Prepare for Invasion!

Silent and greedy, they have been infiltrating our cities. With leacherous pixelated eyes, they watch our world and covet. Major art centers, financial institutions, busy thoroughfares; no urban corner is beyond their lust. In the dark of night, they climb our buildings and bide their time. Any day now, the army of Space Invaders will awaken!

    

We first started spotting these cool urban critters in Provence, but turns out the invasion is in every major city in the world. Hunting them can be dangerous though, as staring up at the sky in Paris can get you stuck in the proverbial merde! Hehe... :-)

Sunset at the Louvre

Just some pretty pictures from the Louvre for y'all...

    

              

One thing a day, max!

We've been trying to stay very low key in Paris, spending as much time lounging in cafés and relaxing. One thing a day max, that's our rule! Ya right... Of course we're crammin' it all in, checking things off this huge spreadsheet we made... *sigh*

Today was especially busy. We walked around the colorful Marais, then had lunch in the Jewish quarter. The atmosphere was fun and relaxed, despite the troubles in Lebanon and the occasional "Death to Hezbollah" graffiti. The food was simply amazing. Hillel would love this place - he probably has. :)

From there to the Musée Carnavelet, which has to be one of the prettiest, most accessible museums anywhere. The collection is eclectic, from gaellic-roman ruins to fanciful art-déco rooms. And they have a whole wing on the French revolution, which was especially interesting to me, filled with paintings I remembered from my old schoolbooks.

    

    

To top it off we stopped at the original Mariage Frères tea-shop, which has been bringing tea into France since 1854. We stocked up on so much tea we're now worried about dogs at the airport.

When in doubt, wear your Pompon

Today we woke up bright and early to get a good spot for the Bastille Day parade. It was quite a spectacle, with a long procession of military men & equipment.

Wow, the French have a uniform for everything. There's the tan-desert-fatigued Foreign Legion, the ski-toting Alpine rangers, the jungle-camo-deadly special forces, the ice-pick wielding mountaineers, the red-pomponned navy men, the swashbuckling cavalry. There were even a few frog-men thrown in, ready for watery action. We could only wonder at the army of specialized seamsters and dry-cleaners needed to maintain such an arsenal.

    

In the evening we headed to the Champ de Mars to watch the fireworks. The show itself was average, but I must say it was quite magical with the Eiffel Tower as a backdrop.

    

Hangin' with da homies

After the trials of Siberia, we took it a bit easy in London. We shopped for antiques on Portobello Road, then bought food at the Borough market (made famous by the naked chef.)

    

Mostly we spent quality time with my family (father came out to visit) and old friends. We saw Gautam and Radhika, as well as Ali and Will - two friends from Princeton I hadn't seen in years. We went with them to a Pakistani hole-in-the-wall restaurant called the "Lahore Kebab House." Despite the name, there were no Kabab's on the menu. We asked the waiter, and he said "yes, we have Kebabs of course." Hm... What kinds? "Meat." Okay then. The meal was great, the Kebabs less so. :)

The only real bummer was that we were planning a day-trip to Cambridge to see Ahmed and his family, but I caught some nasty germ and we couldn't make it.

        

    

Now we're rested and ready to start our month in Paris!

The Brits can be so stiff sometimes

Finally in the UK, we went for a nice stroll and walked into Harvey Nichols. We were expecting the usual department store bussle, but the place was eerily quiet. The numerous staff stood stone-faced, hands by their sides, waiting for customers.

We headed upstairs to the food hall, yapping away loudly and generally being all American. Arriving there, something felt spooky and 'off.' The staff and the customers now were standing very still, not talking to each other, staring into space. We kept walking past them, wondering aloud what was going on. It felt like stumbling into Madam Troussaud's, or a Zombie video game.

And then, just when the realization of what was happening struck us, the intercom announced "Thank you for respecting two minutes of silence for the victims of the London bombings."

We darted red-faced into the Tea aisle. :)

Kickin' it old-school

Olya was antsy for some 'alone time,' so she kicked Oleg and I out on a little photo safari. I had in mind a quick jaunt just out of town, but Oleg and his friend insisted we go to Mariinsk, one of the oldest settlements in Siberia. It's two hours from Kemerovo, but was well worth the scary drive.

The homes are really beautiful and rustic. They're all solid wood, and have ornate windowframes and ornaments. Many of them are sinking into the ground sideways at horrifying degrees, which doesn't seem to bother anyone. The townies were a little suspicious of three men in a brand-new red car, driving up and down their streets photographing everything. But we just smiled a lot and kept snapping. Pity the day was so gray, and the houses wet from a storm.



So now we're out of here, on our way to London. Siberia was an amazing experience thanks to Oleg and his friends. And for me it was a great way to learn more about Olya's background.

Siberia is one big "Man-Test"

...and so far I'm about a C+. I'm still in the game, but I'm clearly not cut from the same cloth as the men here. They're like tough, weathered burlap, with camouflage patterns. I'm more like fuschia velveteen. Still, everyone has been very friendly and understanding of the micro-softie's shortcomings. The tests so far have included:

• Swimming laps in a pro-size pool until my arms could no longer take it.
  


• Playing tennis in the blistering sun with Oleg and some friends. I'm happy to report my shots went over the net as often as not. Still, I need lots of practice. I'll corner Drew when we get back for some tutoring.
  


• Going car-camping and fishing on a nearby river. I kept my cool while Oleg navigated his brand-new Corolla over rocky roads, steep crevices, and through knee-deep mud holes. But I lost it when a swarm of angry bees followed the car for miles, hurling themselves at the windows and trying desperately to get in. We must have run over their queen or something, because they would not let up until the rain finally made them stop.
  
  At some point the car could go no further, so Oleg's friends came to get us in their home-built gun boat (painted military green of course.) We powered down the delta at 40km/hr and made it to base camp, where they served us freshly caught and smoked fish. Yum!

All in all it's been great, outdoorsy fun. We'll see what the next few days have in store!