Being an Older Student. Is it an advantage or a disadvantage?

It is an interesting situation being an older student.  I can walk into a conference and sit with the professors and they all think I am one of them.  They immediately give my ideas more credibility just because I have some gray hair. Even when they learn I am only a graduate student, I think they afford me more respect than would be given to a student in their 20's.  I have much more in common with the professors that are in their 40's and 50's because many of them began college around the same time I did.  But, then they also expect more from me.  They assume that I have the experience to go with the gray hair, that I have spent the last 30 plus years in this field.  They are surprised when I am not aware of certain facts.

The other graduate students also treat you differently.  They don't believe you at first when you tell them you are also a grad student.  They are open minded and help me learn the things I don't know.  They are willing to help me understand the fields that they have spent years learning and which I am only beginning.  But, I am not in my 20's and they have much different priorities and desires than someone in their 50's.  That excludes me from most of their interactions outside of the lab.

The funny thing is that I don't feel any older than the students. I still feel like I did when I was in college the first time.  Until I look in the mirror and see this wrinkled old man, staring out at me.  Where did he come from?  What happened to that young man that used to look out at me?  I have noticed that I am not as quick as I use to be.  In college, I would read a book or paper and be able to remember everything in it.  Learning new facts and ideas were easy. 

Now I find that I must re-read the material a number of times.  And then I can only remember the vague concepts in the paper, not being able to recall the specific facts.  Trying to memorize small lists of facts is just about impossible. I still cannot remember the names of all the amino acids.  There are only twenty and some of them share common names.  This should not be difficult.  There are 26 letters in the alphabet, I learned all those.  There are 50 states, I learned all those and their capitals.   Don't ask if I remember them, that's another problem.  The information might get in there for a short duration, and then I only vaguely remember reading about it, but cannot recall any of the details.

But, overall, I cannot think of a better way to spend my life.  I love the learning, and I am making progress.  I believe that I still have a chance to advance my field of study and maybe, just maybe, my work will help someone else find a miraculous cure for a disease.

Getting the Money from the Grant

I spent a month before I left trying to get some of the money sent by the French Embassy to the university.  I know they received it in November, but even in January they could not tell me where it was.  I eventually tracked down the people who could make it happen and started sitting at their desks until I got answers, or at least promises.  It took two weeks for them to acknowledge that the money was at the university.  Then they needed to get paperwork completed, forms signed, check boxes filled.  Then once they set it all up, they needed accounting to setup an account to draw the money from.  It finally was completed a couple days ago. 

Actually it was completed last week, but they only notified me a couple days ago.  The problem is that they set it up as a grant.  That means I must ask to get the money.  The French government, with all their rules and regulations, was actual very liberal in their wording that the university could give me some or all the money as they deemed appropriate.  But, the university now wants me to submit expense reports and show receipts for living here.  It will not be a problem, but I have put out over $3000 paying for airfare, renting an apartment, and paying for food.  I am not sure when I will be able to get any money out.  I have been in France for 20+ days without receiving any money.  I am getting annoyed.   It will all work out, just more slowly than I would like.

Besides dealing with the university paperwork, I am still trying to get paid back by the French government for the airline ticket.  They promised to pay, so I bought the ticket last October.  Then they said, wait until you fly.  So, I waited.  Then they wanted a scanned image of the boarding pass.  So, I sent that.  Now the person that I was dealing with has retired!!!!  Great, now I am starting over with another person.  THEY tell me it will "hopefully" be next week.

Good news.  I got told today that after 30 days of travel I can submit an expense report for a per diem.  That is great news, because the thirty days are up next Monday.  The per diem is enough to cover all my expenses and I will be able to feel more comfortable spending the money I had budgeted for living here.

Rent, laundry, food, and eating out are all more expensive here than in Colorado.  Rent for my 200 square foot apartment is over $800 dollars a month, but that does include utilities and is furnished, including the sheets, towels, dishes and cooking gear.  Eating out is a bit more expensive. A quick lunch at a diner will be $12 and at a nicer sit down establishment will run about $20 for a three course meal.  Dinners are also three or four courses and will be about $35-$50 with wine included.

