Heartbeat

A lot of people lately have told me that they've watched the WongFu videos that I embedded a few posts back. That's just a sample of my super AZN side. Here's the other:



I would like to think that even though I'm normally an enthusiastic and energetic person, I'm still fairly rational. I mean I DO have to survive in a world that is ALL about the art of making the persuasive and logical argument. However, the person in the video is probably my forever musical love AND the the imaginary man in my life who makes me lose all logic. Welcome to my full-blown asianness.

p.s. Thanks for all the comments on the last post. I didn't think it would get such a response. Now if only one of you had posted a joke....

FA LA LA LA LA....LA LA LA LA

It's the last week of finals and I still have two exams left. And yet, what am I doing instead of learning my Evidence class? Blogging. What the freak is wrong with me?

Oh AND I'm reading stuff like this: "The New Car".

Blogs like that just make me wonder more and more...why is it that men tend to be the "funny" ones. I mean sure, a woman can be funny but how often will you find a female comedian getting the same laughs as a male comedian. And whenever I try to make some funny quip in response to someone's dumb remark, it never seems to get the same laugh as let's say...if one of my guy friends made it instead. And even when we have to make up an oral argument on the fly, like in my appellate advocacy class, its the men that manage to get the laugh out of the class for their "argument".
A part of me wants to scream sexism. "It's the males of the world that have deemed women not funny." or "It's a social expectation thing where guys are just expected to be funny." But I think that being funny is more about timing and ability to deliver a line rather than what you actually say. Hmmm. Does that mean women lack a comedic timing bone?

Oh and the guy on NPR today called it the "Nutcrapper" instead of the "Nutcracker" when advertising the S.F. Ballet. I totally laughed out loud in my car.

Ok, back to insanity I go.

Thanksgiving First!!!

That's what my friends Allison and Ray say whenever they see decorations that are out of chronological order.

Case in point, the Pier 1 Imports on Geary street near Arguello. It has a Christmas ornament with the words "be jolly" on it as well as Mr. & Mrs. Snowman stickers on its windows. This is a bit puzzling since it's not even Thanksgiving yet! Same thing with the Thanksgiving food on sale before Halloween was even over.

I guess its because of the economy that retailers are choosing to try and milk the holidays as soon as possible but it was just a bit outrageous to me to hear Christmas songs in the Walgreens on November 4th.

Anyways, where does this all lead to? Well with the fact that Thanksgiving is this week and Christmas will soon be upon us...its finals time again. That time of the year where I go more than just a little loopy, not to mention really irritable. This is my way of apologizing for my behavior until December 19th is over and hoping that you will forgive me as I go a little insane in my head. I am very sorry you have to witness it. Other than that, my life is great. As good as feeling like you're watching a tsunami coming can get.

:insane smile ala the Joker:

Public Service Announcement

*This is a public service announcement*

I'm sure you're expecting a rant about how you all should vote tomorrow. (And you SHOULD VOTE tomorrow by the way.) However, I have something in addition to say. It's been raining in the Bay Area the last few days and it seems like it will continue to do so. And what happens on rainy days?

Crazy city drivers + water.

It's normally already frustrating enough to drive through the City to get to school every morning. But when you put rain into the equation, its like 10x...no, make that 100x worse. It's like how people in D.C. would freak out whenever it snowed. They FREAKED OUT. Here, its like people have never driven through rain. What's up with that? So everyone, please calm down, put on your headlights, and just drive normally while maintaining safety. I do not want to have to suddenly brake because you realized you were going too fast.

We do want you to get to your local polling place in one piece. ;) And if my sole words cannot convince you, I'm sure my ninja can.


:End of public service announcement:

Being Nice

So its that time of the semester again where I feel anything BUT nice. I'm grumpy, stressed out and MAJORLY procrastinating on the mountain of work that is waiting for me. So what do I do? Watch Wongfu videos. Let's just say its a bit of a throwback to college (I started with their first ever video "seniorita" sophomore year of college) and a good, reliable way to procrastinate.

I know these videos have been up for a year now but I just thought I would share because...I'm being nice.






