Paris vas me manque (paris I will miss you)

December 15th:

My train from Lyon to Paris has just left the station. Almost the last of my duties in France finished after giving a short presentation on Earthquake Hazards and sprinkler system protection. Saying by to many of my colleagues, whom I won’t see again before leaving, was a bit sobering. I’ve realized how comfortable I’ve become here in France and am already discovering how much I will cherish the experience of living and working here for the past 7 and a half months.

I leave from Paris, Charles De Gaulle airport Thursday, 21st of December, which is in 6 days and counting. The time has really passed quickly. When I first started writing my e-mails, which became blog postings thanks to Joan Pan, it was a way for me to communicate with my friends and family back in the US and share my “story” of living in Paris. I was also supposed to be here for a full year when I first arrived. And now, like the time frame, the blog postings have also changed in there purpose for me. It has not only become a form of communication with friends and family, but it has also become a way to hold on to some precious memories that I have and will be able to keep for the rest of my life.

I must admit that France has become a place that I could see myself living for a long time. That may be easy for me to say now that I’m leaving, but as much as I’m looking forward to the reunion with my family at Christmas, my heart already aches at the knowledge that I will no longer be able to walk past the boulangerie and pick up a fresh croissant for breakfast on my way to work, and pick up a warm baguette, the kind that melts in your mouth, on my way home from work. I won’t be able to take the long way home and take a pause on one of the bridges passing over the Seine and just watch the tourists and Parisians alike walking past the Notre Dame or down the Quai’s of the Seine with the reflection of the Conciergerie to accompany them. My walks to the grocery store will no longer include the full moon shining over the gothic spires of Notre Dame, or passing the “oldest tree” in Paris. The apartment, house, or building that I end up living in would not have even been an imagination in the 1700’s when my current apartment building was constructed. I will no longer pass under the shadow of the Eiffel Tower on my bike ride out to Versailles or look in at the priceless art of the Louvre as I jog past. The thought of taking a 10 minute walk to have the best cup of chocolate chaud at Le Deux Magot, a brasserie that has been frequented by the likes of Sarte and Hemingway among other French and world thinkers, writers, and artist, will be only that….a thought that can not be realized. These are among only a few of the many daily experiences that have become “normal” and will become memories. It is no wonder that so many étrangers (non-French) have moved to Paris over the years. The city is teaming with culture and beauty, from it’s edifices to its art, from its river to its hills, in the faces of people from probably every country in the world that pass through the streets of Paris every day. A just description is beyond my ability.

I have 1 last weekend here (not counting possibly spending New Years back here) and it’s going to be a full one. A testament to the community of friends I’ve made within this city’s limits. They include people from Estonia, Ireland, England, Australia, Spain, Brazil, Holland, US, Nigeria, Congo, Tanzania, Italy, South Africa, and of course France, among others. It is really amazing to look around at the faces at the bible study in the American Church in Paris, where I counted at least 10 represented countries 2 weeks ago, and the guys on my soccer teams, who are also from all over the world. This weekend I may be having dinner tonight with a friend I meet in line at the prefecture (part of that story covered in June I think) who is getting his MBA here in Paris and is married to a francaisse. I have a soccer game Saturday morning, a party Saturday night were a co-worker from England and his local band will be playing, probably church at 9:30 Sunday at Notre Dame, brunch with a friend from Spain, mini soccer tournament at 1pm and then I hope to relax while packing my apartment to move out Monday afternoon….. It’s going to be a great last weekend in Paris!!

I would like to thank all of you who have supported me during this past 7.5 months through prayers, e-mails, visits, and phone calls!! I have not yet decided what I will do with this blog, but most likely I will be changing the name and it will become more of a general forum for me to share my life, not just in a certain city, but also on a whole level, with all of you. I guess, in a way, it has already become that…..

Going back to Cali....

This should have been published three weeks ago.... but here it is. Better late than never.

So, over the past couple of months I have been going through an interview process for a new position within FM Global located back in the Walnut Creek office. It was the position, and not specifically the office that was drawing me back. My previous post decribed my trip to Wigan, UK. On the Monday that I left, I had a phone conference with the manager of my would be position to find out if I would receive a job offer or not.

As it turns out, I did receive an offer, but it was not for the position that I had originally applied for. I had originally applied for an Account Manager position, which deals much more with the financial side of our company and relationship with our customers. This would have been a pretty big jump for me from the Field Engineering position I am in currently. As it turns out the final two candidates were myself and my manager in S.F. And, righly so, he was offered the Account Manager position.

However, an Underwriting position was also open and was offered to me during the same conference call. This position is meant to be the position that Account Managers are often recruited from. So, with the prospect of another Account Manager position hopefully opening up sometime in the next 18 months of so, and an identical training program for both the Account Manager and Underwriting positions in the first 18 months, I decided to accept the offer.

The great part of this new job includes learning an entirely different aspect of our business, as well as the career growth opportunities that I hope it will open up for me. It will also be nice to be back in the Bay Area and close to friends and familiy, many of whom I havn't seen in 7-8 months.

The tough part of this move will be leaving Paris. Firstly, because I will be moving so soon. My start date looks to be January 8th in the Walnut Creek office, so when I head home for Christmas I will most likely be heading home on an "aller sample", one way ticket. Which means I only have about 3 weeks left here in France, at least for now.

I've really settled in here and feel comfertable with the way of life, work and play balance, and being surrounded by such historical monuments and culter everyday. When I walk out my front door, just by turning my head 180 degrees, I can see Notre Dame, Ilse de City (where Paris started), Point des Arts, and the Louvre. Now that's a way to start the day;) I think it will take a little time to adjust to being back in California from that point of view.

Just wanted to make sure everyone was being kept up to date. I look forward to seeing you all back in the states and if you ever visit Paris let me know. I've got a lot of recommendations..

Wiganers

So, three weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit some friends, the Hilton's, about 30 minutes drive outside of Liverpool! It was a great weekend filled with friends, futbal, and pubs ;)

Some highlights to start off with:
1. "The Road to Wigan Pier" was written there and
2. Wigan beat Bolton in their darby Premier League futbal match 1 nil!!!!
3. A women was punished for adultery by being made to walk 3 miles from her home on the summit of what is now a municipal golf course, down to the center of town a couple hundred years ago and there is now a monument at the point were she had to walk to.
4. UK beat Australia in Rugby for the first time in 40 years during my visit!!

