Happy Year of the Dog, bitches!

Again, another highly inappropriate use of the term "bitches" that I just couldn't resist.

Yes, it's Chinese New Year: Xinnian kuaile, gongxi facai (or gung hay fat choy) to all! I haven't been home for the New Year since high school, so I almost forgot how much of a big deal it is! My parents are really into it, and the feasting has already started! It seems to me that the lunar New Year is all about food and family...and that's cool with me! Oh, yeah, it's also all about the lucky red pocket money (hongbao)!

The Year of the Rooster has passed, and we're now into the Year of the Dog. If you were born in 1994, 1982, 1970, 1958, 1946, or if you're turning a multiple-of-12 age this year, you're a dog! Or, as I say to my sister, who is a dog, "Hey, it's your year, bitch!" Tee hee.

Check out your Chinese horoscope sign here.

Since one's year comes only once every 12 years, one might mistake it to be lucky. Not necessarily so! Be forewarned that whenever it's your year, it's typically a bad one. My year wasn't so terrible, but apparently an ex-coworker (and fellow Rooster) told me that she can't wait for the year to be over! Along with a couple of deaths in the family, her horoscope year was highlighted by an incident of her baby sticking a thermometer in her ear and popping her eardrum. OWEEEEEEE! So here's to hoping that the Year of the Dog will treat everyone well!

The International Hello! Tour temporarily regresses to a mere National Affair

The recent lack of blogging activity can only mean one thing: I’m in New Jersey, and there’s nothing much to blog about. I’ve been back in good ol’ Toms River (a.k.a. TR, River City, Tommy’s Pond, Mullet Town) since Christmas. Surprisingly enough, it has been a pleasant stay. Still, ever the itinerant, I got a bit restless in mid-January and decided to take a few trips to break up the monotony that is now my suburban existence. After landing at O’Hare, I actually got on a bus to Madison, Wisconsin, current residence of good pal, Julie. Much to my horror, disappointment, and utter confusion, my camera recorded no photographic evidence of the visit! Oh, where did those lovely pics of the sunset over the semi-frozen lake in Madison go? ::SIGH:: So pictures of my return to the Midwest on the first domestic leg of the tour begins with the trip back to Chicago:



Julie’s sweet VW “Jetta”ed (heheh!) us back to sweet home Chicago, where our first stop was the most excellent Superdawg (Yes, I know this photo of me is scary – apologies!). Apparently, Superdawg is one of the “1,000 Things to See Before You Die,” which is also the title of a travel book given to me by the lovely SuperXiao some time ago. I’m working my way slowly but surely down the list of 1,000.

Less satisfying then the sweet taste of Superdawg bliss was the trip to Harold’s Chicken Shack:



I actually gasped when I saw the green sign. “License Suspended”!!! My audible disappointment was not a result of any concerns about health violations (those fryers will kill any disease and eradicate ill effects of any vermin droppings!). I was just super-bummed that I wouldn’t be tasting that sweet chicken!!! DANG!!! Better luck next time, then…



During my visit, the weather was a very balmy high 40s-mid 50s! This is Chicago in January! Crazy! I know I should be upset about this climate’s implications about global warming, but it sure was nice. And, in such glorious weather, I finally get to see the Bean…er, I mean, Cloudgate(!), in all its uncovered glory! Last time I saw it, it was being polished. This time around, the bottom was still being polished, but at least I got to see the nifty Chicago skyline reflected on the sculpture. I almost forgot how pretty it all is.



The freaky face fountains at Millenium Park are now dry. I think I missed the casting call to be a face on the fountain.



The week of my Midwest Tour also coincided with the We Are Scientists’ tour date in Chicago! YES! I was disappointed that the New Jersey venue was sold out, but seeing the show in Chicago proved much more fun because it was a rock-out reunion with my friends! Julie, Jamal, and Rebecca proved to be excellent concert companions as always. Of course, the band was terrific, too, and the show at the Subterranean ended up being sold out. Seriously, W.A.S. rock and are very amusing! We stayed after the show, where I proceeded to act as giddy/annoying/teenybopperish fan. The guys were incredibly nice about it. Still, I’m really happy for the success of W.A.S. – the Chicago crowd seemed to like them a lot!

