It’s Thursday at nearly 7 pm and I’m on the next-to-last day of a quick business trip to France. This is my first visit to France, so my bullet point format seems useful for sharing a few assorted observations after a few days here.

  • Jet lag is aggravated by shifted working hours. At home, I’m an early bird. Up before 5 am, at work before 7, home by 4, asleep by 10. Here work starts around 9, and dinner doesn’t start until at least 8. Last night’s dinner with customers started at 8:45 pm and ended just after midnight. Yummy food, but tough in the morning.
  • I think I could spend a full day exploring the Amsterdam airport before I really got bored. The place is huge. Unfortunately I only have 65-minute layovers there both directions.
  • For business hours being so late, all the shopping around here apparently closes at 5pm sharp. Makes it hard to shop for the family when I’m not here for a weekend. (Sorry in advance, family.)
  • If I were coming here very often, I would need to learn some French.
  • The food has been really good. I guess that shouldn’t come as a surprise.
  • I’ll probably set 3 alarms tonight to make sure that I wake up in time to catch my 6 am flight.
  • I know I’m bigger than the average human, but it’s still a little unnerving when every toilet I sit down on gives off ominous creaking noises as if it were going to fall off the wall.
  • That last bullet probably gave you an unpleasant mental image. Sorry.
  • OK, if I were really sorry I would’ve deleted that bullet.

Tomorrow morning at 6am I leave Toulouse. TLS -> AMS -> ATL -> CID and Lord willing I’m home by 4 pm Central time. That’s a long day, but with a happy end.