Monday, March 29, 2004
we have sprung, have you?
yes folks, it's that lovely time of year when we lose an hour and jet forward into the great blue beyond... or, SOME of us do at least. in fact, though western europe lost an hour early sunday morning, the US did not so now i am officially 10 hours ahead of seattle time. ridiculous. and we are trying to envision some sort of international space agency and we can't even get on the same freakin time schedule. the big W coming right at you!
in other news, we just got back from our professional visit to cannes. although a bit colder than anticipated, it was super lovely to be near the sea and enjoy the salty air... ah! i coulda stayed. especially given the 12-16 hour train rides that we had to endure to get there. gotta love taking the train when there is a bomb scare on the tracks-3 hour delays really just add to the fun! the best part was taking a run along the boardwalk in cannes-can't imagine anything better to do! we even stopped by this parfum place, fragonard, which i went to the last time i was in nice so that was funny seeing it again. fortunately we didn't have to sit through the lecture on parfum making. we just got to buy! and, i found a lovely scent, belle de nuit, so now i am officially the "flower of the night." oooohh, exciting. i still haven't unpacked or done laundry. i hate the daily nuances of life ;)
we are about to leave for russia on wednesday morning and i am totally stoked! it is going to be fabulous. stay tuned for the fun-filled, action-packed, post-trip review sure to pop up on this lovely glob.
i really need to find some food to take on the russia trip. my idea of the 4 day fast in cannes was not so excellent and i'm not looking forward to a repeat of that. i'm hungry too and i want to eat! the continental breakfasts here don't even have any sort of fruit. amazing. fortunately, miguel was nice enough to get 2 apples and an orange for me. and everyone else was nice enough to fight the servers for me since i am not good at it. i just hate being so weird and unaccomodating.
on the TP front, we are plugging along. the policy/legal/social implications team had many teleconferences with experts in order to figure out how best to tackle the section and found that everyone was of the mind that it is "too uncertain to predict anything. there are so many things that can change. your plan has to be flexible." well, gee, thanks! so, we have changed directions for the eleventh time and hoepfully have something workable now. we'll see.
yuri's nights plans are going. i think they may be going well but it is hard to tell at this stage when no one is around and we have been gone and are about to leave again. OMG. fingers crossed, hope it works!
it is not really spring. there is no rain and it is freezing. it's snowing in russia too. so much for cute spring attire-i'm going to wear twelve layers everywhere! even to the boshoi theater! and it is 73 degrees in seattle today-not fair.
i think that a lot more stuff has been going on but i can't remember. i know that i have been so busy that my head hurts. but, if i remember, i'll tell you tomorrow. we have our second status review and first round of personal interviews for the TP. should be fun! haha, almost.
well kids, that's all for now. the 3rd space tourist has just signed up for a $20 million trip to the ISS. cool! who knows, space tourism may catch on yet... if we all get rich that is.
xoxo.m
sorry for the flat message-am not feeling so well. i would sleep, but my eyes are burning too much and everything just aches. waa.
in other news, we just got back from our professional visit to cannes. although a bit colder than anticipated, it was super lovely to be near the sea and enjoy the salty air... ah! i coulda stayed. especially given the 12-16 hour train rides that we had to endure to get there. gotta love taking the train when there is a bomb scare on the tracks-3 hour delays really just add to the fun! the best part was taking a run along the boardwalk in cannes-can't imagine anything better to do! we even stopped by this parfum place, fragonard, which i went to the last time i was in nice so that was funny seeing it again. fortunately we didn't have to sit through the lecture on parfum making. we just got to buy! and, i found a lovely scent, belle de nuit, so now i am officially the "flower of the night." oooohh, exciting. i still haven't unpacked or done laundry. i hate the daily nuances of life ;)
we are about to leave for russia on wednesday morning and i am totally stoked! it is going to be fabulous. stay tuned for the fun-filled, action-packed, post-trip review sure to pop up on this lovely glob.
