Monday, 26 May: EU and the Council of Europe

10:30 - 12:00 we met at the classroom and listened to a lecture about European institutions with a very colorful, Pr. Pierre Nuss. We ate lunch at a local Doner and at 2PM we paid a visit to Council of Europe with Professor Nuss.

Our group of nine students accompanied a group from West Virginia U. The architecture was very beautiful in all of the buildings in the area we visited but the tour we had at the Council of Europe was long winded and I might have dozed off a time or two in the hot room. All in all I was interested for about 8 minutes of the 2 hour trip.

Afterwards we took a walk through the Orangerie Park, very popular in Strasbourg. There was a small zoo with exotic animals and concrete ping-pong tables. I most enjoyed my talk with Nuss about his home town. He resides in Molsheim, home of the Bugatti Veyron - most expensive car in the world.


The Bugatti Veyron 16.4 is currently the most powerful, most expensive, and fastest street-legal production car in the world, with a proven top speed of over 400 km/h (408 km/h or 254 mph). It only costs about $1.6 million U.S.

Back to Monday... or early Tuesday morning - Beau, Danny, Ross and I headed out to Zanzibar again... I stopped for one of the best Doner's I've had since I've been here and then we poked our heads in Irish Times for a little bit.

Sunday, 25 May: Colmar (updated)

Took a train to Colmar, a city rivaling Strasbourg. The highlight and purpose for the trip was to see Grunewald’s Eisenheim Altarpiece in Unterlinden Museum with Pr. Hartmann-Mahmud.

We sat down for a 'brief' lunch that ended up lasting over two hours, but the food was really good. I had a 'Vegetarian Menu' which consisted of a veggie soup, veggie lasagna that was amazing and a fruit salad for desert. The total price with water was 20 Euro.

At the museum I got to see some beautiful works. The majority of the former nunnery held religious works - - the Eisenheim Altarpiece was by far the most impressive and extensive set of works. Hopefully I will have plenty of photos which I will either add on here or on my new Flickr account. The creativity, detail and execution of the paintings is something I had yet to witness - It was truly a great experience. Modern works of note and personal favor included Jean Degottex, Pierre Soulages, Pablo Picasso, Otto Dix, George Grosz, and Claude Monet.

My attempts at contacting anyone in the states failed again today... I got about 8 voice mails - it's so frustrating because it costs a good deal of money and its very time consuming to connect.

Later that night we went to a pizzeria close to Bouxwiller Apts. with Kara, Kathleen, TC, Rob. I had shrimp pizza, coke and banana and chocolate ice cream with chunks. The food was really good... for the money a pizzeria is probably your best bet on eating well and getting full. I don't remember the price exactly but it was around 14 Euro.

Saturday, 24 May 2008

Saturday morning most of the guys got up to meet Pr. Hartmann-Mahmud and her son Malik at an outdoor market. It was a pretty interesting experience... fish, meats, clothes, fruits, veggies, chocolates, and various other things.
I picked up 2 crab-rolls (egg-roll with crab in it) and a shrimp salad with great sauce for about 5 Euro which I ended up eating that night - It was delicious.
Around noon we visited the Musée Rohan archeology section and researched the history of Alsace and France. Later we studied Julias Caesar and his impact on the area with Pr. Bradshaw. (Rohan has an art museum upstairs that I plan on going back to visit, I buzzed through it and noticed some paintings I have studied at Centre in my humanities classes freshman year.

Later in the afternoon we did a boatride around Strasbourg and out to the European Institutions. Honestly it was pretty lame... just sight seeing stuff, nothing too special.

Saturday night was a blast... we played some games of poker in the room, had some drinks and went out to Zanzibar where we met Ben, a bartender who knew Mitch - a friend of mine from Centre and had a few shots on the house. Thanks Mitch!

Robert Muraine

This guy is nuts....

