I am so sunburnt

I'll elaborate more when I get a chance (I'm currently watching the final TT in the Tour and am too pre occipied to write), but this is the last time I will have internet access before I leave. So...yeah....very sunburnt. Yes, it hurts. But, I guess that's what I get for riding 6 hours yesterday (Les deux Alpes, which is a great climb and a very cool town. People were actually still skiing, although I don't know where as I didn't see much snow. But they were dressed in full ski gear and carrying boards or skis) without sunscreen. I bought some yesterday and put it on this morning, but my "shorter" ride today got a little out of hand and ended up taking 6.5 hours. Tomorrow? Yep, the longest of all. Col du Croix de Fer, Col du Glandon, and the Col du Cucheron...over 200 km. I'm guessing 7 hours in the saddle, so I will probably really be a lobster tomorrow evening. I take the train to Paris on tuesday afternoon and catch my flight back to LA on Wednesday morning. I'm looking forward to being home, especially for my own bed and my car...and my cell phone, none of which I have used for two months. I will definitely miss the bread. That's all for now. I'll add more about the rides with some pics later. The scenery today was unbelievable! Later!

The Past Couple Weeks

Yes, yes, I know it's been a while since I've updated this thing, so here goes. I've mostly been working the past couple weeks, but have a couple of stories to tell. I also got to visit my relatives in Switzerland two weekends ago, which was great. We took some pictures, but I don't have them yet. In short, Switzerland is one of the most perfect places I have ever visited. Beautiful lakes and mountains everywhere! I really don't think I could ask for more as far as scenery and a great location, although it would make flying challenging. Meeting all of my relatives was really fun, and they were incredible hospitable and generous. I'm already planning how to get back there in a couple years.

Now, on to the stories. For this, we need to go back in time to last wednesday. Having missed the 4th of July, with the 14th of July on the horizon (Bastile Day), and the departing of two of my friends for holiday, we decided to go out for a couple beers. So, here's the situation. A Norwegian, a Romanian, and an American, drinking Belgium beer (delicious Leffe Brown and Kronenbourg) in an Irish pub, in France. In addition, we had live music played by a half scottish, half irish guitarist who, of course, spoke fluent french and english, both with an irish accent. He selections included tradition irish folk music, some french music I didn't understand (but that was good) and some good ole' American 70's classics. Priceless. I told the guy my last name and he seemed to appreciate that, and yelled across the bar to some of his scottish buddies that we had more scottish blood in the pub. So, after a couple beers we discussed politics (what else), health care, science, etc. You know, the basics. At the end of the night, our Norwegian friend started chatting with another group of people, who turned out to be French medical students who had just gotten the results of their final exam which ranked them for residency. Apparently, some hadn't done so well. But, they were off to some party and invited us to come along. So, we called up another of our coworkers and he and his fiance drove and met us at what turned out to be the end of the party. As the tram had now ceased operation he was nice enough to give me a ride home, and thus my evening ended. Happy birthday America, happy birthday France, and Lucian and Stian...it was fun! Keep in touch.

My second story isn't quite as entertaining as my first, but it was, none the less, a good time. Sunday the 14th was Bastile day, and Stian's last day in Grenoble. So, we decided that we woul get some dinner and then walk to the park for the festivities and fireworks. We had some very good (albeit expensive) Indian food, then some excellent Italian Gelato, and finally headed to some park on the edge of downtown for fireworks. Now, I've seen some good fireworks shows, but I have never seen them quite so "intimately" as this show. First, the show was one of the best I have seen in recent memory. It was set to music and had tons of shells. Secondly, and most importantly, we were so close to the fireworks that it ended up being a 20 minute heavy metal and shell shrapnel shower. (Talk about an insurance nightmare in the states!) The crowd was so close to the fireworks that some of the longer lasting shells actually caused sparks to hit the ground in the crowd. Pretty impressive and very cool! After the display, the streets were filled with people, and we walked and had a beer before I caught the tram back to my apartment.

Well that's all I've got for now. I wish I could report on live tour stages, but it just wasn't in the cards. Too much to do in lab coupled with difficulty in getting to the stages (the closest was about 100 miles away) was just too much hassle. The equipment is booked this weekend and mon-wed next week, so maybe I'll try to catch a stage in the Pyrenees, if I can figure out how to swing it. I'm pretty satisfied with what I have accomplished and have gotten through all of my samples (some twice to check the results) and made good progress on some things that I knew nothing about when I arrived. Until next time....

Grocery Stores, health care, and public restrooms, etc.

