I just re-read my post from last week and have gotten some things accomplished in the meantime. First of all, let me congratulate myself by announcing that I scored 90% on both essays from last term. Seeing as 70% begins the mark of "distinction" in the UK, you can see that I basically have an A++. It is kind of a big deal. Is the course head an easy grader? The answer is "no"-- someone on my course scored a 58, and I have it on good authority that three scored 62s. The Office Gossip, a personal friend of mine, claims that the same grader put an overachieving undergrad to tears when she received her first score in the 60s from him. I worked exceptionally hard on these papers, so I feel my grades were well-deserved.
20 articles and 1700 words later, and I am almost done with the hallucination section of my literature review. I decided to reformat it to follow this general outline:
INTRODUCTION
More than ten years after Behrmann (2000), what do we now know about the relationship between imagery and perception?
What is imagery according to information processing?
What is perception according to information processing?
Summary of current theories
MEASURING IMAGERY
Various self-report and behavioral measures can be implemented to assess imagery vividness and its relationship to visual perception.
NORMATIVE STUDIES
fMRI, behavioral. Current theories. Address dreaming, imagery and perception.
NEURAL BASES OF IMAGERY IN NORMALS
Ganis, Thompson, Kosslyn, 2004-- brain areas underlying visual mental imagery
Neural evidence that vivid imagery can lead to false remembering (Gonsalves et al 2004)
etc.
HALLUCINATIONS AND IMAGERY (this is the section I've almost finished with)
Early Models
Reality Discrimination
Perception and Attention Deficit (PAD) Model
Neural Bases of Hallucinations
SCHIZOPHRENIA AND IMAGERY
Although hallucinations are more likely attributed to reality discrimination errors rather than vividness of mental imagery, there is some evidence that vivid imagery is a characteristic of the schizophrenic spectrum in general, regardless of hallucinatory experience (Oertel et al., 2009; Sack, Van de Ven, Etschenberg, Schatz, & Linden, 2005).
Also: Bell and Halligan (2010) and Oertel and Linden (2010)
Aleman, de Haan, and Kahn (2005)—object vs spatial visual imagery in schizophrenia
Currie, 2000—imagination, delusions, hallucinations
fMRI
Onitsuka, 2007—occipital lobe gray matter
NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL STUDIES
Representational neglect and cortical blindness
CONCLUSIONS
What we know now we didn't know 10 years ago, what we still have left to know, future study ideas
Yes, that is my basic outline for now, but I'm sure it will change. My weekend goal? To read at least 10 articles on imagery in normals, 10 more over the early part of next week, and have the normal imagery part of my review written by next Thursday-- you hold me to that, readers!
And as for the "random experiment" we have to do, I had to change that because the head of the course (from this point forward shortened to HOC) will not let me use his fancy eyetracking machine. So I changed my study to this:
Recruit 50 people. Have them all take various surveys on mental imagery and schizotypy, and perhaps a behavioral measure or two. Each participant will look at a computer screen as a sequence of familiar objects are either represented as words, pictures, or videos-- for example, I could present the word DOG on the screen, or show a picture of a dog, or a short (2-3 second) video clip of a dog. Any tangible object could be represented in one of these three ways-- food, transportation, animals, etc. At the end of the sequence, I will ask the question: "Was the target _______ a word, picture, or video?"
Then, I will take the 10 highest and lowest scorers on the imagery/schizotypy measures, and see if there is a significant difference in discrimination between those types of targets.
Previous studies have found that people with shizotypal/vivid imagery characteristics will more likely confuse words with pictures. Nobody has yet looked at video, and since video is more realistic, will they still show discrimination errors?
This study can be done on any computer using a simple programming program (ha) called e-prime-- which, gets this-- writes the code FOR YOU. Thank the lord, I think e-prime will be my new best friend.
Also, I talked to the HOC over the week, and he helped me to compartmentalize (sort of) the work that has to go into coming up with a 3-year plan for the mock-studentship proposal. I'm going to start with replicating a part of someone else's study (the study I mentioned in the last post where normal relatives of schizophrenics were found to have higher mental imagery than people who were not related to schizophrenics, suggesting a genetic component to imagery ability). I will start with relatives of schizophrenics, schizotypal normals, and control normals-- no patients, no NHS approval needed, no problem. I will work up from there to patient studies. fMRI may currently be out of the question for a PhD proposal.
Let's see, what else...
Oh yes-- my BPS poster. Well, I have the results complete, a couple sentences for conclusion-- may need to flesh that out a bit more, but not REALLY necessary since it's a poster. Have a short intro on linguistics terminology used in the poster, and a sentence or two on the "phonological mediation" debate. As follows:
Linguistic Terminology 101
Lesson
Phonology: language sounds
Orthography: language meanings
Lexicon: vocabulary
Input: Reading or listening
Output: Writing or speaking
Test
If you want to read a word aloud:
First, translate the written lexical input into a phonological representation, then, access the orthographic representation of the word, and finally, generate phonological output.
(This is the traditional theory of written language processing.)
The Phonological Mediation Debate
Can you access the meaning of a word without first sounding it out in your head?
This would appear to be a simple question, but it is one that has haunted language scientists for decades.
So, I don't have much, but it's a start!
Oh, and I almost forgot the most important thing...
I ran my pilot this week, and just finished plotting the data today! It felt so good to generate all that data, and then watch it turn into a graph before my very eyes. What is the verdict? The task seems to be too hard. I made it harder because I myself was performing at ceiling in the easier task, but perhaps I am just abnormally good at this task.
Average performance didn't sink below a rate of 50% correct, but it didn't come close to 90% either, even in the easiest condition. We found the correct curve in the data, just shifted down a few percentiles. We did not find any hemispheric differences, which may be because the task was so hard, we hit a floor effect. Tomorrow we will meet to discuss changing the task and running a few more participants, and hopefully we will get the right effect next time. But now I am PUMPED to get this thing going-- there is so much I can do with it!
Something I didn't think about until recently, was the raging debate (I do love scientific debates) about how we process features. There are several different theories on this subject, and I can research all of them for my thesis, and compare the results of my study to them and see which one looks best. Why am I so giddy about finding out hemispheric differences in conjunction tasks? I have been getting more and more enthusiastic about my thesis ever since that low point in December when I desperately wanted to change it. But now I'm working on it again, I don't have time to re-think the whole thing, and I am such a dork, the thought of finding something in this experiment thrills me.
