Chocolate Zucchini Blog

As I’ve mentioned in some of my previous posts, a considerable amount of my time in France is spent in the kitchen. I am a huge fan of cooking and baking, and more importantly, a huge fan of eating. Not to be arrogant, but I must say that my culinary efforts have resulted in some pretty effing delicious things. And since nothing particularly interesting has happened in the past couple of weeks, I thought it would be fun to start adding some of my favorite recipes to my blog to spice things up – pun fully intended. I’ll add things as I make them, allowing you all to drool over the pictures, thus inspiring you to get into the kitchen yourselves!

We’ll start with something that’s as simple as it is delicious: Chocolate Zucchini Bread! I absolutely love “quick” breads, and this one has been at the top of my list for quite some time because it combines two of my favorite things: chocolate and zucchini. It’s best to make in the later months of summer when the vegetable is in season, but should be made year round because it is always tasty. Always. Plus, you’ll feel a lot better eating chocolate knowing that low-calorie, vitamin-rich zucchini is involved! The recipe I used is a modified version of one found on joyofbaking.com. Mine basically uses a little more flour, slightly different spices, apple sauce instead of vegetable oil, and of course more chocolate. I’ve made the original in the past with great success, but prefer my tweaked version for obvious reasons (mostly the extra chocolate). Voilà un photo, followed by the recipe:

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:

1 and 1/2 cups shredded raw zucchini (about 1 large zucchini)

1 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. ground ginger

1/4 tsp. ground cloves

1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 light brown sugar, packed

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

What to do:

1) PREPARE: Before you start mixing away, get yourself ready with a few important steps:

• First, grease a 9 x 5 x 3 inch bread pan with a considerable amount of butter (or PAM if you’re lazy), because there is nothing worse than a stuck loaf of bread. Set aside.
• Second, grate the zucchini so it’s ready to mix in later.
• Third, Preheat the oven to 350°F (about 175°C)

2) MIX DRY INGREDIENTS: In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves until well blended and all the lumpies are gone.

3) BLEND “WET” INGREDIENTS: In a large bowl, beat together the apple sauce, sugars, eggs, and vanilla extract with an electric mixer until well-blended. Don’t go crazy – about two minutes should do. Fold in the shredded zucchini.

4) COMBO TIME: Add the flour/cocoa/spice mixture to the big bowl, and beat with the mixer, just until blended and everything becomes and irresistible chocolately color. Lick off the beaters (unless you’re a germaphobe and fear getting salmonella poisoning) because they will taste wonderful. Fold in the chocolate chips using a rubber scrapper and be amazed by what you have just created!

5) BAKE THAT SHIT: Scrape the batter into the greased up pan and bake until the bread has risen and you can stick a toothpick into the center without it coming out all poopy. This can take anywhere from 55 minutes to an hour and a half, so start with 55 minutes and gauge things from there.

6) WAIT: This is the hardest part. Distract yourself with books, magazines, T.V., musical instruments… whatever you have on hand really.

7) BE COOL: You will be tempted to eat the bread the second it comes out of the oven. Don’t do this unless you want molten chocolate to burn your fingers and scald your throat. Let it cool in the pan on a wire rack for about 10 minutes. Carefully remove the loaf from the pan. Joy of baking suggests waiting until the bread has completely cooled outside of the pan before eating, but I disagree. After 10 minutes, it is fair game and you should have at it.

8) ENJOY: Don’t be shocked if the entire loaf is gone within the same day of making it. It can be eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and you probably will want to eat it for all three.

Pair it with a glass of milk!

Happy Baking! Bisous bisous!

How to Fake French

I happened upon this video a few days ago and died of laughter because it is so ridiculously true. My French capabilities have risen exponentially in the past four months, but I fully admit that I’ve relied on some of these tactics in the past. Enjoy:

Mid-Winter Slump

For the past week or so, I’ve been wanting to add a new post to keep up with a resolution to write more. The problem is, nothing blog worthy has really happened as of late, leaving me with a lack of words, and a longing for something to happen. I’ve been hesitant to write, worrying that anything would be dull in comparison to my Austrian adventures. Seems likely that this may well be the case. But in recent days, I’ve come to terms with this humdrum reality and thought I would take this chance to be honest with myself about my state of being by being honest will all of you. I’m constantly inspired by the unabashed sincerity in my dear friend Clara’s blog, and I feel like it’s time to open up and take a little break from my sugar coated tales of European life.

You see, I’ve hit a bit of a mid-winter slump. The term “mid-winter” seems somewhat inappropriate since the temperature hasn’t been below 45° F all week, but it is mid-January after all. I guess it’s more of a mid-year slump, really. So I present you with a series of whiney unreasonable complaints causes for said slumpiness:

The holidays are over, and the lights have been taken down leaving the streets of Saint-Brieuc drab and lifeless. The infamous French “soldes” (January sales) have begun, which would normally be cause for celebration, but I’m broke from my extravagant Christmas which makes the sales depressing instead of joyous. I work less in a month than most people work in a week, but the few hours that I’m actually teaching tend to be supplemented by many more hours of stress outside of school spent worrying over lesson plans and how my kids will be behave. I want to bake, but I stop myself out of fear of gaining more butter weight. Lord knows I already consume more than a reasonable number of calories in wine and beer since the other assistants and I lack originality in our methods of entertainment. I have intentions of being productive with my excessive free time, but the rainy weather blurs the days together and tires me out so that the only “productive” things I end up doing are finishing seasons of T.V. shows, eating, and putting my dirty clothes in the hamper (but not actually washing them). And while I’ve met wonderful people here, it still doesn’t make up for the fact that I miss everyone stateside. It also doesn’t excuse the fact that I’ve been pretty damn awful at keeping in touch with many of you, another resolution that  needs resolving.

I do indeed love France, but its charm has faded a bit, and the novelty of being here has begun to dissipate. I by no means want to idly wish away the rest of my time here, but rather I want to find ways to profit from the quickly disappearing months that still rest. I want to find a presence in this present, thanks again to Clara. When my visa runs out in six months, I want to look back at my time here knowing that I didn’t waste it. I’ve already had some life changing experiences, and I want them to keep on coming. This slump needs to end, and I need to get back to living and experiencing things with fresh and excited eyes.

