Anniversary airplanes and maths

Grad school is a life killer. On a good day, I'm on campus for 9 hours. A typical day? Try 10 to 12. Whee, thesis.

My point being, I do not spend enough time with Ev. At least, not time when I'm both awake and coherent. Luckily, last weekend was our anniversary, so I gave him the best present ever: school-free Amy time and a trip to the Musee de l'air et de l'espace. He'd been talking about wanting to go there for a few months, so I figured I'd take a weekend off, ride the train to Paris, and go look at a buttload of airplanes.

So that's exactly what we did. We even stayed in a cute little hotel near Gare du Nord that was waaaaaaay classier than anything we've stayed at in years. It had a private sauna that you could book for 30 minutes a day for free (which was super sweet) and was about as stereotypically and adorably French as you can imagine. It was awesome. Although I think if/when we go back to Paris, we'll stay in the Latin Quarter again, since there are a ton of things to do in close proximity. And a ton of boulangeries. But anyway. Airplanes.

Ev loves airplanes. He did some flying when he was younger, but couldn't get his medical so doesn't have a pilot license. So he was pretty excited when I told him about our grand weekend adventure. There may have been some squealing.

The museum was pretty sweet, even for someone who isn't that in to planes (although the rocket part was flipping sweet!). We met up with a colleague from TU Delft who's doing his thesis in Paris and (thank god) thinks airplanes are the bees knees. So Ev had someone to nerd out with and I got to wander around going 'oh, that one's cool!'

While pretty much all the museums in France are free for EU residents under 26, you do have to pay extra for some stuff, such as going inside the 747, Concorde, and Dakota. Which obviously we did. So without further ado, here are a bunch of pictures of airplanes:

Ev and Jean Baptiste getting ready to jump out of the Dakota aka Douglas C-47 Skytrain aka DC-3 (WWII paratrooper airplane). Probably my favourite plane that we saw. 

(left to right) Dessault Mercure, Ariana 5 rocket, Canadair CL-215, Ariana 1 

Bottom: The Transall C160 R18 - early 1960's military transport plane and my second favorite plane: the Douglas A-1 Skyraider. Mostly because of the folding wings :)

Also, satellites!

I had a lot of fun wandering around the space portion of the museum. Satellites and rockets get me more excited than airplanes. Possibly because I started off doing aerospace engineering before I realized I could play with dirt and call it engineering.

Anyways, Jean Baptiste was kind enough to take a picture of me and Ev in front of the Concorde (another super cool plane!), so here's that

School has been keeping me busy (I managed a 63 hour week by the time we left on Friday) , so I took the opportunity Saturday to sleep in (I made it until 9:30). We did a bit of wandering around in the morning before heading to the museum. We closed that place down (woooooooo!) and did a bit more wandering in the evening before we had a lovely, just a wee bit early anniversary dinner. With an amazing dish that consists pretty much entirely of cheese and potatoes called tartiflette that our resident Frenchie (aka Jean Baptiste) recommended.

Mmmmm, cheese and potatoes. I should probably mention that we've been on a bit of a diet the last few weeks, which obviously was paused for the weekend cuz French food is bloody amazing. Bread is amazing. As is cheese. And delicious wine. The perk of this? We are both super-light-weights right now and got a wee bit tipsy off of one glass of wine.

Sunday we wandered around. A lot. We woke up pretty early and, this being Europe, wandered around downtown Paris for 2 hours until cafes started opening (and, this being Europe, only about 30% of things were open. Don't try to go shopping on Sundays in Europe). We ended up walking down to the Latin Quarter, stopping occasionally for an espresso (French coffee is absolutely terrible, but they do an ok espresso) to give Ev's knee a rest. All in all, we walked a solid 9 miles on Sunday and Ev's crippled ass did just fine. Yaaaaaaaay!

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On the school front, I'm almost done with my lab tests. Well, 'almost.' I've redone a couple tests now that I've refined my procedure, and did the first CT-scan on Tuesday (yes, like what you get at the hospital. In fact, I'm using a medical CT scanner. Mwahahaha). I get very excited about my significant milestones. 'Significant.' There are still a couple tests that are going to take ages to run (think 12 to 20 days), so I'm going to start those this week and let them run while we're in Bonaire. Holy crap, that's coming up fast. Cue overwhelming feeling of panic.

So basically, I'm in the data processing/finishing tests stage of my thesis. I'm pleased to say that, so far, my hypothesis is holding up.

The best part about doing experimental research (rather than numerical) is that even if my results are crap and don't make any sense, I can still write stuff that sums up to 'so I messed up. Don't do what I did, try this other thing.'

Yay, grad school.

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On an unrelated note, it was recently explained to me why everyone else in the world says 'maths' instead of 'math':

'Maths' is a shortening of 'mathematics,' as in 'we go to class to learn mathematics.' Now try the same thing without the s: 'we go to class to learn mathematic.' That is obviously incorrect, and it follows that math, rather than maths, is a crappy shorthand.

The moral of the story being, 'maths' is more accurate (and fun to say) than 'math'.

Who needs clothes?

American's can be a bit prudish. In many ways, our culture is uninhibited and pushes boundaries. But when it comes to nudity we tend to be much more conservative. I'm not talking about nudity on TV or the movies, but the act of being naked around other people. In theory, we don't have an issue with nakedness... as long as it's in designated areas, and the people who are naked are attractive, and no kids are around, and no one is breastfeeding. In fact, it's probably best that you take your naked body and cover it up so you don't offend someone.

In the US, men and women have separate saunas. Nude beaches have a bit of a stigma. People can be extremely judgemental of nudity in general. 

Europeans? Pretty damn comfortable in their own skins.

Remember last year and the naked guy going for a run down the beach in The Hague? No one batted an eye. Well, Ev and I went 'what the hell', but no one else seemed to think it was odd. Every beach we've been to in Europe has had at least one woman without her bikini top, enjoying the sun and avoiding tan lines.

I like to think I'm pretty confident and comfortable with my body. But to be perfectly honest, the idea of being naked around other people intimidates me. I'm self-conscious and secretly afraid of being judged for all my scars, tattoos, and jiggly bits. In other words, I have a fairly typical American body image problem. 

In Greece, Ev and I went to our first nude beach. There weren't many people there, but it was quite a hike out and fairly early in the day. By the time we left mid-afternoon, the number of people had almost doubled. But I digress. Everyone at the beach was solidly adult (my guess ranges between 35 and 60) and completely unashamed of their bodies. No one was model-thin or super ripped (I think Ev and I had the most athletic bodies there), and no one cared. We were there to enjoy the beach and swim and let it all hang out. There was no gawking, no awkwardness, no judgement (at least that was conveyed), and no chafing of any kind. And it was liberating. 

On a side note, swimming nude in the ocean is bloody amazing and I never want to do it with a swimsuit again.

We've recently been to a couple saunas with a friend, and it has been extremely different than what you would see in the States. For starters, one day a week there is a swimsuit day. The rest of the time, clothes are a no no. Bring a towel and/or bathrobe so you can get a coffee and cake in between saunas, but the rest of the time everyone is naked. Oh, and everything is co-ed. And I mean everything - changing rooms, toilets, showers, saunas and pools... after all, they're just bodies of all shapes and sizes. It's not like you haven't seen a member of the opposite sex without their clothes before (I hope). 

And, once again, everyone is totally comfortable with the public nudity. It probably helps that everyone else is naked, too. 

My point is simply this: there's nothing wrong with nudity. It's comfortable. It's (as cliche as it sounds) natural. And dear god, it's freeing. 

It's possible I like it so much because I hate wearing pants. Pants suck. And bikinis are expensive.