Tonight I fulfilled a lifelong dream of mine – to take a cooking class at Le Cordon Bleu de Paris. On Tuesday night I was feeling a little defeated after having attempted, and failed miserably, to make a crepe on the professional machine they use while at a group outing for IES. Needless to say I will not be going into the crepe-making industry.

When I was growing up, watching the food channel didn’t really count as “TV time” so you can guess what I watched most of the time. One of our favorite family sayings makes fun of Jacques Pepin’s slogan “Happy cooking” (ap-ee coo-keeng), but with his funny French accent we always made it sound like “Happy pooping!” Real mature, over there in the Sommer household. Anyways, with my family’s love of cooking, I too, found myself watching Julia Child and Jacques tear it up together in the kitchen and I introduced my family to our number one fave Italian hottie Giada de Laurentiis which I watched every day after school.

I get really sad thinking a lot of my peers don’t know how to cook, because for me, it just seems pretty simple. In fact, I feel like cooking is a lot easier than baking in a lot of ways. It just takes having an understanding for the basics. What you don’t need a lot of the time, is an actual recipe. It’s a creative adventure all the time, and as my French chef said, requires not only your nose and mouth to sense the food, but your ears as well.

One of my all time favorite Disney Pixar movies was Ratatouille, not only because it was based in Paris, but also because the entire movie revolved around food. Jacques Gusteau’s phrase “Anyone can cook” really rings true for me – I think that if you have the capacity to learn (and taste), you CAN cook. I don’t think I can cook as well as say, my dad, but I know what tastes good, and I’m always willing to try something new.

Tonight’s class was actually a food demonstration, since a lot of the cooking classes for these few months were either all-day courses or 200 euro (and/or full already), so I took what I could get and signed myself up for the “Chef’s Secrets.” The class was taught in French but with an English translator. That was weird. There are still a lot of names of foods I don’t know, but when I see them I can easily figure out what they were, so for me, having the French translator was pointless and bizarre to hear the same thing being said twice. My friend and I also noticed that her French accent was sub-par when she was translating questions back to the Chef for him to answer. I could probably do that job… with free meals as a bonus!

What the chef demonstrated for us was a chicken leg stuffed with a white-meat chicken filet pureed with cream and egg whites and mixed with chanterelle mushrooms, cooked over a bed of fresh vegetables, and with a reduction of the juices as a sauce. On the side we had a simple risotto made with marscapone and more mushrooms. It was divine.

This is one time where I can say that I have learned a lot from TV. Parents – listen up! It’s true. My years of watching the Food Network have taught me a lot. Jacques and Julia, two of the greatest TV food personalities, along with Giada, taught me a lot about being myself while cooking. I don’t think I’ll ever have the patience to go to cooking school, but for now, taking clases here and there is enough for me. I did go to cooking camp once in 8th grade… I had a really cool outfit too.

Well, that’s one thing I can cross off the bucket list. I hope to go back again soon, considering I live about a five minute walk from LCB I guess I have no excuse not to!

In honor of all those food lovers, I wish you happy cooking, bon appetit, and best dishes from my kitchen to yours!

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of being back at “home” especially when welcomed back home by having a super unfriendly bus controller kick you off public transport at the airport for no apparent reason. Don’t ask me why, but I felt oddly at ease being on the metro that had such an air of unhappiness you could almost cut it with a stale brie knife. Oh, but that is Paris…

This past weekend, I was reminded of what it is like to be a girl. I forgot that people just like to give us stuff and talk to us. It was nice to be reminded that we’re actually half decently attractive and don’t have body repelling odor. (At least I hope not). The Italians are a much needed ego boost, especially for those of us who have been having our souls slowly sucked away by the dreary weather and Parisian way of life for the past 2 and half months.

