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.