i really need to find some food to take on the russia trip. my idea of the 4 day fast in cannes was not so excellent and i'm not looking forward to a repeat of that. i'm hungry too and i want to eat! the continental breakfasts here don't even have any sort of fruit. amazing. fortunately, miguel was nice enough to get 2 apples and an orange for me. and everyone else was nice enough to fight the servers for me since i am not good at it. i just hate being so weird and unaccomodating.
on the TP front, we are plugging along. the policy/legal/social implications team had many teleconferences with experts in order to figure out how best to tackle the section and found that everyone was of the mind that it is "too uncertain to predict anything. there are so many things that can change. your plan has to be flexible." well, gee, thanks! so, we have changed directions for the eleventh time and hoepfully have something workable now. we'll see.
yuri's nights plans are going. i think they may be going well but it is hard to tell at this stage when no one is around and we have been gone and are about to leave again. OMG. fingers crossed, hope it works!
it is not really spring. there is no rain and it is freezing. it's snowing in russia too. so much for cute spring attire-i'm going to wear twelve layers everywhere! even to the boshoi theater! and it is 73 degrees in seattle today-not fair.
i think that a lot more stuff has been going on but i can't remember. i know that i have been so busy that my head hurts. but, if i remember, i'll tell you tomorrow. we have our second status review and first round of personal interviews for the TP. should be fun! haha, almost.
well kids, that's all for now. the 3rd space tourist has just signed up for a $20 million trip to the ISS. cool! who knows, space tourism may catch on yet... if we all get rich that is.
xoxo.m
sorry for the flat message-am not feeling so well. i would sleep, but my eyes are burning too much and everything just aches. waa.
Wednesday, March 10, 2004
d'oh!
check it- i just saw that the world indoor track & field championships were in budapest, hungary last weekend. argh! and, i was just telling someone that i really wanted to go to budapest as well! man, it woulda been like the best thing i've ever done. and! american jeff hartwig is the men's leader in the pole vault so far for 2004. how cool would that have been?? i guess it's not such a total loss since i had a great weekend afterall ;) but, i would easily sell an arm to have gone. dang!
plus, this whole day has felt like thursday so tomorrow is going to be excruciating! but, i do have these really adorable pink pants to wear now so my days are looking brighter regardless... :D
disappointed-but-still-smiling.m
ps-oh yea, the yuri's night meeting with john egan and dr. peeters went really well this afternoon so bhavini and i are running.... and! the soundtrack to "dirty dancing" is the best ever! ;)
plus, this whole day has felt like thursday so tomorrow is going to be excruciating! but, i do have these really adorable pink pants to wear now so my days are looking brighter regardless... :D
disappointed-but-still-smiling.m
ps-oh yea, the yuri's night meeting with john egan and dr. peeters went really well this afternoon so bhavini and i are running.... and! the soundtrack to "dirty dancing" is the best ever! ;)
it's hump day....
and it is halfway over! yay! so, it is sunny here and it was snowing yesterday which wasn't so fun :( but, things are going great! the best news by far was that i got my blood tests back yesterday and i get to not take any more medication! woohoo! i was taking some random drugs to counteract the food allergies and bacteria associated with and whatever else it was supposed to be doing. i think they realized that the side-effects were much worse than they should be (duh) and that, in fact, they don't think that the medication was doing anything anyway. ha. i love the medical profession :P
let's see... we are so busy that there is hardly time to think. we are in tp full swing now with our first submissions due monday. that is not so bad, but there is such interesting stuff (and so much of it!) that it is hard to really get anything down. at least that's what i think.
i didn't go for a run this morning :( but maybe i'll go later. most likely not though. i hate to run in the afternoon cause i am so lazy! plus, it's freezing!
my to do list is growing ridiculously. i have major research to accomplish in the direction of my internship but i don't really know where to start. first, i have to figure out the thermal properties of roadways. then, i need to develop a thermal profile of them so that i can model them and keep track of them or something... argh. it will be cool but i don't know yet.
yep, and bhavini and i are still working the yuri's night angle. we met with mrs. margaret doetsch yesterday for lunch (she is ISU's president's wife) and she rocked! she really helped us solidify our ideas and gave us some great insight into how we should plan this thing out. and, somehow we also managed to score a really, really good lunch! ;) even better, i could eat it!!!!
