11:30 (PARIS) — im in the air now on my way to JFK airport. honestly? I cant wait to get home. im super excited and im especially excited to continue on my summer todo list. This vacay was amazing and hells yes id do it again! I also cant wait until all my new friends get back home so we can keep in touch and whatnot. Well ive got a 7hr flight to NYC, cheers!

11:37 (PARIS) — just passing over the beaches of normandie. Woot bf1942!

13:10 (NYC) — phew just arrived in NYC. holy crap that pilot sucked. As he was landing the back wheels, he jerked the plane left at such a high speed and it was the same feeling as when youre driving fast and then jerk the car to one side. Lol i almost shit my pants thinking i was gonna die. There was a beautiful stewardess though :p she was prolly in her 30s though…

15:10 (NYC) — sitting here waiting to board the flight thats at 16:00. I was watching the world cup omg so many yellow cards within the first quarter of play! anyways the one thing i didnt miss was fob english accents. Id much rather hear french, dutch, or german… or british/australian/canadian english accents. Nvm about the 16:00 flight, apparently its delayed even tho the airplane is already here and has been parked for like at least 20 mins.

15:20 (NYC) — dude. i also def. did not miss seeing ppl wearing SUCwear.

15:53 (NYC) — god damn asian baby. He keeps calling to his mother saying “ah-nya” this is seriously mind-fucking me. Im trying not to go to “that” place but its really difficult not to :/

16:48 (NYC) — shit we finally are in the air. I swear the pilot had to take a massive shit or something during taxiing which is why we left 45 mins late. Its interesting bc our pilot still said we’d land on time. If they can truly fly that fast to make up 45 mins of lost time then why do they not fly fast everywhere?!

19:45 (LA) — just got out of baggage claim at LAX. shit its fucking cold here!

22:10 (LA) — on my way back home after eating half a plate of curry for dinner. at least my parents accept the fact that theyre both very stubborn. tho my mom made a remark about how im older than all the kids on the trip so i shouldve been more mature and less stubborn. Lol i cant believe my mom linked the two but w/e. I might have to double espresso shot it to get back to the apt in one piece, which means tonight should be an interesting night.

7:47 – just had a pretty light breakfast. I dont feel like eating for some reason :/ gonna go tour paris now, see the notre dame cathedral and the view from the eiffel tower among other things. Later we’re gonna go to the luvre museum which houses the mona lisa and theres another museum across the river from the louvre that houses impressionist/post impressionist paintings from manet, monet, and renoir. Lol art history 54 :p

13:04 — im in the luvre and there are amazing paintings here! I thought it would be mostly the mona lisa but i see the famous french freedom painting by delacroix! Omg famous paintings by gericault too! Wow im amazed the real paintings are here. I also cant believe my art history knowledge is coming in handy :p

14:00 — LOL we just saw the Mona Lisa and my friend just ran across the fenced off area directly in front of the painting waving peace signs and giving a big smile. HAHAHA this fenced off area is only for handicapped people so they get a chance to see the Mona Lisa whereas there’s a huge crowd of incredibly tall people snapping photos of the painting from like 10 feet away. BUT LOL! wow another kid from the tour just filmed it. Man i hope this goes up on fb soon so i can LOL again. It makes me kinda sad this is my last day with them. Actually this is probably my last activity with them :\

22:22 — i just got finished showering after a light workout session in the fitness center. there was this big black dude in there when i first got there. so intimidating bc he was using like 35lb dumbbells or something. It has really hit me now that i’m not going to see any of these people again. Well, most likely i won’t. There’s a girl that goes to uni in Australia and she said she might come by UCLA sometime next year so I’m looking forward to just seeing someone and reminiscing about the fun we all had (as a group) in Switzerland and Paris. I hope my Canadian friend comes down to LA sometime. He’s so crazy. But i think I bonded with him the most on the trip mainly because it was him and his dad whereas all the other groups with kids had like big families (2 to 5 kids per family). Plus his dad and my dad got along pretty well too, so that was chill.

– I’ve been listening to 3OH!3 for most of the day even though I barely listened to music all day. I also listened to Sherwood – The Only Song. I think I was a tad emo, but it’s most likely due to the depressing weather today. It actually rained a little bit this afternoon but it was the humid type of rain and not the awesome, cold type of rain. I’ve determined I really want to come back to this city and explore everything else I didn’t get to see. It was way better experiencing the city with my newly acquired friends, but coming here with my best friends from back home would be even more amazing. The bars, the clubs, the shopping on the Champs-Élysées, the spectacular night views, the amazing desserts… dude this list can pretty much go on FOREVER! I will definitely miss Paris.

– I’m trying to savor my last night here by just staying up and looking out the window and admiring the beautiful city view from my 15th floor hotel room. Part of me wants to go back because I miss home and friends, but another part of me wants to get lost in this completely new world where I could literally be whoever I want to be. The most intriguing aspect of this is that I won’t be constantly weighed down. If you’re lucky, I’ll talk more about that later. But for now, some paprika flavored pringles and some folk music will make my night just that much better.

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Pictures:

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8:00am — gosh im so freaking bored. I dont even get my row to myself anymore which i suppose is fine but damn my dad just takes up so much space by sticking his elbows out. so far theres no traffic on the road to the border. ill keep you updated.

