Short of the Christmas market, things are pas bien here.
My sleep habits have completely changed. I stay up late because it takes awhile to wind down from school and then "wind up" again in order to work productively. This, obviously, makes it hard to wake up in the morning and stay awake in the boring classes. I have, on the bright side, been drinking more water because doing something helps keep me awake.
Our schedule/due dates are so insane that it's hard to keep them straight, let alone work productively. I've managed to keep up decently, based on what I've heard from the other Americans. Don't get too excited, however, this simply means that I've actually finished few papers, while others loom ahead of me. We have these evil little seminars that take up entire days and include a "dossier" (a paper of at least 5 pages in length) due shortly thereafter. These utterly interfere with our already disorganized schedule.
For example, this past week we had negociation and complex selling. I am an awful negociator, to the extent that it was one of the personality faults I named during our equally pointless seminar on finding an internship. So you can imagine how much I loved this class... The first day involved a case where we had to negociate the contract between a star chess player and a company who wanted him to play against their super-computer. The second half of that day was a case that insulted most of our German classmates because it was a replay of the end of WWII. Reading the terms used, you can well imagine why they would've been insulted. The country that was obviously Germany was called "Bierland," and the representative was named "Holger Wurst." The case went on to describe how Bierland had utterly destroyed Europe. Now, you and I both know that all of these things actually happened and that it was horrible. However, to bring up the issue in a class full of people who have dealt with the stigma of their grandparents' actions their whole lives is not exactly the most politically correct option.
Day 2 was better/worse. Our professor was much more interesting and shared more stories of his experience. However, he unfortunately took a liking to me and called on me all the time! One of his main points was that a negociation isn't truly successful unless everybody wins. However, in reality I've always found (thus the reason that I hate negociating) that everyone involved is concerned only with his own interests and is constantly trying to trick someone in order to come out ahead. We did several practice rounds in groups, and had only 20 minutes left of class when he decided that we were going to have a special negociation with one student against him. The only thing he told us what that he would be a buyer for a large chain of 2 * hotels, and the lucky student would be a seller of signs (like the kind that point you towards the ball room or the toilets). After what was supposed to be 10 min of prep, but was really only 5, guess who he chose?! Since we hadn't had any guidelines or any real prep, everything said was basically bs and could be whatever the speaker wanted it to be. So, for example, he had offers from another supplier, whereas I made up the fact that there were 150 rooms in each of 10 hotels. 30 years of experience vs someone who hates negociating is really no contest, and even though I tried my best, I just got so nervous and said the wrong thing several times. Afterwards, we discussed it and I was so upset that I started tearing up, so I didn't even participate in the discussion. I, thankfully, waited to cry until I was outside the classroom, but he must've seen the waterworks coming and tried to apologize as I was on my way out. He even went so far as to tell my friend, Harriet, that I'd done a good job and shouldn't be upset. This is the second time this semester that I've been in front of a group actively trying to find fault (even though it was a role-playing situation) and it's ended in my crying. Having never been like this before, I've decided that the camel back-breaking straw is French. In a similar situation in the United States, my language skills would at least be strong enough that I could fake my way out of "trouble." In French, however, I can hold a conversation, but can't react quickly enough to formulate the best possible response.
To top things all off, we finally received a response (after over a month) from Northeastern regarding which classes we'll be transferring back. The answer is: all of them! Since the credits are different among classes, some of them will be combined and the grades averaged in order to transfer them over. Unfortunately, the goal of French students is just to pass the class. Employers don't look as much at your grades as at the university you went to. For the Americans, however, we have to worry about grades in 17 classes! While a class may only technically have 2 credits, we still have a multiple hour exam and a 20 page group paper + presentation to do in many of them, so the work load is the same as a 4 credit class, we just see the professor (aka the only person who can advise us) less often.
Needless to say, it hasn't been an especially wonderful week.
On the bright side- I found out last week Thursday (hadn't posted about interviews for lack of time and for fear of failure) that I am officially going to be an employee of the Corporate Finance and Developpment department at BNP Paribas- the largest bank in France and I believe the 7th or 8th largest worldwide! :-)
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Monday, November 9, 2009
Champagne cave visit + 2 week summary
Haven't written in awhile, so here's a basic run-down of the past couple of weeks' events:
Arrived at Pommery and were offered one of 3 tour options- 1 glass, a nicer 1 glass, or 2 glasses of our choice. The latter option was only 5 euro more than the first one (and a horrid glass of champagne at a café in Reims will run you about 9 euro) so we decided it was well worth it. I was glad Casey was along because we also could choose between the French and English version of the tour, and without his weight we might've had to do the English version. We had time to kill, so we wandered around the welcome area (a concert was supposed to take place there tonight, so there was some really cool set-up going on) and the store.
The tour itself was fantastic. Our guide, Sandra, I believe, was fantastic and, luckily for us, very articulate (which is the reason why I actually remember most of what she told us on the tour). The company which became Pommery was started in 1836, and then formed a partnership with the king of industry, Mr. Pommery in 1856. However, Mr. Pommery died shortly thereafter, leaving behind his 39 year old widow and their two children. Veuve (widow) Louise Pommery was savvy and bought 75 hectares of vineyard land plus the production/storage/distribution center where the tours now take place.
We went down 116 steps (she told us, I didn't actually count) into what I believe was called a crayère (chalk room hollowed out for storing champagne because it keeps it at a nice, chilly 12 degrees C) where we started seeing our first bottles of champagne. As we were walking through, we noticed that most of the little hollows in the wall had names of cities on them. Sandra explained that it was actually a pretty smart way of organizing distribution. Everytime Mme Pommery's marketing director opened up a new market, she placed the name of the city over the area where bottles destined for that city lay. Miami, for example, which is also a beach in Spain, so we don't really know whether it was Spanish or American Miami, Zurich, Brussels, and even Rüdesheim (the small town in Germany we visited a few weeks ago). Overhead tracks with baskets used to carry 6 bottles of champagne (or 4 magnums) at a time. Now, however, they use electric vehicles, not the old system.
We talked about the fermentation process of Champagne. It's first fermented in big vats like normal wine, but is left open, so the bubbles from the first fermentation pretty much disappear. Then it's fermented in bottles, and the dead yeast forms a kind of co-agulated (I'm lacking in the proper vocabulary word in French or English for it) mess in the bottle. Of course, they remove this unsightly mess. How? Well, they submerge the bottle upside-down in a vat of very cold water (-25 celcius) so that the dead yeast freezes into a kind of "cork" at the top of the bottle. This "cork" is then popped off and the bottle is properly closed.
We also learned that champagne used to have 125 g of sugar/750 ml bottle!!!! They drank it as an after dinner liqueur in these cone shaped glasses so that the yeast (they hadn't figured out the filtering process yet) and the extra sugar would fall to the bottom, and they only drank the top part. However, Madame Pommery had a brilliant idea and started adding only 10g/bottle so the champagne was lighter. And that's how we got "brut" champagne!
The whole winery was showing a contemporary art exhibit, so a lot of the rooms had random pieces of "art," i.e. a day-glo pink dress, a weird red race car, a giant "A" with a bird all made out of neon lights... Very interesting...
We looked at the stacks of wine bottles. one of them had something like 300,000 bottles and went back 10 meteres. Every stack had a code on it, a letter which meant the kind of champagne, and a number that referred to the year. A 50, however, didn't mean that the wine was produced in 1950 (champagne is only drinkable for about 3-5 years after maturing), but was a secret code! Oh my!
The champagne tasting was absolutely fantastic! Maggie and I were glad we'd gotten the 2 glass option. The "regular" champagne wasn't that delicious. She got the "blanc de noirs" (all pinot noir grapes) as her first glass and I got the rosé (a big step, since I don't do rosé usually), and then we both got the millesimé as our final glass. So, so, so good. Smooth, sparkly, and perfect scent. I looked up liquid regulations for the airline (b/c it would probably pop in hold) and it looks like if I want to bring some home for Christmas I'll have to hope they have it at the duty free shop. Not really the same, but possibly do-able.
- Group projects galore! The research is generally pretty interesting, it's just mind-numbing to think of all the projects I have to work on. For example, my group hasn't even started on our Logistics project (which will involve interviewing a supply chain manager at X company and finding out all kinds of detail about his company, then a person chosen at random by the professor will present our paper in 15 minutes) because we have so many other things to do and the professor told us to wait until we had better questions to ask.
- Had a visit with my social class to the local "Prud'hommes" court. Essentially, France has two types of courts. The prud'hommes, and everything else. The prud-hommes (judges) are nominated by unions, elected by any employee, and rule on cases involving employees vs. employers. Unfortunately for us, all of the cases were postponed (one of them for not having a properly prepared case. seriously?) until at least next month, so all we got to see was the court room and listen to the prud'hommes talk a bit. Still a cool experience, however.
- The good news about this whole experience is that I'm becoming more and more sure about what I want (or don't want) to do. I absolutely detest my marketing class, for example. It bores me to tears, and I just don't see the logic/point behind it. However, I think I'm one of the only people who enjoys my financial diagnostic class, and I am absolutely in love with "compatabilité de gestion" (managerial accounting). I finished two cases in the time everyone else did 1, and it was interesting. And amidst all the disorder and confusion that is my scholastic life right now, my inner control freak really likes putting the right numbers in the right boxes and getting an answer that is right or wrong beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Arrived at Pommery and were offered one of 3 tour options- 1 glass, a nicer 1 glass, or 2 glasses of our choice. The latter option was only 5 euro more than the first one (and a horrid glass of champagne at a café in Reims will run you about 9 euro) so we decided it was well worth it. I was glad Casey was along because we also could choose between the French and English version of the tour, and without his weight we might've had to do the English version. We had time to kill, so we wandered around the welcome area (a concert was supposed to take place there tonight, so there was some really cool set-up going on) and the store.
The tour itself was fantastic. Our guide, Sandra, I believe, was fantastic and, luckily for us, very articulate (which is the reason why I actually remember most of what she told us on the tour). The company which became Pommery was started in 1836, and then formed a partnership with the king of industry, Mr. Pommery in 1856. However, Mr. Pommery died shortly thereafter, leaving behind his 39 year old widow and their two children. Veuve (widow) Louise Pommery was savvy and bought 75 hectares of vineyard land plus the production/storage/distribution center where the tours now take place.
We went down 116 steps (she told us, I didn't actually count) into what I believe was called a crayère (chalk room hollowed out for storing champagne because it keeps it at a nice, chilly 12 degrees C) where we started seeing our first bottles of champagne. As we were walking through, we noticed that most of the little hollows in the wall had names of cities on them. Sandra explained that it was actually a pretty smart way of organizing distribution. Everytime Mme Pommery's marketing director opened up a new market, she placed the name of the city over the area where bottles destined for that city lay. Miami, for example, which is also a beach in Spain, so we don't really know whether it was Spanish or American Miami, Zurich, Brussels, and even Rüdesheim (the small town in Germany we visited a few weeks ago). Overhead tracks with baskets used to carry 6 bottles of champagne (or 4 magnums) at a time. Now, however, they use electric vehicles, not the old system.
We talked about the fermentation process of Champagne. It's first fermented in big vats like normal wine, but is left open, so the bubbles from the first fermentation pretty much disappear. Then it's fermented in bottles, and the dead yeast forms a kind of co-agulated (I'm lacking in the proper vocabulary word in French or English for it) mess in the bottle. Of course, they remove this unsightly mess. How? Well, they submerge the bottle upside-down in a vat of very cold water (-25 celcius) so that the dead yeast freezes into a kind of "cork" at the top of the bottle. This "cork" is then popped off and the bottle is properly closed.
We also learned that champagne used to have 125 g of sugar/750 ml bottle!!!! They drank it as an after dinner liqueur in these cone shaped glasses so that the yeast (they hadn't figured out the filtering process yet) and the extra sugar would fall to the bottom, and they only drank the top part. However, Madame Pommery had a brilliant idea and started adding only 10g/bottle so the champagne was lighter. And that's how we got "brut" champagne!
The whole winery was showing a contemporary art exhibit, so a lot of the rooms had random pieces of "art," i.e. a day-glo pink dress, a weird red race car, a giant "A" with a bird all made out of neon lights... Very interesting...
We looked at the stacks of wine bottles. one of them had something like 300,000 bottles and went back 10 meteres. Every stack had a code on it, a letter which meant the kind of champagne, and a number that referred to the year. A 50, however, didn't mean that the wine was produced in 1950 (champagne is only drinkable for about 3-5 years after maturing), but was a secret code! Oh my!
