Connections

Today was simply wonderful.

Started off my morning with a "real" omelette (my weekend dining hall assignment differs from my weekday one, which no longer offers custom omelettes but only ham and cheese. This has been a point of aggravation among my peer group. But on the weekends we get to eat in the dining hall that allows omelette fillings of your choice), then had an actual voice conversation with Lala (one of my friends in France) and got to practice a little French with him. Then it was off to my French conversation class at l'Alliance Francaise. Apres, I decided on a whim to get off the bus a few stops early, resulting in my discovery of a shop where everything costs $3.99. They had a bunch of cute T-shirts with phrases obviously chosen by people with no proper grasp of the english language, some 80s vintage clothing, a bunch of cool costume jewelery, belts, etc, AND some imitation converse, in a wide array of colors. Now, I've been desiring such a pair of shoes for quite some time but have been reluctant to shell out the money for a legit pair, so when I saw look-a-likes for only $3.99 I simply had to act. So I got a pair of green low-top converse style shoes and then picked up some light purple laces. I finally now have a pair of fun, colorful shoes that I've been daydreaming of for over 6 months.

But my good day was only beginning at this point!

I got picked up by Bob and Vee, old friends of my parents. Bob and Vee were my mum's good friends from high school and Bob and my Dad were room mates in the seminary. So they took me to their wonderful home in Culver city, where I re-met their two sons Nick and Andrew (I hadn't seen them in over ten years), and gave me lunch and really good coffee. We sat out in the backyard for a while and then we moved into the kitchen and continued to visit as dinner was prepared and I had some Chardonnay and some of Bob's home made peanut butter cookies. Then it was dinner time, which was delicious and complete with fresh cut roses from the backyard and candle light. After dinner there was more coffee to be had and cookies and ice cream to be eaten. Even more, Bob asked "Claire, do you like classical music?" to which I replied "yes" and then he asked "Do you like Chopin?" Ah, how Chopin is my favorite!! So we spent the after dinner evening listening to an album of Chopin waltzes and then an album of nocturnes, having wonderful conversation, until finally it was approaching midnight and they had to get me home before we all started falling asleep.

It was a wonderful day! The Scotts are wonderful people and I'm really glad I got to visit them while I was out here. I must come back and visit them again.

Montreal, I might become of thee

I spent a good couple hours this early afternoon researching Montreal (described on the website as a mix between Paris and New York City, with a relatively low cost of living - parfait), McGill and their application process and their Power Engineering Research Laboratory and even Dr. Geza Joos (I read a paper he wrote for the IEEE Power and Energy Magazine entitled "Training Future Power Engineers) who right now is looking like the professor I'd like to have as as my research advisor should I attend his fair university.

This is very exciting! I've made a list of questions to ask the department's graduate admissions representatives, whom I will promptly call when I return to Buffalo with free long distance calling access, and then I've also discovered the following on the ECE department's graduate positions listing website: "M. Eng and PhD positions are currently available in the area of Electric Energy Systems. Students interested in this field of study should contact:

Professor Geza Joos at this Email" so I'll be contacting Dr. Joos just as soon as I find out whether or not I would be able to apply directly to the PhD program or if I need to get my Master's first. One page said that PhD students usually enter holding a Master's degree...

And of course PhD students get reduced tuition, but Master's students do not without outside funding. Ugh. So we'll see.

I've decided to chop the West Coast off of my potential grad schools list. I just can't live without the four seasons, je suis desolee California. So that narrows it down to:

McGill

Supelec

Georgia Tech

Boulder

U Mich is a little iffy because they're energy program is still in the natal stages...so this might get the axe soon...

U of T is also a little iffy at this point

So really four schools that I'm serious about right now. With UB as the back-up, bien sur.

A much more managable size.

Now I need to get started on GRE hw so I can get into these schools...

Not now, but soon, we'll be living in the future

Please, be honest, what's it mean and what have you done and can't I just be another risk you're running can I? It's simple something's always on my mind.

Nothing like a little Straylight Run on a Friday evening.

