And I feel pretty damned good about it. On January 1st, yours truly finally landed himself a girlfriend, and what a girlfriend! Her name is Maggie, and she’s absolutely amazing and gorgeous. Two days later, I started my new job at elephants & ants. At the cost of a bit less pay, I got a shortened commute (15 minute walk > 1 hour bus ride), a downtown workplace, and a wider variety of work. It’s my 4th day at the job, and while there haven’t been any fun projects to write home about just yet, it has been very nice to be part of a smaller and more closely knit group.

Another sign of a good start for 2008 has been the presidential primaries. My man Barack Obama won the Iowa caucuses, and is currently leading the polls in New Hampshire. Both victories have been a huge upset for the other candidates, but it’s still way too early to get comfortable. Whatever happens, it seems like 2008 will be a make-or-break year for us here in the states. Hope for the former, prepare for the latter.

On Saturday, I spent most of the day preparing for a dinner date I had with the lovely Maggie. It took me a while to decide what to cook, and in the end, I went with lumpia, pancit sotanghon, and leche flan. All Filipino recipes, and all delicious. I started by preparing the flan, since it needed to time to bake and cool. The recipe didn’t bother to tell me the serving size, but luckily I picked up extra foil pans. I ended up with 3 delicious leche flans. Next was the laborious pancit sotanghon. I had to soak the noodles for 2 hours, boil and shred the chicken, chop all the vegetables, then throw it all into a skillet and stir fry that puppy until it was just right. I had to make this in two batches, again due to the lack of serving size information. (I really should’ve realized , being Filipino, that when we cook, we cook a lot.) The lumpia was store bought, because making lumpia is an all-day event, and ain’t no way I’m making that as well as the pancit and leche flan.

Aside from a few personal critiques, everything turned out quite well, especially considering I could barley make scrambled eggs before this weekend. Maggie was also pleased and impressed… mission accomplished.

After a few months back, I’ve settled in finally. I moved into Jessika’s former basement studio apartment, and it’s a really good situation for me. The landlord/owner lives on the 2nd floor of this house-turned-apartments, and he is very laid back and quite the nice guy. This is a dream come true since my previous apartment manager a nagging crazy lady who always asked for rent checks 5 days early.

There is a small, yet quaint, patio in the front with ivy hanging from the surrounding walls and fence. Don’t mind the dirty patio furniture, it came with the apartment along with the full-sized bed, vintage wooden file cabinet, and something that appears to be from a dentist’s office. The kitchen walls and cabinets are all knotted wood, which I hated initially but grew to love. The kitchen is so big, I was able to use part of it as my office/work area and still have enough room in the middle to practice my sweet dance moves.

With the addition of the Ikea couch (which was a bargain via Craigslist), side table, and television (courtesy of Neal’s mom, gracias!), I feel much more at home. I just need a coffee table and maybe a small rug to pull everything together. I love this apartment, and even though the rent is month-to-month, I don’t think I’ll be leaving anytime soon.

Being 75% Filipino, I’m an obvious supporter of Pinoys in the spotlight. This girl, who was only 12 years old when she did this performance, makes me so proud that I cry sinigang tears whenever I watch this. Mabuhay.

After a big hassle with airline companies and travel agencies, I finally have my ticket back to the US. I’m quite sad about it but also releaved. I really wish I could’ve made it work here in Paris, and I’m quite sure it would’ve been possible if I gave it a go, but I didn’t. After a couple of weeks here, I basically had to make a choice between staying the full 3 months, live on a tight budget, and work my ass off to get a job; or stay only a couple of months, spend like I’m on vacation, and relax. I chose the latter. This decision was made partly due to homesickness, partly due to the language barrier, but mostly due to the fact that I really wanted to relax. Since I moved to Seattle 3 years ago, I’ve been working pretty hard (I always find a little time to party a bit, of course), so it was well worth it to just switch into chill-mode and just enjoy myself for a couple months.

Besides, I know how much y’all miss me, and I missed y’alls too. See you soon.

What can I say about my trip to these two wonderful cities that can’t be said with a little bit of vomit? I mean that in a good way, because I was having such a good time that I had to blow chunks just to convince myself to come back to Paris.

