This, That and the Other Thing I have to defend this picture. Many people have given me a hard time for taking it while I was in France.



Let me explain. A co-worker of mine has a very good friend who collects pictures of phone booths from around the world. This was not my idea, but the act of fulfilling a request for a very nice person. I am not the kind of person who normally walks around taking pictures of phone booths. I swear. I am not a freak.

I also brought back some gargoyle pictures and magnets for another co-worker. This is why there are so many pictures of Notre Dame, like this one.



Click the picture to see it full size.

Someone asked me if I just really liked flying buttresses. While it is fun to say "flying buttresses", I just took pictures for this co-worker's benefit.

I think everyone is really sick of hearing about Paris, so I'll try to cut down on my gloating, but I had such a great time.

Non-Paris related items:

Cross-Campus Advising Services here on campus had a 10th Anniversary Celebration today, and held a carnival. Really, a carnival. They had temporary tattoos, free food, carnival games (pick a duck from a floating pond, wheel of fortune, a ball and bean bag toss, and even a fortune teller), free prizes, and even musical entertainment. It was pretty neat. I wonder how they got the money to pay for it, but maybe they took a collection or something. I entered a door prize for a foldup chair, so maybe I'll win that.

Tonight, "the gang" is getting together at Jeff and E's to have a "Welcome Sara Back to Normalcy" Dinner for me tonight. E/Jeff are making Tacos, Oz/Lisa are bringing Salad, Keith is bringing salsa, and I'm bringing a bottle of wine, some brownies and maybe some tomatoes for the tacos. The bottle of wine I brought in France says "excellente pour tout repas", which is "excellent for all meals", but I don't think they thought you'd serve a red wine with tacos. I don't know what Brian will bring. Well, we'll see how it goes.

One last thing....I rode my bike in from Verona today. The first time this year. It was a little cold, but the path was clear. The skies are blue today, even though there is a wicked wind. I changed from my bike clothes to my work clothes in the woman's bathroom. This building (which is scheduled to be knocked down by the powers that be sometime in the next few years) really needs a place where someone could shower after working out. Maybe, if they ask us what we'd like in the new building, I'll tell them that.

Gotta get ready for the ride home. Talk to you later!

Sara.  ¶ 4:04 PM 1 comments

  Spring has Sprung! It's supposed to storm today. I was all set to ride my bike to work today, but then I heard that we are supposed to have strong storms (maybe even tornadoes) tonight. Not looking forward to riding in a hailstorm, I threw my bike into my car and parked where I usually do. I would have really liked to ride though, because the cost of gas is so high, and I think that it is the ecologically responsible thing to do.

I'm being quoted in an article in Wisconsin Woman magazine on the benefits of riding your bike to work. I found that out while I was in France. I was asked for a quote by a Madison environmental group, because I had participated in Car-Free Madison last year, and because I live pretty far from where I work. I basically emailed a testimonial to a reporter and she is quoting me as saying that riding my bike to work has substantially improved my health and helped me lose weight. I'm not really sure when the article will come out. I'll post it when I know. Here's the website for it. Wisconsin Woman Magazine I feel a little guilty, because I don't ride 10 miles both ways every day, but I would if the stupid weather would cooperate.

It truly seems that Spring has sprung though. Lisa's baby shower is scheduled for April 23, and I've got a little planning to do for that.

I'm going up to Appleton Friday and Saturday of this weekend to distribute my Parisian presents to my family, fix my parents computer, and give my sister a great big hug (which she probably could use right now).

I think I've missed the deadline for the American Cancer Society Run/Walk, but may end up showing up at the last minute to run in their 5K (which I think is April 16). It only costs $5.00 more to show up the day of the race instead of pre-registering. It's a good cause, so we'll see if I can manage it.

I don't think I'll do the triathalon this year, because I think instead of endurance this year I'll train for strength. My aerobics instructor would like me to try out a strength based workout instead of the normal aerobic workout. I am a little scared, because I'm pretty weak when it comes down to it, but I'm working my way into it. I did a great Bosu class last night and all of the walking around Paris got me down 2 more pounds, so yeah!

Okay, must work now.  ¶ 12:49 PM 1 comments

  Back to Work I'm at work right now, just after lunch. I brought a smelly Camembert cheese from France for work, and I've left it sitting out open in the breakroom. You can smell it from all of the way down the hall. Once you get past the smell, it is very good. But you have to be adventurous and do it, or else you just want to gag. I had it in my luggage, and it made all of my dirty laundry (which admittedly smells tres mal) smell even worse. So bad, that I have the door to my closet closed tight because I'm afraid of what my cat might do to it. I'll wash it when I can, but not right now.

I brought back from France some French cat food. It is "laitiere" flavored (which means milk sauce) and it has little bits of salmon in it. It doesn't smell as bad as normal cat food, but it is white, which is weird for me (and would be for most Americans). Monty likes it though, probably because it is not diet food like the rest of his food. I gave a second cat food tin to a fellow cat owner here at work. That is "fromage" flavored (which is cheese). Not something you would see here, but I think that I would probably buy it if they did. Cats seem to like it. Then again, cats will eat just about anything you drop on the ground, and then puke it up later. They are kind of weird that way.

Just easing back into the daily grind. We had a little flood in one of our rooms and had to pull a computer apart quickly and sit it out to dry. I better go and check on it again.

