My First Train Ride

I took the train today with other Americans to go visit the town of Vichy. Wow am I glad that I did a "trial run" of the train system before leaving for Paris. The boards were very confusing, and we missed our first train that left to Vichy, fortunately there was one about a half hour later. Unfortunately one of the American's misplaced their ticket, and just decided to go home at this point. Then there were 3 of us. We got to Vichy O.K. and started walking around in a random direction to find things. Eventually stopped at a kebab place to eat and continued walking. We found the Allier river, and a couple other historic monuments, then did some shopping. After our legs and feet were hurting we went back to the train station, bought our return tickets and got on the train RIGHT AWAY, and returned home to Clermont. Once back, I had soup for dinner. Considering how cold it is outside right now in Clermont, that's all I wanted to eat anyway! It was a pumpkin/squash soup, and delicious. Then I've just been doing homework all night to try and catch up. Unfortunately because it's the week before break, we have all our midterms - thus a lot of studying. It's not fair! I didn't go on study abroad to actually STUDY!!!!! Haha, but anyway, I feel so smart sitting at a French cafe, drinking coffee and reading a book in French. But anyway, I needed to take a break from studying and tell about my successful (kind-of) train experience!
Peace, Love and Trains

That Teaches Me a Lesson!

So I religiously bring my camera everywhere with me, just in case something eventful happens in front of me. Weellllll... The first time I don't have my camera with me is a wonderful, hysterical, life changing event taking place in the main square of town. Yes, a farmer riot complete with tractors. Folks, I am in the "Iowa" of France. This was amazingly funny thing to stumble upon walking home from the doctors this morning. So apparently the Farmers are pissed at the French president (Sarkozy?) because he is making laws that are hindering the Farmers. So there was a demonstration/riot in Clermont today. There might have been 100 tractors that were blocking the streets and filling up the square, all honking, hooting and hollering. This was the most organized thing that I have ever seen in France, no wonder it was a riot. It seems the two things the French can do best are riot and push their job onto someone else.
So besides tractors and farmers fighting for their rights to make wine, I had to go to the doctors today to get a "clean bill of health" in order to complete my visa application. I was told on Thursday, I needed it done by the following Friday. It really goes to show how little people are checking up on one another. But this was a mutual screw-up, and I was able to get an appointment at the doctors.
This is how:
1) showed up at the doctors right when they opened the door
2) came with two other close friends who needed the same thing
3) asked for an appointment
4) was refused
5) explained I couldn't reenter France after October break when I would be leaving the country if I did not have this finished
6) was told it's impossible
7) asked again, emphasizing that I would not be allowed back into France
8) someone starting looking at the times that were available today
9) kept standing there, not letting anyone else get in line ahead of me
10) still standing while they debated
11) got an appointment right away with the doctor and was whisked off in a half hour to take my height/weight and blood pressure

It really goes to show that to get something done in this country, you just have to stand there. You're presence alone will often make them double check. Also being a poor confused American doesn't hurt either.

In foodie news:
I am sorry readers, but I have tried a "French" french fry from McDonald's, and I don't think it's that bad. I did not feel like my heart was seizing from the grease on it while I was eating, nor were my sodium levels raging out of control either. I do say it was pretty good. Although not as good as the chocolate. I went into their version of a Target with more food section today to buy chocolate. I bought the cheap store brand pack of 3 bars for 1,50 euros. I swear this stuff was 100 times better than Hershey's could ever dream of being! Mmmm, but for all the pastries and bread and cheese, I am starting to miss plain sauteed or steamed veggies. All the cream sauces make me not want to eat the veggies. It's very sad. Maybe I'll suggest for me to cook dinner one night, and I'll use lots of garlic! But I can't make it too spicy. Otherwise they'll freak. Oh well!
Peace, Love and more GARLIC PLEASE

No More Runny Eggs!

