An American in Paris

First real day in the lab today. Spent some quality time in the piece de culture (tissue culture room) and also gave my talk today, which fortunately (I think) elicited a lot of questions. Fortunately I was allowed to give the talk in English.

Other interesting aspects of catching a film in Paris. For all les Americains out there--when you come see a movie in Paris, you have two options: the "V.F." (le version francaise) or the "V.O." (le version originale). I'm still definitely at the "V.O." stage--the movie is completely in English, but there are French subtitles which can be somewhat educational for learning French if you concentrate on reading more than checking out the scenery. Of course, if the movie is in Portuguese, you're pretty much screwed (unless, well, you speak Portuguese). The V.F. is the movie which has been dubbed over in French. Interestingly, my wife tells me that they try and retain the same French actor's voice for specific celebrities. Furthermore, they try and match up the French actor's voice so that it's reasonably similar to the American actor's voice. For example, the French voice of Woody Allen is nervous and whiny, the French voice of "Joey" from Friends is stupid, etc etc.

Today's French vocabulary: how to find your way around the lab en Francais!
For example:
pipet tips = les cones de pipet
liquid nitrogen = azote liquide
graduated cylinder = l'eprouvette
slides (for a microscope) = les lammes
beaker = le becher
cells = les cellules
medium (for cells) = le milieu
to mix = melanger
to freeze = glacer
to thaw = deglacer