It was sad to leave Chicago, but I did so (nearly kicking and screaming…okay, that’s a lie). The harsh return to NJ reality was buffered by my almost immediately leaving for Virginia, where my sister lives and works. We ended up taking a roadtrip that weekend through rural VA to Charlottesville! Our destination was Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson.



My sister assumed driving duties through cow country. At one point, we stopped at a gas station to ask for directions towards Charlottesville, whereupon the lady allegedly replied to my sister, “Why do you want to go there?!?” Hee! Speaking of directions, the “Lazy Sunday” rap from Saturday Night Live may have proclaimed Google Maps as the best (“True that!” “Double true!”), but I have to disagree, as it caused us nothing but trouble and multiple wrong turns during the whole trip. I’m sticking with Yahoo! Maps in the future. Luckily, extended views of the lovely Virginia landscape proved to be an unexpected reward for our crappy driving:



Ooh, pretty!



We finally reached Monticello and learned, much to our delight, that the wrong turns were well-worth the trouble! That Thomas Jefferson was a sexy beast, indeed! In addition to all that business with the Declaration of Independence, Virginia Statute on Religious Freedom, Louisana Purchase, etc. (!!!), the man taught himself architecture and knew how to read in seven languages! Yeesh, they don’t make people like that anymore. I’m willing to ignore that stuttering problem he had…and the fact that he was never successful as a planter (he died terribly in debt, and his family actually had to sell Monticello and all his stuff to pay it all off!).

The photo of Monticello above is actually a view of the back of the house. This is the same view found on the back of the nickel.

Monticello may also be the only place in the whole United States where it's more than okay to give change with the two dollar bill. I think they even price the tickets so that they have to give you change of $2 (and multiples thereof). In any case, I was really tickled and actually giggled out loud and proclaimed, "Wow! That's so cute!" upon receiving my change. The elderly gentleman working in the ticket window seemed amused, too. Or annoyed. Whatever.



The austere tour through TJ’s house was peppered with my sister’s and my clearly audible comments of, “Um, this is awesome” (repeated many times), “I want to live here!”, and “I want that” while pointing to various gadgets and pieces of furniture in the house. Incidentally, save up your pennies (or nickels...?) to buy me this replica of Jefferson’s rotating bookstand one day.

Everything was neat! The alcove beds! The use of natural light! And don’t get me started on that wine dumbwaiter hidden in the flanks of the dining room fireplace! Whew!!! Unfortunately, photos are forbidden inside (and I felt too shy to sneak a pic in the cramped space), so you'll just have to take my word for it until you can see it all for yourself. Truly, Monticello is an excellent place, and I highly recommend a visit for American history buffs, TJ groupies, architecture and decorative arts fans, and general admirers of very cool stuff.



The grounds of Monticello are beautiful. The house is on top of a hill (Monticello is old Italian for “Little Mountain”), and you can see for miles around. Apparently (I’m guessing in part because Jefferson was a Francophile and needed to get his wine fix after his initial European stores ran out), this part of Virginia is wine country central!!! A reason to come back! To add to the Founding Fathers Frenzy, I should also visit the nearby homes of Presidents Monroe and Madison.



They still grow quite a bit of stuff in Jefferson’s Vegetable Garden. Here’s my sister, in her words, “bogarting the French lavender”.



They had to erect another monument/gravestone over my man TJ's grave because people used to go up to the old monument and carve out large chunks of it to keep as souvenirs! Yeesh, have people no respect for dead presidents?!? Anyhoo, the graveyard is now fenced off, and the most desecration that goes on now is tossing change at TJ's gravestone. I guess it's good luck? My sister and I appropriately tossed some nickels. When you visit (and I know you will now!), have a little respect and don't toss another President's head on that grave, eh?

