All posts by rthommen

Why Not?

Interview

Profile and Interview with Ludovic François, Founder of MSolution.IO

Ludovic François founded MSolution.IO in Venice, California in September of 2014. Ludo was born in Arras, France and came to the United States while working for a French-American company, DDN Storage. He received his master’s degree at the EPITA School in Paris as a computer engineer and has since been involved in numerous types of high-tech product development. He moved to the United States in 2008 on a L1 visa working for DDN Storage. Ludo’s story incorporates an overlooked immigrant perspective, as a highly skilled software engineer. Ludo is one of many immigrants who came with hopes to explore new places and advance in the tech world. While Ludo acclimated to the United States, he became an integral member of my extended family.

I met Ludo on the Champs-Elysées when I was 12 years old. My mother had brought me along for the trip, but of course, she had to continue her business meetings as usual. Ludo agreed to meet us for a bike ride, on the night of Bastille Day. Ludo is a brilliant, technically savvy engineer; he’s also an outgoing conversationalist.

Ludo and I have always talked about traveling and sailing. None were surprised to hear that he had sold all of his belongings (except his motorcycle) to travel the world for the following fourteen months. He set out from Paris for Istanbul via train and then spent a few months in India. After returning to the United States he cranked up his motorcycle and rode from Los Angeles to Miami. Ludo met many people along the way as he traveled, and frequently couch surfed instead of staying in hostels or hotels. He remains in contact with many of the friends he made along his amazing trip. After fourteen months as a nomad, Ludo resumed the sedentary life, returning to Venice Beach, where he loves the people, the good vibes, and of course the beach.

While traveling he brainstormed to create his company, MSolution.IO. MSolution.IO is a consulting company that specializes in data storage tuning and DevOps workflow. Ludo has proudly built his company from scratch, hiring fellow EPITA interns and graduates to join him in his startup. MSolution.IO has a varied clientele that ranges from large corporate entities like CBS to smaller Silicon Beach startups like KEYPR. MSolution.IO offers tailor-made solutions for its clients and has used the past 18 months of consulting to launch its own product line addressing commonly asked questions such as “How can I save money on the cloud?” Ludo has created a one of a kind consulting company within his field of expertise, high-tech, to cater to a specific clientele while enjoying the freedom of being his own boss on the beach.

 

 

Rachel: Thank you so much, Ludo for being here with me, I really appreciate it. I would just like you to introduce yourself, explain a bit about where you are from.

Ludo: Okay so thank you Rachel for having this interview with me – I am very honored. So, I am from France as I guess you can tell with my accent. I was born in Arras, it’s in north of France, a small town outside of Paris city, two-hours drive from Paris.

I got my high school diploma, which we call a baccalauréat in France, and after that I did two special years of mathematics and physics, what is called “maths spé”. At that time I got into one of the schools I really liked, an engineering school, where at the end you get a master’s degree. I was a teacher assistant – if you ever have a chance to be a teacher assistant, do it, it was great- you learn a lot. You will first learn what you don’t know, because you will get students better than you.

I had to do an internship outside of the country to validate my degree. So first I wanted to come to the US and it didn’t happen. One friend introduced me to a company in Sweden. It was an interesting experience, but at one point I felt I needed to move on because I was not feeling challenged in the job, and I started to look around to move back to France, especially because I was not very well integrated in Sweden. I was young, and I never learned the language, which I think was a huge mistake. In France I took a job for a national company working in defense. I spent one year there and then DDN found me on Internet. In 2004, DDN found me on Google.

R: What Google search prompted you?

L: The name of my school

R: And what is that?

L: EPITA – it’s a French school very well known for computer science. So Laurent Thiers searched the name of the school in Google and he found my name and sent me a message. I was still young, and I was like, wow this is nice, I’m out of college the guy is inviting me to a nice restaurant. They offered me a better salary than my current job and gave me a company car. So that is how I got hired at DDN, but it was not all that easy. In France when you resign your job, you need to provide the manager three months notice, so I gave my three months and I joined DDN.

R: Was it different working for an American company in France or was it almost the same as the defense job?

L: It was totally different.

R: Can you tell me about the differences?

L: Sure first it was different because the first company had 60,000 employees, and I joined a two-employee French company. I was in charge of logistics, import and export certificates for the deals that were affiliated with France. One of the big differences was not that it was an American company, but that it was a big company versus a small company.

