friends visiting paris, reflections

yeah! chang soo and nina are here!
visiting from the good old bay area, cs and nina decided to use us as an excuse to take a vacation out here in paris... at least we say that to make our egos a little bit better, but really, who needs an excuse to come to paris.

i meet them at laduree of course, for some macaroons, and a visit to the arc de triomphe.


there's of course a mandatory break to McDonalds for some 1euro menu and 2euro chicken sandwiches, and after a bit of hanging out it's off to the metro to head back home.


welcome to paris CS and Nina! glad to have you with us!!!

-------------------------------

well aside from me frantically searching for my scarf that grace bought me... (ugh!!!!!!!!!!), and meeting up with grace for lunch with cs and nina... today was relatively unproductive. it gave me some time to reflect in the short time i've been here.

Europeans, as almost everyone who has visited here can tell you, are very different from Americans. from my brief few fleeting moments that i've had here, i can say for sure, that as americans... we have it all backwards.

i see the american dream as a persuit of materials. our pursuit is toward material objects as a definition of our success here on Earth. we work hard, toward success, so we can buy nice things. our dreams are for nice white picket fence houses, with 3 car garages, multiple stories, a nice car to drive ourselves to work in. and the only way to get all of those things, is to work really hard at whatever job we currently carry. it's not a one-to-one match to say that our work defines us, but in a way it does. we work... to get money... and with that money... we buy the things that define our dreams that swirl in a mad rush of what we think makes us happy. the white house. the nice car. putting our kids into presitgous schools. going to eat at nice restaurants.

so we work hard. and we work harder. we put in long hours. we are amibitious. we are successful. and we are 'happy.' we are defined.

here in paris... it's backwards. it's not what we do that defines us. it's what we experience. do people work hard? sure they do. they also take 1-2 hour lunches. they walk the streets en force during the mid afternoon. they go to restaurants with their friends to sip on cups of coffee, un cafe creme, un expresso. they don't drive nice cars. in fact rarely will you see anything other than a pugeot, or a smart-car. you don't see mercedes-benz (unless it's a taxi), you don't see BMW, or Lexus. you see small cars, that probaly are $12k US.

and they chat. they talk. they hang out. they experience. they may not be millionaires. they may not have a really nice house. they may not be sending their kids to presigeous private schools or home schooling. but, they live for each other. for experiences. for moments and memories. if the average parisian doesn't spend more than 3 or 4 days a week hanging out with their friends at a local cafe, or restaurant, or street corner, i would be stunned. they live life... with each other.

how many times can we as americans say that? i would say i see my friends back state-side, perhaps, once a week. sometimes once a month. it feels like our lives are defined by... going to sleep. waking up. going to work. working our tails off. MAYBE grabbing a beer, but usually not. going home. cooking dinner. sleeping. maybe see our friends on the weekends... maybe not.

lather. rinse. repeat.

are we, as americans wrong in our culture, lifestyle, ambitions? we have the largest GDP of the ENTIRE world. in fact, our GDP is greater than most european countries... combined. we have technology that moves at the pace of light. we strive for greatness, the desire to achieve better than our predecessors. we are successful, rich, and defined. defined. defined by what we accomplish and what we leave standing here on earth long after we are gone. legacy. no one is as powerful, as secure, as accomplished, as the USA.

but... do we live life? or does life live us? do we die living? or do we live dying... and at the end of the day... what's more important to us? our experiences? or our accomplishments?

of course there are no right answers. questions like these never have a right answer because it's so subjective to the individual that even asking what the right answer is... is absurd.

but one must wonder. what is more important. experiences or accomplishments.

even i do not know.

but for now. for the next couple of months. i have no accomplishments. i have no ambition. i have nothing that ties me down to the culture of the american dream.

i shall let go.

and live the life of pure experience.

brand names, and how they deceive!!!

here's what we've learned from paris so far.

brand names, deceive.

let's take... every patisserie that exists in paris of which we've experienced so far.
we've done eric keyser.
we've done la duree.
we've done fuchoun.
we'll do much much more.
and yet our favorite pain aux chocolat? is from a small bakery downstairs called maison jouvien.

another one?
angelina is a place right next to the louvre that is REKNOWN for their hot chocolate. if you read grace's blog, i mean it was good, but... cacao du chocolat's was much better. maybe because going to angelina's is like having a 7lbs bar of thick chocolate, melted, and placed into a mug that you need to drink. literally.

