Another Week of TASTY Local Parisian Food and Unique Student Life

This week was interesting at ESSEC because we learned about 1st year hazing for business school students in France. Apparently, it is common during this time for the 1st year students to interrupt professors during their class and create a scene, dance with the professor, dance on the desk of the professor, do a skit, and create a raucous scene! Here's an example of what happened in one of the classes on Monday:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg6OgOdYKT4

Besides our week of classes, we wanted to share two new restaurants we discovered in Paris. On Tuesday night, we went to dinner with six friends (3 Kellogg, 1 Chicago Booth, 1 Canadian school, and 1 visiting from Chicago Booth) to L'Ambassade d'Auvergne, a restaurant which quite possibly has the best mashed potatoes and chocolate mousse we've ever had! The mashed potatoes consist of melted gourmet cheese and seriously taste like delightful dough that melts in your mouth!

While the food was really tasty and the prices were reasonable, the service was pretty typical for a French restaurant: crappy! It's really interesting to learn about French service in our luxury classes (even our French professors tell us that you'll find some of the worst service in France compared to anywhere else around the world) and then experience rude and impatient waiters firsthand. Our friend Yamini decided to take matters into her own hands by having a pow-wow with the waiter in French for delaying on delivering one of the mashed potato dishes until the end and then bringing out the wrong one. Eventually, he said "Je suis desole" which means "I'm sorry" and he didn't charge us for that dish so it worked out, but it was another interesting service experience to note nevertheless.

On Wednesday, Mana went to what may be her favorite restaurant in Paris yet! Her friend Smruti had discovered it with her brother and this time, Mana, Smruti, Emeline (a friend they made on New Year's Eve through Damayanti, their friend from Kellogg), and two other new girlfriends met at the restaurant, Le Marie Stuart on Rue de Montorgueil. Montorgueil, just to remind you, is our favorite street in Paris and it is right around the corner from where we live! It's adorably cute and Parisian with all kinds of boulangeries, patisseries, fromageries, etc! This restaurant had remarkably tasty french food, UNBELIEVABLE service (first of its kind in Paris), and great prices! Plus, it is always totally packed because apparently it is a popular local spot! So when you come to Paris next, you'll have to check it out! Mana had a fantastic time hanging out with new girlfriends at a great restaurant and three hours later, she came home raving about her favorite Parisian meal here.

Today we are packing for our 9 day road trip to Munich, Salzburg, Vienna, Prague, and Berlin which begins tomorrow! We are road-tripping it with 3 other friends from our Exchange program so we're excited! We will be jamming to our friend Lindsay's CDs that she made for the Kellogg Ski Trip, which Smruti, Mana, and Sahil have been jamming out to on both other road trips so far. So, Rubes, shoutout to you - we'll be thinking of you on our trip!

Be back online in 9 days!

Valentine's Day in Paris!

In Sahil's words, "This is the best Valentine's Day I've ever had!"

We began our day with Mana taking Sahil to brunch at Angelina's, a famous restaurant in Paris that's very well-known for its hot chocolate and mont blanc (French dessert with chestnut cream on a custard tart). The restaurant has historical significance having been opened in 1903 with frequenters like Coco Chanel and the elite French coming regularly for tea time to the beautifully elegant restaurant. Sahil's absolute favorite hot beverage is hot chocolate and after one sip of the Angelina hot chocolate he said it is by far the best hot chocolate he's ever had! He then ordered the Angelina omelette while Mana went straight to the other specialty of the restaurant: Le Mont Blanc. While we both loved the omelette, only Mana devoured the Mont Blanc. It was really unique and quite tasty, but definitely sugar overload!! After our fantastically satisfying meal, we headed out towards the Louvre.

While our original plan was to go into the Louvre for a few hours, after realizing that all the tourists from everywhere were in town for Valentine's Day creating a ridiculously long line on a Sunday, we decided to postpone going inside for another weekday! Instead, we spent the next 3 hours walking around the city from the Champs Elysses to the Jardin des Tuileries past the Louvre and all the way back to our home. It was a perfectly Parisian afternoon! When we came home we spent some time Skyping both of our sets of parents and wishing them a happy Valentine's day before heading out for a very special dinner at Cafe l'Homme, a restaurant which overlooks the Eiffel Tower.

