Keeping Your Head Above the Piles

"Somehow I kept my head above water. I relied on the discipline, character, and strength that I had started to develop..." Esther Williams

I know how Esther felt, though her circumstances were a far cry from mine. I know how Esther felt, though her circumstances were a far cry from mine. My marathon museum and restaurant adventures have continued. It is curious to me and rather perplexing why some of the state funded museums state that they discount every student under 26 years and every senior aged 62-70 years, regardless of nationality. I specifically ask if this includes Americans, Canadian, etc. and the answer is yes. Others like the Ludwig only grant this to the member countries of the European Economic Community, which does not necessarily include all EU countries. It is so confusing with all of these lists, but in addition, why are some rules one way and others another when they are all government funded?

Yesterday, I went to the Museum of Applied Arts. Generally with my Press card, I get free admission without question. Here, I had to pay…100 Huf. It was barely worth the effort, but I complied. The thing about this museum is that the temporary exhibits are incredible, but the permanent ones are quite blasé.

I could have spent an hour more than I did with the Kecskemét Contemporary Art Workshops - Exhibition of the International Ceramics Studio offering. Creativity was personified in the variety of works on display created by artists representing 45 different countries.

There is an impressive exhibit there now called The Bigot Pavilion- Ceramic Art Nouveau building in Paris. According to the descriptions on the inside wall, this museum purchased the collection early in the 20th century and had it shipped to Budapest. When I asked the guards in the exhibit if it were permanent, she said it was there to stay. When I mentioned it to the surly ticket seller upon leaving, he grumpily stated the guard was wrong. It is temporary only. It is difficult getting factual information even when face to face. I don’t know how some of these travel writers who depend on the web ever manage.

We are leaving for our last summer fling on August 23rd and will be gone until the 29th. This is giving me a compelling desire to get as much work done before hand as possible. I still have 9 courses to prepare for for September.

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Recycling Good Business Practice

Since there have been so many changes with Frommer's and Frommers.com, I have not posted on their forum for quite some time now.

However, to keep a web presence, I have been writing reviews for TripAdvisor when we travel and for anything worthy of reviewing in Budapest. Although we seldom eat out when we are home, once in a great while there is something note-worthy that is suitable for jotting a review.

I have reached the Top Contributor status on TA, but this came in today’s mail. You will notice that I write under BudaBaB. It is an additional marketing tool. If I wrote under my own name, chances are few would make the connection to our B and B. TA is very restrictive of what they allow for personal content. I receive regular messages congratulating me on the number of readers who have read my reviews. Today, this came in.

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A Week in Review

Some weeks fly by so fast, you barely remember what the day happens to be at any given moment. This week was one of those weeks. 

Wednesday night we were to meet our friend and tenant Jeff Frawley at the Odean Theater for the Funzine Film Club. I am not even certain what movie we were supposed to see, but we had done this film club as a monthly ritual when he was here on a Fulbright accompanied by his girlfriend, the lovely Allison, and the delightful Dr. Karla Kelsey, an additional Fulbrighter. We arranged to meet Jeff at the movie by 7:30pm for the 8pm show. He had invited a fellow teacher Julius. As it turned out, the film club had been canceled do to the film not arriving or some such. We could not make sense of the explanation, but the replacement film was a Hungarian nature show. We enjoyed our beer from the lobby cafe, talked, and went our different ways.

Thursday was a holiday. It was the Remembrance of the 1848 Revolution Day - The main demands of Hungarians were: freedom of the press, and the establishing of a Hungarian parliament in Pest with its government, freedom of religion, a jury, a national bank, a Hungarian army, and the withdrawal of foreign military presence from the country. You may notice some similarities to the current situation in Hungary. 


Ron and I took advantage of the weather to walk around the city. Todd Berliner, a Fulbrighter told us about a chocolate café where the hot chocolate is so thick you need to spoon it out. There are a dozen ingredients that can be added to it too. We hunted it down, found it, but it only opened at 3pm. We walked the city, noting the mobs of people disseminating from various events, carrying flags. To idle away some of the time, we stopped at Csendes, a coffee shop extraordinaire. It looks like a bomb went off inside an old antique/junk store
and everything inside was plastered to the walls. A visual delight.


Finally, we returned to the chocolateria and found it open for business. Ron had dark chocolate with orange and I had the same chocolate with peanuts, a drink I could do some spooning with.

