Dan's Thoughts

Snow Day: Jan 2010

2010-02-10T18:08:00.003-05:00

Today was my first snow day since 2003 in college. Not bad at all. KD, George and I watched Couples Retreat and a lot of other TV/Movies.

I shoveled a few times (so far), and went for a little walk around town. Check out the pics.

Anya's 1st birthday

2010-02-10T18:00:00.001-05:00

Check out pictures from Anya's first b-day. Click here for more.

For Rent: 2BR/1BA Apartment in Philadelphia, PA, $1,650/month

2009-11-29T10:46:00.001-05:00

Rental Opportunity

2009-11-13T08:45:00.001-05:00

View My Honeymoon Pictures & Video

2009-10-19T06:30:00.004-04:00

London - usual tourist stuff (not chimps or Gorillas).

Uganda - Including chimps and Gorillas.

View the videos here...

Sweet Evolution: Gluten & Dairy Free Treats

2009-08-07T09:01:00.003-04:00

Do you crave gluten free or dairy free treats? Or do you just plain crave delicious desserts? Well now you you can get both of these at one place... Sweet Evolutions!

My good friend Brooke started an online gluten and dairy free bakery. I have already ordered and enjoyed the macaroons, chocolate chip cookies and oatmeal cookies. My banana chocolate brownies are on the way today!

When you have a second, check out the site and try something out. Even if you do not require gluten free or dairy free to feel pain free (like me), these desserts are top notch.

Sorry if this felt too much like a sales pitch, but isn't that what the blogging world has become? Silly cyber-world.

Have a good weekend everyone!

What's Your Poo Telling You?

2009-08-07T08:55:00.002-04:00

As you may or may not know, my cousin co-wrote a book a few years ago called "What's Your Poo Telling You?" In fact, I have proudly seen it in some of your bathrooms.

I'm writing to let you know about the new extension of the Poo Brand...an iPhone app. With this app, you will learn all you ever wanted to know about the GI system but were afraid to ask.

So please download the app today, Friday August 7, or anytime soon. The app can be downloaded at http://tinyurl.com/lbf54l or from www.DrStool.com. It will cost you $1.99, but I am fairly confident that you will not be disappointed. The knowledge gained with this transaction will last a lifetime!

Update

2009-06-05T07:50:00.000-04:00

So this has probably been my longest stretch without a post. Shame on me.

Since April I have seen the niece a couple of times, been to a couple of weddings and enjoyed New Orleans for a day.

Below are 2 pictures from the wedding at Vally Green Inn.

Aren't they cute. To see more of these wedding pics, please go to http://picasaweb.google.com/dannyvogel1/SamChenWedding02#.

The morning after this wedding I left for a wedding in New Orleans. I only got 3 hours of sleep and for some reason could not sleep on the plane. However, when I arrived, it was a party for 24 hours straight.

I made a little purchase (an orange hat), and it was awesome.

Although, it looks much better on the wife-to-be.
Here's the happy wedding couple the morning after.
Just so we are clear, Bourbon Street is like one big bar. I am convinced they are all interconnected with just different names on the front. The French Quarter is very pretty during the day, as it has French influence with a bit of Spanish influence mixed in there. However, at night, it's a whole other story.

I ate a beignet for the first time and it was delightful. There was powdered sugar all over it... it was delicious.

When you are in NO, go to the restaurant "Mothers", it has the best everything. Debris really makes the meal. If you need to know what "debris" is, I guess you'll need to go there and try it for yourself.

All in all, I had a great time in NO and wish I could spend at least one more day there.

To see more pictures of this wedding/city, click here... http://picasaweb.google.com/DunphyVogel/Adam_Erin_Wedding#

Clean Air Council 5K Run for Clean Air

2009-04-18T18:47:00.002-04:00

Today I ran a race for the fist time in over 10 years.

The race was 5K (3.10685 miles) and was held at West River Drive in Philadelphia. http://www.cleanair.org/5k2009/index.html.

During the last mile of the race, I quickly remembered why I haven't raced since high school.

With that said, I finished where I wanted, with a chip time of 24:07 and an average mile of 7:47.
I was #245 out of 1407 participants.

While my initial plan was to run steady 8 minute miles for the first two and then kick it up a notch in the last mile, I was unable to do that. It seems as though I ran a 7:10 first mile, 8:10 second mile, and then lost my will during the last 1.1 miles.

I thought about stopping multiple times during the final leg, but I am glad that I did not.

You know that scene in Superbad, when Jonah Hill is running on the track and he looks like he is in the most pain that he has ever been in and his body is flailing about. Well, that how I felt and looked. Let's just be glad that no one saw me.

When I have some pics from the race, I will be sure to post them.

Survey

2009-04-15T20:45:00.001-04:00

A friend of mine is conducting a survey for the Jewish Publication Society and they are releasing the Tagged Tanakh . . . for more information go to www.jpsinteractive.org and then click on Tagged Tanakh

For this survey, he is trying to reach as many Jews and Jewish Leaders as possible, particularly Rabbis and Jewish School representatives. Please pass along to others.

For the Individual Survey

http://FreeOnlineSurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=7w3okijnxpbko7p568788

For the Organizational survey

http://FreeOnlineSurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=1sbe8uh82nbydjl567322

More Anya

2009-04-14T07:03:00.003-04:00

Look at those young Grandmothers with their grandchildren.
Check out Anya & I, she later drooled on me... she likes me.Adorable.

Whoops

2009-04-07T06:25:00.003-04:00

So it's been 2 months since my last post and I apologize.

It's been quite a ride since then. We said goodbye to three members of the family who will be missed dearly. However, we welcomed Anya and that made everyone happy.

The wedding planning is going well and everything is close to done. In about a month we plan to kick it full throttle to finalize all those small details.

I started watching season 2 of Mad Men, not a bad show at all.

Tonight is Sakefest, who wants to join me? http://sakefest.com/.

Lastly, checkout my cousins blog http://tinyplayground.com. If you are a new mom, you will be sure to find interesting things here.

Pictures Of Anya

2009-02-02T00:01:00.001-05:00

http://picasaweb.google.com/DunphyVogel/AnyaRVogel_Day202#

Welcome to the World Anya Rebecca Vogel!

2009-01-30T12:53:00.002-05:00

Say hello to my Niece...

Engaged!

2009-01-04T20:10:00.003-05:00

I've got some exciting news to pass along...

1. At about the 6 year point of dating, Katie and I are engaged to be married. We are very excited. Katie and I shared this moment in Coco Cay (Royal Caribbean's private island) with our friends. We were on a 4 day cruise with our friends and followed up the celebration in Disney World (where dreams come alive), again with our friends.

2. The eagles beat the Vikings and are going to face the Giants in the Meadowlands next Sunday at noon or 1pm. Go Birds!

3. Friday, Jan 9 is my birthday. That means that we are having the 3rd Annual Birthday Pub Crawl.

When: Friday January 9th, 2009 9pm-ish - 2pm
Where: TBD (probably in the 2nd & South Street Area)
What: 5 bars in 5 hours at Phillies Phinest.

Stay tuned. Plus, more pictures to come at a later date.

Eagles

2008-11-16T16:26:00.002-05:00

I am watching the Eagles and currently they are struggling to hold on to a Tie against the lowly Bengals. This game has been painful and makes me wonder why the Eagles have won any games this year.

This game, along with this entire season makes me want to close the curtain on the Reid-McNabb era.

Election Day

2008-11-04T22:45:00.000-05:00

So today is a big day in the US. The polls opened in Pennsylvania, US at 7am and I arrived at 8am. I arrived to a line that wrapped around the corner of the street. By 8:20 I had entered the building where the election was being held. Finally, at 8:45, I had voted. Never in my 8 year voting experiences in this location had I ever waited so long. I think this was a good sign.

Currently, at 10:43 pm, Obama has 207 electoral votes to Mccain's 135.

I think I am starting to fade, but unless something drastic happens, this lead should hold. See you when this is over.

So Close Phillies

2008-10-28T07:36:00.002-04:00

What a night last night. I decided to go to a new bar on Broad St, JL Sullivans, and was lucky enough to be in a reserved room for the evening. This made it more roomy and enjoyable.

The reason for this bar was so that when the Phillies won, we could celebrate on Philadelphia's most famous street.

Unfortunately, the man upstairs decided to let it rain, and rain and rain some more. This set off a chain of unfortunate events... There were delays left and right to cure the field, Rollins dropped an in field pop up that he would normally catch, leading to an Upton score. This tied the game at 2, and then the league decided t0 suspend the game for 19 hours.

So, with that said, there was no victory and it was raining out. For some reason the cabs decided to take the night off so Josh and I had to walk from Broad & Walnut to 3rd and Queen (about 35 minutes), in the rain, wind, and general unease of knowing that we should have been celebrating the whole way home.

Blast! Go Phils.

It's been awhile

2008-10-26T16:43:00.001-04:00

I could keep apologizing for the gap in blog posts, but it would start to lose all meaning soon.

As you can see, I have decided to change the format of this blog around a bit. I guess the difference represents that the function of this blog has altered, as has my life.

As most of you know, this blog started as a diary of my experiences while in the IMBA at Temple's Fox School of Business. Now that that time is over and the next chapter has started (work), I will try to update this blog with what I am up to... even if it is boring.

Regarding the topic of work... it has been going really well. I have been really busy, but unlike my previous jobs, I do not mind being busy with this work because, well, I enjoy what I am doing.

This weekend, Katie and I decided to purchase a new TV. I've wanted a new TV for over a year now, but insisted on waiting until I graduated and had a new job. Since everything fell into place, we bought a new Samsung 40" LDC HD TV. Let's just say that it is awesome.After this post, I plan to peel myself from the TV which over the past 18 hours have given me viewing pleasure. I've watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Iron Man, baseball and football. None of these disappointed.

With that said, it's time to go work on my Halloween costume.

Working Again

2008-09-12T08:30:00.000-04:00

Being unemployed was a little stressful and relaxing at the same time.... I had no where to be and I could search for jobs when I wanted. But no paycheck.

I spent my days in coffee shops, drinking anything green tea and searched the interweb for possible career opportunities.

I searched for Marketing and Business Development positions in a wide array of industries. This would be a quasi-career move that I was very excited for.

After a month of searching for work, I was approached by my old company Mothers Work. They had a business development position and it was the perfect opportunity.

With that said, I am back at Mothers Work (I worked there after college) and I am the Manager of Marketing Partnerships.

Today is my graduation from Business School.

Next chapter started...

Baton Rouge & New Orleans

2008-08-31T17:00:00.006-04:00

The first time I was in New Orleans was 3 years ago (around August 22, 2005). Katie and I drove down there from Philly with 2 other friends from college. Our friends were to enter graduate school at LSU in Baton Rouge, about an hour drive from New Orleans.

3 years ago, despite being in Baton Rouge for a few days, my time in New Orleans was spent only in the airport to return back to Philadelphia. At that point, I was a little upset that I did not get to see the city, but figured I would get back there in the future.

One week later, on August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit, New Orleans flooded, a majority of the city was decimated, and thousands of people were displaced.

3 years later on August 8th, my friend was graduating from LSU. Katie and I flew down in support.

Here is the LSU Tiger.
There's the graduation girl (with parents).
And some delicious breakfast after graduation... grits, eggs and biscuit.
The day after graduation, we went over to New Orleans for some site seeing. I believe this is one of the famous/old sites in the city.
Typical street in New Orleans. In the past, New Orleans had been "owned" by the Spanish, French and then the Spanish again, before it got into the hands of the US in the Louisiana Purchase.
After strolling around New Orleans proper, my friend Adam took us on a tour of the Lower Ninth Ward. This is where the levee broke and heavily flooded the area.