One of the biggest obstacles that’s been keeping me from being alive in the present is my lack of foresight. One of my most important New Year’s resolutions was to figure out what I’ll be doing when teaching is up, but I’ve yet to bring this goal to fruition. I don’t intend to figure out a life plan or anything, but it would put my mind at ease if I at least figured out the next step. When I started work, the end of my contract seemed so far ahead that I didn’t dare think about my next move. Truth is, April 30th is approaching faster than I’d care to admit to myself. Renewing my teaching contract is a tempting option, but I’ve been trying to weigh out the pros and cons of this theoretical situation. On the plus side, I’d love to stay here, I could keep working on my French, the hours are great, the pay is decent considering the workload, I wouldn’t have to look for work elsewhere, and I could keep traveling. On the other hand, I would have to wait until May or later to find out if there’s a position for me, I would probably have to find some crap job to fill the three or four month gap between teaching contracts, I could be placed in a shitty school in a tiny town, I hate how stressed out I get about teaching, I miss my friends and family, and I would more or less just be putting off finding an actual job and/or continuing my education… Hmm. Decisions. I’m not the best at them. I guess I need to figure out what some other possible options before I decide anything, though. Let me know if you’ve got any thoughts, dear readers!

Well it’s getting late here in Franceland, and I have to get up before the sun tomorrow… Bed time for me!

Bisous

Winter Wonderland

Family! Friends! Happy New Year! It’s hard to believe, but here we are, already on to the third day of 2012! I just got back from an amazing whirlwind adventure to a place that can most succinctly be described as a winter wonderland. I had high expectations for my Austrian Christmas, and Salzburg delivered. I had to wait a little bit to start writing because it was just too depressing to realize my trip was over. It was by far one of the most magical and charming places I have ever seen, more than I could have ever hoped for. Seeing as it is the home of Mozart and The Sound of Music, I knew it had to be great, but it is so much more than those two shining tourist attractions. Tucked in the mountains, with a river running through it, Salzburg is chockfull of breathtaking panoramic views, phenomenal cultural events, amazing museums, delicious food, and friendly people. Summer is supposedly the high tourist season, but the winter months have their fair share of unique things to see, namely the snow covered mountain peaks and Christmas markets. So many wonderful things! But I’m getting ahead of myself here. Let’s take a step back, and start at the very beginning. It’s a very good place to start, after all.

My trip started out with a bang, but not in a good way. I left Saint-Brieuc around 3:30 on Sunday the 19th, ready for snowflakes, cream colored ponies, and crisp apple strudel. The world seemed bright and cheery and everything was going smoothly. Then I got to Paris, and shit got shitty real fast. Since I was coming into Paris from the West and departing from the East, I had to get across the entire city from Montparnasse to Gare de l’Est in a 30 minute time frame. Normally, this should be no big thang thanks to the metro, but I ran into a few hiccups.

First of all, the signage at Montparnasse is hella confusing. There were signs pointing in both directions for the metro, and as it turns out, I followed the wrong ones. After walking for about 10 minutes underground, I finally found myself at the metro stop, only to wait in a ridiculously long line to buy a metro ticket. Time was not on my side. After finally getting my ticket, I had about 15 minutes til my other train left, and a 20 minute metro ride ahead of me. Even if you’re terrible at math, you can see the fault in this equation. After making a mad dash with my suitcase in a heavy wool coat, I made it to the other train station 10 minutes after my train left. I was sweating like a pig and on the verge of tears when I looked up to see that my train was in fact running 15 minutes late! Thank you, baby Jesus! I made my way to my car, stripped off all outer layers, and collapsed into my seat. Then the train sat there for 40 minutes. It was like a sick joke after all of that stress, but the anticipation of seeing my friends and getting to Salzburg soothed my frustration. Side note: If you ever take an over night train, pay the extra 5 euro and get a bed… Sleeping upright all night is not sleeping. I learned the hard way. Learn from my mistakes. 

We made it to Munich for a second transfer about 20 minutes late, but luckily they had held the train to Salzburg, so no worries. I was wandering around on the train looking for my seat, and was standing with my back to Kate for about 30 seconds before either of us realized it – one of many movie moments to be had during our adventures. Anna ran up from behind and the three of us did a little dance to celebrate! We made it through a crazy long night, and were finally together. All was good.

The minute we stepped off our final train ride, a most magical snow was slowly drifting down on our heads. Unbelievably perfect welcome. Even if everything else hadn’t worked out, I was happy knowing we would at least be having a white Christmas! After our 18 hour journey, we were pretty pooped, but we still had some fun after checking into our hostel. We wandered about the Mirabel Gardens (location of the infamous Do-Re-Mi scene), made our way through our first Christmas market, sipped on Glühweine, ate giant brezels, and turned our hostel room into a hair salon. Yes, I cut Anna’s hair, and yes, it was hilarious. Not planning on becoming a hairstylist, but please note in the pictures that I did not fuck up! It was a little sketchy at first, but it turned out alright in the end.

That night, we slept FOREVER in preparation for the long list of things we wanted to do throughout the week. We finally got out of bed and got our act together by the early afternoon and made a worthwhile investment by going to the tourist office and buying 72 hour Salzburg cards. For 35€ we were able to get into every museum, get discounts on theater tickets, and had free public transportation! After adding up all of our entrance fees and discounts, it would have cost us around  90€ for all of things we did had it not been for these small plastic lifesavers! I would hiiiiiighly recommend taking advantage of this if you ever find yourself in Salzburg!

Things we did with the Salzburg card:

1. Salzburg Museum – winner of the 2009 European museum award! Beautiful, fun, and educational!
2. SOUND OF MUSIC MUSEM – We went twice. Enough said.
3. Mozart’s Birth House – I SAW HIS BB VIOLIN!
4. Mozart’s Residence – I SAW HIS HARPSICHORD!
5. Toy Museum– We had a BLAST here with lots of fun interactive things, namely a very dangerous slide. Meant for 5 year olds, enjoyed by 20 somethings. Luckily, we were literally the only people in the museum, so we didn’t feel like total asses getting in the way of children. Also, they make you wear Crocs in the museum which is something I definitely swore I would never do. Surprisingly comfortable. Almost as comfortable as they are ugly.
   

