In the last week and a half or so, I did not keep up with my blog because I was trying to get the most out of my time in Paris.
One Wednesday evening while I was sitting in my bed back at Cite Universitaire, I was struck by a thought. I should try to do something new and interesting every night that I am in Paris. For some reason, it had not occurred to me that I had not been taking advantage of the evenings to visit Paris. My adventurousness paid off- I had many exciting experiences during the last week and a half of my time in Paris.
My first adventure took me to the gaudy red light district of Paris. Among other things, the Montmartre district contains the iconic Moulin Rouge, more sex shops than anybody could every want, and what seemed to be strip clubs. I wondered what these clubs were and I even had some people approach me and invite me in. However, I had different aspirations. Under the title of "Offbeat Ways to See Paris," my tour guide suggested the Musee d'Eroticisme. As the name suggests, this museum is devoted to the artistic expression of sexuality. I can understand that many people may be uncomfortable with such a place, but I wanted to push my boundaries. While it was shocking at times, the museum had a lot to offer: from ancient African sculptures depicting sex to the history of prostitution in France, Musee d'Eroticisme communicated a view of sexuality, dispirate from the reserved attitudes in the United States. In many African tribes, sexuality and particularly sexual organs are an integral part of many of their traditions. For instance, the male penis is important in many rituals signifying the passage into manhood. The history of prostitution in France was even more interesting. I do not know what the laws are like now, but prostitution was a legal, thriving business in 19th century France. Opulent brothels contained beautiful, ornate sculptures beds. However, the glamor of the Parisian brothel masked a sinister system. Many of the women in these brothels started out poor. They wanted to make money to live a normal life. However, the brothels often took a large percentage of the revenue so these women would be stuck in brothels for many years. Many women became depressed. Another fascinating aspect is that a substantial number of women turned to lesibianism. Surrounded by a sexual environment, these women turned to each other for support. It is a touchy subject, but the commentary suggested that the main factor in these relationships was a mutual hatred of men that resulted from their work. While the Musee d'Eroticisme would be shocking and appalling to many Americans, I was glad that I pushed my boundaries to go to such a place and see different views of sexuality.
My next adventure brought me to the Fleche d'Or, a vibrant and popular establishment that has alternative and rock concerts nightly. While I enjoyed the music, my conversations with people there was the most rewarding part of the evening. As I have discussed earlier, I am fascinated by stepping into other subcultures - if only for an evening - and learning about these people. As far as I can see, the alternative scene tends to favor art, creativity and the humanities. One may think that in being an avid mathematician and scientist, I would have little to say to these people. I find such a view insulting.
The humanities and the sciences have much more in common than one might think. Lest I digress too much, I will briefly discuss my thoughts on the subject. First, both areas are concerned with the quality of expression. I am no expert, but in the Humanities, the method of expression is central to any piece of writing. From the language, to the structure, the writer carefully crafts their expression and meaning. In the same light, communcation is vital to the scientist as well. While one can do great work, the goal of science is to create new knowledge and share it with the world. As such, most senior scientists spend most of their time finding ways to communicate their work to others while the graduate students actually carry out the experiments. As a more mundane example, when preparing for a presentation of this summer's work, I spent many hours thinking about how to convey my work in a way that was both complete and understandable. It is a real challenge to look at a topic from someone else's perspective. Second, all important scientific work is an expression of creativity and novel thinking just as artistic masterpieces are as such due to their originality and questioning of established artistic practices. I think that part of the reason for the thought that mathematics is mechanical comes from a lack of inspired teachers. To put the typical mathematics education in context, I will give an analogy. Before you create a painting, you have to know your tools. You have a canvas, a brush, paints, and a place to mix the paints. You may have a variety of colors and brushes. After knowing your materials, you take to the canvas. There are many different strategies for putting paint on a canvas. You can use broad, wavy strokes or fine and precise ones. These technical aspects of painting to an artist are the high school mathematics coures to an engaged and lively mathematician. Such a researcher is not concerned with the routine aspects of calculus, but has a grander purpose. As the types of brush strokes to not make a masterpiece, algorithmic calculations do not make great mathematics. While the artist is trying to express emotion and capture the human condition, the mathematician aspires to grand goals. He or she seeks understanding in enigmatic problems, and eventually finds order in chaos. The people who end up pursuing theoretical math have a wildly different introduction to the subject. As a high school student, my best experiences with math involved making my own problems. While it is easy to solve problems when you are told the solution technique, it takes a much greater ability to create challenging questions. You need to not only understand the concepts, but be able to combine them in a new and interesting way. For instance, one problem that I created used a 3d visualization of a cube in order to answer the question: if three people arrive at some time between 12 and 1, and wait for 20 mins, will they see each other? Regardless, with these type of experience, it is clear that math would be appealing to me whereas the people who are only exposed to boring, mechanical math never touch the subject after their classes end.
Forgive my diversion, but I have been thinking a lot about how to communciate why I love math and science to others. Really, the long and short of it is that I talked to these people about art and what they liked about it. The first woman that I talked to was a freelance artist that had her work featured internationally. Having just finished an exhibition in Paris, she was soon to fly off to New York and then Portland to be present at two showings of her work. It was fun to hear about her art and we also discussed France-America cultural differences. Additionally, she explained to me that the impact of most art is inseparable from an understanding of the contemporary thought about art. Thus, she argued, many modern art pieces have more merit than a dilitante could observe. Did I mention that we spoke only in French! Such a conversation is why I am happy that I know French! I regret that I did not have this perspective when I was learning the language in high school. My bad attitude towards languages back then led me to not get nearly as much out of my classes as I could have. The next woman that I talked to was a student whow as a around my age. The most notable part of our conversation is that she explained that the modern art that she liked evoked a certain emotion in her. She would be impressed by the creativity and departure from reality that her favorite artists evoked. Anyways, the music was generally good. The first band was an energetic, intense rock/alternative band. The second band was somewhat boring, but I enjoyed it as a relaxing conclusion to my great night of conversations-entirely in French-with the artsy people who are a part of the rock-alt. subculture.
