Just a short note tonight. My first day on the RER. While shorter, it is crowded with business people and takes a bit longer to walk to. More importantly, I must figure out how to get out when I return at night! The station is Les Halles/Chatelet, which exits into a big shopping mall in downtown Paris. I was a bit challenged finding the proper exit, and ended up in the middle of the mall in an outside courtyard. I will say the ride home was much less crowded than the ride to work! I am proud that I was able to get my own navigo card and use it for the RER.
But never mind that. The coolest thing today was going to an "urbanfootball" club. Work has a tournement going on right now, and our ERP project has a team. No, I am not on the team, although I think I could do ok (if I wouldn't hurt myself). We had a team of mostly young guys and there was a tournement. All the teams were from work. The "fields" are indoors and are about the size of a basketball court. There were 4 fields. You play off a wall that is about 3 feet high. If you kick above that, there's a net and it is out. There are 5 players on a side (including the goalie). You play 10 minute games and see who scores. You play 3 games. If you loose 2, you are out. (We lost our first one). The team name is "Let's be together", because that's what management says for the ERP project, I got a t-shirt out of the deal! One thing that was quite fun was the cheering. Most all the ERP group went to support the group. We all got t-shirts with "Let's be together" on them. When you cheer in France you say "AAH-li,li,li,li....". So if Thierry gets a good shot, everyone yells "Thierry aahh li,li,li,li". And some of the women in our group can really yell this loudly! Anyway, that was the best part. It is a fun group! I didn't have my camera for any pictures, but some were taken. If I get one, I'll post it.
The other fun thing was taking the Tram. Paris has some newer transport - trams. These are above ground and very new and clean. You just walk on and off. We only had to take it from Le Defense to the next town of Puteaux (a quiet, pretty, hilly area). Then we walked to the sports center. The trams cicumvent the city. They would be a nice way to commute, but not if you want to be in the middle of Paris!
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