A dash of nostalgia

My guest for the weekend, Jamie, has left me to go back to California! :( On her last day, I took her on a whirlwind tour of random Seattle sites - Gasworks Park, Fremont Troll, Kerry Park, Bruce Lee's grave, the gum wall, Pike Place, etc. I had a lot of fun with her, and I hope she had a good time! I hope she comes back, because the fog this weekend tried hard to keep her (or anyone) from seeing...anything. But overall, it was so good to see her again after so long and to reminisce over our adventures together in Europe. Like...

- trying to get past the English/Italian language barrier in Rome by pronouncing 'McDonald's' a dozen different ways to Italian security guards to find our way

- escaping a crazy couchsurfing host in Rome who almost made us cry, definitely left us hungry, and probably almost abandoned us to sleep on the streets

- walking through the dream that Florence was with gelato in one hand and pizza in the other

- waking up at dawn just to climb St. Peter's Basilica before everyone else

- randomly wandering into a line at Notre Dame to kiss the Crown of Thorns

- standing in a crowd of very conservative, anti-immigration people just to catch a glimpse of Sarkozy and to shake his hand

- marveling at the feet of Michelangelo's David for about an hour

- food, food, food - hot chocolate, macarons, salads, crêpes, ice cream, gelato, pizza, thai food, french onion soup, pasta, bruschetta, etc.

What a great weekend :) Here's to more adventures together, hopefully very soon!

finally back!

it's been a while since i've blogged, but i've been busy trying to study since exams are less than a month away now. agh!! sooo scary. 

there isn't all that much to update about my life, since everything is pretty routine right now. although the last two days i finally got to talk to my parents after probably more than a month :S soo happy to finally be able to talk to them again :D 

and today, i went with some friends to a little town about 30km south of lyon which was fun. 

anyway, i'll just get to the pictures and you can read my updates through captions. sound good? cool. :)

the mediatheque near my apartment (basically a library) - been spending lotss of time here..

my first time at the ikea in lyon :P it's like a 5-10 minute walk from the tram, but pretty awesome that it's only like a 20 min tram ride away :)

ikea stuffed toys - not gonna lie, i was pretty tempted to get a carrot or a broccoli!

wine at ikea cafeteria :P

monopoly at mcds!! :P

christmas decorations already!

hugeee trompe l'oeil in croix rousse

inside a traboule in croix rousse

more stairs ;)

croix rousse

hmm these pictures so far are basically stairs or traboules :P another stair/traboule adventure basically. always fun :D

there's a BILLIARDS academy. crazy huh? haha

young girls 'martiniere'? no idea what that is...

shop where the make string instruments

inside another traboule!

wine tasting time! at the same stadium/hall where rihanna performed at ;)

sneaky picture of everyone bringing home crates of wine :P

just one row of wines! got a special wine glass for the tastings too! you could taste any wine for free! pretty awesome!

see how many stalls there were?! each stall is a different vineyard so at each stall there were multiple wines to taste. amazing.

salade lyonnaise

quenelle

tarte des pralines

some guy making paintings from spray paint

my first time cooking pork - not bad :P

home delivery of domino's pizza - lifesaver for rainy/lazy days

french mcflurrys are more like...blob of ice cream, some candy, and a whole lot of caramel or chocolate sauce... i miss oreo mcflurries :(

can you spot the justin bieber lookalike? ;)

fig macaroon on the left and green tea macaroon on the right

cathedral st-maurice in vienne (france, not austria..)

look what i accidentally found! :) - 'thomas jefferson = symbol of franco-american friendship'

sooo amazing - was really sad that we weren't allowed to walk in it :(

yummmyyyy

hugeee awesome amphitheatre - 2€ to get in, but the view from the top was amazing!

view of vienne from the top of mt pipet - pretty much a big hill