   So embarrassing, so hilarious.

6. Giant lift elevator – Amaaazing view of the city! Also conveniently brings you up to number 7…
7. The Modern Art Museum – Normally, I’m not a huge fan of modern art, but I was pleasantly surprised with some of the work they had on display. Particularly intrigued by the work of Evan Penny, frighteningly realistic and detailed sculptures exploring the distortion of self-image.
8. Dom Cathedral Museum – Full of crazy curiosities and a strange exhibit on the history of St. Nicolas.
9. Funicular up to Hohensalzburg Fortress – Fun and efficient way to make it up to another amazing view! I have a feeling that Maria wouldn’t have been late all the time had this been around in her day. 
10. Fortress Museum – Wicked cool displays, thousand year old rooms in relatively good condition, and more wonderful views.
11. “World” of Marionettes Museum – One of the dumpiest things I have ever seen. It was literally two dingy cave-like rooms with some poorly taken care of puppets. Considering Salzburg is home of the world renowned marionette theater, I was expecting a little more from this.
12. St. Peter’s cemetery and catacombs – Graveyard is gorgeous, catacombs are not. I was expecting rows and rows of bones and skulls like the catacombs found under the streets of Paris, but this was a weird underground chapel and two cave like rooms. Not surprising that it is only 1.50€.
13. Residenz State Rooms – Stunning palace of the Prince Archbishops of Salzburg back in the day, gaudy but gorgeous along the lines of Versailles.
14. Residenz Galleries – Paintings from the 16th to 19th centuries. Beautiful things, but I have sadly become numb to art thanks to Europe’s excess of famous paintings and sculptures.
15. Baroque Art Museum – More painting and sculptures from the 16th and 17th centuries, located in the Mirabel Palace.
16. Stiegl Adventure Brewery – Hilarious adventure, and a fantastic deal! An adult ticket gets you admission to the hands on brewery displays, a brewery museum, free beer chips (surprisingly delicious), a beer tasting, and your choice of a Steigl glass or a bottle of beer to take home with you! The beer tasting was serious business too. We had been expecting little tiny samples, but were instead served 3 full glasses each in the brewery bar! We got drunk at 2pm before returning to the gift shop. Brilliant marketing ploy.
17. Top of Mount Untersberg – One of the coolest things I have ever done ever. Being on top of an Austrian mountain, completely covered in windswept drifts of snow is mindblowingly beautiful! I took about 235086235 pictures, and none of them do this view justice.
    

    Wonky Panorama attempt #1

    

    Happy Mountain Trekkers!

    

    Slightly less wonky panorama attempt #2

    

    Misty Fog Magic!

18. 20% discount at the Salzburg Marionette Theatre – On our last night in Salzy, we made our way to the Marionette Theatre for an amazing performance of Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) by the one and only W.A. Mozart. The costumes and sets were gorgeous, and the puppets were shockingly lifelike. Definitely another highlight of the trip!

When we weren’t doing Salzburg Card related activities, we spent a lot of time wandering around the enormous Christmas Markets, saw La Cenerentola by Rossini for only 6€ (YES SIX! AUSTRIA HAS AMAZING STUDENT DISCOUNTS FOR OPERAS! LESS THAN GOING TO A MOVIE!), watched The Sound of Music (of course I would), went on a Salt Mine tour (that included a special Christmas surprise from baby Jesus since it was Christmas Eve!), cooked many delicious meals in the less than ideal hostel kitchen, and made sure to get lots of sleep during our time off.

If all of these things weren’t already enough, we also had the most magical Christmas ever to exist ever thanks to a CHRISTMAS DAY SLEIGH RIDE! The whole idea of us going on the sleigh ride started out kind of as a joke because it was pretty spendy, but in the end we decided that this was a once in a lifetime situation and went for it. I have always longed to dash through the snow in a one (well there were two…) horse open sleigh, and on December 25th, 2011, my dreams finally came true. The drive into the mountains was gorgeous thanks to a particularly sunny morning and a fresh covering of hoarfrost, and the sleigh ride exceeded my extremely high expectations. Snow was falling, bells were jingling, there were mountains abound, we stopped at a tiny café halfway through the trip for mulled wine… It was literally like a picture print by Currier & Ives.

We finished our Christmas day with an extravagant meal at the St. Peter Stiftskeller. It was one of the most delicious meals of my life in spite of the 6.10€ we had to pay for ONE bottle of sparkling water. Ridiculous, I know, but they literally refuse to serve tap water. Needless to say, we laughed for awhile out of pure shock.

After exhausting Salzburg of nearly every possible tourist attraction we could possibly imagine, we headed back to France and the city of Grenoble on the 27th. After helping Anna move from her previously tiny town of Pontcharra to the bustling city of Grenobs, we spent the last few days of 2011 decorating, watching movies, cutting out paper snowflakes, and gorging ourselves on ridiculous amounts of vin chaud and fromage. Lounging is the perfect way to end any vacation in my opinion. It was sad to leave Anna and Kate after all of our adventures. We made a pretty slamma jamma travel team if you ask me. Thanks for a baller Christmas, mes amies!

My adventure didn’t end there, however. I still had to make my way back home, and I decided to do so via Paris! Since my travel expenses piled up quickly, I used a less traditional travel method to cross the country called covoiturage. It’s basically a very organized and secure way of hitchhiking. People post their travel plans on the website saying how many places they have, what kind of car it is, when they’re leaving, etc., and you sign up to share a ride! Much cheaper than planes and trains AND a fantastic way to meet more Francophones! My family was a little skeptical, but I assure you, it is perfectly safe and a wonderful way to travel!

