My Exercise In Futility

Right now, I’m staying in Hanover, Germany and working in Wolfsburg; the two locations are about an hour away from each other. I decided to stay, at least this week, in Hanover because there are a lot of little shops around and cool things to do. I went to the mall in Hanover today with every intention of staying at the Starbucks in the mall for a few hours, using the free Internet, etc.

Well, I hadn’t been there 30 minutes when the urge to poop came about. Those of you who know me understand that I don’t like doing this in public restrooms. I think they are nasty, dirty, germ infested places and I don’t feel comfortable doing ‘my business’ in a public environment. Therefore, I packed up all my things and I was going to head back to the hotel, a 20 minute walk. While packing my bag, I realized I probably wouldn’t last 20 minutes without putting myself through severe agony.

I was dreading the public restroom at the mall – but I made my way there. First, I had to pay to get in. But, once I got in, I was pleasantly surprised. The bathroom was immaculate. Not only that – my worst fear is a dirty toilet seat – and look what I found when I got into the stall to use the restroom….

I went to the Louvre Museum today. I’m not a huge fan of museums because I don’t know what I’m looking at. But, I’m in Paris, and there are so many famous museums and works of art to see that I think it would be a horrible waste of a trip if I didn’t go to a few of the museums.

When I got to the neighborhood of the Louvre Museum, I decided I would have lunch first. I figured I was going to build up an appetite while browsing the Louvre for as long as I could stand it. It was 3PM, and my stomach was growling – I needed nourishment for the day I planned learning about art.

One thing Parisians do not do is eat quickly. By the time I was done, it was around 4:45PM. That didn’t bother me, I thought I had plenty of time. I went towards the museum, lingered at the entrance way, took pictures and then finally bought my ticket and entered the museum around 5:15 PM. I headed straight for the Mona Lisa. As I was headed there, I was ashamed that I was passing so many beautiful works of art that I knew nothing about. I could read any of the information about them, either, as it was all in French. So, I decided to go back to the entrance of the museum and grab one of the multi-media guided tour headsets.

When I went to rent one, the attendant told me, “I”m sorry, Sir, but the museum closes in less than an hour. We don’t rent the headsets out this late!” I was angry. I just paid 9 Euros for my ticket – plus I thought I read that the entrance to the museum stays open until 10PM. When I checked, I was right – the entrance does stay open – but the exhibits all close at 6PM. Ugh. Anyhow – I rushed to see the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo. I’ll go back next time and take the multi-media headset tour.

Here’s a picture of me and Mona, comparing smiles. Tell me who you think smiles better!

First, I’ve been forgetting to tell those of you who are reading my blog entry as a NOTE in Facebook – you may have to go directly to my blog in order to view the video. Some of you seem to have figured that out. Just click on the VIEW ORIGINAL POST link at the bottom of the Facebook note. It will take you right to this entry on my actual blog.

Whew – ten minutes wasn’t enough time to talk about everything that I wanted to, even though I was going about 1,000 words a minute. I forgot to talk about the problems I am going to have charging my electric toothbrush; the power converters will not work on shavers or electric toothbrushes.

You might notice that I cough a few times during the video; that started on Thursday and reminded me I had better know what to do if I need to go to a doctor here. I mean, my health insurance is American – how does that work here, etc. I found out that when EMC employees travel abroad for work for less than a year, we are covered by an international plan – so, got that part covered.

Oh, and my check book and credit card companies must be in love with me since I’ve been here. I’ve been moving money to debt like a mad man. I want to have my two biggest credit cards paid off by the time I get home. I found my thought wandering to thoughts of a new MacBook Pro or an iMac, but then I looked at my credit card statements again to remind myself to stop thinking like that.

Anyhow, here’s the video for week three. Thanks for watching. Leave comments!