Bonjour! I have arrived to France. My first and primary comment is that I am shocked by how well real bread tastes. Which, tellingly, reminds me of Darth Sidious' famous quote: "Only now, at the end, do you truly understand the power of the Dark Side." At any rate, I am staying in Paris' 15th arrondissement in a two-bedroom apartment with fellow Jennifer Ph.D. student and Thomson Paris Research Lab intern, Jiayue He. The Eiffel Tower can be seen from the balcony outside my bedroom if one leans really far out - otherwise the Eiffel is about a 10 minute walk straight north. The apartment itself is quite nice, with a decent-sized living room [1,2] and a small kitchen. You here see Jiayue in front of our entrance. For those of you thinking about visiting Paris (or as a reference to the pictures coming further down on this page), the primary tourist attractions in Paris are highlighted in this map, but for metro advice you must use either the metro or RER maps. I love visitors, but I urge you to consult with me before ordering tickets, as my weekend schedule for the first half of the summer is quite hectic.

It is difficult to appreciate how much the French love food until you've already gained 15lb, and so I thought I'd try to short-cut that lesson and introduce you to the delectable little shops in our neighborhood (within 5 minute walking distance) to give you an idea of their frequency in Paris.
Bakeries: Durand is a chain located two blocks to the west of us that I have never tried, Benoit Maeder is an Alsatian bakery on Saint Charles, Le Grenier à Pain is on the same street and is the one we usually use, Le Bon Panneton is also on Saint Charles and I use it when I want to treat myself to even better quality, Paul is a chain that rounds out the Saint Charles quadruple-play, while Cyril & Esméralda is a block east on Convention
Cheese: Pascal Beillevaire (chain) and Serraz both lie on Saint Charles
Chocolate: Bergamote (Jiayue frequents this one) and Jeff de Bruges likewise both lie on Saint Charles
Pastries: Christian Lecoq is on Saint Charles while Dalloyau is a block east on Convention and thus far out of my price range
Everything above that is on rue Saint Charles is located between rue de la Convention and avenue Emile Zola. Moreover, keep in mind that I have not taken any photos of wine shops, restaurants/cafés, or delicatessens (there are so many traiteurs in Paris!). Bon appétite!

