Monday, May 28, 2007

Changes

OK, there are reasons that I have not posted recently. As of May 11th, I left the job that led me to create this blog. I feel that I can now "reveal" more about myself, though I think most readers are friends and family who know me already. The "J.C." stands for Jason Combs. Southville is Savannah, GA. The university I worked for was the Savannah College of Art and Design (www.scad.edu). I was there one week shy of three years. About a year ago I decided that it was time to take the next step and started making plans. I resolved that if I were to go back to grad school, it needed to happen soon. So, I am happy to say that I have been admitted to Georgia Tech's City and Regional Planning program, beginning August 20th. I have already semi-moved to Atlanta, as I found a summer position here (more on that later).

The subject matter and format of this blog will be changing. The title too. You'll know when I know. There will still be travel narratives, I hope, but they will be fewer and farther between. Instead, readers will be getting more of a taste of my daily life, and the issues that concern me, and that I think should concern everyone. Stay tuned!

Oh yeah, and I WILL eventually finish recounting the Balkan trip...

Monday, April 23, 2007

Columbia, South Carolina

Went there this weekend to help out with a recruiting event. Absolutely nothing to report.

A summary of the trip to the Balkans will follow shortly. I promise!

Sunday, April 15, 2007

About Damn Time: Azerbaijan


No matter how old you are, naked mannequins make you giggle...

Jeez, I'm getting later and later on these posts. Anyway, next stop on the trip was Azerbaijan. Baku, the capitol, to be exact. 50 points if you can find it on a map. It is one of those rascally former Soviet republics. My first new country on this trip. Yay!


So we got in late. It was dark already, but after checking in a group of us walked from the hotel to the pedestrian zone of town. Mike and I tired of the committee, so we strayed, but then ended up picking the same place to eat that the committee did. I think I had lamb. It was good. And the local beer. Also good.


The next day we had school visits and whatnot. This one instructor, had she also been carrying a riding crop, would have fulfilled a long held fantasy. Didn't have my camera! The women here like their boots... After the school fair we were held hostage and forced to watch this crap. Yeah, I'm ready to have kids. Ladies, get me to an altar.


Afterwards, more walking about and eating things. And shopping for bootleg DVDs. They even had "300" already, and it had just come out in the states days before. As I found later, not the quality of the bootlegs that I saw in Russia. No interactive menus, scene selection, and often no English. Bummer!
Vote now for Joseph Humadi to take over the role of Lex Luthor in the next Superman film.
We had a big group farewell dinner at a "traditional" restaurant. Codeword for rip-off. Food was good though, and we all drank MUCH. Mike and I finally got one of the other reps, who we'd pegged as a dead ringer for an early Seinfeld guest-star, to say the magic word. See below. Name the episode and win a prize...




After dinner the brave hit a few bars. Ended up at an Irish pub, of course. One of our group ended up going home with a lady he met there. He swears she wasn't a hooker. Whatever. None of us believed it. If you didn't pay her, but bought her a microwave, she's still a pro.


The fair was a madhouse. I'm talking beyond India crazy. It was like a swarm of locusts let loose in the ballroom. Some tables were out of materials in minutes. I used my kung-fu to ward off all MBA and engineering seekers.

The point here was the hammer and sickle, above.

Now for vacation!


Sunday, March 25, 2007

The Middle East: The Gulf States

OK, time to catch up...





Kuwait

Not as bad as I have bitched about before. Yes, it is still dry. However, on this visit we stayed at an much, much better location than previous trips. Before, the group was out by the airport. Sucked. This time, on the waterfront where everything is going on. Check out the hotel...




We were located right next to a marina ringed with restaurants, so good eating for three days. Also, across the street and attached by skybridge was a very large mall. It seemed that every teenager in Kuwait was hanging out there Thursday night (beginning of the weekend in these parts). I already mentioned the term "Americanistic" in my previous entry. I thought of it here.




Mike and I had quite a scheme going for a little while. We were trying to figure out if it would be possible to pay a taxi driver to take us to the border of Iraq, so we could step over, just to say we'd done it. I'd like to say that better thinking persuaded us to abondoned this idea, but no, we found out that a lot of paperwork is required to cross the border, so we gave it up. Would have been cheating to include Iraq on the official country list though, even if we were successful.