The trip started off with a flight from Paris to Liverpool's John Lenon Airport on Thursday morning. When I arrived the first thing I noticed was the row of taxi cabs that looked like old Ganster movie hit man vehicles and I kept looking for the Tommy Gun hanging out the window. Didn't see any of those though. Anthony Hilton took the day off work and picked me up from the airport. Right away I made my first mistake by walking to the "wrong side" of the car. They drive on the left hand of the road in the UK. I've experienced this in Australia and New Zealand but I had forgotten all about it. No problem, I hopped in to the real passenger seat and off we went. That first night Anthony set up a futbal (soccer to everyone from the US) and I tried to represent the US to the best of my abilities. It was pretty near freezing and we were playing outdoor, but quickly we all warmed up and it was a good hour and a half match. No score was really kept, but I think the team Anthony and I were on came out on top.... (of course)

The next morning Anthony and Katie, who both took the day off from work (actually Katie had a "study" day off, but I don't remember seeing any books.... ) We started off with a train ride in to Liverpool. The train was a bit like the Boston Green line with just a few cars, and nor really all that fast. Once in Liverpool, we headed down past "The Cavern Club" and ducked in there for our first drink of the day..... (I don't usually drink much, but I figured "when in Rome do as the Romans"). The Cavern Club is where the Beatles were first discovered and this little basement club was filled with memorabilia from the Beatles and many other great bands of their era. This picture really stood out to me because they all look so young. I wonder if they had any idea at that time what their future would hold.

Next we went down to the Docks of Liverpool and just had a nice stroll. Went past the Beatles Museum, but didn't actually go in. It was a nice day to be outside and although I like the Beatles, I'm not really a crazed fan. It was fun enough for me to see what I could from the outside as well as the club they started at. We had a nice lunch at Est Est on the Docks and then headed back towards centeral Liverpool. There is a lot of renovations going on right now since Liverpool will be the Cultural Capital of Europe for 2008. A lot of very nice buildings going up and overall looks to be a good boost to the city. We hit a couple more pubs before heading back to Wigan for the evening. Friday night we all went out to a couple bars. The first one was filled with 18-22 year olds, and the second was filled with 40-50 somethings. Quite a contrast and we were kind of stuck in the middle. I was a lot of fun though and we had some good laughs.

Saturday was probably my favorite day. Started off with a Rugy match on TV between England and Australia. England one the match for the first time in 40 some odd years. That was followed by a trip to Bolton Stadium to join all the Wigan fans in support of their team. Most of the bantering and yelling was in good spirits, but a few of the chants were a little off color. Still, the excitement in the air was amazing!! Espectially after Wigan scored the only goal of the match with about 15 minutes left. The last 15 minutes was tense and there was a lot of energy. Wigan held off Bolton and one the match. So we were 2-0 for the day so far. After the game we went back to the Hilton's and relaxed for a bit. That night some friends and family of the Hilton's came over to meet the "American". It was a lot of fun and it was also the night before Guy Fox day, so we had a bunch of fire works along with a great meal. The food the entire time was excellent!

Guy Fox tried to burn the Parlement building down and ended up burning himself to death in the failed process a couple hundred years ago. So every year, all over England, towns, families, random groups build huge bon-fires and burn a scarcrow man on the top to represent Guy Fox. If you think about it to hard, it's a little distrubing, but really its just a good reason to let off fire works, have a huge bon-fire and a good party.

Sunday was a relaxed day in Wigan. Started off with 9 holes of Golf in the morning at a municpal course overlooking the valley of Wigan, and got to learn a lot of interesting details about the town itself from my golf partners, Paul Hilton and his friend Gary. Went down to the Wigan Pier for a drink after and then back to the house to watch Chelsea - v - Tottenham in another Premiership futbal match. Tottenham won that match, which was the first time they had beaten Chelsea in something close to 50 matches. So, now we were 3-0 to make the perfect clean sweep of the weekend. Sunday night we had a great traditional Hilton family sunday night dinner, and took a nice after dinner walk along the footsteps of the ill faited women I mentioned earlier.

Monday, I did some work from the Hilton's home and then caught my flight back to Paris that evening. All in all, it was a really nice escape from Paris and an excellent first visit to England!! I thank the Hilton's (and the Clark's who introduced me to the Hilton's) for their wonderful hospitality and flexibility on such short notice!!

Pictures to come later....

The Yosemite of Greece

This morning I woke up and sat on the beach reading my morning devotional (I’m reading Isaiah right now) as the sun came up over the ocean. What a great way to start the day! Then I headed out to Metora, a place I had seen some pictures of and wanted to visit. It’s about a 2 hour drive from the foot of Mt. Olympos. I was not disappointed. The rocks jut out of the earth like spires and monasteries have been built on the top of several of them. I think the pictures tell it all.


One of them shows a cave, which after a bit of hiking around I was able to find the trail head to. (There were also people rockclimbing up the spires like little ants)I’m not sure how long ago people built platforms and most likely lived in these caves, but it is amazing that they where able to use nothing but wood and holes carved into the rock walls to support themselves. I spent a few hours hiking around before heading back to the Afroditi hotel.

“Open Water”

I was planning to take a run Friday night afternoon after arriving at my hotel, the Afroditi on the Mediterranean coastline at the foot of Mt. Olympos. It was about 7pm and the sun was starting to set. As I looked from my balcony I noticed someone floating in the water about 200 meters of the shoreline. I thought to myself “I’d much rather take a swim, and this would be a perfect time to overcome my fear of swimming in open water”. I didn’t really want to go for a run anyways because I think I have a massive hangnail or some other unidentified problem with the big toe on my right foot since it hearts like crazy and is bleeding….but back to the swimming. I’m not really scared of open water if there is a large group of people, but I can’t help but feel like there are huge hungry fish all around me when I’m in the ocean. Or worse lots of tiny little hungry fish. And I know they are all much faster than I am. But this other guy was floating around like a huge buoy so I figured I should be safe.

So I headed out and got about ¼ as far from the shoreline as this guy had been when I noticed he was back on shore and I was now the only swimmer in the entire ocean. O.K. no problem, just breathe and swim…. So, I kept swimming and was actually enjoying the view as I turned around to float on my back and watch the sun set behind Mt. Olympos. If that was the home of the Greek Gods, including Zeus, than I was swimming in his bath tub. Kind of cool. Anyways, after watching the sun setting and noticing that it was going to be getting dark very soon, I turned over to start swimming again and I see a shadow below me. Then my eyes focus and I see a HUGE jelly fish! To that point I had seen nothing in the water but little anchovy type fish and when I saw this jelly fish I must have swam the fastest 20 meters ever back towards shore. I may have even hydroplaned on my first couple of strokes.. The only thing I know about jelly fish is that some of them can be deadly and I wasn’t about to find out which kind this was. After my 20 meter sprint I slowed down and actually laughed at myself because it really wasn’t that big and it was probably 10 ft below me. Since the point was to overcome my fear, I started swimming back out towards it but couldn’t find it anymore. So, I slowly headed back to shore swimming and floating towards the sun set.

