Paris Shenanigans

Songtrack:

Paris—The 1975

Paris—Magic Man

As a kid, I grew up dreaming about going to Paris. Now, after having visited the city twice, I still dream about going to Paris. The city is an endless adventure, whether in the form of places, people, food, or culture. Here are some snapshots from my weekend:

An abandoned railroad track near the south of Paris.

Some new friends and one old friend, messing around on the tracks.

Musée d’Orsay, which used to be a train station. Sidenote: I really like the museum's logo.

Paris Pride ingredients: pink hair, semi-nudity, and rainbow flags.

The first time I went to Paris, I had just graduated high school and wanted to see the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. My interests have shifted a bit since becoming an architecture student. So on Sunday morning, which I had to myself, I wanted to visit some of the architecture spots in the city:

Fondation Louis Vuitton, designed by Frank Gehry.

Musée du quai Branly: a combination of some of my favorite things—green, blue, and plants.

We’ve talked about the Centre Pompidou in all of my architecture classes thus far, but it was a different experience to finally see it in person. The guy with the blue hair was a nice touch to the photo. 

A couple reasons why I like exploring on my own:

(1) I'm more introverted than extroverted, so it helps me recharge. There's less stimulus than from being in a group, so I have more time to listen, observe, and think.

(2) I can plan—or not plan—to go and do whatever.

(3) I get to visit these amazing places!

Overall, the weekend was a good balance of meeting new people, going on adventures, and having some time to myself. As the summer continues, I'm hoping for more weekends like it.

If you want to see what else I'm up to, you can find me here:

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Monaco: That Place with Lots of Rich People

Around 11am on Saturday, J. (20'), G. (19'), and I arrived at Monte Carlo, Monaco. The first thing I noticed in the enormous train station was that wow! there were escalators. I come from a smaller city where there are no escalators, since most buildings are one story, so already my day was off to a good start.

This was a view from the train station. THE TRAIN STATION.

I'll admit, I'm terrible at history and geography so I didn't really know much about Monaco. A quick wikipedia search tells me it's the second smallest country in the world and is ruled by the royal family, although France controls its military.

In about an hour, the Monaco royal guard changing ceremony would commence. So, our little MIT tourist group had to make our way from the train station to the palace on the other side of the country. At first, we took our time, soaking in the beautiful sights around us, enjoying the walk as Monaco is a pretty tiny and rather gorgeous country.

There are gardens on the tops of the buildings. Yay green roofs!

Then, we realized the city-state, decorated with its elegant architecture, with floating walkways that led to rooftops, second stories, and other parts of a building besides the ground floor, was in actuality a distracting maze. The map we picked up was deceptive in that although we picked the path of least distance, that path didn't exist.

I aspire to be rich enough to own a huge red poodle statue, but
I probably wouldn't use the money to buy a huge red poodle statue.

You can't just go in a straight line from destination A to B. Nope, you need to wind down sidewalks alongside roads, skip down a set of stairs, reach a dead end in the form of a glass wall that leads to the entrance of a top of a building, climb back up the stairs, trudge your way up another set of stairs, only to realize that to reach the palace, you need to somehow mysteriously make your way to the bottom of the city-state and then muster the will to hike back up to the top.

Quite frustrating when you can see the palace in the distance, and yet when you look down, you're still confused on how to get there. Also a tiny bit stressful when you now have half an hour before the ceremony starts, and changing of the guards is only a once-a-day kind of thing.



      STAIRS...

But, despite being used to MIT time in which everything starts five minutes late, we were actually a few minutes early. Or I guess you could also look at it in the way that the Monaco changing-of-the-guards ceremony is on MIT time, since it starts at 11:55am. 

We even have enough time to take a picture of the postcard-perfect scenery.  

There's the guard marching impeccably towards the palace.