Okay so, future future future. Grad school oh my god. Okay, here's the list, and the application costs:

Stanford - $125

Georgia Tech - $50

Supelec - TBD

Colorado University Boulder - $50

Univeristy of Michigan - $65

McGill - $100 Canadian

Univeristy of California Berkeley - $60

Trop cher!!!! Ca fait mal :*(

And when will I have time to fill all these applications, due by December? I'm too busy studying for the GRE and working to get started on them now. And then school starts and ahhh.

BREATHE.

But it's scary...

There and Back Again

Late Saturday afternoon I headed out with Zak, Becca, Maggie, and Ryon to Joshua Tree State Park, over two hours south of LA.

It was Becca's astrological bad day, and sure enough, she got a speeding ticket on the way. So it was already night by the time we got there to set up our tent, but it didn't matter because the full moon was a bright lantern in the sky. Tent successfully assembled, we scrambled up some nearby boulders and put together open-faced avocado, tomato, and goat cheese sandwiches on Italian bread for dinner. Our appetites satisfied, we lounged on the boulders for a couple hours, starting up at the moon and stars. I even caught sight of not one, but two shooting stars (I made my wishes). Before heading to bed we took a short night walk around the edge of the campground, then fell asleep as we heard coyotes howling in the distance.

The next morning we decided to brave the sun and heat and go for a hike. So, at 11am in mid-July in the Mojave desert, we set out on a 7 mile round trip hike to the Hidden Palms Oasis. I was wary about doing this: a 7 mile hike in the desert in the middle of the day and I didn't think we had enough water with us. But the others were confident and I didn't want to be a debbie-downer, so we went anyways.

The desert landscape is beautiful, and even varied in only 3.6 miles. We saw some quails scurrying away and a bunch of lizards and even a couple hawks circling above. The plant life itself is pretty cool, and I was amused to find that several of the plants that used to landscape my front garden were there growing in the Mojave desert, especially the Yucca and I found a green bush with light blue berries that looked a lot like ground cover we used to have, only in bush form (oh Buffalo).

We made a couple stops along the way, and finally we made it to the Oasis. It was nestled in a canyon and was full of palm trees. But it was dry. No water, not even a puddle of mud. And we had been looking forward to jumping in the entire way there. Hells yeah we were demoralized. So we munched on some honey-wheat pretzels and melted chocolate peanut butter trail mix (I picked the salt off my pretzels cause I didn't want to further dehydrate myself). Then it was time to head back. The climb out of the canyon was a bit strenuous, and we made our first stop as soon as we were out. Zak was sitting to my right and was visibly shaking. Becca was to my left and didn't seem to be doing too hot either (hah! reverse pun!). All of our fingers were swollen. And we by the end of the break we had less than two liters of water left....oh shit man.

Becca, Maggie, and I ended up getting ahead and Ryon stayed back with Zak. Surprisingly enough, I was feeling relatively fine. I had been conservative with my water intake, on the return trip taking only a sip at every water break; we needed to get it to stretch. Meanwhile I kept remembering the Discovery Channel show I saw about a group of boy scouts who got lost hiking in the desert and ran out of water and one of them ended up dying from heat stroke.. I was only comforted by the fact that we only had 2 more miles to go, which really isn't that far.

We were somewhere between the 2 and 1 miles remaining markers when Becca started to not look so great. We took another rest, then got back up and kept going. At this point I felt nothing but determination to get back and get water. We only had an inch left in our bottle. But I was feeling good, I knew if anything I'd be able to make it, buy more water for the others and double back to meet them if they had to stop. Luckily this was unnecessary and everyone made it out okay; Zak and Ryon weren't even too far behind us girls.