Later that evening, we had been invited to a Beat Poetry gathering sponsored by the seductive W. Hunter Roberts, a minister of a different stripe. She holds these monthly poetry shindigs where costume is required. We begged out of it for two reasons. 1. I hate costume functions. 2. I really dislike poetry. This even could have been palatable, given it focused on the Beats. Though they were before my time by a half a decade, I had read and enjoyed Ginsberg and thought his poetry was a Howl. Instead, we had Todd Berliner, a current Fulbrighter over for the screening of the movie, Game Change. Todd alone, but also when accompanied by his wife Dana, are delightful company.

Friday, I was sick as dog in the morning. We had lunch scheduled with a former student for whom I had been the thesis adviser. He had invited Ron and I for a "thank you" meal and chose Hard Rock Cafe, since he had never been to one. This was perfect since I wanted to include it as a new entry in my Hungary chapter for the Frommer's Europe book. For a short time, it didn't seem I would live to eat another meal, let alone lunch which at the time was four hours into my future.  I recovered sufficiently to put on a happy face for a happy meal in a happy place, so all went happily.


Speaking of Frommer's, I shared readers' complaints with my editor that Hungary was included in the Eastern Europe book; she told me not to be too concerned. They are no longer going to have an Eastern Europe book. Three editions and it is the end of the story, so if you have one, hold on to it.


All this and yes, once again it happened. Wednesday night when I shut down the main desktop computer, Windows installed updates. Thursday when I turned it on, it would not boot yet again. When I finally did get it to boot, it started doing a Chkdsk on drive G. It is still running and still checking. Yikes!

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What Do You Bid?

Someone sent me this. Fun! Thank you. I tried sending a note back to the e-mail account it said sent the notice, but it bounced. The funny thing is this book is listed as more expensive than in the bookstores.

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Mummy, Please, Please

The Fine Arts Museum has a special exhibition of Egyptian mummies and assorted other related artifacts. One of the three mummies has been unwrapped, making it quite chilling. As I stared, I wondered how the person would have reacted if they could have been told that in 2,500 years people from all over the world will be staring at your remains. Now that is a creepy thought. We have been to Egypt, but quite honestly, this exhibit was excellent, highly recommended. 


In addition, there is a 3D movie that runs for 8 minutes. What we did not realize until it started was the need for earphones for language translation. Most of it seemed to be a repeat of what was written in the mummy room, so if you read that you were covered. 


Another temporary exhibit now available is called The Eight, a group of Hungarian artists that studied in France, but had three art exhibitions here. Strangely, there were always more or less than the 8 in each of their three exhibitions and like other areas of life, the younger ones pushed the older ones out of the group. Also well worth seeing!


Absolutely high with culture, when you leave temperature controlled room with The Eight are on display, you are thrust into the gift shop. Needless to say, there are many Egyptian trinkets to spend money on, but there are really other delightful gift items. What I was especially impressed with are the books for children in Hungarian and in English. However, since modesty is not my best quality when I saw this, I about let out a yelp of joy! Second from the right is my book. It is always so exciting to suddenly come across it outside of English speaking countries. 

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Sign of My Times

Yesterday, I was walking across the street from us on the way to the place where I buy DVDs, so I happened to pass the Old Man's Pub. This is an institution in Budapest for music. What caught my eye and made me do a retake is what was in the outside display. My review from my book. If you had not noticed, all of Frommer's books are republished in the New York Times Travel section and now in NileGuide.

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New Tool From Amazon

If anyone has bothered to check, I have an author's page on Amazon.com. Today, I received an e-mail stating they implemented some new tools. One such tool is the ability to look at your book sales in the US. I would be more interested in seeing this worldwide, because I get letters from readers in Australia, the UK, Singapore, and different countries in Scandinavia. 

I don't receive royalties on the sales like a novelist would, but it is still a proud moment to see your book is selling. Below is a graphic of the sales across the US. For those who subscribe, it will not show up in your e-mail. Sorry about that. If you are interested, you will need to come to the blog to see it. 

These were sales for one month from November 8 to December 5, 2010. Considering it is winter and the dollar is not doing well in Europe, I am impressed. 

