the city of coke lights, peaux, and wall street english

so midway thru my week in paris, a few things to report:

i did my 1.45 run on sunday in the beautiful luxumbourg gardens, well they are beautiful when it is not raining and not 32 degrees out and you are not running thru a haze of jet lag. after sleeping 2 hours on the over night flight, i spent the first hour counting the guards, and guessing their names and ages, and the last 45 minutes trying not to get passed by old people, or at least not too many of them.

i went to the paris pool to try to swim on monday. not even 30 seconds in the building and i got yelled at by this lady about "no shoes no shoes" so when i took them off she kept yelling. then there were like 10 people per lane (2 lanes) a kid lane -where no joke the yelling lady had a long pole and when kids were drowning she would fish them out.. and then a big area of just people kind of doing laps but more in a swirly just chatting. and the speed was at best variable.. i mean some were doing back FLOAT and some were swimming and some were stopping in the middle of the pool. it was more like an obsitcle course! photos to come. it reminded me of a greek bath house for some reason with all of these little tiny changing rooms all around the pool..

today in the subway i almost killed, or at the very least, maimed a blind man with a stick (he had the stick not me). not on purpose, but i will tell you those sticks hurt when you get hit with one.

we went back to the armenian restaruant where i had my b day here last year and they remembered me! my first brush with fame..

there is a store called musee de popeux (assumingly pronounced Poo-poo) which of course is the most hilarious thing ever (after being shut in a building for 2 days straight you get giddy at just about anything).

so i went to the french gym tonight. the same place as the french pool. it was the size of my mom's basement in pittsburgh and even had the same concrete walls and cement floor. i got on a bike and saw the settings (duh!) were in french so i chose one and went on my merry way..though the top half where you hold on was quite un attached so i felt a bit as if i were riding in the pelaton.. then i get on a treadmill, and well the treadmill had a bit of a lag to it and would go fast then slow, fast then slow.. i almost fell off about 3 times till i figured out the trick..everytime it started to slow down i hit the up incline button and it seemed to jerk it back to the right speed. a good idea till i realized it was not a good idea...

tonight for dinner (10 pm dinner) i had 2 clementines, babyl cheese, yogurt, granola, this weird tuna/vegetable mix that had pickles in it and chocolate cookies. washed down with evian. see.. very french!!

apparently i am wanted by the french authorities for some unpaid custom fees from september. my first offense in a foreign country. i hope to slip out unnoticed and leave the mess to my collegue here to clean up.

i have been made aware of some very interesting photos that exist but have not seen. the word incriminating was used and it makes me nervous as i have no recollection of such a display of crazy in recent times. i reckon its a ploy but still fear the worst.

this will be the third year in a row the french have posted a sign in the tradeshow that says "no smocking". you would think that by now someone would have clued them in on the mistake.

only half way thru the trip and the fun continues. calgon take me away!!!!