blah blah blah Paris

There's not much to share... I've spent the last two days in Rueil, outside of Paris. The area is mostly office buildings with little to do after work (which ends around 7:00 PM). I spent the day in discussions about transportation and foreign trade. The Indians are giving the presentations. I'm amazed by how well everyone communicates in English. I can't figure out how the Chinese and Indians can understand each other's very different accents.

I see very few suits in the office. Most French workers in my building wear a button up shirt with a black sweater and no tie. People say that this was not the case a few years ago. Apparently the French are getting sloppier in the office and even jeans are quite common. I think that the opposite is true at home in America.

Niels keeps mentioning how French women do not shave their arm pits nor legs. I can't know for certain as it is winter and everything is covered up. It seems that the Parisian women are very high maintenance. They all do their makeup just right and wear very nice, expensive looking clothing. So perhaps he is wrong.

For dinner, we went to an Italian restaurant where I accidentally ordered what I would call a wiener schnitzel (a German dish like chicken fried steak without the gravy). You know, Paris is full of all kinds of ethnic restaurants but I've yet to see a German restaurant or a German beer. I wonder if there is still a prejudice here against Germans?

I miss my wife and toddler back home. It sucks to have to be gone so long and so often. I'm secretly hoping for project delays so that the trips will become more spread out. Regardless, it seems that they are doing okay. Being separated from them might be harder on me than them.