"It's beautiful, it's beautiful, alors, it's France"

In Rennes, there were lots of lectures for three days... my brain was a mess, full of info about health this and health that. I was glad it was over when it was! Now I have to organize the mess into some coherent essay for my two midterms this coming Wed. and Thurs.

The major highlight in Rennes was visiting the cardiology department of the hospital there. The cardiologist who was showing us around asked if we wanted to see an open heart surgery! So we said, "bien sur!" We put on scrubs and I thought we were going to walk into a room where you can peer into the operating room through a window, you know like for family members or visitors who can't be in the operating room.... But nope, we went straight into the operating room and I found myself peering into an open chest, pried open by clamps, looking at down into this guy's thoracic cavity... it was unreal. The heart looked pink-ish, mushy, and like meat. The thing was the room had a funny smell, kind of like the smell of raw meat at a meat market... and I didn't want to think it... but that smell made me think of slabs of meat and how we're maybe like slabs of meat? It's not pretty. Anyways... this guy's valves started calcifying so they had to be removed and be replaced. The cardiologist picked up his calcified valves (they were cut out already) and was literally waving it in front of our faces... I was just thinking... oh gosh, it looks like a piece of fat with little white balls growing on it. Then he showed us the replacement valve (made from a pig), which he handed over to the surgeon. The surgeon started talking to us, showing us how to sew it back into the heart... he was looking at us while he was stitching... and I tried to avoid eye contact and look at the heart because I wanted him to look at where he was stitching instead of me. But I guess, if it's his third surgery since the morning, with each surgery lasts about 4 hours, so he's probably bored. Imagine that...

On a side note, we had dinner at a Creperie, salty crepe (called galettes here) for dinner, and crepe for dessert. The Cidre came in a pither and our "cups" were bowls. It reminded me of two things: China, where we drink from bowls, and my dad, who sometimes drinks hot water from bowls... I remember when he used to do that, it was so 'not a la mode', so 'back-in-the-day', and just 'not cool anymore' (maybe Chrissy and Teresa can sympathize here)... but when it was happening in Rennes, I realized how normal it probably is... or that parts of France are still able to keep their culture. Going a little deeper, it makes me think, I was so quick to reject my dad's ideas---and in essence, it's so much easier to think my parents' are 'out-of-touch' with what's going on today than to accept their words or rebuke as 'words of wisdom' or take it as good advice. It's easier to just ignore them and go on doing what I want than to have to actually listen.

Back in Paris, we had a "game day" on Friday, near the grass field by the Eiffel Tower. A few of us organized it, and we just played games.. turned out very nice, a lot of fun. When we were organizing, I suggested "moo-cow" and they all thought I was evil! The french students were like, that's horrible!. keekee.. So we played taboo, twister, cowboy, tomates, and some relays instead. Still fun... some pictures are on facebook.

Afterwards, I went to meet up with Sarah and we went together to Ben's BBQ at his architecture school. His school looked like a museum--statues and paintings all over.

Then Saturday night, we had a surprise party for Maggie's 22nd birthday. It was also the BIG GAME... France vs. All Blacks (new zealand). Oh.. man, it was an intense game! The touch downs that the teams made were just amazing. At the beginning France was down 13 to zero... we were starting to lose hope! but out of nowhere, we tied 13-13. Then All Blacks scored to 18-13. They didn't get the extra two points from the kick. So we're all cheering for the French to score and finally they did! AND they got the two points from the kick. So it was 20-18 France ten minutes before the end of the game. When they scored to 20, we SCREAMED.. Mathilde was just like, "it's beautiful! it's beautiful! (what can I say) it's France!" I thought that was so cute and basically sums up the French.

So the last ten minutes of the game was torturous because we didn't want the blacks to score, knowing that if they did, there's not enough time for the french to score again. But the blacks were so close to their touch down line the whole ten minutes... it didn't help that Julie kept crying, "pas maintenant, pas maintenant, pas maintenant..." and Mathilde going, "no no no" and Jessica saying, "on regarde! on regarde!". And then.. finally, it was 80 minutes and the blacks didn't score! So we JUMPED and SCREAMED but the game didn't stop! And the blacks had possession so Julie just screamed, "C'EST FINI! C'EST FINI! ARRETE! C'EST FINI!". OYE... and after like 3 minutes, the french gained possession of the ball and THEN we were estactic... singing "on a gagne! on a gagne!" Two more games and we'll win the championship... I think I'm going to have to buy a French flag to wear for the last game.

Man, I really had no idea that I would be so into Rugby and that it would make it into most of my posts.

So after that, Saturday night was "La Nuit Blanche" where line 14 metro was open all night long. The Louvre, the Tuilleries gardens, the Center Pompidou, Notre Dame, etc... were open all night. It was amazing.. I was standing on the steps, looking straight at the huge lit up ferris wheel in the distance (near Place de la Concorde, at the end of the Champs Elysee, built as a response to Navy Pier's ferris wheel), with huge torches of fire in front of the wheel in the Tuilleries that coughed up huge balls of fire every five minutes, with hundreds of people moving through---some very drunk---some singing La Marseillaise on repeat, with the Louvre behind me, the sparking eiffel tower to the left of the ferris wheel in front of me... I could not have even imagined to be standing there in my wildest dreams! Too bad I couldn't figure out night settings on my camera... it'll just have to be stored forever in my memory.

Now it's Sunday. I JUST finished my final report from my summer research... I had forgotten about this report until this past Thursday when my Dean emailed me and asked if I'd submitted my report to Dr. Wong for review.... but glad it's done now.

I'm excited because I'll be off to church in half an hour. And after all the gray weather, we've finally got some soleil today =). Je suis tres heureuse parce qu'il fait tres beau au'jourdhui.

A bientot.