Santorini

If you ever travel to Greece and can only visit 1 island, Santorini is the one I would recommend. Black sand beaches, volcanoes, amazing sunsets, great local wines, and breathtaking cliff vistas. I only had 2.5 days there. Not enough. Oh well, that just means I'll have to go back ;) The first night on the island I went to the Santorini Festival, a buffet dinner with traditional dancing and wine testing. After dinner, and before the dancing, I decided to check out the museum that was open to guests for the night. I was the only one down there and all the lights were on motion sensors, only turning on as I reached certain points, which gave the museum hallway a dark feeling. As I approached a scene ofmanikinss I also became aware, suddenly, that they also were set to move on motion sensors. As the fake heads turned to look at me, I couldn't help but think I was in some sort of wax museum movie come to life. When I got out the dancing had begun, and I missed a bit of the traditional dancing. But I made it in time to see the belly dancing and get pulled on the dance floor to participate in the group circle dance. After the music was over we were all heading back to our seats when I got pulled back on the dance floor. Just the 4 professionals (if you can call them that) and myself. We danced in a side by side line with arms on each others shoulders. One guy would lead and say something in Greek and the others would join in leaving me to either mimic what they were doing quickly or start tripping over my feet. It was a fun challenge trying to follow their foot work, although it wasn't really all that complicated. A very fun evening.

Next day I took a boat excursion that included a hike up a dormant volcano, swim in hot springs, lunch at an island village considered to be the least developed village in Greece, rock diving and a sunset dinner on the north end of the island. The entire day was filled with amazing vistas.



On the second day I decided to head up the hill to an ancient city that was built 2500 years ago. There are no postcards and very little information about the city, but I could see the trail and I asked the hotel owners about it. The confirmed that I could get to it with the trail and so I took a water bottle and ran up the hill. When I reached the site I was amazed. It was the best set of remains of an ancient village that I have seen in Greece. You could really picture the village with all the little houses and central squares. It was really cool, but unfortunately I did not have my camera with me. You'll have to take my word for it.


I stayed at Stelio's Place, a very nice little hotel just 100 meters from the ocean. The owner, Stelio, picks everyone up from the ferry or airport and also gives everyone rides back to the ferries and airport when they leave. His wife does all the breakfast cooking which was wonderful. I highly recommend it. www.steliosplace.com

Monaco 70.3 Ironman!!

The following is the full break down of my first half ironman competition in Monaco, a small principality in the South of France on the Mediterranean Sea. The setting was beautiful, and the race was, for the most part, very well organized. I would like to start by thanking everyone who sent e-mails, and called me to wish me luck. Your support was amazing and very inspirational for me!

The official Monaco Ironman Website and additional information - http://www.monaco-ironman.com/


Logistics: To get to my first halfironman competition I needed to take the Metro from Paris to Orly Airport, Plane from Paris to Nice, Bus from Nice airport to Nice Train station, and then walk from the train stration to the Best Western I staid at Friday night in Nice. All of this with my bike packed away in a bike box (from crate works: http://www.crateworks.com/ ) and 1 bag with all the equipment/cloths I would need for the weekend and race. After arriving at B.W. I unpacked the bike and stored the box with the hotel, which they did for me until Sunday night. Thanks Best Western!!



Then it was off to Monaco by bus to register and enjoy the pasta buffet and debriefing, where I ran into a couple (Chris and Amanda) stationed just a couple hours from Monaco on an exchange program from the US Navy working with the French Navy. I had dinner with them and their cute little girl, which made me miss my niece Isabel! We exchanged e-mails since Amanda said she would be taking pictures of the race, and we ended up hanging out for a pasta dinner Saturday night as well, which was better than the solo plans to find a burrito shop I had originally.. (Although I think I would have performed better if I had found that burritto........superstition on my part)


Saturday we checked in the bikes and the transition bags for the bike and run. That night I stayed in Monaco at a place that was kind enought to open the kitchen at 5:30 for the racers sunday morning. Sunday morning I had breakfast, gathered what I would need, checked out and ran down to the start line with my sandels on, because I had to check in my running shoes with the transition bag the night before, and because I was, of course, running a little bit late. I made it in time to pump up my bike tires to full pressure, realize I had left a drink bottle for the bike in the hotel fridge, buy a new bottle with pre-mixed drink in it, use the all important facilities (you know which ones those are) and get the wetsuit on with 5 minutes to spare. Not much time for a warm up, but I had around 6 hours ahead of me to get warmed up!


SWIIM: The day started off with a mass start swim. A mass start swim means that when the buzzer goes off, everyone starts at the same time. You can just imagine 650 people all racing into the water at the same time and heading for the same target. It was a complete mad house. The water churning like it was filled with a group of Pirhaneas let loose after the same piece of steak. I had expected this, so I actually watched for a quick second to see if there was an opening of any kind, and when I saw one I plunged right in. I ended up having a pretty good swim with only a limited amount of getting kicked in the head and grabbed by the ankle.

The best part of the swim was the view. By the second loop the sun was starting to light up the water a bit more and I could actually see the safety scuba divers below me and fish darting in and out of the kelp on the sea floor. It was really a beautiful swim. In addition to the great view underwater, one of the things I liked about starting in the back of the pack was that I got to pass people almost the entire swim. So, as I got out of the water I was feeling confident. And when I looked down at my watch I was very surprised to see that 30 minutes hadn't yet passed. My goal before the race was 35 minutes. Official swim time 28:16 ( I will say that all of the swim times were amazingly fast and I'm pretty sure it wasn't the full 2 Kilometer length that it was supposed to be...... but even so, I was in the top 200 people out of the water and I was feeling great!

T1 - Nothing special to report here. My transition was not blazing fast, but I also didn't waste any time. The volunteer staff was amazing along the entire race, including at the transitions. They were right next to me taking my stuff and stuffing it into my transition bag for me, something I was lead to believe I would have to do myself based on the per-race debriefing. 4:24 and then I was on the bike.

BIKE: The first 22 Km are all uphill and I planned to start out easy on the first large climb so that I could attack on the third and final climb of the day. I also planned to eat as much as I could during the bike leg since I knew that I would be able to digest food much easier during the bike than on the run. This strategy didn't quite work as well as I had hoped.

