Bodhi Bum

Last time I wrote I was Nordic stranded in the land of Finland. Since then I've crossed the world and back, bidding the orders of the higher ups. They command and I jump, across the Atlantic and back it turns out. From Finland I caught good ol' Lufhtansa and enjoyed German hospitality over to London, then switched to the friendly British tea and biscuits service over to Washington on BA, and then United over to Providence, Rhode Island. It was nice to be back in the US, but to be honest after spending so much time in Asia and Europe, the US was a bit of a culture shock. I haven't had to drive a car in so long now that getting to the airport in Providence, I found out my license was expired and unlike Europe, you just can't take a taxi wherever you want to go. And talk about patriotism. Damn, they got American flags

It was too damn cold to do more than take a pic and get back on the bus.flying everywhere, and they're all ten feet wide. No joke. I lived in New York for three years and thought I was living in America. Now take a trip through New England and that's a whole other world. But I made it to Franklin, MA, eventually.

Anyways, Franklin came and passed, then came Pittsburgh, PI for another week and then on to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Now there is a city which burst my bubble on boring old America. I leave strip malls, Walmarts and 20 acre parking lots, fly over the Rockies and touch down in the Wild West. Adobe homes, native americans and burrito stands as far as you can see. And I got to rediscover the great american tradition of renting a car, driving out into the desert, getting lost, and.. well, after that it kinda sucked. But I managed to find my way back and by the next Sunday onto the plane, and back cross Atlantic to Paris. To be honest I couldn't clear customs fast enough.

From Paris I had to grab le TGV (le Train to Grande Vitesse, or the Fast Train for you French challenged people) over to the french country town of Nantes for the week. It was a beautiful old French town and a great week working in Saint Herblain, the next town over. The lady my team was working with was a British expat who left the UK 15 years before and never looked back. She had made a great new life in France and helped smooth out the language difficulties. Myself I'm obviously from french heritage and it was one of the best experiences of my recent travels to be able to come to a country and be able to actually converse in the local language. I'm so used to having to stumble in English and hope people understand, but to be able to speak the local language is amazing. My two team members are both American and don't know a word of French. So I was the interpreter, and it was really surprising experiencing the reception the french people actually gave me. I always came up thinking that the french didn't like french canadians, but I was amazed at how the french would totally take to me once they found out I was canadian with quebecois heritage. And it's amazing that after not speaking it so long, how quickly it comes back. At the start of the week I was very awkward speaking, but by the weekend in Paris I was not even thinking about what I was saying. It was coming natural. It's amazing how great the feeling is to be walking around Paris and speaking like a Parisien.

Anyways, I had to leave Paris this morning and catch my flight to Amsterdam. Landed this afternoon by around noon and caught the train back to Breda, about a one and a half hour ride away. If you want to know where I'm currently at, take a look at the map of the Netherlands on the bottom right hand corner of your screen, find Eindoven in the south-east corner of the country, and I'm in a city about 1 centimeter above that. I'm here until Wednesday, then catching the train back to Amsterdam for the night, then fly back to London on Thursday. Busy life, but it could be worse I guess.

Bodhi