'tis the season to be gaming...

Every year, it seems that more and more good games come out to take up my time, especially at the end of summer...

So, right now I'm playing both Bioshock and Zelda: Twilight Princess. I'm certain MooBob42 will come by and raid my room soon if I don't finish this game and return it to him! I only just got out of the underwater temple, and I hear that's about halfway through the game. I'm 20 hours in, so that sounds about right.

Bioshock is... disturbingly fun. Between the "Lost" like mystery of what the heck happened in Rapture, to the survival-horror like whispers and splicers jumping out from the shadows and finally, the "big daddy" minibosses that basically kill me a half dozen times before I can take them out, it's a lot of fun. The little sisters are a pretty disturbing concept, zombie little girls that you can either kill or rescue. Seems that the muggle media is already picking it up as another sign that video gamers are evil!

Next week: Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. Halo 3 at the end of September. What can I say, I like FPS with stories! And I still need to start a half-dozen RPGs before school starts!

iPhone vs. Smartphone

Fast post comparing the Apple iPhone to my old Motorola MPx220 Smartphone

iPhone Advantages

• Actually does video playback decently
• Syncing podcasts and video podcasts is nice in getting new material automatically
• Google Maps is much better compared to the Smartphone version
• The web browser is usable for all sites instead of a select few that work with the Opera Mini browser
• The large screen makes showing off photos a lot nicer
• Camera does not take photos that are total crap... They are merely slightly crappy
• Onscreen keyboard is much more usable compared to T9 on a keypad
• The iPhone can open many files, including Word, Excel, PDFs, etc. from email attachments! I could never do this by my smartphone! The stupid thing would not let me save the attachments to the phone memory!

iPhone Problems

• No automatic switching of ringing profiles whenever you have a meeting scheduled
  • The iPhone has a physical switch that has to be flipped instead
  • Windows Mobile Smartphones have had this functionality since 2004!
• Calendar synchronization is broken
  • Looks like a bug in iTunes. The appointments you make in iPhone will be synced to Outlook, but any appointments made in Outlook will not be synced to the iPhone
• Lack of 3rd party applications, so no fun games, or other funny applications like tip calculators. This can be mitigated by using web apps, but the load time over the EDGE network does make loading these apps significantly slower.
• No "To Do" list, no syncing of notes.
  • Even though the iPhone comes with a "Notes" program, there seems to be no way to get anything you type on the iPhone off to your computer

Overall, iPhone is great for fun use, but I wouldn't use it in a business environment just yet. The Calendar synchronization bugs are a huge issue as one significant part of iPhone functionality is simply broken. The lack of full Microsoft Exchange support is something that also needs to be fixed before it can be taken even semi-seriously in the corporate environment.

Photos uploaded, more travel stuff coming

I've uploaded a selection of my photos from my trip to http://picasaweb.google.com/jensonho

Fun part about Picasa web albums is that you can use Google Maps to pin point where the photos were taken. I don't have the fancy GPS-capable cameras, but using the satellite view of Google Maps, I was able to find most of the places easily.

Still need to write up about my crazy, not-as-nice London experience...

Last days in Paris

I'm now in London, having taken the EuroStar train under the English Channel.

Let's see... the last two days in Paris were pretty wild, even as we were wrapping up our study program. On Thursday, we visited one of L'Oreal's manufacturing facilities on the outskirts of Paris. They have a nice auditorium for hosting guests and making presentations, not too surprising since they are a large company. The facility itself was mostly a "no photos" place since actual work goes on here. Inside the buildings, we were on a raised platform overlooking the manufacturing facility. This was an assembly facility for L'Oreal's Garnier brand where hair coloring kits and skin care products are assembled. I'm surprised at how many brands L'Oreal owns, including Lancome, Maybeline and even does stuff for other brands.

I'm sure everyone has seen pictures or videos of manufacturing facilities before... lots of machines, with very few people walking around. At this site, there were very few humans working, the machine almost fully automated, pulling supplies out from crates, performing everything from filling the bottles, grouping the necessary components for hair color kit together, to boxing it all up, assembling cartons and putting it all together on a pallet. There's even a complicated machine that does nothing but tilt a box on its side, and another machine that makes sure bottles and bottle caps are all lined up in the right direction! It's quite hypnotic to watch the machines at work, churning out hundreds and thousands of completed products. The only time I saw a human get involved was when refilling the supplies, or when a machine had a rare jam.

For fun stuff, I broke away with a few friends that night to go see the current show at the Moulin Rouge, "Faerie!"  We managed to sneak in to the 11pm showing, last show of the night, and when I say sneak in, I mean it! (Ask me about this sometime ;) ) This was a strictly no photos affair and I saw them asking people to check cameras at the reception. After all, this is a topless show! Still, that didn't stop people from taking photos using cell phone cameras... ahh, technology. The show itself was quite impressive, with a stunning display of aerobics and gymnastics, and the actresses were quite... talented. One particularly impressive performance was of a mostly naked girl inside a raised glass tank full of water swim-dancing with snakes.

Between acts, they had a few comedy scenes come in for the intermissions. They were quite funny, with little-to-no speaking, and reaches out to the very international crowd. You can also get the gist of the storylines as they are pretty dramatic in their motions, even if you can't understand the French songs. The show ended with the traditional cancan.

Friday was the last day of class. I was expecting to be completely out of it in the morning since we had 4 hours of lectures, and on average, each of us only got about 4 hours of sleep, but our lecturers were quite interesting and held our attention for the entire time! We finishes with ESCP-EAP with a nice buffet lunch, followed by an informal certificate presentation ceremony for each of us. Most of the class then went to Versailles for a quick tour, but since I had already been there, I decided to go to Montmarte instead.

