proper french eating

Since I haven't done anything enormously exciting these past 2 days, I'd like to comment a bit on the eating habits of my host family.

1) There is only one way to arrange the silverware and plates properly. Fork on the left, facing up. Spoon above the plate, facing up, and with the tail on the right-hand side. Knife, facing inwards, on the right. Napkin on the right. Little plastic cube-y thing you set the knife on when you're done using it so not to get the table dirty - above the knife. My host fam is SO PARTICULAR about this.

2) Order of the meal: soup/salad, main course, cheese sampler, yogurt, dessert.

3) Everything requires the use of a new plate and silverware. They even use a plate for yogurt, placing it under the yogurt carton so that when you take the lid off and set it down it doesn't dirty the tablecloth.

4) Like I mentioned before - only one slice of baguette during the meal.

5) Only one more slice of baguette during the cheese course. They consistently take huge chunks of cheese and eat them all with just one slice of baguette! I, of course, always run out of bread before I've finished my fromage. I DON'T KNOW HOW THEY DO IT!

(this is what the cheese plate kind of looks like, to give you an idea)

And to continue...

6) Everyone has their own napkin and corresponding napkin ring. It took me forever to figure out the system of whose is whose.

7) I am positive that this family would never bring something still in its wrapper or container to the dinner table. Even the tablespoon of syrup for our cake tonight was poured into a pretty glass bowl. Cheese is served on the cutting board. The cake was not served in the container it was baked in, GOD NO, it was served on a pretty glass plate. It's so not worth it! They have to do so much more dishwashing than is necessary!

8) One must discuss how good the food is throughout dinner. (Although this may be because currently my host mom has to rest her back for a while, so the host dad has been doing all the cooking and perhaps needs encouragement.)

9) During breakfast they drink tea out of bowls, so it cools off faster. Smart!

10) The milk is literally half-and-half. I tried using it with my muesli in the morning but I just can't bring myself to do it anymore.

It's such a different approach to eating than I'm used to. We rarely eat at the same time at home, and at Carleton, I'm mostly on my own when it comes to making food. So this constant ceremony at dinner is incredibly new and different to me. The food is spectacular, and the cheese...well you know how I feel about cheese. Mmm. Also, the preparation is such a family affair. It was the three of us in the kitchen, cutting up vegetables and stirring sauces. Food prep takes probably 2 hours. Such a different way of life! If it took me 2 hours to make food at Carleton I would never be able to get anything done.

In other news, I'm possibly going to Barcelona over our break (April 26th-30th), after which we are going to Nice and Cote d'Azur as a group, from May 1st-5th. Then, later in May, probably the 23rd-26th, I'm planning on going to Rome (and perhaps one of those 3 whole days we'll spend in Florence!) Also, I'd like to go to Amsterdam during one of these weekends, but we'll see if that'll be possible. Can't wait to start traveling, finally! I'm also looking forward to this weekend; we're seeing "Le Misanthrope", by Moliere, at the Comedie Francaise. We've been reading the play in class, so it'll be cool to see it on stage, and, having read it already, actually know what's going on.

ladyshock

Last week I signed up for 5 dance classes, of my choice, at a dance school in the Marais district. This comes out of my 200-euro cultural budget, for which Carleton will reimburse me. Last night, I went with a couple of the other girls who signed up for the classes to one called "Hip Hop/Ladyshock". God, what an experience. The teacher was American, and the entire class already knew all the dance steps. Thankfully, she reviewed them, but even then it was incredibly difficult. I'm pretty sore today. We did a lot of sit-ups, weirdly stiff hip movements, and lots of posing and hair flipping. What does "ladyshock" even mean? I think our teacher made it up. Maybe it was supposed to be empowering. Not for me, though, it was hard enough just figuring out the basics of the dance moves. It was SO HARD, you guys, I have never been so unable to follow directions. I am definitely willing to take another Hip Hop class, though (peut-être the Krumping class, eh?). What a workout!

protests

The Olympic torch, or "la flamme olympique", passed through Paris today. We just missed it! We were several minutes late, it seems. We did see, however, the enormous "manifestations", or protests, against China and for the liberation of Tibet. It was truly a huge chaotic mess all over Paris. The Paris leg of the Olympic torch relay was actually cut short due to the protests.