The champagne tasting was absolutely fantastic! Maggie and I were glad we'd gotten the 2 glass option. The "regular" champagne wasn't that delicious. She got the "blanc de noirs" (all pinot noir grapes) as her first glass and I got the rosé (a big step, since I don't do rosé usually), and then we both got the millesimé as our final glass. So, so, so good. Smooth, sparkly, and perfect scent. I looked up liquid regulations for the airline (b/c it would probably pop in hold) and it looks like if I want to bring some home for Christmas I'll have to hope they have it at the duty free shop. Not really the same, but possibly do-able.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Food lately.
Halibut (fletan) in soy-flavored vegetable broth with mushrooms, carrots, onions, bamboo shoots and Chinese cabbage.
Homemade pizza before cooking with tomatoes, garlic, basil, mushrooms and mozzarella. The mozzarella "leaked" all over, so it was a mess, but still pretty good.
Monkfish with whole-grain mustard and white wine sauce, garlic-sauteed spinach and roasted potatoes (all from market a couple weeks ago)
Uncooked tart with luscious pears from the market
Tart after cooking.
School, Germany
2 weeks into school and haven't had time to write about it... We have something like 13 classes, according to one of my German classmates (and Germans are good at counting, so I believe her). They are at random times. For example, Mondays we don't have class until 2 p.m., whereas there are some days when Maggie, my roommate, has class from 8 to 12:30, and then a break until 3:30 with class until 8 p.m. (French support is an additional requirement for certain levels). Some of the highlights(and lowlights?):The Good:
- Droit social (social law)- Hilarious professor who gestures, articulates and says "c'est-a-dire" all the time ("that is to say..." followed by another explanation in case we didn't get the first one.) France has a court just for disputes between employers and employees, with all sorts of crazy (he said it, not me) rules. For example, judges in this court (called prud'hommes) must be appointed by the unions, even though half are elected by employers and half by employees who might not even like unions. Furthermore, elections for said judges take place during work hours. Thirdly, judges are not required to have any legal experience whatsoever and have a crash course in law when elected.
- Introduction aux SI (Intro to Information Systems)- again a very good professor. This one's actually in charge of the school library, so when he found out about one of the papers we have to write, he took 15 min off the end of his class to show us where to find article databases on the library's website. He's also very easy to understand and encourages participation.
- Francais (no accents today, sorry. French)- loved Mme Spagnolo when she taught during our intensive French week, so this is no exception. She had an immense vocabulary and seems to enjoy us. She, too, encourages participation. While she won't laugh at you if you're wrong, she won't sugar coat your error, either. She is extremely well-informed about world events (for example, asked me about budget cuts regarding education in California before showing me the article she picked up in Paris that day about it) and is a pleasure to listen to.
- Politiques communautaires (Communal politics)- Taught by different professors with different backgrounds (politics, economics, sociology...) every time, this has basically been a modern European history course that all of the anglo kids desperately need.
- Logistiques et Supply Chain Management- Crapshoot. Sometimes fairly interesting, other times 3 hours of the worst kind of boredom there is. These professors also like to quiz us before teaching us. AKA- what are the three dimensions of logistics? They aren't anything you'd be able to come up with, let alone a quantitative answer. Note: in case you take this: Inter-organisationnel, intra-organisationnel, et environmmental. I'm not even going to check my spelling there.
- Diagnostic financier (financial diagnostics)- we haven't actually started any analysis yet, so it's early to judge. So far just a "review" of financial accounting. However, some European rules are the same as FAS (Financial Accounting Standards- US), and some are completely different. Amortizations, for example, refer to all forms of depreciation except for those on things like stock, which are reversible and non-permanent.
- Economie Internationale (again, no accents. International Economics)- Unfortunately the only class that is gauranteed to be on my transcript because I have to take it. This professor speaks in a low-pitched voice, aims his mouth at the floor, speaks quickly, is cocky as all get-out, and refuses to change. A couple of brave students asked him last class to please speak louder/slower then he wasted 10 minutes of class time telling us that we couldn't slow down because we have to take a test on the material whether we've covered it or not. The slides are full of paragraph long quotes (a big no-no in powerpoint presentations) and then he talks about things while we're writing furiously and says that some things won't be in the powerpoint and some will, but refuses to give us the slides ahead of time. At least it can only go up from there?
GERMANY! I love Germany! We took the train to Frankfurt and were met by Maggie's dad on Friday. Had dinner in the hotel in Wiesbaden (which is a government-owned hotel for servicepeople and employees on orders) with him and his co-worker. It was Italian, because it's an Italian restaurant, but was fantastic after just light snacks all day.
Saturday he went to drop co-workers off at the airport, so Maggie and I found our way to the downtown area. There happened to be a fantastic market that gave the Saturday market in Reims some tough competition. Tried apfelwein- which was absolutely fantastic. I would say, as usual, that approximately 99% of the people were absolutely wonderful. Also: no dog poop on the street, people mostly didn't run into us in order to prove that the sidewalk was there, children and dogs were well-behaved and gorgeous... Oh, and for my single girlfriends, German men are much better looking than the French ones, at least what I've seen so far. Looked around and did some very light shopping, mostly for postcards. For dinner, we took the train into Frankfurt and had dinner at what my untrained eye sees as a very authentic German place. We sat at a communal table, had our pilsner (so, so, very good with a perfect aftertaste) with food. For me a mixed grill plate with pork chop, small sausage, pork shoulder, sauerkraut (mmm), mashed potatoes and a thick slab of bacon on top of the potatoes. For dessert, Maggie's dad suggested we try apfelkorn. Typically, I don't like most liqueurs because they smell awful, but this one smelled and tasted like the first bite of a deliciously crisp apple. Because we want to keep doctors away permanently, we also shared apfelstrudel for dessert, which came with a custard sauce and whipped cream.
Sunday we took an autobahn (not as speedy as you'd think) down the Rhine to Rüdesheim. The town is absolutely gorgeous, overlooking the river. We strolled around and ended up taking a sky-lift thing up the vineyard-covered hillside to the top of the hill. Gorgeous, smooth ride that made me want to come back with someone I love... Quick visit to the top to check out the amazing view and then back down. Maggie and I did a bit of shopping while her dad went to feed the parking meter. We sat down for lunch at another nice German place. Had schnitzel with a mushroom cream sauce and spaetzel (German noodles) on side, with pilzner, of course. Maggie really wanted to try spaetzel, so we also got the appetizer version which had melted cheese and caramelized onions. There was an entertaining act of a beautiful singer and a guy playing back-up keyboard. They even sang a couple American songs (or example, "My Bonny Lies Over the Ocean" if memory serves), but what was the most fun was the dancing. Several brave couples took turns on the dance floor and I was so impressed with their talent. The women all added cute little kicks to their steps, and the men gracefully guided the girls across the little dance floor as if they did this every week. We finished up a little more Christmas shopping and then headed back to the hotel for some laundry and to bed early because we had to rise at 4 to catch the train. Great weekend and very sad to be back in school. Only about 8 more weeks until Christmas!
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Visit to CERN
Just came back from an amazing weekend in Geneva/Paris. Took the 7 a.m. train and spent most of the ride reading a book called "The Black Hole War" by Leonard Susskind in an attempt to brush up on some physics knowledge (especially the kind I'm interested in- black holes) before we arrived. The reason for this being that my professor doesn't believe that black holes exist. More on that later. Arrived in Geneva, dashed towards hostel and luckily they opened before their official 2 o'clock end of lunch break because the check-in process took forever. The hostel gives unlimited transportation cards with each stay, so although no one checked anyone passes, we rode the tram and bus for free all the way to CERN. Geneva has a pretty sophisticated public transportation system- very sleek with computer screens to tell you which stops are coming up.
Met Professor Reucroft at the welcome building and we headed to the cantine to meet his friend, Jim (no clue what the last name was), who teaches at BU and works on the ATLAS project (A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS). We walked through the museum/exhibition area in the main building and Steve and Jim told us about their work. Steve had been working at CERN for 40 years (since he was a student) and has worked on tons of other experiments besides the LHC, so his perspective was really interesting. Jim is relatively "new" and has been working there for about 20 years, I believe. After the museum, we headed across the street to the ATLAS command center. It's rather underwhelming until you realize that through the glass windows, the physicists are controlling a giant piece of machinery with just computers. One of the points Steve and Jim made was that many of the big computing challenges are created/solved here. The WorldWideWeb, for example, was created to allow these scientists to communicate with each other. The amount of data they collect requires enormous amounts of memory. So neat. We were able to see diagrams of what a collision looks like- two protons collide, but don't necessarily remain as just protons. Electrons, neutrons, protons, muons... All of these result from the collision. An image is taken just after the collision and physicists look at the "signature" of each particle to determine what particles came out of the collision. For example, charged particles (electrons/protons) have curved paths as a result of the toroids (big magnets around the detector). Non-charged particles (muons, neutrons, etc) do not have curved paths. Each particle also shows a web at the end of its path and the place in which it does this also helps differentiate between particle types. Scientists are hoping to find new kinds of particles by examining collisions.
Tried to get down to the detector to look at it, but it was closed and a retina scan is needed to enter (unfortunately, my retina information hadn't made it to CERN ahead of time...), but we got to look down the shaft towards the big chamber. It's 1km underground, I believe, weighs as much as the Eiffel Tower, and is as tall as a 10 story building. When CERN was building it, entire sections of road had to be shut down because the trucks transporting pieces were as wide as a 2 lane road. Amazing!
After our mini tour, we headed back to the cantine for a beer. We'd already heard that physicists love drinking (see Facebook for picture/description of bubble chamber), and apparently many wonderful experiments have been designed at the tables in the cantine over a couple of brewskis. We started with our group of 5, and Jim and Steve's colleagues kept coming over until we were a group of 9. I was so amazed by these men. They're some of the most brilliant people in the world, but their knowledge isn't limited to physics. They're well-informed about global politics, they use Facebook and Skype and iPhones, and have interesting opinions on religion, education, healthcare... We talked about black holes- my professor thinks that people have accepted their existence too readily because it's a cool theory. There's been no actual proof that they exist, and theoretical physicists haven't really come up with any experiments for CERN to run to prove their existence. Sure, there's a gravitational force exerted at the center of galaxies, but it could be a neutron star, or a bunch of stars in a group. I'm disappointed to find out that my favorite scientific subject may be a bunch of malarkey, but it's still an interesting discussion to listen to. His views on education were interesting, too, and I mostly agree. He didn't do well in high school because he was a bit of a rebel and didn't do his schoolwork. He would never have gotten into college had a school in Liverpool not given him a trial period of a year in which to shape up. Of course, he enjoyed college and went on to become a pretty brilliant professor. He started working at Northeastern years ago because they offered the same opportunity, but now that they've stopped, the university has less and less appeal for him.
The other gentlemen had a surprise birthday party to go to, and Professor R. asked us where we'd like to go for dinner. He mentioned a steak place near the Geneva train station, or suggested that we take a short train ride to Nyon for some filet de perche (perch) straight out of Lake Geneva. Obviously, it was a tough choice. So we took said train ride to the most picturesque village I've seen yet in Europe. Very few cars, cobblestone streets, adorable little paths down the hill, perfect views of the lake... There had been some kind of street fair earlier in the day and a few beer stands were left. Further down our path, a man was playing a lively song in French and people were dancing and singing along (kind of a square dance thing). We arrived at the restaurant and apologized for not having any kind of reservation. "C'est bon" said the owner/waitress and asked a couple to move so we could have a table for 4. While they were setting up, we stood by the bar and had an aperitif. Ricard, an anise-flavored liqueur, apparently comes from Marseille and was created to replace absinthe when it was outlawed. To drink it, you take about 2 cl of the stuff and add ice and water until it becomes milky. It has a nice, light licorice flavor and literally makes you hungry even if you weren't before (we were starving, so we took the Professor's word for it). We had pre-ordered our perch, so we sat down and ordered a local Swiss white wine to go with it. We went through 4 carafes of it along with our butter-sauteed perch and amazing french fries. There was also a homemade tartar sauce that was out of this world. For "dessert," we ordered an appetizer. Malakoffs are pure baked deliciousness- cheese in breading served with cornichons, pickled onions and mustard. After dinner went for a walk by the lake before heading back to our train.
The next day we took the train to Paris. Maggie wanted to sleep, but luckily for me she threw her jacket over her head so I could open both window shades and run back and forth between the seats to look out the window. The train ride from Geneva to Lyon was absolutely gorgeous! Fog was rising from the river we rode by and looked absolutely ethereal. I need a new camera, however, because every time I want to take pictures, it takes soooo long to start up, focus, and actually snap the picture that I've already missed what ever I was photographing.