Currently, the Lower Ninth is fairly empty. There are many empty plots of land of where homes once stood and people once lived. If homes have not been demolished, they may look like this. The Lower Ninth is for all intensive purposes one step away from a ghost town. But there is a bit of construction occurring. Not nearly enough though. And then there are homes like this. Completely dilapidated and which need to be flattened. It's amazing to think that people once lived in this structure. It's even more amazing that no person or developer has come into this area to rebuild it.
The levees have been rebuilt but nearly nothing else has. Are the new levees strong enough or tall enough? These are the thoughts that fill my mind as Hurricane Gustav approaches and is about to reach land on September 1, 2008. This new Hurricane while predicted to make land fall weaker and farther from New Orleans than Katrina did, is still a concern (with massive potential downpours). After all, predictions are just that and there is no predicting what could occur to New Orleans again. Granted, there will be much less destruction, due to a smaller population and less buildings; but there is a feeling that history will repeat itself and too soon.

I hope one day there will be a solution for this beautiful city. A city in which socioeconomic status plays a part in its past and hopefully less in its future.

Chinese Food

2008-08-25T10:00:00.002-04:00

Below is most the food I partook in while in China.

Here's some history. Beijing used to be called Peking. If you are looking at a pre-1950 map, it will say Peking and not Beijing. It may be wrong in the year, but it's good to know. With that said, Beijing is well know for it's duck: Peking Duck.
This was my first meal in China and was probably the best. It was some sort of meat (we think it was beef) with some dark sauce. Plus the light meat was chicken (or so we thought).
Yep, fondue Chinese style: Hot Pot. Raw meat cooked in water is awesome.
I forget what I ate here because it was forgettable. It was a generic meal at a tourist location. Ben and I had a few of these in Beijing & Xian.
Night of dumplings: We were so close to finishing it all.
Best noodle place in Beijing. They were fresh and had good toppings to add. The 2nd picture below is some of the compliments that joined the meal.
Somthing fancy looking.
I forget what this is, but if I took a picture of it, it must have tasted good or smelled good.
The best curry dish in China.
Dumplings again...
While in China I also ate chicken heart and some other body parts I have never had before.

I believe this concludes the Asian posts. Going forward, I hope to have some good posts (be prepared for my New Orleans post), but once I start a career (job), things may slow down.

Perhaps I will start to make up stuff and write about other peoples' adventures.

Thoughts?

Random Japanese Thoughts

2008-08-22T11:20:00.000-04:00

Below are some observations I had of Asia, mainly Japan...

- Japan has very clean streets. It's amazing how a country can be so clean if there are no trashcans anywhere. Apparently, you are supposed to carry around your trash with you until you get home.

- Chinese drivers are at war on the road. Don't dare to cross the street when the light is not in your favor. Use the underground paths when possible.

- Japan drivers on the other hand, are scared of their own shadow. Due to this, I only heard a total of 9 car horn honks while I was there. That is 0.3 each day.

- I walked to school 45 minutes each day, uphill both ways. Plus I had to carry my awesome mac in my school bag. This couple with the simple food over there caused me to shed 3 pounds. It's funny, and completely explainable how there was a 10 pound swing in my weight between France and Japan.

- Have you ever walked into Trader Joes and felt completely welcome and yet at the same time wonder how the employees can be so darn happy? Well, every service oriented establishment was like this in Japan. There was always an over the top welcome from every single employee, and then a thank you for stopping by. I loved every second of it. It was quite a difference from what we see here in the US.

- Don't attempt reservations in Japan, they are not a concept there. People sit too long for a meal and the servers don't know how to estimate. Plus, since they are so nice and cannot say no, they will tell you it will be 20 more minutes... over and over again. I was only fooled once... ok twice.

- I ate sushi almost every day and did not get sick, nor have I shown signs of mercury poisoning to this point.

- In conveniences stores (such as 7/11 which are every where), men read magazines at the shelves. However, they do not ever buy them. Interesting concept that does not happen here in the states.- Green Iced Tea is really good. It is unsweetend, tastes healthy and it is one of the things I will miss the most about Japan.

- Vending drink machines are everywhere (where I bought multiple Iced teas a day).

- In public places, there are either really nice bathrooms with remote control toilets or a hole in the ground. It was always a gamble to see what you were going to get.

- Japan is expensive. Not the same way as Europe, but groceries are just as expensive as eating out.

p.s. I took the Wonderlic test yesterday.

Japan Food

2008-08-18T10:00:00.002-04:00

Below I will show a bunch of pictures showing the food I ate in Japan.

This is the fist meal John and I shared together in Japan. Good ole simple Ramen.One of my first encounters with green tea happiness. This is a green tea frappe I think.
Again with the good ole simple ramen.
This is the table at a ramen place. Many many toppings to be added.
In this pic: rice with sea weed, raw egg (for meat), miso soup, bowl of beef with some veggies.
This is a typical old style Japanese Restaurant. We are sitting on the floor with our legs under the table. Theoretically, our legs should be crossed, but I cannot do that for the life of me.
Apparently Tokyo is famous for the Tokyo Bananas.
Note to reader: They are not real bananas and are less healthy.
Kinda like a twinkie but with banana filling.
This here is a super-duper sized apple. It cost $5 and was almost worth it.
Here I am with a few of my friends at a sobe place (buckwheat noodles). See that stack of red bowls, each has soba in it. When eating a soba meal, it usually comes with dipping sauce like soy sauce.
This ramen shop is in what is known as "piss alley". The ramen at this place has tempora vegetables in the bowl.
In this picture is a bottle if green tea and some edemame flavored chips. Green iced tea in Japan is amazing. Unlike America, there is no sugar added, or at least very little.
A fantastic simple meal of sushi and sake.
Some friends enjoying some ramen.
For some reason, crusts of bread are hard to find in Japan. This is a crustless sandwich with the ends closed. Within the sandwich is sweet peanut butter. I never bought this type of sandwich again, but I found it important to show.
Moochi: Rice dough on the outside.. the green ones are green tea rice dough. On the inside: bean, perhaps red bean.
You may have heard of conveyor belts in Japan... it's real and and it's awesome.Each item of food is on a colored plate. When you are finished, you hand in your plates, they are scanned, counted, and then you pay. In the middle of his picture is a big bowl of wasabi.
Below is where I eat sushi almost everyday for lunch.
This is a plastic version of what I eat most days.
In Kyoto I had a great ramen meal. They key: go to a place with a long line. I was not sure what I ordered, but I just pointed and prayed and it worked out great.In Nagoya at the Sumo match... sake and beer.
After a long day in Nara, I ate lunch at 4pm and this is it. Egg and vegitables.

As you may be able to see, the meal is made in the kitchen and then put on the griddle table in front of the customers eyes.
Some beverage I enjoyed in Tokyo. If you look closely, you will see catnip in there. I am still not sure if that is Kosher.
Beautiful Sushi
When it comes to soft serve, typically in the US it is chocolate and vanilla. Not in Japan, it was green tea and vanilla.
In short, green tea items are huge in Japan and I loved them all. I wish the US had the same products as in Japan, but that's not how it works.

Even after eating all this great food in Japan, I managed to drop some pounds. Unbelievable. From gaining 7 pounds while in Paris, neutralizing while in the US, and then losing 3 while in Japan, my weight fluctuated 10 pounds throughout the year... not bad. Although I am not a doctor, so what do I know.

Hope you enjoyed.

Imperial Palace & War Museum

2008-08-15T10:42:00.001-04:00

After the fish market, they guys and I walked through Ginza to get to the Imperial Palace.

In short, the Imperial palace was a huge waste of time. To get inside the grounds, you must reserve a time slot ahead of time. In my mind, when a person must reserve something, it should be awesome. Well this reservation was deceiving and therefore a disappointment of a tour.

The picture below was the highlight of the tour.. and this was outside of the actual "palace".

Below is the main attraction of the palace. It was built in the 60's and looks like it was built in the 70's. I guess it was ahead of it's time, but, obviously the wrong time.

After the "Palace" tour, i left the group and went on a quest to find the war museum and controversial shrine: the Yakusuni Shrine.

I went the wrong way and ended up walking for close to 2 hours around the Imperial Palace and surrounding gardens. The picture below is from the other end of the Palace, I guess one of the watch towers.
Eventually, I found the shrine, snapped a picture and moved on to the museum.
Here is the downstairs of the museum. What a nice looking fighter plane.
Upstairs pictures are not allowed. This part of the museum go through this history of Japan starting with the samurais through WWII. So the real question is, why did America stop supplying Japan with oil around 1940? If America had not done this, Pearl Harbor would have never been attacked. That's what I learned there.

After this, it was time to return to the hostel.

Tokyo Fish Market

2008-08-13T10:23:00.001-04:00

Almost two weeks ago at this point, I had the chance to go to the Tokyo Fish Market. To get there and see the good stuff, my friends and I awoke at 4:45am and left by 5am.

Apparently, if you arrive close to 4am, you can see a fish auction, but we did not get there in time for this.

We did however, see tons and tons of fish.

Here some amazing looking scallops.

Here's the mornings fish process...

Here's a Tuna getting its head cut off.
Now for some fine cleaning of the insides...
Doesn't this look delicious.Then into my sashimi and rice bowl. At some point during our fish viewing, Ben and I saw Ed Norton. He was in Japan for the opening of the Hulk.

This turned out to be quite a long day. Next on the agenda was a 10 am tour of the imperial palace. Worst Palace Ever!

Goshogake (Hot Spring - Volcanic)

2008-08-07T10:00:00.004-04:00

The last stop during this weekend was Goshogake. This was a 2 hour bus trip from Tazawako. Not many people have heard of this area, but it is known for it's volcanically active hot spring (onsen). I chose this destination for 3 reasons...

It's volcanic and there is steam coming up from the ground
There would be some good hiking.
There is hot spring there where I could relax

The 1st point was certainly true and did not disappoint. Oh yeah, you could tell it was a real hot spring becasue it smelled of sulfur.

This log is burnt from just being there.
Due to time restaints there was not much time to walk/hike around. There was a 2 km path around this hot spring where I snapped all the cool photos of nature's activity.

This is photo of the building housing the hot spring.
As is turned out, the hot spring was not what I expected. Unlike the Tanigawa Onsen (Minakami), this was more of an old man bath house and almost completely inside. This did not take away from the experience though.

When I got inside, I stripped down as the sulfuric water would have bleached my bathing suite. Inside the bath room, let's just say that I was the youngest by at least 20 years and definately the only non-Japanese.

So in these type of onsens, men will sit in the hot water and relax for a bit. After this, they proceed to shower. However, the shower experience is not one I have ever partaken of. There were no shower heads and no "stalls". Here's how is works...

Sit on a bucket next to many other people.
There is a soap dispenser and another bucket in front of you to fill up with water.
There are also 2 faucents (about a foot from the floor) in front of the sitting bucket. One is hot water and the other is cold.
So, I sat with the old men and bathed.
It was quite an experience. I am now half-Japanese old man.

While the indoor scenary was not what I expected, the experience was still relaxing.

Off topic, random creature.
All in all, I spent 4 hours on a bus to see this place and was only there for 2 hours. It was worth it though.

After here I returned to Tokyo.

See more pictures here.

Kakunodate

2008-08-06T10:00:00.002-04:00

After a few hours in Tazawako, we went back to Kakunodate which is know for having an old Samurai District.