Montmarte is on a small hill on the north side of Paris, with a cathedral at the top. It's quite an impressive building, one you can see from almost anywhere in Paris and has one of the better views of the city. Unfortunately, it was raining, so I didn't take that many photos. Strangely, I seem to always hit a church during mass! The streets around Montmarte had lots of small shops and souvenir stores. Oh, one more thing, apparently a big sale takes place in France every year starting on the 26th or so, with prices being cut by up to 50%! Many clothing stores and more had lots of things for sale, and the Parisians were out in force to snap up bargains!

From Montmarte, I walked up the street to the Moulin Rouge to get a photo of the famous windmill since I didn't bring my camera the night before. As you can see, the weather isn't too good, with rain coming on and off throughout the day. The area around the Moulin Rouge is the Paris red-light district, lots of strip clubs, lap dances, and various sex shops all around the area, with a few people trying to drag you in. It was getting a little annoying trying to dodge people after a while. I guess when they see a male tourist wandering around alone, they assume he'd be a customer.

After a brief rest at the hotel, it was out again for the evening, meeting up with most of the class for a cruise around Paris and our final dinner together. Quite ironically, the cruise was the last thing I did in Paris, getting a final look around the city and seeing all the sights I've visited over the last two weeks one last time. I guess if you're coming to Paris for the first time, it would be a better idea to do the cruise first :)

About the French/Parisians...

Some interesting observations about Parisians, or possibly about the French in general...

• PDAs (Public Displays of Affection) are common. Since arriving, I've seen couples french kissing in the middle of a crowded Metro while standing between lots of other strangers, couples with their hands in each other's back pockets, couples hugging in the middle of the park, couples laying down and kissing each other while lying down in the grass, lesbian couples kissing each other right in the middle of the store as they change shifts...
• The French like their bread. Every evening, I've seen people walking away from the Metro, on their way home carrying a couple of loafs of bread under their arm. Breakfast, lunch and dinner all have bread of some sort
• In fast-food/street restaurants, it is customary to just leave after you finish your meal and let the staff clean up. This is in line with the rest of the world, but conflicts with the U.S. way of doing things where the patrons are expected to clean up. I wonder why the U.S. has the custom of cleaning up after yourself?
• Eating takes forever here... 2 hour lunches, 3 1/2 hour dinner... when do they find time to do anything? It's nice and relaxing, but sometimes I do want to go somewhere after I finished dinner! On Thurs night, I wanted to do some shopping after dinner, but when dinner takes 3 1/2 hours, it makes it hard to make your next appointment!
• Service varies hugely, both in restaurants and other places. At some restaurants, I've had waiters doing their best to introduce the food, even when speaking broken English, teaching how to eat something, while other restaurants, where the waiter actually knows perfect English, they don't help out at all, take forever to bring stuff you ask for, even when you're trying to pay the bill. I've had hotels where they bend over backwards to make your stay enjoyable, while other places where you can barely get them to accept your room key when you are dropping them off. One of our profs explains it as the French being a people of extremes, wanting to takes both the good and the bad, where they would not be able to appreciate good things unless they experienced some bad, while Americans like to standardize things... I'm not sure... I think I prefer the minimum level for a standard, then be surprised when the minimum level is exceeded!
• Beggars are annoyingly insistent here... Then again, I think this is only around the tourist areas. In many places, I've seen these young, waif-like girls walking around barefoot, dressed in rags and running up to people asking "Do you speak English?" If you look at them or answer them, they hold up a piece of paper as though expecting you to read it and respond in some way. I've actually never seen anyone respond to them yet, and I'm wondering how effective they are, but I've seen them at three tourist attractions and at the train station
• Tourist vendors are also very insistent. When leaving the Eiffel tower, everyone on the elevator was raided by a group of street vendors selling cheap keychains and trinkets, running up to you and virtually yelling in your face "1 euro for two!" I think I counted 2 vendors for every passenger, with nobody buying! When visiting Montmarte, some weird vendor was approaching everyone and asking them to follow him to do something "related to the church". I saw that he was selling some weird string thing that goes around your wrist. The worst part was that these people were actually actively blocking your way, grabbing onto your arm and not letting you proceed. Such behavior would probably end with a fight in the U.S. I had to fight my way through these people twice in an hour. The first I just turned and walked in a different direction before he could catch up to me, but the second I had to actually shout down before he would back off.
• The French can be very friendly, and extremely unfriendly and snobbish... it all varies and depends on who you talk to, how you talk to them, and who knows what else...

Brussels & the EU parliament

Long day today, starting out with a 6:30am Metro ride to the train station, then a 1 1/2 hour ride to Brussels to visit the EU parliament. We took the TGV, the Europe high-speed train cutting through the country side at ungodly speeds. I guess I'm used to these high speed trains now after spending time on the Japanese shinkansen, so it wasn't that big of a treat, but I still like the convenience of taking trains instead of planes.

We all brought our passports, thinking that we'd need them for entry into the EU parliament building, or simply into Belgium since that is another country, but to our surprise, we ended up in Belgium without crossing any visible border, just showing up in the middle of Brussels when our train arrived. I guess the borders in the EU really have been torn down!