Back at the car, we chugged the big bottle of water that was stowed away in the cooler, Zak ate a banana, and we booked it back to the visitor's center. More water in me I decided to stand on the sidewalk to soak up the breeze rather than sit in the car waiting for Maggie and Ryon to get back from the restroom. There was a "Beware of Bees" sign in the window of the ranger station, but it was rather vague as to where the bees actually were, and I hadn't seen any except for the ones climbing in and out of the water fountain's mouthpiece (useful, right?). So I'm standing there, feeling pretty nice, when all of a suddent it feels like the back of my head was just stabbed with a needle. And then there was a bee on my face and there, another needle stabbed into my nose. By this point I'm screaming for help because there are bees on my face and at least one still in my hair and I'm feeling one crawling on my closed eyelid: "god help me if that bee stings my eye..." I thought. Becca came out of the car and pulled me in. Zak got the bee out of my hair and pulled the stingers out. It hurt SO BADLY. I generally consider myself to have a good pain threshold, but this was bad. And did the ranger station have ice? No, of course it didn't. Why would a ranger station in the desert want to carry a stock of ice? Thankfully some fellow hikers the next car over did and gave me some. So there we were, five sweat-soaked, dehydrated, wiped out hikers, Zak holding a piece of ice on my nose as I iced my head, driving home.

Despite the lack of water and the bee stings, it was still one of my favorite life adventures thus far. It's getting put on the list alongside riding a bicycle 32km round trip through Normandy to the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach.

:D

Just got back de mon premier cours de francais. It's got me riding on a high. It's so nice to hear all the French again. And I can actually understand 90-95% of what my instructor is saying (he speaks mostly in French, and is a French native). I have three other students in my class, a UCLA student going into her third year which she'll spend studying in Paris (Melissa, an art history and French major interning at the Getty Museum for the summer. Super awesome because she lives near campus and gave me a ride home), a lawyer who works for the state of California, and an editor of Californication and the United States of Tara (woot L.A.!).

This is going to be a good course. I'm pumped apprendre le francais!

Oh and I get there and find out I needed to buy a book that cost $50, on top of the course fee, and I might have to buy books for my conversational course too... I now have a new understanding of the saying "investing in your future."

Looking for some ground

My mind is split. In France, in Buffalo, in LA. In the present and the past and contemplations of where I'm going to be or be heading a year from now: the U.S. or Europe? My place of residence has never been so transient before, it's always been Buffalo. And now this year it's 5 months in France, 2 months in LA, then 8 months back in Buffalo before I ship off back to Europe (?).

And even when I get back to Buffalo things are going to be different than they were when I left. It's going to be a new Buffalo life. In times when my heart and mind falter and regret tries to peak its spiny head I need to remind myself that I did the right thing. Stop thinking about the "what ifs" because you can't turn people into your ideal conceptions of them, they are who they are. What's done is done and it's been moving forward. Just keep going.

Wrong Coffee Shop :(

So I accidentally went to the coffee shop with bad reviews instead of the one a little farther down the block with the good reviews. I didn't realize this until after I bought the coffee and saw the full name printed on the cup (it's not on the outside). Putain. Be warned, do not go to The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, and the "& Tea Leaf" part of the title is not always displayed outside.

I've been noticing lately that people have voice twins. If I couldn't see him I'd swear that the guy sitting next to me right now was my cousin Dan.

I messed up my leg, and perhaps legs, a bit from running. I'm assuming that the cause is not enough stretching. I do stretch before and afterwards, but probably not for long enough....

So while I was running last night (10:30pm on the track - don't worry parents, there were other people there (including girls)). I got past a mile and began to notice that my stride had developed a sort of slight hobbling gait. But I need the exercise so I kept running. I got somewhere past two miles, maybe three, and the hobbling had gotten worse so I did the smart thing and stopped and then merde! My legs felt like jelly and even walking was a salope. I made it back to my dorm and Elizabeth gave me some Chinese oil to rub on (it smells like tiger balm), and in the course of its application I discovered a bump in the muscle of my left inside calf, painful to pressure.

My legs are doing better today - I can walk! Although they still feel tight, but they've pretty much been feeling that way since I started jogging regularly. So I'm thinking more stretching and switching from the track over to the ellipticals in the gym for a bit...

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Strange dream I had last night:

I was in a building where Nazis were abound. I was then given a very small baby, no longer than my forearm, wrapped in a green blanket. To begin the oddities I think it was Chris and Kayla's... And I had to take the baby to safety somewhere. So I followed a dark-skinned woman in her low-sixties perhaps with grey-stroked hair. She was the leader of a group of young girls, 13-years-old or so, and we were running through a pine forest whose trees were losing its needles, lying reddish-brown on the ground. I was worried that I wasn't going in the right direction because I was running towards the front of the group, listening to the directions of the woman behind me. In the forest there were paths of sand, which would speed my running and whisk me along. The winding sand paths led out of the forest and onto a stretch of sand, maybe 3/4 of a mile wide.

