Strasbourg

And so begins my semester in Strasbourg. I arrived here today at around 4PM after a long, enjoyable 12-day seminar that brought us to Berlin, Wroclaw, and Prague and many monuments and "borders" in between. It was made all the more better by the great people that i've met so far; while I've known them only for 11 days, our group as a whole has already become close. Strasbourg's small program, 33 people in all, and the 24/7 interaction with everyone on the trip sharing the same experiences combine together to ensure that you and the rest of your group are well-bonded before getting here to Strasbourg.

I also found out, met, moved in, ate dinner, and discussed politics with my host family today. While it has only been 5 hours since I have been welcomed into their home, I know already that I will love it here. They are a very warm and cordial family that, you guessed it, speaks Italian in the house! So while learning French in school, I will be learning Italian at home and walk away from this experience either with a working knowledge of both languages, or utterly confused. I'm hoping it will be the former. I have taken a semester of Italian and so I've been able to catch words and phrases from the conversation, and I imagine things will only become better as the semester continues. The entire family is also fluent in English and is more than happy to converse with me doing so, which allows me a huge sigh of relief from my worries of not speaking the native French language. The house is beautiful, close to the SU center where I will take my classes, and the food is excellent. Horror stories of no internet and living an hour from the center are beginning to trickle in and i'm sure that there will be more stories to come. But as for me, I am one lucky and happy student here in Strasbourg as I look out my balcony and see the beautiful city alight.

Well, i'm off to bed, and so...

Bon soir, buona notte, and goodnight.

Au revoir,

Justin

Preparation

25 days and counting. My semester abroad in France is fast approaching, and I'm doing all that I can to prepare myself. French instructional CDs have taken the place of my car's radio, comedies and action movies have been substituted with movies rich in European historical context, and gone are the days of book titles like "Fight Club" and "Catcher in the Rye" and instead are filled with "World War II Europe" and "All Quiet on the Western Front." Needless to say, i'm scrambling and I'm still lightyears behind most international relations students when it comes to knowledge of my future country. I'm kept encouraged by the amount of information I have obtained, and retained, just over the past couple of weeks. These last few weeks will be spent doing very much the same. Then it's off to France! Well, not quite yet. We have a two week "Identity Seminar" beginning when we land in Berlin, Germany on August 26th. We'll begin in Berlin and travel to Warsaw, Prague, Nuremberg, and then finally arrive in Strasbourg. The itinerary looks incredible, with guided trips to a lot of the "must sees" of each city, yet at the same time offering a good amount of free time to explore the cities by myself. As for Strasbourg, there's still a lot of unknowns. I still don't know what classes I'll be taking at the University there. I'm hoping I got into all of my classes; with 34 students in the program the only circumstance I have to worry about is having enough fellow students sign up for that class or else they'll drop it from the curriculum. I don't know where I'll be living and we don't find out until we actually arrive in Strasbourg in early September. I won't know whether I will be able to secure an internship in Strasbourg until probably mid-September, although again, the fewer number of students traveling in the fall encourages me that there will be positions available. A lot of uncertainties, but none of which dampens my excitement of 4 months in Europe.

Thought I'd give a quick update of how my bucket list is coming...

1. Go to Saratoga to see a horse race. Complete

2. Check out the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown (I've been before to see Nolan Ryan get inducted, but I've never been in the Hall!)

3. LEARN FRENCH (at least conversational) In progress

4. Make a Coldstone ice cream with EVERY flavor of ice cream.

5. Run a half-marathon competitively.

6. Go to a major league baseball game.

7. See Hair on Broadway.

8. Go out to Cape Cod with firecracker.

9. Get a score of 10,000 or higher on Brick Breaker Complete

10. Update this blog AT LEAST once a week. FAIL

New running update:

I've had in my head for a couple weeks now the idea of running to work. After checking gmaps pedometer (the best GoogleMaps hack out there if you ask me) at http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/ I found that it was exactly 13.1 miles to work. Now if you're runner, you recognize that that's not merely a coincidence: it's fate. So I finally realized my goal this morning and made the run. Here's some interesting numbers associated with it:

15.06 - pounds of Co2 reduced by not driving to work

.81875 - gallons of gas saved

2.643 - cents worth of greenhouse gas emission reduction, based on current RGGI secondary market carbon allowance price of $3.51 for one ton of carbon dioxide emissions.

1502.43 - calories burned

Au revoir,

Justin

40 Days and Bellydancers

I can't believe how fast the summer is going. I was thinking today about how I've already spent two months at my internship here at Albany and, more incredibly, that I leave for France in exactly 40 days! So far, this week has been spent realizing how unprepared I am to study abroad, and how many more things need to be taken care of before I leave: buying webcams, figuring out finances while I'm over there, and the like. Even as I write this blog, I remember two things that I was going to do today that I completely forgot about. FML. But anyhow.