When we got to Paris we walked from Gare de l'Est past Notre Dame to rue de Rivoli. Decided against going to Angelina against because it was really busy and expensive, considering how much we'd spent on dinner the night before. Had delicious baguette sandwiches at a sidewalk cafe before walking through the Tuileries. Fashion Week was apparently over the weekend, but it was 30 euros to get in. I snagged the book of vendors, however, so I can look companies up when people reference them.
Museums are free on the first Sunday of the month, so we went to the Musee d'Orsay for a couple of hours before walking back towards the train station to find dinner. Stopped at a brasserie and had two styles of duck (breast w/ honey sauce for me, confit for Jason) and salmon for Maggie.
Great weekend trip. Icing on the cake: finding out that the Journee d'Integration we missed by going was full of drinking games that didn't sound fun, getting very uncomfortably dirty, bad food, and communal showers. Oh, and it would've cost 85 euros...
Met Professor Reucroft at the welcome building and we headed to the cantine to meet his friend, Jim (no clue what the last name was), who teaches at BU and works on the ATLAS project (A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS). We walked through the museum/exhibition area in the main building and Steve and Jim told us about their work. Steve had been working at CERN for 40 years (since he was a student) and has worked on tons of other experiments besides the LHC, so his perspective was really interesting. Jim is relatively "new" and has been working there for about 20 years, I believe. After the museum, we headed across the street to the ATLAS command center. It's rather underwhelming until you realize that through the glass windows, the physicists are controlling a giant piece of machinery with just computers. One of the points Steve and Jim made was that many of the big computing challenges are created/solved here. The WorldWideWeb, for example, was created to allow these scientists to communicate with each other. The amount of data they collect requires enormous amounts of memory. So neat. We were able to see diagrams of what a collision looks like- two protons collide, but don't necessarily remain as just protons. Electrons, neutrons, protons, muons... All of these result from the collision. An image is taken just after the collision and physicists look at the "signature" of each particle to determine what particles came out of the collision. For example, charged particles (electrons/protons) have curved paths as a result of the toroids (big magnets around the detector). Non-charged particles (muons, neutrons, etc) do not have curved paths. Each particle also shows a web at the end of its path and the place in which it does this also helps differentiate between particle types. Scientists are hoping to find new kinds of particles by examining collisions.
Tried to get down to the detector to look at it, but it was closed and a retina scan is needed to enter (unfortunately, my retina information hadn't made it to CERN ahead of time...), but we got to look down the shaft towards the big chamber. It's 1km underground, I believe, weighs as much as the Eiffel Tower, and is as tall as a 10 story building. When CERN was building it, entire sections of road had to be shut down because the trucks transporting pieces were as wide as a 2 lane road. Amazing!
After our mini tour, we headed back to the cantine for a beer. We'd already heard that physicists love drinking (see Facebook for picture/description of bubble chamber), and apparently many wonderful experiments have been designed at the tables in the cantine over a couple of brewskis. We started with our group of 5, and Jim and Steve's colleagues kept coming over until we were a group of 9. I was so amazed by these men. They're some of the most brilliant people in the world, but their knowledge isn't limited to physics. They're well-informed about global politics, they use Facebook and Skype and iPhones, and have interesting opinions on religion, education, healthcare... We talked about black holes- my professor thinks that people have accepted their existence too readily because it's a cool theory. There's been no actual proof that they exist, and theoretical physicists haven't really come up with any experiments for CERN to run to prove their existence. Sure, there's a gravitational force exerted at the center of galaxies, but it could be a neutron star, or a bunch of stars in a group. I'm disappointed to find out that my favorite scientific subject may be a bunch of malarkey, but it's still an interesting discussion to listen to. His views on education were interesting, too, and I mostly agree. He didn't do well in high school because he was a bit of a rebel and didn't do his schoolwork. He would never have gotten into college had a school in Liverpool not given him a trial period of a year in which to shape up. Of course, he enjoyed college and went on to become a pretty brilliant professor. He started working at Northeastern years ago because they offered the same opportunity, but now that they've stopped, the university has less and less appeal for him.
The other gentlemen had a surprise birthday party to go to, and Professor R. asked us where we'd like to go for dinner. He mentioned a steak place near the Geneva train station, or suggested that we take a short train ride to Nyon for some filet de perche (perch) straight out of Lake Geneva. Obviously, it was a tough choice. So we took said train ride to the most picturesque village I've seen yet in Europe. Very few cars, cobblestone streets, adorable little paths down the hill, perfect views of the lake... There had been some kind of street fair earlier in the day and a few beer stands were left. Further down our path, a man was playing a lively song in French and people were dancing and singing along (kind of a square dance thing). We arrived at the restaurant and apologized for not having any kind of reservation. "C'est bon" said the owner/waitress and asked a couple to move so we could have a table for 4. While they were setting up, we stood by the bar and had an aperitif. Ricard, an anise-flavored liqueur, apparently comes from Marseille and was created to replace absinthe when it was outlawed. To drink it, you take about 2 cl of the stuff and add ice and water until it becomes milky. It has a nice, light licorice flavor and literally makes you hungry even if you weren't before (we were starving, so we took the Professor's word for it). We had pre-ordered our perch, so we sat down and ordered a local Swiss white wine to go with it. We went through 4 carafes of it along with our butter-sauteed perch and amazing french fries. There was also a homemade tartar sauce that was out of this world. For "dessert," we ordered an appetizer. Malakoffs are pure baked deliciousness- cheese in breading served with cornichons, pickled onions and mustard. After dinner went for a walk by the lake before heading back to our train.
The next day we took the train to Paris. Maggie wanted to sleep, but luckily for me she threw her jacket over her head so I could open both window shades and run back and forth between the seats to look out the window. The train ride from Geneva to Lyon was absolutely gorgeous! Fog was rising from the river we rode by and looked absolutely ethereal. I need a new camera, however, because every time I want to take pictures, it takes soooo long to start up, focus, and actually snap the picture that I've already missed what ever I was photographing.
When we got to Paris we walked from Gare de l'Est past Notre Dame to rue de Rivoli. Decided against going to Angelina against because it was really busy and expensive, considering how much we'd spent on dinner the night before. Had delicious baguette sandwiches at a sidewalk cafe before walking through the Tuileries. Fashion Week was apparently over the weekend, but it was 30 euros to get in. I snagged the book of vendors, however, so I can look companies up when people reference them.
Museums are free on the first Sunday of the month, so we went to the Musee d'Orsay for a couple of hours before walking back towards the train station to find dinner. Stopped at a brasserie and had two styles of duck (breast w/ honey sauce for me, confit for Jason) and salmon for Maggie.
Great weekend trip. Icing on the cake: finding out that the Journee d'Integration we missed by going was full of drinking games that didn't sound fun, getting very uncomfortably dirty, bad food, and communal showers. Oh, and it would've cost 85 euros...
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Intercultural Management
This week's topic- Adminstrative garbage and "Intercultural Management."
- Monday we turned in some documents. Really, that's it. We got to school at 9:30, stayed until 11, had until 2 to come back. Then we turned in a small handful of papers (perhaps a 1/5 of what we were told we would need) in order to obtain a student ID card and health insurance. We even had Tuesday off! However, my sore throat from Saturday night had turned into a really awful cold, so I basically spent the whole day in bed. The short trip to the grocery stores up the street pretty much zapped all of my energy. Thus we had salad with salmon, potatoes, and tomatoes for dinner.
-Wednesday began our week of "Intercultural Management." For whatever reason, this class is taught in English, even though we're at a French university and had just spent the past week having French crammed into our exhausted little brains. We played mindless little ice breakers, but they were somewhat entertaining. For example, we walked around "speed dating" style and asked people about themselves for a minute. We also fell into each other's arms to establish trust. Then we played a game similar to one we'd played in our "Living and Working Abroad" class in Boston. There's an Eastern and a Western culture with different values who have to trade or interact. I was part of the Western culture, and our objective was to get an Eastern culture whose entire religion/way of life centered around a pot to give us said pot for a museum. Afterwards, we talked about our feelings during the game and someone from "my" culture immediately shouted out "The stupid Easterners wouldn't give us the frickin' pot!" I was appalled. Sure, we might all think those thoughts at times, but who are we to call someone else's culture stupid? Wouldn't you be extremely offended if that was you people were talking about? Anyway, that same person was in my group later in the afternoon when we were supposed to design an ideal village. I, as usual, took the role of the scribe/unofficial group moderator and started asking people what kinds of structures they wanted in our village. It was actually a rather humorous discussion. One of the boys wanted a strip club and a bar. All of us are fans of alternative energy, so we forbade cars and chose bicycles as alternative methods of transportation, and also implemented the use of solar energy. All of the other groups also included a beach, a river, and a mountain in their village. The same person who called the Eastern culture stupid also tended to shut out other people's ideas and simply talk louder over them to get their own point across.
We went out to a bar that night and I had an interesting chat with a French girl and a German boy about how wrong stereotypes are on an individual basis and how frustrating it is when someone just shouts out their first thoughts without thinking about them and how they might affect other people. That evening was fun, and the games we played during the day weren't exactly fun, but they were at least lighthearted and encouraged some level of cooperation.
Today, however, we started off by talking about differences, which are always divisive. Power distance among cultures, perceptions of time, etc. Then we filled out a form ranking how much we would tell people around us about certain issues. For example, how much would you disclose information about money to your parents? Friends? Perfect strangers from another culture? Then we had to compare answers. Turns out that the French are much, much more "expansif" (i.e. frank with everyone they actually know) about everything. Especially about sex. For example, the French girl in my group said that it would actually show a lack of respect for her to not tell her parents she was sleeping with someone because her parents had raised her and taught her how to behave. I personally wouldn't want to know details about my children's private lives to that extent. A lot of the differences, however, rather than being appreciated as just differences, ended up being points of attack. For example, a lot of the Chinese kids in our class wouldn't tell their parents about work/school problems, financial problems or sex, and got interrogated by the Europeans as to why. We went to lunch 20 minutes late as a result.
We came back after lunch to an afternoon in French and had to then make a list of 3-4 characteristics about our own cultures. This was intended to be a sort of defense against the stereotypes that we'd listed about everyone the day before. The Chinese, again, got absolutely torn apart. This, combined with that fact that they don't seem to understand/speak French as well as some of the Europeans (and were encouraged to speak in English, leading to confusion about which language we were really supposed to speak), made me feel awful. Until I got up there and had to do the same thing. First of all, I was basically told by the other American girls that I had to do all the talking because they refused to speak in French. So I started bringing up our points: the American Dream- individualism that means you've "made it" if you have a car, a house, you've married well, and have good friends. Next I talked about the fact that we're hesistant to "deranger" someone (it's kind of like bother, but on a more serious level, more about that in a moment). Then talked about nationalism, both the fact that we're a nation based on a Revolution and the fact that nationalism has increased for better or worse since 9/11. I was already embarrassed just being up in front of a group and having to speak in French without any real back-up. And then the questions began. What do you mean by deranger? That is to say that if you tell me about an idea you've had and I don't agree, I wouldn't say "You're absolutely wrong! How could you think that?" but instead might say "Hmmm... That's interesting that you feel that way." So someone in the audience says "Well how are we ever supposed to trust your country if you don't tell us the truth?" I tried to make a joke out of it by saying that I would write to Pres. Obama asking him to be very frank in his discussions... But I was mortified and felt like I had to defend my country and customs/characteristics that I certainly didn't come up with myself. Our teacher then asked about healthcare. I don't know much about it, but I tried to explain that to me it seems like wealthier people with health insurance want to keep the current system, whereas middle class/poorer people w/o it or with poor coverage need an overhaul and that it's creating a big debate in our country. Again, with the attack- why can't you just agree to provide coverage for everyone? It all got to me so badly that I left the class in tears (albeit quiet, discreet ones) and spent the break being extremely frustrated. Our poor professor came over when I went to the bathroom to compose myself and asked if I was upset because he'd forgotten us. He'd gone through the other nationalities and was going to let us break until someone reminded him about the Americans- ironically the same kid who had forced me to do all the talking for our intercultural presentation on goal setting. I explained that I was uncomfortable talking in front of a group like that who help very, very different opinions than me in a language in which I'm not fluent. He said he thought I'd done a good job and was interesting, and I said "Thank You" (because that's the American way- say thank you even if you don't mean it...) and eventually went back to class.
