Wait, what day is it?

Students at Le Cordon Bleu know a lot of things. We know how to brunoise, we know how to clean, we know how to make sure our boards don't slide around, and we know how to be on time and in uniform. One thing we don't know is what day it is.

You see, at Le Cordon Bleu- we know time as it relates to class. For example- if you have 12:30 demo, you know for sure that it's about 3:30pm when you leave. When it comes to looking at a real calendar? forget about it. No one has a clue. Students stare at 'le planning' and say "wait, what day is it?" because school is the only thing on their minds. I must look at my planning 17 times per day to make sure I know when class is- and before I go to bed everynight, I triple check it to make sure I wasn't making a mistake and missing a class. In fact, I just emailed Lara to make sure that I'm not mistaken (I left my planning in my locker) that we only have 12:30 demo tomorrow. We're all a little pathetic.

You'll be happy to know that I received an "excellent" on my tart today. It was our first practical with Chef Strill and he made fun of me 23456786543 times because I was so tense. It was our first real grade and I was petrified! For the first time, when I looked around and saw people that were ahead of me, I just looked down and focused. Not one problem. I didn't kill my yeast, my dough rose, I seasoned my onions, I soaked my anchovies in milk and water (OUR anchovies. We had a tin per 2 people) and after 17 minutes, it came out golden and brown. The one thing I would complain about is that the SIDES of my tart were a little bit big. Bruno showed me a new technique and made the edges of my tart look fancy. In demo we learned to use an upside down plate and push the dough against the plate making a spot of the onions. Chef showed me how to make it pretty- and I wish it weren't so puffy.

I'm also pleased to announce that I have my first cut, though I'm sad to report that it happened when I was putting my knives AWAY. I knicked my finger on my cleaver and I had to run down to reception to have it fixed up. It really wouldn't stop bleeding! It didn't hurt at all, but for hygiene and sanitation, we must put this on:



All in all, a great day. I had THE BEST night's sleep ever thanks to my new travel alarm clock/sound machine. I slept to the pitter patter of raindrops and I had a great night's rest! Check out the picture below...a little SF here in PARIS!



A Bientot!

Re-Adjustment

Since the tart incident. I had a glass of Chinon (the kind we had in class yesterday), ate the leftovers from lunch (penne arrabiata) and took a walk around the block keeping my eyes on the Eiffel Tower.

I am in Paris.


I am in Paris cooking.


I am in Paris learning more about something I love.


I am in Paris learning more about something I love and meeting incredible people.

I'm over the tart. I'm re-focused and am ready to KILL it tomorrow.


(Ok I watched an episode of Entourage and Ari Gold inspired me...is that so wrong?)

Looks can be deceiving

That's an onion tart. Or une Pissaladiere- which we learned today at 8:30am from Chef Thillet. Anthony and I decided to practice tonight to get ready for practical. I have it tomorrow at 12:30 and Anthony has it at 3:30.

I'd be willing to put 10 euros that at least 5 of you would be willing to eat that tart. I sure would- but when we tasted it...it wasn't all we'd hoped for. We talked about it (for longer than necessary) and decided the following:

1. We overcooked the onions
2. We didn't season the onions properly
3. We didn't salt the tomatoes (as we were instructed to)
4. We should have rolled out the dough thinner
5. We should have used the yeast we were supposed to (my store didn't have compressed yeast)
6. We should have oiled the crust after it came out of the oven

Merde.

Ok let's look on the bright side. It was practice- I used to say in college that a bad warmup meant a great game- I hope that rings true tomorrow! I at least now know the technique and can season properly tomorrow, I just am very frustrated. It looks so good! I want to really knock the cover off the ball tomorrow, and I feel deflated.

In other news, I'm still in Paris- so I've got that going for me! I had a great lunch with some classmates in Chatelet today. We went to this awesome Italian place (thanks to Lara!) and had some really interesting conversation. We all come from such different places- and I love so much learning about different places and cultures. Noor is only 18 and prays towards Mecca 5 times per day. There are 55,000 churches where Bruna comes from. Despite being 1/2 Arab, Lara isn't allowed to enter Saudi without written consent. It's all just so interesting to me and I want to learn so much more.