On the first climb I kept getting past by racers, which I fully expected since I figured a lot of people would hit the first climb to fast. I was thinking to myself "let them go. They'll implode on the 2nd or final climb and I'll pass them there." It was really hard to hold back at the beggining, but I knew I still has a long day in front of me. I made it to the top of the first major climb and still felt pretty good. The great thing about long climbs is that they usually translate into long down hills. Unfortunately the downhills for this race where steep switchbacks that required a fair amount of breaking. I was actually able to pass quite a few people during these downhills. Many of them came right back past me during the next climb. I hadn't hit half way yet and I was looking to take it easy the first half and have a negative split. By the time I hit the half way mark I was at about 1 hour 40 minutes. WIth a negative split (i.e. faster second half than first half) I should finish the bike just over 3 hours. For the first half of the race I was also trying to eat and drink a lot, but my stomache started to feel bloated and I just couldn't keep eating. I knew I would need the energy so I force feed myself half of a PB&J that I had brought to have some realy food, a banana and 2 gels during the second half of the ride, also consuming a lot of fluids. However, I keept feeling like I was really full and wanted to purge a few things....... luckily that didn't happen.

By half way up the second climb, while still being passed by small packs of riders (who I think were drafting off each other) I kept thinking to myself that there was no way these guys, and the ocassional gal, could keep climbing like that. Boy was I wrong. I ended up feeling like I was being passed the entire bike, and in fact some 150 people in total did pass me on the bike leg (which was easy to figure out by my overall race position after the bike because I only passed a handful of people that I can remenber, including a couple with flat tires). By the final climb, where I had planned to make my move, I just couldn't force my legs into another gear as I'm usually accustomed to and I was stuck in what felt like slow motion. However, I did slowly make some time on a few people in front of me and I kept a steady pace up the entire last climb. I made it over the final climb and it was a nice down hil back to the transition area.



The weather during the bike was actually a bit overcast, so the temperature was perfect for the race. (The picture is from my first visit to Monaco)However, because of the clouds the view wasn't quite as nice as it had been during my previous trip down to Monaco to preview the course. As I crested the last hill and started the long decent back to T2 the view of the Mediterranian and Monaco far below was great. Not only because of the blue waters and coast line, but also because I knew it meant the end of the second and longest part of the race. I had a minimal amount of cramping during the bike, but I could tell my legs were very fatigued. Official bike time 3:30:52. Total elevation gained = 1300+ Meters

T2 - My second transition was a bit long as I decided to change my shorts for more cofort during the half marthon run, which I was very glad I did. I also did start to cramp and figured that a slow transition would let my legs rest a bit before I started out on the run. T2 time 6:07

RUN - The run was split into almost 4 and 3/4 loops, starting at the beach, heading under the famous Formula 1 Tunnel, along the dock (with massive yahts resting in their births), up the hill past the Monaco Casino, and then back down to the beach. The finish line was in front of the Casino and after my first loop, I got to watch people running through the finish line during each lap as I continued on......that was realy fun ;) They also handed out different colored wrist bands after each loop and to get the right band you had to go through 1 of 4 gate ways that were side by side. So a few times, I was catching up to someone and feeling good about that only to notice that they were heading into the 4th and final gate way while I was heading into the 1st or 2nd..... another great motivator ;) In fact it was kind of fun, in a weird I need a destraction kind of way, to see how many wrist bands people had as I passed them or as they passed me. Actually, I was very impressed with the number of people I saw who were running at very good paces and flying by me like I was walking backwards, and they had more wrist bands than I did. The most impressive of these for me where the 50 somethings (or at least that was my guess) who seemed like the were just running a 10K race.

Along the loops there were 3 feed stations and pretty quickly I decided that I would be walking through each feed station so that I could get a good drink of "energy", which is what they called the Power Bar drink, and water before running to the next feed station. I decided to walk the feed stations not only because I could more effeciently get fluids down, but also because that was about the distance I could run effectively before the cramps in my legs almost forced me to stop. And I actually passed a good number of folks during the run even with my run/walk strategy. One of the best things about the feed stations were the ice cold sponges that they handed out!! What a great way to cool off and head to the next station. As the loops passed on, my walks throught the feed stations began a little bit earlier and ended just a little bit later.... ;) At this point I wanted to run well when I was running and finish "strongly" by running from the last feed station, up the entire hill to the finish line and through the finish line without walking.....which I did! Official Run time 2:04:22



Total Official Race Time = 6 hours 14 minutes!!

Post race, I basically had to do the same travel as listed at the beggining, only in reverse. A few hours of resting and eating, than train from Monaco to Nice, walk to B.W., pack bike in Bike Box, walk back to train station, but to Airport, flight to Paris, Metro home, and then arrival at my apartment where I was greated by my cousins who had also just arrived!! What a great weekend!!

Afterthoughts: Somewhere between the end of the bike and beginning of the run I definetely had changed mind frames from competition mode to conservation and finishing mode. Looking back on this it was very humbling for me and hard not to feel like I was not giving my all by not pushing myself harder somewhere along the bike or run. However, it gives me a baseline and something to work on....... and I do feel very good about finshing what I hope will be the first of many of these long distance races. In fact, I already signed up for the Paris Marthon which will be in April of 2007!!



Thanks again to you all for your support and I hope you are all doing well.

Greece to Paris to New York to Monaco to Paris.......

Wow, I'm tired just writing all that and thinking about those trips. However, it also makes me smile since they each had great adventured in their own way. It has been a while since I updated, so I'm going to hit the highlights of the past few weeks for me.

Greece: I ended my last post on a kind of negative description about Athens. I have to be fair and say that overall my trip to Greece was great. Athens left a bit to be desired, but my drive up to Lamia was good. It involved, in brief, my car breaking down, 4 cars wide on a 2 lane highway, a visit to a company located on the Aegean Sea, a 2 hour lunch 10 meters from the Aegean Sea (did I mention we walked into the kitchen and picked the fish we wanted to eat from the refrigerator.....it was still dripping with salt water....) a swim in the Sea after work, and then a nice drive back to Athens....

Paris: So, most of you may know that I'm going to be participating in the Monaco Half Ironman Triathlon the 3rd of September. So, I've been going on some long rides, which aren't easy in Paris. I did, however find a great ride that goes out to Versailles and through the country side past Versailles. It's not a really hilly ride, but there are some decent views and the country side helps me escape the city both physically and mentally. Plus, how often will I be able to start a sentence with "So, this morning I rode out from Notre Dame, past the Louvre and the Musee D'Orsee, saw somebody juggling under the Eiffel Tower, and went around the Venician Ponds at the Palaise de Versailles and back this morning......."

Sticking with the cycling theme, this past weekend was a 4 day weekend since today, Tuesday 15th or August, is the day of the Assumption which is a national "bank holiday" as they call it here. I didn't have much time to get ready for it because I had kind of forgotten that it was a holiday. So, Friday afternoon at the office I decided to see if I could get train tickets and a hotel in Monaco and go check out the race course. Low and behold, after 30 minutes of searching I had train tickets on an overnight train Saturday night from Paris to Monaco and a hotel for Sunday night. My return ride was another overnight train Monday night getting back into Paris this morning.