R: Did you like the small company feel?

L: Yes I loved it. That feeling was the best; you have the opportunity to build something. You have way more responsibilities, and you are not able to hide, because if someone needs your assistance, you are the only person to provide it.

R: Wonderful. So how did you get from DDN France, of 2 people, to DDN LA?

L: I was in France doing everything and at the same time nothing, because when you try to do a lot of things because the job asks you to do lots of things, you do a very small part of everything. I wanted to become a software engineer because it was my title, but I hadn’t really been one yet. At the same time, DDN US was building a new engineering team to build out a new product in Los Angeles. Even though it was an internal job opening – I still had to go through the process. I saw the opportunity to test something in my life, to be a software engineer, so that is mostly why I decided to move.

R: When you applied for the job offer? Was it hard to get a visa?

L: No. I am a very lucky profile, because I was working for the same company so it took only 2 weeks to get the visa. It’s interesting feeling when you have a visa, because the visa belongs to the company; it doesn’t belong to you. When you move to a new country, it’s a new language, new culture, and you become very humbled. Now I am way more confident then when I came, (in France I was very confident) but you start from scratch. When I was working for DDN France, if I was not happy with something I would just say so or I had an option to quit. When you are working for a US company and the visa belongs to the company and not to you, you don’t have this freedom anymore. Because if you quit, you go back to France.

R: So where are you now? Right now? Where are you sitting?

L: Right now I am in my office, which is interesting kind of office actually. I can give you a tour… It is an office, but it was my house one year ago.

R: You are working in Venice, right?

L: Yes, I love Venice, because I love the vibe here. Even if it is not the Silicon Valley, you can have a very good job and a good life. I love it next to the ocean.

R: Is it nice to live in a place that is less high-stress in regards to a startup environment instead of the Silicon Valley?

L: Yes and No. I don’t know if it is better. It has some good parts about it. I am still pretty connected to the Silicon Valley, because I know a lot of people, and you can bring the technology of the Silicon Valley here to the city. The Silicon Valley feels like EPITA. In LA you bring your skills, to a different field. A lot of my clients are in entertainment.

R: How did your company MSolution.IO come together?

L: The few first months of my trip I didn’t think about it. Just one guy I sat next to on an airplane in Dubai asked me, “Why don’t you setup your own company, you know a lot of things, you should create your venture” and I said “I don’t have the courage to do it.” He said, “Yes that is what I wanted to hear, you don’t have the courage to do it.” After that I thought why am I not brave enough, what is the risk? I started to think what I could do. I am pretty technical, so I started contacting people, telling them I would to be back in a few months, or if they have a job for me I’m in India today or Lithuania, they can send me work and I can set aside a day to do work. So I came back to the US expecting people who said they would give me a job, to give me a job. It didn’t happen, but almost 18 months later, all of them gave me something.

R: What did they give you?

L: Some people gave me small projects, but what was interesting to see finally these people carry through; you don’t want to lose hope in people. In December I got some work with CBS and I started to line up a lot of clients.

R: Did you already have your own company by this time or was it just you?

L: It was my own company, with only me. MSolution.IO was established in September 2014. By November 2014, the company did not make any money. In December 2014, I started all of the work, networking, a sort of professional dating. I was trying to meet as many people as I could everyday, just to find something to do. In January I got paid for all of the work I had completed in December. I had not made any money in fourteen months.

R: When you were building out the company, you made the entire web design and platform with your computer science background, right?

L: Yes. I bought the logo for $5; it is the only investment I made in the company in addition to the business cards.

R: So everything has been generated from you?

L: Yes the first version, yes.

R: So now, in 2016, where is MSolution.IO?

L: Now we have 11 employees.

R: What are some of the clients you have worked with?

L: We have two types of clients, well-established companies like CBS and DataDirectNetworks and smaller startups like Cargomatic, Tradesy, and KEYPR.

R: And if I am a client, what am I asking for?

L: Usually you are asking for two things. We have a lot of skills in computer science and software development. We know how you should store your data and how you should look at it. For example, Tradesy has a basic platform. They store a lot of pictures of the clothes or accessories you want to sell, but we were able to accelerate the landing page by 30%. We also have a lot of knowledge of cloud services and DevOps. DevOps is between development and operations. We help with the transition between the development team and the production team to make it as smooth as possible; we will make your workflow agile and release a new product every 6 months with a waterfall system.

