McCain is from the Future

Just because Obama is more popular than McCain doesn't mean that he'll get more votes and therefore become the president.

Comic-con 2008

My first comic-con was incredible. I will gladly put up with gas prices, parking, lines, curious odors, and massive crowds to be part of geek Mecca any given day. As the pictures will attest, toys were my crack cocaine and the Mighty Muggs were my premium Venezuelan smuggled import. Optimus Prime, Cobra Commander, you will be mine. And thanks to V for being my Sancho Panza!


Who's in for next year?

Take a Sad Song... (Part 1)

I heard a heavy thud coming from my parents' bedroom. I ran towards the room and before I had the chance to see what had made the noise, I heard it again. It was the sickliest, most gruesome, most horrifying sound I've ever heard in my life: the sound of a human body as its weight collapses on itself. This was the sound of my mom having a stroke.

She was keeled over the bathroom with streams of saliva dripping from her groggy, expressionless face. I had thought she was drowsy from medicine since she had been sick a few days before. I joked around with her, attempting to elicit a response. Nothing. My dad came home right then and the look he gave instantly triggered one solitary thought in my mind that would become all too familiar. Fuck.

I called for an ambulance and ran for the door as I heard the sirens approaching my front door. Fuck.

I watched as the paramedics precariously carried her down the stairs and loaded her into the back. Fuck.

I called my sister, telling her "Something is wrong with Mom." I gave my dad directions to where the ambulance was headed. I rode in the front with the driver, looking back as the paramedic was helping my mom with her breathing and starkly noticing the blank look on the driver's face. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

My brain started screaming and as adrenaline and reality started kicking in, I noticed it was lightly raining.

Go Speed Racer, Go!

Egads, I have a new favorite movie and it's the Wachowski brothers' rendition of Speed Racer. The movie is such an amazing piece of work. How good is it? Speed's characteristic gasps of astonishment can be heard throughout and the movie still rocks.

The colors are blaring and vivid. The directing of conversations and announcers is perfect and innovative. The fight scenes add a nice anime touch and the car fight scenes are ludicrous and downright kickass. The casting is perfect and even Spritle and Chim Chim add to the movie. My only complaint is that Rain just needs to stop going "whoo!" in every scene he's in.



It's a live action cartoon; it's supposed to be ridiculous.

Jon Stewart interviews Douglas Feith

Jon Stewart is my hero. This is his uncut interview with Doug Feith, undersecretary for the Department of Defense, who wrote a book detailing the government's reasons and justifiability to go into Iraq. The main theme brought up by Jon Stewart is that we were misled through a media and PR campaign without providing the public with internal doubts.





One of the best points brought up was this video of Dick Cheney in an interview from 1994 stating how Iraq would be a quagmire if the US were to invade, giving substantial amounts of detail regarding the power vacuum that would inevitably happen.



The current administration's argument that history will judge Bush in a more fairer light is absolute bullshit meant to dissuade people from actually getting pissed off now. Well, the people who bother considering what this war is costing us in terms of money, international influence, and military strength. And I think that's what this administration has done better than any other presidency: to take advantage of American purposeful apathy.

Unhealthy obsessions

Here's the first post in an ongoing series that deals with my unhealthy obsessions with mother-effing rad consumer products, design, and whatever else I feel like drooling over (ladies).

-The newest line of Dyson vacuums featuring the ball. Since I already have one, super-cute girl at work suggested that I buy multiple Dysons, like how Jay Leno has cars. I am tempted; super-cute girl indeed.

-Holy crap, a Nerf gatling gun. I wish I had this as a kid. I would have gotten all the ladies. And then I would've shot at them with 100 consecutive Nerf darts.

-The 50-story World Trade Center in Bahrain. The three propellers between the buildings generate 10-15% of the power to run the building. The future is now, people.

-The 101-story Shanghai World Financial Center, scheduled to be completed this month. As a big fan of gay beers, this ode to bottle-openers and architectural aficionados everywhere has me smiling.

OMG, I have to be right on the internet.

Peace in Japan and Germany came along with support from allies. Taxes were raised and the public at large was asked to sacrifice during wartime in order to fund those victories. There were clear goals that needed to be achieved and enemies with borders who needed to be defeated. Most importantly, people from all walks of life knew what needed to be done to achieve victory.

