(Very early Thursday morning)

There's nothing quite like getting into an unfamiliar city at 6:30am, in the dark. But I did find my hotel. And I have to say, there was something very charming about going on the night train.

Yesterday I saw "Harry Potter et le coupe de feu", on a lark, with Nn. I had met him for a very late lunch, to talk over my Stuttgart talk a bit; he was taking a rare day off, and when I suggested Harry Potter -- it was the opening day -- he was up for that. So we bought a Pariscope and found that Harry Potter was playing, in English with French subtitles, on the other side of the Place de la Bastille, in about an hour. That was just what I needed, though the legroom in the theatre was laughably tiny, especially for Nn, and the projector stopped twice. Ah well, for 5€ you get what you pay for. I liked the movie, anyway; it was just what I needed. I was impressed that J. K. Rowling managed to take advantage of the whole reality TV thing with the tasks that the students had to do, especially the second task, even though the book was written before it got big; or maybe that was just a stroke of directorial genius to stage them like that.

Subtitles are a great way to learn vocabulary. I learned the word "dément," which is how they translated 'wicked!' (said by Fred and George when they find out about the tournament); also more boring things like "tâche" for 'task'. Late in the movie I started getting linguistically confused; a couple of times I could have sworn they were speaking in French and I was reading the English. That was weird.

I had about an hour and a half to run back, pack, and get to Gare de l'Est. On my way down the stairs with my bag I had my first fall, down about half a flight, and my bag went flying. I have a bruise on my back to show for it but nothing more serious than that.

I went to Gare de l'Est by the 65 bus because the crucial bit of line 5 on the métro doesn't run at night these days. The bus I went on had a sign that said that une voyageuse had given birth to un petit garçon on a number 65 bus, on October 25th; that mom and baby are doing fine, and that the line 65 team extended a welcome to the new voyageur!

Before I left from Gare de l'Est, N (you know, N, not Nn) met me with some things for me. This was because a couple of days ago I had looked over the 30-page English summary of her master's thesis, for her graduate school applications... it had started out just as correcting the English, but really, the teacher in me (or the perfectionist in me?) couldn't help deleting things and organizing things a little better, so I spent a few hours on it. Anyway, N met me at the station because, as she said, she couldn't wait until Sunday to thank me in person. She brought me a huge bar of Ukranian chocolate with a little teddy bear tied to it.

The train was fine, the "couchettes" were perfectly adequate, four to a compartment in bunk beds. The door locked. I didn't think I slept much but then again, the call for Stuttgart came surprisingly quickly, so I think actually I did do some sleeping. I found the rocking of the train, switching from one track to another, very calming.

Now it's finally light out and I'm sitting in the hotel lounge until things open. Maddeningly, I can see a network, I have an IP address, but no internet. Check-in isn't until 1; I think I'll hit the Christmas market before then. I have some things to do to my slides as well. I forgot to bring the dongle that attaches plusqueparfait to a projector, but hopefully there will be something to do about that; I have a USB key, for instance. My talk isn't until Saturday. There are other people from Paris here, but we couldn't manage to go on the same train for some reason. My ticket on the way back is a general one, though, so I can go whenever.

I'm excited to see Rm from LA, who's going to be at this workshop and then at the one in Paris next week.