Dumpling

Our guinea pig, Dumpling, passed away yesterday. She was going to turn 4 on June 2. We met Dumpling for the first time in June 2007 during a visit to a private guinea pig rescue, Cavy House. When we first saw and held her, she was only a few days old. Dumpling's mom was one of 30 or so guinea pigs that were abandoned together in a card board box and in poor health condition. She was part of 2 litters of babies that were born at Cavy House. They were the smallest guinea pigs we've ever seen - they were tiny and looked more like little mice. Since Dumpling was so young, Cavy House was reluctant to commit to having us adopt her so early.

After several email exchanges in the following weeks, we finally brought Dumpling home on June 27.

baby dumpling and one of her siblings, taken at cavy house

When Dumpling first came home, she was obviously still a baby and much smaller than our 2 other guinea pigs, Barney and Jubi. I was on a business trip in London when Charlie brought her home but he had videos of her first day at home when Barney and Jubi were very curious about this new member of the family. Dumpling stayed in a separate cage initially and she kept trying to climb out of the cage. In the video below, you can see her athletic cage climbing abilities with Jubi looking on.










In fact, a few days later, Dumpling DID climb out of the cage and INTO Barney and Jubi's cage next door. We had come home from work and saw Dumpling's cage empty. My heart rose to my throat for a split second until I looked over and saw all 3 pigs sitting in the same cage. From that moment on, Dumpling officially moved in with Barney and Jubi. Or should I say, she moved herself in.

baby dumpling and her signature mohawk hairdo

baby dumpling being a scaredy cat next to barney and jubi

first xmas in our new home

opening their presents

looking like a baby

Dumpling had always been the baby of the family. She's by far the most cowardly guinea pig we've ever known and thinks any large object other than Charlie, myself, Barney and Jubi are predatory monsters. In fact, she was traumatized for several months when our dog Millie first joined our family. She would take one look at Millie, turn around, run for her life and nearly fly off my shoulder. It's funny that Millie the dog would turn out to be in close competition with Dumpling for most cowardly animal in the Lee household.  Eventually, Dumpling got used to Millie and doesn't tremble or try to jump off the couch whenever Millie's around. In fact, they became quite close to one another.

millie and dumpling as buddies

When Barney passed away in 2009, Jubi was traumatized and ended up losing quite a bit of weight. Jubi and Dumpling used to be like frenemies when Barney was around, but their relationship changed when it became just the 2 of them. At first, there was a phase of fighting to figure out who was in charge, and (not surprisingly) Jubi came out on top. Then around last summer, Jubi finally got over her depression about Barney and became more of her normal self again. When that happened, she and Dumpling became much closer and really seemed to enjoy each other's company.

cuddling with jubi

Unfortunately, when Jubi departed in December, Dumpling also took a hit emotionally. She refused to eat when we boarded her over the holidays and ended up losing a lot of weight. I think it has to do with the fact that when we boarded her before, she was with Jubi and Barney. This time, she was by herself and probably thought we abandoned her. Poor pig :( She immediately got better at eating after we brought her home. But to be safe, we still took her to the vet to make sure she was healthy otherwise.

Dumpling had always had company since she was born, so she wasn't used to being alone. After we figured out that she was probably depressed, we decided to get another guinea pig, Pumpkin, to keep her company. This was also out of consideration that towards the end of my pregnancy, I had less time to spend with her. If we couldn't spend time with them, at least she and Pumpkin would have one another. She did really seem to like Pumpkin. They each had their own igloo covers for bedtime, but on some mornings, we'd wake up and find both of them under the same igloo. It's really cute.

meet pumpkin!