R: And do clients outsource some of their more computer-related technical aspects too?

L: Yes definitely. We are helping setup the workflow with DevOps and after a while they may need help with the infrastructure side of their solution. 60% of our revenue is in DevOps, 20% is data storage tuning or troubleshooting, and the last 20% we are starting to release our own products.

R: So you are not just consulting anymore, you yourself are becoming a manufacturer?

L: It is a goal. Consulting is very nice and grows quickly, but for some companies it is difficult because they’ve gotten used to my face. And that is an issue with consulting. I have a lot of young people, and it can be tough for your client to trust someone different. With products it’s a lot easier to scale because you just need to design the product and have someone sell it or it sells itself today with software as a service and the visibility you get on the Internet.

R: So tell me a bit about your product line.

L: We have three products. Mainly focused on monitoring, and making the best of your infrastructure, to help you assess what you have today. It is meant to use to see what you have and tell you how you can use it to your benefit. The three products are based on all the work we’ve done in the last 18 months, answering the same recurring questions: How do I save money in the cloud? How do I make my elastic search data store faster? How do I back up my data? What happens if I get hacked on my AWS account? We built a tool called TrackIt and this product is going to make an assessment of what you have, and pool your AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft bill and tell you how you spend money and how to save money. We will make the announcement in a few weeks at NAB. So the products are based on what we have done in the last few months as a consulting company, and now we have invested some time to a dedicated team building the products instead of case-by-case science projects.

R: Do you have a long-term vision for MSolution.IO?

L: To change the world! The long-term is to continue to build the team, grow organically, and keep our clients happy by delivering the same caliber of work.

R: Thank you so much for your precious time and this great interview. I really appreciate it.

Learn more at https://www.msolution.io/

 

 

Growing Fences

Letter to the editor

In response to “Donald Trump is a monster, yes. But that’s what many Americans actually want” by Tim Stanley, Telegraph UK

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/donald-trump/12047232/Donald-Trump-is-a-monster-yes.-But-thats-what-many-Americans-actually-want.html

 

To the Editor,

Although Stanley accurately points out Trump’s absurd attributes that have led to his popularity, Trump is not a uniquely American problem. Americans are heavily criticized for Trump’s shocking success in the presidential race. He mocks minorities, promises to build a wall blocking immigration from Central and Latin America, and threatens to ban Muslims from entering into the United States. While Trump has considerable public support, especially for his strict immigration platform, we cannot blame American ideological shortcomings alone for Trump’s popularity. In fact, his kind of radical anti-immigration philosophy is shared among many other world leaders. For example, Marine le Pen received 18% of the vote in the French presidential election in 2012 and is speculated to run for office again in 2017. Le Pen was charged with a hate crime for a speech in 2015 in which she compared Muslims to Nazis. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán built a 175km fence along his country’s border with Serbia and Croatia and established new asylum laws in order to purge Hungary of refugees. Although there are still progressive and humane leaders in Europe, the growing popularity of these immoral immigration policies warrants concern, as they close borders and promote hostility in an already tumultuous political climate. The rising fear of terrorism incites individuals to agree with these conservative ideologies, increasing the chances of the populist, conservative, anti-immigration political factions being elected into office. Donald Trump “isn’t quite as out of the mainstream as he first appears,” as Stanley points out, but in fact he is part of a global phenomenon of xenophobia that will tear the world apart if it is not recognized and stopped.

Sincerely,

Rachel

 

 

 

American Abroad

Op-Ed

“So where are you from?” the taxi driver asked me, speaking in rapid Portuguese

“Why don’t you guess?” I replied, proud to have caught his question.

“You are Brazilian, from Rio.”

“No, I am not, I only just learned Portuguese,”

“French! No, German!”

“No.”

“Are you from the UK?”

“No, I’m American.”

“Really? Wow, I would have never guessed.  You don’t act like an American.”

