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!

A Perfectly Parisian Weekend

What a whirlwind of a weekend! It started on Thursday when our two friends from Kellogg, Ashley and Yaso, flew into town from Chicago. Mana met up with them at around 130pm at Angelinas after they had the most amazingly rich hot chocolate and a mont blanc (traditional French dessert).

We then strolled through a few boutique stores and eventually made our way to the Notre Dame. A few blocks away from the beautiful cathedral we discovered the most amazing nutella and banana crepe stand on the street - it was pure HEAVEN. For those of you who don't know Ash, she quite possibly has the biggest sweet tooth of any person you will EVER meet and this was the first of many delicious desserts this weekend! After we dripped chocolate all over the concrete near the Notre Dame and made a total mess of ourselves while indulging in every sense of the word, we walked in and took in the beauty and angelic singing in the church. From the Notre Dame, we then made our way to il St. Louise.

We walked through the island and went to Ash's favorite ice cream shop in Paris as well as other cute/fun shops that had toilet paper with sudoku and money on it. Yaso commented that Jay-Z would probably use such toilet paper, while Ash and Mana said he'd probably just use real money to wipe his butt!

At night we celebrated Yaso's bday by meeting our friend Smruti and eating at Le Voltaire, a famous and fancy French restaurant. After a great meal and lots of catching up, we headed out to meet Sahil and Matar, a friend of our Kellogg friend Val. He had us meet him at a crazy local party/fundraiser. It was out in nowhere-land, so we took a cab, but luckily Mana used her hindi to negotiate with the cab driver to discount the fare. The party was nothing like we've ever seen: trannies, women in floor-length gowns, men with gold shimmery beards, a full-on lady gaga outfitted man/woman with a mask, and so much more that we can't even begin to truly describe. IT WAS WILD and totally Parisian.

Afterwards, we hit up a local bar that Matar had a connection with and we were definitely the only non-Frenchies there. After dancing and crazy fun, we eventually made it home!

On Friday we woke up and Mana and Smruti met Ashley and Yaso at Coco and Co, an adorable cafe in St. Germain. We strolled through that area and eventually made our way to Bon Marche, a mall full of designer brands. We then met up with Sahil, ate falafal in the Jewish quarter, and went home to get ready for another fantastic night. Our dinner on Friday was probably one of the most fun restaurants we've ever been to: a local Moroccan restaurant called Chez Omar. The staff at the restaurant was hilarious and kept calling Sahil "Shah Rukh Khan" (a bollywood star) because he strolled in with 4 ladies. Sahil then responded by doing a little bhangra dance shaking his shoulders with one of the waiters. The other waiter would bring food over and then say "Oh MY God" to mock Americans and proceeded to say that when Americans come, they hold their face and say "Oh My God" in excitement, the British hold their hands together and say "Oh My God" in a a more conservative manner, and the Japanese clap their hands together and squeal in delight. It was totally politically incorrect, but you can imagine how ridiculously amusing it is to watch a French waiter who speaks no English impersonate and mock foreigners. The entire meal was so much fun between the waiters, the food, and reasonable prices and may be one of our favorite restaurants in Paris. On our way out, all of us got hugs and kisses - Ashley got a kiss, a high five, and a hug from three different employees of the restaurant!

We then headed to Hotel Costes, a beautifully elegant and sophisticated lounge for a drink and had the perfect nightcap to another great day in Paris!

On Saturday, we met for brunch at Kong, a nice restaraunt that overlooks Pont Neuf. While the waiter was totally obnoxious, the food was pretty good, but the ambience made the place great. Apparently the lounge allows people to dance on the sofas, so Smruti and Mana decided they would definitely go back to party it up since they love dancing on tables or any furniture really!

Afterwards, we went shopping in Marais and strolled into many adorable boutiques. After a full day of shopping in Paris, we eventually made our way to a cute creperie directly beside the fountain in the Pompidou Center. The cheese crepe was DELICIOUS and the perfect break before going home and getting ready for wild night number 3. We hosted a totally Parisian mini party at our flat with Smruti, Yaso, Ashley, Kyle (one of Mana's KWESTEES from Kellogg, also a 1st year student who was randomly in Paris for the night), and his friend Kevin. After a whole lot of fun, banter, wine, cheese, macaroons (of which the pistachio one was our favorite - for many reasons not to be disclosed here), we made our way to Le Cab, a fantastic nightclub in Paris.

We partied and danced, drank and partied some more in a great club with fantastic music, the perfect scene, and awesome company! Eventually we made it home, but it was a night to remember!