I feel pretty good right now, but think that I'll get tired later. I did wake up around 3:30am this morning and couldn't sleep for an hour or so, but went back to bed around 4:30 and got 6-7 hours of sleep. Hopefully, I can get my body clock reset so I'm not all loopy and tired. I used to think the jet lag was no big deal, but it really does do a number on you.  ¶ 1:29 PM 0 comments

  Flying Back Home Again On the Way Home (5:18 PM Detroit, 4:18 PM Madison)

I am sitting in the Detroit Concourse, enjoying Taco Bell with Robin. It was a long flight from Paris, almost 9 hours. We had café crème and croissants this morning for our petit dejeuner (breakfast). We had a couple of purchases to make, and then went back and checked out of the hotel.

We took the metro to the Gare Nord (North Train Station) and then took the train from there to Charles de Gaulle Aeroport. We made it easily to our flight and got on pretty early. Surprisingly, the overhead storage wasn’t too bad. I tried to sleep a little, but I’m still awesomely tired. (It is 1:00AM in the morning there)

We are playing “spot the celebrity” still, and it is so much fun. Either that or I am awesomely tired. And loopy.

Later…

(10:00PM Madison,11:00PM Detroit, 6:00AM Paris)

I’m so very tired, but I’m home. I’m going to sleep now, and will write more tormorrow. I hope you enjoyed learning about my experiences in Paris. I enjoyed writing about them for you!  ¶ 10:08 PM 0 comments

  Last Day in Paris We spent a great brunch in Paris at Robin's friend, Monique's house. She keeps kosher, so it was a very proper Kosher brunch. Here's a picture of us...



Isn't their daughter adorable?

We took the metro back from there to the Marais, and walked around a bit, shopped a bit, and then decided to walk to and wait to get onto the Eiffel Tower. It is Easter, and so half of Paris is not at work, and so we had to wait for 2 hours to get up the lift to the 2nd level. And it RAINED and even a moment of HAIL. But we had our umbrellas, so we didn't get too wet.

Robin and I played "spot the celebrity" game while in line. (You pick out people in line who you think look like celebrities, and say "I see Kirsten Dunst" and the other person tries to find that person.) Our poor tired feet were squishy and wet and cold, so it took our minds off of it. The lift was kind is a slanty elevator, and it isn't quite a funicular either. After you get off on the 2nd floor, you have to find the line for 3. Then you need to ride the elevator to 3. 3rd floor has two levels, an enclosed one, and another one which is open to the elements. Then you have to stand in line AGAIN to get down to the 2nd floor, then you change AGAIN, back to the down elevator. We got there at 7 and got out at 10:30pm.

Now, it was a beautiful view, and I think that I would be amiss in going to Paris without going up in the Eiffel Tour, but the whole process wore on my nerves. If it wasn't for our Spot the Celebrity game, I would have bitch-slapped a bunch of annoying American teenage tourists for being shrill and obnoxious. The whole place was awash in tourists. It was actually a relief to leave.

But it is very pretty at night. Wanna see?

download this movie  ¶ 4:31 PM 0 comments

  Voila!

In a department store in Paris, I model the latest in berets.  ¶ 3:21 PM 0 comments

  Bonne Pasques It's Easter Sunday. A great deal of this country is closed down, but we are going to venture out to a friend of Robin's and celebrate Easter with her and her family. We have to take three Metro lines to get to her house. Her family keep extremely kosher, so we are going to bring flowers as a gift rather than wine or food. Her friend, Monique, grew up in Madison, but married a man from France. (I love his name...Laurent Shish-Portish...pronounce it like this...sheesh-porteesh...isn't it great?)

Perhaps we'll stop and shop a bit, but a lot will be closed because of Easter. And I've already spent WAY too much money, but I keep thinking of people that I need to thank for stuff, and I keep buying stuff. I think I'll need to carefully budget my money so I have enough to make it to the end of my trip.

Bottled water is an absolute necessity here, but the "powers that be" realize that the tap water is pretty much undrinkable, so a giant 2 liter bottle is less than a euro. We've been drinking so much water here that it is absolutely shocking, but we need it. My skin is even suffering from washing my face with the water from the tap. Zits galore.

Wine is also extremely cheap. Last night, our impromptu dinner included a 1.99 euro bordeaux that was not only extremely good, but now, sadly, gone. Must buy more. Robin thinks we can bring 3 bottles of wine back, so I'm currently planning what I can get back into the country. I've bought another bag to hold my dirty laundry and I'll probably check that so I can use my other carry-on stuff to hold all of the stuff I don't want lost.

Last night, France "jumped ahead" (adjusted for daylight savings time). That meant we lost an hour. Because the United States doesn't "jump ahead" next week, we've lost a valuable hour of our time in Paris. Robin thinks we should come back this Fall to recover this lost hour. It really isn't fair, she reasons. We are jumping ahead twice. We should be able to fall back twice as well. What a wonderful idea. If only I had an extra thousand dollars laying around that I could use to return often like that. Robin is going to Sicily and Italy this summer, and that sounds fantastic, but she is also bringing her kids, and thinks there will be a lot of coordination involved in getting her 8 and 10 year old to behave.

Well, we have to go to this Brunch now. More later.

Posted 1:03AM Madison Sunday, 9:03AM Paris Sunday.

P.S. To Keith, Ozzyie and Lisa: Enjoy Easter Brunch with the Gullixsons! Please give my sincere Happy Easter wishes to your Mom, Lisa.  ¶ 12:49 AM 0 comments

  Day 3 and Back to Paris The end of Day 2 was a wonderful dinner at a restaurant at La Part des Anges in Compiegne. It was the last big meal of the conference and it was pretty good. I especially liked the several bottles of wine we had to sample. I’m not a connaisseur by any means, but I like to taste different wines, and I’ve yet to have anything bad. We had wonderful hors d’ouvres, a tart made of peppers, tomatoes and goat cheese (I have a new found respect for goat cheese) and fish on a celeriac bed. I ate fish. I usually hate fish, but the French seem to know how to deal with fish. It was really mild.

