When I got here, I was excited to be with people who were passionate about food like I am and older and more maturer than people in high school. It turns out that I was wrong. I'm no longer part of our "group" and I'm not sure why. Luckily I made another a friend before things went downhill. It's put a damper on my experience, but the first two months were well worth it. In the last few days, I've been really home sick because of what is happening.
The most exciting thing to happen was that Narges and I tried another p.a.c. It wasn't very good, but it had a really good buttery flavor to it (Claire, you would have hated it). it was at a bakery on my way home, but just off the path a few steps. I got a half of a baguette there and finished it before I got home. The one thing I will really miss is the bread, smelling the bakeries from blocks away and walking past bakeries.
On my way home, I stopped for some groceries and ended up running across the street in the rain to get into my favorite Italian specialty stores. The man behind the counter speaks Italian (naturally), French and English! He also has long(ish) hair and wears a headband to keep it out of his face, he's not bad looking. I stood in the store trying different cheeses, oh lord were they good. I got buffalo mozzarella and a goat cheese from Napoli and some ravioli/ bundled looking things.
I'd like to skip ahead to the most important thing, my cuz is in town!!!!!! I cannot even explain how I felt when I saw her. I may have cried a little. I miss my family so much! We went to her and Eric's room for a little for a package from Ma and so they could take a little break after their lunch. In their room was a little gift on the table with a note inside that said "welcome home, this one's for you, Coco". We were all puzzled as to who would be sending ME something to their hotel room. It took us about 20 minutes, until Eric found a card in the bag that had the hotel's PR persons name on it, Coco. Even then, Eric was the first one to figure it out that it was from Coco and not to me. They gave me the candle anyway to keep.
We left the hotel to go walk around and we ended up at Rick Owens and the Palais Royal where I took some shots of E/E because its a sentimental spot for both Erin and I. We dragged our butts around the 1st to the 2nd where Eric wanted to do a little shopping. All Saints was the store of choice and Eric got a nice pair of boots and leather jacket.
It got cold, so we walked back to the hotel to freshen up before we had Korean BBQ!
I love me some K-BBQ.
We ended up back at the hotel for some tea, but they wouldn't serve us in the dinning room because there were too many people and they don't serve hot drinks in the bar at Hotel Costas, so I went home while E/E went to drink tea in their room.
Saturday I rode to school on a bike so I left early incase anything happened. Well, I got there really early, an hour and thirty minutes early (eek). I was dreading being there, just sitting by myself in the Winter Garden (not what you think). I'll describe that thing later, or maybe just take a photo of it. Olivia showed up first in her thick knit, white, matching scarf, gloves and hat and a black coat. Nicole was next, eating some kind of almond pastry. Around 3, this really nice guy, Rodrigo, who is nice enough to share his cuisine food with me, came out with some chicken with tarragon sauce. It was delicious after the 3 bowls of corn flakes that I had eaten earlier. We all hung out a bit before we got our aprons, hats and napkins on and went up to class.
We were all praying for chef Trenchant (the guy who reminds me of Stanley Tucci), but we ended up having, who I call Chef Tom's Dad, because he told us he had a son (I asked to see pictures, naturally, and the kid is beautiful, blond and blue eyed). Chef TD is tall and handsome, very handsome. He was also extremely sweet. BUT, he put ME in charge of the baking! EVERYONE'S CAKES. Normally the chefs bake, as Hottie Chef says, "I do the baking!!!"
Once I got into class I was in my in my zone. I get nervous at first and forget absolutely everything that I have to do, but it's when I enjoy the day most. I can't say that I am a creative in ways that my family members are, but the kitchen is my space to be myself and create masterpieces, even if they don't come out as professional as the chef's cakes. I enjoy classes when I am able to sing things, or sing what I am doing and then Olivia sing back to me. Like, "Oh, I'm whisking my egg yolks" or something stupid like that. During the practical Olivia and I were doing lots of call and responds. Other than being completely freaked out at having to test the cakes, which I do at home anyway, I was very happy. At one point my cake was in the freezer, my cream was whipped and in the fridge, my egg yolks were whipped, chocolate melted and raspberry jam put into the piping bag, I was standing around wondering what to do. I actually thought, what Chef Hottie would have had me doing at that point, because there is generally NO time to be standing around eating left over cake and jam (that happened a lot today).
At certain times our chef would disappear and we would start eating the scraps of cake and dipping them into the raspberry jam (holly crap was that good). At the end of the practical one of the other chefs walked into the room and I was eating so I broke off a piece of the left over cake and piped some mousse onto it and then some raspberry jam and gave it to him. (It was the perfect bite, as Cup would say). We all realized after we had made the cake that it was BUTTER-LESS! It was very exciting. Our bites out of the cake after critique were a little bit bigger then.
That night, E/E came over to see my apartment so I cleaned for a good 30 minutes. Cuz asked me if I was serious about cleaning for that long, but I was, I had cleaned a lot, but I still had stuff all over. We left to go to their friend's apartment on our way. Before we left my apartment Erin asked if we should bring something to their friends so I suggested that candle but a few minutes later Eric decided he didn't need it. I'm pretty sure I'll end up giving it back to Eric for his birthday or something. We went to this rad Chinese restaurant that had red light. The main floor was the dinning room, and below was a bar/ lounge that had live music. We sat on two couches with two small round tables in front of us. We ordered a lot of food, but not all of it really fit so comfortably on the table. There was so much, it was almost like you didn't know what you were eating, but everything was really good.
There was a sweet chili sauce that was for dipping and it was amazing. There were actually three small cups of sauces that were brought to our table that someone who will remain nameless, asked if they were soups. The best things were the beef satay, the chinese chicken salad and the vietnamese crep with beef. I didn't take pictures because I was too busy eating.
After we finished dinner, we headed down the street to some apartment party (BARF). It was so stuffy in the apartment, and I couldn't breathe in without getting some smoke. I felt as if I was smoking. We also missed the memo that we needed masks. There were so many people in the apartment, I was so incredibly suffocated. Luckily we only stayed for max. an hour. I'm not so into apartment parties (aka 50 people shoved into a 2 bedroom Paris apartment).
We finally left the party and we decided to walk, not take a cab back to the hotel. That was a mistake because we stumbled around for an hour trying to find a cab, with Erin yelping in the background about her feet falling off. Eric convinced some lady to take us while she wanted for her husband (probably lover) to get off work. We ended up at the hotel where we ordered some dessert. Eric really wanted a crep but all they could offer was cheesecake with chunky cheesecake ice cream. Generally it is almost impossible to get a cab between 1-5 am but I was lucky to have the hotel be able to call one for me.
I will post about my lovely day today with Cuz and E tomorrow, or whenever I find time.
My program is over and I cannot wait to go home, but I am already missing being here and learning everything Hottie Chef has to offer me.
Bisous
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