Not quite so bad

The South Korea trip has been pushed back until the 2nd week of April. So, I'm still doing that travel, but it just isn't quite as crazy-busy as was originally proposed. It is not, entirely, surprising that the customer couldn't be ready for things quite so quickly as originally proposed -- this often happens.

So, I'll now get two weeks in Ottawa when I get back from Italy, then a trip to San Diego (work), and the Shawangunks (NY, for climbing), then sometime the week after Easter I'll be heading for South Korea.

Hm... that's still very busy, just not quite so stupid-busy.

Bad air

The people I was training mentioned that the air quality in Lyon has been bad the last week, and I noticed a few of the programmable type signs saying to slow down because of pollution, or to car-pool because of pollution. But, I didn't really notice until today -- I decided to go for a walk to get some lunch, about 20-25 minutes each way, and I really noticed it. The air smelled bad, my lungs didn't like it, and by the time I was headed back to my hotel, I even felt like my mouth was gritty. Yuck. Maybe I don't want to find a climbing gym today, after all.

Doing ok in French

But, I expect I'll be toast in Italy.

I've actually managed to do most of my (limited) day-to-day stuff here in French. I just had a conversation with the front desk in French about being in my room, and not needed it to be cleaned. And, yesterday, I dealt with a tow-truck driver completely in French (he guessed I was from Quebec). Given how long ago it was that I studied French, I'm pretty happy with this.