Saturday, August 28, 2010

Week 1

I started my internship this week. Here are some general thoughts on the matter:
- The first day was a little hairy. It was the first day back from vacation for a bunch of people so there was some confusion as to where I was supposed to go and if I really was there on the right day, so I got a bit of a late start, but things progressed. I got my computer on Thursday and my badge on Friday. I'm still waiting for a cell phone and an office and then I'll be all set. My actual boss arrives back from his 4-week vacation on Monday.
- I understand French pretty well. When people are talking directly to me and I'm focused on listening I understand just about everything they are saying. In fact, I understand well enough to know when they throw questions in. Sadly, this is when things go down hill for me. I just can't think fast enough to put thoughts together and conjugate the verbs correctly. I know I'll learn more while I'm working though because everyone speaks to me slowly and clearly. The good thing is that all of the office also speaks English, so if it just isn't working out, I have another option.
- The office is full of guys. I work with 9 men. About half have worked for the company for over 20 years and the other half I think are in their early 30s. I'm pretty sure they are all married, and a few have little people. They are a fun group and are definitely personable. This week I shared an office with the German, but sadly didn't pick up any German, although he spoke plenty of it (and loudly) on the phone. Next week I get to use the office of the guy who is going to Turkey for the week. Sweet! A big window and everything.
- When I'm finished I will have contacts all over Europe. I have to gather information for contracts from 8 zones: UK, Italy, Iberian Peninsula, France, ASA (Austria, Germany, Switzerland), Polba (Poland and the Baltic nations), Nordic Countries and the Eastern European nations including Turkey. I am going to have some serious European exposure. Nice. There is also a slight possibility that I might have to visit some of these other nations. I'm pushing for Germany next month (psssst September is Oktoberfest in Germany ;-) )
- I spent the majority of this week trying to read contracts that 1. Are written in French and 2. Contain information that concerns products and services that I have absolutely 0 experience with. I feel like an absolute idiot right now, but I hope I'm finding the stuff that is relevant. I'm sure someone will tell me shortly if I'm not.
All in all it was a good first week. I'm trying to get back into the groove of waking up every morning and doing the hair and make up, but I'm sure I'll fall into the routine sometime here soon. I hope.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Geneva via Invalides

My train out of Vernon was early Thursday morning, so I made it to Paris after a little train delay. I had about 3 hours to kill in Paris before getting my train to Geneva, so I decided to go to the Musee d'Armee and the tomb of Napoleon. This is one of the few major things that I hadn't done yet in Paris, so off I headed. The bad part of this expedition is that I had to keep my luggage with me the whole time. I just had my small roll-on, but it was still a pain lugging it around the museum. I only had time to see the Armory in the Museum, but it was really cool. I really wanted to just see Napoleon's tomb, but that wasn't an option, so I took in some of the other museum features. There was also a whole segment on WWII and Charles de Gaulle, which was interesting to see after having seen Normandy so recently. Napoleon's tomb is just plain huge. He must have been a big dude. It was pretty neat how the place is set up. You walk in the church and there is a big hole in the middle of the floor that you look down into to see his tomb. Then you can go downstairs to the crypt and see other tombs as well. I was glad I took the little detour on the way to Geneva.
I made it to Geneva and my family friend that I was meeting there met me right after I left the train. It was great because I didn't have to think about how to get to the hostel or figure out where I was. We spent Thursday night walking around Geneva and getting oriented. We stopped at an ice cream vendor that was in a little plaza and I had some of the best ice cream I've ever had. The flavor I had the first day was double cream and meringue and day two was swiss chocolate. Yummy. The first night we happened upon some music while we ate! The city is really neat. Big enough to be worth going, but not so huge that it is unattainable. We ended up eating at a little place in the old city. It was fantastic and we ate on the terrace which was just lovely.
It was pour rain on Friday morning, but we decided to go to the U.N. anyway because we figured it would be an indoor tour so we could still see what we wanted. The most random part of the adventure was that right when we got off the tram there was a huge chair in the square! We found out it was built by the Association for Disabilities. We walked around to the main door and I had to present my passport and then get an official badge to ge in the door. Our tour guide was very proper and precise and insisted that we stay with him at all times. It was pretty interesting to see where all the major conferences are. Now when I see the clips on tv I'll know where they were! There are gifts from all the different nations in the building and they actually make up some of the construction of it. One of the rooms had carpet that was made in, and donated by, a certain country, while Spain donated the construction and redecoration of two rooms! They seemed to have made the biggest contribution. The USA sent a bunch of art. Strange to me, but I guess it is needed too. After the U.N. we took in the Botanical Gardens because the rain had ceased a bit. We had lunch there and the went back up to the old city to see the church that was on the hill called St. Pierre Cathedral. We walked up to the top of the towers and had a great view of the Jet of Water that is in the middle of Lake Leman. The weather had cleared up by then, so we enjoyed our afternoon expedition. We were a little tired though and decided it was best to head home to rest for a bit before having dinner.
My very expensive Swiss experience was capped off with a dinner of cheese fondue that was amazing. I really wanted chocolate fondue as well, but it was 25 CHF, which is around $25. I like dessert a lot, but not enough for that. Plus when she was describing all that was with it, I didn't think I could have done it justice. I'll mention breakfast the next morning because I had something that I haven't had here yet and it was a pain au chocolat with two different kinds of chocolate! There was white on one side and dark on the other...and it had sprinkles on the top! Great way to cap off an educational and interesting trip.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Giverny