And I am already looking at journals in which to publish! Cognitive Neuropsychology doesn't have a very large impact factor (it is not heavily cited), so that one might be possible to get into. The larger the impact factor, the tougher the review process, the tougher it is to get a publication. Since this would probably be my first publication, I will take ANYTHING. Publication! That word thrills me too.
And I think my adviser is just as excited as I am to see what happens. I feel so proud of myself for coming up with such an amazing study all on my own. Well, my adviser did help a LOT with the details, such as some of the conditions for the experimental design and programming the thing, but the theory is all my own. Mine! MINE.
Today in class, we learned about how in the UK now, every experiment has to have a "Pathway to impact", which is, socio-economical significance. We each had to give a short summary of how our research impacts society. I prided myself in first addressing how I think a study shouldn't NEED a socio-economic impact-- that the most important thing in the world is to find out how the brain works.
I'm sure some will agree with me on that point. I feel quite strongly about it and was not ashamed to express that opinion before I went on to say how my research could potentially be beneficial in understanding/rehabilitating attention disorders. Kevin pointed out that attention research is very beneficial for the military, because pilots, for example, have to attend to many things at once and make split-second decisions that could determine the lives and deaths of everyone, etc.
At any rate, I don't CARE what my research is used for. I couldn't care LESS. Do what thou will with the results of my attentional blink task. I just want to know how the brain works. And that's that.
Let's change topics, now-- enough with the academic talk! I've been doing this stuff since 10AM this morning and I'm done thinking about it for tonight.
I am doing semi-successfully in my after-Christmas diet-- meaning, I am cutting down on junk food/candy/cookies/etc. Today I had a few pieces of chocolate (dark) but I'll make the excuse that I just needed to balance out the iron in my blood. ;) Other than that, I have been eating pretty healthily the past couple of weeks-- however, I am having trouble with carb addiction. I am very sensitive to carbohydrates-- not that they irritate my skin/stomach/etc like some people, but once I start I just can't stop. I know I can't eat just a small bowl of cereal, or one slice of toast.
Today I munched 8 slices of bread total. 2 as toast for breakfast, 4 as sandwiches for lunch and dinner, and two with nutella as dessert. However, I have been doing VERY well eating my five-a-day fruits and veggies, and then some! This morning, I had a bowl of yogurt and mixed fruit, made up of banana, apple, and plum. This afternoon, I had some grapes, and another banana, apple, and plum. My sandwiches consisted of baby spinach and homemade salsa-- yes, you heard me-- I MADE salsa!
Here's the recipe:
1 can black beans
1 can sweet corn
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
4 tomatoes
1 chili pepper
1/4 cup chopped scallions
1 clove garlic
3 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp cumin
fresh parsley
That makes a whole shitload of delicious salsa. I made it on Tuesday and ate salsa burritos til I got sick of them, then I put the salsa on my sandwiches with spinach and light cheese. So with all those veggies, combined with all that fruit, I'm way over my five-a-day, everyday! So generally I consider myself to be a healthy eater... with a carb addiction.
But I think running 3 hours a week balances out my carb overloads, so I should be good.
And speaking of which, I am running tomorrow morning-- this time, with a friend! Yippee, hooray. That friend is a strange fellow from my alma mater, named William-- and I know you all love my character profiles, and this person definitely calls for one, so here it is:
William is a young chap of 19 or 20, with the eccentric air of a systematic windmill-chaser. Wrapped in a rice paper layer of rationality, he at one moment ponders the future of American education, the next you can imagine he is thinking to a mountain "Wilt thou yet be conquered?", and in no less flowery language. The air of having been homeschooled throughout most of his childhood lingers about him like a somewhat socially-awkward, independent, yet approachable, aura. He is fond of picking fights with people's aunts over the status of the moon, brings culinary utensils into the wildnerness, and mysteriously adopted an English accent about two years ago. He is what I deem the psychologically-typical equivalent to my old friend, the "Running Man", and is no less of a curiosity. If he were an animal, he'd be a giraffe.
That is all.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
WOOHOO! Second term, GO!
I've got first-day-of-school high-- I'm pumped to do EVERYTHING-- right NOW!
Okay, so I have a long road ahead of me. My main concerns right now have to be the literature review, and a mock-PhD studentship proposal which the head of the course says basically has to be above 90% (which I didn't even know existed in this country) or it doesn't pass.
The collective outlook on PhD studentships is rather grim. I didn't know until today how nearly impossible it is to get one in this country-- it may even be worse than the US. However, my pessimistic view is, it doesn't matter how good your proposal is-- the professor will take you if you've worked for them. All philosophy aside, the PhD proposal is a substantial part of my grade, so it doesn't matter what the reality is. I have to write it and that's that.
So here is the work I have to accomplish by 5 May 2011:
1) Write a 6-8000 word critical literature review
2) Write a nearly perfect PhD studentship proposal (Kevin assures us this will be the hardest thing we do on the course, and I believe him)
3) Create an experimental study different from the thesis and write a 3000 word article
4) Create a professional webpage, other goodies for a portfolio
On top of those things, I have to:
5) Conduct the pilot and final experiments for my thesis
6) Design a scientific poster for the BPS conference in May (since I foolishly signed up to do it)
What have I accomplished so far?
1) I have gathered about 50 articles and read about 10 of them in-depth, and have made notes on those 10 for the "hallucination, schizotypy and schizophrenia" section of my literature review. Today the head of the course said we should be about halfway through with the whole damn thing, which was NEWS TO ME-- I felt an icicle plunge down my esophagus, but it evaporated when I asked the rest of the class (after the head of the course left, of course) what they had done and they expressed that they hadn't even done as much as I, and that goes for the non-slackers like me, too. ;)
2) I have hardly even begun to conceptualize what question I could possibly pursue for 3 solid years of PhD research, but I had better get on it! I am thinking of something to do with the relationship between imagery and perception, which is my new favorite topic right now.
3) I e-mailed the head of the course with my idea for the random experimental study that must be different from my thesis.
4) Create a webpage? I'll leave that 'til the week before it's due.
5) I'm running my pilot on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week! And I have renewed inspiration for the topic and I will not fail my adviser!
6) I have a basic layout/color scheme for the conference poster, have maybe read 3 background articles, but have not put my findings down on paper yet, except in the form of the abstract I submitted in order to get the go-ahead from the British Psychological Society to make the poster.
