Paris, France

Me and Nasi in Front of the Eiffel Tower.

Well, my next trip in my month of travel was the best of all, or should I say will have been the best of all as I have a few more to go as I write this. I had never been to Paris, mainly because I the French pissed me off with the whole Saddam thing. But I knew I would have to go eventually. So I'm definitely very glad I waited to go with Nastasja, because it really is a romantic place. So this was out Christmas present. We were there for 4 days and managed to actually hit up the major tourist things. We were very exhausted.


We spent the first day walking along the river and just looking around the city. We saw the Eiffel tower and Napoleon's Tomb. The tower was bigger than I thought it would be and impressive for a structure built in the 1800's. Napoleon's tomb was quite hilarious. Strange how he was considered an enemy to Europe and even France at a time, but they have his grave like this. I mean geez, the guy was exiled.

NAPOLEON!!!!!!

Arc de Triomphe

That night we walked along the Champs de Elysee ( all spellings are definitely wrong cause I'm too lazy to look up the correct way). Its full of high class shops, so we went into the Lois Vuitton shop. These people are crazy stupid, I never want to be like that.

Each day after we would go to a different area of Paris. So we saw the Jewish quarter and had a really nice dinner at the "best" Italian place in Paris. Most of the time we ate $7 crepes and baguettes. Paris is not cheap. Also saw the Latin quarter, where I was able to find a Starbucks! Nastasja was getting a bit angry that I wouldn't shut the hell up about finding Starbucks. So even though she didn't feel the same joy I did, I know she was at least happy that I shut up.

The Paris Opera where Nasi will one day be singing, of course!

Our next big trip was to Versailles. Its a nice place, but not overly impressive compared to other things I've seen in Europe. We did the goofy tour where you listen to the person on the headset. I expected more out of the gardens, but I guess it doesn't help that it is winter and there aren't any flowers. Oh well. We didn't walk around much cause Nasi's back was hurting.

The gardens at Versailles.

Nastasja and I in Front of Versailles.

Another of the main things we did was go to the Louve. It sure is all its cracked up to be. No way to do it all in a week, let alone a day. So we hit the main things, the Mona Lisa, and the old Italian and French paintings. We spent about 2 hours there. Plenty enough for us.

Walk like a Greek/German...

Wroclaw, Poland

The best part about my Army trip was that I had to stay an extra night in Wroclaw (pronounced: V-roch-waf) by myself. They took so long making the orders for me to go, that the flight booked up and I had to stay. No problem for me! Wroclaw used to tbe the German city of Breslau. But after the war the Polish kind of took it. Poish history is very stranged, But basically, it boils down to them being ruled by various people over the last 3,000 or so years. This is the first time they've really been in charge of themselves! Anyways, Wroclaw is a hidden gem. Poland is know mainly for Krakow (I'm going there for New Year's) and Warsaw. But this city is just as beautiful, just not as well known. There are 130,000 students here too, so there are plenty of bars all in a central area.

My new friend Max and the Polish people of Wroclaw

Well, I decided to go out on the town for my only night in Wroclaw. I soon realized I had a lot to choose from. So I first did what any other wandering tourist would do. I went to the Irish Pub. I had a few beers then asked some one where a good place to go would be. They pointed me to a group of bars down the street. I found a random bar and was walking around and heard ENGLISH. So I stopped the guy. Turns out it was another American living in Wroclaw. He proceeded to take me under his wing and showed me around to just about every bar in Wroclaw.

The river, don't know the name

This city is very nice and I'm glad I was able to see it for a bit. One very strange thing though. I went to Pizza Hut to get a quick bite to eat and they put KETCHUP on their pizza!!

Zagan, Poland

A couple days after I returned from America, I had to go to an Army exercise in Poland. It was a very interesting experience to say the least. We were sent as augmentees to help the Polish unit that is preparing for their deployment to Iraq. We acted as the higher headquarters for that unit. Needless to say, there wasn't much expected of us. But, for some reason we had to wake up at 5am and work until 7pm. So, we didn't get to experience much of the city. But there were still some highlights.

Polish soldiers watching a fire fighter exhibition in formation.

The Polish military has an "Opening Ceremony" for their exercises. Seemed very strange to us. But we did something similar to the stuff I did at West Point. We listened to a bunch of people talk and then marched in front of them. But afterwards, they had a big safety brief. And talking about it wasn't enough. So they brought in the fire department. Lit a bunch of shit on fire, then proceeded to put it out using various methods. They even brought the truck out and hosed down the entire building with foam. Very funny.

Polish Generals watching a demonstration

One of the coolest things we got to see was a Polish Military demonstration. It was all staged of course with commentary via loudspeaker. But for us it was neat to be able to see the notorious HIND helicopter in action. This is the huge Soviet copter you see in the Rambo movies.

HIND Helicopter

Polish MEDEVAC helicopter. I'm standing with the Pilot.

OSU - Michigan Game

Well, I decided if I was going to fly back for one game this year. I might as well make it the Michigan game. Little did I know it would end up being a game of such magnitude. I got to see a lot of friends and family as I was also home for thanksgiving. Mainly, I'll just share some photos since everyone already knows what happened during the game!!

The day before the game I went to visit my dad at work. He was pretty busy, but we got to see a lot. I saw the inside of Coach Tressel's office, where he has my photo from Iraq displayed. And I met a ton of players, including: Anthony Gonzales, Antonio Smith, James Laurinitus & Troy Smith!! This picture is obviously inside the stadium on that Friday, the field looked horrible. As dad and I were driving away, I was telling him about the punk rock band, the "Dead Schembechler's" then over the radio we heard that Bo had died. Eeeeerrrriiieeee!!

Me and Jeff Conn, one of my best friends from Wooster. He's living in Columbus now, so its good to finally have a friend in town for when I go home.

Me next to the Heisman trophy on the field before the game.

Dad on the Jumbo Tron as they were introducing the seniors. He also made some good ESPN clips of Troy Smith!