An Object Set in Motion....

“May every sunrise hold more promise and every sunset hold more peace.” -Blessing

Isn’t it amazing how nothing seems to happen for such a long time and the days pass so slowly, and then, suddenly, everything is happening at once and there aren’t enough hours in the day (or days in the trip) to all the things you had planned to do when you still had nothing at all to do?! Well, if you understood that at all, that’s what’s happening to me. Since I’ve returned from Ireland, different opportunities have been popping up all over the place, and all of a sudden I’m not sure if I will have enough time left to do them all…and I’m certainly not upset about it!!

As I mentioned before, Tuesday morning Claire left for a work meeting in Paris, so Peter and I were left to fend for ourselves. After work, I went for a nice run and then came back to watch “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”. I think I’d seen part of the movie before, but not the whole thing. I really enjoyed it….Peter’s getting me hooked on these older movies! Then we scrounged up some dinner. Claire had made some Waldorf Salad to take with her on the trip and left a ton behind in the refrigerator. Waldorf Salad is one of Peter’s favorites (we are supposed to make it together at some point so that I can know how to make it). There was also some leftover roasted chicken and vegetables from the night before. So we threw together a nice salad, got some bread and we were set to go! We had a good time pulling it all together and had a lovely chat over dinner about Peter’s childhood—he has SO many stories it’s unbelievable!

Wednesday at work I FINALLY finished the first round of sorting and marking faces…..I ended up marking over 500 good ones….that is more than 7000 points…yikes! And now, to account for personal error…I get to start remarking them. Don’t be mistaken, I’m not exceedingly excited about that. However, I was offered a break from the monotony during the afternoon! A first year Master’s student just started research in Fred’s lab, and her subject is on infections in these little shrimp like things which are found in a lagoon area about 45 minutes from Montpellier. Since she needs live ones to perform her research, she needed to go collect them….and Fred invited me to come along. I was more than willing to get out of the office for a few hours. So Cami (the new student), Fred, another woman from the lab, and I headed out to the lagoon.

The view around the lagoon was beautiful; the lagoon was quite large itself and there were multiple cities on rolling hills in every direction in the distance. We had to collect these little creatures from two different locations: right around the edge of the lagoon, and out farther into the center of the lagoon. So we put on these wetsuit/overall things and waded out into the lagoon to collect our specimen. Fred would pull up a huge heap of seaweed/algae and place it on this big rubber lid and then we would root around in it trying to find the little guys. I’ve never seen so many different….creatures. There were sea urchins, some full sized shrimp, and a bunch of other odd but neat looking little creatures as well. I didn’t do a whole lot of collecting since I was so infatuated by the little beings, and since I was also very focused on not stepping into a deep area or falling over from the sometimes strong current. Fred told me he had never lost a student in the field (this “field work” taking place in the lagoon) and I was determined not to be the one to ruin his track record. I succeeded! When we moved back into the shallow water, I contented myself with laying on my belly on one of the little wooden docks and catching the specimen that way. A big bonus of the trip was that I got to see a ton of flamingos hanging out on one leg and eating…..that was pretty cool! 

Marion was back in the office on Wednesday so I finally got to see her again….it’d been quite a while! She found a new house to move into (since she had to move out of where she was living with her boyfriend). She told me that it is just a little “hobbit” house in the garden of one of her friends, but, in her words, “that is okay because I’m hobbit sized anyway!” haha! Anyway, she said when she gets back from vacation (she will be in Iceland during the same two weeks that I will be in Vienna/Paris) that I can come visit for a weekend. I can’t remember the name of the village where she is living, but Fred said it is a nice “typical” French village. In August, there is apparently an art festival there, so hopefully we can go there! I’m very excited about that because I really enjoy spending time with Marion, and I love any chance to see a new part of a country—especially when I have someone to keep me company!!

Wednesday night, Peter and I made homemade English chips—really, really fat French fries—and fried eggs for dinner! Since Claire only has an average sized frying pan, we made one batch of fries and eggs and ate them at the counter while the next batch was cooking….it was SO fun for some reason. Of course we chatted and exchanged stories the whole time. I think I enjoy spending time with Peter and Claire so much because I feel a bit like and only grandchild…and no one can complain with that! Since I have about 30-40 cousins on my mom’s side, I’ve never experienced being the sole grandchild, so I’m considering my time with Peter and Claire to be something similar to what it would be like to be the only one. It’s a cozy feeling!