What do I plan to do?
Forgive my ramblings, but it makes me feel good to put all this in writing-- I am too social for a diary, too verbose for a twitter, and simply too disorganized NOT to do it. I give you my permission to back out at any time.
1) Since I am studying the relationship between visual imagery and visual perception for my literature review, I should cover these basic points:
INTRO: What is imagery? What do we know about imagery from the last 10 years of research since Marlene Behrmann published her review in 2000? Have we answered her questions and others that have been raised about imagery? (i.e. what is the role of the right and left hemispheres in imagery? Why aren't vivid images/hallucinations confused with reality [in normals]? Why does imagery activate different brain areas than other internal representations for other cognitive tasks [such as visual working memory tasks]?)
BODY: The relationship between imagery and perception as evidenced by neuropsychology (representational neglect, cortical blindness), psychopatholy (schizophrenia), and normative studies (schizotypy, imagery-vividness, fMRI) in the last 10 years. What parts of the brain are involved in imagery and which hemispheres. Addressing the questions Behrmann and others set out 10 years ago.
CONCLUSIONS: What we know now that we didn't know then. What questions have we answered. What questions do we still have.
2) I am thinking of designing a series of experiments on the relationship between imagery and perception. One very recent study has found that vividness of mental imagery is greater in people related to schizophrenics than other people who are not related. Which makes weird sense since these people are all normal and have never reported any symptoms of schizophrenia. Which just goes to show that imagery could have a genetic component. Also, imagery is related to schizophrenia in general, NOT hallucinations. Imagery is greater in schizophrenics regardless of whether they have ever hallucinated. Schizotypal people in the normal population report higher imagery capabilities over others, as well. What if I were able to conduct a series of experiments, as follows:
a. test huge number of normal people for high/low imagery and high/low schizotypal traits using various behavioral/self-report methods. Form groups of hi-imagery/lo-schizotypy, hi-imagery/hi-schizotypy, lo-imagery/hi-schizotypy (is there such a thing?), lo-imagery/lo-schizotypy. Look at brains of people who score in the upper and lower 20th percentile on behavioral/self-report measures, using fMRI while they perform both perception and imagery tasks.
b. test people who are related to schizophrenics for high/low imagery and high/low schizotypal traits. Have them ALL do fMRI tasks.
c. test schizophrenics for high/low imagery. Look at brains.
d. compare brains between all these different people. learn more about imagery/perception than anyone else ever.
Jesus, I have no idea what I'm doing. Is this an impossible study? How much does it cost to use an fMRI excessively? Really? I guess I could come up with a different study... but I'll figure that out later.
3) The random experimental study is going to be a blast if the head of the course OKs it! I came up with it in about five minutes after he gave us the assignment. Here it is:
Testing to see if eye movements during reading are different on a few different levels of 2 groups: I will have a hi-imagery group and a lo-imagery group. Each group will be assessed as either "readers" or "non-readers" based on whether they like to read for pleasure, and I will also chart how often these people like to read for fun (by week/month). I will give various behavioral/self-report measures for this. Once I have data for about 50 subjects, I will take the upper and lower 10 for imagery, and will ask those people to come back for part 2 of the study. They will be asked to read an excerpt of Harry Potter for 5 minutes, and an excerpt from something really boring, like a refrigerator manual. Maybe I'll have people read for 10 mins each if I can get the credit hours approved. At any rate, I will track eye movements for both groups under both conditions and see if they differ.
And that's it, really. Seems simple enough. I could pop that out in 2 weeks if I'm good enough! Voila!
OK, so I should create a basic plan for tomorrow. That should be simple enough, yeah? Just the work I have to do tomorrow.
FIRST-- go running, duh!
SECOND-- look up more articles on the relationship between schizophrenia and imagery. Maybe 2 or 3 more. If I get those in record time (before lunch), I'll write up a summary of the findings for hallucinations/schizotypy/schizophrenia in a few paragraphs and have a rough draft of that part out of the way!
THIRD-- continue on to cortical blindness or normative fMRI studies, whichever suits my fancy next. If I get 2-3 articles on whichever other topic that is, I will either brainstorm more ideas for the PhD proposal, or work on my poster.
Do those sound like good goals for one day? Because I haven't the slightest clue. I seem to have a very warped perception of time, which moves about 10 times faster than normal if I'm working on something!
And that is my spring term in a nutshell.
Goodbye, life!
Okay, so I have a long road ahead of me. My main concerns right now have to be the literature review, and a mock-PhD studentship proposal which the head of the course says basically has to be above 90% (which I didn't even know existed in this country) or it doesn't pass.
The collective outlook on PhD studentships is rather grim. I didn't know until today how nearly impossible it is to get one in this country-- it may even be worse than the US. However, my pessimistic view is, it doesn't matter how good your proposal is-- the professor will take you if you've worked for them. All philosophy aside, the PhD proposal is a substantial part of my grade, so it doesn't matter what the reality is. I have to write it and that's that.
So here is the work I have to accomplish by 5 May 2011:
1) Write a 6-8000 word critical literature review
2) Write a nearly perfect PhD studentship proposal (Kevin assures us this will be the hardest thing we do on the course, and I believe him)
3) Create an experimental study different from the thesis and write a 3000 word article
4) Create a professional webpage, other goodies for a portfolio
On top of those things, I have to:
5) Conduct the pilot and final experiments for my thesis
6) Design a scientific poster for the BPS conference in May (since I foolishly signed up to do it)
What have I accomplished so far?
1) I have gathered about 50 articles and read about 10 of them in-depth, and have made notes on those 10 for the "hallucination, schizotypy and schizophrenia" section of my literature review. Today the head of the course said we should be about halfway through with the whole damn thing, which was NEWS TO ME-- I felt an icicle plunge down my esophagus, but it evaporated when I asked the rest of the class (after the head of the course left, of course) what they had done and they expressed that they hadn't even done as much as I, and that goes for the non-slackers like me, too. ;)
2) I have hardly even begun to conceptualize what question I could possibly pursue for 3 solid years of PhD research, but I had better get on it! I am thinking of something to do with the relationship between imagery and perception, which is my new favorite topic right now.
3) I e-mailed the head of the course with my idea for the random experimental study that must be different from my thesis.