Interesting tidbit about the graveyard where good ol' Jeffy is buried: it is still a functioning graveyard owned by the Jefferson's descendents. However, because of all that crazy Sally Hemings controversy, those wishing to be buried in the graveyard must be descended not from Jefferson, but from his legitimate daughters!



Ah, the unavoidable gift shop! And who would want to avoid it if such fashionable wares are being peddled there? Why should they hide such a lovely hat in the children’s corner?!?



You saw it here first: tri-cornered hats and bunnies are going to make a comeback!

All in all, the domestic leg of the Hello! Tour was terrific fun! Maybe I'll have to plan a couple of more stops yet. In any case, some news about the next stops in my tour itinerary: Paris (yes, again) and Amsterdam. I'll be leaving on Wednesday, February 1st, but only for a short while. I'm spending a mere 3 days in each city because this is actually a proper vacation with former roommate and current friend, Liss! It's very exciting to have a travel companion (thanks, Sis, for the company to rural VA!), so I'm pretty psyched. Until next time, then!


A Note on Photographs Posted on my Blog
Notice how all the pictures I post are usually of me? I assure you this isn’t because I’m a narcissist (well, maybe…?). Instead, I have this weird philosophy about posting pictures of my friends on my website. Do you want people to see what you look like? Maybe some freak will Google you and stalk you! I don’t know if you’re freakish about privacy like that, you know! Admittedly, this stance on privacy comes from my brief stint as a college journalist (I was the forerunner of Judith Miller, really). Given recent discussions on this topic with some friends, I think that I might start relaxing a bit. Of course, I will still try to ask the subject in question before posting any potential stalking materials.

Incidentally, I did get my sister’s permission to post her picture, and I believe that “public personalities” (i.e., anyone who has performed in public) are open fodder for stalkers, anyway (read: I don’t have any problems posting pictures of We Are Scientists, Bai Ling, Zhang Ziyi, and that band that I let sleep in my apartment).

Rumors of my death by Guatemalan firing squad have been greatly exaggerated; rumors of my slacker torpor are not merely rumors

In fact, I'm not dead at all. Surprise to you and me!!! Aw, dry your eyes. Well, I suppose it has been - geepers! - over 3 weeks since my last post? Yes, I just typed "geepers." You love it, and you know it! Still, I apologize. There's no real excuse for my lack of blogging activity except the fact that I'm a bit lazy. Okay, the "bit" part there is really the exaggeration of this post: I'm a total bum these days.

I have realized the dangers of having too much free time for - wow! - the first time in my life (naturally, I'm not counting my gleeful youth as a baby or toddler). After 12+ years of schooling, having no job comes down to this: I wake up when I wish, with no cursed alarm clock to push me! Unless I'm traveling, I don't know the date and must think twice about the day of the week! This is particularly problematic now when one is in that state of denial that it's 2006 and can't seem to stop writing "2005" or "05" when scribbling down a date. Today, I read an old internet article from February 3, 2005, and honestly thought, "Wow...it's February already?" before realizing that it's January 25th...er, that's correct, right? Tee hee.

So what have I been doing? Well, I read -- internet articles, books, junk mail catalogs, mostly. Right now, I am working on the Walter Isaacson biography of good ol' Ben Franklin and am also re-reading Strunk and White's superb The Elements of Style. I'm also still listening to lots of music, adhering to tried-and-true faves (Franz,w.a.s.) while attempting to keep up with the kids and their crazy music trends (newest Band du jour is the excellent Arctic Monkeys). TV is, surprisingly, not a frequent activity (my falling asleep nightly to Conan O'Brien excepted). Of course, I am also planning the next stages of my life as a deadbeat (read: more traveling).

