Hello everyone!
So the kids have left, and I’m done! They left Wednesday afternoon with plenty of tears and hugs. It was very fun and interesting seeing the parents and siblings of kids we’ve gotten to know for the past 2 weeks! That night we (the 7 of us who were left, a very fun, close-knit group) went into Montluçon for dinner. We ate in the old city at this pizza place that was amaaaaaaaazing! I got a pizza with mozzarella and chèvre and mushrooms. It was suuuuper delicious and very fun sitting outside on the terrace in perfect weather.
Then yesterday, 5 of us went to Clermont-Ferrand for the day! It was seriously one of the best days ever. Nancy Drew (a counselor) has a friend there who we went to go visit. Two other people and I took the train since there aren’t enough seats in the car. We had a cat with us too, since our director had found a tiny kitten around town and we were taking it to Nancy Drew’s friend who was gonna keep it. It was really funny dealing with a playful kitten on the train. We had a box for her that she had zero interest in staying in, much preferring to explore the train. But she was surprisingly good overall despite some really cute high-pitched meows! At one point she escaped the boundaries we set up for her so Nancy Drew was on the floor of the train trying to get it out from underneath someone’s seat with a tissue lol. The whole train was looking and laughing at her, including some Japanese people who were taking pictures haha.
But we finally made it and Nancy Drew and I got picked up from the gare by her friend’s dad. We went to the house, had a super delicious, home-cooked lunch of yummy summer tomatoes, great pasta and sunny side up eggs (a real treat in France for some reason—seriously, everyone loves them here). But it was all super good, sitting outside in their garden in the breeze. For dessert we had this homemade crème brûlée that they’d made, but instead of burnt sugar on top, they put blueberries that they’d picked last week. So good! Finally, the dad showed me their garden which includes an abricotier (apricot tree)!! I kinda went nuts, eating 4 of them and taking pictures. The apricots were so unbelievably good! Soooo sweet and juicy!
Next, we headed into town where we wandered around, shopped, saw the city, etc. all afternoon. It’s quite a nice town. Pretty old section with pedestrian only streets, the big Place Jaude with big statues, the huge cathédrale that’s black not due to pollution but because it was built using the area’s volcanic stones, etc. Then we met up with Leo, the friend, and we chilled at a café for a bit. Eventually, after getting lost for a long time, we went back to the house for dinner!
The evening was soooooooo French and I loved it in every single way! We started out with the aperitif outside in their garden, having drinks and little munchies (including more apricots) while hanging out and talking. Two of their neighbors came over in the process too and ended up staying for dinner. They were super funny and fun to talk to. We then had dinner which consisted of barbecue, grilled peppers, tabouleh salad, rice salad, potatoes, tomatoes, eggs, homemade bread…think that’s it haha. It was delicious! A 2005 red wine from the Ardèche was served then. Then afterwards, we had cheese (Carré de l’Est, Brie, St. Nectaire, Cantal) which was quite good. With the cheese we had a 2003 red Cahors that was really, really good. The smell was amazing and it tasted really good too!
Finally, we ended with dessert—homemade abricot ice cream!!! It was like eating pure, pureed abricots basically. Such smooth flavor and taste. The dad liked me a lot because I liked it so much (he said earlier that they had to drag me away by my hair from the abricot tree when I first discovered it that afternoon haha). But it didn’t end there. The aforementioned neighbors are from Lorraine (northeast by Germany), so they went home and brought over some canned mirabelles that his mom (who’s 82) had made. Do yall know mirabelles? I hadn’t seen them before last night. They’re like plums except a bit smaller and yellow—a specialty from the Lorraine region http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirabelle_plum . They were very delicious and from the year 2000!! With that, Alain (the neighbor) served a homemade eau-de-vie de mirabelle, basically homemade Mirabelle alcohol. It was from 1995!!! Crazy! It was really good and quite aromatic and tasty. Sooo smooth, I suppose because it was so old? And then we had some calvados as well since the friends whose house we were at are from Caen in Normandie. By that point it was 11 pm so we had to leave since we had an hour and a half of driving ahead of us back to the chateau. So we said our thank yous and goodbyes and left.
But such a nice night and sooooooo French…it all being outside, the different courses and alcohols with copious amounts of each, merry conversation and people (including adults) singing dirty French songs, all being at one big long table, etc. So fun and enjoyable!
Today, I’m just chilling here at Petit Bois. Tomorrow, I leave early to go up to Paris where I’ll meet up with a friend from the first session of camp who lives there and then home on Sunday! So much traveling and so many changes so quickly…too much to process all at once! See yall very sooooon!
Love,
Peanut Butter
31 July 2009
21 July 2009
Day off !
So today was my first day off here at Petit Bois! It was a really nice day. Slept late and then went to the market with Lemon (the other counselor who was off today). I totally lucked out because today (Tues) happens to be the one market day of the week here in Cosne d’Allier, a tiny town. The market was really big for such a tiny town! Many produce, meat and cheese vendors…plus tons of clothes and other stuff! Lemon loves cheese too so we bought 4 different ones and a baguette and went back to the chateau to eat them. Today the kids all went to the lake so it was super nice and quiet without anyone there! Our cheese platter consisted of a good Beaufort that I’d bought the other day, a fresh local chevre, a cow’s cheese with cumin made nearby (quite good…I’m a fan of cumin-studded cheeses), bleu d’Auvergne and Roquefort. I’m quite a harsh critic of blue cheeses since I love Roquefort so much, but I’ve gotta say, this bleu d’Auvergne was really good! Probably because it was produced locally so of high quality and fresh! So yummy!
Then I just chilled for a bit and went out on a walk to search for this cheese producer just outside of town. I’d seen a sign for “fromage fermier” on the way from Montlucon so followed it, but long story short—there is no such farm. I walked for nearly 2 hours in the hot sun searching! But I bought a patisserie (the guy was really nice and put in a free one too!) and some local wine and came back and ate more cheese and all that. The raspberry tarte was deeeeeeelicious! And the local wine (a white made from Chardonnay and Tressallier, a grape only produced in this region) wasn’t bad either!
