So far it's not that bad. Sure the cabbie reminded me of the guy in Casablanca (the movie, not the town, although I am only 20 miles away) that was gonna slip a scorpion in someones bed for some dinar (maybe it was the Hitchcock movie with Jimmy Stewart where he is on holiday and gets wrapped up in a murder/spy thriller...I can never remember the name and I am writing this 'offline' so no access to imdb.com - but you can look that one up. Or if you are Maddie reading this, you are saying the name loudly and frustrated I can't hear you...
Some of my impressions thus far
There is a constant smell of incense in the air although I cannot see where it is wafting in from. Sadly, the 'credit card' machine is down and I cannot check into the hotel yet so I am hanging out in the lobby. The tile motif (pictured above) is in all these alcoves and the hotel is serving free 'tea' to all of us waiting. The tea looks like something someone expelled and smells a bit like they ate some (A LOT) mint to get rid of the potent asparagus they had for lunch. Oddly enough - it taste better than that but those bubbles on the warm side won't go away and there is some sediment in the bottom of the cup.
Yup, not in Kansas anymore - or Paris for that matter. It might not surprise you to learn I have changed my late Friday afternoon flight out into a VERY EARLY Friday morning flight. From the airport here is what I know so far: there are palm trees everywhere, people are just milling about walking everywhere (even through what looked like private fields and yards), hitchhiking is apparently not illegal (when was the last time you saw a hitcher?) as I saw several folks doing this and the way to show someone you are in a hurry is to ride on their bumper for a while, and I mean ON THEIR BUMPER. I thought we were taking paint samples but no, we were just letting the slower folks in front of us know we no longer wanted to be behind them.
It seems desert-y except there are small bushes and trees of a few sorts and a pleasant wind is constantly about (at least so far). I recently realized the 'deserty' part is the fact that there is no grass to speak off anywhere. So while there are bushes and small trees, its the lack of grass that makes a desert, no? (Apparently there is grass but not the kind you walk on but turn into hashish. Haven't seen that yet thankfully)
This definitely feels like a foreign place and I feel like I stick out like an American arse in my shorts (I didn't get the 'everyone here wears cheaply made thin suits' memo) and my 'english' speaking tongue. Man have I got to learn French. Se la vie, I am here and going to enjoy this conference for all its worth. (will let you know what it was worth in a few days)
Then I am going to go back to my croissants and Musee D'Orsay just as fast as Air Chance...er France can get me there.