I also extended my International Hello! Tour to domestic locales: there was weeklong visit to friends in Madison (Wisconsin!) and Chicago as well a trip with my to rural Virginia, where we visited Monticello, former home of Thomas "Sexy Beast" Jefferson (notice the Founding Fathers kick that I've been on?). Then there's roadtrippin' with my parents to our relatives' houses for the upcoming Chinese New Year visits and stuffing ourselves at Atlantic City buffets (ow ow oweee!) I'm working on this blog/picture post about my recent domestic escapades, so keep your eyes peeled! It shall be up by this week, I solemnly swear. In the meantime, keep yourself entertained with this (although #1 is true, I like #5 and #10 the most):

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Yuh Wen!

1. Yuh Wen will often rub up against people to lay her scent and mark her territory.
2. More than one million stray dogs and half a million stray cats live in Yuh Wen.
3. Birds do not sleep in Yuh Wen, though they may rest in her from time to time.
4. Cats use their Yuh Wen to test whether a space is large enough for them to fit through.
5. Olympic badminton rules say that Yuh Wen must have exactly fourteen feathers.
6. A bride should wear something old, something new, something borrowed, and Yuh Wen.
7. It can take Yuh Wen several days to move just through one tree.
8. The eye of an ostrich is bigger than Yuh Wen!
9. The colour of Yuh Wen is no indication of her spiciness, but size usually is!
10. There is actually no danger in swimming right after you eat Yuh Wen, though it may feel uncomfortable.

I am interested in - do tell me aboutherhimitthem

Really, this whole "free time" concept is absolutely amazing!!! Needless to say, especially for those who know about my usual workaholic tendencies, this euphoria can't last too long. I'm starting to get bored of being bored already. I hope that I'll be in good shape to start working once school starts in August. Wow, time is passing that quickly! Before you know it, I'll have to be cognizant that it's...er, Wednesday...?

La vie française: An (Chinese) American in Paris

Actually, wherever I end up staying is a "Sexy Center". Heheh.

Ah, Paris. I stayed in the "gay" neighborhood of the Marais, which was really very lovely...and I suppose I can say that I really did stay in "gay Paris". Heheh. Bad joke, I know. Anyhoo, I did a bit of exploring around the neighborhood and ventured into an alley. It wasn't really dark, so I figured it was OK...plus, for better or worse, I have quite a penchant for dark allies and the "Sexy Center" sign (above), which was at the entrance of the alley, intrigued me. Ahem. Apparently, it was an alley of sex shops and XXX movie theaters. Ooookaaaay. Actually, the signs on the theaters indicated that movies were "XX", which leads me to believe that perhaps the porno rating system is not internationally standardized. Well, the French are more liberal, so that makes sense. "XX" it is. In any case, I found the alley pretty amusing, if not only for the shops and cinemas but for the numerous kebab stands found throughout. J'aime bien les kebabs! My sister informed me that many kebab stands (the French fast food!) are often found in dark alleys. True dat. Here it made sense with the local clientele probably getting tired after their...whatever. Double true.

Anyway, I had 1.5 days to cram in a whole lotta Parisian sightseeing! Here's some of the notable stuff I ended up seeing...



The Arc de Triomphe. I walked down the Champs Elysees just to see it. On the way, I counted numerous McDonalds ("MacDo", as the French say) and the biggest, dopest Virgin Megastore that I have ever seen!

Which leads me to this point: after my stay in France, I now solemnly pledge to visit every single Virgin Megastore as time and locale allow. It's become a bit like my former McDonalds promise ("Everytime I go abroad, I promise to eat at McDonalds!"), which I actually broke on my French trip. Eh, whatever. Somewhere, Richard Branson is smiling.



Of course, one must go to Notre Dame when one visits Paris - if not to seek out Quasimodo, then just to see a really beautiful church (I did see the bell in the tower that Quasi rang). Actually, I picked this photo not because it was the best one of the church, but because it captures another inevitable aspect of being a tourist in Paris: the Japanese tourist group! Herro! Observe carefully here: this is a tourist group of bored looking Japanese teenagers on holiday from school. Seriously, they were super bored. I was with another teenage group while I was actually in the Church (and yet another in the Louvre...and yet another in the Musée d'Orsay...), and they were just so bored that I felt almost sorry for them....if they weren't so loud, annoying, and insistent about using flash around precious relics. Ah, kids.

