Blue Skies and Buffalo

Today was full of food, warm breezes, and sunshine… Also, it’s technically ‘Study Day’, but we didn’t let finals get us down. MG and I started the morning unsure of what the day would bring. We weren’t expecting much more than rain and flashcards. The morning was hazy and MG woke up feeling a little under the weather. However, cold medicine is a wonderful thing and by the afternoon, she was as chipper as one can be under the impending doom of finals. We were admittedly not very productive in the morning… or the afternoon for that matter, but it all hinges on how you define ‘productive’. If productive means having a fun-filled, relaxing afternoon that includes half-price fraps from Starbucks with friends, we are the most successful individuals you’ve read about today. I haven’t even gotten to the best part yet! Here it is: we went to see buffalo. That’s right- we found our own little prairie on the east coast. I have been scoping out the farm for the past four years of my college career and today was the day. The whole herd was right next to the fence and we decided to pay them a spontaneous visit. It was perfect. Leaving my mocha cookie crumble frappuccino in the car, I raced off to take these:

MG was a little intimidated by the 1 ton beasts and 5 string electric fence (I have no idea why), so she hung back a little, but all in all, it was a fantastic experience. Study Day has been redefined for our final semester and we’re loving it. #youreonlyacollegesenioronce

From the Alpha

Alpha to Japan Base 9. I have experienced my first failure, comrades. I had assumed my escape plan was flawless, but my captives have thwarted me. They left me in the hands of a kind human for 11 days. (well, if humans could even be close to kind, this one would be) They called her their RD. At first my hopes were high that they had given me to the Regional Duchess of Thailand, but this was not the case. It became clear to me (due on no account to the clarity of my water) that my temporary host was a ‘Resident Director’. Yet, she possessed such a refreshing atmosphere that I became more lively and alert under her care. When she returned me to my captives (a betrayal I shall never forgive) she reported that I was ‘the most active betta fish she has ever seen’. Psh. Little does she know that I have now surveyed the entire floor plan of this facility and have planned the direction of my next escape. Paolo the Humidifier still refuses to comply, but I swear he will yield. I was almost there and the doorway to this fortress was in sight. A final word to assure you of my painstaking accuracy; I mark each passing day with the creation of a surface bubble in my water cell. My captives think it mindless. I shall hope to keep them ignorant. (That should not be difficult)

Extremes of Life

People often talk about the highs and lows of life, but life is usually pretty high here on the fourth floor in 392A.  This past  week may have been a fantastic example of these ‘extremes of life’. MG and I must say we have had some moments of pride in the past week. We both made some solid plans for our futures and I chose a post-grad school. MG also succeeded in eating an entire bag of jelly beans and I downed a sizeable portion of Valentine’s M&Ms. (The M&Ms have to be finished once they’re out of style… it’s a hard task.)

However, the week had its fair share of lows and embarrassing moments as well. I would share the lows, but we’re sticking to the entertaining points of the week, so please just sit back and enjoy this week’s most embarrassing moment: the t-shirt ‘oops’. To give a little back story, I love designing t-shirts. I’ve done quite a few and spend an obnoxious amount of time on each design. Okay, now for the good part. My most recent design was one of my favorites… The organization leaders loved it as well, so 40 shirts were quickly ordered after the artist at the t-shirt company approved it. Now here’s a disclaimer- at least 5 people saw this design before it was printed. Yet, this is how it turned out:

How does this look to you? Put on your Sherlock brain caps and stare nice and hard at this for a moment. My embarrassment will be slightly eased if you don’t notice it at first… Yes… count those fingers- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5… and 6. What?! May I add that I used my own hand as a model for this. Oh yeah, I’m also a biology major taking Human Physiology. No big deal. It just took me 2 weeks to notice the mistake (and by ‘mistake’ I mean my hidden artistic meaning) and by that time these lovely t-shirts were already being sold across campus. I am thankful for one thing though- I forgot to sign the design. I tried to keep it a secret, but I just couldn’t bear the thought of people 1. thinking that I had couldn’t count and 2. not enjoying my embarrassment with me.  So, there you have it- the t-shirt oops.