Sunday was spent in Utica, NY as I strapped on my running shoes and ran the 15K Boilermaker run. I have been ridiculously lucky when it comes to weather, as Saturday was met with torrential downpours, leaving Sunday morning a cool 60 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. Absolutely perfect running weather. The race was CROWDED with over 11,000 participants, making it the 2nd largest race ever, and I made the mistake of starting way too far back. It took me almost 6 minutes just to reach the starting line. From there, it was a mad dash around 75-year old women out for their Sunday stroll and a hodgepodge of other ill-prepared runners. While I silently complained to myself for having to dodge and duck around these runners, it allowed me the opportunity to see the entire eclectic mix of runners that the Boilermaker regularly hosts. Everyone from a man in a chicken suit, to a man in a beer suit, to a clown was out there at 8AM running the 9.3 miles. I have to imagine that the Boilermaker is the only place you can run past a traditional Celtic band, be momentarily distracted by a demonstration of 50-year old bellydancers shakin their stuff, high-five a man on 10 foot stilts, listen to steel drum music, sing along to "Boom Boom Pow" 8 miles into the race, and yet still be left motivated to run as you pass the wheelchair racers that are going 9.3 miles with just their upper body. It was a hell of a time, I only wish I was old enough to enjoy the real draw of the race: free Saranac beer at the end of the race! I grabbed 12 or so Vitamin Waters and was content.

Now onto my next goal: the half-marathon. I'm pretty excited, because it sounds like my family is going to be able to make it to watch me run. It'll be a great way to end a long summer of training. But in the meantime, I'm traveling down to NYC next Friday to pick up my visa (long story) and the weekend after that I'm going out to Cape Cod with a bunch of friends that I'm living with senior year. Should be an exciting couple of weeks to bring me to August, and before I know it, it'll be...Au revoir USA, Bonjour France.

See, I'm learning.

Au revoir,
Justin

4th of July in the Capital Region

Well, it's Monday. After a (finally) nice weekend without hail and flood-level rains, its difficult to come back to work and sit in a cubicle, gazing outside to see the nice weather that continues, even though my weekend does not. But I made the most of the few days off that I had. Friday I went up to the harness race track up in Saratoga, lost some money, ate some funnel cakes, but most of all saw some fireworks with a good group of friends. I woke up early Saturday in preparation of the "Firecracker" 4-mile race that brought me right back up to Saratoga. It was a near-perfect day for a run, about 70 degrees and partly cloudy. Ran a good time and beat my goal that I had set for myself, then spent the rest of the morning watching a parade, looking at some classic cars, and just walking around 'Toga (as the locals say). I discovered why they call it Saratoga Springs (no, slinkies were not discovered there...dun dun chhhh), there are actually fresh water springs that are beneath the ground and get pumped up into these drinking water fountains that are in gazebos all around Congress Park. I believe there are a few different ones around the park, each spring named according to who discovered it, but I only came across one in particular. A sign next to this ever-flowing water fountain read "this spring water is known for its high carbonation, and alkaline and saline-flavored taste." And they weren't kidding. It tasted like seltzer saltwater that had a battery sitting in the bottom of it for years (the only description I could think of). I'm still not sure if it was safe to drink, but I made sure to watch someone do it before me and he seemed alright afterwards. This blog serves as documentation if I ever contract some life-threatening disease because of it. Still not sure if I can file suit against a body of water, but I'm looking into it.

In other completely unrelated and altogether random news, I got an e-mail today telling me that Microsoft Hohm is now online! I've been looking forward to this program for a couple weeks after I read about it in an article. Hohm addresses an interesting point. Every month, we search extensively through our cell phone bills that provides line-by-line documentation as to the costs of our plans, allowing us to see if we've gone over our minutes or sent too many text messages and forcing us to curb our usage the next month and save money. Yet looking through an energy bill, there is absolutely NO documentation whatsoever, other than a report of your kwH used. If energy companies, or consumers themselves, could provide that same line-by-line documentation as cell phone bills do, I'm willing to bet consumers would recognize how much energy is wasted each month and how they can curb their activities to reduce their energy bills. "If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it." Hohm is a free application in beta allows you to input different information about your household and it will actually calculate your energy usage and offer you up personalized suggestions based upon the information that you provide about your own home, tailored to you. Even cooler, if your energy provider has signed up to be one of Hohm's partners, you can upload your OWN energy usage data from your house. Check it out here: www.microsoft-hohm.com. Google also has a program in the works that has yet to be released called Google Power Meter which appears to have the same functions as Hohm. Check out Google's program here: http://www.google.org/powermeter/index.html.