4) Create a webpage? I'll leave that 'til the week before it's due.
5) I'm running my pilot on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week! And I have renewed inspiration for the topic and I will not fail my adviser!
6) I have a basic layout/color scheme for the conference poster, have maybe read 3 background articles, but have not put my findings down on paper yet, except in the form of the abstract I submitted in order to get the go-ahead from the British Psychological Society to make the poster.
What do I plan to do?
Forgive my ramblings, but it makes me feel good to put all this in writing-- I am too social for a diary, too verbose for a twitter, and simply too disorganized NOT to do it. I give you my permission to back out at any time.
1) Since I am studying the relationship between visual imagery and visual perception for my literature review, I should cover these basic points:
INTRO: What is imagery? What do we know about imagery from the last 10 years of research since Marlene Behrmann published her review in 2000? Have we answered her questions and others that have been raised about imagery? (i.e. what is the role of the right and left hemispheres in imagery? Why aren't vivid images/hallucinations confused with reality [in normals]? Why does imagery activate different brain areas than other internal representations for other cognitive tasks [such as visual working memory tasks]?)
BODY: The relationship between imagery and perception as evidenced by neuropsychology (representational neglect, cortical blindness), psychopatholy (schizophrenia), and normative studies (schizotypy, imagery-vividness, fMRI) in the last 10 years. What parts of the brain are involved in imagery and which hemispheres. Addressing the questions Behrmann and others set out 10 years ago.
CONCLUSIONS: What we know now that we didn't know then. What questions have we answered. What questions do we still have.
2) I am thinking of designing a series of experiments on the relationship between imagery and perception. One very recent study has found that vividness of mental imagery is greater in people related to schizophrenics than other people who are not related. Which makes weird sense since these people are all normal and have never reported any symptoms of schizophrenia. Which just goes to show that imagery could have a genetic component. Also, imagery is related to schizophrenia in general, NOT hallucinations. Imagery is greater in schizophrenics regardless of whether they have ever hallucinated. Schizotypal people in the normal population report higher imagery capabilities over others, as well. What if I were able to conduct a series of experiments, as follows:
a. test huge number of normal people for high/low imagery and high/low schizotypal traits using various behavioral/self-report methods. Form groups of hi-imagery/lo-schizotypy, hi-imagery/hi-schizotypy, lo-imagery/hi-schizotypy (is there such a thing?), lo-imagery/lo-schizotypy. Look at brains of people who score in the upper and lower 20th percentile on behavioral/self-report measures, using fMRI while they perform both perception and imagery tasks.
b. test people who are related to schizophrenics for high/low imagery and high/low schizotypal traits. Have them ALL do fMRI tasks.
c. test schizophrenics for high/low imagery. Look at brains.
d. compare brains between all these different people. learn more about imagery/perception than anyone else ever.
Jesus, I have no idea what I'm doing. Is this an impossible study? How much does it cost to use an fMRI excessively? Really? I guess I could come up with a different study... but I'll figure that out later.
3) The random experimental study is going to be a blast if the head of the course OKs it! I came up with it in about five minutes after he gave us the assignment. Here it is:
Testing to see if eye movements during reading are different on a few different levels of 2 groups: I will have a hi-imagery group and a lo-imagery group. Each group will be assessed as either "readers" or "non-readers" based on whether they like to read for pleasure, and I will also chart how often these people like to read for fun (by week/month). I will give various behavioral/self-report measures for this. Once I have data for about 50 subjects, I will take the upper and lower 10 for imagery, and will ask those people to come back for part 2 of the study. They will be asked to read an excerpt of Harry Potter for 5 minutes, and an excerpt from something really boring, like a refrigerator manual. Maybe I'll have people read for 10 mins each if I can get the credit hours approved. At any rate, I will track eye movements for both groups under both conditions and see if they differ.
And that's it, really. Seems simple enough. I could pop that out in 2 weeks if I'm good enough! Voila!
OK, so I should create a basic plan for tomorrow. That should be simple enough, yeah? Just the work I have to do tomorrow.
FIRST-- go running, duh!
SECOND-- look up more articles on the relationship between schizophrenia and imagery. Maybe 2 or 3 more. If I get those in record time (before lunch), I'll write up a summary of the findings for hallucinations/schizotypy/schizophrenia in a few paragraphs and have a rough draft of that part out of the way!
THIRD-- continue on to cortical blindness or normative fMRI studies, whichever suits my fancy next. If I get 2-3 articles on whichever other topic that is, I will either brainstorm more ideas for the PhD proposal, or work on my poster.
Do those sound like good goals for one day? Because I haven't the slightest clue. I seem to have a very warped perception of time, which moves about 10 times faster than normal if I'm working on something!
And that is my spring term in a nutshell.
Goodbye, life!
Monday, January 17, 2011
Second Term: Day 1
Well, this weekend was a good end to a vacation that lasted way too long. On Friday night, I texted Philip to ask him if we're still going to the zoo, and by Saturday morning he had not responded. Jana told me to sign up for a movie Insider program so I could see a free pre-show of Rapunzel with her on Saturday morning, but I was sure I was zoo-ing it, so I batted her request away like a crazy homeless man (I read your facebook, Stefani).
It was 8AM on Saturday and I had nothing to do-- I wasn't a Showcase Insider so I couldn't go to Rapunzel-- Philip had ditched me for his mom (I later found out)--
"Wait a minute!" I interrupted my sad thoughts-- "Reshanne, get a grip! You can BECOME a Showcase Insider. You can do ANYTHING!"
So I flew to the library, signed up online for some tacky e-mail based program, duelled with a printer, and charged off to Jana's house to meet her in time to go to the movie. I guess I'm an Insider now, oh joy. I can do ANYTHING!
Okay, anyway.
We were excited to see the movie in English for the first time, and we were pleasantly surprised that the free showing was in 3D! We laughed at a couple of gags we missed while watching it in French: "You broke my smolder!" "Your dream stinks" "My name is Eugene", and had some 'aha' moments about minor plot points that went right over our heads due to a several-thousand-year old Tower of Babel incident.
Sunday, we went to a matinee performance of The Nutcracker, put on by the Moscow Ballet, which Jana and I both agreed was pretty pale in comparison to the Joffrey Ballet. Which brings me to something I've learned in my international travels. In every country we go, there are signs and shops that advertize "exotic" things that are supposed to be good just because they're from somewhere else. While you might see a shop called French Nails in the USA, you see a shop called American Nails in France-- every country advertizes massages, food, bath products, what have you, from any country but the one you're in. Which goes into this bit of wisdom I'll share with you now:
America is the best.