Sales for one month

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Free Dinner and Then Sticker Shock

We were invited for a dinner at the Vörös Postakocsi Restaurant because they were so pleased with the review I wrote about them in my Frommer's book. We went last night for a lovely dinner; I had the ribs, which I definitely don't see too often on menus here. With all of that pork, I was wallowing in our good fortune. If only it had lasted a bit longer. 

Today, I checked my online bills. That trip to the dentist was on my card. After misreading the consultation price list, I was way short on cash. That little voice told me it was too much of bargain, but I smacked it back in place. I tried using our euro ATM/Mastercard to pay the balance, but the bank has a limit of 700 euros  a week. This was way over that limit. Handing over my charge card, I at least felt smart about using the one that does not have a currency conversion fee or foreign usage penalty. With a credit limit of $34,000 on that card, I knew I was good to go. 

When I looked at the statement today, first I gagged, then I hyperventilated, and then there was nothing more to do than resign myself to the expense. It converted to $3,769.18. 

We just bought our airline tickets to New Zealand for our December vacation. They were $4001.00 for both of us. So, if I had left my teeth alone, we could have gone to New Zealand
twice.

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Oh Canada, Oh Canadians

I was still at school, but when I finally arrived home, Ron told me I missed my fan base. Huh? I respond. Well it seems that a trio of Canadians found their way to our door and came in with the guests who were due to arrive. They appeared at the door asking for me. They had a copy of my book in hand and wanted it autographed. 

Good soul Ron had them come in, gave them tea, and chatted for an hour hoping I may return in the meantime. Needless to say I didn't. The elder of the group was an 81 year old who left Hungary as a youngster, but had never been back. He was here with his son and grandson. In my absence, they had Ron sign my name in the book. That alone made me weepy. Our handwriting is as different as our nature. Oh Canada! Call next time. You may find me at home.

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There Ain't No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

There may not be any free lunches these days, but there are a few free dinners. 


Frommer's always sends out these stickers long after I have researched a book, making it a difficult to backtrack to all of the places that will be in the book and deserving of a sticker. I think it is helpful for those who read the book to have the reassurance of seeing the sticker in the window, especially of restaurants.

I photocopied the cover of the book along with the inside page with my name. Then I photocopied each of the reviews from the highest 3 stars to the no stars. I sent each restaurant a copy of their review, the sticker for their window (only the 3 and 2 star places), and a letter stating that two of us dined there for the review. As such, I was pleased to offer them this sticker to further their advertising. 


Two restaurants e-mailed me to invite us for dinner on the house. Not only that, but a Frommer's reader wanted to meet us for dinner. Normally, I don't accept these types of invitations. Eating out is a luxury for us, so spending that money causes me to think twice. After a number of e-mails, I felt we would like this couple. Good instincts. We had an early dinner before they went to the opera. They were a wonderful couple. We could have spent days with them. Mike and Rich picked up the tab besides, totally unexpectedly, but a doubly pleasant surprise. 

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Florence Was Not a City in Italy

Quite some time ago, I received an e-mail from a woman named Florence. She was coming to Budapest and a friend of hers told her she should contact me. It seemed like the distant future to bother thinking about at the time. Some people have good intentions on meeting, but the tourist bug sucks all of their time. I suggested she call me when she arrived providing her with my mobile number. 

She arrived, she called, we arranged to meet she and her friend Mark for a drink. After the initial greetings, it was like the old routine "Who is on first?" I admitted to them that I could not place a face with the referring friend's name to save my life. The fact that I did multiple searches in all of my e-mail accounts, turned up nothing. Meeting so many people, more so in the last few years with the books, I had to start keeping notes on people as I met them to have memory pegs for later if we should again be in contact. Florence's friends was not in any contact list in any e-mail account. This was driving me crazy, but insatiably curious at the same time.  

Florence said "You know each other from Facebook." 

Ryan said "How did we connect?"

Florence said "You connected through Facebook."

Ryan said "Yes, but how did we find each other initially to connect on Facebook? My general rule is not to accept friend requests unless I know the person."

Florence said "I don't know, but you two have never met."

Ryan said "AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

Initial frustrations were not going to be satiated, so we went for coffee spending about 2 hours chatting. They are both from my old stomping grounds: NJ and Phila. My parting comment was that I was going to message the referring friend to say "Who the hell are you anyway?" and I did while also pointing out that I was smiling when I typed it, but begged for enlightenment. There is a serious lack of photos facial photos in his profile making it extra maddening.

