I guess the joke is on me, I’ve had a sinus infection or something for like a month so my nose is always either running, or clogged. Sometimes both at the same time!

Couldn’t agree more. Destroying our planet faster just so people don’t have to write their own emails seems insane to me. Google literally wants to use private nuclear reactors to power their AI projects… Do people really think that won’t be expensive, both economically and climate-wise?

Not surprised at all. Pearson is the worst airport I’ve ever had the pleasure of passing through.

My brother and I quote this money to this day, such a classic.

“How could he see me?”

Well that was dumb.

No surprise that this happened at Pearson to boot. I don’t think I’ve ever had a good experience while flying through there.

Inyalowda!

Mine does that too. It’s usually only for around 20 seconds, so it doesn’t really bother me.

The key here is elevation. I’m 183 cm and weigh 95 kilos, and I live in the Alps. For sure, I’m not always hitting those numbers, but throw a couple of big climbs in there and it starts to make sense.

Try getting into biking. I burn 1500-2000 calories (I’m not a small dude) in like 2 hours of road cycling. It’s relatively easy on the body compared to running as a bonus.

I did the opposite lol.

No, good guess though!

This is all excellent advice, especially regarding France. Where I live, which is only 20 minutes from Geneva, you’d be lucky to find anyone outside larger towns who can speak English confidentially. And forget about it if you have an accent other than very standard British or American.

Europeans in general appreciate the small things in life much more than Americans. Like everyone has already said, try and relax and take it all in, rather than rush from place to place trying to cram as much as possible into your trip. Have that second glass of wine, or that dessert that looks amazing, or even that afternoon nap after a long lunch. Trust me, you remember those moments just as fondly as the big ones.

God I hope so. When I switched from Mint to Debian a few months ago, it worked fine. All of a sudden, one day after an update, it would no longer load. Since then I see that they’ve downgraded to the previous version, yet it still doesn’t work. So annoying.

Guitar pedals. My collection is fairly modest (20-30 pedals) but I have some neat pieces, like a couple Japanese Boss pedals from the 80’s. They are functional so I don’t feel like it’s a waste of space per se. Also they look cool, so there’s that.

Merci pour ta généralisation. Je suis Canadien (pas Québécois) et j’habite en France avec ma femme française. En fait où je vis (Haute-Savoie), très peu de gens parlent anglais. J’étudie beaucoup chaque jour en français pour pouvoir me faire des amis et vivre une bonne vie ici.

Nous sommes pas tous pareils.

Eh? My wife flew from the PNW to France with our cat when we moved. She gave her half a dose of the veterinarian prescribed knockout juice and she was completely fine. Of course, she wasn’t in the hold, but still.

Rare Quebec W.

I live in France, about 30 minutes from a major city. There is transit, but it’s not good, and has very few stops near where I live. Grocery shopping has to be done by car or bike as there aren’t any shops in the village. European cities are extremely well served by transit, but outside the metropolitan areas, cars are still king.

Mildly on topic: I recently moved to France from Canada, I’m not an EU citizen, and google isn’t really sure if I’m on vacation or if I’ve moved permanently.

Every single website now asks me about cookie settings. Most have a reject all button, but occasionally I have to manually uncheck some sliders to protect my data. Time well spent.

My parents back in Canada always think it’s some voodoo magic when Facebook shows them ads about stuff they’ve recently been 'talking about (AKA searching on Google.) Duhhh. Thanks EU!