I made it into Paris around 5pm on the 31st and met up with a handful of assistants at a hostel in near Montmartre to get ready for an all-night New Year’s celebration! Having spent nearly New Year’s Eve in the suburbs of St. Paul, I was pumped to be spending the last night of 2011 in the City of Light. It turned out to be a bit of a crazy mess since we failed to make any set plans, but it was fun to just let things be and see where the night took us. After a series of bars, many glasses of champagne, losing half of our party of six, turning down an overpriced taxi, and following a belligerent Frenchman halfway across the city, Sarah, Christine and I danced the night away in a giant club near République. Making it home was a bit of a struggle, smashing ourselves into the first metro of the morning with a million other people. We were barely able to keep our eyes open, but we made it back to our hostel in one piece, praise be!

The 1st was a bit of a struggle. Getting into a car knowing that I’d be going back to little ol’ Saint-Brieuc after all of this excitement was rather depressing to be perfectly honest. Luckily for me, I was welcomed home with a large stack of Christmas cards and two packages to lift my spirits! And I suppose vacations wouldn’t be nearly as thrilling if we were constantly on them, though, so cheers to le train-train quotidien for helping highlight the joy of time off. Back to work! Not to worry, more vacay time to come in February!

Küsse küsse!

Baby It’s Cold Outside

Well, hello there! It appears I have fallen a little behind on keeping up with my international relationships. Please accept my apologies for my absence, because I quite honestly have no good excuse for not writing sooner. My free time continues to be abundant, but it seems to slip away from me so quickly somehow! Time really has been rushing by lately thanks to insane amounts of cooking and baking, lesson planning, snowflake making, Christmas parties, and a trip to Rennes for a medical visit. Sidenote: I don’t have tuberculosis! In two days, I will have been in Europe for a total of three months already. How this happened, I have NO idea.

No T.B. here!

Even stranger to think about the fact that it’s been over six months since I graduated. Seriously…What happened?! I feel like I was cramming for exams, dancing in basements, being obnoxious in the music library, making caf creations, and hanging out on the French House porch just the other day. Wasn’t I just getting ready for Christmas Fest a couple weeks ago? Oh wait, that was a year ago. As fresh in my mind as these things may be, it somehow seems like forever ago that they all happened. Being at St. Olaf was such a defining part of my life for the past four years. Since it’s such a unique little community tucked away up on a hill in a tiny town, it’s easy to bundle it up in a package of memories that I’ll never forget. At the same time, tying things up with a string has also given me an odd and unexpected distance from my time there. Confusing.

I’ve been thinking a lot about time lately thanks to this recent post by my dear friend Clara. Basically, it blows my mind. I know that I’m not the only one boggled, but it’s really been wigging me out recently. I could ramble on about this for awhile, but since I’m actually running short on time today (haha!), I’ll leave that for another day.

The days and weeks since my last vacation have been melting together. When classes started up again at the beginning of November, my fellow assistants and I were less than pleased to know it would be a full six weeks before another break. I know, we’re pathetic excuses for working adults. It’s amazing how fast those weeks passed. Some weeks were harder than others thanks to some less than cooperative students, but I made it through without any [physical] scars. I kid, I kid, it really has been going well. I’m becoming more and more aware, however, that high school education is really not my strong suit and I will probably avoid making it a long term career goal. Little children? Maybe. College level teaching? Definitely possible. High school though, not my jam. Major stress when I plan lessons. Super awkward when I’m waiting for anyone to respond to questions they don’t understand. I guess I can’t really fairly judge this since I’ve only been an assistant in a French lycée, but I don’t think it’s a good sign that I get sick to my stomach when I wake up to teach 8am classes. Some of my students did redeem themselves, however, on Friday. One of my groups asked me to take a Christmas picture with them! And two of my students gave me a Christmas note! They win.

In other news, I have found some important items since my last post!

Number one: a cookie sheet at the marché for 5€! Baking has become infinitely easier since then.

Number two: a beautiful new winter coat! It was a little more than I wanted to spend, but it has already proved itself to be worth the price. It’s super warm, and more importantly, I look super good in it. Bring it on winter.

Number three: cozy mittens to go along with my new coat! I bought them at our little Christmas market in town and they have been keeping my fingers nice and toasty.

Number four: a cello to rent from Rennes! It’s not the best, but it’s better than anything that I found around Saint-Brieuc. Now I just need to find some other people to play music with… Will work on that after the holidays.

Number five: new French friends! A wide variety of people in fact. I met some people my age at one of the bars in town late one night last week. SO fun. Hopefully I’ll be seeing more of them after the break. I also made friends with a retired doctor who wants to work on his English conversation skills. He invited my friend Sarah and I over for a glass of wine last week which was a pretty hilarious experience. He’s a bit kooky, but really nice. I also met my cat’s family on Friday! They invited all of the neighbors over for drinks to show off their newly finished living room and kitchen. I felt like such a creep since I already knew their cat so well, but they are very much aware of the fact that Charlie likes to visit the neighbors, so no biggie.

As much as I would love to fill you all in with more details of the ups and downs of my life at the moment, I must stop myself here because my train for Salzburg is leaving in an hour! Yes, I’m going to be running around the Mirabell gardens à la family Von Trapp and basking in the glory of Mozart for the next week! Leaving the cold rain, and heading towards cold, beautiful, fluffy white SNOW! (and maybe more rain…) A magical sleigh ride has been planned for Christmas day, and there will be an overwhelming number of charming Christmas markets. These are a few of my favorite things. It won’t be the same celebrating Christmas without my family, but hopefully being in the Austrian mountains will distract me enough from thinking about being away. Anyway, I’m leaving my computer chez moi during my trip to Salzburg/Geneva/Grenoble/Paris, but I’ll have lots of updates when I return from my trip! So Happy Holidays and see you in 2012!

Grosses bises! xoxoxoxoxo

Step into Christmas

Welcome to my [pre]Christmas post! I’d like to thank you for the year. So I’m sending you this [pre]Christmas post to say it’s nice to have you here, dear readers. For those of you who don’t understand this reference…

My apologies for this strange opening, but I absolutely LOVE Christmas and am pretty obsessed on the holiday at the moment. After celebrating Thanksgiving and stepping into December, I have definitely switched into full blown Noël mood. There is just something so magical and charming about this time of year! I’ve been wearing cozy sweaters, sitting by warm fireplaces, sipping cinnamon spice tea, watching movies like Love Actually and A Charlie Brown Christmas, frosting sugar cookies, and I have of COURSE been listening to all sorts of Christmas jamz. When it comes to Mariah Carey and Vince Guaraldi, I just can’t help myself!