Luckily the grocery stores are about the same, some things more expensive and others less.  I can cook a nice meal of bread, cheese, salad, pasta with ham or turkey, and some fresh fruit for dessert for about $5-$7.  And a nice breakfast of banana, granola, and bread left over from the previous night covered in Nutella is only a couple dollars.  If you have not had any Nutella, I highly recommend it.  If you don't have any leftover french bread, a spoon is even better because it doesn't leave any crumbs.

Yes, I really did eat it!

We did not play the board game last Thursday night, instead a bunch of the grad-students and post-docs went out to dinner.  The seven of us (plus a dog) met at a local restaurant, Le Machon Lyonnais about 7:30.  We were a very international group, Greece, Austria, Germany, Argentina,  France, Netherlands, and the USA were all represented.  English is the common language and used most of the time among these friends.  They did converse in French or German at times trying to find the correct word in English. 

The restaurant is one two floors, with about 12 seats on each floor.  It is very cozy, the owner is at the bar and serving tables, the kitchen located behind the bar.  The second floor is a balcony around the room and we were in one of the corners with big open beams and brick walls making very cozy.

I asked about the menu and what the dishes were.  I was ready to eat what ever they brought me.  After discussions in which they tried to warn and dissuade me, I ordered a fix priced meal that included an entree that is a very well know local dish.  I was told it is an acquired taste.  Well that is not the half of it.

I wanted to show them that not all the Americans are afraid to eat foreign foods.  Lyon is know to eat more meat than any other location in France.  But being European, they eat all the parts of the animals.  At this time I will suggest that the vegetarians and those with weak stomachs skip the next paragraph.

So, they warned me, but I ordered the meal with Andouillette as the entree anyway.  I had no idea what I tried to eat until later.  It came as four medallions of sausage meat that were breaded and fried, placed on a bead of lettuce.  They all waited while I ate first.  I cut into the slice and an unappetizing aroma emanated from my plate.  The meat all looked ok, sorta.  There were bits of items I had seen, but never eaten.  I shut my nose and took a bite.  The smell was also in the meat.  It was not my favorite.  I ate the rest of a two inch medallion, while using the lettuce as a chaser. Two of the other guys each took a medallion because nobody had ever ordered it before and they wanted to try it. 

Andouillette: French Pig-Colon Sausage.  The smell has been compared to an outhouse, in the hot summer sun.  That is because this is a sausage made from the colon of a pig and stuffed with other entrails. The colon evidently contains the chemicals that are excreted as items pass through on their way out.  That flavors the other pieces that are packed into the colon casing.  The local sausage makers did not like to waste anything and used this casing to hold the rest of the parts.  After eating this I also tried some fried liver and it tasted much better in comparision, but even that is not my favorite.  Not sure why anyone would eat Andouillette.  But, I can say I tried it.

I ate a couple bites of Rosa's steak and it just melted in my mouth.  Florian is a vegetarian and had a dish that is described as cheese in cheese, wrapped in cheese.  It looked very good also.  The restaurant also serves these baked potatoes that are crispy on the outside and warm and buttery on the inside.  They were delicious.  We will be back to eat there again.  I will order the steak, medium rare. 

The table along the other balcony section had a birthday celebration.  The owner came up with a sparkler candle in a dessert and everyone was singing to the birthday girl,  including those at our table.  We finished our dinner and desserts and wine and a shot of the restaurants homemade rum at 11:30.  Just four hours for a meal.  I had a great time.

I've got mail!

I have mail! Real snail mail.  There was a letter outside my door Monday morning.  Direct from Payson, Arizona using a global forever stamp.  I did not know they even had such a thing.  It was a Valentine card.  Robyn also sent a Valentine card, but she snuck it into my suitcase.

But, I also took care of Valentines before I left.  Our neighbor will deliver a gift bag that I put together before I left.  Nothing big, just some things from Sur la Table from the sale racks that we had been looking at during the after Christmas sales.