Last month, we noticed that Dumpling had a lot of discharge around her eyes and ears and brought her in to see her vet, Dr. Nakamura. We had expected that it would be just a simple eye/ear infection, but found out that Dumpling had a condition common to satin guinea pig breeds known as Osteodystrophy (OD). OD is a genetic disorder that prevents calcium from properly being absorbed into the bones resulting in gradual bone loss, and eventually the guinea pig would suffer from stiff and painful joints. Turns out Dumpling's dirty eyes and ears were because she was stiff and couldn't groom herself anymore. It was extremely sad to learn that Dumpling has this condition, that it will only worsen and there isn't anything we can do to help her get better. Dr. Nakamura prescribed daily calcium supplements and pain medicine to help ease the pain and keep her comfortable. I also did a lot of research online about OD, and some owners have had success with slowing bone loss by giving the guinea pig more sunlight which produces vitamin D to help with calcium absorption. So for the last few weeks, I've brought Dumpling out on our porch everyday to bask in the sun for a few hours. Yesterday, she was outside catching sun as usual, but when I picked her up around 7pm, I saw that she had already passed. Dumpling's joints have gotten a lot stiffer since we found out she had OD. Her back legs could barely move anymore, and so she ends up dragging them while she crawls forward with her front legs. However, the pain medicine appeared to help and she was still very interested in food. During meal times, she would shriek loudly to beg for food and drag herself to the lettuce and hay. It's not clear what happened, but perhaps she was just weakened by her illness.

lounging with mommy

When I found out that Dumpling had OD, I vowed that I'd help her live life for as long as she seemed comfortable. It's awful to watch your pet suffer from declining health and not be able to make the illness go away. I didn't expect her situation to progress so quickly since we found out about it. On one hand, I am really sad that she left us and before we were ready to say goodbye. But on the other hand, I think it's probably better that it happened before her condition got worse to the point she stopped eating and we'd have to put her through more uncomfortable medical procedures.

We buried her next to Barney and Jubi.

Dumpling, you'll always be the baby of our family and have a special place in our hearts. We'll miss you.

welcome home, pumpkin!

on saturday, we stopped by pet club to buy some guinea pig bedding for dumpling after taking her to the vet and ended up coming home with pumpkin, an adorable baby piggie. we're not sure if pumpkin's a boy or girl yet, since he/she is so tiny.

so the story of how we got pumpkin was rather serendipitous. charlie went in to pet club by himself to get the supplies while i waited in the car. 10 minutes later he came back and showed me this picture of a baby pig he saw at the store:

tiny pumpkin at pet club

the piggie was incredibly cute and looked like puffy. this also reminded me of what happened 6.5 years ago: we went to the same pet club store to see if we can find a guinea pig to keep charlie company while i was away in business school. we saw baby barney there, held and played w/ him for awhile, but charlie was hesitant to commit to taking care of a guinea pig by himself, so we put barney back in his cage and went home. i felt so bad about walking away from barney that i made a bet w/ charlie that if i beat him in heads-up poker, we would go back and buy barney (mind you, we were in our mid-twenties and susceptible to this kind of silly behavior). charlie is normally a much better poker player than i, but i did win that time, and we went back to bring barney home. barney turned out to be the sweetest, most mild-tempered guinea pig whose personality was almost modeled after charlie's. he kept both me and charlie company while i was in philly (he spent every other month in philly and the bay area during my second year at wharton) and went on to be a part of our family for 4 more years since i moved back to the bay area.

whenever i saw guinea pigs in a pet store, i always have the urge to "rescue" them. i think about the possible abuse/neglect they might get, and worse, i cringe at the thought of them being bought by the wrong people. paranoia? yes. but this is why i tend to avoid looking at guinea pigs at all in pet stores. when charlie showed me the picture, i asked him if we should consider getting another pig. it would be a good companion for dumpling. the 2 of us sat in the car and thought really hard for awhile, and we decided to go back in and have dumpling meet pumpkin since she happened to be with us for the vet visit. once i saw how tiny and adorable pumpkin was, it was even harder to walk away. dumpling seemed to be intrigued by pumpkin, who was outgoing and loved cuddling with people. 

