GTL and Strasbourg, Part 2

So i realized that I haven't really written anything about Georgia Tech Lorraine itself. We have one building in a section of town called the "Technopole", which I talked about briefly in one of my previous posts. It's about 2 miles from downtown Metz and kind of resembles a large, sprawling suburban college campus in America. Various schools have buildings on this campus and they're mostly science and electrical-engineering oriented. There are a few dorm buildings on the Technopole campus, but Lafayette, the one we live in, is about a 10 minute walk from the Technopole.

Our GTL building works a lot like a much much smaller version of Georgia Tech. There is the president and all the staff, who are French, but a lot of the professors are faculty members at GT Atlanta who get the opportunity to teach in Metz for a semester. They get a really nice deal-basically an all expenses paid trip to France. The school even provides them with a car! I'm taking four classes for a total of 13 credits: Heat Transfer, Statistics, History of Technology, and System Dynamics and Controls. So far I like them a lot better than classes in Atlanta because my two ME classes have 5 and 6 students in them. It makes it a lot easier to ask questions, and the professors actually know you by name, which doesn't happen very often at GT Atlanta. Here's a video from the GTL website..it has some good shots of the city of Metz and the GTL building since I haven't taken any pictures of our building yet.

http://www.georgiatech-metz.fr/undergraduate-video

I have gotten to spend a lot of time with the other GTL students and I met some French and Italian students as well. Everyone is really friendly and awesome, and I can tell already that by the time the semester is over, I will have made some really great and valuable friendships. This past weekend I went back to Strasbourg with a different group of people and we had a really good time just walking around the city and experiencing the nightlife.


This is the group that I traveled with this weekend..from left to right: Rita, Pascal, Beth, Lauren, Christian, Dave, Josiah, Sarah Marie, and Robyn.




We got to see some live music and it was really amazing. I don't really know how to describe the genre, I guess I would call it electronic/classical? Anyways, there were two DJs making beats and mixing, but there was a guy playing voilin and a girl singing. It was kind of laid back and chill, but still good for dancing.

Then in the Strasbourg train station on Saturday morning, we came across a really cool charity event called "Pieces Jaune", or 'yellow pieces' that raises money by sending a train to different cities through France. It gets its name because they encourage people to donate the small change that they don't want, and it ends up being lots of money. The inside of the train is filled with activities for children and information about what the charity does for people across the country. This thing is a really, really big deal in France, and I'm lucky to have seen it.


Inside the train:


On the left: The mayor of Strasbourg. On the right: the former first lady of France, Bernadette Chirac. Yes, I was about 2 feet away from the former first lady of France. It was awesome.

A couple lists for your enjoyment

Things I like about France:

1. The people are really friendly and willing to teach you about their language and culture.

2. Delicious food and drink, with a solid replacement for taco bell: Kebabs. They're an amazing thing.

3. It's really easy to get around without having a car.

4. A lot of the people and businesses are environmentally, socially, and politically conscious.

5. The cities are beautiful, full of history, and pretty dense.

6. My apartment here is at least 600 times nicer than the one in Atlanta.

7. There are student specials and discounts almost everywhere you go.

8. The people here are really well dressed, so it motivates me to dress well too.



Things I don't like about France, or at least the part of France that I live in:

1. The weather is awful at this time of the year. I've seen the sun once in two weeks.

2. Just about everything is more expensive, except for some groceries and public transit.

3. Taking really hard classes (I know this is my fault, not France's)

4. It's really flat and there aren't many trees..basically the complete opposite of Pittsburgh in that respect.

Strasbourg

I'm still having a hard time coming to terms that I'm in Europe for an entire semester. The fact that I had an opportunity to even come here makes me think about how incredibly lucky and privileged I am. I think the main reason that I'm so excited to be overseas is that I absolutely thrive on getting to experience new things and places. If I could just travel the world and live in a new city every month or two, I think I would absolutely do it. Too many people just like to stay within their comfort zone, only hanging out with the same people, staying in the same place, and doing the same things day in and day out. A life like that would drive me insane. There's a quote by Christopher McCandless that came to mind earlier this morning when I was thinking about how great it is to experience new things:

"The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun."

So here's something new: I went to Strasbourg, France this past weekend with seven other kids from GTL. Quick geography and history lesson: Strasbourg is the capital of the Alsace region of Northeastern France, right on the German border. It has gone back and forth throughout the centuries between France and Germany, so it has a really cool blend of French and German culture and architecture. It's the home of a lot of European government buildings, including the parliament of the European Union.