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There is not going to be any gaming tonight.  I will spend a quiet evening at home, alone.  It is a little bit lonely today.  I have lots of work to do and I have started sketching.  I am not very good, but I like looking at a scene and trying to capture the essence of the image.  I might go somewhere tonight and start another sketch. Having the metro card is nice because I can jump on any public transportation as often as I like instead of buying a ticket for each segment.  That way I can jump on and off, sightseeing, or looking for an interesting building to sketch.  It would be nice if the sun would come out as I can then see the shadows much easier that way.

It has rained almost every day I have been here.  I only see a glimpse of the sun every 3 or 4 days.  I hear it is the same as Boston, so cold, wet, and miserable that you must stay inside and work long hours.  It is a bit depressing, but it is nice when the sun is shinning.  February is suppose to be the worst month and it will continue to be better and better as Spring progresses.  It should look nice in May when Robyn visits.

Even with the rain, I have been able to start running again.  I only run for about 40 minutes, but it feels good.  I leave my apartment and in 5 minutes I am running along the river.  There are usually only people walking their dogs, commuters on bikes,  and other runners.  There are geese, ducks, and swans on the river and I think I can hear them laughing at me as we both are heading downstream.  I am huffing and puffing while they just lazily stick out a leg to steer.

Thursday Night is Game Night

Settlers of Catan

Damn I lost again last week.  I pick the perfect locations based on the terrain and numbers, knowing that the most probable numbers will be rolled and I can have the advantage.  Of course being in the right place is only half the equation.  I once again was cut off from the resources needed and floundered as the dice never rolled an 8 (OK twice).  Aggravating. 


But not all was lost, I did bring snacks, bread cheese, wine, and cookies as I was  trying to appease the game gods.  I was able to consume most of a bottle of wine and the cheese and the bread before the game had ended.  Lots of fun. 

Akis (my Greek office mate) and I have vowed to team up in the next game against Florian (Austrian) and Thorston (German) in the next game. 

I will only bring a half bottle of wine, because they drink beer.  Maybe then I will be able to WIN.

Presenting to an International Audience

I am giving a presentation today at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Laboratoire de Physique to my collaborators.  I want to make a good impression and wow them, but I don't know exactly what to present.  I have a few different approaches to presenting my research depending on the audience.  But, I have trouble reading the audience internationally.  I have a hard time not using colloquialism or slang terms that may not translate well.  I tend to talk very fast when I am talking about something I am passionate about.  When I get into talking about my work, I get excited, and start talking faster.  I am also talking to Biophysics and Chemistry scientists that are much more mathematically and theoretical than I have been trained.  One of my goals here is to expand my knowledge from the Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology field into the Biophysics field.  The Biophysics field is dealing with the connections between the individual atoms that are involved in biological processes.  

Think about the earth as a whole.  From far off in space it looks like a nice round ball spinning and revolving around a nice little star.  As you examine it closer, you start to see that the surface is not a constant, it has different colors being reflected from the different surfaces, water, land, vegetation, ice, and rock.  if we look closer at any of those particular places, we see that they are not homogeneous and they too have variations with them.  Move closer, we can observe the different elements interacting on each surface, water running, animals eating vegetation, clouds forming, rain causing landslides, and many other interactions.  If we investigate any of the individual landscapes, we find colonies of animals, plants, and different ecological systems each with a specific role in the whole system.  Each level of inspection takes what we observed as a single item and expands it into a set of interactions among elements in that view.

This analogy works for the different layers of observation starting from our world and looking into smaller and smaller realms.  The cell, the nucleus, the DNA, the proteins, the  molecules, the atoms, the individual bonds and interactions among the atoms.  That is the level that these scientist are working.  I am at the level proteins (molecules comprised of many atoms) interacting with DNA (also molecules of many atoms).  Going back to our view from outer space, if were both looking at a wooden bridge, they would be looking at the connections between individual boards and describing the nails used.  I would be looking at how that bridge was used to transport cars and trucks from one side to the other.

They have a different perspective.  It will be interesting to see how my ideas are perceived.