My third day of vacation consisted of a lot of trains. I took a train from Pontorson at 9:15 and made it to Paris. I had to change train stations and then spent about 1 1/2 hrs. waiting for another train. I finally made it to my third destination about 3pm. I had to go without dropping off my luggage because the hostel wasn't open yet, so I found the bus to take me to Giverny. For those of you not familiar with Giverny, it is where Monet lived and painted some of his most famous works, most notably the Water Lilies. I got to the little town and made my way to the tourist office to see if they could hold my bag for me. They didn't have space so they sent me to the Impressionist Museum. I left my bag behind the counter and went through the museum. I really do like impressionist art. I know a lot of people that don't like it, but there is something very intricately cool about it that I really enjoy. Maybe some of it is that it really does look like a lot of work, and to see how everything comes together is pretty interesting.
After that museum I headed to Monet's house and garden and it was spectacular. I had to wait in line for a bit, but once I got in I absolutely loved it. I walked up to the house and it is pink, which was an interesting first impression, but once I got inside I decided that I want a house just like it someday. I liked how it was laid out in some respects. I don't think I can properly explain it, but every room was next to each other in a row, then there was an upstairs the same way. So it was a long house, but each room was distinct. There were also great, bright colors in each of the rooms. The dining room was brilliantly yellow and made me happy. Then I went out and looked at the garden, which was in bloom, but funny how when I was looking at my parents pictures of the garden there are no flowers that are the same. It makes me wonder if they are really just good planners or if they replace the flowers when they are finished blooming. I think they just plant it so that there is always stuff blooming. It was spectacular. I then went through the underground tunnel to the water lily garden. It is such a serene and quiet place, even with tons of tourists walking around. I took more pictures in Giverny than I did anywhere else on the trip.
After the house and garden I went and saw where Monet is buried and headed back to the bus, making a quick stop at the bust of Monet that is on his grounds. I only ended up being in Giverny for about 2 1/2 hours, but it was definitely worth the trip and I'm glad I made it.
M hostel ended up being pretty far away from town, but I dropped my stuff off and headed to town for dinner. Being as it is still vacation for most of the French, I didn't have a lot to choose from, so I settled on pizza. I tried to go to bed around 9, but it didn't work out. I woke up the next morning with big bug bites again as well. I always kick myself when I forget to bring something important on a trip. This time it would have been the cortizone cream of the bug sprary. Dope!