Today was our last full day with our friends in town, and we met them at another AMAZING restaurant called Le Comptoir, which had GREAT brunch food. After re-capping all the events from the night before and laughing, we went down Rue de Montergueil (the street that we live right next to which we are in love with!) and then to Sacre Coeur and Montmarte. We spent the day in that area and walked into Sacre Coeur in time for services. It was BEAUTIFUL to hear it in French and Yaso paid attention extra closely because she was criticized by a cab driver here for saying her "R's" wrong and the priest was saying "R's" like it was nobody's business.

We then walked around and found a cute cafe for croque-monsieurs which were DELICIOUS! They are basically ham and cheese sandwiches, but you can get them without ham, and they are just delightful! croque-madames are even better because they have an egg sunny side up on top! We laughed for abour an hour straight as we wrote up all the hilarious quotes from the weekend. Even the waiters asked what was so funny as Mana teared up from laughing so hard. She ordered hot sauce in an embarassingly unconventional way while Smruti requested her "Moutard" which was enough ammunition to get hilarious commentary from Ash and Yaso. Eventually, we made our way out and after Ashley bought another nutella crepe, Smruti got some gelato, and Mana ordered hot wine (so good in the cold!), we made our way home from another amazing day!

After resting at home for an hour, we got ready for our last event of the weekend: having a farewell drink with our friends at Bar Hemingway at the Ritz in Paris where famous authors such as Hemingway spent endless hours. While we enjoyed a sophisticated closing, the best part of the night occurred as we exited the hotel and Mana approached the revolving door. She was walking out the revolving door as Michael Douglas was walking in through the other end! After conversing with him and wishing him a good night in French, we left feeling we had done it all with our friends in Paris this weekend!

Though we will be busy doing work tomorrow, Tuesday, and Wednesday, we look forward to an exciting trip on Thursday to Madrid, Lisbon, and Porto for a week! Au Revoir for now!

The Much-Anticipated Escape to Roma!

For those of you who don't know, Rome has been high on Mana's list in terms of cities to see since back in 2001 when she was studying abroad at LSE. At that time, two of her best friends were studying abroad in Milan at Bocconi while she was studying at LSE in London, so she made a 5 day journey to Milan, Florence, Venice, and Verona. There wasn't enough time to make a trip to Rome and it became a family joke that Mana went to Italy, but missed the most historical and significant city of Italy!

When she shared this with Sahil, he got really excited about the idea of taking her to Rome, since he had been there and LOVED the city. When it came time to propose to Mana, he decided that while logistically he did not think taking a diamond ring through security overseas would be conducive to maintaining the element of surprise for Mana, it would be a fantastic distraction that would leave Mana thinking she was going to Rome to get proposed to while REALLY she would be proposed to the most romantic place in the US as ranked by the book, 1000 Places to See Before You Die. While Sahil's proposal was perfect and a complete surprise to Mana because it was prior to their "alleged" Rome trip, the big joke that resulted from his proposal was that he never took her to Rome!

Two and a half years later, this past week, we finally made that trip! We flew in on Thursday morning and stayed at a hotel only 5 minutes away walking distance from Termini station, located in the heart of Rome. On Thursday, we took the Metro to the Colisseum and walked around the beautiful piece of history and architecture that was built in A.D. 80. Since it was late in the day, we decided we'd return on our last day to go inside and get a full tour, but in the meantime we spent Thursday walking to the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, and the Victor Emmanuel Monument. We took in the city, ate some yummy gelati from a gelateria, and at sunset, made our way to our favorite site in Rome: the Trevi Fountain.

Beautiful and magnificent, we stared at the gorgeous monument of Neptune whose chariot is guided by seahorses and the incredible fountain that poured out of this creation that took over 100 years to build. We then explored the small streets around this area near the Barbarini stop and found a quaint Italian restaurant with quite possibly the best Tiramisu we've ever eaten! While at the restaurant, we listened to Dean Martin's "That's Amore" album and Mana got nostalgic realizing that every song played on that album was a classic that she had grown up hearing her Dad sing! After the first of many wonderful meals in Italy, we then headed over to a wine shop before heading home to our hotel!

On Friday, we woke up early and headed to Vatican City, where we went through the Vatican Musuem first and saw one of the most beautiful works of art in history in the one and only Sistine Chapel. The Sistine Chapel is home to Michelangelo's frescos "The Last Judgement" and "Genesis". It is said that he hung from the celing for 4 years to paint the magnificent work of art and we were both mesmerized by the Chapel. Sahil discretely took photos even though we weren't supposed to so that we could share our experience with you - look out for them as we post photos!

We then headed over to St. Peter's square on the gorgeous sunny day (Italy is SO much sunnier than Paris and London!) and marveled at St. Peter's Basilica. It is stunning and grandiose with enough gold to feed the whole world! We took it all in, walked around, prayed as the Catholics do, and Mana even went to go get penance (though there was no father in the confession booth). We had an amazing time and after spending a few hours in Vatican City, we headed to the Spanish steps.

