Paris 2

So I just got back from my second weekend in paris. D and I had made vacation plans, only not to concrete. upon arriving in belgium, we sat down and looked at where we could go and decided that it would have to be paris or london. since london seemed a little bit of a time problem, we chose paris. again.
This time, however, I felt like I enjoyed it much more. She and I had already seen all the sights, numerous times, so we wandered and talked and ate and looked and explored. It was nice to not have a set schedule. The weather was beautifull and the city was our oyster. The one thought that troubled me was, how do I ever start a conversation in this place? a weekend is all I really want to go without being able to talk to someone new. I did manage to find some very cheap bollywood videos, and since D has never been introduced to the joys of 3 hours of dancing and emoting, we will be watching one of them on thursday.
I've got pictures coming up on facebook, of week two, and I need to take more pictures of the base. most day's I've been cleaning toilets and I think that's it. on wednesday P, gave me the phone and I was on call duty untill I left on friday afternoon. tonight, I'm moving into T and E's place, what fun!
this next week will be full of meeting people and dinners and looking for libraries. I have a dinner date every night. makes me feel important!
one last thought, I was walking down brugstraat last night, coming back from the train station and I looked up at the sky, and realized that it was almost the same angle as from my old window. I used to sit there and pray. I almost cried, at the sense of familiarity and continuety I experienced. I had gotten so used to the feeling of being displaced, I thought I would always feel like that. but now I hope I can remember that there are places I feel at home in.
anyways. more on me later!

paris!

I survived paris. that should be a bumpersticker somewhere. loads of pictures to follow, but in essence, it was beautifull.

Belgium!

Well, 9 hours and one lost luggage later, I'm safely ensconed withing the walls of O.M Zav.the airport is of course apologetic and doing all they can. I hope. Talk about language immersion, my first official contact with fellow flemish speakers in years and I'm trying to think of words like luggage claim and carousel. Thank heavens for the flemish allacrity at adopting foreign words into their own vocabulary. I just slipped the english words in here and there.
Trish met me at the airport, to which she had biked, yes, people bike to airports in this country. Or maybe it's just trish. The base looks the same in most things, down to lace curtains in the library.
I'm still getting used to being back. My calendar is filling up nicely though. and my crew got here safe before me. I walked in to find sarah vacuming and Isaac stripping paint of the ceiling in the former garage. good people. I on the other hand got lost trying to find charlie, and had to be shown the way. I also realized that although I had taken into concideration that the plugs are different here, and as such had left the hairdryer and other things at home, I had not remembered that my laptop would also require an american plug. I will have to remember to ask someone about that.
Well, I am off to collect the kids and some bikes and to head over to the Lamoses.. we're hitting the town for kabobs.