Gay Paris

I'm sitting in Paris slowly going crazy from lack of sleep. My layover turned out to be only 8 hours which didn't really seem long enough to see anything. I took a very brief nap and ate what was my fourth meal since waking up. I thought about buying espresso, but decided against it because I probably should sleep eventually.

I'm wearing the blue Obama shirt that Jaron bought me (as to encourage me to fit in with my fellow Burkinabe that love rocking Obama shirts, pants... underwear). An unintended consequence is that nobody is speaking to me in French. The woman at customs even said "You are wearing a very good shirt." I mean, it really is a much better design than most of the ones I've seen in Burkina.

I can't decide if I should try to sleep or not. I am a bit worried that I won't wake up for my flight or that I will get to Senegal and not be able to sleep. I think I will try to hold out for the plane and then sleep during the flight. Going more than 24 hours without sleep before starting a conference would probably be a poor life choice (as my friend Heidi would put it).

It turns out that we have a day off during the conference. I think this means that I will be able to see my friend Amanda and I might be able to see the beach and/or a tourist attraction. It all sort of depends on the situation once I get there. It could be one of those decoy days off, too. It might just be time to do group work or homework. Maybe I'll just catch up on sleep... I doubt Amanda wants to have a cuddle party.

I was oddly moody on the flight. It couldn't have been the lack of sleep at that point and my chair was relatively comfortable. I feel like I left with a positive outlook. Maybe there is something about stuffy cabin air that makes me grumpy. Nothing a romantic comedy, the X-men movie and a ridiculous Arabic movie couldn't fix. Plus, I got to see what seemed to be the northern lights from the plane (an elderly couple let me hover over them like a creeper... they actually invited me to which is probably creepier than the act itself). Way to go arctic circle for being rad.

There were new American pop music videos in the selection this time. So I didn't have to stare at Katy Perry being an alien/deer again. Beyonce's brand of "girl power" sort of puts me off or maybe it is her hair. Suddenly Beyonce looks like Shakira and Shakira has a brown bob? The world is falling apart... seriously. Beyonce's persuasion can build a nation and Facebook can tear it back down again. (Can you tell that I was in America too long?)

Either Air France's food isn't as good coming from the America side of the flight or having a seriously expensive (like an entire month of living allowance) dinner with my friend Amber and her boyfriend Blaine successfully ruined all food for me. A curse on both your houses! And I thought eating boiled gelatinous millet couldn't get any more difficult.

I need to get my cranky sleep-deprived self off my blog before I complain about anything else. I'll try to update you in Senegal after I come out of my coma.