The ceremony wasn't too long, probably 15 minutes or less. A band started to play and some high-ranking official started counting, and maybe 10 guards began performing synchronized movements with their guns and sabers. G. (19') and I agreed that although it was pretty interesting watching the ceremony, the guards were not totally in sync with each other. You could hear a small splattering of claps and observe movements that were seconds off from each other. To be fair, I might be extra sensitive to synchronicity from being in the orchestra, where everything depends on togetherness with other musicians, being perfectly on beat. But seeing the guards dressed in their perfect, white uniforms in front of the grand palace of Monaco was worth the rush.

Next we hit the tourist streets. To be honest, I was slightly disappointed. There weren't any boulangeries, and most of the "gelato" places were just regular ice cream shops with cookie-cutter stands that popped up every few steps. Although Monaco is near Italy and within France, since many international tourists visit (we saw a number of Americans, British, and Chinese), I think these tourist streets went for stereotypical France and Italy rather than genuine. Most of the tourist gear had to do with race cars because I believe there is a world-famous racing cup of some sort in Monaco. 

However, I know nothing about cars. I don't even know what car models my parents have. I don't even have a car. G. (19') on the other hand was in paradise. He really wanted a Ferrari jacket, and he got shots of almost every Ferrari that drove by.

Fancy yellow car.

Fancy red car.

Fancy grey car.

The following situation occurred about 15 times since apparently there's a lot of rich people who own fancy cars in Monaco:

G. (19'): "I'm having a normal conversa--"

G. (19'): *GASP* "Is that a Ferarri X Year Y Model?" 

G. (19'): *proceeds to whip out phone*

G. (19'): *groans* "I missed it!"

Me: *points behind him* "Wait is that another fancy car?"
G. (19'): "NOOOOOO!"

There are a lot of really rich people in Monaco. Not just the ones who can afford luxury brand cars, but the ones who own the obviously-at-least-a-million-dollars-ridiculously-expensive cars. You could also tell that rich people lived in Monaco because of the casino. There is this one huge casino in Monaco that a coworker suggested for sight-seeing, not necessarily for gambling. Although you have to buy a 17 euro ticket, the inside is supposedly amazingly beautiful. However, my dreams were crushed because of my tennis shoes, which are apparently forbidden inside this high-class casino. I saw dozens of tourists turned away because of their footwear unfortunately.

The kid next to me: "NEMO!"

That's okay. We went to the aquarium and garden of animals instead. An interesting note about the aquarium: it's not too big, but the outside is stunning, reminiscent of Greek columns and classical aesthetics. Probably because it was built in early times (not that early) but when Prince Albert I carried out expeditions to kill sea animals and study them. At first, I was a little sad that he killed all these animals, but it was the only way to study them back then (late 1800s?). Also, he made a speech declaring that human greed would lead to the extermination of all these species, which is sadly prophetic of the present.

Pretty albino peacock, like the Monaco guards dressed in white.

We ate American dinner at Stars & Bars. The view of the mountains from the restaurant beside the port was incredible. The menus were ipads, which might have been a bit extra. I had a regular cheeseburger with fries. Overpriced at 17 euros? Sure, but the view was amazing. The music, on the other hand, was slightly disturbing. A DJ blasted music outside, and although I don't have anything against the song choices themselves, the way the songs clashed when transitioning and mish-mashing by fading in/out was quite dissonant.


Finally, at the mere hour of 20:00, we were about to head back to the train station. I voted for walking back and prolonging our adventure in Monaco, but J. (20') and G. (19') wanted to take the bus back. Defeated, I resigned to leaving at a reasonable hour when a miracle took the form of a kind lady at the bus stop. She overheard our conversation and pointed out that there was a city dance party that night, and only that night. You can't pass an opportunity like this! If there's one thing I gained from having EC friends, it's perhaps a sense for adventure.

Outside the casino where J. (20') and I were turned away for our footwear, a crowd of perhaps two hundred or more people enclosed an enormous stage. Some were tourists, some were families, and some were obviously dressed very well. On one side of the stage, a group of dancers dressed in grass skirts performed a hula, while on another side, a different Spanish group was preparing for their turn. There were Indian groups, teenager contemporary groups, even a talented and elegant pole dancer. Very reminiscent of the MIT One World tent party, except for a city. After the performances, all the dance groups descended into the streets and set up a few lessons so that the audience became participants in their informal instructing classes. I learned a few steps of cha cha and it was a lot of fun!