According to the BBC:
"Police were forced at least three times to put out the torch and carried it onto a bus, as police cleared protesters from the route....Later, Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe cancelled a ceremony to welcome the torch relay after Green party activists hung a Tibetan flag and a black banner depicting the Olympic rings as handcuffs from the Hotel de Ville (city hall)."

I was at the Hotel de Ville when I took these photos, but unfortunately missed the hanging of the black banner.

some pictures:




"scorned human rights, oppressed tibetans: welcome to china"


in the foreground: "freedom"

in the background: "paris defends human rights all over the world - the mayor of paris"

versailles, minus the gardens

i keep forgetting to mention my quick foray into american apparel here in paris. i know, for shame! apparently, american fashion is all the rage here, and i wanted to check out the french approach to these new fads. every time i see "abercrombie" or "gap" on someone's sweatshirt i immediately assume "oh my god, another american tourist" but that's really not the case! every other parisian has this sweatshirt:


sorry, erinrose. and when i was in AA, there was a gang of 10 and 11-yr old boys all dying to buy the green version of the above sweatshirt. bizarre!

we went to versailles yesterday. the weather was absolutely miserable - cold, rainy, and extremely windy. we brought a fromage, baguette, and pear picnic, and had to eat it under an ugly overhang where construction is being done on the front facade of versaille's central chateau. i'd like to return to versailles when we'll actually be able to see the gardens and enjoy the weather. thanks to our institute ID cards, which claim that we are art history students, we get in free to the chateau! we took a tour using an audio guide, which had some great trivia. for instance, 19 royal children were birthed in the queen's chambers at versailles. also, the queen was always forced to give birth in PUBLIC, in order to make absolutely certain that the child was indeed the proper heir to the throne. can you imagine? how embarassing!


hall of mirrors.

not only was the weather gross, but we got on the wrong train to versailles. it was headed in the correct direction, but forked a different way. so, we spent an extra hour trying to figure out the extremely complicated "RER" train system. each train has a different name; sara, elba, etc. our train was named vick. the only image that came to my mind was that of a new jersey mobster. however, our vick turned out to be clean and spacious, and got us to versailles just fine in the end.



last night we sat outside at a cafe for quite a while. fortunately, on these cold days, cafes have overhangs and intense heat lamps which warm their outdoor customers. it was very pleasant, but these cafes are so expensive, whether they're in a touristy area or not. euro:american dollar = 1:1.5. Outrageous!

After the cafe we found a little bon-bon shop in the street. look at this array:



i just had to get a bag, and the candy was delicious. because the three of us had all decided to buy a bag, the guy selling the bon bons even gave us an extra scoop of chocolates. so nice.

soiree!

tonight i attended my first parisian soiree.

it was just a couple blocks off the champs-elysees, at my host-sister's fiancee's cousin's apartment. everyone there already knew each other because they were all either friends or cousins, so my host-sister, angelique, and i were both in the same awkward place, not knowing anyone. the music was exactly a playlist i could have chosen myself (nelly furtado, shakira, etc.). they served good french wine, some '99 merlots, and served chips and cheese&tomato on toothpicks. the people there were very nice, especially when they found out i was "russo-american", as they called me, and complimented me on my french. yeah right. it was hard to follow most of their conversations, both because it was noisy and because they spoke so rapidly, but it was a good experience altogether. lots of french cheek-kissing.

so PDA is well-known in paris, as it is in all big cities, really. (PDA = public displays of affection). what amazed me tonight was how freely my host-sister and her fiancee hugged and kissed and lovingly spoke to each other in front of me as we were heading to the soiree. i mean, it's sweet and all, but every 5 seconds it was "mon coeur" this and "mon amour" that. i guess they barely see each other, seeing as how they work so much. so anyways.

tomorrow, versailles!

WIFI

I HAVE WIFI. i am so relieved. now i can skype, i just need a microphone. woohoo!!!!

le soleil!

i'm running out of time at this internet cafe!

today we had grammar class in the morning. i love grammar, actually, and really need to work on it so i'm very grateful for this class, despite the fact that it's going to be a lot of busy work.

it was beautifully sunny today, finally, and i had 2 (yes, 2!) nutella crepes. i just couldn't resist.

tonight i'm having dinner with my host family and then going with my host sister to meet a couple of her friends and go out for a drink. i'm so terrified! real french people! i'm not going to be able to follow the conversation AT ALL. oh well. it'll be a good experience, meeting frenchies other than my family and speaking with them.

hope the snow is melting back home! miss you all.