Some photos from the few days I’ve been in Paris.

Trip so far:

- Departed San Francisco to Munich to Paris

- Stayed at the Best Western Opera Grands Boulevard. Smallest elevator I’ve ever had the pleasure of riding in. It’s awesome.

- Paris is such a beautiful city. I am really in love with the old world feel of all the buildings. The people here are really attractive and so well-dressed too.

- Went to the Chateau de Versailles, Tour Eiffel, and Musee du Louvre. That Louis XIV guy lived quite lavishly. Tour Eiffel is a breathtakingly beautiful piece of architecture. The Louvre is too vast for my tired legs. Seeing the crowds of gawking Asian tourists surrounding the Mona Lisa was more interesting than the Mona Lisa itself. The Winged Victory of Samothrace was the coolest thing I saw here.

- The attention to detail, as far as the retail experience goes, mirrors that of Tokyo. colette, A.P.C., Comme des Garcons, Louis Vuitton, etc. Very cool stores. Didn’t necessarily buy very much but I was very impressed by all the higher end places I stopped by.

- Ate at Pomze for dinner on our first full day. Read about this place online and it didn’t disappoint. The chef at this restaurant has a thing for apples. Once you step foot in the door, you’ll notice barrels of apples, the walls lined with bottles of cider, etc. Every single dish on the menu, from the starters to the main courses to the desserts, contain a little or a lot of apple. Amazing food.

- Ate at La Boussole the next night. One of the girls working at A.P.C., on rue Madame, suggested the place. This place was French food with a hint of an Indian influence. One of those local places one would never find if you didn’t live in the area.

- It’s raining like hell! Zurich tomorrow. More pictures to come.

These past few months flew by. Between not going to school and working at UCSF, I feel like I wasted a lot of my time but also grew up a lot. I feel like this time helped me appreciate the time I had spent at SDSU. I can’t fucking wait to go back.

So yeah, see you guys next year. I’m going to Europe.

by Camera Obscura

Are my eyes the coldest blue?

You said once this was true

If it is I don’t know what I’ll do

‘Cause I’m stuck with them

And they’re stuck on you.

They used “lazy, lazy snake” in a song. How can you not love that? My Maudlin Career is the best pop album of 2009. What’s a Lady Gaga?

These cupcakes are from Miette Patisserie and Confiserie in San Francisco. I walked by the place and their cupcakes reminded me of the cupcakes I had from ChikaLicious in Manhattan.

Girls – Album

California sun-bleached pop riddled with teen angst and nostalgia. For the record, this was my favorite album of the year.

Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion

Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career

The xx – xx

Asobi Seksu – Hush

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart – The Pains of Being Pure At Heart

The Antlers – Hospice

Neon Indian – Psychic Chasms

Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca

My mistake. I really liked Battle Studies but there is no way it was better than Bitte Orca. I have no idea how I forgot about this album when I was compiling this list.

by Beach House

Great band. Haunting voice.

I can’t sleep. I haven’t been able to for the past few days. Before that, I was falling asleep at strange hours but at least I could still get a good nights (or days) rest. Now I try to go to bed and I wake up two hours later.

I’m not sure what the problem is. I spent the past hour looking at Comme des Garcons stuff and wondering what it’d be like to be an eccentric millionaire that could afford their clothing. Oh yeah, Tetris too. There’s always Tetris. Also, I have to say the new EP by The Pains of Being Pure At Heart is excellent.

by Memory Tapes

Shawl collar cardigan and gingham shirt. Both from GAP.

When I was younger, I use to go out to the city with my mom on Saturday’s to just kick it in the city. I didn’t have a car or drive so I would just catch a ride with her out. She would head out to the city early in the morning in order to get breakfast and then start work. Those mornings, we’d go to these cha chan tang’s. They’re basically Chinese cafe’s. They have all kinds of HK variations of breakfast foods. Instant noodle with spam/fried egg, pickled vegetables with pork vermicelli, macaroni and ham soup, egg sandwich etc. Bizarre if you’re not Chinese I guess. I really liked those breakfasts though so I started up doing this again by myself. Whenever I have some time during the morning on the days I work, I try to go eat breakfast at a cha chan tang. It’s different now that I’m older though. I’m eating alone and I’m ordering by myself now. My Chinese is not on point so when I order my food it sounds like a mash-up of Chinese and English. For example, one time I ordered the instant noodles in perfect Cantonese (Chan yuk daan gong jai mien) but then the waitress asked me how I liked my eggs. I froze for like ten seconds and then muttered “over easy.”

I guess this is a small way that I am trying to retain the Chinese upbringing I have. This is one of the few things I feel like I have control over. My grasp of the Chinese language may fade with time, my already tiny understanding of Chinese traditions may completely disappear, and my total ignorance to the Chinese calendar and it’s holidays may make me only Chinese in appearance… but at least I’ll still know where to go to get a daan ji (egg sandwich) and HK lai cha (milk tea.)