Day 131: Polenta, Galette des Rois

9 janvier 2010 (Day 131)
This morning the family (I was sleeping) saw two bucks. It is apparently very rare to see them, so they tried to catch them with no luck. One of the dogs went after the cerfs (male deer) and didn’t come back. We hope that Trenion is okay.
Today I played the guitar and piano a lot before everyone came over. Saturdays the kids have piano lessons and guitar lessons. They have neighbors come have their lessons here as well since they have a big house and a piano. So we had cute little Lulu and her mom along with the piano teacher for lunch. We had some meat in potatoes with this really yummy side dish called polenta (aka corn meal mush) that you boil milk and water then add cornmeal, butter, garlic, and mix mix mix. You then stick it in a casserole dish with cheese on top and bake it. It tastes really good. I want to make it again. I helped Juliette make it. We all had a nice lunch together and then I went up to Mathilde’s room and played guitar in there for a while because I didn’t know what else to do while everyone was having their lessons. I talked to Amber, my bestest friend ever in America for about five minutes. It is the first time I have talked to her since I left.
In the afternoon we went into the city center of Sallagriffon to have some galette des rois ("This is a popular French cake that celebrates the holiday of Epiphany (January 6th) the day when the 3 Kings visited the Baby Jesus. As part of French tradtion, a bean or small china feve (favor) is hidden in the cake. The person who finds the feve in his or her slice becomes king or queen for the day. The person can also choose someone to be their king or queen and can lead the tradtional dance."). There was some official that was talking before we got to eat the cake that was really boring. We then had the galette! This time I tried some apple-filled and chocolate galette des rois. I prefer the galette with almond filling and lots of mille feuille. Antoine had one of the small figurines which means that he was to be king for the day. He didn’t really want to have it and it was really funny to watch him. He saw it and was whispering to Juliette and me, “Look! I have it, I don’t want it. What do I do?” He avoided eating the bite with the feve until it was the only thing left on his plate. He then shoved it in his mouth and tried to keep it there. We finally made him take it out and get his crown. He was so embarrassed about it, it was great to watch…especially compared to the 60-year-old lady who grabbed her crown with glee and kept it one for the rest of the day. Antoine and Juliette showed me a little around the city center while Jean Claude was talking with the other adults.
I got to talk to Amber online before dinner. It was so great! I haven’t laughed that much in a while. It was great for both of us, I don’t think either of us have stopped smiling. Tonight for dinner we had wild pig that Jean Claude illegally killed (which makes it taste that much better). It was okay, but not my favorite. We went out and looked for Trenion in the car, but we didn’t find him.