Friday, 23 May: Baden Baden

After a series of overcast days we finally got some nice sunshine.
We took a tour at the Cathedral with Dr. Bradshaw and the tour guide who accompanied us was great. There was a lot of intricate work throughout the Cathedral... must see if you head to Strasbourg.
Stopped for crepes afterwards, I had crepes banana nutella (delicious peanut butter like substance you can find in The States).
Checked out part of downtown before leaving for Baden Baden (Germany) with Pr. Hartmann-Mahmud.

On the way to Baden Baden we boarded the wrong connector train, but eventually made it to our destination. Baden Baden or bath bath is a modern version of the Roman Baths - another great experience. You go in and pay for 2 or 3 hours... and you have access to hot baths, cold baths, warm baths, saunas, and an aroma therapy steam room which completely healed all of my ailments from walking the streets of France. The upstairs of Baden Baden is for nudists.... let's just say it wasn't pretty but it was very freeing.

We grabbed some ice cream on the way out of Germany and didn't get back to Strasbourg until late. Rob, Ross, Kara, Kathleen, Carol and I all ate at Pti Max... a very good restaurant close to our apartments. I had salmon prepared with tyme, served with bernese sauce and noodles. The food was delicious. I also had a 'bwowwwni' for dessert which is probably the richest brownie I have ever eaten... which means I thoroughly enjoyed it. The meal plus a coke was around 25Euro.

Everyone walked back to their apts. TC and I decided to go back out on the town - revisiting the area we walked through earlier in the day. The nightlife was refreshing to see because most things here close so early it's hard to imagine that other people are even awake - - you can walk through some parts of town and see no-one. We basically canvased the entire SE portion of Strasbourg, stopping at La Mosquito for some drinks. This bar was packed! - guesstimation provided about 80 people were in a relatively tiny place. TC and I were shoulder to shoulder with a mix of students and locals the entire time we were in there.

On the way back met a girl from Philadelphia who was teaching here is Strasbourg and two of her guy friends from France. We got to discuss the club scene and must-see tourism spots which hopefully I will get to see while here.

Thursday, 22 May 2008

As we have often discussed in my Labor Econ class at Centre, France is very 'unique' in terms of labor force and economic efficiency. There was a strike in Strasbourg today to picket reductions in the employee retirement programs signed by President Sarkozy. Due to the strike, public works places including the metro trains and some museums were stopped or closed. The strike did not completely strangle Strasbourg, but it changed Director Bradshaw's plan for us to visit the Museum of Archeology (Palais Rohan). We did make it to the Musee Historique which covered Strasbourg from 4500bc to the mid 1800s (pre-history up to the revolutionary period).

I'm still having some issues with the daily electronics I rely on. Internet can be purchased at my apartment but it is not user-friendly nor is it in English. International calls back to The States are also causing me some problems. Phone Cards often give a busy signal when calling out... I'd say 1 in 3 calls works, operators are automated and only speak French, 6 guys are sharing a phone and there are only certain hours we can call home (when we aren't in class and since the 6 hour difference it's early in the AM if I call home before noon here). We are also having a lot of trouble with shavers / clippers and other items because the adapters are not full-proof. I may have fried my beard and mustache trimmer today : (

After class, we took a trip to the local mall and ate at the Quick (similar to McDonald's). Made the 70meter trek back to the room and everyone seemed to pass out. I woke up around 8:15pm thinking everyone else had been up or went out. When I got up and looked around- everyone was knocked out. I headed over to Vosges, where the girls are staying. (I'm at Bouxwiller).
Kara, Kathleen, and I went to eat at a near pizzeria that was open late... which is rare because most places seem to close here before 8pm .I had a wonderful Hawaiian pizza. Chicken, creme sauce, pineapple, and ham for about 10Euro with water.

Stayed up a little while back at Boux, the other guys played some poker and I worked on my laptop. Tried to call home twice but didn't get an answer.

I will try to go back and begin posting pictures with their respective days as my camera charger does work with an adapter here.... thank goodness.