So I suppose that though my tart wasn't delicious- I have other things to look forward to! I just wish it didn't bother me SO SO SO much that it wasn't good. I suppose I know that I'm doing the right thing by being here if I'm obsessing over an onion tart. Wish me lots of luck tomorrow, I really am jonesing for a 'tres bien'!

A bientot!

Les yeux, le nez et la bouche

Before I get into the meaning behind my post title, I want to share my day yesterday!

After sleeping until the pm- I went and met Anthony at Concorde metro station to do a little sightseeing. EVERYTHING is closed on Sundays in my neighborhood, so I suggested that we head to Le Marais (which is a primarily Jewish neighborhood) to have some lunch and just breeze around. First we went to Notre Dame, which was SO cool. I lit a candle for my sister Allison who was running a marathon in Florida yesterday. She finished it!!!! I bet it was because of my candle lighting (just joking Boo) Here are some pictures of Notre Dame







It was just so gorgeous- I'm really glad we went!

Then we walked across the Seine to Le Marais where we just got to know eachother better. Fun fact: Anthony's family owns an egg farm in Utah- they produced 28 MILLION dozens of eggs last year. It was really nice to get to know someone here- and he has such an interesting story!

After a croque monsieur and some onion gratinee, we walked to Hotel de Ville. It was really neat to see and there's an ice skating rink in front, so we watched people skate for a minute before heading to L'Arc de Triomphe.



I just knew it would be gorgeous at night, so we went around 5. You have to pay to walk underneath it (very lame) so we didn't. Then we took a stroll up the Champs Elysees to find a movie store. I bought a season of Entourage so I could watch it in bed when I go to sleep. It's great!

Today we had class at 3:30 so I woke up, ironed my uniform, unloaded the dishwasher and headed to the Saint Germaine with my friend Bruna. We ate at Les Deux Magots- I thought of you Mom the whole time, I even took a picture of it! Then we jumped on the metro to class.

It was wine pairing class today. A sommelier came in and taught us all about how to taste wine, what kind of wines go with what food, and while he did that a chef prepared a meal for us to taste with our wines. He taught us that we taste first with our eyes (les yeux) then our nose (le nez) and then with our mouth (la bouche). I liked learning HOW to taste, and what to look for with each sip. We had braised ox cheek with glazed baby onions and puree of potato and sweet potato. It was INCREDIBLE. It was so tender and delicious. I hadn't ever had ox cheek so it was a real treat. We had a yummy red wine with that and everyone was impressed that I could suck air in with my wine (thank you lots of trips up to Napa!) Then he made a mango gratin which was paired with a white dessert Bordeaux wine (which I didn't care for, so I gave it to Sara).

I just ate dinner and am off to my kitchen to practice chopping onions, I will get them perfect if it KILLS me! I just bought 12 onions so I could practice on those and carrots :)

A bientot!

"Your knife, your hand and your product"

It was bound to happen- and it happened. I had my first bad practical :(

We had 8:30 demo where we were in the BAD demo room- it is not stadium seating like the big one and is nearly impossible to see everything. Compound that with being unable to sleep the night before and the terrible translator and it just wasn't my day.

I sat next to Bruna (Brazil) and right down the row from Anthony and in front of Lara and was scratching my head most of the class. We had the goofy Chef- Frederic and he LOVES to hear himself talk, so he was yammering on and on about how he worked for the President and how cool he was while he started the chicken stock.

Chicken pieces covered by water with leek, carrots, onion (with 3 cloves poked into the flesh), peppercorns and a TEENY bit of salt. 20 minutes later, the stock is ready! Seemed easy enough!

Then he babbles some more, calls me out AGAIN in class- this time about being hesitant when I was filleting my fish. And cleans a chicken- cuts of the tips of the wings, trims various glands that need to be removed (one in the neck and one on the tail- area) and begins to truss with a giant needle and string. This is difficult to see, but all in all I get it- you just make a neat little package with the chicken. He blanches the chicken- removes it from the pan, adds vegetables and takes it back to the pan, covers with water and lets poach for an hour.

He then makes a cheese souffle which was TO DIE FOR. There are a few little tricks that he does but all in all, looks the same as my technique. I'm SO excited to make that!

Then he goes back to the task at hand- riz au gras (rice with onions, butter and cooked in chicken stock) and supreme sauce. It all looks easy enough- I'm fairly confident heading into this practical thinking "it's chicken with rice and sauce, how hard could it be?"