The morning started with two lectures on the layout of the EU government, the parliament, commissioners and role everyone plays. The bad news with starting at 6:30am in the morning is that virtually everyone was half asleep. During the lecture after lunch, I had to dig up some caffeine stimulation in order to stay awake, bad combination. I'm also getting completely overwhelmed by the amount of drinking going on here, wine, rum, beer, all in the middle of the day. I got overwhelmed by the little bit of wine I drank at the hosted lunch and started to feel dizzy by 1pm :(

In the afternoon, we got a rare chance to see the EU parliament in action. They actually let us into the parliament's debating chamber when the session was going. We got to see the German chancellor giving her speech, and the signing of a new agreement to eliminate cell phone roaming between EU members. (At least, I'm pretty sure this is what it was. Need to double check). Here's a photo of the chamber just before they signed the agreement. You can see the reporters all lining up in front of the table preparing to take photos.

What's also neat is that they have translators for all languages of the EU working behind the glass windows surrounding the chamber, with headsets available for everyone to listen in their preferred language. It's incredible how a union of this many different countries, cultures, languages can work together so well.

In late afternoon, we had some time to roam around historic Brussels. Having no clue as to what to do or where to go, we followed our guide through the city until we arrived at what was obviously a tourist region. This surprisingly church-like and old building turns out to be the city hall.

The only other "tourist" thing we did was to visit... erm... this statue of a boy pissing... yup, this is apparently one of the major tourist attractions in Brussels. Don't ask me why, I'll probably go figure it out sometime when my brain actually works. Interestingly, every French person who we told about our short trip to Brussels knows about this statue, so there must be some sort of story behind it. Directly next to this statue is a store that sells... chocolate versions of this statue. Almost feels a little surreal.

There wasn't that much time left after arriving at the historic downtown region, so after eating some Belgium waffles, drinking Belgium beer, and buying some Belgium chocolate, it was back on the train to return to Paris. Slept the whole way back...

Just two more days in Paris, then it's off to London for different adventures!

School in Paris

I've been slacking a little on the blogging, but that's mainly cos I've had a crazy schedule, early morning to late nights! Just some fast impressions here while my brain still works. I've taken some notes, and I'll probably post more in detail once I get more time.

Day 1: Visiting Atos-Origin, an IT Service Integrator firm, handles all IT for the Olympic games. Very impressive presentation. The overall impression I received from their IT services was that they tend to be very risk-adverse, which is good considering the impact of screwing up the Olympic games, and they are proud of working closely with the public sector, including the French version of Google Earth, IGN.fr

The day continued with a visit to the Chamber of Commerce, in a historical building that looked like it was another tourist palace! Current impressions: The Vice-Chairman of the Paris Chamber of Commerce & Industry in charge of Education & Training is doing his best to express the welcome of Americans to France, extremely friendly. He, and the presenters, were pushing the image that Paris is technologically advanced, including in the IT/software fields, biotech, and animation/entertainment. The fact that they are trying to push French as a business language is interesting as I haven't seen that happening much in the U.S., where English is the primary language, and people from other countries still use English to conduct business. I also find it interesting that the government helps out with businesses and innovations, funding research labs and "Tech Clusters" to help new ideas get off the ground, but the lack of angel investors in France prevents many ideas from launching. Many innovators are leaving France to SV in order to obtain funding for their ideas

An interesting takeaway from the dinner I got from Professor Piret (I think) was the idea that combining knowledge of two different fields in a single mind is what makes each individual very valuable to a company. Two people with specialities can get together, but since they do not share a common point of view, they would not have as many insights, or be as productive as one person who can see two different fields. This is definitely something I'll have to investigate in enhancing my own career.

There is a "wealth tax" in France, 0.55% of your net worth from over 700,000 euros. A lack of investors could be simply that the wealth leaves the country once they hit the wealth tax!

Day 2: Visiting BNP Paribas, the largest bank in the Eurozone. Our host was the CEO & President of BNP's new technology subsidiary that is based in the U.S. The banking industry here is very risk adverse, not wanting to compromise on security for the convenience of their customers. Also interesting is that the French are very brand loyal, staying members of a single bank for their entire lives, even when they may work for a rival bank! Competing on services may just not be something that is necessary since all banks have the same service set, and you have customers basically for life! Still, perhaps competing on services during the "customer attraction" points as identified in the presentation might be something worth investigating.

Final stop of day two was at ESCP-EAP, the European school of business. An incredible campus right in the middle of Paris. One thing that struck our whole group was how young everyone was, in their early 20s, unlike the typical U.S. MBA candidate. The internship here is where they get their foothold into their first jobs. Professor John Kennedy gave us a good overview of the France economy. Some interesting points: Employing people in France is expensive, with an additional 40% of the base salary going to social security in France. Due to this added cost, companies expect higher productivity, and invest significantly in capital equipment(technology). With a higher productivity, we end up with less employment, and hence, high unemployment (21+% for the under-25 crowd!) This is leading to young adults leaving for places like London in order to find jobs to survive.

Paris - Food Blog!

A long delayed post about food! After all, the French are supposed to be great cooks, right? So where is all the food?

The first few days, food wasn't that impressive... a panni for lunch, steak & frittes for dinner, nothing out of the ordinary... It was hard to find food at all, much less good food... until I figured out the problem. Being used to eating right around sunset, I had been delaying dinner until just about when restaurants were closing! 8, 9pm is too late for a decent meal, and sunset isn't until 10pm. More effort is necessary to get to restaurants in time for dinner!

About restaurants... I'm not sure, but I think the word "Brassiere" means restaurant in French since I'm seeing that word everywhere. Their restaurants tend to have a small indoor, and a large outdoor section just on the street where you can sit down and just watch traffic flow by. Waiters are friendly and speak limited English unless you're right next to a tourist area.