During my next night, I found myself biking across Paris with the most American Americans that I had seen during the trip. It seemed as if the people who embodied negative stereotypes that Europeans have of Americans. The boisterious, aggressive and culturally unaware lot of us visited "touristy" Paris with the FatTire Bike Tours. Right off the bat, our negative tendancies were encouraged by the guides. "Domination" shouted the guide. "We must dominate the road when we bike." A couple from New York, a group of 10 students who came to Paris to drink and party, and another family took to this midset right away. As we left, excited exclimations of the word "Domination" echoed through the Parisian streets. The most extreme example of the our outrageous attitudes was that on the streets, we were near a taxi. Since he wanted to get through us, he revved his engine and produced black smoke. He was immediately met with jeers from our group and one guy went so far as to stick his head into the taxi and swear the guy out. "What the hell is your f-ing problem?"
I should say that I am being a tad bit melodramatic. While the Americans annoyed me a bit, I still had a good time on the trip. I enjoyed tasty, yet over-priced ice cream. I got to bike through Paris and I saw many of the large attractions. We ended the trip with a beautiful boat ride down the Seine, while indulging in some nice French wine. I could write a few more paragraphs about why I didn't like these people and why I distanced myself from them on the tour, but suffice it to say our conversations were characterized by a stark lack of things in common and superficial discussions about the places that we are from and that we knew people shared the same hometowns.
Over the weekend, I visited my uncle Harold, aunt Meg, and younger cousin Hannah in Grenoble. My uncle is a Physics professor at Duke University but he spends a few months in Paris collaborating with French collegues. It is unfortunate that I have not gotten to see my cousins much, but, by the end of the summer, I will have seen then three times. After getting picked up at the train station, we had a delicious 'french' lunch. We had a large collection of french cheeses, two types of pate and some fruit. Next, we explored Grenoble. I enjoyed taking in the atmosphere of another French town. As Grenoble is in a valley, there are beautiful, awe-inspiring mountains in all directions. Later in the day, we took the gondola to the top of one of the mountains. I enjoyed looking over the city and seeing all the other mountains that surrounded the valley. In general, I loved the company of my cousins and they are welcoming, accomodating and thoughtful people. One amusing nugget of information is that the defensive structures that we explored atop the mountains, while they were well preserved, the reason for that was because they never saw any fighting. Thus while it was great to see these old fortifications, the only reason that they were so well-perserved was that the tumultuous French history had not touched this area. Later in the evening, we had a nice dinner at a lebanese restaurant. While it seemed that we did not get good service due to being American, the food was delicious and filling.
The next day, my uncle had to had to leave early to go to a conference so I spent the day with the gals. We decided to go a French revolution museum in a nearby town. Despite a car ride that seemed very stressful for the two of them, we eventually got to a small town that had been taken over by a French Revolution weekend. Many of the locals dressed in historical clothing while others enacted historical scenes. We briefly walked through a carnival-like area where you could take a picture of yourself with your head in a guillotine and throw balls at the nasty and oppressive French kings. I remaked to myself that while it seemd that many French people were proud of the historical overthrow of the monarchy, the French revolution was nasty, violent and epitomized the horrors that people can commit. For instance, there was a murder where somebody had their skin lascerated, lead and acid were poured into the crevices, and four ropes tied to each of his limbs were tugged by horses until he was split into four pieces. I don't know what to say about that to express how crazy it was to hear about such practices. Anyways the museum was fun and we got to learn a fair amount of history. Overall, I had a lot of fun on my trip with my cousins and I will be glad to see them again in a few weeks at a family reunion!
After I came back to Paris, I was tired and took a night off from doing cool things. However, I soon returned to experience the excited of the Parisian evenings. I went to an immaculate performance of Vivaldi's Four Seasons at La Sainte Chapelle. The church was unbelievible. Stained glass windows adorned for one's entire field of vision and everything else was golden and ornate. I was exteremely impressed by the precision and skill of the violinists. I felt strong emotions when hearing the sounds of the harmonious and energetic violinists reverberate around me. I have so much more respect for these artists than the popular musicians of today. In total, I felt like I was able to appreciate a performance of classical music and I hope that I will find time to attend more masterful performances.
The next evening, I decided to do some exploring. I started by walking next to the Seine. For a month during the summer, they bring in sand so there is a sort of beach on the side of the water. Spanned by beautiful bridges and surrounded by monumental buildings, the Seine passes through the heart of Paris. From the grotesque faces adorning Pont Neuf to the small plaque marking the execution of the last of the knights templar, the area was a treasure trove of French history. After wandering around a while, the sun set and I stumbled upon a fantastic street performance in front of Notre Dame. To begin, a man with a torch came and put some liquid in his mouth. Then after a few moments of waiting for dramatic effect, he blew a fantastic fire from his mouth! After a few smaller acts, a man came out with balls that were in fire and he held them by strings. He twirled the balls of fire with finesse. (See here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av8g8NNkKbk ). In the finale, he took firecrackers attached to strings and twirled them around. While similar, there was an incredible effect where he was surrounded by sparks. I enjoyed this night a lot because I just explored and I stumbled upon something fantastic! In the subsequent evenings, I did not do a whole lot more than explore and take it easy. I was preparing my final presentation. However, the last day, I had a moving experience at a number of French Museums.
