Around the World in 26 Days

I love Disneyland! Today we all went to Disneyland Paris for our business visit. (Emily and I woke up late and got ready in 5 minutes. How's that for skill?) The execs of the park treated us with a nice business visit in a conference room and gave us a bus tour of the land as well. This visit was really interesting, as they weren't afraid to tell us of their big mistakes from the past and how they learned from them. For instance, when Disneyland first opened in Paris, the Europeans hated it, thinking it represented American imperialism at its worst. Sales stagnated for years, as Disneyland refused to cater to the Europeans, thinking the American way was better. When they finally decided to change (by focusing more on the experience, catering to the cultures, etc) that's when sales began to increase and they are now the top tourist destination in France. But it wasn't until about 2005 that it occurred. Interesting, huh?

After the business visit, they let us into the park! It looks pretty much the same as any other Disneyland, except with everything in French. But I still love it. Amusement park rides are one of my favorite things. We rode all the big rides and I also bought a souvenir water bottle, since I needed one anyway :) It was definitely fun to hear all the different languages in the park, from French to English to Spanish to Italian. 

After the park we went to dinner at this Turkish restaurant near the hotel. I got a kofte (flattened meatball) sandwich. It was pretty good and was pretty cheap. I have to watch my spending since Euros are higher than the U.S. dollar :)

On a slightly more depressing note, my foot still hurts pretty bad and looks like a tree stump, haha. KMac says it might be tendinitis. She rubbed my foot out real good and now I have ice on it and I'm elevating it. So I hope it gets better by tomorrow so I can bike around Paris! Let's hope!