First "interesting" food item, Forie Gras and Millie Fille, two pattie dishes that are served with bread. Normally a starter item, they make a good mid-afternoon snack. The forie gras was among the best that I've ever had, and paired with lightly toasted bread, was just heavenly. This was at a small cafe near Versailles.

For dinner, Steak Tartare, that is, raw beef! This dish actually looks very daunting! I mean, look at it! It looks just like raw minced beef with a raw egg on top! I wasn't exactly sure how to start on this, but after just digging in, it turned out to be very good! The various pickles around the beef do a good job in contrasting with the taste, and the egg provides just enough moisture to make it roll off your tongue. Also, look at the presentation of this dish, every component carefully laid out around the main course.

With a little time to burn before tackling the Eiffel tower, dinner consisted of escargot. I was expecting this dish to be served in a specialized dish, with the snails already out of their shells, but in France, they are served inside the shells! The shells themselves are filled with the cooked snail soaking in butter and garlic, making a very tasty appetizer. You have to go in there and dig the snail out yourself! The waiter recommended that the garlic & butter sauce be used with the bread for even more flavor.

Oh yeah, dining in France is a very slow affair... From what I've seen, many Parisians sit down and spend at least an hour, if not more on a single meal. They'll sit, talk, read, smoke, or just relax while looking out on the street, and the waiters will just let them sit and not disturb them, none of this "how is your meal" business like in the U.S. If anything, the way I'm eating is much too fast. We'll sit down, order, eat, ask for the bill, pay and leave in the time it takes for a Parisian to go through their appetizer!

One cute little thing about presentation... On the way back to the hotel from Les Invalides, I stopped by a small bakery/pastry store on the way back to the hotel and bought a chocolate eclair (one of my desert weaknesses!) for a late afternoon snack. Instead of simply dumping the eclair into a bag, or just handing it to me since I wanted to eat it right there, the waitress wrapped it up elaborately in paper that would almost be origami! There's an eclair sitting at the bottom of that pyramid!

Alright, that's it for now. Should have more interesting stories next week, especially since I'm supposed to be having a formal dinner as part of the study abroad program! I wonder what food in London will be like...

Oh yeah! Nearly forgot... every hotel I've been staying at so far includes breakfast. It appears that a standard French breakfast includes corrisont, bread, orange juice, coffee or tea, plus French bread with either jam, or cheese, and sometimes a hard boiled egg. Quite a breakfast, though very bread heavy!

Final thing... as part of the study abroad program, a few companies, and the local business school here, ESCP-EAP have been hosting us for lunch. The 'take out' lunch box they serve here is incredible! Served in a huge box, with professional placemat, excellent presentation, an actual glass cup for water... I can't imagine anything similar in the U.S. Waiters on Wheels looks worse than McDonalds! And a 'buffet lunch', which was really embarrassing... we descended upon the buffet area like a pack of ravenous dogs, grabbing everything, piling the plates up, preparing to stuff ourselves with just that... Then the host comes around and tells us that it was just the appetizer course, and that the main course would be served in a few minutes, followed by desert and coffee. They eat right out here!

Shopping, Fashion & Paris

So Paris is the fashion capital of the world, oui?

The weather wasn't that good today either, with overcast skies, not worth visiting any major sites, not to mention I'm running out of sites to visit! Montmarte is worth visiting during a sunny day when you can get good photos of the city, and I'm going to be staying near Bastille at my next hotel, so there's no point making a special trip out there. Shopping in the Latin Quarter would mostly be outdoors, and I had enough of getting caught in the rain already, so it was back to the Opera district to do some indoor shopping!

The French department store, Printemps seems to cater heavily to tourists. They sponsor the maps that every hotel gives out to their guests, and offer a 10% discount if you bring your passport. They also have easy processing for the 12% VAT refund, and have a special Takashimaya area for Japanese tourists! Printemps itself is pretty large, occupying three buildings, split into men's, women's and home furnishings. The store is actually a historical building, with marble signs and stained glass along the outsides of the building, but inside being a complete department store, about 6 levels in each building.

Interestingly, the French make it a point to display the brand names of all the brands on a level, making it easy for you to find things. Of course, Printemps was catering to the brand-conscious, so it was almost like visiting brand-name stores. There was one floor that was labeled "Designer Fashion" and every item there was at least 400+ euros... designed by famous designers? On the other floors, there were other, cheaper brands like Nike, Converse, and Levis. Those floors were more crowded with Parisians actually doing shopping, looking for deals. Interestingly, there was a floor dedicated to the "Classics", where it seemed that people over 50+ found clothing that they liked. The floors seemed to be divided up by function, with a "fashion" floor, a "city wear" floor that seemed to be full of office clothing, and a "urban wear" floor with casual clothing.

Parisians do dress up when they go shopping. Tourists were easily picked out from the crowd, the ones shabbily dressed or carrying backpacks! The Parisians were dressed neatly, hair combed, often in long-sleeve shirts, casual slacks, nice dresses, high heels, or with a sweater fashionably slung across the back. I did see a few sports jackets over shirts and jeans from some young men as well.

Along the side streets were smaller stores with much more reasonable prices, and a different selection. I still think this was a major tourist region, but there were more locals walking around and actually shopping around there. A brief walk from the Printemps shopping area was the Opera region, where a beautiful Opera house was... undergoing renovations >.< Oh well, didn't take too many pictures, and didn't bother going in. Along the steps of the Opera house, there were many people just hanging out, Parisians seemingly waiting for friends to show up, and lots of tourists standing around and taking photos. There were two, what looked like Indian girls running around barefoot trying to talk to tourists, asking "Do you speak English?", looking like they were begging. Most people ignored them. A tour bus stopped in front of the Opera house, and what looked like American tourists poured out of the bus, lined up neatly on the steps, took a photo, and got back onto the bus... It was the weirdest thing, and one major reason why I'd hate to go on a group tour. Oh yeah, and almost everyone on the tour was at least 50+.

