Post-trip Struggle in Paris, Not Over Yet

The battery died on me again. I went out to Place de Bastille and Rue St-Antoine and the camera gave up after take a dozen shots. The battery is so small that I have to keep recharging it every night and I keep forgetting it.

I had to go out despite the post-exertional sickness in the afternoon. Yesterday was the first sunny day in Paris since we arrived and it felt like summer. People were sunbathing in Place des Vosges in shorts. I felt like walking on and on following the St-Antoine till it ends. But I knew better; I turned around when my fitbit pedometer hit about 5000. This morning I feel OK. and I don't think I'll crap out this afternoon either since I reined in on the distance.

And, yes, I did crap out in the afternoon of 10/13 as I thought I would. I felt worse yesterday afternoon, making it a post-exertional sickness, not post-exercise fatigue. So, it seems, the post-trip struggle in Paris is not over yet.

You can't really tell if the struggle is over until it is well over. I figured it is over if I could walk 2 days in a row. But the struggle means frequent post-exertional sicknesses. So, the end of the post-trip struggle should really be defined as when the normal post-exertional sickness frequency returns. And I wouldn't know that till at least one month has past from the end, since my normal pre-trip frequency is currently one a month. (In Paris, I had 2 so far).

Back to Paris. I keep thinking Paris has a lot in common with Seoul. You forget historic and architectural difference, and the street scenes looks much much the same. The bus ride to Place de Bastille was no exception. It looked just like alley ways in Sinchon or Sang-il dong with millions people coming and going in narrow streets with shops on both sides. Add to that the Norman demeanor,  it has more more commonality with Seoul than, say, Chicago. (I was going to say New York, but New York is so multicultural, it has a little bit of Seoul and Paris mixed in it).