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Mont St. Michel

My second day I woke up and took an early train to a little town called Pontorson. I got in at around 9:30 and walked to find my hostel. It was a good bit away from the train station, but ended up being a really clean and nice place. I left my bag with them and walked back to the tourism office to get a map and headed back to the train station to catch a bus to Mont St. Michel. Unfortunately it was a bit cloudy and looked somewhat like it was going to rain, but thankfully it wasn't yet.
The bus dropped me off close to the entrance to the town, which was nice because there were lots and lots of people who had parked and were walking up to the abbey. I started walking up the little lane, which I guess is the only major way up to the abbey at the top because it was absolutely packed with people and all the touristy shops. I kept telling myself that I had nothing else to do that day, so I should be as patient as possible, but I am not real good at that when there are people everywhere pushing through people trying to get to the top as fast as possible. At any rate, I took a little side route and walked up past a church and to a cemetery. It was an interestling little place and probably was the only one on the island because there were headstones that looked like they had to be moved because they were old. It was sad in some respects, but also kind of interesting. I made it to the abbey and found a long line, but I actually only ended up waiting about 15 minutes. I had some very demure Germans in front of me and some very exuberant Italians behind me. Good times. It started misting a little bit, but didn't have to take out the umbrella, so it was ok. The abbey was interesting, although I didn't do the audio tour, and I missed the tour in either French and English by about 15 minutes. Bummer, but probably good because I made it through in about an hour. After that I sat on a little bench and had a pear and a demi-baguette that had asiago cheese on the top. I had read the book that all of the food on the island was priced for tourists, so I brought my own lunch. I walked around for a little bit long and then checked my watch. It was 12:35. I checked the bus schedule to take me back to the little town. The next bus was at 2:30. Oops. I used my time by walking around the ramparts of the city for a bit and then passed the rest of the time people watching. Whoa. Mont St. Michel is the most-visited attraction in France, so as you can imagine there were lots of people and lots of interesting people. I kept thinking that I would have loved to be there with about a quarter of the people. I'm sure it is a really cool place to be at night when the sea comes in and the streets are more abandoned.
The bus finally came and we had a little hold-up because some sheep were not at all concerned with the flow of traffic and made us wait for a bit to take the only road off of the island. I went back into town and checked into my hostel where I ended up having a room of my own! I took a little nap because I was pretty tired. I think the not sleeping well the first night was the dagger. That night I walked to a little creperie and had a galette with onions, mushrooms and an egg and a crepe with chocolate and mint-chocolate chip ice cream. My grand total for the meal: 7 euro. Best deal for the money on the whole trip. Well done Pontorson!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

D-Day Beaches and American Cemetery

After spending the morning in Bayeux, I did a professionally organized half-day tour for the afternoon. I did the tour for a few reasons, 1. I didn't have a car and these places aren't that accessible by public transportation and 2. I do not know anywhere close to enough about WWII to reasonably make the trip educational. My tour guide was a man named Francis. He is from Normandy, and was very fond of all 5 Americans on the trip. Random small-world moment, when I was asking people where they were from, one couple said Missouri. I asked what part, they said Kansas City. I told them I was from Overland Park and she said, well actually we live in Mission Hills, Kansas. Huh. Not Missouri. Whatever.
We stopped first at Pointe du Hoc, where the rangers scaled the cliffs to begin the attacks of D-day. It was a very pretty view now, but on the top of the cliff we could still see the craters that had been left by the bombings that led up to June 6, 1944. The guide said the ground had filled in quite a bit, but there were still craters everywhere.
Our second stop was Omaha Beach. I don't know what I was expecting, but kids splashing in the water playing and a street vendor selling ice cream wasn't it. It was high tide, so we didn't get to walk on the beach, but we did see the memorial that is there dedicated to the war. I had read something before I took the trip that one person who visited the beach was put off by how people were laughing and having fun where so many died, but then he read one of the memorials that had a quote from a soldier saying he hoped the war brought freedom to the youth. The visitor mentioned that then the laughter of the children became ok because it really was the freedom of youth, and the whole point of fighting the war to begin with.
Our third stop was to the American Cemetery and it is by far my favorite place in France. Not because it is technically 176 acres of American soil, but because it is absolutely stunning. Here are some interesting facts I learned while there:
- Everything from the memorials to the headstones face west so that everything is looking home to the USA.
- There are 9,387 people buried in the cemetery and there is an organization in Normandy in which families adopt the graves for life. The family then pays hommage to the grave at least once a year and passes the responsibility for honoring the soldier down to their family. There are almost 8,000 families that have adopted graves. I saw a family putting flowers on one when I was there.
-The monument base that the statue rests upon is made from pebbles from the beaches where the attacks occurred.
- There are 307 bodies buried that have not been identified. There is a whole wall of soldiers whose bodies were never found. Some were found later, as recently as last year when a family started construction on a new house, those soldiers have a star next to their name on the wall.
- The families of the soldiers got to decide if they wanted the body buried in the cemetery or sent back home to the US.
- Most of the graves are marked with crosses, but there are also stars of David in the cemetery as well.
- The American Cemetery is the 2nd most-visited place in France behind Mont St. Michel, and the 2nd most-visited cemetery in the world behind Arlington.
I could have spent all day there, but our last stop was another hill-top to see bunkers and old guns. It was pretty neat. The weather was perfect and the experience was one that every American should have at least once in their life.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Bayeux