Per the suggestion of my father, I went to Musee d'Orsay to see the impressionism paintings. More than any of my other museum experience, I felt emotions when I saw the paintings. As somewhat of a surprise, my favorite paintings were the realist and naturalist paintings. In particular, I found the following painting of Jesus at the cross moving (see http://iconsandimagery.blogspot.com/2011/03/calvary.html). As described by the audio tour that I used throughout my visit, the jesus was depicted more like a human that was feeling intense pain. From his facial expression, his body dangling from his arms and his gaunt legs, everything about the painting is screaming out pain and anguish. Apparently this depiction of christ was so controversial that it was removed from the exhibition that had originally commissioned the work. I also enjoyed the impressionist paintings. The most enjoyable part for me is that I recognized most of the impressionist artists and their styles. As always, I liked the Van Gogh paintings and in particular, I find his self-portrait to be fantastic! I could spend a long time examining his facial expression. One other point was that I decided to pay for an audio tour and that certainly made the experience better for me. It was a lot of fun to hear the descriptions of the paintings. Most of them were reasonable in pointing out the main features of the art without going too over the top with flowery descriptions. Afterwards, I headed to the Musee de l'Orangerie to see the Monet waterlilies. At this point, I was pretty tired from having walked around Musee d'Orsay for about two hours so I was glad to be able to sit. Specially designed for the waterlilies, two oval rooms light by soft rays from the sun were specialy designed to display the Monet paintings. It was enjoyable to sit and just appreciate the paintings. For me, I felt like the colors were pleasing for some of the paintings but not others. Somewhat surprisingly, the museum had a great collection of art in addition to the Monet paintings. One of my favorite paintings was a Renoir painting of a girl learning how to play piano. I liked the soft curves of their faces and their gentle expressions that I bought a copy of this painting for my dorm room. There was also a surprisingly large collection of Picasso paintings. While he painted many nudes, a type of art that would seem to be intimate, the expressions of the women were very distant. I spent a long time deciding which poster I wanted to buy. They did not have the specific waterlilies that I liked the most and the colors seemed off in the prints that they had. So I finally decided on the Renior painting that I described earlier. In total, I enjoyed my trip a lot. In addition to liking the audio guide, I experienced more emotion that these museums that I have at any other art exhibit.
This post is already ridiculously long. So I am going to write later about some more general conclusions about my trip. Suffice it to say, I had a great time in Paris, so much so, that I did not feel the need to do anything crazy or special the last night that I was there. I had a relaxed evening where I packed and watched some youtube videos.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Crazy Awesome Weekend!
I feel bad that I have been getting behind on the blog, but I have been very busy.
To put it succinctly, the reason that I enjoyed this weekend so much was that I got to meet a lot of new people. I had positive interactions with these people and my effort to make eye contact with people when I talk to them is seeming to increase the quality of my interactions with people.
Last Wednesday, I took the GRE. I did well enough so that the general GRE will not hurt my applications to any physics program. I am pleased to have that done with. After the test was over, I went to the Gardens near the Louvre and explored a bit.
That evening, one of my friends, Steven, invited me to come hang out. It was very spontaneous and I enjoyed it a lot. I met his sister, and a girl named Ippa, an awesome person from Finland. We went by the Eiffel tower at night and took touristy pictures. They were generally a lot of fun to hang out with.
The next day was Bastille day. I went with the same group as the previous night and my roommate, Bakari, to the Eiffel tower. There were a crazy amount of people there! It was so busy that there were some people who staked out a seat in the bushes. We had a picnic with cheese, tomatoes, olives, and bread. Afterwards, Steven and I played some frisbee. It was dangerous because there were so many people. A random girl, who I later got to talk to more, joined our game. Victoria is a student from Texas who goes to Yale and she plays frisbee. Later on that afternoon, we were playing ninja, and a group of American high school students joined in. So for the rest of the afternoon, in addition to our group of 5 people, we had another 8 or so new people that we just met. We did a lot of fun things including following people in a line. We also played the crowd-surfing game: we sit in a line, and then somebody jumps on the line and we use our hands to carry them to the end of the line. When we did this, a lot of people were looking at us. Under the supervision of their parents, some little kids decided to go down our crowd-surfing line. I had to leave early so I did not see the fireworks, but regardless it was quite an awesome day.
The next day, my friend Mike came to visit. He got here early and we had a very long day of fun touristy stuff. Throughout the days, I had a lot of fun hanging out with Mike. He came to Paris with about 10 other people from his program. I had a lot of fun meeting all of them. We started with a 3 hour walking tour of Paris. It was free, but we had to pay a tip at the end. The guide was very quirky and funny. She made a lot of pop-culture references and cheesy jokes, which I enjoyed. She had a lot of cool stories to tell about the landmarks that we saw. One particular one is that there is a bridge that has the faces of drunk noblemen that amused King Henry the 4th.
Afterwards, she brought us to a place to eat. I got to talk to one of Mike's friends here for a while so that was pretty fun for me as I got a chance to practice my eye contact and conversation skills. In the evening, we went to the Louvre. I got to see more new things and some old things. Even later that day, we decided to go to the Eiffel tower and climb up it.
It is a bit of a long story, but some of Mike's friends were 'couch-surfing'. This is where you sleep in the house of some person that you do not know that volunteers their home. It is free but obviously there is some risk involved. Anyways, so since we were also with part of Mike's group, they were trying to find their host. So it turned out that their host also happened to be going up the Eiffel tower that night. Johann was a very cool guy. At first, I was unsure why somebody would have random people come to his house, but he said that he got to practice his English and Spanish and he got to meet a lot of cool people. There were also three girls from the Czech Republic that just graduated from high school and one of Johann's friends from France came along.
Again, I had a lot of fun meeting these people. At first it was a bit awkward because I seemed like an idiot since I did not know where the Czech Republic was and I also got that country confused with Czechoslovakia. But after those initial bumps, I was able to start up conversation with them. It is really a ton of fun to talk to foreigners because you can talk about cultural differences forever. They were very cool to hang out with.
It was fun to climb up the eiffel tower. You can take the stairs 2/3 of the way and then you have to pay more to take a lift to the top. We got a really beautiful view of the city from up there! I did not have my camera, but some other people took a bunch of pictures. I am considering going up again. After a long and awesome day, Mike and I went back to sleep.