Today was filled with all sorts of different activities! In the morning I got through 30 faces…it’s going much more quickly this time which is good news!! After lunch, Fred asked if I wanted to go to this garden center to look at some plants and stuff for the garden at his new house—he is completely moved into his new flat and has purchased a bed, a refrigerator, an iron, and a dishwasher. Now he needs furniture, a washer/dryer, and something to block the neighbors view from his garden. I believe he invited me to go along because he genuinely concerned about how much time I spend in the office. He was made more than a few comments in the last few days about me working too much and too hard—not necessarily a bad thing, but I guess he thinks so, haha!! Hence, the invitation to go the lagoon and to go to the garden center. So we went to the garden center and looked at different trees, cacti, flowers, and wooden fences that he could possibly put up in the back so that his “neighbors can’t see what he’s cooking every night.” When we returned, I went with Cami to the lab to help her with her DNA extraction of the little shrimp guys. Unfortunately that entailed killing and crushing them….thank goodness they didn’t really look all that real in the first place.  I’ll go back with her tomorrow to complete the process because they have to incubate overnight. 

After that gruesome activity, we went to a little conference (in English) about whether or not the density of the malaria parasite is important in malaria transmission. The majority of people would not find that at all exciting, but I found it wayyy more than exciting!!! And, in fact, the general concept and theory of the presentation was VERY interesting. Unfortunately, it was presented by a statistician/mathematician and therefore a great deal of it was way over my head. I was a bit comforted when Cami completely agreed that the graphing/statistical/mathematical part of research, though extremely important obviously, is the most difficult part to understand and interpret. The discussion was still very intriguing though!

As we were all hanging out in the office—it’s a tight fit when you get more than two people in there, but we made it work—Cami and I started talking about les Estivales, a wine festival in the city center that takes place every Friday during the summer…just another wonderful facet of life in Montpellier. I was planning on going in tomorrow night and possibly meeting the students from UofL that just arrived in Montpellier Monday, but Cami invited me to join her, and I thought that would be neat. She told me that she was going with her boyfriend…and her boyfriend was bringing a friend…that could be nice!! Fred said that Cami needs to find me a boyfriend that I really like here so that I will stay here and work for good…I told him that I don’t think my mom would approve of that! He happily suggested that she could certainly come too…and Kelsey too since she would obviously really miss me ;)! Don’t worry, Mom….I still plan on coming home at the end of summer! At the moment….! Haha!!

Fred also told us that once Marion and I are back from our vacations, he is going to take everyone out for a nice dinner to a restaurant that he claims has really good wine…and food! So that will include Fred, Marion, Cami, me, and Hugo (another Master’s student that is in and out of the lab). On top of that, Fred told me on the way to the garden center that he plans to go canoeing when his daughter comes to stay with him in August (he and his wife have split custody), so I will most likely join them for that because it sounds like a ton of fun! So many things to look forward to!!!

Tonight Claire came home from Paris, so Peter and I waited for her to get back to have dinner. Peter said they were planning on heating up some Spaghetti Bolognese that they had frozen, so I thought it would be a good idea to make my own dinner. I did a bit of experimenting and ended up with a chickpea curry on couscous and bruschetta type thing—I covered some pieces of bread in a mixture of olive oil, garlic, salt, and basil and then put them in the frying pan to brown them; when they were crispy on the outside, I took them off and put some goat cheese and tomatoes on them. I was finishing up just as Claire got home, so I decided to wait for them to get their meal ready. In the end, we ended up sharing all of our dishes which really made me happy because lately Claire and Peter have been making a lot of the meals and I have felt like I wasn’t contributing, so I was more than happy to share my food. Although, then I was a bit nervous because I hadn’t planned on anyone else eating the food, so I didn’t know what they were gonna think…..I LOVE cooking for  myself, but I get reallllllly anxious when someone else is eating it. Peter REALLY like the “bruschetta” which made me very proud of myself, and they both liked the curry as well…..score one for Brittany!!! Now, I’m trying to think up a really good meal to make for them one night…I’m open to any suggestions anyone has :)!!

So, overall, things are really looking up and I think I should be more than busy during my last weeks here! I have just a little over 5 weeks left in my trip; I leave for Paris/Vienna in five days and by the time I get back, I will only have 3 weeks left (not that I made a countdown or anything)!!! Wowzers! How fast the time flies when you  have exciting events to look forward to!!! 

Oh yeah, and HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to really do anything American for it, but I didn't forget :)

“Keep smiling because life is a beautiful thing and you have so much to smile about.” –Marilyn Monroe