Thoughts on the plane home from Paris.
I'm on the plane on the way home from Paris. It was an interesting trip.
I knew before I decided to go that GP Paris would have around 2,000 players, and that my odds of winning anything ($250) were very low (top 64). I definitely didn't go because I thought there was a reasonable chance I'd make money. I just wanted to hive myself the best chance I could to do well at Magic this year.
The second half of the year has been very disappointing in that regard, and the fact is that I know that I was over performing early in the year. I'm not that good. On the other hand, I watch my friends, most notably Gau, do very well, and I know I can do as well.
In travelling, I've been spending time with the absolute best in the game. My hotel room this weekend was with Gau, the current player of the year, and the guy who's in second in the player of the year race this year. Most of my trips have been like this; staying with various masters.
I hope that I'm learning from them, but I almost wonder if it's a disservice to me that they treat me as a relative equal rather than a student.
I'm cautiously optimistic about Worlds. I haven't had much success at the Pro Tour, I haven't been playing at the top of my game, and I don't think I'll have time to be fully prepared. On the other hand, good things have happened for me at the last two Worlds and I feel like it's a tournament I should be good at.
How well I do will substantially impact how much I intend to travel next year. I'm going to need to do very well at this point for the answer to be something other than "much less than this year" although significant success early next year could also change that.
Regardless of how I do, travel after November will be minimal. I might go on a weekend trip or two, but there won't be any GPs until Valentines Day.
I intended to write about my trip when I started this, but instead, Magic came out.
Qatar, of course, was purely sightseeing/vacationing. We had a chance to do it at no cost given the rest of our travel plans, and decided we wouldn't have much occasion to see the Middle East. (I have a picture on my phone of a group of people with a group of camels in the desert.)
Paris was business, which is odd, given how terrible the business proposition was, particularly given that it's Paris and I've never been there before.
It turned out that the GP wasn't even in Paris, it was at Euro Disney, and given that I was only there Friday afternoon, Saturday, and Sunday, it looked like I might not even see Paris. One could make a reasonable argument, even to me, that if I was only going to be in Paris for one weekend, given the size of the GP, that I'd be better of going to Paris than playing in the tournament.
But then, why was now the time I came? I guess because it's when I had someone to travel with and people to stay with.
But, of course, this is not how I saw it. It wouldn't be true to myself to choose sightseeing over a GP, especially this year, and so I played in the GP.
Sometimes, while playing in a tournament, I can tell that I'm just not in it. I'm not awake, I don't have the energy or focus, I'm not playing my best, I'm not making good decisions, I'm not going to win--this is too hard, there are too many people. When this happens, it is important to be able to take a break and snap out of it. Unfortunately, the natural reaction is, "Yeah, I'm really out of it today, I'm not going to be able to win, I should just give up," which is not the reaction I want at all. I've understood for years that how well I do is tied very closely to my confidence. It was just too strong to fight this weekend. So I didn't make day two.
Remember a couple paragraphs up when I was talking about Worlds? How it's fairly important, I think might do well, and I won't have enough time to prepare? So we found ourselves on Sunday, not in day two, and not sure if we should test or sightsee. Seriously, we have no time to prepare. Gau's girl is going to be visiting him this week, there's a GP this weekend, and then we fly to Rome. That's it.
So we woke up at 6am, as we'd been doing, naturally--thanks, jetlag--and decided to discuss our plans over breakfast--Gau, Juza, and I. Juza felt that it was too cold, he wasn't feeling well, and he'd been to Paris. He wasn't going. Gau was torn, and felt that what we did should be up to me, since I was the one who hadn't seen Paris. There was some specific testing j was curious about, but I often can't stand to do too much in a row, so I said I wanted to start by testing and then think about going later--I didn't want to feel too rushed--after all, it was only 7:00am. Gau seemed to think this was a trap, a way to say no without saying no, as we'd just run out of time. Given that getting to Paris would take an hour, he asked when the latest we could go was. I answered 2:00pm conservatively. We debated whether that was enough time in Paris--he said that if we wanted to go to the Louvre, for instance, we would want to leave right away, and I explained that that's not really my thing anyway. I'd just want to wander around, see the city, take a lot of pictures, and eat some crepes--like Qatar but with crepes instead of falafel.