I went for a long run along the corniche one day. About five miles from the hotel to the point and back. It was some sort of national holiday and people were everywhere. A military parade had taken place earlier in the day, and now it was time for the navy to show off, so I had an escort of gunships as I ran.



Before leaving I bought a couple comic books. One is in English, but features Muslim superhereos. I have not read it yet - will give a review once I do. The other was an issue of the Hulk in Arabic. I actually know the guy that wrote the issue. He'll get a kick out of it.



See this.




Bahrain

Finally got a chance to go and see the World Heritage Site here. Yes, another Portugese fortress! My, how those little fellas used to get around.



Other than that, nothing much exciting happened. Had a few beers in the hotel bar and watched the singing Filipinas. Everyone likes them. Check out the evidence: Saudis and brothers from Detroit. When worlds collide...


UAE (Dubai)


Indoor snowboarding, baby...

Friday, March 16, 2007

Stop-gap Update

So we have been moving pretty quick since my last post: Kuwait, Bahrain, UAE, Azerbaijan, and now Bulgaria. I had planned to update earlier on the Gulf but there was little internet access in Azerbaijan, which deserves its own entry as well. It shall get one, but not now. Mike and I left Baku yesterday at 4:30am (we left the hotel at 1am) and arrived in Bularia at 1:30pm. We have just spent the night in Sofia, in the apartment of Mike's friend Miro. Had a great dinner last night, a feast really, and we also bought the train tickets for the next segment of our journey. After gathering info, we decided that going north to Romania takes too much time, especially for just wanting to see the villiage where Vlad Dracul lived. Instead we are heading immediately west through Serbia and to Montenegro on the coast. From there we can take shuttles into Croatia, Bosnia, and Albania, if the mood strikes us. I can pick up five more countries!

Target list:

Thursday, March 8, 2007

"Americanistic"

I coined a new word while in Kuwait.

Americanistic
adjective
: having American characteristics, but modified by foreign elements; a fusion of American and other cultures.

Americanistic civilization - refers to the spreading of American culture over the rest of the globe since the rise of the USA as a super-power in the post-WWII era.

I thought of this after reading a review of the movie "300." My mind wandered to Alexander the Great and how his conquering of the then known world infused Greek culture into all the regions where he passed (even though his empire quickly fell apart). Greece was "Hellenic." The areas that were influenced by its culture were "Hellenistic."

Please see Mike's blog for further explanation and examples.

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Why Western Women Love Saudi Arabia...



Above, Amanda displays how all women must dress in public while in Saudi Arabia. Below, she gets on the plane to leave Saudi Arabia.

Monday, March 5, 2007

Middle East Again: First Three Stops


(more pictures on the way!)

Morocco

After touching down in Morocco I took a taxi straight to the first school visit rather than going to the hotel first. There was a beautiful sunrise as we drove through the farmland towards Casablanca, but unfortunately my camera was packed and in the trunk. I arrived at the American school about thirty minutes before the rest of the group. This tour of the Middle East is with USEG, a group that I have travelled with more than once in the past. In fact, one of the organizers is Mike, the old geezer that joined me for my 30th birthday in Central America last summer. Mike has his own blog here.



After the school visit, we had the rest of the day off. A group of us decided to take the 2pm tour of the Hassan II Mosque, the third largest mosque in the world, and the largest mosque open to infidels (the other two are in Saudi Arabia). Though third in overall size, this mosque has the highest minaret in the world.








Done with the mosque, it was time for a little shopping. We went to the Habous, a souk built by the French. I bought several gift items and a cool French art deco poster advertising their North African colonies as travel destinations (link). Of course I knew that it was foolish to buy an item like this so early in the trip, but it was a damn cool poster – I could just see it framed in my apartment.



Dinner was at a traditional restaurant near the corniche. It took the traditional four hours. I enjoy a long dinner if I’m at an outdoor location, with friends, such as back in the fall at Thessaloniki (see earlier post), but stuck inside a smoky room small talking with new acquaintances – that shit drives me crazy.

A few people were going out after dinner, but I went straight to bed. I’ve seen plenty of Russian hookers over the past three years.

Though I woke up at 7 and had an early breakfast with Mike, we waited too long to check bus schedules and missed the 8:30. It was our intention to visit the city of El Jadida, about 90kms south along the African coast. The modern tourist city is built around a 17th century Portuguese trading fortress of Mazagan that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The next bus was at 10:30, so we had some time to kill.

