"Come watch the sunrise, say your goodbyes, off you go"

True story- this line always reminds me of what I'm sure is an awful movie called "The Wedding Date", where Debra Messing seduces some guy in her dad's boat to this song. And by "I'm sure it's an awful movie", I mean, I have seen it at least several times.

Anyhow, I'm going to gloss over most things that happened since I was last abroad, and jump forward to the "I'm back abroad" part! That's way more fun. The whole point of the sunrise line is so I could get pictures like the below:

The reason for being up at sunrise is horrible jet lag! After 3 stops between Buffalo and Paris, and my luggage not showing up for over a day leading to me wearing some *choice* clothing for this outing, this was a nice reward. Pro tip-- if you somehow find yourself up in Paris before 6 am, do yourself a favor and walk to the Trocadero gardens. You could do this at sunset, but it'll be teeming with tourists you'll have to later crop out of your pictures later.

After walking there and back from the 17th (I'm going to continually refer to arrondisements like I know where they are and I'm a regular Parisien), I was plum tuckered out. Plus the wifi in my hotel doesn't work so great, so I did what any decent American would do-- stop into a Starbucks. Let me say, ordering a "grande" in Paris leads to a confusing "do you mean largest? or our size that also means large" which eventually leads to me over-ordering. Whatever, I'm embezzling your internet for as long as time allows.

Given the amount of time before my official workday begins, I rewarded myself with a long walk home past cool monuments/areas.

I'll see you later, distant landmark...

Also, with a walk through a nice park! (Parc Monceau)

Ok, so the picture on the right isn't necessarily of the park, but right outside. It reminded me of a desperate, appreciative memory of my last trip to Paris. That museum-- which is free-- obliged to let me use their WC in a time of need. So I'm putting a shameless plug for people to visit this museum. Not for solely their bathroom facilities... but probably primarily for their bathroom facilities?

Anyhow, I didn't use those facilities today, but returned back to the hotel to get some work done. Let's skip over the "Sam took some phone calls and met up with alumni and did his job portion of the day"... I mean, I have to do that for my performance review. Let's not duplicate efforts here!

Had a solo dinner tonight-- just a steak to try and get back to keto-friendly.

You know, usually you tell Europeans well done and they give you rare. Sadly, this time it was actually pretty well done :(

I will say, I regret mildly not going to "Relais de l'Entrecote" or any of those places with beautiful steak frites with green sauce. Maybe tomorrow?

Stopped back by the arc de triomphe to fulfill my earlier promise of a later picture on the walk home. If I walk 5+ miles every day, I can hopefully make up for my recent more sedentary lifestyle!

It's never worth actually going in this place/tourist trap. Tell me I'm wrong!

Let's cut today short here... it's been a long one, and I can use the rest. I say this as I'm writing at 4 am because I can't sleep. But for the record, I did try to sleep!

Random Things:

I see what you're doing, but your acronym is probably counter to your goals?

My namesake shares my struggles!

You know, if they're learning one thing in English, this isn't a bad place to start

Moment of Zen