Well, I'm off for a lunch-time run. The 15K Boilermaker's on Sunday, no rest for the weary.

Au revoir,
Justin

Burgers and Blues

Whoever says there's nothing to do in Albany just hasn't looked hard enough. After grabbing some brochures from my coffee shop yesterday morning, I found at least three different outdoor concerts that were going on. Now of course, I am from Watertown and so my idea of "fun and exciting" is surely different from most people's, but I ended up going to one of the concerts with three of my SU friends that are down here in Albany and I think it's safe to say we had a great time. It was a local rock/blues band and they had a food joint right next door that made a mean cheeseburger.

Yesterday was also exciting in the fact that I discovered that the building that I work in has a locker room on the first floor, complete with showers (a fact that I'm sure was additionally exciting to my cubicle-mate). It now makes running during lunch a lot easier. Now if they only had a washer and dryer here, I'd never have to leave.

And finally, I've put together a temporary schedule of races that I'm planning on doing this summer, culminating with the fulfillment of one of my goals: running a half-marathon.

July 4th - Coincidentally enough, called the "Firecracker 4," a 4 miler up in Saratoga Springs

July 12th - "The Boilermaker," a 15K (9.3 mi) road race in Utica

August 8th - "Camp Chingachgook Half-Marathon," a (surprise) half-marathon run along Lake George

Until next time.

Au revoir,
Justin

Fast Times in Albany, NY

So today I tried out something that I've wanted to do for awhile: run during my lunch break. There's actually a really nice trail that runs along the Hudson right in the backyard of my office building here in downtown Albany, so I put in a couple miles running along there. There's actually supposed to be a big celebration this weekend recognizing the 400th anniversary of Hudson sailing up this river and "discovering" this area (I use the quotations because Native Americans inhabited this area for hundreds of years prior) and a full-size replica of the original ship that Henry Hudson sailed is going to pass right by my building, I think. You can see the ship and find out more information here: http://www.halfmoon.mus.ny.us/.

Also, I passed by a gathering mass of people rallying on the steps of the Capitol here, protesting the power struggle that is going on here in Albany. It's being reported here: http://www.capitalnews9.com/content/top_stories/474866/march-on-albany/?RegionCookie=12. I walked by there this morning at 8:30AM and they were already setting up for a rally that was supposed to begin at noon. During my run they were in the midst of a speech and flanked on all sides by police, cameramen, and passersby. Exciting times here in Albany. I just wish that the circumstances weren't so chaotic.

Until next time.

Au revoir,

Justin

Summer 2009

So I've begun to compile a short bucket list of things that I would like to do this summer. I'm sure I'll add to it, but to start off...

1. Go to Saratoga to see a horse race.
2. Check out the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown (I've been before to see Nolan Ryan get inducted, but I've never been in the Hall!)
3. LEARN FRENCH (at least conversational)
4. Make a Coldstone ice cream with EVERY flavor of ice cream.
5. Run a half-marathon competitively.
6. Go to a major league baseball game.
7. See Hair on Broadway.
8. Go out to Cape Cod with firecracker.
9. Get a score of 10,000 or higher on Brick Breaker
10. Update this blog AT LEAST once a week.


While I might have already labored many (alright hundreds) of hours attempting to obtain that coveted score of 10,000 in Brick Breaker, I think it's safe to say that #5 on my list, running a half marathon competitively, will require the most time and effort. I've been running on a regular basis now for well over two years, but 13.1 miles is a lot different than my daily 5K. It's going to require me to eat a little healthier (but the fruit gushers are STAYING) and more importantly, run consistently with a structured regimen. If anyone has any advice as to good websites for running training schedules, I'm all ears. I've got a couple, but I'd like to hear from one that has actually worked for someone. As I said, I JUST started this running schedule, but have already begun to plan my runs on days even when I work both jobs, leaving me busy from 8:30AM - 11:00PM. (I'll run up those grueling downtown Albany hills during lunch)

Saturday - 12.6 mi
Sunday - Strength Training
Monday - 7.6 mi and Strength Training

I'll be the first to admit, my runs so far have been too long. Most every training schedule I've seen advises against running the full 13.1 miles before the actual race (the furthest runs that I've seen suggested is a 10 mile run the weekend before the race). I don't know if I completely agree with that, I think it's necessary to get a feel for the length and how your body will respond to it, pace yourself, etc. but I do think that my Saturday run was too long. At this rate, it's easy to peak too early and be stale when I actually run the race later in the summer.

I'll be sure to update my bucket list with additions/hopeful subtractions as I complete my goals. Until then.

Au revoir,
Justin