...And then we walked into 2PS. We all started prepping to make the stock. 10 minutes in, Chef (different one) comes in and says that we're NOT making the stock, that we're to use the poaching liquid for our stock. This really starts us out on a bad note. We get to work and he comes over and helps me organize and said that the ONLY things that should be om the cutting board is your knife, your hand and your product". There should be no peels, no ends, no uncut vegetables...nothing.

Then I begin my chicken- first and foremost we have to blowtorch any leftover feathers that were on it- then clean and truss it. OF COURSE this chef wants us to truss it a different way than we were just taught- so that took longer than planned. He helped me (did it for me) and I blanched the old bird.

After our chicken is blanching we prepare our vegetables for our 'stock'. Peel, wash, mirepoix, create 2 bouquet garni- 1 for the stock, and 1 for the rice. We need to brunoise an onion for the rice and make a roux (butter/flour cooked together as a thickening agent). I've made roux before, but I screwed up the first one. Toss, start again. I get all this done and we have some down time. We can't start cooking the rice because we don't want it overcooked, and because our 'stock' isn't ready yet. I clean up my station and put most of my knives away per Chef's suggestion.

Then it's a mad dash to finish everything. Take out the chicken, let it rest, start the rice, finish the sauce, plate your dish.

I finished, but Chef told me my food wasn't seasoned enough. He also said that I need to really go over the recipe and have a plan before I get into the kitchen. Break it down into steps- like today we dealt with the chicken, then prep ALL our vegetables and really think through the process in steps instead of minutia. He said he noticed that I was freaking out for no reason and that I should only focus on MY work, not compare where I am with others. Oh, and he said my plate had fingerprints on it. He did say that I was very organized and had a good attitude while in the kitchen, but needed to assert myself more. He made me stand there and say "OUI CHEF" over and over as if I was in the Army. Hey- at least he didn't tell me to throw my food out like he did to someone else in class...

Overtired+no food+unseasoned food in practical=me completely and utterly deflated.

I go have a glass of wine with Lara who got a "tres bien"o on her dish- we completely dissected everything from class and talked about how we can both improve. It's amazing how LCB students really only talk about school and class.

I came home, took a nap and was getting ready for my first night out in Paris with Zulaikha and Siham. I ate my seasonless food and headed over to the 16th where Siham lives. Her apartment is super cozy and we go to this club called Sences.

Now, for those of you who don't know me- my ideal Saturday night is having dinner with friends and having some drinks at a bar. Usually a hole in the wall kind of place or somewhere like Perry's where I know everyone. I walk behind velvet ropes and into this club. WHOA. Laser beams, lights, REALLY loud music. It was such a blast though. We danced until WAY too late and had a great night. I slept until noon- I really needed it, and think I'm heading to the Marais with Anthony later because I've never been and because NOTHING is open on Sundays in the 7th.

I'm also going to buy the stuff to practice a cheese souffle over there so I can get back on my Tres Bien's next week. I don't have practical until Wednesday- but I really want to study- having unseasoned food really made me so sad!

A Bientot

"Your fillets look like crocodiles hahah"

I survived practical #2.

I slept until 11 this morning (!) I got up, showered and went to meet Anthony for lunch. We both had croque monsieurs- I realized quickly that the croque madame's aren't really my thing. I asked him about 650 questions as he had already done the fish practical.

On my way to school, I went and bought colored rubber bands and ziploc bags. The rubber bands are so you can mark your knives. Many people either etch their names into them, or use le vernis a ongles (nail polish) to differentiate their knives. I picked rubber bands and it worked very well!

I get all changed and head up to help Bruna and Moran who are this week's class assistants. We get everything set up for practical and the chef comes in and SCREAMS "YOU HAVE CINQ MINUTES". So we scramble around, set up our boards, get out the necessary knives (once class starts, you really can't run to your knife kit...so if you forget something, you're SOL). In the middle of our workspace is this giant box of sole fish. We each are given 2 fish that are slimy, stinky and looking at us. From both fish, we SHOULD get 8 fillets.

We get to work and I snip the tail, fins and gills with my kitchen shears, scale with a paring knife (scales EVERYWHERE) and start to fillet. I get the first one and it looks like it should...I almost yelled I DID IT!!!! but then I kept going. Each one got worse and worse. The chef walked by me at one point and laughed..."your fillets look like crocodiles". I didn't really get what that meant, but when he told me to throw one away, I knew it wasn't good.