My question is, they always make videos from the guys' perspective. This is not surprising because...well, they're three guys. However, my question is why they've never tempted a female version of this story. I think it could be very well said that girls are often placed in the "nice girl" category. These are those girls that you always see as a "sister" but never anything more. It's not because they're physically unattractive or uninteresting but just something about them never seems to catch the boys' fancy.

I think Wongfu should try it. hahaha

Being Cheap

I tried to get into the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park on Saturday for their grand opening. The problem is that I got there around 9am and it was evidently too late. The line not only snaked out the building but it went ALL the way around the building and out to the entrance of the Park itself. And not once but TWICE! By the time it was 10am, all 20,000 tickets had been given out already and the building had only been open for 1/2 hour. Truly, it is my fault for being cheap and unwilling to pay $25 for the entrance.

But let's take a second and evaluate that. $25 is no small number when you are a very poor grad student with an alarming debt. These are the various items I could get if I had $25: (they are "OR" situations)
2 lunches of tofu soup at Tofu House.
2 group tix for bleacher seats at a Giants game
1 blouse on sale at Banana Republic
2 CDs
1 law textbook from Ebay
3 Bento boxes from my favorite cheap eats Japanese restaurant
And at this rate, I could also try to get others to contribute $25 and come up with a $700 Billon bailout myself.

Mine is surely not an exhaustive list. The conclusion: I'm gonna remain "frugal" and go to the Academy when its a free Wednesday. Who wants to join me?

p.s. I feel like the U.S. is in the last 5 seconds of an NBA final where they have to make a quick decision to win the "game". Fix the economy and elect the correct man. Are we going to choke and the fat lady will cry or will we make the shot and the fat lady will sing again?

Bears vs. Bulls

And I'm not talking about sports in Chicago.

If I was in NYC right now, I'd probably be the farthest away from Wall Street that I could. I'm sure its quite depressing there right now. This sort of makes me glad I didn't go for an MBA instead. However, let's be real. Its not like it won't affect all other industries. As this article highlights, I'm sure everyone is more and more nervous about their prospects in the working world nowadays. And I'm sure that's why the trend of incoming law students are getting younger as well...I wouldn't want to go out and get a job now either.

Who are the people with "job security" in this day and age?

Here's my list:
Madonna
I.M. Pei
Ruth Bader-Ginsburg
J.K. Rowling
Michael Phelps

What do they all have in common? They're famous!! And only one of them are related to my field. (You BETTER be able to tell which one...) What does this tell me? Either I have kick some Giada de Laurentiis butt or I'm doomed.

Someone buy me a KitchAid mixer quick.

Take Me Out to the Ballpark

That's what I think now that baseball season is in full swing and I'm back home to catch some games again. Not to mention the fact that the weather has been super awesome lately; San Francisco can really ring in the Indian Summer when it wants to.

I went to my first baseball game of the season. Giants v. Pirates. We won 7-6 but it was definitely a super exciting game. Especially the 7th inning. Total of 3 homeruns all game! :D



My cousins and I sat along the third baseline. We came this close to getting a fly ball. sigh.

And the last two weeks of school have been more play than work. hahaha I've enjoyed being around my friends and am slowly trying to work up the motivation to launch into studying again.



Our study group has expanded! Welcome to the group Carlo and Cliff. hahaha We celebrated the start of the new school year with a pizza and wine party at Ray's house. It was a lot of fun.



And I've been trying to get a picture with this lady for a year now. Allison and I managed to get this picture during the Fall BBQ. Too bad there were issues with the food but otherwise, it was an awesome day for a BBQ.

Honestly, it hasn't really felt like the end of summer with so much fun to be had. Too bad I know that I have to buckle down to the school work really soon. Hope that next time I see you, I won't have reverted back to the pale-faced library lurker just yet. ;) Let's hang out. haha

Dreaming of

everywhere else in the world but here. After coming back from Europe, I was really relieved to sleep in my own bed and shower in my own shower again. However, it took merely three days and I was itching to see the world again. I thought: "uh oh. I have the travel bug really bad!" and talking to various friends who had come home from their own adventures certainly didn't help. I have quite a few plans in the air:
1. Japan, Korea, HK
2. Italy, Greece, and Turkey
3. Australia and New Zealand
4. Costa Rica, Argentina, and Brazil.

