Bromantic Paris Week

Greetings from bloggington-station-land! It's a new year folks, and I'd like to start it off with a new beginning of sorts. As you may have noticed, ever since we started the process of preparing for our move to London (right around August), the activity on here has dropped off, big time. I've only posted about once a month (if even that), which without getting into too much personal detail, is a pretty good mirror of the effort I've been putting into life as well. With the start of a new year, it's time for a change.

Both Gloria and I have adjusted our diet and are eating much better, we're going to the gym almost every day, we started a morning routine of a mile run at least every other day, and we're both diving headfirst into the personal development pool (podcasts, books, etc). It's been a great start to the year, and I want to extend that to this blog as well. My goal is to update this space once per week, even if just to share simple things like my favorite photo from the week, or some positive thoughts, or anything else that springs to mind.

So there you have it. Now you know my goal, so please hold me accountable.

Now, on to the fun!

A few months ago, we had our first visitor to London: Gloria's friend John from undergrad. Despite attending school in Southern California, it turns out John is Canadian. Like most Canadians, John is exceedingly nice, and takes his hockey stick with him everywhere he goes.

The hockey stick is real, and it's spectacular

All kidding aside, John is a really good dude, and we had fun hitting up the typical touristy spots around London.

Tower Bridge

Fun fact: Big Ben is the bell inside the tower. The tower is called The Elizabeth Tower (in honor of the queen)

Picadilly Circus

We also took John's visit as a chance to go to our first proper British football match. It was between the Barnet Bees and the Wrexham Red Dragons. Given our love of all things Will Ferrell, we naturally were inclined to cheer for the Red Dragons. But since this game was at Barnet, we opted for quiet observation to avoid any shenanigans with football hooligans. It was actually a lot of fun. The weather was cold & rainy (hello England!), we saw goals, one player got carried out on a stretcher, the fans wanted to kill the refs, and since it was such small club we were able to essentially sit right on the field. Here's a video of the action from our seats:


Now before we go any further, I suppose I should explain one thing. Prior to this trip, John and I had never met. So for me it was just fun to meet one of Gloria's old friends from UCI. So, since we hadn't met before, John and I did what all guys do when they meet: took a romantic trip to Paris! Wait, no. I meant BROmantic. Yeah, that's it. Bromantic. You see, it turns out John and I were in the same fraternity (Sigma Pi), so it was our duty to bro out a bit.  Plus, this was his first trip to Europe, so we had to go somewhere. Thus, while Gloria sugar momma'd it up at work, we hopped on the train to Paris for some bro time.

Eurostar: 2.5 hours from London to Paris, cruising at a smooth 186 mph

When we arrived in Paris, we discovered we were staying in one of the best bar hopping neighborhoods in Paris, so naturally we did what bros do in Paris: go to the bar...

Something's not quite right about this picture...

Then despite our raging hangovers, we hit up the Paris sights...

Eiffel Tower

Notre Dame cathedral

If you've never seen it, Notre Dame has these creepy gargoyles. Fun fact: they're also drainpipes

Arc de Triomphe

Paris Opera House

...got caught in the rain...

Soaking wet AND a receding hairline. What's not to love?

...and found random street musicians to serenade us.

After 4 glorious days, we returned to London. But, as I told John, we'll always have Paris.

As John's visit drew to close, Gloria and I prepared for our next few guests, who would close out 2013 for us. Stay tuned!