At that meal, I sat across from a Dutch language lab manager who was very interested in our Hewlett-Packard grant and all of our wonderful language lab resources. Even the guy from Harvard was astounded to hear that we had these great laptops and handhelds, wireless access, chats and computer labs! It really makes you realize how good we have it. I promised to forward information to the dutch guy about “Arfie” and everyone really enjoyed talking about the wiki.

At the next table over, a bunch of Irish hooligans engaged in what can only be called hooliganism, and then, when they scared away the Japanese, table hopped to our table and proceeded to give us a hard time about our charming Wis-CON-sin accents. Leaving the restaurant, we were asked to recount a typical Wis-CON-sin song. Robin and I knew more words to “On Wisconsin” than we were willing to admit or even realized. (U Rah Rah).

We ended the evening at an Irish bar called Shamrocks which did not serve Guinness and I was forced to drink a Murphy’s Irish Stout. Liam and the other Irish sang along with the video recording of a 6 piece band playing traditional Irish songs and clogging while banging on the bar with their proper pints.

Despite the late night, Robin and I were able to finish out the conference in the best way possible. Unfortunately, my computer had a problem because I slipped up some stairs (not the previous night, but that morning, and my computer was not only unable to display, but once I found a eyeglass screwdriver (thank you Robin) and took it apart, I also discovered the wireless card had been jarred loose.) Hence, I was unable to take the notes I would have liked about the session, and wasn’t able to fix the computer until much later. However, I am so talented that I fixed a broken computer in a tiny budget hotel room using only a eyeglass screwdriver and a 1 cent euro coin. It is now functioning again. Je suis magnifique.

Anyone who wants to invite me to a foreign country to fix their computers, please feel free.

Robin and I returned to Paris, and decided that we had to go shopping, but not before visiting Place De La Concorde and see the Pyramid at the Lourve. We went to Samaritain, which is a wonderful department store on the right bank of the Seine near the Lourve.



And then, after our day of many adventures, we walked to a nearby street packed with specialty food shops and bought a typical Parisian meal; pate de foie gras, a bagette, fruit, wine, and a gallette de pomme (apple tart). It is currently raining outside, so we have elected to rest here tonight before we venture out to our next adventure tomorrow.  ¶ 4:33 PM 0 comments

  Robin's NEW Favorite Car

Robin will have this car...someday...  ¶ 2:51 PM 0 comments

  Oh La La!

Robin shows off our day of Parisian culture  ¶ 2:43 PM 0 comments

  Day 2 of UNTELE We met some fellow conference goers yesterday and went to eat at a pizzaria yesterday for dinner. It never ceases to amaze me how multi-cultural France is. The pizzaria was Italian (of course) so they spoke both Italian and French. I sat near a Greek professor of language, and an Austrailan professor of English, who teaches in Italy. (And of course, I was also with fellow Americans!) We chatted away mostly in English, and had a wonderful time. I had a wood oven-baked pizza, a plate of crudités (pickled vegetables), and chocolate mousse. I’m not watching my diet this week, so I’m hoping that I make up for my indulgence with the amount of walking I’ve been doing.

There was a welcoming ceremony yesterday in downtown Compiegne with the president of the University and the Mayor. They gave a speech (in French) for us, but I was so tired and dehydrated that I just wanted to eat and drink something in the worst way, and I’m afraid I zoned out. It was in their City Hall, which is this huge old building, almost a castle with turrets and the whole thing. The floors were oak planks set into a terrazzo pattern and there were all sorts of medieval tapestries on the walls. Antique tables and chests were scattered about the walls and it was all just so … European and quaint. It is on a town square, which is in bloom with springtime flowers and lined with little shops. After so many months of dark, snowy days, it really lifts the spirits.

I’ve been thinking about transport recently. Since Tuesday, when I got off the plane, I’ve used monorail, moving sidewalk, train, walking, boat, walking, more walking, train, and bus. I haven’t been in a real car in 3 days. It’s kind of strange. I probably won’t be in a car until next Monday, when I get back to Madison. They have such great public transport here, it is kind of surprising anyone has a car.

Today is the big day. We present our talk. I’m really not very nervous, but that may change as we get closer to the time.

Well, It’s 1:31am in Madison, 8:31am in Compiegne, and I think I’ll get ready to go now. More later.

Later that same day: (4:47AM in Madison, 11:47 AM in Compiegne)

***NOTES FROM THE 2nd Day of the Conference Follow. Read at your own risk, mostly just jotted down notes of importance to me or those who are in a similar field. Feel free to skim or skip.

Got a late start today, missed a session.

Interesting Untele session: Idé O’Sullavin (Univ. of Ireland) – Students not only need to be able to read and write but they need to obtain different sort of information technology literacies; email literacy, SMS literacy, web literacy, blog literacy. What is literacy anyway and how do we teach students to be more literate? Think about how one would do a Google search and how they determine data from that. How to obtain what you need from a “corpus” or body of knowledge.