With everything that has happened so far, especially with who we have in charge, there's no way you could argue that victory in Iraq will be as clear cut as it was in Japan and Germany. What exactly is victory for you? Who and where exactly is the enemy? How can you generate public support for this war considering its fabricated origins that the people in charge have still not admitted? When will there be enough security in order for diplomats to do the real job of healing a divided country? How will we pay for this war without driving up inflation and/or borrowing from China?

Before the war began, conservatives believed that WMDs were a threat to the free world, ignored the UN Weapon Inspectors, and invaded anyway. When top ranking generals predicted that we needed a massive force to handle the aftermath, conservatives brushed them off. When WMDs were never found, conservatives said that the war was justified in order to overthrow the evil dictator Saddam and give Iraqis freedom. When Saddam was overthrown, conservatives wanted to hand over military responsibility to the Iraqis. Instead, we're sending more troops into Iraq because somehow, soldiers with guns alone are supposed to solve a diplomatic divide. And all this time, how many times have conservatives been right or even fessed up to being wrong?

Conservatives have argued that the cost of losing in Iraq will lead to more 9/11's and that is why we need to stay. I'd ask for some evidence, but I don't exactly trust the filter it's coming from. We need to stay, when Osama bin Laden and the Taliban cited American intervention in the Middle East as the primary reasons for the 9/11 attacks in the first place. And now they're rallying around McCain because somehow, he has the "credibility" and "experience" to magically fix everything with the wave of his victory wand. Somehow, we have to defend the honor of America for the sake of saving face at the cost of American lives, influence, and power.

In conclusion, conservatives in charge and those who support them are taking a piss on America and convincing everyone it’s raining.

Stuff White People Like

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/

I've finally figured this website out. I don't care what race this author is, but, man, you're a genius.

Ok, read closely now: All these generalizations about white people are exactly what white people have been doing with minorities over the past hundred years in order to "understand" these foreigners better. More so, when a white person tries to generalize these ideas in public, they're thrown to the sharks. In private, these generalizations still happen and white people take it as the truth because they don't have any other valid source of evidence. Thus is born the stereotype.

The funniest part of this blog though, is the replies, especially from indignant white people who disagree so strongly. Do these generalizations apply to absolutely all white people? Of course not. Do they apply to some? White people have said so themselves.

But do other white people still comment to complain about how inaccurate each and every one of these posts are? Hell yes they do because although stereotypes undeniably have their truth, you can't apply them to individuals without pissing people off.

So here's some of your own medicine, white people: calm down, it's just a joke. I get it, you're not some monolithic group with a single mentality that can be privy to stereotypes and generalizations, whether they be good or bad. At least you're not stuck with buck teeth and a small penis.

The next post should be that white people love political correctness. Oh, and welcome to our world.

"Contracting business in Iraq is very lucrative"

While I haven't been working, I've been watching a consortium of Iraq War documentaries in an effort to be a proper citizen and weave past the pundits, the talking heads, the dumbass slogans and bumper stickers and the politics surrounding what I believe to be the most significant event this country is currently facing. So enough with the blathering and lets get this war justified (or not). doing a bag of laundry, running orientations at beachside 5-star hotels

Next up is Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers, released in 2006 with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Right off the bat we get a price tag on engineering, construction, police training, reconstruction, troop support, private security, etc. paid to private contractors. The rest of the movie goes on to tell us how we're getting screwed.

A substantial amount of interrogators at Abu Ghraib were private contractors. What that boils down to is that the more information these private contractors can get out of a detainee, the more they would stand to gain. They're a business after all. On top of that, these contractors work under minimal supervision and without legal allegiance or accountability. Hmm. What does that spell? Torture.

Next up are the private security guards. Now when a US soldier hurts or kills an Iraqi and it becomes known, he/she goes through the court martial process. For Iraq, this puts a message out there that these crimes will be punished. When a contractor hurts or kills an Iraqi and it becomes known, he/she will be sent home (probably without dinner) and can wait a week or two before being hired by a different contractor. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

The people who run these contractor companies are senior military officers and capital hill staffers with connections needed to generate business contracts that range between a few million dollars to a few billion dollars. Some of these contracts dealing with logistics, repair, etc. take away jobs belonging to actual military personnel who work at a fraction of the cost.

Halliburton/KBR are the worst of the offenders, given either no-bid contracts or faced with no competition at all. One such contract gave Halliburton the responsibility of providing clean water to soldiers; in the end, the water was contaminated and soldiers were exposed to serious health risks. 63/67 facilities were shit.