__________________________________________________________________

The American stereotype abroad has been captured from many different angles, and immortalized in various forms of entertainment.  The image that particularly comes to mind is of men in khaki shorts who roll up their Hawaiian shirts to expose beige travel safe fanny packs, and pull out large bills as they buy cheap souvenirs. Ignorant meatheads who cannot use a phrasebook or eat anything other than McDonalds.  People who come back and tell their neighbors that the French are mean to anyone who doesn’t speak French, the Brits cannot cook, and all there is to Mexico is Cabo and Cancun. My mother constantly reminds me that I have the best passport, but when I see it hanging in clear plastic around tourists’ necks I shrug away in embarrassment.

I am not an exceptional American, but wherever I go in the world, I am told again and again, that I am not like “other” Americans.  When I was younger, I traveled with my parents to Austria to attend the 250th Mozart festival.  When we arrived at the opera, our friends introduced us to the Bürgermeister (mayor).  He was a large man, sporting a white tuxedo with a maroon cummerbund.  He was cold and rude to me, dismayed by the presence of an American child (who might squirm, whisper, and eat Cheetos loudly throughout the performance) at such a prestigious event.  After I sat patiently through the show and then the lengthy dinner (into the earlier hours of the morning), he confessed to my mother that I was the best-behaved American child he had ever met.  Congratulations! My parents were so proud their daughter did absolutely nothing and was awarded the immense honor of being an above-average American.  An award winning performance of a kid sitting quietly and and not intruding on the adults and their fun.  Bravo.

250th Mozart Festival

Well-behaved child and her parents at 250th Mozart Festival

After the United States gained independence from England, Americans found their new nationality greeted with hostility around the world.   Our former motherland started many rumors about our greed and inferiority to Europe.  Abbé Raynal explained in 1770 that we are a cultureless group, “America has not yet produced a good poet, an able mathematician, one man of genius in a single art or a single science.” However this generic disgust for the arrogant American began, in my own experience I have found that American behavior abroad may deserve some contempt.  As a political and military superpower that has set 20th Century precedent to butt in whenever we can, Americans feel entitled throughout the globe.

Not only are they entitled with a “I live in the best country in the world” mentality, but they also frequently overestimate the ubiquity of the English language.  Although it is true that English is widely spoken, over 1 billion people speak Chinese, 400 million speak Spanish, and 335 million speak English as a first language.  English surpasses Spanish when it comes to second language acquisition, adding another 500 million English speakers. Regardless of the probability of someone near you speaking English as you travel abroad, it is not an amenity to be expected. When I traveled to Portugal for a medical internship I overheard college students complaining that the Portuguese hospital doctors and staff didn’t speak English. Worse still I also heard students assume that since they took some high school Spanish they would be able to communicate adequately in yet another Romance language, Portuguese.  Knowing a romance language will help you learn another, but it is not just a different dialect. Such little respect for another culture’s language is one of the most common ways Americans undervalue other cultures.  

As I traveled, I have learned that the best foods are always the foods the locals recommend because it is what they make best.  Even if it sounds different or strange, I can promise that it’s worth a try.  I cannot even count how many times I have heard an American abroad order an American meal to only be upset by their lack of condiments or proper handling of the food item.  They don’t have ranch dressing in France (only mayonnaise), and if you want food you could get from your local Denny’s perhaps you should have just stayed home.  What is the point of traveling, trying new foods and meeting new people, if you just want to pretend you never left.

Americans perpetuate most of the stereotypes themselves by their own inability to recognize the validity in something unfamiliar, but different is not synonymous with bad, just as American is not synonymous with idiot. If Americans can dislodge their own preconceived notions about a world that contains 195 other countries and open their minds to hundreds of cultures with traditions older than the Declaration of Independence, perhaps the world will change its mind about Americans abroad.  

 

The 5 unimpressive things I do to challenge the American stereotype:

  1. Be respectful
  2. Be polite and show gratitude
  3. Try the foods recommended by the locals
  4. Try your best to learn and speak the language
  5. Do NOT use a lanyard to carry your passport

 

 

 

Ida: Stuck in Frame

Film review

The critically acclaimed film, Ida, is not for the faint of heart. Ida is the melancholic journey of a young Catholic novice, Anna, who learns not only that she is Jewish, but that her deceased family’s burial site is unknown. The film interconnects the protagonist’s plight with the barrenness of communist Poland in 1962 as it tries to move on from its recent past. The plot of Ida is chilling; moreover the stark black and white picture in conjunction with the static frame cinematography enhances the emotional impact of the piece. Ida is not entertainment; it is a profound film that artistically communicates the heartache of Poland’s past.