For my last week of freedom before starting my stage, I decided to take a little trip to Northern France to see some of the must-see items in France. My first stop was a little town named Bayeux. It is one of the towns that is a base for the tour expeditions to the D-day beaches in Normandy.
Let me start at the beginning though, and by that I mean the planning of this trip. Approximately the end of July I decided to take this trip and began e-mailing hostels to check for availability. I found this hostel in Bayeux that was pretty affordable and close to everything I wanted to do, so I emailed them to see if they were available. I got an affirmative, so sent them back an email to confirm. The lady sent me back an email and said to arrive between 7-9pm. My train didn't get in til 9:15 so I asked if that was ok. She emailed back and said someone would wait for me. I know it seems like a painful recount of the details, but they are important. I arrived in Bayeux and had just enough daylight to get to the hostel. I found it perfectly and was there at 9:30. No doors are open and it looks like no one is around. I go to the side door and see some guys inside, so I knock and ask them if they have seen the owner. They haven't and are looking for him too. I convince them to let me in. I know, charm. I proceed to look everywhere for the owner, and no one is around. Now, the good thing is that I'm in the hostel. The bad thing is that I don't know where my bed is. I ask a couple if they have seen the owner and tell them the story. They start looking for rooms for me. They suggest the one above where they are staying. I knock on the door and a 50-year-old guy answers and out whafts the cigarette smoke aroma. There are 4 beds in the room, but just this guy smoking. He says sure I can stay in one of the other beds, I take a look around, assess the toilet and shower only separated from the rest of the room by a partition and decide, maybe I'd rather sleep somewhere else. I go back downstairs and the couple is going through the office trying to find keys to other rooms. They were cool people. I tell them not to worry about it and go down to the basement of this hostel. I had seen it upon first wanderings, but when I say basement, it is more like a cellar. Barrel ceilings, all in stone. It was damp too. But, there is a couch-like, divided chair thing. I pushed the chairs together and put on my pjs. I brushed my teeth in the bathroom upstairs and commenced falling asleep. Or not. Turns out I was warm from walking all over this hostel, and after I laid down I wasn't so warm. I slept in 3 shirts and a fleece, flannel pj pants, two pairs of socks on my feet, one on my hands and my jacket and another shirt covering me. I didn't sleep great, but awoke at 7:30am to the sounds of pots clanking. I promptly gathered my stuff and headed upstairs to request a key. I got a room and slept for 2 more hours...needless to say that night was free.
My morning in Bayeux was spent at the Cathedral and then seeing a super-long tapestry...as in 70 meters long. This tapestry was made in the 11th century and depicts the conquest of England by William, Duke of Normandy. Bayeux is a cute little town with lots of waterwheels, and thankfully I had a great day to see the town. I had an afternoon at the D-day beaches, and then had a dinner based around the Bayeux pig. The entree was a pork paté, the plat was a great casserole which was based with mashed potatoes, then had apples, pork, and sausage in it. It was pretty strange, but great. For dessert I had a baked apple with cinnamon ice cream. Yum. Great first day!