We were all SUPER behind the entire class. Once we had our fillets, we had to skin and gut our fish (take out all the roe and brains, eyes etc) to be used in our fumet de poisson (fish stock). He kept yelling out that we should be at this point, we should be at that point and I was no where near where I was supposed to be. Instead of panic, I just kept my nose down and worked. I put a lot of butter in a stock pot, and put the fist bones in there (we were also given 2 other uncleaned fish for our stock) to steam. I then feverishly brunoised my leek, celery, and onions. Put them in the pot to let them steam- then brunoised shallots, chopped parsley TRES TRES FIN (very very fine). Then I added wine and water to my stock, let it steam for 5 minutes then added mirepoix mushrooms. Then it was time to prepare our fillets to be braised. We had to butter the bottom of a oven safe sautee pan, sprinkle some of our shallots on the bottom and fold out fish into 3 pieces like an envelope. This was hard because the side that came off the bones needed to be facing up. When you destroyed your fillets like I did, you can't tell which is which. I strained the stock (which was great) and ladled it so it was 1/2 way up the fish. Meanwhile Chef was screaming ALLER ALLER ALLER!!!! meaning we weren't working fast enough. I put my fish in the oven and carefully watched the clock while I tried to salvage things from my station. If the Chef walks by and your station is messy, he just throws everything out.

7 minutes later, my fish was cooked 'parfait'. I quickly put it in foil, and poured the braising liquid into a small saucepan. At this point people were freaking out! The braising liquid needs to reduce A LOT and then you add about a stick(!) of COLD diced butter and wisk it feverishly until it's thick. I had turned off my oven and put a plate in there to warm when the chef told me my wisk was too big for the pan I was using. Oh well I thought, too late now, better just make the sauce. I tasted, seasoned and plated my dish. C'est tres bien, le bercy est tres bon. Were the Chef's comments. I nearly jumped out of my skin...TRES BIEN? my sauce was TRES BON? HOLY SHIT!!!!! The girl next to me over cooked her fish, and my friend Lara's sauce separated, and many people's sauce didn't reduce enough. I felt like barbie queen of the prom.

Chef screamed at us and made us late for demo cleaning our kitchen (little did we know HE was our demo chef...) Group B all rushed into class breathless and there was our jolly chef, laughing at us. He then proceeded to call me out "Ou comme Caroline..." and demonstrated how loud I was wisking my sauce because my damn wisk was too big. I didn't care, I turned beat red as everyone laughed, but Bruna next to me said "who cares, you got a tres bien on your meal"

I just got home, am SO exhausted and have 8:30 demo, then right into 12:30 practical. We're making white chicken stock and poached chicken with sauce supreme. I have to get their early and clean the fish guts off my knives.

A Bientot!

Ps. I did burn myself while Chef was screaming at me, but STILL NO CUTS!

Pps. Someone barfed all over the steps of the locker room. GROSS!

Band-Aids, Burgers and Butter

I survived my first practical.

I went to dinner last night with Zu and her friend Siham (Abu Dhabi) in the 5th. I was so excited to have clothes that I wore my tory flats with no socks to dinner. Well I got lost, and my feet were completely numb. Oops, rookie Paris mistake. We had a fabulous dinner- I thought I was going to have steak frites, but opted for poulet roti instead. Chicken was overcooked, but there were mashed potatoes...so who could complain. I came home and had a MAJOR bit of homesickness when I video chatted with Boo, EJ and Lily. I took some Nyquil and fell asleep.

I woke up today around 9- ate, checked email and headed off to school at 11:30. I was petrified of practical. I kept having this nightmare that I couldn't julienne my celery. I got there really early and started setting up, we were in the Julia Child kitchen which was pretty neat. I took the spot by the window- Lara (Dubai) and Bruna (Rio de Janiero) came in and started too. Pretty soon we were all there and the Chef came in. Practicals are NOT translated so understanding the French is difficult.

