Relationships in Black and White

Despite the urgings of many a friend (and mom - though, I only have one mom), I had to leave little Anderson Chaussette behind in Cargese. Not to worry, he will be cared for - he wore a little white collar (though, without a label) and one night I saw a woman in the neighboring apartment feeding him and a larger but otherwise identical version of him (the mother, I presume?)

I however, am not doing so well. I thought I could handle a little kitty-dating, a little casual kitty hook-up. Mr. Romeo, my balcon chaton, slipping through the window in the dead of night and curling up beside me, disappearing just as quickly in the morning. But, as you have probably guessed, I couldn't help getting my feelings involved, and now I miss him terribly.

Luckily, fate has brought me a older, wiser man to help me get over my little kitty vacation fling. A week after I returned from France my roommate Michelle adopted a 2 year old, as yet unnamed kitty. He is large, muscular, with the blackest of black fur and big green eyes (whatever his official name, I will nick-name him "bear", because that is what he is). Though he usually sleeps with her, during the day he sometimes curls up in my bed, and I can pretend I have my little Anderson back again.

Kitteh in ma bed: Anderson and Bear.

Of course, like all men, big Bear requires some training. He's already developed the habit of jumping on my desk while I try to work. Perhaps a southern accent will discourage him? (Please watch the link, it is hilarious)

However, I will always have a special place in my heart for Anderson, the voleur chaussette.

Cargese: of Towers and Churches

A brief  history lesson, with stories and photos.

The island of Corsica is located in the Mediterranean sea just west of Italy and south of France, and, as such, has long been desired by neighboring lands as a strategic military and trading base. The Greeks were there, the Romans were there, the Vandals and Visigoths and even Pepin the Short (third Carolingian king of the Frankish realm!) were there!

For five centuries (1347 - 1729) it was held by the Republic of Genoa, a small Catholic nation based on the southern coast of what is now Italy. During the time of the Genoese Empire, three watchtowers were built  in the vicinity of what is now Cargese, where I was staying during the conference.

The bay at sunset, from the town of Cargese

On our day off from lectures, Pablo (a friend I met at the conference) and I hiked out to one of the towers. It was about an hour and a half long walk from the village, along a fairly well tread trail through the scrub - though I must point out that all trails in Corsica, no matter how well tread, feature little miniature lizards that scurry out of your path as you walk, like the grasshoppers that fly up before your feet in the prairie, or pigeons that alight in advance of you in the city. I found them hopelessly adorable, and tried many times in vain to catch a picture.

The tower, now much closer.

From the top! We played charades with a nice French couple to get the photo taken.

Inside the tower. Pablo objects to stairways.

Captain Morganing it with history!

Following it's occupation by Genoa, Corsica enjoyed a brief period of independence before becoming a part of France in 1769. There is, incidentally, still a high level of national pride in Corsica, which leads to a particularly strong locally-based economy (I understand this might also be a result of the tourism). In Cargese, a town of ~1500 people, there were two grocery stores,one general and one which sold only Corsican products (cheese, chips, beer - you name it, they got it!). We were served only Corsican labeled bottle water and Corsican labeled sugar packets at the conference (though we questioned where in Corsica they grew the sugar cane to produce the sugar . . . ) And, unlike what is often the case in the US, the local products were much cheaper than imports (yay for proper reflection of fuel prices! A Planet Money story about how locally grown tomatoes in Haiti have 2-3 times the cost of imports - Haiti, my heart bleeds for you!)

This post is getting quite long, so please bear with me through one more historical story. During the nineteenth century, Greeks started to migrate to Corsica to escape the Ottoman Turkish rule, and so, when the town of Cargese was founded, it was necessary to build two churches in the town, one Greek Orthodox and the other Catholic. They were both small but breathtaking, and it was fun to compare the two styles.

Greek Orthodox

Roman Catholic - darker?

After two weeks with mostly boys, I found Joan of Arc very inspiring.

You made it! Take care!

What to do when you bought too many goodies in Paris and you can't zip your suitcase

Poster-tube cookie carrier!

An innocent poster tube? Just wait . . .

Surprise! Cookies!

I fit some fancy french tea in there also.

I had a fun time explaining to the French airport security why my "poster" weighed five pounds and made clunking noises when it moved back and forth.

My original plan was to purchase some French wine post-security and also stash it in the tube, but the woman at the duty-free shop reminded me that, since I was doing customs at JFK, I would have to pass through a second security screen and they would make me throw it away. Oh well, only two-buck chuck for me.

Introducing: Anderson voleur Chausette!