On Tuesday, something wonderful happened that pushed me even further into the spirit. All throughout centre-ville, thousands of twinkly lights were brightly shining, adding a warmth and charm to a town that has felt somewhat cold and vacant lately. For some reason the Saint-Brieuc maintenance crew hung up the lights over a month ago, but waited to turn them on until this Tuesday. They were wrapped around trees and floating over head in rows of faux icicles, unfairly taunting me and the other assistants since Halloween! Why would they make me wait like that?!? I don’t know. The anticipation was building until this week when I was finally relieved from the agony on Nov. 29th (weird date to start Christmas lights, but whateves). When I walked into town for a glass of wine with some friends, I couldn’t help but smile the whole time thanks to the new atmosphere! It’s pretty amazing what some lights can do.

The cheer continued on Wednesday when Alex and I decided to make a ridiculous number of Christmas cookies while jammin out to our favorite Chrismtas jams. This combines three of the best things in the world: Christmas, cookies, and music! We started with classic sugar cookies, moved on to little chocolate covered cereal clusters that Alex calls Schoko Krispies, continued with almond crescents (which are my FAVE! I’m going to translate the recipe and share it with everyone later) and coconut macaroons, and finished the bake-a-thon with delicious cinnamon stars. Yes, we made five different kinds of cookies and it was GLORIOUS! There were literally cookies on every surface of our kitchen and dining room! We brought a few platefuls to the staff lounges at our schools had no trouble getting our friends to eat them with us.

Since we had a million and one sugar cookies to decorate, we tricked our friends into decorating them with us. We invited them over for dinner and drinks, but didn’t mention the fact that they would be decorating their own dessert. After stuffing ourselves with butternut squash soup, green bean casserole, au gratin potatoes, and making our way through 4 bottles of wine, we ushered out plates filled with cookies and bowls of melted chocolate and brightly colored frosting. Tipsy cookie decorating was a new and hilarious experience. Some of the designs were a little messy, but also unique and inspired:

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I think in a way, I’ve been using Christmas to keep my spirits up. I love it here, but things have been seeming a bit mundane for the past couple of weeks. It’s one thing to live in a small town when you’re in college and surrounded by thousands of other people your own age, but it’s quite a different experience to be in such a calm and quiet place without all of your friends and family. The other assistants and I have no doubt found ways to enjoy ourselves, but it would be nice to be in a bigger place sometimes.

Also, the weather has been less than ideal lately. It has been raining like CRAZY with no real signs of letting up. Better get used to it soon, though, since I’ve been told to expect this for the rest of my “Breton” winter. Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain doesn’t seem to have quite the same ring to it. Call me crazy, but I miss the snow! One of my teachers told me that there has indeed been snow here the past two years, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that weather repeats itself again for me. Until then, it looks like a lot of water coming my way.

I also ran into an interesting linguistic road block during some of my classes this Friday – trying to explain the difference between the words “house” and “home” to high school French students is no easy task. I did my best to demonstrate the difference by listening to and comparing the songs “Homeward Bound” by Simon & Garfunkel and “Little Boxes” by Malvina Reynolds. It seemed to work for about half of them, but I think it was a lost cause for the rest.

It’s strange, but the French language contains no true equivalent to the word or concept of “home.” Maison is the word for “house,” but the closest thing to “home” is chez moi which more or less translates to “the place where I live.” Students looked at me like I was crazy when I tried to tell them that a house could be a home, and a home could be a house, but that the two words were not mutually exclusive. They also gave me some “wtf” faces when I told them I have more than one home. Many of them couldn’t understand that I have my home where I grew up, a school and community at Olaf that I consider a home, and now a house in St-Brieuc that is slowly becoming less of a house and more of a home. It seems like it was both an issue of language, and also an issue of age. Since few of them have ever left home for more than two weeks at a time, it’s just something that they take as a given in their lives. To be honest, I probably would have reacted the same way when I was fifteen, without the experiences of life at St. Olaf and life in another country. It’s pretty insane to think about all of the things I’ve seen and done since then, and also wonderful to know that I can call more than one place home. The most lucky.

Happy December and grosses bises! xoxo

[Fr]anksgiving

Over the past few days, there have been a number of things that I’ve wanted to write about, but just haven’t seemed to have enough focus or alone time to do so until today. So my apologies in advance if this post ends up being a little disjointed!

First major point: Thanksgiving! Since none of us will be in the States for this most American of American holidays, the other English assistants and I organized a giant Thanksgiving dinner for this past Saturday afternoon/evening chez moi. What started out as a simple guest list of only assistants soon morphed into a monstrous list of 21 in order to accommodate our surprisingly large make-shift French “family.” Seeing the finalized list made me both extremely happy and rather stressed out all at once. It was amazing to realize how many wonderful people I’ve already met in such a short amount of time, but the thought of playing host for such a large group also caused me to panic a bit. I was by no means putting this dinner on by myself, but since it was happening at my house I felt greatly responsible for how things went. I’m a generally anxious person, and my anxiety definitely took over for good chunk of the afternoon.

As a child of Polish decent, my main concern was that there wasn’t going to be enough to feed everyone. I come from a family where food is of utmost importance, always delicious and above all else, abundant. If there isn’t enough for at least 3 servings per person, there is a problem. Everyone was bringing a dish to share, but would it be enough with the extended guest list?! Would all 21 stomachs be filled?! How was everything going to be cooked in our tiny little toaster oven?!? Did we remember to cover all of the classic Thanksgiving dishes?!?!?