Okay, okay, I'm biased. It's true! Most people will agree that wherever they are from is the best. Those of you who are not American can ignore this sentiment. But my advice to Americans? Stay put! We have everything you could possibly want right there, and it's cheaper! The dollar is not worth much anywhere else, so live happily ever after in your America-bubble. Want a Thai massage? Don't go to Thailand for it-- because they'd advertize a German massage! Here's a marketing lesson: no matter what they call it, it's probably the same everywhere. Except more expensive for Americans.
Okay, I'm running out of time for this post because I have to get to class, and I realize the title of the post suggests that I talk about day one of the second term (understandably), but I will put that into another post just to confuse everyone!
So... stay tuned for some second term ruminations, I know you all want to hear it!
It was 8AM on Saturday and I had nothing to do-- I wasn't a Showcase Insider so I couldn't go to Rapunzel-- Philip had ditched me for his mom (I later found out)--
"Wait a minute!" I interrupted my sad thoughts-- "Reshanne, get a grip! You can BECOME a Showcase Insider. You can do ANYTHING!"
So I flew to the library, signed up online for some tacky e-mail based program, duelled with a printer, and charged off to Jana's house to meet her in time to go to the movie. I guess I'm an Insider now, oh joy. I can do ANYTHING!
Okay, anyway.
We were excited to see the movie in English for the first time, and we were pleasantly surprised that the free showing was in 3D! We laughed at a couple of gags we missed while watching it in French: "You broke my smolder!" "Your dream stinks" "My name is Eugene", and had some 'aha' moments about minor plot points that went right over our heads due to a several-thousand-year old Tower of Babel incident.
Sunday, we went to a matinee performance of The Nutcracker, put on by the Moscow Ballet, which Jana and I both agreed was pretty pale in comparison to the Joffrey Ballet. Which brings me to something I've learned in my international travels. In every country we go, there are signs and shops that advertize "exotic" things that are supposed to be good just because they're from somewhere else. While you might see a shop called French Nails in the USA, you see a shop called American Nails in France-- every country advertizes massages, food, bath products, what have you, from any country but the one you're in. Which goes into this bit of wisdom I'll share with you now:
America is the best.
Okay, okay, I'm biased. It's true! Most people will agree that wherever they are from is the best. Those of you who are not American can ignore this sentiment. But my advice to Americans? Stay put! We have everything you could possibly want right there, and it's cheaper! The dollar is not worth much anywhere else, so live happily ever after in your America-bubble. Want a Thai massage? Don't go to Thailand for it-- because they'd advertize a German massage! Here's a marketing lesson: no matter what they call it, it's probably the same everywhere. Except more expensive for Americans.
Okay, I'm running out of time for this post because I have to get to class, and I realize the title of the post suggests that I talk about day one of the second term (understandably), but I will put that into another post just to confuse everyone!
So... stay tuned for some second term ruminations, I know you all want to hear it!
Friday, January 14, 2011
Disneyland Paris and Paris Paris
Sooo... what is there to say? We went to Disneyland Paris-- it was nice, but Jana and I agreed that part of the Disney magic comes from the nice weather the theme park is supposed to get all year round, but in France you know that's not happening. Then again, the day we played at the park was the only day it didn't rain on our vacation, so I have to give Disneyland Paris points for trying. Even though it was cold.
Because it's so cold in Paris all the time, EuroDisney doesn't have rides like Splash Mountain or the Jungle Cruise. It does, however, have a rather good addition, which is Crush's Coaster-- a roller coaster that makes you feel like you're gliding along the EAC with Crush and Squirt from Finding Nemo.
On the night we arrived, I had my heart set on a pizza in the shape of Mickey Mouse's head (I saw it online, so I'm not THAT much of a freak), and seeing the movie Tangled (called Raiponce in French). We did not find Mickey Pizza-- alas, it seems that may have been discontinued and replaced with a big weiner-- seriously, they sold hotdogs EVERYWHERE, but that doesn't do me no good.
We ended up going to a restaurant called Cafe Mickey which was half empty (or half full for you optimists), and we got a table immediately with no reservation. But when Jana and I only ordered a brownie (Jana) and a bowl of soup (me), the waitress said in a haughty French accent (is there any other kind?) "Um... I don't think you can do that. I have to ask." Really? You can't serve me a cup of soup in a nearly empty restaurant in the off-season? Well, the waitress came back and told us her manager had said it was OK for us to eat-- thanks for your permission, Disney bitch.
We waited forever for our check, which never came, so Jana threw down some money and we left. It was only three days later when Jana realized she had given the woman English cash, which would have been a good joke had we done it on purpose. We had a good hearty laugh over it.
After dinner, we went to see Raiponce (Tangled is only shown on Saturdays), and despite it being in French, we understood quite a lot of it. The animation was brilliant, the songs were catchy, and there was a lot of physical humor, so Jana and I were well-entertained. We actually loved it so much, we ended up going a second time on our last day in Paris, and I've grown to love the French voices, especially Rapunzel's... not like that's very hard, seeing as Rapunzel is played by Mandy Moore in English and I'd rather not hear her whining-- I mean, singing.
EuroDisney is composed of two parks: Walt Disney Studios, and the Magic Kingdom. We conquered both easily in a day, with a long lunch in the middle, as well. We hit the Studios first and went on the Tower of Terror (my personal favorite), Aerosmith's Rockin' Rollercoaster, and a Disney animation show. In the Magic Kingdom, we rode Pirates of the Caribbean, which has not been altered to include Jack Sparrow like in Disney World (thank god), an Indiana Jones ride which is NOT very fun because it knocks your head around, the Haunted Mansion (in French), Pinocchio's Voyage, and Peter Pan's Flight.
We'd made lunch reservations especially for the Blue Lagoon, which is the restaurant that overlooks the Pirates of the Carbbean ride. I had wanted to eat there since last time I went to Disneyland Paris, and I couldn't then because the person I was with didn't want to spend any money. But this time, at long last, two years later (who knew I'd ever be back?), I finally got to eat there. It was SO COOL! You seriously get to watch as people go by on the ride, and not only are you right next to the water, but the whole place is piratey. The atmosphere is dark and lit by big flickering lanterns, pirate music plays in the background, and it's just the most awesome thing ever.