After the plans were set, I spent Saturday running some errands and resting, since I'm still getting over some jet lag from my 5 day visit to New York (More on that trip later). So, I had all day to prepare, but of course at the last minute I was still trying to figure out what to take and how to get it all to the train station with my bike. So, I decided to ride there. With my duffel bag on my back and camel back hanging from my neck I looked like an accident waiting to happen.... luckily that didn't happen and I hopped on to the train 10 minutes before departure. Perfect timing ;) The train ride was pretty uneventful, which means it was good. I had a bed, no one was snoring, and I woke up around 7 am as we were coming into Cannes. I had already planned that as soon as I arrived in Monaco I would drop off my stuff for storage at the hotel and hit the bike course for the Monaco Triathlon. http://www.halfironman-monaco.com/
What I hadn't planned very well was eating. I basically had dinner (a falafel) at 8 pm Saturday night and a banana and Apple Sunday morning before getting off the train. That is not exactly the best way to prepare for a 56 mile bike ride. I knew it when I started, but I though I could get through it with the gel's and 1 banana that I was taking with me.

The Ride: I'm going to make this a little bit brief since I plan to make a full race summary after the triathlon. As a summary, the ride kicked my ass!! There really is no better or softer way to say it. I was completely wiped out by the end and it took me over 4 hours to complete (my goal for race day was originally 3 hours or less..... ) The Monaco bike portion is far from flat. Check it out at the official website http://www.halfironman-monaco.com/ In the first 14.5 Kilometers the ride rises 2000 ft. This part alone took me an hour since I was saving energy for the other big hills on the course. The elevation profile shows some nice down hills that pretty much match the uphills, which should help even out the ride, but the downhills have so many hairpin turns that I never got over 33 miles an hour and was riding the breaks hard around some really tight turns. So, the downhils where not exactly free and easy rest periods. About half way through the ride there is a feed point and then a 2 mile steep uphill climb. I think this is going to really surprise anyone who hasn't done the race course ahead of time. I was out of my seat almost the entire 2 miles. From there it was up and down and up and up and then a long down hill with wind blowing in my face, so I was actually working pretty hard to keep a good pace going down hill!! The last hill comes around 40-45 miles into the ride and it's pretty long. By half way up I was out of liquid and sick of gels (although I had only had 4 of them and the banana). I made it to the top and then it was home free to the bottom.

Positives from the Ride: You may think I sound pretty down about my ride, but I actually feel o.k. because I had a few things going against me.
1. I hadn't eaten almost anything in over 12 hours when I started the ride and the dinner the night before was far from a pre-race dinner.
2. I was completely self supported during this ride so I started out the first big climb with a full camel back, 2 full water bottles, 6 gels, a banana, leatherman, spare t-shirt and shorts, and a bunch of maps and bike tools. It doesn't sound like much, but probably over 10 lbs and I'll only have 1 or 2 full water bottles the day of the race.
3. Even though my legs still felt pretty fatigued today, when I got back to my apartment I had some breakfast, went to church for the Assumption, and then went for a 13.3 mile run and completed it with an 8:20 min/mile pace and felt really good! I actually did the last 3.3 miles at a 7:45 pace. So, I'm hopeful that with some proper nutrition and rest before race day I will be able to accomplish my goal of under 6 hours. Not a stellar time, but I think it's a reasonable goal for the conditions. I have faster goals, but not that I'm willing to share until after race day ;)

O.k. it's time for bed. I will leave you all with this last story. Today I had a craving for Subway (Eat Fresh - not New York), so started over to one I had seen a while ago only a block from my apartment. As I was about to cross the street a young girl asks me "Do you speak English" which is a common line I've seen a bunch of kids using to get peoples attention. As soon as you say "Yes" they show a piece of paper with English on it that is asking for money. Definitely looking for the American or English tourists. Anyways, I usually see the same kids and hadn't seen this girl yet but I knew the shpeel. I said I had no change, which was true, and was about to leave when I noticed a diamond that was embedded in her front tooth!! So, I asked "how much did that cost?". She quickly got a very guilty look on her face, closed her mouth and made some sort of motion as if to say that it was just there but had nothing to do with the change she was trying to gather...... So, news flash to pan handlers.... leave the "ice" at home! haha ... it did make me laugh though.

Abiento! ( I promise to fill in everyone in on James and Christina's great wedding up in Thousand Island, NY next time.... although a lot of you were actually there, so no need for a summary of how much fun it was for all of you ;)

The truth about Athens

I discovered that Athens is not really a great vacation destination. Greece may be, but not because of Athens. In fact, besides a lot of shopping, the main thing to do in Athens is check out the Acropolis. If you plan to visit Greece plan a day at most in Athens and then get to one of the islands or any of the coasts.

I toured the Acropolis and was a bit disappointed since the place looked like a construction site. On the north side they have a huge shop that is being used to cut stones for renovations that have been going on for a couple of years, apparently to fix the mistakes made by other renovation attempts made in the 1920's and 30's. I find it amazing that the Greeks of 2300 years ago were able to construct something that lasted this long, and yet the technology and knowledge available in the 1930's was not good enough for something to last longer than 70 years without needing to be fixed again. Progress?

Because of the renovations almost all of the Parthenon is surrounded by scaffolding, which you can imagine makes for a great photo op. I actually had my camera with me but discovered that I didn't have a memory card in it... no matter, a post card or pictures from 10 years ago would do the site much more justice since it isn't littered with cranes, scaffolding, workshops, etc. So, basically the one thing to do in Athens is almost not worth doing right now. It does provide a nice view of the city, but you can get just as good of a view and an even better view of the Parthenon (since it's from a distance) from the nearby observatory. I actually had a great view from the roof top restaurant of the hotel I was staying at. The lights surrounding the Acropolis are pretty impressive.

Random facts about the Acropolis - basically some tidbits I got from Wikipedia to fill in some of the holes in information given at the Acropolis.
1. There are a couple of buildings on the Acropolis. One is the temple of Athena Nike. Nike means Victory and was a small, but apparently important, Greek goddess that was very fast and could fly. Phil Knight, the founder of Nike Corp. got the name from the first man he hired who had a dream about the Greek goddess Nike. I'm not sure what that guy had for dinner, but it worked.
2. The main structure is the Parthenon. Back in 1687 it was used as an ammunitions magazine by the Turks and a cannonball from the attacking Venitians caused a huge explosion. Until that point the Parthenon had been extremely well preserved.
3. There is a stone wall all the way around the Acropolis, which made me wonder if the mountain was actually built up and wasn't as high as it is now. Apparently it was built up by landfill over many years which is why the top is relatively flat. If you want to know more about the Mycean age and the history of the Acropolis check it out at Wikipidea which is a great source of info for those who haven't discovered it yet.

