Thing I Love About the French 003

The way they eat. From the moment I arrived in France, I have done nothing but stuff my face. It's down right blasphemous to turn down a slice of tarte tartin, right? Who am I to say no to such a delectable treat? And, I mean, you gotta have at least two slices of bread with every meal. Otherwise, all the leftover juices from the poppyseed chicken you just ate would go to waste, so it's only practical. I can't, of course, forget the cheese. Eat it after lunch and dinner. Always. No exceptions. Okay, fine, I admit it. Sometimes I turn down the cheese. It's often smelly and as much as I wish I was fully French, I'm not yet at the point of forsaking cheddar.
You'd think that surrounded by all of this deliciousness that I'm prepping myself to be rolled onto my Oregon-bound flight. Surprisingly, not at all. I haven't gained a single ounce. The secret: balance. In France you don't deny yourself, but you also don't eat a 1/4 pound hamburger paired with bottomless steak fries (I miss you Red Robin...). Lunch and dinner normally include a fair share of veggies and are followed by fruit or yogurt. Artificial ingredients are avoided, replaced by fresher options. They've got the whole balance thing down and I'm certainly reaping the benefits.

Disclaimer: I claim only to know what I like, nothing abut nutrition, cooking, or the art of French cuisine.

Barcelona

This past winter break Allegra and I took a trip to Barcelona for the first week of vacation.
This is us on top of a Gaudi house with a glorious view of Barcelona and the Sagrada Familia behind us.

We arrived and found our hostel without problem and proceeded to go to a very tourist-y restaurant (no choice, really, because they spoke English there) and had delicious paella, a rice dish that made with vegetables or steak or seafood. As much as I love French cuisine, Spain's options were a bit more flavorful, which was nice for a change.
Our hostel was perfectly stereotypical. Each room slept around 20 people. They had a big lobby that all of the residents hung out in. It was only 9 euros and included breakfast and dinner. Allegra and I took part in the Spanish tradition of "siesta" (nap time) because we were tired from our long journey. After, we went down to the lobby and saw a guy wearing a blazers shirt. Of course we started talking to them and discovered that they were three brothers from Corvalis. It turned out that they even knew some of Allegra's friends. Random world that we live in. I wish we could have stayed there the whole time, but we had an apartment reserved for when Allegra's friend and her friend's arrived.
The square where our hostel was located.

We had some trouble meeting up with Sarah (Allegra's friend from home) because neither of us have a Spanish phone. Finally we called her from a pay phone. We met up with her at the train station and commenced to try and find the apartment. In the message Sarah had, neither a phone number nor address were listed. umm...? I was sure we had been duped and that the apartment didn't exist. We found an internet cafe, though, and Sarah found the website for the apatment and we found the telephone number and called the lady in charge. Whew! It was a relief to finally be with someone who could communicate in Spanish. The apartment was adorable, the only problem was that if you turned on the heat at the same time as anything else (say, the stove or microwave) the power would turn off. That got a little old.
That night, Sarah's two friends from Sevilla arrived, Amy and Sofie. They were such fun girls! We had a lot of fun discovering all of the beauty of Barcelona.
Every night we'd all squish onto the couch to watch movies and eat popcorn or Spanish cookies.

All of the Gaudi houses were breathtaking. And the Sagrada Familia! It's not even finished, but it was Gaudi's greatest and final project. I checked out the audio guide and it was fascinating. The church is inspired by nature and every tiny detail has meaning. Gaudi wanted the Sagrada Familia to be "the church of harmonious light" and in my opinion he was more than successful.
Pictures do not suffice.
Gaudi House. Doesn't it seem like you're under water?

At every restaurant in barcelona, they have these fancy fresh OJ making machines. Oh my, sooo good. Also, the hot chocolate is sinfully thick. It's even better when you buy churros to dip into it. Heaven.
Spain's eating schedule is totally bizarre, they eat breakfast at the normal hour, but lunch not til 2 or 3 and dinner not til 10 or 11. I was expecting Spain to be more like France (no idea why, silly me) but the fashion is different and the people are much more mediterannean looking, and not as skinny.
I'm glad I got to go but was completely content to return to France and be able to express myself again. I don't think I've experienced anything stranger than being in a country where you don't speak the language. It's an interesting sensation, one that I'm not convinced I like.
We had a bit of an adventure getting back to Lyon. From the train station in barcelona, you can take a 3 euro train to the airport. Super simple, right? Ha. At the platform we waited and eventually the train came so we got on. As the doors were closing, we looked out the window and saw a lot of people still waiting. We looked at each other in panic and tapped the guy sitting in front of us on the shoulder. Neither of us speak Spanish so all we could do was point and say "aeroport?" he shook his head no and with gestures explained to us that the next stop was about 20 minutes away. ZUT ALORS. When the ticket checker arrived, I told him we had taken the wrong train and he proceeded to explain something to me in rapid fire Spanish. Did I not make it clear that I do not speak a work of your language, senor? The next stop ended up being not 20, but 40 minutes away. ARGH. We were sure that we'd miss our flight. We got to the next station and luckily the lady at the welcome desk spoke English. She told us we could take a train back but that it would take 1.5 hours. Or we could take a taxi and arrive at the airport in 35 minutes, but it would cost 100 euros. We went with the taxi as 50 euros each is cheaper than new plane tickets. BUT UGH. We were both so tired and disapointed and just wanted to be home. We still almost didn't make it, but luckily our flight was a little bit late. WHEW. I didn't even care about the fifty euros any more, I was just glad to be headed back to France.

