Paris: Good For Brian/Bad For Brian

Last weekend I was in Paris with Steve (my biggest little brother) and his traveling band of misfits. Paris is a big, complicated city, so I'm going to classify our experiences there as either Good For Brian or Bad For Brian. This is the metric that I'm sure concerns all of us most.

Stone Carvings on Notre Dame: Good For Brian!

Mischievous devils might be Bad for Brian overall, but those rascals make for some nifty carvings.

It's a lobstah!

Vaults in Notre Dame: Good For Brian!

Because they both hold the roof up and look nice.

Rain: Bad for Brian.

Good for ennui, though.

Sleeping on a really thin mattress on the floor of Steven's friends rented apartment [not pictured]: Bad for Brian (and his back).

Free place to stay [not pictured]: Good for Brian!

Giant iron sewer cleaning balls: Good for Brian!

Bad for Steven, though. And for Dr. Jones.

€1 Espresso [not pictured]: Short term: Good for Brian! Long term: Probably bad for Brian, good for his chemical dependency.

Rodin Museum: Good for Brian!

Special thanks to Steve for putting up with me looking at five different versions of the same three statues.

Gorgeous early morning photos of the Seine: Good for Brian!

And good for his blog!

Eating a whole sausage over three meals [not pictured]: Bad for Brian.

People tubes: Good for Brian, probably bad for humanity overall.

Treating people like Pringles is a step backwards for society.

Bums that spit at you without provocation [not pictured]: Bad for Brian.

Not understanding lens distortion: Bad for Brian.

Wandering around until you run into something interesting: Good for Brian!

Happy Army Birthday!

Happy Army Birthday! Today is the US Army's 237th birthday, and the entire base is celebrating, with songs about cassons, a four day weekend for everyone in uniform (not me), and some surprisingly good steaks and shrimp for lunch. Also, the cafeteria took down it's nutrition facts signs, freeing us for one day from the prison of knowing how much sodium is in the tortilla soup. So far, the Public Health command is averaging about two barbecues, long potluck lunches, or outdoor safety fairs per week. I like it here.

Last weekend I went to Saarbruken with my Peruvian amigo Fritz and his German lady friend. Even though I was a third wheel, we still rented bikes (and not tricycles) and cruised along the river.

 

It's the Euro cup right now, so everyone gets all excited whenever Germany plays. I haven't managed to keep track of the schedule very well, but every so often I'm surprised by a party happening downstairs.

The Euro Cup logo is cute...almost as cute as this.

This weekend I'm headed to Paris to hang out with my ninja Steven, with whom I will go gorillas. In case you are curious, I would be Kanye because I am more likely to wear pretentious sunglasses and be mean to Taylor Swift. Steve is Jay Z because he's scarier and has more street cred from that one time in Trujillo. Also, LeBron would probably like him more, just because Steve gets along with everybody.

What's Luxembourg Like?

Last weekend five of us drove to Luxembourg for a night and a day. Luxembourg is the tiny little country between France, Belgium, and Germany that's basically just one city.

Luxembourg is kind of a hybrid of French and German cultures, but it's a nice little place. It's kind of a city-state, which I appreciate. The old part of the town is in a valley along a river, and the newer stuff is on the higher land surrounding. It makes for a nice, walkable area that's hard to get lost in.

Generally, the Luxembourgers were friendly and good-looking, and enjoyed bad American pop. Also, they really seem to like Coronas (the Mexican beer), a preference that will forever remain mysterious to me.

I didn't take any pictures in Luxembourg, so here's one from the archive of me endangering a cute Peruvian child:

Beyond that, I'm adjusting to military life pretty well. I'm keeping a decently scruffy beard so that no one confuses me for a service member, and I'm getting used to filling out redundant forms. Yesterday I set off the alarm in the gym by scanning my ID card. The computer yelled out, "Intruder Alert", which seemed a bit harsh. The girl behind the desk explained to me that it would take a few weeks for my access privileges to propagate through the system and that I shouldn't take it too personally.