First we entered the Sheraton, which I have stayed in before and is right next to the bus station. Some back-story: as I was watching Syriana I had a massive stab of deja-vu during the kidnapping scene that is supposed to take place in Beirut. Never having been kidnapped (yet, knock on wood) I figured it must be from the surroundings. Of course, the scene was not filmed in Lebanon. Watching the credits, I saw that some of the movie was filmed in Casablanca. I guessed it must have been at the Sheraton. We first inquired at the reception desk. The lady there did not speak very good English, and as we had also just asked questions about the bus schedules, I believe she thought we were looking for a bus to Syria. She gave us an emphatic “No, no.” Next we tried the bartender at the lobby lounge. “Yes, yes,” he replied, polishing a tumbler, “Meester George Clooney, here, here.” He pointed to an area right next to us, then towards the elevators. Ah-ha! I was right.

Seeing as we still had over an hour, we decided to have a bit of a walkabout and look for Rick’s Café. We meandered through the old souk, or medina, which eventually spat us out on a boulevard that skirted the port facilities. We walked all the way to the mosque and realized we’d gone too far. Backtracking along the boulevard, we discovered that we’d missed Rick’s just as we exited the medina. It was closed at the time, but we took a couple of pictures. We walked back a different path through the medina, but began to run short of time, so hopped in a taxi (which are pretty cheap here – for the shabby “petit” taxis). We got back to the bus station just in time.


The ride to El Jadida was very pleasant – through the same rolling green farmland of the coastal plain that I’d seen on the ride from the airport. Not what you typically think of when envisioning the Middle East and certainly not a part of Morocco that was featured in the recent movie Babel. From the station it was easy enough to wander our way to the oceanfront promenade, and then on to the old city which was visible a bit further on. Inside the old walls was a pleasant jumble of buildings. We scaled the walls at the port fortifications and walked all the way around the bastions and ramparts. This is not one of those sites that is micro-managed. It was free-range. On the west side we were able to observe a game of soccer being played by the local kids in the shadow of the walls. When they noticed us they stopped playing and tried to show us who could do the longest handstand. They though we were Spanish tourists, so we yelled some español back at them so they wouldn’t be disappointed. Our ramblings done, we tried to grab some lunch at a beachside café, but the service was way too casual and we were on a time-table, so we got up before ordering and just bought some snacks near the station. We caught the 2:15 back to “Casa,” as the locals call it. The ride both ways cost less than 10 bucks.

Back at our hotel, our briefings started at 4:00. However, I noticed that my boxes were not present, so some investigating ensued. Turns out they were delivered, but to the Sheraton, where we had just been a few hours ago. After much cajoling, I was allowed to look around their offices, where I found my lonely box sitting in the corner of the office belonging to the event planner. She thought it was an early delivery for another college fair that would be taking place there in a few weeks. I huffed it back to my own hotel. Now I definitely needed a shower, immediately, so I was forced to skip the remaining briefing, but made it to the fair itself on time.

After the fair, straight to packing and then bed. Tomorrow was a 5am wake-up. Ugh!


Transit Woes

The short version: I forgot my airline tickets.

The long version:
At the Casablanca airport, I had trouble checking in to my Milan flight (we had to connect there for Amman, Jordan). The ticket guy was a real jerk. He said that I should have a paper ticket. I said that I was supposed to have an e-ticket. He said that my agent must have made a mistake. He would not print me a new ticket, even though I had all the ticket info. I was forced to buy another ticket, as it was way too early to call said agent. Joseph, the tour organizer and friend of the agent, said not to worry – we’d fix it later. Some in the group had paper tickets, other were issued e-tickets.

In Milan, I had similar problems. I insisted that I had an e-ticket. No, they said, I should have paper tickets. Though still early in the states, it was not outlandish to call the agent. Yes, it seems, I was supposed to have paper tickets, which the agent sent to my office and had tracking info for. I called my office. Yes, the tickets were there, still in the FedEx package, amidst a pile of other files and papers on my desk. They were delivered while I was still in France, and during the two weeks that I was in the office, I had totally overlooked them.