I suppose the day was so frustrating because this is the first time while I've been here that I've really been angry with anyone, especially the French. The Germans, actually, sat and at least listened. But with each group presenting I could see the very opinionated, albeit interesting, French girl whispering to her countrymen. That and the way in which questions were designed to bring down another culture's ideals and values... Americans are supposed to be the ignorant, bigoted and generally critical of other cultures whose ways are not our own. However, today/yesterday made me realize that disliking differences, even attacking them, is an ugly trait everywhere.
To end on a happier note: We had ice cream on the way home after a lunch of an apple and diet coke because our 20 min late release resulted in a lack of sandwiches. We also got our bank cards and checkbooks and I have no prior obligations this evening so I will finally, maybe, catch up on some sleep. :-)
- Monday we turned in some documents. Really, that's it. We got to school at 9:30, stayed until 11, had until 2 to come back. Then we turned in a small handful of papers (perhaps a 1/5 of what we were told we would need) in order to obtain a student ID card and health insurance. We even had Tuesday off! However, my sore throat from Saturday night had turned into a really awful cold, so I basically spent the whole day in bed. The short trip to the grocery stores up the street pretty much zapped all of my energy. Thus we had salad with salmon, potatoes, and tomatoes for dinner.
-Wednesday began our week of "Intercultural Management." For whatever reason, this class is taught in English, even though we're at a French university and had just spent the past week having French crammed into our exhausted little brains. We played mindless little ice breakers, but they were somewhat entertaining. For example, we walked around "speed dating" style and asked people about themselves for a minute. We also fell into each other's arms to establish trust. Then we played a game similar to one we'd played in our "Living and Working Abroad" class in Boston. There's an Eastern and a Western culture with different values who have to trade or interact. I was part of the Western culture, and our objective was to get an Eastern culture whose entire religion/way of life centered around a pot to give us said pot for a museum. Afterwards, we talked about our feelings during the game and someone from "my" culture immediately shouted out "The stupid Easterners wouldn't give us the frickin' pot!" I was appalled. Sure, we might all think those thoughts at times, but who are we to call someone else's culture stupid? Wouldn't you be extremely offended if that was you people were talking about? Anyway, that same person was in my group later in the afternoon when we were supposed to design an ideal village. I, as usual, took the role of the scribe/unofficial group moderator and started asking people what kinds of structures they wanted in our village. It was actually a rather humorous discussion. One of the boys wanted a strip club and a bar. All of us are fans of alternative energy, so we forbade cars and chose bicycles as alternative methods of transportation, and also implemented the use of solar energy. All of the other groups also included a beach, a river, and a mountain in their village. The same person who called the Eastern culture stupid also tended to shut out other people's ideas and simply talk louder over them to get their own point across.
We went out to a bar that night and I had an interesting chat with a French girl and a German boy about how wrong stereotypes are on an individual basis and how frustrating it is when someone just shouts out their first thoughts without thinking about them and how they might affect other people. That evening was fun, and the games we played during the day weren't exactly fun, but they were at least lighthearted and encouraged some level of cooperation.
Today, however, we started off by talking about differences, which are always divisive. Power distance among cultures, perceptions of time, etc. Then we filled out a form ranking how much we would tell people around us about certain issues. For example, how much would you disclose information about money to your parents? Friends? Perfect strangers from another culture? Then we had to compare answers. Turns out that the French are much, much more "expansif" (i.e. frank with everyone they actually know) about everything. Especially about sex. For example, the French girl in my group said that it would actually show a lack of respect for her to not tell her parents she was sleeping with someone because her parents had raised her and taught her how to behave. I personally wouldn't want to know details about my children's private lives to that extent. A lot of the differences, however, rather than being appreciated as just differences, ended up being points of attack. For example, a lot of the Chinese kids in our class wouldn't tell their parents about work/school problems, financial problems or sex, and got interrogated by the Europeans as to why. We went to lunch 20 minutes late as a result.
We came back after lunch to an afternoon in French and had to then make a list of 3-4 characteristics about our own cultures. This was intended to be a sort of defense against the stereotypes that we'd listed about everyone the day before. The Chinese, again, got absolutely torn apart. This, combined with that fact that they don't seem to understand/speak French as well as some of the Europeans (and were encouraged to speak in English, leading to confusion about which language we were really supposed to speak), made me feel awful. Until I got up there and had to do the same thing. First of all, I was basically told by the other American girls that I had to do all the talking because they refused to speak in French. So I started bringing up our points: the American Dream- individualism that means you've "made it" if you have a car, a house, you've married well, and have good friends. Next I talked about the fact that we're hesistant to "deranger" someone (it's kind of like bother, but on a more serious level, more about that in a moment). Then talked about nationalism, both the fact that we're a nation based on a Revolution and the fact that nationalism has increased for better or worse since 9/11. I was already embarrassed just being up in front of a group and having to speak in French without any real back-up. And then the questions began. What do you mean by deranger? That is to say that if you tell me about an idea you've had and I don't agree, I wouldn't say "You're absolutely wrong! How could you think that?" but instead might say "Hmmm... That's interesting that you feel that way." So someone in the audience says "Well how are we ever supposed to trust your country if you don't tell us the truth?" I tried to make a joke out of it by saying that I would write to Pres. Obama asking him to be very frank in his discussions... But I was mortified and felt like I had to defend my country and customs/characteristics that I certainly didn't come up with myself. Our teacher then asked about healthcare. I don't know much about it, but I tried to explain that to me it seems like wealthier people with health insurance want to keep the current system, whereas middle class/poorer people w/o it or with poor coverage need an overhaul and that it's creating a big debate in our country. Again, with the attack- why can't you just agree to provide coverage for everyone? It all got to me so badly that I left the class in tears (albeit quiet, discreet ones) and spent the break being extremely frustrated. Our poor professor came over when I went to the bathroom to compose myself and asked if I was upset because he'd forgotten us. He'd gone through the other nationalities and was going to let us break until someone reminded him about the Americans- ironically the same kid who had forced me to do all the talking for our intercultural presentation on goal setting. I explained that I was uncomfortable talking in front of a group like that who help very, very different opinions than me in a language in which I'm not fluent. He said he thought I'd done a good job and was interesting, and I said "Thank You" (because that's the American way- say thank you even if you don't mean it...) and eventually went back to class.
I suppose the day was so frustrating because this is the first time while I've been here that I've really been angry with anyone, especially the French. The Germans, actually, sat and at least listened. But with each group presenting I could see the very opinionated, albeit interesting, French girl whispering to her countrymen. That and the way in which questions were designed to bring down another culture's ideals and values... Americans are supposed to be the ignorant, bigoted and generally critical of other cultures whose ways are not our own. However, today/yesterday made me realize that disliking differences, even attacking them, is an ugly trait everywhere.
To end on a happier note: We had ice cream on the way home after a lunch of an apple and diet coke because our 20 min late release resulted in a lack of sandwiches. We also got our bank cards and checkbooks and I have no prior obligations this evening so I will finally, maybe, catch up on some sleep. :-)
Friday, September 25, 2009
First week-Intensive Language Courses
Just finished our first week of intensive language. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but it wasn't great either. The "Institutions" class stayed interesting- we had in-class discussion about opinions in Europe/the States regarding welfare (not in the welfare-mom sense), gay civil unions/adoption... We also talked about the French political system, although it wasn't as interesting as the other stuff. Grammar never really got fascinating- a lot of it is stuff that I know in theory. For example, if you give me a worksheet asking which pronouns I'm supposed to use in a list of sentences, I can do it. However, it's completely different when I'm actually talking/writing in French.
Had a frustrating group experience about which I'm still struggling to have a positive attitude about it. I chose "gastronomy" when we went around the room and mentioned topics we wanted to use. Three Chinese kids and a German girl also chose it. We somehow made it from there to alcoholic beverages among cultures, but I didn't like that and wanted to do a specific occasion at the very least (our advising teacher said it would be too much of a list to just talk about alcoholic beverages) during which people drink alcohol. I couldn't seem to get this across to most of the other people (except my friend, the German), who just wanted to do regular drinks. We finally decided on doing wedding food traditions. They also really hadn't done any research, so about 2 hours of our first obligatory meeting were spent by them doing research. We ended up changing our topic because we couldn't find much information, but it was so hard just to organize who was going to do what. This morning we went through a trial run of what we were going to say and the German girl's and my parts were about the right length, but the others talked for FOREVER and repeated things about ten times. It was interesting to hear about the way other cultures celebrate weddings, but we were supposed to talk for 20 min or less and our trial run took 47 minutes... We asked them to take things out or to cut them short, but they didn't really. However, I shouldn't really be too upset... There were some really funny parts of their presentation, and I didn't feel like I did so well myself (didn't use notecards to avoid reading, which resulted in some "uh..." moments). However, afterwards I was talking to my German boys and they thought I did okay, which was good because Germans a) don't lie and b) speak extremely good French.
To celebrate the end of our week of intense French, we're going out tonight with the Americans to a bar where the Europeans will be. Fun times! We went out on Wednesday night to the club up the street from us and danced for a long time. It was fun because we had our own little group, but all of us have made friends with a couple of other people, so lots of other nationalities were coming over to mix with us. Left at about 2:45 and went to bed around 3:15, so getting up the next morning was pretty awful. Haven't been sleeping much because we get home from school so late that by the time we cook dinner, clean up and check e-mail, it's about 12:30 and we get up around 7 or so to get ready for school. Whatever, I can sleep when I'm dead!
Had a frustrating group experience about which I'm still struggling to have a positive attitude about it. I chose "gastronomy" when we went around the room and mentioned topics we wanted to use. Three Chinese kids and a German girl also chose it. We somehow made it from there to alcoholic beverages among cultures, but I didn't like that and wanted to do a specific occasion at the very least (our advising teacher said it would be too much of a list to just talk about alcoholic beverages) during which people drink alcohol. I couldn't seem to get this across to most of the other people (except my friend, the German), who just wanted to do regular drinks. We finally decided on doing wedding food traditions. They also really hadn't done any research, so about 2 hours of our first obligatory meeting were spent by them doing research. We ended up changing our topic because we couldn't find much information, but it was so hard just to organize who was going to do what. This morning we went through a trial run of what we were going to say and the German girl's and my parts were about the right length, but the others talked for FOREVER and repeated things about ten times. It was interesting to hear about the way other cultures celebrate weddings, but we were supposed to talk for 20 min or less and our trial run took 47 minutes... We asked them to take things out or to cut them short, but they didn't really. However, I shouldn't really be too upset... There were some really funny parts of their presentation, and I didn't feel like I did so well myself (didn't use notecards to avoid reading, which resulted in some "uh..." moments). However, afterwards I was talking to my German boys and they thought I did okay, which was good because Germans a) don't lie and b) speak extremely good French.
To celebrate the end of our week of intense French, we're going out tonight with the Americans to a bar where the Europeans will be. Fun times! We went out on Wednesday night to the club up the street from us and danced for a long time. It was fun because we had our own little group, but all of us have made friends with a couple of other people, so lots of other nationalities were coming over to mix with us. Left at about 2:45 and went to bed around 3:15, so getting up the next morning was pretty awful. Haven't been sleeping much because we get home from school so late that by the time we cook dinner, clean up and check e-mail, it's about 12:30 and we get up around 7 or so to get ready for school. Whatever, I can sleep when I'm dead!
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
First days of "school"
This week marks the beginning of the school year, even though it's only an intensive French class. Very intense, I might add. Yesterday we got to school at 9 and listened to about 2 hours worth of presentations from the program directors and the student organization- all of them chock full of information we should probably remember, but is luckily written down somewhere to reference later.
Next a brief fire alarm. These are actually much less jarring- the alarm sounds like very loud, slightly monotone bagpipes- and much more well organized than the American ones I've seen. We were next split from a group of over 100 into groups of around 25. Within these groups we split up further into groups of 4 or 5 in order to start planning a theme for our presentations on Friday. Of course, the common language is English for must of us, but we aren't allowed to speak in it. My group is technically "gastronomy," but somehow it devolved into alcohol amongst cultures. I have three Chinese students (there are about 24 Chinese students in the large group, but because my small group runs from G-M, we have all the Li's, about 50% of my class is therefore from one nation) and a German in my group. The leader of this class, however, thinks that everything we're coming up with is too "list-like," and suggests that we make more comparisons between the cultures. I think to myself, silently, that a list by any other name is still a list and say "Oui, Madame."