Hola! To fully appreciate why that is an appropriate segue into the description of my trip to Rome, you must ask the girls I was visiting: Ramona Pousti & Polly Israni. Jon-Jon Canan came with Ramona from Seattle and was a welcomed antidote to the wild American road show also known as Ramona & Polly. Here you can meet the crew as they've chosen their "model poses:" John, Polly, Ramona, and Haakon. Anyway, upon arriving to Italy, I quickly discovered that cab drivers smell fresh meat from miles away and will fleece you if you're not careful. Within 10 minutes I had been quoted three prices from two cab drivers ranging from €45 to €60 and ultimately got so frustrated that I decided to take the train (Leonardo Express for €9.50), which was a bit risky given that I didn't know where the hotel was located but still turned out much better. I've struggled to find a good tourist map of Rome online, but I think you should get by in the following text if you combine About's interactive map with this Italian one.
After meeting up with the others in Harlem@Roma, we headed to a nearby restaurant so that I could have a late dinner and the girls could get drunk. Ramona was brave enough (and adequately hungry for drunken stupor) to shoot a rather large glass of really bad grappa, a.k.a. not-so-sweet gasoline. She was dancing on her bed in glee on Saturday night - admittedly after rinsing that disgusting taste from her mouth - but was less pleased with Jon's drink when the hangover hit on Sunday morning. Revenge was sweet, however, as she suggested that everybody try "a very special tasting" chocolate gelato with peppers on Sunday: let's just say it was special but not good. And here is a picture of a stereotypically narrow European alley near that same gelato shop.
The first stop on Saturday's whirlwind tour of Rome's history (and gelato shops) was the Piazza delle Repubblica. From there we headed towards the Monument of Vittorio Emanuele II [W] (here with people), which is at the southern end of via Nazionale. From the top of the monument you can see the remnants of the Roman Forum  [W] with via dei Fori Imperiali to the left leading to the Colosseum in the background. Here is the billionth online picture of the Colosseum [W] which, like all the ones before it, fails to do it any justice. The Arch of Constantine [W] is located immediately southwest of the Colosseum.
We rested our fannies briefly (here with Ramona, Jon, and Polly acting silly) before I gave Ramona a piggyback ride across a bridge so that she could explore a local flea market. In addition to the flea market there was also a very small Italian car, which might fit those of us who are vertically challenged (older version) but certainly not Vikings. This picture is taken from the bridge on the way back across the Tiber river [W]. Afterwards we headed to the Piazza Navona [W], where - in a somewhat surreal scene - the USC Trojan Marching Band [external] entertained the crowd. Some of us really want to watch them: there's nothing wrong with that! Here's Ramona and John at the Piazza. We then admired the Pantheon [W] before briefly stopping by the Trevi Fountain [W] before dinner. After eating we hit up the Trevi again where Jon took excellent slow-shutter picture of it in the dark, and received thanks from the girls for the day's tour-guide services. In addition to the Trevi, we also listened to some music on the Spanish Steps [W] before turning in.
After finishing our tour of the Vatican [W] (and some more token group photos), it was time for me to pick up my travel luggage at the museum reception and head on home. "Not so fast" said the Swiss Guard who stopped me from going back through the museum, and said that my luggage would be at "this end" at 6pm. After a brief moment of sheer horror during which I explained that my flight was at 6pm, the Swiss Guard initially shrugged his shoulders before saying that I still had time to "run around the building" to retrieve my bag. Trust me when I say that you've never seen a man run so fast in 27°C blazing heat while wearing a buttoned down shirt and jeans. While this made me sweaty and gross for the remainder of the journey, I did get my luggage and went Vatican-to-Paris in 4 hours. I can now proudly proclaim to have run around a small country in less than 10 minutes; not quite Harald Hårfagre, but still an accomplishment. Arrivederci Roma!

For those of you visiting Paris, let me introduce to you the ideal monster tour of its monuments and palaces. Or alternatively, and perhaps more likely, give you an opportunity to pick and choose which such sights you wish to prioritize. Whatever you do, however, you must see Napoleon's second Arc de Triomph [W] at Place de Charles de Gaulle. This will put you at the northwestern end of Champs Élysées [W] whose strip down towards the Louvre is a true Parisian experience. After a bit of walking you will reach the Grand Palais [W] (currently under renovation) and the adjoining Petite Palais [W]. The gates on the bridge of Alexander III immediately south of the palaces (and facing Les Invalides) are quite impressive. Continuing your walk down Champs Élysées, you will next hit the characteristic Obelisk at Place de la Concorde [W], which was a gift from the viceroy and pasha of Egypt, Mohammad Ali, in 1831. In the opposite direction you can see a fountain with the Ministere de la Marine in the background. Further back behind the ministry is the Église de la Madeleine [W], and if you continue walking northeast you will hit upon the Opera [W], whose building confusingly reads "Academie Nationale de Musique." South of the Opera, containing lots of expensive stores, you will find the Place Vendôme [W] with the 43.5m-tall Colonne Vendôme in the center. Immediately south are the Jardin des Tuileries, which lead to the original Napoleonic Arc de Triomph du Carrousel [W] (you'd almost think he had an inferiority complex) and opens up to the eminent Musée du Louvre [W]. The somewhat disappointingly bland Palais Royal [W] is located north of the museum. Continuing the eastern trend, you can walk on Rue de Rivoli until you hit upon Hôtel de Ville [W] which is decorated with 108 statues of noteworthy Parisians, and Place des Vosges [W] with a statue of Louis XIII in the middle. Rivoli then becomes Rue St Antoine and leads to Place de la Bastille [W] with the Colonne de Juillet in the center. At this point you should probably head southwest to the islands, starting with Île St-Louis and some gelato, before seeing Notre Dame [W] from the front, back, and side - the latter one being impossible to photograph due to the aforementioned narrow European alleys. The Sainte-Chappell must be next, but beware that the lines may be intimidating. You can then walk south through the happening Latin Quarter before hitting upon the Palais du Luxembourg [W] with its charming gardens. The next worthy stop is Les Invalides [W], which is quite the trek west and might thus require a metro ride. It is located very close to the Ecole Militaire [W], which opens up to a structure that is more French than Paris itself, namely the Eiffel Tower [W]. At this point you will be so exhausted that you should head straight south for 10 minutes and meet up with me at rue Gutenberg! :-)