In my defense:
1) I was very busy during those two weeks, both with work (catch up from the France trip, preparing for the Middle East trip, and juggling a group of 13 international guests visiting the campus) and with facets of my ever-dwindling personal life.
2) I was not anticipating paper tickets. I genuinely thought they were all e-tickets. Usually I use the university’s on-campus travel agents, where I speak to them face-to-face, and they give me by hand exactly what I need. On this occasion Joseph had convinced me to use his guy in DC, saying he would be able to cut us special breaks in the Middle East. Not familiar with “Travellese” I misinterpreted the invoice that he faxed me. He also assumed that I would be expecting paper tickets. Finally, as I said before, they were delivered while I was out. Had I been in, and they were handed to me, this never would have happened.
3) The FedEx package was opened. This is normal while I am travelling, because it could contain a student’s application, which is time sensitive, and I might be gone for weeks and weeks. However, seeing an opened FedEx envelope upon my return (which I’m sure that I must have, but do not remember) I might have though that I’d already opened it before my trip and hence put it to the side. I actually often keep empty FedEx envelopes. This is because students sometimes write me and say, “But I sent you X document already.” Then I will say, “No you didn’t, I have the empty envelope right here. I opened it myself, and it was not one of the items inside.”

Is that a rational rationalization? Or do I need my head scanned?

So, an unfortunate series of circumstances. I had to also buy another ticket to Amman, Jordan. The good thing is, the original paper tickets were being sent to catch up with me in Saudi Arabia, and the agent was pretty sure he could get refunds for the double seats I was having to buy. By the way, I don’t see how, in this modern computer-driven age, the airline agents cannot print me a new ticket on the spot when they have me standing there in person, passport and reference numbers in hand, and they know that there is no one else inhabiting my seat with the previously printed tickets. Assholes. Part of me hopes that the whole industry goes bankrupt. One day it will.

Another thing: in all the running around, buying new tickets and whatnot, I lost my “good” pen, and left my poster in the food court of the Milan airport. I hope that someone took it home and it was not thrown away. It was a cool poster. Luckily, I have found that I can order another copy online (for three times the price).

Jordan

It was a long day of travel. From the west end of the Middle East to the center of it, 5am to 9pm. Whew. Yes, I slept in the next day.

At 11am a group of us reps were picked up at the hotel (yep, Sheraton again) to go and see the campus of a new boarding school being modeled after Deerfield Academy in the US. See, that’s where the King of Jordan went and he is one of the main benefactors, hence the name King’s Academy. The school opens its doors to students this fall, but will only have freshmen and sophomores. There won’t be a graduating class for three years, but the counselors want to get a head start. Cool with us. The grounds were amazing, and we had lunch at the headmaster’s house, prepared by the French-trained cook. Not bad. On the way back we had to stop on the side of the road so that a couple of the other reps could get pictures of carts loaded with carrots. Seriously.

Briefing. College fair – busy, busy. Afterwards four of us went to the Howard Johnson’s for sushi. I know that sounds weird, but there was actually a really good sushi restaurant situated on the top floor. A good panoramic view of Amman as well. After dinner we had a couple of drinks in the club under the hotel. Nai, or something like that. It was actually very, very cool, and there were some very attractive Arab girls in there. Thank Allah burkhas are not the rule in Amman.

We didn’t stay out too late, but I was still a bit upset by being woken up at 6:45am with a drunken phone call from my colleagues out on the town in Atlanta. Thanks gals. After a couple more hours of sleep I went to the hotel gym for a much needed work-out. Breakfast. Check-out. Bus to the airport at 11:30. At this time I made my revenge call to Atlanta.

Saudi Arabia

It was a two-hour flight over the desert to Riyadh. I had a great window seat on the exit aisle. Still, due to the foggy window and the brightness outside, none of my pictures came out well enough to include. I enjoyed it though. The endless dunes have a mesmerizing mathematical quality to them.

Entry to Saudi Arabia is interesting. “Death for drug trafficking” and all that. I was lucky enough to be chosen for a hand search of one of my bags. Still luckier, it was my bag with the DVD-case containing all my Russian bootlegs (see previous post). One of these was Into the Blue with Jessica Alba. Previously, I praised the quality of the Russian bootlegs. Today, I wished they hadn’t gone to the trouble of printing a picture of Jessica in her mesh bikini on the DVD.
“Sexy movie?” the searcher asked.
I figured that, “Yes, that’s the whole point. Don’t you know who Jessica Alba is?” was probably the wrong answer. “It’s a beach movie,” I answered instead.
“You wait here.” He took my passport and the case off into an office.
I’d never actually watched the movie and had no idea if there was nudity or not. I was hoping that maybe they wouldn’t be able to navigate the Cyrillic menus. Otherwise, I might have an interesting stay in Saudi Arabia. Ten or fifteen minutes later my case was returned to me – and the movie was still there. I wonder if they burned a copy…

Once checked into the hotel (yes, another Sheraton) I stayed in my room and did a little email, internet surfing, and reading. Not much nightlife in Riyadh, or anything else. This is one city where I don’t feel guilty about staying in my hotel.

