Weekend Recap #1

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This weekend was quite nice as weekends in Paris go, which is generally pretty good I'm assuming. Started off the weekend by going on a run and doing laundry. I was so productive during Saturday morning that I didn't do anything else useful the rest of my time. I did go see some things. Saturday we (Zak, Kierstin, and I) toured the inside and outside of Versailles, the definition of opulence. The inside was not as exciting as I was hoping it would be and was rather pricey so I'm glad I saw it, but I'm not going back. The gardens, however, are incredible. Absolutely gorgeous. At one point it looks like a canyon of hedges. It's incredible. Then back to Cité for some pizza, and chilling on the lawn, followed by bed.

On Sunday, Drew, Kierstin, and I tried to go to mass at Saint-Suplice but we missed what we thought was the early mass at 6h20, in the morning, and then thought it started at 7h but no one got up to preach... so we just left. The church was very pretty though.

We toured the Luxembourg gardens and waited for a café to open for breakfast. Once they finally had (nothing opens until about 8h or 8h30 here) we went to the Columbus Café, which had a pigeon problem, because it sold muffins. The muffins were really quite good, and so was the hot chocolate which warmed all of us up, except Kierstin who had tea, but I suppose that warmed her up too. France is cold in the morning.

This is just one of the many fun things to discover while walking Paris

After that, we went to see the Stadium du France which was impressive but we could not approach it.

On the train there we saw the tops of Sacre Coeur, and determined to go see it. We got distracted on our way by the Opera house, which had Kierstin swooning for a good three hours. After a tour of the inside, we wound our way to Sacre Coeur, which is up a steep hill in case you didn't know.

The opera house is above. Sacre Coeur is incredible. I highly recommend it to all. Even if you have only three days to go see things in Paris, go see this. It's crowded but beautiful and well worth the climb. You can't take pictures of the inside but it's fantastic in there too. Just sitting in the Cathedral is an experience. I loved it. 

Thought my mom would really like that poster.

View of Sacre Coeur from the bottom. On our way down we saw this street performer climb a pole with a soccer ball balanced on his head. It was awesome. He then juggled it up at the top of the pole and did some other ungodly athletic things. 

Later on, I wandered Paris and discovered a sweet little bar/restaurant thing with a band (a violin, upright bass, piano) playing folky jazz music. It capped off an excellent weekend in a way I can't begin to describe. The music that played was spot on, and I sat and listened and enjoyed a good cheap beer. Phenomenal. 

But now it's Monday, and work has started again. Game on. 

Significantly Less Physics than last Post (promise)

Here, be easy.

Just photos (plus captions)

Where we were at U Mich 

proof America has pretty buildings too

Burritos (before leaving.)

Cité Universitaire (University of where I'm staying, but not this building.)

Le Seine (yeah places like this exist in the middle of Paris.)

Rose garden next to the Seine (again, see above)

old men playing bocce ball but the french version

Nyan cat subway

compulsory photo of Notre Dame (I live in the same city. How awesome is that?)

Pirate ship on the Seine 

Clock of the Museé d'Orsay (seemed appropriate cause I'm making a much smaller clock)

Really pretty Monet at the Museé. It's of just one person which is weird for him, and the way he painted her is just fantastic. 

Henri Toulouse-Loutrec one of my favorite artists. Period. 

My buildings just to the right here but I think this building looks neater. (The French students here call it Hogwartz) 

"Twas brillig and the slithy toves

 Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

 All mimsy were the borogoves 

 And the mome rathes outgrabe"

-Lewis Carroll 

Theory

So today was a bit of slow day here at LOA, my project's not quite ready for me despite how ready I might be. We're mostly just setting up the lab, but I can't really be trusted with the equipment cause I have no idea what it does so I mostly just help in whatever small way I can. Anyway, I thought it'd be helpful to go into a bit of the theory of my measurement for my sake. So here goes. When a laser as powerful as the lasers we're dealing with hits a solid object it immediately creates a plasma. You might be asking yourself, "self, what's a plasma?" Well hold on, I'll explain. It's the fourth state of matter. Not enough? Yeah I didn't get it after that either. Basically it's a state of matter where all the particles are ionized. You can think of it as almost a jello-like structure with layers of negative charge/positive charge,      

(delicious and plasma-y)

and when you push on one side of the jello, the forces between the charge particles cause them to oscillate  which is a fancy word for jiggle, in this case. (This metaphor brought to you by the Letter J, for John Nees) So when the laser hits the solid object, ion jello is made because of the energy of the light. Now if this plasma is dense enough, it will act as a mirror more or less, causing the light to be reflected, and also transferring energy to the light. The natural reaction for things with energy imparted to them is for them to speed up. (Think kicking a soccer ball). However light is the speed limit for the universe, and unlike road speed limits, you can't surpass it. So the light cannot speed up. What it does do is speed up its frequency. So say the light was traveling roughly with a frequency of 10^-15 s or a femtosecond, which creates this plasma, and is thus reflected off of it. It would leave with a frequency of 10^-18 s. Or an attosecond (abbreviated as).

