Geneva, Paris, Brussels and Strasbourg. A long adventure of techno bus riding (thanks to Marco), and really boring meetings at various IGOs. THe only interesting academic visit we had was at the US consulate where the Russian representation at Franklin got into a fight with the US diplomat who was indoctrinating us with US policy (don't worry, none of us bought it). Afterwards I got into a verbal battle with him about US environmental policy, and he subsequently told me not to let the Europeans make me believe that US environmental policy is awful. (If you don't see anything wrong with this statement, stop reading. We are no longer friends.) He then gave me his card and told me to contact him if I had further questions. I do, I just don't know how to word them nicely and in an unthreatening manner. This took place in Brussels. My favorite city was maybe Paris. In a telephone conversation with my mother, she told me that a lot of people who go to Paris love the city but don't like the way that they are treated. This is true, if you are American, you are treated rudely, but this holds for most european cities. Parisians just have ruder body language and cooler accents. However, since everyone thought I was French, things went pretty smoothly. I was only treated badly once, by a French waiter who was angry that Lulia (from Syria) was not reacting towards his advances, and so he took it out on us. It's okay though, he was a low class waiter in a wannnabe italian pizza joint. I decided not to take it personally. The best thing about Paris is probably the default line that all Parisian men revert to when they don't understand what you're saying: "You are so beautiful." I think the entire population (regardless of whether or not they speak english) knows how to say this.
Not much else to say about Academic Travel, except that the Belgian waffles were wonderful and that Strasbourg was quaint.
Halloween happened yesterday, and is apparently a big deal at Franklin. I went to the party dressed as Holly Golightly. I looked quite classy :). Milo even kissed my hand when he saw me, which I thought was pretty funny. Mani and Cora went as Starsky and Hutch.
Oh, and I had a bad day today because I realized that I missed Tyler's wedding:(
Tomorrow I'm going to Milan for stake conference. That should be interesting. I never liked stake conference at home, and now I'm expected to sit through it in Italian. Joy. But it will be nice to go to Milan again I guess (I can be reaqquainted[did I spell that right? My mac says no] with the animals I hate nearly as much as squirrels.......pigeons).
Ciao tutti!
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