Massive, overwhelming update

Oh wow, so much has happened since the last update! Grab a comfy chair and a glass of Côtes du Rhône or Chartreuse for this massive update...

First, picture links:
Thanksgiving
Fête des Lumières and Fondue
Pumpkin pie, snow, random assorted things
Dublin

Dublin

I went to Dublin a couple weekends back to visit Chris (friend from Brandeis)! It was tons of fun. I got there and we had a good dinner in her apartment that Tegan (another friend from Brandeis who was also visiting that weekend from Paris) had made while Chris was getting me. Then we went into the city and walked around for a while. It was gorgeous with tons of lights for the holidays and Christmas carols coming from a random store. We eventually made our way to Porterhouse, a brewery/pub where I got a stout beer that was probably the best beer of my life. I’m not a big beer person but it was so delicious! Kind of chocolatey…like dessert! And the foam on the beer was like drinking cream. No joke.

Saturday we got up and headed into the city to explore. Gave ourselves a long walking tour, seeing St. Patrick’s Cathedral (not going inside unfortunately due to a graduation ceremony), O’Connell Street, Grafton Street, St. Stephen’s green. We went to this awesome cheese store called Sheridan’s Cheesemongers where I bought a great “regional specialty” cheese called coolea, made by these Dutch immigrants to Ireland! So delicious! For lunch we got BAGELS, which was amazing because I miss them as they’re nonexistent in France!

In the afternoon we went to Christ Church, walked over the Liffey River and finally made our way to the Jameson Whiskey Distillery. We went on a tour there which was really fun and interesting, learning how they make Irish whiskey and learning about differences between it and Scotch and American whiskey. Several people from each tour group get to do a tasting at the end of an American (Jack Daniels), Scotch (Johnnie Walker Black Label) and Jameson (Irish) whiskey. Chris volunteered and got chosen so we got to watch her taste them all! It was really fun and I tasted them all myself at the end as well! I prefer Jack Daniels (gotta stay true to my roots!), then Jameson, and finally Scotch. After that we walked around for a while longer, got a Guinness in an Irish pub because you can’t go to Ireland and not do that, and then had pub food for dinner. We got the three veggie dishes and shared them and they were great! Lasagna, cannelloni and a potato/roasted red pepper/aubergine mixture. Yum! Then we walked around more because Dublin is gorgeous, especially at night, and went back to Porterhouse for one more of the best beer ever. Dublin’s a great city overall. Really enjoyed it and fun having someone living there to show me the cool stuff! It was so Irish haha. Love the accent, people were really nice, heard people say funny phrases, etc. It was weird speaking English too…I accidentally would respond to people in French sometimes just out of habit. Oops!

Pumpkin Pie, Dégustation des Digestifs
In other news, I made pumpkin pie…from FRESH pumpkin! Canned doesn’t exist in France. It was a long process, buying pumpkin at the market, cooking it, puréeing it, mixing the batter, etc. But the batter was waaaay too watery and brown. I was very sad but figured, whatever; I’ll give it a go anyways. But in the oven it firmed up very nicely and turned a gorgeous orange color! When it came time to taste it that night after dinner after it had cooled and my family got home, it was great!! Soo tasty and good and just like pumpkin pie back in the States! Kelly was there too to enjoy it. My family liked it a lot—it intrigued them because in France they only eat pumpkin in salé (savory) dishes, not sweet. But they liked it a lot! And I made everyone eat it with whipped cream of course because pumpkin pie without whipped cream is like going to Paris and not seeing the Eiffel Tower or Louvre.

Alain (host dad) didn’t know what to drink with it (I suggested pumpkin liquor…lol) so we just had wine. But then we started talking about various digestifs (after dinner liquors) so he had Kelly and me do a mini-dégustation (tasting) of various digestifs that they have. We tried this orange rum that Gaby (host sister’s boyfriend) brought them from his home in Venezuela, Cointreau, Yellow Chartreuse, Green Chartreuse, and Cognac. They were all quite good in my opinion; it was neat to taste the subtle differences between each drink! Very fun! Then Mathis got home and had some pumpkin pie too and he liked it a lot too I think!

Eating pumpkin pie with my host parents and Kelly

The next day I took what remained of the pie to Sam (tandem) and Robin (Clare’s tandem). They LOVED it. A ton! Almost as much as the peanut butter that Clare had them try. They finished her half-jar by themselves! Before we eat lunch, I passed the pumpkin pie around for my (American) friends to smell and everyone practically died over its aroma, because it smelled exactly like Thanksgiving/Christmas/the holidays. It was so funny. Everyone had a bite and really loved it. I was no joke the most popular person at the CUEF that day. Haha.

Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving was great! Given that it was not a true American Thanksgiving and that we were not with our families, I think it was as perfect of a Thanksgiving as we could’ve imagined! I made another pumpkin pie to take there as well as Mathis’ legendary gâteau au chocolat. We got there in the early evening and ate soon after: turkey and stuffing, gratin dauphinois (great regional potato dish), cranberry sauce, bread and two giant cheese platters from the Laiterie Bayard, the best cheese shop in Grenoble. Dessert consisted of everything that people made, and most people made something so desserts were aplenty! Apple pies, pumpkin bread, cranberry nut bread, pumpkin pie, gateau au chocolat, ice cream, and lots of other cakes and tartes. After all the cheese though I was too full to eat all that much!

Having fun at Thanksgiving

Then we had our little talent show. I played piano for a while and people sang which made me super happy to try to combat my piano-withdrawal; Jillian played piano gorgeously too while people sang Billy Joel; Canaan played guitar; Julia, Evan, Marion and Max did an outrageous lip synching dance/performance to “Take Me Home Tonight,” an 80s song. It was hilarious and crazy! Then Patrice (academic director) had us all do this French dance thing which was nuts as well. It was really fun and nice all being together and having fun and eating good food!

Funny family stories
1. Saturday night Mathis had some fancy gala for his school. He went out Saturday day to buy a suit to wear to it. At dinner that night I mentioned to my family how French people tend to never mess with their hair or clothes or appearance in public, compared to the US where you see people fixing their hair, makeup, clothes, etc. frequently in public. French people always tend to be looking good and correct before they go out so they don’t have to mess with their appearance in public. Friends of mine have noticed this as well and we’ve discussed it. Mathis totally disagreed and said he sees people do that all the time in France, etc. etc.

Well, Saturday after dinner he put his suit on while he was getting ready to go out. He came in to show us and his mom started hemming the legs, prompting everyone to freak out about how one leg seemed to be “half a centimeter” longer than the other. And Mathis was really concerned because the pleat of the pants folded in in the middle of his leg, even though his dad and I both said that that was normal and looked fine. When he first came in I mentioned how he needed non-white socks because they totally didn’t go with the black suit and dress shoes. Later when he was about to leave he had to find black socks to wear and was playfully pissed off at me because he didn’t notice that the white socks didn’t go with his suit until I pointed it out to him haha.

Then, the next day he was freaking out at dinner about black jeans of his that had tiny—I mean tiny—little white streaks of something on them. He’d washed them twice but it still wasn’t coming out and he was all up in arms about it lol. It was really funny because you wouldn’t even notice it was there unless someone pointed it out to you. So then I pointed out that all the suit issues and him freaking out about his black pants completely proved my original point from the other night. It couldn’t have been scripted better! I found it amusing at least….