Vive le Prefecture

Two weeks ago I started a week long process of waiting in line at the Prefecture of Police in order to submit my papers for my 1 year carte du sejour and receive the temporary "recepice" that will allow me to travel in and out of France until I receive the permanent "carte du sejour". I had an appointment set for Monday morning, the day I returned from my good friend's Rajko and Colleen's wedding in Boston, and I expected to walk right, hand over the papers, sign my name and head back to the office..... wow was I wrong!

I arrived and saw a line that was about 2 hours long stringing outside the door. I had heard that I should expect to spend a good part of my day at the Prefecture, but this was ridiculous. I had an appointment, and as far as I could see they had greatly overbooked this appointment time. It was after about 45 minutes that I got far enough forward to start seeing separate doors with no lines and numbers above. I checked my papers and sure enough I wasn't supposed to be in line. Much to my relief I walked passed everyone, knocked on the door, and was ushered in to an office with no one else waiting in line. I started talking with the man behind the desk and providing the information that he needed. Then we got to the confirmation of living address and things fell apart real fast.. Apparently the prefecture I was at was only for the area that I used to live in. Because I had moved to Paris I had to go to the Paris prefecture, which didn't sound so bad. But then I was told that they don't take appointments. That became the start of a long couple of days.

I showed up several days in a row to find huge lines. The first day I figured I would just come back when the line was shorter. The second day I arrived at 9:30, half an hour after they opened, only to find the same line. I waited about 2 hours at the back of the line and noticed that it only moved forward because people were squeezing tighter together, and not because anyone was entering the building. Then I started asking around and found out that folks start lining up the night before and that the lines were so long because of some new law that will change who is eligible for citizenship in France sometime in September. Because of this there were a lot of very motivated people waiting for days on end. I left, set on getting an early star the next day.

I arrived at 7 am and found that the line was about half of what it had been the day before. Still, there were roughly 300 people in front of me based on numbers that some guy was handing out. I had a good book and some work with me and figured I'd be out by lunch. From about 9 am to 11:30 we seemed to be moving forward steadily and the police were passing out water. At this point I was about half way to the entrance from where I started. Suddenly, there was a surge of people in front and the people behind me and we all squeezed together like an accordion. I was tired of being pushed forward, so I just stopped, got in a low stance and just held the group of people behind me from moving forward. The guy right behind me complained that I was squeezing him and people behind him were saying the same. The problem was that if I moved forward at all, everyone was going to just crush each other, including me. It was hot, people had been waiting for 5 or 6 hours in line and people started getting frustrated, including the Police. That's when the shit hit the fan.

The police started asking people to move back, but people near the police moved back it created space that people from behind me were pushing into. So, of course the people being asked to move back were protesting the fact that they were being asked to move back while others stayed put and essentially cut them in line. So, no one would move, and in fact people were still pushing forward. The asking became yelling and eventually physically moving. One of the policemen jumped into the crowd and just started pushing people back, grabbing those that wouldn't move, or tried to sneak forward and pushing them back. He was just in front of me and I didn't know exactly what he was saying, but when he started to raise his Billy club above his head and yell at people, I understood perfectly well. It was time to move back.

Eventually the tried to make this mass of people into 2 single file lines and succeeded in getting a space between the two lines that was large enough for a 3rd line. Where did the people come from for this third line you ask? Well, unfortunately I was one of the tallest and the police officer looked directly at me, pointing to the space and saying "sil-vous-plait", obviously asking me to please move into that space and move to the back of the third line. By this time I was twice as far from the entrance as i was when I started the day.... I waited around until about 3:30 and then realized there was no way I would get in today despite my optimistic outlook at the beginning of the day.

So, the bad news was that I still didn't have my papers. The good news was that I refused to return to that line and the company lawyer was able to get a "special" appointment with me at the prefecture just 2 blocks from my apartment and all is now taken care of. As I can attest to by the fact that I'm now in Athens and about to head up stairs for dinner at the roof top restaurant with a view of the Akropolis.

Athens Better Business Bureau and Random Thought

Today I was walking around Athens and made it up to the akropolis, which is about a 30 minute walk from my hotel. When I got up there it was packed full of tourists so I decided to take a few remote photos and grab something to drink. As I was waiting in line I noticed that no receipts were being handed out so I reminded myself that I needed to ask for a receipt since I'm here on a work trip. As I give my order and hand over the cash the guy hands me a receipt without my even asking. It struck me as strange and as I turned around to leave I found out why. This grey haired guy in the photo(dressed just like the rest of the tourists) made eye contact with me, said something I didn't understand, and grabbed my shirt while motioning towards the counter. I figured the guy was hoping I could translate for him.....which was pretty unlikely, or maybe he was going to use my drinks as examples of what he wanted to buy since he was pointing at the drinks in my hand. But then I realized he was speaking Greek.

Then he asks me in English if I got a receipt, if he could see it, and then he took my receipt......what is going on?! I was totally confused. Then he asks how much I paid and starts asking the vendors behind the cash machines for the receipts of other purchases. It was then that I put a couple things together.

1. I was told by my taxi driver last night that most business in Greece is conducted in Cash only.
2. My boss gave me a warning to check my receipts from credit card transactions because we had an engineer return with a receipt for a drink that cost something like $1000 Euros.

I'm pretty sure there were tax and general business issues involved in all of this as well, but as the guy took my receipt for 6 Euros hostage I figured I'd take a picture of him. Glad to see that we tourists are being looked after ;)

Random Thought:
Today, as I walked past the street vendors with their faux designer bags and sunglasses, it struck me that these looked like the same exact group of people that I see in Paris and that I've seen in New York. I'm not saying they are the same people, but that they all seem to be of the same heritage which I believe is Africa. Who is behind this world wide organization that supplies all these street vendors? Where are they getting their goods from, how do they distribute it, etc?

France Perdu

If you havn't heard yet France lost to Italy in the World Cup final match on Sunday. It was a great futball match from about 20 minutes in until about 5 minutes to go. France scored first just 5-10 minutes into the game on a penalty kick that they got for a phantom foul (which is also know as a dive). They couldn't handle the pressure of having the lead so early though and Italy looked very dominant finally scoring on a header from a corner kick. Then the game settled down a bit.