An hour and a half of lunch followed by an hour and a half of "Institutions." This is my favorite class- it's all cultural exposure. Yesterday we talked about the arrondissements in Paris, the regions in France, and the French social security system. Maggie and I have adjacent names in the alphabet and so are in the same group, and we were pleased to know a lot of what our prof. was saying about Paris already. She made a lot of comparisons that seemed to single out the Americans, especially where the social system is concerned, but I think it's more because our system is very different than other Europeans than for any other reason. She spoke the most quickly out of all of the professors, but she also enunciates very well (she'd be good at choir warm-ups) and provides examples of everything she's saying.
Next up is "grammaire" for our final hour and a half. Yesterday we went over past tenses (imperfect and whatever the English equivalent of passé composé is) and I made the mistake of looking up everytime I knew an answer, which wasn't always a good thing. She was asking a question about transitive verbs that can two types of auxilaries. I don't exactly know what that means in English as I haven't taken grammar in years, but basically they're verbs that can be conjugated two different ways. For example, in English we can say "I passed you the butter," or "I passed by the post office." It's the same in French, but some of the words are also "movement" verbs that come from a different list we've had to memorize. Well, I got confused and spat out a word from the wrong list. Luckily I was able to redeem myself by explaining why the ending to a past participle changes when a direct object is placed before, rather than after it. How's that for a grammar lesson?! This particular teacher won't teach us again unless we're placed in the "plus faible" (weak) French class, so when we left I thanked her and said that I hoped I wouldn't see her again soon, which she seemed to find funny.
So exhausted after getting home- the bus was packed and it took us upwards of an hour- but it was "recommended" that we attend another networking event last night, so we went. It ended up being a lot of fun, even though we stayed less than 2 hours. We talked to some of the Germans, who are my favorite nationality here. Our summer preparatory class professor over the summer had implied that the Germans were usually very "clique-y," overly studious, and generally good only for studying. I find, however, that they speak French the best, are very friendly, and are indeed studious :).
This morning got to school even earlier for a 3 second ID photo for which we were requested to arrive an hour early. Took a long test this morning covering oral and written comprehension. The tape was about 3 times faster than any of the professors and I couldn't hear as well as I would've liked from my seat, but no one seemed to feel extraordinarily comfortable with it, so at least I'm not alone. Off to practical French, where we received a packet of terms that I would've appreciated a month ago- rental terms, documents that one might want to bring along to sign a lease, how to talk on the phone... Luckily Maggie, Sarah and I could all contribute our experiences to the discussion.
Lunched in the cafeteria to try the school's food, which will never, ever happen again. We ended up talking to a nice Finnish girl who was behind us in line, but that and the over-cooked vegetables were the only pleasant part about the meal. The fish was overcooked and bland and the french fries were soggy. No real French food here! The Finnish girl and my roommates and I compared cultural differences- the Finns are a very independent people who believe that women could/should work, have a social system that pays for everything (healthcare, school...) so that people don't have to depend on their families, and who are very well traveled because it's a pretty wealthy nation.
Back to Institutions after lunch- today we talked about the role of religion in France. We learned a new word- laïque. It basically means that while the French are at heart a very Catholic people (68% I believe identify themselves as Catholic), they are also very firmly for the separation of church and state. The roots for this are in the ideals of the French revolution, which linked monarchy and papal power in countries as something that oppressed the people. Therefore, it's all well and good if someone's religious, but they shouldn't have any method of forcing their beliefs on other people. That's why there was such a big stir relatively recently over Muslim girls wearing their head scarves to school. We also discussed gay marriage/civil unions and the adoption of children by homosexual and unmarried couples, followed by a discussion of world opinions of Sarkozy. I was so interested in class that I was sitting forward in my seat after lunch (I'm usually exhausted and half asleep at that point).
Back to grammar for a new teacher who taught in Vermont. We reviewed the subjunctive (sp? I've been confusing French and English spellings for the past month) today, some things were even new. I found it interesting how oddly they structured our classes. The test this morning covered things like subjunctive, past tenses, practical French, etc. We won't learn most of these things until the middle/end of the week, and were certainly not taught for the test. So essentially we're learning what was on the test after the fact. Interesting, to be sure.
Overall I find that I can understand the professors 90% of the time, but not quickly enough to take very good notes, if I were actually going to be tested... So, while I need to improve enough to be able to write and listen in French at the same time, it's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.
Next a brief fire alarm. These are actually much less jarring- the alarm sounds like very loud, slightly monotone bagpipes- and much more well organized than the American ones I've seen. We were next split from a group of over 100 into groups of around 25. Within these groups we split up further into groups of 4 or 5 in order to start planning a theme for our presentations on Friday. Of course, the common language is English for must of us, but we aren't allowed to speak in it. My group is technically "gastronomy," but somehow it devolved into alcohol amongst cultures. I have three Chinese students (there are about 24 Chinese students in the large group, but because my small group runs from G-M, we have all the Li's, about 50% of my class is therefore from one nation) and a German in my group. The leader of this class, however, thinks that everything we're coming up with is too "list-like," and suggests that we make more comparisons between the cultures. I think to myself, silently, that a list by any other name is still a list and say "Oui, Madame."
An hour and a half of lunch followed by an hour and a half of "Institutions." This is my favorite class- it's all cultural exposure. Yesterday we talked about the arrondissements in Paris, the regions in France, and the French social security system. Maggie and I have adjacent names in the alphabet and so are in the same group, and we were pleased to know a lot of what our prof. was saying about Paris already. She made a lot of comparisons that seemed to single out the Americans, especially where the social system is concerned, but I think it's more because our system is very different than other Europeans than for any other reason. She spoke the most quickly out of all of the professors, but she also enunciates very well (she'd be good at choir warm-ups) and provides examples of everything she's saying.
Next up is "grammaire" for our final hour and a half. Yesterday we went over past tenses (imperfect and whatever the English equivalent of passé composé is) and I made the mistake of looking up everytime I knew an answer, which wasn't always a good thing. She was asking a question about transitive verbs that can two types of auxilaries. I don't exactly know what that means in English as I haven't taken grammar in years, but basically they're verbs that can be conjugated two different ways. For example, in English we can say "I passed you the butter," or "I passed by the post office." It's the same in French, but some of the words are also "movement" verbs that come from a different list we've had to memorize. Well, I got confused and spat out a word from the wrong list. Luckily I was able to redeem myself by explaining why the ending to a past participle changes when a direct object is placed before, rather than after it. How's that for a grammar lesson?! This particular teacher won't teach us again unless we're placed in the "plus faible" (weak) French class, so when we left I thanked her and said that I hoped I wouldn't see her again soon, which she seemed to find funny.
So exhausted after getting home- the bus was packed and it took us upwards of an hour- but it was "recommended" that we attend another networking event last night, so we went. It ended up being a lot of fun, even though we stayed less than 2 hours. We talked to some of the Germans, who are my favorite nationality here. Our summer preparatory class professor over the summer had implied that the Germans were usually very "clique-y," overly studious, and generally good only for studying. I find, however, that they speak French the best, are very friendly, and are indeed studious :).
This morning got to school even earlier for a 3 second ID photo for which we were requested to arrive an hour early. Took a long test this morning covering oral and written comprehension. The tape was about 3 times faster than any of the professors and I couldn't hear as well as I would've liked from my seat, but no one seemed to feel extraordinarily comfortable with it, so at least I'm not alone. Off to practical French, where we received a packet of terms that I would've appreciated a month ago- rental terms, documents that one might want to bring along to sign a lease, how to talk on the phone... Luckily Maggie, Sarah and I could all contribute our experiences to the discussion.
Lunched in the cafeteria to try the school's food, which will never, ever happen again. We ended up talking to a nice Finnish girl who was behind us in line, but that and the over-cooked vegetables were the only pleasant part about the meal. The fish was overcooked and bland and the french fries were soggy. No real French food here! The Finnish girl and my roommates and I compared cultural differences- the Finns are a very independent people who believe that women could/should work, have a social system that pays for everything (healthcare, school...) so that people don't have to depend on their families, and who are very well traveled because it's a pretty wealthy nation.
Back to Institutions after lunch- today we talked about the role of religion in France. We learned a new word- laïque. It basically means that while the French are at heart a very Catholic people (68% I believe identify themselves as Catholic), they are also very firmly for the separation of church and state. The roots for this are in the ideals of the French revolution, which linked monarchy and papal power in countries as something that oppressed the people. Therefore, it's all well and good if someone's religious, but they shouldn't have any method of forcing their beliefs on other people. That's why there was such a big stir relatively recently over Muslim girls wearing their head scarves to school. We also discussed gay marriage/civil unions and the adoption of children by homosexual and unmarried couples, followed by a discussion of world opinions of Sarkozy. I was so interested in class that I was sitting forward in my seat after lunch (I'm usually exhausted and half asleep at that point).
Back to grammar for a new teacher who taught in Vermont. We reviewed the subjunctive (sp? I've been confusing French and English spellings for the past month) today, some things were even new. I found it interesting how oddly they structured our classes. The test this morning covered things like subjunctive, past tenses, practical French, etc. We won't learn most of these things until the middle/end of the week, and were certainly not taught for the test. So essentially we're learning what was on the test after the fact. Interesting, to be sure.
Overall I find that I can understand the professors 90% of the time, but not quickly enough to take very good notes, if I were actually going to be tested... So, while I need to improve enough to be able to write and listen in French at the same time, it's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Cathedral concert
Since my ticket had been so easy to get (student discount = 5 euros!), I figured that it wouldn't be busy, but it seemed like half of Reims was inside. In the States, the only people at a concert like this would be AARP members and a few assorted music nerds. This concert, however, was full of the usual 50+ crowd, but also younger couples with their children. Everyone seemed to know each other and greet one another with the bise (the kiss-kiss that's so typically French). Children played in the far aisles the whole time, but were very quiet. The atmosphere was absolutely divine. Long chandeliers hung from the ceiling and provided the only light besides a few floor lights. It created this amazing glow that made me like the cathedral better at night than durin the day.
The concert itself was fantastic. It was the regular choristers with members of a local choir singing the lower parts. The first half of the concert was all Renaissance era music with the second half full of more modern pieces. Sound in the cathedral echoes so much that I could barely understand the speaker who introduced the choir, but it would've made even a mediocre choir sound good, let alone this one. I hink this was one of the first times that I really missed Peter, too. I went by myself, and was glad since the other kids wouldn't have enjoyed it, but Peter would've loved the whole experience and I kept wishing he could be there with me. We had even sung a song by one of the composers in the choir in which we met.
The cathedral was gorgeous from the outside, too, and the weather was perfect for a night walk home
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Vous vs Tu
Friday night we met the other BSIB kids at one of the apartments in centre-ville (downtown) since several people had just gotten back from trips or arrived from the States and we all wanted to catch up. We ended up going down to one of the bars for a drink, which was really fun. Almost everyone, except the 3 girls in the dorms, was there and the atmosphere was great. At one point, a boy from the table of French kids behind us bumped into Maggie (there was about 3 inches between their chairs), so we all ended up talking, which is exactly what all the Americans have been hoping for- a chance to practice our French and learn about the locals.
Most of the people there weren't students, but they were all close to our age. It really wasn't the girls who came over though, which I've heard is pretty common among French women. They're not "girlfriends" like we are in the states. It's a competition for men instead. The guys, on the other hand, were just talking to everyone, boys and girls alike. I was talking to two of them and it was so cool to hear their opinions on things. We talked about the new president- they were so curious about our opinions on Obama- and I asked about Sarkozy. We also talked about musical preferences (Coldplay), their opinions about Reims (apparently it's a town with a lot of "money," the kind of well to do people I could see coming from Carlsbad), etc. I ended up being the translator for my side of the table, and I know I was still making a lot of mistakes, but it was great to practice with people who couldn't care less. They would speak to me in a mix of English and French, and I'd speak back as well as I could in French.
When the conversation started, I was addressing them with the formal "vous" (which is also plural). At some point in the conversation, however, we all just slipped into the less formal "tu." Technically that form can be used with anyone younger or around my age. However, I get nervous about offending people and just stick to the formal until I know the other is ok. I don't mind the formality though, and I actually appreciate it in a lot of circumstances. Addressing the vendors at the market, for example. There's a certain degree of politeness that says two people in a transaction respect each other. Or at a restaurant- using "vous" means that someone isn't my servant, but a person in a trade that's worthwhile. Just like being called "Madame" here by vendors doesn't bother me- they're respecting me as more than just a young girl. It can also be used icily- giving someone an attitude is so easy by just changing the tone of voice and the accent on vous. I might miss the intricacies of the language when I go back to speaking to people in the States.