2. One night at dinner Mathis kept saying “What the fuck” for whatever reason…Alain was trying to figure out what he was saying because he’d been saying it forever, but only understood the “what the” part. Finally he understood fuck after Mathis kept repeating it (“fuck like that word fuck?”) so he started saying it too. Except he said “what the fuck” in a very genteel way. I told him he was being way too nice in saying it so then he put his fists up in the air and started shouting and yelling angrily “What the fuck!!” And finally Maé joined in too so everyone (well not me) was yelling “What the fuck”…at the same time…at the dinner table. It was hilarious!

3. The other day Mathis used the word “l’on” (“ce que l’on voit” a formal way of talking in French). It was really funny and I subsequently made fun of him for using it (since he’s young and people our age don’t say that!). Wow I’m cool.

Kelly and Eric
Over Thanksgiving weekend Kelly’s friend Eric was in town to visit her! It was fun and we got to hang out some… Saturday night we went to this cool Belgian pub that a friend from Brandeis (who’s from TN!) who did the Grenoble summer program told me about. It was pretty neat…they have tons of different types of beers and explications of everything. Beer was pretty good, although nothing like Dublin of course. But we tried this cherry beer…it was quite sweet and very interesting. Nice to try, but a little weird and too sweet to have multiple ones of. We also went out to our Indian restaurant once too! Yum!

Marché de Noël (Christmas Market)
Since it’s approaching Christmas time, Grenoble’s Marché de Noel is now open! It’s all these cute little tents with booths of people selling various items…arts, crafts, wide varieties of food/wine, Christmas-y things, etc. It’s really pretty and nice and all lit up at night! There are also lights all over the city because it’s the holidays. It’s SOO pretty! Just gorgeous. Didn’t know Grenoble could get any prettier but it just keeps doing so! Snow covers the mountains now…pretty sunsets and sunrises…amazing!

Chez Christine
Last week I was chez Sam and Jill (and their host mom, Christine) twice! Wednesday night was the soirée du cinema, where we watched the French mega-hit “Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis”. It was a really funny movie…a guy from southern France gets transplanted to the North for his job. The faaaaar North of France. It was really funny with the accents and him not understanding, being quite hesitant of the region at first, but eventually growing to love it! Very entertaining and now we all go around saying things with northern accents! Quite different and hard to understand!

Then Thursday I had another cours de cuisine (cooking class) at Christine’s with Clare and Julia B. Very fun and tasty, just like last time! Started with Champagne for l’apéritif in the salon, I made l’entrée, a salad with pineapple, beet and emmental cheese and a dressing of walnut oil (l’huile de noix…une spécialité régionale) and lemon juice. Quite interesting and good!

Clare was in charge of the plat principal which was spinach lasagna. It was very delicious, but a little dry…we all agreed that it needed some sauce (the recipe didn’t call for any red sauce!). But obviously still great! Then was the cheese course, a great assortment as always, followed by Julia’s dessert: tarte tatin! It was really good…tarte tatin made with a homemade pastry dough crust with vanilla ice cream. So good even though we were so full by that point! Yay!

Scott
Scott, the director of study abroad at Brandeis, came to visit this past weekend! He was doing a trip to Geneve, Grenoble and Paris checking out study abroad programs! It was tons of fun having him here and we ate quite well! He came to the aforementioned cours de cuisine, he took me out for crepes + cidre for lunch one day which was fun, we went up the Bastille. Thursday, Marie-Eve, Scott, Kelly and I all had lunch on campus at a restaurant there which was very fun and good, complete with wine before class haha. Oh, France! But it really, truly is part of the culture. Everyone does it. Like whenever I have cheese at home with dinner and don’t take red wine Alain inquires as to why I’m not drinking red wine with cheese because that’s just what you do!

Friday night Marie-Eve, Luis (her copain), Canaan, Kelly, Clare, Scott and I all had dinner chez Marie-Eve. I cooked dinner! It was tons of fun! We had salade au chèvre chaud to begin with which was good, complete with chèvre from laiterie Bayard. Then the main course was tarte au pistou, which is kind of like a tomato tarte with a pesto-ish sauce. It was really, really good, except for the fact that I forgot to salt it, but that was easily remedied! Dessert was Clare and Canaan and Kelly’s doing: mousse au chocolat! Very delicious even though it looked like it had originally failed! Luis, who’s from Portugal, apparently didn’t like the idea of a vegetarian meal, so he brought his own big steak and cooked it and ate it on his own with dinner. It was really hilarious!

Had good wine that Marie-Eve had acquired through Remy (her son in law who worked for the Michelin Guide as a wine critic) throughout dinner and the evening which was fun. To drink with dessert I brought a bottle of Gewurztraminer that I’d purchased at the winery we went to in l’Alsace. It was so delicious! Honey-y, sweet, fruity, paired divinely with chocolate and dessert! Yum! And of course, since we were chez Marie-Eve, I also got to play the piano—on her new piano bench! Yay!

Fête des Lumières
Saturday I went to Lyon with the CUEF (free trip!) for the Fête des Lumières (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fete_des_lumieres ), an annual massive light/sound show. It was pretty cool, although nothing can top the Fête du Beaujolais! Got there early in the day, went to lunch at a great random Italian place, then came out from lunch and it was sunny! We walked around a while making our way to the Marché de Noel (Christmas market) in which we wandered for a long time. Really fun and nice. Then we wandered around more in some stores and stuff until the festivities commenced after dark! Saw many cool lights on fountains, buildings, cathedrals, etc. And a neat sound/light show on the side of some building with a child’s voice narration haha. It was actually really cool. I then got some paella which was really good on the street from a restaurant along with some vin chaud (hot wine…popular treat around xmas time). Delicious! Then we just chilled and wandered along the river until it was time to head back! Fun day and glad to have gone to check it all out! Lyon is gorgeous!

A fountain of fish at the Fête des Lumières

Food Stories
1. Sunday night we had a group dinner at a fondue restaurant! Given that it was my first time having fondue, I was very excited and it turned out to be very fun and delicious! We got reblochon fondue (type of cheese from the Savoie) that was super good. Cubes of bread to dip into it along with a green salad (and optional charcuterie) and the typical white wine. So fun and yummy! Then amazing desserts…chocolate fondue for some, others got various ice creams, crepes, or mixes. Yay! I want to try fondue again, next time having the “classic” 3-cheese mix that’s typical of the Savoie and Rhone-Alpes.

Kelly and Anna with chocolate fondue!

2. Tuesday I did a dégustation (tasting) of peanut butter and rice krispie treats with Sam and Robin! It was way fun and they really liked it all! Courtesy of my dad, I had Jif crunchy, Peter Pan Honey Roast creamy, and Trader Joe’s natural creamy just peanuts to try. Very fun, and again, I was very popular that day!

3. Today in travaux pratiques (French language class) we had a “brunch” for our last day, where everyone brought something from their own country to share. It was amazing! I made pumpkin pie and biscuits (both big hits!)! I think this is a complete list of all that we had: muffins, galette des rois, pumpkin pie, spice cookies, rice krispie treats, chips, peanut butter/nutella sandwiches, pumpkin bread, southern biscuits, Arab delicacies, REAL CAVIAR from Russia on dark bread with butter, grape/apple/pecan/mayo salad, OJ, coke, cidre, great cheese, champagne. Delicious and very fun!

