January 21st Monday

I had my alarm set for 9:00am. It went off and I wrestled with it through a few snooze and time resets before finally just turning it off. I felt exhausted. We were awakened by the buzzer to our door at 12:30pm. Adrienne was the fastest getting up so she answered the little phone mechanism. There was a man on the other end that was talking very fast. She asked him to slow down and finally understood that he was trying to find keys to the “cave” which usually means wine cellar. She told him we have no such thing and hung up.

Now that we were awake we got ready for the day. I made myself a popeye with bread and an egg. It was actually very good. I also had a peach yogurt to go with it.

We threw in our towels for a load in the washer. I finished folding some socks that had finally dried. You have to really be patient without a dryer. I also sent an email to register myself for a conference that would happen that night. They said there were still some places. Adrienne registered too. It was free as long as you reserved a place.

After a while it was time for lunch. We just fixed up a little vegetable soup and had some madeleines. I didn’t want to make too much because it would be time for dinner soon. After eating I got to talk to my parents on Skype. We talked for a little before Adrienne and I had to get running.

Our conference was at 6:30pm but we needed to run by school in order to print a few things. It took us a long time to find a room to print in. We were finally able to print the emails confirming us for the conference as well as our plane information to Madrid.

We were then off at a very brisk pace toward Rue de l’Université. We needed to find the 137 address. We thought it would be near this end but discovered that it was actually on the 18 address here. We went as fast as we could through a rising cold wind down the Rue de l’Université. We had 30 minutes. We actually arrived at the conference only one or two minutes late. There were other people coming in still too. We were able to find some seats together and sat to watch the conference.
This was sponsored by the Fondation d’Innovation Politique (Foundation of Political Innovation) and titled “Europe de l’énergie à l’heure de l’hydrogène.” The main speaker was an American named Jeremy Rifkin. I looked him up once we got back and found out he was born in Denver, Colorado. The point of this talk was the importance of renewable energy and what role hydrogen played in that. His theory is that once we develop efficient ways of creating renewable energy, we can store it with hydrogen. He compared it to the internet. He said “Everyone under thirty in this room is use to producing his or her own information on the internet. Then these people are able to share it with friends through the web.” He said that energy could work that way. Each building and home could be its own power plant and if there is extra energy, send it through the grid back to a hub. It was a very interesting talk. There were two other speakers as well. They were both French and their names were Michèle Pappalardo and Edouard Laurent. There was also the theme of cooperation. It will be important for Europe and the United States to work together in leading the world toward renewable energy. The talk was very inspiring but still struck some people the wrong way. One point made in Rifkin’s talk was that France’s beloved nuclear power plants were not enough for future energy needs. One woman said that she didn’t understand how he could discount nuclear energy so fast.

Adrienne and I are hoping we can write some papers on renewable energy possibilities in Europe or perhaps something in the environment aspect. It’s a very interesting and current subject.

We made our way back home with our stomachs growling. We’d had a small lunch thinking we’d have time to eat before the talk. It was now close to 9:00pm. We stopped long enough to grab Adrienne’s ballot from the mail that her mom had forwarded to her. Then while she talked on Skype with Chris about the issues, I started making dinner. I made couscous and ratatouille again. It cooks up pretty fast. I had some lemonade to drink. I scarfed it all down like a starving wolf. I was so hungry. Adrienne ate some while she was talking on Skype. I had some fromage blanc with peach halves for dessert.

Afterward, I got to talk to my parents for longer on Skype. I worked on finishing the reading for the next day’s class. I was up until around 1:00am.