Most of the people there weren't students, but they were all close to our age. It really wasn't the girls who came over though, which I've heard is pretty common among French women. They're not "girlfriends" like we are in the states. It's a competition for men instead. The guys, on the other hand, were just talking to everyone, boys and girls alike. I was talking to two of them and it was so cool to hear their opinions on things. We talked about the new president- they were so curious about our opinions on Obama- and I asked about Sarkozy. We also talked about musical preferences (Coldplay), their opinions about Reims (apparently it's a town with a lot of "money," the kind of well to do people I could see coming from Carlsbad), etc. I ended up being the translator for my side of the table, and I know I was still making a lot of mistakes, but it was great to practice with people who couldn't care less. They would speak to me in a mix of English and French, and I'd speak back as well as I could in French.
When the conversation started, I was addressing them with the formal "vous" (which is also plural). At some point in the conversation, however, we all just slipped into the less formal "tu." Technically that form can be used with anyone younger or around my age. However, I get nervous about offending people and just stick to the formal until I know the other is ok. I don't mind the formality though, and I actually appreciate it in a lot of circumstances. Addressing the vendors at the market, for example. There's a certain degree of politeness that says two people in a transaction respect each other. Or at a restaurant- using "vous" means that someone isn't my servant, but a person in a trade that's worthwhile. Just like being called "Madame" here by vendors doesn't bother me- they're respecting me as more than just a young girl. It can also be used icily- giving someone an attitude is so easy by just changing the tone of voice and the accent on vous. I might miss the intricacies of the language when I go back to speaking to people in the States.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Paris-Days 2 and 3
On our second day we got up early-ish to go see all of the tourist sights. Maggie had never been to Paris before, so we wanted to make sure we saw everything. We walked up Saint-Michel past the Sorbonne and made our way over to rue de Rivoli since it seemed like a pretty direct route to everything.
Mom had recommended a chocolate shop on Rivoli, so we made sure to keep our eyes out for it. We went by the Louvre, but the line was pretty long. However, it must've been our lucky day because it turns out that on Wednesday and Fridays, the museum is open late. 6 euros will buy you entrance from 6 to 10 pm, which is more than enough time for me to spend at a museum in one sitting. I like my mom's and my usual approach to museums, which I've adopted for my own use in Boston. We go when there's something we want to see and see it, then if we're not tired we see something else. After that, we do lunch! So we left the Louvre and continued towards the Tuileries. We passed Angelina's and looked at the menu, deciding to come back for an afternoon snack later on in the day. Next, we walked down the Champs-Elysees. It was like a live fashion show- everyone was dressed beautifully, with the exception of some label-whores who felt the need to display their Burberry print all over. Note to self: when rich, choose pieces tastefully. Maggie stopped at the Louis Vuitton store to lust over her favorite bag, which she wants to buy herself as her big souvenir in France. I'm not sure what I want to buy as mine- I don't have a label fascination, but would like something that will remind me of France and that I'll use on a regular basis. Perhaps some nice chef would like to be employed to teach me how to cook...
Went by the Eiffel Tower to check it out, although I've been up and Maggie wants to wait for her family to visit to go to the top. The surrounding gardens are beautiful, as well. We suddenly realized that it was around 2:30 and we hadn't eaten lunch yet, so we spend a good 40 minutes winding our way around to find somewhere to eat. Eventually stopped at a little brasserie for salads and a glass of wine. We were the only table at that late hour, which we thought bothered our waiter a little bit at first. He had forgotten the walnuts and eggs on my salad, and when I asked about them he felt badly and made me a whole little side dish with hardboiled eggs and mayonnaise. I hate mayonnaise, but in the interest of science, I tried some of his. It was absolutely heavenly! I may not give the stuff in a jar another try, but I could have eaten this stuff (which was probably made there) on a whole carton of eggs! A couple of his regulars sat down at a table near us, and he got chatty, coming over to ask us where we were from (I don't think he knew we were American either), telling us that one of his regulars was from Reims as well, and saying to call him if we were in Paris again. I don't think he was hitting on us, he was just being a friendly Parisian. Yes, they do exist!
After lunch we wandered back towards the Champs and ended up on the French Rodeo Dr- aka Rue Montaigne. The Champs is ritzy, but has things like Adidas, Quiksilver, aka less expensive and American stores. Montaigne, on the other hand, had custom couturiers of whom I've never heard, and of course, all the usual: Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Gucci... Made it back to Rivoli and only had to wait for a very short while before being seated. We were looking at the pots of hot chocolate around us and decided that we'd both be sick if we got the one designed for 2 people. So we ordered a 1 person portion with two cups, a mont blanc (meringue covered in a thick custardy cream with chestnut flavored chocolate piped on top) and a tartelette eva (tart filled with thick chocolate and a creme brulee inside. The chocolate was perfectly rich and absolutely luscious with a big dish of whipped cream on the side. Most of the places we've eaten have been filled with French people, and we've tended to shy away from ones that look like tourist traps. This place seemed to have attracted both kinds. The tables on either side of us were French, but we could hear English, Italian, etc around us, too. Had a coffee served my favorite way to end our decadent dessert: a small pot of espresso with another pot of steamed milk that you combine to your liking, with more delicious whipped cream on the side. Luckily, the portions were small so we could indulge without getting sick.
It was just after 6 when we left and headed to the Louvre. Did the Mona Lisa first for Maggie's benefit, and then spent most of the time just browsing around. I'd seen most of the "important" pieces during my high school trip, so all of my pictures were of paintings that I really liked/didn't remember, or of cool textures that I found around the museum. We stayed for about 3 hours before taking a long way back towards our hostel.
Around 10 we were looking for somewhere near to the hostel to eat and were looking at a menu when the owner/maitre d' whatever (so hard to tell when most of the staff at small places doesn't wear any uniform whatsoever) offered us a kir (white wine and creme de cassis) and led us by the arm to a table. The three course menu (carte is menu in French, whereas menu is a fixed price multi-course dinner) sounded perfect, so we dined on escargot/baked roblochon, steak au poivre/duck confit with perfectly sauteed potatoes and rice, and had sorbet for dessert. The food was delicious and cheap for Paris, and we enjoyed the attention from the staff, who at one point made me get up and dance. We promised to come back next time we're in Paris and headed back to the hostel for bed.
Day 3 we didn't get up until 10:30 (early morning phone call from Peter and fatigue from the day before), so we got a late start, but bought our token pair of Parisian shoes and some postcards to send home. We went by Les Invalides, the Musee d'Orsay, the Rodin museum, etc... We were disappointed to find out that most of the 18-25 yr old discounts we've heard about are limited to residents of the EU. Ah well, it's still not horribly expensive to go, so we plan on visiting the good ones when we live in Paris for co-op.
Sat at a cafe for a light lunch and wrote our postcards over coffee before heading to the Eiffel Tower to mail them. Time flies when you're having fun, and all of the walking we'd done made it so that we had just enough time to walk leisurely back towards the hostel for a drink before our train. I was sorely disappointed for the first time since I've arrived, however. We'd been to this particular cafe for happy hour the first night we arrived and found that 5 euros for a cocktail was a good deal. We were a little early for the happy hour, but still expected something tasty. My red wine was ice cold and undrinkable, and I felt worse because I didn't feel comfortable enough with a) my French and b) the rumors I'd heard about French customer service to ask for something else. So I didn't drink it and we left shortly thereafter. Luckily, a delicious crepe place up the street filled a crepe with Nutella for me and it was just the thing to remind me that I love France.
Quick train ride back and we're back in Reims! Kate, our third roommate, arrived before us so she and some other new arrivals were at the apartment when we got back. It was fun to compare Parisian experiences with people who don't have the "All Parisians are snobs" mentality.
Mom had recommended a chocolate shop on Rivoli, so we made sure to keep our eyes out for it. We went by the Louvre, but the line was pretty long. However, it must've been our lucky day because it turns out that on Wednesday and Fridays, the museum is open late. 6 euros will buy you entrance from 6 to 10 pm, which is more than enough time for me to spend at a museum in one sitting. I like my mom's and my usual approach to museums, which I've adopted for my own use in Boston. We go when there's something we want to see and see it, then if we're not tired we see something else. After that, we do lunch! So we left the Louvre and continued towards the Tuileries. We passed Angelina's and looked at the menu, deciding to come back for an afternoon snack later on in the day. Next, we walked down the Champs-Elysees. It was like a live fashion show- everyone was dressed beautifully, with the exception of some label-whores who felt the need to display their Burberry print all over. Note to self: when rich, choose pieces tastefully. Maggie stopped at the Louis Vuitton store to lust over her favorite bag, which she wants to buy herself as her big souvenir in France. I'm not sure what I want to buy as mine- I don't have a label fascination, but would like something that will remind me of France and that I'll use on a regular basis. Perhaps some nice chef would like to be employed to teach me how to cook...
Went by the Eiffel Tower to check it out, although I've been up and Maggie wants to wait for her family to visit to go to the top. The surrounding gardens are beautiful, as well. We suddenly realized that it was around 2:30 and we hadn't eaten lunch yet, so we spend a good 40 minutes winding our way around to find somewhere to eat. Eventually stopped at a little brasserie for salads and a glass of wine. We were the only table at that late hour, which we thought bothered our waiter a little bit at first. He had forgotten the walnuts and eggs on my salad, and when I asked about them he felt badly and made me a whole little side dish with hardboiled eggs and mayonnaise. I hate mayonnaise, but in the interest of science, I tried some of his. It was absolutely heavenly! I may not give the stuff in a jar another try, but I could have eaten this stuff (which was probably made there) on a whole carton of eggs! A couple of his regulars sat down at a table near us, and he got chatty, coming over to ask us where we were from (I don't think he knew we were American either), telling us that one of his regulars was from Reims as well, and saying to call him if we were in Paris again. I don't think he was hitting on us, he was just being a friendly Parisian. Yes, they do exist!
After lunch we wandered back towards the Champs and ended up on the French Rodeo Dr- aka Rue Montaigne. The Champs is ritzy, but has things like Adidas, Quiksilver, aka less expensive and American stores. Montaigne, on the other hand, had custom couturiers of whom I've never heard, and of course, all the usual: Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Gucci... Made it back to Rivoli and only had to wait for a very short while before being seated. We were looking at the pots of hot chocolate around us and decided that we'd both be sick if we got the one designed for 2 people. So we ordered a 1 person portion with two cups, a mont blanc (meringue covered in a thick custardy cream with chestnut flavored chocolate piped on top) and a tartelette eva (tart filled with thick chocolate and a creme brulee inside. The chocolate was perfectly rich and absolutely luscious with a big dish of whipped cream on the side. Most of the places we've eaten have been filled with French people, and we've tended to shy away from ones that look like tourist traps. This place seemed to have attracted both kinds. The tables on either side of us were French, but we could hear English, Italian, etc around us, too. Had a coffee served my favorite way to end our decadent dessert: a small pot of espresso with another pot of steamed milk that you combine to your liking, with more delicious whipped cream on the side. Luckily, the portions were small so we could indulge without getting sick.
It was just after 6 when we left and headed to the Louvre. Did the Mona Lisa first for Maggie's benefit, and then spent most of the time just browsing around. I'd seen most of the "important" pieces during my high school trip, so all of my pictures were of paintings that I really liked/didn't remember, or of cool textures that I found around the museum. We stayed for about 3 hours before taking a long way back towards our hostel.
Around 10 we were looking for somewhere near to the hostel to eat and were looking at a menu when the owner/maitre d' whatever (so hard to tell when most of the staff at small places doesn't wear any uniform whatsoever) offered us a kir (white wine and creme de cassis) and led us by the arm to a table. The three course menu (carte is menu in French, whereas menu is a fixed price multi-course dinner) sounded perfect, so we dined on escargot/baked roblochon, steak au poivre/duck confit with perfectly sauteed potatoes and rice, and had sorbet for dessert. The food was delicious and cheap for Paris, and we enjoyed the attention from the staff, who at one point made me get up and dance. We promised to come back next time we're in Paris and headed back to the hostel for bed.
Day 3 we didn't get up until 10:30 (early morning phone call from Peter and fatigue from the day before), so we got a late start, but bought our token pair of Parisian shoes and some postcards to send home. We went by Les Invalides, the Musee d'Orsay, the Rodin museum, etc... We were disappointed to find out that most of the 18-25 yr old discounts we've heard about are limited to residents of the EU. Ah well, it's still not horribly expensive to go, so we plan on visiting the good ones when we live in Paris for co-op.
