Road Trippin' On Spring Break! First Stop: Munich

We are back online after our 9 day road trip and we are so excited to update you on our experiences!

Our road trip started on Friday when we set off for Munich with our friends from exchange, Kate and Gary (with plans to meet Kent, Kate's boyfriend, in Munich). On this 8 hour drive, which became 10 hours in traffic, we had a series of dramatic events to entertain us. They all revolved around Gary...and his PASSPORT! About 2 and a half hours into our drive, Gary reached into his pocket and said, "uh, guys, I have a problem. I forgot my passport." We all looked at him and began to come up with creative solutions. He forgot his passport and his driver's license, so really the only ID he had was his ESSEC student ID. We suggested he contact his landlord to see if he could ship him the passport in Munich, but that was unsuccessful. We tried to have a friend in Paris get the keys to his apartment and send it to him, but that was a no-go. After inventing countless solutions that did not quite work out, we finally realized that lucky for all of us, all of the countries we planned to drive through were part of the EU and no longer had border control. As a result, although it caused a whole lot of panic for Gary for 5 hours, ultimately, it was confirmed: he could enter into 7 countries over 9 days with no passport on hand - and he did!

Other aspects of this fun road trip included our song of the trip: Call on Me! Always a classic, always an energy booster! We had a great ride that finally resulted in us arriving in Munich. We arrived after midnight, and headed straight to join Kent at the Paulaner Beer Hall where he had beers waiting for us. After catching up with Kent, we then moved forward to a late night club called Pimpernel where we partied our first night in Munich until early morning! The five of us kicked off our experiences with a bang!

On Saturday, we woke up and headed for lunch to Speisen Und Geitranke, a tradtional German restaurant with tasty dishes. All of the staff was Turkish which worked to our advantage since Kent was fluent (being half Turkish himself)! Mana tried a common drink in Germany which was beer mixed with lemonade: it was fantastically refreshing! After lunch we headed to the BMW Museum where we saw airplane engines, cars, cars, and more cars! Sahil was in his true happy place (he's crazy about cars). We even watched as consumers tested out cars, purchased them, and took them off the lot of the museum/gallery!

After a great afternoon, we headed straight to the Haufsbraus House to have our favorite night in Munich! The Haufsbraus House is a huge beer hall with a German band playing music while locals and tourists come together to drink beer and eat local food. We were surrounded by people in lederhosen (traditional German apparel) and had a fantastic time!! We played cards, drank beer, ate food, laughed, and had an incredible time! Five hours later, we headed back where we played some more cards and then headed off to bed feeling pretty great about Munich!

On Sunday, we headed off for a very different experience. We visited the first concentration camp built in Dachau during WWII, which was located about half an hour outside of Munich. While Mana has read a great deal on Hitler's regime in Nazi Germany, visiting the camp made it that much more frightening to understand the impact and reality of the Holocaust. Our tour guide told us stories about the male prisoners who were told they were going to "work for freedom" when in fact, as we all know, the reality was very different. We saw the conditions of their barracks, the barbed wire surrounding the camp, the gas chambers, and at the end of our tour we watched a video on sad reality of that time. Although it was emotional and challenging to walk the grounds of those who suffered, it was very important to us that we visit this camp in order to remember those who suffered and learn more about a tragedy that should not repeat itself.

On Sunday evening we headed to dinner and had a laid back night, beginning with a pre-dinner at Wirtshaus Zum Straubinger consisting of pretzels and beer. We met a nice couple here who was at the restaurant with their dog. This is the most dog-friendly city we've ever seen! They have dog bowls of water outside restaurants and dogs join people everywhere they go! As we chatted with this couple, they laughingly told us we were eating pretzels at a totally inappropriate time (apparently, it's only a breakfast food). Yet, we continued to feast on some of the best pretzels we've ever had! Mana found a German children's book here which she then began to read and before we knew it, we each were reading our own interpretation of what each page might be saying about Olaf the elephant! After grabbing some spicy Thai food for proper dinner, we headed home, since we had an early drive the next day to Salzburg, Austria!

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!

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!