The Transatlantic Tour

San Francisco, USA 🇺🇸

After being home for just a week (during which time I was a guest on the Talk Python to Me live stream podcast), I was once again heading to the airport. My first stop was San Francisco to present my talk, Data Morph: A Cautionary Tale of Summary Statistics, and have a book signing at ODSC West. I arrived in San Francisco in the evening and went to bed right away – the stop after this would be Europe, so I figured it would be easier to stay closer to my home timezone than to try to adjust for just a couple of days.

I worked the following morning before heading over to the venue in the afternoon. The book signing was first. We were supposed to have ten books, but two of them walked out before the event somehow (this remains an unsolved mystery). The first person in line mentioned that he was a "big fan of my work" after asking what the title of the book was, which made me suspicious, so I called him on it and asked him what in particular he liked. I got a lackluster answer before he admitted that his students have mentioned to him that they find my work helpful.

I ended up signing nine books because for the first time someone had actually remembered to bring their copy to the event. This reader was also visibly nervous, which made me feel like a star 😎 I took several selfies, doled out advice, and chatted with many more people than there were books to give out.

A little while after the book signing wrapped up, I gave my talk. Afterward, a statistics major at Harvard told me that they could definitely see using Data Morph in the classroom and contributing to it – they also mentioned that they would show it to their professor 😁 Upon leaving the room, another attendee struck up a conversation with me about pre-commit, which was a little unexpected for this conference. Before saying my goodbyes to the organizers, I went to record a short interview with Sheamus McGovern, the founder of ODSC, about Data Morph and what I presented.

During the night, I heard this really loud bang that woke me up. I turned on the lights, but didn't see anything. It wasn't until the morning when I went to the bathroom (thankfully, with the lights on) that I saw what had happened: the three-foot-high metal cover of the ventilation system had detached itself from the wall and fell into the glass sliding door for the bathroom. This also blocked the way to the bathroom and the exit of the hotel room. I put it back, but it fell once more ten minutes or so later. This made it fun to pack and eventually leave the room. Upon checkout, I reported it to the hotel (with pictures) and was given a bunch of points (I'll take it!).

Strasbourg, France 🇫🇷

I worked for a few hours from my hotel room before heading to the airport for my first red-eye to Europe from a US city other than my home. At the Air France lounge, I had the best French 75 of my life – completely changed my mind about that drink. The food was also really good (much better than the business-class meal on the plane).

Once I arrived at my seat, I noticed a pair of shoes was already there, but no one came to claim them. I alerted a flight attendant, and she removed them (no one was looking for them, so we thought somehow someone had left the previous flight without their shoes and the cleaning crew had missed them). It wasn't until 10+ hours had passed that the woman in front of me asked if her shoes were there – did she think I was supposed to hold on to them for her?!

Upon arrival in Paris, I picked up my luggage and went to catch my connecting train to Strasbourg. This was the first time I had ever seen a connecting train ticket, and thankfully, it all went smoothly without delays.

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I got to Strasbourg in the afternoon. Despite getting to the Maison Rouge hotel exactly at the stated check-in time, they said it would be another hour before my room was ready because they wanted to upgrade me. I had them book me a table for the hotel restaurant, which looked very good, and went for a stroll around, trying to stay awake. The Strasbourg Cathedral was close by and a marvel to see both outside and inside with its astronomical clock.

While it wasn't cold and I was somewhat bundled up, it was definitely chilly there, and I found myself sniffling by the time I got back to the hotel to freshen up before dinner at Le 1387. The seasonal meal featured Alsatian flavors, and I could see the influences from Germany. As is usually the case in Europe, I was there quite a long time, and nearly falling asleep by the time I got the bill. I headed straight to bed afterward.

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The following morning I woke up with a sore throat. To my dismay, the first aid kit I had was all out of cold medicine,¹ and all I had were a few cough drops (or cough sweets as I would later learn that the Brits call them, which makes a lot of sense). Normally, this wouldn't have been a big deal as I was in a city and in theory could have gone to a pharmacy; however, the compounding factor was that it was All Saints Day, which is a national holiday in France and everything was closed.

It didn't occur to me that the pharmacies would be closed, so I mustered up the strength to leave the room and search for one armed with my cough drops and a packet of tissues. First, I headed to the hotel breakfast, which they had comped for my stay thanks to my status (it was outrageously priced to actually pay for it, but also very good); I tried all the juices in the hopes that it would help my throat a little. By the time I got outside, it was the afternoon, and I headed toward the tourist areas thinking that would be where something could be open.