Yes, he did write me back. He had written me more than a year ago regarding my Frommer's book and we has a brief correspondence before moving on to FB. Mystery solved, but for the future, if you are sending people to meet me, photo IDs are required. :  )

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Surprise, Surprise

When a new little establishment opens, I try to give them my business if I can to help them get off to a good start. Directly across from one of my favorite cafes, Aztek Chocolat  at V. Károly krt. 22 is a new little copy shop. After just finishing creating guest brochures for the rooms, I laminated a color copy for each room, plus one for reference. Then I thought it would be a good idea to have copies made so guests can take it with them when they are out and about. I have things like which tram, metro or bus stops are within 2 blocks of us, plus other little tips. Off I went to the copy shop where I had 30 copies made to start.

As I left, Aztek Chocolat was calling to me saying "Are you sure you don't want an espresso?" I started to resist and continue on to the bus, when I stopped to call Ron to see if he would join me. Nope, he was not interested, but the rest of the news was that a major water main broke directly in front of our building. They were in the process of ripping up the street and there would not be any water for ? hours. Well, there was no chance of getting coffee at home, so Aztek Chocolat, I am yours.

While ordering my coffee, I overheard a couple speaking NY English; being from NJ, I can pick up that accent in a whisper. Curious how they happened to come across the cafe, I did not want to disturb them to ask. Seating myself outside, waiting for my brew delivery, I turned to see the woman with a book in her hand. The book looked like it went to a Post-A-Note convention and barely survived the give-aways. It was littered in yellow sheets popping out of the binding like spiked hair on a teenager. The cover looked familiar, but I had been wrong in the past, so I proceeded with caution. Taking one of my new Frommer's business cards out of my wallet, I stalked back in to get a closer look. Eureka! I found it. My book, or rather her book that I had authored. Without saying a word, I handed her the card. She looked at it and thanked me.

Atypical New Yorker. I gave her a few seconds to connect the dots, but the synapses were not firing, so I filled in the gaps for her. "That book you are using is the one that I authored. If you have any questions, I will be outside."

They must have then taken time to match the name of the card with the name on the book. The husband vaulted out of the cafe, introduced himself followed by "This book has been the best investment we have made. We went to all of the places you highly recommended and you have been right on target. You have the best job going." I was not sure whether I should blush, bow, curtsy? What is the protocol in these situations? I should have had the game plan ready when I presented them with the card. The wife then made her appearance, so we could the praises could be shared yet again. I never said "Stop you are embarrassing me." Hey, who am I to inhibit free speech? Well they are NY'ers from Staten Island. We had a nice chat, but they are leaving tomorrow for Prague.

Walking on a cloud, I didn't care if there was no water at home. Ron took advantage of the situation by declaring we had to have dinner out or pick up dinner out and bring it in. Our neighbors were uncharacteristically helpful. They came to tell us we could get water from down the street. Of course this was shared in a mix of Hungarian and charades. We were uncertain if they were telling us something or just rehearsing for some public performance they had in the works. Very strange as highly unusual, their being nice to us. Water was indeed being pumped out from a water truck, but B.Y.O.B. Bring Your Own Bucket. We filled a pail for emergency use. The jack hammering is still happening at 10pm. We were so thankful that the four guests we had had all left earlier in the day. No other guests are coming until tomorrow. Hopefully, we will be able to shower before greeting them.

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Writ'in the Rails Again

It was over a year ago when my editor for the Frommer's Europe by Rail book told me to stay close to my e-mail while on my winter vacation. She had anticipated signing up her authors for the next edition. When my winter break was over followed by my spring break, I finally sent off an e-mail asking "Que pasa?" 

Each book has a different editor, so I get a chance to work with different people making this a rewarding job.

By that time, I didn't need to have a degree in economics to know "it is the economy, stupid." or rather "it is the stupid economy." Which ever perspective, Frommer's and Wiley Publications were holding off on a new edition even if it should have come out for 2010.

Well, my saintly editor received some funds for a rewrite of the book. They thought they would have to do an in-house revision, but they will use authors after all. For me it means I will be doing the rewrite of the Hungary chapter for the 4th edition of the Europe by Rail book. Look for it sometime in 2011 is my guess.