After stopping at our hotel which was right next to the train station, we went out towards the Samurai district in hopes of finding a samurai or two and also some food.

Not sure what this is, but it looked neat.
Here is a section of a samurai house. We waited here for some time, hoping that a samurai would jump out. Not a single one jump out.
Finally, at 8pm we found dinner and we were not disappointed. It was an old style Japanese restaurant and awesome food. I think I had something with egg and chicken. Odd, since chicken is not very big in Japan.
After this dinner, we went to sleep before 10pm. We are old.

The next morning I had a semi-typical Japanese breakfast. Miso soup, rice and some other fishy things. I think the bread was non-Japanese.
After breakfast we walked back towards the Samurai District to go inside the houses.

Here is the outside... no samurai.Here is the outside (of a different house)... no samurai.

I believe this is the kitchen/dinner room.

Had we been at this same location in April, this would have been a beautiful Cherry Blossom scene. However, since it was July, just trees.See more pictures here.

Then we were off to Goshogake.

Next post at 10am tomorrow.

Tazawako

2008-08-05T10:10:00.001-04:00

Now that I am back in the states, it is finally time to discuss last weekends travels.

Before I left for Japan, I decided to get a rail pass that would allow me to travel around at a reduced cost. A two week pass costs about $415. I really wanted to get my money's worth out of it, and after traveling to Kyoto for about $160 I needed to go to a farther destination.

Therefore, I chose a trip was to the north of Japan, and round trip cost of $320.

I felt the north would be better for a few reasons.

Cooler weather
Small Towns
Beautiful landscapes

Well this trip did not disappoint. This is the 1st of 3 postings regarding this excursion.

After getting of the 3.5 hour train, I went to Tazawako Lake. This is the deepest lake in all of Japan.

Danijela and I rented bikes and rode around the lake. With stops for pictures, it took us around 2 hours.
Danijela is is Queen of the lake.
This is the front entrance of a shrine. I almost wanted to pray to the gods of the lake here.
I wish I new the story of this statue, but it is well known in this area.
After the time at the lake, we retreated to Kakunodate. To this day i still cannot pronounce this town name.

See more pictures here.

Next post will be tomorrow at 10am.

Be back soon Tokyo

2008-08-01T23:13:00.003-04:00

Alright all, I need to update you on the past week adventures, but that will have to wait. I leave for the airport in just a few minutes. My plane departs at 5:30 am EST and arrives back in Philly at 9:30pm (via CHI).

Tokyo is great and I will miss it. Alas, I know I will be back to enjoy it with others and conquer Mt. Fuji.

MBA complete and recommended to all.

See you all on the other side.

Time in Odaiba

2008-07-25T14:00:00.000-04:00

After some traveling out of Tokyo, it was time to get back into one of the greatest cities in the world. JD, Colin and I decided to to to Odaiba for the afternoon/early evening to see what this section of town had to offer.

To get there we took the monorail. As the Simpsons have taught us, the monorail will solve all one's problems. Luckily this one did not have the same fate as the Simpson Monorail. This neat above ground subway, weaved through the buildings and town.

View from atop.

Once in the Odaiba mall I experienced my first conveyor belt food. The belt was better than the food, but still a grand ole time.Odaiba is along some body of water, perhaps a bay. Here's a nice shot a got.
A little mid afternoon relaxation time before continuing on our journey.
And BAM! Nothing like a car show to spruce up your day.
It sure was a Hybrid Wonderland!
End Scene.

This weekend I am going to some cool places. Read below if interested...

Onsen and hiking around this volcanic area.
Samuri

Kyoto

2008-07-25T12:00:00.000-04:00

The last stop during last weekend was Kyoto. I spent two nights there and one full day.

Kyoto is the 2nd biggest city in Japan and it used to be a capital.

The first night there was pretty elaborate. The group walked around the city, ate dinner and then by 4am there were 4 of us still standing and we decided to call it a night.

Here is the beginning.. see a 7/11 car that was interesting.
Middle of the evening novelty: beer dispensing vending machine.This is at the end of the night... cucumber wrapped in salmon and quasi-absenth.
The next day started a little late, but nonetheless fun. JD and I set out to view the land of Kyoto.

Here we see an outdoor but covered market. Lots of food and things I could have but did not buy.
Then we set off for a castle. The castle was minimally impressive, but the landscape was breath taking.After walking in 100 f degree weather, JD and I took a little time to rest. This gave me a chance to catch him in the "Thinking Man" pose (more like tired, angry at god for the humidity and sun, and wishing he were in an air conditioned bed - I think Bill Gates has one of those).
After the excursion a nap was in order to rejuvenate. Then off to old Kyoto to search for Gaishas. I didn't see any, but this part of town looked nice.The next day, JD and I packed up for an excursion around Tokyo... (next post in 2 hours)

See more pics here.

Nara

2008-07-25T10:00:00.001-04:00

Before going to Nara, as it is a Temple/Shrine sight, I was worried that I would get bored too quickly. After all, I have been to many Temple sights in China and Japan. Well, I was not disappointed.

The day started off with Alex and I feeding deer. We feed the rice wafers. Once those guys see/smell the wafers, they are all over you. To the point where they will nibble on ones shirt to get attention and subsequently a wafer.
This is one of the creepy disciples of Buddha.
Orange Shrine.
More Orange and loving it. I think I want to move here.
Japanese house in the area.
See more pictures here.

Overall, we walked around for 5 hours and saw a lot.

We had a fabulous lunch (linner/dunch) at 4:30pm. As with Paris, there will be a food post later.

Next post in 2 hours.

Sumo & Castle

2008-07-24T22:00:00.007-04:00

Get ready for 4 posts in 24 hours. So come back often.

Last week I went to Sumo. It was quite an experience. Every month Sumo is in a different city. Each day, Sumo goes from 8:30am until about 6:30pm.

To the best of my knowledge, each wrestler fights once per day. The matches typically last from 2-15 seconds.

There are many pre-match rituals that take place and these actually take longer than the match.

To read more about it, click here.

Below you can see a 9am match.
And now for the freeze frame of a match later in the afternoon.
The other part of the day involved a castle. See below.
See more pictures here.

Stay tuned and come back during your Friday work day... there will be three more posts at random times.

Small Quake

2008-07-23T18:20:00.002-04:00

So there was an earthquake in Japan last night. It registered as a 6.8 and was many many many miles from Tokyo. Northern Japan Earthquake. Nonetheless, I felt it rattle here.

It was fun and scary at the same time. It was fun because I experienced my first quake (and it was no more than 4 seconds of small trembling, and it was scary because I realized how ill prepared I was.

Time to educate.

Minakami

2008-07-18T02:03:00.001-04:00

Due to international travel complications, we had off this past Tuesday. Because of this, I decided to go to Minakami.

Minakami is a winter/ski town about 3 hours from Tokyo. During the summer months, there are activities as well, such as rafting and canyoning. I never knew what canyoning was like until I was doing it. Basically, it is like rafting down a class 1 or 2 river without the raft. We also did some cliff jumping and rock climbing.

To get there we took a fast train on Monday afternoon. Check out that nose.

This is the town we were in. During off-peak months (when we were there), everything closes by 5. This might make for an awkward realization if you have no food at dinner time. We stayed at a hostel about a 10 minute ride from the center of "town".Luckily we got there early enough to stop at a Super Market. Always a good time. As you can see, my dinner consisted of Sushi, Sake, and noodles.
After enjoying some dinner, we found something pretty amazing... a mechanical bull! Below is Colin trying his best to stay on. Unfortunately there are no pictures of me on the beast. This was my first experience with a bull and it was certainly something everyone should try. There were a buch of British and Aussie gymnists there too riding the bull. See my Minakami pictures here.
The next morning at 9am we set out canyoning. Here you can see me, Colin, Rachel and Carey.Probably one of the best photos of the trip. All eyes are on Rachel (2nd from left), except for Carey... she's busy drinking (on right).Here am I about to go down a huge drop. I know it was over 10 feet, but that is all I know. I'm sure it was at least a 100 feet.After a full morning of getting beat up by the water, we tried an Onsen (hot spring). We were here. It was very beautiful and very relaxing. It was so relaxing that I fell asleep sitting upright on a wooden bench.

Minakami was a great place to go. It was vastly different from the hussle of Tokyo and I would recommend all to expereince this place.

Nikko

2008-07-17T02:31:00.000-04:00

This past Sunday I went to Nikko. Even though I had seen enough Temple's in China, this area was different. While it looked similar to that in China. the architecture was slightly different.
The artwork below is just an example of how this place was different.
Look what I caught... what are they doing?
Oh! This here is the original see/speak/hear no evil.
Some little cool structure I walked by.
Overall, the day was good. It was a day trip, about a 3 hour trip from Tokyo.

The Past Week

2008-07-16T03:17:00.001-04:00

The time spent here in Japan has been very packed with activities. Last Monday we had a bus tour of Tokyo and saw a few old temples.

Here is where you are supposed to wash your hands and mouth before entering the Temple area. There is water in the wooden tub and one is supposed to use the long spoon shaped item. (sorry, no picture for the temple attached to this cleansing area).
We then went to a tourist trap that leads to a Temple.
Voila, a Temple. Actually, this might be a picture from the steps of the temple.
Tuesday we had an orientation at school and then went to a Tokyo Swallows baseball game. It was a smashing time.
Alex, a fanatical Boston fan gave his Red Socks hat to a Japanese kid. The kid knew one word in English and it was "Yankees", so Alex felt the need to change just one young mind. This could get me started on who is worse, Boston on NY fans, but there is no need to raise blood pressure at this time of day.
At the games, beer people walk around with keg backpacks. I can't image a 100 lbs girl carrying 40 lbs of beer for 2 hours, but I guess it's what the people want.
On Friday night a bunch of us went out to dinner at a tradition Japanese restaurant. We were put in a private room with door (without our shoes).Speaking of leaving our shoes outside of the room... In the US, people might have been worried about the shoes being stolen. Not in Japan. People are too nice here and don't understand what stealing is.

More posts to come soon.

Voices of Teens: Writers Matter

2008-07-11T22:44:00.005-04:00

Voices of Teens: Writers Matter - JUST RELEASED

For all the teachers out there (and anyone else), here is a book you should pick up.

Voices of Teens integrates innovative writing strategies for teachers and students that meet school and state standards. Most importantly, this book includes personal stories written by 105 middle school students. These powerful stories reflect the many challenges in their personal, school and family lives yet allows a wonderful burst of talent, caring and sensitivity to emerge. Through the wonder lens of writing, many of these students for the first time used critical thought and reflection to demonstrate many of their hidden dreams and talents.

Some more about the book (click me)

Read about the co-authors

Robert Vogel
Michael Galbraith

2008-07-11T00:05:00.003-04:00

So I have been in Tokyo for almost a week. Unfortunately, this post will only be about my 1st full day here.

JD and I set out to scope Shinjuku in which he will be staying towards the end of the program. It's kinda like Times Square. Soon I will be there at night, and I am sure it will be seizure-licious. Do you see all the advertisements?
We then walked towards a shrine.
After some hours of walking, we found a great place for ramen noodle soup. It was in the basement of a building. In Tokyo, everything is built up. So it is typical to see a 6 floor building with 6 floors of commercial/entertainment/food inside. All run by different entities.

