This morning we took an early flight to London. We dropped off our stuff at Anna's cousin's house, Anna and Bob went about their business looking for apartments, and I went and toured the city. I started at St. Paul's Cathedral, crossed the Millenium Bridge over the Thames by Shakespeare's Globe, and went to the Tate Modern Art Museum for a while. There is currently a really neat free display on urbanism and urban expansion, and it highlights the expansion of some of the world's 10 largest urban areas (Cairo, Mumbai, Mexico D.F., Sao Paulo, Tokyo, Istanbul, Los Angeles, Shanghai, Cape Town, and New York... I think). There are some really neat photographs and scale models that show the different way that each city is expanding with respect to immigration, geography, topography, demographics, etc. I then ... read more

Today is the Ironman triathalon! We woke up early (4:45am) and headed down to the promenade at the waterfront. Even at this god forsaken hour in the morning, the area was PACKED with people. The entire day was amazing - 3.8km swimming, 180km cycling, and 42.195 running. For details and stats check out http://www.ironmanfrance.com/ - Bob's number is 63, and he placed in the top 1/3! Another amazing coincidence - on the beach in Nice I randomly ran into another friend of mine from my NY trip last summer.... read more

This morning Anna arrived! Then we went to the beach. That was all. P.S. Anna I hate your dog. Seriously, I want to feed him a lethal dose of chocolate. Bets from the last few days: Bob vs. Evan: One of the spice girls was black. Bob 1, Evan 0 Evan vs. Bob: CN and its subsidiary, CN Worldwide, are fully Canadian-based companies. Evan 1, Bob 0 Evan & Bob vs. Wikipedia: Why are the French in Canada? Wikipedia 1, Evan & Bob 0... read more

Today is moving day for Bob. We spent most of the day packing and getting things organized. To make a long story short, we stole a push cart from his campus, and between the two of us, moved a huge box with his bike and clothing, and about 7 other bags all the way from his residence room, about 1.5km down a hill to the train station, across 2 bridges, via 2 trains, and up and down 2 large flights of stairs, all the way to Nice. zzzzzzzzzz Quote of the day: Bob - "Hey, that's an anagram!" Evan - "You mean palindrome" Bob - "Um...Yes... well I think I know something about palindromes. My name is Bob, my girlfriend's name is Anna."... read more

After a terrible overnight TGV train on which I did not get any sleep, I arrived in Paris at Montparnasse Stn. at 6am. I was a little mad, because before I departed from Hendaye, I found that there was another overnight train leaving at the same time that had sleeper seats, but I already had my seat reservation. I got a little lost finding my train to Jouy en Josas where Bob's school is, but I eventually found where I needed to go, purchased my ticket, and hopped on the train. When I arrived Bob was there waiting for me, and it was the greatest feeling meeting a friend on the other side of the world, after travelling solo for 2 weeks. We caught up on some stories, we went for breakfast on campus and walked ... read more