Leaning tower

Many times throughout this trip I have been overwhelmed by the sights we've seen. But the first time I saw the leaning tower of Pisa was the first time I actually didn't believe my eyes. Other sights were, in my opinion, more beautiful and majestic. But when I saw the tower I had a hard time accepting that any structure, especially one so large and so ancient could lean so hard and not fall. It was also really cool to learn how different engineers went about trying to fix the tower.

Observatory

The observatory was amazing!  I learned a lot of very cool facts about the earth and space that I never knew before. The 3-D demonstration of the Big Bang was very cool and entertaining. I wish we would have had more time so I could have checked out some of the interactive parts, like driving a land Rover on the moon, but it was still a great experience.

PACCE Project

The PACCE Projet was a lot of fun and I felt very good about what I was doing. We got to help make Rome a better place by taking off stickers put up by the Mafia and we took off tags put up by random kids. In the end, we helped make Ottavianno a better place and at the same time, I had a chance to meet some of the locals and got to hear their opinions about all of the vandalism in Rome. It was a great thing to be a part of.

Retake Roma

Right off the bat, I could tell Rebecca was not a normal Italian. Her clear Midwest accent was the first giveaway, the second was her attitude towards cleaning up the city. I thought it was awesome to see how she was trying to merge our two cultures through taking an initiative to make the city of Rome a cleaner place. Participating in retake roma and talking with Rebecca and the other Italians really helped me see contrasts and similarities between our cultures.

project

On sunday our group participated in a program known as Retake Roma. Within this project we cleaned off graffiti,  painted the subway, swept the sidewalks, and removed a lot of stickers from street signs. I found this to be a very interesting type of community service because even in a lot of major cities in the US you do not see it this bad. Moreover, the reactions we got from the pedestrians stuck me as strange. It was like they never saw anyone doing community service before which is so strange from an outside perspective because it is very much a part of our culture. Finally, after thinking about it, I do not know how much I support this program. I agree that it is a great thing to clean the sidewalks, but the tags have been a part of Roman culture for a long time now. Instead some American came over and decided she didn't like what she saw so she was going to fight it. This not only makes some locals angry but it also fuels the stereotype of Americans having a need to have it their way.

PACCE Project

I found the PACCE project very rewarding. During the project, I scraped tags (stickers) off of buildings and signs. Then I helped paint over graffiti down in the metro station. This was particularly hectic because there was a lot of foot traffic during certain times, and it was hard not to accidentally paint someone with my paint brush or drip paint! Then I helped wipe graffiti off of the metro stair wells. This was really difficult because Rebecca wasn't the most organized and prepared and I had to use puddle water in order to complete my job. The donuts and beverages afterwards made it for me! Plus, I also liked seeing some local Romans' positive reactions to our community involvement. Hopefully this is a program that can keep going!

Medical Museum

The museum on medicine was a place where I found a lot of interesting connections to our readings. One plaque in the museum talked about how the discovery of better navigation of the seas impacted the medical world. Travel amongst new regions spread diseases, and the plaque mentioned syphilis in particular. Another plaque discussed how Gutenburg's printing press had impacted the spread of medical news and findings. I found these connections between sites and our readings pretty neat!

Observatory 

Ahhhh the observatory... Even though the visit didn't go as planned, I still found the subject material to be mildly interesting. I'm not a huge history fan, but I found the old telescopes very intriguing. It was also very impressive when that one guy (I forgot his name) found the circumstance of the earth by using such a simple instrument. I complain about doing "pre made" math problems when these guys had to teach themselves the math methods and techniques to fulfill the goal of the problem statement. I still fully believe that the people who created geometry are wizards. Although the history observatory was gorgeous and filled with old gadgets, I much preferred the scientific building for the kids. There were so many buttons. I could have spent forever in that building. My favorite part about that building was the light up planets. It was so interesting to see technology and information that was so outdated as well. 2006 was a long time ago. I'm not saying that all of their information is wrong, I'm just saying that a lot has changed in the past 9 years. Even though I didn't get to make a spectrometer, I still enjoyed the visit and I appreciated the guide for showing us around the buildings. 