Also, it snowed a ton the other day for the first time! Gorgeous!! A LOT of it too!

Now I’m in the midst of exams…lots of work when I want to be hanging out with people who are leaving soon, especially Kelly, and to profiter from my last few days of the semester here. Gaah…guess that’s life though! Comments much appreciated! Congrats if you made it this far. You really deserve a special prize! Like really, I'm totally impressed.

Update!

(Pictures and links to pictures at bottom...)
Wow! So much has gone on since I last posted. And other people here in France on my program tell me I don’t update enough, which is creepy since I didn’t even know they read my blog. Anyways, two Saturdays ago Remy, Clare’s host dad who works for the Michelin Guide, had a wine tasting for us at his house. It was awesome…four wines paired with four cheeses. Everything was quite delicious and it was fun talking about what we smelled/tasted in each wine!

I went to Geneva to visit Justine, a friend from Brandeis, a few weekends back! It was tons of fun...had a Halloween party, met her cool friends, ate amazing Ethiopian food, saw the city, went up the tower of the cathedral, saw the jet d'eau, etc. I also bought amazing chocolate :D Very nice city even though it rained a lot. Very international and expensive too. But a fun, quick, easy weekend trip (2 hrs on a direct train!)

Two Sundays ago we went to Lyon to see the ballet of Romeo and Juliette at the Lyon Opera. It was amaaazing. Such incredible dancing and music. My seat was incredible with a perfect view of the entire pit orchestra! It was a huge orchestra: 2 oboes, an English horn even, 2 bassoons, a contrabassoon which you like never see, SIX French horns, harp, etc. etc. So awesome! We also saw a little of Vieux Lyon before the ballet, including hiking (walking?) up the hill to the Basilique de Fourviere with a view of Lyon. Very awesome building and neat old ruins on the way up!

One Friday night Clare and I made dinner here with a few friends! We made a damn good spinach lasagna with fresh mozarelle from an Italian grocery store. It was very yummy! The phrase “stop shitting on my party” has entered into our regular vocab grâce à Mathis lol. It’s quite funny. And we also always joke about how the only thing Clare can cook is tomato crumble. Brittany, Clare and I were out one night and we couldn’t stop laughing about how she’s going to make tomato crumble for her kids every day, all the time. And her kids are going to turn red and have crumbly hair. And she’ll say to them, “It’s okay…one day someone like you will be president too!” (This happened shortly after the election.) It’s hilarious! But then we realized that Clare will have future cooking classes since she’s here for the whole year, so hopefully she can learn a new dish to make too, so her kids don’t turn out to be tomato.

Last weekend we went to Alsace. We had lunch on the way up in a nice little town called Colmar, then went to a winery along La Route des Vins d’Alsace. It was amazing and so fun. I was basically in heaven. We saw where they make the wine, store it, press the grapes, and then got to do a tasting of maybe 6 or 7 different wines that they make, all white since that’s what Alsace is most famous for and what they mainly produce. It was neat to be able to taste and smell the differences between different types of wines, even among the same varietals. I bought some Riesling per my host dad’s request and some Gewürztraminer for myself!

Then in Strasbourg we had dinner at a brasserie where we had flammekueche, the traditional Alsacienne pizza, sans sauce and topped with cheese and onions, sauerkraut, and bacon (or not), served with good Alsacienne beer, and live music. It was pretty fun, but seemed more American than French though, since they played blues and lots of American songs, like Proud Mary (shout out to Sean!). It was crazy though because all of the sudden, these French people at a table next to us all at once did lines of cocaine off of their wrists. I was shocked and couldn’t believe what I had just witnessed! Crazy French kids!


Me and Clare with flammekueche in Strasbourg


The next day we saw the city, went on a boat ride through Strasbourg’s canals, saw the cathedrale and some supposedly amazing astronomical clock that was fairly disappointing, ate lunch, including an amazing fresh tome de vache (cow’s milk cheese) and perhaps the best yogurt of my life, this farm-fresh pear cinnamon yogurt! Yum! And I tried pain des épices, spice bread, a regional specialty.

Last night was la Fête du Beaujolais, a big party that celebrates the release of the Beaujolais Nouveau wine. I went up to Beaujolais to celebrate there on a trip with the CUEF (my university). It was so much fun! We got there a little after 11 pm and joined a parade of people with marching bands playing fun upbeat music, people in costume with big giant flags and banners, etc. And everyone had torches and we just walked/danced down the main street of the town of Beaujeu. There were giant green laser lights shining down the street too, so unbelievably awesome! We eventually made it to this big area where there was a giant “20” (20th anniversary of the Fete du Beaujolais) and we did the countdown to midnight, when there were fireworks and everyone got Beaujolais nouveau to drink! (Beaujolais nouveau can’t be released until the 3rd Thursday of November, hence the massive parties throughout France today….) Beaujolais nouveau is bad wine…I didn’t really like it that much…drinkable but nothing great. It’s not interesting, no character, very fruity and just very ordinary, boring wine (lower quality than vin de table in my opinion).

La Fête du Beaujolais

Then from there we made our way back to this giant tent where there was a huge band with trumpets, sax, trombone, drums, bass, guitar and several singers and backup singers/dancers. It was crazy. They were really good and changed clothes approximately every two songs haha. And we just danced forever and hung out, drank Beaujolais nouveau, etc. It was soooo much fun! Such an awesome night and very memorable! We were all soo glad we went. Oh, and we got back to Grenoble at 6 am lol.

This afternoon Mathis made cookies unbeknownst to me, but he failed majorly haha. He misinterpreted the amount of flour and ended up putting in less flour than sugar, making the dough way too liquidy. It was hilarious and Clare and I died laughing at him because of it lol. We whipped up some new batter just off the tops of our heads based on what looked right and they turned out decently. He made them to take to friends of his, since Clare and I taught him to make them a few weeks back. So funny!

What happens when French people make cookies

Tomorrow I’m going to visit Chris in Dublin! Yay! Hope all’s well with all y’all!

Pictures for those of you without Facebook...
La Fête du Beaujolais
Lyon + Random
Alsace
Geneva

Election Day 2008!

Election Day 2008 – 4 novembre 2008

(I wrote this mainly for me just so I have an account of what I did for the elections! Not that interesting--just tells what I did on Election Day and the day after--but read if you'd like!)

After not sleeping well the night before—I woke up at 4 am and it took foreeeever to go back to sleep—I woke up extra early on Tuesday to read all the newspapers, websites, etc. online with election excitement! The day we’ve been waiting for for 8 years, the culmination of nearly two full years of campaigning, is finally here! The couple days before Tuesday, I’d read articles online for two hours before even starting my day…pitiful! I ate breakfast with my family who was very excited and optimistic for the election and went to normal Tuesday classes. Sooo difficult to concentrate, although everyone afterwards agreed that that was the longest Travaux Pratiques class yet. I ran home after class to read/watch more of the coverage online, ate a quick lunch, and then hopped on the tram to go back to campus for Translation…which turned out to be canceled! The teacher never showed up so we just left after 15 minutes. What a perfect day for that to happen! I went to the BU bureau with Clare and Monica where we took care of some random business and found out details about our election party. Then we went to Monoprix and bought snacks for the election party chez moi.