Turns out, my fears were completely unwarranted. With a 15lb turkey, three pots of mashed potatoes, two giant casserole dishes of stuffing, plenty of butternut squash, green beans, German potato salad, French onion soup, baguettes, cranberry jello, green salad, twelve bottles of wine, and three pies (apple crumble, pecan, and pumpkin), there was more than enough to go around. So much, in fact, that we had enough leftovers for everyone to come over for a SECOND ROUND on Sunday afternoon! We just left the tables as they were, set out new plates, and let everyone dig in. Preeeeetty ridiculous.

The other point of stress was due to a miscommunication of timing and an abundance of tardiness, à la française. I missed the original planning session amongst assistants last week, so my main source of information about the plans was a mostly-legible picture posted on facebook. The only time mentioned in the picture of the planning sheet was 16h (aka 4pm), and I unfortunately made the assumption that was meal time. I then spread the word to some others not involved in the planning that we would be eating around 4, when in reality, the plan was to merely get together at 4 and eat much later around 7 or so. This led to everyone arriving at all sorts of different times, food being cooked and served little by little, and a minor sense of chaos between the first arrival at 3:45 and the last around 6:30. A little hectic, but mostly hilarious in the end.

After we managed to round everyone up and get everything on the table, things finally settled down. Looking up and down the ridiculously long table at a room full of happy faces washed away all of my stress and anxiety, and made the whole crazy day worthwhile. The joy and warmth in the room was overwhelming, and I felt incredibly thankful for everyone in my life and this new home away from home.

After stuffing myself to the brim, I sat at the table listening to Christmas music and feeling a little dazed. As my thoughts turned to family, friends, and Thanksgiving at home, my happiness started to lose it’s glow. I’ve been missing people and things about home since the day I left, but it really seemed to hit me hardest on Saturday. Two months away is barely a challenge, but the thought of not being able to spend the holidays at home is a tougher pill to swallow. In my 22 years, I have yet to spend a single Thanksgiving or Christmas without my family, and it’s strange to think that this will be the first. I know that I’ll be home before I know it, missing all people and things French, but I still can’t help but feel sad about the upcoming holiday season. Love and miss you all much!

That’s one of the awful, yet beautiful things about living internationally – no matter where you are, there is always someone you miss. I’m thankful for that. Even if it’s hard sometimes, it’s comforting to know that there are so many great people in my life, even if we aren’t always in the same place.

My next point on a somewhat related note: My failed attempt to teach French high school students about Thanksgiving. First of all, my kids this week were suuuuuuuuuuuuper unmotivated to learn about one of the best holidays! I was like, listen, it is a holiday where all you do is eat and hang out with your fam – what’s not to love?!? I guess it would be pretty hard to understand if you’ve never experienced it, but they could at least show a little more interest!

When I asked what they already knew about Thanksgiving, their knowledge and understanding of Thanksgiving was limited to, “You eat turkey!” and, “I see Thanksgiving on Gossip Girl,” so they should’ve been ready to learn, right? Guess not. My first class was a particularly frustrating group of 15 girls. They wouldn’t stop talking to each other, and I had my first ever case of teacher outrage. I stopped talking about mashed potatoes, raised my voice, and told the girls “If you’re not talking to ME, don’t talk AT ALL!” It was like a strange out of body experience. I was like, uh, whoa, did I really just do that? Yeah. I did. Sooooooooo weird, but I really didn’t know what else to do that the time. It’s incredibly difficult to be in this weird middle ground between student and teacher, riding on a fine line between wanting both friendship and respect from the students. Some of the groups are SO wonderful and I feel at ease talking with them, but I’m still working on finding the balance with some of the others.

After going over all of the Thanksgiving basics of history, food, and traditions, I tried to get everyone to tell me something they were thankful for. This proved to be an unexpected challenge. They all looked at me with terrified eyes like I was asking them to recite the U.S. constitution or give me their left kidney. Apparently some of them are ungrateful little brats, because the most common response was, “Nossing?” [aka Nothing]. Either that or I failed at explaining what thankful meant. My favorite response from all of my classes by far was, “I thankful weed.” Real winner. That kid is going places.

Final point to be made in this post: Even though the world population has exceeded 7 billion people, the world is still small. Seriously. Yesterday, after my second class, a girl came up to talk to me with some crazy news…

Student: “You come from St. Paul, right?”
Me: “Yeah! My family lives in a suburb of St. Paul!”
Student: “Do you know North St. Paul?”
Me: “YES! That’s where I went to high school!”
Student: “You mean like, with the North High Polars, and the big snowman?”
Me: “Uh… Yes?!? How do you know that?!?”
Student: “My friend is spending a year in the United States, and she is going to school there!”

I was FREAAAAAAKING out after she told me this! Of all the places in the vastness of the U.S., this girl from little ol’ Saint-Brieuc, France ended up not only in Minnesota, but in MY HIGH SCHOOL!!!!!!! Like, what are the odds?!?? It is still blowing my mind. This is not like someone from Paris and someone from New York switching places. SAINT-BRIEUC AND NORTH SAINT PAUL. What the HEEEEEECK?!

I’ll leave you with that mind-boggling story to linger until next time. Bisous mes amis! xoxoxo

Our House, in the Middle of the Street

So. Many a post ago, I promised some pictures of my house. This promise probably left you all on the edge of your seats, dying with anticipation, ready to give your right eye or first born child, merely to satiate your appetite for photographic satisfaction! Maybe not. At the very least, it probably made you mildly curious about where I’ve been living for the past six weeks. In order to save you from the agony you’ve undoubtedly been suffering, I would like to present you with a guided tour of my humble abode.

Let’s start at the very beginning. I’ve heard that’s a very good place to start. Voilà, our funny little street, Chateaubriand. It’s not particularly beautiful, but the location is beyond ideal. On foot, I live 3 minutes away from my lycée, 5 minutes away from the grocery store, and about 6 minutes away from centre-ville.

There is also a sandwich traitor shop and a beautiful corner house across the street.

And here is our lovely little row house, number 9. I still can’t believe I was able to get a picture of it without the usual 85 cars scrunched up in front of it!

Now that you’ve properly admired the outside, open the oyster to see what pretty things are waiting inside! Here are some of my favorite things in the entryway: the red wallpaper, the circle mirror, and the mail table.