This dinner was very special to us because for Sahil's Christmas gift, his brother Sagar gave him the gift of a special dinner in Paris for the two of us on him! So, we decided to share our Valentine's Day experience with Sagar. We thought of him as we enjoyed a delicious meal in a beautiful restaurant overlooking the gorgeous Eiffel Tower, which was lit up in gold and silver sparkles every hour! It was perfect.

After dinner, we took photos right in front of the Eiffel tower which is just spectactular at night and after taking in the beauty and romance of the city, we made our way home. There's no doubt about it: Valentine's Day is a CHEESY holiday. Nevertheless, this Valentine's Day was special to us because it was our first and possibly our last in Paris!

Happy Belated Valentine's Day everyone! Sending all of our friends and family tons of love!

A Fun Night Out With Our Friends From London in Paris!

We had a great weekend that began on Friday with pretty much being lazy and catching up on life and email after a week of travel in Portugal and Spain. After a full day of relaxing, we broke out a bottle of wine and Mana had a dance party with her mom over Skype! The technology to be able to dance with Mana's mom in NJ while we are in Paris is just amazing! We know Skype has been around forever, but it is so much fun and really doesn't get old!

After starting our night out right, we went to Kong (the restaurant we had brunch at with Yaso and Ashley) to meet Mana's good friend Sunny, whom she also met during her year at LSE. He was in town from London with his girlfriend Seema for the weekend so we made sure to take advantage of the opportunity to celebrate a reunion in Paris! This time, we met them at the restaurant after their dinner and headed straight to the bar one floor below, which we had learned from last time was a unique place because everyone could dance on the couches! When we got there Sahil made this funny hand gesture of his finger spinning like a tornado above his right shoulder as he said "Who wants a drink"? Sunny thought it was so hilarious that he responded with, "I'll have one of those!" and he continued to imitate the hand gesture for the rest of the night! We've captured Sahil and the tornado finger for you in the picture up above!

It wasn't long before we were all dancing on the couches and having a fabulous time! Our friend Gary also came and met up with us and the five of us partied until the wee hours with laughter, catching-up, and fun times all around. After bidding farewell to Sunny and Seema on Friday night, we had the laziest Saturday we've had in Paris! Besides Sahil's short excursion for an hour on Saturday to pick up flowers for Mana for Valentine's Day, we did not leave our apartment. It was a perfectly relaxing day and night. As for the actual Vday itself, stay tuned on our next blog for details!

Part 2 of Our Big European Excursion: Lisboa and Porto

After a fun-filled weekend in Madrid and Toledo, we set out Monday for Lisboa! We arrived by 10am at our hotel, took a short nap, and then set out to explore a very different European city. First of all, the weather there is quite possibly as strange as it gets in Europe. It was really sunny and bright when we got off the plane, yet two hours later, we were in pouring rain, followed by bright sun yet again. This weather craziness went on the entire 4 days we were in Portugal!

On our first day in Lisboa we jumped on the train for a half an hour ride to Sintra. When we arrived in Sintra we got on a bus that took us to the top of the mountain. We then went into the Castillo of Pena and the Palacio of Pena. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate at all with us and we got drenched as soon as we walked through the ruins of the castle. We were SOAKED SOAKED SOAKED but it was a ton of fun climbing up to the top and seeing the entire city! After enjoying the beauty of Sintra in the heavy downpour, we eventually returned to our hotel four hours later, took hot showers, and set out for dinner in Lisbon. We walked through Restauradore, which is an area full of restaurants and decided we needed a break from Spanish/Portuguese traditional food. We found a quaint Indian restaurant and had one of Mana's favorite meals in Europe! Full of spices and flavorful to the max, we were very happy 2 hours later. We met some locals at the restaurant who then guided us to a local bar in Bairro Alto called A Tasca do Chico where musicians perform Fado (traditional Portuguese singing) and enjoyed a perfect evening full of live music, great company, and local caipirinhas. It was FANTASTIC!

The next day we jumped on a tram and headed to Belem, a thirty minute ride west of the center of the city, where we saw the beautiful Discover Monument on the water, the Belem tower, and the Belem Monastery. We were much luckier with the weather and the sun was brighter than anywhere else we've seen it in Europe so far! We walked through gorgeous gardens and eventually made it the pastry shop that Portugal is famous for: Pasteis de Belem
http://www.igougo.com/dining-reviews-b144324-Lisbon-Pasteis_de_Belem.html

Mana LOVED the pastries here! They are custard tarts that come out piping hot from the oven covered in powdered sugar and cinnamon - just plain MELT IN YOUR MOUTH INCREDIBLE!