Let me start with the etc. part. I don't really have much to report from last weekend. I spent about 6 hours in lab on Saturday and 6 more on Sunday (not saying that that's a lot, just reporting) and then hopped on my bike for a couple of rides. On Saturday, I left lab about 2 and was on my bike shortly before 3. I had planned a route to the west, southwest of Grenoble partly through Vercors, another park in the area, that I thought would take about 3 hours; turns out I was off by an hour and a half, which was fine. The first 1:50 of the ride was flat and uneventful, but then I turned left and started climbing. I unfortunatly didn't have my camera, as I didn't really expect a) to do as much climbing as I did, or b) for the ride to be that scenic. I feel like I climbed forever, (only about 16km) as I wasn't feeling so well and was having some stomach issues. But I forged ahead, and the scenery was excellent! I rode along a river through some beautiful gorges, and under some very cool overhanging "cut outs", and finally reached the ~1300m summit. At this point I was about 45 km from Grenoble, rode a little on some flattish roads surrounded by meadows that reminded me of the Sound of Music, and then was duely rewarded with a fun and fast descent back into town. It really was a great descent; the road was well maintained and had a nice mixture of gradual and hairpin switchbacks. I again was feeling like a Euro pro. I can't say I was that tired when I got home, but I was having trouble holding 200 watts, and man, did I want to get off my bike. I think I was under fed going into the ride, but it was beautiful, none the less. On sunday, I got on my bike about the same time as on saturday and headed south to Vizille, a town I have ridden through a number of times. This time, however, I had picked a small mountain road to climb on the south face of whatever mountain runs between there and Grenoble. Bad choice. There aren't many things that can make a ride not fun, but this climb seemed to have a number of them. First, I was apparently still dealing with hunger knock, because my legs just weren't there. Second, the road was bumpy (that's what I get for picking a small road). Third, I'm guessing 10-12% for 8k or so. Fourth, lots of bugs. In any case, I wasn't really happy to be riding my bike on this thing, but made it none the less. It was really steep. The descent, however, was most excellent! Wide road and new pavement, again with a good mix of semitechnical corners and tight switchbacks, and fun straightaways. I actually caught and passed two cars...until it started to rain, at which point I throttled back a bit. Total time, 2.5 hours in the saddle, but I was happy it was over.

Now on to other things. First, congratulations to Jason Lowetz for winning the Cat 3. race at Manhatten Beach. Pretty cool, man!.

Second, a brief rant. I hate going to the grocery store here (I actually hate grocery shopping ANYWHERE, but even more so here). No, I don't mind not being able to communicate, I don't mind not having some of my favorite foods(like peanut butter and bagels). But, I HATE waiting in line. Oh, and there are always lines. Maybe I pick bad times to go, but every cashier has 6,7,8, etc. people waiting in line. In fact, I think that the least amount of time I have waited at the grocery store is 15 minutes. The most, you ask? Oh, yes, at least 30 minutes last Saturday. WTF? I don't understand. I never wait more than 5 minutes in CA, and I can't figure out what takes so long here! People bag their own groceries, but still, that's not hard. So, I ask again, WTF?

And the final installment of this piece is maybe aptly titled "there is no free lunch". I was thinking about health care this week, as we had been talking about different systems at lunch. (I eat with a couple of French students, one from Romania, and one from Norway (who also speaks no French). I'm not sure I really know enough to argue for one system or another, but I know that the US doesn't have governmental health care systems like much of Europe. (and we also don't pay 40% federal tax like in Norway, although with State and sales tax, I feel we are close if not in excess, of that.) I'm not going to take sides on this issue, but I generally believe that I am better with my money than someone else is with my money. I now need to digress for a moment. When I was in the Paris train station last weekend, I needed to use the restroom....and it cost me 0.5 euros. I hate paying to take a leak. Where are my public bathrooms? See where I'm going with this. No, I'm not suggesting health care is as simple as public restrooms. What I am saying is that I want to figure out my own health care, but I want the Los Angeles airport to provide me with fast and clean access to a toilet. Do I really believe that access to that toilet is free? Of course not. Northworst, et. al. pay fees to the airport to maintain the terminal, and are inevitable included in my ticket price. On top of that, my tax dollars go to supporting LAX. So, I end up paying for the toilet anyway, just not at the time of use. And I like it that way. So, back to health care. I like being able to choose where my money goes and how it gets spent...but I like "free" toilets. If I had been born in Europe, would I like to choose whether or not to pay to use the bathroom, and love the convenience of "free" health care? Ok, so I've drastically over simplified things and I'm sure there are economic and legal flaws in what I've written. Just some thoughts. And always remember, in life, just as in thermodynamics "There is no Free Lunch"! Please don't hesitate to chim in. I love seeing flaws in my logic (or, possibly, lack thereof).