He gives us a couple of short demonstrations and we're on our way. We have to get all our stuff (pots, pans, chinois etc), turn on our burners and start prepping. One rule is that everything must be ready before you start cooking. So off we go, peeling, washing all our veggies (carrots, cabbage, leeks, radish), opening up our pea pods, topping and tailing our haricots verts etc. We have to cut everything into a brunoise- TEENY TINY cubes. How do you do that with a round vegetable do you ask? Well you need to slice the ends of to make it a cube. Then slice it lengthwise into strips and then into cubes. It's really fun, but quite the process. About 20 minutes into practical Fernando (cardiologist from France) saunters in. He's very late (BIG BIG BIG no no). The girl next to me had skipped demo yesterday, so technically- she shouldn't have been able to be in practical, but because it's the first day, he let her slide. She came without hairnet, apron, tea towel or necktie...so strange!

While we're working, periodically you'd hear "oops, j'ai coupe mes droits" or I cut my finger. You really have to focus because in order to get everything done you must move quickly but you can't be sloppy with your knives. I managed to get several "biens" on my brunoise from the chef and didn't cut myself!

I started cooking and I quickly realized that my window spot was a BAD choice. The sun coming through mixed with the steam of the soup made it so I couldn't see a THING. I'd have to take my pot off the stove in order to see it. My burner was also screaming hot and my soup coiled too rapidly.

While we were cooking, the chef had demonstrations- so he'd make us all go to him and watch him do something like a bouquet garnis or a different cut. This is tricky because you have something on the burner! I took mine off the heat for these. We also had tests we needed to complete while cooking our soup. We had to chop an onion 2 ways, garlic, shallot and make a bouquet garnis. I finished my soup and then did my tests. The chef tasted and said my soup was 'tres bien'!!!!!!!! MAJOR MAJOR excitement until he said that we weren't being graded today. MERDE. I rushed to get my tests done and finished as others were leaving the room. It was a bit of a cluster at the end- cleaning, pouring soup into our bowls, having chef taste again etc.

When I left, I thought I was going to pass out. Practical is exhausting, but was fun. I put my soup in the fridge and went to grab a burger of all things with my groupmates. We had SO MUCH FUN. I went with Lara (Dubai), Bruna (Brazil) and Phillip (Italy). It was such an inspiring lunch! We all ordered our burgers differently. Phillip with foie gras on top, Bruna bleu- meaning VERY rare, Me with sauce au poivre and Lara VERY well done (came out medium looking). I had so much fun learning about their backgrounds, ages, hometowns and we had a funny conversation about their thoughts on Americans. I was the oldest in the group- Lara is 20 and worked in a kitchen in Dubai this summer. Phillip is 22 and worked in a kitchen in Italy and Bruna is 25 and worked on a very high end boat in the kitchen. Then there's boring old me! We had a great time and went back for 6:30 lecture tonight.

Fillets of sole in a butter/wine sauce, veal stock, and 2 kinds of fish stock. We take a whole fish- snip the fins,scale it, remove the gills, and fillet it. We have to do all that, while making fish stock, braising the fish in the oven and making the sauce. Needless to say- practical tomorrow isn't going to be fun. I'm luck that I don't have class until 3:30. Poor Anthony has to do all that tomorrow at 8:30am...gross.

I'm exhausted, but pretty jazzed on the day as a whole. I'm going to eat my soup and hit the sack. I'll be sure to post on my fillets tomorrow...that should be interesting.

A Bientot!

Ps. The pastry students leave their cakes and tarts out in the winter garden for us to eat...so I had dessert before dinner. Oh well!

Bags and Vegetable Soup

Great news, my bags arrived!!!! I had a morning intro session where we got our binders full of recipes, went over the rules (again! we get it, be on time) and went through other housekeeping items. I ran home in between that and demo to see if my bags had come (I got the call last night); when I didn't see them in the atrium I went upstairs feeling very deflated. Once I arrived in the apartment VOILA les bagages! I took them right upstairs, ransacked them (hugged blanky) and ran off to second session...our first demo.

I got there a bit early to avoid the traffic in the locker room which proved to be inevitable. It is literally like oragami in there. Picture 100 ish women trying to get dressed, wrangle knife kits, binders, jackets, scarves, purses, uniforms etc in a teeny tiny little room. I banged my head on the top locker once, got in my uniform and went to sit in winter garden. After finding my seat in class (there is not ONE left handers desk...) Chef Strill came in to begin our demonstration. He showed us how to tie our neckties and then went in to vegetable soup. He was very jovial and friendly, but I have to say that I really didn't like our translator today- she kept messing up and would skip over a bunch of stuff. I'm lucky that I can understand the actual French, there were many people scratching their heads.

