By Jeff 9/11/2011
Well, our conference wrapped up today. If you remember, during my Day #4 note, I commented that things had gone off without a hitch – causing me to joke that I was setting myself up for disaster. Well, all I can say is, “me and my big mouth!” Everything was going fine – and then suddenly my colleague Scott’s computer crashed. And you know, they only crash right at the moment you need them. They never crash with enough time to reboot and catch up – GRRRR! We were running the audience polling system on his computer. Everything was fine until the presenter said, “so can we see the results from the question [that we just asked]?” Wouldn’t you know it – Scott punches the keyboard and boom. “Uh, sorry – our computer just crashed.” We had 2 computers go down this morning (maybe a 3rd one, I can’t remember now – it’s all a blur). See? That’s what I get for being cocky.
After the conference was done, Scott and I tore down and packed up our equipment. We then had some time to kill before Karol, the meeting planner, would be ready to go out. We all planned to go to the Eiffel Tower later in the evening. So, Scott and I went out and got lost (again - on purpose) and got to see quite a bit of a residential part of Paris. Again, it was awfully neat. It was very different, yet very much the same as being at home. Kids playing in parks, rollerblading down the sidewalks with mom running after them shouting (which I can only imagine was) “slow down and come back here!”
I cannot forget to mention that on Day #5 of my Paris adventure, someone FINALLY flirted with me!! Scott and I were walking down the street, and this young lady gave me the eye – so I said “hi” and waved. As we passed, I looked over my shoulder to see her looking back at me. Again, she was giving me the eye. I waved again. I looked once more – I couldn’t help it – and there she was staring back at me giving me the eye again! Even Scott recognized that she was a total flirt. Okay – yeah, she was only six, but she had some serious attitude going on.
After getting lost and re-found, we made our way to the Eiffel tower area, with tickets to go up in the tower at 8:00 that night. What a great view!! We stopped on each level on the way up, and got various views of the city. It is cold and windy at the top of the tower. BTW – there is an apartment at the top of the tower, where Mr. Eiffel would entertain prominent guests. The apartment is still intact, with a replica of Mr. Eiffel’s daughter serving tea to him along with his guest, Thomas Edison. The whole Eiffel Tower area is abuzz with activity. There are floating restaurants that travel up and down the river, as well as gift shops, sculptures and such. One thing I found neat was the September 11th memorial (as Paris day #5 is September 11th). On the other side of the river, in a small plaza, were 2 towers (you can find this pic in my folder). Both of the towers had an inscription – one in French and one in English that said, “September 11, 2001 / The French will never forget.” I thought that was awfully neat, that they would remember us on the 10th anniversary.
After going up in the Tower, we decided to find something to eat. No one in Paris eats dinner/supper at 6:00 – so the restaurant was still busy at 10:00. After eating and talking for a while, the 3 of us decided to catch the train back to our hotel. Can you believe we caught the LAST train?? If I would’ve known the cut off time – I would’ve suggested we leave much sooner! I finally got to bed around 1:00 a.m. - having to get up at 4:30 on Monday morning for my D-Day / Normandy Beach tour. Not going to get much sleep. Oh well.
That’s it for now,
JBD
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