Nick Ellis: (U of Michigan) Nature of Interface in SLA: Some implications for the Nature of the Interface in CALL. Very entertaining talk on the nature of the interface; explicit vs. implicit learning, and how 2nd language acquisition cannot use implicit learning but must be explicit. Ways to make explicit learning more understood and more successful. Mostly aimed at language teachers, but he really made me understand the nature of the topic.

8:21am in Madison, 3:21pm in Compeigne

Liam Murray - Triana Hourigan: Univ. of Limerick Roles for blogs in SLA. What would be the optimum use for blogs in SLA? Would it help learners become more reflective? Does the medium matter. Blogs vs. web pages. “Digital Gutenberg” Everyone is publishing. Different types of blogs. In class, they asked students to reflect language learning strategies in their blog. Style issues, issues in making students stay on topic, checking for grammar, vocabulary and spelling. Motivation: had to write an assessment of their own blogging experience at the end. More success with students studying abroad, because they had a built-in topic; the culture shock of the experience.

(Later I told Liam that I was blogging his blogging presentation, which he found amusing.)

Our session was delayed a lot. The session before us (blogs, above) have “beemer” (projector) problems. Have to sit on my hands while their tech fights with it to make it work. (I’m fairly certain it was a frequency problem). They end up bringing in another one. Made me nervous for no other reason than getting the other hardware to work. But the blog people are so relaxed (talking about going down to the pub and the like…they are from Ireland) that I’m hoping to emulate them. I need to calm down.

We were supposed to present at 3:15pm , but don’t get setup and going until 4:00pm.

10:03AM in Madison, 5:03PM in Compiegne

The presentation went well, despite the fact that the organizers didn’t have the presentation on the computer (thank God for the USB key) and we weren’t able to do the explosion graphic (not enough time to setup) The French language keyboard was a struggle to navigate (despite having worked on one before) because I needed to login to the websites for demonstration, so I was so worked up by that that I had to calm down as my part came to actually speak. I think I did okay and can’t think of something that didn’t go as planned. Robin did fantastic. Her enthusiasm really showed through and we had wonderful comments and questions (especially with respect to resistant learners). A native Italian thanked her for doing her part for the Italian Tourism Board! A Ph.D candidate asked if she can put her IT people in touch with us if they need more information on setup. I actually got to hand out my card for a change!

Link to our presentation

Session: Reading Hypertexts in English as a Foreign Language (Ruiz, Uso-Juan from Univ. of Madrid). Is reading web pages better or worse based on PDFs or online versions. Results, reading PDFs vs. reading hypertexts had no effect on reading comprehension. Transfer of our reading statregies to the web. Highlighting with a mouse is like highlighting with a pencil serve similar purposes. The ability to read hypertexts isn’t a new mode of readiing but an adaptive skill based on their current reading and comprehension styles. (Also, had presented the data in small hyperlinked chunks vs. a long PDF.) Perhaps contrast online dictionary vs. paper dictionary?  ¶ 12:21 PM 0 comments

  The REAL reason I'm here.... Untele 2005

These are the presentations I went to see today. If you aren't a computer/instructional person, you can feel free to skip this.

The use of CMC in an online Spanish course. (CMC is computer mediated chat.)

They use a homebrewed tool to encorporate both a synchronous written chat with a spoken chat component. It’s interesting in that the students and instructors can follow upon written communications with spoken word at a distance or vice versa to really emphasize correction and learning. (Much like a phone conversation) It also makes misunderstandings common as a simple ‘Eh? Could be misunderstood as a technical issue when it is in fact student confusion about the language. Recommends a home-brewed learning environment from google.org (investigate this). Tool as written is in flash. (perhaps get a book on Flash programming) (Robert Davis, UC- Davis)

Using blogs in the foreign language classroom encouraging learner independence.

Kathleen Pinkman, a lot of the issues we already know. Blogs are postings of essays to the internet. Students resisted the time commitment for blogs as an outside assignment. They didn’t want to talk “issues” but instead topics popular to them, music, food, movies, etc. The students had trouble understanding how to post pictures, and this was an obvious issue. Posting music/sound of ones voice was something that the students would have liked. Potential for a global conversation discussed. Commenting on others posts needed fine-tuning; popular students got more comments than others. Interesting in that the Japanese students she was teaching seemed somewhat resistant to the idea of communication in this way (probably because it wasn’t their first language.

I met an interesting professor from Harvard who works with Hot Potatoes (and will send me specialized code to modify quiz answers received as part of email response) and is also working on a free Flash project which, while it admittedly needs a flash presentation server, for preparing web page snippets for the non-technical. Interesting in that I have often wondered about using a database component to standard web pages, allowing the data to be edited easily through an easy interface rather than having to change/upload entire pages. This could be an interesting solution for people who are non-technical and would like to have up-to-date web pages.

Jessica Strum (Univ of Illinois) Did an experiment where she studied learning of diacritics when students learned via handwritten practice, typewritten practice using Function keys to assign diacritics, and alt-key combinations to learn with a keyboard. Interestingly, the type of learning style seemed not to matter; but think that the study could be redone with different controls.

Collaborating between two groups of students for specialty language learning. Two groups of specialty business students (tourism, marketing) worked together with their special groups of vocabulary to create a DVD commercial. The problem was that most of the students didn’t really have the type of cameras and software or even the skills to create a DVD commercial of this sort of thing, so the whole project was sort of flawed from the get go.

So, anyway, this is the REAL reason why I came. Tomorrow, we present our talk. We are going to knock their socks off. Au Revoir!  ¶ 4:22 PM 0 comments

  Pictures, pictures, pictures From the Bateaux Mouche, we saw the gilded statues on the Pont de Neuf. Yes, we were one of the only people on the boat. It was REALLY REALLY cold.