We slept in, but then we resumed an exciting day of touristy stuff. We saw the Arc de Triomphe. Then Mike and I decided to go to the Montmartre area. The basilique du sacre coeur stands atop the highest place in Paris. There is an unbelievably beautiful view of the city from up there. It was cool to see the city in the day time and to contrast that with the night time view that we had seen the previous evening from the top of the Eiffel tower.
The area is famed for having many of the great French artists and thinkers. Although the area has become somewhat overrun with tourism, there is still a nice, old feeling to the area. It is a fun area because there are a lot of artists (who are now pandering to tourists) and a lot of people who will make caricatures of you. We walked down to the more gaudy part of Montmartre. Next to the Moulin Rouge, there are a lot of sex shops and strip clubs. I did not get to explore this area, but randomly, we ran into some of Mike's friends. It was a really strange coincidence.
After this, Mike and I headed back to make some pasta. Again, it was cool to hang out with Mike and do all of these touristy things. The host of the couch-surfers was hosting a party so we planned to go. It ended up being pretty hard to get to because we had to take a train and then a bus to get there. The party was pretty cool. There were a number of other people to meet including another two people from Poland. They were doing some drinking games that were okay but I really didn't drink much. But I have gotten to the point where I will have a little bit just since that is what is polite in the situation. It was a lot of fun to talk to these people. One particularly good conversation was with the Czech girls where we talked about the holidays in our countries. One oddity was that these girls had taken an American culture class so they knew the stories behind Thanksgiving and Martin Luther King day better than I do! Mike and I stayed out pretty late and so the bus had stopped. We took a taxi back which ended up costing us 25 euros each. It was pretty expensive, but it was late and I just wanted to get back. It was worth it because it was really fun to hang out with these people.
Mike headed out on Sunday, and I just took it easy. It was such a fun weekend for me! The main thing that I saw is that I really enjoyed meeting new people. It felt good that people were responsive and it seemed that they were interested in talking to me. Also there is just something about making eye contact with people that makes the conversations more enjoyable - somehow I feel more of a connection when I do that. I liked how spontaneous the weekend was and a lot of the most fun aspects of the trip were not really planned way in advance. Also I was glad that I went out on a limb and spent two hours somewhat late at night in order to go to a party where I didn't really know the host.
Another aspect is that I felt like I got to meet a different sort of subculture - that is to say the people who couch surf. It seems that you have to be trusting of others and generally laid-back and able to handle a lot of bumps along the way. The polish girls were saying that they had done a lot of couch surfing where most of their experiences were good but one was really, really bad. Their host played music late in the night and even watched porn while they were around. I feel like I have meet other people who seem like they belong to this subculture- some college students from the AMSP camp come to mind. I wonder if I will be able to connect with people like this when I get back to college. I feel like most of use at WashU are very locked into our friend group and that most people do not do things along these lines... There is something about these people who go around on very little money, touring and meeting lots of new people that is attractive to me. However, I doubt that I will find myself in that type of situation in the future where I can be such a person.
Anyways, I took it easy for the next few days and dealt with some issues. It just occurred to me that I do not have that many more nights left so I really need to take advantage of my evenings. However that is for another post...
To put it succinctly, the reason that I enjoyed this weekend so much was that I got to meet a lot of new people. I had positive interactions with these people and my effort to make eye contact with people when I talk to them is seeming to increase the quality of my interactions with people.
Last Wednesday, I took the GRE. I did well enough so that the general GRE will not hurt my applications to any physics program. I am pleased to have that done with. After the test was over, I went to the Gardens near the Louvre and explored a bit.
That evening, one of my friends, Steven, invited me to come hang out. It was very spontaneous and I enjoyed it a lot. I met his sister, and a girl named Ippa, an awesome person from Finland. We went by the Eiffel tower at night and took touristy pictures. They were generally a lot of fun to hang out with.
The next day was Bastille day. I went with the same group as the previous night and my roommate, Bakari, to the Eiffel tower. There were a crazy amount of people there! It was so busy that there were some people who staked out a seat in the bushes. We had a picnic with cheese, tomatoes, olives, and bread. Afterwards, Steven and I played some frisbee. It was dangerous because there were so many people. A random girl, who I later got to talk to more, joined our game. Victoria is a student from Texas who goes to Yale and she plays frisbee. Later on that afternoon, we were playing ninja, and a group of American high school students joined in. So for the rest of the afternoon, in addition to our group of 5 people, we had another 8 or so new people that we just met. We did a lot of fun things including following people in a line. We also played the crowd-surfing game: we sit in a line, and then somebody jumps on the line and we use our hands to carry them to the end of the line. When we did this, a lot of people were looking at us. Under the supervision of their parents, some little kids decided to go down our crowd-surfing line. I had to leave early so I did not see the fireworks, but regardless it was quite an awesome day.
The next day, my friend Mike came to visit. He got here early and we had a very long day of fun touristy stuff. Throughout the days, I had a lot of fun hanging out with Mike. He came to Paris with about 10 other people from his program. I had a lot of fun meeting all of them. We started with a 3 hour walking tour of Paris. It was free, but we had to pay a tip at the end. The guide was very quirky and funny. She made a lot of pop-culture references and cheesy jokes, which I enjoyed. She had a lot of cool stories to tell about the landmarks that we saw. One particular one is that there is a bridge that has the faces of drunk noblemen that amused King Henry the 4th.
Afterwards, she brought us to a place to eat. I got to talk to one of Mike's friends here for a while so that was pretty fun for me as I got a chance to practice my eye contact and conversation skills. In the evening, we went to the Louvre. I got to see more new things and some old things. Even later that day, we decided to go to the Eiffel tower and climb up it.