So we went back to our room and the three of us played Magic online. Yep. That’s how I spend my roughly 70 hours in France. What?
A little before 2:00, Gau asked if we were going, and added that he'd like to at this point. I said that would be fine, as I was getting kind of bored, but said I didn't want to be rushed; we had plenty of time. Gau looked up some places he wanted to go to to get something for his girl, and we finally got on the train to Paris at 3:00. If you're ever in or near Paris and want to wander around, there exists a day pass for the metro. I believe it's 15 Euros, but only about 6 if you're under 26. We had to get it just to get to Paris, but once we were there it was useful enough that it probably would have been best to buy anyway, so that was awesome.
Incidentally, while I'm writing this, there's a man next to me on the plane doing a ton of paperwork with pen and paper. It seems so backwards that he's doing that by hand, and I'm using a computer (phone) to write a journal/letter. Generational divide.
So, Paris. I took a ton of pictures, so I'll refer to them as I write this to make sure I don't forget anything.
When I got above ground in Paris for the first time, the first thing I saw was a couple standing on a ledge above everyone kissing. How appropriate.
Our first destination was the Arch De Triumph. It's actually just a giant, impressive roundabout, so we had to take a tunnel under the road around it to get there. It's pretty sweet; we took a bunch of pictures, and even bothered to set up pictures of both of us with it, which is rare for me. Usually I just take pictures of stuff. It feels less vain. It has been made clear to me that others might like me to be in pictures though, and honestly, pictures without people in them can be kind of boring.
After that we walked down the street toward the Washington Monument-looking thing. We passed a break dancer and some people doing Capoeira. We went to the chocolate shop Gau's ex, the princess, to him to go to, but it was closed on Sundays. They had another location that Gau wanted to try, and I was fine with that, since I just wanted to wander, even though I figured they'd probably be closed.
We walked through a park with some cool statues and a clever pond--it has a bunch of cymbals that looked kind of like lily pads that you're supposed to throw coins at to try to make them chime. So that got some of Gau's money. He even made me give him a coin to throw at it.
A little grove, some palace looking things, another arch, and then we were at The Louvre. Wow. I had no idea that thing was so big. Very impressive.
From there we took the metro a short distance to the chocolate shop--passing a street tap dancer--which turned out to be open. They had amazing looking tiny cakes. The largest of which could easily have been eaten by one or two people in one sitting, and it cost about $130. Gau bought 15 cookies for $33. We each bought one for ourselves. They were suitably impressive, honestly, but there's a reason that I mention that this place was recommended by a princess. In hindsight, I wish I'd picked up a box for Lex, but I didn't want to travel with it, and as Gau mentioned of his, it would be there worst ever to have it taken at customs.
From there, crepes. Pretty good, but nowhere near as good as the place Netta took me to in London, (thanks, Netta!) so I was a little disappointed. I think it was made with a whole wheat flour, which others may have appreciated, but isn't really my thing.
Next up was Notre Dame, which was also suitably impressive, and several more pictures were posed for. It was dark at this point, and we were still very tired, so we decided to quick from there.
We went to the Eiffel Tower. I wasn't all that concerned about seeing that, since I felt like I got w reasonable idea of it from the 1/3rd size version in Prague. Ok, that was naive. If you ever have a chance to see something 3 times larger than a really big thing, you should probably do it--it's pretty impressive.
By the Eiffel Tower we saw a couple playing with a tiny dog. I don't like dogs, so I don't know anything about them, but this thing was really impressive. It was about hand sized and extremely fast. It seemed to be able to move side to side as easily as forward, and generally seemed like it might have been the inspiration for the displacer beast/blink dog, as there definitely appeared to be some short range teleportation involved. It also never barked, making it officially the best fog ever--sorry dog owners.
From there, an extremely short stop on Moulin Rouge, where I got a dessert crepe (chocolate/banana/coconut) to match Gau's earlier second crepe. At this point we were both very tired. We quickly dropped by what Gau described ax their Grand Central Station, but the building itself was being renovated, so nothing there looked all that impressive.
And then we went home after a satisfying trip to Paris. It was nothing as exceptional as some trips (thanks, Nadja), but in some ways, that's exactly why it explains my grandmother's suggestion to travel whenever I can. Someday I hope to learn to talk to strangers though. As I really think it should be the random people who make a trip.
