Recommended Summer Reads from the Train!

Recommended Summer Reads

Authors

·         Larry Niven

·         Orson Scott Card

·         Douglas Adams

·         Andres Norton

·         John Green

·         Susan Cooper

·         Neil Gaiman

·         Meg Cabot

·         JRR Tolkein

·         Oscar Wilde

·         Stephen King

·         Tamara Pierce

·         Ian Flemming

·         Edgar Allen Poe

Books

·         Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas

·         D’artagnan Trilogy (Series), by Alexandre Dumas

·         Beauty

·         Spindles End

·         Avalon High

·         Dune, by Frank Herbert

·         Ender’s Game (Series)

·         Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Series), by Douglas Adams

·         Atlas Shrugged

·         Paper Town, by John Green

·         Hunger Games (Series)

·         Game of Thrones (Series)

·         Host, by Stephanie Meyer

·         The Name of the Wind (Series), by Patrick Rothfuss

·         Artemis Fowl (Series), by Eoin Colfer

·         Poison Princess, by Kresley Cole

·         The Odyssey

·         The Iliad

·         The Great Gatsby

·         The Beautiful Love (Series)

·         50 Shades of Grey (Series)

·         Harry Potter (Series)

·         Silver Linings Playbook

·         Perks of being a Wallflower

·         1984

·         The Color Blue

·         Mass Effect

·         Eragon, by Christopher Paolini

·         Arabian Nights

·         The Mortal Instruments (Series)

·         Complete Stories of Franz Kafka

·         Fatherland, by Robert Harris

·         Flatland

·         Mila 18, by Leon Uris

·         Catch 22, by Joseph Heller

·         White Bone

·         Ugly (Series), by Scott Westerfield

·         Vampire Academy, by Richelle Mead

·         Secret Life of Bees

·         Dragon Rider

·         City of Ember (Series)

·         City of Angels

·         A Great and Terrible Beauty

·         Beautiful Creatures

·         Pendragon (Series)

·         Morganville Vampire Series

·         The Notebook, by Nicholas Sparks

·         Dear John, by Nicholas Sparks

·         The Lucky One, by Nicholas Sparks

·         Safe Haven, by Nicholas Sparks

·         Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn

·         The Gone Away World, by Nick Harkaway

·         Percy Jackson Series

·         The Forever War

·         Diskworld

·         Good Omens

Hello, everyone!

Here is our group photo from Museum Boerhaave in Leiden on our first full day in Europe. We will be getting the photo sharing site set up soon for those of you in the course, so watch for that info in addition to the course survey and final exam questions that Liz and I will be sending you tomorrow.

Drinking Habits! Culture Post

One cultural difference that I have noticed is that many people go to restaurants for just a drink. At every single restaurant I have gone to, they've asked us whether we are there to eat or to drink. I've also noticed many people just drinking at a restaurant without any food. In the US this is more common to do at a bar, not a regular restaurant.

Apartment Shopping...

I thought that Marie Curie's first apartment was very interesting.  It amazes me that she had no electricity, no heat (except coal), and still loved where she was living. That sort of speaks about where she was in life and where she wanted to be. I was also surprised that they don't have her apartment marked off and that tenants live there to this day. I wonder if they even know it was Marie's apartment?

Pantheon - Kristy

One of my favorite places to see was the Pantheon. The architecture there looks amazing and I was astounded looking at the all the statues and paintings. It was all really beautiful and was masterfully created. The graves underground were also a great experience to see. It's nice France provides a place for the great people in history and science to group all together, so if you want to visit the grave of several you can visit all of them in one location.

June 2nd - Culture Post

Language is a bigger deal here in France than it was in the Netherlands. Perhaps it stems from more nationalistic sentiments here in France, or maybe just because the Dutch are more multicultural given their population and size; but regardless it seems as though people in France are much more likeley to get peeved at you for not knowing the language than the dutch would. I can't say I blame them. In the States people get mad all the time when someone starts speaking anything other than English. Maybe we all just need to take a chill pill and eat another stroopwafel ;)

Kyle's Curie Tour

The Curie tour gave me a good idea for the types of conditions that Curie experienced during her life. The most interesting thing to me is just how expensive it was to create just a gram of radium. That just 1 gram cost $100,000 is insane, but the fact that it required 4 grams to use the radium bomb for testing just makes it even more insane. This price for the radium doesn't even include the cost of designing the machine and the parts that are used to make it. The fact that a women during this time was able to accomplish so much is astounding, but what made it even more fascinating is that her father in law was willing to watch the kids so that she could continue her research.