However, only God knows when I would ever get to go to those places. (But don't let that stop you from telling me if/when you ever go and need a traveling buddy.) haha The last week of school has admittedly been much harder after coming up with all these plans in my mind but perhaps it will get to happen much sooner than I think. ;)

Speaking of school, I have to admit that I've actually been enjoying it. Perhaps its the ability to pick the classes I'm interested in. But it has also been helped by the fact that I feel much more comfortable at school this year. I've been told countless times that the first year is the hardest; that it is the most agonizing. And looking back, in this instance, the grass IS much greener on the other side. It IS nicer to be a 2L and I'm looking forward to the challenges that this year has to offer.

I promise the next post will be less reflective and I'll try to come up with sarcastic stories to tell you. Hope you all are doing well!

Bling Bling-ing

The whole world is glued to the tv as the Olympics are on. Yours truly is no exception. It is more than just the thrill of watching the world's greatest athletes compete in a mind-boggling array of sports. It involves pride as it is my motherland that is hosting these games. And despite the controversies that have already arose with voice-switching little girls, pre-recorded fireworks, and protests regarding Tibet, I am indescribably proud to be Chinese-American. I am proud to be part of a people with thousands of years of history, a people that have a tremendously strong sense of self, and a nation that has an increasingly important role to play in the world. I eagerly watch the games every night to cheer on China, the U.S., and the world.

p.s. This quote hecka cracked me up: "How fabulous was Phelps’s feat? At Sunday’s start, the Person’s Republic of Phelps would have ranked fourth in gold medals and been ahead of all but 14 countries in the medal count." - the NBC Olympics website.

European Adventures London

My last update about Europe. From now on, its going to be the trials of 2nd year. haha I hope you'll still stick around and read this even with that warning. ;)

So we headed to Gare du Nord to take the Eurostar from Paris to London at around 1pm. However, when it came time to board, they found an "unclaimed" piece of luggage and had to evacuate the whole area. It was insane since the elevator AND an entire set of escalators were broken!!! After a very chaotic hour, we were able to board and just made our train with 10 mins to spare (and an hour late). We were on our way to London! The Eurostar dropped us off at King's Cross Station and of course, I had to go find the Hogwarts Express.



Here's the platform. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go through being a Muggle but someone left their cart halfway through. I can only hope that it was forgetful Neville.

We then navigated through the tube and got to our hotel. We took it easy as it was already after 6 by the time we got there and just had dinner.
The next few days, we set out to see the sights.



Here's Westminster Abbey. The famous site of weddings, funerals and coronations.

And we also went by 10 Downing Street but not only was it obstructed with heavy construction both on the outside and along the street, but also heavily guarded. Of course, what else would I expect? Gordon Brown waving to the crowd?
But along the way, I stopped for a tourist picture.



Jo said it smelled really bad inside so I didn't go in. hahaha



But here we are along the Thames river with Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament in the background. Too bad they were not in session or else I would've totally gone to watch a session. ;)



We wandered over to the London Eye and I had to satisfy myself with a picture from the ground since the prices were outrageous (read: 13.50 pounds!!).

We also headed to see the Queen! Unfortunately, I'm not sure if she was home or not.



Can you guys tell?
In order to get to Buckingham Palace, we took a walk through St. James Park. It was a really nice park and if it didn't have a bajillion tourists swarming around, I'm sure I could see the locals coming to hang out there.



Here's the Princess Diana Memorial Walkway across the lake in the park.



And of course, we took the bus a few times. Here's the inside of one of those old school double deckers where you get in on the back. Davis people, like the ones along the G line!




Everyone thinks that this is the London Bridge but rather, it is the Tower Bridge. It's very pretty though.

Among all the museums we went to, my favorite was the National Portrait Gallery. The top floor was portraits of royalty, starting with the Tudors. The second floor was a bit more modern, moving up until the mid 1990s and included people like Beatrix Potter. The bottom floor was modern people like Dame Judi Dench and David Beckham. It was really cool to see the change in the way people are portrayed. However, I only say this to intro the next picture who had nothing to do with the National Portrait Gallery. HAHA.



This is the famous chandelier in the Victoria and Albert museum. Jo told me that the designer is the same as the one who designed the decorations inside the Bellagio. :)

And of course, I have some food pictures.



The famous food hall in Harrods!! The room was huge and all the food looked SO GOOD. Sigh.