A good chunk of these contracts are cost-plus contracts. Cost-plus is a type of contract where contractors will get a percentage of the money they spend on providing services. So the more money they can bill, the more they stand to make. That's why we have items that include $45 for a 6-pack of Coke packaged within the region and $100 for with full service, a fleet of Ford SUVs or pickups, H2s, or Cadillac Escalades complete with chrome rims and leather interior for staff that never leave the premises, wrong equipment which they burn in fire pits and claim it as a loss, running empty trucks on convoy at great risk to the drivers. Pentagon audits estimate that the total costs hovers around $1.4 billion and Halliburton's stock has quadrupled since the war began.



And that's the movie.

A few other articles I've run across just today deal with Cheney's stock in Halliburton and the government buying defective military helmets from a company fined for producing defective military helmets.

And just today, on top of it all, Bush has said that the war is actually helping the economy and definitely not a cause of a recession.

Yes we can.

vs

"Like a dream"

While I haven't been working, I've been watching a consortium of Iraq War documentaries in an effort to be a proper citizen and weave past the pundits, the talking heads, the dumbass slogans and bumper stickers and the politics surrounding what I believe to be the most significant event this country is currently facing. So enough with the blathering and lets get this war justified (or not).

First up is "The Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair" released in 2006 with an 86% ranking on Rotten Tomatoes.

Yunis Abbas, an English speaking Iraqi journalist, recounts his experience being captured and imprisoned for plotting to kill Tony Blair. As a former and tortured captive of Saddam Hussein, he wasn't exactly a fan of the previous regime. His problem in this move though, is that he laughed when he was first told why he was captured. But why did he laugh? Because it was ridiculous.

Yunis spent most of his time at Camp Ganci, a mid/low level security area in Abu Ghraib that contained 4000 detainees classified as having no intelligence value. Also known for unsanitary living conditions, overcrowding, spoiled food, and inadequate access to health care. But the good news is that they weren't dying. Like many others sharing his campsite, Yunis and his brothers were taken from his home in the middle of the night. "Wrong place at the wrong time" type deal, where an Iraqi male should never be home, like ever. Especially at night.

During his stay, Yunis served as a translator to help preserve peace in the camps. He ended up helping the soldiers who made a conscious effort to help the prisoners. One of the soldiers found it weird that despite Yunis being charged with attempting to kill one of the world's predominant leaders, he wasn't grouped with the same people who actually plotted to kill the guy.

In the end, after a series of riots, attacks from the outside, Yunis and his brothers are released nine months later. The camp commander releasing him says "We don't know why you were here. There was a mistake. Sorry". Camp Ganci was closed sometime later and prisoners were moved to another site known as "Redemption." Huh, how about that.

Here's another take on the issue of false imprisonment, albeit the location in reference is different:


I sincerely hope that Yunis and other prisoners like him are more forgiving than I know myself to be. If an occupying force were to come into my/my family/my friend's house in the middle of the night, imprison me/my family/my friends on charges we would never get the chance to argue against, spit in our faces, torture our bodies, destroy our spirits, and insult our religion, I sure as hell know where I would stand when it comes to that whole "with us or against us" downstream flow of arrogant bullshit.

Pardon me, but my bias is showing.

Pure epic greatness in three parts

Act I: TheA Daily Show with John Stewart





Act II: The Colbert Report





Act III: Late Night with Conan O'Brian

Heroes with spray cans

I recently received Wall and Peace by Banksy, a subversive English graffiti artist, from a good friend (Thanks Trang!) and I do believe I've found my newest hero.

Here are some explanations of a few of his works:

-On a blank wall in a few different locations, he tags "By order; National Highways Agency; This wall is a designated graffiti area; Please take your litter home; EC REF. Urba 23/366."

-Calling the wall separating the occupied territories of Israel and Palestine "the ultimate activity holiday destination for graffiti artists," Banksy went on a spray painting spree on the Palestinian side with images of paradise behind imaginary windows and breaks in the wall.

-Cows, pigs, and sheep can also be walls.

-Jumping into zoo pens because those places also have walls that could use some decor.

-An Apache helicopter wearing a giant, girly bow at the rotor.

-Fake paintings smuggled into the Tate, Louvre, MoMA, and New York Met. Fake artifacts placed on the walls of various natural history museums.

-Planting shark dorsal fins in lakes to freak out the kids. Good times.

-"People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. People in glass cities shouldn't fire missiles."

-Replacing Paris Hilton's CD release with her face replaced by a chihuahua's head.