Robin checks out her guidebook.on the bateux mouche.

Sara sits on the boat and tries to get a picture without hair in her eyes. Futile, no?

Neat statue on the bridge near the Tour d’Eiffel. I love copper statues.

From the top of the Arch d’Triomphe, looking out along the Champs d’Elysees. We nearly died walking to the top.

The dome over Napoleon’s Tomb, which reminds me of the Capitol Dome.

The Norman Kings of France, i.e. Charlemagne, for example. On Notre Dame, carved into the doorway.

The side of Notre Dame, on the Ile de Cite. Note the gargoyles near the top of the turrets.

Detailed doorway in the “marais” which is French for marsh. It’s an eclectic shopping area. I have another picture of the elaborately carved wooden doors.

Open air market in the Marais.  ¶ 4:12 PM 0 comments

  Reflections on la vie de Parisien I remarked to Robin yesterday that Compiegne reminds me a lot of Appleton. Lots of 2-3 story buildings, spread out along a river (the Oille). A bustling middle sized city. There are 5 lines of buses, and they are free. There is a reception tonight in the city hall, which is probably about 2 miles from the campus where we are going to the conference. The conference is on the outskirts of town. The train station is right across the river from our hotel, which is in the “downtown” of Compiegne. The big news here is the train strike, with people trying to figure out when exactly they can catch a train out of here if they need to. Train service is drastically cut from here, and it is unknown how long the strike/slowdown will last. A fellow conference attendee paid 80 euros to get here by taxi. I’m not going to do that. I’d rather wait for the train.

Today it is raining. It is the first day we’ve had rain, and we are fortunate that it chose to come while Robin and I are trapped inside. It’s warm though, probably in the upper 50’s, so it is humid. It seems strange to be so warm, but it feels nice after such a long hard winter.

While in Paris, I was struck by the predominance of so many tiny little cars. They are called “smart cars” and I’ve taken a couple of pictures of them. They are truly roller skate cars in that only two people can sit in them, and I think they are gas-electric hybrids. Because parking is so bad in Paris, they take up very little room, and I’m sure they don’t use a lot of gas. Gas is 1.13 euros a LITER. A liter is roughly a quart, which means a gallon would be 4.52 euros a gallon. The exchange rate varies, but is 1 euro to .70 cents. (which makes it really kind of expensive to be here). Robin says that in a couple of years we’ll see them in America. I took pictures of them because I can imagine my nephews driving them as their first cars. They are incredibly cute.

There are, of course, the normal things like McDonalds here. There are advertisements on bus stops for this special thing called le P’tit Oriental, which looks a lot like a hamburger in a pita with some sort of sauce; kind of like a strange gyro. Part of me is repelled by the thought of a hamburger gyro, but part of me is strangely curious. Not that curious, mind you, but I have been wondering what one might taste like. Maybe if I get stuck waiting for the train I’ll spend 1.75 euros and try one. They also have something called le P’tit Mex, which is like a taco burger. That I am not at all curious about, mostly because it looks exactly like a normal burger.

Yesterday, as we left for Compiege, we stopped and bought the items for a quick sandwich. A baguette, some salami, some sliced swiss cheese. We bought these items from a boulangerie (bakery), a boucherie (butcher), and a fromagerie (cheese shop). Most of you already know that there are very few supermarkets here; so you go and buy from these little specialty shops. They have stores for foie gras only (gross, in my opinion) and there is another place that just does oil (L’Huile de la Monde) like olive oils, etc. Imagine trying to ask for a few slices of salami or cheese from these people for a sandwich. They want to sell us kilograms when we want a tenth or a twentieth of that amount. I’m so glad for Robin, who was able to get them to keep us from being overserved with too much cheese and meat for our impromptu meal. I think part of the reason the French don’t get fat is because they have to run all over to assemble ingredients for a meal. The shopkeepers are much slower than you’d expect from service people in America, and I can understand why they’d think Americans are pushy and impatient. Generally, we are used to a quicker level of response. But it is cute. They take the time to tell you about things and offer you alternatives, even if you don’t really understand what they are saying.

The meat and cheese tastes different from the meat and cheese at home, much better. Robin says it is because it doesn’t have the level of preservatives that most American meat and cheeses have. I had a goat cheese salad that was so wonderful and creamy that I am contemplating how much goat cheese I could sneak back into the country on my return trip. I’m mean, really. If they find it, they’ll just take it away. Of course, it rots just that much faster too.

Robin and I don’t present until tomorrow, but judging from the level of presentations today, we’ll be very professional and prepared. I think that we did a smart thing by preparing so well last week. Perhaps tonight we’ll go though our presentation again, just to be sure. I’m not nervous at all.

According to my computer clock, it is 8:22AM in Madison. I’m not jet lagged at all. Robin says she has problems on the return trip and will wake up at 4 in the morning for weeks afterwards. Her friend Monique who we had lunch with yesterday said something similar. I didn’t sleep well on the trip over here, so I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to try. I think part of the reason why I didn’t sleep well on my trip here was because I was excited. On the trip home, I can imagine being just so tired. We’ll see.

It is hard to not understand what others are saying. I think that it is something that I didn’t really take into account. I work with people from other countries and a rather bad command of English on a daily basis, so I think I will gain a new understanding of their rather perilous situation. It is so frustrating to only get every third word. But most people have been very good, and Robin only had one instance (while I had gone into a shop to get a bottle of water) of someone calling her a bad name. She said it was a couple of skinheads, and she translated it from Italian, but she thinks it means the same in French, and it isn’t nice. But, one bad experience on the second day of our trip isn’t bad.

