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