Blunt

Thursday, February 23, 2012,5:04 PM

MIA - PIA

Sorry for the delay in posts! If there's one thing I assumed about studying abroad at NYU it was that the sites have much easier classes. False. Taking 3 economic classes and 1 Stern class is no joke. My exams and problems sets were all due this week, hence no post. But! It it's on its way :)

Wednesday, February 15, 2012,4:46 PM

P for Pia, P for Paris

Paris, Je T'Aime

"America is my country and Paris is my hometown" - Gertrude Stein

There are some places that feel like home.

Those places, no matter how often or after how long you go, just feel like home.

Paris has always had that effect on me, and it still does.

This past weekend, my friends and I left for Paris.

Despite doing an exchange there in high school and visiting the city numerous times since I was a child, it felt like nothing had changed.

The warm sunshine and the cool wind welcomed me along with a French flag waving over a building across from the Nord station.

We embarked on our journey early Friday morning.

...and barely made our 8:31am train.

#win / Talk about cutting it close!

We arrived at 11:48am local time (+1 GMT) and made our way to the hotel Metropole Opera, located less than ten minutes away from the station Nord.

Expedia gave the hotel 4/5 stars, but after entering our rooms, we realized it must have been because of the location and not the hotel.

Not that there was anything wrong with it (brown water, smelly shower curtains, dirty floors), but the location was wonderful.

It was heaven.

The hotel is situated right in J-town, with Japanese people, stores, and restaurants all over the area.

Under a Korean sign #fail

As someone who can speak both French and Japanese, I couldn't have asked for much more.

We proceeded to explore Paris by heading over to the Louvre by Metro, which, excluding my prior experience, is very easy and straightforward as compared to NYC's. Since there were about 15 of us, we couldn't explore too much without stopping to pose and take pictures with the statues and iconic pieces of art, but it was marvelous none the less.

Outside Le Louvre

She's smiling!

Normal

"An artist has no home except in Paris" - Friedrich Nietzsche
My Art

Ravenous, our appetites guided us to a quaint French restaurant near the museum, Le Palais Royal.

French cuisine is definitely not vegetarian friendly, restricting vegetarians like myself to foreign cuisine (pizza), salades, and baguettes avec fromage.

Not to my surprise, there was mostly meat on the menu in all forms - soup, medleys, you name it.

After, we went back to the hotel and rested a bit, exploring the nooks and crannies of the streets and the fun local stores, where I not only got to exercise the flexibility of my languages by switching from French to Japanese, but also revive the days when I was a foreign exchange student, and not a tourist.

Favorite Band...Fangirl moment.

"Étant la plus saisissante manifestation de l'art des constructions métalliques par lesquelles nos ingénieurs se sont illustrés en Europe, elle est une des formes les plus frappantes de notre génie national moderne" - Gustave Eiffel

Blurry! But the tower was sparkling!

At night, we went to the marvelous Eiffel Tower.

Since it was freezing, literally (we couldn't go above the 2nd floor due to frost), we left quickly, but even the few minutes in the wind was so worth it!

View from the Eiffel Tower

After calling it a night, the next morning we set out to Notre Dame and Versailles.

Pictures are worth a thousand words:

Outside Notre Dame

Rose Window in Notre Dame. Breathtaking.

Outside Versailles

Hall of Mirrors!

London is so central and easy to travel from that even a two day weekend trip somewhere makes the whole experience so much more enriched. We left for Paris Friday morning and came back Sunday early afternoon yet accomplished so much.

In short, as said by Audrey Hepburn, "Paris is always a good idea."

I don't know where the wind will blow me, but I know I can always find a safe haven in Paris.

To the best valentine I could ask for, Paris - je t'aime!

Labels: paris holiday trip vacation weekend france louvre eiffel tower museum

Monday, February 6, 2012,5:01 AM

The Things I Do to See Imran Khan(s)

This post is a cross-cultural exploration, a compare and contrast of my Desi experiences in NYC with those in London.