Anyways, we took a train there Friday morning (GTL has no classes on Fridays!) and spent most of the afternoon just walking around the city center and taking in all the beautiful sights and sounds. Of course we went to the cathedral, which on the exterior is a lot more impressive than the one in Metz--apparently it was the tallest building in the world from the late 1600s until the late 1800s, so we climbed up almost to the top and got a spectacular view of the entire city. We also went to a really nice restaurant for dinner and had some traditional Alsacian food and wine: onion tart as an appetizer, then sauerkraut and various sausages paired with a local 2005 Riesling.

Saturday we learned to use the light rail system, called the tram, and checked out the European Parliament then did a tour of the Kronenbourg brewery, along with a half hour taste test of course.

More on the tram and Strasbourg from an urban design viewpoint (you knew it was coming): being in a city with an efficient light rail system is absolutely incredible. Besides being so dense and walkable, Strasbourg has a great tram that can get you at least within a couple blocks of basically anywhere you need to go in the city. It's so nice to be in a place where the transportation emphasis is clearly placed on transit, biking, and walking. The infrastructure is excellent and the city center is almost car-free, which makes it so much more pleasant and relaxing. I seriously think there were more bike trails, sidewalks and pedestrian areas, and rail lines than roads in Strasbourg, and that's how a liveable and thriving city center should be. On with the pictures.


Just outside the train station..bikes everywhere!


The train station..the original, historic station is actually inside the glass "bubble"


Tram


It was really cold.




My travel buddies outside of our hostel:




The front door of the cathedral:

It was impressively enormous and intricate


The incredible view from the top of the cathedral:


I got some pretty good shots of the "Petit France" section of town at dusk:



Oh the joys of public transportation



The European Parliament:



We went to beer school. I liked it better than Georgia Tech.


To a great weekend!

First Round

I've been in Metz now for five days and I'm continually surprised by how great of a city it is. At our orientation yesterday, we got a brief history lesson on Metz and the Technolopole, which is basically an educational and research area that is focused on electronic communications, and is where Georgia Tech along with some top French engineering schools have campuses. It was created by the former mayor of Metz in the 80s after a massive decline in the steel industry, which was a big part of this region.

So Metz has gone through a renaissance; it went from being heavily industrial and dependant on the steel industry to this great cultural and technology based small city. Sounds exactly like Pittsburgh! And you wonder why I like this place so much. Downtown Metz is incredible--narrow cobblestone streets filled with little cafes, bakeries, and various shops. I've already seen two merry-go-rounds, which is something that I think needs to be incorporated into American cities. The bus system is simple, efficient, and pretty inexpensive, and buses come by about every 20 minutes on weekdays, so getting downtown is really easy. I've already been to the cathedral three times and I want to go more. You'll understand why after seeing the pictures of it. Absolutely amazing.

My Room!


This is the view from my window looking out into the quad:


Beautiful downtown Metz



Crepes! and Nutella!


Cathedral St. Etienne, containing the largest expanses of stained glass in the world:




Stained glass done by the French artist Marc Chagall


The plaza outside of the cathedral at night

Bonjour from France

It's been a long journey, but I finally made it to Metz, France, where I'm doing a semester abroad at Georgia Tech Lorraine. I've only been here for less than a day and it's already been a great experience, although you might not believe it from the story i'm about to tell.

Yesterday afternoon I was planning on taking a train at 12:50pm direct from the Paris airport to Lorraine, but my plane ended up landing about an hour late and there was a long line for tickets, so I missed the train. No worries, another train was leaving an hour later but I would have to get off at the first stop and switch trains. The bullet train came so I boarded, stacked up my two suitcases along with everyone elses, and took a seat. Ten minutes go by and its time to get off the train in some suburb of Paris. I went back to where all the luggage is and find my red suitcase, but not the big black one that is almost completely indistinguishable from all the other black suitcases. At this point I started freaking out, because the train only stops for a couple minutes and if I can't find my suitcase, it ends up in some unknown corner of some unknown foreign country.

So I grabbed my red suitcase and waited in an utter panic as more passengers pile into the train, completely blocking my exit. I waited until they all get on and I get off the train with a nice sinking feeling in my stomach since I was sure the train was about to leave and I would lose my luggage forever. I looked around and saw a TGV worker on the platform about 30 yards away getting ready to blow his whistle to send the train on its way again. At this point I left my red suitcase where it was and sprinted towards him saying "Pardon, Pardon!!!" I told him I couldn't find my suitcase and pointed to the train car that it was in. He calmly walked over, got on the train, lifted up a suitcase or two, and magically my suitcase appeared. I must have thanked him 20 times in a row. He didn't really say anything in response. So sorry my fellow Americans, I think I just perpetuated the French stereotype (or world stereotype) that Americans are stupid.