From my point of view, not at all biased by my current living arrangements (France), I think France outplayed Italy from the end of the first half all the way through to the end of overtime. I will give Italy credit for it's defense, but they did very little in most of the rest of the pitch outside of just a few dangerous posessions (from Frances point of view). France on the other hand seemed to settle in quite well and control the match, stealing the ball from the Italians and forcing the pressure on their defense. They just couldn't get the ball into the back of the net. In the second half of overtime Zinadine Zidane (Zizo) had a golden opportunity off a corner kick cross that was blocked by the Italian keeper, who by the way was one of if not the best keeper in the entire tournament. It was just after this that Zizo snapped.

The most shocking moment of the game came when Zidane headbutted an approaching Italian defender just after the aforementioned shot on goal. No one knows for sure what was said before this, but all agree (event the French), that it was extremely unsportsmanlike and a blatently stupid thing to do. It was and allways be a horrible scar on the reputation of arguably the best French player, and one of the best in the world, over the past 20 years. This game will most likely be his last.

The mood was very somber as I headed home after the game and the crowds of people ready to party were heading home with limping flags in hand and oddly quite. A few stray cheers for France, but mostly just people heading home faced with the reality that tomorrow would be just another day. I think in this case it would have been better to be Germany, who won their 3rd place match on Saturday and at least got to finish the tournament on a positive note.

Paris - The Melting Pot

I don't currently have reliable wireless internet at my apartment. Which basically means that the low signal from the wireless down the street that I'm borrowing kicks me off from time to time. So, I have a local cafe that I have been using to have a coffee and catch up on e-mails. The problem is that the place is like a sauna! And if the heat wasn't bad enough, the girl sitting next to me smoking her freshly rolled cigarettes is creating a second hand smoke cloud that I'm getting buzzed from.....so, this is what it's like to smoke..

That was the last straw for me, so I used my borrowed week signal to find some other options for local hotspots. And I am now currently sitting in a smoke free, air conditioned, free wireless hot spot..... McDonalds. Yep, that's right. McDonalds has free wireless! Unfortunately they don't have a refill machine, but the soda I bought was much cheeper than the Starbuck's price coffees at the cafe.

I titled this post "Paris - The Melting Pot", but I could probably have titled it "McDonalds - Bringing the World Together". As I've been sitting here I've had a British Family, a student from Mexico, a group of Spanish high schoolers, 2 Sweedish girls, a group of German kids, and of course a few French folks sitting either next to me or just near by. I realy wish I could be Neo and just download all these languages into my brain so I knew what the heck was going on! I'll stick with French IPod downloads for now.

France in the World Cup Finals tomorrow night. Go France!!!

World Cup Fever! - France in the semi-finals

The atmosphere during the world cup quarterfinals game last night was electric here in Paris, and I would guess all over France. France wasn't given much of a chance in this years world cup after some pretty poor qualifying game performances. Most of my French co-workers thought the team was too old and didn't play well together and after another tied game with Sweden in the first round, this seemed to be confirmed for a lot of the fans. But the confidence is building!

I went down to watch the match at one of the local pubs to find that they were all full and hundreds of people were crowded outside of any and all restaurant/pups/cafes that had the game playing. When the French fans on t.v. were clapping and cheering, the fans on the street would emulate them and start cheering as if they were at the stadium themselves. Place Saint Michel erupted after Frances win over Brazil last night. People were climbing the 35 ft. statue and waving French flags while everyone on the ground were cheering, chanting, singing the national anthem, climbing on busses, and rocking cars. It was awesome!! I didn't see anything get torn down or flipped over, but I wouldn't be surprised if that happens after another win.

I have to believe that after an impressive win against one of the favorites in the tournament, the French fans now believe they have a very good opportunity to win the entire World Cup. I really hope they do, because I'd love to be part of that celebration!

Normandy

June 12, 2006 –

This past weekend Tim Shaw and I drove out to Normandy to tour the D-Day beaches and memorials. We also through in a bonus trip to Mont St. Michele, which is a beautiful abbey on top of what was once an island of sorts. It is truly amazing!



Saturday, before going to Mont St. Michele we stopped at the Caen Memorial, which sets up the situation that allowed Hitler to rise to power along with Mussolini in Italy, and the general situation in Europe following WWI . The most memorable part of the museum for me were two video’s. The first started with a split screen image of both the allied forces and the German defenses relaxing, rolling dice, training, and dealing with “normal life” at their various posts. Then the scenes begin to be more and more tense as the allied forces start towards the beaches of Normandy and the troops are readying themselves to go ashore. This continues to build as the allied forces start to come to shore, the German forces sound the alarms, and eventually the two screens melt into one that is similar to the scenes we have all seen in movies such as Saving Private Ryan, Longest Day, and Band of Brothers. The movie then becomes a series of still before and after shots of villages that are really powerful. Where there once stood stores, homes, and churches, nothing is left but rock walls and rubble.





That afternoon evening I went for a bike ride through some of the small villages and country roads not more than 15 miles from the coast line that made up the D-Day landing. After having seen the video, the images were still fresh in my mind and as I passed through several small villages, the scars of the war became very real and visible in the walls of homes that had clearly suffered great damage and had been rebuilt using what remained of the original rock walls.

The next day we took a Battle Bus tour which was very thorough. We covered the Utah Beach, Omaha Beach, Point De Hock, and the American Cemetery that overlooks the beach. Our guide was excellent. He was and Englishman who had a deep passion for the men who fought in the war and the individual stories, but just the big pictures. At each stop he shared stories of American soldiers, the events that lead up to the landing, including plans, weather, good fortune, etc. that either made it harder or easier for the soldiers landing on the beaches and dropping from the sky’s. He had an obvious affinity for the paratroopers and since he lived in the area he has actually befriended several veterans that were there on the days that he was describing to us. I found the entire day to be way more emotional than I would ever have imagined. I actually felt a bit chocked up at several points and was blown away by the gravity of the difficulties these men had to face and overcome to free France and eventually Europe from the grip of the Nazi’s. I even was able to take a quick dip into the Ocean at Utah beach, which felt oddly cleansing and refreshing. This is a tour that I would recommend to anyone. It will blow you away! The day ended with a visit to the American Cemetery, which receives 3 million visitors a year, second only to Arlington. Of those 3 million I was surprised to find out that 2 million visitors are from France, 800,000 from everywhere else in the world and 200,000 from the US. It really seemed to show the appreciation that the French have for what this generation of individuals did for their country. I was extremely humbled.