Ida is not a date night film –unless you would rather make the date even more uncomfortable. This incredibly powerful piece uses cinematographic techniques that alienate the average viewer. The film requires immense viewer patience and trust in the film’s gradual development in order to understand the trajectory of the story. In addition to this slow pace, the absence of extra-diegetic sound abandons viewers to the images they create in their own minds. The silence forces the viewer to retreat, wondering what the characters are thinking. It is lifelike. It is uncomfortable. There is no cue or background guidance to advise the viewer on the trajectory of the plot, how to feel, or what is coming.

The film begins with a close up of Anna in the bottom of the frame painting the face of their convent’s statue of Jesus. Her dark eyes penetrate through the screen of only black and white; her eyes command the attention of the viewer whenever present on screen. Agata Trzebuchowska portrays Anna, a very quiet and introspective religious young woman. Her introversion is felt not only through her lack of dialogue, but also by the absence of extra-diegetic sound. The scenes filmed in the convent are incredibly realistic; the only sounds are from direct actions on the screen or dialogue. The static frame of the camera makes the viewer feel as though they are watching, standing still beside the characters, hoping to not be in the way. This, in conjunction with the high resolution of the picture, is an overwhelming experience.

The film does an excellent job of featuring two very different women, Anna and Wanda. On the journey to learn about herself, Anna meets her aunt, Wanda. The Catholic Anna learns of her Jewish birth name, Ida. Wanda is someone who has been through tremendous loss, and has finally become someone in Poland, a judge, but merely for show trials. Wanda provides comic relief, but also juxtaposes Ida’s purity. Ida is a puzzle, quiet and reserved, giving very few clues as to who she is other than the facts that the viewers already know about her family. Ida has lived a protected life, ignorant of her past, in the safety of the convent. Her piousness is contrasted with Wanda’s wantonness—knowledge and experience have led Wanda to live her life as she does. Wanda was known as “Red Wanda” as a communist prosecutor and previous to her career as a judge she sent several anti-communist sympathizers to their death. She is a strong woman and stops at nothing to get what she wants. Wanda takes the lead to uncover more about Ida and their lost family by asking questions, unveiling deeper twists within the plot. In fact Wanda even goes to a dying man’s bedside in order to find the location of her family’s graves. She obeys the law as she sees fit and follows her own code of conduct.

Agata Kuleszca beautifully portrays Wanda, who introduces Ida to a new lifestyle. When Wanda is on screen, the viewer is surprised to suddenly hear music, as she puts a record on. When Wanda is around, the viewer is more comfortable: she creates a sense of familiarity in the cold scenes of Poland as they drive to find their family. Wanda brings humor and warmth to the frame. She smokes, she dances, she drinks; Wanda does what Wanda wants, because she has already paid the ultimate sacrifice: the loss of her family and child. As Ida gets to know her once estranged aunt, Ida and the audience gradually learn of the underlying grief that eventually consumes Wanda. It is clear that this energetic woman is the motivating force behind the camera angles, music, and plot. Wanda’s presence propels the story forward. Wanda is a commanding force on the screen; the viewer is blindsided by her suicide. In that scene, Wanda puts on the record player, leaving the music on in the background, and jumps out of the window, out of the screen.

Ida’s character growth is facilitated by the static camera angles, allowing the viewer to compare earlier scenes that previously took place and see the change in Ida. One of the most uncharacteristic moments is where the novice nuns are eating toward the end of the film: the quiet Ida giggles to herself, presumably reacting to a funny thought, shattering the tension of silence. This is contrasted with the earlier scene where there is complete silence in the dining room, other than the sound of the nuns eating and scraping their spoons against their bowls. This comparison of parallel scenes underscores the distance now between Ida and the other nuns. The first time Ida visits Wanda’s apartment she is uncomfortable and very still. When Ida arrives to mourn and take care of her Aunt’s belongings, her body language has changed –she smokes a cigarette and listens to jazz. Ida has taken on the provocative behavior of Wanda, exaggerated by the static camera angle.

Wanda’s quick departure leaves the film without a center. After Wanda’s death, the camera focuses on Ida. This change in perspective delivers the resolution to the story, in which Ida takes control of her own life. The camera follows her as she makes her own destiny, taking with her all that she has learned. After her stay in Wanda’s apartment, living a single night of debauchery, Ida puts her symbolic habit back on and walks back to the convent.