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Tired of using Technology

On the last night that I was house sitting, I was hanging out just typing along in my journal with a few internet windows open when BAM! all of a sudden my computer started flashing, notification boxes were coming up asking me if I wanted to download programs and some weird looking virus windwos were popping up telling me files were corrupted and I needed to scan my computer. I freaked out and tried to turn off the computer, but it didn't work. (duh) When I restarted again, the boxes were back and I couldn't access anything. Five minutes later everything calmed down and I saw that all my documents, pictures and files were still there and Skype still worked. Microsoft Explorer just wouldn't work. I finally was able to scan my computer and found stuff to be cleaned. My computer cleaned, I thought I was in the clear, but when I restarted, everything went wild again. At this point I was panicking. What could possibly be the problem and how do I fix it?!?! I went to my programs to see if there was something that got installed. As it was 8/10, I saw something that had been installed that day and immediately uninstalled it. Only when I went back in did I realize that lots of stuff had been installed...on 8/10/09. A year ago, when the computer was set up. Super.
I was in a foul mood for the better part of two days, trying to contemplate what I was going to do with a malfunctioning computer, I downloaded new updates and miraculously the rapidly popping up windows stopped, but I could no longer get on Microsoft Explorer. I thought about trying to go find a place here to fix my computer, but faced with the prospect of trying to explain what was happening in French, I realized that my computer is still under warranty and decided to call HP.
I was kindly informed by HP that while my computer was under warranty, it was only for hardware and not software problems. The guy could either completely reformat my computer for free (and lose everything on my computer, which wouldn't have been horrible because everything is backed up except for my music) or I could pay $59.99 to have a virus specialist check it out. I decided to go the pay route. Mostly because I didn't want to be responsible for reformatting my computer, even if it was technician guided.
I got through to the virus department and told the guy what happened. The first thing he had me do was to reset my settings in Explorer to default. 3 seconds later it all worked fine. I paid $65 for a reset of default settings. Consider me taken. But, to get at least at little work out of the guy, I made him takeover my computer and do a thorough and lenghty scan of everything to make sure no viruses, or weird programs existed. He said that I never had a virus, and that he thought it was just malicious spyware that was trying to get me to buy a product. My computer or data was never in danger, and nothing had been corrupted or compromised. He declared me free and clear and at least my $65 bought my peace of mind. (I can't tell you how many other layers there are to this story, but we'd be here all day if I recounted it all to you, so go with it)
On another tech note...my roommates had set up a wireless network while I was gone and got it to work, but then it stopped working for no reason. This morning I re-installed everything and used my magic little fingers to make the network useable throughout the apartment. It took a while and was quite frustrating, but it now works. Color me purple and call me a happy.

Open Windows

Unlike back in the good old USA, the temperature here has been absolutely delightful, remaining mostly in the 70s throughout the day. We had about 2 weeks of 90 degree heat back in late June/early July, but since then the weather has been great. As you know, there is no air conditioning in most of France, so our normal reaction was to open as many windows as possible to get the cross breezes going. Apparently this does not seem to be the case for a majority of the French. Either people don't live in the buildings, or they don't like opening the shutters and letting the light, and nature, in. Everywhere we walk around town there are buildings with shutters closed. When we first got here I just figured it was because it was the middle of winter. Apparently not. There just aren't a lot of open windows to peek into.
We, as I stated earlier, do indeed have our windows wide open, which has led to some interesting occurances. First, when it was pretty warm out still, I started getting bitten like crazy by bugs. I am naturally bitten by more bugs than anyone else, even when I am at home in the states, so I wasn't all that concerned, until the bug bites turned out to be HUGE welts on my legs. I only had about 2 at a time and they itched like crazy. The thought of bed bugs did enter my mind, but after some research, and consulting the pharmacist, she assured me that they were just normal bug bites from our little friends who flew in the open windows. I tried to find bug spray here, you know, handy dandy OFF!, but no dice. So the second time I went to the pharmacist she gave me a supplement to the cortizone and allergy medicine she gave me the first time and sold me a 8 euro bottle of bug repellent. Stuff worked like a charm. I sprayed it all over my body for about 2 weeks and now my little friends are gone! Now, the window closest to my bed mysteriously lost its handle so it won't open, which means fewer bugs on my side of the room, which means, no bites for me. Nice.
The second occurance of some note that came from open windows was another little visitor. The other day I was redoing the sheets on my bed because they had become askew and I moved my bed away from the wall. As I did this, I saw a little mouse scurry from behind the window shade to my roommate's side of the room and her open suitcases. I jumped on the bed and stood there for a second and then realized how utterly ridiculous I was being. I got down and continued on with my task and then got my stuff and left the room and closed the door. I kindly informed my roommate that when she got home from work, we would be mouse hunting. She was so excited, let me tell you. I spent most of the day in the other room, save for a few ventures into my room, but when roomie got home and we hesitantly moved all the stuff, we found no mouse. I think he left the way he came in...through the open window. Hit the road Jack and don't you come back no more no more!