It is a bit of a long story, but some of Mike's friends were 'couch-surfing'. This is where you sleep in the house of some person that you do not know that volunteers their home. It is free but obviously there is some risk involved. Anyways, so since we were also with part of Mike's group, they were trying to find their host. So it turned out that their host also happened to be going up the Eiffel tower that night. Johann was a very cool guy. At first, I was unsure why somebody would have random people come to his house, but he said that he got to practice his English and Spanish and he got to meet a lot of cool people. There were also three girls from the Czech Republic that just graduated from high school and one of Johann's friends from France came along.
Again, I had a lot of fun meeting these people. At first it was a bit awkward because I seemed like an idiot since I did not know where the Czech Republic was and I also got that country confused with Czechoslovakia. But after those initial bumps, I was able to start up conversation with them. It is really a ton of fun to talk to foreigners because you can talk about cultural differences forever. They were very cool to hang out with.
It was fun to climb up the eiffel tower. You can take the stairs 2/3 of the way and then you have to pay more to take a lift to the top. We got a really beautiful view of the city from up there! I did not have my camera, but some other people took a bunch of pictures. I am considering going up again. After a long and awesome day, Mike and I went back to sleep.
We slept in, but then we resumed an exciting day of touristy stuff. We saw the Arc de Triomphe. Then Mike and I decided to go to the Montmartre area. The basilique du sacre coeur stands atop the highest place in Paris. There is an unbelievably beautiful view of the city from up there. It was cool to see the city in the day time and to contrast that with the night time view that we had seen the previous evening from the top of the Eiffel tower.
The area is famed for having many of the great French artists and thinkers. Although the area has become somewhat overrun with tourism, there is still a nice, old feeling to the area. It is a fun area because there are a lot of artists (who are now pandering to tourists) and a lot of people who will make caricatures of you. We walked down to the more gaudy part of Montmartre. Next to the Moulin Rouge, there are a lot of sex shops and strip clubs. I did not get to explore this area, but randomly, we ran into some of Mike's friends. It was a really strange coincidence.
After this, Mike and I headed back to make some pasta. Again, it was cool to hang out with Mike and do all of these touristy things. The host of the couch-surfers was hosting a party so we planned to go. It ended up being pretty hard to get to because we had to take a train and then a bus to get there. The party was pretty cool. There were a number of other people to meet including another two people from Poland. They were doing some drinking games that were okay but I really didn't drink much. But I have gotten to the point where I will have a little bit just since that is what is polite in the situation. It was a lot of fun to talk to these people. One particularly good conversation was with the Czech girls where we talked about the holidays in our countries. One oddity was that these girls had taken an American culture class so they knew the stories behind Thanksgiving and Martin Luther King day better than I do! Mike and I stayed out pretty late and so the bus had stopped. We took a taxi back which ended up costing us 25 euros each. It was pretty expensive, but it was late and I just wanted to get back. It was worth it because it was really fun to hang out with these people.
Mike headed out on Sunday, and I just took it easy. It was such a fun weekend for me! The main thing that I saw is that I really enjoyed meeting new people. It felt good that people were responsive and it seemed that they were interested in talking to me. Also there is just something about making eye contact with people that makes the conversations more enjoyable - somehow I feel more of a connection when I do that. I liked how spontaneous the weekend was and a lot of the most fun aspects of the trip were not really planned way in advance. Also I was glad that I went out on a limb and spent two hours somewhat late at night in order to go to a party where I didn't really know the host.
Another aspect is that I felt like I got to meet a different sort of subculture - that is to say the people who couch surf. It seems that you have to be trusting of others and generally laid-back and able to handle a lot of bumps along the way. The polish girls were saying that they had done a lot of couch surfing where most of their experiences were good but one was really, really bad. Their host played music late in the night and even watched porn while they were around. I feel like I have meet other people who seem like they belong to this subculture- some college students from the AMSP camp come to mind. I wonder if I will be able to connect with people like this when I get back to college. I feel like most of use at WashU are very locked into our friend group and that most people do not do things along these lines... There is something about these people who go around on very little money, touring and meeting lots of new people that is attractive to me. However, I doubt that I will find myself in that type of situation in the future where I can be such a person.
Anyways, I took it easy for the next few days and dealt with some issues. It just occurred to me that I do not have that many more nights left so I really need to take advantage of my evenings. However that is for another post...
Monday, July 11, 2011
Weekend in the Loire Valley and Upcoming GRE
Puffy white clouds with a light grey lining and the beautiful sky blue accumulated near the horizon from above while the vibrant trees, gushing river approached the horizon from below. The view from atop the Chinon castle in the Loire valley was fantastic. The spirits of the former Kings of the castle and the simple watchmen are alive and well in my imagination as I imagine them standing beside me on the top of the tallest tower of the chateau.
If I had known what was about to come, I would not have been so grumpy the morning of the departure. Waking up at 5:45 is not my favorite thing to do! This past Saturday, a couple of friends and I decided to go on an adventure to see the redoubtable chateaus of the infamous French kings. Our train ride to Onzain, a small town in the Loire valley was uneventful.
Despite a bit of trouble deciding which direction was north, we soon found our way to an International garden festival. It was typical of many art exhibits - the artists displayed a multitude of creative ideas while still spoon-feeding the novice art critic unnecessarily florid language and amusingly broad claims about the consequences of their work. For instance, a collection of plants in oil barrels was claimed to evoke a sense of awareness of the imminent shortage of oil. Regardless, I was pleased with by the creative idea of having trees connected to life support, yet I smirked when I read that such an expression was redolent of the fragility of our biosphere. However the beauty of the flowers was untainted by the trite descriptions that tarnished the rest of the garden. I enjoyed taking many pictures of the varied flowers.