As we made our way to the Spanish steps, we both were so enchanted by how Rome was modern, metropolitan, romantic, historical, and culturally enriching all in one city WITH fantastic cuisine! We arrived at the Spanish steps and Sahil did a second proposal (after being married for a year and a half, but STILL so fun!) where Mana originally thought she was going to be proposed to! We laughed and ran down the steps into a perfect cafe which overlooked the Spanish steps for dinner and drinks. After a few hours of banter, laughter, and taking the city in, we made our way back to our hotel to rest up for what would be another amazing day in Rome. On Saturday, we headed out see the rest of the sites in Rome by foot. On another beautifully sunny day, we walked to Capitol Hill, then headed over to the St. Angelos Castle which is where we discovered a cute carnival with kids ice skating to Lady Gaga's Bad Romance, carousels, and gelati everywhere! We continued on our trek across the bridge and made our way to Piazza Navona where we collected a wall hanging for our home (we've now collected pieces from Egypt, Costa Rica,and Morocco) and then finally to the Pantheon!

By evening, we headed over to Tiburtino, a remote island that is surrounded by a dam, and then walked through the other side of the city, or what we liked to call "the wrong side of the island". While our concierge told us that was where the nightlife in Rome took place, we decided that it was where no tourists ever go because it looks nothing like the rest of Rome! While we enjoyed exploring the entire city and had dinner on the "wrong side of the island" followed by mojitos as a nightcap, we made our way back home and decided after seeing how CUTE the Pantheon area was at night for dinner that we would have our last dinner on Sunday night there!

On Sunday, we decided since we saw all of Rome that we would make a day trip by bus to the Tivoli Gardens in Tivoli at Ville d'Este. We walked around the Tivoli Gardens which had beautiful fountains and landscape even in January and watched the water organs play. While Sahil expected the organs to spit out water (not sure why), he was disappointed when we all simply stared at the water organs after waiting an hour! It was really funny watching him wait for it to spit water at him and finally realize that the marvel of the gardens lay in the sights themselves!

Afterwards, we sat and watched as another carnival took place there and about 20 teenage girls got up on stage to do a dance to AR Rehman's Jai Ho. Although its no surprise that the song is popular in Italy as well, Mana was thrilled at the thought of how well India was represented by Slumdog Millionaire and the sheer level of international fame and attention Jai Ho has brought to the Indian Arts!

In the evening, we headed over to the Pantheon and had SO MUCH FUN eating at a cafe and drinking fun drinks during happy hour. We met a Norwegian family that was really fun and we were amused as the parents both smoked while the 2 of their sons smoked with them. After getting to know the fun, modern, and totally European family, we headed home. We played cards, drank wine, and reminisced about our weekend adventures!

Monday morning we got up early, headed to the Coliseum and took a tour to get the full understanding of the significance of the stadium. We learned about the type of entertainment Roman Emperors and the Roman people amused themselves with: gladiators and slaves in battle mode! After we learned about this aspect of Roman history in detail, we took some photos acting like gladiators in the arena, and eventually headed straight for the airport. A few hours later, we were in our Paris loft catching up homework and reconnecting with the world!

Our five days in Rome were amazing and worth the wait, in Mana's opinion, and it's an experience we will remember for the rest of our lives!

Sahil's French Haircut Experience

In anticipation of our much-awaited Rome blog, we have decided to post a quick blog entry about Sahil's haircut which he got before Rome. Last Wednesday, Sahil ventured out in Cergy (where school is located) to the mall and found a nice salon where he thought he would get a great haircut. He thought he knew enough French to get by, and told the hair stylist that he wanted a shave, shampoo and haircut. Unfortunately, the lady told Sahil that they did not work in a barber shop, in true French fashion, and they don't do shaves. She made it clear that a shampoo and cut would have to do.

After a nice, relaxing shampoo, Sahil settled down in his chair, ready to get his haircut. As the woman approached Sahil with what looked like short clippers, Sahil exclaimed, "NON!" (no in French for you non-French speakers) and tried to explain that he wanted his hair a little longer. After she assured him that she understood, she still brought the clippers and made a gash in Sahil's hair. After a slight shriek, he asked for longer clippers and some scissors, please. After she had finished working the side, the gash looked awful, and Sahil made her cut the sides the same length as the gash. When Mana first saw the haircut, all she could do is laugh!

Sahil refuses to post pictures, but let's just say this is what he looks like:
Sahil minus David Beckham's face =(

Fortunately, the hair has grown back somewhat after a week, and people have come up to Sahil today telling him that they like his haircut. When he has responded by telling them that it is about a week old, he's received some serious laughter! Mana's sister saw him on SKYPE this week and started laughing too! We welcome your comments and laughter!

Sahil is done getting his haircut in Europe!