so it's been a while since I wrote a entry, but that's mostly been due to the fact that the internet in the dorms was somewhat spotty. That aside, I arrived here a two weeks ago and finished my french courses yesterday. I'll give some kind of background up until today.
Tuesday the 25th of August I arrived with a bunch of luggage and took a taxi to the campus, which on first sight, was not what I expected. It looks kind of run down, but we learned later that the French spend more time and money on their town centers than on their universities. I was the last to show up because my train broke down for a couple hours in the south of France, but everything worked out. That night the students from the program all got together and hung out in the hallway drinking wine and chatting, it kind of felt like freshman year all over again, but not as awkward. The next day we just hung out and had a meeting to orient us on future meetings, and then we went out that night for dinner in the center of town. We ended up going to a bar and getting stuck in town because the tram closed at midnight, and we were unaware of the schedules. So then 25 of us ran around trying to find a taxi, which was an adventure, but we all got home eventually.
Thursday we went out again after a meeting on housing, where we talked about homestays, apartments and other options. Friday we had an excursion with the EAP program coordinators to an oyster farm, where we learned about the history and techniques of oyster farms. Afterwards we tasted oysters (my first time with the crustaceans, possibly my last), but most people didn't really enjoy them. They're still alive when you put them in your mouth, which kind of bothered me, and I didn't really enjoy the taste, but it was still a cool experience. We then drove in the huge air-conditioned buses to La Dune de Pyla, which is the largest sand dune in Europe. We climbed up and the hung out up top for a bit, it was really impressive.
We had classes for the second week in from 830 until 1230. I really didn't find the courses that helpful unfortunately, they didn't use their time most efficiently. I'm so glad I came early and had the experience I did with Maxime and Aunt Melissa. After class, most people would go to town to hang out or eat or laze around. While I was in Toulon I got in contact with two research teams here at the Centre de Neuroscience, and both responded positively, so Tuesday and Wednesday of that week I went to interview with them and see the labs. I decided to work with a team in the INSERM building doing research on addiction and cocaine, and the following Tuesday (6 days ago) I started work there. I'll get to that eventually. On Thursday we went to a chateau for a wine tasting at Chateau Raymond-Lafon. They talked to us about how they make the wine especially sweet, because the particular type of wine was a Sauterne, a dessert wine. The vineyards stretched for kilometres and kilometres in all directions, and the region was apparently somewhat famous (Le Medoc). There were some castles off in the distance.
Last weekend I went with Dylan and Spence, two guys from UCSB, to Lacanau, a small beach town an hour away from Bordeaux. We took the bus there and stayed in a really cool hostel just 5 minutes by foot from the beach. That Friday I went swimming while Dylan hit the waves with his surfboard, and I got swept out by a rip current that nearly drowned me. I've never been so tired from trying to swim in the ocean. All I kept thinking was, "I'd really like to be back on shore right now sipping a cold beer. And I don't want to drown." It was a scary experience, and eventually I had a bodyboarder follow me as I slowly swam back in. The waves that day and Saturday were enormous, 8-9 feet high and heavy. They were tubing and really throwing that lip over the edge. It was an adventure for me to jump back into the surf at that level, but Sunday was a much nicer 4-5 foot day, and I had some really fun rides. We rented surfboards which weren't too expensive, surprisingly, and I really enjoyed the 6 foot shortboard that I got. It was fantastic to get out in the water and exercise again...
This week I started the actual internship at the lab, beginning with surgery on the rats. The team is looking at rates of rat self-administration of cocaine to replicate some data they found a year ago. To allow the rats to self-administer cocaine, they insert a tube into the back that leads to another tube that leads into the jugular vein. So on Tuesday and Wednesday I was at the lab helping shave the rats and anesthetize them while the grad students found the jugular veins. It was awesome. Bit by bit, my advisor kept adding things for me to do: shaving them, putting them to sleep, making the incisions on the back and shoulder, finding the jugular, and stitching them back up. At first it was hard for me to work on something that I new was still alive and breathing right in front of me, but I got used to it much quicker than I was expecting. Definitely looking forward to working more in the lab. For those who are interested, the research is looking to replicate previous findings that showed less neural plasticity in brains of classified "addicts" according to the way DSM-IV classifies human addicts. Too cool.
So yesterday I moved into my host family here in Pessac, just outside of Bordeaux. I live with a mom, dad, and two sisters who are 18 and 21. They're very welcoming and curious about my life; the mother (Sylvie) is a professor of history at a high school and Bordeaux 3 (the university), and I'm still not sure what the father (Vincent) does. He's quiet and rides a motorcycle, which reminds me, I'm trying to buy/rent a mobylette, which is like a bike with a motor. I really would like to be able to leave the house and not worry about getting on a tram and bus and another bus to get back to the house. The place is situated kind of far from my school, but it's a great house. I live on the second floor and look out on vineyards of Pape Clément, where I can see an old castle tower. It's really quiet, my room is huge, and I have my own shower. I'm diggin it here.
So from here I try to find out when I can enroll in courses in pysch and neurobiology, which should be monday... I'm still figuring out those logistics. I'll try to update my photos on the flickr account, so check them out when you get the chance. up and out
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