Thursday

Right, so they blocked blogspot in this one room that I used to use for my blog writing, and now I must do it in the Teacher's Lounge, which is fine except there are lots of distractions. I may not update as often as I have been, but the updates I do write will be longer.

One of the many flaming hoops we must jump through as foreigners and students is a medical visit in Rennes to ensure that we don't have tuberculosis or are pregnant. This happened last Thursday, and it turned out to be an "adventure". First, my roommate failed to wake up on time because his alarm clock didn't go off, so we barely (by 3 minutes!) missed the train to Rennes from Morlaix. Once on the train, it stopped somewhere in the middle of a field and they announced that there would be a delay because of traffic around Rennes. It was 30 minutes at first. Then 45. Then an hour. Finally, it moved, only to stop again maybe 15 minutes later, for another 30-minute delay because of an obstruction on the tracks. This put us in Rennes at around 12:30pm, instead of 11:00am, which was just enough time to get to our appointment.

The visit itself was fine. I got my chest X-rayed, and the nurse that took my height and weight and tested my vision thought to lecture me for 10 minutes about the importance of teaching safe sex to my students. I agreed that it was important, and that sexual education isn't as good as it could be in a country so sexually liberated as France, but am doubtful as to the place of this subject in my curriculum as an English assistant. "Ok, today we will be talking about syphilis. Does anyone know what that word is in French?" Yeah, right.

I met some Canadian guy who was doing his PhD in Electrical Engineering, focusing on WiFi technology. We talked about the possibility of using infrared and visible light in lieu of the current radio frequencies for this application (mostly because I read an article about that in Scientific American). It was fun.

Then we walked around Rennes a bit, and since I'd already spent a few days there I showed the other two assistants there with me some of the cool things to see. Our train was supposed to leave at 5:45, but alas, upon entering the station we discovered that all of our trains were "Retard indeterminée", which means that their retardedness was as yet to be determined. They were all going to be late.

Why? Well, here's something you need to know about France if you are going to be spending more than, say, a week here: they strike a lot. And protest. And burn things. Like, A LOT. As it happens, the students of the university in Rennes were sitting on the tracks and blocking the trains for a reason that I still have yet to discover. I think it is in solidarity with the fishermen in France, who are on strike and protesting the cost of oil. Or something. To be honest, there's always strikes here in solidarity and for almost any reason, and I get confused as to which people are striking for what reason. Anyway, the cops just sat and watched the students be crazy and sit on the tracks, etc., while we waited in the station for 2.5 hours for them to finally leave an our train to finally be posted on the board.

At that point I was tired of my two comrades, and wanted to sit somewhere else on the train. So, I picked a seat next to the cutest girl I could find and she struck up a conversation with me. She's a hairstylist in a town by Morlaix, and had actually been a student at my school when she was in lycée. We talked a lot about the difference between America and France, mostly in terms of fashion. I explained to her about the cultural significance (no becoming defunct) of the barber in the United States, as per Wendell Berry's Jayber Crow . It was a nice way to spend a two-hour train ride. The adventure ended and we got home a few hours later than we were supposed to (10:30pm, instead of 7:30).

New Article on UT

And again, here's a new article I wrote about researchers trying to track down teh cause of the Tunguska event, an explosion of a meteorite above stickville, Siberia in 1908. It caused the destruction pictured below.

You had to be there...

I thought about writing a bunch about my vacation, but it's awful hard to capture stuff like that for people who haven't been there. I'll make a Farisian list, because of its inherent economy of words.
1. Went to Carhaix Friday-Sunday to deliver a bike to my friend there, Gabby. Stayed there for two days, rode bikes and watched some "Strangers With Candy" and "Arrested Development" and just kinda chilled. It was nice.

2. Rennes was Monday-Wednesday, with Gabby and her two friends April and Jacob. She calls her friend April "Apes", which is amusing. We drank a lot Monday, walked around a lot on Tuesday, Wednesday went to the Musée des Beaux-Arts and ate Indian food for All Hallow's Eve.

3. Thursday-Saturday was some good ol' nostalgia time in Le Havre. Hung out with my old Prof. Responsable and watched her get smashed on Thursday night, went to some old haunts on Friday (including the Kebap where we would eat every Tuesday night: the owner, Danny, still remembered me and my order after 1.5 years), and saw my friends Béa and Jean. Received bicycle.

BTW, if you ever think that it's a fun idea to take a bicycle (and an extra wheel, a floor pump, and all of your other shit for vacationing) on both the TGV and the Paris Metro, you are a damn fool. My arms hurt, and it was not so much fun to sit in the entrance of the train for four hours to move my bike and wheels every time the train stopped so people could get out of the train. But the Motobecane is back in action (sorta, still needs some more transplant surgery from the Gitane), and I took it for a short spin tonight.