we finally got our cell phones today, it's like grabbing gum at the convenience store.
'mmmm i'll have... a gatorade... mmm some skittles... oh yeah, and two SIM cards for pre-paid cell service. oh, and 2 extensions on the pre-paid cell please. oh yeah, and the bubblicious. it's almost too easy. except at 0.28 euros per minute for mobile to mobile within the carrier, and 0.38 euros per minute for any other call, and having it cheaper to call the united states and other foreign countries from your cell (at 0.19 euros per minute), something seems to be a bit backwords in this country...

whatev. ce la vie.

phew..

phew!!!!

that pretty much sums up the past few days! mom, i'm back in Paris (apparently, she gets all of her updates from my blog, and i might have forgotten to mention to her that I was going to be back in SF for the wedding...)

well, sorry for being away for so long, it's been pretty hectic and i'm only now getting back into the rhythm of things. where do i start?

first off, on thursday morning, i got ready to fly back to San Francisco for Diana and Brian's wedding (woohoo!!!). and i woke up super early, for a flight time that i read wrong (more on this later). giving myself what i thought was 2:45 hours, i head to the train station to board the RER from paris to CDG, and find out that there's a strike. and the trains are all messed up... ok... no issues... so i hop onto the first train out of chatrelle, and it only takes me one stop, to gar du surd. ok... i look up on the board, and for some reason, the train i'm on... is going BACK to chatrelle. not having a clue WTF is going on, i decide to play it safe, and hop off the train. and yep, the train starts going back from whence i came. sweet. so i dook around the gar du surd train station, and finally make my way to one that should take me to CDG. except the train i need to be on, has just closed their doors and has taken off. the next train? 30 minutes.

30 minutes later i finally board the train (by this time, by my watch i have about 2:00 left before my flight leaves), and it starts trucking along. thinking i'll get there with 1:30 left to spare by the time i arrive, i'm not panicking. until the train stops at a random stop, and the train operator tells everyone to get off. seriously?! so we get off the train, head to another platform, where we have to wait for another train to come pick us up. in 30 minutes. blood pressure starts to rise.

30 minutes later, with me itching to kill someone, we hop on the train (now i only have 55 minutes before my flight departs) so, i wip out my phone in a panic, flip on the internet (screw the roaming charges!), and check my flight to see who I should call. only to realize... my flight isn't at 11:15AM. it's at 11:50... someone up there is looking out for me... big time.

well that pretty much is my horror story of trying to get to the wedding, aside from that, i was blessed to be in the new United Airlines business class international seats... that are... lie flat. AND they ended up giving me first class from Chicago to SF (with this cool professor I met on the Paris leg getting me into Red Carpet...). naht... too.. shabby.

i got to SF, got picked up by chang soo, and then... of course, we went... to Chipotle. CS is the MAN for recommending that. couldn't have asked for a better meal upon return.

brian and diana's wedding went without a hitch and was beautiful. they ended up having it inside instead of outside when this freak 2 day storm came roaring through san francisco for some reason, but inside being just as nice and the ceremony, reception, and dance were all fantastic and flawless. here are some pictures:

gents only picture a-top brian's condo complex:



and at the wedding:





my flight home... was thankfully, uneventful. first class from SFO->ORD was unbelievable, and international business back to CDG was just as nice as coming home. i'm not sure HOW in the world i'll ever be able to go back to economy without silently throwing daggers with my eyes at all of the comfortable business class people on the flight.

well upon my return, Grace had just started culinary school! so she whipped on the uniform, and show cased it for me, and i gotta say, she looks STUNNING! i mean, it's as if she was MADE for the uniform! it's incredible isn't it??? oui chef.



yeah, my girlfriend's a cook! and a hottie at that! oui chef!!!

this concludes the most obvious statement in the world, which of course i knew at day 1. i am the luckiest man in the world. the known universe. and the unknown one as well. oui chef!!!

the last dance - museum watch comes to a close

phew, the last of the museums are finally down and completed. hopefully the rest of the blogs from here on out won't be so 'recap'ish and will be more geared toward how we are doing personally over here in paris and what we are learning. i already have a sense of what my next blog will be about (european culture vs american culture) which will definitely be more analytical vs. just about what we did that day.

but to continue on for now, today's blog is about what we did today :) today's agenda was the musee d'orsay, the army museum (and naploean's tomb), and musee rodin.

