France Trip by Point Form

THINGS DISCOVERED/CONFIRMED/DEBUNKED

French aren't as rude as people think, their English is much better than my French

The bread is even better than advertised

The wine can be cheap and decent (3 Euro/bottle), but you are better off spending around 6-8 Euros.

Paris restaurants are overrated

The girls are really that good looking

The washrooms are really that small

The trains are really that good

Cheese is considered dessert (I still disagree)

Coffee in France is really bad

Do NOT buy water in France (6 Euro/Litre, WTF!)

The produce is amazing, every supermarket is like a mini Niagara-on-the-Lake (bright red heirloom tomatoes at 24-hour grocery/convenience store?!)

The smoking isn't as bad as I thought, but it's still bad

Banette to Tim Hortons, is Paul to Second Cup

I can fit my windbreaker into a peanut butter jar (still need to shoot that video)

I have a weakness for girls that serve me samples/food

North Americans really wear their clothes poorly in terms of fit and coordination

We could really use an outbreak of a Canadian Revolution here

RANDOM AWESOME THINGS

Lyon has public water fountains where you turn a crank, and the water comes out of a lion's mouth. I want one. BADLY

There's a huge badminton facility in Strasbourg, and I saw a girl on the Metro in Lyon with a badminton racquet, I can officially move there.

This girl Elizabeth I met in Marseille from Cincinnati, talking about food and french culture.

Everybody goes for lunch outside and has picnics, we're talking everyday.

France Trip by the Numbers

There's a ton to write about the trip, so I decided to break it down into two posts, one by stats and one by point form.

FOOD
10 Baguettes
7 Bottles of Wine
5 Wheels of Cheese (Brie, Chevre x 2, Munster, Camembert)
1 Litre of Trail Mix
1 Michelin rated restaurant
1 Picnic by the Eiffel Tower
Food had includes Escargot, Creme Brulee, Onion Soup, Spatzle, Fois Gras, Quiche Lorraine, Croque Monsieur, Tarte Flambee, Macarons, Moules et Frites, Crepes
Infinite Boulangeries, Patisseries, Chocolatiers, Wine Shops and Restaurants

TRAVEL
15+ Hours on the Plane
5+ Hours of Layover
13+ Hours on the Train
3+ Hours on the Bus
100+ Hours of Walking
1 Detour to Germany

SIGHTS

1500 Photos

5 Notre Dames

1 Mediterranean Sea

Uncountable amount of girls

MISHAPS

1 Missed Train

1 Broken Tooth

1 Accidental return to Germany

1 Lost travel lock

1 Lost bag of food

"It's the fuckin' law"

"Scottish people are not allowed to rap. It's the fuckin' law"

- Fran Healy from Travis

I feel the same way about people making out during a concert. It's a concert! Or anywhere other public domain for that matter. I mean a kiss, even a long kiss fine. If you want to maul each other like wildebeasts on the animal planet, save that shit for home. At the very least, find yourself some secluded corner.

Clients, don't come to me and be like "yeah I don't know what I want". Today I had a client go to me "something's missing", so of course I ask what to they feel is missing or could be better, they reply "I don't know". If you don't know, how am I suppose to know? What do you take me for, some kind of fuckin magician?! And a really shit paid magician at that?

Don't make work for the sake of making work. I'm really here to complete my work as efficiently as possible so that I have free time. What's the point of making me fill the whole I just dug out, only so I can dig it out again from the other side.

Yeah I'm in an ornery mood. Dave! Out!

Impatient - Part 2

From writing the first part of this post, the thoughts below kept coming up. It also deals with Impatience, just in a different way. Probably because it's very fresh in my mind.

I've had a recent string of first dates, and I have to say, it's been increasingly annoying and frustrating. I am definitely losing my patience with it. I've had 3 dates in the last week and a half, having the last of the three a few hours ago. Of the 3, 2 have sparked my interest. I suppose 2 out of 3 isn't bad, BUT of those 2, neither appear to be particularly interested. And what really confuses me, is that during those 2 dates, things seemed to be going really well, at least from what I could tell. But I suppose reading situations has never been my strong suit.