Okay, must close. More later.  ¶ 9:35 AM 0 comments

  More thoughts As we rode our train to Compiegne (the town of multiple pronounciations – people keep correcting us when we say the name of the town), I remarked to Robin on how it smelled like burning. “That’s pollution”, she said. “It’s really bad in Italy, so bad that some days only certain cars are allowed to drive.” And I’ve noticed that recycling our empty bottles of water just doesn’t really happen. All of our waste bottles go into normal trash. But worst is the fact that dogs wander and poop wherever they want. In the train station, near the queue for tickets were a couple big piles of dog shit. Very poor, in my opinion.

I think I’m getting the hang of this French thing. It isn’t so much as important as thinking in English and translating into French, but thinking in French which seems obvious, but until you are forced to do so, you don’t. Il pluie ce matin, et l’autobus est plus tard. (It’s raining this morning, and our bus was late.) It was pretty crowded too. Last night, at the hotel, I tried to communicate in French to a guy who was trying to get a room without a reservation. I was apologetic about my French (Je parle tres mal). I don’t really have an accent; he asked me if I was English. (Anglais?) I either get that or Canadienne. (Canadian). Robin says you can identify an American on site, as we are larger and take more room on the sidewalk. That seems very subjective to me. Robin tells me she doesn’t really speak French, she just “frenchifies” Italian. She’s very fluent in Italian, and seems to manage.

No wireless internet access at the conference, but I spent 5 euros for a 24 hour window of wireless at the hotel. Our hotel is very interesting. It is quite simple, kind of a small room with only one double bed, very low like a futon. Robin and I wanted twin beds, but we managed. The water in the shower is very hot, which is better than my water heater at home, which takes a bit to warm up. But for 32 Euros, it’s not bad.

(Posted via more stolen wireless access.)  ¶ 4:29 AM 1 comments

  Greetings from Compiegne Depending on who you talk to here, we have heard about 8 different pronounciations of Compeigne. And the local rail that we had to take to get here was delayed by 90 minutes because of a “greve” which is like a strike, but is more like a slowdown. I read about that in the paper this morning.

Another gorgeous day! The sun was out and it was around 65 degrees. Robin and I walked everywhere today as we were determined to pack as much into today as we could. We went to les Invalides, which is the place where Napoleon’s body is interned. It is encased in 6 different coffins, one inside the other, and the outside is carved solid oak. It’s pretty short though, and if it is that short with 6 encased coffins, imagine how short he actually was!

We had cafes at a couple of cafes and walked to the Latin Quarter. That is where we met with her friend from Madison, Monique, who married a Frenchman and lives here now. I had a Croque Monsieur. It’s a ham and cheese sandwich but the cheese is grilled on the outside. Vraiment! (Really). We walked about and shopped. I bought a wonderful little gift for a friend which I can’t mention because then that person will find out! We walked onto the Ile de Cite (City Island) and Ile de’ St. Louis. (St. Louis Island) which are two islands in the middle in the Seine. That is where Notre Dame Cathedral is and that is where the gorgeous flying buttresses are. Notre Dame is famous for these gigantic Rose windows, gargoyles and crazy little chapels with ornate stands for holding lit candles. The line for going up on top of it was very long, and they were setting up for some sort of outside Easter service. I took a bunch of illegal pictures – everyone else was too, although someone told me that flash photography was forbidden.

We walked then along the touristy avenues and bought cheesy souvenirs. We walked to the Ile de St. Louis and did more shopping and had the French equivalent of ice cream, which is very intense and small and more like sorbet. We walked more, into the Marais, which is French for “marsh”. It is a shopping area, and it is wonderful. Little shops of cute things, little coffee shops, a little farmer’s market here or there. We walked back to the Metro and back to the Tour d’Eiffel again, but the lines were plus longue (too long) and we wanted to buy sandwiches before we got to the Gare Du Nord (North Train Station) to get our train to Compiegne.

French train stations are very weird. They sell tickets for different things (like the Metro and suburban trains or the trains that we needed to go 70 miles NE to Compiegne) at entirely different ticket booths. We ended up standing in line at 2 different ticket queues before we finally got a ticket. But because a great many of the conductors are on strike today, our train left 90 minutes late and no one came to check our ticket. We could have ridden the train for free!

We are here despite a little mix up at our hotel (which seems to be automated in the late hours) we were able to get into our tiny little hotel room which seems to be like a low-rent Motel 6. Very futuristic…they give you an access code instead of a key and that is your only way to get into your room. Quelle bizarre.

I hope to post this soon, and it is late, so I will log off. Robin and I are doing great, and despite our best efforts have managed not to get lost. More details as they become apparent.  ¶ 1:29 AM 0 comments

  Postcard from Paris I have stolen wireless internet access from someone near my hotel to post some pictures here (click here) and post this.

We made it to Paris, and I have to say my first impressions were from the train (the RER) we took to get from Charles De Gaulle Aeroport to the city. It is very green here, and it has the problems of every large city; graffiti, large tract housing, etc.

However, upon getting to the city, you see the hundred plus year old maisons, and you realize just how much French you have forgotten. I am traveling with an endlessly enthusiastic and patient French and Italian teacher (more Italian than French, but still!) and she’s been doing most of the talking. I can handle Bonjour, Pardon, and Merci.

