Hi!

Guess what!? I'm leaving for Europe on Saturday! And I'm still not done with the talk I need to give at this conference! And here I am writing an entry on my blog! A-Doy!

Anyway, I'm gearing up for my trip which is part business, part pleasure. I'm flying in to Paris and will take the train down south a couple of hours to my French friend's place. This is the same gal who two years ago when she was visiting decided to try to feed a snapping turtle a piece of grass while we all were on a camping trip. Apparently, turtles are novelties over there or something. Despite our protestations (and perhaps because of the good American beer she had been drinking), she forged ahead. And now, there is a small piece of French finger somewhere inside an American snapping turtle. Lesson learned.

From there, we are driving over to Germany, near Frankfort. The conference is the rest of that week (and luckily, my talk is on the first day on the first session, which means I get to coast the rest of the conf w/o worrying about my talk). Then back to France and I take the train up to my cousin's country place, near Normandy. There it shall be small quaint French villages, lots of food, wine, relaxing. I'm quite excited about it despite the fact that I don't know a lick of French or German. (Thanks Senora Baker for 4 years of Spanish!)

I have been practicing saying "je suis un Canadienne" just like V taught me..I think that will come in handy so I won't get snatched off the streets or taunted. I am also practicing my disaffected and bored European look and packing lots of black. Can a Midwestern girl next door blend in to Old Europe? Stay tuned in two weeks!

Ok, I need to get back to PowerPoint. Lordy, remember the old days when people gave talks with like..individual transparent overheads and actually wrote on them? Remember the mimeograph? Remember the Alamo?

ps. While in Paris, I'm thinking about recreating Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' romantic proposal on top of the Eiffel Tower. I just need a doe-eyed innocent to play Katie to my Tom. Call me! It'll be soooo romantic!