I think I have come to the conclusion that if a restaurant is in the basement it is good. Granted I have only been in one, but I hope I am right.
Funny story of this day: When JD and I awoke, JD went to get some breakfast drinks before our journey. He came back with grapefruit juice and green iced tea. We drank them and went on our way. Both drinks were good. Right before lunch, our stomach's were empty and we were thirsty as well. So we stopped to buy a cold drink. JD bought the same fruit drink he had in the morning. After a big thirsty gulp, he noticed his stomach quickly became warm. Upon further investigation of the can, we noticed an alcohol label (e.g. 6% alc). So, what does this mean? We were accidentaly drinking boos at 8:30 am. Right..... accidentaly.

All you reading this on Friday, enjoy the last day of the week.

Last Days in Shanghai

2008-07-06T05:55:00.009-04:00

This past Wednesday we went to Alibaba. In terms of the talent, it is kinda like the Google of China.

After that, we went to a tea plantation. Below is a picture of a tea leaf. The small leaf is the good stuff. From this plant, green tea (little fermentation), oolong tea (semi-fermentation), and black tea (long fermentation period) are produced. All of the other flavorings we all love, are added during the fermentation process. On Thursday, we visited a company that helps companies from Pennsylvania to export their goods or services to China.

In the afternoon we went to the "knock-off" market. Even though the below picture is a little blurry, you can see how "motivated" (aggressive) the "sales" people are. The technique used here is known as the "Kung-Fu" grip.
Since Friday was our last day in Shanghai, we took this time to walk around.

A scene like hte below is very common in at least the 1st tier and 2nd teir cities in China.Inside the under river tunnel the goes between Shanghai-proper and Podung is a visual smorgasbord of excitement. This picture sort of sums it up. Those prone to seizures are not advised to try this.We then rode the Maglev train that goes from Shanghai to the airport (for fun). It goes 30 km (18.5 miles) in 8 minutes. It reached 431 km/h (268 miles/hour).
After our return to Shanghai, we had a farewell dinner and then we all packed for the flight to Tokyo. My roomate Steve did not allow me to sleep (rather take a nap), until 2 hours before we had to leave for the airport. Alas, all is well.

Tokyo is absolutely astounding. I have no idea how I will be able to study. I am sure my current Tokyo roomate JD (yep, the one from Paris), will keep me in check.

Shanghai Airport

2008-07-04T21:30:00.002-04:00

I am in the Shanghai airport and about to board in 20 minutes. This airport is very nice and has free WiFi. The only thing lacking is the selection of Chinese cuisine. I was really hoping for my final Chinese sweet dim sum, but the airport did not have it. Oh well. Perhaps Japan will have it.

I will update the blog regarding my final days in Shanghai this weekend.

All China pictures will be uploaded once I have a faster Internet connection in Japan. That may not be until Tuesday.

Shanghai Day 1 & 2

2008-07-01T11:08:00.002-04:00

I arrived in Shanghai on Sunday afternoon around 2pm. We quickly learned that "leeches" like to approach consumers on the street and ask if you would like to buy watches, bags, and man other useless things. Most of the items on the list, like rolling wheels that attach to your shoes (thus making them roller blades), have barely any appeal and I fail to see why there is a supply here in China. On any given popular shopping street, a consumer can be attacked by double digit "leeches".

My 1st full day in Shanghai involved a little tour. This included a Temple and a Garden. I was pretty Temple'd out, so I just sorta went with the flow... angrily inside my head.

We walk around a cool looking part of the city that had an old feel, but was obviously built pretty recently. Nonetheless, it was a fun area to be in. In the afternoon, we went to Scientific Atlanta. In this China plant, they manufacture items such as digital TV boxes and other TV/Internet type hardware. Pretty neat to see the people working. Like human machines.
After a day of travel, a handful of us went to get custom fitted suites. Below is the beginning of the mayhem that ensued. I ordered a suite and a sport coat. After a semester in Paris, and a few weeks in Asia, I have totally transformed myself into a respectable person at 1st glance ( I have always been perfect on the inside). This is very important as people make assumptions based on appearances only.
Day 2: We went to Su Zhou (population larger than Chigago), an industrial park for lunch. To read more about it click me. Basically, it's a new community set up with everything. It was a little sureal and looked like a Hollywood set or strip mall dirty jersey. Just like the rest of China that I have seen, there were construction sites all over the place. Jump on the Bubble if you wish, it should not burst for awhile.
We visited Altay and worked through a real time case study. It was an educational experience there. Altay manufactures, among other things, human models for science education (like the below).
One more thing that I must mention, China is a highly driven consumer society. For so long, people have been saying India and China in the same sentance and that is just wrong. India is probably about 10-15 years behing China. Even though India and China are both "emerging" markets, China is developed. Sure you cannot drink the tap water, but the infrastructure is great. Beijing's subway system is far superior to that of Philadelphia's, as in nearly everything else.

Shanghai is a city filled with high end international stores. Basically, if you want to make a splash here, come in with the top notch stuff, not the items for price consious consumers. After all, these consumers can go to buy the knock-offs if they so choose.

Alright, enough for now. If you have gotten this far, thanks for reading. I usually try to make these posts short, and this one did not accomplish that.

Good day.

Xian

2008-06-29T06:09:00.007-04:00

So the last day in Beijing was swell. Ben and I walked around the Summer Palace and the Hutong (old Beijing). It was very fun to walk around old Beijing and get a feel for modern day Beijing as well.

Below is a scene from Old beijing where I presume all the tourists hang out.
It's funny, most times Beijing looked very clean and like a developed country... and then they have food courts that look dirty like the below.Ben and I then took an 11 hour train ride to Xian. It was not too bad as we slept most of the time. The few other hours were spent playing Rummy 500 and drinking Chinese whiskey.

Xian is a "2nd tier" city in China... it has 7 million people! Beijing and Shanghai have between 14 and 17 million.

Below is either the Bell Tower or Drum Tower in Xian. In Old China Bell Towers were rung in the morning and then at 7pm. This was to signify the work day. The drums were banged every 2 hours.I forget what this is, but it looked cool at night.
Our last day in Xian Ben and I went to the Terracotta Warriors. They were by far the highlight of the trip. To read more about them, please click me.

For your viewing pleasure.
After that excursion, we took a 20 hour train ride to Shanghai. Quite the experience. Lot's of eating, sleeping, and reading took place.

Here is one shot I snapped from the train. That is a coal plant (not nuclear).Now I am in Shanghai with most of my Temple IMBA'ers. More on Shanghai later, but in short, there is an air about this city that is filled with social and economic excitement.

The Great Wall, Forbidden City etc..

2008-06-25T10:53:00.007-04:00

The Great Wall was quite the site. To read more about it click me. It goes on forever. Also, as it goes over mountains, it can be very steep. Climbing up it was very breath-taking.

Ben taking baby-steps.

One segment in the misty morn...
The two yids in Beijing at the Wall.
This is at a park in the center on Beijing. These men are drawing Chinese characters in water with fun looking paint brushes. Apparently, the type of writing they are exhibiting/practicing takes about 10 years to learn.
Here is a beautiful entrance to a Temple. Since we were are Temple'd out, we did not go inside.
Here people are playing/exercising to the new craze in China: Tia Chi Ball. I really need to invent a new craze in which people obsess. The sales from these specialized little rackets and balls must be gold. I just need it to be a short lived phase where I can make a million. Perhaps I can bring Tia Chi Ball to the States. Who's with me?Here is the big square inside the Forbidden City. It's a little Hazy, but this gives you a sense of the landscape. The Last Emperor was filmed inside here. More importantly, this is where the Emperor's lived and it is "forbidden" because no one else besides the servants were allowed in here. Not even the wives or mothers of the emperors were allowed in the forbidden city. This is because they are "dirty". Silly ancient Chinese.After a hard morning of walking around, we had a nice little hot pot of Mutton (lamb), beef, tofu, and vegetables. Yep, it looks as good as it what it produced.Now for the funny/annoying story of the day:

Ben and I went out to dinner with one of his friends. After we were done, we took a cab from her hotel to ours. The usual drill is for us to show our hotel card to the cab driver. This card says in Chinese (Mandarin), "Please take me to (name of hotel)". Well we showed this, and and cabbie signaled that he knew where to take us. After about 2 minutes in the cab, we entered the expressway. This was not the way we came! As we were driving, we had to yell at the driver to stop playing with his cell phone as we almost hit another car. Then, the further we got, we started to express that this was the wrong way. Being that we do not speak Chinese and the driver did not speak English, it was useless. About 10 minutes later and clearly being no where near our hotel, we ended up at the Sheraton. This was not the right place (our hotel is a little more budget).

In short, we got out of the cab, told the driver it was the wrong hotel, had a Sharaton doorman tell him that we were not paying, and we got a new cab.

The whole experience was a bit more dramatic, and a good travel story to pass on.

A note: All pictures will be uploaded when the internet connection is better.

In Beijing

2008-06-23T10:14:00.003-04:00

Dan Vogel is in Beijing and enjoying himself.

When I arrived 22 hours later than I was supposed to, all turned well.

Ben and I enjoyed our 1st meal together at the restaurant next to the hotel. We had some mutton (lamb), sweet and sour chicken, and some egg wheat things (not shown). We then walked around and saw some fun stuff...After I took an hour nap and Ben took a half night sleep, we had some Peking duck. I know it looks good, and trust me the experience was unforgettable, but the taste did not do it for me.The following day (today) we saw three different temples. We saw a llama Temple, a Confucius Temple and a University that is next to it and the Temple of Heaven. Basically, everything looks like the below 2 pictures.
Now for the fun story of the day. There is this little corner store next to our hotel. For some reason, they have Pabst Blue Ribbon (least classy beer in 49 states) and Ben and I have been buying water there for the past 2 days. Well yesterday, one of the guys in there became infatuated with the fact that Ben and I are Ape-like (in case you are confused, we have thick facial stubble and arm hair and are far from Asian looking). This guy kept touching our arms in a creepy way. Well, we thought it was a one time thing, so we went back to buy some more water this evening (we are 12 hours ahead of eastern USA'ers). We pay for the water, and this creep-man curesses my arm again and then starts to lift up my shirt. Now, I don't know what this guy assumed Ben & I were, but I am pretty sure he didn't assume that he would lose future business. Moral of the story: there are creeps every where in the world.

I probably could have delievered that better, but I need to get some sleep. Tomorrow is Great Wall day. I can't wait.

Xui Xui.

Delayed

2008-06-21T00:32:00.002-04:00

In about an hour, my plane should have been landing in Beijing. However, I am not on that plane. The United airline plane never took off and is sitting at Dulles (IAD) airport.

At 12:31 pm, when everyone had boarded the plane, they told us that there would be an hour delay as they fixed a piece of the plane. Well, that hour turned into three, and then it turned into... well I will let you know tomorrow. It seems as though the flight will take off tomorrow at 10am (June 21). 22.5 hours after the original flight. This will really bite into my time in Beijing.

The good thing about this situation is/was...

They put me up in the Hyatt.
I got to see my brother, sister-in-law, her parents
We ate at Fogo de Chao
I'll eat a sweet Hyatt buffett meal for breakfast
I'm watching Bloodsport with Jean-Claude Van Damme

The bad...

My luggage stayed on the plane overnight. United would not let us have our bags. Seems iligal right?
They gave us a $10 voucher for dinner & $5 for breakfast. Not even the Grand Hyatt Egypt had meals for this cheap.
I will miss a day of China
I spent $155 to get back and forth between D.C.
United Customer service is useless
I spent 7 hours at the Dulles airport.
I'm watching bloodsport with Jean-Claude Van Damme

OK, for real this time... see you on the other side.