Random photos. For a great Danish chocolate and marzipan shop, stop by Peter Beier [external] on Rue Monsieur Le Prince right near where it intersects with Boulevard St Michel - excellent! Here I am standing with the Hôtel de Crillon [W] to my left and a gorgeous Ferrari Enzo to my right: the feeling cannot be put into words. You can here admire the car (as I did) from the front and back. April and Pan visited Jiayue and I immediately before Jiayue headed for ICC in Istanbul. It turned out to be quite an ordeal to find our apartment (despite the fact that it's immediately next to Hummer France's headquarters), but Jiayue's great cooking made it worth the wait.
On July 1st, we attended a (primarily Asian) lunch at Vincent Alloy's place. The fun lasted for many hours, even without a drunk Pan, although one of Kyoungwon's children (Matt) tried to remedy that. Here's almost the entire crew: Agnus, Kyoungwon, Joe, Matt, Pan, April, Jiayue, Vincent, and Buutong. Thanks for hosting the lunch, Vincent & Buutong!
The next day, Jiayue and I went to Genève. It was a fun trip, but we learned a painful though very valuable lesson: ensure that the city you're visiting is actually open on the day you choose to travel! We went on a Sunday and unfortunately all the chocolatiers, watch makers, and most restaurants close on Sundays in Switzerland. Oh well, at least we got to play a round of chess! We also saw the famous Genevan water fountain, Jet d'Eau, and while it's certainly large, it's still just a water fountain! I have to say that my personal highlight of the trip was a relaxing and very tasty lunch at Le Carnivore: highly recommended if you're in Genève. Jennifer (the advisor) arrived to Paris shortly before this same weekend, and we were able to have a wonderful dinner with her, her parents, and Renata Teixeira at Au Riad 27 on the 4th of July. After attending/presenting the Intimate workshop, we went out to celebrate and unwind: here's a picture of Pan and I. The frustrating WC final (why Zidane, why?) was held on the 8th and us Thomson kids (Jiayue, Pan, Henrik, Vivek, and Haakon) watched it at a bar near the islands. On July 10th the boys@thomson had a very good dinner at a French restaurant on rue Saint Charles near where Jiayue and I live. The guest of honor was Kyoungwon who was leaving us after finishing his internship at Thomson. After lots of food and wine we headed back to my apartment to relax and took some group photos, with Pan playing jester as usual. You can see the full happy crew in this picture of: Haakon, Vijay Erramilli, Suh Kyoungwon, Matteo, Pan Hui, Vivek Mhatre, and Jiayue with Amogh Dhamdhere as the photographer.
The Thomson Paris Research Lab football match and subsequent dinner was held on the 3rd of August. As one team was forced to play skins, the photographic evidence has been destroyed in the name of all that is good with the world. In any case, the evening was a smashing success (perhaps even too much so) and here are picures that survived the editing phase: Christophe, Letizia, Matteo, and Jiayue; Jennifer, Vincent, Buutong, Abderrahmen, and Christophe; Vijay, Pan, Vivek, and Fernando.