pumpkin's first night at home (more photos)

you're probably wondering why we decided to get another guinea pig when a new baby is on the way. are we out of our minds? no. there were 2 reasons: 

1. for dumpling: we already have to care for one guinea pig, and pumpkin is more dumpling's pig than our pig. dumpling came to our family as a 4 week old baby and has always had barney and jubi's company. this is the first time she's finding herself alone, and she had been depressed and lost almost 1/4 of her weight during the mere 2 weeks since jubi passed away (which was why we brought her in to see the vet - luckily she was healthy so weight loss was likely just depression). we think a companion would be best for dumpling, especially after baby is born when we may have less time to spend with her. 

2. for pumpkin: pumpkin is really too young to be in a pet store. he/she is more like a 4-week baby and not the 8 weeks that pet club claims. the sales person seemed ok with anyone who asks to hold pumpkin, and a baby pig that tiny & squeamish can be easily dropped by a careless person and hurt badly. it's also easy for an uninformed family to bring home a cute pet for a child, only realizing later that he is not hamster-sized, but rather more rabbit-sized. this is how many poor animals end up in shelters. i couldn't walk away from pumpkin with these thoughts much like how i felt bad about walking away from barney. imagine what we would've missed if charlie won that poker game!

finally, we're pretty certain that our baby annabelle will love animals as much as we do. and so we signed up for the responsibility and brought pumpkin home. 

in memory of jubi

we made a donation to the peninsula humane society in memory of jubi. this donation will also be doubled with google's generous gift matching. we're thankful to PHS for putting her up for adoption so we could have her in our family for 5.5 wonderful years. we figured the best way to celebrate jubi's life is to help her leave a positive impact on the world she left behind, so more shelter animals can have a chance to find good homes.

in addition, jubi's legacy lives on at google too. there's a major ads infrastructure project code-named "millie" that everyone from our team and up to the board knows about. it's named for millie the dog, but as we know, the dog millie was really named after jubi for the cute name we replaced when we renamed her jubi.

picture of jubi given to us by peninsula humane society. this was taken at the shelter when she was about 4 months old. on the bottom, it says "Millie 2005" (the shelter had named her millie)

jubi - summer 2005, just after we adopted her

our family in summer 2007

jubi

our sweet guinea pig, jubi, passed away today at adobe animal hospital. she was five years 11 months old.

looking like a baby

pretty girl close-up

we adopted jubi during the summer of 2005 when i moved back from philly to start full time at google. we wanted to get a girl to keep barney company since he looked so bored sitting by himself everyday. during 4th of july long weekend, we went to the peninsula humane society and saw 2 really cute little girl pigs.  we took jubi and her roommate into the adoption "bonding" room to spend time with them and figure out which pig we wanted to bring home. jubi was the more assertive and fiesty of the two. she even went as far as leaving a lasting impression by peeing on me!

the shelter had prepared an information card for jubi that showed a really cute picture of her when she was first admitted to the shelter back in april. she was pregnant then and soon gave birth to 2 sons. we saw her baby sons in the cage next door also up for adoption. they were the cutest piggies ever! too bad we wanted a girl for barney, or we totally would've adopted jubi's sons. jubi was named "millie" by the shelter and listed as a "stray". apparently the person who brought her and her roommate in had claimed they were found in his backyard. we changed her name to jubi because when charlie was a kid, he had thought it was really cool to name his daughter jubi, so her full name would be "jubilee." (obviously, we now have a famous dog millie, who is really named after jubi). our guinea pigs all had middle names, e.g. puffy comb (note it's comb, not combs as in p. diddy),  barney bacon, dumpy doo. jubi couldn't take on a middle name because she were to be jubilee, so her full name was actually millie jubi lee or m. jubi lee. she's a cool one who goes by her middle name, like the great american writer, f. scott fitzgerald.