Bye bye Philly

2008-06-19T22:14:00.006-04:00

Tonight is my last night in Philly for about 6 weeks. Tomorrow I depart for China. I will be visiting Beijing, Xian, and Shanghai. On July 5th I leave for Tokyo, Japan. I will be back in the US on the eve of August 2nd.

This past semester has certainly been one of the most challenging. I spent most days at school from 8:30 am until 10pm. Alas, it was a good experience and I am glad to be leaving for Asia.

Leaving at night was not so bad because I got to see this. Philadelphia City hall.Below is the man of the hour being honored... it's the guy on the left. George received an award from JHP for his outstanding contributions.So last month I was at a wedding in Virginia. It was southern-tastic. The motel I stayed at was, to say the least, sub-par. To put it another way, my mother would not be proud, and if she had stepped foot inside, probably would have made my father take her elsewhere. Classy Motel outdoor seating activity.At the wedding...

Oysters... Chris doesn't mindDown the hatch.Nothing to see here, just some olde time guns.Look at the newlyweds. This was one classy weekend.See you all on the other side of the world.

By the way, China is 12 hours ahead of EST and Japan is 13. So if it is 7am in Philadelphia, it is 7pm in China and 8pm in Japan.

Where is Dan?

2008-05-12T18:52:00.002-04:00

I see we have reached 4,000 loyal readers. That is great. Sorry for the lack of posts. The truth is the work load, while interesting, is very intensive. The way I see it, 11 months of a lot of work is not too bad for an MBA program.

Since my last post...

We have finished 2 courses
We have begun 2 new courses
The consulting project is going well.

The work is gratifying and the client is happy

My consulting project wraps up June 17th. Then on June 20th, I leave for China with Ben...At that point, I promise that the blog will be more exciting. I am in China from June 21st to July 5th. Then I am in Japan until August 2nd.

On August 2nd, I will be officially finished my studies and I will also be unemployed. Who needs an employee?

NO VISA FOR YOU! (or anyone else)

2008-04-18T18:48:00.004-04:00

So today I was supposed to obtain a Chinese Visa. That did not happen.

As of yesterday, to obtain a Chinese Visa, all one needed was a standard Chinese Visa form with a picture attached. Through out the week I had prepared that document, and because some classmates told me to, I also brought along a confirmation of my hotel reservation and my airline tickets itinerary.

So we arrived at open time (10am) and I get a number. # one-hundred and seventy-four. Yeah, you read correctly, I was some how given #174. Guess what number was being called next.... #2. Just lovely.

After 2 hours of waiting, they were on #30. Alright, just about 15 people seen in an hour. They were making the DMV look good. About this time, I saw the first dreaded "checklist". That's right, people were being turned away left and right and given a checklist of what they should have brought to the consulate.

I'm pretty sure the checklist was created that morning, as classmates of mine that had gone previously saw no such document and had no problems with their visa attempt. Apparently, the Chinese NOW require a bank statement and a letter from your employer or school stating that work/school will be closed during the time when you will be in China. Who made China everyones' mother?

I actually left at this point to print a bank statement. I didn't believe the doctor's note theory, so I thought I would wait that one out.

Alright, so at about 3pm, we reach #87. Carey, my classmate who is with me (along with Paul and Danijela) got the call up (some dude who left early, gave her his ticket). After a 2 minute conversation, Carey is informed that she needs the aforementioned letter from the school and would not be processed without it. CRAP!! Plus, she was also instructed to get pages appended to her Passport, as they will not stamp past page 21. Both her and I do not have 2 full unstamped pages before 21 and thus, must get some more.

Once our hearts were pulled out Indian Jones style, and held in front of our faces, we decided to leave the consulate. We all screamed a few fowl words, and went to get some grub.

After food we were hoping to get on our 4:30 bus back to Philly. Raise your hands if you think everything else went according to plan. If you raised your hand,
1) you should feel slightly embarrassed because you are too engrossed in my words and
2) you are wrong, as the original bus door broke and hence I am sitting on the 5:30 bus that actually left at 6pm.

To read more about this delightful day from a different perspective, read Paul's rant.

Pictures to come later.

BoltBus

2008-04-18T08:11:00.002-04:00

Is it weird that I am blogging from a moving bus?

I am on my way to NYC to get my Chinese Visa and I am on BoltBus. It's clean, roomy and there is free wifi.

Since I woke up at 5am to go for a little run, I feel the need to nap now... should I?

More on all this later.

If you are in NY today and want to see me (and you know me), please call.

Market Research

2008-04-15T13:23:00.003-04:00

I bet you are all wondering where have Dan Vogel's ramblings been. Well, that's a long boring story, that does not merit to be written, even on a blog.

With that said, I am currently working on a market research project for an Israeli company. If you are interested in helping me out with the survey, please click the link below and answer this short (under 10 minute) survey. This survey is geared towards personal home users... you!

If you are an IT decision maker at a company, or you happen to know an IT decision maker at a company and want to help out, please e-mail me at dannyvogel@gmail.com.

Click here for the Personal Survey.

Just to keep this post somewhat lively, I will add 1 picture below... Serenity Now!

In A Dream

2008-04-04T08:56:00.005-04:00

In A Dream

Watch the Trailer
http://youtube.com/watch?v=5X6W-AL3Csw

Go see the teaser/unofficial trailer
http://www.hzfilms.com/

Watch the Director, Jeremiah Zagar give an interview
http://youtube.com/watch?v=WoaqEKw9sq0&feature=related

If tickets are not sold out, come see it at the Philly Film Festival.

Israel Days 7-11

2008-03-17T08:34:00.012-04:00

Day 7.

So I am an idiot and deleted most of my pics from this day. We went to Masada, the Dead Sea, and Ben Gurion University to visit with our student counterparts. These are the students that are working with us, with the client, to produce a solution. You may view Paul's pictures of this day here.

Day 7 (night).

We arrived back from Ber Sheva and went to Mike's Place with classmates. My buddy Ami was playing there. He's the one in the middle.
Day 8

The next day was spent in Haifa at Technion. We met with students and professors to get an idea of student life and business in Israel.

After a long day, we went to eat the Shawarma on the left. This next statement might be blasphemy, but I am not sure what is better, Shawarma or Philly cheesesteaks.
After seeing my cousins, I went to go look at the Bahia Gardens. I still have never been inside or seen them up close during the day.Day 9 - Jerusalem

Here are all the goods.
Here is a Bosnian, who lived in Germany, and is now a US citizen, wearing a fleece made in China, and zipper in Mexico, in front of the Western Wall in Israel. The World is Flat.This is some church in the Christian quarter. To the best of my knowledge, I have never been to this area. Here are my peeps in the old city.
Back in Tel Aviv, dinner made up of Kubbe and orzo. It was quite magnificent.
Day 10 - I hung out with my cousins for the day.

So my Israeli cousin has a rosemary plant/vine/thing in her kitchen. She was always high up on my list, but self grown rosemary... puleease. The kitchen smelled like heaven and I am now debating putting a rosemary plant next to my bed. Here are the girls at the family BBQ. I know they are smiling and sweet here, but put them in front of a football (soccer) match, and forget about it.I went to a Hapoal Tel Aviv game and I think a goal was just scored here. Hapoal won the game 3-2.
I am really proud to be cousins with this family. The parents are sports fans and raised their kids to be hard-core about matches... so much so that I was a little frightful of them during the game.

After a fun game with the family, I went out to Dinner with the last 2 of my classmates still in Israel.

Below: 1 happy Dane (Tuborg & Carlsberg are Danish beer)Day 11: Flight back to Newark.

Israel Days 1-6

2008-03-11T16:36:00.015-04:00

Before we start, here's my buddy Jon. We went to high school together and he was so kind as to let me stay at his place.
Friday morning Jonathan (not shown), Ryan and Mark arrived.We went to the beach, where the weather was wonderful and we had ourselves a delicious Mediterranean meal with tasty beer to wash it down. All the white stuff on the right plate is cheese (mmm).
Well hello there good looking.Guy Smiley...The Italian...The Gang (Enjoying the fun in the sun)...Whoa there studs... nothing wrong with a little leisure walk on the beach.I felt like this picture was an ad for an unknown beer. (I guess it seems like a corona ad)
Saturday - we decided to take a walk towards Jaffo (Old Tel Aviv). We had our 1st Shawarma and...

Do not adjust your screen, that can IS the normal 12 oz.Finally, the 1st good picture in this post. Tel Aviv taken from Jaffo.
Here is the future of the world. These students are currently International MBA students at the Fox School of Temple University. (Mark - Danish, Ryan - Nigerian, Jonathan - French/Belgian, Ben - American, Danijela - Bosnian/American)
Here we are about to enjoy some dinner before meeting the clients the following day.
Sunday & Monday

The room where the magic happened. 3 clients, 3 teams, hours of information, and tons more work that followed. What made this worse was that we had an amazing view of the beach from this conference room. This took all our GEN X & Y ADD to keep the focus on the client and away from the 80(f) degree weather.Tuesday

We went to an Incubator in Nazareth called NGT (read about it here). Check out my sweet Raj suit.In the city of Nazareth, we had some amazing Shawarma with all the fixins.
Then for some Baklava.

Israel Day 0.5

2008-03-07T02:39:00.004-05:00

I arrived safely in Israel Yesterday (3/6) after a 10 hour flight with Continental.

1st - I am fine. I heard about hte shooting at the Jerusalem Yeshiva, and I was no where near there. I am in Tel Aviv at my buddy's place.

Moving on, in light of Southwest flying "unsafe" planes, I thought I would tell an uplifting story about Continental (it's short). So Steve to mail an important item yesterday and logically he thought he could mail it at the airport. To further his theory, there was postage dispenser in the airport. However, for safety reasons, their were no mail receptacles at airport. Like the Gentlemen that Steve is, he asked a flight attendant (in the airport, not on the plane) to tell him what he should do. Well she was so nice and offered to mail it for him! Now that is some nice customer service.

Here is how the afternoon went.

Met up with Goldstein's roommates/buddies and had a beverage...

then met up with my classmates for dinner on the beach of Tel Aviv.Bought Steve some toilet trees.Removed Danijela's stuff from her crappy hostel.
and moved it to this nicer one. (from left to right: Danijela, Steve, Ben, Tree)
Now I must go to some work... and find a working shower.

Israel Again!

2008-03-03T22:14:00.003-05:00

Yes, you read correctly. I will be going to Israel again. I leave this Wednesday the 5th and return Sunday the 16th. For a reminder of my last trek, click me. This time will be a bit different. This time is more business than pleasure. I will be there with my Fox Consulting Team, working with our clients to nail down a plan of action for the next 4 months. Ironically, the client is based out of Sde Boker (where I had a week of dumbed down Israeli army training in 1997). Luckily, they should be planning to meet us in Tel Aviv.

While 5 of my days are designated work days while in Israel, another 5 are designated for pure Israel fun.
I plan to see the Haifa Hanging Gardens/Bahain shrine for real this time, Masada and the Dead Sea. Plus, I'm pretty sure the 5-6 Paris pastry pounds I lost since back in America will be gained back after eating shawarma, falafel, zatar and hummus.

As an fyi, last week I had the opportunity to hear the Mayor of Philadelphia, Micheal Nutter speak. Let's just say that I have heard plenty of public officials speak before, and none of them have ever sounded as believable and convincing as Nutter. I hope this does not come to haunt me in the future, but I truly feel that Nutter will make a difference. Here are some pictures from that event...my favorite (artsy, i know)

Google

2008-02-24T21:54:00.004-05:00

You know how people and Forbes have said that Google is the number 1 place to work... well it's all true. On Friday, I had the opportunity to enter the premise of Google's NY office. Below are some of the things I saw at Google...