Excuse me for sounding like a MasterCard commercial for a moment, but here goes:

I think some background is in order to fully appreciate what the event means to some of us. I've played soccer since I was seven years old. It's not actually an early age to start, but given that I am still fairly active it means I have been playing for over 15 years (yikes, I'm old!). I went to two Norway Cup tournaments with my team back when I was a teenager and this was the ultimate competitive playground: you got to play teams from other countries! As a fan of soccer, however, nothing comes remotely close to the World Cup: this is where you defend your country's honor! It only happens every four years, and the memories do last a lifetime. Legends are born that transcend borders because people from all over the world are equally crazy about the ordeal (unlike some other "World Series" I know of).
So there I was, getting off at Leipzig Hauptbahnhof for my first World Cup game, and I was surrounded by Koreans. I wasn't actually surprised, because there were already quite a few Koreans (and Japanese actually - they had a game the same day) at my origin train station in Frankfurt. The first thing I did was obviously to walk to pick up my ticket at the stadium. In hindsight the wisdom in this choice is debatable since thereafter the presence of this ticket in my bag felt like a million dollars: I guarded that bag with my life (let's just say it accompanied me everywhere). Despite constantly checking for the ticket's continued existence, I went into downtown Leipzig and had a ball. As expected, the town was filled with fans of both "le bleus" and the red devils: the latter being far more dedicated. There was face painting and constant cheering in the streets, even - I assume - traditional Korean dance, and also some terrible Korean pop music. :-) Unfortunately the Germans are not known for their gastronomic prowess, so the "restaurant quality" pizza I had for lunch was only slightly better than the McDonald's McChicken burger I settled for as dinner, but now I'm nitpicking.
The most vivid moment of all was when I entered into Leipzig stadium itself. I cannot do the feeling any justice in writing: I had flashbacks to childhood soccer memories. I was there hours before most people showed up (which wasn't bad at all because they showed the previous game on the screen!) and was able to admire the pitch & stadium in pristine and untouched condition. Please note that that picture, along with all others, are taken from my seat... on my row. I was in such a delirious state of mind that I took multiple pictures of the Korean team walking around on the pitch even before warm-ups had begun. When the game actually began it was still like a dream. I do wish I knew the respective languages of the fans, however, as their chants don't make much sense otherwise. Actually, it's even worse when some of the chants sound like they would make sense in another language that you know. I have two marked examples below and would very much appreciate if someone could tell me the actual spelling and meaning of the chants, and I'll include them here. :-)

  1. The Koreans have a chant that in English sounds like "Heya Gringos!" I'm going to assume that this is not what they're saying since that would be most disrespectful! [Update: Suh Kyoungwon told me how the chant is spelled, that it means "Go Korea!" in Korean, and that it the proper pronunciation is more like "Dae - Hahn - Mean - Kook!" I guess the difference between what I heard and what they said is further support of something similar to the McGurk effect.]
  2. The French have chant that seems to go "Hei, du, du som sover, du som sover!" which in Norwegian means "hey, you, you that's sleeping, you that's sleeping!" It was most disorienting when they started chanting this during the game.

I have to say, with the game now behind me, that the Korean fans are what stood out the most. It was an amazing game but the Korean team honestly did not impress (obviously neither did the French). Two general comments I have had throughout the cup were issue in this game also:

  1. The European teams (and to a lesser extent Japan & Korea) are not as fit as the African teams. Without exception, it appears that they run out of steam at some point in the second half. Having now attended a game, I think I can once-and-for-all debunk the theory that the heat and humidity is unbearable; this is certainly not the case for night games. It is true that most European clubs do not play in the summer, but I don't think this is an adequate excuse when you're paid tens of millions to play a sport.
  2. When did it become common and accepted practice to waste free kicks by merely softly passing it to someone nearby, i.e. without making significant forward progress? I must've missed this "evolution," but I'm having a hard time seeing the logic for not using a free-kick like a corner-kick opportunity. Unfortunately my latter argument is partially a mute point now because they waste 50% of corner-kicks in the same fashion...

In the 2002 WC it seemed to me like Korea did exceptionally well because they were able to take advantage of European teams' lacking fitness and merely run circles around them in the heat. They were not able to do so this with the French, however, until they scored their equalizer, which noticeably energized the team. Perhaps it a de-evolution of their fitness, or a change in style, but I also wondered whether they were buckling slightly under the pressure/expectations of their crowd after their remarkable - and totally unexpected - run in '02. Even so, the game was nothing short of great. The Korean fans kept cheering on the team for 90+ minutes even when they were down and there was indescribable exaltation when the team got their equalizer in the waning minutes of the match. You had to be there! Aufwiedersehen Deutschland!