Anyways, the rest of the trip went smoothly. I waited in the train station for about an hour for my other train to come, then took that one to Lorraine and made sure to remember where I put my luggage, although French people like to move other people's luggage on trains. Luckily I ran into another GTL student at the Lorraine train station so I had someone to talk to while taking a shuttle from the train station to downtown Metz, then a taxi from there to our dorm. After just about 24 hours of traveling I finally made it to GTL!

The Burgh, Part 2

You won't see me criticizing Pittsburgh very much on this blog, but there's one thing that's been on my mind lately. One thing that Pittsburgh needs for its transformation into a truly world class city is a functional and highly developed light rail system.

For whomever is unaware, the city does have a light rail system called the "T", but it is mediocre at best. It runs about 20 miles from the Southern suburbs to Station square, crosses the Monongahela River, and goes underground for a few stations downtown. The Port Authority has been working on an extension to the line to go from the Gateway center station through a tunnel bored under the Allegheny river, and coming above ground for two new stations at PNC park and Heinz Field.

This decision to extend it to the stadiums was a perfect example of the poor transportation planning that we see so much of in the states. According to gmaps pedometer, the walk from the Gateway center station (in downtown) to PNC park, across the Allegheny River, is half a mile, or about 10 minutes at a normal pace. But for political and financial reasons, the Port Authority decided to lobby the federal and state governments for hundreds of millions of dollars to dig a tunnel for a half mile line under the Allegheny, and the project is well underway. Turns out that the project is way over budget--from an original estimate of $350 million to over $550 million, according to the Post-Gazette.

It baffles me why anyone would think that a link to the stadiums would be more important than a line to the airport or to Oakland (the transportation, educational, and medical hub for the city). In transportation planning, it's all about reducing VMT, or vehicle miles traveled. The point of having a light rail system is to get people to where they need to go without having to rely on an automobile for transportation. It can be seen as a way of social and environmental justice--cleaner air for city residents, and the opportunity for poorer folks (or anyone else) to get around without having to pay the high costs for a car. A rail line out to the airport or Oakland would dramatically reduce VMT, not to mention the fact that it would be incredibly convenient. Sadly, the line across the river will have little effect on reducing automobile usage in the city.

It turns out that this planning decision was a result of local politics, just like how the poor planning decisions--or lack of decisions--in Atlanta are usually a result of state politics. I won't expand upon it here, but you can check out this article..it explains exactly what went wrong.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09074/955761-52.stm

The silver lining about this entire thing is that the port authority, governor, and media realize that it was an awful decision. We can only hope that more money will become available in the near future for some transit that will actually help the city and make other places envy our excellent public transportation system.

New and Exciting forms of Transportation

I wrote earlier about how I decided to sell my car over the summer. I've now been carless for half a year and it was a great decision. One of the most interesting parts of not having a car is coming up with other ways of transporting yourself. Although Atlanta isn't the most walkable city, it is very possible to live here and not own a car. The weather is nice enough and the terrain is flat enough that walking, biking, and public transportation are pretty legitimate options for transportation.

The first few months of being carless, I relied almost entirely on my bicycle and ZipCar, which is a car-sharing service available in most major cities. But then I realized how efficient and useful a scooter could be, so I decided to buy one. At the time, I wasn't sure if it was a good decision or not. But it's a perfect way of getting around the city. It's got a basket and everything. Perfect for running errands or going grocery shopping. Also, it gets about 70 mpg, and I don't have to spend $600 for a GT parking permit. I can park the thing wherever I want! No registration, no insurance, no motorcycle license required because it's under 50cc. And there's room for a passenger. This is usually what I look like when I'm riding it around:



Also, Grey and I decided to build a tandem bike from 2 vintage road bikes that we found on craigslist. This thing took a ton of time and effort to build, and it's still not complete. But at the moment it's rideable. I'd say it's the definition of a franken-bike--we used 3 frames, various parts from other bikes, tires and wheels from my bike, and brakes from Grey's bike. So neither of our personal bikes is rideable at the moment, but it's alright because we have an incredible homemade tandem. Onward to the pictures.


This was when we still had 2 frames..trying to get the spacing right before welding.

Our roommate Clayton helped with cutting and welding. He did a great job.
"Best Friends for Life". Molly was the head decorator/painter.

Lots and lots of clearcoat.

Working at the local bike co-operative, Sopo.

Coming together, but still missing a few things.

We turned our hallway into a bike workshop.

This is the current state of the tandem. It's definitely a head-turner.

It's impossible to be upset while riding a tandem, or a scooter with a basket on the back. Two-wheeled transportation is the way to go!