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My Book is Out If You Can Find It

It looks like Amazon.com is sinking on my list of favorite sites. First my editor told me that the publisher had to manually enter the release date into Amazon.com for my book, because it defaulted to the UK release date. Now, when I search Amazon for either Frommer's Budapest and the Best of Hungary or the title without Frommer's, the page with the 7th edition appears. To find the current 8th edition, you either have to be intuitive enough to click "other editions" or specifically type in 8th in the search box. If you want to find it, click here.

If you go to Barnes and Noble online here, and type in Ryan James in the search box, you will find Frommer's Europe and Frommer's Eastern Europe, two books for which I wrote the Hungary chapters followed by a boxed set of Tales from the Crypt, but nary a fully authored Budapest book. Why the Tales...is there, I have no idea, but it would make a great title for my memoirs. To find my most current book, you have to type in Frommer's Budapest, but they too are showing the UK publication date as you can see here. 

Of course, you can order it directly from Frommer's. Click here. Getting it locally will save you shipping charges, but if they don't have it on the shelves yet, here is the ISBN number: ISBN-13: 9780470551264

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Celebration Time

Time to celebrate...I finished my book, Frommer's "Budapest & the Best of Hungary" 8th edition. The most difficult part was the page limits. I have a maximum of 280 pages, but with all of the new information going into these new books, it was a major struggle. I came in at 281. There is usually a minute bit of wiggle room, so I have my fingers crossed. 

I still have the maps to work on or rather to assist Ron is assisting me with the maps. Then off it goes.

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Did You Want an Autograph With That?

Two nights ago, Ron and I went to a restaurant for dinner and to re-review for the book. I had gone back to this restaurant during the time he was in the States, but was terribly disappointed in the food and the service. Because I refused to believe that this was their new standard, going downhill so drastically, I wanted to give them one more shot at it before it went into the book. The book has the good, the bad, and the disastrous, so watch out. All went well, the service was fine. With only four other diners in the place, I should hope so. A group of five older ladies walked in and took a seat. Their NYish accent pricked up my ears, so my eyes followed them to their table as they sat down. Then lo and behold, what should they place on the table to the side...Frommer's "Budapest & the Best of Hungry" 7th edition. As my head and chest swelled, it was difficult to maintain my balance in the chair while trying to eat at the same time. Fortunately, I had a few bites of my dinner before they displayed the book, or I would have forgotten to taste the food. As much as I tried to ignore them, I could not keep my wandering eyes at home. When we finished, I told Ron I was going to say hello. He did not think I would do it. After excusing myself, I asked how they liked the book. Three of them formed a chorus of "We love it. It is our bible." I will excuse the other two for not joining it with the rest. They had just arrived from NYC only four hours prior and were still jet-lagged, so their reflexives were not up to par yet. Once they heard the others, they were able to kick start themselves and shower me with platitudes making it a complete cheerleading squad of 60 somethings. Four of them pointed to the fifth woman and said she is the organizer. She has been organizing their annual trips together for the last ten years and does an amazing job. She bought the book, and read it to them every chance when they were gathered within earshot. I looked at the book. There had to be over fifty little pink tabs growing from between pages and not one of them had any writing on them. I was uncertain how they were distinguishable, but as we spoke, the ring leader was able to grab the correct tab needed to quote something that I wrote. After fifteen minutes of soaking up the praise and laudatory comments, we left them to enjoy their meal, but as we were walking away, we heard "Wow, isn't that wonderful? We met the author." Another said "That was so cute of him to come over to speak to us." Cute? Peter Pan complex aside, I think I have passed 'cute' a few decades ago, but hey, you have to bask in whatever rays of sunshine come you way.

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Reunion

We have our friend Kim visiting from Bremerton, WA. I worked with Kim in Modesto, CA and she and I became fast friends. We were extremely close for a number of years, but she was working on a Masters, I on my doctorate; things fell apart. After almost twelve years of separation, neither of us were sure what happened, but she did come across Ron on Facebook. We reunited via e-mails and she is here now for our reunion. We have picked up where we left off, or left off from the best parts. It is like we were never away from each other. Showing her Budapest and today, Szentendre has been a blast. Last night we went to Paprika Restaurant, one of my favorite restaurants in Budapest. They recognized me as the author of the Frommer's book and comped the whole meal for all three of us. That was a real treat. Off to another dinner.