He began by doing his prep work. Putting a towel under his board, then explaining to us that we use 1 board for our practical. We must keep our areas clean at all times. He also told us how we're to NEVER (jamais) place vegetables on our board that have not been cleaned, or as he said "no earth on the board". We're to use a big steel tub to put all dirty veggies and peels, and we have a big bowl of water to wash them in. Now we get to work.

1. trim leeks, remove outer layer and take a paring knife to cut a + sign into the top, soak in water
2. peel potato, take out the eyes, soak in H2o
3. trim and soak carrots
4. trim, peel and soak radish
5. trim and soak celery (making sure to remove all the fibers)
6. trim and soak cabbage leaves
7. top and tail haricots verts, waste NOTHING
8. remove peas from pods

Now we clean and chop the veggies into a paysanne cut (very small, thin triangles). Once the vegetables are chopped, we use a plastic scraper that we MUST keep in our pants pocket AT ALL TIMES to put into a clean bowl.

Then the actual cooking begins! It seems like a relatively simple recipe but at free moments, Chef showed us the different cuts we'll need to master. He showed us the Mirepoix, Julienne, Brunoise, and then taught us how to chop an onion with the heart in it, without the heart and also a shallot. Then he'd go back to the soup, then he showed us the bouquet garnis- where you tie herbs with string with a leek paper wrapped around it. Back to the soup, chopping garlic, season the soup, taste the soup, talk about herbs, show us our knives, etc.

When he was done, he let us take pictures and taste the soup. It was great, but to me could have used a little more salt! It's probably my untrained palate.

All said and done it was 3 hours of feverishly writing everything you saw and everything he said. I'm exhausted, and have 6 pages of notes. In practical, you're only allowed to bring 1 piece of paper in to the kitchen, so I need to re-write all my notes. People in class ask the DUMBEST questions and when they ask, it screws up the Chef's train of thought and we're all left going "what was that?" I'm all for asking questions, but some people really asked dumb ones.

I just got home and am going to re-write my recipe for tomorrow's practical and remove all the sleeves for my knives, label them and get everything ready.

I definitely made a friend today! Anthony is great, he is from Salt Lake City and is really nice. I'm excited to get to know him better. I also finally chatted with Melissa (who found this very blog and wrote me!) she found an apt in the 12th and lived in Sonoma and Petaluma working on a farm that supplied Chez Pannisse! Very cool.

I am LOVING Paris, and really feeling like I'm getting the hang of things. It's so beautiful and very clean, and it snowed today. It was so incredible looking out of the apartment and seeing snow falling on the Eiffel Tower...does life get any better? There are no windows at school, so I have to get my looks in when I'm traveling to and from. Tonight- I'm going to get steak frites with Zu who introduced me to the friends in her section. I felt really cool knowing someone in intermediate :) People at school are from every place you can imagine, I'm so lucky to be here and meeting these people that will surely go on and change the world!

I'm going to re-do my notes and UNPACK!

A Bientot!

ps. I have my blanky wrapped around my neck right now...I missed it SO much!

My internet here is spotty, so I'll upload the pictures from class today later



Chef Stril's soup:

Recent Findings/Orientation Day

Well I just got back from my Orientation day at school. It was so exciting and I think I made 3 friends!!! I slept about 4 minutes last night (combination of jet lag and first day jitters). I set 3 alarms and was up and in the shower by 7:30. I had some special K and tea and was out the door by 8:30. Because my stupid luggage hasn't arrived yet (don't go there) I had to buy another lock before I went to school. I arrived around 9:10 and was given my ID badge and shown into the demonstration room.

Here is a picture of the outside of school:


The room itself was very ordinary but had croissants, jus d'orange, tea and cafe for us. We then met the head of the school who was a woman that looked mean but was very nice. Our translator had the most obscure accent, it was a mixture between British and Australian- hey, at least we have one. We introduced ourselves, and I wrote down the different countries where people were from:

Israel
Japan
Thailand
Brazil
Columbia
Taiwan
China
Italy
Canada
USA
Greece
United Arab Emirates
UK
France

WHOA! Talk about a melting pot of people. Most people spoke a little English and I forsee language being an issue for several. There are others who speak 5 languages and I found myself feeling jealous. I definitely can understand much of the French which is going to be helpful, but speaking is another issue. We got our uniforms, knives, scale, tupperware next and had to try it on in the locker room. My pants COULD NOT be any longer- I'm going to have to have them hemmed. The locker room is absolutely tiny, so I became very close to those that I met...

