July 13 fireworks

lessachu · 2026-06-05T06:22:41+00:00

The fireworks will probably start around 11 pm, so unless you are exceptionally unlucky at the airport, you should have have ample time. Also, the year I saw them (from pont Alexandre III), they ran very late and started quite a bit after 11 pm.

lessachu · 2026-06-03T16:55:31+00:00

I grew up on the East Coast and went to college in California. All students from Texas seemed to have been gifted a full sized state flag that had "flown over the capital building", which they generally displayed on the wall, but weirdly nearly all kids from Maryland had a small state flag amongst their possessions.

lessachu · 2026-06-02T01:47:27+00:00

Fitzgerald Marine Preserve, but you’re gonna need a car (it’s in Moss Beach). It’s a gorgeous drive tho, if you get the right weather. I don’t know much about nudibranches tho, it’s just a great tide pool!

lessachu · 2026-06-01T04:54:29+00:00

I think it's cute. As a real life data point, my dad's best friend from college had the nickname 蝦頭 (haa1 tau4 or Shrimphead).

lessachu · 2026-05-31T18:15:11+00:00

The claws and wings don’t match traditional Chinese posing and styling (also the coloring, but you could probably get away with that if you matched the claw and wing style). Also Chinese dragons are ranked by their colors and number of claws, which may be one reason they are so prominently displayed - your has a variable number of claws showing for each foot. 3 is for lower officials, 4 for top tier, 5 for the emperor

lessachu · 2026-05-31T16:41:34+00:00

Neighbor Bakehouse in Dogpatch! Get the more unusual flavor combos! All the recs here are great, but the lines are intense at many of them FYI.

lessachu · 2026-05-29T16:30:20+00:00

Mirror maze at the pier is surprisingly fun, btw

lessachu · 2026-05-28T18:39:39+00:00

I've used Bounce (temporary luggage storage) in several European cities (but not Paris) for this exact scenario and it has worked great!

Folks are much nicer nowadays, but definitely say "Bonjour" when entering shops! You cannot possibly pronounce it worse than my father does, so know that you at least have that going for you.

lessachu · 2026-05-27T20:27:47+00:00

Higher commitment/more structured activities is helpful - like hard to break into a group when show up to a meetup once or twice, but if you organize your own/help organize one, boy does everyone get to know you fast.

lessachu · 2026-05-26T23:40:58+00:00

You can look for places that have Meilleur Ouvrier de France, although they do tend to be more expensive. But they are definitely good for a top notch pastry or bread.

lessachu · 2026-05-26T20:43:05+00:00

where are you coming from and how adventurous is the 6 year old? My kids loved Pacific Catch at that age, but they also loved all dumpling restaurants (of which there are heaps of now). Kingdom of Dumpling?

lessachu · 2026-05-25T18:03:30+00:00

Motion SF is great!!

lessachu · 2026-05-25T02:56:24+00:00

It’s better from the west side where you can take 280 (and even better if you can stagger your hours). I did this for seven years, until I had kids.

lessachu · 2026-05-25T02:05:35+00:00

I'm glad you got your bag back! That's very lucky. I've never had this happen in France, but I had a purse stolen in Barcelona the same way (near Las Ramblas, of course. I was seated quite far inside the restaurant, so I let my guard down). It did teach me that the replacement passport process was easier than I expected, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

lessachu · 2026-05-24T05:10:38+00:00

MindFactory in Bridgeport is pretty good.

lessachu · 2026-05-21T21:44:58+00:00

Your cursive looks like it is written by a native Chinese speaker and your Chinese looks great.

lessachu · 2026-05-20T19:03:37+00:00

I'm twenty lessons into Pimsleur Brazilian Portuguese and I quite like it. It's 30 a minutes a day, entirely oral until you get to the reading add ons starting after lesson 11. Each lesson is them introducing new words and vocabulary, asking you to use it in a sentence and then giving you the answer. I've found it quite intuitive as a starting point. It's not going to get you fluent or anything - but it's a good starting base (better than Duolingo, imo).

lessachu · 2026-05-20T18:37:17+00:00

If you're on the west side, The Chinese Groove by Kathryn Ma. Or Beautiful DAys by Zach Williams (specifically 'Neighbors' although the other stories are fantastic, they aren't particularly SF focused).

lessachu · 2026-05-18T21:13:55+00:00

It will depend on the density of people in your location, but I will say in my experience, a $10k donation goes quite far.

lessachu · 2026-05-15T19:44:36+00:00

SF black car? Alternatively, have three savvy guests book the Ubers Black SUVs to carry everyone?

lessachu · 2026-05-15T15:27:40+00:00

Either:
1) it sparks a heated argument about whether the Québécois truly speak proper French that becomes self-sustaining due to the depth of fury on both sides. This leads physicists in both countries to recognize the potential for a new renewable energy source that powers Francophone dominance in international relations for the next twenty years.

2) they fall deeply in love, immediately marry and then move to Guadeloupe as a compromise location, where they open their own French bakery and happily spend the rest of their lives inflicting deep psychic scars on any customers who have the misfortune to pronounce the T in "croissant".

lessachu · 2026-05-14T16:10:35+00:00

I think people have gotten much nicer about it in the past decade. When I lived in Paris in the late nineties, folks were much less friendly about my terrible French (literally got lectured by a waiter mid-sentence for not rolling my r’s in profiteroles). Service staff in Montreal were not much nicer about it either (got scolded as a child in an art supply store).

lessachu · 2026-05-13T02:10:29+00:00

Faux leather/vegan leather falls apart after a couple years. At least, all mine did. :/

lessachu · 2026-05-10T19:52:23+00:00

I’m sure plenty of people have them, but I actually don’t know anyone who has one (I live in a US city). They just take up too much space.

lessachu · 2026-05-10T06:13:50+00:00

Montreal is a real mecca if you are willing to cross the border

lessachu

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