now we have a lecture this afternoon and then tomorrow is tp theme day meaning that we have lectures and speakers and some interaction in the afternoon. should be cool.
it feels like time has stopped. i feel like i've been living one continuous day and although the hours pass, the days don't seem to. a bit odd. and you think time would be going quickly cause there is so much to do, but it is just the opposite! i feel like i am in some sort of time-warp or something.
oh! i watched the first part of the first lod of the rings movie last night. wow! super awesome! it was really, really great. the filmography is fabulous, character casting is perfect, and the settings are amazing. i wanted to go to new zealand before, but it is set now for sure! i am going. it is gorgeous. and the rain! ah.... what i would give for a good day of pouring rain and gray glouds. hum, makes me happy just to imagine it. unfortunately, the sun is blazing here and we can't seem to get a rest from it. rar!
luvluv.m
let's see... we are so busy that there is hardly time to think. we are in tp full swing now with our first submissions due monday. that is not so bad, but there is such interesting stuff (and so much of it!) that it is hard to really get anything down. at least that's what i think.
i didn't go for a run this morning :( but maybe i'll go later. most likely not though. i hate to run in the afternoon cause i am so lazy! plus, it's freezing!
my to do list is growing ridiculously. i have major research to accomplish in the direction of my internship but i don't really know where to start. first, i have to figure out the thermal properties of roadways. then, i need to develop a thermal profile of them so that i can model them and keep track of them or something... argh. it will be cool but i don't know yet.
yep, and bhavini and i are still working the yuri's night angle. we met with mrs. margaret doetsch yesterday for lunch (she is ISU's president's wife) and she rocked! she really helped us solidify our ideas and gave us some great insight into how we should plan this thing out. and, somehow we also managed to score a really, really good lunch! ;) even better, i could eat it!!!!
now we have a lecture this afternoon and then tomorrow is tp theme day meaning that we have lectures and speakers and some interaction in the afternoon. should be cool.
it feels like time has stopped. i feel like i've been living one continuous day and although the hours pass, the days don't seem to. a bit odd. and you think time would be going quickly cause there is so much to do, but it is just the opposite! i feel like i am in some sort of time-warp or something.
oh! i watched the first part of the first lod of the rings movie last night. wow! super awesome! it was really, really great. the filmography is fabulous, character casting is perfect, and the settings are amazing. i wanted to go to new zealand before, but it is set now for sure! i am going. it is gorgeous. and the rain! ah.... what i would give for a good day of pouring rain and gray glouds. hum, makes me happy just to imagine it. unfortunately, the sun is blazing here and we can't seem to get a rest from it. rar!
luvluv.m
Monday, March 08, 2004
happy women's day!
wow-time is flying! obviously exams finished (i think we get the results tomorrow... ugh) and now we are in module 4. that means that we don't really have any more lectures and we pretty much work on our tp stuff exclusively. it's fun and i'm enjoying it. my topics currently are the legal aspects of nuclear technologies and the worldwide educational outreach that we are going to employ. pretty interesting and the added bonus of working with awesome people ;)
bhavini and i are also working hard to plan a yuri's night party here at isu. it will be isu's first (!) so we are going to make it grand-black tie and everything! it should be really fun :D
shoot-i have so much energy today! i guess it's from my run this morning or something... i'm very happy! hum, i don't really know what has happened from the end of the last exam til now but i guess it's all crap now anyway. in fact, i think that it was pretty crappy anyway so no use in writing it down now ;)
all right kiddos, i hope everything is going well and you are as happy as me!
luvu.m
bhavini and i are also working hard to plan a yuri's night party here at isu. it will be isu's first (!) so we are going to make it grand-black tie and everything! it should be really fun :D
shoot-i have so much energy today! i guess it's from my run this morning or something... i'm very happy! hum, i don't really know what has happened from the end of the last exam til now but i guess it's all crap now anyway. in fact, i think that it was pretty crappy anyway so no use in writing it down now ;)
all right kiddos, i hope everything is going well and you are as happy as me!
luvu.m