PACE PROJECT

Throughout the PACE project I followed the orders of Rebecca and executed a long list of grueling tasks. I'm totally joking. Cleaning up the metro area wasn't terrible at all. Oddly, I found it fun and rewarding. I scraped off stickers from the mafia then swept the ground until I got annoyed. I cleaned and painted metro poles. I even scrubbed graffiti off of walls and stair railings. It was so nice that the locals were so approving of our services. I thought that they would be super grumpy because we were blocking their metro entrances and exits. Having old people say "bravo" is heart warming and thrilling. I'm sort of sad that we didn't get to talk to more Italian people. I was looking forward to meeting other Italian girls that were my age. It would have been fun to chat with them and compare college majors and life stories. I think that the coolest part about the PACE project was that we noticed our hard work when we revisited the site. It was really cool to visit that specific metro stop and say "hey, I painted this". Rebecca was very motivated and her story was inspirational. I'm still impressed at her energy levels throughout the day. She was never grumpy or in despair. That really helped me from getting super mopey from fatigue and dehydration. Overall, it was a fantastic experience. 

Retake Roma

This project was definitely an experience I will remember for the rest of my life. It was so awesome to get to work with members of the community and learn about the impact that Retake Roma is having in Rome; this movement is doing wonderful things to keep the city of Rome a clean and peaceful place for many to live. It was astounding to look at the difference we had made in a little over three hours of working around and in the metro stops; it was great having all sorts of people express genuine gratitude for the work we were doing in cleaning up just a small part of Rome. Really after cleaning up all the stickers, cigarette and cigar stubs, and wrappers etc., I realized that Rome really needed to be cleaned up more than what I had originally believed. There is so much graffiti and useless stickers all over the place, and it's mind-boggling the amount of junk that is placed anywhere. Many lessons were learned through this project such as the willingness to recognize a problem and take action to fix it.

This is my lab....and this...is my LABORATORY(Observatory)

The observatory was really a lot of fun. Although I was super sad about not being able to make use of the spectrometers, there was plenty of good things that I found to be interesting. The tour guide was enjoyable to listen to, and I really liked the fact that he was learning some of our names. My absolute favorite part of the tour was getting to the science portion just because there were so many fun toys to play with!

The museum of the history of medicine in Rome

Rome has many beautiful sites to visit and to explore. I enjoyed every site that we have visited. We went to the museum of medicine in Rome which was very interesting. They had many historical artifacts in the museum which we could touch and observe closely. Also, they have replicated many of the other medical instruments and devices which was very cool. We were able to see the skeleton of a boy who had a surgery on his brain, because there was a hole drilled through his skull. The surgery actually was so precise and successful because the boy survived the operation. The techniques and tools used by these doctors is amazing! I have entirely enjoyed this tour!

Retake Roma

We were involved with the organization which worked on cleaning out the streets in the city of Rome. We met Rebecca, who originally was from the USA and now lives in Italy. She started out cleaning the walls in her neighborhood from graffiti, and then found more people who also wanted to live in a clean city. The organization grew around the city, and today there are several cleanups per week. During our involvement we removed the ads from poles and walls, washed out the graffiti, painted poles, and cleaned the metro stairs. Rebecca was a passionate woman, who truly believed in what she was doing. I liked the day spent with a purpose and learned more of an Italian culture.

I enjoyed the history of medicine museum and that it was not a typical tourist museum to visit. I loved the basement that was kept or made to look like typical medicine shops, workshops, and such from the past. I especially enjoyed being able to touch the clay feet  from 200 AD and how much more lax their rules were at academic museums in Italy versus any museums in the US. It was helpful to see the chronological order of how medicine developed and the child that had his brain operated on and survived for several weeks was extremely interesting to show the skill of surgeons thousands of years ago.