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

I need a...

Lately part of my everyday journey is reminding me of a part out of a movie called Failure to Launch. It isn't that great of a movie, sure fun and entertaining and a decent romantic comedy if you like that sort of thing, but that isn't the part that is reminding me of my daily life. The part that is reminding me of my daily life revolves around a scene in the movie where one of the characters has a mockingbird outside her window that will not stop making noise and keeping her up at night. The character then goes on to purchase a bee bee gun and try to annihilate this bird. Now, let's be clear, I am in no way a proponent of harming animals, BUT there is this bird, (same one that I wrote about 3 months ago outside my apartment window) who literally wants me to go insane. I bet it followed me from my apartment to the house I'm at now. It wants to annoy me until I flip out and start yelling out the window in a direction that probably isn't the right one because I have no idea where this bird lives (no, I have not done this yet), but boy, oh boy, is it annoying. Maybe I need more noise in my life, maybe I should play music at all times and just avoid trying to take naps during the day because it simply won't let me and then I get in a bad mood. It isn't right for a bird to be able to do this to someone. Please bird, give me some peace. Shut it!

Birthdays!

Some days make me miss being home more than others, and today is definitely one of those days. My family is at the Lake of the Ozarks with some dear friends beating the Midwest heat and doing pretty much everything that makes me utterly content. This list includes, but is not limited to, eating homemade summer meals each night, beating everyone at cards and Monopoly, sleeping as long as I want, reading good books, drinking good gin and tonics, having at least a sip of a Red Fox margarita, going for boat rides, watching my brother and co. set off a huge amount of fireworks, cursing mosquitos, listening to thunder and watching lightening, still being treated like a kid and having to do dishes after dinner, wearing lounging clothes for 5 days straight, smelling like sunscreen and enjoying the company of people I have known, and will know, my whole life.
This year is even worse because I am missing the celebration of my parents' birthdays. No, that wasn't a typo, my parents do, indeed, have the same birthday (year apart) and this year they get to celebrate it with no work and all fun. I called them this afternoon (9am for them) and surprised them with happy birthday wishes from France, but boy do I miss being there to enjoy the white wedding cake (my mom's favorite) and the turkey dinner that they'll be enjoying in their honor. I might need to find some gin and limes and toast to my amazing parents from roughly 4000 miles away. Cheers!

Monday, August 9, 2010

Grand Cascade

This was our last weekend with access to a car, so my roommate and I decided to drive to a little town called Mont Dore that is about 45 minutes (when the GPS is going the right direction) from Clermont. We got off to a bit of a groggy start because the GPS was taking us to another place entirely (we should have just followed the signs, the signs in France are never wrong), but we finally got on track and made it to the little village of Mont Dore around 10:30am. We found a perfect parking spot and marveled at all the stores that were open on a Sunday, and all the people roaming around. Apparently Mont Dore is a more happening tourist destination than Clermont. It is a cute, little, charming place. We followed the book to where the hike to the Grand Cascade began. We thought the hike was going to be 4km and 2 hours to get to the waterfall so we came prepared with a picnic lunch, water, and thankfully, this time, my hiking boots. We started our ascent and enjoyed the little promenade through the forest interrupted by some steps apparently made for giants. My legs were not pleased with me after that, but we kept ascending. Then we spotted the first waterfall (the book said there were two). After traipsing around to take a few pics, we continued on and then suddenly there it was, the Grand Cascade. I looked at my watch, we'd been on the trail for 45 min. Ooooooh, the whole hike was 2 hours and 4 km. Right. We enjoyed the big waterfall and then ascended a little more to a lovely plateau where the sun was shining and the breeze was making it a little chilly. We enjoyed our lunch and observed the wonders of grasshoppers and how much noise they can make, then began our descent. We were going to take another little path, but it started to get pretty boring after a while, so we turned back. By that time (approx 1pm) most of the shops were closed either for lunch or for the day (it was Sunday), so we gassed up the vehicle and made our way back to Clermont to enjoy the rest of our sunny Sunday.

