Heading to Paris

*Nick in Vienna*

As the post Jane wrote says, we are taking a night train to Paris in a couple hours. This is Mason's first train ride. He did well on the plane, but this will be a very different trip. We are pretty sure he will just sit right with us: under our feet, or between us if their is room. I think we are supposed to keep him leashed and muzzled the whole time, but we'll probably sneak the muzzle off of him after awhile. We haven't let him sleep all day and he is getting pretty grumpy. Hopefully he will just pass out on the train and we won't have to worry about him too much. His crate is staying here in Vienna because it is too big to take with us.

I'm a bit sad to leave Vienna as I'm starting to feel comfortable here and starting to understand the language better. Cable has actually been a big help in this. There are tons of shows that I watched in America that are dubbed here - King of Queens, all three Law and Orders, Monk, The Simpsons, and quite a few movies (already watched a Star Wars movie, Gangs of New York, and Gladiator in German). Still, it will be nice to visit Paris, where I have never been before. On our honeymoon we never went West of Germany, so it will be neat to see France.

I am trying to not be too stressed out, despite all the things Jane mentioned. My visa has turned out to be much harder to get than I thought it would be, but hopefully it will be okay in a couple weeks with the help of my parents and the Newbys. At some point I need to actually work on my dissertation. I have grant applications due in a little over a month and I really thought I would have more (read something) done by now. Oh well - I should be able to work in Paris while Jane is off with her fancy Fulbright friends. I'll probably stay in Paris a little over a week before coming back to Vienna to dive into the archives.

We'll post pictures of Paris soon!