After our afternoon in Belem, we headed back to the center of Lisbon, walked through the entire city, and finally decided that since we were approaching the end of sales in Europe (February 9th marked the end of sales in Paris), we would explore the Columbo mall in Lisbon. We jumped on a metro and got out at the mall finding ourselves at a Furla shop.

Sahil told Mana that, during our 3 month stay in Europe, he wanted to get her a gift that she would always remember Europe by, in honor of all the hard work they both put towards getting jobs they were excited about in the coming year. And, since Europe, unlike America, has crazy good sales in luxury stores that go on twice a year, we found the perfect handbag and wallet at Furla for a CRAZY good deal and made it Sahil's gift to Mana for Valentine's Day as well as Mana's gift to herself after depositing her signing bonus! We then decided to do what Sahil likes most: go see a movie! We jumped into a 630pm showing of Nine which played in English with Portuguese subtitles, a 7 minute intermission, and previews that were broken up with Portuguese commercials. It was a really fun experience and Mana loved the movie as well as the cast! Afterwards, we headed back to our hotel and after a long day, decided to make it an early night since we were headed to Porto early the next morning.

On Wednesday, we woke up, headed to the train station, and jumped on a 3 hour train from Lisbon to Porto. While we expected more of a Pacific Coast Highway experience, we saw less water and more lush green mountain terrain. It was beautiful regardless! We played cards the whole way there and when we got to Porto, we were ready to go explore. It is a beautiful town on the water and is most famous for Port wine. We dropped our bags off, got ready, and headed for the Funicular, which is a glass elevator that rides a bit like a rollercoaster down the mountain to the bridge which takes us to the other side of the town. It was a REALLY innovative and cool experience and 10 minutes later, we had crossed the town and entered the Calem Port winery. We went on a 45 minute tour followed by a wine tasting consisting of 4 different wines and learned more about the port wine industry. It was a ton of fun and left us very hungry, so we then proceeded to eat at a tasty Thai restaurant. The whole area was bumpin' and the bars were full and active all evening into the night on a Wednesday - we LOVED Porto and highly recommend that anybody who goes to Lisbon makes it a point to go to Porto as well, even if only for a day.

After bar-hopping and having a fantastic night, we eventually made our way back to our hotel for our last night of our First Big European Excursion. We were really happy with our trip!

On Thursday, we woke up, basked in the sun while we ate lunch on the waterfront, and then headed for the airport. While we loved Porto, we were pretty annoyed with the airport! As nice as it was, we had a security woman take away our contact solution and face lotion, we had the ticket collector make us stuff our bags into one bag when other people had a handbag and a bag, and they made us run around the airport to figure out if we collect our VAT taxes when we leave Portugal or when we leave the EU for the States. After a whole lot of headaches, we finally made it on the plane, had a seamless ride, and arrived back at Charles de Gaulle, home sweet home. Yup, in a month and a half, Paris has really begun to feel like our home!

All in all, we had a fantastic First Big European Excursion and we are looking forward to a great night with our friends who are in from London for the weekend and the perfect Valentine's Day weekend in our home for now, Paris! :)

Up next week: A couple of classes followed by Spring Break/Second Big European Excursion - Munich, Vienna, Salzburg, Prague and Berlin (Road Trip with 3 other friends!)

Part 1 of Our Big European Excursion: Madrid and Toledo

Since ESSEC chooses to cancel classes for the smallest of occasions, we took the opportunity to book a trip to Madrid and Toledo in Spain and then Lisbon and Porto in Portugal for the week!

We flew out on Thursday to Madrid and spent the day walking around the city, beginning in Gran Via. After grabbing some falafal at Maoz, a local vegetarian joint to Madrid, we walked through Sol, Plaza Mayor, and made our way through the heart of the city. After doing some intense exploration, we decided it was time to do what Madrid was famous for: drink sangria and eat tapas! So we got on the metro and set off for Alonso Martinez, where we were told the tapas bars were excellent! When we settled in on a cute little cafe called EMYFA, we discovered quite possibly the best sangria we have ever had. One pitcher/10 glasses later, we were on our way to loving Madrid a whole lot more! Mana consumed every last spanish olive (so yummy!) while Sahil attacked the potato crisps and we went straight to dinner from there.