Then just hung out with Lemon for a while and napped which was nice and ate dinner and chilled! We have a counselor camp fire tonight after the kids go to bed. Should be fun! I’m looking forward to it! Tomorrow’s Valentine’s Day! YAY! Pool day, special dinner where counselors serve the kids, then the boom (dance)! Ttyl!
PB
PS EMAIL ME ETHAN !!!!!
20 July 2009
Petit Bois
So I’m here at Petit Bois! This time I’m a daily life counselor (DL), which means I’m responsible for dorm life of the kids—wakeup, bedtime, brushing teeth, showers, etc. And all DLs are French or French-speaking which is fun, so I get to talk to the kids in French if need be (and since I’m with kids this session—8 to 12 yrs old—a substantial amount of French is needed since their English isn’t that good. The kids are ADORABLE. Like for real. We’re all freaking out since almost no counselors have been with kids (as opposed to teens) before. This one boy, named Microraptor, is super tiny and soooo cute. Full head of dark hair, big eyes, long eyelashes, really short and so cute. He came with tons of toys and books and stuff that had to be confiscated at “customs” upon arrival, and they had to bring me over to explain to him in French why we had to take it all and that he could play with it all during free time each day.
Last night a little bit after lights out, he came out of his room crying saying “Ma maman…ma maman” (My mom, my mom). I wanted to cry, laugh and hug him all at the same time due to the cuteness of it. So I took him back into his bed and just talked to him for 15 or so minutes. We talked about the day and the schedule for the following day. He said at one point he was particularly “scared” of Valentine’s Day because he doesn’t know how to dance. I told him that V-Day is actually my favourite day of camp (that might actually be true). He asked why and I told him about going to the pool that day (which he realized was why he needed to bring his bathing suit), about the special dinner we have that night, and then about the dance, yet still assuring him that not everyone dances and that you learn dances during the day so you’re prepared for the dance. Turns out though that he knows a techno and hip-hop dance though? And his sister’s a dancer so sounds like he’ll be just fine! When I was leaving and turned out the bathroom light, he said “I can’t sleep without any light.” SO cute right?? So I turned it back on and closed the bathroom door most of the way and said goodnight, sweet dreams, sleep well. !!!
Another funny thing is that everyone vouvoyer’s me…in that they address me using “vous” (the formal way of speaking that you use with adults or in stores) rather than “tu”(what kids/students use with each other and what adults use when speaking to kids). They also always address me by saying “Monsieur” (mister or sir)…not even using my name Peanut Butter! Hahaha. Gotta say I feel pretty bad ass commanding that respect from them lol.
Otherwise camp is good! Had a nice day off…went into Montluçon with two other people. Walked around for a while, got super good ice cream (really good dark chocolate and really good pear, both with pieces in it), and then we saw Harry Potter!!! En français! It was really good and neat to see in French! Got ready for camp yesterday, kids got here, it all has gone well so far! Bed time isn’t that big of a deal at all. It’s quite nice having the youngest group of kids since bedtime is at 10 pm rather than 11 or later like with older kids. So the night is over for us DLs much earlier! I’ve started writing down funny quotes that kids say like the ones mentioned above (Ma maman, etc) just so I remember them because they’re so adorably funny.
And food. Food here is great, especially compared to Aze!! Last night when everyone had hamburgers, Marie-Paul (owner of the chateau and server at dinner) brought out a platter of hamburgers for family’s table (family = Aladdin) and on it instead of a 10th hamburger was this toasted baguette sandwich with brie, tomatoes and a fried egg. SOOOOOOO good! And then I added the hamburger fixings that were on the table. So yummy! Super good salad before that with an actual dressing rather than the same bottled stuff that you get at Aze day after day after day. And the lettuce was cut up and the dressing had tiny chopped onions and tomatoes too! And good cheese, good dessert (delicious homemade peach cake today)…feels like I’m in France again!
Hope all’s well with yall in Chattanooga, Aze, wherever you may be!
Love,Peanut Butter
07 July 2009
AmVil Update...
hello again,
camp's going quite well! ESL teaching is good...had some fun with my class. they got really into musical intruments and music-related vocab today. i taught them the word "y'all" but they weren't at all excited about it. it bummed me out so i need to come up with a cool way to present it so that they'll think it's awesome and wanna use it allll the time, as they should be doing.
i've definitely gotten into a routine, as the veteran counselors said it quickly becomes so taht's nice since days are so packed and full of various activities to have some semblance of order to it all! yesterday was pool day and valentines days. it was super fun. it was really nice hanging out at the pool and swimming all afternoon and walking through endless rows of chardonnay vineyards in order to get there and back. then we had a nice dinner that the counselors served to the kids for V Day. tables had red paper on them...all decorated, etc. quite fun! then we had our first boom (dance) last night. it was pretty fun and the kids got quite into dancing for many songs! even for slow songs they started getting the hang of it which was fun. i was britney spears in an american idol-like skit today during congress. lip synced to you drive me crazy wearing a dress, heels, wig, faux lipstick/makeup, etc. it was really funny and i won out of the three contestants!! woohoo!
i had my day off w/ apples (clare in real life) a few days ago. it was really nice. slept in late, took a nice leisurely shower, had some bfast and then it started to rain. we were super bummed out, but it luckily cleared up quite quickly, so walked into town to get stuff for a picnic lunch which we ate downtown (downtown aze that is...the town of 1 everything...bar, pharmacy, tiny grocery, bank, post office, etc. literally 1 of it all). then apples got her haircut b/c she needed it and it was super cheap not in a big city. and then we went to the caves d'aze (the wine cellar)! the cave is under renovation so we couldn't do a tour but still tasted and looked at their selection of local wines. it was quite good. 2 whites, 2 reds and a dessert wine. the whites, both maconnais aze whites, were quite good adn super value priced compared to their muuuuch pricier neighbors a bit further north in burgundy. the first red, made from gamay (same grape as beaujolais) was a bit too light for my taste. but the next one, a pinot noir, was really good with classic burgundy characteristics and super differetn from teh cotes du rhone that i drank in grenoble. then teh dessert wine, from chardonnay as well, was super sweet...too sweet for my taste. then we went back to camp. chilled for a few minutes, adn headed to the pool where we hung out the rest of the afternoon--super relaxing and nice. then back to camp for a late dinner and just hung out with manu, another counselor (a french one), talking about lots of stuff for a while. quite an enjoyable day off!