Now I'm back in Morlaix, but don't have to teach until Friday. I guess I'll try to write some astronomy articles and ride my bike until then.

Vacation already

The best part of this job is how little time I have to spend doing it. I just got done teaching for three weeks, and now I'm on vacation until next Thursday. Right now I'm back in Carhaix with my friend Gabby, and we are riding bikes and just chillin. Tomorrow we go to Rennes for three days to be crazy and see what there is to see. Then I get to go to Le Havre to see some old friend, and bring my old friend the Motobecane back to Morlaix. All in all, it should be grand. Have fun at your job or school, sucka.

Crab Nebula Pulsar

Fraser has posted my newest article over at UT. It's super-interesting, as it deals with the pulsar situated in the Crab Nebula, which is pretty and also was one of the first ever observed supernovae. First one to make a crab joke in the comments wins the prize of my simultaneous admiration and disgust. Just so you know that this isn't about parasites, here's a cool picture of the nebula:

The Weekend in Carhaix

I was so excited about writing about bikes, that I forgot to say something 'bout the weekend. I went to Carhaix, a tiny town about 60km from here (that's like 40 miles, you American pigs). This was to just get out of town and away from some of the roommates and their associated drama, and also to hang out with some new folks. Gabby and her roommate Astrid live there, and are assistants as well. Gabby is from Kansas, and Astrid from Frankfurt.

We mostly just went to this little park right outside town and walked around and chatted on Saturday. Actually, we went twice. Once just me and Gabby, the second time with Astrid and their neighbors, who have two little adorable French kids. It was sweet. They fed ducks, and I played rugby with the little boy, Johann.

Saturday night was crazy, full of drinking and ridiculousness. This meant that Sunday was mostly a day to recover from the headache, and babysit the two little aforementioned children while their parents were out doing various things. Johann and I built a huge tower out of his blocks, and then he climbed all over me like I was a tree and we made a fort from the couch pillows and some blankets in his house. It was cool.

I got back late last night, made some dinner and went to bed. This morning was awesome with my kids, mostly because I did tongue twisters to help with their pronunciation. Try getting someone who is French to read "Six thick thistle sticks, six thick thistles stick" very fast. You will not regret this, unless they are a very proud, angry, and large person.

The International Fleet Expands

My hands are all dirty under the nails right now, and there's a couple of scratches on my knucks. What does this mean? I've been working on bikes!! I bought two bikes today, one for a friend who lives in a small town and couldn't find one but wanted to, and another for myself. This necessitated a trip on the bus out to the Decathlon, who has a couple of sales every year in which they sell used bikes for really cheap. I then got to ghost-ride both of them home, though I had to walk up my big hill 'cuz it was too steep and the gears just weren't low enough to ride up it.

First, Gabby's bike. Just a Decathlon brand women's-specific mountain frame. Nothing special, but it rolls and it was only 60 euros, a helluva deal. I already fixed most everything wrong with it, but the rear axle is bent, and I don't have the proper tools to finish that up. Maybe the auto-shop in the school where the kids have shop class will have everything, and I won't have to buy cone wrenches, but I'm not holding my breath. I suppose I could beat it up with a mallot and hope it don't break, but she's a friend of mine and I would rather not kill her.

Now mine. It's a Gitane, I think the model is a "Defi" but I'm not really clear on this. I'm not, though, very interested in the frame. There's a ton of rust on the bottom bracket, especially the lugs, and the stem is frozen in place. Some damn Frenchman must have forgotten to grease it.

I am excited, however, about everything else. 105 derailleurs, Campagnolo brakes, a Sugino crank and a Mavic sealed-bearing hub/front wheel (ceramic!). All of these things interest me because I only paid 100 euros for the complete bike, and most if not all of the parts can be swapped over to my Motobecane when I finally get it back. I needed new wheels and a seat, and probably a rear derailleur anyway, so all in all I got a bargain. Even if the crank won't work, everything else should be fine and save me a few bucks in the long run.

So, in other words, I am happy. Happy to be taking apart hubs and lubing cables and analyzing all of the problems associated with bikes that have seen a few miles. I don't have all the tools I wanted (I debated whether or not to bring my crank puller, and thought, "Oh, when will I ever be needing to pull cranks over there."...yeah, I'm gonna have to buy/borrow one now) but it's exhilarating to be working on bikes again. I forgot how much I loved doing it since it hasn't been part of my daily life since the tour. I spent all afternoon checking out every little part and fixing everything, and now it's the evening and I don't know where the time went. Ah, well, I only teach 8 hours this week anyways...