Hello faithful blog readers!
I have had quite a busy life lately. I went to Paris to go shopping on Saturday - 4 hours on the train there, 5 hours in Paris, and 4 hours on the train back. Now that's die hard shopping. And as it turned out, I didn't even get shoes! I got brown pin stripped pants, three shirts and a sweater for less than 100 euros though! And I bought a pair of black dress shoes at Auchan yesterday for 15 euros, so not too bad!
Sunday, we all went to the beach. Yes that's right the beach. There is a lake called Baggersee behind Auchan (yes it is confirmed, Auchan has everything - imagine a Walmart with a lake and sandy beaches behind it). It was super hot - I sun tanned and went for a swim and we had a pretty damn good picnic too. It was great.
But then yesterday was back to reality and all the hard work. Our team is putting a lot of work into this latest project, and its starting to drain me. Thank you to everyone who completed the survey, by the way, it was great. So our paper is due Thursday and its almost done and the presentation is Friday. We are doing a Regis and Kelly style show so it should be cheezy.
Then Sunday we are off to Bremen in north west Germany for a Conference of the IAF - space people. I'm going to have the chance to meet all sorts of space people. The Japanese professor at ISU is setting up a meeting for me with the female Japanese astronaut who also has a biological background. So that should be good.
In the meantime, we get two more assignments this week: one is on calculating orbits and the other will have something to do with the conference next week. This is the web site of the conference, if anyone is interested: http://www.iaf2003.org/
So I should have a pretty interesting update the next time I get a chance.
Hope all is well at home - have a great wedding Andrew and Nikki, I'm sure it will go well!

Bonjour tous mes amies!
Yes that's right, I started French class yesterday. We had to take a test on Friday to see what class we would be placed in and I got put in beginners! (way to go Canadian education system, 7 years of french = beginners) But it was super easy so I changed to intermediate and I think I may actually learn something there.
We have our first presentation today on the space policy and law of Brazil, so hopefully it will go well. And our next one is due next week. (And I may involve you guys in some surveys for that).
Last weekend, Will and I were planning on going to Brussels with some other people, but ended up staying out too late Friday night at dinner to get up at 5 am. So when we woke up Saturday morning, we decided that we would go to Zurich instead. We got there at about 6, so all the shops were closed - and of course everything is closed on Sundays too. But we wandered around the gorgeous city - on a cool lake with hills and mountains! We got poured on in a freak thunder and lightning storm and then ate dinner for $30 each - just pizza, soup and water. Yes this is Switzerland. Sunday we got bicycles from the city - for free! - and biked around the lake for a few hours. We came across a crazy Christian rock concert and did some serious window shopping: Gucci, Chanel, Armani, Hugo Boss etc etc. If only I was rich. But I am definitely going back there, hopefully drag Tyler there. And everything is so green there too. As soon as you cross the border back into France the grass turns brown, I swear, its crazy! I think they spend all their chocolate and riches on watering the grass.
This Saturday I'm going to go to Paris to do some shopping - I have yet to buy any clothes, aren't I good? Some of the other girls are coming and girlfriends of some of the guys. It should be fun, but a long day - 8 hours total on the train with shopping in between!
So far, everything is good. I'm a little frustrated with my internet at home, it only sometimes works, and with my washing machine - my clothes all got stained all weird and the only way it comes out is with hand washing. So that's what I'll be doing every night this week - hand washing clothes.
Hope everyone is doing well and getting ready for the wedding!
Love Beth

Hello Everyone -
If you haven't already talked to me, I finally have internet at my house. So I will be around on messenger in my evenings - your mornings and early afternoons.
Today we did a boat tour of Strasbourg. We got to see Petit France, which is a really old and very touristy area with very cool buildings. We got to go in a loch (which I've never been in and I don't know if that's how you spell it) so that was cool. We also went by the European Parliament, which I hadn't had the time to check out yet. It was an hour and ten minutes though so I was tired by the end of it. Then we went inside the main cathedral - which is definitely one of the best I've seen in Europe. It has so much stained glass; very beautiful and unbelievable. We then had to do this treasure hunt thing around downtown with teams of people from our first assignment. We had to go to certain buildings and see what animal was sculpted on it or what initials were on it, etc. Our team went super fast because we thought we were behind everyone else and ended up finishing first. However, we got the least number of questions right, so we lost the competition. The winning team got t-shirts and a book on Strasbourg. After the treasure hunt we had drinks at a little cafe, courtesy of ISU. Then we headed to the town hall and had a reception and welcoming from the mayor of Strasbourg. Again, we had free drinks (I've never been given so much free alcohol in my life - these last two weeks have been crazy) and some food. It was cool to be welcomed by important people as important people! I'm actually pretty important over here - I'm somebody!!!
I am headed to Belgium this weekend, just for something to do - how cool is that? Although, I have a ton of work to do on the train there. But I'll be sure to eat lots of chocolate for you all!
Oh ya, this is cool: my roomie Will went to Germany tonight to watch a football match as all the pubs in France are showing the France game instead of the German game. Downtown Strasbourg, we were closer to Germany (6km) than to my house! Crazy eh?
Beth
PS My school email is actually elizabeth.rogers@mss.isunet.edu, sorry.

