When it rains, it pours, or so the saying goes. After months of emails, applications, and waiting, this week I had some activity on both of the grad school fronts I’ve been pursuing. Monday night I learned that Prof. Henry Markram invited me to attend Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne’s Hiring Days, an interview and orientation session held on January 15-16 in Lausanne, Switzerland. This really was quite an honor as Prof. Markram is an incredibly exciting professor. He is head of the Blue Brain project, a high-profile project sponsored by IBM and run through the Brain-Mind Institute at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). This project, described as the neuroscience equivalent of the Human Genome project, seeks to map out the neural microcircuitry of the human brain and reconstruct the brain through computer simulations. The project is ground-breaking and joining it would be no less than thrilling.
Twenty-four hours after getting the exciting news, 
I was in the air on my way to Paris yet again. Of the 129 initial applicants to the Ecole des Neurosciences de Paris Ile-de-France (ENP), I was one of the final six left by the time Interview Day came around. After sending in a paper application in late September, I had also phone-interviewed in mid-November and finally there came this: an all-expenses-paid trip to Paris, but not exactly a vacation. After arriving in the heart of Paris shortly after midnight, I got a few hours sleep before a long day of interviews, presentations, lab visits, and finally a three-hour dinner with the ENP staff (at an undeniably quaint, quite enjoyable restaurant in the 11th Arrondissement called Chez Paul, 13 rue de Charonne). The experience was very much like dangling a particularly savory piece of bacon just out of reach of a very hungry puppy; 
I could hardly bear hearing all about the program all day without knowing whether or not I will be accepted.
By the time the day was done, I was very pleased to meet up with Jeremi, my good friend and fellow Fifth Wester (in other words, a person from my floor in my dorm) who’s studying abroad at Ecole Polytechnique this year. (On a side note, I had a very happy piece of news that evening when checking my email: indeed a place has been reserved for me to move back onto Fifth West, the place I’ve called home for the past three years, so that I can live with my best friends for my very last semester at MIT.) Jeremi and I settled on a heated, covered outdoor deck of a bar to sip vin chaud and enjoy the company of someone so very familiar 
so far from home. It was incredibly refreshing to spend a bit more time with someone who needs so little explanation to understand me so completely. By the time the bar closed, the metro had already stopped running so we took a late-night meander through Paris while continuing our conversation. Wandering aimlessly through cities with friends has always been one of my favorite activities (just check facebook). When you make that city Paris, it’s hard to find much about which to complain.
Despite the late hour at which I ultimately returned home, I made an early start for my free day in Paris. After a quick tour through the Luxembourg Gardens, I found the famous English-language bookshop right by Notre Dame and immediately understood 
why my Scuola Normale friend majoring in Italian and French Literature at Oxford spoke so highly of the place. Just look at how many books have been jammed into this place! 
And in perusing through the store, I had to resist the temptation to buy at least a few of them. Supposedly this store is also a great way to find yourself an Anglophone, presumably lit-geeky (more or less the anti-MIT-style, potentially more socially adept) network, which could come in quite handy if living in Paris. After this I took a grand tour of central Paris, hitting many of the major tourist sights and generally walking the streets to get a feel for mid-day Parisian life in the Christmas season. Today 
I even wore my glasses just so that I could soak in as much detail as possible in this city so rich with beauty. (That's la Madeleine, the church in the center of la Place de la Madeleine, pictured on the left. There are some trendy and quite pricey shops in this area of Paris.)
Finally I caught up with my friend from Ecole Normale Supérieure, Gabriel, over coffee at a little café for my last couple hours before flying home. For the first time together we managed t
o speak exclusively French. Though living in Italy obliterated my ability to speak Spanish, it has somehow improved my ability to speak French. I found myself seated with a native French speaker, chatting and laughing, feeling quite relaxed (even if still far from fluent) in the language I’ve so loved and studied so long. It really made me smile and was a wonderful way to close up my sixth and final visit to Paris in 2008.
I was in the air on my way to 
I could hardly bear hearing all about the program all day without knowing whether or not I will be accepted. 
so far from home. It was incredibly refreshing to spend a bit more time with someone who needs so little explanation to understand me so completely. By the time the bar closed, the metro had already stopped running so we took a late-night meander through 
why my Scuola Normale friend majoring in Italian and French Literature at 
And in perusing through the store, I had to resist the temptation to buy at least a few of them. Supposedly this store is also a great way to find yourself an Anglophone, presumably lit-geeky (more or less the anti-MIT-style, potentially more socially adept) network, which could come in quite handy if living in 
I even wore my glasses just so that I could soak in as much detail as possible in this city so rich with beauty. (That's la Madeleine, the church in the center of la Place de la Madeleine, pictured on the left. There are some trendy and quite pricey shops in this area of Paris.) 
o speak exclusively French. Though living in 
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