Rome was fascinating and fast! We only had two full days there but we definitely made the most of it. As far as the city goes, it was a lot more mediterranean than I had imagined – full of trees that reminded me of the Lion King and just generally quite green. We couldn’t have asked for better weather either. The gods must have been feeling a little crazy (and generous) to us this weekend, on account of the sunshine and the multitude of free drinks we received.

I liked Rome a lot more than I thought I would. When I was planning my trips during this study abroad, I wanted to go to places I had obviously never been before, places my friends here would want to go also, and possibly locations where school friends were studying abroad. In all cases, this trip especially proved the most beneficial since we had little time and little knowledge of the city itself. My SCU friends whom I had guided around Paris a few weeks back proved to be amazing guides for us as well, taking us to their favorite going-out spots as well as a hole-in-the-wall restaurant with one of the most amazing dessert calzones you will ever eat. Really, ricotta and nutella inside a calzone? Who woulda thought.

I showed all my Rome pictures to my host mom tonight as well, since she has never been to Rome herself but has been to Italy many times. I loved remarking some of my thoughts of the Italians, stereotypes I’m sure, but on the whole, they are a LOT louder and LOT friendlier (creepier) than the Frenchies I’m used to. Don’t get me wrong it was fun for a weekend, but I know I ended up where I was meant to be in France.

My photos cannot do the city justice, but please look at them if you get a chance! Rome was the second oldest city I have visited thus far and it left me itching to watch Russel Crowe kick some ass in Gladiator. If only streaming weren’t illegal in France…

Cin cin (cheers) to a good week, ya’ll!

I think the greatest thing I have learned thus far in my abroad experience is mastering the skill of patience. That means truly encapsulating every sense of the word. It is more than just toleration, but more of having an understanding of what is going on and how to deal with it. I am tested with patience every day, whether it is not comprehending what someone is saying to me in French, waiting for longer than 10 minutes for a friend at the metro, or having plans completely fall through. It is through patience that I am learning to live as the French do: “C’est la vie.”

Today I met up with a friend I haven’t seen in over three years. I met him during a high school swim meet when he was an exchange student there for a year at another school in Washington. I heard his accent when we were talking during the meet, and of course, being crazy as I am, got his number and we met up another time in the year before he came to my high school for the annual international festival. Anyways, he lives in the Netherlands and organizes a group that travels around and does fun activities with international students in Maastricht, and they were planning a trip to Disneyland and Paris for the weekend. Since he said he could get me and some friends tickets, we eagerly pounced at the delightful words “CHEAP” and just HAD to go!

When I met up with his group this afternoon, I was reading through their program itinerary for the weekend which also told them how to “Interact with the French.” I couldn’t help but laugh at the brief paragraph describing everything I have been studying/admiring/questioning for the past 2 months, summed up into a sentence saying: “The French are stereotyped as being rude. However, this is just a misunderstanding of their pride as a culture.” WRONG. Yes, the French are rude. Yes they are proud. But as I have said before, they are rude because it’s almost as if there is a lack of trust that these people have for strangers. And I cannot say I blame them. It’s something that’s deeply engrained in their society that people are not meant to be overly friendly to strangers, nor go out of their way to help you. But that doesn’t mean you cannot still ask. I ask people things all the time. I smile at strangers. I feel no shame. On Halloween, I had crazy weird face makeup on, and because the French will not be caught dead looking at a stranger, no one looked at me, nor did I feel judged. It was a great feeling.

Speaking of great feelings, I visited Chocolate Heaven this Friday, and I have to say, I’m not sure real earth feels the same after. I witnessed a chocolate mousse bar, a musical about chocolate, chocolate dresses, mountains of fountains of chocolate, and not to mention a hand-washing station and waxing/massage station featuring non other than, yes, you guessed it, chocolate. Pictures posted.

Since we had a long weekend starting Thursday for the holiday, the city was flooded with tourists. I kind of understand why the real Parisiens hide inside their apartments on the weekends and/or fly off to unnamed destinations.

