Loire Valley

When my mom came to visit, she took us on a weekend trip down to the Loire Valley as a birthday present/adventure.  Here are the highlights of the trip.

We rented a car and had a beautiful drive down to the small town of Langeais the first night.  Margaret did a great job of conducting our fearless Fiat Panda down the French highways.

We stayed that night in a bed and breakfast run by an older gentleman.  It had amazing rose gardens and was directly across the street from the chateau.  We got there a little late and walked to the only little family restaurant still open. Turned out to be a great meal with pitchers of the cheap local wine.  Margaret and I had a room on the top floor and listened to the night showers on the roof as we went to sleep.  The owner had warned us against taking the room that fronted the street because it might be a little noisy.  See the picture below to grasp the contrast between Langeais busy streets and Paris busy streets.

My mom and I fighting through the hordes of tourists in Langeais.  Chateau at the left, restaurant straight ahead, B&B just off-screen to the right

Public Transit Study

Here is a really good post from one of my favorite blogs critiquing a study on public transit that is in the news right now.  Even though we bought a house next to a light rail station and I will be relying on public transit in the fall, there is no way that I think Denver has the 6th best transit system in the country.  But the article that Nate Silver wrote about the study is very thoughtful and asks a bunch of interesting questions.


538 post on common sense and public transit

Shale Oil and Gas

Two interesting articles about developments in shale oil and gas.

The first is from the NYTimes, on the shale gas potential of Ukraine.  This is really big for Europe- Russia basically has a chokehold on Europe via natural gas supply.  Being able to get a significant amount from Ukraine would be a relatively cheap way of easing the Russian dominance.  European countries are currently planning on spending a fortune on LNG terminals and long pipelines from the Caucasus.

The second is a New Yorker article giving a really good summary of the shale oil boom in North Dakota right now.  The amounts of oil there are pretty large.  Not enough for 'energy independence' (a solely political concept), but significant.  Unfortunately, the link is just an abstract, but consider it another hint from me to subscribe to the New Yorker.

All of these shale developments are great news for the U.S., because we have the expertise in the area.  We're the only ones who have succeeded in it, and the rest of the world is going to be hiring us to teach them.  And it's good for world energy supply, because there are huge amounts of oil and gas in shale formations (well, good in the 'delaying Peak Oil' sense.  Not so good in the 'hey maybe we should stop using petroleum sometime soon because it is polluting' sense).

Shale oil and gas has come under a lot of unwarranted environmental criticism, in my opinion.  The main critique is that the fraccing fluids can somehow pollute groundwater.  From my one Reservoir Engineering course, this makes no sense at all.  The fluids are injected literally miles underground, into rock that is too impermeable to permit migration of fluids upwards (which is the whole point of a shale formation).  Blaming groundwater contamination on the fraccing seems ridiculous.  There can certainly be large-scale pollution (groundwater or otherwise) from the rush to drill, the larger amount of surface area needed for shale drilling, and from over-eager companies not responsibly handling their wells.  These things need to be well regulated.

The most interesting critique to me, though, is that fraccing uses a ton of water.  Seeing as my former favorite fuel (biodiesel, and ethanol by extension) gets criticized frequently for the amount of water needed to irrigate the fields, fraccing seems to get a free pass because people don't associate petroleum with water usage.  But the amounts are immense.  I have no idea how it compares to the amounts needed to irrigate enough fields for a comparable amount of biodiesel... maybe that will be the topic of my next post.

Best of Both Worlds

Thanks to Margaret, Mom, Leah, Luke, and Kacey for the birthday 'imports'!

4 months

So far, so good!  We're still alive, still enjoying France, still feeling American.

April had some definite positives: vacation in Rome and Barcelona, a strong finish to my second semester of graduate school, a great birthday celebration for me, and the beginning of my mom's visit.

I got to live a bachelor life for a week while Margaret stayed on vacation with a friend.  The verdict: fairly boring when you are in another country and have class every day.

I think we've made a little bit of a pivot in our mentality here.  Up until now, we've been using the time and the change of pace to learn, think, and imagine.  We've been able to see new perspectives, using the separation and foreign experience as a medium for thought.

Now that we are over halfway done, we're changing our focus to firming up the ideas and plans we will bring back with us.  I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate the IFP's international oil perspective into the Colorado energy scene I will most likely join after graduating.  Together, we're identifying plans for new endeavors and actions at home.  It feels like a natural time to shift mentality, and I hope it will lead to a productive two and a half months.

The shift from counting up (time spent here) to counting down (time till we return to CO) also makes it easier to feel homesick.  It's more natural now to feel frustrated with the effort required in daily life in a foreign country, and to miss Torrey!  The return is close.  I think the biggest challenge in the coming month is to stay in the moment and not let time disappear in the excitement of visitors, warm weather, and travels.

Palais Garnier

This is for you, Janet!

The opera ceiling, by Marc Chagall

Close up of the Eiffel Tower

Foyer where concert-goers can spend intermission

I love Marc Chagall; his work is so dreamy and imaginative.  And I have been dying to see this ceiling at the opera house in person.  It is beautiful, and the concert hall it presides over is surprisingly cozy and small.  Wouldn't it be marvelous to go see the ballet or opera, and then mill about during intermission in these glowing gold foyers? 

Spring Break part 2: Barcelona

Basilica of the Sagrada Familia

Barcelona was the perfect compliment to Rome: it is modern and alive with energy.  To anyone who has ever thought of visiting, I would say, G-O-!  The tapas, late nights, long meals, and overall energy exuded by the people made you want to live life to the fullest.  It is so much more laid back than Paris (with more affordable shopping) and so much more alive than Rome.  Living in France, we've become accustomed to not being able to get anything done around lunchtime when everything shuts down, but Barcelona took it to a new level for us.  There were places that shut down from 1pm to 5pm, and that seemed to be the norm!  The lifestyle really encouraged us to have long, leisurely days.

Spring Break part 1: Rome

We wanted to go to Rome primarily for the history.  I (Tom) especially pushed for it; I wanted to see where the Caesers ruled, where the early church had pivotal moments, and where the most powerful city in the world at one time transformed in to a modern capital.

In the Forum