&c

So... I've been quite enjoying Paris. I'm having a little bit of an art overload, with the Louvre and the Musee d'Orsay - that might not seem like a lot but when you consider how HUGE the Louvre is... it's a lot. I fortunately discovered that I can get into museums free with my French visa, since I'm 25. I have to see everything before April, when I'll turn 26 and lose my free museum privileges! Anyway Paris is just gorgeous, I love walking around and looking at all the buildings. I gotta really get cracking on French so that I can get another job here in a year and move into Paris proper, rather than a little suburb (although my suburb is super cute too!).
I went out the other night to a book club where I met some cool people, and afterwards went to a little cafe and had a salad with goat cheese on toast for dinner (yum). I stopped at another cafe today after strolling around all the shopping on the Rue de Rivoli and around Concorde, and had a crepe with tomato, walnuts, and (again) goat cheese. The other day around Montmartre I had some awesome creme brulee flavor gelato (I'm sure it wasn't authentic, but it was certainly delicious!).
I found some great boots while I was wandering around, they were super cool and had a low enough heel that they'd probably be comfortable to walk in. There are lots of flat boots around, but I don't want flat boots; they don't look so good on me since I'm short, and also it's more comfortable for me to have at least a slight heel, rather than completely flat soles. These boots were brown, which would be a first for me if I get them - I've never had brown boots before. They came in black too, but I liked the brown better; you could see the detailing better on them.
It's getting colder every day now, so I need some boots for trekking around the city in and for taking Manon to school in the morning.

Check photobucket for pictures

I've uploaded some pictures to my photobucket account: http://s431.photobucket.com/albums/qq32/genkiplus/ (copy and paste the url). It's not all of them yet, but there's pictures from the Louvre and the surrounding Tuileries gardens. I'll upload the Arc de Triomphe and the Notre Dame later; if I'm not too lazy I might even post a few directly to my blog here.

Next stop Paris

In less than a week, I'll be off to Paris to start the European leg of my world tour! For now, I'm wondering how best to apportion my possessions into two (2) suitcases and a backpack. It's especially tough because (according to my all-knowing iphone) the weather in France is being extremely erratic. In this week alone the high temperature has ranged from 60 to 85. That's a huge difference, and I don't know whether to pack more summer clothes or more fall, or even winter! If I get over there with a bunch of sweaters and long sleeved shirts, will the temperature suddenly decide to stay in the 80s for a bit? Is winter going to come early, leaving me wishing I'd brought heavier jackets? Who knows! Thanks, Paris weather!

Other than that, I'm fairly excited since I've never been to Europe before. It'll be totally different from anything I've experienced so far! I'm sure Parisians can't be any more rude than Koreans, so at least there's that... and there's no way the metro can be any more crowded than the morning rush or the last train on a Friday night in Tokyo... Anyway I'll find out for myself soon enough what French life is like. At the very least it should be interesting.

I'll try to take more pictures and post them up here, but no promises.

Trip around Oahu

North Shore (and others)!

I took a circle island tour today in order to see as much as possible before I leave tomorrow (!) It was super fun, the guide was funny and the people were cool for the most part. Now I can officially say that I've been to Kailua and the North Shore, woo! It's not winter anymore so the waves were not so impressive at Waimea Bay and Sunset Beach, but it was still pretty cool. I definitely want to go back in the wintertime and see the surfers tackling giant waves, though. I had the opportunity, why oh why did I wait so long to make it up there?! Well, I know why; it was a combination of not having a license and so not able to rent a car (license is now found though, yay! it was hiding in a bag of cosmetics, of all things), not wanting to take a bus for three hours, and always either working or feeling run down from working and as such not really wanting to make much effort beyond walking the block down to Waikiki beach. Sigh. I want to come back here on a pure vacation, no stress or worrying about work! I've done the local thing, now I want to be a tourist.
Anyway the only pictures I have access to right now are the ones of pineapples that I took with my phone after my camera battery died. After I charge up the battery and transfer the pictures to my computer I'll post the rest (there are a lot, Hawaii is so scenic!).
Anyway, enjoy the pineapples, lol.

...

Or not. It appears my internet connection is not up to posting pictures at the moment. It is so fickle! ちょ～～むかつく！！

Hawaii

From subzero temperatures and snow and ice to nice warm Hawaii. I'm enjoying it here so far, it's great to not have to put on seven layers of clothing just to leave the house! I could wish it were a little more metropolitan, and had a better transit system, but it's also nice to be in a more relaxed atmosphere for a while, instead of the major crowds of rushing people in the cities I've been living in. I haven't really met anyone here yet besides my cousins and a few of their friends, but hopefully that will change once I start working. I got a job at Armani Exchange that I'll be starting Monday; the people there seem pretty cool from what I've seen of them. I can't wait to start working, because 1. I need money and 2. I'm getting bored. My cousins are super busy finishing up with their school, so they're not doing anything besides studying and working.
Aside from all that, it's really great to not be teaching. My last job in Korea wasn't bad at all, but even so I'm so happy that I don't have to deal with teaching anyone anymore.
My one gripe: tipping! I had forgotten just how much tipping you have to do here in America. I miss not having to worry about that. Also: taxes not included on sticker prices. Why doesn't America include tax on sticker prices? It's not like it would be hard, and it's so much easier for the consumer. They do it everywhere else (not just Japan and Korea, but in Europe too; my friends who have been there have commented on it too).
Anyway I have to go get ready for another interview. Aloha!

DMZ pictures