I mostly hung out at home all afternoon, continuing to read newspapers online, watch the Daily Show/Colbert Report, network coverage of the day, live streaming MSNBC video, etc. Around 22h I met up with Clare, Rachel, Max, Lauren, Marion and the Julias at Bukana Pub, where the owner was super excited for the election and gave us a free drink in honor of Obama! He also had these black cowboy-like hats that he put on himself and me and we did the Uncle Sam Wants You finger-pointing pose haha. He turned on CNN for us even though it was only 5 pm in the States and nothing was happening yet. We hung out for a while, random people came to talk to us about the election, and then Clare and I left and went back chez moi where Kelly met us!

Mathis was still up so we watched part of some movie before realized we needed election coverage as it was almost 1 am! We went down to my room with popcorn courtesy of Clare in hand and turned on NBC’s live streaming election coverage with Brian Williams! From then we just hung out all night watching and cheering and eating delicious St. Felicien cheese, among other things! Kelly fell asleep very briefly, Clare slept for maybe three hours, but I did not sleep a second! I was not a bit tired at any point either…so exciting! It was looking good all night long, of course, with Obama winning Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania. And then a little after 5 am, they called it for Obama! We were all completely dumbfounded and shocked that it was called so early and suddenly! It was such a surreal moment seeing hundreds of thousands of cheering people in Chicago’s Grant Park and even news commentators without words. Shortly thereafter, McCain gave a speech from Phoenix conceding in what we all thought was a gracious and surprisingly good speech (if only he’d campaigned that way, he might have had a chance…).

After McCain’s speech we quickly got ready to leave to go to the BU office for our 6 am party to watch results come in (although it was decided already!). We arrived shortly after Marie-Eve at ten till 6; I quickly set up my computer and pulled up NBC right as Obama was taking the stage in Chicago for his victory speech! Kelly, Clare, Marie-Eve and I all watched the speech there as other BU students trickled in, some already knowing the result and others still unaware. Obama’s speech was, of course, incredible and very moving and emotional. I especially liked the part about the centegenarian from Atlanta who had voted. Obama talked about how when she was young she was unable to vote for two reasons: she was black and a woman. He then talked about all that the United States had accomplished in her lifetime ending each line with “Yes we can!” Very moving thinking about how far America has come in the last 100 years and how far it could and will go in my lifetime.

We continued watching more coverage after Obama’s speech and eventually watched it again as more students hadn’t yet seen it. We hung out for a while, eating croissants with tea/coffee while being interviewed by reporters from France 2. People eventually cleared out to go to class, but as I didn’t have class until 10h40, Anna and I stayed and just continued talking for a while. I was planning on skipping class and just going home and sleeping, but no one else was going to, so I felt like I should go—plus it’d be a fun day with Obama’s victory. But the deciding factor was when Anna and I decided that we should buy champagne to take to class. We went to Les Halles where I bought two bottles of champagne (one for class, the other for dinner with my family that night). I went home to be greeted by Alain shouting “Yes we can!” with a heavy French accent! It was very exciting…Maé and Alain were both really happy and pleased with the results (like every single French person) and we talked about the election and my night for a while before I left and went to shower and read and watch coverage.

I then went to class where upon seeing I’d brought champagne, Mme. Juliers gave me the bises! She apparently loves champagne and proceeded to take 15 minutes explaining to us how to “sabrer” a bottle of champagne—opening it with a saber or heavy knife. We then all toasted the election and a better world and drank champagne (at 10:30 am!) while going around the room and saying what the election meant to us and what we thought of it. Very fun!

I then went home after class to read more and watch the Daily Show/Colbert Report live hour-long special from election night over lunch. Then I went to bed and slept for 3 hours, waking very oddly to my alarm, where I ran over to the BU office to get BU Libéré. Then I came back home with Clare who was having dinner at my house to celebrate that night.

My family said we were going to have un repas amélioré in honor of Obama’s victory! It ended up being tons of fun of course! They had some friends over to prendre l’apéritif which was very entertaining. We had port to drink along with these homemade cheese straw-like things, olives and smoked salmon. We discussed the election of course and French society and politics in general. It was hilarious because it was so typically French! Everyone was yelling and talking at the same time about everything, even though they all agreed on the issues they were discussing! So funny! The friends left and we then ate dinner. We started off with champagne before dinner and with a great salad. At one point I was trying for literally 30 seconds to get a piece of salad on my fork that turned out to be a leaf from the sunflower decoration imprinted on the plate! It was hilarious and everyone cracked up about it for a long, long time! For the main course we had blintzes which are very different in France than in the US. It was essentially pancakes that you top with smoked salmon, fish eggs, lemon juice and cream, or whatever you want of that. Very good nonetheless though! This was served with a nice Vacqueyras red wine.

Next came the cheese course, a nice board consisting of Picodon, Roquefort, St. Marcelin, Comté, a tomme of chèvre and vache, and St. Felicien. After cheese came fruit (pears and great green grapes) and then dessert, really good pear and chocolate ice cream. Alain then brought out some marrons glacés, this chestnut candy that was really good, albeit sweet, that we enjoyed with the rest of the champagne.

Funny story from the night: Mathis (just like his father) was being all negative about Obama saying nothing’s happened yet, we have to wait and see if he can live up to what he’s promising, etc. So I told him to stop being a party pooper, teaching him that English expression by translating it into French for him and his parents. He then translated that back into English, “stop shitting on our party” which Clare and I found hysterical! We all laughed about it for a long time and kept saying it throughout the night (and subsequent days!). Soon enough we looked at the clock and realized it was midnight, so Clare had to leave to catch the tram! I went to sleep pretty much immediately and slept 11 hours, skipping my morning French class because I felt quite bad when I woke up for it since I didn’t sleep the previous night!

I went to the university to meet Sam, my tandem partner, for lunch and Mme. Juliers saw me in line, saying “You weren’t in class today, Geoffrey!” as she walked by. She came back and started talking to me and Sam and ended up cutting in front of us in line. Then, she paid for our lunches! I found it pretty hilarious that I don’t go to class and she pays for my lunch! Very exciting few days and I think the feeling that Obama’s going to be our next president is still sinking in! Yay for America! I’m so proud of my country for the first time in a long time!

Parapente + Provence

Quiz at bottom
Provence pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2063485&l=8a364&id=9805505
Grenoble + Cooking Class + Parapente pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2062981&l=c94ea&id=9805505

So today I went parapente-ing! It was AMAZING! So fun! It’s like parachuting…you just run (or really more like walk) off the side of a mountain and the wind just picks you up! Amazing views, so quiet and peaceful up there. And then we did cool tricks spinning around and sharp hairpin turns. So much fun! Lots of pictures on Facebook and more to follow when other people send me the pictures they took of me!

Parapente!