Albeit this post does not deal with the Dutch-born Punjabi artist, who I also went through great pains to see, my journey and hustle to see the actor is definitely worth commemorating.

My dance team NYU Dillagi was requested by UTV Motion Pictures to hold Imran Khan’s promotional event for his upcoming film “Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu” on January 29^th. It was a big decision not to go abroad, this event being one of the reasons. However, getting to Skype with the whole team, the event, and even Imran Khan was totally worth it - the best of both worlds.

In short, the New York event was, without bias, extremely well coordinated and handled. The event did not start on IST. Everyone was seated. Food was arranged. Valentine decorations illuminated the romantic aura of the hall. Though I was over 3,000 miles away, the pulse, energy, and excitement that rushed through all the fans in the hall of E&L translated through Skype. Dances were cleanly transitioned, Imran Khan was beyond eloquent and down to earth, the flash mob was successful, and the meet and greet commotion left from Kimmel to Facebook for hours and days. Great job NYU Dillagi and sponsors J

If only my London experience was a fraction of what I just described…

At the NYU event, Mr. Heartthrob mentioned that he would be going to London the following day. No matter how far or unreasonable it would be to go on a school night to a Bollywood promo event, I made my mind that I would go. However, last minute all my friends that wanted to go backed out. I didn’t realize why until I stepped out of the dorm and Google-Mapped the directions. The shortest and most convenient option to get there took over an hour and a cab would have cost 59 pounds PER way.

More or less the route we had to take

So, I thought to myself: I’ll only get to live in London and do crazy things, regardless of the weather and time, once. Why not explore and get lost! As a result, I set forth on what seemed a long, and confusing journey with a friend of mine who embraced the cold and adventure ahead.

Saw this in the subway; couldn't be more fitting!

Finally, my friend and I reached. Scurrying to reach the venue safely through the deserted alleyways Google Maps suggested, to our dismay, we had to end up waiting 2 hours for Imran Khan and co-star Kareena Kapoor to arrive.

The luxury of sitting with friends in a collegiate atmosphere was totally absent, as the crowd was full of Desi’s, mainly aggressive parents and their toddlers who bore the smell of Indian lentils and oil, hyper teenagers, and tall boyfriends accompanying their Imran Khan-obsessed girlfriends. Since the event was in Cineworld in Feltham, all of us had to wait in the entrance behind a barricade, uncomfortably being pushed and shoved as if we were in a mosh pit. The lack of humor and wit in the MCs after the first hour turned from remotely entertaining to painful. I expected the entrance to be filled with people, but it was not the case. Then again, hoards of people squished themselves against the barricades, condensing the volume of people, but either way it was not as packed as the NY event. Compared to NYU's promotion, I was not very impressed. The stars arrived a little after 8pm and barely spoke/showcased themselves/promoted their film for 20 minutes before getting attacked by the mob of people screaming for their fliers to be autographed. It could have been much more organized with a proper meet and greet, which would have gone much smoother, even if the actors were on a tight time-budget. The crowd was a big factor of the aggravation of many people too…While I didn’t get an autograph, I got my 2 seconds of fame by reminding Imran Khan that I was on Skype during the NYU event, whether or not that actually struck a bell in the moment. Kareena, on the other hand, pretty much just ignored all her fans and proceeded to her car. Guess it's the jet lag? ....

Kareena Kapoor and Imran Khan

After the event, we stopped by Burger King and got ourselves veggie burgers, then proceeded to make our hour+ long way home.

All in all, I’m glad I went. I not only got much closer to the girl I went with, but also did exactly what I came here to do: test my limits and not control what’s ahead of me. An opportunity presented itself and I didn’t think twice. I just did it. I didn't treat London like a foreign ground, but rather myself as a foreigner who set forth to conquer and explore the adventures ahead. My feet were most definitely not on the ground.

Labels: Desi Culture Imran Khan Kareena Kapoor Movie Adventure Exploration Comparison