Then we had a tour of the school. It's very very very small and for being such a renowned place, the equipment seemed antiquated. I had to remind myself that it's not about the equipment, but the technique I will be learning. Pictures on the wall of all the famous alumni are so much fun to look at! (Lots of Julia Child) The prep kitchens are scary and I saw the biggest vat of bubbling veal stock just boiling away when we got a tour of that. We also met some of the chefs who were having lunch in the sous sol (basement). After the tour they took us back to the Winter Garden (not a garden at all, but a frigid cafeteria looking room) where we had some bread, brie, fruits and wine and went home!

While carrying all my stuff home and sweating profusely I managed to get my monthly metro card. The woman helping me spoke no English so I tested out my French. It worked and I have the card...PHEW! one more thing to cross off the list.

Here are a few things I've learned in my 2 days here (in no particular order):

1. The metro couldn't be easier. Everything is so self explanatory and easy- I've been in almost all of the neighborhoods!

2. Crying gets you absolutely nowhere in this country. I've spoken to Air France close to 50 times and each time there are at least a few tears...and my bags still aren't here. Maybe I will yell this time...

3. Paris is so gorgeous it's not even funny.

4. I will never, in my life live in a nicer house than I'm living in right now. I certainly don't deserve a place so incredible, but it's so nice to feel like I have a home.

5. The same annoying music plays in the Gap here too. (I bought a sweater, jeans, underwear and an undershirt)

6. It is no longer legal to smoke inside...making the few clothes that I have smell much better.

7. I miss my blanky

8. Most of the time when I attempt to speak French, people respond in English. Come on people, at least I'm trying!

9. One way to break in kitchen shoes is to wear them everywhere you go (my only pair) my feet hurt and my legs are sore

10. The toothpaste here tastes funny, I can't wait to get my Colgate

I'm going to take pictures of my equipment and go get my pants hemmed and head to the US Embassy to check in with them just in case. I will put pictures up of my first day of school outfit!

A Bientot!

I Made it...

You know you look AWFUL when you walk onto a plane and the flight attendant says "ma'am, are you alright?", you manage to choke out "I'm moving to Paris" from behind your tears and keep walking. That's how my journey over here began. I had a full blown, four alarm panic before I got on the plane. There were MANY tears and not nearly enough wine.

I land in Amsterdam to be told that I've already missed my connection, but not to worry because KLM has already booked me on another flight leaving in 2 hours. I wait in line at customs where a scary looking woman doesn't say one word to me and stamps my passport. I got a sprite and a muffin with my KLM food voucher and waited to board my next plane. I asked the nice lady at the desk if my bags were on the plane and they were not, but they were still loading them. I asked the nice lady on the plane once we were in the air if they had made it on. They hadn't. Cue more tears...lots of them.

I arrive in Paris and wait at the carousel like an idiot knowing full well my bags with EVERYTHING in them aren't going to come out. I go, file a report and take the train(s) into Paris. Now in the middle of my misery, I manage to procure a train ticket from a machine in Euros (thanks Mom for the change!), get on the correct train, transfer at Chatelet Les Halles, then transfer again at Concorde to arrive at my stop, Solferino.

Fairly confident that I'm going to receive my bags, I'm pretty pleased at this feat and bee bop around the 7th to find my apartment. Somehow I find the place and the outside code works!!! This excitement was short lived as the inside code I had didn't work. Luckily the guardienne came out to help me. She was lovely and showed me the place- it really is unreal. I call Zu, figure out how to use the phone and look around. Secretly waiting for the phone to ring and it being Air France. The woman said they make a trip to Paris at 3 with delayed luggage and again at 8pm. I call, nothing. They can't find my bags. I decide to walk to the store to get something to eat. It's Sunday and EVERYTHING is closed. I finally find a market and get the necessities. I come home and am FRIGID so I take a shower and have been laying in bed crying. I've called my parents, they've called me, but nothing seems to be making my bags appear. All I want to do is snuggle up with my blanky, unpack and put on some warm socks.

Alone and wanting clothes.

Merde.