This past weekend we went to Provence with the BU group! Saw Arles, church and cloisters there, nice views of the city, the huge ampitheatre and old theatre. Also saw Van Gogh sites as he lived there for a year or two and painted many famous paintings there, even though he was Dutch (for Steph). Went to the huge market and had maybe the best picnic ever in a park right under the old theater. Local cheese, one covered in herbes de provence, awesome olives, big baguette, fantastic figs, etc. Ate dinner at an amazing restaurant with the group where I had the best dessert maybe ever: île flottante. I loved it so much that I asked the waitress if they share their recipes and she told me how to make it and then wrote it down for me!!! I’m going to make it every day for the rest of my life. No, but really, I’m definitely making it over xmas break at home! Dinner was excellent (pasta and salade chèvre chaude) and wine was plentiful. BU sure wines and dines us well on trips! :D

Clare and me in Arles

Sunday we went to the Camargue region on the coast. We went to Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, a famous pilgrimage site. Saw the huge, old, fortified church there, hung out and picniced on the beach, and we went horseback riding ! For three hours on the beach. I had a really good time. I got a nice horse (Nino) and it was really pretty and perfect weather. We trotted some too which was fun. Only problem was Clare fell off her horse i.e. was violently bucked off. So that sucked a lot and kind of put a damper on the whole experience. But I enjoyed it nonetheless! The landscape there is totally different: incredibly flat, like out west in many ways with horses, cattle, and western-looking vegetation. Really interesting! Also, there are flamingos in Provence. Who would've known!

Friday night hung out at home and cooked dinner with Kelly, Clare and Mathis (host bro). It was fun and funny as usual, making fun of each other for the way we say things, etc. Mathis at one point said to me “I’m just tickling you” and held out his hands doing the tickling motion, when he meant to say “I’m just teasing you.” It was hilarious.

I’m sick of not saying words correctly in French. I told my family last night at dinner that they should correct me all the time because there’s no reason I shouldn’t pronounce every word perfectly as long as it doesn’t have an “r” in it.

Justine, friend from Brandeis currently studying in Genève, is coming to visit this weekend! Very excited!

I hate French bureaucracy. The 4 of us staying for the year in Grenoble waited in line to get our carte de séjour, only to be told we needed an additional form even though it wasn’t required last year. So we waited at least half an hour in a different, barely-moving line to make a new appointment, only to have the door closed in our faces because it was 11h15 which is when they apparently close. So annoying. So now we gotta get all this stuff from our families (copies of their bills and ID cards, etc.) and go back to make a new appointment… Grr.

Life’s still great otherwise! Hiked up the Bastille with Clare last weekend. Weather is lovely, leaves changing colors, snow on the mountains sometimes, absolutely gorgeous. Food still impeccable! Gtg now to eat a triangle-shaped brebis (sheep) cheese and go to an international student night! Bonne soirée!


QUIZ!
Sorry it's another one like this, but the answer this time is completely different.
Grenoble is the most ______ ________ city in France.

Update and Quiz

Quiz + Picture link at bottom

Trips
So it’s been a while! A lot has happened! We went to Annecy, really pretty town north of here. We saw the incredible Sunday market there, where I bought fraises des bois (super tasty mini strawberries) that I remembered from Normandie. We ate at a traditional Savoie restaurant and had raclette (type of cheese). They put a hot thing in front of it and it melts and you eat it with potatoes and charcuterie and white Savoie wine. Delicious! Then we went on a boat ride on Lac d’Annecy that was quite cold and windy but really pretty with amazing towering mountains all around, pretty houses, etc.

This past weekend we went to the Chartreuse Mountains, also north of here. We first hiked up a mountain (Charmant Som) which was gorgeous and tiring because of the altitude. Amazing views of other mountains, valleys, little villages and towns and a monastery from the summit. We saw tons of parapentistes (kind of like hang gliding except with more of a parachute-type thing) launching from where we picnicked. It was really pretty and neat to see. Then had a coffee/hot chocolat upon descending again and I bought two types of local cheese for my family from the fromagerie there. We tried it that night and it was really good and really different than anything they or I had had before. We talked about their odors and tastes for a really long time haha. My family really is perfect for me!! We also went to the Grande Chartreuse monastery where Chartreux monks live. Interesting museum and nice views of the monastery too. I want to learn to like Chartreuse liquor too. Have any of you ever tried it? Quite a particular taste and very strong, but I think I can see myself enjoying it. I tried both kinds (green and yellow, verte et jaune) with my père the other night after dinner and it was nice.

Me, Marie-Eve (program director who rocks) and Kelly in the Chartreuse Mountains

I also bought a ticket to go to Dublin to visit Chris in November! Yay!

Random Stuff/Food
I met Méliné, my host sister, who was in town visiting from Paris for the weekend. She’s really smart and nice and funny. We talked lots about all types of things. I now know everything about the French tax system too. I made brunch for my family Saturday midday. Biscuits, scrambled eggs with basil, tomatoes and feta, and fruit salad. It was really good and they enjoyed it—they didn’t know what brunch was at all! Sat around the table talking for a long time! Ditto with dinner Saturday night. We had a nice dinner of smoked salmon, fish with a sauce made from some leafy plant from their garden, cheese of course, lots of wine, dessert, etc.

Last weekend my family went to their house in the mountains and I had several people over Friday night for dinner. It was way fun. For l’entrée, we started with salade au chèvre chaude with cheese from my cheese store, the best in Grenoble according to literally everyone (salad w/ warm goat cheese on top....really good...Lisa made it in Paris). I also added pears to the salad b/c my mere bought them for me! She got me pear sorbet too because she knows I love pears! Then pasta with a damn good homemade tomato sauce that I just kind of invented and made up. I wanted to add spinach to it but people said it was too good and to not mess with it haha. Bread, too of course. And finally yummy crepes for dessert. We were too full for a cheese course before dessert. Very fun and tasty! Cotes du Rhone wine and cidre (from normandie, of course!) to drink.

Family is still great. The one thing I don’t like is that they don’t have a piano. But, hey, if that’s the worse thing then I’m all set! We have a cheese course every night and will often spend like half an hour talking about cheeses, wines, pairings, etc. They really are the perfect family for me to be with! Also, red peppers here are so damn good! And crazy cheap too. Apples and grapes are amazing as well, especially grapes. Way better than in the states, except they have seeds, but that’s okay.

Classes/French
I’m taking French in the morning, and then in the afternoon contemporary French history (1789-1914), initiation to French art history, translation, and “spaces” of globalization (a geography based globalization class) petty interesting. Classes are mostly pretty good. Not so sure about the French classes…lots of work (more than I thought and way more than anyone else has) and the teacher is kind of annoying and totally has favorites. Whatever.

I’m also meeting with a ‘tandem’ conversation partner. We speak half in French and half in English. His name’s Sam, he’s 18, just started engineering school, and he’s cool and fun. It’s going well and we meet about once a week or more to talk/eat/get a drink/whatever. Good practice and fun too!

Clare’s Birthday/Funny Stories
Today was Clare’s birthday…she’s a good friend from near DC, and she invited me to her house for dinner. I made that same tomato sauce with pasta, although I don’t think it was as good as last time…. We started with an amazing caprese salad with great pesto and bufala mozzarella from an Italian grocery store here. And Céline (Clare’s mere) made mousse au chocolat for dessert. It was sooo incredibly good. It triggered Proustian memory about mousse au chocolat in Normandie!

Clare has three host siblings, two boys ages 7 and 11 and a 4 year-old sister. They’re all really funny and cute. The conversation at dinner was so hilarious and we were dying of laughter! We somehow started talking about God and Jesus and religion, and Jeanne (4 year old girl) asked what crucifixion was. Her mom explained, super concisely and accurately without hiding any truth, exactly what it was. I guess for French people that’s normal, but Kelly, Clare and I were so shocked and died laughing that she so bluntly and descriptively told a 4 year old what crucifixion was and how Jesus died. Then, a bit later, the 7 year old boy asked “Dieu, c’est un français?” (Is God French?) Céline replied that God has no nationality.

