That title doesn't quite conjure up the typical images one has of spending a week in Paris.....romantic strolls along the Seine, looking at fantastic art in world-renowned museums, or Joe's favorite image: transporting a baguette home on your bicycle wearing a striped shirt and beret. But no, unfortunately this trip was full of strange things happening, as they always do in big cities, and being stuck in a windowless microscope room in a lab that doesn't understand what the words 'good host' mean. The point of this trip was to work on a microscope and computer program that this woman, Catherine, has set up in her laboratory....as it turns out, she didn't quite tell the truth.
On my way to the hotel from the train station, I got my suitcase stuck in the entrance gate to the metro and then had an old man drop a 2L bottle of soda on my foot. Of course, a perfect start to my trip. Then when I arrived at the lab, Catherine, took me to lunch at the nasty hospital cafeteria and told me that the microscope was not working again (It didn't work the previous Friday, but then worked again Saturday and Sunday). Then her 'student' wouldn't help us try to get the program working because he was too busy. This seemed very odd to me because when my advisor tells me to do something or a visitor is coming, I have to drop everything and rearrange my schedule to work with this person and make sure they're okay both in and out of the lab. Turns out that she wasn't a professor or have a lab....she just works as a researcher in the lab and has 'students', meaning that she can be a co-advisor. But this also means that they didn't have to do a damn thing she says. And of course, Catherine didn't bother learning how to use the scope before I showed up. So Monday afternoon was a loss and I ended up looking at slides of brain sections with Catherine on a normal microscope. She then explained to me that she was too busy during the week to go to dinner with me because she had drawing class on Monday, gymnastics on Tuesday, theatre tickets Wednesday and dinner plans on Thursday, but maybe Friday I could go to her house. And nobody else in the lab cared I was around, so, night 1 of me eating alone.
Then Tuesday morning, we met with a different student who had been collaborating with Catherine on a project earlier in the year and had made a special trip across town to try and fix the scope, but of course, he couldn't fix it after playing with the software. Finally, Catherine decides to call technical support. YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!! She waited until I showed up to even think to do that!! I was so pissed. But since the European tech support wasn't answering the phone and the US tech support didn't open until 2pm, I blew off steam by taking a shopping trip to Montmartre for fabric for wedding decorations. When I got back, Catherine called the tech support in the states and then promptly shoved the phone in my face saying that she couldn't understand the guy because he had an accent, which he didn't. So there I am, on the phone with tech support in Catherine's office discussing a microscope that's in a room 50 yards down the hallway because there's no phone or internet in the room with the microscope. After explaining to the nice man, Russ, on the phone that I wasn't familiar with the setup because I came to the lab specifically to use the setup and running down the hallway twice to check on settings, I told him that I'd get internet in the room. Finally, it was hooked up to the internet so that I could 'live-chat' with Russ on the computer and let him check out the settings himself through the internet. Turns out that there was nothing wrong with the software settings, but that the sensor wasn't touching the stage! It's equivalent to trying to figure out why you can't transfer your music to your ipod and so you mess around with the itunes software when actually, you forgot to plug in your ipod to the computer....I was so pissed. After all that, I did some measurements on my sections and then went to dinner alone, again.
Wednesday, student #1 showed up, late, and showed us how to count. Of course, Catherine decides to wear a sleeveless sweater and expose her disgustingly smelly armpits (she also wore the same clothes 2 days in a row...ugh!). I seriously almost vomited when she reached across me at one point. I don't know what it is with crazy old women.... anyway, the setup finally worked and I was finally able to do what I was sent their to do. I ended up all in a tizzy that day and decided to treat myself to a nice dinner at a restaurant that Joe and I went to when we were in Paris in 2005. It was great, but again, dinner alone with the Newsweek.
Thursday and Friday I sat in the windowless room from 9am-6pm counting neurons to make up for lost time. It sucked being in the room because the confocal was also in there, which means AC is on and it's cold in the room and of course I forgot my ipod, so I turned on the radio when I was in there alone, only to have it turned off by the assholes that came in there to use the confocal.... so annoying! And again, dinner alone both nights.
Finally on Saturday, I took counts in the morning and then met with Catherine and my advisor, Stephanie, at 1pm to discuss what I did during the week. Stephanie and I then got tea at a nearby brasserie and discussed the crap that happened during the week and how her conference went. Then I was finally free to go find Stéphanie and Manu somewhere in the city...they had gone to EuroDisney and to a boat show and were staying with their friends Pierre and Matilde. So I caught up with them, we went shopping a bit, and then, finally, I went to dinner with living, breathing, talking people!!
Sunday, I checked out of the hotel and went over to Pierre and Matilde's apartment and then we walked over to the famous cemetery, Père-Lachaise. Most of you probably only know of it as the place where Jim Morrison is buried. But there are other famous french people buried there and so we walked around until the weather got bad. Had a quick lunch at Pierre and Matilde's and then we drove back to Lausanne, where Joe was waiting for me to eat a late dinner that he had made.... it was so nice to be home!
