Paris, France - Day 18

This morning, I woke up at 8am sharp and got my running clothes on. Today I was on a mission to run around the Disneyland Park loop. Where my village is located, I'm about 1 - 2 miles from le Parcs Disneyland. The cool thing is that there is this HUGE loop that goes around the entire park and I've been dying to run around it since I got here ~3 weeks ago. I saw it from Google Maps while uploading my other runs around here. I could tell that it wasn't too big, but big enough to take a little over an hour or so to do. As it turns out, I put it off until the very last day I'm here, but it made for a great run and if I come back, you can bet I'll be doing it again.


I headed out the door around 8:30 am and was loving the morning sunrise over Montevrain. About 2 miles into my run, I saw another runner (who had passed me earlier) pushing a broken down car down the road. I ran up on them and began to help push. We pushed the car for about 100 meters or so and then went on with our morning run. We introduced ourselves to one another and then that was it... We talked for the next 5 miles. This guy's name was Sebastian, and he is one of the nicest guys I've met over here. He and I talked about all kinds of stuff, from marathon times, to French strikes, to the health insurance crisis in the U.S. He kept me company from about mile 2 to mile 7 and it made the morning run to go very quick. I gave him my email address, but I forgot to get his. Hopefully, he is able to find that I have a domain attached to my email address and then stumble upon this blog. :) He and his friend Gregory travel all over the world and I told him that when they come to the states to email me and maybe we could meet up for some coffee and more conversation. Thank you for a wonderful morning Sebastian! Enchanté! :)


After my run, I cleaned up and then headed over to Bob's apartment for a bowl of cereal and some coffee. Immediately after that, he and I came back here and we've been in my apartment all day, working. We worked from about 11am until about 10pm. We had a few breaks here and there, but we really stayed focused since it was my last day here in France.

I must say that my time here in Europe has been more than amazing. How often are people asked to travel to Paris, France for 3 weeks simply to work on a laptop computer in a very safe and rather plush "all expense paid" apartment complex? I know the answer, and it's "not often". Honestly, I couldn't ask for a better job than the one I have now.

One of my major highlights was being able to spend 3 days with Dariush in Paris, France just hanging out. We simply walked everywhere and got to see all the sites around the city. We haven't got to hang out like that since 1995 when he was in the states living with my family. Here we were almost 15 years older having just as much fun together as we always did back then. Thanks for a great time crazy man! We should definitely do this again, but next time with our wives and children. :)


Then to make this trip even MORE amazing, I was able to fly over to Bucharest, Romania and visit Volli and Yiorgo for 3 days. It was great to finally meet Volli's beautiful wife, Stefanie and get to know her a bit. And, Henry was awesome!! I love that kid. I went over there knowing very little about Romania, let alone Bucharest... Ok, I went over there knowing NOTHING about Romania or Bucharest. Therefore, it was great to get to experience such a different place with my two other brothers. The next time we all meet up, we're going to be taking Larissa, Greece by storm. Right, Yiorgos!? Thanks for a great time last weekend brotha's!! I had a blast and will never forget it! For as long as I live.


Most of all, it was very cool to get to spend time here in Montevrain with Bob. All of our communication is typically done over Skype and through emails. Believe it or not, Bob and I knew each other for almost 4 years before we ever actually met face to face! I had no idea what he looked like, and he only knew what I looked like from my MSN instant messenger picture. The thing that I like most about our relationship is that he doesn't act like a boss toward me, but rather treats me like a peer. He maxe me fele like I yam akshully smarte tue. We're both big geeks, so it was very easy to just sit around and talk about geek stuff with him when we're not talking about... well, geek stuff. :)

Bob, Jennifer and I appreciate everything you've done for the family. Not only for this silly little trip to Europe, mais pour tout. Also, thanks for allowing me to spend time with my close friends on your watch while over here. We both knew that were fighting a tight deadline with this project, but you were very understanding and actually helped us make it happen. That said a lot to me and meant a lot to both me and them. I hope to see you again soon... outside of Skype, of course. :)

Luc & Bob @ the Louvre on Sept 26th, 2009

Thanks, Bob!!