Friday, the 12th

Fell off the wagon there for a few days, but now I'm back, and I'll do a quick recap of what's happened lately. (It's sort of like the remix (to the remix) - see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-lwiwVyeY0)

The last post finished up recounting our tour of Cimetière du Père-Lachaise, which I can't say enough about: interesting, powerful, and beautiful in it's own sad, still way.  Each of the graves seems to contain so much personality, not only through it's construction, but also through the gifts still left there.  Some showing resign, some majesty, and some still struggling to get out.

As we get further into the trip, assignments are starting to come in and there is A LOT of grading that needs to happen.  Grading parties and supper club have become the norm.  Luckily, we're not losing track of where we are.

One of the biggest pros of this entire trip has been all of the cultural events that we have planned into the syllabus.  We're getting to see so many of the things that make Paris an amazing place to visit (or live).  The pictures will never do it justice, but being able to stand in a room, turn a full 360 degrees and take in the beauty of some of the greatest artists to known is a true blessing.  We always see pictures of lilies in books or on posters is nice, but to standing close to these paintings is irreplaceable.

The sights outside of the museums aren't too shabby, either.

Even being this far away from home, there are things that remind you of home.  We had a visit to the museum of medical specimens (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mus%C3%A9e_Dupuytren).  You can't take pictures, but what you can see are the actual brains the Broca studied to gain insight into the language aphasias that resulted in having a language area of the brain named in his honor.  You can actually see the same lesions on the brains that he studied - total nerd-gasm.

Afterwards, it's just a short walk to the Rodin museum, primary set in a garden outside of a home that he made his studio.  Here's where the Atlantan (and beer drinker) in me really kicked in.  For the first 4 years of grad school, I don't know if I ever missed more than a handful of Wednesday nights at the Thinking Man Tavern with Jimbo, Eric, Meag, and Judas.  Here's to you all:

Well, that doesn't quite bring us up to date, but it's enough for now.  Besides, I have a special guest that needs some entertaining.  Back soon!

Day 8

The end of week one with the students.  We started the day off right with running group, heading down along the Seine and back through the Louvre from the 10th.  Polished it off with a tasty breakfast at my apartment, and all before class even started.

One of the things that's become very apparent is Rachel's affinity for puns and bad jokes.  Whether in class or out, there's always something to laugh about.  The most classic example was earlier in the week, when I was discussing the discovery of pharmacological agents used in neuroscience research from natural sources.  We talked about tetrodotoxin from puffer fish, atropine from nightshade, etc.  When I asked the students if they knew what was in foxglove, without missing a beat, "fox hands" burst from the back of the classroom.  This, as it turns out, was only the beginning.  I'll try and keep a running log of the good ones (while tastefully ignoring the bad) in future posts.

After classes finished up, we headed out with the students to Cimetière du Père-Lachaise, where the talented Rachel had devised a scavenger hunt for the students to wander through the cemetery to find the graves of famous French scientists and other individuals of note.  

The prize was 5 macaroons that we picked up at lunchtime.  We determined that if there were fewer than five students in the winning group that the remaining macaroons should be divided amongst program leadership.  As I noted, no matter which the students come out on top, it's important the we (the faculty) always win.

Here are some of the highlights:

Chopin

Oscar Wilde (lots of lipstick on this one - I guess that's a thing)

Finally, I made it a point to ensure that I visited Jim's tomb (definitely The End for him).

Afterward, we had a pretty low key end to the day, sitting at a cafe, drinking Rose, and watching the passersby.  We're clearly integrating well into the Parisian culture.

Day 7

David Bowie!!!
There was some class and other stuff today, but the highlight was the trip to the David Bowie Is exhibition currently running in Paris.  I don't care how many times I was asked by a student, "So like, seriously, who is David Bowie?"  I don't really care if this isn't technically a Parisian cultural experience.  What it is, is a life lesson for our students.  An eduction they may have missed out on that cheated them from having a world of experiences that they really do need in their lives.  Regardless, we packed them all up after class and took them to the exhibit (http://davidbowieis.philharmoniedeparis.fr/en).

Was is worth it?  YES!
Did they truly appreciate the cultural/musical icon whose history they were seeing? no idea
Was this the best use of our program time?  HELL YES!!

All of the outfits, clips, and history, that have been iconic in music, film, and culture, throughout the years were there on display.

Afterward, the program management retired to my apartment for an impromptu supper club with goulash, wine, salad, wine, vegetables, and wine, and we finished the night off with some Youtube videos that got us scolded by the neighbor.  I'm not sure if he was upset with the noise or the content of the music videos, but either way, it was another great evening in Paris.

Day 6

Trying not to fall behind on this business...  Yesterday was our first official class day.  Orientation is over, and we're getting into the nitty gritty of the courses.  We spent a lot of time talking about model synapses, a bit of cellular neuroscience, channel kinetics: you know, all of the fun stuff that I'm sure everyone wants to hear about.

After class finished up, though, is where the adventures began (Zoltar says, "this may become a theme").

After class, I booked it over to University of Paris to meet a colleague to see if we could find a way to get our students into see some real experiments in a Parisian lab.  I had a good feeling about the visit, when I noticed the cross street for the University.