Business, the EU and France

This week, it seems that there is an EU referendum, some sort of major meeting in Brussels. It appears that there is a large debate/issue between Poland and Germany in the EU government. Poland is not happy, arguing with Germany over some issue, even bringing up World War II as the reason why their population is low!

Seems like the EU is not as united as they appear outside of the continent. Britain is supporting Poland, and the previous road blocker, France, is working with Germany to try to resolve issues... Quite an interesting union, treaties and various issues that each country tries to fight for, or threatens to withdraw from the union to get what they want. Lots of compromises...

Apparently the issue is to do with foreign job policies & powers of the government. Poland is afraid that since they have a smaller population, they will end up losing out since Germany has a larger population that they can export. They are also afraid that since their government does not have a constitution, that the EU constitution will end up overriding their rights. Britain is afraid that the foreign policies and social security systems will be overridden by the EU systems.

Worst parts of the Europe vacation

Let's see...

1. Catching a cold just before leaving, and the on-off, rain/sun, hot/cold humid weather here isn't helping. It's been 5 days so far and my cold shows no sign of letting up. The fact that I'm pushing myself and totally exhausted does not help. My nose is completely clogged up and I'm having to clear it regularly just to breathe.
2. Phone doesn't work... I think it might have been fried by the security checkpoint on the way over here. It says that it doesn't recognize the SIM card, so it  *is* possible that it doesn't like the networks here, but I think it is fried. Can't access the maps and notes stored on it, so I'm forced to go with my backup paper copies :( iPhone when I get back?
3. Dropped my camera on day 3 of 20 >.< It fell on the open lens, so it really is broken. I managed to get a few other photos out of it before it died completely, jammed up. I'll have to see about sending it back to Canon after I get back... however, I'm not about to go through the rest of the vacation without a camera! The latest SD850 camera (or IXUS950) is not out here yet, having been just announced in May, so I've picked up a Canon EOS 40D (aka Digital Rebel XTi). Expensive, especially given the exchange rates, but getting VAT refunded helps somewhat... still more then I'd normally pay for it, but at least I have a camera for the rest of this vacation.
4. Being completely tired - The fact that sunset isn't until 10:30pm really screws me up. I keep on wanting to be out until what I think is "evening", and since there usually are things to do, I'm not back till 11pm, sleep late, wake up early... I'm building up a huge sleep debt that will have to be paid back soon.
5. Sweating like a pig... the humidity just gets to me... Even if I'm not exerting myself, my skin still gets moist and I feel icky... and worse if I'm wearing long sleeves or jeans. The evenings are better, but it is still very humid. I'm going to hate next week when I'll be around Paris in a suit!
6. The rain! Paris summer consists of cool mornings, followed by the hot sun, then the rain, then the sun, then the rain, then sun, then... repeat until evening, when you think you'll get a good sunset, then the clouds come in again and makes everything dark and cold. Dressing in layers barely covers it. The weather here is crazy.

Central Paris - Notre Dame + others

Day one of being a tourist! The Louvre is about 15 minutes walk away from Hotel Ascot Opera, where I'm staying. From there, it's another 20 minute light walk down the river down towards Notre Dame, Saint Chapelle and Conciergerie. Started the day late today, had some trouble sleeping due to a little jet lag.

The Louvre is huge! Looking on it from the outside, I'm not sure how I'm going to finish that in one day. Will most likely go back for another half day to finish up the exhibits. Notre Dame was very crowded. Besides the usual tourists, we hit it right up in the middle of morning mass. Even with mass, they still let tourists go around the cathedral along the outer corridors so as not to disturb the worshippers. The priest(?) was speaking in French, and the cathedral was completely full. It's hard to believe that such a large, grand building was first constructed in the 12th century!   

After walking around the beautiful garden surrounding Notre Dame, it was time for both Saint Chapelle and the Conciergerie. Saint Chapelle is a small chapel famous for the stained glass windows all around the walls, depicting things from genesis to Judith and Job and others. While small, it was definitely worth the look, though only if the sun was out. Luckily, today was about the only sunny day for the next week. Unfortunately, Saint Chapelle was undergoing partial renovations, so parts of the windows were covered, and other parts were very dirty and barely visible. 

Conciergerie used to part of the royal palace where huge dinners were hosted (with 2000+ people) in the large hall on the lower-ground floor until it was later converted to a prison. The hall almost had a LOTR feel to it, large pillars holding up the roof, completely empty of furniture, just like any RPG game. The prisoner section was interesting, with mockups of what conditions the prisoners would have been placed under, including special 'upgrade' cells where prisoners could get some privacy and a bed, to 'private' cells if the prisoner paid enough to get upgraded to a private room (sound similar to LA?).  

One thing the guide book warned was that the Crypt of Notre Dame was hard to find.. and boy was it! Walked plain around it twice while searching for it, missing it completely thinking that it was the entrance for the Metro. Finally found it and went in to see what the original buildings and foundations were for the Notre Dame area back in the day. Probably not worth visiting alone, but with the museum pass making it free, why not!