it was super hot the first few days but recently it's been cooler which is really nice. prob around 70 degrees right now. lovely! and even when it was hot it wasn't humid (unless you ask the utahns) so it was quite bearable! hope all's well with all y'all!
love,peanut butter
camp's going quite well! ESL teaching is good...had some fun with my class. they got really into musical intruments and music-related vocab today. i taught them the word "y'all" but they weren't at all excited about it. it bummed me out so i need to come up with a cool way to present it so that they'll think it's awesome and wanna use it allll the time, as they should be doing.
i've definitely gotten into a routine, as the veteran counselors said it quickly becomes so taht's nice since days are so packed and full of various activities to have some semblance of order to it all! yesterday was pool day and valentines days. it was super fun. it was really nice hanging out at the pool and swimming all afternoon and walking through endless rows of chardonnay vineyards in order to get there and back. then we had a nice dinner that the counselors served to the kids for V Day. tables had red paper on them...all decorated, etc. quite fun! then we had our first boom (dance) last night. it was pretty fun and the kids got quite into dancing for many songs! even for slow songs they started getting the hang of it which was fun. i was britney spears in an american idol-like skit today during congress. lip synced to you drive me crazy wearing a dress, heels, wig, faux lipstick/makeup, etc. it was really funny and i won out of the three contestants!! woohoo!
i had my day off w/ apples (clare in real life) a few days ago. it was really nice. slept in late, took a nice leisurely shower, had some bfast and then it started to rain. we were super bummed out, but it luckily cleared up quite quickly, so walked into town to get stuff for a picnic lunch which we ate downtown (downtown aze that is...the town of 1 everything...bar, pharmacy, tiny grocery, bank, post office, etc. literally 1 of it all). then apples got her haircut b/c she needed it and it was super cheap not in a big city. and then we went to the caves d'aze (the wine cellar)! the cave is under renovation so we couldn't do a tour but still tasted and looked at their selection of local wines. it was quite good. 2 whites, 2 reds and a dessert wine. the whites, both maconnais aze whites, were quite good adn super value priced compared to their muuuuch pricier neighbors a bit further north in burgundy. the first red, made from gamay (same grape as beaujolais) was a bit too light for my taste. but the next one, a pinot noir, was really good with classic burgundy characteristics and super differetn from teh cotes du rhone that i drank in grenoble. then teh dessert wine, from chardonnay as well, was super sweet...too sweet for my taste. then we went back to camp. chilled for a few minutes, adn headed to the pool where we hung out the rest of the afternoon--super relaxing and nice. then back to camp for a late dinner and just hung out with manu, another counselor (a french one), talking about lots of stuff for a while. quite an enjoyable day off!
it was super hot the first few days but recently it's been cooler which is really nice. prob around 70 degrees right now. lovely! and even when it was hot it wasn't humid (unless you ask the utahns) so it was quite bearable! hope all's well with all y'all!
love,peanut butter
hello again,
camp's going quite well! ESL teaching is good...had some fun with my class. they got really into musical intruments and music-related vocab today. i taught them the word "y'all" but they weren't at all excited about it. it bummed me out so i need to come up with a cool way to present it so that they'll think it's awesome and wanna use it allll the time, as they should be doing.
i've definitely gotten into a routine, as the veteran counselors said it quickly becomes so taht's nice since days are so packed and full of various activities to have some semblance of order to it all! yesterday was pool day and valentines days. it was super fun. it was really nice hanging out at the pool and swimming all afternoon and walking through endless rows of chardonnay vineyards in order to get there and back. then we had a nice dinner that the counselors served to the kids for V Day. tables had red paper on them...all decorated, etc. quite fun! then we had our first boom (dance) last night. it was pretty fun and the kids got quite into dancing for many songs! even for slow songs they started getting the hang of it which was fun. i was britney spears in an american idol-like skit today during congress. lip synced to you drive me crazy wearing a dress, heels, wig, faux lipstick/makeup, etc. it was really funny and i won out of the three contestants!! woohoo!
i had my day off w/ apples (clare in real life) a few days ago. it was really nice. slept in late, took a nice leisurely shower, had some bfast and then it started to rain. we were super bummed out, but it luckily cleared up quite quickly, so walked into town to get stuff for a picnic lunch which we ate downtown (downtown aze that is...the town of 1 everything...bar, pharmacy, tiny grocery, bank, post office, etc. literally 1 of it all). then apples got her haircut b/c she needed it and it was super cheap not in a big city. and then we went to the caves d'aze (the wine cellar)! the cave is under renovation so we couldn't do a tour but still tasted and looked at their selection of local wines. it was quite good. 2 whites, 2 reds and a dessert wine. the whites, both maconnais aze whites, were quite good adn super value priced compared to their muuuuch pricier neighbors a bit further north in burgundy. the first red, made from gamay (same grape as beaujolais) was a bit too light for my taste. but the next one, a pinot noir, was really good with classic burgundy characteristics and super differetn from teh cotes du rhone that i drank in grenoble. then teh dessert wine, from chardonnay as well, was super sweet...too sweet for my taste. then we went back to camp. chilled for a few minutes, adn headed to the pool where we hung out the rest of the afternoon--super relaxing and nice. then back to camp for a late dinner and just hung out with manu, another counselor (a french one), talking about lots of stuff for a while. quite an enjoyable day off!
it was super hot the first few days but recently it's been cooler which is really nice. prob around 70 degrees right now. lovely! and even when it was hot it wasn't humid (unless you ask the utahns) so it was quite bearable! hope all's well with all y'all!
