A Semester in Fontainebleau, France

Its been seven months since the pandemic brought the world to its knees. People have locked themselves in and countries have sealed their borders. The end is not in sight. I have been miserable and the mere thought of not having the option to travel disheartens me. Then on a boring evening after work, I started watching the  ringarde  show Emily in Paris on Netflix and I became nostalgic for the five months we spent there in Fall 2019. We were based in Fontainebleau, a small town outside of Paris. I was working remotely and we would travel to Paris almost every weekend and stay the weekend in the city. In this post, I pay homage to the city of lights.  I am not into fashion or luxury goods so I did not love Paris for those. I have my favorites in Paris - wine, cheese, fresh breads from the boulangeries and the delicacies from the patisserie, the river Seine, and the adjacent Rue Rivoli, the ornate bridges on the Seine and the breathtaking views from the bridges durin...

December 29, 2019 Our last trip in Fall 2020 was to Israel. In this blog I am writing about our 1 day trip to Jerusalem. This is the most fascinating place I have visited. This place has rich history that is personally relevant to me, especially relevant to my faith and my upbringing. I was raised a catholic. Although I am not a practicing one now, biblical stories still resonate with me. The tour to Jerusalem was arranged by the Hebrew university. In fact, the tour guide was a business school professor, who teaches Marketing at the Hebrew University. She started out by sharing that every tour guide has a different interpretation of Jerusalem and she will share her interpretation, the interpretation that has been passed down to her by her grandmothers and her family. She also said that her tour is an important lesson on branding and developing brand value. Our first stop was the Mount of Olives. This picture of the city of Jerusalem was taken from there. Mount of Olives is c...

December 14 - December 16th A French experience would be incomplete without a visit to the French Riviera. Manoj took out time from his busy schedule to go to the south of France. We decided to visit the coastal city of Nice and it's surroundings. The Nice airport strip is on the Cote D'Azure, which translates to the blue coast. As our plane made the landing, we could see the deep blue shade of the sea. After Barcelona, this was our second city on the Mediterranean this semester. After checking into the hotel, we decided to go for a leisurely stroll. Our hotel receptionist suggested walking to Massena place. Place Massena is the main square in Nice. In the middle of the square we came upon the sight of Buddhas sitting on pillars (pictured below). There are seven such Buddhas, each representing a continent. The Buddhas are trying to talk to each other, to arrive as a shared perspective on life. Like Barcelona, this coastal city is also surrounded by small hills. ...