Visiting the History of Medicine museum in Rome was very interesting because we were able to touch and interact with the museum objects. So often museums are for looking only, it was a change of pace to be able to touch objects from the 2nd century.

pacce

I enjoyed helping the retake Roma group clean up and seeing the difference we made in just a few hours. I was surprised to hear it was the first time the city had worked with the group and how much of a struggle it was at the beginning of the day with various miscommunications. I was also surprised at how many people, both tourists and Italians, thanked us, or asked us what we were doing, ( I think, from my broken Italian skills) but also the few that saw what we were doing and littered anyways. I was able to understand the Italian mindset more, but still not why they are fine with living in a filthy and graffittied city, or how they don't even realize what Roma could be.

The leaning tower of pisa was amazing! I never knew that the builders tried to make sone levels of the tower levels to attemptto fix the problem but only seemed to make it worse. The church and grounds surrounding the tower were also quite beautiful.

Retake Roma

Working with the individuals involved with Retake Roma was an eye-opening experience for me. See how difficult it can be to change a culture that is set in its ways really opened my eyes to the cultural differences between the United States and Italy. We look down upon those who choose to litter or graffiti, however in Italy those are both considered normal.

PACCE

I really enjoyed this PACCE project. We received instant gratification from the locals. I also really enjoyed getting to know Rebecca who taught us Roman culture and how to start a movement. I painted, applied gel, pressure washed, and removed stickers. Meeting the other members of retake was really inspiring.

Medicine Museum

During our stay in Rome, I thought the most interesting site that we visited was the medicine museum.  Seeing the different tools in the medical field from over the ages was really interesting.  Like the Roman medical tools in the basement with the foot molds from the Roman times, all of which were really cool to see.  Then going up into the modern times was cool, but the most interesting stuff was the older pieces.  For example, the body of the Roman child who underwent a major head surgery and lived through the operation for a few weeks.  Overall it was the best site of the day and fun to go to.

PACCE

The PACCE project that we did on Sunday was more interesting than I thought it would be.  As a group we worked with the Retake Roma organization which is trying to clean up the city.  I did not notice it until working with them, but there are graffiti tags and stickers everywhere.  As one of the founders said they have to do this or no one else will because the Italians will not do it themselves because they do not see a problem.  Throughout the day, I worked on cleaning up the stickers on the streets and it was not easy.  It would be impossible to clean the city as a small group meaning to clean Rome the people need to change their attitude on this matter.

PACCE Project Reflection

Our PACCE Project consisted of cleaning graffiti and stickers off of concrete and poles around a specific metro station. The work was worth while and rewarding with each scrub! I was just so impressed with Rebeeca's level of enthusiasm and passion for getting Rome back to its original beauty. I was able to talk to her after we relaxed with some drinks and found her sense of intelligence and commitment to the community make all of our efforts worthwhile!

PACCE

For our PACE project, we helped clean up a popular intersection near the Vatican. Graffiti is a big problem in rome and all of Italy. Together we washed the metro entrances and repainted parts. Many elderly stopped to tell us thank you but few would join in. The people of Rome have become really use to graffiti and litter. Also the metro up until now didn't participate and they were very strict when they did.

Observatory

Today at the observatory I found the fact that there has been life found outside of earth very cool. Even though it is simple life it is still something. It is interesting knowing about the make up of all the planets and knowing which planets have water and which do not.

PACCE

Today we cleaned up Rome. I was so surprised at how dirty the city truly was because I am more concentrated on the buildings and trying not to get hit by a crazy driver that I am not paying attention to all the stickers on the poles and the piles of garbage on the ground. I was mainly pulling stickers off the poles and there was an excessive amount of pointless stickers on poles and posts. I find it sad the Romans do not take pride in their city and want to have it clean. I believe they should use cleaning the city as a form of punishment as they do back in America. It was really cool to interact with different people who had different feelings on what we were doing. I had one lady who spoke very broken English say the town was filthy and she was happy we were doing something about it. On the other hand I had an Italian man not so happy that I was cleaning the posts off so it was interesting to get both sides. I was also photographed a lot and several people starred like they had never seen anyone do any cleaning before. It was an amazing experience!