lounging with cute butt sticking out

impersonating bandits with millie

jubi was the first guinea pig we've had that was adopted from a shelter. it was apparent that she had gone through some trauma having possibly been abandoned by her owner and then stayed at a shelter (not to mention giving birth to 2 babies!) all before she turned 6 months old. she would be very guarded and uptight when we held her. while our other pigs really enjoyed being cuddled close to us, e.g. sitting on my neck or laying relaxed on my tummy, jubi would always remain standing and squiggled away if i tried to bring her too close. it took about 2 years before jubi finally accepted me and wouldn't complain when i put her close to me.

jubi after recovering from surgery in 2007 (spayed to remove ovarian cysts)

barney kisses jubi

barney licking jubi's face when she wasn't feeling well

jubi has become the diva, the princess of our family, and undeniably the love of barney's life. he would noticeably enjoy lap time when i held him and jubi close together. they loved cuddling together, though it seems that barney enjoyed it much more so than jubi, who acted more or less indifferent (but for a pig like jubi, not complaining is pretty darn positive). i never realized how much jubi liked barney until barney passed away last may. jubi's health quickly deteriorated for mysterious reasons since barney passed. she chewed away all of the hair on her belly and in her underarms, so her skin in those areas were completely bald (i read an article about a parrot chewing himself bald out of depression - that's when i realized jubi really was depressed about barney being gone). she also developed a lack of appetite as her weight dropped and she looked quite famished and had to be hand fed at one point last winter. it wasn't until early this year when she finally stopped chewing her own hair and regained quite a bit of weight. on one hand, i was sad that she had forgotten barney, but on the other hand, i was really happy that she is back to her cheerful self and moving on with life. as she moved on, she also developed a close bond with dumpling, who she initially fought with for female dominance.

getting a bath every month when she chewed off all the hair on her tummy - we were worried that she had skin issues before realizing it was from depression

on sunday morning, i noticed that jubi didn't run towards the hay like she usually did when i dropped some in their cage. i immediately sensed that something was wrong if she wasn't interested in hay. i took her to adobe to see an after hours doctor, who prescribed some antibiotics and had us hand feed her baby food. we were hoping that the antibiotics could help stabilize her until wednesday when we could get an appointment with  dr. nakamura who usually sees our guinea pigs. unfortunately, jubi's condition quickly deteriorated, and last night, i noticed that her belly had become really bloated. this was unusual for jubi since she had barely eaten anything for over 24 hours. guinea pig bloating is a very serious and painful condition, so at midnight, we took her to an emergency pet hospital in the city (since none nearby had doctors who specialized in guinea pigs). after 2 hours at the hospital, jubi got an x-ray and some med injections to help with the pain and the bloating. by the time we got home, it was close to 4 am. we tried feeding her some food to get her GI system working and hopefully relief the bloating. jubi was actually willing to take food - seems like she was very hungry but just couldn't eat :(

at 7 this morning, we took jubi in to see dr. nakamura. he was worried about a mass on jubi's right side that may be the cause of jubi's eating problems which led to stomach bloating. we left jubi at the hospital to get treatment so they can reduce the bloating, but i had a really bad feeling that jubi would not leave the hospital, since her condition was so fragile and the prognosis wasn't good.

at around 1pm, dr. nakamura called to tell me that jubi passed away. i was shocked and sad. i knew that we may not be able to help jubi after all, but i was expecting to return and see her tonight. the worst part is knowing that i wasn't with her when she passed in a strange place with strangers poking needles at her. our pets all hated the hospital, so i knew she would've given everything to be at home and with us.  i guess the only comforting thought is that hopefully jubi had not suffered much from this otherwise very painful condition. she had been on pain meds ever since the night before when her stomach began to visibly bloat. i can't help but wonder though if jubi would've stuck around longer if she stayed at home with us. when we brought her in in the morning, she was tired but still rather alert. it's unbelievable that her health would deteriorate so fast only a few hours later. i think she just got tired of the stress, being in a strange place among strangers and not having us around, that she just gave up. this is very much in line with jubi's personality. she had always been an assertive girl and knows what she wants.