Sat at a cafe for a light lunch and wrote our postcards over coffee before heading to the Eiffel Tower to mail them. Time flies when you're having fun, and all of the walking we'd done made it so that we had just enough time to walk leisurely back towards the hostel for a drink before our train. I was sorely disappointed for the first time since I've arrived, however. We'd been to this particular cafe for happy hour the first night we arrived and found that 5 euros for a cocktail was a good deal. We were a little early for the happy hour, but still expected something tasty. My red wine was ice cold and undrinkable, and I felt worse because I didn't feel comfortable enough with a) my French and b) the rumors I'd heard about French customer service to ask for something else. So I didn't drink it and we left shortly thereafter. Luckily, a delicious crepe place up the street filled a crepe with Nutella for me and it was just the thing to remind me that I love France.
Quick train ride back and we're back in Reims! Kate, our third roommate, arrived before us so she and some other new arrivals were at the apartment when we got back. It was fun to compare Parisian experiences with people who don't have the "All Parisians are snobs" mentality.
Paris- Day 1
We just got back from a wonderful 3-ish days in Paris. Train ride down was quick and uneventful- the best kind there is!
We stayed at the Young and Happy Hostel in the 4th arrondissement. The reviews online said it had good breakfast and surly staff, but it was reasonably cheap, so we figured the staff wouldn't bother us too much. Turns out that the reviewers (mostly American- high service, low food standards) had it backwards. The gentleman at the front desk when we checked in asked what region I was from, and was *gasp* shocked that I was American. That must be one of the levels of fluency: can-convince-French-person-am-French-from-different-region-if-only-3-minute-conversation.
After checking in, we decided to go to Montmartre first because it was the furthest tourist destination from our area, making it harder to combine with other sights. We took the metro out there, and I found the combination of old/new in the stations rather funny. There are screens that tell you exactly when the next train is coming, and unlike Boston, they're never late. The chairs in the station look like they're straight out of IKEA. However, to get into some of the trains, you still have to pull a quaint looking lever, and the walls in the metro look as they must've 50 years ago. Montmartre itself seemed much more "touristy" than I remember it being the last time I was there. Middle Eastern looking men selling cigarettes surrounded the metro exit shoving the boxes into the faces of anyone coming out. Dark African street vendors who look as if they need about 50 baguettes kept grabbing our arms to try to get us to buy these little string things that they must braid around your wrist or something. One of my classmates told me when we got back that it's a scam- one distracts you with his "craft" and another steals your wallet. It was more intimidating than anything else. Once we got up to the top, we looked around at the artists painting, but most things looked like pretty, but boring replicas of each other and the prices had ballooned compared to other tourist shops farther away. When I was there in high school, my tour guide sat at a bar and had a snack while we explored, so we went there for lunch. The food was good by American standards, but we knew from our Reims experience that it was only so-so according to French standards. Overall, that area is one that should be seen once, but that is rather disappointing when compared to everything else France has to offer.
We walked back, taking whatever route we felt like, checking out the sites along the way. When we got back to the hostel, we sat and sipped a bottle of wine that we'd bought next door and started talking to some of the people who were staying in our 10-person dorm. It was funny that we were in France, so I assumed the other Europeans there would want to speak French, but no, our "Salut" was returned with "Hi," so we spoke to everyone except the front desk in English. The Italian guy who works for a music magazine had been at concerts in Paris to write about them, and was on his way to Norway or Denmark to write about music there. The Italian girl was participating in Erasmus and hoping to work on her French. I'm not usually a very social person, but they were pretty talkative, and we ended up realizing around 8:30 or so that we needed to leave for our 9 pm dinner reservation.
We ended up being quite late (1/2 hr) for our reservation, but there were only about 5 other tables, so it wasn't a big deal. The waiter and maitre d' were very proper with us at first, explaining the dishes and the wine pairing with the utmost professionalism. That was nice, but we much preferred it later in the meal when they warmed up to us and started smiling and joking. Short of a few culinary vocabulary words that I will never be able to look up because I wouldn't even know how to spell them (the liaison between words makes it very hard to tell where one ends and another begins if you don't already know what a word is), we understood them perfectly. Below is the menu that we ate, with translation/notes and my additions for the courses that weren't on the menu list.
Amuse- rascasse (a kind of red fish) salad with a side of chilled carrot soup topped with creme fraiche.
Foie gras confit dans un vin d'épices, mangue aigre douce
Langoustines croustillantes, pak-choï et bouillon à la passion
Langoustines are the size and have the taste of jumbo shrimp, but look like lobster when in the shell. Ours were breaded and fried in something that looked a bit like coconut, but I don't it was. They were served on a bed of bak-choi with a delicious, sweet passion fruit sauce on the side.
Limoux "Autan" 2007 Toques et clochers - white wine with notes of pear
mini course addition here- a little gazpacho with creme fraiche on top.
Bar de ligne, fondue d'oseille, risotto au safran et aux crevettes, pousses d'épinard et bouillon aux herbes
This is what Maggie had as her main course- a kind of sea bass cooked in sorrel broth with saffron and shrimp risotto (delicious!), baby spinach and a light herb sauce
Chablis 2006 R.Lavantureux - she skipped this and had red wine :-)
Du pigeon fermier :
-Cuisses fondantes en pastilla
-Filets cuits rosés, flan de céleri, miel de bruyère et dattes medjoul
This was my main course- farmed pigeon two ways- ground and cooked in a pastry shell and then roasted to medium rare with au jus, celery flan (much better than it sounds!) and honey covered dates. The description doesn't include the fact that the wings were in a little pot of juice on the side. I was surprised how red the pigeon meat was, and didn't feel bad at all about eating the relatives of the obnoxious birds that followed us around all the time. No picture yet as Maggie hasn't uploaded it.
Cairanne "la Perdendaille" 2006 Les vins de Vienne- full-bodied red, can't remember the correct tasting description.
Figues rôties aux épices, sorbet aux pruneaux
Roasted figs with spices (mostly cinnamon) and plum sorbet. The sorbet was fantastic, but I think I prefer figs in jam. Forgot to take a picture until we were almost done.
Parfait praliné aux noisettes caramélisées et crème choco-noisette
Parfait in the English sense is a misnomer here. These were little squares of delicious cream with the texture of cheesecake and carmelized hazelnut chunks with a thin cookie on top and a warm chocolate hazelnut sauce to pour over the top.
Muscat de baumes de Venise 2007 Domaine des Bernardins Right around the main course was when the staff became friendlier, probably because we were obviously enjoying their food and their language. Anyway, the description for the wine following the boring appellation information went something like this "To best taste this wine, you must close your eyes, put your nose deeply into the glass and inhale, and you will be transported into a garden." He wasn't lying. I could drink that wine for dessert every day. I realized when Maggie was about halfway done with her dessert, which was equally delicious, that I hadn't even touched mine yet because I was still sniffing away.
Absolutely perfect dinner! Got back to the hostel around midnight or 12:30 to find everyone in the room fast asleep. Where are the Europeans that like to go out until 4 in the morning every night of the week? It's Tuesday, who cares? So in the spirit of our new European friends, we went to bed, too.
Non-food pictures from the whole time we were there are on Facebook- posting is too much work here.
We stayed at the Young and Happy Hostel in the 4th arrondissement. The reviews online said it had good breakfast and surly staff, but it was reasonably cheap, so we figured the staff wouldn't bother us too much. Turns out that the reviewers (mostly American- high service, low food standards) had it backwards. The gentleman at the front desk when we checked in asked what region I was from, and was *gasp* shocked that I was American. That must be one of the levels of fluency: can-convince-French-person-am-French-from-different-region-if-only-3-minute-conversation.
After checking in, we decided to go to Montmartre first because it was the furthest tourist destination from our area, making it harder to combine with other sights. We took the metro out there, and I found the combination of old/new in the stations rather funny. There are screens that tell you exactly when the next train is coming, and unlike Boston, they're never late. The chairs in the station look like they're straight out of IKEA. However, to get into some of the trains, you still have to pull a quaint looking lever, and the walls in the metro look as they must've 50 years ago. Montmartre itself seemed much more "touristy" than I remember it being the last time I was there. Middle Eastern looking men selling cigarettes surrounded the metro exit shoving the boxes into the faces of anyone coming out. Dark African street vendors who look as if they need about 50 baguettes kept grabbing our arms to try to get us to buy these little string things that they must braid around your wrist or something. One of my classmates told me when we got back that it's a scam- one distracts you with his "craft" and another steals your wallet. It was more intimidating than anything else. Once we got up to the top, we looked around at the artists painting, but most things looked like pretty, but boring replicas of each other and the prices had ballooned compared to other tourist shops farther away. When I was there in high school, my tour guide sat at a bar and had a snack while we explored, so we went there for lunch. The food was good by American standards, but we knew from our Reims experience that it was only so-so according to French standards. Overall, that area is one that should be seen once, but that is rather disappointing when compared to everything else France has to offer.
We walked back, taking whatever route we felt like, checking out the sites along the way. When we got back to the hostel, we sat and sipped a bottle of wine that we'd bought next door and started talking to some of the people who were staying in our 10-person dorm. It was funny that we were in France, so I assumed the other Europeans there would want to speak French, but no, our "Salut" was returned with "Hi," so we spoke to everyone except the front desk in English. The Italian guy who works for a music magazine had been at concerts in Paris to write about them, and was on his way to Norway or Denmark to write about music there. The Italian girl was participating in Erasmus and hoping to work on her French. I'm not usually a very social person, but they were pretty talkative, and we ended up realizing around 8:30 or so that we needed to leave for our 9 pm dinner reservation.
We ended up being quite late (1/2 hr) for our reservation, but there were only about 5 other tables, so it wasn't a big deal. The waiter and maitre d' were very proper with us at first, explaining the dishes and the wine pairing with the utmost professionalism. That was nice, but we much preferred it later in the meal when they warmed up to us and started smiling and joking. Short of a few culinary vocabulary words that I will never be able to look up because I wouldn't even know how to spell them (the liaison between words makes it very hard to tell where one ends and another begins if you don't already know what a word is), we understood them perfectly. Below is the menu that we ate, with translation/notes and my additions for the courses that weren't on the menu list.
Amuse- rascasse (a kind of red fish) salad with a side of chilled carrot soup topped with creme fraiche.
Foie gras confit dans un vin d'épices, mangue aigre douce
Foie gras at room temperature wrapped in duck fat in a spiced wine reduction (spices included cardamom-mmm) with a mango salad. This was served with dense brown bread slices on which to spread the foie, but I much preferred it plain!
Montlouis-sur-loire 2003 F.Chedaine- white wine was light, slightly sweet, with honey and tropical fruit.
Langoustines croustillantes, pak-choï et bouillon à la passion
Langoustines are the size and have the taste of jumbo shrimp, but look like lobster when in the shell. Ours were breaded and fried in something that looked a bit like coconut, but I don't it was. They were served on a bed of bak-choi with a delicious, sweet passion fruit sauce on the side.
Limoux "Autan" 2007 Toques et clochers - white wine with notes of pear
mini course addition here- a little gazpacho with creme fraiche on top.
Bar de ligne, fondue d'oseille, risotto au safran et aux crevettes, pousses d'épinard et bouillon aux herbes
Chablis 2006 R.Lavantureux - she skipped this and had red wine :-)
Du pigeon fermier :
-Cuisses fondantes en pastilla
-Filets cuits rosés, flan de céleri, miel de bruyère et dattes medjoul
This was my main course- farmed pigeon two ways- ground and cooked in a pastry shell and then roasted to medium rare with au jus, celery flan (much better than it sounds!) and honey covered dates. The description doesn't include the fact that the wings were in a little pot of juice on the side. I was surprised how red the pigeon meat was, and didn't feel bad at all about eating the relatives of the obnoxious birds that followed us around all the time. No picture yet as Maggie hasn't uploaded it.
Cairanne "la Perdendaille" 2006 Les vins de Vienne- full-bodied red, can't remember the correct tasting description.
Figues rôties aux épices, sorbet aux pruneaux
Roasted figs with spices (mostly cinnamon) and plum sorbet. The sorbet was fantastic, but I think I prefer figs in jam. Forgot to take a picture until we were almost done.
Parfait praliné aux noisettes caramélisées et crème choco-noisette
Parfait in the English sense is a misnomer here. These were little squares of delicious cream with the texture of cheesecake and carmelized hazelnut chunks with a thin cookie on top and a warm chocolate hazelnut sauce to pour over the top.
Muscat de baumes de Venise 2007 Domaine des Bernardins Right around the main course was when the staff became friendlier, probably because we were obviously enjoying their food and their language. Anyway, the description for the wine following the boring appellation information went something like this "To best taste this wine, you must close your eyes, put your nose deeply into the glass and inhale, and you will be transported into a garden." He wasn't lying. I could drink that wine for dessert every day. I realized when Maggie was about halfway done with her dessert, which was equally delicious, that I hadn't even touched mine yet because I was still sniffing away.