Amsterdam: Left Centraal Station and looked for the nearest coffeeshop. Bought some local goods and made my way to Vondelpark. While awaiting Ryan, I was approached by a strange inebriated but nice enough man. Next night, met up with some TR42 members and proceeded to tear up the city. Purchased cases of beer and went to a nearby park to consume said beers. Urinated multiple times in public, which is quite common. Moved to a nearby bar and had a few rounds. Bought pre-packaged goodies and proceeded to a different park (there’s many of them in Amsterdam). Pretty damn drunk by now, the goodies were lit and passed around. At one point, both were handed to me, and I did not refuse them. In come the sweats and hot flashes, out goes my lunch. After recovery, döner kebab sandwiches were bought and sucked down. Searched for another bar exhaustedly. No luck. Went to Centraal Station and parted ways. Good times.

Köln: Much more relaxed, but still quite fun. Lots of sleep. Lots of beer. More sleep. More beer. Discussed music, film, and current events. Visited local record shops and comic book stores. Washed down tapas with some sangria. Good times.

Last night, my neighbor, Caroline, invited me to a dinner with her friends. Since the dinner was taking place just outside my door, there really wasn’t a way she couldn’t invite me. Score!

Since August is when most Parisians take their vacation, most of them had just returned, and along with two birthdays, there was great cause for celebration. Caroline herself had just returned from singing Tahiti and Los Angeles, Dorothy spent 4 weeks tanning in Vietnam and Camille practiced her Spanish in Mexico. Caroline returned with a lot of souvenirs from Tahiti, one of which was a delicious recipe for a pasta dish with shrimp, pineapple, and coconut milk. Afterwards we had “joyeaux anniversaire” cake and Vietnamese candy courtesy of Dorothy.

Among the group there was a graphic design student, philosophy student, jazz musician, business consultant, international law student, and the equivalent of a well-paid international social worker. At first, they were all kind enough to speak English with me, but after the 3rd bottle of wine was poured, the kindness was replaced with a laidback familiarity that can only be found from young, well-relaxed, well-vacationed, French people.

My legs are aching, my back is sore and I have a pretty noticeable farmer’s tan. However, it was sooooo worth it. Rock en Seine, in case you didn’t read the previous post (shame on you), is an annual 3-day music festival, similar to Bumbershoot but sans all the cheesy hippie arts and crafts booths. I finally got to see Björk, and it was pretty spectacular! It would’ve been even better if the guy in front of me didn’t keep whipping my face with his dreadlock ponytail. Eh, c’est la vie. Here are my highlights:

Arcade Fire
They had a full-sized pipe organ on stage! With 13 members, I can only imagine the size of their tour bus. Maybe a tour dirigible? One of the girls, the lead singer’s wife I think, was all over the stage playing every instrument she could get her hands on, from drums, to pipe organ, to accordion, to this strange stringed instrument with a rotating lever.

The Hives
To be honest, their flavor of rock/punk rock gets old pretty quickly for me. However, their stage presence is fucking gold. The lead singer, Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist, is hee-larious with great quips like, “alright you French people, we are the Hives… c’est fantastique!” And the rhythm guitarist has this crazy way of strumming that made me wonder if he was even playing or not. Pure entertainment.

Mark Ronson
I’ve only heard his second album in one of those listening stations inside music stores, but after seeing him live, with a full band, I’m going back today to cop that shit. What’s better on a summer day than a great horns section and funky bass guitar licks? Answer: using those to cover a Smiths songs, that’s what.

Kings of Leon
I honestly don’t think I really knew what Rock n’ Roll was until I saw these guys live yesterday for the first time. The lead singer, Caleb Followill, said his voice was a little sore, but that didn’t stop him from giving it everything he had. Maybe the shot of Jameson whiskey he drank, after toasting it to the crowd, helped him along. His brother on lead guitar had a cigarette lit almost the entire show and either kept it in his mouth or on the end of his guitar. The drummer was drinking a can of Heineken with a bendy-straw, and the bassist completely pandering to the camera. Before and after their performance, there were sporadic girlish screams coming from backstage. This band is fucking stellar.

I know it’s been a while since I last posted, but that’s because I’ve been busy doing things to post about. That’s my excuse anyway.

Since I last logged into this blog, I’ve been to many shows, met various people, and endured much rain (gorgeous Paris summers my ass!) I have even more planned in the near future. Tomorrow begins Rock en Seine, a 3 day music festival with a tremendously great lineup. The people I mainly want to see is Björk (I’ve missed the last three opportunities to see her), Arcade Fire, Dizzee Rascal, M.I.A., Kings of Leon, and the Shins. It will be difficult seeing them all, but I’m gonna try anyway. A few days after that, I will be visiting friends in Amsterdam and Cologne. I’ll let y’all know how it all goes down.

I finally got my phone hooked up, so if any of you European folks care to call me, my number is 06 42 22 60 71.