Second training ride

So I'm now an official deciple of the Gord school of training.  Work you're ass off for weeks at a time then go for epic long ride, feel like hell afterwards.  The only difference is that I'm riding in Strasourg where I went for over 100km without seing a car on a beautifully paved road, designed specifically for cylists...I couldn't believe it!  I think these were old farming roads so once in a while you come nose to nose with a trackter..but that's pretty rare, otherwise it's pretty much smooth sailing for miles.  And it's all flat...brilliant.  The only issue I had was trying to remember all the german names, I mean look at my itinirary of towns I went through today:

Wisheim

Offenheim

Ersheim

Erstenheim

Molheim

Wolsteim

Crickey!eim

What is with the "heim's" in the place.

OK gotta zzz

Paris

Ok exams are over, I now have internet at home, and I have a little free time...so I can finally post something here.  A couple of weeks ago we went to Paris to visit SNECMA, a french jet engin manufacturer's construction and test site.  It was pretty cool, where else to they have the ability to move two tonnes of water per second every time they fire up one of these rocket puppies. The best part of the trip is the EADS-Astrium visit where they have the Arianne launcher assembly line before they send them off to Kuru.  Giant tubes being built one after an other..just massive things that are tossed into the atmosphere.  The sheer volume of fuel needed is staggering: 1 stage alone consumes 700 tonnes in about 9 min!  That's more fuel you would consume in your entire lifetime in your car.  That's what it takes to get a couple of satellites cruising around the planet at 7 km/s.  Unfortunatly we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside 

the site..who knows what secrets we might uncover.  But we did go air plane museum which had quite the selection of space harware:

Arianne 5.  One massive tube full of explosive gasses...good times for us pyros!  Actually this is one of the most efficicent launchers out there for Satellites with a 98% success rate with the lowest orbit placement errors in the business aside from the space shuttle..but that's unfair cause they've got pilots manning the thing.  They launch every month and a half or so.  

The space craft that Gagarin flew in.  The balls you see around it, are oxygen containers.  They still design those today, and you can see them on the Arianne engines.  Not too sure why.

Armstrong was the first man on the moon, but the Russians had robots up there already collecting rocks.  One of my profs was the lead engineer for this bath tub on wheels.  

The Russian version of the space shuttle.  It only flew once. Then they realized that their Soyus craft was way more efficient.  Still is today..kinda makes you wonder why the US continues with the shuttle.  

Voyager I- This guys was sent in the late 70'; got to Pluto in the mid 90's and we only lost contact with it about 10 years ago.  It's probably either destroyed or out beyond our solar system.  Pretty cool huh, it even comes complete with a little map on how to get to earth and shows what we humans look like.  There was big debate over this as NASA depicted a naked male and female...didn't go over well with the McCain types.

A couple of Geostationary Satellites, the one shaped like a barrel is an old design from the early 80's, and the other is based on a common european platform.  These guys fly at about 30 000 km above our heads, and have a period around the earth of 24 hours.  These are generally used as com relay and TV broadcasting.  These guys are a hot political topic as there isn't an unlimited amount of GEO space up there, but they play a crucial communication role.  

The Gang in front of the Bourget Museum..I think we were all excited just to get out of the bus!

 

Ooops..not space harware, that just my buddy Fred from Zambia who just discovered a rubix cube...poor guy could not put it down. Ok now for some cool space stuff.

Anyway that was the trip..got a chance to catch up with one of my coudins which was pretty cool.

 

 

The epic journey to the motherland

Just got to Vancouver after an epic day on planes and in airports. Normally I would never talk about the travel day since it usually is uneventful and just filled with angst of needing to pee when the seatbelt sign is on. However, this time travel day was filled with events!

I left Strasbourg with a suitcase filled with croissants, pain au chocolats, and other goodies. My suitcase is normally for hand-carry except when I have it. For some reason they all tell me I can't bring it on the plane. When Axel is rolling it, it gets on the plane via hand-carry without any hassles. It turned out it worked out better since I had to carry it up and down the stairs in the subways and train stations and Stephane's place.