Sure enough, the awesome Boris Lamotte d'Incamps, a spinal cord physiologist (who we all know are great people) agreed to host not one, but three small groups of students in his lab.  He even offered to set up multiple experiments for them to observe.  If that wasn't enough, U. Paris is about to hold a mini-course in electrophysiology and optical techniques (optogenetics, 2-photon microscopy, etc), and he graciously offered to let our students join in.

After returning from the university, I hosted the first iteration of the Emory in Paris running group.  We had only one stalwart student join Rachel and me, but we had a great run, nonetheless.  We're hoping to explore Paris with a different running route three days a week.

After the run and getting cleaned up, it was time to take advantage of the ongoing Paris Beer week, continuing through this week.  The program leadership headed to a local brewpub.

I'm still having a little trouble with the language, apparently.  I had the strong impression that I was ordering a flight of their diverse beers...  However, when the waiter slapped down a bucket with 10 bottles, I realized I had slightly mistranslated the menu.  Thankfully, I had some help polishing off the bucket, and I got to sample many fine brews from the Demory.  We also made friends with a restauranteur from Stockholm who was sampling beer to import into the restaurant he works at.  All in all, a very successful outing for the evening.

Day 5

During the festivities of the preceding evening, Rachel, Kristen, and I, decided that we would meet up for a run through a new part of Paris.  For one, my distaste of using maps (which will come into play again soon), prompted me to want to do a trial run past the center where we would be teaching later in the day.
The morning was a struggle for all involved.  I was sitting on the couch deep into the musings of Tyrion Lannister, when my phone started ringing.  It didn't really click at first.  Why was someone interrupting my morning quiet time?  Maybe it was the fact that I ran out of espresso yesterday, maybe it was the intrigue of the book.  In any case, the second time the phone rang, I snapped out of it, realized that I was now 15 minutes late to meet the running group!  I ran downstairs and out the door, heading towards Kristen's apartment.  I was worried I wouldn't see them, at first, but when I was still about 450 yards away, I spied hot pink from head to toe.  Rachel wouldn't be hard to find in a crowd during this run.
As we started the run (around 9:20), I found that Rachel and Kristen also had a bit of a struggle in the morning.  Both had required NSAIDs, likely due to the 5 bottles of wine  6 flights of stairs you have to climb to get to Kristen's apartment; it's pretty hard on the calves, after all.
We made a pretty direct line past the place where the Bastille used to stand to the building where we would be meeting the students.  It was maybe 3 miles away.  This is when we probably should have turned around and run back the way we came, but the Tour de Frenzel was just beginning.
After visiting a local market and downing some small, juicy strawberries, bursting with sweetness, we started to jog back, but this time along a slightly altered route.
Fast forward to about an hour later.  We still weren't back, and there was the distinct impression that we were heading out of the city.  There was talk of finding a map.  I have a strong aversion to maps (and asking directions, which is even more of an admission of defeat), so we pressed on for a bit longer until I was swiftly and powerfully overruled.  To say the least, we were just a hop, skip, and a jump, away from home (at least 5 miles).  We walked for a bit, jogged for a bit, walked for a bit more, and finally made it back around noon.  C'est la vie!

After we finally got back, lunched, and (some of us) showered just in time to meet the students for their orientation, we headed to where the classes would be held, took a boat tour on the Seine, and then closed out the day with a picnic at the base of the Eiffel Tower.  All in all, a beautiful day in Paris!

Day 4

Well, the first 3 posts were a basic overview of what went up on Facebook to get this blog kicked off.  Now, I can really dig into the meat of the trip.  And speaking of digging into meat, I'm heading over to Kristen's apartment to cook up some (what we hope will be) tasty cassoulet.  Pictures to follow, along with what I'm sure will be an interesting description of blundering around in the kitchen with the grand ambition that something delicious will emerge.

...

And the cassoulet was a hit. Preparation involved picking up some last minute ingredients: chicken thighs (couldn't find duck), a nice Rosé, and box (= 4 bottles) of côtes-du-rhône, and a baguette.  After a few hours of wine, cheese, spreads, and bread, we finally made it to the main course. The cassoulet was filled to the brim with chicken thighs, Toulouse sausage, haricots blanc, and all sorts of fun stuff.  Along the way, there was a fabulous photoshoot with the city hall of the 10th Arrondissement.  Hair up, hair down, and lots of silliness.  It was hard to select just a single photo for the blog.  As Rachel so expertly put it, "I never met a Juan I didn't like.  I like every Juan of them."

As the evening went on and the box of wine emptied, hilarity ensued.  Whether laughing, joking, or swiping, we had a blast, and there was enough food to have leftovers for lunch the next day.

Day 3

As it is Paris Beer Week, we decided to see what the locals have to offer in terms of brews.  Everyone knows that the French kill it when it comes to wine, but we were curious to find out if they know their way around a solid porter, double IPA or Berliner Weisse.  I have to admit that I was impressed with all of the offerings that we were able to sample.  There was a tap takeover from the Mont Saleve brewery at a little bar known as La Fine Mousse, tucked away down a quiet street in town.  The party was set to start around 5:00.  When I showed up, there were only about 10 people at the bar, but they had over 20 taps pouring from the brewery, from traditional hefeweizens to imperial stouts.  By the time we left around 8:00, the place was literally overflowing onto the street.  It was nice to see that beer geeks love a tap takeover from a fine brewery the world round.