USU Study abroad asked me to write an article for the university's newspaper, The Statesman. I wrote two because I wasn't sure what to write about, sent them a ton of pictures, and said, "Have at it!" They chose this piece and didn't cut it (it is twice the length that they asked for) so I guessed they liked it!
Aggies Around the World: Feeling the Aggie Spirit in France
by Mari Lindstrom
I know that many of you, my fellow Aggies, are not looking forward to the dreary, dark, cold, icy, windy, “When will it be spring?” spring semester, which I more appropriately refer to as winter semester because it only ends with “spring” when we all should be studying for finals but are instead sunbathing on the Quad. But really, USU isn’t that bad. I will be the first to admit that I wasn’t all gung ho Aggie-spirited before I left to study abroad in France for a year, but after spending a semester at a French university, there are some things about USU I now appreciate more.
First off, you have to understand that I love studying abroad and have never regretted it, but seeing how a socialized basically-free university education is, I will gladly empty my savings account when I return to go to be an Aggie next semester because I really love …
The A. How else am I going to get some random stranger lay one on my kisser? The best I’ve gotten is the traditional, yet sticky beer-smelling bises (kisses) on the cheek from random drunk men. Everyone else just pretends to kiss your cheek, so it is more of a hi-five with your cheeks and not as romantic as you’d think.
Aggie Blue Blikes. Although the rentable bikes at Nantes are definitely cooler (they are orange and green with a bell) you sure pay for it. Not only do you have to put down a 170 euro guarantee, you have to put down 40 more euros to use it for the year. Aggie Blue Bikes? Free. ‘Nough said.
Three words: Aggie Ice Cream.
The bathrooms. I didn’t know how much I loved the bathrooms at USU. They always have toilet paper and don’t smell of acidic kidney waste. There are also many of them, and they get cleaned regularly. They even have mirrors so you can see if you have saved some leftover Angie’s breakfast in your front teeth for later. This doesn’t happen in France. You also live your worst childhood nightmare every time you go to the loo … thinking that you walked into the wrong restroom. But no, you are just in France, where it is socially acceptable for you go to a bathroom while the boys relieve themselves around the corner because you are in a non-gender specified WC.
Choices. Choosing a major in France is like chaining yourself to a brick wall, never being able to move again without causing lots of pain and inconvenience for everyone. Once you pick a major, you stick to it. You don’t even get to dabble your toes in other classes such as group guitar, live animal or carcass evaluation – or fluvial geomorphology just for kicks and giggles (not that they have those classes in France). In France if you are a science major, you can say “au revoir” to an English or art class, and you don’t have the “right” to take some other science classes. At USU we have so many choices: don’t like the professor? Change the class. Don’t like the hour the class is held? Change the class. Don’t like your major? Well, change it. No one will look at you funny until you change it for the fourth or fifth time. In France you don’t have these options.
Heating. I used to think it was sometimes chilly in the Merrill-Cazier Library during winter near the giant glass windows, yet that is nothing compared to sitting in a bare classroom (no computer, no projector, often no garbage can) with the ambient temperature being 12 degrees Celsius. For those of you not accustomed Celsius, that is a balmy 53.6F, which, with humidity, requires one to be fully equipped in a snow coat, long johns, a beanie and mittens to be able to even fathom the idea of taking out your pen and take notes.
The library. Not only does the Merrill-Cazier Library have the awesome barn, it is actually open at convenient hours for the strange variation of homo sapiens that we call college students. I used to complain that the library was only open until 6 or 7 p.m. on the weekends. At the University of Nantes, it is open from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays and only until 1 p.m. on Saturdays. It makes it quite the adventure to try to find 20 minutes between classes to study at the library. You can forget midnight cram jams with pizza at the library with your friends.
The paper. The paper here is long, and I don’t know why. But I don’t like it. Since the paper isn’t the standard letter-size we have in the U.S., it makes a one-page paper that much longer. And never mind lined paper for taking notes. They are all about the blocks here.
The professors. Not only do we have the infamous Andy Anderson at USU (I have never been so proud of a B+ in my life) we have other teachers who actually care if you learn what they are teaching. I concede that my teachers here have cared more or less about me in France, but they aren’t as willing to be at the mercy (I mean that in a good way) of the students. Here, I am lucky if I get an e-mail back from a professor in a week, but at USU I can have e-mail conversations with professors at midnight about my paper that is due the next week. Aggie professors are willing to work with students, stay after class and do whatever they can to help them succeed. In France, you thank them endlessly if they give you a 12 out of 20 on the last paper you wrote.