Norsk tekst til bildene fra festen for å feire at Margareth Larsen får Kongens Fortjestmedalje.
I flew back to Tromsø for St. Hans (midsummer) to celebrate my 80th birthday of grandmother, Margareth Larsen. Or rather, that was all I expected to celebrate until she was awarded Kongens Fortjenstmedalje (King's Service Medal) for her work with the physically and mentally disabled. It is an honor that will tongue-tie the most articulate of persons, but obviously almost everyone in our family returned to honor her with great pride. We are very thankful for the efforts of Inge Hyld to put the application together so that our grandmother could receive this honor. For my own part, it was sadly a brief but hectic trip that was filled to the rim with festivities. A guest put it best when she noted that the guest of honor has now set a high standard for posterity to live up to, but I also think that this standard is a good guide for many decisions I meet in daily life. At any rate, enough talk and on to the photos!
We must not forget to thank Kristine and Anne-Lise, who made invaluable organizational contributions far in advance. Gøril, Anne, et al., also deserve mention for much of the effort on the big day, all of which resulted in a fabulous buffet. Upon entering the main room, however, you hopefully ran into Svein-Gunnar and Petter first, who were alcohol servers for the day. Many people had showed up to honor grandmother, including most of the intimate family, and friends and colleagues from her past in Norway's Handicap Association, politics, and her current job as a family judge. Here are some representative photos: one, two, three, four, five, six, and seven. While some family members spent their efforts taking respectful pictures of the attendees, Irja was taking close-ups of her aunts' teeth (a strategy I suspect will backfire in the long run :-). Here you see Stian standing beside Gerd, who is one of the family's artists. Gerd is here joined by Inge. And here I look like a solider - incidentally protecting Kristine - as my mother always points out.
Many people held wonderful speeches for my grandmother throughout the evening. Tore went up first and delved into his mother's past, which provided context for many of the subsequent speeches that detailed her professional accomplishments. Not everyone settled for "merely" giving a speech, however, as Sigrid sang Senjasvisa for us. She was even able to lure my grandmother into joining in for the last verse, which was extra nice as Tore had sought exactly that during his speech. Rønnaug, Bjørnar Østgård, among others, also held speeches in my grandmother's honor. Stian held a speech that articulated the pride that the grandchildren feel, before I held a speech about changing perceptions of divorce and broached the subject of how that relates to my grandmother ending up with the man that I have always known as grandfather. I think this is a wonderful picture of grandmother with Inge Hyld and Marie Myreng Nilsen after having received her award. There were also some nice family photos taken toward the end of the evening. You can here see our grandmother with: the girls, boys, children, grandchildren, and the entire clan. Thanks for a wonderful evening!
On Sunday it was time to celebrate my grandmother's 80th birthday. We had a wonderful meal at the SAS Hotel, and undoubtedly received premium service due to the fact that my grandmother knew the butler personally. Seated around the dinner table sat most of our close family, here with Helge and Jan-Arne; Kristine and Stian; Solbjørg and Inge; Tore and Unni; Svenn, Sigrid, and Svein-Gunnar; Gerd, Petter, and Anne-Lise; Haakon and Irja; Anne and Vigdis, and grandmother of course! Until next time! [Friday's photos, Saturday's photos]
Incidentally, something rather adorable happened upon landing in Oslo from Paris. You've all undoubtedly heard of the stereotype that Norway is always cold. Without addressing the accuracy of this statement, let the following story go to show how easily influenced children are from what they hear. In any case, an Asian American mother was sitting behind me on the airplane with two cute hapa daughters (the Norwegian father was sitting further back). Immediately after landing (i.e. while we're still inside the airplane), one of the daughters turns to her mother and asks "are we in Norway now, mommy?" The mother obviously answered "yes, we are" and then the daughter said "it's so cold here!" [...] Let's just say that this event slightly offset the dreary remainder of my travails with SAS and Paris CDG, which included the the third delay at a Paris airport due to a bomb thread out of a total of four visits from me. Patience is a virtue, eh?

