The travel gods took a swipe at us this evening. After an uneventful flight into Paris, and after our bags coming off of the carousel in first position, and after getting on a train into Paris that was an express to the Gare du Nord, which meant that there were only 5 stops until ours at Denfert Rochereau … well, after that, everything went haywire. Our “express” train made an […]
Nice ending anyway to our trip to Portugal; the airport and appurtenant services (like the rental car) are all terrific, and there is free internet access, which is why I’m posting this now from our gate, waiting to board our flight back to Paris. I hate to say bad things about a country after just a week, but all things considered, I don’t think I’ll be returning to Portugal any […]
Suzie and I decided to splurge and attend the official American Election Night soiree in Paris on Tuesday night. With the time difference, it will require us to stay up all night. Those who know me know that I’m really, really bad at that, so we’ll see how it goes. Also, if the election is close (arrrggghhhh), we may not know the winner until after the party is over.
Those to the right of the political spectrum should read this post in the Christian Science Monitor to understand why Obama appeals to voters (including me) who don’t necessarily fall within his ideological range. After 8 years of Bush-Rove, we seem to have forgotten that politics can be more than pandering to the fears of one’s “base.” It can be — at its best it should be — about leadership, […]
That was me the last few days, after getting hit with the flu, or something akin to it, which just knocked me out. So I slept from 9 pm Friday to 12 noon on Saturday, then from 2 pm from 5 pm on Saturday, then from 8 pm Saturday night until 8 am this morning, for a total of 30 hours out of 36. But the good news is, I […]
[Updated to correct the horrible spelling errors] Every vacation has some down days, and the past two have been like that for me. Perhaps I’m just getting tired of the foreign-ness of everything (especially here, where I can’t speak the language), perhaps it’s the days getting shorter, perhaps it’s not having enough intellectual challenge without the class, or perhaps I just miss Paris, I’m not sure. Yesterday we went into […]
On Monday we left Paris and traveled to Porto, Portugal. Our travel day wasn’t the best; everything was long — the RER train to CDG took for ever, EasyJet’s computers were on the fritz, which meant that we spent almost an hour in line to check in, the plane did one of those “load and then sit on the tarmac” things, which added an hour to the total travel time, […]
On Saturday morning, we followed what has become our Saturday morning routine: Sleep in a bit, drink lots of coffee while lying in bed reading Le Monde, then put on our sneakers and gym shorts and take a run. Suzie found an excellent route, which takes us past two sets of long stairs, which we go up and down four times each, then into Parc Montsouris, then into the Cite […]
It’s always easy to take whatever it is you have in your life for granted. This weekend, I had just the opposite experience. I realized just how good I’ve got it. It started on Thursday afternoon. Suzie had to do some “real” work (i.e., work for which she would be paid in real money, rather than in personal-satisfaction credits), so after having a quick lunch with some of my classmates […]