At this point there was one tan girl in black cropped leggings and a green T-shirt leading the way before me. The sand was difficult to run in. The girl in front seemed to be able to keep her feet lightly on its surface, but mine kept sinking in a couple inches, slowing me down. We made it to the other side of the sand and saw a scene of the Alps out of the Sound of Music, the grass decorated with little white and yellow wild flowers.

Then I was in a bowling-alley sort of establishment and realized I had been holding onto the baby very tightly, trying not to lose it during the run. It wasn't making any sounds and I was afraid I had killed it. I unwrapped it from its blanket and stared at it pleading into its eyes with mine to show a sign of life and finally the blue pupils started to move, searching around the room.

I can't recall anything after this.

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Revising my NSF GRF personal statement draft is on the agenda for today, and perhaps researching some Stateside graduate school programs.

I'm three weeks down out of eight here in LA. It's been fun and moving at the perfect pace. I'm looking forward to visiting Zac in a Atlanta for the first time right after my internship ends, then back to Buffalo for my 21st birthday and moving back into South Lake! Oh, to have an oven and microwave and full-sized fridge and freezer again, not to mention a full-sized bed and living room. Yay low cost of living in Buffalo! I'm gonna soak it up while I still can. I was looking at the website for EPFL, a kick-ass university with a kick-ass power and renewable energies electrical engineering Master's degree program in Laussane, Switzerland recommended to me by Nabil. The tuition was completely affordable, however the estimated cost of living for a year is ridiculous....

Okay, enough scrawling of thoughts. Time to get to work.

Currently Listening To: Charlie Winston

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfQbvn2ACzc

I love this song and fully got its meaning after watching the above video. Ironically enough, there is a homeless man picking through the garbage can outside, pouring the remaining drops of of discarded coffee cups into one.

Things are looking up

I'm actually really enjoying work now. What I'm doing has a defined purpose and will have an actual impact on the overall research project.

Elizabeth, Becca, Caitlin and I went shopping after work to an outdoor mall (my first!). Of course we're in LA so it had all of the rich people stores - Louis Vitton, Rolex, etc. In the first store we entered, the sale items were still $100+ Even if I had the money...it seems like such a waste to spend that much on clothes.

Meanwhile, I snagged two perfect shirts for $30 total from J.Crew and a replacement pair of my Geox shoes 50% off, except this new pair is leather and cost $5 less than the original, which is well worn and even holey after trekking me across Europe. I've been having such awesome shopping luck since I've gotten to this town.

The crew is going out to a club tonight, but I just wasn't feeling in the mood. After clubbing at least once almost every week for five months, I guess it's okay to take a break :P

I'm so looking forward to breakfast tomorrow...so yummy at the UCLA dining halls.

Feeling pretty zen

If you ever find yourself in LA, make a point to go to Joan's on Third for brunch. Today I had their Chocolate French Toast, and it was delicious - no syrup necessary. The sandwiches and sides also looked to die for, not to mention the baked goods and soups.

I was just so very impressed. Not only is it a cafe, but also a market, selling specialty baking and cooking goods and cheeses and wines (there much much French to be read!). And I find it amusing how things get translated into French so that they can seem fancier. Pour example, a grilled chicken sandwich is not served on sandwich bread, but 'pain de mie.' Also, I was seated next to two old men conversing in French, ah the nostalgia...

And yes, this classy joint in Beverly Hills may be higher on the price side, but not any higher than a European cafe, donc c'est pas mal.

After brunch we did a little shopping down the street. I got a skirt (fuschia, with a thick elastic black waist for the high-waisted look, and pockets!) for a mere $2.80 from the Nordstrum Rack, and an extremely comfortable pair of skinny jeans for only $10.00 from Urban Outfitters.

Walking back to my dorm I realized how dehydrated I probably am - I'm feeling pretty light headed and did spend all day at the beach yesterday (it was wonderful), so I'm nursing a bottomless mug of water.