The next two days were pretty full. We had a fair in four sessions, morning and evening, at Al Yamamah College. That’s sixteen hours in all. If all the traffic at the fair were compressed into 3 or 4 hours, it would have been a pretty decent showing. As it was, not so much. I did get a handful of serious inquiries however, so it was not a total wash.

During the break on the first day we made a visit to the US Embassy for a briefing on the Saudi educational system and the state of visa issuance. Funny story from that visit. This is another one of those ask-me-later stories, as it might involve me compromising national security. Or maybe I’m full of shit and just trying to get friends and acquaintances to buy me drinks. Put a pint of Guinness in front of me and maybe you’ll find out.

How do you respect a city when its only skyscraper looks like the Bic Lady Shaver?



Next stop: Kuwait. A regular barrel of monkeys compared to Saudi.




Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Finally, a long stay... in Paris!


OK, yeah - so Paris is gorgeous, but obviously I have altered the above image. Good thing it is gorgeous, because the weather was crap most of the time I was there. The sun came out for two days, one of which I was stuck indoors at the college fair. The rest of the time it looked like this:



My evolving anti-jet-lag scheme worked pretty well on this trip. I only allowed myself about 4 hours of sleep the night before my flight over. That way I was able to sleep during the entire trans-Atlantic portion, and basically have a full night's rest when I arrived at 6am local time. Good thing too, because I had my first school appointment later that same morning. But anyway, I'll give a day by day account...

Monday

Upon arriving at Hotel Minerve, I did something quite novel in my work-travel experience: I unpacked my bags. Yes, I would be staying here for 11 consecutive nights. My flight out was scheduled in two weeks. Didn't know what I was doing the 3 extra nights. I'd figure that out later.

I didn't have time to linger in the room - my first appointment was out in the 'burbs at 11:30am. I took a shower and headed to the nearest Metro station, Cardinal Lemoine. After taking line 10 all the way to its western terminus, I hopped on a bus for another ten minutes, to be let off right outside the American School of Paris. There I spoke to a group of students during lunch and also to an art class. In between I was offered a computer in the library to check email. That's when jet-lag hit. I kept slumping over in mid-type. Back at my hotel I had to take a 2-hour nap.

Once awake, I hit the streets, changed some money, ate a donner kebab, and made my way to an expat bar called The 5th. There I had a couple pints of Guinness and participated in the Monday night trivia contest. I only used my work-issued Blackberry to cheat once (capitol of Belarus, dammit). Afterwards I walked back to the Minerve and hit the sack.

Tuesday

I woke up early and headed to a grocery store to grab some toiletries that I forgot to bring along. I also ate breakfast, which at a European hotel consists of bread and coffee. And a pack of cigarettes, for some.

At noon I arrived at the International School of Paris (right across the river from the Eiffel Tower) and presented to another classroom. After that I walked a few doors down and dropped in to the Franco-American Center. We talked a bit about how to better promote US universities amongst the French, and I got myself invited to a roundtable next Tuesday. Great. I took the long on-foot route back to my hotel. Quite a walk.

That evening I met a friend of mine, Amanda, on the Rue de Abesses for a few drinks and dinner. Afterwards, I decided to continue the evening out and hit a few bars near my hotel that were recommended in the Time Out guidebook. For the most part they were pretty lame, but then again it was Tuesday night. At an English pub I met a fellow named Konstantine, who dragged me to a bar where all his Greek friends were hanging out. Konstantine then left, without paying his portion of the tab. Jackass. Too bad I never saw him again...





Above: the Abesses Metro station - undergoing some renovations - very Bat-Cave-ish

Wednesday

Slept in, had an appointent at another school, took a nap, then headed down towards Notre Dame to look for an Irish pub that I had a drink at on my last trip to Paris. I found it, and kept walking down the river, finding a place called the Great Canadian. I pretty much stayed there the rest of the night, hanging out with other North Americans.