My host family and teachers in Bordeaux informed me that, for some reason, the Japanese are quite fascinated by France. They love everything about it (wine, food, Louis Vuitton, etc.). My friend Ho-Young mentioned that all of the Japanese friends she met in Bordeaux mentioned how cheap everything was in France and wasn't that wonderful! Okaaaay, only people with very high costs of living in their own country would consider France cheap. An interesting fact to have learned! Anyhoo, a good chunk of students in the foreign language schools are Japanese, including my school in Bordeaux. Pretty spiffy. I didn't meet many, though, except for my classmate, Takeshi. He's moving to France to be a French chef in a hotel! Neat.



Anyhooo....., back to Notre Dame. ND allowed me to continue my much beloved travel hobby of climbing up a (seemingly) endless flight of stairs up a church tower. Here they are! It's a bit claustrophobic, but the result was worth it (below...wait for it....). Also, I sadly confronted my dwindling days of youth and that I would no longer be able to continue my love of climbing church towers when a bunch of little French kids raced up and down (and up and down again!) the steep and slippery tower steps with such carefree ease. All this as I gripped the guardrail tightly, desperately hoping that I would not fall down the stairs and lay at the bottom of the tower in a crumpled, aged heap. Sigh, mortality, thou art a bitch.



Paris from the viewpoints of the gargolyes on top of Notre Dame. Here, Sad Gargoyle.


Aw, yeah, give me "fierce", Gargoyle!



My favorite: Pensive Gargoyle. It's probably what I would be doing...if I was a stone gargoyle that was stuck on the top of Notre Dame for eternity.



Notre Dame's often overlooked neighbor on the Île de la Cité is Sainte-Chapelle Church, which is really awesome, actually. It's much smaller, but absolutely stunning, for lack of a better descriptive. Sainte-Chapelle famous for it's stained glass windows (seen here), which depicts the story of the Old Testament (I think?) in pretty amazing detail, especially given that it was built in the 13th century by Louis IX (St. Louis!). This is a photo of the upper chapel, with stained glass windows so big that you think, "Uh, where are the walls in this place?"



This is the lower chapel of Sainte-Chapelle, where lowly commoners worshipped back in the day. Still, not bad!



I love the Musée d'Orsay. I blame that report that I did on Paul Gauguin back in high school. In any case, it is a really great museum - interesting and completely navigable. On the way to the museum, I saw a girl in a University of Chicago shirt! I resisted the urge to say, "Dude! I went there, too!"

Speaking of Chicago, there was a mini-model of the Robie House at the Orsay. And a few pieces of Frank Lloyd Wright's furniture. Ah, I'd recognize that Prairie style anywhere! Thanks, Chicago!



I'm probably going to get a lot of shit for saying this, but here goes: I did not think that the Louvre was that cool. Pas du tout. Not because the art wasn't amazing or the building was really spiffy (hello! I.M. Pei, Chinese American, designed the Pyramid! Of course it's cool in that way!). But mostly because it is so incredibly big, really difficult to navigate ("SHIT! Where are the Rembrandts? I want to see some Dutchies!") and everyone is just there to see the Mona Lisa anyway. It's incredibly tiring, but I think I would enjoy it more if I broke up the visit over a couple days...or years, which is really how long it could take to really navigate the place. Too bad it costs over 8 Euro per visit.