I also had a really great school week since I hung out with my two (almost) French friends and spoke a lot of French! I don’t have any true Parisien friends yet… and I doubt I will make any before I leave. I’ve accepted it, and happy I have made other friends who do live here, but no one that was born and raised in the city. One day, I’m sure.

Now for this week… I’m going to be spending all Tuesday night holding my eyelids open as I watch the election results. Here in France, everyone is “Obama,” however, they know little to nothing about Romney. In my biased opinion, I love to tell them why I am for one side, but they still love to hear it. Politics are always an open topic, more comfortably discussed than one’s own job. It’s strange. But hey, if they’re all for Obama, then I’m happy to talk about that. It’s going to be weird having voted for my first election and being out of the country but luckily there’s a bar that is open all night with TVs to watch it and my friend’s mom’s apartment with a bed for me.

Then this weekend I’m off to Roma for a little parmegianno, fettucini, and of course, pizza pasta gelato!

Ciao ciao bisous bisous. Love to all.

This week was an ultimate test of my self-control when it finally started getting sunny JUST as we began midterms. It was hard not having a place to go to study like a big school library because I can get easily distracted at home without a big desk and being tempted to talk to my friends late at night. But it’s okay, I survived. And I rewarded myself big time this weekend by pretending I was on my own little fall break just as my friends were who came to visit me.

I think it’s odd that two different IES programs can be so different. One has a 10 day fall break and the other (ours) does not. It is kind of a bummer that we only have weekends to take advantage of instead of being given a week-long break. But regardless, my friends got to come here and see me, and we had a great time.

Lucky enough, their hostel was right down the street from me, so it was perfectly for getting together and traveling in a larger group. As the temperature started to drop Thursday afternoon during my second walking tour for class (I had just finished midterms), the city was so gorgeous with the fall colors and the unreal clouds. Paris may not have greatest sunsets, but the clouds always look so perfect and fake that it almost makes up for it.

We started out the weekend eating crepes and drinking underneath the Eiffel Tower before going out. Saturday we went up to Montmartre, one of my favorite areas, and explored some of the shops and vintage stores before making our way over to Chinatown for Pho (a perfect cold-day remedy), and then back to the center for a pit stop at the famous Angelina chocolatier for their luxurious hot chocolate and a stroll through the Tuileries and Louvre. I tried to think of the most typical and delicious French foods for my friends to eat this weekend and decided we HAD to eat fondue. My other IES friend brought her sister who was in town and the group of 10 of us gorged ourselves on meat and cheese fondue on Friday night. Saturday we brought some food under the Eiffel Tower for lunch, but until we could no longer stand the freezing cold, we went up to le Marais for more shopping. Next on the menu – French onion soup for dinner and after, a bar that hosts the newest (and weirdest) French obsession – baby bottle bars.

After going considerably WAY over budget this weekend (sorry Mom and Dad), I decided it was like my own weekend vacation in Paris that was definitely necessary. I constantly think how crazy it is that I can see some of my best friends from school here in Europe a couple of times over the course of this semester even if it may just cost us a few extra bucks in transportation costs… But I was so happy to be a tour guide for my friends and show them just a few things that I love most about my new home and hopefully they will do the same for me. It’s so entertaining to teach each other the nuisances of the other’s culture, be it Italian, Czech, or French, each one is so unique and comparing them all sometimes left us in fits of hysteria. I cannot wait to give you my own impressions once I’ve returned back from Rome and Barcelona. One thing I have to say for sure though is that Paris is one of the most expensive places to be!

This week is only three days for us with the “holiday” weekend of Toussant after Halloween. Some people are going away for the weekend but hopefully I will be going to Paris Disneyland and the Salon du Chocolat. Surprised? I hope not.

I have some new photos on the blog from this weekend! If you can’t tell, we’re desperately freezing. I thought three big coats would suffice here, but it’s not even November and I’m already complaining. I’ve been away from Seattle too long…

Bisous!