PACCE Project

While scraping I was talking with these two women from America that now live in Italy, and they were telling me of the neighborhoods who do Retake Roma. From their experiences they told me about how this site was not as bad as others they had worked on, along with how the people are loving having their city be clean. It was interesting how Americans who live there started this program while the Italians are starting to come together as a community and are starting to clean.

Day 11ish: History of Medicine

The museum we visited included
A lot of information and exhibits about the history of medicine. It included a lot of different information and exhibits about the conditions the scientists and surgeons had to work under. One thing I read that I found to be most interesting was about a scientist who related the movement of muscles to simple machines and mechanisms. I thought this was a really cool way to connect our human body to nature in a mathematical sense!

History of Medicine Museum

When visiting the medicine museum, I could not believe there was a set of remains of a child from the first to second century with a hole in his head. It is incredible how in that time period a surgeon was able to preform surgery on this boy. Also, it is impressive that the boy was able to survive the surgery for a couple of weeks. This shows how advance the skill levels of the surgeons were at the time period.

History of Physics Museum

Although the presenter was terrible I really enjoyed the the physics museum for its artifacts. I am very impressed that given the tools and machines they had, saficticated experiments could be conducted and advanced conclusions could be drawn. The museum was also able to tell the story of Fermi quite well and provided artifacts that he used himself.

Since our time in Rome we have been able to do a wide variety of activities but I feel that the walking tour has been the best. It was awesome to see the places that Galileo stayed in while he came here for the Inquisition. I don't know why, but I especially found the side area where the cardinals meant to be really insightful.

Aspirations and Broken Dreams

Leonardo da Vinci was truly the definition of a prodigy; his creativity seemed to know no boundaries as his imagination allowed him to do so many incredible drawings and problem solving. I thought the museum was absolutely wonderful and would definitely do it again. It was very fun to look at all the other exhibitions as well, and I was super excited for the nanotechnology stuff , but to my dismay that area was closed........... <\3

Milan Museum

During our visit to Milan at the Museum of Science, I found the exhibits to be quite fascinating.  The models of Leonardo di Vinci's drawings were really fun to look at.  When the guide explained some of the details for a few of the drawings, I learned a lot more about di Vinci than I knew before.  To me the most interesting models were his military ships because they were unlike anything I seen in books on Naval history, it's a shame that they were never built.  Besides the di Vinci wing, the other exhibits were good as well, like the moon rock which is the first thing I've seen from the moon before.  It was a great trip and I was glad to go to the museum.

Milan Museum

I really enjoyed the Milan Museum! Seeing the interpretations of DaVinci's machines was incredible and showed how much of a genius he was and how he has had a lasting effect on the world. I also learned a lot in the basement where they talked about the history of many different manufacturing processes. The cold forming process was my favorite.

Galileo

I found the Galileo Musuem to be very interesting. It is so commonplace for us today to use experimental methods to solve scientific problems, but in Galileo's time it was considered revolutionary. Learning about the struggle Galileo went through to prove his methods worked and how creative he was in using experiments to validate his theories was eye-opening. It really puts into perspective the changes that have developed over time when it comes to science.

My favorite academic thing that we have seen recently is the Palazzo Vecchio (the building that used to be home to the royal family with the prison tower). I didn't know anything about the building before we saw it yesterday, including that it was home to the Medici family. I think that it looks really cool and has a neat history! Plus I went up inside the prison tower and seeing the cells was cool. And of course the view from the top was the best part!

In the galileo museum, we were told that up until galileo no one actually would apply their theories. Aristotles theory of how the arrow flew through the air was clearly untrue,  you just had to watch an arrow slowly fall while in flight. Galileo was practically the father of applied physics.

I thought it was awesome to learn about Galileo in Florence because its where he is from, lived and worked. Seeing some of his original instruments (such as hours telescope) at the museum gave me a deeper appreciation of our book. It was also incredible to me to see Galileo's family crest above the doorway of his son's house.