Bonsoir!
I have just finished a long day at school, it's almost 6pm and I've been here since 8:30. I think most of my days will be like this. Still no internet, so I've been using my computer at school for an hour or so to check out possible sites for my internship in April - July. I may end up in the USA just because there is so much more biochemical research going on there. But California in the summer wouldn't be so bad!
I got to learn about space economics and more space law today. We also got our second assignment. The first was to write a 10 page report and do a presentation on the space policy and law of Brazil as a group of 9 people. Our assignment today is to watch 4 movies: 2001 A Space Odyssey, Mission to Mars, Apollo 13, and Space Cowboys - and to assess the scientific merit of them. We are in groups of 6 to do this, and even though it sounds cool, it will be a shitload of work. We have to spend 10 hours just watching the movies! So I will be a busy busy girl over the next 8 months.
We were planning a trip to Prague this weekend, but I think we've cancelled it for now as some Canadians can't go as we need a VISA as Canadians (fortunately I'm also British so I'm good for Prague). So I may go to Paris or something for a day as I still have 3 days left on my France rail pass that run out Sept 27. I'm trying to plan to go to England next weekend to pick up my suitcase there, but its going to be super expensive. Even though I already bought a Eurostar pass at home, they want to charge me $130 extra just to go on it! Crapola! And Ryanair flights are either $60 or $250, and the cheap one is at 6:50am! You would think it would be easy to get around Europe!
Tonight I think I'm just going to chill out and do some much need reading of my text book. Last night, we all went out for a fellow Canadian Mark's birthday so I didn't get home until late. I need to store up some sleep for the months ahead I think.
And sorry, still no internet. Apparently France Telecom is the worst service provider on the planet and they tell you it will be ready one day but its not for like weeks later. Mark has been waiting one month for his service, whereas another students, Bavs got hers the day after she ordered it! So who knows when I can chat with y'all (I'm living with a southern American). And no chatting at school because of the firewall :(
Well that's just about all I have for a daily update. Please email me and let me know what's going on in your lives. And girls, come on and get your acts together for a bridal shower for Niki!

Luv Beth

PS My email at school is rogers.elizabeth@isunet.edu and I have 50MB storage so you can send me pics there.

Bonjour everyone!
I have finally got the chance to add a little to this blog. It is Monday afternoon here in lovely Strasbourg, and I have finally settled in. I had a horrible time getting here. I missed my flight from London because of the poor British rail system and then couldn't get back into London from the airport due to the power cut that day. I ended up paying $130 on top of my $400 rail pass to take the Eurostar to Paris! I then took the 4 hour train ride to Strasbourg and ended up at my house by taxi Friday evening. I went to see Phone Booth that night with some students from ISU and then saw Pirates of the Carribean the next night with about 20 students. I was still really tired and jet lagged so spent most of Sunday chilling and sleeping.
I live on the main floor of a house with 2 other students. One is Will from USA and one is Fabio from Italy. So far its been good, Will and I have been making dinners while Fabio eats McDonalds everyday in between studying.
Monday was registration day, Tuesday was the opening ceremonies. I got to wear my suit and we had catering from the Hilton Hotel at the school. We started classes on Wednesday and then saw the presentation of the summer student team projects on Thursday - very impressive. There was a BBQ Thursday night during which time the 4 of us Canadians had a good chat with one of the ISU founders who is Canadian as well. Friday we had more classes - introduction to business and law! Then it was the closing ceremonies of the summer students. The had people from ESA (European Space Agency) there and the VP of Boeing! In the afternoon we got to talk to both of the founders of ISU for quite a while. The other guy is American, Peter Diamenta? and founded/started the X-Prize! That was very cool. After the graduation ceremony, we went out to a pub then to a bar. Peter, bought us a round of drinks and asked ME to dance! I was standing there dancing with the guy who started this school and has put up 10 million dollars for the x-prize!!!! It was unbelievable! At 2:30 we left the bar and were going to walk home - about 1.5 hours. But we ended up going the completely wrong direction and getting lost. So we headed back downtown and took a taxi, whose drive just made up a fare to charge us! Got home at about 5 am!
I slept in til 1:30 Saturday because there are these cool wooden shutters that go on the outside of the window so my room can be totally dark! Went to the Auchan (which is an enormous Walmart) and waited 30 minutes in line to buy stuff even with 50 tils open, yes 50! Chilled Saturday night and went to a cool little street/hops festival in a small village north of here yesterday.
I was supposed to get internet at my house Friday, but the French suck at doing things on time. So maybe tomorrow, who knows. Once I do, I will post some pictures and keep in touch more regularly!
Miss you all - keep in touch!
I'm loving it here - so cool!