#ipetoulouse

[umichenginabroad]

Au Revoir, France.

Our final days in France were spent wine and olive oil tasting at one of the oldest, family-run mills in the nation, Chatêau Virant; visiting the oldest family-run soap factory in the nation, Marius Fabre; and spending a day in Marseilles visiting the beaches, the Basilica, and taking a tour of the beautiful cliff sides along the coast. Below you can find some pictures that I took from these last few days.

I am immensely thankful for my study abroad experience. It is bittersweet to be writing this final post from France, but I am grateful for my opportunities. In our final week, our program studies culminated into a final presentation on a satellite mission to measure light pollution. This presentation was given to the directors of the 4 schools in which we attended, one of them being a 2-star general for the French Air Force. I can say that I learned more practical, application-based knowledge than most of my education at home. Not saying that my education was bad, but there was definitely less of an application base to the curriculum, and more of an emphasis on research and theory. This work makes me excited to join the industry and start working on awesome projects like this one.

The GEA Summer Space Program is something that I will remember forever. From dining under the Eiffel Tower, to wine tasting in Salon de Provence, to watching the airmen take off from Ecole de l’Air, to taking boat tours of the beautiful cliff-side beaches in Marseilles – it was a journey of a lifetime. However, traveling for a month, spending 4 weeks in 6 different cities, where you don’t speak the native language, and hauling around a month’s worth of luggage can take a toll on anyone. That being said, I am ready to return. I am ready to bring back my newfound knowledge of a different culture, and see how I can become a better person because of it. Living somewhere else for this long of a time has really put a new perspective on meting new people.

Finally, if you are considering going abroad, anywhere – stop. Stop considering. JUST DO IT. I promise you that you will enjoy it and earn so much from the experience. I will recommend going abroad to everyone, and the GEA Space Summer Program to anyone remotely interested in space systems.

Go Blue, and go abroad!

Scott McCormick B.S.E. Aerospace Engineering ‘18 M. Eng. Space Engineering ‘19

[umichenginabroad]

Ecole National d’Aviation Civile (ENAC)

Naomi Endres; Aerospace Engineering; GEA Summer Aviation Program; France

I’m finally here! I arrived at ENAC a couple days ago and as I’ve stopped waking up at 5 o’clock in the morning I’m fairly certain I’ve adjusted to the time change. I’ve had some time to explore the campus and get acquainted with the city. There’s an absolutely gorgeous minimalist-style courtyard right inside the entrance to ENAC with trees and benches and even a little pond. Weelll a man-made pond but all the same. There are lights in the pavement which turn on at night and light up the sculpture.

I was a bit surprised that the library (which overlooks the courtyard) is not open on the weekends or at night. I’m so used to having libraries that are open 24/7 that not having one is a bit strange.  I was also surprised to find that most of the engineering texts are written in english rather than french. Apparently many of the classes are taught in English as well. Classes will be starting soon and we’ll also be going on a tour of Toulouse after our orientation so theres a lot to look forwards to.

Our dorms are understandably small, but we have a small kitchenette with a couple of hot plates and a fridge so we can cook our own meals. We get breakfast and lunch on the week- days, but all other meals are on us. I’ll need to go to the store sometime this week and figure out this cooking thing… All I have now are a couple of boxed soups and some tea bags. Though I would certainly love to live off tea and coffee I’m fairly certain that would lead to some major health problems so that might not be the best plan of action.

[umichenginabroad]

Salon de Provence, France.

Salon de Provence. A relatively small, quaint and quiet place in beautiful southern France. The weather here is amazing, and the landscape reminds me of a mountainous Florida. Since we are not too far from the Mediterranean, palm trees, grapevines, and olive trees are abundant. But yet, when you look off into the horizon, you see large rolling hills and mountains, rather than the flat, marshy lands that you might expect from a tropical climate. Here, we are attending L'ecole de Air, which is the French Air Force Academy. The academy is fairly strict, but our guide is Captain Laurent, and he is quite an amazing guy. We were able to meet the headmaster of the Academy on the first day, who happened to be a two-star general. We took some pictures, but unfortunately I don't have a digital copy to share.