I arrived in Paris at 9 am on Thursday and decided that I was going to spend the day learning the city for real. I had plans to see the Picasso exhibit but when I got there the line up was 2 1/2 hours long at the beginning of the line! So in the future, make sure you know that you can make a reservation to go to these museums so you don't have to line up! So I decided that, rather than spending my entire day in a lineup, I was going to just see where the wind took me. I crossed the seine and ended up in the 5th and 6th districts. This is one of the trendy areas of Paris so it was a good place to head to. And then I found myself at the Musee d'Orsay so I went in! For those who don't know, it's probably one of the best collections of art and displayed in a palatable way. Unlike the louvre which would take days, this took me 4 hours with the little audioguide. Exhausting but worth the effort. I saw everything. EVERYTHING! After, I wandered for a couple of hours: walked along the river, saw Notre Dame, watched a guy do trick rollerblading. And then met up for dinner with Stephane. Stephane and I had a great night of chatter which we never have enough of since we don't normally see each other alone! I left my camera in Strasbourg with Axel (in hopes that he will actually use it) so all of my pics are on my cell phone...so quality sucks big time. I will try and pretty up some pictures for later. What is the etiquette on posting pictures for previous entries? Do you post them with the corresponding entries? Or do you post them in a new entry? hmm..

The next morning I scooted off to the airport and waited in line at the french customs (which everyone, including EU citizens have to do) for 1.5 hours. It was endless. And in reality, had they had more than 1 customs officer, it wouldn't have blipped on my radar. People missed their flights in the line and no one helped them. So if you are going on Air Canada, make sure to give yourself 2 hours!! The flight was full except one seat...which I ended up having right next to me!! So I had a great lounge seat and watched really bad movies for 8 hours. I got to Montreal and this is where the real action started...

I saw Paul Martin and his wife Eline!!! They were just getting off a flight and I crossed paths. I smiled at him and he smiled back!! I felt like an idiot. Axel makes fun of me because I get starry-eyed at politicians...couldn't care less about celebrities but there's something about the people that control governments that make me all fluttery. Anyway, it turns out my flight was overbooked and so I got booted with some perks like a travel voucher and a ticket for the air can lounge! Free food! Free drinks! and Free internet!! So I took full advantage and hung out for 4 hours. I was just about to leave when I crossed paths with Bob Richards, the founder of the International Space University, Axel's school! We had seen him before at BCIT give a talk about the moon and the Google Lunar X project and then Axel re-met him last month at a reception. Anyway, anyone who has seen him would understand why I recognized him instantly. He's very distinct in his features and he always looks like he's smiling so it was easy to approach him. I introduced myself and mentioned Axel who he remembered because there is an Axelle who is a member of the ISU advisory board. He introduced me to the president of Optech, another space company that Axel could tell you more about. We chatted about internships and Strasbourg. It was pretty cool. So I called Axel and left him a message about the encounter and ended up standing right next to my dear friend Robi Smith, who I went to India with many moons ago! She was coming back from Quebec City so we caught up on life and politics. She was my favourite person on the exchange to India, if only because she always made me laugh.

So my dad and sister picked me up and we booted it to Horseshoe Bay to make the last ferry. After 27 hours of being on the go and not sleeping, I finally shut my eyes at 1 am, only to be woken up at 4 am to one of my brother's friends almost stepping on my head! He needed a place to crash because it was cold and raining and so I assume this is where he normally comes?? not his house?!? So he crashed on the couch and I stayed awake. Hence, another rambly entry.

Internet provider expert and BNP not recommended for foreigners

So I think I need to explain our french customer service fiascoes since we have moved here. From my facebook status inklings to my not-so-mini rants to people over email, I have only really given people hints of what we have been dealing with. And this will hopefully make you appreciate your own internet services, or perhaps the Canadian banking system.

If you look at one of our first entries, we managed to open a bank account AND get an account for internet which includes a phone line that has free international calls to N. America and others, and tv. We were pretty proud, and frankly cocky, that we did it all in one day. So we assumed that it would only be a short time before these services started to service....boy were we wrong!?!