I'm feeling perfectly relaxed and almost completely content (my mission to eat healthy keeps getting interrupted by socialization and these 5-10lbs aren't going to drop themselves) as I sit here contemplating finishing my GRE prep homework, and going for a jog if I stop feeling so lightheaded. Or maybe this is just the essence of complete physical relaxation, or there's too much medical marijuana in the streets of Westwood (okay, so not that, but there are plenty of homeless men!).

Life keeps rolling and it's rolling well. Thanks.

Los Angeles is a feast...and I might finally be figuring things out

The CENS crew took Wes, our boss, out to a surprise birthday dinner tonight.

We went to a Japanese Curry House, where he was greeted by a card we made, decorated with a pineapple (he's from Hawaii with Japanese heritage) and all of our signatures at his seat, and they even gave him a slice of tofu cheesecake with a candle in it on a special "Happy Birthday" plate as we all sang. I had ground chicken and tofu curry with rice, medium-medium hot and I am proud to say that my hotness threshold is slowly but surely increasing.

For dessert, we went across the plaza to Yogurtland. Once inside, Becca, Natali, Zak, Elizabeth and I all had pretty much the same reaction: "Oh...my...god..."

There is complimentary strawberry water (water with fresh strawberries floating in it) available for your enjoyment as you wait in line to utilize the self-serve frozen yogurt machines. There were at least twenty flavors to choose from, with twists options, and you could have as much as you liked. Then there's the topping bar, where they have everything from fresh fruit to cookie dough to candy to cereal to white chocolate Ghirardelli syrup. You take anything and everything you want, and then pay a mere 30 cents per ounce.

I decided to go with Ghirardelli Chocolate, Chocolate Coconut Truffle, Madagascar Vanilla and Peanut Butter twist, and Cookies and Cream frozen yogurts, topped with cookie dough, yogurt chips, and Oreos.

East coast, please get Yogurtland. There's a yogurtland in Guam for christ's sake, and even Mexico, I think you would be able to swing it.

On a 'Claire's future - this could be important!' note, I'm really starting to think that power engineering might be super fly; the kind that incorporates the economics of the smart grid system and fitting alternative energy sources into the current infrastructure. It's still got the engineering, but also a broader organizational element, and organizing is one thing I thrive on doing (oh and of course sustainability, but do I even have to mention that anymore? It's a given by now that whatever I end up doing has to involve it). Supelec has actually got a pretty neat power engineering curriculum that fits this perfectly. They're even involved in 'Projet €nergy,' which brings together academic and industrial partners to work on these multidisciplinary issues arising in what must be a changing infrastructure as the need for energy and alternative sources increases. So, if Power with JZ goes well this coming semester, I may be well on my way to having not only a 2 year plan, but a 10 year plan! (How exciting! Because basically I was freaking out that I wouldn't know what I want to do with my life, which is really difficult when I have to write a bunch of personal statements for grad school and such talking about just that).

Work is even beginning to look up too. Next week I may even be able to actually begin doing real engineering work and start some Matlab coding instead of just pushing data around. Ouais!

La vie est bon :)

(Mais mes amis de Buffalo me manquez :( Je suis exciter retourner a UB a l'automne :D)

The numbers game is getting me down

One website had the audacity to tell me that 30 minutes of jogging only burns 170 calories. Are you kidding me? I've decided to go with the one that tells me I burn 300 in 4 miles. And that's without taking UCLA's hills into account!

It's just frustrating, that despite starving myself (okay, so that's an exaggeration) and running 40+ minutes everyday I should only expect to lose 1lb per week. I guess I just thought exercising would have a greater impact...(let me know if I read the wrong articles >_>)

And it really doesn't help that CENS keeps throwing free food at me. I'm gonna just have to suck it up and bring my own food to the free lunches and dinners. I really never thought that the day would come that I, as a college student, would lament the gift of free meals, but here it is.

On a brighter note, $217 later and my progression in French is underway! I've signed up for grammar and conversational classes avec l'Alliance Francaise. J'espere apprendre beaucoup (and the cash is worth it)!