Home to a forceful castle that has suffered the damages of time, the small town of Chinon was our next stop on our weekend tour of the Loire Valley. In addition to the awe-inspiring beauty of the valley, the dilapidated castle gave me an intense feeling of being in a place with a rich history. We proceeded to check into the Hotel named after Agnes Sorel. A mistress of one of the owner's of the chateau, she had the distinct honor of being just a secret passage away from the king. With an appetite for history already wet by this morsel of French history, I was excited to elevate myself to the height of the castle that overlooked the city. Joan of Arc's visit to the castle in 1429 where she gained the respect of the current Dauphin of France, Henry VII, was one of the most enjoyable pieces of history. By recognizing the disguised Dauphin among a group of his courtiers, she gained his trust, which eventually led him to accede to her wish of him declaring himself king. As I mentioned earlier, the view from atop the castle was marvelous.
After a rejuvenating night of at the hotel, we set out to visit another chateau. While this castle had pristine gardens and most of the extravagant decorations intact, the hordes of tourists at Chenonceau swarming like ants over a tasty morsel of bread inhibited my ability to imagine myself in the midst of the historical figures that once lived at Chenonceau. The castle had a rich history dominated by greedy kings and seductive women. Kings constantly repossessed the beautiful chateau, Diane de Poitiers exercised power using her womanly ways on King Henry II, and Catherine de Medici who eventually overcame Diane's siren-like influence over the King.
After a nice trip back, I have resigned myself to more GRE studying. I am pleased about my improvement on the verbal section but more importantly, I feel like my writing has improved significantly in the course of practicing for the GRE essay sections. While not vital, varied sentences, sophisticated language and clear structure can allow one to achieve higher scores on the analytical writing sections. I take the test Wednesday. I expect to achieve a score that will not hurt my physics graduate school applications. I wonder if I will continue to write in this fashion after the test has passed. Hopefully the enjoyment of writing in a florid manner will help me continue to write well.
If I had known what was about to come, I would not have been so grumpy the morning of the departure. Waking up at 5:45 is not my favorite thing to do! This past Saturday, a couple of friends and I decided to go on an adventure to see the redoubtable chateaus of the infamous French kings. Our train ride to Onzain, a small town in the Loire valley was uneventful.
Despite a bit of trouble deciding which direction was north, we soon found our way to an International garden festival. It was typical of many art exhibits - the artists displayed a multitude of creative ideas while still spoon-feeding the novice art critic unnecessarily florid language and amusingly broad claims about the consequences of their work. For instance, a collection of plants in oil barrels was claimed to evoke a sense of awareness of the imminent shortage of oil. Regardless, I was pleased with by the creative idea of having trees connected to life support, yet I smirked when I read that such an expression was redolent of the fragility of our biosphere. However the beauty of the flowers was untainted by the trite descriptions that tarnished the rest of the garden. I enjoyed taking many pictures of the varied flowers.
Home to a forceful castle that has suffered the damages of time, the small town of Chinon was our next stop on our weekend tour of the Loire Valley. In addition to the awe-inspiring beauty of the valley, the dilapidated castle gave me an intense feeling of being in a place with a rich history. We proceeded to check into the Hotel named after Agnes Sorel. A mistress of one of the owner's of the chateau, she had the distinct honor of being just a secret passage away from the king. With an appetite for history already wet by this morsel of French history, I was excited to elevate myself to the height of the castle that overlooked the city. Joan of Arc's visit to the castle in 1429 where she gained the respect of the current Dauphin of France, Henry VII, was one of the most enjoyable pieces of history. By recognizing the disguised Dauphin among a group of his courtiers, she gained his trust, which eventually led him to accede to her wish of him declaring himself king. As I mentioned earlier, the view from atop the castle was marvelous.
After a rejuvenating night of at the hotel, we set out to visit another chateau. While this castle had pristine gardens and most of the extravagant decorations intact, the hordes of tourists at Chenonceau swarming like ants over a tasty morsel of bread inhibited my ability to imagine myself in the midst of the historical figures that once lived at Chenonceau. The castle had a rich history dominated by greedy kings and seductive women. Kings constantly repossessed the beautiful chateau, Diane de Poitiers exercised power using her womanly ways on King Henry II, and Catherine de Medici who eventually overcame Diane's siren-like influence over the King.
After a nice trip back, I have resigned myself to more GRE studying. I am pleased about my improvement on the verbal section but more importantly, I feel like my writing has improved significantly in the course of practicing for the GRE essay sections. While not vital, varied sentences, sophisticated language and clear structure can allow one to achieve higher scores on the analytical writing sections. I take the test Wednesday. I expect to achieve a score that will not hurt my physics graduate school applications. I wonder if I will continue to write in this fashion after the test has passed. Hopefully the enjoyment of writing in a florid manner will help me continue to write well.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Visit to Geneva
Despite a rocky start, I had a great time visiting Switzerland this weekend. I had trouble getting money and the other people on the trip didn't want to lend me any. But after using euros to get swiss francs, I had a great time looking at the waterfront in Geneva and exploring the old quarter. The next day, I did more of the same: I went on a cruise, had a drink by the water, and had fondue in the old quarter.
My trip started early (for me)! Our TGV train left at around 8 am, so we needed to wake up before 7 am to take the RER to the TGV station. The Gare de Lyon station was very impressive. I wish that I had taken some more time to marvel at the high ceiling but we were in a rush to get on the train. Also since this was a new way of traveling, I didn't feel as comfortable taking time to look around: I wanted to get into my seat as quickly as possible.
I enjoyed riding the train as something different. The train was about 15 cars long and there was a little bar in the middle. I didn't go walking around but it was cool to see a nice train. The ride was very smooth and it was nice to not have to worry about having to prepare for landing. I didn't realize that the train stopped multiple times before going to Geneva so I almost got off at an incorrect stop but luckily I realized just as I stepped off the train that I was not, in fact, in Geneva yet.