It started to look like it was going to rain, but there was a half-hour long organ recital that came only on Sundays at 4:30pm at Notre Dame. Stayed for that, a selection of music by Le labyrinthe du monde et le paradis du coeur by Petr Eben back in 1929. I don't think I've actually heard organ music like this before, quite hectic at times and very dramatic.

And rain came... It was a 45 minute walk back to the hotel in the rain, so I decided to try out the Metro system. After spending almost 10 minutes puzzling over the maps and routes, I finally figured the two train systems out enough to get home. Took three changes, but at least it was out of the rain!

Culture wise... well, a few initial misconceptions about Paris were quickly destroyed. This place is as diverse as, if not more so, compared to the Bay Area. Lots of Chinese, Indians, Africans(I guess they wouldn't be African-Americans) running around speaking perfect French, with their own little stores and making a living here. Strangely, the Opera district, where I'm currently staying, seems to be a mini-Japantown, with lots of Japanese restaurants, shops, even a library. It's hard to get non-Japanese food around here without walking a distance away.

The tourists are about... I'd say almost 50% English speakers, with a few scattered other languages (saw a big Chinese tour group), with the remaining French. Everyone I encountered spoke English, though it is true about the French. If you speak to them first in English, they come across as rude and unresponsive, but if you start off with a bit of French, even as simple as excusez-moi, they'll become a lot friendlier and try to help you. Even the non-ethnic French behave that way!

Tomorrow: Louvre! Showers all day, so it'll be good to get indoors :)

Napoleon's Tomb - Les Invalides

Another rainy day in Paris... The rain comes in intervals of about 15-20 minutes, making it hard to get around. Coming out from the Metro station, I barely made it two steps when it started to pour. A quick turn around into the station, then after waiting for about 10 minutes, I braved the rain with my umbrella to get to Hotel les Invalides. This used to be a hospital for injured soldiers, but now is the tomb for Napoleon Bonaparte, a museum for World War I & II, and a place where they store relic weapons, including armors from the 14th - 17th centuries, and weapons from ancient Asia (Japanese & Chinese armors)

Turns out, I shouldn't have bothered. About 5 minutes after I arrived, the rain stopped, hence explaining why Parisians almost always just step indoors and wait the rain out. This building is where Napoleon is entombed, inside a 5-layer coffin. The dome on top us made out of 14 kg of gold, and the inside has lots of art painted on the dome, and around it. Napoleon's coffin is huge, 4m x 2m, and is recessed in a pit. Around it are various sculpted walls depicting him as an idealized roman emperor with his various actions. Around him, other people are buried, his favored generals and more. Just behind the tomb is a large, nice chapel, but it was closed to the public. There seems to be some sort of government building next to the tomb that had clear signs that said "no tourists".

Lining the corridors of this huge building were lots and lots of ancient canons, made out of various materials. There were so many that nobody really paid much attention to them, but each one was unique and had a small sign in French. Unfortunately, the English description varied between "Canon" to "Canon - Bronze".

The overall theme of this site seemed to be war. The World War I & II exhibits were pretty interesting to walk through, giving a good review of how the wars progressed over the years. They also had many exhibits with old uniforms and weapons. I found it interesting to read about the French resistance and how the allies sent multi-nation teams to link up with the local resistance to prepare for the counterattack against Germany.

I cut the day short since the weather was bad. It just isn't worth going from place to place all sticky and carrying a wet umbrella. Hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow.

Château of Versailles, Eiffel Tower

After sleeping in this morning, it was out for a long day exploring the royal palace in Versailles, then back to Paris!

Versailles... another huge palace, this one surrounded by a huge garden, private canal, lots of trees, sculptures, and more! After a long line to get tickets, it was straight into the palace to see the royal chambers, with a brief look around the art gallery with a few indoor sculptures. 

Every room, from the formal entertainment rooms, to the bedrooms and even the bodyguard rooms were incredibly decorated, with lots of paintings, statues, and many ceiling paintings that must have taken months, if not years to complete. Gold, marble used everywhere. The royal palace takes about an hour to finish walking through, especially with lots of school children out on a tour. Interestingly, this is where the Queen Marie Antionette was chased out by rebels during the French revolution. Though they failed to capture her here, they eventually got her and imprisoned her in the  Concierge.

The gardens are just an exercise in extravagance. Perfectly trimmed bushes, lots of statues and art... I wonder how much the royals spent on hiring artists and commissioning paintings and statues. The pre-19th centuries must have been grand. One thing amuses me though... I wonder what the kings and queens would have thought if they knew that these days, their private bedchambers were being shown off to thousands of tourists who take photos of their artwork, and their beds and private belongings every day! 

Back to Paris in another train ride, though hitting Paris at what I think was rush hour is a pain when you have luggage. Since the sun only sets at 10pm, I figured that after dinner, hitting up the Eiffel tower and trying to get sunset photos would be a good idea! The tower is about 15 minutes from the new hotel. Managed to get some great photos of the tower while the sun was out. Keep in mind this is about 7:30pm. Dinner was escargot at one of many restaurants around the tower. It was still light out at 9:00pm, and there was a long line to go up to the tower. My plan for catching the sunset seemed to be working.

Of course, this is the day that the clouds decide to come in at the last minute, blocking out the sun and making everywhere look overcast... Still, managed to get a few good night shots of the surrounding area, and of the tower itself. The tower lights up for 10 minutes every hour, flashing brightly in what looks... almost gaudy. 