I knew before I decided to go that GP Paris would have around 2,000 players, and that my odds of winning anything ($250) were very low (top 64). I definitely didn't go because I thought there was a reasonable chance I'd make money. I just wanted to hive myself the best chance I could to do well at Magic this year.
The second half of the year has been very disappointing in that regard, and the fact is that I know that I was over performing early in the year. I'm not that good. On the other hand, I watch my friends, most notably Gau, do very well, and I know I can do as well.
In travelling, I've been spending time with the absolute best in the game. My hotel room this weekend was with Gau, the current player of the year, and the guy who's in second in the player of the year race this year. Most of my trips have been like this; staying with various masters.
I hope that I'm learning from them, but I almost wonder if it's a disservice to me that they treat me as a relative equal rather than a student.
I'm cautiously optimistic about Worlds. I haven't had much success at the Pro Tour, I haven't been playing at the top of my game, and I don't think I'll have time to be fully prepared. On the other hand, good things have happened for me at the last two Worlds and I feel like it's a tournament I should be good at.
How well I do will substantially impact how much I intend to travel next year. I'm going to need to do very well at this point for the answer to be something other than "much less than this year" although significant success early next year could also change that.
Regardless of how I do, travel after November will be minimal. I might go on a weekend trip or two, but there won't be any GPs until Valentines Day.
I intended to write about my trip when I started this, but instead, Magic came out.
Qatar, of course, was purely sightseeing/vacationing. We had a chance to do it at no cost given the rest of our travel plans, and decided we wouldn't have much occasion to see the Middle East. (I have a picture on my phone of a group of people with a group of camels in the desert.)
Paris was business, which is odd, given how terrible the business proposition was, particularly given that it's Paris and I've never been there before.
It turned out that the GP wasn't even in Paris, it was at Euro Disney, and given that I was only there Friday afternoon, Saturday, and Sunday, it looked like I might not even see Paris. One could make a reasonable argument, even to me, that if I was only going to be in Paris for one weekend, given the size of the GP, that I'd be better of going to Paris than playing in the tournament.
But then, why was now the time I came? I guess because it's when I had someone to travel with and people to stay with.
But, of course, this is not how I saw it. It wouldn't be true to myself to choose sightseeing over a GP, especially this year, and so I played in the GP.
Sometimes, while playing in a tournament, I can tell that I'm just not in it. I'm not awake, I don't have the energy or focus, I'm not playing my best, I'm not making good decisions, I'm not going to win--this is too hard, there are too many people. When this happens, it is important to be able to take a break and snap out of it. Unfortunately, the natural reaction is, "Yeah, I'm really out of it today, I'm not going to be able to win, I should just give up," which is not the reaction I want at all. I've understood for years that how well I do is tied very closely to my confidence. It was just too strong to fight this weekend. So I didn't make day two.
Remember a couple paragraphs up when I was talking about Worlds? How it's fairly important, I think might do well, and I won't have enough time to prepare? So we found ourselves on Sunday, not in day two, and not sure if we should test or sightsee. Seriously, we have no time to prepare. Gau's girl is going to be visiting him this week, there's a GP this weekend, and then we fly to Rome. That's it.
So we woke up at 6am, as we'd been doing, naturally--thanks, jetlag--and decided to discuss our plans over breakfast--Gau, Juza, and I. Juza felt that it was too cold, he wasn't feeling well, and he'd been to Paris. He wasn't going. Gau was torn, and felt that what we did should be up to me, since I was the one who hadn't seen Paris. There was some specific testing j was curious about, but I often can't stand to do too much in a row, so I said I wanted to start by testing and then think about going later--I didn't want to feel too rushed--after all, it was only 7:00am. Gau seemed to think this was a trap, a way to say no without saying no, as we'd just run out of time. Given that getting to Paris would take an hour, he asked when the latest we could go was. I answered 2:00pm conservatively. We debated whether that was enough time in Paris--he said that if we wanted to go to the Louvre, for instance, we would want to leave right away, and I explained that that's not really my thing anyway. I'd just want to wander around, see the city, take a lot of pictures, and eat some crepes--like Qatar but with crepes instead of falafel.
So we went back to our room and the three of us played Magic online. Yep. That’s how I spend my roughly 70 hours in France. What?