Nouvel appartement

I’ve moved into a new apartment. Technically 2 rooms, but one of them is the exact same size as a queen size bed that is squeezed into it and a curtain separates it from the hallway. However, I have to admit that this is the largest apartment I’ve lived in, and the most space I’ve had to live in since I left Gridley after high school. I’m on the top floor of a building that dates back to the mid 1700’s and supposedly an Artist (whose name is escaping me right now) used this apartment as a studio. Some of his work is now in the Musee D’Orsay and Louvre. The living room has all glass sky lights and all the windows make it impossible to sleep past 6:30 or 7 because of the sunlight that comes streaming into the apartment. As for location, it’s across the street from the Seine and about a block from Notre Dame. Just outside the window where I’m sitting now is a great little ally way of restaurants and bars and is always hopping with night life. I’ve left to work twice now when the bar just outside my front door is still going strong! It’s definitely a tourist hot spot, but the great thing about Paris is that it’s full of people from all over the world, including a lot from other parts of France. I don’t feel at all like I’m surrounded by American’s, not that that’s a bad thing necessarily. As I’m writing this I can here the cheers of the futball mad crowd below who are routing for their teams in the world cup. USA just lost 3-0 and Italy is currently leading Ghana 1-0. World Cup matches from 3 – 10:30 for the next month! I love this place.

Progrès de Français

June 12th -

So, I’ve been taking privately tutored lessons in our office 2 to 3 days a week and I think it is finally paying off. I had my first 3 days of site visits last week and the week before. The first 2 days were to a Continental Tire manufacturing plant and I was acting as a mentor/second set of eyes during the visit which was conducted completely in French, with limited translation, by my colleague. I was pleasantly surprised by my ability to understand a lot of what was being discussed. I think it helps that I know generally what types of questions were supposed to be asked and could assume what some of the answer options might be, but it was encouraging none the less. Then last week I was the lead on a visit with a different colleague who acted as translator, but again most of the discussion was in French. My understanding is improving quickly, but my speaking ability is slow to follow. I’ve come up with the analogy of a baby who knows what we are saying to them a lot sooner than they are able to coherently share their ideas and thoughts with us.

I played in my first real futbal match in several years a couple of week ago! That was great. It was 7-v-7 on a pretty good sized outdoor field. We only had 5 so I got lots of playing time. We didn’t stand a chance, but it was fun to get out there and play some real futbal here in Paris. Unfortunately the seasons all ended two weeks ago. Seasons start up again in September. I’m hoping that my colleagues continue to play after work, which we’ve been doing Wednesday nights for the past few weeks. I’ve been representing the US well. ;)

"La dernière photo de mon chat"

Rouen, Paris

May 20th -

Last weekend Tim and I headed up to Rouen, north and slightly west of Paris, to check out where Joan de Arch was held and eventually burned at the steak. There’s not much to see at the site itself, but plenty of information around, and from the bits and pieces I know and learned there, I’d really like to learn more about her. It’s fascinating that a woman in the mid to late 1400’s, only 16 years old, was able to capture the hearts of a country and was feared by another so much that they put her to death!!

On the drive to Rouen we discovered that there are 2 ways to get places. One is on the auto routes, which often have steep tolls, or take the smaller back roads. We started out on an auto route but quickly changed our minds and exited on to a smaller set of roads that wound along the Seine River, past Chateaus in tiny villages, and through green rolling fields. It was hard to imagine thousands of soldiers marching through these fields, but the scars are still evident in some areas of the smaller villages and stone farm building half missing. It took a lot longer to get to and from Rouen, but I would definitely recommend the roads less traveled.

Faire du vélo par Paris

May 27th -

Today was my first bike ride through Paris! It was great to get my bike put together and take if for a spin. I found some great links and maps on-line (thanks Google) to help me navigate my way around. One claimed over 350 km of bike trails within Paris. The bike trails were easy enough to find. They all had arrows and pictures of bicycles every 10 meters or so. However, there’s also a stop light almost every block and navigating the circulars is near suicide! I found out very quickly that these trails are meant more for general transportation or touring around. I was trying my best to get a good work out in and I wound up in a version of an old Atari game with cars, motorbikes, buses, families, and tourists flying out at me from every direction at the last minute. It was kind of like navigating time’s square at rush hour. Despite the hazards, I was able to cover a lot of the city, riding past the Eiffel Tower, down St. Germain, Past Notre Dame, the Louvre, Montparnasse, the Arch de Triumph, down Champs Elysee, etc. 30 miles in all.

Ahh the French system…. As most of you know, it took my nearly 6 months to get my work visa approved so that I could come work in France. Well, now I’ve been told that I can’t leave France until after June 26th, which was the earliest appointment they could make for me in order to get my card de sojourn, which is my 1 year residency card. This was discovered after I had a work trip planned to Spain and the HR folks caught wind of it and decided to check on my Visa details. Sure enough, the trip was cancelled because my 3 month visa is only good for 1 entry to the country!?!? I’ll be breaking this law when I head to Boston this Friday for Rajko’s wedding. I don’t understand…. Although, I now can sympathize for all of those who have moved to the US and have probably had to deal with similar circumstances.

My time as a host started early. Saturday of my second weekend in Paris, Deepak and Rashani, friends from the Bay Area, arrived from southern France (and previously Italy, India, and Shrilanka). The next morning, Tim Shaw, a good friend and mentor of sorts from Berkeley arrived. Deepak and Rashani stayed for a week and explored Paris, relaxed in preparation for their trip back to the U.S. and decompressed a bit after 5 weeks of traveling through various other countries. I was most impressed by their packing. They each walked in with just a day pack on and 1 suitcase between them. Tim meanwhile spent the week charging hard each day into the city to see everything Paris has to offer and following some of Amy Reynolds guided tours. (For those that don’t know, Amy is a friend of Tim and myself from Berkeley and has spent several months in Paris on 2 separate occasions. So, she’s practically a local. And the walking tours she put together for Tim and I have been great! Including, among other things good restaurant suggestions and the best croissants in Paris – Thanks Amy)

The first week my guests were here I got to head south for 2 days of training in Annecy. Annecy is just south of Geneva, located right on a lake and nestled between the mountains. It seemed like an ideal place for outdoor adventures, and this was quickly verified by some co-workers who are based in the Annecy office. Swimming in the lake during the summer, mountain biking, and skiing in the winter are all common past times. I’ve got to figure out how to talk my way into working from Annecy during the winter. To get to Annecy I took the TGV. After a while it didn’t feel like we were moving very quickly, until we past a TGV heading the other way. They looked to be only a foot or so apart and as soon as I heard the train start to pass, it was already out of site. The trip took us through the long rolling hills south of Paris. The country side just outside of Paris reminded me a lot of Northern California in the Spring, before everything turns golden brown. As we continued south, the landscape became rolling hills with horses running through the fields and cattle grazing. It was a very nice ride.