back in OKC

I'm back in Moore safely. After sooo many security checks, you wouldn't believe and various other drama, but I'm here now. Yay!

yeah, so...

I'm not so much "on my way" to OKC now. I'm more "sitting at ISU." Again.

There's this whole big thing with this little regional airline I was taking to Brussels (then on to Chicago, to OKC on American Airlines). They do not allow a laptop bag in addition to a carry on, unlike every other airline ever. So (even though I was two hours early) there wasn't time (or option, really) to repack, and they wouldn't let me pay for an extra checked bag. Not an option. They did reschedule my flights to be the same exact flights, one day later and for free. That was cool. So I'm not home today, but will be on Friday afternoon.

In better news... thank you so much to the guys who came out for tarte flambee last night! I know that you all had a lot of work to do on the projects, and I appreciate you taking time out to see me for (what should have been) the last time for a long while. Y'all* are awesome! As soon as I get home, I'll post some of the many many pics I took. After I post all those other pics that I need to put up here.

JSC

* This is an Oklahoman phrase that I think I never** used the whole time I was at ISU.
** Except maybe that one time when I could only speak in a raspy Southern accent.

oh, well

Until Hello starts to work for me again (in the US, maybe?), I can't post more pictures. I'm working on a write-up, though.

Last chance for anyone to request anything from Strasbourg...

back for a few

I am back in Strasbourg until Thursday morning. I'll do a picture and word thing over Luxembourg and Paris... maybe tomorrow. Probably when I get back to OK. More later.

paris

Doing the Paris thing, tourist-style. Luxembourg was very lovely. Many many many many pictures to post when I'm back in the SXB (airport slang for Strasbourg) on Saturday night or Sunday morning. Talk to you then.
JSC

!

Okay, I just saw a French Serenity ad on the side of a bus. That made my day. It comes out here on October 19, I believe. Have you seen it yet? It's a great science fiction movie, with lots of space ships and some interesting sci-fi ideas of colonization. And the spaceships don't go "zrooom" when they're in space. It's pretty much my favoite movie ever, and I haven't even got to see the final version yet, just one of the pre-screenings in May.

...

Due to the "professional visit" to Paris and Luxembourg, I'm going to be out and away from Internet for a couple days. Don't freak if you don't hear from me. (Mom, I'm looking at you.)

Later.
JSC

In an unrelated note, we have magpies here. I just wanted to throw that in there. They're pretty cool. 

The trip back was much more amusing than the trip out, because we had MC Hassan and Prof Farrow to entertain us and we were all in very good moods.  

Back out to the fancy bus.  

Once inside again, we sampled a lot of wines. 

Everybody is fascinated by the grapes.  

Bunches of grapes. 

We followed some grape trucks in and got to watch several deposit their booty. 

Then we got to a wine place. We did go in here. 

Then we headed out again. Past the Kronenbourg beer place. We didn't get to go in there, but our trip narrator gave us a short lesson in hops import/export practices. 

They were really moving. 

Swirly clouds started forming at midday.  

Some ISUers find temporary shelter in a tiny cave. It was really wet that day. 

There's me with yet another layer of OU wear and the Mur Paien. I'm sorry I forgot about OU-Texas, and didn't send supportive thoughts that day. I'll try to do better this weekend, but I can't promise anything because it'll be the day after our Module 1 final. 

There's a kinda funky looking pic of the Pagan Wall. 

But those GPS work pictures were less exciting than the nice area we then took a walk. Again, watch as we get all rain-geared-up 

There's the actual reason we were there... using the GPS system. 

There's St. Odile, watching over Alsace and Strasbourg below.  

More pretty. 

Pretty location. 

It was a chilly and windy day, even with a couple of shirts on. (Note that that's an OU shirt... this was the day we won finally won a football game again.) 

And on to the top of the mountain. 

Up the winding mountain roads. 

Coming to the end of Module 1

(I should probably break the pics up with a bit of text here)

Since the last time I wrote about ISU...
Classes continued for a couple of weeks. There were many Introductions to Space Things, and it rocked. We had lots of parties to get to know each other and hang out, and we had the first field trip. We went to the Vosges, nearby mountains, to do a remote sensing/GPS field experience. First we stopped off at Rosheim, which is a small village with the oldest bakery in France (celebrating its 400th anniversary) and the "most ancient house in Alsace" which is said to date back to the last half of the 12th century.

(This is where the picture break is here... I'll post the pictures corresponding to the rest of this post after I post the post.)

After that, it was on to Mont Ste.-Odile, the convent site and tourist stop where we did our GPS activity and compared satellite images of the area to what we could visually observe. After a couple (cold/rainy) hours to meet with the GPS folks and lunch, we took a little (also cold/rainy, but more fun) walk on the paths nearby. The paths are along the Mur Paien (Pagan Wall), a prehistoric winding wall (the largest mysterious old wall in Europe). Estimated to have been built around 1000 BC, it's about six miles in perimeter, six feet wide and nine to fifteen feet tall.

After that, we got back in the fancy bus and headed to a local winery to get a tour and sample the products in a professionally led tasting. Educational school-sponsored fun.

Eventually we made it to the bus, back on the road, through fields of grape vines and on to the mountains. 

And we walked some more. 

So then we walked. It's fun doing things in groups. (This was a family/friends-invited trip.)