One of the two notable events that was nifty about my visit to the Louvre was that, once I was outside, I was just kinda hanging around (taking this picture, figuring out where I was going, etc.) and a grandpa-like Frenchman approached me and struck up a conversation. Always suspicous (I'm American! Sue me for thinking that everyone is a potential sicko), I played along before determining that he was indeed an OK guy. Plus, I remembered my sister and a couple of my friends in Bordeaux mentioning that old French peeps really like chatting with strangers on the street. Crisis and potential kidnapping averted. In any case, he (Pascal) was really nice. We chatted about learning French ("Tu parles bien!" says he. Don't patronize me, old man! J/K...J/K!), how French kids are bums today, Franco-American relations, religion, lots of cool stuff. I was thrilled that I actually understood him, but I think that was a result of him speaking slowly (whew!). He showed me to the Metro (subway) stop, too, and said it was too bad that I wasn't staying longer, since I could come have tea with him and his wife if I was. I said "Peut-être dans nos vies prochaines!" (Maybe in our next lifetimes!)

For my other notable event at the Louvre, see below...



I took this photo mostly because I had succumbed to public pressures and read The Da Vinci Code, knowing full well that photos and video were strictly interdit (forbidden!) in the Louvre. This is the Grand Gallery of Italian Renaissance art, where you'll find your Da Vincis and various Italian masters. It's also where the old guy from the The Da Vinci Code (Sophie's grandfather) drags his bloody, naked body (after being bludgeoned by the albino Opus Dei monk) before croaking. Ah, contemporary "literature".

Sure enough, a museum guard saw me taking the picture and publicly scolded me. "No photos!" she barked. "Je sais," I sighed and meekly put my camera away. But I got a picture of the Grand Gallery, bitches, and I bet you'll see it in the upcoming Hollywood movie. YEAH! (Note: Gosh, I don't know why, but I do so enjoy using the term "bitches"...I'm sorry)






Dude, the Iron Lady! Self-explanatory! One funny thing to note, though: to take these photos, I thought it best to reset my camera on the "Night Shot" setting. All the settings on my camera are denoted by a little graphic icon. Amusingly (erm, I think that is a word), the "Night Shot" graphic was a little moon shining over the Eiffel Tower!! Ha! So funny and ironic! Okay, maybe just to me. I even remember giggling as I took these pictures. Okay, I'm pathetic.

La vie française: Bordeaux picture dump!

Happy 2006, everyone! Wow, I haven't blogged since last year! The first 15 minutes after 12:00 AM on New Year's Day always consists of some banter of that sort between my siblings and me ("Wow! I haven't bathed since last year!" "I haven't gone to the bathroom since last year!")

Yes, I'm lazy. But here they are enfin - pictures confirming my stay in Bordeaux. I swear I wasn't making it up!



Why must I forever be living near cranes? Ah, well...the sunrise is pretty!



Is my room not the coolest? Note cute YuhChic-sized bed.



The view of outer Bordeaux from my bedroom window. A factory? A big ol' abandoned building? I dunno. I also "dunno" why I took this picture...probably because the apartment building in which I was staying was probably one of the tallest buildings (12 floors - my host family lived on the 11th) in a city where tall buildings don't really exist.



On my way to school, I decided to take a picture of a typical, middle-classish Bordeaux street. Note cute little cars. I think every single car I saw was a little hatchback of some sort.



Here we have it folks, the biggest French achievement since French toast (ignore accomplishments of Louis Pasteur and Marie Curie, s'il vous plaît): 7/7. What does this baffling "7/7" sign mean, you may ask? Weeeelll, I saw is (very) occasionally on the streets of Bordeaux, and it's a sign for a store that is open 7 days a week, 7 hours a day. OMG! Mindblowing for the French and the Europeans!!! Yeah, welcome to a realm of convenience. It's called "Everyday life" in America. Asia, too (my Korean friend, Ho-Young, and I were always like, "WTF? Why isn't anything open on Sunday? Why do stores close for 2-3 hours lunch breaks? Why does everything close by 6:00 PM? Why don't the French like competitive advantage?").