The ending of the film is unsatisfying; Ida takes a beautiful journey to intertwine the lives of Wanda and Ida, these incredibly complex characters, only to have one die and the other return to her solitude. After all of the experimental film techniques that displace the viewers from their comfort, there is no resolution. Not unlike the unnecessary brutality of World War Two, the ending of Ida makes the film feel pointless.

 

A Picnic for Twelve Thousand

Feature article

“…And don’t forget to bring a semi-formal, white dress,” Marine said over Skype as I packed for my 7-week long trip.  I tried on the two white dresses I had at home.  One was a beach cover-up, too translucent for a night out, and the other was far too short, since I had accidentally put it in the dryer.  I decided I would just go shopping once I arrived in Paris. This should be fun, I thought.

…

Marine’s familiar face and warm embrace greeted me at the airport.  We plopped my large suitcase in the trunk and started driving to her home, in Le Vésinet, north of Paris. It was a beautiful day; no clouds in the sky and the sun warmed my right arm as I sat in the passenger seat.

I had never been to Marine’s house, however she had lived in mine for nine months. She initially lived with me for about six months while completing an internship for her master’s degree. That was when I was fifteen.  Since then she had come back for several month-long stays.  She bought a 1999 Mazda when she was living in Los Angeles, and after she left, it became my first car.  She helped me with my French and gave me plenty of advice about mundane high school drama. I still consider her my big sister. I would be spending that summer in Portugal for an internship, but the flights were cheaper if I went to France first, where I already had a place to stay.

Tall hedges fenced in the property, blocking the view of the house until I walked through the iron gate. Her home was stately and covered in ivy.  The two-story house was in an L-shape, which framed the garden.  The roof was square and outlined with an intricate tile design.  I asked, “Is this a historical building?” and she laughed, “No, it’s pretty old and worn, but it’s home.”  I felt like I was in a mini chateau, but in fact, it was just an old, large house.

As I enjoyed some espresso at the kitchen table and caught up with Marine and her mom, Waura, I finally asked, “So why do I need a white dress?” Marine smiled and answered, “Dîner en blanc! It is an event that is happening all across Paris on all of the famous bridges and plazas.  Everyone will be wearing white, and you cook a three course dinner for two, but it will be exchanged so that you eat food another  couple prepared! And of course you have to pack everything like a picnic, table cloth, centerpiece, silverware, and wine!” I tried to wrap my mind around this concept, and gave up, understanding only that I needed a nice, white dress. As I found out, it is just a group of friends randomly sitting down and having dinner on a prestigious and historic site. Dîner en blanc was a free event, other than the cost of transportation, coordinated by an independent group, without the permission of any city officials, and had been operating for over 25 years.

…

I walked down the Champs Elysées the day before our dinner in search of a white dress.  I had visited the Champs Elysées in my previous trips to Paris to see the Arc de Triomphe and enjoy a macaroon at Ladurée.  This time, however, I was walking past the same iconic tourist attractions on this street only focused on my mission to find a white dress. I laughed aloud; my third trip to Paris and I already took the Champs Elysées for granted.

Luckily for me, every store was selling white outfits.  Entire floors of clothing stores were dedicated to the color white; I was overwhelmed by my options.  After many trips to the dressing room, I finally found a white dress that was opaque enough to wear in daylight, modest in length, and chic enough to wear out in the fashion capital.  I headed back on the train to Marine’s house to plan the menu and prepare our dinner for two.

…

“We have to go!” Marine said to Alice, her sister, as she stuffed the last of her meal into a basket. “Chairs! Don’t forget the chairs!” Waura called down from upstairs. We stopped to take photos in the garden before departing.  We drove to a parking lot to meet the bus.  Everyone loaded their baskets and other necessities onto the bus and boarded –only fifteen minutes late.

We passed a park where crowds of people, all dressed in very sophisticated white, assembled their tables and spread their tablecloths.  Looking out the window, I slowly started to understand the magnitude of this dîner en blanc. We debarked on a bridge over the Seine and placed our tables of two together making a single table of twenty that ran perpendicular to the bridge itself.  There were a few hundred people on our bridge alone. In the course of an hour, the traffic of buses subsided and people took their places at the table.

