I've added the first batch of entries and photos to my France Trip Journal so check that out if you're interested. I only managed to finish my first day in Paris though. It's really slow going because I saw so much every single day! Also, I've been busier than I thought I would be this weekend. Last night was the Deck Opening Party at work, which was an awesome time. Jason showed up and so did a bunch of other great people and I ended up staying past midnight! Crazy. Tonight was Chris's birthday party, and as you can see it has left me up waaaaaay too late at night. The only reason I'm blogging now is because I wanted to say that I finished the first day of France stuff.

I've added a Trips section to my blog (you can see it in the menu on the right as well). I'm going to fill in the details of my France trip over the next couple days, and once that is done I'll fill in sections for my trips to Köln and to the USA for interviews.

Jet lag is irritating. But I promise to start blogging France trip stuff soon. Well probably not until Thursday, but I'll get there eventually. Really I will.

I'm flying home in just over 12 hours. It's been a great trip but I'll be happy to return to a country where I can depend on the opening hours of stores, where people are happy to make change for a ten and where I sleep in my own bed in my own apartment without looking up every so often to check if my stuff has been stolen yet.

I'm at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival which is in the town of Annecy, France. It is completely AMAZING! The town is nestled in the hills of the French Alps on the shore of a big lake that is clear and calm and just stunning. Plus we (I'm here with Mike) get to see tons of really good animated films from all over the world and meet all sorts of interesting people from the animation industry. It's an amazing experience and I'm definitely going to try to come back in the future.

Je suis dans la Paris!

I leave today! I can't wait!!

I have spent sooooo much money this month. Between my trip, gifts for people (mainly my mom) and other stuff I need I've really eaten into the money I was accumulating. Not that I mind. I mean, I still save for retirement and stuff, so I might as well enjoy the rest.

Last night I bought a new jacket and also a new pair of jeans. The jacket was very necessary, the jeans...only a little but necessary, but they were nice and on sale. My old jacket I've had since high school and so that means it's way too big and not so nice anymore. The new one cost a bit more than I would have liked, but I had a really hard time finding it and I figure if it lasts even half as long as the last one then it will still be worth the price.

It seems that I have a bit of extra time that I didn't expect to have on my trip to France so I'm adding an extra city to my travels. I haven't entirely decided which one yet, but it has to be on the Mediterranean, so I'm thinking of Nice. It looks pretty sweet. But for me, it's really all about seeing that blue water and feeling the warm sun (much closer to the equator there) on my skin. The train ride from Paris will also be nice, getting to see the countryside of a foreign land.

Tonight was a small climbing night, only myself and one other guy. Normally a bunch of people from work come out but they've all been slackers lately. Anyway, I climbed not one, not two, but three 5.11- climbs, which I think is pretty good. Of course the rating is meaningless since difficulty changes from gym to gym and even within my gym there is a huge range within a grade. Furthermore, difficulty is very personal, some climbs are easier for some people. I did, however, climb one of them (the second) completely clean on my first try. It was a good night; I will be sore in the morning.

Just a small thing, but the image in the nav bar is now chosen randomly from a set of size 3. See if you can get them all by refreshing! I intend to add more images to the set as time progresses.