What my mission, should I choose to accept it (which I already have I suppose), is to help create a machine that will emit attosecond pulses of light.

"In the time of chimpanzees, I was a monkey."
-Beck

Back in Black

First day here almost done. I'm working in the black laboratory for LOA (labortoire d'optical apliquee) for Ensta. Saw my set up today. I'm really excited. It looks to be very hands on and independent. If I understand everything right, I will be working on a mechanism that can spin glass super fast with an accuracy on the order of nanometers. Game on.

The theory behind a lot of the measurement is a bit over my head, so it kind of feels like I'm drinking out of a fire hose right now. I'm sure it will calm down quite soon.

As a side note, everybody here speaks French and they speak it often, so I'd like to apologize for all the times I made fun of my friends for learning French instead of Spanish. Clearly it is kind of useful, I was wrong. It does make it easy to know when I'm being spoken to because then they speak in English.

Yesterday, I didn't have to come in because my professor (Rodrigo who is quite nice) wouldn't have had time to show me around, so I had a free day in Paris, which is always nice. I saw the Musee d'Orsay and saw some really great works of art. The French are so art-rich it's stupid. I walked most of the way to the Musee after taking the metro to Notre Dame. The walk was really pretty as well. I then took a nap, and ate dinner with group plus Emmanuelle and then headed to the Eiffel Tower for the night. Quite the day, if I may say so myself.

"Got my physics in Paris and they going gorillas!"
-Kanye West (modified)

First Day of Work! (not really)

I will take a cue from Banjo, please join me in some Paris Music

As the title suggests it was supposed to be my first day of work, but instead I just saw the grounds and found out my instructor wasn't there. So I got the day off. Pretty Sweet. I bought a phone, and took the metro to semi-random locations like Bastille. Paris is gorgeous. Almost every stop has something incredible. (Honeymoon phase.) While I was there, I met a very nice Italian who spoke the Queen's English named Lucca. So wherever you are Lucca, thank you. Also saw Moonrise Kingdom with Jay. It was fantastic. Highly recommend it. Plus movies in Paris are around 4 Euro for students.

-"Life is too short to learn German"
Old French proverb.

Last day before Work

Yo. So yesterday we arrived in Paris and after exploring a bit for some towels and some ping pong, we ended up on the front lawn with some Parisians. Just kicking it. Mir and I slept way in today which was nice cause we were super jet lagged/ tired from the flight and all that but we did manage to get to stay awake to 11 PM which helps. Then today was spent getting some food for lunch, going to see Notre Dame (absolutely beautiful), then the bird/flower shops which were pretty fun, then to the Louvre cause it's free on first sundays. We saw the Ancient Egyptian exhibit plus the statue garden (which was much more impressive honestly and gorgeous). Then dinner at an Italian place, and gelato for dessert. They put the gelato on the cone like a rose. It was incredible. We just wandered around to see what we could see after that, and we found the church near St Germaine but I forget it's real name (sorry Laura), and it was incroyable as the French would say. There was a statue of the Madonna with child that'll blow your mind. I lit a votive candle there but I was supposed pay 2 euro but only put in 25 cents. Makes you wonder though, the whole Jesus turning tables thing seems contrary to that. Still it was very nice inside and if it helps with the upkeep I'll pay. When I have the change that is. Then we toured the grounds of the Luxembourg Palais which can absolutely take your breath away. So pretty. There were statues and beautiful trees and things all over the place. Fantastique. On top of it all, the thunder tied the series which just is the cherry on top.

"Will you succeed? Yes you will! Ninety-eight and three quarters percent guaranteed!"
-Dr Suess

Almost Paris

Today is our last day before leaving for Paris. I guess technically we leave tonight but arrive tomorrow so it counts. Yesterday was spent attempting to construct a hologram that could be view panoramically, however my group was unsuccessful in creating one. We did manage to develop the proper technique, but lacked the resources to accomplish them. In other words, we failed. So it goes.

In other news, the Thunder finally beat the Spurs. Zak, Jay, Josh, and I all watched the game together. Good times. Oh and curiosity cola is delicious. If you ever happen to be in Ann Arbor, check it out.

"People think dreams aren't real because they aren't made of matter, of particles. Dreams are real. But they are made of viewpoints, of images, of memories and puns and lost hopes."

-Neil Gaiman in Sandman