The food was-- eh-- but most Disney food is. I had a lobster that was probably just a little too chewy to be properly cooked. But the dessert "Folie de Banane" was fantastic. As the name suggests, it was all banana-related-- I had a mini banana milkshake (about 2 sips really), a small banana cooked in a chocolate box (that's the only way I know how to describe it), and a mini carmelized upside-down cake with banana flavor mmmmm mmh.
After lunch, we rode Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear's Laser Blast (at Jana's persistent request), watched a stage show, then went back to Walt Disney Studios for Crush's Coaster and a Cinemagique show. We were able to do so much simply because it was the off season-- the longest wait was for Crush's Coaster, which doesn't have a fastpass, and it was still only 40mins. All the other rides we either hopped right on, or waited for 10min at most.
The Disney Village, which is the equivalent of Downtown Disney in Florida, except MUCH smaller, was our nighttime haunt since the park closed at 6PM (seriously! Those Europeans and their early closing hours). It is mostly made up of themed restaurants and some Disney shops, all in a strip that is not very long. Since we'd already explored the Disney Village (where Cafe Mickey and the cinema are located), we just browsed the shops a bit, bought a couple of crepes and went back to our hotel.
The next day, we woke up early for downtown Paris. Jana and I bought all-day metro passes and enjoyed another day packed with tourism. We got a little lost at first, but found our way to Notre Dame. From there, we found the Louvre, which was unfortunately closed that day to the public. I had already been once before, so I wasn't too bothered by it, but Jana was really bummed. She will be going back in April though, so we sucked it up, took our pictures of the pyramid, and went on our merry way down the Champs-Elysee. Of course, there were several touristy booths selling all sorts of gaudy Parisian crap, and Jana had to look at all of it. Between the two of us we basically bought out the streetside bakeries, munching on our pain au chocolats, baguettes, cheesy crepes, and beignets.
We oggled at the Arc de Triomphe, but not before stopping at the Disney Store (really, Jana?), then we took the metro to Montmartre where we explored the Sacre Coeur cathedral, where you can see the white statue street performers, zigzag up and down cobblestone roads, and look at more gaudy Parisian crap (Jana).
There was this AMAZING candy store though, where everything was wrapped in paper or closed up in pastel cans with intricate pictures on them, boxes full of macaroons and chocolate olives (not chocolate-covered olives, that would be nasty), and individually-wrapped bonbons... that place was a lot of Paris heaven, and I just had to buy myself a square of fresh nougat! Mmmmh!
We passed by my favorite part of Montmartre, the artists' square, where local painters set up their easels all over the road and you can just walk by and observe, get yourself sketched, or buy something already made.
We took a quick detour to the Moulin Rouge, snapped our pictures (not much else to do there), then took the metro to the Opera Garnier, where Jana insisted it would be easy to break into Box Five. Once we paid our admission fee, we explored the grand staircase and "ooh"ed and "ah"ed at the marvellous architecture. We found Box Five all right, but it was locked, and not easy to break into. Jana thought we should hop the roped-off stairwell and take a detour to the basement, where there is supposedly an underground lake where a fire-headed ratcatcher and Erik the Phantom used to live. She was satisfied just playing with the elevator though, which didn't take her anywhere.
Finally, our last stop of the day, was the Eiffel Tower. I told Jana how overrated it is.... and it is... I didn't bug her too much about it though because when you're in Paris I guess it's something you just have to see... And as soon as we got there, we were bombarded by street venders with tacky keychains and models of the Eiffel Tower. They came at you all at once, and attacked you with Egyptian-esque cries of "Five euro! Just five euro! One euro! One euro! Five for one euro!", and if Jana and I hadn't been used to this aggressive behavior from previous journeys, we may have ended up buying something.
Oh wait, Jana actually did.
Yep, five tacky Eiffel Tower keychains for one euro.
Le sigh.
Anyway, we had a good day altogether-- and since the Eiffel Tower was our last stop, we got to see it light up when the sun went down. It was a very beautiful sight.
We had a very smooth journey with no unforseen problems at all-- it was a perfect little vacation, half of it being my birthday present from Jana (the Disney tickets) and half of it being my birthday present to Jana (the plane tickets).
And, when we got home, Stefani's CD had finally arrived! Yippee-hooray!
Not long until the next term starts, now... that is Monday... when I have to start working again... but I still have the zoo to look forward to tomorrow (if the plan is still on), and the Nutcracker ballet on Sunday!
Vacation is not over yet!
Because it's so cold in Paris all the time, EuroDisney doesn't have rides like Splash Mountain or the Jungle Cruise. It does, however, have a rather good addition, which is Crush's Coaster-- a roller coaster that makes you feel like you're gliding along the EAC with Crush and Squirt from Finding Nemo.
On the night we arrived, I had my heart set on a pizza in the shape of Mickey Mouse's head (I saw it online, so I'm not THAT much of a freak), and seeing the movie Tangled (called Raiponce in French). We did not find Mickey Pizza-- alas, it seems that may have been discontinued and replaced with a big weiner-- seriously, they sold hotdogs EVERYWHERE, but that doesn't do me no good.
We ended up going to a restaurant called Cafe Mickey which was half empty (or half full for you optimists), and we got a table immediately with no reservation. But when Jana and I only ordered a brownie (Jana) and a bowl of soup (me), the waitress said in a haughty French accent (is there any other kind?) "Um... I don't think you can do that. I have to ask." Really? You can't serve me a cup of soup in a nearly empty restaurant in the off-season? Well, the waitress came back and told us her manager had said it was OK for us to eat-- thanks for your permission, Disney bitch.
We waited forever for our check, which never came, so Jana threw down some money and we left. It was only three days later when Jana realized she had given the woman English cash, which would have been a good joke had we done it on purpose. We had a good hearty laugh over it.
After dinner, we went to see Raiponce (Tangled is only shown on Saturdays), and despite it being in French, we understood quite a lot of it. The animation was brilliant, the songs were catchy, and there was a lot of physical humor, so Jana and I were well-entertained. We actually loved it so much, we ended up going a second time on our last day in Paris, and I've grown to love the French voices, especially Rapunzel's... not like that's very hard, seeing as Rapunzel is played by Mandy Moore in English and I'd rather not hear her whining-- I mean, singing.