first christmas in the new home - each piggie sitting behind their own present!

looking dazed in our new house

i really love guinea pigs and the joy they bring us is unspeakable during the 5-7 years that each of our pigs have spent with us. whereas puffy kept me company from college through first year of business school, jubi's life really marked the 5 years of my post-mba life and the many life-changing milestones - from google, getting married, buying our first house, getting my first dog, and having a baby. i am so sad that jubi would not be around to see annabelle born. i know our baby would love guinea pigs, as do many other kids who have visited our house and played with our pigs. it really pains me to see each one go and to see such innocent little creatures suffer, when there's very little that we or doctors can do for them. guinea pigs just aren't built to live for as long as ours lived in domesticated lives. in nature, they're prey animals who often don't live past the age of 2, which is basically their prime. after 2, their health deteriorates, and it seems as though god never planned for little guinea pig bodies to function to 5-7 years. nor is veterinary medicine prepared to have the expertise to treat pigs health problems in old age.

dumpling and jubi cuddling together just a couple weeks ago. they've become really close friends

i'm not sure if we will have more pet guinea pigs. they bring me the purest joy and makes me forget about the not-so-good in life. but after losing puffy, ginling, barney, and jubi, i realize that i am not emotionally strong enough to handle this kind of loss. each time, the pain has felt like someone ripped my heart from my chest and slashed it with a knife. it creates a void in my heart that never gets filled. i really wish i could be stronger so more pets can live happy lives with us as opposed to owners who wouldn't be responsible and devoted to them. perhaps we will look for other ways to help guinea pigs instead - by continuing to donate to animal shelters and individual guinea pig rescue efforts like cavy house (where we adopted dumpling).

we buried jubi next to barney in our backyard. i know this is what they would've liked.

baby blog

i started one :) check it out: aileensbabyblog.blogspot.com

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
first post (cross posted from baby blog)

my baby blog - here it is! yay!

now, the official disclaimers:

1. no guarantees on how often i will keep this up or for how long. i will keep posting for as long as i have thoughts to share!

2. i may write in either chinese or english for no particular reason. you can google translate, but i don't recommend it as the translated version tends to sound really stupid. in fact, don't really believe what you read if you're reading the translated version. 

3. what's the purpose of this? the real purpose is to find a productive way to obsess about the baby. it's a really really long 40 weeks, and when you're pregnant, it feels like time passes twice as slow!! i got tired of reading baby message boards, so i might as well start something where i can express my own thoughts rather than spend all my time reading the ramblings of other pregnant women. the 2nd purpose is to keep a transcript of my road to becoming a mommy. if my daughter doesn't want to read it, i will when i get really old ;)

on hiatus...

yep, i haven't updated this blog for a long time. there are lots of exciting things happening in my life, and i've felt less of an urge to blog about it. is it a sign of maturity? perhaps ;) i think i may have outgrown this blog, which started as a diary of life in business school and morphed into a random hodge podge of post-MBA life stories: getting married, buying a house, getting a dog, traveling to 20+ countries, working at google (5 years and counting!). all really exciting things, but none as exciting as what i am about to get into: becoming a parent!! there's definitely plenty that i have in mind to share, but i haven't figured out exactly how to share it yet. i think i'm still debating about the utility vs. risk of putting all of my life's details on the internet. interestingly, as i spend more time building/launching Web products, i am feeling more of an urge to pull back from the open public space. maybe it's just a sign of getting old. nearly all my b-school classmates who had blogs in school had stopped writing as soon as they started their full time jobs. i went on for 5 more years. that's progressive enough. however, except for the occasional google candidate doing research on their interviewer, i don't see a whole lot of value in the ramblings on this blog for visitors other than my close friends and relatives.

i'm contemplating a baby blog, but haven't figured out who the audience is (and isn't) yet. we'll see.

