21.9.09

my 20th.

guys. thank-you so much for making my 20th birthday an awesome one in paris!

i had so much fun and i'm really glad i met you guys all.


here are some highlights from the shitshow.




martin the norwegian.














what is maria doing???




bad news bears.







lol i swear i wasn't biting maria's shoulders.




the girls. well most of them.




birthday cake!





 smokers.









12.9.09

10.9.09

starfuckers sounds too intense? ehhh

" “at that point we were worried about seeming like sellouts or something. But I don’t know—I really don’t care. I just feel like I started it with a push and now it’s rolling down a hill, it has its own inertia.” - josh hodges.




boooo.







8.9.09

ma flickr

for those of you that don't know, here's my flckr account.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/_mute_/


took it at da 930 club dc. wooooo

futura to verdana? ikea sucks now.

electro in paris. what am i doing???

spotted: seth sprinkle in spain.

look what my (ex)roommate turned into after going to sevilla
fml. 

!!! shows !!!

shows i'm going to thus far.


9.9.09.





18.10.09.


6.9.09

fixie exploring



leslie and i went fixie exploring. found this awesome store!

pique-nique.

so my second post since i left for paris?

things has been pretty crazy here but pretty awesome. the first few days has been pretty rough since figuring out the "bureaucracy" of sciences po took forever. (and i thought gwu acts like a business) after reading sprinkle's blog in spain and his crazy escapades, i figured i'll post some of my own. :) 

well drinking here is definitely super expensive. 4 euro heinekens, 12 euro cocktails,....ehh the works but it seems like the prices do not stop the parisians from drinking. as a college student, we finally figured out what works best in paris: super cheap 1 euro bottles of wine found in minority-owned mini marts and drink by the pont des arts. definitely a good call since drinking in public is legal in paris made it pretty awesome. 

more on the arts side, today i stopped by this pretty amazing exhibit by the Palais de Tokyo for an exhibit called "Spy Numbers." After lying to the lovely french lady in the front saying that I'm an art student at GW, i got the discount and ended paying only a euro to get in. Amanda leslie strategically said "moi aussi" after me and got the same discount. wooooo

the exhibit was pretty awesome and here's a link to it.


concert wise, i met a few people here that are also in love with "authentic" music :) hahaha yes i just used authentic instead of that "H" word ending with "ster".   from the looks of it, i should be expecting fleet foxes, dirty projectors, mum, and phoenix in the coming weeks. 








1.9.09

monsieur, monsieur, parlez-vous anglais? non, monsieur

first off. wow.

i really don't know french. i think i've been taking english in a french accent for the past 8 years?

well, not quite that bad but parisians do speak super fast.

i guess since this, being the first "post" about my voyage to paris, i'll start with my trip to the airport.

the events leading towards packing the car and eventually newark went incredibly smooth. INCREDIBLY PROBLEM FREE I SAY. that is not normal for the chens. i repeat, ......unheard of. with everything packed nicely, and as i drive down reids hill road (for those of you that knows marlboro), i reached the turn pick. it was sunday afternoon at 3:00 pm and the turnpike did not move at all. after the whole family discussed the fact that nothing really urgent occurred, we the worst traffic that we've ever seen. so after soon panicking and blaming each other on which way to take towards newark, mother chen lead my sister towards newark and we safely arrived at 5 for my 7'o clock flight.


the flight was air france and it was surprisingly awesome unlike what sophie demartine has said. food wasn't great but for airplane food, it was decent. the man next to me was french and took my figaro after i fell asleep watching "coco avant chanel" on the plane.

after a few hours of sitting aimlessly on the plane, i finally arrived.

cdg was underwhelming for paris, but i knew that already after my hotel california adventure avec feldstein, de Feo , et hartney. once i was at cdg, i ran with my baggages towards the taxi station and took a cab.
(disclaimer: i didn't take the rer b to cite because i had two large suitcases, a nebulizer, my chrome bag, and another rollie suitcase)

back to my story eh....


so then i got into paris finally at 10:30 am, after hitting intense paris rush hour and dropping 65 euros on a cab when i could've otherwise spent around 5 euros getting into the cite.

while not justified, i was glad i took a cab.

after settling in, the sciences po manner began.

since explaining the whole nightmare over here would just make me relive this, i will give you the highlights.

first off,

sciences po does not:

1.) tell you where to go for your orientation.

2.) explain to you the date to events when they have given you the location and time.

3.) let you "add/drop" classes even during the frantic registration hour.

one might ask, what happens if you typed your CRNs wrong? tough luck.


well. im just stressed after the registration fail.

other than that.


paris is awesome!