And the greatest thing about this guy is that he's anonymous. Effing anonymous! Not to avoid being arrested and being fined thing by authorities, I'm sure he wants it this way to avoid being arrested in another sense entirely. A revolutionary of a different kind whose philosophy fits perfectly with today's urban societies. A Deep Throat who tags awesome shit. A modern artist who doesn't have to explain his work and hide behind through god-awful pretentious interpretations. A true to life V. A Dennis the Menace whose Mr. Wilson is the man.

You have your heroes like Spiderman, Bruce Lee, and Al Gore, and then you have your heroes who change the world with spray cans wherever he damn well pleases. Man, sheer malevolent genius.

Oh, and on the back of the book, a quote by a Metropolitan Police Spokesperson: "There's no way you're going to get a quote from us to use on your book cover."

Indisputable proof that I graduated high school

Sweet!



Who needs an effing diploma. S-M-R-T.

In other news, I'm currently deciding what else to do with this blog until I take my next great adventure. Maybe I'll just bullshit until sparkly gems come out of my ass.

After all is said and done...

... I'm back to where I started, but definitely not in the metaphorical sense. Traveling alone was a great decision and I loved that I left without a plan.

Flying into London sitting cozy in first class was an incredible stroke of luck and kickass omen of the events that were to come. Going wherever I pleased unencumbered by, well, anything is definitely how I want to live. Admiring city history, style, architecture, and the womens... there's just so much soul, beauty, and class to experience in this world. Memorizing bus and metro lines gave my sense of direction a punch to the face, but I eventually got used to it. But then getting lost half the time was part of the experience. Staying at hostels was great. Staying with family was great. With the former, I met people from all over the world and touring cities with these strangers felt entirely natural. With the latter, I finally had the chance to be a proper nephew and cousin by actually existing. And now, reminiscing like this is something I'll be able to do whenever I like. Oh, and two weeks vacation a year is absolute bullshit.

Before I left, world traveling was always my ideal of how to live a great life. The six weeks I spent in Europe was an absolute reaffirmation. Needless to say, I'm addicted. Of course bouts of loneliness would hit me every now and then when I wasn't with family, but I also appreciated the times when it was just me and my camera. And here's the work I have to show for it. Enjoy and cheers to mortality.

London:


Brussels & Belgium:


Berlin & Munich:


Florence & Tuscany:


Rome:


Switzerland:


Paris, Annecy & Antony:


Barcelona:

The last days

Thursday: Barcelona beaches and parks. Walked the awesome La Rambla again as well. Night train out back to Geneva where I traded travel stories with a Spaniard working man.

Friday: Arrived at effing 5:30 in the morning, took the number 9 bus back to my favorite place in Geneva, and went back to sleep after my cousins left for school. From there it was a day of play.

Saturday: Back to temple in Ecublens to commemorate 100 days since my uncle's passing away. Found out a lot about my mom's side of the family and I'm grateful to have had the chance to listen to the stories I would never be able to hear otherwise. From there it was a quick visit to an uncle's office before heading back to Geneva to shoot a round of pool, lose at multiple games of table hockey, and showing my cousins who rules the ping pong table.

Sunday: Big breakfast, small lunch with the family from Geneva before saying the inevitable adieus. Quick flight back and rested up at the hostel. Afterwards was meeting up again with Michel, who I met at the start of my trip. Glad to see he was doing well. Arranged plans for the next day and walked the night streets of London alone with my D40 and thoughts. Two such thoughts I'll get deeper into another time: if time is money, why are so many people focused on the latter? Also,

Monday: Woke up entirely too early before heading out to stock up on the best shower soap ever. After that was another free tour. Turns out though that the tour had been revamped a bit, so I didn't get to see everything as advertised, but still a good time was had. Also met Ellie on the tour, a fashion designer from Seoul. The two of us ended up walking Covent Garden, Picadilly Square, and other shopping areas before parting ways. From there, I met up with Michael again at Viet Grill. We ate entirely too much with another of his friends before going to a coworker's place to eat and drink some more. Nice quality time with Vietnamese and observing how my peoples fare here in London.

Tuesday: Woke up, made my way to the airport, bought a few books, had a British breakfast, and boarded the plane. No first class this time and I didn't want to press my luck again, but it was an empty plane. I passed on four seats along the aisle and chose two seats near the window as I stayed up all the entire time and watched movies then entire flight, including an awesome Hong Kong shooter called "The Exiled", a Japanese time travel comedy, and the vomit-inducing "Spider-man 3". I landed, met my mom and the rest of my family at the airport, and arrived home.

My time traveling, this time around, was over.

