Sunday, December 30, 2007

Back in Philly

Well - I am back in Philly (Philadelphia). To honor my 1st full day back on Thursday Dec 27, I went with Ilir to get a cheesesteak (history) from Jim's. Then to top off this healthy meal, we went to Famous 4th street deli to get cookies. Both of these places are essentials to everyone visiting or living in Philadelphia.

Then on Friday night, I went for some karaoke with some friends. Check out George, aka Bon Jovi.

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Food

Below are some of the foods I experienced along my travels (mostly France of course).

Prague (Typical meal): I think it was beef with what they called potato dumplings. It was closer to potato bread but better.
Israel: Pita bread with zatar smeared all over it.
Israel (Ophares): Chicken schnitzel with fries in pita

France

Good ole Gamay red wine. While in France I switched from beer to wine. As you know, French are known for the wine and certainly not the beer. Furthermore, one can find a great bottle of wine for 4 Euro (~$5).
My staple at breakfast - 2 bars with plain yogurt and another cereal of the week.
Quick Burger consumed on Nov 17th, 2007. It is a Belgium chain.
Pain De Bois. Probably the best tasting and healthy bread I've had.
My attempt at making my stir fry taste good. The Indian touch did the trick.

Delicious chocolate cream pastry (know as something different in each bakery - Pepito, Flamond, Chocolate Suisse). I may end up missing these the most.Apple Turnover?
Rosemary, Sundried tomato baguette. Who ever thought of putting rosemary in bread is a genius.

Friday, December 28, 2007

Rome

Katie and I went to Rome last weekend. Weird that I am writing about it in Philadelphia. We took the Spanish airline Vueling. No complaints there.
The 1st place we went to was the Vatican.
Looks nice inside.
Sorry for the blur, but every room looked like this on the way to the Sistine Chapel.
After some walking, it was time for some gelato.A little night time action of the Colosseum.
and then inside. I must say that before we got there, I was really excited to run out into the middle like the gladiators. Little did I know that the original floor was gone. I almost cried.
Here is some sweet looking fountain. I am glad the drinks are "very cold."Delicious home made pasta...and delicious Italian PizzaKatie and I had finished all the sites we had on our list, so we decided to go to the zoo.
Here is some form of monkey and baby monkey. another form of baby monkeyCheck out this guy biting his nails.

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Leon de Bruxelles

My friends Seth and Brandy came to Paris a few weeks back. We did some touristy stuff and it was grand. This photo is from the Seine between the Louvre and my school.
After a few laughs, we made our way up to Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart) area.Here is the actual church.

We then made our way to find some food. For some reason, we were interested in mussels and Belgian food. I attribute this to Seth and his crazy ideas.

So we end up in Leon de Bruxelles (my idea) and after a brief wait at around 11pm we are seated. We then proceeded to order a bucket of mussels, an order of fries, a salad, and 3 beers.

Now I am no expert on customer service, but I have had a whopping 4 months of business school experience, so what we heard next came as a shock. The server informed us that we needed to order more food. After inquirering what would happen if we did not, they told us that we would have to leave.

Now, in a restaurant with no waiting line at 11pm, one would think that the short term value of keeping a seat/table filled would be important. Furthermore, by kicking a customer out may damage the lifetime value of the customer too. I expressed this to the server and the manager when I said "Even though there is no one on line waiting for this table, you would rather lose our business and kick us out?" The answer was "yes" Like I mentioned before, I am no business genius, but I am pretty sure this was a poor business decision. We left the place, made a bit of a scene, went to another Belgian place with more class down the street and ordered the same exact meal. This place did not have some silly rule and was able to obtain our business for a couple of hours. Plus, we had fun.

The image of the "do-not-enter" chain. Sorry for the rant.

Delicious meal Seth and I enjoyed Saturday (or Sunday) night. More to come soon on my trip to Rome with Katie and then a special food section.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Last post from Paris

December 26, 2007 is my last day in Paris, France. My flight leaves for the US in about 4 hours.

To honor this last day, I am eating my favorite pastry with chocolate and cream. It's slightly warm, so it melts in your mouth.

I have a few posts to update you on, but those will have to wait until I return to the states.

It has been a lovely few months over here in Paris. I am sincerely grateful for the opportunity I had to learn with and travel with people from all over the world.

Classes were interesting and the last few weeks were very busy. Yet, all that time spent in teamwork is nearly as fun as going out (please don't use that last sentence against me in the future). One can learn much about their friends in high stress situations, probably more so than when enjoying a glass of red wine.

It's not going to be easy to walk out of my apartment for the last time, nor will it be easy to lug my bag down the steps, but the fact is that i have formed some sort of connection to this city.