Thursday

I met with the international affairs representative of a university that my university is considering forming some sort of tie-up with. Afterwards I ran by the venue where the college fair would be held over the next two days. My boxes were not there yet, but they told me not to worry - they would be (forshadowing).



Done with work, I hit my first exhibit, at the Gran Palais. On display there were artifacts discovered from underwater excavations of the ancient cities of Canopus, Herakleion, and Alexandria, all once on the Mediterranean coast of the Nile delta. I was hoping for new information on the famous lighthouse, but there was none. Poop. I bet they're saving for a whole 'nother exhibit. Bastards. Of course, they had tons of other cool stuff, including figures of Khonsu (important to dorky comic book fans as being the patron of Moon Knight). I tried to take some not-allowed pictures, but they did not come out very well.





From the Gran Palais I walked to my friend Amanda's new apartment, very close to the Eiffel Tower. What a bitch! I drank some beer while helping her and her friends move stuff in and around - then I went back to my hotel.

Friday
I woke up and met a previously unknown university colleague at breakfast. Gwen works at our institution's facility in southern France. Rough life. Together we went to the fair venue and set up our booth. Yep, no boxes. Luckily, I had overpacked for my school visits, so we had materials to give out. Still, I spent half the day trying to track the boxes down. No luck. At least, no luck finding the boxes. However, my quest took me to Hall One of the expo center. Hall One was closed to the public for a very special professional exhibition. I was allowed to enter with a security escort since there was some evidence that my boxes had been erroneously delivered there. What glorious and secret event was this, you might ask?






Someone had been reading my diary. For half an hour, I was in heaven. Inside, it was like a living, breathing Victoria's Secret catalog. Yes, there were actually models, everywhere, wearing the lingerie of dozens of different companies from around the world. Lingerie that was not in store yet. I did not dare take out my camera while inside. There was a whole security station devoted to receiving complaints of lingerie espionage. Boxes? What boxes?

After the fair I went back to the hotel and considered slitting my wrists, because never would I ever see anything like that again. Unless they let me in tomorrow. So I didn't slit them. Besides, I had no bathtub.


Once compose, I accompanied Gwen to a restaurant where she was meeting a friend and his children. I did not stay though, because I was meeting one of my new American friends, Amy, from the Great Canadian at an Indian restaurant. After dinner we had a couple of beers at the Moosehead. Cool bar - reminded me of Southville.

Saturday

Another day at the college fair, still no boxes. My extra supplies managed to last us though. That still didn't stop me from going back to Hall One. However, they were on to me. I made it inside, but not past the check-in. Still, I'm tall enough that I could see over the wall. I left, weeping.

After the fair I went with Gwen to the apartment of the same friend she had met the night before. Her husband, a documentary filmmaker (on his way to Beirut), and another friend who is a postal artist (don't ask) also joined. These were genuine expat intellectuals. Of course after dinner and much wine we ended up debating 9-11 conspiracy theories. Very interesting. I will have much to put in my report for Mr. Hoover...

After dinner I met my friend Amanda (with the awesome apartment) and some of her friends out in a more ethnic part of the city. We had a few drinks in a bar that was very red and shabby-trendy. I was able to dash down the nearest Metro cave and leap on to the last train of the night back to my quarter. In the neighborhood of my hotel I decided to keep things going, as I had the next day off. I was up 'til about 5am. Met some more random Americans. Much fun.

Sunday

Needless t0 say, I slept in late. Then I hit the Museum d'Orsay. I find that I'm really starting to like sculpture. Once I'm rich, I've decided I'm going to have a sculpture garden. And I shall allow the neighborhood children to frollick in it, but not in a Neverland, CA kinda way...















Now I had to decide what to do about the Superbowl. I had heard of several plans from different Americans I had met on various nights, but ended up following through on none of these. At the Great Canadian I met yet another troup of Yankees. These three (Erin, Toria, and Matthew) were living in Orleans, teaching English, but had made their way to Paris just for the big game. So I made a fourth at their table and we hunkered down and played hearts until the 12:30am kickoff (I won). So I was up 'til 5am again. It was more good, brash American fun - even if I didn't get to see US commercials (stupid SKY).


A last Impression...

Join us in a few days for Week Two...