Me right off the plane and in front of the palace.
Masks we made at an art museum.
Sagrada Familia.
I loved the mosaic work all over the city.
This may look like a normal old chair, but it was incredibly comfortable.
Amy, Allegra, me, Sarah, Sofie Thanks for the amazing trip ladies!

Gros Bisous!

*Photo credit to Sarah and Allegra.

Dijon

This past weekend Diana and I went to Dijon for her 21st birthday. The city is tiny but packed with culture. I guess you could say that for all of Europe, but it's one of the many things that I love. There were a bunch of churches and adorable boutiques and lots of museums. I wasn't expecting to find Dijon so adorable. Diana and I found a little cafe / restaurant with amazing food (not surprising, but always a happy occurrence). I had the tartiflette bourgognonne (no idea how to spell that). It was delicious, but strange. Tartiflette is a traditional French dish with potatoes, CHEESE CHEESE CHEESE, and usually pork. What I didn't know when ordering, though, was that the bourgognonne part would be esgarcot. Good thing I like esgarcot! Like I said, delicious, but heavy. My first thought when eating them was "this is the most delicious mushroom I've ever tasted." Ha. Somehow even after all that I couldn't help but order the tarte aux pommes (apple tart). Which was obviously also amazing.



Other than that, we mostly just walked around and enjoyed the city. And of course bought mustard!

Best smell ever.

The first round of Goodbyes

I woke up early this morning (7, ungodly!)to go to my host mother's 2nd grad class. I should probably clarify that she teaches this class, she isn't a student in it. ha. I helped them finish up some Christmas presents that I worked with them on last week. The students are absolutely adorable, they always say "'ello linzee" and today when I left they said "Merry Christmas!" Since they knew me already, they all ran up to me before class this morning to give me hugs, which is even more adorable than it sounds since nobody hugs here. And of course pretty much every student draws me a picture each time I come. I have an entire future apartment wall-papered.
In class, we did a little bit of work and took a very easy oral exam. Then we watched a French film, "L'auberge espagnol" (Spanish hostel). We watched it completely without subtitles, not even French ones, and I completely understood! It's nice to be reassured that I really am making progress when on certain days it seems like I can't speak this language at all. For instance when Benedicte (host mom) talks to me and I'm like "yeah, I totally get all this!" then she turns and talks to Thierry (host dad) and talks about 10x faster. Awesome...
Since I'm leaving Thursday and my friend Zack won't be back after the break, it was our last time seeing each other. I was sad to say goodbye to such a good friend. We had a lot of good laughs while not paying attention during class. We acted like 1st graders and surely drove all of our teachers crazy, but it was fun. I'll probably learn more next term, but I'm certainly going to be bored. It was surreal to be the one staying and not leaving. I'm both jealous of my friends that get to go home and content to stay.
After saying goodbye to Zack, I met up with Niki and Ella at the metro for "un derniere repas" (I'm going to skip the accents, get over it). Again, surreal. Especially since we ate at one of the very first restaurants that I ever ate at in Lyon. We had a lot of laughs though and some mostly great food. My adventurous side got the better of me and I ordered the Tripe (intestines...) I had exactly one piece. I don't consider myself a picky eater but I just could not eat more. It was furry. And just, ew. The smell is still a little bit in my nostrils and I don't think that I'll ever forget that texture. But the soup and dessert (Ella and I shared our mousse au chocolat and creme brulee) made it worth it.
I like to procrastinate goodbyes, so Niki and I are going to see each other again tomorrow, thank goodness. I'm glad she lives in Portland and that we'll surely see each other again. Until then, I don't know what I'm going to do without her level-headed boy advice and funny stories.
The day after tomorrow (Thursday) I'm off to Barcelona with Allegra. I can't wait!

Until then!