The museum in Milan is most likely my favorite site of this trip. I loved the variety of scientific areas represented and how I was able to recognize a large amount of the machines and exhibits as things I learned in various classes. I also was confused as to why we had not learned about a lot of the things in middle or high school, and only may have seen some depending on the classes taken for college. I enjoyed the metals area most since I saw exactly what I have learned in class as well as some of the exact things we have in our lab. I loved how they displayed the metal casting and foundry equipment in typical surroundings and the extreme attention to detail in everything. This museum is something I would definitely return to.

Trains in Milan

When looking around the different parts of the museum, the train exhibit stood out by having a display on a horse tram. It was about how horses in the 1860s were being apart of the transportation system. They would travel 16 km in about two hours, and while being the horses would walk the cart would be connected on rails to make the ride more smooth for the passengers. It was interesting how horses were intergrated in the train transportation history for Milan.

Insert title

Site 3

The museum in Milan is either my first or second favorite site of the entire trip. Our guide was well rehearsed and knowledgeable plus he seemed passionate about the information he was sharing. I knew I was going to like the museum right after I got the map. I visited the musical instruments, space, metals, nanotechnology, and nutrition. The museum had a few antique Steinway pianos that were taunting me to play them. The string instrument section was the most interesting display. I saw many instruments that I didn't recognize. There was a 7 stringed viola within one of the cases that I wanted to play. The second place I visited was the space section. I could have spent a lot more time in that area because of all of the interactive displays. One of the games was similar to the PC game Kerbal Space Program. You had to make your own spaceship and complete a specific task. I also saw a bit of the moon today! The third place I went was the metals area. I went there for Abby <3 She was happy. I found it interesting, but the visit was mostly for her. The fourth area was the nanotechnology area. It was closed. David was sad. The fifth display was the nutrition area. David and I moped around the displays because he was still sad about the nanotechnology area. However, I still enjoyed the nutrition area. Overall, this might have been my favorite museum of the trip. This site definitely calls for a second trip. 

An Interesting Few days

Looking back on the past few days, I would have to say the most interesting part was seeing Da Vincis drawings come to life in the models. It was interesting to see what could have been and all the awesome ideas he had in his mind. I particularly enjoyed the quote from the guide when he said imagine what Da Vince could have done with engines.

Day ?: Galileo Museum and Leonardo Museum

Both of the men we Studied in the two museums we visited in the past days Were extraordinary torque and continues to impact life today! However, my favorite thing about the Museum in Milan had to be the model ships displayed in the Air and Water Building. I found a ship that was one of the first warships built with sails built by the Austrains, not only were the size and detail of the models super neat but also thinking about that ship in real life! Amazing!

Ampere House and Electricity Museum

I really enjoyed the ampere museum because of the interaction we were able to do. I enjoyed pumping the water uphill via solar panals. During our self guided tour we were able to play with all these nobs to see how things worked. For example, we were able to dial a number on one phone and have the other phone ring and be able to pick the phones up and talk to each other. The extremely cool thing about that was seeing how the call was transfered as you dialed. Very cool museum!

The Museum in Milan

Today we went to the museum in Milan. We learned about Leonardo da Vinci. He was a versatile genius! He studied many different areas of science, including: botony, human anatomy, and engineering. It is amazing how so many ideas were coming from one individual at that time. Even though his ideas were not implemented during his lifetime, today they serve as the foundation for our innovations. The museum itself was amazing! There were many different areas of scinece to observe along with interactive tuitorials and activities!

Amperian Affection

La Maison Ampère was truly a nerd's paradise. Now I may have some bias as an electrical engineering major, but more power to me I say. With that in mind I thought it was super fascinating to walk through the timeline of the developments, applications, and understanding of electricity; its evolution was truly remarkable as the mathematical and conceptual principals have lead to unbelievable amounts of innovation. I also enjoyed the lessons on power and learning just how strong 1 Watt of electricity is by doing the bike simulator.