From the Alpha

Alpha to Japan Base 9. My captives have cleaned my plastic cell again, but I can’t say that it does much. First of all, they put me in a torture chamber and subject me to air-boarding. I know that air-boarding is illegal in the Motherland, but here I am sloshed into the air and back into the water for just enough time that my poor gills are starved of their precious H₂O. After they realize that I will tell them nothing, they place me back into my prison which they claim is ‘clean’. Their standards are pathetic. They give me two dumpy plastic plants that are supposed to simulate my natural environment. What do they know of the rolling waves of the Siam shore? That’s right. They actually don’t know that we are Siamese, not Japanese. Keep up the good work Base 9, we have them fooled. On that note, I have concluded that Paolo the humidifier is a possible route for escape. He has a water chamber big enough to hold me and the human underlings carry him in and out of the room every few days. I must think of a way to commandeer their route. I will keep you updated.

The torture chamber for your records of abuse:

Jet lagggg (and the fun it brings)

As MG said, we’re home, but I’m not sure if our bodies know that yet. We have been catching up on sleep pretty well, but our Neurobiology night class on Monday was pretty rough for both of us. At 8pm (which felt like 2:00am), we were learning about glial cells and myelin sheaths. Yeah, the nerve endings in our brains were not picking that up. After yawning our way through we collapsed before 11pm. There is a positive to this though… MG has miraculously become a morning person just like me! I am quite aware that this will not last, but it’s been nice to have her awake in the morning with me. I suppose that’s a little selfish, but true. We have also said some pretty ridiculous things to each other in our sleepy states. I would give you an example, but honestly I just can’t remember any at the moment. Oh well. One thing I do remember (due to photo evidence) is the that MG and I had the most delicious frappuccinos from the airport Starbucks:

I’m sure you can see our our happiness despite the jet lag. Well, the semester is now in full swing! Hopefully we can catch up with it soon.

Topping the Best Day EVER.

Yesterday was awesome as MG explained, but today was amazing. The day was packed to the brim and overflowing with the beautiful wealth of Versailles and then the beginnings of our Paris journey. The day was extremely cold, but walking through the halls of Versailles in the morning provided the most beautiful shelter one could ask for. My favorite part of Versailles was the Hall of Mirrors and all of the historic Horse paintings. (Predictable, I know) The gold garnishing almost every surface along with the decadence of paintings, carpets, and tapestries was truly overwhelming. As I told one of the members from our group, “If I was a French peasant, I would ticked that my money bought this… but, I’m not, so this is awesome.” Here is a small, spectacular sampling:

MG with some goats

After Versailles we were given one hour to run through the city and find lunch. Our group of 9 successfully found a cute, warm creperie to sit down in. The creperie looked a little like a pirate ship on the inside- just a fun fact. (side note by MG: Gretchen took this to the extreme and made MANY comments/jokes regarding our ‘voyage on the frigid sea’  ‘walking the plank’ ect.  So ridiculous, ha.)  One of the funniest parts of this lunch was a mystery crepe ordered by 3 of the people in our group. The crepe was called the Grand Marnier. We though it had fruit in it, but when it came it appeared to be simply sugar and butter. Expecting this, the three each took huge bites… but it wasn’t just sugar. There was a certain, ahem, ‘kick’ to this crepe and in the words of one of the victims, “This smells like hand sanitizer.  My throat is burning.” Of course the crepe included a similar ingredient and we’ll let you fill in the blanks. Lesson learned- Grand Marnier ≠ fruit.

Doing a word search with a knife since there were no writing utensils.
MG’s crepe

Dave eating the Grand Marnier crepe

We rushed back to the bus and were off to Paris and its intimidating metro system. We began by going to the Concierge and Notre Dame. The Concierge was essentially a Castle Museum and was the place were Marie Antoinette was held before her execution. There was even a creepy display of mannequins acting out the scene.

Notre Dame was of course, spectacular, especially the rose windows.

While we were checking out the outside of Notre Dame, we found a playground with a seesaw. Super exciting until we realized that the age limit is 6 years, so we just pretended to sit on it.

If the morning wasn’t enough, the evening made this day one that we will never forget. The Louvre has been on my mind from the day this trip was a reality and today was the day to see it. I came in knowing that I couldn’t see it all, but I’d say our group gave a gallant effort. I could write for hours about this experience. Seeing painting after painting that I have admired for years was fantastic. I just couldn’t get enough. MG on the other hand was not as enthusiastic about halls and halls of Italian paintings:

(side note by MG: this is a slight exaggeration of my feelings.)

Of course we saw the Mona Lisa in all of her glory:

And took note of all the paintings of goats for MG’s sake:

The finale of our Louvre visit was our reward for enduring a day of cold- a snowball fight. Who can say that they had a snowball fight around the glass pyramid entrance of the Louvre? We can.

