A final dispatch

As I'm heading home tomorrow, I thought now would be the perfect time to post my last batch of pictures. Most are from Lyon, with Avignon and Pérouges showing up at some point. Enjoy!


Wisterias growing on the side of an apartment building. Notice the tiny potted plant to the left.


Parc de la Tête d'Or, one last time.


Looking across the river, south Lyon.


Poppies seen on my walk to Parc de Gerland, no color editing.


Daisies, same walk.


Parc de Gerland, water and duckweed.


Palais de Pape (Papal palace), Avignon.


Exposed stair in the Palais de Pape, Avignon.


Walking down the book market on the Saône.


On the banks of the Rhône.


Evening on the banks of the Rhône.


Silk / polyester poppies being handed out as a perfume advertisement for Kenzo, Rue de la République, Lyon.


Inside the medieval church-fortress in Pérouges.


I posted this for you, Jean -- spun silk threads waiting to be made into cloth, city museum, Pérouges.


Tea at A Chacun Sa Tasse, a favorite study location.

The French have four ways to say goodbye: salut (a casual salutation), à bientôt (see you soon), au revoir (until we see each other again) and adieu (to God).

lion le melhor

Woah, I'm going home in five days.

In case you haven't noticed from the lack of activity, I've been super busy making up two months of classes in about four weeks. Tomorrow is my last final (Image and Event) and then after three days of rest / packing, I fly Lyon - Heathrow, Heathrow - Dulles on Tuesday, 2nd June.

There's just so much that I haven't done, or that I want the time to do again.

Pictures forthcoming:
-Avignon
-walk to Parc de Gerland
-various candids and landscapes of Lyon, as a sort of summing-up

Really going to post them this time.

It's finally spring!

Three weeks later, I'm sticking my head through the metaphorical doorway to remind you all that yes, I'm still here, and yes, I survived / thrived through the three straight weeks of having visitors here in Lyon.

I'm still trying to clean / rest / reorganize in the wake of said visitors, so look for pictures posted closer to the end of this weekend.

reading: Tintin (Vol 714 Pour Sydney)
listening to: Disturbia // Rhianna

tragic (un)natural disasters

Okay squid followers, updates are going to be text-only and sporadic from now on, thanks to the Great Chamomile Tea - Macbook Disaster of 2009.

I'll be making regular trips to the library here at the university to check my email, but here's hoping to a better computer situation soon.

it's your requisite end of March update.

Ahoy there, Squidblog followers!

I've been typically reticent in my updates (if any of you have followed other blogs of mine, you know I refuse to update when there's nothing going on). Classes have supposedly started in force, but I have yet to see concrete evidence of these claims. Perhaps next week things will formalize.

Technically speaking, I took a long look at my Vista form (that's my unofficial transcript for you non-UVa folks), taught myself how to use SIS, the new class signup system, and emailed my advisor. I'm signing up for classes on April 6th, and things here look like I will repatriate in June with enough credits to stay on track to graduate in May 2010 (if not enough to make the Dean of Arts and Sciences happy, but haven't I talked myself out of a tight credit spot before?).

Anyway, that news aside, here's some of my pictures from our trip a couple weekends ago to Geneva, Switzerland. Here we go.


Looking down the promenade of beautiful Lake Geneva.


It's like a duck, except completely different.


The jet d'eau or jet of water, with a gorgeous rainbow.


This is a clock in a flowerbed.


The giant chess sets in the park.


A shot across the lake at night.


Requisite artsy shot of curving traffic light / onion dome building.


Inside the Protestant cathedral -- I don't know the name for these delicately carved pulpits, but I think they're gorgeous.

Days until Lynch Fam Unit arrives: 6
Days until B. arrives: 15

[this is something I do on my other blog that I kind of enjoy]
reading: The Two Towers // J.R.R. Tolkien
listening to: Glamorous // Fergie (today I am thankful for Youtube.)

Don't let the sun be the one to change you baby

It suddenly occurred to me that I haven't actually posted the Switzerland pictures from last weekend yet. I can't say I've been busy, but the days have a way of slipping by here. I'll try to get those up today.

For now, content yourself with a lovely view.


Days until Lynch Fam Unit arrives: 14
Days until B. arrives: 24

Week six of no classes, I think?

BREAKING NEWS:

A squid has class today! Three hours straight of it, to be precise.

Not sure if this is going to be really great or really torturous. I have all day to prepare myself mentally, at least.

