Dear Paris,
Sadly, I am no longer inside you. Its been a sad weekend for us iSEED members. Most of us have moved on from you already. Lets go back and look over all the memories we made.
I think my lasting memory from this experience is just going to be the people. Its going to be all the 9 person dinners we had together, the trains we took every day together, our beloved groupchat that will hopefully live on. I know I’m never going to get an experience exactly like this one with these people again, but I’m happy that I get to go back to Rice and hear “mama duck” screamed across the OEDK or get a text that says “Houston, I am inside you”. There’s a lot of specific memories I have from this trip, but I don’t think I can pick a favorite. My favorite part of each memory is just the people I got to make those memories with. I think someone who left a mark on me, though I don’t really know why, is Matthew. He’s a chill guy. Matthew, if you read this, I look forward to seeing you in two years. I really enjoyed talking to you and being on your team for ENGI200. I better not hear about any egg throwing stories when you come back from Korea.
One of the best days I experienced in Paris was the second Sunday we were in town, when the Paris Airshow was happening. I went on an RER train, met a few astronauts, saw flight displays, and got a ton of cool merch. It was a really cool day and just kind of crazy that it happened to be while we were there, because the Paris Airshow is one of the biggest aerospace events in the world. My favorite eating experience in Paris was probably our last day, Friday. Alexis found one of the craziest restaurants I’ve ever seen, Bouillon Chartier. Definitely would recommend. You start off in a long line, where you are funneled past a bar. They give you tiny glasses of sangria before sending you to the main queue for a table. We were lucky that we had a big group, as a big table happened to be open. This had to be the biggest restaurant I had seen in Paris. There were definitely 20+ staff members and like hundreds of people eating in there. And to top it all off, we all ate for less than 20 euros. The soup was one euro. They had eggs for two euros. I was just so confused. It was quite the experience. The food wasn’t super exciting, it was just regular good French food. The rest of the group tried snails. I had some good spaghetti and then ordered a side of boiled potatoes, which ended up just being one whole skinless potato. They literally gave me a whole boiled potato on a plate. 10/10 dinner.
I’d tell students considering this experience to just go for it. I think its a good way to spend a summer, as you still have freedom with most of your summer. I was glad I did iSEED as a freshman, because not many people get internships their freshman summer and this gives me freedom to get a job, spend time with my family, and work on personal projects to develop new skills in engineering. I also got 6 credit hours! Everyone has different reasons for doing this program, but I think everyone who did it had an awesome experience and got the class credit they were looking for. I think you should expect to be surprised by everything. The class structure was nothing like a regular lectures or engineering courses, but they were so much better. The hostels were not what I expected, but I hope they are slightly improved in the future. The biggest thing is just to expect to have fun and meet new people and try new things. This trip was full of some of the craziest adventures I’ve ever had and would have never expected. We were asked to pay $12000 on the spot, found a jazz bar where people tap danced (i am still so mad i was not there), rode electric bikes through a field of cows, completed the Heineken experience, screamed at people asking for their trash, almost missed the Amsterdam to Paris train (my bad guys), bought our own prototyping materials, got stuck in a rainstorm and started singing Umbrella, got kicked out of a club, threw eggs at a wall (cough cough Sebastian), and much much more. This trip will be everything and nothing that you expect. I think this was honestly my favorite part about this experience. I didn’t expect any of this. I thought the classes would be more lecture based, that I might not make new friends or try everything and that would be ok. I think I can confidently say I made new friends and tried a LOT of things.
So, to conclude my letter to you, I’d like to say thank you for the fun times you gave us, and on behalf of the men on this trip, I sincerely apologize for any broken eggs we left behind.
Mercy,
Mama Duck