love,peanut butter
camp's going quite well! ESL teaching is good...had some fun with my class. they got really into musical intruments and music-related vocab today. i taught them the word "y'all" but they weren't at all excited about it. it bummed me out so i need to come up with a cool way to present it so that they'll think it's awesome and wanna use it allll the time, as they should be doing.
i've definitely gotten into a routine, as the veteran counselors said it quickly becomes so taht's nice since days are so packed and full of various activities to have some semblance of order to it all! yesterday was pool day and valentines days. it was super fun. it was really nice hanging out at the pool and swimming all afternoon and walking through endless rows of chardonnay vineyards in order to get there and back. then we had a nice dinner that the counselors served to the kids for V Day. tables had red paper on them...all decorated, etc. quite fun! then we had our first boom (dance) last night. it was pretty fun and the kids got quite into dancing for many songs! even for slow songs they started getting the hang of it which was fun. i was britney spears in an american idol-like skit today during congress. lip synced to you drive me crazy wearing a dress, heels, wig, faux lipstick/makeup, etc. it was really funny and i won out of the three contestants!! woohoo!
i had my day off w/ apples (clare in real life) a few days ago. it was really nice. slept in late, took a nice leisurely shower, had some bfast and then it started to rain. we were super bummed out, but it luckily cleared up quite quickly, so walked into town to get stuff for a picnic lunch which we ate downtown (downtown aze that is...the town of 1 everything...bar, pharmacy, tiny grocery, bank, post office, etc. literally 1 of it all). then apples got her haircut b/c she needed it and it was super cheap not in a big city. and then we went to the caves d'aze (the wine cellar)! the cave is under renovation so we couldn't do a tour but still tasted and looked at their selection of local wines. it was quite good. 2 whites, 2 reds and a dessert wine. the whites, both maconnais aze whites, were quite good adn super value priced compared to their muuuuch pricier neighbors a bit further north in burgundy. the first red, made from gamay (same grape as beaujolais) was a bit too light for my taste. but the next one, a pinot noir, was really good with classic burgundy characteristics and super differetn from teh cotes du rhone that i drank in grenoble. then teh dessert wine, from chardonnay as well, was super sweet...too sweet for my taste. then we went back to camp. chilled for a few minutes, adn headed to the pool where we hung out the rest of the afternoon--super relaxing and nice. then back to camp for a late dinner and just hung out with manu, another counselor (a french one), talking about lots of stuff for a while. quite an enjoyable day off!
it was super hot the first few days but recently it's been cooler which is really nice. prob around 70 degrees right now. lovely! and even when it was hot it wasn't humid (unless you ask the utahns) so it was quite bearable! hope all's well with all y'all!
love,peanut butter
01 July 2009
Kids' arrival!
So the kids finally got here! Things went great at first until we realized that there weren't enough beds for girls. So after some super hectic (for others) moving of people around and switching bedrooms, we finally got everything worked out. Fine from a parental perspective I think which is the important part. Had opening activities then dinner with our families. I'm on the Braves (our families are 5 different baseball teams) and have 10 kids. They seem decent. One boy is only 12 and speaks like no English at all hardly. And there are 4 girls who talk in French incessantly. Like I'd interrupt them to ask a question or talk to them, they'd answer it, and go back to their French conversation. And it's annoying and quite difficult acting like I don't know waht they're takling about when they're saying something, asking for clarification, talking about me, etc. But it's all cool. There's a girl in the group, though, who is really good at English since she lived in London and NY for 2 yrs (during 9/11 in fact) with her dad's job. But kids seem nice and hopefully it'll all work out if we can just separate those girls.... Had a campfire which was fun w/ various stations and smores which were yummy, and then bedtime which is quite an ordeal having 50 kids brush their teeth and change clothes (in the bathroom since they wouldn't change in their rooms for whatever reason) in 2 bathrooms. Then get calmed and settled. But it all worked out surprisingly quickly so yay! Off to bed for tomorrow! Yay!
Update !
Everything here's great! been doing lots to set up and get ready for all the kids. making tons of signs, planning activities/skits, getting my classroom ready, etc. i'm gonna be an ESL teacher so i'll have 12 or 13 kids each day for 2 hrs. has been lots of working planning out 2 hrs of class a day, but i think it should be fun and i'm excited. and if i ever have to teach it again, it's all already planned out! but enough the anticipation adn getting ready -- i'm pumped for the kids to finally get here! they arrive from 4 this afternoon! yay! 50 in all. i'm excited to talk to parents and stuff before as well. though i'm not allowed to speak in french since i'm an ESL teacher so the kids aren't supposed to know i speak french. i'm kinda worried about that though, b/c kids apparently love to try to figure out who of the counselors speaks french. so it'll be hard to not react to anything they say in french or any french words they may say in class, at meals, wherever. and in class if they don't understand something it'll be super tempting (but hopefully not instinctive) to just say the word or directions in french. haha. i'm sure i'll manage...
hope all's well at home/china/chicago/wherever you are!
Love,Peanut Butter
hope all's well at home/china/chicago/wherever you are!
Love,Peanut Butter
28 June 2009
Retour en France
so things here seem pretty sweet so far... let's see. arrived yesterday afternoon at camp. drive up this perfect tree-lined street to with a giant chateau in front of us (this one: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_de_Vaux-sur-Aisne ). that's where camp's at. the kids stay in the chateau. we stay in a building off to the side. i have my own room which is nice, too! the grounds are amazing! the best of any AmVil (American Village) site (there are 10ish or so AmVil sites throughout France). other counselors seems nice and cool as well...from all over. kentucky, ohio, maryland, canada, peru, utah, california, france. people crack up everytime i say yall haha. at first it was funny but i don't even realize i'm doing it haha! didn't do any work yesterday...the site was used in teh spring as well which greatly reduces the amount of set up/initial work we have to do which is nice say brownie (director of this site...real name: emma) and tofer (asst dir...real name: richard). i think my camp name's gonna be peanut butter. still not set in stone, but pending any other eureka moments, i think it'll be that. someone else in previous years was tofu apparently, mom!