Wednesday, 21 May: Strasbourg, Settling In

10:30: Meet at Classroom – airplane articles; Centre library, computer use, classroom keys, Strasbourg geography, food (with Bradshaw) - - covered a large amount of the need to know items
11:30: Guided shopping excursion in French grocery [the guys pooled money and purchased about 80E in food] shops and markets + lunch (with Bradshaw) = my first Doner Kabob [for lunch] experience.... very tasty
14:00: Survival French I with Centre-in-Strasbourg Coordinator, Mme. Heidi Cahen
15:30: Meet afterwards at Director’s Apartment, 6, rue de l’Ail = wines and cheeses with prof. Bradshaw

After the regularly scheduled items we did a little bit of shopping, made chicken, noodles and sauce for ourselves and the girls and watched the Manchester United, Chelsea soccer match which was very exciting. We later stopped back by Irish Times again for a brief drink and then returned home.

Tuesday 20 May 2008

11:35 a.m.: arrive Charles de Gaulle airport
RER train to Gare du Nord, Paris / eat lunch / walk to nearby Gare de l’Est
16h24 : TGV train 2443 (Voit 15; places 13-18, Voiture 18, places 91-95) to Strasbourg
18h43 : Arrival in Strasbourg
Pr. Bradshaw will accompany men to Bouxwiller apartment (bus N° 2, arrêt “Travail”)
Pr. Hartmann will accompany women to Vosges apartment (bus N° 10)

Arrived in Paris at 11:35 realizing that:
1) I didn't get enough sleep on the flight - I watched 3 new movies
2) my left ear will only pop if I make it aka if I fall asleep its locking in some pressure
3) Graffitti is everywhere in Paris and it's beautiful

made first attempts at speaking and communicating in French including the successful order of a sandwich and coke, which is no big feat.

We rode the TGV from Paris to Strasbourg where I will be staying the majority of the trip. The TGV is small in comparison to anything that you would see in the US. And the French are not very patient with US students who can't communicate outside of hello and I'm doing well - - which is very understandable - - more or less I felt like an idiot for a while.

After almost 24 hrs of traveling I was ready to hit the sack, but we washed up a little and walked down to a local eatery where I enjoyed kus kus and lamb with veggies. On the way we got to see where our classroom is located as well as the market/grocery and mall. Followed that up with a brief walk to The Cathedral, ice cream - amazing btw, back to the room (about a 10 min. walk) and over to Irish Times, a local pub where we all had a celebritory drink and Ross arm wrestled a guy for a beer. He lost ofcourse - - so we chipped in and bought the guy a Guiness for 5,50 euro.

Our apt. is a little run down, but comparably nice to the dorm's back at Centre. I'm rooming with Danny -rising Junior basketball player for Centre College who only snores on occasion. There is no internet at the Apt. so I might not get to update this often, but there will be updates.

Daily from Vinchen

from Vinchen

http://www.vinchen.com/

In the D, departing for France in 4 hrs

Basic Notes: I will be adding more or less a daily journal of my trip to France here on my blog. I would appreciate any comments and will try to answer any questions. If you have any suggestions on places to go or see or eat etc. - leave a note!

I'm in Detroit, MI sitting at the airport watching the battery on my laptop die. One of our profs./directors guided us through some basic facts on France here in the lobby at Gate A24 and we will be boarding for our Paris flight around 8:30pm - - the flight from Louisville here was decent but short. Hopefully I will get some grub in a little while and be ready for some ZZZZzzzzs on the 8 hour trip to Paris.

A real man shouldn't have to say no homo...

Henk Hofstra's "Art-Eggcident" in Leeuwarden

Dutch artist Henk Hofstra is back with a new environmental art project called ‘Art Eggcident’ in Leeuwarden, a city in the north of the Netherlands.
Yesterday, several large eggs (each 100 feet wide) were spread on th Zaailand, one of the largest city squares in the Netherlands.
‘The eggs’ will remain in Leeuwarden for the next six months.

Artist Today

See more at the designer's page:
Leif Podhajsky

Artists Today

Branislav Kropilak
contemporary photography

this guy takes some dope photographs.... his work is based on industry with a focus on garages etc. - - It's a smooth portfolio.... check him out

Daily