June 1st - Curie Tour and the Pantheon

I enjoyed the walking tour of Marie Curie's apartment's. It really helped to solidify the places and experinces portrayed in the book. It's interesting that you can find such a large chunk of one person's life in such a concentrated area. However, I suppose thats true for most of us. The pantheon was an impressive building, and of course we saw the curies there as well. Regardless of their reasoning, I really like how the french have not only immortalized, but also glorified portions of their history in statues and paintings.

Kyle's French Culture Post

The first thing I noticed in Paris is the abundance of cars and how much less bike friendly the city is in general. After being in Amsterdam where nearly every thing that could be used to lock a bike to had at least 5 locked to it. Here in Paris there is actually some room to sit on the railing. Along these same lines while there are bike paths here they are much less utilized and don't really meld into the roads nearly as well. Overall this gives the city a much different feel and also makes traveling via bike around the city harder. They compensate by this by having their tram system that runs pretty much everywhere in the city.

French Culture insights, ect. ect.

Yes the title is French culture but let us first have a quick and contemplative mourning of no longer being in easy access of the Belgium Belgium waffle. Internally I am mourning such a mouth watering delicacy. The Belgium's knew how to make a waffle. As what is seemingly normal for Europeans traffic is one of the scarier things one can experience. It is right up there as a staring contest with a cobra. One have much confidence in doing things which I believe is the Europeans secret to navigating their traffic system. Though I greatly appreciate their public transportation system; the squeals of the metros in Paris is ear-splitting, and sometimes the smell of human lesser fragrant odors pluming into ones nose with the expected ammonia. Though that now shows why they wear scarves, to hide ones face. I now own two. I just need to remember to wear them. Another thing on Paris that is less, icky, is the couples. One can view a bout of "p.d.a." while people walking. In parks the cute couple walking in the parks holding each others arms, sitting on benches and feeding ducks. Fresh flower shops on every other block adds to the warm and fuzzy picture. No wonder Paris is the city of lovers. I absolutely adore how well pedestrians get around, barring the traffic can get around. Again what is needed is a sense of confidence. If one does not walk with purpose or becomes hesitant about whether to cross or not it causes issues with those with vehicles. It is not about being polite when it comes to being a pedestrian, nor is it always about the rules. It is about going. As the lady said on the tram in Amsterdam, "Just push." As I spend more time here I am more confident in my ability to get around and not being ran over. I will miss being in a place that was constructed with pedestrians in mind rather that that of personal vehicles like it is in the United States. I would like to also mention the different smells. I have noticed different ambient smells in each country. Each very distinctive in each country. With the exception of the trams, fish stalls, and some random areas Paris smells sweet almost. Maybe its the perfume. Belgium, though was rainy so that may have had an influence, but it smelled like a sour metal and Amsterdam smelled warm, it may also have been dependent on weather, since it was our warmest and sunniest days on the trip thus far. Though Paris was not my favorite, sorry Dr Stanley, I will miss Europe, again. The culture is worth attempting to immerse ones self in.

Cultural Learnings of Europe for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of United States

One of the more interesting observations that I've made during our trqvels of the last few weeks was the impressive amount of languages that the average person here speaks. While being bilingual in the states puts you ahead of the curve, over here it's not unusual to run into people who speak many more. One day when we went to lunch in a Brussels sanwhich shop the man behind the counter quickly cycled through 4 or 5 languages to see which one we were most comfortable speaking in with him.  This really is quite astounding to me. Also, France doesn't use the standard qwerty keyboard setup, which made this take much longer to type than it should have taken.

the Curie

I knew about Marie Curie, many have. Pierre Curie is taught in schools as a background character if taught at all but the love story of Pierre and Marie is more epic and romantic than Romeo and Juliet (as anyone who actually know what is entailed in Romeo and Juliet can attest to). Marie was helped greatly by the men in her life helping support her and working with her. Pierre who eventually became her husband supported and worked with her. I thought that learning about Pierre Curie through the walking tour and the text was very interesting. Yes Marie was important because being a woman scientist, one of the first, but just because she was important doesn't mean we should ignore Pierre. Maybe learning of their love story may even get more people interested in the Curie's history overall!