Commodore 64
Apple II
Texus Instrument game console
Lego Land
10 mini snack rooms (filled with delicious organic snacks and drinks)
p.s. I ate a Luna bar and felt extra lady-like.
2 cafeteria's (at least 1 had a sushi chef)
1 play room

To say the least, my senses were overwhelmed in Google. I, along with 1.2 Billion others, want into that place. Hopefully, they'll open up an office in Philly.

Later on friday, I went to Cisco... here's a teaser of the TelePresence device we saw.

Today I went for a hair cut at Mark Anthony's in the Italian Market. However, he was closed, so I decided to spend that money on other items in the Market. Stops were made at, Superior Pasta, Sarcones, meat place, Di Bruno Bros, and some other street venders. All in all, I purchase 6 items that I didn't need.

Thanks to all those that voted in the food poll. I highly recommend you all try the famous cookies and a Sarcone's hoagie.

Here's is what you voted for...

3rd Place (Jim's)
1st Place (Pretzel)
T-4th (Famous 4th Street cookies)
T-4th (Sarcone's Deli Hoagie)
2nd Place (Lorenzo's Pizza)

Well, I must go prep for Monday... as Garfield would say "Stupid Mondays."

Career Week

2008-02-17T22:54:00.003-05:00

So last week was quite full. Finance is harder than I thought it would be... which just means that I must put in that much more effort.

This week is "Career Week". There will be company visits to ...
Philly
ExcelleRX
Deloitte
DC
International Monetary Fund
Gallup Organization
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
NY
Google
Bloomberg
Deutsche
Cisco
NBC

Plus we will have a couple of networking events, as well as a mock behavioral interview.
This week will be very beneficial and will also give me time to catch up and even get ahead in my work.

Last night I had my first French experience since returning from there. I had a triple date at Nick and Quoc's place and we ate some delicious French food, wine and champagne.

Here's Katie and Quoc (The best designer at Urban Outfitter) eating Hanky Pankies (not French, but delicious). The goods that went onto the chicken.The magic dinner table.

Quick Update

2008-02-10T16:06:00.000-05:00

School has definitely been taken to a new level here in Philly.

On the plan this week...

2 tests
1 paper
1 CEO speaker
3 or 4 meetings
some free time (maybe?)

This past Thursday, the MBA Student association threw a Chinese Dumpling Making event...

Must go study.

Super Bowl Sunday

2008-02-03T23:28:00.000-05:00

I love Super Bowl Sunday! Although, this year was a bit different because I had ample school work to do and on top of that, the game was BORING!

Also, I cannot believe the Giants pulled off a victory. I foresee annoying NY friends making outrageous comments that have no real merit.

Anyway, if you missed any of the commercials this year, they are on the internet @...

http://www.myspace.com/superbowlads #

&

http://superad.nfl.com/

Yesterday I was in New York city at a stop along the world MBA tour. It is similar to a career fair, but for perspective MBA students. I had a fun time representing the Fox school and discussing the International MBA program.
and here are the girls cleaning each other...I realize this next one is borderline disturbing, but it's part of life.

Vote Now!

2008-02-01T19:19:00.000-05:00

Everyone should vote for their favorite Philly food to the left.

Did You Know

- Pennsylvania Hospital is the oldest hospital in the United States

- Back in the day, surgeries were performed from 11am-2pm inside for optimal light. They were conducted outside the rest of the time when the sun was still up.

- If you are still using an antenna "rabbit ears" on top of your TV, STOP! 1st, it's no longer cool. 2nd, https://www.dtv2009.gov/

- Who remembers Upham from Saving private Ryan... well he just landed in Lost.

- Auntie Anne's Pretzels (not to be confused with the healthier Philadelphia kind) will be serving free pretzels tomorrow (2/2) from 10am-4pm. http://www.auntieannes.com/

- It is really hard to find Gluten free food in Philadelphia. The one place designated for that (Mr Ritt's) is closed everyday except weekends. Does that make sense? They do have good stuff though.

- I am going to NYC tomorrow to represent The Fox Business School at the Blue World MBA Tour.

- On the topic of New York, I think I have to side with the NE Patriots on this game. Here is my reasoning... NY Giants fans are all the same, obnoxious. I'll give you that Philly fans are rowdy, but NY Giants fans will never let a Super Bowl victory go. We (I don't mean Philly people, I mean everyone and their 11-teenth cousin) will never hear the end of it. I don't think I have enough brain power, time or life in me to listen to Giants fans ramble on about how great Eli is. At the risk of becoming too "blogger" like, I will stop this rant.

I must go enjoy some of Katie's fine tasting challah. Peace in the ME.

Real Business School

2008-01-31T15:08:00.000-05:00

So Business School in Philadelphia is in full swing. I am typically in class anywhere from 3.5 to 7 hours a day. However, my days are actually much longer than that. Here is an example of a day...

6am: Wake up and go to the gym
8:30: Meet contact for breakfast. (Theoretically, this wold be great for networking.)
9:30: Do homework/reading
11:00: Temple sponsored networking event
1pm: Class
4:30: More homework
7:00: meet another contact for a drink and/or dinner.
9:30pm: Arrive home and do more homework
Midnight: Bedtime and loop back the beginning.

I gotta say, I like this type of schedule. Being in 5 different locations throughout the day is what I need. I hope to find a job where this can happen. If anyone knows of anything, don't be shy and speak up.

Here are some pics to keep the zen...

Poconos...Sunny...
Poconos again...

Winter Break is Over

2008-01-16T21:23:00.000-05:00

My 1st winter break in 5 years is officially over.

Before I get into the school stuff I must say a word about a wonderful coffee shop on 20th and Fitzwater. For a great atmosphere and fun company, go to Beauty Shop Cafe.
Here is a lovely picture of my brother and sister-in-law's dog, Jake.
Now back to school (Fox - USA). I was able to play tourist on a trolley ride around the city.
Our fearless leader... (not really)
I think this is almost artwork.stop #1, Pat's king of Steaks. They were very good to us. I think some one ordered in non-English... and that was ok. My half of "wiz wit"Frenchman Pascal's 1st cheesesteak. Here's my whole IMBA 2008 class. No longer are we Mumbai or Paris, but 1.
Next stop, art museum. You can see Jaime (the real fearless leader) racing Jonathan (in red). Guess who won... that's right, the marathon runner. Who knew Philly was so picturesque? Move ahead a few days, to today. We had a dining etiquette class. Pretty interesting and I may have even picked up a thing or two about eating food and clothing style. We were recommended to purchase a $600 pair of shoes. I will be sure to do that once I have an income. I realize I have 3 pictures of Pascal up on this post, but what can I say, this wine connoisseur deserves more press.

So orientation ends Friday and classes start Tuesday. It's go time.

Back in Philly

2007-12-30T20:55:00.001-05:00

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.

Food

2007-12-29T01:38:00.000-05:00

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.

Rome

2007-12-28T18:55:00.000-05:00

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.

Leon de Bruxelles

2007-12-27T01:13:00.000-05:00

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.

Last post from Paris

2007-12-26T02:18:00.000-05:00

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.

Katie arrives the 13th

2007-12-11T03:31:00.000-05:00

The one and only will be here on Thursday.

Silly in Kenya...

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

Airlines

2007-12-09T05:32:00.000-05:00

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

2007-12-09T05:23:00.000-05:00

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

2007-12-09T04:46:00.000-05:00

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.

New Pictures are Up

2007-11-28T02:42:00.000-05:00

New pictures are up from my trip to Vienna and Prague. I will elaborate on these excursions next week. There are also some pictures of Paris Thanksgiving up as well.

Have a good week all, talk to you after Israel.

The Strike is Over

2007-11-23T02:49:00.000-05:00

Happy be-lated Thanksgiving to all. As a gift, the Parisians decided to end the strike after 9 days on Thanksgiving.

Also, I saw a homeless man on the metro this morning, and he had designer jeans that were nicer than mine. I know this isn't saying much, but only in Paris will you find a homeless dressed better than Dan Vogel.

This weekend I am in Eastern Europe. Next Friday I leave for Israel. Between now and then I need to write a paper and read many pages. Good times.

-Dan

Soccer match: France vs. Morocco

2007-11-18T11:02:00.000-05:00

On Friday night I went to the France Morocco exhibition soccer match. To put it in simple terms, the peope on this side of the Atlantic are crazy about "football". The atmosphere in the stadium is, at the least, energetic. It is where France beat Brazil 3-0 in the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

I had been to a exhibition match back in 2003 to watch the first event ever at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia: Manchester United vs. FC Barcelona. However, as much fun as that game was, it does not compare to this game for 2 reasons.
1. 80,000 French/Moroccan fans have more thrust than 67,000 Philadelphia fans about soccer.
2. As rowdy and obnoxious as Philadelphia fans are (which I am very proud of), their efforts are concentrated in a different manor. I think it has to do with French people having a larger repertoire of emotions and expressions.

Morocco played very well against France and in the end, the score was tied a 2 apiece.

Has anyone seen my shirt?
Welcome the teams will you.

and they are almost ready to start...

Before we got there, Steve, Anass & I were not sure who to root for, since we are living in France, but there are also many Moroccans living in France as well. Also, Anass is French born, but with family in Morocco. You can imagine the situation we were in! Not to worry, once we got to our seats, our minds were quickly made up for us. Since we were surrounded by red (the Moroccan colors), we chanted Arabic the whole time.

So close

Here comes the WAVE!

Strike: Who cares, I'll just walk

2007-11-18T10:12:00.000-05:00

Please enjoy my walk to school below...

Look at how crowded the street is with Bikes and people. I wish I had a better shot of the cars.
Here is the MonoPrix (food market) near my place. Look at cool the building.
Here is some cool monument. I have no idea what it is for.
Now we are at the Seine.
After arriving at school. I decided to go to Musee d'Orsay. This is probably the best museum in Paris. It has all the good stuff (pre - post impressionist work such as Manet, Monet, Degas, Rodin, Cezanne, etc) The view when you walk in. It was an old train station.

Here's the view from the other end.
The original Thinking Man.
Cool war painting.
Below is the walk home from school. Cool neon lite building in the back.
Notre Dame at night.

Why I did not go to India

2007-11-18T03:05:00.000-05:00

In case you are considering the Temple IMBA program in the future, here are a few points to help you in your decision between Paris and Mumbai.

+ Paris school (ENPC) brings in teachers from all over the world
+ You are in class with your Temple cohort as well as more international students from the ENPC (great Networking opportunity)
+ You gain 2 MBA's (1 from ENPC and 1 from Temple)
- India cohort goes on 15-20 company visits.
- The US$ has a much stronger buying power in India than in France (the euro has become the enemy)
- India is a very different scene, one that most people from Western societies have never
seen. It is no doubt a unique experience.

Lastly - I heard that in India there is some hazing ritual in which new comers must marry a dog. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21768663/
But in all seriousness, I give this guy credit... he has probably cleansed his karma.

Same run different day

2007-11-14T05:52:00.000-05:00

So another strike has begun here in Paris. The public transportation Union has decided to stick it to Sarkozy, again. The only problem is that this time (the 2nd time in a month), the people are not behind the union. You may be asking, what does this mean to me...

I went out for my morning run, and because of the strike less people are on the metro and have flooded into the streets by way of foot and car. To say the least, being on the look out for diagonal walkers and doggie dung is too much of an effort.

Last night, AFTER A FULL DAY OF STUDYING, we had a tour de France of wine tasting, hosted by Pascal. It was a good time. Of course my favorite wine was Gamay, no surprise... and I think it was the cheapest at 14 Euro.