Okay, must begin writing personal statement for NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF GRF), despite the fact that I'm leaning more and more away from the world of research. It's too open-ended for me, too much trial-and-error, too many nights and weekends spent in the lab by PhD students, not to mention the politics of academia. So why am I still applying for this, despite the gross amount of time and effort it will require?Because people tell me I should keep all of my options open. Ugh.

So this has been a post of moans and groans, and I didn't even touch on how monotonous work has been (thank god I've got Elizabeth by my side and Pony Pony Run Run playing in my ears) or how I spent 45 minutes writing a kick-ass essay on my first practice GRE only for it all to be lost because I didn't know to hit the save button before time ran out.

Ok. So back to the chug of things.

To keep in line with my summer goals:

Tonight: Start personal statement draft

Tomorrow: Get up early to run, avoid free food!

Plans for this weekend:

Writing writing and more writing (for both NSF and for a lit review for work)

Something fun for the 4th of July

Monday off! (but probably consisting of writing and GRE prep work)

GOOOOAAAAAALLLLLL(s)

Today was a day for summer goal setting. At work, Nabil had us outline our end-goal for the 8-week program. At home, I received an email that my honors advisor sent out to all of us who are applying for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (and are supposed to be starting to write our essays) containing a link to this helpful article.

So here they are, my personal goals for Summer 2010 (along with the necessary steps to be taken to accomplish them):

1. Complete my first draft of my NSF GRF application by the time the semester starts

• Complete first draft of Personal Statement by 7/7 to be revised by writing group
• Complete first draft of Past Research essay by TBD
• Complete first draft of Future Research essay by TBD

2. Complete my N+i application by the time the semester starts

• Ask for letters of recommendation ASAP
• Start writing Projet ASAP
• Application goes live online in August - do it!

3. Take the GRE in mid-late August (and do well!)

• Attend Princeton Review course (for free! a la my REU)
• Do review course homework
• Schedule my exam ASAP

4. Lose at least 5lbs by the time the semester starts

• Run 5x per week (I'm at 3 miles with uphill sections in 34 minutes as of tonight, and ready to bump it up)
• Eat well. When they offer me free food, I will control myself.
• NO SNACKING! Every time I want a snack, I will drink water, or perhaps skim milk to fill me up

5. Learn more French

• Attend classes at l'Alliance Francaise if possible
• Read one poem from Charles Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal per day (I found an English translation + original French version of the book at a UCLA Store sale)
• Read Harry Potter et Les Reliques de La Mort when time allows
• Watch the French Channel TV Monde 5 when time allows

6. Decide which grad schools I want to apply to

• Do research online

Lab Rat

I'm a data grunt. Not only am I collecting data, but I am also the guinea pig.

I wear accelerometers, perform exercises, and then collect the data from the accelerometer sensors. So far the exercises have including walking slowly, walking quickly, going up stairs, and going down stairs.

My favorite experiment incident yet:
Before we begin each exercise, we perform a "signature" that will be easily read in the data so we can see when the exercises begin. We were monitoring ankle and knee movement today, so the signature was jumping up and down five times. So I was performing the signature jumps before beginning the side-stepping exercise, only to be laughed at by my fellow interns in my cubicle who had not seen us experimenting before, before awkwardly side-stepping out of sight. It was perfect.

Next week we're running :)

Speaking of which, I went for a run alone today because Ryon overslept, missed the turn off of Sunset Blvd, and got completely lost. At my farthest point I asked a woman for directions...
Me: Excuse me, I'm lost. How can I get to UCLA?
Woman: UCLA?? By bus?
Me: By running.
Woman: It's so far!!!
When I was even closer to campus I asked a man weed-whacking and he had no clue.

Granted it all ended for the best because I ended up running longer (5 miles! Not straight though, I walked up a big hill and spent many a minute waiting for the pedestrian crossing lights to change at every intersection because LA police are jerks and ticket for jay-walking), and I made it back to campus with just enough time for a quick cold shower and breakfast before it was time to head to the lab.

I'd go again tomorrow morning, but it's my first chance to sleep in in over two weeks, heck maybe even three. However, I will be going to the LA farmers market :)

It blows my mind...