I have had enough of this crazy my family is on! I don't want to eat another soft boiled, over easy, under cooked runny yolk egg again! I understand this is a preference for many people, but the mere fact that my dinner is runny and undercooked grosses me out. I have had to endure this "hardship" for about 4 dinners now, and I am sick of it! In other news, it has begun to get cold here. The stereotypical French scene is outdoors, in a cafe with a coffee right? Well in this weather it's more like: outdoors, in a cafe HUDDLED around a coffee. So for lunch the American's went to "Cafe Cosy" which had an indoor eating venue!! I had pasta with a tomato Parmesan sauce, and a hot chocolate which was to die for!
Classes recently have kept me very busy, both in a good sense and a bad sense. I hardly find that I have free time to meander around, and I'm defiantly not lounging around my host home. But in the other sense it is nice to be able to have a lot of interaction with the French students, even if we only have 2 classes with them.
The American's have also started their "english conversations" which are held once a week. These conversations are with whoever French students want to spend their lunch hour talking in english. Topics are anything and everything. Last week we talked about relationships and dating in the US versus dating in France. It was really interesting. This week we talked about Obama and the Nobel Peace Prize.
Also Mme Solberg (a French lit professor at Kalamazoo) came to visit us for a couple weeks! She is on sabbatical, writing a book, so she thought she'd come in a check on us. It's been really nice to have a familiar face around that can help get issues dealt with through the French Bureaucratic system (cough visa problems cough)
So tomorrow I have no classes, but I will be going to the doctor (for the first time in France!! ahh!!) in order to get a clean bill of health so that I can continue my visa procedure, hopefully before I'm supposed to leave for Finland in a week. Then on Saturday I will be taking my first train ride to the neighboring town of Vichey. This is where the French capital was moved to during the second World War. Hopefully it will be very interesting, but I hear they also have a lot of shops. It should be fun either way!
Finally, I have successfully explained how to knit socks in French to my host mother! I'm so excited that my level of French is actually improving, I can tell because my host family doesn't correct me as much anymore. I told a story tonight at dinner, and not once did they stop me to correct my grammar! yay!
So until next time,
Peace, Love, and gross eggs!

Italian, Students and Pools

So my first Italian class was on Monday night. It was so much fun! The professor is a little insane, but also very nice and forgiving. It was very interesting to me how close French and Italian are, I was able to understand the prof fairly well when she only spoke Italian to us, although the French she spoke was a little tougher!! Anyway, it was a lot of fun and I'm really excited to learn a new language.
French students always perplex me. We had a group project in our marketing class, and so it wasn't until 2 days before it's due that I was able to get a hold of my other group members. We set up a time to meet, and by the time that I got there, they had already finished the research. They decided to break at that point and write the summary tomorrow (meaning today, the day that the project is due). I get to the meeting point with another french student. 10 minutes goes by, no sign of the other person. Finally the other french student calls the missing student. The missing student had already finished the report without the help of anyone else! I had to put no work into this assignment, and no one felt bad about it! Back in the states, if you don't put in your fair share you will be ostracized for several years because of it!
Final though of this week before going to do massive amounts of homework, and going swing dancing tonight. I went to my first public swimming pool here in France. My first observation is that there is only one changing room. So I had to give myself the "when in France..." pep talk before quickly changing into a swimsuit behind one of the doors that don't entirely cover you. Then after changing, I needed to find a locker to put my things into, the first one didn't like it and wouldn't let me take the key, but finally the second one worked and I was on my way to the pool. I read somewhere that I would need to rinse off before going into the pool, so I jumped under the shower quickly and put my hair into a pony tail before going to the pool. I had originally came to swim laps, but seeing as there were about 5-6 people per lap, I decided to stand in the waist high pool for a little while and assess the situation. After a half hour, none of the laps were lightening up, and I was too afraid to join a lap because I am not the quickest swimmer and I thought I would slow everyone else down. So after swimming in circles for an hour I left the pool to shower again and change back into my clothes and walk home. All in all, it was a fun event, and I might go back, just with someone else or not at such a busy time so that I can swim some laps!
Peace, Love and Laps

My 4 am Morning!