The Intimate 2006 workshop was held in Paris on July 6th and 7th. The associated dinner was held on Thursday on a boat that went up and down the Seine. Mark Crovella took some pictures of the event, and you can see all of them, but I wanted to put up a select few of them here. To the left in this picture you can see Augustin Soule, the French Zombie, rolling his eyes. This appears to be Christophe Diot and Darryl Veitch getting "intimate". You here see Vijay with myself, Jiayue, and Renata (three Jennifer students!). And here Jennifer is standing with Craig Labovitz & family. Renata with Notre Dame in the background. The Louvre with me in the foreground. And this appears to be scene from the Opera "Tragedy in Computer Science!"

Bastille Day, the 14th of July, was celebrated at the Luxembourg Gardens with friends from Thomson. You can here see Constantine Dovrolis, his fiancé Maria, Mark, Darryl Veitch, and Jiayue unpack Mark's nice yellow (and unstained) blanket for our lunch. This is Mostafa Ammar's family with the Luxembourg Palace in the background: quite the setting for a picnic! After enjoying a fair amount of good food and wine, it was suggested that we should play a game. So Mostafa's daughter introduced us to a nifty game she learned at camp. Let's just say we all got involved! Here is a picture of the entire crew: Darryl, Mostafa, Fernando, Jiayue, Henrik, Haakon, Amogh, Constantine, and Maria. After this splendid time, most of the group headed up to the Eiffel Tower to enjoy the, apparently, impressive fireworks. Unfortunately Jiayue and I had to bail as were getting up at 6am the next day...

And so, on the following day, Jiayue and I headed to the Mediterranean for some sun. Uninformed as usual, we thought that Marseille would be the perfect place given that it's a big city on the Mediterranean! Having learned slightly from our experiences in Geneva, however, we asked beforehand and learned that Marseille is a major port that historically is known as a hotpot of crime (although these days it's probably known more as the birthplace of Zidane). In any case, we were recommended to go further east for good beaches. And so we took a small tram 20 minutes east to Cassis where Google told us we would find a beach. Not only did we find a beach, however, we also found some fellow Yankees looking for the same one. So we joined forces with these girls from California - Ursula, Nancy, Melissa, and Kari - for a fun and full day. We spent the majority of the early afternoon on the nearest beach - Plage de la Grande mer (and here from the sea) with some impressive surrounding scenery - where I got more than my share of sunlight. My subsequent full-body blush notwithstanding, basking in the sunlight while floating in the Mediterranean is just what the doctor ordered. After doing this for a few hours, we took a boat ride along the coast to explore Cassis' major tourist attraction: the calanques [W]. It was quite a sight to see an otherwise isolated beach in the middle of the calanques on our boat ride. Here's a picture of Jiayue, Kari, and Ursula from the boat. Thanks for a good day, girls.