One of my other favorite things: the radiator on the right that keeps my shoes warm and toasty on rainy days!

Just around the corner, a door across from the staircase leads into the salle à manger where a large part of my time is spent eating, chatting, drinking wine, listening to music, and playing Kniffle (aka Yahtzee)! I’m not really sure why that giant ornament is hanging from the chandelier… Not quite as festive as a streamer tent, but it does the trick.

René, carefully calculating his Yahtzee score:

The dining room connects directly into the living room, one of the coziest places to chat and drink a cup of tea, and watch Sept à la Maison (Seventh Heaven) and Urgences (E.R.)

Back through the dining room…

… and into the kitchen!

Definitely one of the best places in any house. We unfortunately don’t have a real oven, which is going to pose a bit of a problem for our upcoming Thanksgiving celebration, but we’ll make do. It is beyond wonderful to have a fully equipped kitchen with more pots and pans than one could ever need. We even have a dishwasher! Amaaaazing.

Out of the kitchen, into the hallway…

… and into the backyard! This is where I spend time with Charlie:

And where I keep my women’s mountain super awesome bike!

Heading back towards the house…

By the backdoor, you’ll find one of maaaaaany maps around the house. René is in LOVE with geography. After he retired, he got bored and started taking geography classes in Rennes. If you want to know where something is in the world, he is the guy to ask.

This house also has some very adorable little details, like this door handle:

Aaaaanyway, back to the main tour! Up the beautiful, but sometimes dangerous and slippery, staircase. Alex definitely slid down half a flight of stairs the other day, so watch your step!

I’m pretty obsessed with these stairs…

They are just so cooooooool!

Halfway up the first flight of stairs is another mini-library. There are books abound in this house!

The second floor is where René’s bedroom and salle de bains are, along with two other very important things:

Number one: The cutest toilettes ever! There is another world map hanging in there, so you can work on your geography and learn about world populations whilst taking care of business!

The second floor also contains our guest bedroom! So far, the only guests I’ve had have been other assistants from Saint-Brieuc, but I do seem to recall a number of promised visitors before leaving the states. So if anyone is planning on actually going through with said promises, know that there is a place for you to stay!

Continuing up the stairs…

… and up to the third floor where Alex, Phelecia and I live! I caught Alex just as she was about to leave to do some grocery shopping, comme d’hab.

Here’s our tiny little hallway with all sorts of doors. Since I don’t have an actual closet in my room, the one you see on the right is mine! Kind of strange to leave my room to find my clothes, but I’ve gotten used to it. Also very convenient to grab things on my way out of the bathroom after showering!

Our bathroom:

And now the moment you’ve all been waiting for…

… my bedroom! I’ve been accustomed to living in small rooms my whole life, but this is by far the smallest one yet. I really can’t complain though, because as I mentioned before, I was actually given a larger room but chose this one anyway! The giant window overlooking our backyard definitely makes up for what the room is lacking in size.

I probably should’ve cleaned up a bit before taking these pictures… ignore the messes plz!

My desk being used for things I love – blogging and knitting!

Sunlight! A rare thing here that must ALWAYS be celebrated!

This was a little rainstorm…

… that turned into a SUNSHOWER! It may not be super obvious, but all of those funny little light specks are actually beautiful drops of rain.

I will leave you with one of the best things about having a room with a giant westward facing window: sunsets! There have been many a beauts so far, this being one of them.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this trip around my house! More importantly, I hope it has tempted you to COME VISIT ME! I love it here, but I’ve definitely been missing everyone back home. A LOT. It would be more fun with you all here! Probably not a realistic wish, but what fun would wishes be if they had to be practical? Anyway. Love and bisous until next time! xoxoxo

[Not] Working for the Weekend

So. I came to France to work. Right? Wrong. As it turns out, I came to France to go on a year long vacation. At least that’s how it seems today as I am comfortably sitting half way through my second vacation. Yeah, that’s right, second vacation! France is seriously so in love with vacay time, it is unreal. During the school year, students (and teachers, obvi) have four large breaks, plus a two month long summer, PLUS a number of public holidays. Crazy stuff.

This is technically not a real vacation for most people, merely a three-day weekend to celebrate Armistice (the French version of Veteran’s Day). Since my work schedule only consists of classes on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays, however, having today off means that I was granted a five-day weekend. To make things even better, we literally just finished Fall holidays for All Saints’ Day last week. That means from October 22 through November 14, I will have worked a grand total of four days. Four days in the span of three weeks. What the HECK France!

I mean, I love me some vaycay, but it’s also unnerving to have such an excess of free time on my hands, especially after four years of non-stop stress and activity at St. Olaf. I used to busy nearly every minute of every day with classes, assignments, papers, rehearsals, meetings, social gatherings, etc. My life now consists of more time off watching internet t.v. and sleeping than time spent working. Seriously. My friend, Allie, counted the other day and figured out that we literally have more days off than actual work days. Please don’t hate me. You probably all think I’m crazy for complaining about this. This may be true. But at the same time, it’s hard to appreciate time off when you are engulfed in it. The joy and release of having a free day gets lost when there is nothing stressful to compare it to. Snow days wouldn’t be nearly as enjoyable if you knew they were coming. Christmas wouldn’t be as meaningful if it happened more than once a year. I’m not saying I want to work more, I’m just saying I need to find a more meaningful way to spend my time.

Here are some ways I have spent my time off so far:

Cooking: I have cooked and baked a number of delicious items including mixed vegetable curry, nutella banana muffins, baked macaroni and cheese, apple tarts, and chili. I would share the recipes, but the problem is that I don’t always measure whilst cooking. Side note: As a result of all this cooking, I have become a regular at both the farmer’s market and the grocery store. I’m pretty sure I go shopping for food more often than I go to the high school.

Internet TV: Some shows that I’ve been watching include Modern Family, Parks and Recreation, Glee, and past seasons of America’s Next Top Model. I was also keeping up with Project Runway, but now that the season is over, my friend Victoria and I have picked up the disgusting habit of watching its new spin-off, Project Accessory. If Project Runway were the cocaine of reality tv, Project Accessory would be its dirty cracked out second cousin. Don’t watch it. Please.