Absolutely perfect dinner! Got back to the hostel around midnight or 12:30 to find everyone in the room fast asleep. Where are the Europeans that like to go out until 4 in the morning every night of the week? It's Tuesday, who cares? So in the spirit of our new European friends, we went to bed, too.
Non-food pictures from the whole time we were there are on Facebook- posting is too much work here.
More food
Baked brie with cranberries and honey- told Jason how to make it. He did pretty well, no?
From the market: seared scallops with roasted potatoes and garlic, spinach, and a tarragon cream sauce.
Jason's bruschetta- tomatoes from the market were amazing!
Tarte aux mirabelles (small, sweet yellow plums) with almond filling before baking
Tart after baking
Roasted carrot soup- the pictures don't capture the color well, but it was a nice golden orange- with tarragon cream.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Restless exploration
My father's need to explore any new setting has apparently been instilled quite strongly in me, too. Over the past week, with all of our major apartment-related tasks complete, I've been taking long walks around our neighborhood just to see what's here. I go by myself because I walk too fast for most people and enjoy the freedom to take a stray turn here or there. I left this morning planning to take an hour or less, and ended up being gone for about 2 hours and 45 minutes!
On a previous walk, I'd seen several advertisements for a "Parc des Expositions" (an animal show will be held there next weekend), so when I saw signs pointing to it, I followed them. I eventually ended up next to the river that runs next to Centre Ville. Whoever said the French don't exercise must not live in Reims- it seemed like everyone was out jogging, biking, or rowing along the river.
Eventually I passed a huge structure labeled "Les Grands Moulins de Reims" (The big mills of Reims). Apparently the flour for several local bakeries is produced there, so I just e-mailed them hoping to hear that a tour might be possible. I emphasized my student status, hoping that pride would make them want to teach me about their business.
I've been looking for herbs to grow for cooking, since I love using them and haven't been able to find a reliable source, so I stopped at a small garden store, but they only had sage left, while I was thinking more along the lines of rosemary and thyme (I only want half of the Simon & Garfunkel song, as parsley isn't my favorite either).
Next on my route was an absolutely gorgeous little park. It happens to lie across from the rather shady (in the negative sense) park near the train station, but at 11 a.m. it was peaceful and lovely. There was a garden in Versailles style (very kempt) that led into something more my style- a mini waterfall flowing into a stream filled with koi fish underneath willows and crossed by a bridge.
Still following the signs for the parc des expos, I walked past a strip of really neat houseboats. Many of these boats had more plants than the apartment balconies near us, and some even had patio areas covered with lawn furniture and grills. Two of them were pulled up parralel to each other to allow their owners to socialize. I had never thought of a houseboat as something I'd like to do, but seeing how well these boats functioned made me rethink it. It seems like something my parents might want to do (or at least my father, while my mother would have to hope for one with lots of plants and room for her sewing projects) when they retire.
I eventually stumbled on a bus stop map that seems to indicate it would take me approximately 4 hours (a slight overstatement, but close) to get to what I thought was the park. That was a little more exploration than I wanted to do, so I was about to head back when I started to see people with bags of food. Since I know that basically everything except a few bakeries is closed on Sundays, I followed the people until I stumbled upon a huge market! Yesterday's market had been relatively calm, perhaps because we went early, but this one was absolutely crawling with people. It reminded me of the street fairs we went to in Carlsbad every year. I walked the length of it first, watching demonstrations of the latest and greatest cookware (much more interesting than QVC!), smelling the roasting chickens, and looking to see if there were vendors from yesterday. I saw my favorite salad man, as well as the vendor from whom we bought the mirabelles, but there wasn't much left at either table, so I moved on. A large part of this market was clothing stands. I was surprised to see that there were even a couple dedicated solely to women's underwear- the pretty kind, albeit cheap. I caught myself thinking "Gross! I would never want to buy underwear at an outdoor market. Who knows who's touched that?!" Thinking about it now, I don't know who's touched it at Victoria's Secret either, so to each her own, I suppose.
On a previous walk, I'd seen several advertisements for a "Parc des Expositions" (an animal show will be held there next weekend), so when I saw signs pointing to it, I followed them. I eventually ended up next to the river that runs next to Centre Ville. Whoever said the French don't exercise must not live in Reims- it seemed like everyone was out jogging, biking, or rowing along the river.
Eventually I passed a huge structure labeled "Les Grands Moulins de Reims" (The big mills of Reims). Apparently the flour for several local bakeries is produced there, so I just e-mailed them hoping to hear that a tour might be possible. I emphasized my student status, hoping that pride would make them want to teach me about their business.
I've been looking for herbs to grow for cooking, since I love using them and haven't been able to find a reliable source, so I stopped at a small garden store, but they only had sage left, while I was thinking more along the lines of rosemary and thyme (I only want half of the Simon & Garfunkel song, as parsley isn't my favorite either).
Next on my route was an absolutely gorgeous little park. It happens to lie across from the rather shady (in the negative sense) park near the train station, but at 11 a.m. it was peaceful and lovely. There was a garden in Versailles style (very kempt) that led into something more my style- a mini waterfall flowing into a stream filled with koi fish underneath willows and crossed by a bridge.
Still following the signs for the parc des expos, I walked past a strip of really neat houseboats. Many of these boats had more plants than the apartment balconies near us, and some even had patio areas covered with lawn furniture and grills. Two of them were pulled up parralel to each other to allow their owners to socialize. I had never thought of a houseboat as something I'd like to do, but seeing how well these boats functioned made me rethink it. It seems like something my parents might want to do (or at least my father, while my mother would have to hope for one with lots of plants and room for her sewing projects) when they retire.
I eventually stumbled on a bus stop map that seems to indicate it would take me approximately 4 hours (a slight overstatement, but close) to get to what I thought was the park. That was a little more exploration than I wanted to do, so I was about to head back when I started to see people with bags of food. Since I know that basically everything except a few bakeries is closed on Sundays, I followed the people until I stumbled upon a huge market! Yesterday's market had been relatively calm, perhaps because we went early, but this one was absolutely crawling with people. It reminded me of the street fairs we went to in Carlsbad every year. I walked the length of it first, watching demonstrations of the latest and greatest cookware (much more interesting than QVC!), smelling the roasting chickens, and looking to see if there were vendors from yesterday. I saw my favorite salad man, as well as the vendor from whom we bought the mirabelles, but there wasn't much left at either table, so I moved on. A large part of this market was clothing stands. I was surprised to see that there were even a couple dedicated solely to women's underwear- the pretty kind, albeit cheap. I caught myself thinking "Gross! I would never want to buy underwear at an outdoor market. Who knows who's touched that?!" Thinking about it now, I don't know who's touched it at Victoria's Secret either, so to each her own, I suppose.
Tonight's dinner plan of roasted carrot soup calls for vegetable stock, which we couldn't find in the stores, so I was a bit worried about the flavor. However, I found some good looking celery at the market and combined it when I got home with the peelings from the carrots, an onion and some garlic and herbs. Voilà- vegetable stock!
From the market I took a long way back past the Basilique St Remi (St Remi's Basilica...), several flower shops and our cathedral.
Now off to make dinner!
Saturday, September 12, 2009
A visit to the market
As much as I like cooking here, the supermarkets just aren't very good. The milk products- butter and greek-style yogurt- are fantastic, and we can certainly get cheap wine, but the vegetables and fish are not varied nor lovely. I've wandered a bit to see if there are smaller, independent stores that might offer at least a more appetizing selection, but no such luck.
I googled markets in Reims, and after a little searching, I found a short list with a few nearby our apartment. I had heard that markets open and become busy here, so I wanted to arrive before all the older ladies got the good stuff! Maggie kindly sacrificed a couple of hours of sleep to come with me, but with an extended Skype date with Peter, we didn't arrive until around 8:30. I must've heard wrong about the early risers, because the market was bustling just enough to make it lively, and some vendors were still setting up.
This market puts farmers' markets in the US to shame (although I still love them!). There were 4 double-sided rows of big and small stands filled with delicious things to eat, and even a small bookseller's stand. Most impressive to me were the butcher and fish stands. Maggie noticed before I did that many had whole skinned rabbits with head and eyes intact, there was also horse meat, livers of all kinds, duck... I had to write down some of the names of the fish we saw because I'd left my dictionary at the house and couldn't look them up. We adopted my mom's and my favorite style of shopping a market and walked around the whole thing before going back to make our purchases. This was also helpful in coming up with a meal plan based on what was available.
I've been seeing mirabelle (small, sweet plums) tarts all over, so I bought those to make a tart tomorrow. We also saw white raspberries, and bought them just because we've never seen them before. The salad place was my favorite. I asked for tarragon, and wasn't planning on anything else, but their greens looked so delicious that I asked for mustard greens because they're unusual in the States. The jovial gentleman helping me asked which ones, but I hadn't realized there was more than one kind, so I asked him to choose for me. He made me a lovely mix and was amused that I did all the talking, asking me to translate for Maggie, who probably understood fine. We also bought tomatoes, spinach (which does not exist except in frozen form at the supermarkets), and scallops. I'm not used to weights, so for the most part I just asked for enough for three people. The vendors seemed amused, but didn't question me and gave me perfect amounts.
I've been surprised at the amount of horse meat I've seen here. After some discussion with Peter and a thorough Wikipedia reading, it seems that it's very high in protein, tender, and slightly sweeter. Some sources compared the taste to a cross between beef and venison. Old pagan cults used to sacrifice horses to their gods and then eat the meat, so horse meat was considered taboo in many Catholicized areas because it was pagan. So why so popular in places like France and Italy? During famines, horses consumed a lot of grain needed for people, and were obviously a good source of protein, so people ignored religion for sustenance. Horse meat is also forbidden by the Jewish religion because horses aren't ruminants (multiple stomachs) and don't have cloven hooves. Interesting history lesson for me. It's something I'd try while I'm here, along with offal, but might not cook since I wouldn't do it justice I'm sure.
Off to cook!
I googled markets in Reims, and after a little searching, I found a short list with a few nearby our apartment. I had heard that markets open and become busy here, so I wanted to arrive before all the older ladies got the good stuff! Maggie kindly sacrificed a couple of hours of sleep to come with me, but with an extended Skype date with Peter, we didn't arrive until around 8:30. I must've heard wrong about the early risers, because the market was bustling just enough to make it lively, and some vendors were still setting up.
This market puts farmers' markets in the US to shame (although I still love them!). There were 4 double-sided rows of big and small stands filled with delicious things to eat, and even a small bookseller's stand. Most impressive to me were the butcher and fish stands. Maggie noticed before I did that many had whole skinned rabbits with head and eyes intact, there was also horse meat, livers of all kinds, duck... I had to write down some of the names of the fish we saw because I'd left my dictionary at the house and couldn't look them up. We adopted my mom's and my favorite style of shopping a market and walked around the whole thing before going back to make our purchases. This was also helpful in coming up with a meal plan based on what was available.
I've been seeing mirabelle (small, sweet plums) tarts all over, so I bought those to make a tart tomorrow. We also saw white raspberries, and bought them just because we've never seen them before. The salad place was my favorite. I asked for tarragon, and wasn't planning on anything else, but their greens looked so delicious that I asked for mustard greens because they're unusual in the States. The jovial gentleman helping me asked which ones, but I hadn't realized there was more than one kind, so I asked him to choose for me. He made me a lovely mix and was amused that I did all the talking, asking me to translate for Maggie, who probably understood fine. We also bought tomatoes, spinach (which does not exist except in frozen form at the supermarkets), and scallops. I'm not used to weights, so for the most part I just asked for enough for three people. The vendors seemed amused, but didn't question me and gave me perfect amounts.
I've been surprised at the amount of horse meat I've seen here. After some discussion with Peter and a thorough Wikipedia reading, it seems that it's very high in protein, tender, and slightly sweeter. Some sources compared the taste to a cross between beef and venison. Old pagan cults used to sacrifice horses to their gods and then eat the meat, so horse meat was considered taboo in many Catholicized areas because it was pagan. So why so popular in places like France and Italy? During famines, horses consumed a lot of grain needed for people, and were obviously a good source of protein, so people ignored religion for sustenance. Horse meat is also forbidden by the Jewish religion because horses aren't ruminants (multiple stomachs) and don't have cloven hooves. Interesting history lesson for me. It's something I'd try while I'm here, along with offal, but might not cook since I wouldn't do it justice I'm sure.
Off to cook!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