Finally, at the late hour of 21:30, we decided to leave, as it would be an hour train ride back home.

An illuminated train station while we wait for the our delayed train to take us back home.

Next weekend: Eze? or Marseilles?

Nice is really pretty

Nice, France: "I thought you were just saying
France was nice but I got it now."

This past Saturday, a coworker invited my roommate (another MIT student, course 16), a friend in the same area (course 18), and me to visit Nice, France, which is about an hour bus ride from where we live. She was extremely nice and served as our host/tour guide and showed us around her city.

Even before we got off at the bus station, driving along the beautiful cerulean (maybe that's the right blue?) ocean was quite the treat. Usually, I live right by the beach, so I prefer mountains. But the beaches by the Mediterranean sea have the clearest waters, so you can even see the tiny fish swimming.

Look at that blue. The beach is rocky though, so hopefully
the people lying on their beach towels weren't uncomfortable.

Nice is a pretty big city. Compared to the much smaller and much quieter city of Sophia (where the university I research at is), Nice is like a paradise. If you don't feel like swimming or chilling on the beach, you can even go parachute sailing! That is something I definitely plan on doing before this summer is over. My roommate plans on jet-skiing, which is equally adventurous.

Also, if you're not that much of a beach person (like me), there's a small mountain with a man-made waterfall within walking distance. Our little tourist group hiked up an incline and a couple of stairs, but it wasn't that bad since I'm used to living on the fifth floor in New without elevators. It was quite nice. Although there were several tourists, the mountain wasn't too terribly crowded, so you could enjoy a relatively peaceful view of nature and scenery. You could even hear the distant music from a parade/band playing in Massena square.

To the right of this waterfall you can catch a glimpse of
a group of ladies having a bacherolette party.

From the peak of the mountain, you can see all the cool
roofs on the buildings below.

Below in the city, there's many shops and restaurants. It felt like a maze, travelling through the seemingly endless supply of narrow streets. But the great thing about France is that these streets are quaint and picturesque, even if they are for the tourists, complete with boulangeries, brasseries, and gelato places. The cobble pathways and specialized stores are something you don't see often in the US, and the pastries are not too sweet here. My roommate and I made a pact to visit a boulangerie and/or gelato place in every city we travel to. So far, we've kept our promise.

Massena Square

Although, to be honest, I think the famous gelato place in Nice is okay. Yes, it has tons of different flavors (like apricot and guava), but it's a little overpriced, and the gelato is not amazing. I forgot to mention, Nice is near Italy, so that the city has a mixture of both Italian and French culture. This is very apparent in the architecture and cuisine. Namely, there seems to be gelato and pizzeria places everywhere you turn. The course 18 guy even found an Italian wine that he's been searching for ever since he arrived in France three weeks ago, thanks to the help of our local tourist guide.

Yummy veg pizza

In any case, I highly recommend visiting Nice if you ever come to France. Of the cities I've visited so far in southern France, including Cannes, I think Nice is the one that I would make multiple trips to, since the city is rather large so that there's a number of things to do that you can't finish in a weekend. Next stop: Monaco.

Blonde in Taipei

Hi friends, it's me again, reporting on my first week in Taiwan :)

Taipei is not a beautiful city. Most of the buildings are dirty concrete blocks that would do Soviet Moscow proud. The roads are either cramped and sidewalk-less, with stores spilling into the street and mopeds trying to murder the civilians, or huge and loud and impossible to walk along because of the diesel fumes. But in the back streets, there are random thick crops of flower-smelling, bird-sounding trees, and a sense of humble, connected life that I haven't really felt in Western cities - people chatting in their garages/tire stores, kids doing homework in the family restaurant after closing, a woman burning ghost money (I think) in the road. People are out being part of the world late at night. Except for the mopeds, it feels very safe to walk around.