A little before 2:00, Gau asked if we were going, and added that he'd like to at this point. I said that would be fine, as I was getting kind of bored, but said I didn't want to be rushed; we had plenty of time. Gau looked up some places he wanted to go to to get something for his girl, and we finally got on the train to Paris at 3:00. If you're ever in or near Paris and want to wander around, there exists a day pass for the metro. I believe it's 15 Euros, but only about 6 if you're under 26. We had to get it just to get to Paris, but once we were there it was useful enough that it probably would have been best to buy anyway, so that was awesome.
Incidentally, while I'm writing this, there's a man next to me on the plane doing a ton of paperwork with pen and paper. It seems so backwards that he's doing that by hand, and I'm using a computer (phone) to write a journal/letter. Generational divide.
So, Paris. I took a ton of pictures, so I'll refer to them as I write this to make sure I don't forget anything.
When I got above ground in Paris for the first time, the first thing I saw was a couple standing on a ledge above everyone kissing. How appropriate.
Our first destination was the Arch De Triumph. It's actually just a giant, impressive roundabout, so we had to take a tunnel under the road around it to get there. It's pretty sweet; we took a bunch of pictures, and even bothered to set up pictures of both of us with it, which is rare for me. Usually I just take pictures of stuff. It feels less vain. It has been made clear to me that others might like me to be in pictures though, and honestly, pictures without people in them can be kind of boring.
After that we walked down the street toward the Washington Monument-looking thing. We passed a break dancer and some people doing Capoeira. We went to the chocolate shop Gau's ex, the princess, to him to go to, but it was closed on Sundays. They had another location that Gau wanted to try, and I was fine with that, since I just wanted to wander, even though I figured they'd probably be closed.
We walked through a park with some cool statues and a clever pond--it has a bunch of cymbals that looked kind of like lily pads that you're supposed to throw coins at to try to make them chime. So that got some of Gau's money. He even made me give him a coin to throw at it.
A little grove, some palace looking things, another arch, and then we were at The Louvre. Wow. I had no idea that thing was so big. Very impressive.
From there we took the metro a short distance to the chocolate shop--passing a street tap dancer--which turned out to be open. They had amazing looking tiny cakes. The largest of which could easily have been eaten by one or two people in one sitting, and it cost about $130. Gau bought 15 cookies for $33. We each bought one for ourselves. They were suitably impressive, honestly, but there's a reason that I mention that this place was recommended by a princess. In hindsight, I wish I'd picked up a box for Lex, but I didn't want to travel with it, and as Gau mentioned of his, it would be there worst ever to have it taken at customs.
From there, crepes. Pretty good, but nowhere near as good as the place Netta took me to in London, (thanks, Netta!) so I was a little disappointed. I think it was made with a whole wheat flour, which others may have appreciated, but isn't really my thing.
Next up was Notre Dame, which was also suitably impressive, and several more pictures were posed for. It was dark at this point, and we were still very tired, so we decided to quick from there.
We went to the Eiffel Tower. I wasn't all that concerned about seeing that, since I felt like I got w reasonable idea of it from the 1/3rd size version in Prague. Ok, that was naive. If you ever have a chance to see something 3 times larger than a really big thing, you should probably do it--it's pretty impressive.
By the Eiffel Tower we saw a couple playing with a tiny dog. I don't like dogs, so I don't know anything about them, but this thing was really impressive. It was about hand sized and extremely fast. It seemed to be able to move side to side as easily as forward, and generally seemed like it might have been the inspiration for the displacer beast/blink dog, as there definitely appeared to be some short range teleportation involved. It also never barked, making it officially the best fog ever--sorry dog owners.
From there, an extremely short stop on Moulin Rouge, where I got a dessert crepe (chocolate/banana/coconut) to match Gau's earlier second crepe. At this point we were both very tired. We quickly dropped by what Gau described ax their Grand Central Station, but the building itself was being renovated, so nothing there looked all that impressive.
And then we went home after a satisfying trip to Paris. It was nothing as exceptional as some trips (thanks, Nadja), but in some ways, that's exactly why it explains my grandmother's suggestion to travel whenever I can. Someday I hope to learn to talk to strangers though. As I really think it should be the random people who make a trip.