And Jo and I had tea one afternoon. The cake was pretty good.

London was a great end to my European adventures. In fact, of all the cities I visited, I really could see myself living there for a bit. Maybe because it reminds me so much of Hong Kong or because of the ease of language but to be honest, I feel very comfortable there. And to continue with the list of favorites, my favorite small city was Colmar. The architecture is so distinct and the town is very cute (although very touristy). My favorite large city was Munich. It was a great combination of old and new and the Germans are definitely some of my favorite people.

I'm so glad to have gone on this adventure...one that I've dreamed of for many years. It has opened my eyes to sights I never knew existed and to people I never hoped to meet. God has not only tremendously blessed me in allowing me to go but in bringing the people and places into my life. And I'd like to think that I learned a bit about International Law as well. :wink: Thanks for reading friends and stick around because you never know what adventures I might encounter next.

European Adventures Paris

Bonjour! After Strasbourg, I took the train to Paris and spent five days there with my friend Joanna. Here's a quick picture recap:

We were really tired but when we got to the hotel and unloaded, we wanted to go see something. Lo and behold, look what we stumble upon.



The stars represent the EU emblem since Sarkozy was president of the EU when we were in Paris. hehe



Here's the version at night. It was so pretty since the lights actually sparkled!

The next day was a Tuesday which means that our original Louvre plans had to be scraped since it closes Tuesdays. Thus, it was off to Paris Disney. I was ready for some manufactured fun and to get in some time at the Happiest Place on Earth: Euro version.

Their Sleeping Beauty Castle was freaking awesome. I totally loved it b/c it had an animated dragon in cave part and an awesome upstairs.



The outside of the castle with a Disney band to welcome us.



Here's the stained glass windows that were on the upper floor. They were pretty cool.



And of course, no one does fireworks like Disney. I have to say the music, lights, and fireworks combo is the best I've seen.

The next day was Museum day. Three major museums, Notre Dame and some more exploring. It was a long day. haha



Here's me doing my "yay for I.M. Pei" jump outside the Louvre.



And of course we must not forget the famous Mona Lisa. She's very tiny in real life.



This is the inside of my favorite museum visit: the Musee l'Orangerie. It hosted Monet's "Waterlilies" and had two rooms that looked like this. Simply beautiful.

We dropped by the Musee d'Orsay which could've easily been a really fun museum if my back was not killing me at that point. Just too much wear and tear for a couple of weeks by then.



And then it was off to search for the hunchback. Didn't see him at all.

The last full day was spent at Versailles because it was so HUGE. It was ridiculous how big it was. And like Jo said, no wonder there were wars b/c if one person was allowed to own all of that, I'm sure it was a matter of time before the common person would revolt.



Me and part of Louis XIV's garden. There is more believe it or not.

We headed back out into the city and went to the Arc de Triomphe...another self-tribute by a king.



Here's the view from the bottom.



And then from the top, this is down the Champs Elysees. :) I did a TINY bit of shopping. hahaha

Well, that was a quick run through of my time in Paris. Next up, London!

European Adventures Day 56

I'm currently sitting in an internet cafe off of the Bond St. Tube station in London. Four more days and I'm home but just wanted to let you know that I WILL have a huge picture update once I'm lucid and in my own home again. I would love to hang out so please call in about five days. haha :) See you soon!

Reflections

I have a little less than 2 weeks before I go back home to San Francisco. It's been a crazy journey this past month and a half as I've traveled all over the place. Here's a quick run-down:

Things I'm glad to have experienced:
* Traveled to many places in Switzerland, Germany and France. England is going to be the last stop.
* Learned a lot about the world of Human Rights from an idealist and a realistic perspective.
* Met people from all over the world. Now, I have friends in the Philippines, Cote D'ivoire, Costa Rica and even Georgia (the country, not the state!).
* Eaten some really amazing pastries. HAHA
* Weird European keyboards. :shrug:
* Gotten challenged to step out of my comfort zone more than ever and to reexamine myself and my life from a more global perspective.

Things I miss from home:
* My bed.
* My family
* Asian food.
* My friends.

I'm off to Paris tomorrow to meet Joanna. I'm really looking forward to spending time with a familiar face and good friend from home. I promise to have pictures up soon. Hope you all are well!