The bank: When we went to the bank, we dealt with the director of the branch. A very kind woman who's desk was even more disorganized than mine! She set us up, gave us our direct bank transfer numbers (which we used to get internet and electricity etc), took our cheques with our only euro money to deposit, and took the bank transfer number of our landlord so he could get our rent into his account directly without cheques. Her branch was undergoing renos for the following 3 weeks so we would have to go to the main strasbourg branch a few blocks away for anything we needed to do. She also explained that because we didn't have a utility bill, we had to do this proof of address procedure where she would send us an empty envelope to our neighbourhood post office, and they would send us a notice to pick it up and sign for it which would enable the bank to acknowledge that we were living where we said we were living. Then it would only be a matter of days when we would get a notice that our bank cards (which are also visa cards) were ready to pick up. Incredibly easy. So we did all of what she asked. And then a couple of days later, we got an email from the bank saying that our chequebooks were ready to pick up at the bank. And then we got 3 letters giving us a little welcome and explanation of everything to do with the bank. Then we got THE letters. The ones that say "Your bank card is ready to be picked up. Here is your secret password that you need. Please bring this letter with you when you pick up your card." Sweet! I went about 4 days later to pick it up...and no card. They said it wasn't ready yet and they weren't really sure why I would think it would be ready. I said when I received the letter saying "Your bank card is ready to be picked up", I assumed it was ready. But what do I know right!?! So I called Axel and he assumed I just didn't understand what they were saying and he would go and get his card. So a few days later, while Axel was still too busy to pick up his card, I went and tried again. And same answer, with an additional kiss-off - "No, the letters and emails don't mean anything. They are sent automatically. As soon as you set up your account, the letters go out." OK...this is one of many "angry fists waving in my head" moments that I have had many of. And as many of you know, usually they don't stay in my head. However, as I explained to Anne, Axel's sister, I don't know pissed off french. Only polite french. So the best I could do was give them back their eye roll shrug and walk away, and report to Axel. He just couldn't believe that this was possible. So a WEEK later, he came with me. And got the same response. But THIS time, they told him that one of the reasons the cards weren't processed yet was because we didn't prove our address. Which is SO lame for so many reasons. One, we did their silly letter to the post office signature thing. Two, they have been sending us tons of letters, including our internet codes which we obviously used since we got the email from them saying our chequebook was ready. And lastly, here we were, with two letters FROM THEM, to US, telling us to come to the bank because our bank cards were ready!?! Anyway, Axel wanted to speak to someone else besides the teller, and her response was precious. So, it was Monday when we went, which is fine because this branch is open. However, OUR branch that was under construction, was normally only open from Tuesday to Saturday, so the teller couldn't help us until tomorrow, which is when our branch would be open. Yeah, WHA...!?!? Can people really be that illogical with a straight face!?! I was laughing because I could see the transformation of kind, friendly patient Axel to angry frustrated not so calm Axel. So we had no choice but to leave. When Axel called the next day, he spoke to OUR branch director, since it was Tuesday (eye roll), and she explained that because we opened our account during the renovation AND the end of vacation, things were just a lot slower than normal. What she couldn't explain was that they took our money with no hesitation, but held it for ransom until we got our bank cards. Crazy people = crazy system. It took us 29 days to get our bank cards.

One thing to point out...the way the banks work in France are actually great. They don't have service fees to take out money, use interac, etc. AND you can take out money without any extra fees at ANY bank atm! So even if it's not your bank, you don't get charged that annoying fee you get charged in Canada. So once you get your bankcard and give a little polite complaint to your branch director, banking can actually work to your benefit.

Internet: So, you thought that was irritating...just wait until you read what is next.

We got talked into using n9uf. What attracted us was that there was only a 6 month contract as opposed to every other company of 1 year, and the cancellation fee that everyone has to pay when they close the account was half of the other companies (45 euros instead of 90 euros). And what I discovered was that as n9uf customers, we had access to any n9uf hotspots all over the country. So we went for it. They said that the box would be mailed to us within 3 weeks and so we had to wait up to 3 weeks to get everything working. No problem.

