Summer Ball
This past weekend was the Insead Summer Ball - it was fantastic! (except for the rain, but oh well) It was held at the Fontainebleau Chateau for the first time ever, it was a location that made you feel totally extravagant. There were close to 2000 people there with staff students and alumni all decked out in tuxes and ball gowns. Entertainment included stilt walkers, fire breathers, fireworks, Brazillion dancers, and 3 different rooms of music to dance to, including one with the Insead band from 1997 for their 10 year reunion. The party started at 10pm and the champagne was flowing all the way until the dawn breakfast was served.
PS - we didn't get very many photos since the camera was with Doug who seemed to always have his hands full with a glass of champagne and some munchies to keep up his energy! We will need to work on getting some from other people.
2 Separate trips
Sarah flew to England with her parents to visit family and friends while Doug flew to NY City for an interview and a visit with Steve. So both of us were having fun visiting and saying hi for the other.
Sarah and her parents visited with grandad and cousins and their families and then Sarah got dropped off in Kenilworth for a visit with Heather before heading to London for the weekend to fly out way too early on Monday morning. While in London she had a great visit with old high school roommate Genevieve and her family who she hadn't seen since graduation (but somehow didn't get a picture of!).
Meanwhile Doug had a gruelling 6 interviews on Friday and then got to relax with Steve and see a bit of NY City.
Next time it would be nice to see these places together!
Showing Off
We love our little french town; with the forest right beside the house an amazing patisserie and chateaux all around to go and see. So when Sarah's parents came for a visit we got to show it all off.
We spent time walking and riding through the forest, going to the local Fontainebleau Chateau as well as out to Chenonceau in the Loire and an afternoon at Versailles. There is still time to come for a visit - it is awesome here!
A couple of trips into Paris were also on the agenda and Sarah was supposed to head into Paris with them and show off her newly found french driving skills (which includes getting into parking spots that are smaller then the car and using round abouts with drivers that don't believe in lanes). But they had to go on their own while Sarah sorted out insurance after being hit driving home from dropping Doug off at school - French driving skills!
No more tajine!
We finished our trip to Morocco on the Atlantic coast in a town that we still can't pronounce. It was very touristy and was really a beach resort town (with some local fishermen for authenticity), not really our thing but was a nice way to finish off the break - walking down the beach barefoot watching the kite boarders. And then it was goodbye to Jason and Sandra and back to Marrekech to fly home. An excellent vacation - although if Sarah doesn't see any more
tajine for a long time she won't be sad!
Sand Everywhere...
Spending 3 days in the desert was amazing, we had close to full moons each night, great guides, friendly camels (no spitting at all!) and extraordinary scenery. The downside to spending 3 days in the desert was the sand in every place you can imagine and extremely sore derrieres from the camel riding. Words are hard to describe it all so here are a bunch of pictures but really they don't do it justice either...
The Imperial Cities
We packed up our bags and went off to Morocco for Doug's final break break before graduation (yes, crazy that it is almost over - we know). We flew into Marrakech spend one night in an absolute dump before taking the train up to Fez for a couple of days.
The Medinas (walled old city) have different
souqs in them each for a different type of handicraft. So we saw guys making tables and stuff in the woodworkers souq and guys making leather goods in the tanneries and guys making pots and bed frames and lamps in the medal workers souq etc...
Fez was amazing, the neatest Medina of them all. The "roads" are so narrow everything comes in by donkey, making it the largest car-free urban area in the world. If it weren't for all the satellite dishes on the roofs and the Levis jeans being worn by some you could have stepped back a few thousand years. We stayed in a very cool (but more expensive then we were hoping)
riad (
Riad Dar Dmana) right in the Medina that was, as Sarah put it very adorable.
After wandering around, getting lost, trying not to buy more then one carpet and soaking up the crazy Medina of Fez we headed back to Marrakech to meet up with friends Jason and Sandra. We spent a day wandering through the Medina there (and yes buying more Moroccan goodies - a painting this time) and observing the crazy night market before boarding a night bus to take us down to the Sahara for 3 days in the desert...
This past weekend was the Insead Summer Ball - it was fantastic! (except for the rain, but oh well) It was held at the Fontainebleau Chateau for the first time ever, it was a location that made you feel totally extravagant. There were close to 2000 people there with staff students and alumni all decked out in tuxes and ball gowns. Entertainment included stilt walkers, fire breathers, fireworks, Brazillion dancers, and 3 different rooms of music to dance to, including one with the Insead band from 1997 for their 10 year reunion. The party started at 10pm and the champagne was flowing all the way until the dawn breakfast was served.
PS - we didn't get very many photos since the camera was with Doug who seemed to always have his hands full with a glass of champagne and some munchies to keep up his energy! We will need to work on getting some from other people.