EuroDisney is composed of two parks: Walt Disney Studios, and the Magic Kingdom. We conquered both easily in a day, with a long lunch in the middle, as well. We hit the Studios first and went on the Tower of Terror (my personal favorite), Aerosmith's Rockin' Rollercoaster, and a Disney animation show. In the Magic Kingdom, we rode Pirates of the Caribbean, which has not been altered to include Jack Sparrow like in Disney World (thank god), an Indiana Jones ride which is NOT very fun because it knocks your head around, the Haunted Mansion (in French), Pinocchio's Voyage, and Peter Pan's Flight.
We'd made lunch reservations especially for the Blue Lagoon, which is the restaurant that overlooks the Pirates of the Carbbean ride. I had wanted to eat there since last time I went to Disneyland Paris, and I couldn't then because the person I was with didn't want to spend any money. But this time, at long last, two years later (who knew I'd ever be back?), I finally got to eat there. It was SO COOL! You seriously get to watch as people go by on the ride, and not only are you right next to the water, but the whole place is piratey. The atmosphere is dark and lit by big flickering lanterns, pirate music plays in the background, and it's just the most awesome thing ever.
The food was-- eh-- but most Disney food is. I had a lobster that was probably just a little too chewy to be properly cooked. But the dessert "Folie de Banane" was fantastic. As the name suggests, it was all banana-related-- I had a mini banana milkshake (about 2 sips really), a small banana cooked in a chocolate box (that's the only way I know how to describe it), and a mini carmelized upside-down cake with banana flavor mmmmm mmh.
After lunch, we rode Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear's Laser Blast (at Jana's persistent request), watched a stage show, then went back to Walt Disney Studios for Crush's Coaster and a Cinemagique show. We were able to do so much simply because it was the off season-- the longest wait was for Crush's Coaster, which doesn't have a fastpass, and it was still only 40mins. All the other rides we either hopped right on, or waited for 10min at most.
The Disney Village, which is the equivalent of Downtown Disney in Florida, except MUCH smaller, was our nighttime haunt since the park closed at 6PM (seriously! Those Europeans and their early closing hours). It is mostly made up of themed restaurants and some Disney shops, all in a strip that is not very long. Since we'd already explored the Disney Village (where Cafe Mickey and the cinema are located), we just browsed the shops a bit, bought a couple of crepes and went back to our hotel.
The next day, we woke up early for downtown Paris. Jana and I bought all-day metro passes and enjoyed another day packed with tourism. We got a little lost at first, but found our way to Notre Dame. From there, we found the Louvre, which was unfortunately closed that day to the public. I had already been once before, so I wasn't too bothered by it, but Jana was really bummed. She will be going back in April though, so we sucked it up, took our pictures of the pyramid, and went on our merry way down the Champs-Elysee. Of course, there were several touristy booths selling all sorts of gaudy Parisian crap, and Jana had to look at all of it. Between the two of us we basically bought out the streetside bakeries, munching on our pain au chocolats, baguettes, cheesy crepes, and beignets.
We oggled at the Arc de Triomphe, but not before stopping at the Disney Store (really, Jana?), then we took the metro to Montmartre where we explored the Sacre Coeur cathedral, where you can see the white statue street performers, zigzag up and down cobblestone roads, and look at more gaudy Parisian crap (Jana).
There was this AMAZING candy store though, where everything was wrapped in paper or closed up in pastel cans with intricate pictures on them, boxes full of macaroons and chocolate olives (not chocolate-covered olives, that would be nasty), and individually-wrapped bonbons... that place was a lot of Paris heaven, and I just had to buy myself a square of fresh nougat! Mmmmh!
We passed by my favorite part of Montmartre, the artists' square, where local painters set up their easels all over the road and you can just walk by and observe, get yourself sketched, or buy something already made.
We took a quick detour to the Moulin Rouge, snapped our pictures (not much else to do there), then took the metro to the Opera Garnier, where Jana insisted it would be easy to break into Box Five. Once we paid our admission fee, we explored the grand staircase and "ooh"ed and "ah"ed at the marvellous architecture. We found Box Five all right, but it was locked, and not easy to break into. Jana thought we should hop the roped-off stairwell and take a detour to the basement, where there is supposedly an underground lake where a fire-headed ratcatcher and Erik the Phantom used to live. She was satisfied just playing with the elevator though, which didn't take her anywhere.
Finally, our last stop of the day, was the Eiffel Tower. I told Jana how overrated it is.... and it is... I didn't bug her too much about it though because when you're in Paris I guess it's something you just have to see... And as soon as we got there, we were bombarded by street venders with tacky keychains and models of the Eiffel Tower. They came at you all at once, and attacked you with Egyptian-esque cries of "Five euro! Just five euro! One euro! One euro! Five for one euro!", and if Jana and I hadn't been used to this aggressive behavior from previous journeys, we may have ended up buying something.
Oh wait, Jana actually did.
Yep, five tacky Eiffel Tower keychains for one euro.
Le sigh.
Anyway, we had a good day altogether-- and since the Eiffel Tower was our last stop, we got to see it light up when the sun went down. It was a very beautiful sight.
We had a very smooth journey with no unforseen problems at all-- it was a perfect little vacation, half of it being my birthday present from Jana (the Disney tickets) and half of it being my birthday present to Jana (the plane tickets).
And, when we got home, Stefani's CD had finally arrived! Yippee-hooray!
Not long until the next term starts, now... that is Monday... when I have to start working again... but I still have the zoo to look forward to tomorrow (if the plan is still on), and the Nutcracker ballet on Sunday!
Vacation is not over yet!
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Good music makes me feel feelings that nothing else makes me feel!
Pyramids?
Roman ruins?
The Eiffel Tower?
Big Ben?
Nothing.
Nothing makes my soul twing, or my skin tingle, or my heart leap like a good melody!
Roman ruins?
The Eiffel Tower?
Big Ben?
Nothing.
Nothing makes my soul twing, or my skin tingle, or my heart leap like a good melody!
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Making Somethin' Outta Nuthin'
So I think I left off on New Years... and since then, I've done nothing but lounge around, sleeping in until ridiculous hours, re-reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, and watching movies. Oh yeah, and playing Solitaire! I've played about a hundred games since yesterday.