My favorite site of the trip was the first silk shop that we visited. Because I'm majoring in mechanical engineering, I found this site to be extremely mesmerizing and oddly satisfying. I thought that I was going to be bored out of my mind while learning about something as boring as silk making. I was totally wrong. As soon as I stepped into the shop, my brain immediately tried to figure out how the machines worked. It was really cool to see our guide use the machine. If someone could help me, how did he know which color to use? I usually don't enjoy power points but one he showed was fantastic. He seemed really passionate about his work and it really showed when he was explaining the origins of his art. The portraits of people and detailed woven pieces were the most impressive to me. I can't even shade things correctly with colored pencil. They're creating multiple shades of grey using only two colors of silk. If I were to live in that time and work in that industry... I would want to be the one who created the "punch card". I understand why silk is so expensive now. When I was a kid, I enjoyed silk stuff but my mom would never buy it for me. She said it was too expensive. Now that I'm older... I now know why it's so expensive and I can fully appreciate it and buy it for myself. 

Ampere's House

At the Ampere house we got to see the evolution of physics. How scientisits have observed first magnetic phenomenta of metals, then they found electricity and all other ways in which electric power can be implemented. At this site we also were able to do activities related to electricity and power. We got to ride an electric bike and learned that it would be an ecologically efficient transportation! Also we did experiments with circuits, solar power and calculation of a specific heat.

I felt that the Books and Printing museum was absolutely fascinating. Learning about the origins of the terms uppercase and lowercase was mind blowing.  I also found it interesting to learn about how the various inventions affected the distribution of printed works.

Museum of Books and Printing

For our second day of visiting sites, the Books and Printing museum was by far the most interesting to me.  Being able to see the early bodies of work from the printing press was amazing.  The early text from he Koreans for their official documents was an excellent piece for one of the first exhibits because the Koreans were the first in moveable type.  Followed up by one of the early printing presses from Europe made for a fun time.  Learning about the workers having higher status because of their job was interesting as well.  Overall it was a great time and I had fun.

I enjoyed the book printing museum most, especially learning about the lead cast letters used right after they were made and remelted to be cast again. I also liked how they recognized that Gutenberg did not have the first movable type press, the Chinese did for their official documents, but since Gutenberg`s press was the first to use movable, 26 (ish) letters standard, instead of the several hundred Korean (?) characters, it is recognized as the first movable type printing press. I also enjoyed that we visited some sites in the country/suburbs so we got to see more of the different French cultures (and cats and horses). I really enjoyed the hands on activities at the ampere museum, and it helped me understand what I have learned in class better.

Math is Neat

I really enjoyed the Ampere museum. At first, I thought it was really boring since I don't really know about physics or am interested in it too much. That said, in the second room of the tour Kelsey and I stumbled across some math that we are really familiar with! We thought it was exciting to see stuff that we have learned in our math classes and see how it has been applied to the sciences. So then the tour became a math scavenger hunt for me; I found things like the Laplace transform, second derivatives, geometry and geometry proofs, and the Poisson method! It was pretty neat!

The ampere house was super interesting because I've really only seen any of that in pictures and textbooks so seeing it in person and seeing how it works was crazy. I was surprising excited by the dial phones because I'd never thought about how they work. Seeing everything move as we dialed was super interesting. Basically every button I pushed in that house was awesome and I was geeking out.

I learned so much at the printing museam. I thought it was awesome how our guide showed and tought us about printing from its creation through what it is today. Also it blew my mind when he showed us why we call letters upper and lower case.

So far, the ampere museum had been my favorite site. Ampere was income in the conduction of electricity and the electric motor. The most interesting thing I learned was a bicycle fitted with an electric motor is more efficient and eco friendly than just a human riding a bike.

Day 4: Museum of Books and Printing and Soierie Vivante

Both of the tours we participated in today Were informative and so cool! Every time we visit a new site Involving past technologies I can't help but to appreciate the luxuries and advancements we have today. The most interesting thing I learned however from the printing museum was that during times of war paper became scarce and the French resorted to using wood fibers, potatoes, or even horse manure! Gross!

