Day 5

During the festivities of the preceding evening, Rachel, Kristen, and I, decided that we would meet up for a run through a new part of Paris.  For one, my distaste of using maps (which will come into play again soon), prompted me to want to do a trial run past the center where we would be teaching later in the day.
The morning was a struggle for all involved.  I was sitting on the couch deep into the musings of Tyrion Lannister, when my phone started ringing.  It didn't really click at first.  Why was someone interrupting my morning quiet time?  Maybe it was the fact that I ran out of espresso yesterday, maybe it was the intrigue of the book.  In any case, the second time the phone rang, I snapped out of it, realized that I was now 15 minutes late to meet the running group!  I ran downstairs and out the door, heading towards Kristen's apartment.  I was worried I wouldn't see them, at first, but when I was still about 450 yards away, I spied hot pink from head to toe.  Rachel wouldn't be hard to find in a crowd during this run.
As we started the run (around 9:20), I found that Rachel and Kristen also had a bit of a struggle in the morning.  Both had required NSAIDs, likely due to the 5 bottles of wine  6 flights of stairs you have to climb to get to Kristen's apartment; it's pretty hard on the calves, after all.
We made a pretty direct line past the place where the Bastille used to stand to the building where we would be meeting the students.  It was maybe 3 miles away.  This is when we probably should have turned around and run back the way we came, but the Tour de Frenzel was just beginning.
After visiting a local market and downing some small, juicy strawberries, bursting with sweetness, we started to jog back, but this time along a slightly altered route.
Fast forward to about an hour later.  We still weren't back, and there was the distinct impression that we were heading out of the city.  There was talk of finding a map.  I have a strong aversion to maps (and asking directions, which is even more of an admission of defeat), so we pressed on for a bit longer until I was swiftly and powerfully overruled.  To say the least, we were just a hop, skip, and a jump, away from home (at least 5 miles).  We walked for a bit, jogged for a bit, walked for a bit more, and finally made it back around noon.  C'est la vie!

After we finally got back, lunched, and (some of us) showered just in time to meet the students for their orientation, we headed to where the classes would be held, took a boat tour on the Seine, and then closed out the day with a picnic at the base of the Eiffel Tower.  All in all, a beautiful day in Paris!