I am endless turned about on these streets. Little streets zip here and there. I am glad that Robin brought her folding laminated map, but we have to consult it every corner. We are pretty pathetic, but there are thousands of other tourists about doing the same thing.

Yesterday, we went and….had a café de chocolate at a café, rode the Bateaux-Mouche (boat) up and down the Seine, walked the Champs-Elyssee, went up in the Arch de Triomphe, walked to the Eiffel Tour (we’ll go up it another day) and went to eat in an authentic (kinda expensive) French Bistro. This was all on 2 hours of sleep grabbed on the airplane. It is so hard to write detailed information about each, but I have to say…

It was cold on the boat…should have worn a coat. Good way to see the sites, but brrrr! Champs-Elyssee…think 5th Avenue in New York. Loads of shops, loads of tourists. Arch de Triomphe …we took the stairs (gasp!)…wonderful views. Tour d’Eiffel. Amazing. I’m was just bowled away by the ornateness and scale of it. The meal. Simply amazing. Amazing.

It is Wednesday morning today and we slept late. We will have lunch with a friend of Robin’s today, and likely shop. I found a adorable little picture for my sister Rachel from a street vendor who was Italian, but selling watercolors of Paris sites.

Must go now…more of paris to see!  ¶ 3:03 AM 0 comments

  Well, Bon Voyage everybody I leave today. I'm so excited. I went and changed money today. The Euro is such pretty money...all different colors and denominations. I also went to the gym, worked out, went to the bank, went to another bank to change money, went and saw little Nathan and Eileen, and ate the last of the vegetables from my fridge for lunch. Took a shower, and am currently waiting until it is time to get to Robin's house. A friend of hers is driving us to the airport, and I'll be leaving my car in her driveway. Eileen and Jeff and Oz and Lisa will look in on Monty, so everything is taken care of.

I'll try to keep my blog up to date. I now that at least one of the hotels I'll be at will have internet access. I'm not sure I'll get pictures up quickly, but I'll try. I'm so nervous, and excited. I'm not nervous about my presentation at all, mostly because it isn't until Friday. I'm more nervous about the plane trip.

When I'm nervous, I clean. My house is cleaner than its been in a VERY long time. Monty is hanging close to me; I think he knows something is up. Poor little guy.

Well, Bon Voyage Everybody. See you all soon! A Bientot!  ¶ 1:46 PM 0 comments

  Countdown to Monday Monday at 5:54pm, I leave Madison on my trip. I’m not a great flyer. I’m trying hard to keep my anxieties in check. Yesterday, I went to a café and practiced speaking French with a bunch of other francophones. The thing is that I haven’t spoken French since my 4th semester of French about 1992,. So, the fact that I was able to even understand a tenth of what I heard yesterday was pretty impressive. I have lot of stuff to shop for this weekend …batteries, a money belt, socks, etc … but I’m making lists, and trying to get ready. I’m trying to keep my suitcase light and wear the bulky stuff, so I’ve got a lot of planning to do. Je suis nerveuse, parce que je n’aime pas aller aux aeroplanes. (I’m nervous because I don’t like to go on airplanes.) Je suis etre calme. (I am going to be calm.) I will try (I don’t know French for “try”) to not worry. With the amount of brain cycles I spend on these worst case scenarios, it’s a wonder than any of my ancestors ever made it from Poland and Germany to America. I have to remember than every day, thousands of people fly across the world and my flight will be no different. It will be absolutely routine. Okay, I’m going to try to sleep now.  ¶ 11:05 PM 0 comments

  Sick Again When I was a kid I had a gift for being sick on holidays. I threw up my own 16th birthday cake. I had chicken pox when I was seven, over Christmas. One year, after enjoying a wonderful Thanksgiving meal, I had to spend the rest of the weekend alternating between throwing up and sleeping. Last St. Patrick Day, I came down with bad sore throat, which eventually mutated into bronchitis. As you may remember, on Valentine's Day, I was sick as well.

Well, St. Patrick's Day is this week, and I've come down with a horrible chest cold. I also believe that this is one more thing I have to deal with before I leave for France. I'm cursed. But I had plans with friends that I didn't want to put off, so I medicated myself with some cough drops and went.

Yesterday, I went to Oz and Lisa's where we got together and played a rousing game of India Rails. We made French Bread Pizzas and I brought a "mock" cheesecake I had made (made with Ricotta cheese instead of cream cheese). Eileen, Brian, myself and of course Ozzyie and Lisa were there. Jeff brought Nathan for a little visit, but then left to spend a Father-Son day. (He's so big! 22 pounds! He's heavier than Monty is now.)

Lisa and I talked about her upcoming baby shower, and generally hung out. It was good to see Eileen so relaxed. She needs to have times where she can feel comfortable hanging out and not hovering over the baby. Although it didn't stop her from calling Jeff's cell phone to check in on Nathan. I gave her a little bit of a hard time for that, but she can't turn off the "mommy" genes.

After that, I went to my friend Keith's co-op. (A co-op is a cooperative living situation where the residents of the building work together to do chores, cook food, and general maintenance in return for lower rent.) They were having a party. I'm not much a party person, but I enjoyed this party. They had a really good band, and they had this great punch. I got cornered by this guy Todd, who as soon as he heard what I do for a living, proceeded to try to get me to agree to teach him a bunch of programs. I said, maybe this summer. I don't have time to meet with every single person who has ever heard of these programs. I might be able to teach a group something over the course of an hour, but it really high level stuff. I had a couple of beers and some punch, but when the band was done, and a DJ showed up and started doing Rap, I said goodbye to Keith (who wanted to go to sleep...such a party pooper) and left. Walking to my car (which I had parked nearby at work) I realized that I'd probably had a little too much alcohol to drive, so I went to our studio at work and spent a couple of hours sleeping there. (There's a sofa in the studio) When I woke up later, I felt much more clear headed. Then I drove home.