An adequate depiction of the chaos of the snowball fight

MG even admitted to loving this despite that fact that the experience included snow. (This means it was suuuper fun.) We were soaking wet after the fight, but we had one last mission for the night- we wanted to see the Eiffel Tower lit up amidst the snow. Thankfully, our mission was accomplished and we had one of the most breathtaking views either of us had ever seen.

It was truly a night we will never forget and we still have a full day tomorrow! (Actually, I guess tomorrow has already started) We even topped off the night with warm, nutella crepes right in front of the tower.

It was too great for words. All I can say is Bonsoir!!

(Side note by MG: All Gretchen can say is Bonsoir, but I’ve got more.  You know how people usually end good (or really bad) stories with ‘and then I found 5 dollars’?  WELL, I legitimately found 5 Euros tonight.  FREE CREPE, WOOOHOOO!  Tonight was pretty much the best night of my life.  As I said on the tram ride back to the hotel, the only thing that could have made it better would be if there was a goat petting zoo under the Eiffel Tower.  One can dream, right?)

Splitting up ‘The Pair’ (Part 1)

Today in France was a unique day as MG and I were actually apart for the morning. Crazy, right? I went to the French veterinary school Oniris with two of the professors from our trip, while MG travelled to Atlantis. No, not the underwater Atlantis, but a large French mall called Atlantis. (She’ll have to tell you more about it) My tour of Oniris was great. The director of the university gave us a tour and showed us the research labs, surgery classes, equine centers, cancer center, research animals, clinic rooms… the list goes on. Every room was interesting and I particularly enjoyed the skeptical stares of one of the professors (the one who is not a veterinarian). He (the professor) was generally surprised at the depth of veterinary medicine into all areas of mammalian anatomy. Our stop in the rectal palpation teaching barn was particularly entertaining. We were there primarily to check out future internship opportunities for students between the schools. I think it went pretty well. I can also say that I saw over 80 cats in one day. Check that off the bucket list. After the vet school outing, I went to lunch with three professors from our school. Needless to say, I was on my best behavior. (When am I not? Haha) I think one of the most challenging parts of the day was eating awkwardly sized pieces of lettuce while answering professors’ questions about my future plans. Whew- I also had ‘pizza’ with ground beef, tomato slices, a fried egg, and bbq sauce. It sounds weird, but it wasn’t too bad. If I come back with a few extra pounds, you’ll know why. ‘The Pair’ reunited at 3:00pm and so did an epic afternoon.

A joyful day at Angers

Morning for me, 6:45am. Morning for MG, 7:30am. (side note by MG: I was only awake at this ungodly hour because breakfast was at 8.) At 7:30am I was blessed to be joined by a (semi)conscious MG for listening to French bird calls outside our window and for dream telling. It just so happens that MG had a gem of a dream last night about one of the professors on the trip with us. The dream involved this professor’s wedding day- awkward, but hilarious. The respective prof was running late, driving a 15 passenger van, and running even later because she was trying to capture and save a stray cat. In the process of saving the cat, the prof ruined her wedding dress and had to buy another at target. We don’t try to explain these dreams, but we did end up telling the prof to her face (this may have been my fault…) at breakfast.

Moving on from the morning, we traveled with the group to Angers. (On-jay) Angers was a beautiful town with a huuuuge castle (chateau) right at its center. Before going to the castle, we stopped at a late Romanesque cathedral for an hour and a half. Yes, 1.5 hours. Although I was skeptical of filling the time, I think these pictures show that we did a good job of it:

A human head relic… creepy but cool.

Our boredom once we saw all of the cathedral in 20 minutes may have resulted in an attempt to mimic this statue:

As you can see… it did not end well.

(There may be some video of this event… you can look forward to seeing that in a coming guest post from Tim.)

After the cathedral we walked on to the castle.

 
The King and Queen!  (Two of the professors on the trip lost a card game- the wager for which required them to wear the crowns from King cakes the whole day in Angers.)

The castle was amazing, but the 700 year old Apocalypse tapestry it houses was even more spectacular.

