finally back in Paris

I'm home safe and sound!  I'll post more pictures of China as soon as I download them from my camera.

China: excellent signage

And I thought living in France was hard...

Any clues what these signs in my hotel mean?

I feel like I'm missing something because when I see signs with translations, they are priceless!

Excellent: (click to see it all!)

Best one yet:

Love!

China: Olympic Park

The conference I'm attending is located in the Beijing Olympic Park.  Today, I got to see some of the spectacular buildings in person!

The birdcage stadium:

Even the lamps are tiny birdcages!

After registration and a welcome reception, I walked back to my hotel with some friends and got to see everything lit up for the evening.

Watercube: (the location where Mr. Phelps won 8 gold medals in 2008)

The birdcage again, at night:

Beautiful!

China!

I made it to Beijing!  I'm in the hotel now, but I didn't manage to take any pictures yet to post because it was raining and really muggy when I arrived.  I'm staying very close to the Olympic center so I'll try to snap some of the birdcage and the water cube tomorrow if the weather is better!  For now, I have to try to get on the correct time schedule, so I think its time for bed for me!

At long last

Today I had my first adventure in the Priority Boarding class for Air France. Sweet.

It only took like 8 international flights to different continents in the past 8 months. (sigh)

Happy Hour

Tonight, one of my labmates took me out for Happy Hour.  In French, it is called Happy Hour, but it is pronounced "appEEE o-uRR".  Hm, and people wonder why I get confused when French people speak English sometimes...

The location was a surprise, so I was impressed when we popped up out of the metro near Opéra, one of the fancy districts in Paris.  After walking for a few minutes, we arrived in a square with a beautiful building on the corner.

I wanted to stop for a picture, and my friend said that this is where we were going for drinks.  Ah Paris, making me feel like Cinderella in my own city!  

We sat on the terrace, behind the bamboo screens.  Nice drinks, nice company, nice evening!  (And quite reasonably priced drink specials between 6-8pm!)

Drouant (par Antoine Westermann)
16-18 place Gaillon, 75002 Paris, France
www.drouant.com

On a Boat...

Every time I go on a boat, I get this song stuck in my head.



But the boats were smaller, and I'm pretty sure that we weren't rowing at 5 knots.  :-P

Today was hot, nearly 90 in Paris, so I made lemonade (not from a mix, from real lemons), sunscreened up, and headed out to meet some friends at the lake (Lac Daumesnil).

We all took turns rowing, but I got deemed the "captain", thanks to some hat sculpting.

And yes, that was the actual color of the lake.  Very glad we didn't take any accidental swims. 

Also, did you know that in French, you can "row" or you can "do the boat", but you can never "row the boat"?  Apparently the nursery rhyme about "row row row your boat" in English turns into "row row row, little-sailor-boy" in French.  Weird!

Happy August?

Today is the first of August.  Crazy to think about.  I feel like I've been in a coma since the beginning of June.    So many things happening, so much intensity.  But maybe the fog is lifting?  See what I've been doing slightly obsessively...

Don't worry, it will look better when its blocked out.

(Oh, and I made a shawl too, but I can't show you that because it was a test-knit for an unpublished pattern.)