The photo above was taken by my younger brother at Santa Monica beach, right after my older brother and I got off the plane at LAX from NYC. It was my older brother's idea to go to the beach even though the sun was already setting because both of us hadn't seen the beach for a while, as evidenced by our touristy pose taking photos of everything with our phone. My younger brother, the one who lives in LA, was shaking his head the entire time, giving us a look of pity as he failed to understand why going to the beach was such a big deal for us. Yo, lil bro, let me tell you something, once you live somewhere that isn't surrounded by beaches, you will then understand our longing to feel the waves sweep over your feet against the soft grains of sand. You know, you never appreciate something until it's gone, that sort of thing.

I read this book titled The Sweet Life in Paris by the American chef living in Paris, David Lebovitz, last year when I just moved to Paris. I remember he mentions that people often ask him, "What do you do all day in Paris?" He goes on explaining how people expect him to spend his days hopping from chocolate shop to patisserie when in reality, daily life in Paris is not as sweet and romantic like that. It basically goes on with endless list of errands and chores that go on and on and on...

So yeah, when I just moved to Paris, my friends often asked me what I do during the weekend. I so wanted to tell them, "I walked along the Seine river this afternoon, hand in hand with my Parisian lover. And then, we wrote our names on a padlock, locked it at Pont des Arts, and threw the key into the Seine. We then went to lunch at the second floor of the Eiffel Tower at Alain Ducasse's Le Jules Verne. After that, we browsed through the wonderful collection of Impressionism works at Musée D'orsay..."