great rock formations on by the water, the whole time being accompanied by the instructors who had great energies and personalities. 

We then went to Positano, where we spent most of our time (and where I took most of my pictures that you see above). Here we ate in a small bar/restaurant which had a great view of the mountain side from the terrace where we ate (the picture above with the chairs and tables). Then we walked around and happened to witness somebody getting married in the historic church (unlucky for them that it was raining so much!), which was really great, yet humbling, haha. 

Overall, this was really an incredible experience and I hope I get to come back here one day where there is a lot of sun so I can experience the beautiful beaches! 

Yay panoramics! (and a lot more to come…)

Again, click on each picture please!

Hey everybody!

As you can see, my family and I went to the ruins of Pompeii on the 27th of May! We took the train from Napoli (a 30 minute ride) and got to see the towns and cities in between (although it’s essentially all city). In the train ride, one can see a bit more of the reality, if you will, of living in the area. While surrounding geography is absolutely beautiful, the apartments and areas where people are living aren’t as pretty and “rustic” as one imagines, in fact there are certain parts that are very run down and full of graffiti and trash - one of the things that people seem to note about Napoli, unfortunately. However, it is by no means ugly or disgusting, it just takes one back to the reality of things and possibly reveals the economic state in which the province is in. 

Anyways, once we got to Pompeii, everything was nice and clean (for the tourists, I imagine, which there was plenty of, not surprisingly). Once you walk into the city of Pompeii, you are instantly amazed at how advanced it was and how similar it seems to any thriving city today. You see very organized roads (with a hierarchy of importance, even!), a great structure to the city planning, multiple shops and restaurants — everything you find in a big city today! What really impressed me was their attention to detail, for example: they used to flood the streets every once in a while in order to clean them, and so what they would do is build raised sidewalks and stepping stones across streets so that the people who were walking wouldn’t get wet. The streets also had white stones “sprinkled” across, which served as  ”cat-eye” indications of where the street was for night time travelers… incredible! The city itself is probably as big as Austin’s downtown area, which is very impressive (and housed ~20,000) people. It was full of places to shop and eat, and even had a bathhouse. I wish I could write more about it, because it’s so amazing, but I will start to bore you guys… If you are not bored, then go read wikipedia :-P. Anyways, like I said, I was surprised as to how big the city was. I always pictured a few, small ruins the size of a few square blocks, but this was a full on city! There were a ton of streets and houses and places to go. What also surprised me was how accessible everything was; unlike a lot of other museum-like attractions, you could walk and touch practically everything! They didn’t walk us down the street and make us look in without touching anything, you could walk up to any house or any shop and just go in and see everything. In fact, there was so much to see that it would take days to visit everything… Over all, it was incredible! I’m really glad to have gone to Pompeii!

PS: Click on the pictures to see them bigger and in a “slideshow” format with captions.

The family in front of an amazing view of Napoli :)