Next up: Thoughts on traveling alone, highlights, pictures, and figuring out what comes next.

Can´t get enough of Switzerland

Blazing fast update before I check out of my room here in Barcelona.

Saturday: Finally met up with Melody despite the ongoing strike. Take that you socialists. Mel and I walked around the Luxembourg Gardens before I took off my own to explore Paris after sunset. We met up and took another walk through the streets of history.

Sunday: Ate a whole bunch with Melody and her friends. Tried to leave Paris for Switzerland but failed.

Monday: Woke up to catch the first train for Lausanne and succeeded! Vegged for the rest of the day with the aunts and cousins.

Tuesday: Zermatt and the Matterhorn! Short train ride that night to Geneva.

Wednesday: Tour through Cologny and hanging out.

Thursday: Hanging out.

Friday: Hanging out.

Saturday: Hike through the woods, bounce house with the best view ever, a hot spring bath that unfortunately did not include falling snow, and big family dinner.

Sunday: Walk though Lake Geneva, tea, and bowling.

Monday: Walked my cousins to school, packed up, and said my see you laters before a night train out to Barcelona.

Tuesday: Woke up to a gorgeous sunrise along the Spanish coast while on the train, slept for a bit more, arrived in Barcelona, and toured the city sites, coastline, eateries, and bars with hostelfolk. Also struggled to find a flight back to London to catch my fight back home. Original plan was to get to Sevilla and fly from there, but tickets would cost me 300 euro. This is because the city is having its holiday season and hostels across the city are shutting down and people are flying out. Lesson learned here is at the very least to plan the escape route. So I looked up flights from Madrid or Lisbon and they ended up costing the same or more. Current and cheapest plan is now to catch a night train back to Geneva and fly out on Sunday afternoon. Third time to Switzerland and I´m happy.

Wednesday: Gaudi Park, tour of Barcelona Stadium (where Ronaldinho and Thierry Henry make their stand) on an off day, hanging out with hostel people, night walk to the top of Montjuic, and more bars. Mambo Tango: best hostel this entire trip.

Next up! Last time through Geneva, remembering, remembering the 5th of Novembering, and returning home.

Another strike day in Paris...

Today, I mowed my aunt's backyard.

Taking it slow in Paris.

The French metro workers are on strike today, and as much as I would like to join them with my bad French, I can't get to where they are without using the trains. That means its time for an update.

The rest of Saturday: Annecy with family. Very different from traveling alone. Especially when there are hovering adults with wandering children to look after. Children being me. Man, my younger cousins are so obedient it makes me look bad, which means its time to be a bad influence. Went back home, packed up my things, and took the last train of the night to Paris.

Getting off the train, I walked to the end of the platform, and greeted my uncle, who took me right upstairs to Le Train Bleu (http://www.le-train-bleu.com/), before heading home. Right away though, I got a sense of his personality from the way he walked around a place as decadent as Le Train Bleu: it was like he owned the place.

Sunday: Tour through Paris by car with my uncle, highlighted by illegal parking and driving, open air markets all over town and walking through Montmartre during the Fete des Vendanges. We saw pretty much everything else in a blur, but I was able to have an espresso at his bar/restaurant and meet a few of his friends. Got home for dinner with my aunt before taking off to tour through Paris at night, but he received a business call as we were leaving the house. He dropped me off at the Bastille with a map and a good luck. From there, I used my incredible skills of getting lost around town. Definitely and by far my favorite thing to do.

Monday: First day in Paris on my own. Free tour where I received a history refresher course of Paris and met a few more peoples. Went to my uncle's office near Tuileries, did some more wandering, and met my uncle and aunt back at their home. I packed up my things and moved to stay with my other family outside Paris in Antony. Dinner of couscous, catching up with my cousin, whiskey on the rocks, and remembering my uncle.

Tuesday: Tour through Paris with my aunt. Trip to Versailles was postponed due to weather and Louvre was closed so we went into the Petit Palace, walked down the Champs-Elysees, saw ugly people shop at the Louis Vuitton store, visited the Arc de Triomphe, and climbed the obligatory Eiffel Tower.

Wednesday: Second day in Paris by myself. Pompidou Center, inside and to the top of Notre Dame, a lot more wandering, cafes, the Louvre bookstore after passing on the Louvre, and then back home again.

Today: Sticking it out in Antony. So far, it's been grocery shopping and the mall. Suburbs are suburbs, I guess. Not much planned for the rest of the day either, but this downtime will do me some good to sort through all the sensory overload from the past few weeks. At least that's how I'm fooling myself into not complaining too much. I take it back; I got to walk through town with a baguette. Another highlight of my trip.