Here are some of the bottles.

The classroom of many colours (that's right, I write in Canadian/UK).

Bottles of wine: 10
Participants: 12
Life lessons learned: 1 (never ask how much a good bottle of wine costs... the answer is never beneficial)

I write too much

2007-11-13T04:51:00.001-05:00

1. I had an awesome run this morning. I think I ran 6 miles. This was definitely a top 5 run while in Paris. It was nice to run by Notre Dame and through the 4th arrondismont (The Marais). I'm pretty sure my run went so well because of my new dew.
2. Nerd Alert: After watching an episode of The Office in which they mention a game called Second Life, I sought it out and downloaded it (the basic version is free). It is basically a visual chat room. Kinda like 1993 AOL, but you control a virtual person. I ran and flew around a bit, splashed in the pool, took off my shoes, and transported from "room" to "room". All in all, it was a great 10 minutes that I can never get back.
3. Last night I made this chicken masala dish (Indian food). Let's just say that I've moved from a mountain man cook, to a better than mountain man cook.
4. I must go to school now to write a paper on diamonds, while simultaneously studying for an managerial accounting exam. Let the fun begin.

"Hey Thorny, we can call our car Ramrod. You're Ramathorne, and I'm Rod. Get it?
"Car Ramrod. Get it? Car Ramrod?"
Ah, the good ole days.

School

2007-11-12T10:19:00.000-05:00

Don't be confused by the title of this post. I actually do go to school while in Paris.

Here are JD and Alex (Alex's IMBA tour) on Saturday studying for the economics exam we had this morning. The exam was good fun and no one came out injured.
For those who are curious, I will now go into detail about school here in Paris.
1. We have classes 9:30 - 5pm every day mon-fri. Not too bad, considering we get a French lunch of 1.5 hours. Each week we have one topic, better known as block scheduling. We have class 2 weeks in a row and during the 3rd week we have a "study week". During this week, we have tests and assignments due. This is one of those weeks, and between today and next Monday, we have 2 tests and 2 projects due. Luckily, I have 1 of each out of the way, so a little travel may be in the cards. If only the new Metro strike would not get in my way.

2. There are only 3 or 4 full time professors here at ENPC. Of these, only one teaches us one of the courses. You may be asking yourself, "Who teaches the other 9 courses?" Well I am glad you asked. ENPC "outsources" their teaching staff. It's quite brilliant. Basically they bring in phenomenal teachers to teach sorry students like me.

I hope this dismisses any crazy theories that you may have about school here in Paris. But, would you rather hear about my studying or my traveling? Or is it neither, but you read my blog anyway because you are bored at work? Answer not required.

Before and...

2007-11-12T08:16:00.000-05:00

how come no one ever told me my nose was this big...
I figured My best shot would be at an Indian place because they know English better than the French. However, the Indian Places looked busy, so I went into this place.
I got my hair cut in a North African place, by an Algerian, on a street full on Indian Restaurants and shops, in France.

So, we exchanged some Arabic, he knew I was kosher and...

After...
huh, my nose looks smaller here. (Note to self: always keep short hair.)It's pretty close to what Mark Anthony would have done in the Italian Market. Although he would have thinned out this mop on my head and I could have awkwardly stared at maxim pictures during the deed. But I can't complain, this haircut was cheaper than a beer. 6 Euro was what I paid the man, not too bad.

Randomness

2007-11-10T23:30:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the lack of writing, I hope we can still be friends.

Anywho - I want to say a few things that have been on my mind recently.

1. The Paris Metro is an amazing system. There are around 14 different lines and none of them smell of urine. Trains come very often, about every 2 minutes during prime time and no less then every 8 minutes during down time. I think Philadelphia has a lot to learn about this system. The one thing I could complain about is the ventilation/AC system on the unit. I am sweating every time I come out of the train.

2. Paris has an over abundance of doggie dung. For some reason, people hate to clean the stuff up. It's a doggie dung mine field out there and the casualty is one's shoe and dignity. As stated in an earlier post, the 1st time I stepped in dung was in Rheims, not in Paris, and that was a shock.

3. Speaking of Dung, please check out my cousins book. He has done a fine job. See the book (Dr. Stool).

4. Every morning on my run, I have noticed that Paris does some sort of reverse water drain thing. Basically, water shoots out of the drains in the street... probably to clean the dung.

5. A Jewish bakery opened on my street last week... very exciting.

6. Speaking of Jewish...

I went to the Shoah museaum last weekend. I didn't realize that Poland had the highest % of Jews in Europe at 9%. I also didn't realize that the French Vishay Government actively helped the Nazis round up the undesirables. Well, enough of that.

Here's what you see on the outside

The Wall of Names for those killed I found some Vogel'sAfterwards I went to the center of the Marais, the Jewish area of Paris. Had myself a tasty falafelSaw an interesting store
I have listened to the requests...
Upcoming Travel Plans...

11/12-11/13 - Loire Valley

11/23-11/26 - Vienna/Prague

12/1 - 12/5 - Israel

Belgium

2007-10-30T15:22:00.000-04:00

This past weekend, after my Finance exam I went to Belgium with JD and Neeraj. No, this is not a city Bcop. It is a country next to France. This Country, in my opinion, is known for 5 things (food & beverage related); and I conquered them all.

1. Waffles (Belgian) - count: 4
2. Mussels - count: 2 bowls (~ 80 total)
3. Chocolate - count: 1, but I also brought home some good stuff
4. Frites (fries) - count: 2 cones
5. Beer - count: it only took 1 sip to know that Belgium makes the best.

The 1st night we spent in a small town called Brugge, about an hour north of Brussels. This is a flemish (Dutch) speaking area. Plus, like the Dutch, they have a plethora of bikes.
At night, the town was quiet and a pleasure to look at
By the way, we stayed at a castle. Only 100 years old. Unfortunately.
Outside...Inside...
Brugge has some cool canals which we took a short boat trip on. I just love these old looking towns.

After Brugge, we went to Brussels. This is one of the main buildings in the main square.Excuse me, but I ordered a large!
Where the magic happened on Saturday night.The above street contained a no name bar in a long narrow ally way that we sampled a few Belgian beverages at. Then at about 9:30 pm, the bag pipe man started to play. I think that is when the night crossed over into legendary.After some more walking around town, and a brief exchange with a "shadow economy market employee" to get directions, we made it home to our hotel.

The next day we did some more Brussels touring, and here were the 2 highlights of the day.
This cool looking car.

and our last waffles. (Neeraj & JD)

What is a Hibou? I think someone copied my blog.

Normandy

2007-10-30T14:00:00.000-04:00

After a Managing People exam last Monday, I took a trip to the Normandy region. Most of you will recognize this as the beaches that the Allies (mostly US, UK, and Canadian forces) landed on D-Day, quickly pushing the Nazi regime back. While, this was the main reason I went, you must know that this region extends further then these beaches and has a lot of amazing sites.

Back to the story, we (Danijela, Elycia and I) drove from Paris to Mont Saint-Micheal. This is a little mountain with a big church. The big attraction at this place is that at certain times of the day, the tide will rise high enough to surround the whole mountain. Unfortunately, we were not there at the right time of the year to see this natural art.

Nonetheless, at night it felt like I was on the set of Les Misérables.
See Exhibit A & B.
The place is astounding at night...
It's not too bad during the day either.
After a night and morning there, we heading up north to Bayeux (the 1st town liberated by the Allies). We checked out a WWII museum, which was remarkably interesting. We then headed to the American Cemetery.

Here is the view when you walk in.. all those white things are tombstones.
The cemetery holds close to 10,000 tombstones for American soldiers.
A fact that mildly surprised me was that it is owned and maintained by America, on American Land, in France. The more surprising fact was that there are about 5 German cemeteries in the area. 3 hold about 10,000 each, and another has over 20,000. Those are astonishing numbers! Plus, they must be run by Germany (don't quote me). I guess this means that everyone is friends again. Unfortunately, as time was limited, we did not get to those.

Omaha beach. Pretty crazy to think about what transpired on this beach. Saving Private Ryan anyone (although that may have been steps over on Utah beach).
Inside one of the bunkers.
I think this was a big gun here.
Since this trip was a trip that I had been waiting for since I arrived in France, I thought would have been disappointed due to over anticipation. However, that was very far from the truth. I experienced where the world changed and I walked on land that too many people took their last breath on. Yet, even though this is a horrible thought, without this tactical operation, the war would have extended even longer. Or could the Russians have won it all by themselves from the east? Think about that for a sec.

In any event, I recommend this trip to every one that comes to France. After all, it's only a 2 hour drive from Paris.

Rheims

2007-10-30T13:28:00.000-04:00

This post is a little out dated, as I was in Rheims almost 2 weeks ago, but here we go.
I took a day trip to the capital of the champagne region. The day went as follows...

10:30 - arrive and then proceed to wander for a bit
11:30 - find map and head towards champagne cave
12:15 - arrive at cave only to find out that the next english tour is not until 2:30. Decide to walk from the south of the city towards the north to see where a WWII treaty was signed.
1:00 - Arrive at this location only to find that they close for 2 hours for lunch. So, I meander my way back south, take some photos of a big church and eat an orange.
2:30 - Took an hour tour of the cave, learned the history, and learned how to make champagne. Since I was not on my A game, due to not having eaten a real lunch yet, the knowledge passed on to me did not stay up in the noggin. The 2 points I did retain are as follows...
a. At this plant/cave, the thousands of fermenting champagne bottles are turned manually a few times a week.
b. During the fermentation process, some of the yeast? hardens at the top of the bottle, thus, when they initially pop the cork, this hard sediment shoots out. Then, some sorry replacement champagne must be placed in the bottle.

There were rooms and rooms and hallways of this.
3:45 - walked around a bit some more and then came back to Paris (1st class seat on the train).

More Pics

2007-10-24T18:16:00.000-04:00

I have uploaded some more pics. Please go take a look if you'd like. Click me.

I couldn't wait for the poll to end and I went to Normandy. I will try to write about it soon.

Here's a preview of...

Mont Saint-Micheal

American War Cemetery
German Bunker in France
Normally I would write more, but I actually do have work to do. I have a Finance test coming up on Friday.

By the way, I am officially going to Israel Dec 1 to Dec 5 to visit friends & family and to see sights that I have never seen before.

Metro Strike

2007-10-18T01:27:00.000-04:00

A metro strike started last night at 8pm. For more info, click me. As I write this at 7:30 am, it is still going on. You may be wondering how this will change my life. Well I will tell you...

Today, and hopefully only today, I will have to use my legs to walk to school.

Here are the problems with this...
1. It's a 45 minute walk (hopefully not more)
2. It is up hill BOTH ways
3. There is a hail storm

I tell ya, kids have it so easy these days, with their fancy metros, blinking rolling shoes, and those damn TVs.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATIE!!!!

2007-10-16T12:27:00.000-04:00

A little bit of this and that

2007-10-14T15:43:00.000-04:00

1st - for those of you that have never seen my appearance on a game show, enjoy.
http://www.r3-consulting.net/chainreaction

2nd - I finally had VB (Aussie beer).
3rd - I was thinking how amazing it was that I never stepped in Doggie Dung (more on this in another post), alas, it finally happened this weekend, but in Rheims, not Paris.

4th - While in Rheims this weekend I saw a champagne cave for the 1st time. Pretty amazing.
This is champagne stacked 4 feet high and going back 30 yards. This is just ONE of the rooms.