Strangely, I seem to be hitting major events all over Paris. Just opposite the Eiffel tower, there was a large concert going on. It was definitely a major event, with lots of Parisians dressed up, mostly a younger crowd. Later, after returning to the hotel, I found it on one of the channels, some sort of music festival, with people going wild. I don't think the concert started until around 9pm, and it was still going on at midnight! I guess the French do stay up late, unlike the U.S. when everything shuts down at around 6-7pm, latest 9pm.

Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, Musee d'Orsay Pantheon, Versailles

Been out and about for the last couple of days... here's a brief summary

Louvre: Incredibly big museum, much too much to see. It's incredible how they managed to get so many precious pieces of art together in one location. It's almost criminal! I've never seen so many statues, paintings, etc. at once. The Mona Lisa is the most crowded exhibit, of course, with you needing to squeeze through large crowds to get to even see it. The Wedding Feast is directly opposite it, a huge painting about 30 ft across. When visiting the Louvre, an audioguide is necessary as none of the descriptions of the arts are in English. :( They also has a "Da Vinci Code" guided tour that is half entertainment, half guide through the Louvre

Pantheon: A replica of those created in Rome, this was constructed to pay respect to the patron Saint of Paris. It is also a tomb for notable Parisians, where famous people like Victor Hugo are buried in the crypt underground. Interestingly, this is still an active crypt as there are many spots still available for people to be buried here in the future. 

Musee d'Orsay: Next to the Louvre, this museum used to be a train station, but is now converted into a museum that has more recent art, including statues, paintings and others. It isn't anywhere near as large as the Louvre, but the inside of the station is quite impressive, with large clocks on the inside, and a large atrium where most of the statue works are kept. Works from Monet, Pissaro are on display here. 

Arc de Triomphe: The famous grand arch that celebrates French triumph. Many dignitaries visit or are honored here. There was some ceremony going on when I arrived, and access was limited as they had a marching band, what looked like military personal, and some important person visiting under escort. Managed to get to the top, where you get an awesome view of Paris. This is also known as a "etoile" or star since it has 12 roads leading to a giant roundabout. You can see the Louvre, Eiffel tower and other places from the top of the building.

Versailles: Royal palace about 30 minutes out from Central Paris... the outside looks pretty nice, though French architecture is starting to get boring on me after seeing so much of it. It is partly under construction... will visit the inside today and see what it is about. The grounds are huge, and I've only see maybe 10% so far. No time to visit the canal, or see the rest yet. 

Long plane rides suck

Made it to Paris via London... boy that was a long ride. Mental note, do not drink wine on the plane... makes me miserable and gives me a pounding headache that won't go away after a nap because I can't fall asleep on the plane :( Even worse was that I still had bits of a cold, so overall, the flight felt pretty miserable.

Stopping in London was interesting... The airport is old and pretty run down, as expected. London pretty much has the same security restrictions that the US has, shoes off, no fluids, etc. One thing that struck me is the English accent from most people in the airport. When speaking with someone with an English accent, I feel as though I'm going to regress into using that accent. It'll be interesting to see if that sticks after my week there in July.

The Paris CHG airport is even more run down compared to Heathrow. We had to walk down a stairway and take a bus to the terminal! Immigration was weird... There was this super-long lone that formed in the middle of the duty free section, just in the middle of the main corridor for people to enter France. There were only two immigration officers handling what must have been 500+ people. Interestingly enough, the line went very quickly, and I soon found out why. When I went through, they looked at my passport, then just waved me through, no questioning, not even a stamp(!). Customs was even easier... when going through customs, there's a door that says "Customs" and a sign that says "do not enter" and arrows pointing you to the exit, nobody waiting to question you on what you're bringing into the country.

From there, boy... I'm glad that at least the letters make sense and are recognizable, even though the pronunciation of the words is totally different. After I went in the wrong direction to catch the bus to central Paris, I finally found the bus, only to find that the first bus wouldn't take more passengers, even though it was 80% empty, because the driver had run out of tickets(!?)

The drive into Paris was fairly ordinary... freeways, lots of buildings, greenery. Vehicles are different, but it felt like any other major airport & city. Once we entered Paris, the architecture started to look quite interesting, and the roads simply stopped making sense. I tried to keep track of where we were, but quickly lost it... The sad part is that all the directions that I had to the hotel were *wrong*. None of them started from the right place. Good thing this area is full of tourists (British, American mostly, you can tell by their accents) so it didn't take too long to get help to find the way there... The city reminds me a lot of both downtown San Francisco, and Japan... narrow streets, tiny cars, lots of people walking around, run down buildings/stores next to historical buildings...

Tomorrow might be the Louvre, depending on whether I wake up or not :)

Travel Blog - France 2007

I'm heading to France next Friday, partly for vacation, but also for school as part of the "study abroad" program. I'll be spending a week there attending classes, visiting some big companies, including L'Oreal and one of the biggest banks in France, BNP. We'll also be visiting the Chamber of Commerce and  the EU central government in Brussels, Belgium.

As part of the academic work, I need to write a cultural paper about my experiences in France. What better to do that then to blog about it so that you can help me edit my findings! So in the next few weeks, I'm hoping to put up a new post while I'm over in Europe. I should have Internet access at the hotels, or at the very least, cafes around the city.

So, what have I learnt about France so far?

• The French can get very excited and passionate about things, like politics, but they can come across as aloof and proud. This is mainly due to their protectiveness of the French language. To get the French to open up, try approaching with some attempted words of French instead of starting with English
• Electronics, sports goods and other American imports are expensive in France right now. This is strange, since the high value of the Euro should theoretically mean that US goods should look cheap in France. This warrants further investigation
• The French place a high value on education and use that as a guide to social standing. The level of education, and the place that you went to school are two ways to determine social standing. While this happens to a lesser extent in the US, for the most part, it is wealth and position that determines that here.