名牌迷思

幾天前看到一則有趣的新聞 大意是不少名牌為了迎合高級顧客的品味而開始走低調風 不再把牌子名稱設計得很顯眼 但大陸以及東亞市場很哈精品的消費者們卻對這種沒有logo的名牌興趣缺缺 有個受訪者說買名牌就是為了炫耀它的價值 如果身邊的親朋好友們看不出是名牌 買了還有什麼意思 我覺得很有趣的是 這句話實在是一針見血的點出了東方人的名牌迷思

其實我也很愛名牌 但不是那種把牌子穿在身上的 我很喜歡BMW 因為它設計的車不但看起來順眼並兼顧了駕駛與乘客的享受 我們家的電器電腦傢俱床單都是看牌子買的 原因很簡單 好牌子的產品質料與設計都優於比較不起眼的牌子 我甚至無法想像用apple以外的電腦產品

在我商學院畢業前其實對LV chanel這類的名牌沒什麼特別感覺 總之就是樂觀其成的看自己哪天有這個經濟能力時會去買第一個名牌包 奇怪的是這些年來我早過了有這個經濟能力的關卡 卻連$400以上的包包都沒買過 直到最近一兩年我才發現自己實在沒有去買名牌穿在自己身上的那個慾望 其實對於一個喜歡給自己的傢俱車子乃至狗穿名牌的人來說 是滿奇怪的一件事 

這個俗氣的傢伙 二手貨的要價$1400

做為一個經濟自主的女性的最大好處就是買東西基本上只看喜歡而不需看價錢(當然太貴的東西還是要考慮的啦) 但LV之類的包對我來說真的不值它的標價 如那新聞裡的受訪者所說 它的價值對於多半普通人 說穿了就是買一個虛榮 給別人看妳有那個身價或沾點名媛的氣息 有一次跟女同事聊起我們公司的女生都很有經濟能力但都不是逛LV chanel之輩 她說誰會那麼笨花自己賺的錢去買那個很表面的東西

我發現多數在精品店裡瞎拼的人不是花老公錢的闊太就是花老爸錢的富家女 除了會為了名牌去援交的敗金女  很少有事業的女性會花自己賺來的錢去買名牌包 (起碼我認識的沒有) 看了不少身邊不怎麼高級的名牌"代言者"之後更不想去擁有跟她們相同的東西 我想這就是為什麼名牌會開始把自己的logo藏起來的原因吧

一個精品的價值來自於穿它的人 而不是什麼人穿了精品就會變得有身價 當一堆沒什麼內涵的人都把它拿來穿在身上時 它就俗掉了

charlie有時會討好的問我 要不要個名牌包的禮物 我就半開玩笑的說 “不要 因為一半是我買的” 但老實說我現在想要的名牌是我不會去買的 那是上萬元王菲拿的那種包包 妳不但要買得下手 還要用得起 如小S所說 名媛拿名貴包包是拿得很不在乎它的樣子 所以我現在還是一樣樂觀其成的看自己會不會到那個境界 至於幾千塊錢的虛榮還是留給大陸的暴發戶們吧

luzern - 6 modes of transportation + a toboggan run!

ugh, i've been so exhausted, lazy, and busy all at the same time since getting back from our switzerland/paris trip early june. just one more blog post to write about the trip! rather than procrastinating further, let's just make this short and sweet :)

first, the pics:

we took the golden roundtrip around mt pilatus from luzern. pilatus is the home of the world's steepest cogwheel train, which basically takes you at 45 degree angle all the way up to the top of the mountain. the best part about this day trip though was the 6 different modes of transportation we took during the roundtrip:

1. SBB train from zurich to luzern
2. boat ride on the beautiful lake of luzern to the bottom of pilatus bahn (cogwheel train station)
3. pilatus cogwheel train up the mountain
4. cable car down the mountain to halfway point
5. gondola down the rest of the mountain to kriens
6. bus ride from kriens back to luzern then train back to zurich

we also did one more activity between the cable car and gondola ride mid-mountain. there was a really cool summer toboggan run where you ride a self-controlled sled down a 1.3 km steel pipe all the way down the mountain. the view along the path was amazing as you get a head-on view of the lake and luzern on your way down.

toboggan sled

it was the most exciting part of the day and totally unexpected. we almost couldn't make it because we didn't discover this until we went down the cable car and was ready to leave. when we told them we came from far away, the staff were nice enough to let us be one of the last riders down (and accept credit card b/c we had no more cash)!