musee d'orsay was by far my favorite of museums. the impressionist paintings there were incredible, and although grace will say her favorite was the van goghs, i'd have to say my favorite were the monets. monet's color scheme and ability to capture the beauty of nature really calls to me.

some pictures from the interior of the musee (also post-processed... i seem to be on a post-processing kick...


impressionist paintings really capture contrasts, such as this picture below of a naked woman with two fully clothed men. i'm not making this up. seriously. i mean i copied the statement above straight from rick steves! it's legit! and of course plagerism is the heart of all great journalism.


and of course we had to see grace's favorite in van gogh. who shot himself after chopping off one of his ears... monet never did that... ;)


there's a brilliant ball-room in the musee, where rich people used to gather here and play hoops. wrong type of ball? what do you mean? ball rooms are for dancing??? why call it a ball then? there's no ball in that!!! see now a basketball room can be called a ball room because a basketball is a ball you see and *SLAP!!!!* grace tells me to shut up now. anyway the room was absolutely gorgeous, and after giving grace a quick spin and a little dance, we moved on :)


with my two left feet dancing with grace, it's obvious that the next picture is dante's gates of hell by rodin.


we followed this by a trip to the army museum, and napolean's tomb. for you army war buffs, the army museum will be your cure to all sorts of ails, but for me, napolean's tomb took the cake. the outside was a magnificent dome, covered with all sorts of opluence. i guess napolean was making up for something eh? his HEIGHT people his HEIGHT! geeze, get your mind out of the gutter. oh you were thinking his height? and not his... oh... so my mind is in the gutter? *gulp*




at that time, it was time for a break. so grabbing a sandwich, we headed to the lawns in front of the army museum and had a little picnic. she's really enjoying the sandwich. they say that hunger may be the best spice in the world, and we were starving.


finally off to the rodin museum where of course, in the pose that i take while i ponder the questions of the world on the best place to do so, the toliet, is the thinking man.


after a long day of touring, we went here:


on our last bit of energy, we made our way home, where we had cheese cake and madeleines and well, that's not too bad of a way to end a trip :)


until next time!!!

yesterday's post today - notre-dame, arch crypt, deportation memorial, saint-chappelle, conciergerie, PHEW!!!

ok so a lot happened yesterday, and after feeling a bit blah from the pure amount of museum exposure, my brain just couldn't take it, and shut down, and left me to blog yesterday's stuff today.

without further ado, i'll try and make it short and brief. it was a very blah day for pictures for some reason, i just couldn't find the right creative motivation or inspiration. so in those cases, it's time for a lot of post-processing. in case they look fake... well it's pretty much post-processed to death so they might as well be! :)

notre-dame. cool church, we'll have to attend sunday mass sometime soon for sure. awesome architecture, phenomenal history, but aside from that, as a tourist spot, just ok.



point zero, at notre-dame. this is the true center of paris


interior of notre-dame


exterior of notre-dame, with the flying buttresses (heh heh... he just said butt...)


while we were waiting for the deportation museum to open, we decided, what the heck, lets get some ice cream at berthillon, THE place to get ice cream in paris... and when they say "THE"... so do we :)


deportation museum. from hitler's occupation of paris, tens of hunderds of thousands of jewish and gypsies were sent to concentration camps... it just makes me mad thinking about it...


there's an archeological crypt right outside of notre-dame. would recommend seeing it, it's like a 10 minute tour, free with your museum pass, and kinda cool, not much to take pictures of though...


and then, there was the saint-chappelle (named after the comedian, dave chappelle), which was most definitely the BEST thing of the day (Grace will argue it was the ice cream, it's a toss up in my mind)... the stained glass... incredible... absolutely incredible.)


followed by the conciergerie (where they lopped off the heads of political prisioners during the french revolution, and bad blog writers... soon to be the laztiggre...)


after a long day of walking... and walking... and walking... we finally came to dinner time, where we found a cheap eat called Le Kong. cheap eat in paris??? well for my omelet, i paid 10 euros, for grace's sandwich, 14... with THE best butter for their bread... in the entire world. if you doubt me, i dare you to enter into this weird trendy place, try out their bread and butter, and see if it doesn't disappear in front of you in 5 seconds flat. if it doesn't happen, i will gladly pay for your meal at le-kong, on the premise that you let me finish your bread and butter of course


that's it for yesterday! see u next time!