Daily Commute

Patisserie

I have a habit of stopping into the same patisserie every evening on my way home from work.  They are very friendly and put up with my poor french, sometimes speaking english to me when I am stuck looking for a word. They recognize me and reach for the french traditional baguette I always ask for.  I love the taste of the crispy outer crust with the soft sweet insides.  I usually slice off a half dozen pieces to eat with some cheese (tonight it is a gouda with cumin seeds) and water.  I have not bought any wines to drink at home, yet.  The grocery stores here have full range of wines and champagnes at all prices.  There are 100 euro ($130) bottles on the shelves and some of the labels are wineries I have heard of.  No, I have not seen any of the american labels here.  I will visit a wine shop here and see if they import wines from other regions like the United States.

Yes, I really am in France

It is cold even when it is warm.  I am so use to the desert southwest that I feel cold here even when it is 50 F degrees.  The humidity is high and it rains most days, but the sun was out this morning.  So, I hopped on the metro and visited Place Bellecour to show that indeed I am in Lyon.  You can see the  statue of King Louis XIV on a horse made in 1825.  On the hill behind me is the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière completed in 1884 and was built on the site of a Roman forum.  There are still Roman ruins of an amphitheater on the side of the hill that I did not get a chance to visit last time.  I will take pictures and report back in a future installment.


My commute every day is only three blocks, but I bundle up even for that short walk.  I am grateful to my friends who supplied me with these warm accessories.  Roylene knitted the wonderful scarf that keeps me warm and makes me look like a local.  I also received a warm chapeau from Rick.  Only the old men with gray hair still wear these.  So I fit right in.

The sun has only been coming out for short periods of time in the past 10 days.  I was disappointed when I got to the square because the sun was playing behind the clouds again and I needed to take my picture.  Maybe next time I will remember to smile.

Life in the City

Life in a Big City
I have never really lived in a big city. All of the noises from all the people. 
There are as many people in the Rhone-Alpes region as there are in all of Colorado and in only a tenth of the size.  I have a emergency station just half a block away and they are always using the sirens as they leave.  I sleep through all of it.  There is construction on the main thoroughfare that starts at 7:00 every morning.  I sleep through it all.  I think there is so much noise that it cancels out. 

The construction may start at 7am, but of course they take a break from 9-10 and work again for a couple more hours before taking a two hour lunch.  They are usually gone by 16:00.  The french have a 35 hour work week. Beyond the normal two weeks of holidays, similar to the US, they also get another 50+ days of vacation to be used as they want.  They put a high premium on the time spent with friends and family and they don't let work get in the way.  They don't understand the americans with their fast lunch and immediately back to work.  They work hard while they are at work, but then cherish the time to be with family.  I am usually the first in the office out of the group of grad students and the last to leave.  That does not count the time I spend in my apartment working.  They do understand why the americans get so much accomplished, they just don't want to sacrifice everything we do to achieve it. 




Census Lady
I had a census taker come by last week.  She rang the bell.  I did not know I had a bell.  She spoke in French and I muttered in french "Je ne comprends pas" and then she spoke a bit of broken english.  Enough for me to understand that she needed information about the residence.  I took the form and she said she would come back tomorrow.  I figured I could get someone at work to read it for me.  I forgot.

Not really my apartment, but very similar!

The next day, the bell rang.  I could not decide if I should just stay quiet as a mouse hoping she would go away, or face it like a man and take the shame.  I answered the door and explained that I was noncompliant.  She said no problem, She would help me fill it out.  She read the questions and allowed me to fill in the boxes for the correct answers.  They wanted to know how many rooms, the type of heat or air conditioning, type of stove and so on.  There were only about 12 questions and only took 5 minutes to complete, once I had someone to read the french.  So now I am officially censused here in france.