We also were talking about Jeanne’s new boyfriend (as of a week ago). She asked “Faut-il des seins avant de se marier?” (Do you have to have breasts before you get married ?) Céline said that yes, she had breasts before she got married and had kids. Absolutely hilarious!

We went out last night for Clare’s birthday to bar treize (13), probably my favorite place. We split a bottle of wine and then the bar tender, Hugo, who’s really nice, gave us free shots for Clare’s birthday! It was whiskey, kahlua, Bailey’s, and Chantilly (whipped cream). Pretty good! Really fun night just hanging out, walking around, some people getting kebab afterwards, etc.

Quiz!
Fill in the blank for a cool prize:

Grenoble is the _____est city in France.

Pictures
Chartreuse: http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2062731&l=2fcd8&id=9805505
Annecy: http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2062444&l=dddda&id=9805505

Sorry if my posts suck and are boring…I feel like Stephanie’s are way more interesting…whatever. Good luck on the quiz!

Update + Contest!

Bonsoir de Grenoble! This post has the first of what I hope will be many contests throughout the year. The contest is at the end, so be sure to reply with your guess/answer to win something undetermined but guaranteed to be awesome.

This past week has been pretty good. I started classes and here’s what it looks like I’ll be taking. French classes in the morning (8 hrs/week), 2 classes at the CUEF for international students—French contemporary history (1789-1914) and Translation, and 2 classes at the Fac with other French students—intro to political science and regional linguistics. None of that’s set in stone but that’s what’ll hopefully end up happening! I like my French teacher a lot…she’s pretty funny and nice and class has been good so far!

Thursday night Kelly and I went out with Julien, a friend of Stephanie’s from CISV. It was really fun. We just went to a bar and hung out and talked for a while. It was really fun and I think and hope he had a good time too! Very cool to be speaking French with a real French person who lives there and not other Americans!

Last night was really fun. A group of us went out to a discotheque to go dancing since people really wanted to do that. It ended up being a ton of fun and we ended up talking with these random French people (in French!) for a long time....let's just say that no one needed to spend the night at my house (great downtown location) because the trams started running again in the morning by the time we were headed home. Here’s a picture of me and Clare that they put online: http://www.famous-people.fr/img_report/vertigo/vertigo12septembre2008/P9130052.jpg Then today some of us went shopping and I got this really hilarious/awesome zebra underwear. It's pretty sweet.

I’ve been eating so much amazing cheese it’s not even funny. My cholesterol’s probably through the roof but I walk a ton so whatever. It’s worth it regardless. So amazing and good and so much variety! It’s pretty much heaven. We went to Marie-Eve’s (director of BU-Grenoble program) apartment for dinner Wednesday night. It was really fun and good. The 10th-floor apartment has an incredible view of mountains and the Bastille. They had this incredible cheese platter from cheeses from the region plus camembert. It was amazing. Céline, Marie-Eve’s daughter and the person in charge of housing and pairing students with families, made it and told me the store where she got it all. It has the best cheese in the city according to her. My family agrees. So Kelly and I went there Thursday night and bought a chèvre and parmigiano reggiano and a baguette for dinner and ate in the park. Both were so amazingly good! The chèvre was very fresh and light and the parmesan was so strong and flavorful. Keith, you would’ve gone nuts. The people in the fromagerie (cheese store) were really nice too so we decided to make it “our place” and go there all the time to buy cheese. And ditto with the boulangerie next door to it. BUT, quite possibly the best part, is that Marie-Eve has a PIANO at her house! So I got to play piano! It made my week no joke.

Guess that’s all I can think of at the moment. Oh, my family grows like every vegetable imagineable in a garden at their mountain house. Leeks, lettuces, potatoes, broccoli, carrots, peppers, tons of other stuff. It’s crazy. We made a soup tonight just from that stuff. Très yummy. My mère is a social worker and my père is an “informatique”…computer something or other. He works in a hospital on their computer systems.

One of my favorite things to say is "cool" the French way. They use it like we do but it's awesome how they pronounce it lol. I said it a ton at dinner tonight. And I had Mathis (host brother) speak English which was fun too. He's way good. Has an accent of course but not much because he watches lots of American TV. I'm gonna introduce him to The Office and we're gonna watch it soon I hope!

And now for the contest! Simply answer the following question! First person right wins. Good luck!
What was Grenoble called during the French Revolution?

Pictures!

Also, pictures are now on Facebook! Click here for those of you without it:
(Don't forget about the big post below!)

Grenoble!

Sorry in advance about the length of this post. It’s also for me, so I’ve included convenient, bolded, capitalized section headings so you can read whatever interests you! Thanks to everyone for all the emails and comments! They are much appreciated and enjoyed! This post includes two pictures! I hope to post an album on Facebook tomorrow!

TGV/PARIS
I’m currently on the TGV between Lyon and Grenoble. It was a very quick 2 hour ride from Paris to Lyon…you don’t feel like you’re moving as fast as you are. Yesterday was quite fun. Célia (young French kids have no school on Wednesdays), Lisa and I went to Notre Dame to buy books for Nicolas for school. There’s this *massive* bookstore that sells textbooks and used books of *all* sorts. Economics, computer programming, sciences, travel, 4th year ancient Greek text- and workbooks for French children, etc. Bekah and Mom would’ve been in heaven here. After that we went to Notre Dame because we were right by it…went inside too. It was fun to see it again!

When we came out of the Métro in Issy-les-Moulineaux (where the Morins live), there was this huge market. Every Wednesday they have a market in the afternoon with all types of foods, crafts, clothes, junk, etc. I bought some Fourme d’Ambert cheese (a bleu cheese), and then we came home and had lunch once Nicolas got back from school. I had a simple, delicious Roquefort sandwich!

We all just hung out in the afternoon taking it easy, playing with Nicolas and Célia. Lisa let me do laundry which was very nice so I have all clean clothes now! For dinner we had lots of seafood! They wanted to introduce me to various French seafood delicacies since I’d never had them before! First I had a white port aperitif (white port on the rocks…quite delicious albeit sweet) and then we had escargots. The kids are totally obsessed with them and very protective of each one! It’s quite funny. And everyone was very into the sauce and who had more than someone else and the like. You eat the escargots with this special tool and tiny mussel-like fork. You hold them with the tool so they don’t slide around and then scoop the snail out from the inside, dip it in the butter-herb sauce on the plate and enjoy! Pretty good, a little chewy. Escargots are eaten with Burgundy white wine so we had a nice Chardonnay de Bourgogne with them!

Next was mussels, baked on silver plates just like the escargots. I liked them a whole lot too, more than the snails. Very tender! Served with the same sauce. Finally we had coquilles St. Jacques (scallops in a cream sauce with some veggies and herbs). They’re really pretty as they’re served in a big scallop shell. In France they eat this orange part of the scallop that we don’t in the US so that was in there as well! Lisa was into taking pictures of me eating all this, so y’all will get to see that soon hopefully!