So I had my first day at the pastry shop today. It was two words: Amazingly Scary. So he gave me his cellphone number to call him when I'm outside the door outside and he'll come fetch me. So I get there at 4:05 and give him a call. He then greets me at the door with a blowtorch in one hand (still light) and a huge smile on his face. In broken english he says "Lets go!" and we proceed upstairs to the pastry shop. When I get up there, he has me start on making pear tarts, strawberry and raspberry tartlettes (small tarts). Then he hands me the blow torch (5 am in the morning by the way) and I get to play with the blow torch!. I was un-molding cakes, so I had to defrost the outsides then slam them on the counter to get them out. It was very fun and loud. Then I wrapped all the cakes in plastic and put them into the freezer (which is MASSIVE). By this time all the people that work there have shown up. They all bisous each other, even the guys, so as not to transfer pastry stuff onto other people's hands. (bisous is the traditional french greeting for an informal setting, it consists of 2-10 kisses alternating on cheeks) I am the only female that was there the entire day, so the boys were playing this odd game of alternating between heckling me, defending me and interrogating me. And here I am, understanding about half of it (due to the noise, accents, and the words I have no idea what they are), but every now and then I make a really bad joke. Anyway, I left at around 9:15 in the morning (5 hours of work and the sun just came up!). I can't wait to return next week at the same time!
Peace, Love and Pastries!!!!!

Pictures are up!

Hi quick post, I have posted all my pictures that I've taken onto photobucket. There should be a slide show running on the side bar <<<. To view the full picture (because the sidebar cuts it off) just click on the picture, and it will take you through a slide show!
Peace, Love and Pictures

So much happens in such little time!

So much has happened in the past two days, that I need to do this chronologically in order for it to make any sense.
1) Wednesday morning: I woke up with the intention of talking to the pastry guy about my job. I desperately needed a pep talk before hand, but no one was around, so I gave myself a pep talk and went on my way to the shop. I walked into the shop, and there was a line, if anyone walked in behind me, I was prepared to buy something and just walk out, come back later, do something else. But alas, such is not my luck. So I started talking to the lady behind the counter. I was like "I'm the American, that should be doing an apprenticeship here this fall. Is there someone I can talk to about hours?" Then after some awkwardness, she recognized what I was asking and told me to wait a minute. She then called down the pastry guy and he started to talk to me in the shop. But then it started to get busy again, and he took me to this tiny office to talk. He asked me when I'd like to work, I told him that weekends are better, then he asked me "how about 4 am this Saturday?" So I start work at 4 am. I am so excited, and yet so nervous at the same time that I will mess up big time!! But it should be a lot of fun, and I will learn a lot.
After discussing my start time, he also insisted that I come other mornings than just Saturday, to see different processes of pasty making (each day has a different theme, Saturday is all finishing work). Then he took me on a tour of the building. We first went through the bread part, the ovens were MASSIVE, and it smelled so delicious. Then he took me upstairs into the pastry part of the shop. There were two other guys that work for the pastry man. They were both about 20, and very friendly. The pastry guy was also about 25, maybe 27 at the most, and very friendly and extremely patient. Then he showed me the secret entrance into the pastry shop, gave me his cell phone number and told me to call him at 4 am when I arrived so that he could open the door for me to come in. So I hope everyone is jealous (maybe not) of my 4 am job!!
2) Wednesday afternoon: We (Americans) started our English conversations with the French. It was amusing, we put ourselves into groups of 3 French students with one American. They were very rusty with their English, and at times it was very trying, but I kept asking them questions, and they were able to respond. I tried to be very sympathetic because I know how it feels to be lost in a conversation. It was very exciting, and I'm glad that the French were very enthusiastic to be talking to us in English.
3) Wednesday afternoon: We had our second course of marketing. It was a little better to understand the lecture, but when the group assignment came around, I was completely lost. Thank goodness for this one French student next to me, he explained everything to me, very slowly, and explained why everything happened in the equations. I felt very lost after the course, but hopefully after going over my notes it won't be too bad!
4)Wednesday Dinner: uneventful, had pasta with zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes and goat cheese.
5)Thursday: Les Vendages
This is the most important part of the past few days. Today was the Vendages (or the day to pick the grapes to make wine). All the American's today got to participate in this wonderful adventure that started at 7:30 in the morning. When we got to the vineyards, it was freezing, and a fair distance from Clermont. But we soon got equipped with a bucket, scissors, and a french partner to show up the ropes. My partner Jaques, and I did not have a very long conversation, but we did pick many grapes together. Of course I had to test many of them to make sure their quality was good. They were all delicious! After picking one field we took a little pause. They set up a folding table, cut some bread, salami, cheese and opened the first bottle of wine. This was at 9:45 in the morning. After going through 2 bottles, between 14 people, and all the bread/cheese/salami, and a couple cigarettes on the French part, we continued working.
We picked one more field, and at this point my back began to hurt a lot. I also cut my finger in this field with the scissors. I was picking grapes, didn't feel a thing, look down at my hand and I'm covered in blood. I called out to our group leader that I had cut myself, but after washing away the blood, only to find that it was a little scrape. One of the older gentlemen in the field with us then did some "french medicine" to heal my wound. He crushed grape leaves to produce a liquid, then rubbed that on the cut, picked a grape and smushed that onto the cut, then wrapped all this juice in a grape leave. After a short while, the bleeding stopped all together and the cut never reopened the entire day!
The finishing of the second field was celebrated with more wine, bread and cheese. Then at noon we began on the their field. We were starting to get slap happy and a little upset at this point. We also started making fun of the randomness of the French (I.E. starting at an arbitrary point in the field to pick uphill, and leaving the bottom of the hill alone). After finally finishing the final field (at about 1 pm?) We all got rides to the place where they make wine. We were told we were going to be served lunch there. After setting up a long table in the place where they keep the HUGE barrels of wine, we all sat down to drink more wine (an apparatif!). Then with much discussion of what a vegetarian is, a plate of cold cuts was passed around, along with so much delicious bread. The cold cuts consisted of a salami, a cured pork, and this rather odd tasting cold cut...warning do not read the following paragraph if you are easily grossed out...