100 days until I am whole again

I have started a countdown.  It is 100 days until I see Robyn in person.  She is the reason I can do all the adventures.  She has supported me in every way imaginable.  She goes "all-in" when I come up with all these crazy plans.  She was there for every step of my trek around Colorado, she pounded nails, solder pipes, hauled wood, put down flooring, and put up a roof in 90 degree days when we built our house.  Her organizational skills are what keeps us going.  Nothing falls through the cracks, everything is ready when we need it.  She does not like to be center stage, but nothing on stage would happen if she was not back there making it all look easy.  Even now her support and encouragement have kept me going.

We have not been apart more than a couple weeks in the last 35 years.  Even in the first year of my PhD, when I had the apartment down in Denver to take classes at the medical school at 8:00am everyday, we still would meet on the weekends.  I feel like part of me is missing.  Our lives revolve around each other.  I wont feel complete until we are together again.  If it wasn't for instant messaging and video conferencing via the internet, I don't think I would make it.

She has been holding down the fort (no pun intended) while I go off to be educated.  She is supporting me in the real sense, she has a real job and pays the bills.  She has not taken a real vacation in the four years I have been in school.

She is coming over in May.  We have a trip planned to allow her to visit both France and Italy.  After spending a few days with her in Lyon, we will fly to Rome.  Visiting all the sites in a whirlwind four days that will leave us breathless.  From there we take the train up to Florence.   I loved this city when I visited it over 35 years ago.  I wonder if it will feel the same?  How much can a centuries old city change in such a short time?

We have rented a small cottage on the hills across the river from the  center of the city.   There are fewer sites to see, so it will only be a mild breeze for the three days there.   We are behind a large park and gardens that overlook the city.

We will fly to Paris to spend our 33rd wedding anniversary in a city we love to visit.  We will stay in a hotel that we stayed in 25 years ago.  It is a 1600's building that is directly across the river from Notre Dame.  There are no elevators and the stairwell is barely over five feet tall.  The whole place has character and either you love it or you hate it.  We will be able to stroll the streets of Paris at leisure, with no place particular to go.  We  have our favorite places and museums to visit as well as walks around the city or along the river.  We will also try to see the catacombs and a couple landmarks we never seem to have time to visit.  Robyn will return to Colorado from there and I will head back to Lyon to finish up my research and pack my bags. I return to Colorado two weeks later.

It is now after midnight here in Lyon,  only 99 more days.

I have a badge!

Its official.  I have a badge for the Ecole normale superieure de Lyon.  Now I can go in early to the lab and stay late.  I am sitting in an office with another graduate student from France and a post doc from Greece.  There are also a couple of other foreign graduate students that hang out in the office using the other computers.  One is from Germany and the other I think is from India because of his accent.

Tonight we were joined by a woman from China and another post-doc from Italy to play a board game that is popular in Germany.  It is called "The Settlers of Catan" and  you try to build roads and houses to control different resources. You barter and trade with other communities. You also spend a lot of time drinking and eating! 

It was mostly a collection of the non-french speaking students and post-docs.  People have told me that this would happen.  The international students tend to congregate together either because of the language difference or the fact that we don't have anywhere else to go.  We don't usually have families with us, going out to mingle with the general population takes a better level of French that I have, and we are all trying to get enough work done to finish up our education.  That means we all spend long hours in the labs and only interact with others doing the same.    Looks like we may make Thursday nights a game night.

It changes your perspective on the students visiting our labs in Boulder. I have a new appreciation of the difficulties encountered by foreign students, not only the language, but also the change in culture and changes and the lack of the normal daily necessities.  Towels, pillows, laundry soap, ... and foods.

Tomorrow I am going to get a metro pass so I can tour the city whenever and for however long I want to.  The pass is good for all the subways, above ground trams, and buses.  I have only visited about one tenth of the city.

I have not even visited the large parks or the other University in the north end of Lyon.  I still need to explore the Roman ruins up on the hill.  I walked past them last April when I was here and did not get a chance to go in.  There are also a few museums that I would like to visit.  Hopefully paying for the pass will make me use it. I will also get the bike pass to use one of the over 500 bike stations in town.  The combination of the metro and bike pass allows me to use a bike for upto an hour without extra charge.  I can get almost anywhere in an hour on a bike here.