Capricious Me » 2005 » March

Aix - Laundry
Originally uploaded by pokester.

A glimpse at Aix-en-provence: laundry drying the old fashioned way, hanging from buildings that have been around for centuries. This is from a walk down Cour Mirabeau. Sometime during the walk there was a man playing the accordion. People walk their dogs off the leash; they sit outdoors for hours in cafes, just talking. Sometimes you see someone walking down the street holding a fresh baguette. It was a beautifully sunny day.

All of France was like this… a juxtaposition of the modern with the ancient. Buildings that have stood for centuries, such as the National Assembly, hang with “Paris 2012″ banners as part of the campaign to bring the Olympics there. The gargoyles still watch over Notre Dame de Paris while people inside and outside can watch mass being held in this cathedrale from tv screens. You can’t escape the wealth of history and culture, regardless of where you turn, especially in Paris. As I said to Sera, I expected to see lovely buildings, but I didn’t expect every building to be so beautiful. In Aix, you can see buildings which have lived through the French revolution, now used to house stores. You have to appreciate a country that doesn’t knock down old buildings to make way for new uses.

still jetlagged. reaaaally reaaaaally want to sleep now. but it’s still too early.

the result of bringing nothing to do on the plane (that’s me trying to pack light!) resulted in pages and pages more in my diary. that and staring at the crossword puzzle so that my hand covering my nose looked more… unintentional. (the man next to me was smelly. and he moved around a lot.) i’ve developed a habit of writing in airports and planes during the wait. you wouldn’t think so, but flights are great for just… thinking about stuff. so it’s nice to jot some of it down.

my trip was lovely. i hope i can post up lots of pictures, but uh… there’s ~204 mb of pics. :-D It’s mostly of monuments, houses, and non-people things. Felt so very touristy taking pictures in the first place, so there really was no need to add to it and become more conspicuous by taking pictures of myself and in any case, i’m not photogenic. So the truth comes at last, I suppose: it’s all about vanity.

i reaaaaally want to go back to europe. in particular, Greece + UK + the historic cities of Italy. and maaaaybe some of the mediterranean islands, like Thera + Crete (Ruins from remains is believed by some to be those of the legendary Atlantis), and Sicily. I also want to visit India, Japan and Korea. Maybe Russia… Funny though, I’m not really into North or South America aside from wanting to see Mayan + Aztec + Incan remains and the rainforest.

Totally random, but there are herbivorous piranhas. They don’t have as many sharp teeth as the carnivorous ones. I wonder if the carnivorous ones ever eat the vegetarians?

i’ve usually had good flights & quick and easy trips… but this one, trying to return home, was an utter nightmare. It began on March 25th, 10am (Paris time. ~4am EST) when my flight to Paris was delayed for about an hour because of fog. Once I got to Paris, my connection had left, and the transfer desk (there was ONE transfer desk) had huge lines that blocked the hallway. So I stood in line for almost four hours. Got into a conversation with a woman from Connecticut and a Chinese boy from Shanghai who was studying in Edinburgh (british accent & suit. so very british) They put me in a hotel for the night, and I got to the airport the next morning all hopeful… but alas, my flight to Frankfurt was delayed, and I got there with enough time to make the connection, I think… except LINES AGAIN ruined everything. So I rebooked on a flight to Toronto and then from Toronto to Boston. And then the Blueline train kinda BROKE DOWN. but luckily they fixed it fast enough that I got to the MIT senate bus on time. Hurraaaaaah!!!

and oh my god. what is with Europeans and SMOKING EVERYWHERE?? and my seating really SUCKED. I was seated next to a couple. The wife was pregnant, but you couldn’t tell by looking at her, although the way she acted, you would have thought that she was due any minute now… Omg… does it REALLY make that much of a difference whether there are three ice cubes or four in the water?? And would it prolong her suffering that much more to wait until the flight attendant moves the cart to sit? And does it really make that much of a difference to wait the few seconds it took for the little kids to return to their seats? When I let them pass me, she was like, “uugh you let them pass.” Geez… that and the man with the bad B.O. next to me, who moved around A LOT and therefore spread the bad smell.