PARIS...was AMAZING! so fun and like the perfect 24 hours! i got early, got did customs, baggage super quickly, and got the RER super quickly and got to the hotel. dropped my stuff, showered and went into the city to meet mathis and caro (host brother from grenoble and his g/f) who were shopping at Les Halles (near centre pompidou). we hung out, walked around, chilled for a while and eventually had a little snack and drink at this cafe there since we were tired (paris makes mathis tired after 2 hrs he said just b/c it's so fast-paced, so many people, etc!...quite overwhelming!). but mathis paid for me! he wouldn't let me pay! it was so nice!
then after that, they had to leave to go back to grenoble, so i went to meet up with radhika, caity and rebecca (the 3 grenoble people who are in paris for the summer). we went to dinner at this veggie restaurant rebecca had found which was fun and good. had a good dinner there (italian salad with PEARS!, tofu stuffed zucchini...not a hays-type dinner i'd imagine haha). and then we went to the champs elysees and just walked from it, past the obelisk at place de la concorde, through the jardin des tuilleries to the louvre and past it along the seine. it was the most gorgeous walk ever with the most gorgeous sunset ever and seeing the eiffel tower sparkle at 10 pm, the arc de triomphe, the obelisk, the louvre, etc etc etc. but the sunset was incredible and i have amazing pictures. but yall're gonna have to wait till august to see them since i don't have a computer or camera cord. sorry! it was so amazing though and such a perfect tour of paris' highlights! and brittany, you came up like 23948723 times just like with funny comments and things peopel said that made us think of you. they all say hey to you as well and each send a hug back! didnt' get back to the hotel until 1130 where i met my roommate for the night who was really nice (from india, singapore, and most recently toronto). he's at a different site though. the next morning i met up with clare who was super tired from not sleeping on teh plane so we didnt' really do all lthat much. just chilled. i went to this sweet market near the gare de lyon that was aweeeesome. such different produce now in the summer than in times i've been there! got these realyl good flat peaches as well (http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1184/936030093_3c28e57a2f_o.jpg ), tomatoes, strawberries even though it's prob a bit late in teh season, bread, an apple and this awesome cheese (crottin de chavignol, a fresh-ish goat's milk cheese). all super delish!
now going to our morning meet for today. kids come wednesday! do any of yall have any more name suggestions? just some inanimate object in english that's NOT inappropriate. remember, though, it has to top peanut butter!
love,geoffrey
PS brittany, have you seen these? these guys here from ohio and kentucky are obsessed with them lol: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysmLA5TqbIY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZzgAjjuqZM
PARIS...was AMAZING! so fun and like the perfect 24 hours! i got early, got did customs, baggage super quickly, and got the RER super quickly and got to the hotel. dropped my stuff, showered and went into the city to meet mathis and caro (host brother from grenoble and his g/f) who were shopping at Les Halles (near centre pompidou). we hung out, walked around, chilled for a while and eventually had a little snack and drink at this cafe there since we were tired (paris makes mathis tired after 2 hrs he said just b/c it's so fast-paced, so many people, etc!...quite overwhelming!). but mathis paid for me! he wouldn't let me pay! it was so nice!
then after that, they had to leave to go back to grenoble, so i went to meet up with radhika, caity and rebecca (the 3 grenoble people who are in paris for the summer). we went to dinner at this veggie restaurant rebecca had found which was fun and good. had a good dinner there (italian salad with PEARS!, tofu stuffed zucchini...not a hays-type dinner i'd imagine haha). and then we went to the champs elysees and just walked from it, past the obelisk at place de la concorde, through the jardin des tuilleries to the louvre and past it along the seine. it was the most gorgeous walk ever with the most gorgeous sunset ever and seeing the eiffel tower sparkle at 10 pm, the arc de triomphe, the obelisk, the louvre, etc etc etc. but the sunset was incredible and i have amazing pictures. but yall're gonna have to wait till august to see them since i don't have a computer or camera cord. sorry! it was so amazing though and such a perfect tour of paris' highlights! and brittany, you came up like 23948723 times just like with funny comments and things peopel said that made us think of you. they all say hey to you as well and each send a hug back! didnt' get back to the hotel until 1130 where i met my roommate for the night who was really nice (from india, singapore, and most recently toronto). he's at a different site though. the next morning i met up with clare who was super tired from not sleeping on teh plane so we didnt' really do all lthat much. just chilled. i went to this sweet market near the gare de lyon that was aweeeesome. such different produce now in the summer than in times i've been there! got these realyl good flat peaches as well (http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1184/936030093_3c28e57a2f_o.jpg ), tomatoes, strawberries even though it's prob a bit late in teh season, bread, an apple and this awesome cheese (crottin de chavignol, a fresh-ish goat's milk cheese). all super delish!
now going to our morning meet for today. kids come wednesday! do any of yall have any more name suggestions? just some inanimate object in english that's NOT inappropriate. remember, though, it has to top peanut butter!
love,geoffrey
PS brittany, have you seen these? these guys here from ohio and kentucky are obsessed with them lol: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysmLA5TqbIY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZzgAjjuqZM
06 May 2009
Mon anniversaire de 21 ans
So! My birthday! It started Monday night with my birthday dinner w/ my host family here. They were sooo nice! I'd told them about it a week before because I would've wanted to know if the situation was reversed and also I remember how mad I was back in January or something when no one told me about Mae's birthday. So they knew and we both said nothing crazy, it's not a huge deal, no gifts etc.... So for dinner (after the aperitif drink and snacks) we had foie gras! I told them I'd be open to trying it since it's a fancy, expensive delicacy and well-known and super French, so we had it for my bday! It was pretty good...I enjoyed it! Not my favorite thing in the whole world but I definitely appreciated it and would probably eat it again I guess...? We had champagne with it (and the entire meal), as Alain prefers champagne with foie gras rather than a sweet white wine as most people do.
