The Adventures of Stephanie

Browsing Archive: August, 2011

romeo and juliet, an astronaut and homemade crepes

Posted by Stephanie Finnvik on Tuesday, August 23, 2011,
So I know I've got a few days to catch up on here, and I'll surely give you a play by play.

Sunday
I visited the Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise, which contained more dead people than I think that I could have ever imagined, literally.  I have to believe that 99% of the people buried here have been photographed exponentially more times dead than alive (one because cameras weren't available then).  I also don't think that you can ever understand the size and amount of graves there are unless you visi...
Continue reading ...
 

baklava and a bookstore

Posted by Stephanie Finnvik on Saturday, August 20, 2011,
Today I was planning on going to Versailles, and I intended on staying the whole day because first, there's a lot of ground to cover (literally) if you want to see everything, and second, because at night they have a light show with the fountains that only happens over the summer on Saturdays.  Well, I was going to go, but the train that goes to Versailles is out of service for construction through today and I didn't feel like trying to attempt the bus.  I also didn't wake up quite as early a...
Continue reading ...
 

cupcakes - a chemistry experiment

Posted by Stephanie Finnvik on Friday, August 19, 2011,
Last night I decided that I need to bake.  I found some cute silicon cupcake liners in the shapes of circles, hearts and stars in the cupboard and asked Thomas if it was ok to use them.  He said sure, and didn't even think that they have been used before...  Nonetheless, in the container was a small recipe book and I thought it would be best to use that so I ended up with the right amount of batter for the amount of cupcakes I could make.

Next task - I knew that I had to use a French (or at le...
Continue reading ...
 

disney sand sculptures and the fear of being an intern

Posted by Stephanie Finnvik on Tuesday, August 16, 2011,
The Paris Plage (Paris Beach) is a summer event held along the Seine River of 1km worth of a 'beach', complete with lounge chairs.  It's free and there's lots of events like volleyball courts, music events, etc.  Disneyland Paris constructed two sand sculptures.  They were really cool, and huge.




I put this picture in so you can see just how tall they are!



I also saw some guys playing ukuleles.  I miss mine!

Philippe seems to think that I need to bring him his coffee every morning.  He thinks he'...
Continue reading ...
 

monday = public holiday

Posted by Stephanie Finnvik on Monday, August 15, 2011,
So I finally got to meet the family of whom I'm living with!  They are super nice and they got home late last night so I didn't want to bother them too much, but today we had breakfast and I played with Nathaniel, their son, who is 16 (and a half) months old.  He's super cute.  It is a small world after all; Thomas, the husband, spent a year in high school studying abroad no where else but Minneapolis, Minnesota!  He obviously remembered all the snow.  The wife, Marie, is very nice too.  Her ...
Continue reading ...
 

inception? am i in a dream?

Posted by Stephanie Finnvik on Sunday, August 14, 2011,
So this weekend has been busy but of nothing particularly crazy.  I found the Statue of Liberty!  That was a challenge because it's not really obvious.  Last week when I was with the girls from Florida and the Netherlands we were walking across the Seine and I remembered it had to be somewhere close.  Well, I found it!  It was kind of in a strange area but there really is nothing else around it attraction-wise so I guess maybe that would explain it.  It is on a platform that is in the middle ...
Continue reading ...
 

some thoughts

Posted by Stephanie Finnvik on Thursday, August 11, 2011,
It is interesting to read statements of professionals in past years looking into future endeavors of space technologies.  Some things that have been developed weren't even imagined before and others I'm sure would never be believed to be possible.  One distinguished person had made a statement to the effect of 'science fiction'.  (I was reading this while doing some work on the history of the IAF)

In other news, I'm calling him the "Tai Chi Man".  Every morning, and I mean every morning, he's ...
Continue reading ...
 

bill nye and nasa lunch boxes

Posted by Stephanie Finnvik on Wednesday, August 10, 2011,
Yesterday I learned that at the Congress, Bill Nye, THE SCIENCE GUY, is going to be a speaker at a session at the Congress in Cape Town.  How exciting is that??!! This hopefully means I will most likely get to meet him as well.  If I can get an autograph, I hope that I can ask him to sign it 'the science guy' - I'm assuming he's been asked that before too...

Then we were searching for some stuff in the office, and I saw some NASA bags and had to ask what was inside of them..... NASA goodies!  ...
Continue reading ...
 

it's like a crazy strobe light!

Posted by Stephanie Finnvik on Monday, August 8, 2011,
So first, today was my first really-super-independent-day-at-work.  My primary boss is gone this week on vacation in Alicante, Spain.  Oh the jealously I have of her.  I'm assuming she's looking out at something like this:



and enjoying food like this:



But enough of those antics, in result, I have a whole list of tasks to do this week.  I think I got quite a bit done too (especially for being a Monday).  Since most others are on vacation, only one other person is in the office, and she told me t...
Continue reading ...
 

Can I Pretend to be in the da Vinci Code at the Louvre?

Posted by Stephanie Finnvik on Sunday, August 7, 2011,
Today I went to the Louvre and was in fear when I saw that they put up a sign 4.00 hour wait from this point in line.  O.M.G.  I had assumed it would be crowded because it's a free entrance day but I had no idea it would be this bad.  I mean, I got there a half hour before the museum even opened and this was already my fate?  Yikes!  Fortunately, it kept moving and was only about an hour to an hour and a half.  I guess didn't realize free-first-Sunday of the month was this large of a deal!


  
B...
Continue reading ...
 

it's supposed to light up, right?

Posted by Stephanie Finnvik on Saturday, August 6, 2011,
So it is now the middle of my first weekend in Paris.  I'm not going to lie, but this week has been a bit rough adjusting to the time so I really haven't done that much besides work (and get my bearings there), find food and sleep.  With that, I apologize to announce that my first weekend is kind of 'lame'.  I figure I have two months to explore so I'm not too worried.  The weather has been not so nice either, so good 'working weather'.  Also, I've got a lot of work to be doing for stuff back...
Continue reading ...
 

a french keyboard and computer

Posted by Stephanie Finnvik on Friday, August 5, 2011,
So I have been switching rather frequently throughout the day between my computer and my work computer and in result, can't seem to type at a normal speed because of the difference of keyboards.  On the French keyboard, I am typing q instead of a z instead of w and , instead of m and vice versa.  Ah!  I have also never seen so many red lines in a word document either because of the language.  I seriously am not sure sometimes now if I'm spelling all of my words correctly.

Next week I get to wo...
Continue reading ...
 

dutch dozen and french fifteen

Posted by Stephanie Finnvik on Tuesday, August 2, 2011,
So I have been reminded that I have lacked on posting in the past few days.  My sincere apologies.  I have been very busy given it is my first week at work and next week my boss will be gone so I am trying to prepare to have enough things to do next week while she is gone.

The office is on the same floor as another space-related company and it is really dead.  Everyone is on vacation and you can tell when I'm riding the metro there are tons and tons of tourists.  Nonetheless, there are three o...
Continue reading ...
 

day one of work

Posted by Stephanie Finnvik on Monday, August 1, 2011,
The little things in life: I got to work without a problem at all!!!! I'm so incredibly proud of myself for this.  I left an extra hour early just to be sure (based on my previous experience) but it was not needed at all!  Fortunately it was a nice day so I just found a bench to sit on which was perfectly fine.  Ok, so I exaggerated that a bit - but my only problem this morning was trying to buy a ticket when the machine didn't have an English option... A lady was kind to help me though.

The o...
Continue reading ...
 
 

Recent Posts