Arriving at Geneva was a bit tense for me as I didn't have money and the other students weren't helpful. So we got there and my debit card did not work at the machines because my pin number was too long. I also have a credit card but that is not too useful because it does not have a pin number at all and I don't know if I informed that bank that I would be in Geneva. Regardless, I didn't have any money but the other people didn't want to withdraw extra money and have me pay them back. I could have been more forceful but I asked a couple people directly and they shrugged off my request. One thing that complicated matters was that the rest of the group was planning to go to CERN and I was not interested in that so I was planning to do my own thing in Switzerland.
Regardless, they more or less left on their trip. I was pretty annoyed. I walked to the hotel to try to get my room but it was not clean yet so I went around and looked for ATMs. Eventually, it occured to me that I had 60 euros so I could exchange those for swiss francs. So once I did that, I felt a lot better but I was still in a rancorous mood. Meanwhile, one other student in our group, Steven, had arrived earlier and he was supposed to meet me at the hotel. There were some communication problems with him and the rest of the group, but suffice it to say that we met up and there were not too many problems. The hotel gave me my room without too much trouble.
As I said, this was a rocky start, but after getting settled and getting some money, the trip became much better for me. Steven and I walked around and explored. We walked around the edge of the lake and had a good time seeing the water, the boats, and the nice parks in the area. Among other things, we got to see a number of sculptures, fountains and the famed garden clock.
The old neighborhood, with cobblestone walkways and ivy growing on the old looking walls, had an enjoyable atmosphere. There was an old church that was playing music using the bell tower. We explored a lot of cool shops. In addition to an extravagant chocolate store and a neat modern art store, we saw a scientific antique store. It was closed but in the window I saw a set of teeth that used to be used to teach dentists and a collection of microscopes. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful.
The next day, I wandered around on my own and had a great, relaxing day. First, I went to wander around the park. I ended up finding a cruise that went around lake Geneva. In addition to getting a great view of the 140 m high water jet, the cruise gave me a beautiful view of the water and the ice-capped mountains. While I was sitting down on the top deck of the boat, I had a conversation with a family from Nigeria. They had recently moved from Nigeria to live in Geneva. Their daughter was very cute when she was excited about seeing Mont Blanc.
Afterwards, I wanted to relax a bit so I went to a place where I could look at the water and I got a glass of red wine. I sat around, did some GRE vocab and just looked at the water. I think that I have taken a liking to the European idea of sitting and just relaxing. I feel that our trips are always so rushed and I like to just sit around and relax.
Then I returned to the old quarter and walked around a bit. I wanted to get some type of Swiss meal. In my travels, I stumbled upon the Geneva Art and History museum. It was a free day since it was the first of the month - what luck! There were surprisingly few people there but I had a good time looking around in a quiet atmosphere. For some reason, they did not want me to talk pictures, even if I did not use flash. Another oddity was that of the 20 or so people that I saw there, there were no other men. I wonder if this means anything about women taking more time to appreciate art.
After that, I had fondue at a place that I scoped out earlier. It was a very relaxing meal and I enjoyed the Gruyere cheese. There were little birds fluttering about, hopping from table to table. I suspected that they were looking for a tasty piece of bread! The waitress took away the last bit of my bread before I could offer it to the birds.
I went to the train station and sat around for a while since I was early. The train ride was quite nice because I ended up in first class seating. They served us a nice meal. One strange aspect of the trip was that the train was, in my opinion, eerily quiet. Desiring to practice my French, I decided that I wanted to speak with the person across the row from me. I felt weird but I kept vacillating. I kept thinking over and over how I would initiate the conversation: "Bonjour" no "Bonsoir" "Mademoiselle" .. "Parlez-vous Francais?" ... Should I use "tu?" "Parles-tu Francais?" She has an iPod on, will she hear me? Is she sleeping? What if she doesn't speak French? Could I practice my french with you? "Est-ce que je pourrais practiquer mon francais avec vous (tu?)?" Is it too weird to start a conversation like that?... This went on for a while so I spoke to Kevin, one of the kids in my program for a while since that felt safer to me. Fortunately, I did get up the courage to start up a conversation.
I ended up talking (mostly) in French for about an hour with this Russian woman, until the train arrived. In high school, I didn't really see the reason for learning French. However, I can now see the reason. It is very fun to be able to talk to people in French and to hear their opinions on things. This woman was from Russia, was studing business in France and was planning to go to Geneva after she receives her degree. It is cool to meet these people who are so comfortable living internationally! I asked her about how she perceived the US and what stereotypes she had heard - this is a question that I commonly ask. One thing she mentioned is that she felt like Americans had a narrow view of Russians - people from Russians are drunk all the time, poor from communism, wearing the Russian Ushanka hats, etc. This was interesting to me because I do not know anything about contemporary Russia. She also said that she thought that going to Russia would be a much larger culture shock for me than me visiting Europe. I tried to ask her what she meant but she just said that I had to see what it is like for myself. All in all, I had a fun trip. I certainly see the benefits of striking up conversation with others but it is hard to find people who are willing to talk.
My trip started early (for me)! Our TGV train left at around 8 am, so we needed to wake up before 7 am to take the RER to the TGV station. The Gare de Lyon station was very impressive. I wish that I had taken some more time to marvel at the high ceiling but we were in a rush to get on the train. Also since this was a new way of traveling, I didn't feel as comfortable taking time to look around: I wanted to get into my seat as quickly as possible.
I enjoyed riding the train as something different. The train was about 15 cars long and there was a little bar in the middle. I didn't go walking around but it was cool to see a nice train. The ride was very smooth and it was nice to not have to worry about having to prepare for landing. I didn't realize that the train stopped multiple times before going to Geneva so I almost got off at an incorrect stop but luckily I realized just as I stepped off the train that I was not, in fact, in Geneva yet.