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Back in the Saddle

Gosh, I have not posted for six days and started getting withdrawal symptoms; my fingers started to itch, words were making my head swell looking for an escape route, a more creative enriched expression than verbal communication would allow. As you know if you are a reader, I had my new computer installed, my Windows Home Server, and a heavy duty router. A portion of my time, I have been trying tweak the WHS, which did not come with a printed manual, but one online, making it difficult to flip through. Little by little, I am finding the tips and tricks. There is also a learning curve with Windows 7. I like the release candidate, so will anxiously wait for the real thing to arrive on shelves. A great deal of my time has been spent eating out, going to hotels, checking admission prices of museums and other things for the book. By the time I get home, I have to write and rewrite with great enthusiasm before the copious notes I have taken become muddled in my own mind. We have also had fabulous guests who have shared their time with us, making it more than a pleasure having them here. We were graced to have author Anna Balint here with her low key, but exceptionally fun husband Willie. Anna's site is http://www.curbstone.org/authdetail.cfm?AuthID=148 . Getting to listen to Anna's processing for her writing was intriguing as well as insightful. She gifted us with a copy of her book The Horse Thief, a book of short stories. Ron is reading it now and keeps whetting my appetite to dive into it. Four other great people followed on their heels, not giving us a chance to lose artistic momentum. Tom and Beth Besson arrived from Texas. Tom is an artist and you can view his work here www.tombesson.com. Beth is a director of adult education, so we had much in common. At the same time, we had a young couple from Kingston, NY who were here for Formula One. Jennifer and Paul were just as delightful with youthful energy, excitement and they were celebrating their anniversary as well as Paul's graduation with a Masters in Education. Jennifer is an art teacher in middle school. Talk about a melding of people; it just does not get better than this with all of the talented people who cross our threshold. The new editions of Frommer's guides will have different formats for the first three chapters, so things need shuffling around even for sections that will not change, like the Jewish history. I thrive on change most of the time, so this is exciting. I also found some perks through the TourInform office here in Budapest. They have a Budapest Study program to help travel journalist learn more about the city. I applied and was accepted. They have a number of partner hotels, restaurants, and attractions, but by the time they responded, my choices were limited. I had covered many of the things already. Nevertheless, we were treated to dinner for two at a restaurant I wanted to return to anyway. Since it is a bit expensive, it was even more enjoyable knowing we did not have to pay the bill. Yesterday, we went to Momento Park, formerly Statue Park as guests. Normally, I would not refer people there. It is a distance from the city. Haowever, with a tour guide, I witnessed it in an entirely different light. The concept worked as I will now give it a much more favorable review. There is a better understanding of how and why it is presented as it is. Tomorrow, I will be squeaky clean. They booked me at the Gellert Thermals at 10am and then at the Széchenyi at 3:00 pm. I will be mellowed out for the weekend for sure.

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Another Post on My Book

Call me obsessed, but there is a certain thrill about seeing your book in a bookstore window. That thrill is compounded when you see it in a bookstore window in a non-English speaking country. I found it in this Libri International bookstore when I stayed at the bed in the box, but the picture was so large on my phone camera, I could not e-mail it to myself. Finally, here it is. May I add, it is the only Frommer's book they carry!

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A Week of Eating

Two years ago when I was researching the first Frommer's book I was writing, there was a former Fulbrighter here, Angela Bennett, studying Hungarian for the summer. We had known her from her year here as a Fulbrighter, so she went with us to dinner from restaurant to restaurant for weeks, sampling dishes so I had more fodder to review. History has repeated itself in a minor way. This last week we had the pleasure of the company of one of the first Fulbrighters we had met here in Hungary, Jennifer Norcross. Jennifer was an exchange teacher here for a year, teaching English. She loves the city, so returns often. Her timing was impeccable, not only staying with us, but just in time for the restaurant tour once again. Jennifer had the good sense and I must say good taste to purchase my book ahead of time, so I had a make a list of the restaurants she would like to eat at while here. Each of her eight nights, we dined at a different place. I collected feedback from she and Ron concerning their meals. Besides being a good dining partner, she is great fun to be around. She has a vivacious personality and is never without something of interest to share whether it is over the dinner table or just over breakfast. Just observing her in daily life, I can imagine she is an incredible teacher. We just wish she could have stayed longer, there are so many more restaurants to waiting for us.

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