11:35am — sigh ive fallen asleep like 3 times between the last time i wrote and now. ugh… we still have like 340km to go until we hit Paris.

2:30pm — at the final rest stop. woot. But our tour guide says that we’ll prolly hit a crapload of traffic when we get to the border of paris. Its so funny doing secret exchanges with all of the other kids. Some of them are more open to talking in front of their parents while others not so much. haha the little australian girls are like little girly twins with their high pitched voices like this morning when i was like “hey” and they both responded at the same time “hey” lol… anyways sigh… I hope the ride isnt too painful.

5:00pm — damn what a nice view. paris is not exactly the best looking city in the world

20:30 — lol i just had an AMAZING three course french meal. I think paris would move up to my backup city to live in if all their meals come with fries. LOL dont judge. If you know me you know how much i love fries!

22:15 — i just got off yet another boring ass boat cruise. Its barely getting dark and we’re now going on a night tour of paris. Hopefully its as beautiful as they say. Btw the eiffel tower is not as magical as advertised. Id have to say Hannah was right bc if youve seen the tower then you wont speak of it so magnificently.

00:00 — damn got back so late but i got to see the eiffel light up which was nice. Got to see the chance s’alise (sp?)

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Pictures:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2182177/Europe%20Pics/Day%208/IMG_1411.JPG

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4:00pm — today was pretty neat. I didnt have much downtime bc i went shopping with my canadian friend after lunch. we first went up to the top of one of the mountains that makes up the swiss alps. it was frighteningly awesome up there bc i was so scared going up and coming down via gondola.

Afterwards was when andrew and i hung out in the shopping district. I got myself a swiss army knife for like $40 (39 CHF). In case youre wondering the dollar and swiss franc are pretty much on par with each other. Its like $1 = 1.07 CHF. anyways its a sweeet knife. Most of all i love the finish on top of all the tools it has. however its got a huge blade, larger than what is usually on swiss army knives in the states.

In case you havent noticed, im kinda tired doing the time updates lol. I dont find myself having much free time on this trip anymore however tmrw i know i will bc its a 600km trip to paris from luzern. Ugh…

Lately ive been listening to 3oh!3 more and more of andrew mcmahon too :D i saw dear jack. Pretty good documentary, its about andrew mcmahon and his fight with leukemia. Ending with the start of the dear jack foundation (yay the tshirt i got at warped)

Anyways back to my day since i know thats all youre interested in :p so we went on a horse carriage ride through part of the countryside of switzerland. It was pretty nice but also smelled like shit most of the time. Lol made me think of the oregon trail. Good thing i didnt die of dysentary!

So weve got drinks at the hotel rooftop bar in a couple hours at 6:30pm and im excited. Andrew and i have plans to talk to the other 18+ year old kids if they wanna sneak out and hit up a bar either tonight or one of the next few nights in paris. Exciting times, i must say!

Well im gonna go enjoy my songs now. If youre interested in listening to some music ive been really into lately, check out these songs:

Double Vision – 3oh!3

Starstrukk (feat. Katy Perry) – 3oh!3

See You Go – 3oh!3

Dear Jack – Jack’s Mannequin

MFEO (parts 1&2) – Jack’s Mannequin

Watch the Sky – Something Corporate

Forget December – Something Corporate

I’d Rather Be With You – Joshua Radin

Breakeven – The Script

We’ll Be A Dream (feat. Demi Lovato) – We The Kings

Say So – My Favorite Highway

12:51 – The Strokes

I apologize for not updating last night. But last night was our only single night in one city (whereas we spend two nights in all of the other cities). We got back to the hotel at about 7pm local, had dinner with the tour group and pretty much had to sleep early. This was bc we had to wake up by 6am to leave at 7:30am today for Luzern. Not to mention the internet was €10 (roughly $12) for only an hour of connectivity. I swear these europeans are such internet greedy bastards! Oh free american hotel internet connectivity… how i miss you so!

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7:10am — oh crap, babybels!!! they have babybels in the cheese section of the breakfast buffet. woot!

7:45am — so im taking notice of the automobiles in germany and it seems as though 50% of all personal cars turn out being black while about 90% are hatchbacks (like my vibe) while the other 10% have regular trunks and are sedans. But about 75% of people drive german automobiles (audi, vw, bmw, mercedes). Interesting…

– we’re headed to heidelberg (a college town!) and then the black forest, so ill have two chances to get shot glasses or beer mugs. woot woot!

– apparently betty really does know me by name. Impressive, tho its kinda expected since im the only asian male on the tour. Not to mention i dress the most american-stylish :p ohh yeah who looks good LOL ;)

9:45am — ridiculous!!! this market in germany sold huge bottles of beer for €0.75 ahhh too bad its way too early to drink.

2:16pm — we’re on our way to switzerland now and we had previously stopped at the black foresy to see how cuckoo clocks are made. i was going to get some bc they seemed so cool but they were way too expensive.

8:15pm — i saw probably one of the most beautiful hapa girls ever. she looked really similar to kristen kreuk too. damn switzerland! You know, the usual exchange too… ahh! definitely made my day better.

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Pictures:

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