This post was coming a long time ago, but sadly, life interrupted.

At the beginning of this week Mary, Mary and I returned from Italy, land of cheese and lots and lots of tourists. The vacation there was great, the traveling there was incredibly stressful, and all in all I think I've recovered enough to share some cool pictures.

Here's what we did:
Wednesday 18/02:
-Uffizi Museum, the highlights of which included Botteceli's Birth of Venus and the beautiful view of the Arno River from the building, which once housed the Medici offices.



-Boboli Gardens at the Palazzo Pitti, which were beautiful. We had very good weather for the entire trip.


-Trips into the open-air market and past the Duomo, stopping to view the Paradise Doors on the Baptistry.


Thursday 19/02:
-Accademia Museum to see Michaelangelo's David (enormous!) and similarly famous art.
-San Lorenzo cathedral
-Santa Maria Novella cathedral
-Climb of the Duomo (up to the top of the dome for a lovely panorama of Florence), and views of the Duomo interior at various heights.



Oh look there I am! Thanks to Doc for taking this photo.

Friday 20/02:
-Day trip to Siena, where we climbed the Torre del Mangia for amazing views of the Tuscan countryside




-Visited the Civic Museum, where I got excessively excited about the Allegory of Good and Bad Government
-Went to the beautiful, striped marble Duomo, possibly my favorite church of all.



Saturday 21/02:
-Visit to the Museo de San Marco, which was pretty cool, and then a return trip to the Palazzo Pitti to see the Argenti and the Costume museums, which were actually not that exciting.

This is for you, snail pony!

-Last minute church visits: Santa Croce and San Spirito. We were pretty churched out by the end of this trip.




Sunday 22/02:
-Part one of our homecoming adventure, mostly just traveling but we spent some of the afternoon in Pisa. Hooray for leaning towers!


And finally, I love this picture, but after so long I have to admit I have absolutely no idea what it actually is.

One day the sun will come out

Hello again, faithful blog followers! Tomorrow the Marys and I leave for Firenze, therefore, an update seemed to be in order, n'est-ce pas?

My pictures this week are mostly from my recent visit to Parc de la Tête d'Or, the Park of the Golden Head. Legend has it that in the park, an enormous expanse of land containing a lake, an island, a zoo, a cinema, the contemporary art museum, and botanical gardens, there was a buried golden head of Christ. Searches for the head immediately after the establishment of the park (1856, making it exactly contemporaneous with New York's Central Park) proved inconclusive, but the name stuck.

I visited the Parc on a very nice day -- the weather might have been as warm as 50 Fahrenheit! My forearms were exposed to French sunlight for the first time. I followed the paved promenade around the lake, journeyed through a short tunnel to the island in the lake, explored the upper reaches of the Parc, passed through the zoo and the botanical gardens, got lost trying to find the Orangerie, and wandered by the deer field on my way back. The adventure took several hours, all told, but the pictures were pretty worth it. I'll definitely be heading back there in the spring when the weather is nicer.

In other news, the professors are still on strike and little of note has been going on in terms of classes. Since we are now on winter break (break from what, I ask you?), the hope is that classes will resume on Monday the 23rd. If this is the case, the two makeup weeks built into the semester calendar before exams will suffice to make up the missed classes, and the calendar will be unchanged. However, if the strike continues, other makeup steps will have to be taken, although no one seems prepared to identify those. I am not worried, since there's really nothing I can do.

I am, however, very happy to be going to Italy tomorrow, as I'm sure there will be lots to see and do in Florence (and Pisa and Siena, for that matter). Look for pictures around this time next week, but not too many, since my various attempts to get a larger memory card have thus far been unsuccessful. I need a new camera.

Well, for now, enjoy the sunny eye candy.


Huge student manifestation in Place de Terreaux. The banner is (I think) expressing a general solidarity with the professors who are striking.


Geese wandering around on the green, occasionally threatening small dogs.


One of the (manmade) tributaries to the lake: detail of submerged leaves.


Shot of the World War I monument on the island in the lake. The names of the approximately 10,000 Lyonnais soldiers who died during the war are inscribed on granite tablets around the base of a large statue.


Looking back across the lake from the island/memorial.


Looking down the garden plots, which just made me long for spring.


In the gardens: something is blooming!


In the gardens again: lovely laid-out English style hedgework.


And finally we meet the deer!


Leaving the Parc: long shot in late afternoon.