Walking to Work (2006-10-26)

Walking to the bus reminds me of my morning commute in Paris and renews my commitment to venture and work abroad again. In Paris Tuesdays through Thursdays we would awaken in Pigalle. Ryan went to school in Saint-Germain-des-Prés and Jean Claude went to work in Montmartre. I followed Jean Claude out onto Rue André Antoine, smelling the wet cobblestones as the street cleaners washed away the previous day. I heard the sounds of other pedestrian's shoes on the wet cobblestones and an occasional car vibrating along the street. The October air cooled me as I leaned into the steep hill and climbed. One morning in late October I took a photograph of the sunrise in Montmartre. Later on those weekdays I walked back down to Le Chao-Ba-Café for the afternoon sunlight.

On weekends--sometimes long weekends including Friday and Monday--Ryan and I would travel. We visited Montpellier, Nantes and Tours, Chamonix, Berlin, and London. We didn't visit Barcelona or Venice like we had hoped.

Memories and daydreams make me think of "Disappearing Act: How to Escape the Office", chapter 12 of The 4-Hour Workweek. A colleague who also develops software for Geographic information systems is currently in Turkey while his wife teaches. Perhaps I can do the same somewhere while Ryan teaches ESL.