Silk, Print, and Ampere

I found the ampere house to be awesome! They had a lot of experiments that we have talked about in class only in theory. It also explained a lot of work that I had done in industry. It was a nerds paradise.

Second post

In our Tavels in Lyon and abroad we have learned many interesting things; however, I would say the printing area in Lyon has been the most interesting. It was cool to see the progression of printing throughout the ages. Even though I disagree with the guide because I think that the Koreans were the first to invent the press, I did find in interesting to see how the Guttenberg press worked. In addition, I enjoyed the insight how the printers would have enjoyed special rights in society because they could read, I had never thought of that before.

I thought that the ampere museum was amazing. I loved all of the different experiments that they let us do. It was a great way to learn more about electricity.

Books and Printing

At the books and printing museum I thought it was really neat that the terms uppercase and lowercase developed simply due to the placement of the larger and lower letters in a case. Being that the larger letters happened to be in the upper portion of the case they were called uppercase and vise versa for the lower case which I never knew that was why we called the letters upper and lower case so that was just really interesting to me. I also can now fully appreciate the technology we have today that allows for fast easy printing whereas back then so much time and effort went into printing simply one page.

Books and Printing

In the exhibit of the printer from Gutenberg, I had found the process of how they printed at that time intriguing. For the application of transferring ink to the cases was done with a duck skin brush was most shocking from the visit. However, also learning most print shops were set up around water due to having an apprentice run back and forth from the shop to clean off the letter in the water was interesting fact I learned at the museum.

I had a great time at the silk museums today. I never realized how much tI'm and effort was put into creating one piece of fabric. Even now that we have mechanicalized the industry, there is still a lot of effort that must be put into it. I will never tonk of silk the same way again.

Silk

My favorite site of the trip was the first silk shop that we visited. Because I'm majoring in mechanical engineering, I found this site to be extremely mesmerizing and oddly satisfying. I thought that I was going to be bored out of my mind while learning about something as boring as silk making. I was totally wrong. As soon as I stepped into the shop, my brain immediately tried to figure out how the machines worked. It was really cool to see our guide use the machine. If someone could help me, how did he know which color to use? I usually don't enjoy power points but one he showed was fantastic. He seemed really passionate about his work and it really showed when he was explaining the origins of his art. The portraits of people and detailed woven pieces were the most impressive to me. I can't even shade things correctly with colored pencil. They're creating multiple shades of grey using only two colors of silk. If I were to live in that time and work in that industry... I would want to be the one who created the "punch card". I understand why silk is so expensive now. When I was a kid, I enjoyed silk stuff but my mom would never buy it for me. She said it was too expensive. Now that I'm older... I now know why it's so expensive and I can fully appreciate it and buy it for myself. 

Silk industry

What I found most interesting was the silk tour and specifically the machine itself. The mechanics of it were fascinating, especially because everything is so technologically advanced now that it was super cool to see something so physically complex and the entire process. It's amazing that they were able to make everything without making a mistake because it seems like that would be impossible with so many strings and components to it. Also, the fact that anyone had enough concentration and determination to do that job and revolve they're life around it is unimaginable to me.

Silk and Lumiere

I found it very interesting that Lyon was the right spot to be the hub of silk industry and innovation. It seems it would be easier and more cost effective to have vertical integration and export a more complete product. I was also surprised to learn how the Jacquard machine works. Seems genius.

During our tour of the weaving museum, the guide mentioned that most plain buildings with large windows were once home to professional silk weavers. Looking

Throughout the day on Wednesday I Learned Many interesting things. One of the biggest things the Lumiere brothers Was That Were Involved in things --other than the movie industry. I enjoyed learning about the Advancements in the medical field and the housing strange addiction. It makes me wonder what the industry Would Have beens like today If They Would Have stuck with it and made a full company around it.