European Adventures Day 43

So this past weekend, we went on a wine tour of Alsace (the region that Strasbourg is located in). The drive was beautiful with views of fields, castles and small towns along the way. We hit several small towns with Colmar being the largest of them.

Side story: So my friend gave me a 4GB SD card for my camera and I switched to that for this weekend. However, when I came home, I realized that the card does NOT work on any of the things I've tried (transfer cable from camera, SD drives in computers, a flash drive for SD cards...). So I cannot get my pictures off of the card. :( I'm really sad but hopefully it'll work when I get home and get to use my own cord for my camera. So I'm sorry for the lack of pictures for this post.

All the towns were very distinctively "Alsacian" with a unique sense of architecture and, of course, with many wine tasting opportunities. Here's a sample:



I promise that it really does look like that. (My friend Alyssa took that.)

It'll keep it short since there are no visuals but just know that I came away with two small bottles of wine and a better appreciation of the Alsace region of France. It was lots of fun to wander and explore these towns with new friends and admire the very old (think from the 1500s) buildings that have been kept in pristine condition. I'll try to update this with more pictures later ;).

European Adventures Day 36

This weekend, someone came up with the brilliant idea to rent cars and drive to some small towns in Germany’s black forest (it was only about 1 ½ hour away). We got two cars at the train station and set off on our adventure. The first town we hit was Freiburg which had a cool little farmer’s market deal going on at the town center. We walked around a bit, grabbed some sausage sandwiches and admired the goods on sale.



This is one of several flower stands. They all had gorgeous flowers and I really wanted to buy some but of course they wouldn’t keep for the journey ahead.

We then headed out again after a quick Starbucks stop (the first for everyone since being in Europe) and made our way to a small town named St. Margen. We found a small path that was recommended by Rick Steves and headed into the forest.



Definitely surrounded by green everywhere.



Along the path into the forest, we saw fields where there were just cows everywhere. In the background is the little town of St. Margen.

We hiked for about an hour and a half and soaked in the natural surroundings. Before we left, we all took a picture with the German cow in town. There was a lady parked right behind it while we were taking pictures and laughing at the way we posed.



It says something about milk. Hahaha

We made our last stop the town of Triburg, which is known for its cuckoo clocks. They were indeed everywhere.



Here’s one of several stores that boasted “1000 clocks”. The bears actually moved and the one on the right climbed up and down that pole.

Not too far away from the store and row of shops was the “Wasserfall” which is supposedly Germany’s tallest. See for yourself.



What do you think?

We grabbed some dinner in Triburg and had a good time just chatting around the table. Afterwards, we hopped back into the cars and headed back to Strasbourg. It was a nice day trip out of the city and some quality time with people. :)

European Adventures Day 30

Day 3:

Flo’s maternal grandmother, aunt and uncle came to visit today so his parents had a large breakfast for everyone. It was 8 people for breakfast since one of Flo’s sisters was home too. It was really nice to enjoy a leisurely breakfast in their beautiful sunroom opening into the garden. And it was definitely a nice spread complete with the traditional Bavarian white sausage “Weisswurst”, sweet Bavarian mustard and a pretzel. It’s supposed to be eaten with a liter of beer but I politely turned it down this time. Hahaha It was too much beer in one weekend for a me who normally barely drinks several a year. But it was definitely very sweet of Flo’s mom to prepare it.



This is a photo of me with Florian’s family (he’s in orange) with his aunt missing since she was taking the picture.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Munich. Not only was the weather very nice for my visit and I got to experience a lot of the city but I had a great personal tour guide with a very sweet family. (Thank you again Flo if you’re reading this!!). His relatives were very friendly and easy to talk to. They kept telling me that San Francisco was the most beautiful city in the States, which I cannot disagree with, and his mom was especially sweet. It left me a great impression of Germany and more specifically of Munich and the Bavarian people. They just seemed so warm, enthusiastic and helpful. I truly believe that Munich is a city I would love to visit again and for sure, one of my favorites so far. It was a great weekend.