Anyway, look here for further travel updates!

Growing old sucks >.<

Ugh... so I'm 29 now, and the last few weeks have completely sucked.

After my 1st big ride of the year, it took me most of the day before I got my core temperature back up to normal. That wasn't a big deal, but with California's stupid hot, then cold, then hot, then raining, then cold, then hot, then... erm... pollen weather, I came down with a bad case of the flu later that week.

That took forever to recover from. Medicine didn't do much good, even the stronger behind the counter stuff. I sit through one midterm sniffling and feeling miserable, only to find that my whole class sounds just as bad as I feel. I guess someone infected the whole class the previous week.

Just about when I'm feeling better, pollen season starts up. I've never had allergies when I was younger, but only in the last 3 years have they started up. Last year wasn't too bad, and I only actually felt bad enough to take Clariten on a few days, but this year, I can't even get out of bed without sneezing my head off!

And now, I'm not sure how, but I somehow managed to strain my neck muscles. Might have been from moving a new couch into the house, or it might be a bad sitting position at work last week. For all of this week, I haven't been able to move my neck much... turning from side to side causes pains in my shoulders and neck. Sleeping was a challenge as I'd wake up in the middle of the night suddenly realizing that I can't move my neck at all from the pain, and waking up in the morning involves physically lifting my head with my hands until I loosen up again. I'm starting to get better now with a regular routine of stretching after hot showers...

Wonder what's coming next week...

Flog - Wednesday April 18, 2007

8am - Tea + sugar

10am - Latte with caramel sugar-free flavoring

Lunch - BBQ Pulled pork sandwich with potato salad + potato gratin

Dinner - Weird Chinese marinated pork dish with strange tofu noodles + steamed cabbage

Stomach felt sink in the morning, probably from the weird chicken from last night :(

Flog - Monday April 16, 2007

Food Log! At Moobob42's suggestion, I'm going to log my food for the next week.

Morning

8am - 1 cup tea, includes 2 teaspoons sugar

10am - 1 cup latte (1% milk) including 2 squirts of sugar-free french vanilla flavor, 1 shot of espresso

Lunch: - Italian Style Roast Beef, Tomato & Herb Rice Pilaf, Garlicky Green Beans, Tuscan Salad. (Green beans weren't fully cooked and not fully eaten)

1pm - 1 can Diet Pepsi

Dinner: - Weird chinese food, 1/2 bowl of rice, pork & tofu skin, boiled cauliflower

Nice little applet from NYT showing you when buying a house will start to pay off better compared to renting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/10/business/2007_BU...

What I like about it is that it lets you play with the rate of return on investments and takes into account things like your income tax rate, inflation, home price appreciation, etc. It basically does what I originally wanted to do in Excel, and does a better job illustrating it :)

Personally, according to this applet, based on what I pay for rent, there is no way that buying a house would be better in any number of years :) I'm better off putting my money into a savings account and letting it appreciate.

Oh yeah, and hi to the only people reading this blog and bugging me to update it :P

(Ooo... I love this article... seems like this country loves to reward stupidity. So what if you screwed yourself over by not reading the fine print or making a budget. The government will bail you out! http://money.cnn.com/2007/04/13/real_estate/subpri...)

Cingular blows!

Yup, then again, everyone knows it, even the BetterBusinessBureau as they've been kicked out of it!

So I've been struggling with this issue with my cell phone since they "upgraded" their voicemail network two weeks ago. Besides voicemail notification issues that wouldn't go away, they totally broke the GPRS internet connection on my phone. Customer service is, of course, totally unhelpful. The first bloke claimed that it was a "nationwide outage" and that it should be fixed by the following week...

Which didn't happen, of course... the next idiot claimed that it was an outage in their WAP Proxy server... which seemed plausable except that it was hanging my phone just trying to open Internet Explorer!

Then, today, after my 3rd call, the nice friendly and extremely apologetic customer service rep says that it's a problem with my phone... and... oh look! How convenient. Your phone is two weeks our of warrenty! Would you like me to bill your account for $200 and send you a new refurbished phone? Erm... excuse me? If you knew about this two weeks ago, why not do it then?

bah, idiots... In the end, a simple search and firmware reinstallation fixed the issue. The timing all seems too convenient. I mean, that's an excellent business model! Wait for your customer's warrenty to expire, send a signal over the waves to conveniently break functionality, then offer your customer the opportunity to spend more money!

Seriously!

Here's the plane and our captain on the right!

And... that's it for photos! 

Wide angel shot of the Golden Gate Bridge... See all those little white dots on the water? They are all little sailboats! 

Golden Gate Park and the surrounding area... That's our right wing right there in the photo! 

Another shot of Half Moon Bay airport taken with my camera... You can really see the whole airport and the clouds all around it. 

Oh yeah! Found a few more photos on my camera! All the other photos below were taken with Jeremy's Canon Digital Rebel. This is a wide angel shot of Stanford taken with my puny little SD500 

Just before landing. That's Palo Alto airport right infront of us. You can see all the tiny little planes on the ground by the runway.

Unfortunately, the airport is right by the dump. Right about now we can smell the stink from the dump whafting up into our little plane. >.<

Still, you can see that we're lined up perfectly for an awesome landing. We barely needed 1/4 of the runway to land and taxi off it! Small planes rock! 

Moffet Field & Shoreline Amphitheatre. That hanger doesn't look as big when you're looking at it from the air... even if it is just 2000ft up! 

Oracle from the air!