After being set free to find a place for lunch on our own, we sat down at a fashionable creperie near the chateau. It was certainly the right place because our professors arrived after we did. Score. This was a double score because again, neither of us (nor anyone else in our small group of friends) knows much French, so our professor, even on the other side of the restaurant, could help us out with emergency questions. Our lunch was huge and delicious. MG topped off her goat cheese galette with a nutella crepe and I had a ham, spinach, and crème galette followed by chocolat chaud. (side note by MG: you may be aware that goats are my favorite animal.  And by ‘favorite’ I may actually mean that I am slightly obsessed with them. Something I am NOT obsessed with on the other hand, is goat CHEESE.  It is gross, and not what I ordered in my crepe.  Unfortunately my limited French did not allow me to communicate that they got my order wrong, so I sucked it up and ate most some of it anyway.  This nutella crepe mostly made up for it though: ) 

Although we did ask our professor some questions, we did not think to ask how to pay for our meal. We waited for the bill, and waited some more. Finally, we discovered that you had to pay at the door. Oops. Our poor waiter was confused at us, I’m sure.  We eventually did pay the bill, and made our way out to explore Angers.

After shopping for the afternoon in fancy, financially inaccessible but fashionable stores, we headed back to Nantes and ate a huge dinner in a mall. Getting back to Nantes involved a bus ride of riddles courtesy of Tim’s phone. (side note by MG: the riddles were not contained to the bus.  In fact, the whole night pretty much turned into riddles any time the opportunity arose… waiting for dinner, waiting for the tram, on the tram, walking the streets… I’ve never in my life done so many riddles.)  Anyway, at dinner we caved and got hamburgers and french fries. (side note by MG: a wonderful change of pace after the nasty goat cheese crepe.) French fries are pretty good here in France.

Simply enjoying the sights and eating food has been a great joy today in Angers.

Eggs in all forms

Today was a success as we started off with an egg bar. It was classified as an egg bar due to the fact that there was a large goose stretching around the room with egg shaped chairs. Really- here it is:

 

Here is MG and me on the goose head:

The egg bar, being on the 32 floor of a building had a great view of Nantes:

(note the fried eggs painted on top of some of the buildings… kind of funny!)

We then made our way to lunch at a Creperie where MG and I both had delicious galettes (meal crepes) followed by raspberry crepes for dessert. MG, who hates eating warm fruit, forgot that raspberries are a fruit and crepes are warm, but she was a trooper and enjoyed it anyways.

(side note by MG: I actually did not forget that raspberries are a fruit because I am not an idiot, but did not think about the fact that the jam inside would in fact be warm [so maybe I am an idiot… who knows].  The crepe was good but since it was warm fruit and I was super full from the meal crepe, Tim ended up finishing mine.)

After enjoying our eggs in crepe form, we proceeded to have an afternoon free to enjoy anything that Nantes had to offer us… which was not a bathroom or “toilettes”. We learned that knowing how to ask, “Do you have a bathroom” or “Where is the bathroom” does not automatically make the store have a bathroom. To make the story short, we found one, but it took 45 minutes. Oh well. (side note by MG: I almost peed myself on the streets on Nantes during this process…) Other highlights of the day included Japanese gardens, a machine elephant, a rainbow, more eggs, a metro in boat form… well, just take a look:

My final delightful dose of eggs came from the Delight cafe where I ordered a quiche for dinner.

The Delight happened to be a wonderful choice as multiple employees quickly realized that their rapid french was lost on us. One particularly nice employee explained to us how the ordering work at the cafe and helped us through the process. It was quite a relief. Even the cashier was quite nice. He asked (in English), “Do you need a napkin? Well, I’m sure you don’t need one, but I’ll give it to you, I’m sure you’re clean…” I think he didn’t want to offend me by saying that I needed a napkin, but it was much appreciated.

With that, our group closed off our evening with gilotto and chocolat chaud (hot chocolate). Any night ending in chocolate is a good one in my book.

‘The Pair’ has arrived!

It certainly has been a bon voyage thus far! Although MG was a little nervous with flying,(Example: MG-  “Gretch, the plane is tilting”… Me- “MG, they’re just turning.”) she quickly became a pro by the end. She even sat by a complete stranger on the way to Paris. She’ll have to tell you more about that… I was pressured by a flight attendant to order my food in French, but as I mentioned previously, food is one thing I feel confident talking about. We’re off to a good start. Here in France, we’ve been labeled by a professor as ‘the pair’. We’re not sure that this is a compliment, but we’re running with it.  This afternoon, we took a walk to a park and resisted the urge to lay down in the street and sleep due to jet lag. I’d say we’re doing pretty well! After settling in today, we will hopefully be up to continuing the adventure tomorrow!

Clearly exhausted, but loving the French park!