(those birds are like duck-sized btw, kinda weird to see them roosting)

I have a small apartment to myself, in a quieter outlying part of the city. It's kitchenless and a little lonely, but clean after some scrubbing and refreshingly cold. The process of getting the AC fixed was kind of amusing - over the course of two days, three or four different people came, stood on my bed, pointed a remote at the ceiling, determined that the thing wasn't working, mumbled something in Chinese, and left to call the next person. Anyway, works now. I'm right outside a big market, a bus stop, two bakeries, and two 7-Elevens (which are everywhere) where I buy two-liter water bottles and try not to think about the amount of plastic I'm consuming. It's a thirty-minute walk to work - and for when it's too hot (which will probably be most days), there's a clean and fast subway and an extensive, cheap bus network. Interestingly, all the buses are run by different companies, and there are a lot of almost identical routes.


(bakery breakfasts)

I get stared at constantly, especially by old people and kids. There's no hostility in this; if anything, people are extra-friendly to me because I'm a foreigner. A lot of strangers have gone out of their way to show me around, despite us having a shared vocabulary of maybe three words) and the old man at the fruit store went and knocked on all the melons to pick out the ripest one for me. For ordering food, pointing and saying xie-xie has been working out all right. Funnest language experience so far was at a blues dance lesson I went to last night - one instructor didn't speak English, but the other one thought I was a fascinating phenomenon and kept hugging me. Luckily, language comprehension isn't totally necessary for a dance lesson. Of the three guys in the class, two thought it was double-high-fives cool to be dancing with such an exotic partner, and one was clearly pretty uncomfortable. This seems about the ratio of attitudes in the general population.

In a way, it's kind of liberating to stick out so much. I know that I'll be forgiven for small etiquette violations (like failing to face away from the aisle when standing on a bus), and I care less about getting my hair or outfit right (yes, Pond, I do in general have aspirations for my hair). However I look, it's going to be way different from everyone else, and presumably people will be paying attention to my sheer whiteness rather than anything else anyway...

Work is good. So far, I've been playing with these cool deep learning models called generative adversarial networks - yesterday I semi-successfully used them to invent new Pokemon. My coworkers are friendly and speak reasonable English, and some of them really want to practice and ask about the U.S. Some of the exchanges have been pretty amusing; they were told in advance that I am A Russian (cough), so my first day there were some semi-serious questions about vodka and street fighting. (Mind you, they [or at least this particular guy] don't consider Taiwanese-Americans to be Taiwanese.) Multiculturalism is definitely much less of a thing here - everyone is surprised that I can use chopsticks, and I think they still that don't believe me that yes, I knew the difference between Taiwan and Thailand before coming here. Standards of appropriate workplace humor are different - a lot of "Haha, Zach's so old", "How come you're so fat if you don't like sugar?" or "What are you looking for? Must be a girlfriend!" This threw me for a bit of a loop my first day - I thought my mentor was hitting on me, which would have made for a hella awkward summer, but I think my standards were just not calibrated for Taiwan. My office has an excellent tradition of afternoon tea, wherein three days a week tofu pudding, milk tea (not called boba here, btw), or hot buns magically appear on your desk.


(TOFU PUDDING HAI JESSE)

The Taiwanese seriously know how to cook (the restaurant owners do, anyway). The flavors aren't always super-strong, but even the subtler things are beautifully seasoned and texturally balanced... the oyster omelette I had at a little night market today almost made me cry. Korean food is very popular, and there's a Japanese and Indian presence. Otherwise it's a lot of little restaurants that sell Taiwanese noodles or dumplings or other delicious things, and $6 would be a pretty expensive meal (generally, it's $3-4). Among younger Taiwanese, it's very common to eat out (or have instant noodles from 7-Eleven, if that's more your jam) for all meals, since it's so inexpensive and most apartments don't have kitchens. My mentor was surprised that I ate my parents' cooking growing up.
(OYSTER OMELETTE IS SO GOOD)

(I think I am doing the thing you're not supposed to with chopsticks here)

I was worried about being lonely, but with friendly coworkers, Facebook language exchange, and Ju and Liz on the other side of the city, I think it'll be OK. And with great food and nature yet to be explored, this is shaping up to be a good summer :)

plz bloj ya'll! <3