Beautiful Switzerland

I was originally planning on staying in Metz for the weekend and maybe making a day trip to the Champagne region of France, but one of the other GTL kids, Christian, said he was going to Zurich and staying with his cousin, and I was welcome to come. A chance to go to Switzerland with a free place to stay for the weekend? Hard to turn that one down.

Christian's cousin Eric met us at the train station Friday afternoon and showed us around downtown Zurich a little bit. It was really nice to get a tour from someone that actually lives in the city and knows the ins and outs--he took us out to a really nice restaurant for a traditional Swiss dinner: bratwurst and potato salad. Much like Strasbourg, Northern Swiss food has a heavy German influence. We also got to learn some of the cultural norms that set Switzerland apart from other European countries. This one is probably my favorite: When drinking with some friends or family, it's considered really impolite to start drinking before a 'cheers' or 'prost', and you have to make eye contact with each person that you're cheers-ing with. If you don't make eye contact, it means you'll have bad sex for the next seven years. So eye contact is VERY important to the Swiss.

Saturday Christian and Eric went skiing, but I decided to spend some time in Zurich getting to know the city. You guys probably know how much I love seeing different cities, so I took full advantage of an entire day of exploration. I walked through the narrow cobblestone streets and alleys of the 'old city' for hours and every once in a while to check out the art galleries and specialty stores, rode the tram system almost aimlessly and took in the beauty of Switzerland in the winter, and went into a few bars and had a couple drinks to warm me up.

At night we had some Thai food and met up with some of Eric's friends at a Beer Hall. If you have ever been to the Hofbrauhaus in Pittsburgh, then you know what i'm talking about. If not, just imagine a big restaurant with long wooden tables, some live accordian music in German, and lots of drunk people singing along, dancing, and drinking obscene amounts of beer out of giant mugs. It was a great experience and a lot of fun.

I have to say that Zurich is one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen--on a clear day you can see the Alps in the background, and it has an incredible lake and river with surprisingly clear water. Apparently it is one of the safest cities in the world too, which is nice after getting used to Atlanta. I couldn't get over the fact that people just leave their bikes on the side of the road, not locked to anything, and there are no problems with theft. It seems almost unreal that it is even possible in a large city. However, it's one of the most expensive cities in Europe. A meal at a regular restaurant is 20-30 Swiss Francs, and 1 Franc is almost exactly equal to a dollar. On with the pictures.
This was at the restaurant we went to Friday night. I thought it was pretty hilarious.

Eric's apartment building. It was about a 5 minute tram ride from the heart of downtown, and 3 blocks from Lake Zurich.

Lake Zurich

Old city

Random alley in the old city.

They're not locked to ANYTHING!!!

This is the Grossmunster protestant church. You can climb up to the top of the left tower..and anyone wider than me probably can't fit up the stairs. Its quite a climb but definitely worth it..

The view from the top of the church. Absolutely one of my favorite views of a city..comparable to Brooklyn Heights, San Francisco, or Mt Washington.



Looking Northwest towards the train station and Bahnhof Strasse. The large clocktower in the picture is the largest clock face in the world.


This is Bahnhof Strasse, which is basically the main street of Zurich. It has lots of high class shopping and retail and is a great place for some people watching. No cars allowed.

Zurich at night is pretty spectacular as well.

Friends at the beer hall.

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!