The cold cut consisted of sweet meats ground up with left over pork that was cut away from the bone. This was all ground with spices and cured, then covered in gelled cartilage, and wrapped in a puff pastry and baked.

I learned all this because I was sitting next to the chef who prepared our lunch. Then after more wine, the main course was brought out. This consisted of beef bourginon (of which the secret is to stew the meat for several hours in red wine and dark chocolate, delicious!). As well as garlic mashed potatoes were served, with more bread and a switch to red wine for the table. After eating our fill, and after some conversation, the cheese course was served, with more wine of course! Then finally dessert was put on the table. This was a chocolate bread pudding, paired with a sparkling rose that was the star (in my opinions) of the wines served that day. I turned to the chef and told him the rose was magnificent, and he quoted me the rest of the afternoon! Then the owner of the vineyards stood, and gave a small speech that was so clever and well written, and an American gave a small speak in return and gratitude. Finally, 3 and a half hours after sitting down for dinner, I attempted to stand (after all the wine and hard labor, let me tell you it wasn't easy!). After lunch, a friend and I figured that between 18 people at the table, and through out the day in the field, we went through about 25 bottles of wine. And I defiantly had my share! It was all so delicious.
Then after the car ride home, I sat in a cafe talking with another friend before heading home for dinner. (by the way, only 2 hours had passed since lunch ended and dinner began) I was so full, so I warned my host mom that I might not eat a lot of food. She was shocked at how much wine we had drunk throughout the day, as well as how late the lunch ended. I guess that's not typical in the city at all! But in the countryside, everyone seemed at ease to stop work at 2:30 for the rest of the day. Oh the French!
P.S. I am trying to upload all the photos I have taken on this trip into a folder so that everyone can see them. Once I get that website I'll let everyone know!
Peace, Love, and Wine!
P.P.S. if you have any questions, comments or concerns? or want to hear more about anything in this post (or any others!) please don't hesitate to comment below! I'd love to hear your feed back!