I will do embarrassing things for airline miles.

I watched "Up in the Air" on the to Frankfurt on Sunday night (from Denver, that's a 9.5 hour flight). I got a window seat on purpose, hoping i could prop up against wall and sleep. Little did I know this man would be sitting next to me.

[insert picture of very wide German dude]

I'll never find the perfect picture for that. Anyway, I like that movie. It got me thinking about how I changed my flight from some other airine to Luftahansa b/c they are partners with United and i've switched my frequent flier goals from American to United and blah blah blah. There I was, pretty uncomfortable, but happy as a clam, because I was on my way to Munich and then Paris. This is no boondoggle, but it makes me really happy to actually use my German for work. So bring on the work, because I feel at home here. Heck, I lived in Germany, including Munich, for more of my adult live then I lived in Miami. Or Philadelphia, or Michigan, or California. And I call some of those places "home." I've even been issued drivers licenses from three of those states. (But never Utah, despite my recent use of "heck.")

Anyway, I'm jetlagged. It's pretty late here and i'm writing this in an attempt to bore myself into a 4 hour coma. But that's not working, because my mind is not bored. Maybe the blog will time stamp this post and reveal just how late. Maybe it will do it in mountain time and make you find a world time zone map online and do the math. We'll see.

I'm off to Paris on Thursday morning. More work, but i'm really looking forward to it because i've never been, and I think there are a large group of people that subconsciously don't believe you're a cultured or traveled adult if you haven't been to Paris. I desperately long to be accepted by these elite elitists, so I'm off to Paris to prove my worth. I will buy a baguette and take a horribly embarrassing picture of myself raising it to the Parisian heavens, perfectly encrusted (like the baguette) by the outline of the Eiffel Tower behind me. Then I'll show those snooty American Chez Luis pancreas eating exclusivites they have some french-american cultural relations to repair, so get off my back. I have my own club. And we fly coach, baby.

Oh, and I don't drink wine when I'm in Paris or beer when in Bavaria. So I can't really be taken seriously in either of these places anyway.

Anyway, even though I'm more than stoked to be here for work, and it's been a professional goal of mine to use my German and travel abroad on professional assignments, I wish I could at least share my hotel room with Jaime and let her explore museums and history and buildings and food and stuff while I worked, then catch late dinners with her when available. Jaime has a cute habit of picking up and randomly practicing German phrases like "Wie kommt Mann in die Hauptbahnhof?" And "Ich habe den besten Mann aller Zeit!" So natürlich I wish I could afford to bring here here. For this reason, I made her a little tour of the München Hauptnahnhof as I walked around tonight. See video below.

And I have a feeling I'm going to really wish she could be with me in Paris. Since Jaime will be in Ohio, and Annie's taken care of (thanks Ben and Bree), I'll take Saturday, my last day in Europe, to explore Paris by myself and fly home Sunday morning. I'll probably just hit up the Orsay museum, Notre Dame, and Eiffel Tower and otherwise eat three or four tasty, but hopefully affordable meals. Maybe I'll rent a bicycle to get around. Yes, That could be good. Pray for good weather. It's been raining in Munich all week and I hear it's going to snow in Boulder tomorrow. The law of averages suggests that Paris be 72 and sunny on Saturday.

The law of averages also suggests that I get to sleep, to make up for the time that i've been awake. If that makes sense. Gute Nacht.

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