I thought it was cool seeing the luminar brothers house, I couldn't believe it was the smallest of their 22 houses.

One of the things that I have learned these past few site visits was the impact that international politics has on developing ideas. Both the silk industry and cinema in France were highly competitive with other countries; Italy and America respectively. I wonder if the constant competition to outpace other countries helped spur on these industries, or if having free trade of ideas would have led to quicker progress.

I also think that the most interesting thing we saw yesterday was the silk museum. I really enjoyed comparing our tour guide's information to my research, since I wrote about this topic for my paper. Most interesting was that he never mentioned how France usually obtained their raw silk from Piedmont, Italy. That was a major part of their history! I think it wasn't mentioned because it was a sore subject for France. Maybe they don't want people to know about sending spies over there?! We're in on their secret, though... :) if anyone wants to know any other comparisons I found between our tour and my research, just ask!

day 2

I loved learning about the silk industry and how much work actually goes into making such a small amount of silk. I thought it was interesting how buildings were built with especially large windows to allow the weavers to see with as much natural light possible, and how you can look around Lyon and see how many buildings seem to have been built for silk weavers to live and work in. I also enjoyed learning how much of a battle took place with Americans and French inventors and filmmakers, I hadn't realized there had been so much struggle for receiving credit.

Silk Industry

The thing I learned today from our two tours that I found most interesting and shocking was how long it took to produce silk. It took a full 8 hours to produce just 35 cm and for 18 meters it would take them 18 months. This is crazy to imagine and it would clearly take a lot of patience that I do not have!

Day 2: Silk Museum and Lumiere

The most interesting thing I Learned from our tours of the Silk Museum as well as the tour of the Lumiere Institute would have to be the silk weaving machine itself. Not only was the machine and concept itself was complex but also the parts needed to assemble it. 18 MONTHS!!??? To piece a machine together??? That's crazy I work in a mill over the summer and any time we are changing jobs and it takes over 3 hours I get frustrated. The patience and endurance the silk weavers had is very much valued and appreciated for a commodity we very much take for granted today.

Could there be anything cooler than silk production? (May 20)

After visiting the Maison des Canuts I can definately say that the textile machines perfectly display the creativity and complexity of human mind. I was absolutely astounded by the process of the machine as well as the tasks the weaver has to perform in order to create beautiful designs. Also seeing the different applications of the weaving techniques was totally impressive. I really thought that the Lumière Institute was super awesome, and it was cool to walk through the evolution of film making. The Lumière Brothers were definitely some pretty incredible people.

Day 2

Being able to see first hand how silk was turned into a beautiful piece of art using methods dating back over centuries was impressive enough. Going one step futher on how impressive this method is seeing the machines and getting to see how silk is transformed into a scarf or a wall hanging. When going into a store and seeing a piece of item with silk used, I will fully appreciate the amount of work it took to make an article of clothing.

Day Two Sights

The textile machines were pretty cool, too difficult for me to use, but neat.  Also the am punt of silkworms the silk industry would have uses, the numbers I heard today are significantly higher than what I thought it took.  Learning about the Lumiere brothers was interesting as well, they were very talented men with their photography enhancements and other inventions.  Their house was also a nice sight even if it was the smallest house they had built.  Overall, these were some neat sights to see, looking forward to see more.

May 20!

Today I was amazed to see how the silk is being made and that the old technique is still used today and highly valued. I also have learned that silk comes from cacoons. I thought it was very interesting that a specie of butterflies became extinct due to human exploitation of them. I hope people are more aware of conservation of organisms and their habitats today.  In the Lumiere Institute I was surprised to learn that the brothers have done so much more research and discoveries in other fields other than cinema. It was interesting to see the first type of a prosthetic hand built for soldiers built by one of the brothers.

Winners!

The winners of the History of Science and Technology Jeopardy-ish Game! It's sort of blurry, but still a great honor. :)

Welcome!

Welcome students! This is where you'll post things about our short term study abroad in Europe: written assignments, comments, plus any photos or thoughts you want to share!