Europe

Countdown: 3 days to the NCI clinical trial.

Spent last week in France and Belgium. Gave 3 talks, 2 in French and one in English with bilingual slides. Good audiences: in Paris, at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, about 70-80 people, probably 1/4 faculty and the rest students. At the Centre Koyré, also in Paris, a combined seminar of about 25. In Brussels, at a colloqium on "Climate Controversies," around 120, perhaps more. Great reception, lots of interesting colleagues.

Mastering French and worming my way into French intellectual culture has been something of a life project for me. I took Latin and Spanish in school, but I didn't start French until my first year in college. Spent a semester in Paris in 1978, then went back for a year in 1980-81 and worked for an American consulting firm. The job required me to interview numerous French tire tycoons (yes, there are tire tycoons). Since then I've probably spent another 1.5-2 years altogether in France and francophone Africa. Still, they say it takes 10,000 hours of practice to master any expert skill, and I'm still learning. The hardest thing is technical vocabulary, of which there's quite a bit in the climate science world.

From the HCL point of view, the trip was tough but OK. Wore an N-95 face mask on both plane flights. That's a lot of breathing effort, sucking air through a piece of paper. At least these masks had exhaust valves, so my glasses didn't fog up and the exhale wasn't quite as much work as the inhale. Had a 1st-class seat on the outbound night flight, so I slept as well as one can on a plane. Got in probably 4-4.5 hours of good sleep and hence was able to deliver my talk with reasonable coherence at 6 PM on the day of arrival. The return flight was economy class, but miraculously I ended up in a middle row with 2 empty seats beside me, so I could lie down and sleep, which I did, twice.

Didn't do much in Paris or Brussels besides tweak Powerpoints, give talks, and rest. I did get to walk around for an hour late the first night. Got pretty wiped out during the colloquium in Brussels, but it was so interesting I just couldn't leave.

Anyway, very glad I got the chance to do this. I'd been invited back in March, and I really didn't want to have to back out. My blood counts held up, just barely, and by means of obsessive handwashing (and the face masks) I managed not to get sick.

I'm really needing the treatment now. Drenching night sweats almost every night; I've started wearing a terry-cloth bathrobe to bed to absorb it all. Near-perpetual headache. Sleep's a lost cause.

Still having a hell of a time getting responses from my doctor. I sent him a stern fax yesterday, expressing my frustration and asking him to call me before I leave town on Sunday. We'll see.