We ended with a good simple salad with vinaigrette. Quite a delicious and filling dinner! Baguette is used to mop up all the sauce with each course! Lisa, Eric and I sat around the table until almost 11:00 just talking and hanging out. Very nice and fun evening.

GRENOBLE/ORIENTATION
Such an awesome nice little town! I love it so far! Really pretty buildings, architecture, shops, restaurants, bars, cafés, etc. All surrounded by amazing tall mountains! Incroyable! Had orientation yesterday then went out to a crepe/gallette Brittany-style restaurant for dinner. It was really good. Had a crepe with some new cheese I hadn’t had before and chives which turned out to be quite delicious, and a salad with amazing fresh chevre and walnuts. Did you know that Grenoble is well-known for walnuts??? We also had cidre to drink, the sparkling, dry cider that’s popular in Normandie. Most people were quite tired and out of it, so that was a bummer, but it was fun nonetheless. We got back before 21h to the hotel so Evan (roommate…he’d been in Europe for a while also—from Memphis!!...goes to Carleton in Minnesota) and I weren’t tired so we went out and walked around for a while which was fun and then went to some cool London-style bar playing random American/European music with tons of college students which was fun. Decorations on the walls were flags from various countries and license plates from US states. It was pretty hopping even on a Thursday haha. Then came back here and just chilled and talked for a while before going to bed. I meet my family this afternoon! Very excited. I found out Marie-Eve that my family is really awesome and that, according to her, I’ll definitely want to live with them in the spring too (year-long students can choose to live with their fall family again or switch families).

FAMILY/HOUSE
So my parents, Alain and Maé (pronounced mah-ay (ay as in hay)), came to pick me up from the hotel. Walked back to their apartment which is right downtown in the Arab quarter. But it’s more the shops that are Arab, not the residents they said. It’s an interesting apartment, very rustic-looking in a building that dates back 500 years. Before we even got back, they said that my French was at the most advanced level of anyone just arriving of the 4 foreign students they’ve hosted before! So that made me happy.

So anyways, the parents are awesome they’ve hosted 4 students (all Americans) before. Before we even got back to the apartment, they said that my French was the best of any students they’ve had upon arrival! So yay! I understand well they said. Speak too, but especially understand. But they’re sooooo nice and accommodating. I have my own room/bathroom that’s interesting. You have to go down a steep ladder down below to get to my room. Kind of dark even though it’s on street level, but Maé said that since it’s dark I’m welcome to hang out in the living room or wherever anytime I’d like! Had a wonderful dinner…ravioli but they’re super tiny and she cooks them sautéed in the pan rather than boiling them. She said it’s a different way of cooking them that gives them a different flavor. Definitely more strong a flavor and very good. We had salad too that was great with lettuce from their garden at their mountain house. Then cheese…the dad loves cheeses so that was fun. He has a cheese dryer (I guess it’s that in English) at the mountain house and we’re going to do experiments with chèvre to see how the flavor changes after a day, two days, etc! After cheese we had grapes and homemade applesauce for dessert. Maé makes lots of stuff homemade…jam, bread, garden with tons of stuff, applesauce, yogurt, pretty cool! We sat at the dinner table until 11:30 pm (!!!) talking about everything from politics to travel to differences in Europe/USA and the election and French ways vs. American ways of doing things, etc etc.

Just now I met Mathis, my host brother. He’s really nice and seems cool and my age which is neat. He was in Paris visiting his sister, Méliné, for several days which is why I didn’t meet him until now. He’s not eating dinner at the house tonight though because he’s going to see a friend who’s leaving tomorrow for the North for university.

BEAUJOLAIS/BIRTHDAY PARTY
Yesterday we went to Beaujolais for a 60th birthday party for a couple of theirs who both turn 60 this year. There were tons of people there…maybe 60 or 80ish…from all over France! On the way, though, we stopped at Pérouges (http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perouges or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perouges), a super old medieval town in the Rhône-Alps region that dates back nearly 1000 years! It’s on a hill, surrounded by an old wall…very pretty and tons of old houses, courtyards, etc. Very little and cute town haha. We were going to go to Crémieu too but it was raining a ton and the weather was quite bad so we didn’t.

We ended up getting to the party site (an agricultural school in the middle of Beaujolais) quite early, which was weird, but everyone got there early so I guess French people just do that…. We ate inside somewhere for our picnic since it was raining. Really good picnic with tons of yummy stuff brought from home! We just hung out for a while talking to people during the afternoon. It was kind of weird because it was mostly family with some friends but it was fine. Alain, my dad, thought it was weird too, and we were both kind of bored which was fun to bond over. Everyone was really nice though. I called Aliza for her birthday in the meantime!

Eventually the party started with people just talking and hanging out in the big room with tables set up. Then René (birthday boy) gave a little talk welcoming people and we went into another room for the aperitif—French people are really into their aperitif (drink before dinner) and always have it usually with food. There was watermelon and various breads of every different flavor (mozzarella, ham, bacon, artichoke, olive, etc.) to eat, and wine made from grapefruit and sangria to drink. Grapefruit wine was interesting…sweet but still the grapefruit flavor. Fine for an aperitif but not something I’d want to drink with dinner or more than a glass….

Then we went into the big room for dinner. We started with the entrées (in French, entrée is the first, not main, course) which everyone had brought, so there were tons of things to choose from. All quite delicious…many savory tartes (very popular and French), a couscous salad, regular salad, omg a million things I can’t think of now. Then we hung out for a while, more talking and stuff, and finally the main course, pasta, venison, and these amazingly delicious circular potato gratin-ish cakes. They were quite possibly the best potatoes I’ve ever had; Blair would’ve gone nuts haha!

With the entrée and the plat principal (main course), we had one of the most amazing wines I’ve ever had. (Before some of you start to doubt that, I’ve tried some really good and expensive wines in Kansas with Emily’s dad and at Back Inn so give me some credit!) It was a Beaujolais, of course, as that was a main theme of the whole evening. Table decorations were little bunches of each of the different grapes and leaves of the 12 crus (varieties I guess?) of Beaujolais and a label, and there were posters of all the different crus on the wall, big maps of the Beaujolais region, etc. But this wine (picture to come soon on Facebook) was so amazingly delicious…fruity, fresh, could really taste the flavors of the grapes. I feel like it’s going to make me not appreciate really oaky wines as much because these grapes were so good and full in flavor that they didn’t need any oak to improve it! Jarrod and Michael would’ve been in heaven (I certainly was.) And copious amounts of Beaujolais were freely flowing!

After dinner there were some skits and a trivia game which were quite funny. I was pretty decent at trivia! And the skit was really funny. And going along with the wine theme of the evening, Marie Jo and René (birthday couple/hosts) told all men to wear a tie and women to wear a hat decorated for the upcoming wine harvest. So there were all these crazy elaborate ties and hats with grape leaves, grapes, corks, bottle openers, wine boxes/bottles, etc. Very funny. There was a contest in which everyone had to vote for our favorite and prizes were awarded. Prizes were awarded for trivia too! I was kind of skeptical of wearing a crazy tie, but Maé had brought ties for me and Alain (host dad) so we tied water bottles we had in the car to it and I stuffed grapes into the bottle and tied it onto the tie. People thought it was pretty clever! Here’s a picture of us in our garb!

On the way out we got little jars of homemade jam to take home! Then drove home and got back at 1:30 am!