Ah well, I've still got two and a half weeks left. Hmm... More time than that even if I extend again? Who knows...

Swiss Family Rob-Nguyen-son

With a title like that, I'd gladly take a punch to the face. I'm a proud Tran, but my mom's maiden name is Nguyen.

Monday: Arrived in Lausanne and spent a quiet day roaming the city with my aunt. We walked around Lake Geneva, went into the Olympic Museum for a bit, and visited her old university campus. Went to the city shopping center, did some grocery shopping, came home for dinner with my uncle, and had some relaxing downtime to recoup.

Agrandir le plan

Tuesday: Pilatus at Luzern! Met up with my aunt's friend and now my friend, Hien, in the morning and headed out for a two and a half hour drive to Luzern. Parked the car, had a small picnic on the edge of Lake Luzern. Half an hour later, a boat coincidentally marked for Pilatus pulls up alongside our bench. We rush to buy tickets, board the boat, look at the time, and wonder how we're supposed to get down the mountain once we get up there. We land at our stop where I met a New Zealander who joined us as we took the world's steepest cogwheel train (48° angle) up to the top of Pilatus at an elevation of 7,000 feet. The day was still a bit cloudy, but the view overlooking Luzern and its lake was breathtaking. If only I could put up pictures to show everyone... We stayed as long as we could before taking a panoramic gondolin down the mountain, (passing by toboggan tracks and suspension rope park that I will definitely go to the next time I'm in town) and riding the bus back to the starting point.

Agrandir le plan

From there, we did some siteseeing before walking into an absolutely gorgeous Chinese restaurant that was owned and operated by Hien's good friends. Shanghai 3 is the name. There was marble flooring and statues, huge bonsai trees at every turn, decorated ceilings with Chinese lanterns, and a salt water fish tank that must've been taken straight out of the Great Barrier Reef since it cost $300k for the custom L-shaped design, live coral plants, and huge variety of fish. If only I could put up pictures to show everyone... Food was damned good too. And to end the day, we talked for a while with the owner who ended up not letting us pay for what must have been at least a $200 dinner. Gotta say, that day was a good day.

Wednesday: Valorbe and it's underground river! Another day with just me and my aunt. We arrived at the town of Valorbe (pop. 3087 and some cows) via train, hiked through a serene and postcard-like forest, and arrived at the mouth of a cave. And like any good tourist destination, we paid for admission, received a walkthrough guide, and followed the path to the sites of beautiful stalactites, stalacmites, and a roaring river beneath our feet. We took another path back home to an even more postcard-like section of the forest and headed back home where I met with another aunt for dinner. Oh, and I forked over 200 bucks to stay an additional two weeks to be an international hobo of mystery.

Agrandir le plan

Thursday: Jungfraujoch! An elevation of 11, 782 ft. is pretty cozy by train, I have to say. My aunt and I boarded a train bound for Interlaken in the morning and took the Jungfraubahn the rest of the way. I met a Thai brother and sister on the train and we all smiled and waved as our train was being filmed from an old-school helicopter. Probably for the next Swiss movie smash hit. Or a tourist video. I have a hard time telling them apart. We arrive at the top and explore. First up was the panoramic deck that froze every one of my expletives off. But it was worth it!

Agrandir le plan

The Aletsch glacier to the south, the view, breathing above the clouds... Amazing. Second was getting to the bottom of the observation area and walking around. Amazing times two. Third and last was walking through a tunnel dug through the glacier complete with ice statues. Amazing divided by two, plus 23 for effort. Made our way back home after a stop in the town of Thun, and slept very, very well.

On a side note, my ATM card had expired at the end of September. Forgot to get this taken care of before I left, but what can I say, I live on the edge. Thanks Sister for providing me with means to buy stuff like food.

Friday: My grandma's temple where she used to be a Buddhist nun and Geneva. Really brought back some great memories from when I was last there in 1995. Afterwards, my aunt and I took a boat out to Yvoirre before taking another boat the rest of the way to Geneva where we met up with my uncle, aunt, and cousins (2, the oldest one of which was recently married) for dinner.

Agrandir le plan

Saturday: Met up with more family (uncle, aunt, and four cousins) for a trip to Annecy in France. Way too tired to write the rest of this now, but my cousins are as awesome as mountains.

Next up: Je parle Francais but not really and other such adventures in the land of Pareeeee.