European Culture Post.

Something I found interesting in France compared to the other countries we've visited is that there are times resteraunts wont serve food. At these times they only serve food. Also when you walk into a cafe they ask you right away if youe drinking or eating.

Emily's European culture

One thing that I noticed was that over here in Europe yellow mustard is rare. They also don't seem to eat pickles either. Another thing I noticed is they don't have Mexican food.

Marie Curie Tour Post

Something I found inyeresting on the tour was that Marie Curie hired about forty women in her lab. This wasn't common for the time, and think it showed be admired. She made advancing the the scientific careers of women one of her priorities.

Emily's Pantheon Experience

I really enjoyed seeing the Pantheon. It was neat to see Marie and Pierre Currie's grave. Even seeing Victor Hugo's grave was awesome. It is neat that Marie is the first woman to be buried in the Pantheon of of her own works.

European Culture

Between the three places that we've visited, one piece of European culture that I've noticed is the way that the different countries interact with you once they know they are talking to a foreigner. In the Netherlands the native people treated you with warm hospitality, loved to joke around, and are more surprised than angry when you can only speak a limited number of their language. Belgium was in the middle and didn't show too much emotion either way if you didn't know their culture or language. France though is on the other side of the scale. While some Parisians joke around, most are quick to give you annoyed stares or become irritated and snippy when you ask if they speak English. And in a way I can understand this since we're the same way in the U.S. It's hard to come into a country where you don't know the language and expect them to speak in a language other then their native tongue. In  all though all three countries were different in their reactions from the others.

Adam's cultural post

The hardest thing for me to get my head around here is the act of tipping at restaurants. Do I tip? Do it not tip? How much do I tip? I just found out today though that it is customary to tip  10%. What I am loving the most here is the food! Even the mashed potatoes are to die for! Just being in Europe for the past two weeks makes me want to move here, the old architecture make me speechless because of its tremendous being.

Le Museé Curie 01/06/13

It was fascinating to visit the Musée Curie and see all of the displays about how radium was used in a fashion that would be considered haphazard to say the least by today's standards. From cosmetics to fishing reels, it was added to just about everything because of its almost mystical presence within culture at the time.

Adam's pantheon post

I really enjoyed the visit to the pantheon today. I really enjoyed the visit because I got to see my favorite author's, alexandre dumas, grave. I also liked learning that the curie's tombs are lined with lead because they are still radio active.

European Cultural Differences

It seems to me that Europeans in general are camels and don't drink water. 200mL of water in a bottle with a meal isn't enough three meals a day. In the Netherlands this was normal here in France however, we have awesome waiters who deliver new jugs of water whenever we contemplate needing new ones. The food in general is exquisite but expensive. Also, between the cities we've been to, France is the one with the most disparity between the parts of town being radically different in regards to neighborhoods. For instance, in Amsterdam, there feel was the same whether you were in a slightly outlying area or the center of town. But in France there seems to be different parts of town that are better than others, the area around the Eiffel Tower for example is a very nice place to be, the area our Hostel is in seems to be kinda cut from the concrete mold with little embellishments. Belgium we really didn't get to see many places besides the bustling downtown districts in Brugge, Brussels and Ghent but they looked ok. Oh, the countryside in Belgium is really cool too, sorry we walked to an observatory and it was beautiful.