In our leisure times, we have found ourselves exploring the city center of Salon. Unsurprisingly, it is filled with beautiful architecture and historic monuments that are older than our country. We stumbled upon a castle, went inside, and then were promptly kicked out by museum staff (oops). It turns out, this was the place that Nostradamus was buried, and remains there today (in case you forgot, Nostradamus was the guy who predicted the world to end in 2012).

On Tuesday, we went on a field trip to Cannes, home of some famous film festival (not too hip on pop culture, so I wasn't familiar). We visited Thales-Alenia space, which was compared to the Boeing/Lockheed of the EU. We went inside, and sure enough -- it exceeded every expectation that I had. They build their satellites from T0 to delivery, and oversee every part of the integration, assembly, and testing; all in-house in the facility on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Their turnaround time for a typical satellite design cycle was 24-30 months, which was absolutely mind-boggling to me, that you could design, manufacture, test and deliver a cutting-edge, $200-300M piece of space technology that quickly. Not only was the facility amazing, but the city was awesome too. What a place to work.

That's all I've got for now! Up next: wine and olive oil tasting in Aix en Provence at the oldest winery and oil mill in France, and then soap-making at the oldest soap factory in France.

Go Blue!

[umichenginabroad]

Summer in France

Bon Voyager!  I’m leaving Anchorage Alaska and am on my way to the south of France, where I’ll spend six weeks learning about the international aviation industry. I’m super excited to meet students from all over the US who share a passion for innovation. I’ll be spending my time mostly in Toulouse, with several trips, including Marseille, Bordeaux, and Poitiers. I’ve learned a bit of french in high school so I’m also excited to see if I’ll be able to understand native speakers.

Even with the benefits of modern travel I have an 8 hour plane flight to Reykavik and another 3 hours to Paris, before taking a train south. I’m also ‘chasing the sun’ so I won’t actually have night even though I’ll be moving a day ahead: nearly 24 hours of daylight from sunrise ing anchorage to sunset in France. Still, I’m very excited to start my program. Which will contain 5 different academic module as well as several industrial visits including the final assembly line for airbus and one of the major air traffic control centers in France. I’m a little nervous about finding my way around but I’m fairly certain a lot of people will speak english so I won’t have to rely too heavily on my grasp of french. I’m looking forward to spending a fun and productive summer in the south of France!

~~~~~~~~

Naomi Endres

Aerospace Engineering

GEA Aviation Program Toulouse

written May 29

[umichenginabroad]

Thank you, Poitiers.

Sorry for the delay, but WiFi has been scarce where we are now staying in Toulouse! 

As we leave Poitiers, I'm so incredibly grateful for the experience. Poitiers is an amazing city, with beautiful buildings and architecture, and an even more beautiful history. We visited the Notre Dame, where Joan of Ark took refuge during her war with Britain. We visited the justice building, which was full of 15th century architecture and statues of prominent French characters from the era. After our tour ended, I thought to myself, old stuff is cool, why don't we have things like this in America? And then I remembered, our oldest historic artifacts aren't even half as old as most of the stuff we saw.

I am also thankful for our industry tour in Poitiers. We visited SAFT, which is a company who manufacturers high-tech batteries for space, military, and aviation industries. I went into the tour with rather low expectations, as I didn't think making batteries was exactly exhilarating. But after seeing the site, and the amazing things that they do, and some of the cool opportunities that they have available for their employees; I left intrigued. You might think that batteries are straightforward and simple, but think again, especially when it comes to space. Another awesome thing that I learned on this visit was the amazing labor laws that France has. A full-time work week is 35 hours, and anything after is double pay. If you are traveling for work, you are paid the minute that you leave, until the minute you get back to your hotel or wherever you are staying. Expenses are paid for. Think that 2 weeks paid vacation is amazing in America? Even the lowest-level full-time employees get 6 weeks in France. I wish we could implement laws like these, as I really think it would help with the depression and anxiety caused from a stressful and competitive workplace environment that we see in the States.

But enough with the depressive mood, here are some amazing pics that I took over the last week. Enjoy.

Go Blue!

Scott McCormick B.S.E. Aerospace Engineering '18 M. Eng. Space Engineering '19