Take Aways From Paris

The flight home from Paris on Tuesday was 8 1/2 hours long. That, plus the airport time, runway taxi time, and subway ride home offered some serious opportunities for reading, napping, and reflecting. In mentally reliving my trip, a few things kept coming to the top of my mind:

1. I want to learn another language. Tina really impressed me with her French language skills, and it’s a good thing she had them, too. I had good intentions of learning a little conversational French before I went and did a few lessons on Babbel. I didn’t invest the time or energy needed to really learn much, though, and I was sorry for it once I got there. I could keep going with French, but I’ve decided to take up Spanish instead. It’s more practical here in the city, and I’ll have a better chance of practicing it, which is always good for learning. I’m going to do a bit on my own for the next few months and then sign up for one of the language seminars always offered at the school.
2. I love bikes, biking, and everything to do with cycling now. Well, ok, maybe I’m still intimidated by the idea of biking around NYC taxis, but after my bike tour of Paris I really do want to start biking around New York. I thought it was a wonderful way to see the city, and I have a feeling that my life will be that much more satisfying if I start each day with a ride through central park rather than crammed onto the subway. And, in case anybody reading this is going to Paris soon, I really can’t pimp Bike About Tours enough. It’s a small company run by two ex-pats (one American and one Kiwi), and everything about the experience was fantastic. Paul, our guide, was personable, knowledgeable, and totally committed to giving us a great experience. And at only 25 euros for a 4 hour tour, it’s an absolute steal.
3. I have a seriously annoying coworker from France. He hasn’t yet been the subject of any workplace haikus, but I have a couple projects with him this summer and I feel several poems coming on. My limitless irritation with him notwithstanding, though, it turns out that the French are, by and large, extremely nice. They have a reputation for being rude and intolerant of Americans, but our experience was just the opposite. People were friendly and helpful and completely killed the stereotype.
4. It’s worth spending the money. The dollar to euro conversion seriously bites, and if you do the math you’ll no doubt feel that you’re paying way too much for everything. But I really think it’s worth forgetting how to do the math (for numbers-challenged me, it was really quite simple to do) and just go for it. With our economy the way it is, waiting for the dollar to rebound before going on vacation could mean staying home for a long, long time. There are, of course, great things to see stateside, but as someone who has been itching to get out in the world, it was really worth spending a little extra. There are always good excuses not to do big trips like this: work will always be busy, I’ll always worry about leaving Camilla home alone, and I never really have that much just hanging around begging to be spent,. But at the end of the day, I realized that all the work just waited for me to get back (unfortunately), Camilla was in good hands with Todd (thanks, Todd!) and sleeps 65% of the time anyway, and it’s just money. I’m a little broke now, but I’ll recover and start saving for another trip and spend it all again. And it will be totally worth it all again. If someone who can fix the economy gets elected in November, all the better. But I’m not going to sit home waiting for all the stars to align before I see the world, because it will just never happen that way.
5. Skinny jeans (especially on men) are not all that. Despite a good effort on Tina's part to get me to reconsider this trend, I remain resolute: I don't like them.
   
6. The French really do make a better croissant.