Is anyone reading this crap??????

If not, it's still a good way for me to keep a journal. So I think the last time "we spoke" I was headed to France. This is not as easy as people have said. My friend that I know in Paris, Noemie, had made some reservations for me on a train, since I didn't know what I was doing or what the best way to go was. She did this in France. I liked one of them, confirmed it and paid for it. I get a confirmation number, all that crap, even print it out, and am told to go pick the actual ticket up at the train station. Okay, easy.

I get to the train station and ask for my ticket. The guy looks at me like I'm crazy.
"That's not a ticket," he says, pointing at my confirmation page.
"Ya, I know, I was told to pick up my ticket here, at the train station."
"I can't do that. You bought the ticket in France on a French website. You can pick it up in France."
"I need to use this train to GET to France. Anyway, this is an international train. My ticket is the same wherever I bought it from."
"I cannot call up your reservation and process your ticket. You will have to buy another one." Mind you the first one cost me 120 Euros.
"Can't you just give me an equivalent one from Germany?"
"No. "
"Can I cancell my original ticket? Then I can buy a new one from you."
"I can't cancel it either."
"So I have to buy another seat for the train that I already have a ticket for!!!"
"Yes."

I go to the train, which is sitting on the platform, and ask the conductor and he tells me the same crap. I go back to the sales desk, which now has a huge line, intending to buy another ticket. I end up buying another ticket, 10 min before the train is scheduled to leave. Run to the train, get one, it doesn't leave until 20 min later. Bastards.

Besides that, France was spectacular. Paris is really beautiful. It has so many amazing buildings and the layout of the city makes them seem even more stunning. I saw the Arc de Triumph, the Champs Elysees, the Invalides (Napolean is buried there), the Lourve, the opera house, the Eifel tower, Notre Dame, Montmartre, and more. I also went to a beach in the English Channel in a town called Trouville (really pretty, and topless of course). Noemie was a terrific host (thanks), showing me all these places and making sure I got some really great food (cheeses, fondue, foie gras, confit de canard, wine, crepes, this pudding that is amazing). I also saw Versailles, which was nice, but I couldn't go in because of a bomb scare. Went through the gardens though. I posted my pics like before, you can find them in the links section.

Didn't find any French attitude, but that is probably becuase I was with a native. There was some attitude with her and others though. Saw some guy hitting and kicking his daughter in the subway station. That was shocking for both Noemie and I. We said something to him, and he accosted her, but she struck him down by saying "we don't treat our children like that here." Still very sad, especially since the mother, who was holding her daughter's hand the whole time, didn't do a thing, so I'm sure she has gotten her fair share at home. Some other bitchy people, but not many, and none of them bothered me since I don't speak french. By the way, there are tons of americans in paris. I guess that shouldn't be too surprising, but compared to Germany there are a lot more in France, and with the current anti-French attitude, I expected to see less americans. Everywhere I went I heard american.

By the way, I realized that some of you may still not know what I am doing here in Germany. I am doing research under a professor at Aachen University (see my lab in the links section). My research is centered around designing, building and testing a electrical valve that will be used to drain excess brain-spinal fluid (CSF) into other parts of the body (probably the stomach cavity), where it is reabsorbed into the blood stream. Some people are not capable of regulating their CSF properly, because of a congenital disorder, old age or a tumor, and so they need one of these things to do it for them. It's really interesting. Besides the fact that the application is cool, I am learning all these medical things that are totally new and separate from engineering. This might be what I will decide to do for good, but we'll see. I need to look around more and see what opps are available.

okay, it's Mitternacht here (you should know what that means) and I "need" to do some other stuff before going to bed. tschuess (check out the pics!!!!)