London Waterloon to Paris Nord

I can't believe I'm going to Paris tonight! How cool is it that it's close enough to do a weekend trip? I'm also really excited about riding the Eurostar and going 180 mph. (Random thought: I was watching the geovision speedometer on my plane when we landed and we were only going about 120 mph. That's a lot slower than I would have thought! I guess that just shows how important the wings on race cars are to provide down force. Anyway, back to Paris...) I already have a short list of things to do while I'm there but does anyone have anything in particular? I've been to most of the big monuments but I'll probably go back to the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs Elysees as well as the Eiffel Tower. I think I'll also probably go to the museum of modern art since I've never been. Actually now that I think about it, maybe I won't have time for anything else!

The last few days have been a lot of fun. Wednesday I went into the Thomson office again for a meeting to compare the quality of our old data sets with the new Thomson ones that we'll be integrating. They wanted me there to write up queries on the fly and at first I was nervous because there were about 15 people watching me intently and I thought my knowledge of MarketQA might crack under the pressure but I quickly realized I had nothing to worry about. It's nice being the only person over here who really knows the program because everyone's always impressed and I get to feel important (basically they just love me for my sweet computer hacking skills!). Anyway I'm loving the responsibility at both the client site and Thomson and it's awesome being able to contribute something that nobody else can. Sometimes I still feel like I'm just pretending to be a real person with a real job but that's happening less and less the longer I'm here.

Last night I went with Steve the Australian and Romain the new support guy to a bar close to the main Thomson office here and had a blast. It was the first time that I went out with anyone else and it felt good not to be wandering around on my own (although that's fun too). Everyone's been saying that I should just go out to the pubs by myself and meet people but I've noticed (and Steve and Romain said the same) that people here are fairly cliquey and it's hard to break into their groups. For example when all of the pubs are spilling into the streets after work, you can see distinct groups of people huddled together and it seems like there's never really any mingling going on. I'd have a hard time meeting people at the bars in the US where people actually mix so I feel like it would be impossible here. I figure I'll start my own clique with Steve and Romain because who really needs anyone else anyway?? Steve had some pretty hilarious stories about his shenanigans in Australia and London and I talked to Romain for a while about the American and French attitudes towards each other and the rest of the world. I said that Americans have the impression that the French don't like them and are unfriendly and he said that that's just a cultural difference. Apparently the French act the same way towards their own but they just expect it to be that way so it doesn't bother them. His example was service in a restaurant- he said in America waiters are more friendly than the ones in France because waiting tables is generally a summer job or something temporary in America while in France its full time and more permanent. Americans interpret the French attitude as rudeness towards them in particular but really they're like that to everyone. Interesting stuff- I never thought about it that way. Anyway both of them are fun to hang out with and they both said they'd they're always looking for stuff to do also so I'm sure we'll all be spending some time together.

I haven't yet taken any pictures of the inside of my flat because it's basically looked like a tornado hit it since I moved in. I finally put my clothes away though so I'm making some progress. I'll try to post some pictures next week sometime along with the ones from Paris. Also if anyone wants a post card, send me your address because I don't have any of them here with me.