An American in Provence

Option 1) Pictures from my life with comments

Option 2) Patent law question

Option 3) Both!

Option 4) Neither! If you don't have anything interesting to say, don't say anything at all.

Please vote in the comments section.

PS: You might get stuck with patent law anyway. In which case, I really do hope most of my readers come back in March when I return to the regularly scheduled program.

After having seen the movie "Chok-Dee" about a French former inmate who moves to Thailand to learn Thai boxing and turn his life around and ends up being a star, Alain wanted to see real Thai boxing. He was embarassed to mention it to the others, but I went ahead and mentionned it. My sister had never been to a match either, so she was up for it.

She found out where the matches are held and when, so we had the option of Tuesday night, Friday night (Christmas eve), or Saturday night (Christmas night). The tickets ranged between 1000 and 2000 Baht (about 30 and 60$ for ringside seats).

We were recommended to go with the ringside seats, so that we wouldn't be squished in the standing-room only section with all the Thai men betting and drinking. So Alain, Dad, Leah, and I bought ringside tickets for Christmas eve, starting at 6:30 and finishing at 10:30.

We arrived and were shown to our seats, front row. There was a match of western-style boxing, then the Thai boxing started.
It was quite interesting.

They arrive with their brightly decorated shorts, red or blue, with a ring of flowers around their neck, feet protection, gloves, and bands around their heads and upper arms.
Each match began with the fighters going around the ring in a sort-of dance to the drum music, honoring their teachers and each other, as well as a warm-up. Here is a video I found on Youtube of the Wai Khru (not mine).



(By the way, the music you hear is what they played for each round. As the rounds advanced, the music got faster and faster.)

After that, they removed the ring of flowers and the thing on their head, and the rounds began. It was, if I remember correctly, five rounds of three minutes each.

One poor guy got knocked out and they took him, still dead to the world, off the stage in a stretcher.


<-- They had an exhibition round, where it was more of the old-style costumes and fighting (lots more jumping up in the air) that was only a few minutes.
The match ended around 10:30 pm, and we left to find a taxi.

Alain and I both bought authentic silk Thai boxing shorts. Mine is purple with Muaythai written on the front, and Alain's are blue. No, no way am I posting pictures.


Certainly a Christmas Eve to remember.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wai_khru_ram_muay

In March, right after my exams, I am going back to the US for two weeks, alone (without the Frenchman that is). (And he keeps saying "How do I KNOW you are going to be staying with your parents and not some ex-boyfriend?" Trust me dear, my parents would not cover for me if I was staying with an ex-boyfriend)

It will be my first time back since December 2008.
I must say, I am really starting to miss the United States.
Don't have much planned, mostly shopping and relaxing.

But I keep having this reoccuring dream.

I am at my parents's house in Colorado, and I am packing my suitcase, getting ready to take the plane the next day to come back to France, when all of a sudden I realize...

I haven't had a single bagel in the whole two weeks I have been back!!!

OH MY GOD!!!

I wake up in a cold sweat and realize that I have not yet left for the US, I still have my exams to live through, and I will surely go to the grocery (yay, Safeway!) my first day back to stock up on Macaroni & Cheese, Starburst, and bagels.

It is very strange, I know.
It's not like I have been super bagel-deprived anyway. Had my fill of bagels while in Thailand (By the way, I'm still sore over the fact that my sister, in Thailand, leads a more American life than I do in France) and can get them regularly at Bagel Story in Aix (about 1.50€ a bagel but still). I can even make them for goodness sake.

So I'm guessing it is not the bagels themselves that are causing these dreams.
I have had this same dream about 3 times now, so it is definitely bugging me.

I guess it must just be a feeling of going back for such a short time, wanting to get my full Americaness in before I leave again for an indefinite amount of time.

I am heading back up to Strasbourg for a week-long preparation seminar for my exams in March.

I just wanted to leave all my dear readers with this picture from Thailand.



My favorite is the one on the top right.

While I was gone in Thailand, my office went through an internal rearrangement. Now, instead of being in the biggest room overlooking the square with two other people, I am all by myself in the meeting room, which overlooks the inner courtyard of the building.

Our office is the entire first (that is, second to you Americans), and it does a complete circle around the inner courtyard and staircase.

I often went there to escape the accordionists, but as I didn't have my computer nor desk there, it was mainly just to read in quiet.





I never thought I would say this, but it is almost too quiet. I feel somewhat isolated. Good think I am an Engineer and thus anti-social by nature, but still.


I bought a sound card and speakers for my computer so that I can listen to music quietly while I work.

It took me a bit to get used to being in this new space. I had spent almost 3 years where I was before, (started February 4, 2008). Started humming to myself "Nobody likes me, everybody hates me...."


So if you come in the building and hear someone bouncing off the walls saying "Look at me! Look at me! Look at me!" It is probably yours truly. But all in all, I think the move will be good for me. I also need to gain some independence and confidence.



(And I'm already thinking of it as "Megan's Office" not the "meeting room".)


Oh, and what has happened to its usage as an actual meeting room you wonder? There will be a smaller table put in my boss's office (the biggest room where the three of us once were), and this table is being kept where it is. If there is a company-wide meeting, it will be in MY OFFICE, and if they ever need to use and me to be ELSEWHERE, I'll have to go elsewhere. (Though hopefully not near the accordionists nor in the toilets.)



PS The police of Aix will be quite glad I moved too. I called them every single time the accordionists, or their sister/daughter violinist played, which was pretty much every day.
Everybody wins!


PPS Come to think of it, I think I am the opposite of claustrophobic. I like small, enclosed spaces. I especially hate the feeling that someone can sneak up on me. This should be perfect for me.