Arriving at Geneva was a bit tense for me as I didn't have money and the other students weren't helpful. So we got there and my debit card did not work at the machines because my pin number was too long. I also have a credit card but that is not too useful because it does not have a pin number at all and I don't know if I informed that bank that I would be in Geneva. Regardless, I didn't have any money but the other people didn't want to withdraw extra money and have me pay them back. I could have been more forceful but I asked a couple people directly and they shrugged off my request. One thing that complicated matters was that the rest of the group was planning to go to CERN and I was not interested in that so I was planning to do my own thing in Switzerland.
Regardless, they more or less left on their trip. I was pretty annoyed. I walked to the hotel to try to get my room but it was not clean yet so I went around and looked for ATMs. Eventually, it occured to me that I had 60 euros so I could exchange those for swiss francs. So once I did that, I felt a lot better but I was still in a rancorous mood. Meanwhile, one other student in our group, Steven, had arrived earlier and he was supposed to meet me at the hotel. There were some communication problems with him and the rest of the group, but suffice it to say that we met up and there were not too many problems. The hotel gave me my room without too much trouble.
As I said, this was a rocky start, but after getting settled and getting some money, the trip became much better for me. Steven and I walked around and explored. We walked around the edge of the lake and had a good time seeing the water, the boats, and the nice parks in the area. Among other things, we got to see a number of sculptures, fountains and the famed garden clock.
The old neighborhood, with cobblestone walkways and ivy growing on the old looking walls, had an enjoyable atmosphere. There was an old church that was playing music using the bell tower. We explored a lot of cool shops. In addition to an extravagant chocolate store and a neat modern art store, we saw a scientific antique store. It was closed but in the window I saw a set of teeth that used to be used to teach dentists and a collection of microscopes. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful.
The next day, I wandered around on my own and had a great, relaxing day. First, I went to wander around the park. I ended up finding a cruise that went around lake Geneva. In addition to getting a great view of the 140 m high water jet, the cruise gave me a beautiful view of the water and the ice-capped mountains. While I was sitting down on the top deck of the boat, I had a conversation with a family from Nigeria. They had recently moved from Nigeria to live in Geneva. Their daughter was very cute when she was excited about seeing Mont Blanc.
Afterwards, I wanted to relax a bit so I went to a place where I could look at the water and I got a glass of red wine. I sat around, did some GRE vocab and just looked at the water. I think that I have taken a liking to the European idea of sitting and just relaxing. I feel that our trips are always so rushed and I like to just sit around and relax.
Then I returned to the old quarter and walked around a bit. I wanted to get some type of Swiss meal. In my travels, I stumbled upon the Geneva Art and History museum. It was a free day since it was the first of the month - what luck! There were surprisingly few people there but I had a good time looking around in a quiet atmosphere. For some reason, they did not want me to talk pictures, even if I did not use flash. Another oddity was that of the 20 or so people that I saw there, there were no other men. I wonder if this means anything about women taking more time to appreciate art.
After that, I had fondue at a place that I scoped out earlier. It was a very relaxing meal and I enjoyed the Gruyere cheese. There were little birds fluttering about, hopping from table to table. I suspected that they were looking for a tasty piece of bread! The waitress took away the last bit of my bread before I could offer it to the birds.
I went to the train station and sat around for a while since I was early. The train ride was quite nice because I ended up in first class seating. They served us a nice meal. One strange aspect of the trip was that the train was, in my opinion, eerily quiet. Desiring to practice my French, I decided that I wanted to speak with the person across the row from me. I felt weird but I kept vacillating. I kept thinking over and over how I would initiate the conversation: "Bonjour" no "Bonsoir" "Mademoiselle" .. "Parlez-vous Francais?" ... Should I use "tu?" "Parles-tu Francais?" She has an iPod on, will she hear me? Is she sleeping? What if she doesn't speak French? Could I practice my french with you? "Est-ce que je pourrais practiquer mon francais avec vous (tu?)?" Is it too weird to start a conversation like that?... This went on for a while so I spoke to Kevin, one of the kids in my program for a while since that felt safer to me. Fortunately, I did get up the courage to start up a conversation.
I ended up talking (mostly) in French for about an hour with this Russian woman, until the train arrived. In high school, I didn't really see the reason for learning French. However, I can now see the reason. It is very fun to be able to talk to people in French and to hear their opinions on things. This woman was from Russia, was studing business in France and was planning to go to Geneva after she receives her degree. It is cool to meet these people who are so comfortable living internationally! I asked her about how she perceived the US and what stereotypes she had heard - this is a question that I commonly ask. One thing she mentioned is that she felt like Americans had a narrow view of Russians - people from Russians are drunk all the time, poor from communism, wearing the Russian Ushanka hats, etc. This was interesting to me because I do not know anything about contemporary Russia. She also said that she thought that going to Russia would be a much larger culture shock for me than me visiting Europe. I tried to ask her what she meant but she just said that I had to see what it is like for myself. All in all, I had a fun trip. I certainly see the benefits of striking up conversation with others but it is hard to find people who are willing to talk.
Things at work
Anyway, I thought that I should put an update about the stuff that I have been doing at work.
I wrote a somewhat long, mathematical post on the issue of recovering an unknown function given some information about it: http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/blog/53857
I also looked into the simulated annealing algorithm, a method that my lab currently uses, and wrote about it as well: http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/blog/53958
(I think that I will put the more math related posts on my art of problem solving blog).
I have been reading a lot of papers about the "Needle Optimization Technique," a method that is specifically designed for designing multilayer mirrors.
I am preparing a presentation on the work that I did on the Kramers-Kronig relations.
I wrote a somewhat long, mathematical post on the issue of recovering an unknown function given some information about it: http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/blog/53857
I also looked into the simulated annealing algorithm, a method that my lab currently uses, and wrote about it as well: http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/blog/53958
(I think that I will put the more math related posts on my art of problem solving blog).
I have been reading a lot of papers about the "Needle Optimization Technique," a method that is specifically designed for designing multilayer mirrors.
I am preparing a presentation on the work that I did on the Kramers-Kronig relations.
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