Foie gras:
Then for the main course we had salmon, sauerkraut cooked in champagne which made it super yummy, and a champagne sauce to go over the salmon! It was all really good, especially with the flavor of champagne permeating throughout it all! Interesting change of pace! Mae had wanted to get a whole salmon, but couldn't find one anywhere despite looking at multiple places all afternoon... Then cheese, including Neufchatel (my favorite French cheese possibly from Normandie that you can't find in Grenoble but that I'd found at the marche in Lyon). And then a chocolate cake for dessert that was super yummy and fondant (melty). With the cake Mae insisted on doing 21 candles. And they weren't the typical birthday candles -- they were like these, so it took forever to light all of them haha. And then they were going out because Mathis was playing with them lol. But finally they were all lit, and Mae, Alain and Mathis performed a rousing rendition of "Joyeux Anniversaire". And then Mae gave me a gift!! I opened it and it's this super awesome cheese serving board! Quite nice...wooden with handles on the side, across half of it goes this glass cutting board with a picture of cheese on it, and the other half is 3 small square white bowls for placing cheese, fruit, nuts, etc. in! So lovely! And such a perfect gift for me! So generous and thoughtful!I was/am super happy!
Cake + 21 bougies:
Tuesday went to class like normal in the morning, including Clare giving me a big, American hug on the tram. Then in France, for Cinco de Mayo, Clare, Lauren and I made...Thai food for lunch! It turned out to be pretty good and then we drank tons of tea and ate shortbread cookies for a hour or so lol. Wandered around town, chilled at home, and then went to Clare's house for a wine and cheese tasting for the group with Rémi, her host dad who works for the Michelin Guide. It was really fun...2 whites, a rose, a red, and a sweet white dessert wine. 5 cheeses too, including one really good one from Corse with lots of herbes on the outside, including rosemary and fennel seeds...delicious! At the end of that Jeanne (Clare's 4-yr-old host sister) brought out a present she made me and one from Marie-Eve/Céline/Rémi! Jeanne's present was a box she took from Clare's room filled with 20 euro cents and a couple Tunisian dinar she took from Clare's room and a little drawing she made on paper she took from Clare's room. It was really cute lol. And I gave her the bises to thank her too. M-E's gift was this awesome wine and cheese book! Really pretty, detailed, illustrated and all about cheeses and various wines of all types that can go with them! So thoughtful, especially since I don't think she gives everyone bday presents!
From there I went to Flam's, a flammekueche restaurant, with Clare, Brittany, Lauren, Vicki and Katherine. It was really fun and vachement delicieux! When our server brought out our dessert, he included a little bowl of ice cream with a candle and sparkler in it. People sang to me, I blew it out, and then it turned out a big table next to us with about 20 people started singing too. We all thought they were singing to me so afterwards I stupidly waved over to them but turns out they had a birthday of their own, so we all, especially me, felt really stupid. It was really hilarious though you probably had to be there.... Fun, awesome birthday including great presents that will get much use in the future!!
17 April 2009
Prague/Kutná Hora
in prague! its great! took the night train from krakow which wasn't good but we've had aful day here which has been great! prague is amaaaaaaaaaaaaazing! sooooooooo gorgeous, incredible architecture, etc. very obvious that the city was very powerful and had lots of wealth. the architecture and decoration on buildings is quite remarkable -- very noticeably different from, say, grenoble which wasn't a wealthy city and doesn't have any special archiecture/buildings/cathedrals. so pretty. perfect weather today. not a cloud in the sky. hostel RIGHT in the middle of old city. it's great! saw the castle today, old city, did a free walking tour all around town this morning, going to kutna hora tomorrow, then jewish museum and churches friday! AND i had my first bagel since this summer this morning for breakfast and it was amaaaaaaaaazing!
kutna hora was very cool! easy and cheap 1 hr train ride from praha. 4 Swedes sat in our compartment with us. 2 couples traveling together for their wives 40th bdays. they were really funny and entertaining to travel with. talked the whole time about pretty much everything...our trips, politics, their lives in sweden, ours in the US/France, perceptions of each others' countries. swedes are awesome! we hung out with two young ones in the hostel in warsaw one morning and they wer esuper nice and fun, and now john and i both really wanna go to sweden! and bielorussie (belarus?) and ukraine too, but that's another story lol.
anyways, kutna hora...first saw some super old church (we do that about 5 times a day...), then another one except it's an ossuary, and thus is decorated with tooooons of bones. human bones. real ones! skulls too. so cool. even a bone chandelier in the middle. then walked around the main part of town, saw another big cathedral, chilled, got a local beer on the town square, and headed back. went to Wenceslas Square, walked around, got a pastry at the best pastry shop in the city according to our walking tour guide (banana chocolate pie thing...super good!), and then went back to the hostel. walked around some more just exploring, got stroopwafel which were kinda the most amazing thing in the world and thought of stephaaa/amsterdam.
we went to dinner at the best middle eastern restaurant (possibly the best food) in prague, according to katie, a friend from brandeis who studied abroad in prague last year. it was really crowded and had awesome decor, lights, etc. the food was amaaaaaaaazing! spinach pastry appetizers (think hamentaschen, but spinach), then i got a veggie mezze sampler plate, which had hummus, baba ghanoush, two cheese pastry things that were incredible, and stuffed grape leaves. it was all SO delicious and tasty! john got this iraki chicken special thing that is really popular there...shishkebabed chicken with a spicy red sauce and tomato, onion, pita served with it. both dishes were awesome! then bakalava and this indian sweet rice pudding for dessert with raisins, currants, cashews, cardamom and cinnamon. it sounds weird, but it was quite good. our server recommended it and the texture was really interesting, and great flavors. the bakalva came on a plate sprinkled with pistachios too. it was so pretty! to drink i got becherovka and tonic. becherovka's this super czech drink that katie said i had to get. it smells kinda like chartreuse, but taste isn't that similar. made with various herbs and plants and tastes herby and stuff i'd say. good and i def enjoyed it, but nothing to write home about (ironic...) then just walked around by the river for a while and in town!