Paris was transformed into a romantic, elegant dining room.  Men were dressed in white suits while many women wore white floppy hats, shading their faces from the sun low on the horizon.  The symphony of glasses clinking echoed across the bridge. We all started in with conversation and our first course, prepared by the people to our left. I thoroughly enjoyed my surprise meal, which started with prosciutto-wrapped melon.  Between the food and the conversation, we were unaware of the time passing until it was completely dark. Someone tapped me on the shoulder and handed me a sparkler.  Once given the signal, “Allez, allez!” everyone lit their sparklers and every bridge in sight on the Seine was full of light.  When the sparks went out we drank the only remaining item in our baskets, a bottle of champagne.

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The Breathtaking Island

Blog Post

I stepped off the plane in Ponta Delgada just as green as the magnificent island around me. I had come for adventure and experience, to live the life of a pre-med student abroad, shadowing doctors in a hospital in the Azores. In the weeks prior to arriving, I was savoring the vision I had conjured in my head. I had just finished my second semester of accelerated Portuguese and was ready to speak with the staff I was scheduled to follow. On top of that, I would be staying on the beautiful island of São Miguel, largest of the nine islands in the archipelago. I was the youngest of my fellowship group and despite my enthusiasm; I still had much to learn. I was there to learn from the medical professionals, but in the end the greatest lessons I learned came from outside the hospital.

The program ensured we were getting the most of our experience by taking us on excursions, not only to see the incredible views, but to also immerse ourselves in the local culture. We went on daytrips to every part of São Miguel. Each beach had its own geological signature: large black volcanic rocks, fine black powder, large gray stones, red rich earth, and yellow-white sand. We ventured up to the highest peak in São Miguel in our vehicle, and walked over to the cellular tower. At this altitude, I could look down and see the blue hydrangeas dividing properties and outlining roadways. I could see the Azorean cows eating the green grass and the rooftops of the cities. I could hear the birds rustling in the thickets around me. I took a deep breath as I took in the surroundings and cough cough. I inhaled a cloud of smoke. Cigarette smoke. It wafts across the entire island. The economy of São Miguel is sustained by eco-tourism, and its inhabitants’ favorite pastime, next to enjoying the scenery, is having a smoke.

No two places we visited looked the same, but no matter where we trekked, the smell lingered. In fact, the smoking culture is so prevalent that the modern hospital in Ponta Delgada, home to several hyperbaric chambers and helicopter-units, and prepared for deep sea and cliff diving accidents, has smoking corridors. The fountains in church courtyards are wet ashtrays. The beautiful forests, lakes, beaches, gardens, footpaths, all smell like something gray.

I had been programmed to be disgusted. No aspiring medical professional in 2014 thinks that cigarettes are good for one’s health. Regardless of career trajectory, most adults in the United States do not like being confronted with the smell of cigarettes. Cigarette smoking has significantly decreased, and its presence in pop culture no longer has that sexy, cool appeal; rather it triggers instant revulsion. How could I love this place and its people if it smells of ash?

My student group had been brought to a particular plaza to watch a local parade that celebrated the island’s heritage. Our tour guide pointed out the best spot along the main road with his yellow-stained fingers. The floats were made by hand; people decorated the backs of their trucks with small scenes illustrating the local color: the fishing industry, tea production, and agriculture. Herds of regally dressed oxen passed us as we sat on the curb. A flatbed truck was converted into a bar and pulled in front of our spot. A dozen nozzles connected to a tap dispensed Azorean beer into clear plastic cups and traditionally dressed men distributed the beer among the spectators. Dancing girls with baskets of sweet bread waltzed by, followed closely by their mothers pouring wine. The food and drink were exceptional. I could feel the locals’ island pride from start to finish.

I had come to São Miguel with an idyllic image of my summer, a balance of adventure in an unspoiled paradise and the academic recognition of an internship. I had framed a picture in my head based on what I had seen online; only to be turned off by the sense I did not see coming, smell. There was so much more though, than just smell. When I opened my assessment to a holistic perspective, taking in all of my sensory input, the locals were generous and loving, proud of their home and their accomplishments. The parade showed me I should pay no attention to what my nose told me, but to open my eyes to the people who lived there and their culture.

 

*Edited Version: 2/29/16