France Telecom, which runs all of the phone lines in the country, sells the line to n9uf or any other ADSL internet service provider, so I got a text message a few days later saying "France telecom welcomes you. Your line is ready." But no phone connection. I realize now that these kind of messages are just normal in all french companies. They will send you messages but don't expect you to believe them! Anyway, we waited and waited, and 2 weeks later, we got both the n8uf box and another text from France Telecom saying our line was working. But nothing worked. So Ax paid a visit to the store that signed our contract and she looked at the contract and said "But wait! It hasn't been 3 weeks! So why do you expect it to work!?!" Axel said he assumed that the text messages from France Telecom PLUS the n9uf box meant that we had everything but, as it turns out, we had to wait 3 weeks. So almost 3 weeks to the day we signed up, we got a text from n9uf saying our line should be working! And it did. All was great. For 2.5 days. And then...the box ready light turned yellow and never turned back to green. And then comes the next part of the story.

So in France, for any company, ANY company, you need to pay for customer service. What I mean by this is that when you call, YOU pay up to 34 cents per minute just to talk to someone! And because we don't have a landline yet, calling from our cells are even MORE expensive because it sucks up our minutes. I just don't get this reasoning.

So Axel called them. And they made him go through all of the diagnostics with the box. Then they said they would send a technician to check our line. So the next day a tech called and said something was wrong with our line. He will try and work on it but he didn't have a tool he needed. So we assumed that he was downstairs or somewhere where our phone line was getting screwed up. The next day he called back and Axel ran to the window to see if he was there while they were talking. And no, the line did not work. So he told Ax that he thinks it must be our internet box. So Ax asked him if he wanted to come upstairs, and it turns out that he couldn't because he was actually calling from Tunisia! So much for "sending" a technician. Anyway, they said that it should be 3 days max when we would receive our 2nd n9uf box. So a week later we get an email apologizing for the delay but we would get it FOR SURE by the end of the week. And then a week later, we got an email saying EXACTLY the same thing. Meanwhile, Axel and I went to France (see previous blog) and it was when he was wandering the streets with Jean-Marie that he realized you could actually get a physical n9uf box from FNAC (a department store)! So he called n9uf and they said "Well, yeah, you could buy the box and we would just reimburse you...but why do that when we are sending you the box!?!" God. How annoying. So the next day, I was on my way out to buy the box from the department store when I get a text saying "Come and get your box! It is (on the other side of town and hard to access by tram or bus) at a dry cleaning store right now." So I ditched the FNAC idea and just went to pick up the box that they sent us. And got home and plugged it in and set it up and....no green light. It was awful. NOTHING! So Axel called them again and they said the technician would call us back the next day. And they didn't so Axel called again and they said the technician would PHYSICALLY come to our house the next day to fix our line at 10 am. I waited an entire day and no tech. And the next morning (which was only a few days ago) Axel let it loose on the phone. He tried to cancel our contract and it turns out, you can't do it over the phone! You have to write them a letter explaining why!?! But the guy on the phone wouldn't let Axel go without getting him to explain why he was cancelling...and when Axel did explain, they dude did not believe him. God, the whole thing is still irritating.

So the day before I left, I signed us up for the only cable internet provider in France, numericable. I am not holding my breath but according to the new contract, a technician has to come on Tuesday between 4-6 pm to install everything. We'll see.

During this entire fiasco, we have been doing several things to get internet. I was going to an internet cafe, but this was annoying because the keyboard is in french and you cannot plug your own computer in...and it was 2 euros an hour. Then we met our really cool neighbours who gave ME access (axel is still too shy to ask to hook him up too). They are with France Telecom and this box (called the Orange livebox) makes you press a button to give someone wifi access with a WEP key. But after 10 minutes, it closes the opportunity so even though I have the code, Ax can't use it until they press the button again so his computer can get on it. The problem with them is that they are afraid of the health effects of wifi so they turn it off if they are not on the computer, which is OFTEN. I now know their sleeping, eating, going out and computer habits because of this. Axel finds their concerns a bit ironic since they both smoke like crazy. But whatever. The last thing we do is get onto the n9uf hotspot which we can sometimes get at home. But it's unreliable. Sometimes you can stay on the whole day, other times it is 10 minutes and will only work an hour later. Grrrr.

So that's it. My offical rant.