After we met up with Paul, I started to really lose it. I could hardly

tell which way was up. I wasn't drinking much; it was just that the

effects of being up for two days straight on five hours of sleep were

starting to catch up with me in a big way. I vented my issues to the

porcelain goddess from both ends as my body desperately tried to coax

me to sleep. After trying some "apelwine" (German apple wine - nothing

at all like hard cider), Paul's kind wife dropped Konstantin and I off

at the airport. I felt bad for Konstantin, as I must not have been

terribly exciting company that last little bit - I was just passing

out. So we said goodbye and I stumbled to my gate a few hours in

advance and got enough of a nap that I didn't feel like dying when I

woke up.

When I did come to I found that a number of the folks starting to mill

in folks. Some even had Linux shirts on. I talked briefly with a woman

from USAID who went to the Geneva WSIS Summit (not the same as the

Geneva PREPCOM I went to). Geneva was apparently massive. The woman

expected lighter attendance at Tunis but nonetheless a figure WELL

north of 1000, possibly as many as 3000. Wow. I may have underestimated

this conference's size! USAID alone is apparently sending more than ten

peope. (Interesting side note - the flight wasn't long enough from DC

for them to use business class - they only permit that on flights

longer than 14 hours!)

Things seem a bit more ad-hoc in Frankfurt versus a US airport. Litte

details like there not being a physical gate to prevent taxis from

driving onto the tarmac and the fact that we pushed off before all

(most?) of the passengers were actually seated. That's fine, and

probably healthy. I guess Germany is a bit more of what a modern,

non-litigious society looks like. As a sidenote on this the United

air hostess who I chatted with on the way over from SF mentioned that

if United could get away with not serving food, they would. NOt from

an expense standpoint, but from *liability*. (People choking on food,

getting poisoned, etc.) This came up after I asked her what happened

to the hot food portions that were not immediately eaten. Yeah,

they're trashed. That makes sense.

Anyhow, they're starting to taxi pretty vigorously now and are doing

the announcments in English, French, and German. Geez, these guys

are multi-lingual. I feel dumb. At least some of the French makes

sense to me. 2:10 flight. Ciao!