European Adventures Day 29

Day 2:
We woke up a bit late as we got home from the university party late but after some breakfast (which consistent of warm buns with cream cheese, salami, and nutella. hehe), we headed out to the town of Dachau where there existed one of the first concentration camps that the Nazi’s built. As millions of people can tell you, the world was horrified by the extermination of the Jews carried out by Hitler and his Nazis during WWII. We’ve all studied the horrible situation at some point in school and for me, it was a subject I was really interested in starting at a young age. So, it was definitely sobering to go to Dachau and see the camp first hand. The original site had been torn down after the Americans freed it in 1945 but they rebuilt two of the barracks as examples of camp life and turned the main hall into a museum for visitors. It now exists as a memorial to those who lived, suffered and died there.



This is the entrance to the camp. The words on the door say: “To work is to be free” and was the motto that was displayed at all the concentration camps. Note the irony.



The death rate grew too high for the camp in the mid-1930s and they had to build a larger crematorium to handle the bodies. Each of these fit 2-3 bodies at once.



It’s hard to imagine that this tree-lined, gravel path was once the gathering place for the Jewish prisoners where they exchanged information and news during their rare free time. The two buildings are the recreated barracks and the rest are marked with numbers and gravel-filled foundations. Dachau had up to 40,000 people at any given time over a period of 12 years. It’s very sobering to realize that such a serene place now was once a terrible place of death and torture. Visiting the camp really reinforced my desire to help ensure that the motto on a memorial that the motto: “Never again.” is true.

After several hours at Dachau, Florian and I decided to head back into Munich for some more light-hearted excursions. We were hungry so we went to the most famous Biergarten in Munich, the one inside the English Garden called Biergarten Chinesischer Turm. It was a very nice and warm Saturday afternoon so the Biergarten was full of people hanging out under the trees and having beer and lunch.



This is a picture of the crowd. In the middle is the Chinese pagoda that marks the Biergarten Chinesischer Turm. Among the people, there were several bachelor parties going on. The men were clearly drunk and every so often would burst into German folk songs at the top of their lungs, accompanied by pounding on the table. Several of them were also dressed up as a giant pink bunny (groom) and some sort of king (friend?), and went around the tables selling roses to people. I was laughing the whole time. It was a lot of fun.



And this is what we had: Me the pork knuckle and beer mixed with lemonade and Flo the ribs and a liter of normal beer. Not pictured is a plate of tomatoes and mozzarella. Hahaha

After lunch we took a walk around the lake where there were tons of people out on rowboats and paddleboats. It actually reminded me a lot of Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park. After an hour walk or so, we took the subway to the most famous ice cream shop in Munich...the name of which I forgot (it starts with a S). haha It was only 80 euro cents for a scoop so I got two: scholade-mint and terr

It was still early, so Flo suggested we go see the Olympic stadium. He told me that Munich is trying to bid for the winter games in 2014 because it wants to be the first city to have hosted both the summer and winter games.



Side note: This is one of the stops along the subway ride. It was really cool b/c these silver points came out from the wall of the station and created a cool background. There were also other cool stations: one had a multi-colored wall; another was a rock wall that had blue lighting hitting it and these huge colored lamps (red and yellow) hanging in the middle of the platform. I really like the subway system in Munich: it’s clean, on top and very efficient.



So this is the Olympic lake, Swimhalle (yes, German for Swim Hall), and the Olympic tower of the 1972 Munich games. (I’m pretty proud of this picture by the way). The building to the right of the tower shaped like an engine is the BMW headquarters in Munich. Cool huh?

As you can see, it was getting late so we just headed home and called it a night. More on the last day later. :)

European Adventures Day 28

Hallo! This weekend I went to visit my friend Florian from USF in Munich, his hometown. It was a 3 ½ hour train ride from Strasbourg. It's was a really packed weekend so it will be several posts.

Day 1:
After a little bit of a mix-up on the times at the train station, I met him at 2:00pm where he greeted me with a hug and an offer for a genuine Bavarian lunch. And if you know me, I never turn down an offer for food...especially genuine local cuisine.



On the way to the lunch place, we saw the Bavarian district courthouse and being the law nerd that I am, I went in. This is the outside.

A few blocks further, we stopped at the restaurant near the botanical gardens and had some genuine Schnitzel. (Please correct me on the spelling if you can.)



It was a beautiful sight for sore eyes after almost 5 hours without food. And it was definitely yummy fried goodness.