Ursula was leaving France through Paris the following weekend, so we obviously invited her to stay with us to enjoy the city for an extra day. She agreed, and so Jiayue and I took advantage of the situation by drugging her with French wine throughout her stay: here I'm asking the girls to not act drunk (it can be quite difficult!). Ursula arrived on Friday evening, and after a taco dinner arranged by Jiayue (thanks once more! :-), she inquired about the Parisian nightlife. I gave the best answer I could given my limited experience, and Jiayue chimed in to the discussion by indicating that she really craved some dancing. With much appreciated help from some great Thomson guys, we were able to satisfy both requests. Here is most of the crew at our initial bar: Amogh, a tired Jiayue, Pan, a bright Vijay, a hidden Ursula, and a disinterested yours truly. And this is a picture of Pan, Ursula, and Haakon. Despite appearing slightly worn out in the previous picture of her, Jiayue perked up quite a bit once on the dance floor: she's quite the dancing diva! Ursula is doing some grooving herself in this picture. And together amidst the smoke! "Good performance", girls! (Inside joke: "good performance" is Pan PCA #2: here he is giving a solid spinning performance of his own.) Here you see the action with Henrik, Vijay, Pan, Amogh, Jiayue, and Ursula. And here Henrik is practicing the ancient art-form of "deflecting blame." While Jiayue is graceful even under the influence, alcohol and dancing appears to turn me into a sweaty jumping machine. I had a great time though, here with Ursula and Haakon. Thanks a ton for the fun evening, everyone!
After way too little sleep, Jiayue and I took Ursula on a shopping/chocolate tour of the Latin Quarter [W]. The chocolate shops were a select few of the best of Paris, and you can see the tour here (or here if your resolution is less than 1600x1200). After a rather large brunch (which apparently does not exist in socal, only buritos), we headed out. Midway through the tour, after some successful shopping (only for Jiayue), we stopped at my favorite shop, Peter Beier, here with Jiayue and Ursula. I would tell you what Ursula is trying to convey, but I learned long ago that I am not meant to understand. After that cozy rest-stop, we headed to the Luxembourg Gardens for some photo ops: here with Jiayue and Ursula (and "the arranging of the hair in wind", which is always amusing :-). And on the other side you have Ursula and Jiayue with the Luxembourg Palace. After Luxembourg followed a bit more successful shopping (again only for Jiayue) before we bid a sad farewell with Ursula, and wished her well on her ensuing 7-country & 7-week journey back home to San Diego ["Discovered by the Germans in 1904, they named it San Diego, which of course in German means a whale's vagina." - Ron Burgundy]. Bon voyage!

The last weekend of July was spent in Amsterdam with Jiayue, Pan, and April. I think the only way to describe Amsterdam, at least from the common tourist's perspective, is surreal. The main attractions appear to be sex and drugs and both are widely, and legally, available. Before you get too excited, I must let you know that cameras are prohibited in the Red Light District (RLD), so I have no tantalizing pictures for you. Although, to be quite honest, I'd have to say that there would be very few tantalizing pictures even if cameras were allowed: let's just say the quality on display (literally) had an extreme variance in addition to a low mean. So instead I got to sleep with Pan who, while being an entertaining traveling companion, snores like 10 drunk Chinese sailors. If only I had chosen to stay at Hotel Vijaya then I'd be sleeping with supermodels instead! Anyway, back to reality, you here see April, Pan, and Jiayue on one of the small side-streets that intersects Chinatown and RLD. I recommend taking one of the touristy canal tours, if only because you learn useless random trivia, e.g. that a car drives into one of Amsterdam's canals more than once a week on average. I took this photo of April and Pan in a cute area about 10 minutes walking east of the RLD. Thanks for the trip (and the Spades games), guys!

Jiayue and I spent three out of the four-day long weekend in early August within the rainy confines of Copenhagen, Denmark. As appears to be a trend by now, we ate very well and compensated by doing a great deal of walking. On Saturday we visited Nyhavn (which literally means "new harbor"), where we had some quality soft ice, and the Café in Pistolstræde, which specializes in Kransekager [W]. We also admired a couple of castles, including Rosenborg [W] and Christiansborg [W], the Royal Danish Theater [W], and their City Hall [W]. In between all of this we even had time to meet up with Ann at Illum (and here I am with Jiayue), and learn that H.C. Andersen drove a Hummer. In the evening, after a wonderful dinner at Philippe's kitchen, we visited the fun-for-all-ages Tivoli [W, external]. If you ever doubted that an amusement park could appeal to all ages then you must visit Tivoli: here are pictures of elders dancing to a Frank Sinatra song and an alley of which I have many cherished childhood memories. Jokes aside, Tivoli is quite a sight in the evening (and without flash). Interestingly, Jiayue found the monsters on the outside just as appealing as the giant Ferrari bears on the inside.
Our subsequent two days in Copenhagen were calmer than the first, but we were still able to accomplish quite a bit. On Sunday morning we visited the Danish Design Centre where I was able to sit in this comfy Finn Juhl chair; note that the reason I am cradling my camera and wallet while seated is not because I'm a weirdo but rather because my pants are soaking wet. In any case, after the DDC we headed to the National Art Museum to appreciate master French painters, before heading to Christianhavn [W] in the afternoon. As I am unfortunately unfamiliar with this part of Copenhagen, it included a fair amount of aimless wondering, but we were able to hit upon the architecturally interesting Vor Frelsers Kirke [W]. We also experienced more poor Danish marketing: "Xtreme tanning: come out with 3rd degree burns!". In the evening we had sushi at Sushitarian before watching the very disappointing Pirates of the Caribbean sequel. On Monday we spent most of our time window-shopping (including Illum, Royal Copenhagen: a poor Porsgrunds knockoff :-P, Rosendahl, Rosenthal, Birger Christensen, Kosta Boda, Orrefors, etc) and enjoying a fabulous seafood lunch at Gammel Strand, but I also had time to squeeze in a picture of the non-Hummer-driving H.C. Andersen. Fun for all ages!