Charlie: Remember that cat that I found in my backyard a couple weeks back? He’s been out in our patio literally every single day since then. I’m pretty sure as long as the milk keeps pouring and the petting continues, he’s mine. He apparently lives two houses down, but I think he is here more often than he is there. So. Cute.

Trips around Brittany: As I mentioned in previous posts, I have already been to Rennes, St. Malo, Mont Saint-Michel, and Dinan, but I have also adventured elsewhere in Bretagne! Last weekend, I ventured down to Nantes with my friends Erinn (American) and Claire (French) for a BALLER concert. Laura Marling, James Blake, and Cults (plus this dumpy opening band called La Femme). We met some really awesome people via couchsurfing, and the concert was superb. If you don’t know these artists, get your butt on google and listen to some of their jams. Actually, I’ll just give you a sampling of what you’re missing out on:

This past Wednesday, I also went on a day trip to Perros-Guirec which is on La Côte de Granit Rose (The Pink Granite Coast). It is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my life. The colors of the massive pink-tinted rock formations next to the blues and greens of the sea creates an unbelievable palate. I would post pictures, but alas, I took my 35mm film Pentax along for the trip instead of my digital SLR. Whoops. Grace à google, I can still give you a photo to appease your interests:

Click me!   Or me!

UPDATE: A picture of Alex and me at Perros-Guirec!

Miscellaneous: Things including but not limited to… sleeping, knitting, reading, bike riding, shopping, drinking, writing, dancing, breathing, etc.

All in all, my life is still pretty awesome, but I like to complain about it anyway. I guess I’m just getting a little tired of life in a place where cultural activities are sparse, and  the only thing to do after 7:30pm is drink at the same bars with the same people. I want to move and to be moved. Part of me expects these things to happen on their own, but it has become painfully clear that I’m the one responsible for making things happen.

Since I started writing this at 5pm and decided to pick up where I left off nearly 10 hours later, I’m gonna go ahead and say this is an appropriate time to put the pen to rest my computer away and go to sleep. It’s been real. It’s been fun. But has it been real fun? I hope everyone had a wonderful 11/11/11 at 11:11! May all your wishes come true. At least the good ones.

Peace&Blessings

The Hangover

When I woke up this morning with my head pounding, and my stomach aching, I couldn’t help but notice the irony of my bedtime apparel: a pair of sweatpants and an oversized D.A.R.E. t-shirt. I’ve had the shirt since my fifth grade drug and alcohol awareness graduation, and have continued to wear it to bed ever since. It wasn’t until this morning, however, that I realized the hypocrisy of it all. I used to be such a good kid. Then college happened. And then life after college happened.

I thought that things would calm down after graduation, but as it turns out, the parties continue. I can’t say this is the case for everyone else, but it’s certainly true for American grads living in France. Having a week and a half of vacation in a small French city seems to turn twenty-somethings into alcoholics. It probably has something to do with the fact that almost everything here closes at 7:30pm, leaving us no where to go but the bars. Traveling somewhere would have been the best remedy, but for some reason, none of us have been paid yet, so the travel budget is currently limited. Yeah. Yikes. The fact that a majority of us are still living within a life-is-still-like-college-since-I-don’t-have-a-real-job-or-real-responsibilities mentality probably contributes to the drinking as well. We want to profit from our time here, so we keep pushing our limits. If these excuses aren’t satisfactory, my friend/fellow assistant Sarah has also been hosting a friend for the past 4 days, so we obbbviously had to make sure and show him how we have a good time in Saint-Brieuc!

Don’t get me wrong, the week has been a lot of fun, but going out 4 times in a 7 day stretch takes its toll on the body. Waking up the next day seems a little harder every time, siestas become imperative in order to stay awake through dinner, and water has never tasted so refreshing.

Last night seemed to be the height of this weeks insanity. After a BEAUTIFUL day trip to the charming town of Dinan (see pictures below), a small group of assistants and a couple of our French friends got together for a Halloween gathering. The French are a little clueless about Halloween (it didn’t really exist here until 2001 after a marketing ploy by one of the phone companies) and didn’t understand why our costumes were funny instead of scary, but they got over that quickly and got the party going. What started out as a mild evening with card games, costumes, wine and pumpkin chocolate chunk muffins turned into an extremely late night of bar hopping. It’s amazing that a town that closes down so early can manage to stay awake so late. Everyone made sure to take full advantage of the end of daylight savings time, celebrating the extra hour until closing time. At that point, I was just as excited as everyone else and somehow managed to keep on going, with the end result being me staying in my pajamas until 2pm this afternoon. Life lesson I continue to forget: Fun tonight = less fun tomorrow.

In other news, I found a bike to rent! René’s friend Petra only likes to use her bike during the summer, so it will be in my possession until May. I felt like a ridiculous French stereotype this afternoon as I rode my bike to drop off a letter and stopped by the bakery on my way home for a fresh loaf of bread. It was wonderful. I also found new friend today. His name is Charlie. He is a super sweet little black cat that loves to cuddle. I actually have no idea who he belongs to, but he found his way into our backyard today, and we took a nap together in the grass. Much needed pet therapy.

Things I still have not found: a craft store, a grocery store with chocolate chips, and a cello. France is kind of hatin on my hobbies. The cello search has been the most disappointing of the three. After going to multiple music stores in town, I finally happened upon ONE single cello that weighed 100lbs, with a nearly flat bridge, super high strings, and sounded kind of like a car accident. Thanks, but no thanks. I felt kind of bad telling the woman that it was a p.o.s., but she was understanding and extremely nice about it. She was honestly surprised they even had a cello to begin with, so she clearly didn’t know what to expect. Going to the conservatory tomorrow in hopes that they can help me locate something better. Until one is found, I at least have my ukulele to keep my fingers moving.

Well it’s getting a bit late to not have eaten dinner, so I’ll end this post here and leave you with the pictures of Dinan promised above. Much love, xoxoxoxo, Happy Halloween, and all that jazz. Bisous!

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