We then walked around the city center where the shops and people were. This is City Hall. Flo said that the clock has figures dancing at several times of the day but we missed the times.



We walked to the top of the tower that was across the street from City Hall and at the top, this view greeted us. It was 360 degrees around but I didn’t get the rest of it. :( I have a video if you want to see it.

After that climb and a bit more walking around, Flo suggested we stop at the famous Schumann’s bar for some drinks. On the way there, we saw this: the Theatiner Kirche (aka. the big yellow church).



Just outside of it was a performance stage and it was being set up for the Bavarian Orchestra’s performance. It was even cooler at night with the lights but alas, we were rushing home so I didn’t get a photo of it at night. And if you were wondering, the drinks were delicious...I had something called the Freitag which was very appropriate as it means “Friday” in German.

We headed home after drinks so I could drop off my stuff. And then we headed back out into the city again b/c there was a huge university party going on. Apparently, it’s a yearly thing where the university opens up and the students throw this huge party for thousands of students. One courtyard sold the drinks and beer, another sold food, and several of the halls were turned into dance rooms with various genres of music. It was very crazy, crowded and lots of fun as I got to know some of Flo’s friends over beers and sausages. It was a great taste of student life in Munich. Makes me wonder why our schools don’t ever think to do something like that.

Danke and stay tuned for the next part.

European Adventures Days 22-23

Bonjour! I am now officially in France...Strasbourg to be exact. Before we left Geneva, we had one last hurrah at a fondue restaurant. Yes, another fondue place. However, this one had cheese that came in tomate and champignon flavors. The tomate was excellent. And for dessert, we had chocolate fondue with cookies and fruit. :) It was a great end to our stay in Geneva.



This is Carlo trying to stab me with his fondue fork. :)

As for getting to Strasbourg, it was quite an adventure to get here as I and several other people dragged all our stuff onto the bus and then onto the train to get here on Saturday. It was quite interesting as most of us have at least one huge bag if not two and combining that with the heat, it was a bit unpleasant. haha Thank goodness for John and Greg would proved to be the two workhorses for us girls. They get props. We made it after almost 4 hours on the train and took taxis to our dorm b/c we were just way too tired to drag our stuff on the trams. And I have a story about our taxi ride:

So here in Europe, I noticed that the taxis are often very nice cars like BMWs and Mercedes-Benz. I'm assuming that they're less expensive here than for us in the States but it still sort of baffles me that people use them for taxis. Well, Greg and I got into a Mercedes (the people and stuff had to fit into 3 separate cars) and the guy asked us where we're from. We said San Francisco and he was like: "Oh! California! Very nice!" He proceeded to reach to his sound system, pressed a few buttons and turned up the sound as Tupac's "California Love" came blasting out. It was absolutely HILARIOUS. I was laughing so hard in the back seat. Oh man.

Anyways, we got to our dorm and settled in. Other than no wireless, its really not all that bad considering we have our own mini-fridges and sinks in our single rooms. :) I like having more space again. We got groceries and grabbed a quick bite at a local pizzeria. The next day, we went to register for the Institute (Rene Cassin Institute on Human Rights) and explored downtown.



This is Lisa & Ilana enjoying their dessert.



So downtown Strasbourg is located on a small island surrounded by rivers. It's pretty cool. Here's a small snapshot.



There are also several cathedrals in the area and this is the biggest one.



This cool astrological clock that has some sort of special show at 12:30 every afternoon. I'm gonna go back to see it.



And this is me and Greg trying to find our way home.

So far I'm enjoying the sites and sounds in Strasbourg than in Geneva. It seems to have a lot more old-school character and flavor that Geneva which was a modern city but seemed a bit confused as to personality. Don't get me wrong, Geneva was really pretty but Strasbourg seems to have a lot more history. I'm looking forward to getting to know it better.

Today is the first day of several lectures a day for four weeks. Its like going to school again except all your classmates are international. I hope I'll learn a lot and I'm really interested especially in the European systems. What a nerd huh? let's just hope I won't fall asleep too much in this heat. haha And this weekend I'm off to Munich to visit my friend Florian who was an LLM student at USF. I'm super excited because I've heard SO many good things about Munich. I'll have an update after the weekend. Until next time, Au Revoir Mes Amis!