these past two days have been HORRIBLE…

I am with Sera in Geneva… (Geneve, as the french call it) Have walked about and seen tons of pretty things. Aix-en-provence is gorgeous. Taking tons of pictures. Food here is maaaarvelous. Dinner last night was wunderbar. Crepe w/duck & bit of steak. Even the cheese here’s good…

I want a cuckoo clock. Hehe. And lots of Swiss chocolates. Maybe a swiss army knife. When I get to Paris, it’s Crepes, Gelato, Shopping… Yeaaaaah….

maybe i won’t go to CMU’s campus thing after all… i really have no intention of enrolling, and i can’t find a flight under $300 (which is the max. amount they’d be reimbursing me) and in all the flights i’d have to miss two classes, which i don’t want to do. esp. if it means missing one of the crypto lectures.

if i don’t go CMU that weekend, i can make it to Pan Asian Show… TCO night market. Maybe go shopping during the weekend. Haven’t done that in a while…

got the rejection from dartmouth today.

wow… i’ve been very social/off campus-y this semester…
the weekend of the 31st i’m: going to carnegie mellon for a campus visit
next weekend i’m: flying back from france
this weekend i’m: flying to fraaance
this past weekend i: went to new york
the weekend before: california
the weekend before: meet up w/charlene
the weekend before: ecaasu
the weekend before: e-voting
the weekend before: venu
the weekend before: coming back to wellesley.

i’m still awake! (i’m sure the sleepiness will not stay away for long) i stayed up all night and barely noticed it… working on the databases pset. weee… fun stuff, seriously… i love the combo of PHP & SQL… so many tweaks and things for you play with!! ah… it reminds me of the summers when i’d stay up all night working on some website with music on the whole night, just like tonight… so… now all i have left is making it pretty. and pretty it shall be!!! weee!!!

of course… this is all my way of procrastinating because i don’t want to study for my midterm and i don’t want to work on that other pset *koff* What’s next? um… preparation for my senior seminar, of course. i need to finish that presentation for tomorrow.

MIT - Rejected, letter and all. No surprise there.
UC Davis - Accepted in phd. Still waiting for fin. aid & formal letter.
UMBC - ?Recommended???for admission into grad school for MS. Still waiting for formal acceptance. dunno if they’ll have a campus visit. i won’t choose this one anyway, since Davis is my current choice.
UC Berkeley - Expecting rejection
Dartmouth - Expecting rejection
CMU - Hahaha??? i got in to the INI program. That was entirely unexpected. I had written this as “Definitely expecting rejection” before I got the email just now…
JHU - Still have to submit the application. Maybe I won?t?

hm. better than i expected.

So I went to UC Davis for the campus visit this weekend. The weather was lovely… There was green everywhere, and it felt like spring. The area is your quiet, college town… Supposedly it’s the bike capital of the world. Hm. I like the campus, and I love the idea of having my own apartment in a quiet area.

I talked to a lot of professors and current grad students to get an idea of what graduate life is like. Lots of interesting projects there. It’s a small world, it turns out. One of the guys had a sister going to Wellesley, and another knew someone at Wellesley… (Both in my year) and it turns out that one of the professors was Dr. Alves-Foss and Deborah Frincke’s graduate advisor. Hehehe. and my current prof for Cryptography was the graduate advisor for one of the crypto profs there…

I didn’t talk too much to the other students, besides “What are you interested in?” and after that… there’s not much to say besides generic talk of the weather… which we did talk about, because most people were California or warm-weather people.

There was a farmers market we went to, and it was “Pig day.” I saw three teenagers dressed up as the three little pigs, which amused me a lot, but I didn’t take a picture… I did, however, get the “Pigs love complex carbohydrates” sign on a bread stall which I thought was particularly clever.