OK Paris, I'm Giving You A Second Chance!

Please please please.. Do not let me down this time!

I didn't sketch that Eiffel tower

Three years ago I went to Paris and I was practically underwhelmed. Pardon me, but who in the world didn't have high expectations when you were visiting one of the greatest cities?

To be fair, I chose the worst time possible. Paris in her early-May was always wet and gloomy. I was four days in Paris; And the only day that didn't rain, was the last day when I rushed to the airport to catch my morning flight. In the end, I refuse to believe the fact that Parisians have ever experienced a sunny day.

To make the timing worse, the other two days on my trip were labor-days holiday. Yes, the two days in the whole year when the shops, museums, or nearly everything were closed.

The streets were full of protesters and I got this nervous feeling that the demonstration would anytime turned violent. Oh yeah.. The other things that filled the streets? Homeless and garbage. Because you know, when the garbage collectors joined the demonstrations, no one else was picking up those big trash piles. I took one rather ironic photo of a tourists couple, who were coming out from Metro stations with its iconic Art Nouveau Metropolitain gate, looked disgusted by the stinking display of 2 meter-high pile of trash outside. The third person on the photo (probably a Parisian), just walked nonchalantly.

In addition to those unfortunate events, I had a few minor incidents here and there, showing how true the common (mis)conception could be: Parisians can be so blatantly rude to non-French-speaking. So yes, I didn't have a good time on my first visit to this majestic city. I also didn't have a good story to tell. It was all just a big "meh".

Anyway this time, I'm giving Paris a second chance. The weather would be so much better. I'm gonna travel in a big group, where one of us is a native Parisian. I'm also planning to meet some old friends. And I've been feeding myself with information about Paris' historical and architectural attractions. I'm excited. I feel that I'm ready to fall in love with Paris.

At least for now, the WeatherPro app is promising me some fine Paris sky.

The only downside of the trip is that I will miss my son's half-year birthday. I'm sure I'm gonna miss the little guy so bad.

A Different Thing Everyday In A Month

Office's server was down this morning. So, like any other bored colleagues, I browsed Internet. Wait, I actually don't need a reason to browse Internet, just the offline server made it feel more justified, he he.

I stumbled across this simple but neat blog. The story was: the author felt wearied and people in the Internet suggested him to do something 'different' everyday of the whole month. That, my friends, was one of the most awesome suggestions you can expected by asking random strangers in the Internet. So he ended up doing many things new, things that would repulse him, or just things that he hadn't do for a long time.

Some interesting examples:

• Free boxing lesson
• Went to a shooting range
• Paid a panhandler $100 to have lunch with and tell the author his story
• Volunteered in food bank
• Went to a Tea Party meeting
• Went to a mosque
• Saw a friend perform brain surgery on a mouse and implant lasers in its head.

I found this inspiring. Perhaps, I might do something similar when I'd feel down.

Happy Fat Thusday!

Yes, such day exists! In coincide with Carnival, today is the day to get yourself stuffed! Yeah!

And in Slovenia, the tradition is to eat Krof. It's loosely translated to doughnut. However, saying Krof is a doughnut is like saying Bratwurst a sausage. It's not wrong, but you have to be more specific than that.

Two oversized Krof from Trojane