BASTILLE/DINNER
Today I slept late and we (the group) went up the “boules” (cable cars) to the Bastille on the mountain. First to lunch at a local restaurant which was very fun. They get wine for us at every lunch and dinner out which is fun. I’ve drank wine like every day since getting to France I’m pretty sure. Back to the boules, the ride up was really fun and it was so unbelievably gorgeous from the top. Tons of mountains EVERYWHERE…very high. And you could see the whole city and both rivers. Simply incredible. Perfect weather too. We then hiked down which was really fun. The city is just amazingly pretty with the mountains all around it. I kept saying to people, “We live here!!!” Totally unreal! We also had Patrice with us, our academic advisor. He’s a professor at the University here and really cool and knowledgeable about the city (born here). He’s into helping us and talking with us…not just like it’s a drag to have to do work with these stupid Americans.

Briefly saw the Museum of the Dauphinois (we’re in the Dauphine region) including a really nice garden and cloisters and church…simply gorgeous. Then crossed the Isère coming back into the city to walk around with Kelly and Clare, friend from Maryland, for a little bit in this huge outside market then came back home. We had dinner tonight (chicken, potatoes, amazing salad, applesauce, chocolate cake, port, and white and red wine). The only down side about all of this is that when we have dinner, we eat at like 8 pm but are sitting around the table talking until about 11 so I have no night! But I suppose that may change when the work/school week starts….

Tonight at dinner we talked about our days of course and I told them how lunch isn’t as big of meal in the US, and I explained the whole brunch concept to them, as it doesn’t exist in France. I tried forever to explain rosemary when talking about what we do with all our potatoes from the CSA but they didn’t know what I was talking about. I did a damn good job of explaining it though, and finally they looked it up and got so mad at themselves for not realizing what it was! I talked about how it’s Italian; you eat it with lamb; we put it on focaccia; described color and shape; said you don’t usually eat it plain since it’s so strong; etc. So that was funny. Told them about our CSA and restaurant/cooking habits in the US. Then Mathis got back and he hung out and we all talked for a while. He’s really nice and fun it seems like. Decent at English too which is funny to hear him say random words and phrases. He watches lots of American TV shows and movies.

Tomorrow we have our French placement tests so I gotta go to bed, but glad to get this all down on paper! But honestly, it’s simply astoundingly gorgeous here. Everywhere you go, gigantic mountains are all around you which are just so amazing and breathtaking. Can’t believe I live here! C’est un rêve…la vie est parfaite!

Paris

Bonjour de Paris! Thanks to all of you who commented! Great comments, especially the poem and ce en francais! (Scroll down for highlights)

Having a great time here...took Celia (no accents, Mom, b/c I found a way to change the keyboard to American which literally is five times as fast) to her first day of school which was very fun and cute...all the French kids with their books, backpacks, dressed up. Celia is a completely different person at school. Like totally different kid. At home she's outgoing, shows off, dances promiscuously, kisses me all the time, wears elaborate fairy costumes; whereas at school she's very shy and timid and had to be told to say hi to her classmates and friends!

Went to a grocery store, bought an umbrella which I forgot, went to the equivalent of Dick's sporting goods (be jealous Dad!) with Nicolas (not Nicolai, Mom) where we saw the water park (in Paris!).

Some highlights/funny stories:

• Nicolas teaching me how to pronounce escargot not like Americans always do (if you say it like the word "car" you're wrong)
• Celia (the little 4 year old girl) saying "Est-ce que they have any water to drink" at the orthodontist's office" (For kk, John, Joel, Chris, Keith, Sean, Kelly, Ben, Aaron, and any other francophone friends of mine. If you're not franocophone, don't you feel left out after all these people who get why this is so funny?!?! i.e. Take French!!!)
• Learning French orthodontist vocabulary at the orthodontist's
• Lisa teaching me how to eat the proper European way
• Discussuing the intracacies of French wine and cheese with Eric
• Seeing a woman in a ground-level store trying on skimpy lingerie in front of the window
• Trying to explain to Nicolas why I wouldn't buy a speedo when shopping for a bathing suit (which I forgot). This ultimately proved to be unsuccessful...he's not convinced and doesn't understand why I think it's weird.
• Sampling gorgonzola, Roquefort and Stilton tonight with cream (sweet) Sherry.
• Salade au chèvre chaud (salad with warm goat cheese on top)...incroyable!

London and Paris!

I’m sitting in London Heathrow’s new Terminal 5. It’s quite possibly one of the most overwhelming places I’ve ever been. Sooooooo many shops, and crazy fancy ones too. Bvlgari, Gucci, Coach, fancy food shops, tons of duty free with ridiculous cigarette and single malt scotch selections, and many, many more clothing stores and restaurants. It’s really pretty though…bright, airy, smells of duty-free perfume permeating the air, and people-watching and listening to languages I’ve never heard before.

Flight over was good. Mostly Indians (in saris!) and Brits, but I happened to be seated next to someone from Lyon! She was doing a 2-month internship (first obgyn, then hematology/oncology) at a Chicago hospital through her French university in Strasbourg and Northwestern. We talked a whole lot which was fun (in French, of course! Her English was so-so… she thought it was awesome I knew French though because not many Americans do, she said). I waved a lot to this adorable Indian 2 year old seated across the aisle from me. And British Airways was really nice. Very friendly flight attendants who were into giving people lots of alcohol haha.

I leave for Paris in about 2 hours. I’m totally sick of having to kill a total of about 12 hours in airports, especially since they don’t have free wireless! Grrrr. In a bus I drove right past the Singapore Airlines A380. It was crazy massive.

Guess where I got a sandwich from, Aliza!!!! That’s right! Prêt à Manger!! It was super yummy. And I learned that hummus to Brits means mainly pine nuts with a little garbanzo beans that are barely mashed added in.

Fast forward some unknown number of hours. I’m not at Lisa and Eric’s apartment in Paris. It’s amazing/gorgeous/modern/incredible. They just finished remodeling it today! The rooftop deck/garden with tons of plants and flowers and a view of the Eiffel Tower lighting up right when I walked up there (21h) was even more awesome! Lisa made me a galette (crêpe from Bretagne) for dinner. It was très yummy…a crêpe made with rye flour (that’s what unique about it) filled with cheese and an egg. And cider to drink. It was very good! Célia is really funny and cute and shows off dancing and loves me. She kissed me a whole lot. Nicolai is fun and nice too! We talked about French music and I’m gonna have him show me some tomorrow hopefully.

Fast forward again. It’s Monday afternoon now. Woke up, had some yummy yogurt, went out with Lisa and Celia and Nicolai to try to get my Visa ATM card to work. After several banks and many phone calls, still no luck. Quite annoying. Then we came back and had lunch, a little melon that’s simply called melon and a tarte aux tomates et moutarde (mustard, tomato, olive, and comté cheese tart). It was really good! The mustard was key I think. Then an apricot yogurt for dessert. Then a friend of their, Clemence, who’s my age took me around Paris. We walked along the Champs Elysées and various surrounding areas and got a cash advance so I at least have money now. Went in some stores and now back! I think just hanging out tonight. The kids start school tomorrow!

I still don’t really think it’s hit me that I’m going be in France for the year…I guess that will/should happen soon?? Maybe after my stay at Lisa and Eric’s and when I’m on my way to Grenoble….