While food was a bit challenging for Sahil given that he's vegetarian, we found a restaurant that overlooked Plaza Mayor and ordered a few tapas with another pitcher of sangria! While the sangria here was okay, the asparagus was our first shock of really bad tapas! Apparently, asparagus in Madrid is quite different from the States. While we are used to the crunchy green vegetable, they know it as the white vegetable that becomes mush as soon as you touch it much like Gerber food for babies. We learned our lesson though - no more asparagus in Spain! After dinner, Mana used the 3 years of Spanish she learned about 14 years ago to converse for 45 minutes with the two very sweet waiters from Peru and Ecuador. We learned about the political challenges Latin Americans faced with local Spaniards and they shared all of their struggles in terms of being treated equally Spain. We shared our stories from our honeymoon in Costa Rica and Panama and became fast friends with them, making the bad asparagus worth the visit to this restaurant with kind waiters!

After an exciting first day in Madrid, we decided to head to Toledo for a day trip on Friday. We didn't know what to expect except that Toledo had one of the most beautiful cathedrals in all of Spain. After an hour bus ride from Madrid to Toledo (where Sahil slept the entire ride!), we were very pleasantly surprised. Toledo is a beautiful town on top of a mountain with breathtaking views of nature! We loved Toledo, especially after having explored more of a commercial experience in Madrid. We made our way up the mountain and took a tour of the cathedral and monuments as well as took in the beauty all around us. After 5-6 hours of exploration, we decided it was worth the trip and beautiful, but there was definitely much more activity in Madrid so it was time to head back. When we returned to Madrid, we hit up one of Sahil's favorite places in Madrid: Principe Pio, which is pretty much a much fancier version of Grand Central Station in NY. After getting some fantastic steals on party clothes, we made our way to Plaza de Espana where we got some beautiful shots of the lit up founains and saw the Palacio Real at night. Afterwards, we discovered The Wok, a trendy and fun asian restaurant full of locals and spicy food! After a delicious meal, we decided to walk through the city and have a low key night in anticipation of our friends' arrival the next day to Madrid.

On Saturday, we were really excited to meet up with one of Mana's closest friends form her year at LSE, Asha, and her boyfriend Josh! Mana hadn't seen Asha in 7 months since Asha's last trip to NY and we hadn't seen Asha and Josh together since our wedding in July 2008! We met in the afternoon and headed straight to Plaza Mayor since the sun was out, the spanish guitarists were playing in the courtyard, and sangria was calling our names! After many drinks of sangria and local beer and some really tasty tapas as well as great catch-up time, we headed back towards our hotel for a mini-siesta when Josh realized he had to buy a pig for a friend back home. Interestingly unique to Madrid and perhaps all of Spain is that it is common to find pigs hanging from a stick in the windows of most stores. 220 euros later, we grew from four to five and Josh named his dear pig Javi, short for Javier. We headed back, took a short nap, and got ready to paint the city red that night!

After some champagne, wine, and chocolates, we headed out to Moncloa, which was recommended to us by the hotel as a young, fun, and local area full of restaurants and fiestas. We found a FANTASTIC tiny restaurant called El Tendido and ate great food! The funniest part of our dinner was when Josh and Mana devoured the first plate of tapas that came our way thinking it was meat. At the end of our dinner, while poor Sahil was still wondering where his dish was, we realized that the first plate was actually Sahil's breaded mushrooms! We then ordered another plate and watched Sahil enjoy every little slice of that delightful dish!

Afterwards, the four of us (we left Javi at the hotel) headed to a local bar playing AMAZING music and pretty much danced and drank the night away. We continued until 3am when we finally headed back to our hotel.

On Sunday when we woke up, we took some time to recover, but had a REALLY tasty french toast of sorts with honey before making our way to Plaza de Espana for lunch. While Josh and Asha ate paella, Mana and Sahil had tasty tostas and a delicious egg dish with potatoes and vegetables. We then walked towards Sol and had one last pitcher of Sangria together before saying goodbye to our friends as they headed home to London!

We enjoyed our last night in Sol, said goodbye to Spain until our next trip to Barcelona in 3 weeks when we meet Sahil's parents there, and got excited for Part 2 of this excursion as we headed off to Portugal the next day!