today we did jewish stuff in the morning, many synagogues, museums, old relics and artifacts and info. pretty cool...saw the oldest synagogue in europe (the old new synagogue). it was suuuuuper crowded. tooooons of people. can only imagine what it'd be like in june, july or august... it's been raining today which is a bummer but whatever...first time the whole trip so can't complain!
kutna hora was very cool! easy and cheap 1 hr train ride from praha. 4 Swedes sat in our compartment with us. 2 couples traveling together for their wives 40th bdays. they were really funny and entertaining to travel with. talked the whole time about pretty much everything...our trips, politics, their lives in sweden, ours in the US/France, perceptions of each others' countries. swedes are awesome! we hung out with two young ones in the hostel in warsaw one morning and they wer esuper nice and fun, and now john and i both really wanna go to sweden! and bielorussie (belarus?) and ukraine too, but that's another story lol.
anyways, kutna hora...first saw some super old church (we do that about 5 times a day...), then another one except it's an ossuary, and thus is decorated with tooooons of bones. human bones. real ones! skulls too. so cool. even a bone chandelier in the middle. then walked around the main part of town, saw another big cathedral, chilled, got a local beer on the town square, and headed back. went to Wenceslas Square, walked around, got a pastry at the best pastry shop in the city according to our walking tour guide (banana chocolate pie thing...super good!), and then went back to the hostel. walked around some more just exploring, got stroopwafel which were kinda the most amazing thing in the world and thought of stephaaa/amsterdam.
we went to dinner at the best middle eastern restaurant (possibly the best food) in prague, according to katie, a friend from brandeis who studied abroad in prague last year. it was really crowded and had awesome decor, lights, etc. the food was amaaaaaaaazing! spinach pastry appetizers (think hamentaschen, but spinach), then i got a veggie mezze sampler plate, which had hummus, baba ghanoush, two cheese pastry things that were incredible, and stuffed grape leaves. it was all SO delicious and tasty! john got this iraki chicken special thing that is really popular there...shishkebabed chicken with a spicy red sauce and tomato, onion, pita served with it. both dishes were awesome! then bakalava and this indian sweet rice pudding for dessert with raisins, currants, cashews, cardamom and cinnamon. it sounds weird, but it was quite good. our server recommended it and the texture was really interesting, and great flavors. the bakalva came on a plate sprinkled with pistachios too. it was so pretty! to drink i got becherovka and tonic. becherovka's this super czech drink that katie said i had to get. it smells kinda like chartreuse, but taste isn't that similar. made with various herbs and plants and tastes herby and stuff i'd say. good and i def enjoyed it, but nothing to write home about (ironic...) then just walked around by the river for a while and in town!
today we did jewish stuff in the morning, many synagogues, museums, old relics and artifacts and info. pretty cool...saw the oldest synagogue in europe (the old new synagogue). it was suuuuuper crowded. tooooons of people. can only imagine what it'd be like in june, july or august... it's been raining today which is a bummer but whatever...first time the whole trip so can't complain!
13 April 2009
Poland - Warsaw
hello from warsaw!
got here alright, had our first full day out on the town today! it's really awesome here! neat city, very interesting mix of newer and communist/soviet era architecture... basically the entire city (buildings, people) was destroyed in WWII by Hitler. its nuts. went to this amaaaazing museum today about the warsaw uprising (not to be confused with the warsaw ghetto uprising) which was huge, spent several hrs in it, and full of info.
it's been interesting how it's ended up being such a WWII-centric trip. (kelly, il faut que t'y viennes un de ces jours...c ton paradis! et berlin aussi. john m'a rejoint de Berlin et il m'a dit que tout ce qu'on peut faire la-bas au sujet de la 2e guerre mondiale est incroyable, y compris le bunker d'Hitler!) but anyways, warsaw and all about WWII---didn't realize it'd be that way, but like i said, the whole city practically was razed by the germans so nearly all of it is rebuilt, tons of memorials/monuments to those who died, etc. 3 million jews in 1938. 5000-10.000 today in warsaw. crazy. over 300.000 were deported from the warsaw ghetto alone, mostly in 1944 at the end of the war. and stalin/URSS was horrible to the city too, both during and after the war. been quite fascinating. john and i were saying today it's so neat being here as you hear about the warsaw ghetto, the ghetto uprising, Mordechaj Anielewicz (its leader), all the concentration camps in poland, how poland was totally screwed over in the war (in terms of destruction to buildings/infrastructure, death of its jews and gentiles alike, being invaded nearly simultaneously by germany and l'URSS from the west and east, etc) -- but it all seems so far away and distant. but to actually be here, see a remaining fragment of the ghetto wall, see the museum full of stories of people involved in the resistance, monuments/memorials galore is quite incredible and moving and remarkable. so awesome!
anyways, heading to krakow tomorrow midday! hope all's well in chattanoga and none of you have been arrested for underage drinking provoked by intimidating text messages....oh mccallie....some things about you i just don't miss at all!!
i had super awesome falafel last night and thought of stephanie and pete and the awesome falafel fiesta that's going down in chattown this summer.
and lufthansa's hyper nice btw. drinks/sandwiches/refills on both hour-long flights! and free coffee/tea in the munich airport! and, aliza, they came around with "coffee/tea!" you would've loved it!
next day...
ate a great dinner tonight at a place called greenway, an all-veggie restaurant that's apparently growing in popularity in poland. complete full meal for 9 dollars. including drinks. for the both of us! yay non-euro countries! at dinner we ran into this guy we met this morning! it was really funny and fun. we ate w/ him since he was by himself. we bonded over bank difficulties this morning (i can't use my visa credit card as an ATM card to withdraw cash...anywhere. france, poland, etc. weird...) but he's french, from chambery (right near grenoble!..in between it and geneve) and working in poland. he speaks super good english, has lived in the US some, china, poland, france obv. spoke english this morning but then french tonight once he realized we spoke french. it was funny...did he honestly think we'd be studying abroad in france if we didn't know french!?
here in krakow, i ate an incredible vegetarian pierogi sampler plate, including ones with spinach! for 5 bucks. for the entire meal! a platter/assortment of various kinds, including spinach-feta, cheese-onion and potato-mushroom. hyper delicieux! and super cheap too! they're like dumplings in a way, but more like ravioli in terms of the texture of the dough/bread that holds it together. and u just cook them in boiling water (i thoguht they were fried or baked or something for some reason) so its like pasta in that way. YUM!