The origins are as follows:

The first name "Anderson" was inspired, not by Anderson Cooper (despite his striking resemblance to my kitten) but by the phenomenon of Anderson Localization, which occurs when scattering events off of disordered media lead to wave localization rather than diffusion (In case you are curious, here is the Anderson localization wiki). As "Son et Lumiere" is primarily concerned with the behavior of sound waves, this topic has been thoroughly discussed. My kitten was, believe it or not, the (partial) inspiration for a slide at the end of Prof. John Page's talk, which described the phenomenon of Anderson localization of a cat: said cat becomes localized, rather than diffusive, when it is encounters a high density of randomly ordered scattering events: dogs, cat-haters, waitresses, cars etc. Just you wait: one day, Anderson's cat will hold a place as highly esteemed in the symbolism of science as Schrodinger's cat, and my little Anderson started it all.

Anderson versus Anderson

The middle and last names, suggested by John, mean "sock thief" in French - very fitting for my little laundry rooting kitten. Anderson v. Chaussette - it just rolls off your tongue, doesn't it? I was considering "underwear thief", but "sous-vetements" just does not have the right ring to it.

And, because I know all you guys really care about, here are some more photos:

But before you fall into a coma of cuteness, consider this: my little Anderson jumped on my face at 2:30 this morning, waking me up and tracking mud all over my bed. Silly cat.

I will post about something not related to kittens sometime in the near future. Cheers!

Creatures of Corsica: or, the cat that tried to steal my underpants

Some of the things I very much enjoy about Corsica, or at least Cargese, are the animals. As the town is very compact, there is clearly no room for yards, and so people's dogs and cats are allowed to roam free. I like this mode of operation very much - the dogs I have met are all calm (probably because they can run where ever they like), well socialized, and smart enough to avoid traffic (I should add they are all wearing collars, so I know they are not strays!)

A dog nap at the institute.

The institute appears to be a favorite hangout for about six dogs from the village, which has created some funny moments at the school. Most notably, the dogs seem very intent on entering the lecture hall during talks, and so it is not uncommon to have speakers interrupted by a dog who just wants to be part of the action. It doesn't help that the pointer is actually just a giant stick.

My advisor, petting a dog in the middle of a talk.

 

Me giving my flash presentation. Notice the large stick - very tempting to dogs.

Every night I leave the doors to my balcony open while I sleep. On my second morning here, I woke up to find a little white kitten looking up at me from beside my bed. It looked at me cutely for a few seconds before viciously attacking my feet. I played with it for a few minutes and put it on the porch so I could shower.

Wake up!!

That night the cat returned before bedtime, and since then he (I checked -  it's a boy) has been a frequent visitor to my room. One night after a long hiking trip I was dozing on the bed when he came in, jumped on my chest, and proceeded to take a nap with me, nuzzling my neck. More often, however, he is in full-on kitten mode - running in circles, attacking anything that moves, and rearranging my laundry (last night he made it to the balcony carrying my underpants - I luckily caught him before he could get any farther, though I do believe now I am missing  a red sock!)

During a rare calm moment

I want to name my little Corsican vacation kitten. Any ideas?

Son et Lumiere

 For anyone who didn't already know, I am participating in a two-week long scientific summer school in Corsica titled "Son et Lumiere" (sound and light), which very accurately describes what we are learning here (photo-acoustics). The school is being held at a small scientific institute about a 5 minute drive (or 25 minute walk) from the village of Cargese, a small tourist town located on the coast of the Mediterranean sea.

The view from my balcony at dusk

On my walk to the institute each morning.

Each day we have 3 and a half hours of lectures in the morning, a long lunch provided by the institute, a two hour break in the afternoon (for going to the beach, of course!), a coffee break following the beach break (because laying in the sun can be very tiring indeed!), and then another 3 hours of lectures. After the last talk a group of students usually walks up the village for dinner, which in the french style is often 2 + hours long, and then we sometimes head to the local bar for a couple of beers. Go to bed, wake up, repeat. To quote my dad: "That counts as work?". I repeat: yeah, it's pretty awesome.

Our welcome to the institute included detailed directions for how to get to the beach, as well as the locations of the showers and where it was acceptable to hang towels and suits to dry.

Au Bon Accueil: where all the hip kids hang.

There are approximately 45 graduate students, post-docs, and professors attending the conference (5 of which are women). Of these, Keith, Jeremy, and I are the only Americans (not including David, our labmate, who is originally from France). Besides us there are only a few other native English speakers from Great Britain and Canada, and everyone else is from various countries scattered throughout the world. Luckily, everyone speaks English and is very friendly (I had a long discussion with a German, and Irishman, a Frenchman, and an Argentinian about the standards for friendliness around the world - turns out Minnesota is, relatively speaking, not that friendly, a fact I will have to work to change.)

One more photo to make everyone jealous -

Sunset

 - and I am off to the beach! Cheers.