On the 22nd of August, the Thomson Paris Research Lab fielded a soccer team to face the lip6 crew of Serge Fdida's. You here see Matteo, Christophe Neuman, Henrik, and Vivek standing around before the game; as well as Laurent, Abderrahmen and myself. This is Christophe spreading misinformation about our strategy to the lip6 captain. Unfortunately it not help much as we were readily handed a defeat by the stronger lip6 squad. It was a good experience in any case, and we'll treat it as a bonding one. ;-) And because I'm so self-centered, here are some action photos of yours truly: getting ready to pass, moving in traffic, dribbling in traffic, and shifting in traffic (note the constant traffic... sigh). Go here for the full set of photos. Until next time!

The end of the summer was a hectic one. My mother visited me during the first weekend of September,  Jamie visited me the subsequent weekend, then I was in Pisa for a week for SIGCOMM, before finally spending a week on the east coast. I will post more pictures as I receive them but I can certainly say that I (mostly) had a great time, despite the intensity. As I was in Pisa, let me begin with the obligatory Leaning Tower of Pisa [W] photo. In one sense the tower is quite underwhelming in that any self-respecting engineer will point out that it is merely a feat of unsound construction. Even so, the magnitude of the tilt catches you off-guard; so much so that it is difficult not to tilt your camera along with the tower. In any case, I received some additional pictures of the SIGCOMM adventures from Jiayue. We had dinner at a pizza place on the day we arrived (Pan, Chih, Henrik, Abderrahmen, Haakon) and more dinner, and drinks clearly, on our last full night there (Mukesh, Jiayue, Augustin, Laurent, Amogh, Haakon, Vijay).
The days between the 16th and 23rd of September were spent shuttling between NYC/Princeton/Westchester, all of which contained wonderful emotional highs. On the day of my arrival I had dinner at Stout NYC with two locals and two visitors from Princeton. You here Melissa and yours truly, and again with Dawoon and Aditya. I went to Princeton on Sunday and stayed with the Norwegian mafia, even being able to sneak in some soccer. On the 18th I celebrated my birthday by eating artisan ice cream at bent spoon, here with Harlan Phil Forrester William and I, and playing poker with the boys at Magie. Tony has here just arrived to join the party, but first he poses for a political-handshake photo-op with Alex. The next day was my final evening in Princeton, and we invited a large group to join us for dinner at Masala Grill: Forrester and I, and the entire crew with Jiayue, Jan, Alex, Grunde, Nadia, Ted, Haakon, and Forrester. I left for Westchester on the following day and had a wonderfully relaxing two days with my guardians. Before returning to France on the 23rd, I did some shopping at Banana Republic (I loved this leather jacket, except that the arms were a wee too spacious) and had a wonderful fellowship dinner at Sushi Sen Nin. It had been too long since I had seen many of the 12 (Ariful, Sandeep, Dhruva, Tim, Dan, Nasheet, Polly, Frances, Jackie, Haakon, Aditya, and Kori) who showed up: thanks for making it special! And see you again for New Years...!