It also doesn't help that I seem to go through spurts of dates, where within a week or two, I'll have a bunch of first dates, then go quite awhile without any. So there are long periods of just nothing. I guess I'm due for another period of nothing for awhile.

I've been actively dating again for approximately a year now, and have 15 first dates. You could make the argument, that things could be worse, I could've had none. Which reminds me, from what I can remember (because I try my best to block it out) I have also had a handful (by my count, 5) of turn downs as well. Back to my original point, of the 15, only 3 have turned into second dates, and only 1 into some form of relationship, which as stated above, was pretty crap in the end. I mean, a dude can only take so many blows to the ego here!

Am I doing something wrong in all of this? Maybe I'm too eager, or have unreasonably high expectations. Though knowing how rewarding and fulfilling a relationship can be, I suppose I feel like I have reason to be eager. In reference to my previous post about the fleeting nature of excitement and happiness, a fulfilling relationship is the only thing in my experience, to provide a constant and sustainable flow both.

My best friend, of recent (and not so recent) has been contemplating breaking up with his girlfriend. Another close friend got divorced from her husband after her experiences with incompatibility. While I see the incompatibilities in both situations, in one way, I can't help but think "WTF, make that shit work dude!" To my current eye, how do you throw something like that away? I have to admit though, after remembering spending so much time being disgruntled in my longest relationship, I can see how people would want to get out. But being in the situation that I am now, I am somehow partial to trying to see the positive in the relationships.

Anyway, I'm getting totally mindfucked by the situation. It's a combination of frustration, despair, anger, sadness, and to be completely honest, of rage. Seriously, thinking about it gets me almost to the point of breaking down. I mean it's not that I feel like life's shit on me totally, but it's the question of why it has in this domain being unanswerable fuels it even more.

Impatient - Part 1

I've never been a patient person. Especially when I've really wanted something. Though with getting older, things become much more accessible, or in some cases less desirable. For example, as a kid, ice cream is awesome. It's cold, it's cream, it's sugary, what more could you want? But it was always something that was distributed by people in authority (parents, teachers, etc...). Now, I can just buy a tub of ice cream whenever I want. And even so, I've had it so many times now, it's lost it's cache. A tub of ice cream can last in my freezer for well over a month.

It's good in some ways because I'm not constantly wanting something. But at the same time it's sad, because does that mean there are less things that make me that excited? or that it's more difficult to get excited over things?

The last time I was really excited, was when I was going out with that girl who ended up being, well crazy to put it mildly. That was well over half a year ago. Before that it was when I moved into my new place, well over a year ago now. And even then I wasn't super excited. I needed somewhere to live. It was out of necessity more than enjoyment, not that I haven't.

I'm super excited about going on vacation in at the end of the week though. In fact, the last two weeks, I've been pretty cranky, because I just want the vacation to arrive. Probably also because I've also been stressed about it and have been a tough time sleeping. But that should come in handy for the 10+ hours in transit.

After having a discussion in regards to the topic above, as well as new developments, a few new points have come to light.

The first being, that there will be the unfortunate fall back to earth and to the mundane. How long do these moments of excitement last? Days if you're lucky, weeks if you're really lucky.

Secondly, there are little points of excitement there and there. But they're very fleeting. Having a good day on the court, making a successful dish, scoring a date, and so on. But the longest any of these last, is minutes, hours at the very best.

Thirdly, being older means less things that are new. It's really only new experiences that get people excited. And maybe that's the problem, that I need to push my boundaries more. But even having said that, the moments are still short and unsustainable.

Thirdly, really, only 2 things per year to get excited about? 2?!?!?!?! That is honestly to me, MINDBLOWING. I mean, 10+ months of the year, I'm practically sleepwalking through life. Here's my daily life in a nutshell, wake up, eat, go to work, eat, work, walk for coffee, work, come home, eat, insert activity here (some combination of badminton, squash, working out, tv, internet), go to bed. Exciting stuff eh? OMG, 2, I seriously can't get over that.

Moments of Clarity

Have you read Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point? In a nutshell, it's about how small factors alter the outcome of situations. While maybe not the best metaphor, I find my life has had certain moments of clarity where decisions were made based on specific things happening that just flipped a switch all of a sudden.

I think I just had one.

dum dum dum...!