It probably wasn't the smartest thing to do with a chest cold, but I had said I would do both of those things, and I don't like to go back on my word. Today, I'm supposed to meet with Robin to go over the presentation for France. I'm kind of hoping that she wants to put this off until later this week. I'm not hung over or anything, but this cough is really horrible, and maybe I can get rid of it by concentrated amounts of fluids and rest. That's what I'm hoping. Otherwise, maybe I can beg my nurse practictioner for another prescription for Advair before I leave on my trip.

In other news, Eileen and Jeff and Lisa and Ozzyie agreed to check in on Monty while I'm gone. I'll have to get them keys. That way, I can be sure that Monty is okay. And you can really tell that Lisa is pregnant now. Before, she was just wearing baggy clothes, but that doesn't hide it anymore.

I'm hearing rumors that gas might reach $2.50 a gallon this summer. I told Keith and Eileen both that if it does, I might move entirely to riding my bike instead of driving. I think I could do it. Or at least, it would drastically cut down on the amount of gas I'd need to drive around. Anyway, that's my news.

Oh...I forgot...I have to go and get my toast in my oven...I forgot it. It's probably charcoal by now.  ¶ 11:12 AM 0 comments

  Super Saturday & Sunday What a great weekend! I gave blood on Saturday, so I wasn’t supposed to do anything strenuous. So I went shopping. Some people might find shopping strenuous, but I don’t. I got some fantastic deals.

Boston Store had a “Yellow Dot” sale. I was able to get a skirt for $10 and a pair of ankle high boots for $12. Really. Then I went to Lane Bryant. I can’t wear a lot of Lane Bryant’s stuff anymore (yeah!), but their clothes vary widely in fit, so sometimes I can find something. They had racks and racks of clothes for $6.99. I got a jacket (which is a little big, I might try to wash it to see if it will shrink), a pair of pants, a shirt, and a belt for $25. Amazing! I also went to Lands End Outlet and got a swimsuit and 2 tank tops for $30. Really. And THEN, I went to a different Lane Bryant today, and got 2 pairs of pants, 3 pairs of underwear, and a necklace for $16. (They had the same $6.99 sale, and then it was Friends and Family Day, and they were giving a 30% discount to everyone.). I was looking for clothes to wear on my upcoming trip, professional looking, but comfortable. I think I succeeded. I am the queen of bargain shopping.

I also went and saw Stephanie at Information Technology Academy, washed my car, went grocery shopping, made a lemon cheesecake for work Monday, and rode my bike to the Capitol for a coffee and omelet sandwich at Michelangelo’s this morning. That’s about 12 miles there and back, so 24 miles of bike riding today. The trails still aren’t ready for riding. The ride was very bumpy, but I have road tires, so it wasn’t like I was falling down or anything. I took a different route home. I also stopped on my ride to buy Monty food.

That cat. Sometimes, a cat owner will start to wonder where his or her cat has gone, for no reason than we can’t let a sleeping cat lie. I went looking for him today, and found him burrowed under my bed covers. He normally doesn’t do that. Then, I lost him again later, and I looked there again, and he was there again. I opened the front door so he could wander around outside and he finally roused himself long enough to head to the outdoors for a little bit. He’s currently asleep on my favorite chair, and I’m sitting on the floor as I type this. Isn’t that just the way? Guess who is the one in charge here?  ¶ 6:31 PM 0 comments

  Spyware problems everywhere I had to get rid of the worst piece of spyware I’ve ever seen this week. It took several hours to remove. It is called the Elite Toolbar, and it is supposed to function as an extra search function, as a bar at the top of your Internet Explorer web browser. It also pops up advertisements every 20 seconds anytime the computer is on. It replicates itself, so you can’t delete it fast enough; it just keeps coming back. Two different spyware applications detected it but couldn’t remove it. Symantec Antivirus was supposed to detect it, but couldn’t because it doesn’t do extended threat detection (at least the version that the UW had).

I ended up following the manual removal instructions on the Symantec website, in safe mode, as Administrator. That is the only way I could keep it from coming back, but even then, the instructions were wrong. The spyware had changed over time, and I had to basically track down the configuration files of it and individually delete them. It was horrible.

How they expect ordinary people to remove this sort of thing is beyond me.

Here’s some advice. If you are ever asked to install a search bar to your web browser, say no. If you are ever offered the chance to add an Active X control, say no. Except for the Microsoft Updates web page, you don’t know what they are going to do to your computer. If you can, don’t use Internet Explorer at all. Use something like Mozilla Firefox, which comes without the capability to use Active X controls. It’s not foolproof, but it is a good way to sidestep the worst problems.

If you do get something, download Spybot (from www.download.com) or SpySweeper which can get most of the bad stuff cleaned off.

Just like viruses, these things can cause horrible damage and make your computer virtually unusable. I’ve seen constant popups for advertisements, redirected web pages to “their” website, slowed computers, and even the inability to communicate over the internet because of these things. It’s become so bad that I think that I’d rather have to clean up after a virus than clean up spyware. They change it so often and find new ways to hide it.

Anyway, I’m stepping off my soapbox now. Be careful out there.  ¶ 8:32 PM 0 comments