I finished my essays completely two days ago, and now I don't know what to do with myself. Last night, Jana and I went to a t'ai chi class around the corner that I found an ad for online. It seems promising, though the ad said 'classes start 5 January' when really it should have said, 'classes will recommence 5 January' since the majority of the class already knew the whole t'ai chi sequence, and were already working on some kind of sword-wielding thing.
The only other person who didn't know the 'first 24' completely was the only young person besides Jana and myself; a girl about our age from Massachussettes, who had worked in India before coming to Leicester 3 years ago, and is now learning acupuncture. And she's picked up a British accent somewhere along the way-- fancy that. At any rate, she still knew the 'first 6', and Jana has taken t'ai chi before, so her movements were very relaxed, controlled, and slow even though she didn't remember much. Me, I blundered through the 'first 3' and the teacher kept telling me to unclench my fists and relax my shoulders... but t'ai chi is kind of like dancing, and people should understand that I am simply too uncoordinated to learn foot/hand movements of any kind, aside from band marching, which is easy because you just have to walk in time to the beat.
I might go back, and I might not. Each class costs 6.50, and I've read that t'ai chi classes usually cost upwards of 20.00, so it might be a good deal. It just miffs me to think that if I had a sportscard, I could do yoga instead-- but-- and get this-- whoever is in charge of the prices CHANGED them just before Christmas, so that there is no after-Christmas discount any longer! Yes, that's right. The sportscard is STILL 65 pounds. And I was really looking forward to yoga, too! But I don't know what I'd do other than yoga with the damn thing, now-- I don't even know if I'd have time to take advantage of the sports equipment since a) my academic schedule will be much busier this year, b) whenever I pass the gym there is always someone on the exercise machines so who's to say I would ever get a chance to use them?, and c) it is just much more convenient to take off running from my house. So I might just end up investing the 65 pounds in t'ai chi and forget about the sports card entirely. Or, I might just do what I did last semester and just run and hike and that's that.
I considered joining the cross country club, but theres a 15 pound registration fee. Um... why? Why does it cost 15 pounds to run with people around the park? I just want a running buddy, is that so hard to ask?
And speaking of running, I now have not run in 3 weeks. One week was because I was in Bavaria, the other two were partially because of sickness, partially because of the weather, but mostly because I have no motivation right now when I'm at Jana's house with none of my gear and I'm as lazy as a sloth. Which is why I just want this vacation to end-- a month is FAR too long for winter break. I need a reason to just go back to my house-- and since Jana is so stingy she won't follow me, I'd be all alone on my break, still doing mostly nothing, which seems pointless to me. During term time, we're both kept nice and busy, and I don't need to hang out with Jana every day.
At least I won't feel so guilty about not running when we're in Paris next week-- we'll be on our feet all day, in Disneyland, downtown, etc. and then by the time we come back it'll be almost time to start up classes again... and I'll increase my running regimen to make up for it. I'm already staving off the candy and munching like a fruitbat-- a change of diet always helps!
Anyway, it's times like these I wish I had a job, even something as messed up as Borders, just to keep me occupied. I'm not used to having an entire Christmas break to just do whatever, and I don't know what to do with myself. My brain is turning to mush!
Mush, I tell you!
I finished my essays completely two days ago, and now I don't know what to do with myself. Last night, Jana and I went to a t'ai chi class around the corner that I found an ad for online. It seems promising, though the ad said 'classes start 5 January' when really it should have said, 'classes will recommence 5 January' since the majority of the class already knew the whole t'ai chi sequence, and were already working on some kind of sword-wielding thing.
The only other person who didn't know the 'first 24' completely was the only young person besides Jana and myself; a girl about our age from Massachussettes, who had worked in India before coming to Leicester 3 years ago, and is now learning acupuncture. And she's picked up a British accent somewhere along the way-- fancy that. At any rate, she still knew the 'first 6', and Jana has taken t'ai chi before, so her movements were very relaxed, controlled, and slow even though she didn't remember much. Me, I blundered through the 'first 3' and the teacher kept telling me to unclench my fists and relax my shoulders... but t'ai chi is kind of like dancing, and people should understand that I am simply too uncoordinated to learn foot/hand movements of any kind, aside from band marching, which is easy because you just have to walk in time to the beat.
I might go back, and I might not. Each class costs 6.50, and I've read that t'ai chi classes usually cost upwards of 20.00, so it might be a good deal. It just miffs me to think that if I had a sportscard, I could do yoga instead-- but-- and get this-- whoever is in charge of the prices CHANGED them just before Christmas, so that there is no after-Christmas discount any longer! Yes, that's right. The sportscard is STILL 65 pounds. And I was really looking forward to yoga, too! But I don't know what I'd do other than yoga with the damn thing, now-- I don't even know if I'd have time to take advantage of the sports equipment since a) my academic schedule will be much busier this year, b) whenever I pass the gym there is always someone on the exercise machines so who's to say I would ever get a chance to use them?, and c) it is just much more convenient to take off running from my house. So I might just end up investing the 65 pounds in t'ai chi and forget about the sports card entirely. Or, I might just do what I did last semester and just run and hike and that's that.
I considered joining the cross country club, but theres a 15 pound registration fee. Um... why? Why does it cost 15 pounds to run with people around the park? I just want a running buddy, is that so hard to ask?
And speaking of running, I now have not run in 3 weeks. One week was because I was in Bavaria, the other two were partially because of sickness, partially because of the weather, but mostly because I have no motivation right now when I'm at Jana's house with none of my gear and I'm as lazy as a sloth. Which is why I just want this vacation to end-- a month is FAR too long for winter break. I need a reason to just go back to my house-- and since Jana is so stingy she won't follow me, I'd be all alone on my break, still doing mostly nothing, which seems pointless to me. During term time, we're both kept nice and busy, and I don't need to hang out with Jana every day.
At least I won't feel so guilty about not running when we're in Paris next week-- we'll be on our feet all day, in Disneyland, downtown, etc. and then by the time we come back it'll be almost time to start up classes again... and I'll increase my running regimen to make up for it. I'm already staving off the candy and munching like a fruitbat-- a change of diet always helps!
Anyway, it's times like these I wish I had a job, even something as messed up as Borders, just to keep me occupied. I'm not used to having an entire Christmas break to just do whatever, and I don't know what to do with myself. My brain is turning to mush!
Mush, I tell you!
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