No dice, but I did happen upon one of those free walking tours, so I tagged along in the hope that it would bring me to another area that would have some medicine. This also didn't work out, and I was presenting a 2.5-hour workshop the following morning, so I grabbed an early dinner of chicken cordon bleu with Munster cheese sauce at La Fignette and called it a night.

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The morning of my pandas workshop, I still had the sore throat (and thankfully, my voice). On the way to the venue, I didn't see any pharmacies, so I grabbed some hydration and channeled all the energy I could to make it through. This was actually the second time I've presented while sick; although, this time was like child's play compared to the previous episode, which was after a being up all night with food poisoning at last year's PyCon CZ.

I had a small group, and I did the best I could. People did have kind words for me at the end, so I'll count it as a win. I headed right back to the hotel afterward to lay down under the covers. That evening was the social event, and I had already bought the ticket, so I focused on resting up.

My plan for the social event was to be in and out (get my flammekueche/tarte flambée for dinner and head back) because I felt pretty awful at that point, but I quickly bumped into people I had met at other conferences or in my workshop. One of these people warmly said it was nice to see me again, and I couldn't place the face (happens a lot). The best part is that she immediately called me on it (which I appreciated), and then told me that we had met at EuroSciPy a little over a year ago in my workshop. I ended up chatting with her until the event closed down.

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In the morning, I had my talk, Getting Started with Open Source Contributions. While talking was quite tough, thankfully, my voice held out for the duration of my presentation. The feedback was very positive with one attendee writing, "Love the structure, 5 steps to evaluate a potential project, 5 steps for a task, etc[.] Also[,] the examples are very actionable. Can't wait to see if I can use your tips to find a way to start contributing to the projects I use daily. Also[,] the examples from your own work help to understand what you mean every step of the talk. Great talk!" ❤️

Here's where my second error was with regards to the medicine. I figured I could get it after my morning talk, but it was Sunday, and everything was once again closed 😞 On the flip side, all of the museums were free on this day as it was the first Sunday of the month. I checked out the Alsatian Museum and the Historical Museum of the City of Strasbourg on the way back to the hotel as a way to warm up. I was also able to purchase some Alsatian wine to bring back, try a bretzel with herbs de provence on top, and get my token crêpe before heading to the train station. From Strasbourg, I took a train to Paris, and once there, I switched train stations to get the EuroStar to London.

London, United Kingdom 🇬🇧

The EuroStar dinner was very good (and much better than I was expecting), and the champagne was a nice touch. Unfortunately, I had started coughing and got progressively worse throughout the journey. I was heading to London to attend a six-day, in-person cybersecurity training (these are very intense, even when you are in good health), and I began wondering if I would even be able to go in person.

We arrived in London's St. Pancras International train station around 9:30 PM, and I went to grab a black cab to my hotel. Boy, was it cold outside! I started coughing even more as the air hit me, and couldn't wait to get to the hotel to get in bed.

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Without medicine and with all the running around, I was even worse the next morning. I struggled to get up, and the course had an early start on the first day. Thankfully, I was attending with some of my teammates, and one of them was able to pick up the temporary laptop for this course from the London office for me.

For the entire week, I took my scarf off only to shower, but I did finally start getting better after a trip to the pharmacy my first afternoon in London, where I learned the UK version (Lemsip) of the medicine I needed (US-version would have been DayQuil/NyQuil). The UK version's nighttime medicine is just the daytime one without caffeine, unlike the US version, which actually helps you sleep when you are sick (thankfully, I had brought something with me to help with that part).

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It was certainly a tough trip, but at least I have been to London several times, so I didn't feel like I was missing out on seeing things. This was also just a head cold, so my appetite wasn't affected, and I could enjoy some parts of London. Dinners at Dishoom,² The Barbary Next Door, and Som Saa, were highlights, as was the afternoon tea at The Dixon, where I was staying, the cardamom angel face cocktail at American Bar in The Savoy, and, as always, Black Sheep Coffee³ (for flat whites, toasties, and Norwegian waffles).

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The morning of my flight home was Remembrance Day, and while that made getting to the airport challenging, it was interesting to see in the streets. I was looking forward to getting home so I could finally rest and finish recovering from my cold.

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1. My first aid kit was also missing something I needed for my PyCon Portugal trip, so I made a note for the final trip of the year. ↩
2. Every location has slightly different menus (I've been to three so far); and all are delicious. I've even gone to two different locations on one day (unintentionally). ↩
3. Black Sheep Coffee is a must each time I'm in London, along with Dishoom. ↩
4. London is actually two cities: the City of Westminster and the City of London. ↩