The Royal Palace in Brussels.  

Brussels -- Grand Place Grote Market -- A beautiful building lit up at night in a square where people were out eating at cafes, young people picnicing in the courtyard and artists sketching. It didn't get dark until almost 10pm at night. 

Manneken Pis -- I never knew that this famous statue was in Brussels. Here's something that I never thought that I'd see in my life. We just kind of stumbled upon when we were walking the city. 

Paris

Paris was exactly what I expected: history around every corner, bad attitudes after speaking English, and great cafes.

Before leaving the States, I arranged for a rental apartment on Craig's List.com. The apartment was on Rue Amelie and it was only 10 minutes away from the Eiffel Tower, in fact, we could see the Eiffel Tower from the balcony as it was lit up at night. The Eiffel Tower would flash in a bright white lights for 10 minutes at every hour on the hour after dark.

Paris was great and I wouldn't spoil it by just writing about it, ask me and I'll tell you. I can tell you that we met some great people while we were there too. First, we met Djeneba and Wanja after searching for an internet cafe (just computers connected to the internet would've been just fine) at the American University in Paris. Djeneba was from the Ivory Coast and Wanja was from Kenya. They were so nice and we ended up getting Djeneba's contact info, so we ended up hanging out with her on Saturday. We also met Kenyatta, who was from New York City.

Well, please enjoy the pictures... there are tons of stories, but like I said, you have to listen to the stories....

Proof that I was at the Eiffel Tower and climbed those steps... 

Me in front of the Louvre museum. There's the cool pyramid that I always saw on TV. The next time I see it is on the Da Vinci Code movie. 

Concorde - the little island of fountains and the obelisk not far from the Louvre tulip gardens.  

Djeneba and I in front of Notre Dame. 

Jardin des Plantes - huge park in Latin Quarter area. 

I was SO excited to see the posters for the Da Vinci Code movie being advertised in Paris. The walls of this particular station was completed covered by Da Vinci Code ads. I thought that the old French guy standing next to the ad was perfect. Earlier, he had walked up to the poster, looked at it and shook his head. I just HAD to get a pic of the old rejecting the new. He had probably heard about the controversey over the movie and was not happy about seeing the station covered with posters celebrating the release of the movie. 

Shameless advertising: Charlize Theron was everywhere in Paris advertising for this perfume, j'adore. She also appeared nude in a TV ad for the same product. 

Louvre Museum

The things that I saw at the Louvre, but couldn't photograph: the Mona Lisa, The Consecration of Napoleon, and many other works painted by Italian or French painters. Delacroix was my personal favorite.

I took a pic of this statue of a pharoah 5 times, but it still came out like this. It was weird. It's like there was some strange aura around it. Freaky! 

"The Cheater" by Georges de La Tour.  

There were art students throughout the Louvre trying to paint copies of the famous original masterpieces. This art student was the best I'd seen 

"Venus de Milo" at the Louvre. 

Rodin Museum

This is Kenyatta, who we met at the Rodin Museum in Paris. When I said, "I never thought that I'd see this statue in my life," she said "me too." That's how we met.  

"The Thinker" by Rodin. I never thought that I'd see this statue in my life and there I am standing right next to it! 

"The Gates of Hell" by Rodin. 

"The Kiss" by Rodin (Paris). 

Melissa and I at the Musee Rodin in Paris. 

Sakura: Hanami Season

In Japanese sakura means "cherry blossom" and hanami means "flower watching or viewing"... Hana means flower and the verb mi means to watch/see.

This was my first time viewing the sakura in Washington, DC since coming back from Japan. I must say that Washington, DC's sakura season is getting better every year. I went with my friend, Mariko, who is originally from Chiba, Japan. She was teaching me some of the different names of the different sakura in Japanese. I even saw a group of sakura trees that came from the Yoshino area in Nara, which is where I used to live. They were the most beautiful of course.

I am currently reading a travelogue book that my friend, Denise, let me borrow. It's called
"Hokkaido Highway Blues: Hitchhiking Japan" by Will Ferguson, a Canadian JET teacher (like I was in Japan). This book is about him hitchhiking from the southern-most point of Japan to the northern-most point during sakura season. This book is so hilarious because I can relate to everything that he is saying about being a foreigner in Japan. I'm going to recommend it to ALL of my friends that are/were teachers in Japan. By this time next year, I plan to be in Japan and I've been inspired to travel throughout Japan to visit my friends during cherry blossom season for two weeks. Anyways, enjoy the pictures below...

The most beautiful view of the Jefferson memorial near Tidal Basin area. 

Cherry Blossoms near the Washington Monument

Me and the white cherry blossom trees. 

My friend, Mariko.

This was the most beautiful Cherry Blossom tree near the Tidal Basin. 

Sunset near the cherry blossom trees.