1 week in zurich

in june, we spent a week in zurich for work, which was my second trip to zurich this year. last time, i stayed for 4 days, saw nothing but the hotel & the google office, and then went to chamonix for snowboarding. can't complain about chamonix, but i really wished that i had seen more of zurich.

this time, i had the chance to come back for a whole week, and charlie came along too. we were able to spend a couple days exploring this beautiful city and went out for a sumptuous swiss fondue dinner with googlers one evening. the lake of zurich sits smack in the middle of switzerland's largest city, and is so clean you can see the bottom. it's just one of the many things i love about switzerland - it's natural, clean, efficient, and friendly. oh, and small enough that you can basically get anywhere without a lot of wasted time traveling. i really love work-related travel when you can go to great cities, see the sights in different parts of the world, and get work done at the same time. i like it because it's more compact and efficient than pure vacation travel. pure vacations sometimes can get boring/stressful when you're sole agenda is just to go sightseeing.

zurich highlights: 

• switzerland's exclusive Sprüngli chocolates - finally was able to visit their flagship store in the posh paradeplatz area of downtown zurich. their luxemburgerli, which look like mini macarons, are incredibly delicious!
• the cheese fondue - the restaurant we went to w/ googlers was so good that charlie and i went back again a few days later for more of his favorite food!
• the zurich office is one of the most interesting google offices. the days here are long so you can stay at the office until 9pm and not feel tired/bad about it.
• it was unexpectedly cold in zurich so i had to buy a jacket at the shopping center next to our hotel. luckily, all of their winter clothing is on sale! i bought a pretty jacket for around $35 (the brown jacket in top middle photo above). an incredible deal for switzerland. my co-worker joked that it's not much more than a few drinks, which is true - an 18 oz bottle of coke at a sandwich shop cost 5 swiss francs (~$4.70) 

next time, come back during ski season so we can bring our snowboards again and scale the swiss alps!
(did you know that swiss will fly your ski or snowboard for free? a great deal when airlines are making you pay for checked bags)

château de versailles - big, beautiful, and over the top

before leaving for paris, i asked my friends whether we should visit versailles. the legendary garden and palace had been the setting of many classic novels we read in high school. however, since we only had 3 full days in paris, going there would mean we really only had 2 days in the city. banking on the fact that i would come back to paris, i decided to make the day trip to versailles. the weather could've been a lot nicer (was cloudy & chilly all day), but the palace and garden were every bit as grand as i had read about in english class. versailles was exactly as my friend described: a really big palace and huge garden - worth visiting if you're interested in the works of gaudy french aristocrats. it's nothing like what you will find in paris. i really wish we had gone on a sunny day as the gardens & the 50 or so fountain shows would've looked amazing. but weather is really the last thing you have control over when it comes to travel, so you work with what you're dealt.

overall, versailles was worth visiting (though i would recommend going on a sunny day). the 1000-acre garden is pretty mind blowing. if you go during the summer months, there's a 2-hour fountain show in the afternoon when they turned on all 50 fountains in the garden and with music playing (the rest of the time, the fountains are dry - the french are rather energy efficient here ;) it made us wonder how the kings & queens of france actually traveled through those gardens - they almost definitely would need horse & carriage. charlie joked that it probably took louis xiv a year to visit all of his fountains -  at the rate of 1-2 a month. the french palace also made me wish that the chinese government was better at preserving the forbidden city, which is every bit as wonderful as versailles.