DU Bologna

Hey everyone-
Here in Bologna, been a challange to find internet - so this is my first post and we are half-way through the conference. Guess that's why they call it blogging and not reporting or something that implies constant and consistant. Bologna has been great - though its easy to get lost here as many of the streets look the same - very pretty - but very much the same. Everyone here is really nice and helpful when you find yourself lost. The conference got off to a good start last night - with everyone from DU celebrating with a great dinner and a few Lemonchallos? It felt like opening night of a show(play/performance) because everyone had been working so hard for so many months to finally arrive at the opening day was a cause of celebration. The few students who are helping us here have been really great - pitching in where we need it most. Energy has been high - due to the coffees available on almost every corner - its a nice pick-me up when you get tired - they take about 2 seconds to drink and cost about 1 dollar - whereas Cokes cost like $3.60. Wine is about the same. Go figure. Well the second session begins in a few - time for 1 more coffee.

Cheers
Todd

Wow - what a day and then some. We caught the plane to detroit- that was fine, rainy and grey coming in, but all was going nicely. It's actually a really cool airport - it was the people train inside, up high - looks like a huge, real life model train that my dentist had running around the top of this cleaning room to entertain the kids. So we get on the flight to Paris, dude sits down next to us and he has a cat in a bag under his seat. One problem - the cat in the bag doesn't fit under the seat. So our row of 4, has me, Shannon, this one dude and Catman as he came to be known. So we convince the totally rude, backwoods flight attendant that the 3 of us - not Catman are allergic to cats and she gets a sit for Catman in the next section up. The second one, we are in the third. So our row of 4 is now 3 and we are excited to have an empty seat next to us. But the last guy on the plane needs that seat - so we are back to 4 - but he's real cool so its all ok. We talk a little, drink a little wine. I'd always heard that adult beverages are free on ye olde hop across the pond - and it's true. Shannon and I have 2 small bottles of wine and a pretty good pasta dinner and call it a night - or morning or whatever as we head out over the Atlantic. Just are we around about an hour outside of Paris - we both wake up because Catman has come down the aisle - its totally dark on the plane and he's wearing a white shirt and he comes stumbling down the aisle, looks at us. And moans. I thought it was something about his new seat or row or whatever - I thought he'd come down to chat it up. Not so my friends...he had come from the bathroom, from vomitting, and had come to fall over. Catman down. Smacks something on the way down - wakes the first couple of rows up - you know the ones he fell down in front of. So we all are half-asleep, dazed, confused and Catman is on the ground. Yikes. We start pushing call buttons like we're on Jeapordy. Shannon comes to first, goes over to him, asks if he'd like a drink of water - he says yes. There are still no flight attendants - despite the fact that the first 2 rows of the 3rd section are lit up like a christmas tree, one with white lights, not multi-color. I'm painting a picture here ok. So the quick as a cat Flight Attendants come over, pick him up and help him back to his seat, you know the one with the cat under it. So that's over. And we land an hour later in Paris. Then we get on a bus and stay on said bus for 30 minutes, and then we have to pass customs to go to the part of Charlie DeGaul that is known as gate D. Expect that by the time we do all that - we can't find gate D - cause the design and navigation of the beast is non-exsistant. We miss our third and last connection of the day - but Air France is nice, gets us on a 4 pm. Gives us a free coke and a baguette, so that's cool. Anyway - I'm sitting in gate D right now - typing this and waiting for our flight out of here. It's something like 7 or 8 am in Denver, but is 3 here and the flight leaves at four. So, thats all for now. Look for more soon.

Same Catman, Same CatChannel,
Todd

Well, in 12 hours Shannon (my finance) and I will be leaving for the airport. Bags are packed - well one anyway. I've put all my gear in my suitcase, bu't we haven't packed clothes yet - gonna have the travel light. But we'll have plenty of room for gifts on the way back. I managed to get 4 walkie-talkies on sale and I have a feeling they will come in handy over the next few days. Been playing (err. testing them) around the house - and they are pretty much the coolest thing - atleast as cool as I remember them from back in 8th grade. Our travels tomorrow take us from Denver to Detroit then Paris and finally touching down in Bologna on Monday afternoon. Wow. Paris, Bologna....and Detroit? Well 2 out of 3 ain't bad. It's hard to like Colorado sports and not hate Detroit. But they do have a damn fine basketball team. Well. More tomorrow - probaly from some random free hotspot in some airport. Looking forward to the next few crazy days.

bags are packed and I'm ready to go,
Todd

Hi all-
We are waiting for a few things to be delivered and packed up before we head off to Italy in about 4 days. I'll be keeping a blog of the experience which promises to be an interesting lesson in conference organization. Stay tuned.

Todd