There, I said it - and showed some emotion.

In about 12 hours I shall be back in Philadelphia, the real home where I hang my hat and lust after cheese steaks. Anybody want to go to Tony Lukes or Jims on Thursday (12/27) for lunch or "noonsies"?

See you all on the other side. Happy Holidays.

Paris Dan out.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Katie arrives the 13th

The one and only will be here on Thursday.

Silly in Kenya...

These two Police officers would later ask us for money
brilliant...

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Airlines

Airline on the Rise: Swiss International Air Lines
I flew Swiss International Air Lines and it was a great experience. The staff was very nice and they did not skimp on anything. Most airlines have dropped the "frills", but not them. Big meals and big snacks, along with allowing you to take the head phones when you leave the flight are part of their gig. Plus these head phone had an adapter so that you could plug it into a 1 pronged socket as opposed to the typical airline 2 pronged one. Most flights don't even give you head sets or food anymore. Also, you know how the person furthest from the server usually gets served first. Well, Swiss has class and ladies are always served first. Even though this was not in my favor, it shows that this little things have been thought out.

Conclusion: 2 thumbs up for Swiss airlines.

Airline on the Decline: US Airways
I use US airways very infrequently. I purchased a round trip ticket from them for my Paris semester. I saved a few bucks using them, but I didn't realize this lower cost meant that I would be sacrificing quality customer service. Let's just say that they are quite different from Swiss Airlines. I called about a month ago to inquire about changing my return ticket day because I had found out that my flight time had changed. At that time, a customer service representative informed me that because of the flight time change, that they would change my ticket free of charge. I told her thank you and that I would call back after I had time to make new arrangements. Well, when I called back this week, it seems as though the story had changed. I was informed that because I did not have a connecting flight on US airways, that to change my flight would cost $200. They had no sympathy for a train or person picking me up with a schedule. What could that $200 possibly cover? Technology has made these airline systems so seamless, that I am sure the actual cost is no more than $0.05 to change a ticket. When I told them what I had been told a month prior, they showed no sympathy, and said that the problem was mine and not theirs. So much for taking responsibility for the customer service team! Apparently the supervisor I spoke with thought that a client with future business potential is worth less than $200. Anyway, this experience has put US airways low on my list of preferred airlines, as customer service is every bit important as the flight itself.

Conclusion: 2 thumbs down.

Israel

I went to Israel last week from Saturday to Wednesday. Good times seeing friends and family with nice weather too.

Sub-par shawarma eaten: 1
Amazing Shawarma & fresh falafel combo: 1
Past teachers seen: 2
Old friends seen: 3
Sofganiot (Hanuka Jelly Donut) eaten: 4
Family members seen: 8
Other Bakery Products (Zatar Pita, Rugala, etc): 15?

Anyone for a carefree moment?
If any one is in the dancing industry in Israel, watch out, Ori is about to make a splash on the scene.And this guy... one of the smartest/funniest guys I know. If you go to Israel and need a tour guide, let me know, he's your man.The Wall at nightMy buddy Josh Katz drew a picture of our class 10 years ago when we were studying in Israel for a semester. It is still up on the teachers wall.
This is up there too. Adrienne Jerud: Doctor/Model not Model/Doctor.
Haifa Hanging Gardens/Bahain shrine.
Daytime Wall action. Hanuka was starting this night.
In the Arab Shuk.
The dorm where I spent 4 or 5 months on my Junior year of high school (in Israel). My room was the top right (shared with Josh Okon and Matt lacks).
Tel Aviv Beach on Wednesday morning. It was about 23 C (70 F). I took a stroll there with my cousin.I also went to the Yad Vashem museum and it was very moving. New fact I learned, there were about 3.3 million Jews in Poland before the war (10 % of the population). Only 0.3 million remained after.

So I don't end on a sad note, it felt good to be in a country where I could speak the language a little bit.

Vienna/Prague

Again, sorry for the delay in posts. Work has picked up a bit and I'm sorry to those who actually had to work instead of reading my blog.

I went to Vienna and Prague 2 weekends ago... here are some highlights.

Shady shoe store in an alley.

It was cold, so we went to a butterfly museum.Drank some "punch" (alcoholic cider) to warm up.
Stared at this delightful structure.
Took a train to Prague. We had our own closed section with a door.

Arrived in Prague late and got a birthday drink for Neeraj. We then realized that we needed some shampoo, so we stopped at the most bodega or a pharmacy we could find. The nice lady at the counter tried to offer us some shadow market economy products, but we respectfully declined.
Some big church.
On a famous bridge in Prague, a Jesus cross stood with Hebrew writing.
1950 anyone?Hint of communism.