5th - I think I may go to Israel in December for 5 days. That would be awesome.

6th - Chris Farley is back...
7th - So it looks like I will not be getting a hair cut for a little bit. Or until I feel like I need it. Thanks for the feedback.

Back in the Fatherland: Updated

2007-10-11T02:07:00.000-04:00

So I was in Germany for the 1st time in my life this past weekend. I gotta say, the parts I saw (Munich/Oktoberfest) were remarkable. For those of you who don't know, Oktoberfest is an annual debacle of a beer festival (more info). Millions of people go to Munich Germany during this 3 week period, which starts in late September (go figure), to experience this amazing Bavarian event. First of all, as you may have seen in the pictures, people get dressed up in typical Bavarian garb. This involves men wearing Lederhosen and women wearing Dirndl. I am not sure that I could ever wear such an outfit, however, most of the men that do wear it are drunk most of the only day that they sport the outfit. The plot of land that is used is vacant all year round. On the grounds are amusement park type rides, games, venders and about 12 different tents (each holding massive amounts of people and a different type of beer).

I experienced Oktoberfest in true fashion by making a full day of it. I was on the grounds from 10am until 10:30 pm. I spent most of the day in the Augustiner tent, and enjoyed Oktoberfest beverages, food, and people. By the way, when I say tents, I mean wooden structures with an opaque tent like roof. The hall was packed with people and for the 1st time in my life I experienced a male bathroom line that was longer than the females. Unbelievable. I will say this to all the women reading this, I am sorry for all those times we are in and out while you are still waiting. Yet, this does build character in your careful planning abilities.

Because I am a food guy, I must say that the half chicken (Wiesn Hähndl) I ordered was delicious. They must drop it in a tub of oil to make it as crisp as it is. Plus, it was very salty (no complaints though). I am not sure if that is a Bavarian thing, or if it was implemented to make people drink more. At about 7pm, it was time to venture out of the tent for a little walking and one last beverage. The festival was a happening place, but not as rowdy as inside the tents. The last stop we made was the Lowenbrau tent where we sampled their brew and ate one last half of chicken. Overall - this was a great experience (probably because I've never seen so many different nationalities drunk at one time).

One more thing, they have pretzels in Germany that are bigger and almost comparable in taste to those steamy ones in Philadelphia.

Check out my Sunday morning breakfast...

That's right - pretzel with cream cheese and chives.

As for Munich, it was a nice looking city. It is pretty remarkable that the architecture looked so authentic and old, even though it was probably only built 60 years ago.

One last thing I must mention is that when crossing the street with pedestrian crossing lights, typically it is common to walk when there are no cars coming, even if the light is red. However, in Germany, if one does this (only foreigners do this), the Germans will yell at them. Very weird for a couple of reasons on a few levels. One, it just proves how the German culture is very rigid. I am not saying that this is a bad thing, it is a fact of their culture. Two, I felt uncomfortable being yelled at in German. Stupid Hollywood movies.

Maybe off to Amsterdam this weekend to see Brooke!

New Pics

2007-10-09T18:37:00.000-04:00

I posted some pics from the past week. There will be an update regarding Munich and Oktoberfest as soon as I have a bit more time.

Quickie

2007-10-04T16:26:00.000-04:00

I have my first graduate level exam tomorrow in the AM. Can't wait. Then I leave for Oktoberfest!

See Paris Dan! (With Pascal)
See Paris Dan's new car...See Paris Dan run (I wish I had a picture), when real owner sees me lurking around car.

I wish point 3 actually happened.

No time for sleep Dr. Jones

2007-09-28T02:23:00.000-04:00

Well, another week has gone by. This week has been filled with Understanding Organizations. We have looked at mainly organizations/groups gone wrong. For example, we've examined the Corcoran prison abuse cases, Abu Ghreib, and the Challenger disaster. I don't want to bore you, but I thought I would enlighten you as to the fact that we actually do work here. However, is it still work, if it's fun?

Thursday night we went on a Seine boat trip. It was nice and I saw some more of Paris. Some highlights were the mini statue of liberty and the Eiffel tower. After this trip, a smaller group of us went out for Lebanese food. The food was good and I ate purple (lavender) for dessert.

Friday afternoon my philly/NY friends came (class ended early). This started a weekend of full tourist Dan.

Friday evening we went to the Louvre. That's right, I actually set foot inside the place. I gotta say, there is a lot of stuff in there. I was a little shocked that we were allowed to take pictures inside, but we were and you can see my adventures to the left (My Pics).

After seeing all the obligatory sites inside and more, we left for dinner... french style. We found a bistro and started dinner around 9:30.

On Saturday, we went to the Arc de Triumph and walked around champs elysees. My American friends bought some European clothing and made me buy some as well. Apparently they felt that I did not have any style. But, that simply cannot be true. I ended up getting a new pair of Euro Jeans, and a sweet white sweater. Euro Dan is in full effect.

That night (sat) we went to dinner at 10 and did not start eating until 11... very Euro of us. We ate some Alcacian food (German/French), and drank some high class wine.

On Sunday we went to the Eifel Tower and got up the the 2nd level (there are 3 levels), because the 3rd level was closed. It was pretty neat to see the the city from there. Just in case you get to Paris, and decide to go to the Eifel Tower, know that the 2nd level is good enough. You know, in case you want to save 4 euros ($50).

After this, we went walked from near the Lourve all the way to my place. We walked through the Marais (Lovely, Midevil, Quaint, Gay, Jewish), and bought a hot baguette. I also found a store called Thanksgiving where I bought Mexican food... go figure. Apparently, as JD told me, they have a thanksgiving feast there every year (eat in or take away).

After this 2 hour walk, it was my friends time to leave. They left for Brusells, and are probably on a plane now for the US.

This morning I awoke at 6 am to watch the Eagles play like crap and lose to the lowly Giants. Truly awful and depressing.

Today and tomorrow we are doing some career counseling stuff. This upcoming Friday we have our 1st Test and it is in Financial Accounting. Sounds delicious right?

Here is the New Dan.

Ok, off to class.

The past week

2007-09-23T08:12:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the delay in posts. The combination of Financial Accounting and Yom Kipper took a bit out of me. But here I am ready to write and psyched for the Eagles game that will commence in a few hours!

OK, the game is over and it was fantastic. Being able to watch the game on my computer is great.

Over the past week I have been to the Rodin Museaum, the Army Museaum, Napolean's Tomb, learned about Financial Accounting, "celebrated" Yom Kipper (Jewish Day of atonement), and saw the eifell tower at night. (Pics)

For the record, Financial Accounting, as bad as it sounds, was not too bad. I learned a thing or two and the professor made it bearable.

As for Yom Kipper, this was by far the easiest year of all. Staying in bed all day and not standing/sitting in synagogue makes it a lot easier. I am sure the big guy will take a few years from me for not entering a temple, but in all fairness, I walked by a Synagogue multiple times. I actually watched when all the Jews left the service, and they were certainly the French version of twice a year Jews. I think the temple is an orthodox one, but the people walking out were wearing jeans, not the all black outfits. So not fair.

On another note, I found an open market near my house... very exciting.

Alright, I must do some work.

Fall is Here

2007-09-15T11:36:00.000-04:00

There are three things that let me know that the fall season in here. One of course is the the beginning of the Eagles season (Awesomeness). Of course I could bore you with history, stats and how losing personally affects me, but I will not. I will tell you the other two reasons.

#2 is Sam Adams Oktoberfest.
And the best indication.... drum roll.... is when Honey Crisp Apples come out.

I'm sure most of you have not heard of these, but they are awesome. You will know when you have found this when, well when you have found heaven or a party in your mouth after the 1st bite.

After walking around today for a bit (The Picasso Museum was closed for renovations, thus leaving me in wandering mode), I found a fruit stand. And to my amazement, they had an apple (pomme) called Honey Crunch (the French Name). You should know that I was sincerely worried before I left for Paris, that I would not taste this apple until next year. Therefore, if there had been any bit of homesickness, it was quickly washed away with the sweet taste of the Honey Crisp. I encourage you all to try these apples. Now you may be in for a bit of a test, since all stores do not have them, and when you find them, they will be a tad more expensive then other apples, but I assure you that they will be worth it.

For more info... Honey Crisp

Class Picture

2007-09-14T15:22:00.001-04:00

I have nothing to say, but I wanted to share our class photo with you.

New Additions

2007-09-13T17:35:00.000-04:00

No real updated here, just wanted to let you know that I added Paris weather and my school schedule for the next 3 weeks. Both of these can be found to the left.

You know that place with the best art in the world...

I'm on my way to getting my masters

2007-09-11T14:46:00.000-04:00

Hello again - please visit Pascal's pics
http://picasaweb.google.com/PascalIMBA08

So currently we are in our 1st MBA class(hesitant yay!). This class meets for a total of 16 hours (in 2.5 days) i think. The class is called Team Building & Leadership. Pretty interesting I might add. The professor hails all the way from... wait for it... Boston. He is really engaging and the class is loving him and the topic at this point. Like I said earlier, it is fun to use my brain again in a different way than from corporate America.

For those of you who don't know, ENPC (the school in Paris I am in) uses a an ultimate block scheduling system. So far it is very effective. In most american institutions, the student takes a course once or twice a week over a semester. However, in this block scheduling system, we are taking the full credits within a week. This is great for a couple of reasons, one, our brains are bombarded with information for only one course at a time, thus making us sponges (I hope). And two, this give the teacher the ability to make the class more interactive, and trust me, that makes everyone happier.

And now for some random stuff.

The Louvre is down the street from our school.

And yes, I may go the whole time without going inside.

Yes I've seen a double decker bus (in Thailand), but a double decker train... come on America, catch up!

Someone has a case of the Mondays

2007-09-10T14:28:00.000-04:00

Before I begin, please view these other blogs.

Tandoori Temple Owl - Ben is the tall good looking guy in most of the pictures and he is in the Temple program. However, for some reason, he decided to spend a lot less money in India. He's writing about our counterparts in India.

Alex's IMBA Tour - Another tri-continent MBA student here in Paris, writing about his experiences.

Now on to the good stuff.

Ok - so as you may know, last week was pre-orientation. Pretty good way to get back into the groove of being in a classroom setting. After all, being in a corporate environment over the past four years is a little different.

This past Saturday, I spent looking around Paris. JD, Alex (the guy from the above blog) and myself walked around Paris for a few hours. We found ourselves in this over crowded 6-story department store called BHV with everything that one could ever want (minus the people). Before we left, I had to snap a picture of this below. If you know what movie this word is from, you are alright on my list.
Anyway, on Saturday, JD and I made our way to Versailles. This may sound familiar to you because this is where the Treaty of Versailles was signed (to end The Great War). It was a lived-in palace back in the day, when the French Monarch still existed. Today it is mainly used for special events. If you want to find out more, click here. I must apologize, as I cannot give you a proper history lesson. After all, JD and I did not make it inside the Palace as we could not possibly handle the outrageous line. However, we did walk around the gardens which are acres and acres long/wide. Even that is an understatement. I would venture to say that the property is how do you say... VERY LARGE. I even started to complain to JD how I was not enjoying the walking. He presumably judged me as a bad travel buddy. I guess that explains why he has not spoken to me since.

Here are some pictures from Versailles.
Picture from the garden of the back of the Palace.

This is a fountain, but without the fountain on. I thought this was the best picture I had of the artwork done there.Today we had orientation in the morning and then we had our first class in the afternoon. I wish I could expound on it now, but I am ready for bed. In short, the class was interactively fun. I will get into this topic more either tomorrow or later this week.