Okay, I'll have to admit that it wasn't that big of a deal to have stores closed (constantly...inconveniently...whenever you needed something...etc...), so I adopted a "When in Rome..." attitude about it. Still, I observed the inconvenience of business hours has interesting side effects of French business hours, namely, everyone in the whole of Bordeaux seemed to be up by 7:30, presumably to get stuff done before work (or maybe they just really like waking up early...?). Also, I may note that the only French business that seemed to be constantly open and busy was some barber guy named Stephane, whose tiny little shop I passed everyday on the way to and from school. Dude was snipping hair all day, everyday, constantly. Way to have some Protestant ethic in ya, Stephane (ignore the fact that France is primarily Catholic, s'il vous plaît)!

The occasional inconvenience and inefficiency of French living (not that it's a bad thing!) amused me throughout my stay. I just wanted to laugh and point when I saw a supermarket advertise proudly, "Now open Sunday! 9:15 AM to 11:00 AM!" WHAT?!? What good is it to open a store for an hour and 45 minutes?!?! Well, I guess that's as good as it gets sometimes in a country where there's a 35-hour work week (but you get paid for 39 hours...seriously!) and everyone gets 30 days of vacation. Like I said, it's not all bad that way. Maybe economically unsound (hello, Chicago school of economics!), but not all bad!



The Bordelais are quite proud of their tram system, which is apparently the first all-electric local rail in Europe. It is pretty neat, and, since the trains are very new (the system just got up and running in early 2004), it's delightfully clean. The only quirk is that the tram runs right on the street and, on the pedestrian streets, there are no (nay, zero, zip, nada!) divisions between where pedestrians can walk and where the trains run. Plus, the trains run very quietly (electric=no rumbling metal tracks) so you can't really tell when a train is approaching until it's very close. Yikes. Luckily, no accidents yet...but that's probably because I wasn't there long enough.



This is a view of Bordeaux's Public Garden. I took a short-cut through the garden everyday not only because it was very pretty, but also because it is obligatory to clean up after your dogs! Sweet, dog crap-less garden! I can only imagine that it looks even lovelier in nicer weather.



The Garonne, the river that flows through Bordeaux. The colors in this photo are weird, but it captures perfectly what France in the wintertime is all about: mad grayness.



This is the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Bordeaux, which I enjoyed immensely. The French seem to be really into the decorative arts. The museum is basically an old mansion that is furnished with original period furniture in the rooms. Very cool. It kind of smells like your grandma's house, except the furniture is cooler and not covered in plastic. At the time I visited, there was a special exhibit of Marie Antoinette's furniture there.



The entire left (I think?) bank of Bordeaux that runs along the Garonne is really quite neat - you can look from one end to the other, and all you will see is a line of beautiful white (thanks to recent cleaning!) neo-classical buildings. That's because all of the rich wine merchants, the government, rich traders, etc. built their houses, warehouses, and official buildings all along the bank of the Garonne. It's really quite stunning in person. Unique, too...I think they are applying for UNESCO World Heritage status, since there is really no place else like it in France (or, apparently, the world).


Vines! Miles and miles of vines, I tells ya! Apparently, it's a much cooler sight when the vines are in bloom. Eh, I'll take what I can get. It's still quite pretty, though, n'est-ce pas?



The damage I caused during a wine tasting...yeah, right!



Ooooh, basement full of aging wine! Thumbs up indeed.



Don't mind my messy hair - I was too busy pretending to know what I was sniffing to care. I got to keep the glass as a souvenir! Yeah, free stuff!



That cute l'il French village of St. Emilion, which is also the name of a wine appellation (incidentally, a kickin' wine). This photo was taken from the top of the church that was blasted into the limestone cave. Spiffy.



Look! It's Louis XIV visiting a Bordeaux vineyard! This is from that diorama place, Vinorama, that I was talking about. In actuality, it kinda sucked. Certainly not worth the 4-something Euro that I paid. BOO!


Sidenote/Correction of the Day
Ah, and a correction: I've recently read that Bordeaux is a city of 600,000-700,000 people, not the 250,000-esque that I alluded to earlier. Hmm, I wonder if that includes the surrounding suburbs. Anyhoo, not like you care. I just didn't want you all to be up in my grill if you heard otherwise. Word.