The Paris Pantheon by Thomas

Where to start... The view outside the building was amazing of the surrounding area. I was just completely in awe of the time put forth in the scrollwork by the artisans on the tops of the pillars and on the ceiling of the building's exterior. The inside was cool with the art in the windows, and the colored rocks incorporated in the floor's design. But what really caught my attention was the crypt beneath it, it seemed to me that the crypt was more airy than I thought any underground cavern would be, it was no different than being in a train station that's made of sandstone bricks with the way that it was constructed. It felt, dare I say it airy, although it felt churchlike because we were supposed to be quiet and respectful of the graves of the dead entombed there. Also, in the gift shop there was a leather bound notebook that caught my eye because it looked really old and homemade also really easy to reproduce, so we took a picture of it. to remember for later how to make one. (and I'm blogging about it so I don't forget to look at the picture, or remember it in general,)

Pantheon - Marissa

This is Marissa:

The Pantheon we went to today was quite remarkable. Personally I was very impressed by the architecture and all of the paintings and sculptures. The crypt below it was quite fascinating as well with some important French figures buried there (e.g. Pierre and Marie Curie). The structure itself I felt represented some great aspects of French history as well as the building had a nice view of the Eiffel Tower.

Brent's Pantheon Visit

Walking through the pantheon and seeing the final resting place of Marie and Pierre Curie was pretty cool to me. The structure alone was impressive in itself. Building a structure of that size in 1790 had to be a huge undertaking. The building is impressive today, so back in the late 1700's this had to be a monumental accomplishment.

Brent's Culture Observation

The biggest thing I have noticed about this eurotrip is the intercity/intercounty train system. This is way beyond anything the US has as far as infrastructure goes. While the states does have some railways that offer intercity travel it is not nearly as common. Europe is much smaller so this is easier to accomplish but I would imagine it still takes a lot of coordination between all the different countries to offer a international railway.

Curie Walking Tour- Kjerstin

  It was so cool to see all of the sights on the walking tour of Marie and Pierre Curie's life.  I absolutely love the book that we are reading (Radioactive by Lauren Redniss) about the Curie's, so seeing the actual places that they lived and worked was very interesting.  It was cool to see some real examples of the products that the general public put radium into at the time of the Curie's first discoveries.  It is crazy how fast and widespread they put radium into without knowing the possible effects that it could have.  Seeing these things made me happy for the FDA and government organizations that regulate things like that today.  It was overall a great experience to see these things firsthand!  

Public transportation - Marissa

This is Marissa:

All the countries we have been to have all seemed to have had a big emphasis on public transportation. The Netherlands seemed to embrace this lifestyle the most with tons of bikes, bike paths, trams, trains, etc. Belgium still utilized bike paths and trams but not nearly as much. Finally, France seems to have the least focus on public transport with only a lifestyle emphasis on the metro. All in all, the focus all of these countries have placed on public transportation, however small or large, is quite remarkable and different from the U.S. norm.

Cultural Observation- 06/01/2012

   My new cultural observation that I would like to share is that I have noticed that through all of the countries that we have visited, they seem to be very friendly to elderly people and couples.  It was very surprising to me  right away in the Netherlands when I saw many elderly people cruising around on bikes. In Belgium and France I have seen many elderly people using public transportation and strolling around, being very active.  It is a cool thing to see and would be cool to see more of in the US.

Adventures to the Pantheon

Today we visited the Pantheon and while there I spent the majority of the time exploring and paying my respects to the souls buried in the crypts. It amazes me how many famous people were all buried near each other. I kept thinking about how amazing it would have been to have all of those people together at the same time while they were alive.

culture thing (ryan leahy)

their mcdonalds here are ten times better than the ones back in the states. You get your food in a matter of minutes, sometimes seconds even. they have pre order stations where you can use your debit card. the food is made better, the resturants are larger, their menus are better. their system is just simply better and way more efficent.

Cultural Observations

I have made an observation regarding the use of bicycles in Europe. I have noticed that as we have traveled around Europe there have been an ever decreasing amount of bicycles. I personally enjoyed the fact that so many people in Leiden used bikes instead of cars.

saturday 1st(this is Ryan Leahy,Account stopped working)

the pantheon was a very interesting and visually stunning. the basement was very interesting because of the tombs of deceased intilectuials and military leaders. i really enjoyed the massive colums throughout, and the ungodly large paintings. the paintings were my favorite part.