Universities

So yeah, I know that I haven't posted in a while. It's mostly because I haven't found it really worth it that much. But do not worry, because I am posting now! Besides, this blog started out as a daily thing and it's definitely not going to stay that way, so this has turned into more of a whenever-I-feel-like-it kind of shindig. I suppose it's mainly the fact that I have 5 different social networking sites and Facebook always seems the most appropriate, seeing as it's in my bookmarks bar and won't require more than 200 characters per post, as well as the fact that I'm not willing to devote my valuable precious free time to typing, it'd probably be more something along the lines of sleeping.

Bref! I've decided to develop my own website for this stinky blog because it hasn't been fun managing two different blogs for whoever wants the french or english version of my posts. Hell, the posts that I put up usually aren't even about the same thing! So I'll develop it into a website and switch over to it. Haven't really figured out how I'm going to manage an RSS Feed and Facebook link functionality, but I'm sure I'll get there eventually.

So some of you might be asking, "Jack, how was France?" And to be honest, words cannot describe the amazing experience that I had there. Photos can't even describe the sheer awesomeness of my friends, their personalities, the breathtaking nature of every single monument that I've visited and the experiences that I had had there. So I'm going to answer to you, dear reader, as I have to everyone else, that it was simply amazing. It sounds boring, and you may want to ask me more, but I honestly can't fit all of it into words. I will never stop missing the amazing friends that I made there and the wonderful people and teachers that I had met. I will definitely be going back there someday and without a doubt I will try by all means necessary to make it there during this summer.

So that was my one paragraph on France. I'm sure it deserves more but I'm not going to give it more because if I did this post could be stretched around the earth several times. On to the real meat of this post, which was explained by the title: Universities! That's right. As a junior half-way through the year, I now have the right to start worrying and biting my nails over a very scary prospect: Applying to universities. On my list currently:

• UCLA
• Berkeley
• maaaybe Stanford
• Harvard
• Tufts
• Amherst
• EPFL
• Carnegie Mellon

It's quite a list. On the top of my list is EPFL, an engineering school in Lausanne, Switzerland. Not only is it in the French-speaking part of the country, but it's also halfway between Paris and Rome. Can it get any better? Yes it can. The school is positioned right across from Lake Geneva and will be just a train ticket or two away from my French besties, probably two if they've landed in England. I'm going to Boston next weekend to check out Harvard, Tufts and maybe Amherst if we have the time, considering that we only have two days to visit all three of them and I've heard that Amherst is a bit of a drive away. Also, only to twist the screws, all my EABJM buddies will be going to Boston this weekend, not the next to attend a mock-Congress at Harvard. I wouldn't have minded maybe a 4-week distancing, but one? C'mon life, that was a bit too much.

With that I resume developing my awesome new blog. I hope all of you are doing splendidly, and have an awesome day / night / dight / nay wherever you are.

So Far, So Good

Not much has been going on lately, we've all been getting used to living in Paris and a few things still need a bit of ironing out, but I think we've got most of it down. School this week was all right, other than the 45-minute commute and the scary administrators. All of the kids I've met (so far) are really nice, and I know that it's going to be pretty hard to leave them all behind in December, as awesome as my friends are back home. Each morning I wake up at 6:30, leave the house at 7:15, wait for a bus that will take me to the La Défense subway station, then take the RER A to Charles de Gaulle-Étoile, then take Metro line 6 to Dupleix, then walk for about 5 minutes, and then I'm at school. It's quite a trek, and I always end up surprising my friends when they ask me which Arrondissement (basically sector) of Paris I live in, and I tell them that I actually live in the suburbs. That said, could you blame us? There's no way we'd cram all 6 of ourselves into a postage-stamp Parisian apartment.
Anyways, since Monday (30 Aug) we've been entertaining our grandparents, who were flying in for a conference in Berlin but decided to stop by while they were on the way. We checked out the Centre Pompidou, ate at some really nice restaurants, and rode the Bateau-Mouche (which taught me that if I am to ever do that again at night I am to bring an extra layer). It was nice to actually go out and explore after having lived there already for 3 weeks. In driving to all of these places we also went through the Étoile exchange a couple of times, which is (and I may have posted this already, excuse my amnesia) a giant roundabout with at least 12 spokes, 6-8 lanes wide, no lane lines, and a speed limit of at least 40 mi/h (that's 65 km/h for the metrically inclined). I'll post both a video of the Centre Pompidou and us going down the Étoile in this post.

Driving on the Étoile from Jack Biggs on Vimeo.

Fontaine Stravinsky in front of the Centre Pompidou from Jack Biggs on Vimeo.

So that's been the majority of what's happened in the past week or so, we got our Navigo passes in the mail and have felt so official waving our wallets over the scanners to get into the metro. Before that, it involved using tickets, and it wasn't the same because it didn't make that awesome dinging sound. Yes, that's right. I'm weird. Those who are now just starting to check out this blog probably haven't noticed yet if they haven't been reading my posts, so this is just me warning you.
Hope everyone's enjoying themselves! Use my QR code to contact me if you're interested.

Sorry, Guys.

I realize that I haven't posted in a while. Yes, that's right. I'm turning into the least interesting person in the world. Actually, what's happened is that I'm becoming progressively more lazy as the school year draws near, something that I'm sure won't play out well for me once I start having classes in French.

We spent all of twelve hours in Geneva (by the way, the couple in the room next to us was having very loud sex... so much for a good impression of Switzerland), and then it was off to Paris. We arrived about two weeks ago, and since then we've been getting to know the neighborhood. We live about 3 minutes away (by bus) from La Défense, which is essentially an enormous square filled with shops and restaurants. It also happens to be the Terminus of Line 1 and a stop on the RER, so it's a straight shot right into the middle of Paris if we ever get bored (we technically don't live in Paris but rather Courbevoie, which is essentially right on the outer border). We've been poking around the city, mostly getting used to our surroundings (we still have a hard time believing that we're actually living in Europe) and figuring out how to get where using the Metro.

Recently we went up the Eiffel Tower, although I forgot to bring my memory card that day so I was only able to take 3 pictures saved to the internal memory, and I can't find the proprietary cable to hook up to my camera to salvage them. Honestly. Why can't they just stick to Mini-USB? I left my house and I still have 2 or 3 of them floating around, for Christ's sake! I did take a video on my Nano, though, and I happen to have that proprietary connector, mostly because it's everywhere. So yeah. Here it is:

Climbing up the Eiffel Tower from Jack Biggs on Vimeo.

I mentioned some pictures in my video and if I'm not mistaken, not everyone on the interblags is friends with me on Facebook so I'll post them for all of you. They don't do it justice at all, it was a really cloudy day and my camera couldn't cover the entire building, so the few shots that I actually have of the entire Arch make it look kind of tiny. The panoramic photo I tried to make didn't turn out well at all, so we'll have to let that one slide. Here's my best photo:

So that's that. I'll embed the Vimeo video when I get the chance, for now I'm waiting in line until my video gets processed.