Krakow
the royal castle was pretty cool. nothing spectacular i didn't think but neat to see. we went back in the afternoon when it got sunny and clearer and went up the bell tower which was neat, nice view over the city, seeing the maaaassive bells. otherwise just walked around town, saw churches nad monuments, ate BORSCHT for lunch! it was good! i officially like beets! you're missing out, mom...
its weird, everyone says krakow's amazing and you can (even should) spend a whole week there, but i haven't really gotten that impression. maybe it's because stuff's been closed, but i feel like you can only see so many churches, only so many 15th, 16th ,17th century old religious paintings that all look the same, etc. i feel like we've doen everything there is to do here, except museums which are closed yesterday and today (and we're doing auschwitz tomorrow so prob won't have time to do them), but again, that'd just be more similar painting/tapestry type stuff that we've seen already. whatevs. not to say that i've been underwhelmed by krakow, maybe more just plain whelmed haha. warsaw was really cool though i (and john) thought, and everyone says that it's lame and not cool and krakow's way better. so who knows!!!
excited about auschwitz tomorrow though (if you're allowed to say/think that...)!
got here alright, had our first full day out on the town today! it's really awesome here! neat city, very interesting mix of newer and communist/soviet era architecture... basically the entire city (buildings, people) was destroyed in WWII by Hitler. its nuts. went to this amaaaazing museum today about the warsaw uprising (not to be confused with the warsaw ghetto uprising) which was huge, spent several hrs in it, and full of info.
it's been interesting how it's ended up being such a WWII-centric trip. (kelly, il faut que t'y viennes un de ces jours...c ton paradis! et berlin aussi. john m'a rejoint de Berlin et il m'a dit que tout ce qu'on peut faire la-bas au sujet de la 2e guerre mondiale est incroyable, y compris le bunker d'Hitler!) but anyways, warsaw and all about WWII---didn't realize it'd be that way, but like i said, the whole city practically was razed by the germans so nearly all of it is rebuilt, tons of memorials/monuments to those who died, etc. 3 million jews in 1938. 5000-10.000 today in warsaw. crazy. over 300.000 were deported from the warsaw ghetto alone, mostly in 1944 at the end of the war. and stalin/URSS was horrible to the city too, both during and after the war. been quite fascinating. john and i were saying today it's so neat being here as you hear about the warsaw ghetto, the ghetto uprising, Mordechaj Anielewicz (its leader), all the concentration camps in poland, how poland was totally screwed over in the war (in terms of destruction to buildings/infrastructure, death of its jews and gentiles alike, being invaded nearly simultaneously by germany and l'URSS from the west and east, etc) -- but it all seems so far away and distant. but to actually be here, see a remaining fragment of the ghetto wall, see the museum full of stories of people involved in the resistance, monuments/memorials galore is quite incredible and moving and remarkable. so awesome!
anyways, heading to krakow tomorrow midday! hope all's well in chattanoga and none of you have been arrested for underage drinking provoked by intimidating text messages....oh mccallie....some things about you i just don't miss at all!!
i had super awesome falafel last night and thought of stephanie and pete and the awesome falafel fiesta that's going down in chattown this summer.
and lufthansa's hyper nice btw. drinks/sandwiches/refills on both hour-long flights! and free coffee/tea in the munich airport! and, aliza, they came around with "coffee/tea!" you would've loved it!
next day...
ate a great dinner tonight at a place called greenway, an all-veggie restaurant that's apparently growing in popularity in poland. complete full meal for 9 dollars. including drinks. for the both of us! yay non-euro countries! at dinner we ran into this guy we met this morning! it was really funny and fun. we ate w/ him since he was by himself. we bonded over bank difficulties this morning (i can't use my visa credit card as an ATM card to withdraw cash...anywhere. france, poland, etc. weird...) but he's french, from chambery (right near grenoble!..in between it and geneve) and working in poland. he speaks super good english, has lived in the US some, china, poland, france obv. spoke english this morning but then french tonight once he realized we spoke french. it was funny...did he honestly think we'd be studying abroad in france if we didn't know french!?
here in krakow, i ate an incredible vegetarian pierogi sampler plate, including ones with spinach! for 5 bucks. for the entire meal! a platter/assortment of various kinds, including spinach-feta, cheese-onion and potato-mushroom. hyper delicieux! and super cheap too! they're like dumplings in a way, but more like ravioli in terms of the texture of the dough/bread that holds it together. and u just cook them in boiling water (i thoguht they were fried or baked or something for some reason) so its like pasta in that way. YUM!
Krakow
the royal castle was pretty cool. nothing spectacular i didn't think but neat to see. we went back in the afternoon when it got sunny and clearer and went up the bell tower which was neat, nice view over the city, seeing the maaaassive bells. otherwise just walked around town, saw churches nad monuments, ate BORSCHT for lunch! it was good! i officially like beets! you're missing out, mom...
its weird, everyone says krakow's amazing and you can (even should) spend a whole week there, but i haven't really gotten that impression. maybe it's because stuff's been closed, but i feel like you can only see so many churches, only so many 15th, 16th ,17th century old religious paintings that all look the same, etc. i feel like we've doen everything there is to do here, except museums which are closed yesterday and today (and we're doing auschwitz tomorrow so prob won't have time to do them), but again, that'd just be more similar painting/tapestry type stuff that we've seen already. whatevs. not to say that i've been underwhelmed by krakow, maybe more just plain whelmed haha. warsaw was really cool though i (and john) thought, and everyone says that it's lame and not cool and krakow's way better. so who knows!!!
excited about auschwitz tomorrow though (if you're allowed to say/think that...)!
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