Tapas!

My roommate had the brilliant idea to make Sangria for Friday night's festivities (sitting on the back deck doing nothing but enjoying the wonderful weather). To go with this Sangria, we decided making a host of different kinds of tapas would be in order. I started perusing the recipe box (aka the internet) and quickly found that lots of tapas include delightful but, in France, unavailable items. Others included seafood, which just isn't my cup of tea when it comes to cooking. I did end up finding some easy stuff though so we set out on a menu of Tortilla Espagna, Greek Meatballs in Wine Sauce, Garlic Shrimp and Chicken Empanadas, with banana chocolate empanadas for dessert. I had never made a spanish tortilla before. I cooked the potatoes and onions on the stove top, then poured in the eggs and let it cook. Think omelette. Think yummy. My roommate made the empanadas and they were amazing. There was just a hint of jalepeno, which normally I can't stand, but it was subtle enough that it was a good zing. I don't know which ended up being my favorite, but the dinner was enjoyed tremendously and we only made ourselves get up from the table when it was too dark to see what was going on. Score one for the good guys.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Just passing this along...

A little while ago I wrote a blog about man-purses and general fashion for men in France. My roommate came across this blog that does a way better job of saying what I was trying to say. If you don't think it is funny, trust me, after you live here for a little bit you'd think it is hilariously accurate.

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2007/09/the_manpurse.html

Sunday, August 1, 2010

a French faux-pas

About a month ago, our landlords had us over for lunch and made us a fantastic meal of beef and salad and a yummy cake for dessert. My roommate liked the cake so much she asked for the recipe. While we were sitting at the table, our landlord was explaining that you use lots of "oeufs" (eggs). She went on to explain that you use 8 "jaunes oeufs" (yellow eggs=yolks). What I understood her as saying though was that you use 8 "jeunes oeufs" (young eggs). I sat confused for a second pondering this description before asking, "How do you know the eggs are young?" She looked at me confused for a second and then realized I had misunderstood "jaunes oeufs" for "jeunes oeufs" and promptly gave me a big smile and said again, no, no, "jaunes oeufs", my roommate helped out in the explanation by saying, "yellow eggs, not young." It made a lot more sense to me then!
Last night we made the cake for ourselves with all 8 yellow eggs. There were quite a few references to "young eggs" and the cake turned out scrumptious.

Kate vs. the Volcano

Did you know the region of France where I live is actually a string of volcanos? Dormant thankfully, so no need to worry about spontaneously having to run for my life. These volcanos make the region very pretty and provide quite a lovely day of activites for those looking to do some hiking. Yesterday, my roommate and I decided to hike up to the top of the highest volcano: Puy-de-Dome. We drove part of the way up to a parking lot that is designated for the hikers. After we parked we just started walking up the hill. At one point a lady asked us if we needed help. We told her "no" that we were just going to hike to the top. She kindly said we did, in fact, need help because we were going the wrong way. Right. She gave us the option of taking a bus to the base of the trail, but we scoffed at that and walked instead. All was fine and dandy until we started up the actual trail to the top. Ok people, I hiked the Grand Canyon less than a year ago, but boy oh boy was I not in shape for the 45 minute ascent to the top. Part of the reason was that we were walking in loose gravel, you know, kind of like sand. Another reason the trail was harder than it needed to be was because I wore my tennis shoes. Great shoes, BUT, I have even better ones, with me, here in France. I brought with me the boots that I used to hike the GC, so that I could wear them in the snow, but did I wear these hiking boots when I was actually hiking? NO. dumb. After quite a few petite pauses we finally made it to the top and enjoyed the glorious view, weather and breeze. The way down was much quicker, making enjoying the view, and nature, much easier. It took us a total of 3 hours to hike up and down the volcano and I gave my muscles a workout. Check!