Disappearing Act

Sorry I've been spending a lot of time trying to update my food blog.  I promise I'll post here soon.

P.S. I can't stop making Japan comparisons

Side Project

Hello friends and readers!

I would just like to let you know that I have started a new project blogging my food expeditions here:
http://calvininparis.blogspot.com/

Usually i would just post those straight onto this blog but because it will be turned in later as a project I have decided to keep it separate from my personal blog.

So I'll probably be switching off from here and there so follow me on both and enjoy!

~Calvin

Notes part II

updates both of paris and myself:

-so about the whole small thing. apparently its just a Parisian thing to make the Eiffel Tower look larger than it is. LOL. but i think that's only half of it. some things really are smaller here. like this awesome packet of NUTELLA.

-so cafe's are really really big here. people just sit, drink, and...watch other people. it's really kinda odd. instead of sitting face to face, all the people in the cafe sit side by side and both stare out at the the people walking by. i guess that's more intimate...

-in connection to a different aspect of the cafe thing, seems to me that there is definitely a much more relaxed vibe here. quite the opposite of Tokyo if i must say. My professor seems to have summed it up best when he said in Paris, "people work to live, not live to work." There's always people sitting at cafe's or on the metro or out in town even during the middle of the day. Sometimes I wonder if these Parisians even work at all.

-the architecture here is something else. within the city of Paris the streets are filled with buildings that seem so grandeur and decorated that many times t

hey seem fake. the running joke here is that it feels like Vegas; except the streets and buildings don't end and you're reminded that this is really Paris. It's not just traditional and grand architecture though, the fringes of the river and the city are decorated with more modern buildings and architecture that are just mind boggling. It kinda makes me wonder where all the creativity has gone back home.

vs.

anyway, i can't believe it hasn't even been a week here yet. The days are so extremely long (packed with good stuff of course) because the sun doesn't go down til like 10:30-11pm ish. Feels like ive done a couple weeks worth of stuff already. I have realized my self tendencies to be less and less social as the years go by though...does this mean ill be a hermit in 10 years?!!! i hope not. But this whole meeting new people all the time thing is almost wearing me down. My spirit wants to just be itself and not have to socially adapt to new people all the time.

Maybe it's time to put the travels to a rest after this summer excursion...

Quick Notes

I guess it's time to open shop again

here are some quick notes and impressions about Paris:

-the exchange rate sucks. i thought 80 YEN to the dollar was bad. try 68 Euros to a dollar. i changed $100 bill at the airport and got 57 Euros back. fun stuff

-everything is...quite small. i'm not sure if it's just Paris but the streetlights are tiny, the roads are narrow, the buildings are low, the doors are small, the kitchen, the shops, etc etc etc. it's strange cuz i never expected it. i understood small japanese things. but small parisian things are gonna take a little bit of getting used to. ill try to take more pictures so you get the gist of it.

-sun went down at 9:45pm. crazy stuff. only other time it was that bright out that late was the one time i went to alaska and the sun set at 2am. looks like i'm gonna be taking way more naps then i'm used to. plus the prof said real parisans eat dinner no earlier than 8:30. so much for eating dinner early mom.

-there's graffiti everywhere. and cigarette butts. 'nuff said

-I have come to the conclusion that McDonald's tastes good everywhere except it's birthplace, America.

-internet is a beautiful thing

Bon Nuit~