Random activities:

We recently found an ice skating rink here in Lyon. It's super cheap (5 Euros) and of course fun!
This is Nadia, Ella and I on the rink

Also it has been snowing like crazy. Today I had to walk home because the buses all got cancelled. My feet complained, but the rest of me enjoyed the beauty. Snow in street lights has always been one of my favorite sights.

Sadly, that snowball was destined for my face.

Before it snowed, though, it was uncommonly warm and beautiful.
Pretty fall colors outside my house.
The old (super, super old, to be exact) Roman Amphitheater. Allegra, Diana and I came here before we went to mass at the basilica for All Saints day. The Service was beautiful and there was even a cardinal there. Of course I didn't know that until afterwards when Diana told me, but still pretty cool.

For Thanksgiving we had a group dinner at a restaurant. It was pretty delicious, but not exactly authentic. The pumpkin pie was definitely a welcome taste of home (sorry I didn't take any pictures of it).

à plus tard!

Nice

I recently had a week long break from school (after less than two weeks of school, gotta love the French education system). Originally, I planned on staying in Lyon but I was sick of the cold, gray skies. I randomly chose a city and bought my train ticket. Just like that, I was off to Toulon. Oh, you've never heard of it? That's because it's possibly the most boring city in France. I thought it would be on the coast, which it sort of is, but the main part of town just has a port. I didn't really do anything too exciting there.
It was still pretty, though.
The next morning, I decided to go to Nice because I knew for a fact it was a cool place. I was completely wonderstruck on the train ride. I had a book, but I don't think I looked down from the window a single time. The little seaside villages looked amazingly cozy, I can't imagine waking up to the Mediterranean Sea every day. You know when you're driving towards the beach, and you see the sparkling water through the trees for the first time and you're not sure if it's just a trick of your eyes or actually the ocean? It was exactly like that the first time I saw the Mediterranean. I didn't think that it could be real, it was so beautiful. The Oregon coast is always lovely too, but I've never seen anything like the South of France.
I somehow found the youth hostel super quickly, checked in, and then was off to the water!
I sat on a rocky jetty with the waves washing up on my toes for I don't know how long, I was completely content to sit there forever.
I sat on the beach for awhile, reading and writing in my journal, generally enjoying the view.
That night I found an English restaurant and made friends with this huge group of Australians that were there. They had a live band and everyone danced up on the tables all day.
The rest of my trip won't be too exciting for you guys, basically I sat on the beach all day in my swimming suit alternately reading, writing, and swimming. It was absolutely fantastic! I can't wait to go back.
It was nice when I came back to have a place to call home, and that I feel at home in this house.
I'm happy :)Breathtaking, right?
This is about as high up as you can get in Nice. They have a cute little restaurant and park at the top.
Reading Jane Eyre, of course.

Beaujolais

One of the director's of my program here in Lyon approached the participants in the program a few weeks back about the possibility of going to work on a farm for a week harvesting grapes. I jumped at the opportunity because a. I didn't know what to do with myself for the two weeks that I had off of school and b. I could of course use the extra cash.
Sunday night Charles, Diana, Allegra and I (fellow Oregon students) departed on a 20 minute train ride to Villefranche.
We had dinner and got to know our fellow vendangeurs, who were all very nice and awesome people who we got to know pretty well throughout the week. The next day we worked until our backs ached and our fingers couldn't possibly cut another branch. I've never worked so physically hard in my life and I have to say that it felt great. Dad, you would've been proud.

Allegra picking grapes
We spent the rest of the week working until we were exhausted, singing Disney songs, taking walks, eating delicious food, laughing, speaking lots of French and learning lots of new words (personal favorite: Chaleur - it means heat but can be used to describe a warm-hearted person), making some funny language mistakes, and getting to know some of the best people out there.


Such a beautiful place.

One of my favorite parts was when Charles played his guitar.

Friday night Diana, Allegra, and most everyone else left. Staying at the Gros Family farm was just me, Charles, Valentine, Alex, Julien, and Christian. We worked for another family until Tuesday night and left Wednesday night.

Amazing people.

It was kind of muddy...

...and a little bit wet.

On Sunday we didn't have to work, so we packed up a delicious lunch of Marie's (the mother of the Gros family) homemade bread and fresh fruits and veggies. The six of us as well as the Gros family and their kids ventured off into the hills for a hike and picnic. It was the most perfect day. Weather wise and everything wise. The whole time I was in Beajolais I was so completely content. It would have been impossible not to be. In the future, I would not object to owning a farm. It's the life. And what a great way to raise children!


Mom, I think you and Marie would make great friends. If you come visit we'll definitely go on a picnic/hike with them.


Just breathtaking.


Lucky dog.

The week and a half I spent here was arguably the best week and a half of my life. I just loved it and can't wait until I get to go back in November.