...that two weeks ago, TWO WEEKS ago, I was in France. Only 15 days ago I visited Supelec and later walked the rainy streets of Paris. Only 14 days ago I said goodbye to good friends, and I said goodbye to the country that I miss more than anything (who knew that a big chunk of soil and a bunch of buildings could leave a girl heartbroken). It seems like it's been months.

But I'm supposed to be living in the present right? *Takes a breath* Alright. LA is going well. The CENS intern group is awesome - we've only known each other for four days but we all feel like it's been longer. By the end of these 8 weeks we're gonna be one big, hopefully not too dysfunctional, family. Tomorrow night is Zak's birthday. We're spending the evening at Ryon's and Zak is making dinner (it's what he wanted to do when we asked him what he wanted for his birthday, and I'm all for it <_<).>

And you know how life is serendipitous when things are meant to be? Well, turns out Zak knows a guy who went to Supelec. I just sent him an email tonight, asking for the honest truth about my future alma mater.

Elizabeth, my roomie, arrived this afternoon. She just got back from studying abroad near London yesterday. I'm pretty happy that my room mate is someone who also just back from sharing the epic, life-changing, most valuable and wonderful experience that is studying abroad. We've already swapped some stories with eerie similarities.

And gosh, I just love the CENs crew. Tuesday and Wednesday we were at a nature reserve that is a CENs lab test bed site. We spent maybe an hour working (taking out old sensor posts) and the rest of the time getting to know each other. Tuesday night we made s'mores and played a very intriguing game of two truths and a lie. And on Wednesday afternoon we hiked to the top of the mountain that the lodge was on. It was called the 4 Saints hike, because from the top one can see the four mountains in the area named after saints (along with LA smog...). It was beautiful! Click here for pics.

I should hit the sack about now; early to rise for a morning run. My friend Ryon is my running buddy. We went out today, and he tricked me into going the hard way (the night before he said we'd go the easy way). The hills here are killer! And the view isn't as scenic as it is in Cergy (parks, woods, farms, traditional French homes...have I mentioned yet how excited I am to go back to France? <_<)>

Bonne nuit!

Where is my mind?

During the day I'm at UCLA. Today was orientation. My fellow CENS students are great (there are about 18 of us). They've got personality and the same thirst for adventure and fun outside of the lab. It should be a summer full of hiking, beaches, Magic Mountain, Salsa dancing, and the list goes on and on. I'm excited :)

As for my work, apparently the project I was told I was going to be working on and really wanted to work on didn't receive funding. Instead I'll be helping to design and program an apparatus that analyzes physical movement, for sports training and physical therapy applications. It doesn't fit into my "save the natural world!" life purpose, but it will at least give me Matlab skillz :P

And more free food has been all but thrown at me then I can handle. I just can't say no to the free leftovers...And I took some of the plastic plates, forks, and cups as well, to use for the next two months. God I feel like a shady scavenger, but I'm a college student, so it's okay.

The next two days are going to be more fun than work. They're taking us camping (not tenting, but in cabins) for a night on a nature reserve that is where CENS technology first started out , monitoring bird reproduction and such. It's completely off the grid, so I apologize if I don't answer anyone's texts for the next to days - no service. I'm super excited for the hiking. And they're giving us grilled chicken and steak for dinner, with S'mores around a bonfire for dessert :D

Oh, and I lost my Trader Joe's virginity last night. People really hype it up, but I say Wegmans is better.

During the evening I'm alone in my room (my room mate is studying London and will get here on Friday) and my thoughts drift back to France. Jackie and I have made the sacred pinky oath to be in Paris together next summer (starting in June). We're thinking renting a flat, finding an under-the-table job as waitresses or such, and travelling in our off time. Then I'll be starting up at either Supelec or GTL in the fall. Merde, I love my life.

Countdown to my return to France: 11 months (that's less than a year!!! :D)

A pun? Yeah, I went there.

Bienvenue!

I've been having too many amusing/interesting/cool experiences to not write them down, thus I've decided to start up a new LJ. I replay my day-to-day experiences enough in my mind, as if I were telling stories to an audience, so it makes sense that I do so to an actual, non-imaginary audience, decreasing my odds of developing schizophrenia ;)

So please, enjoy!