School spirit. Team go? Go team? The French don’t even know what to cheer because organized collegiate sports aren’t the thing here, nor is loving your school. I have yet to see a single student wear a T-shirt, hoodie, beanie, pants, socks or other article of clothing bearing his school name, possibly because said articles don’t exist in France. We don’t even have a school mascot.
The secretaries. Send them flowers on Secretary Appreciation Day (April 21), because they deserve it. Not only do they speak the same language as you (figuratively and literally speaking), have e-mail, computers and other forms of technology, they also know what they are doing. All the French paperwork that one must constantly do is confusing enough, but when you have to visit seven different secretaries, each telling you to visit a different secretary, get a fifth form of picture ID along with three photos of you, it becomes ridiculous.
Social life. No sports games, dances, painted faces, hanging out in the university housing, late night movies and pranking your roommates. French students are boring – no offense to them, but they are. I can easily spend two ours sitting in my hallway and see no one. You get looked at strangely for saying “bonjour” to people you don’t know, and you can just keep your Chacos, shorts and hi-tech backpack in your closet because you will get death glares if you are not silent, on the verge of anorexia and have a solid Eastpak backpack for boys or a grossly oversized handbag for the ladies. And dating? That doesn’t exist. You don’t have the cute guy in the next room ask you out, getting a significant other happens only through the law of physical attraction. If you find someone fit, as they say in England, you give a go at holding hands. The other accepts? You’re a couple. The other rejects? Move on. You don’t get a chance to show the other that beyond your clammy hands is your great personality.
Technology. Do you know how we all complain that there aren’t lots of computers on campus and that online registration is a nightmare? It isn’t. There are maybe 20 computers in the library here, and you have to go to a separate computer to print papers. Online registration? Doesn’t exist. Try finding each professor and seeing if you can be in the class – said class being offered only one time during the week, which naturally coincides with two other classes that you want to take, and said professor never answers e-mails and has office hours once a week while you are working. I definitely won’t complain again about online registration, thinking the Internet is slow or having to wait in line for three minutes to use a computer at the TSC. Even USU’s student cards are more advanced. Although it was an adventure to stick the sticker with my information on the card (all the first letters cut off), glue on the minuscule photo of my head that I had to go downtown to print off, go to the library to get a barcode for which you must give your name, nationality, address and phone number, I prefer our nifty cards all ready to go and not from the stone age.
So Aggies, although it may be cold out, at least you have the Aggie Spirit to keep you warm. Team go.
Mari Lundstrom is part of the USU Study Abroad program. Look every Monday for more students’ experiences abroad.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Day 132: Pig Legs and Cow Tongues
10 janvier 2010 (Day 132)
Happy Sunday. Sadly it feels like just another day here. I woke up and had breakfast before the kids were up. We haven’t been doing much all day though. We went outside and built a snow fort and had lunch (pasta and more wild hog bog) as children. It was fun playing out in the snow because one of the dogs would jump and catch all of the snowballs. Antoine and I watched some show with genetics and cloning, but I didn’t pay much attention at the beginning. It got more ridiculously entertaining though, so that made life fun. There was this crazy scientist who decided to clone a dragon and it ended up killing almost everyone (except the two people who fell in love, naturally).
We played Scrabble together before dinner. It is hard in French, to play Scrabble, but luckily we were all on teams. I even thought of some words for my team! Go me! For dinner we had some soup and tried some cow’s tongue. I can’t believe I ate it! They didn’t tell me what it was when they stuck it on my plate, but I had an idea, so I said tell me after and I went for it! It wasn’t bad, but if you think about it too much, it makes it difficult to eat. So there we have it. My last day on the farm and I had cow’s tongue and some very salty ham cut right off from the pigs leg. It was some pig, I thought it was a deer’s leg!
Happy Sunday. Sadly it feels like just another day here. I woke up and had breakfast before the kids were up. We haven’t been doing much all day though. We went outside and built a snow fort and had lunch (pasta and more wild hog bog) as children. It was fun playing out in the snow because one of the dogs would jump and catch all of the snowballs. Antoine and I watched some show with genetics and cloning, but I didn’t pay much attention at the beginning. It got more ridiculously entertaining though, so that made life fun. There was this crazy scientist who decided to clone a dragon and it ended up killing almost everyone (except the two people who fell in love, naturally).
We played Scrabble together before dinner. It is hard in French, to play Scrabble, but luckily we were all on teams. I even thought of some words for my team! Go me! For dinner we had some soup and tried some cow’s tongue. I can’t believe I ate it! They didn’t tell me what it was when they stuck it on my plate, but I had an idea, so I said tell me after and I went for it! It wasn’t bad, but if you think about it too much, it makes it difficult to eat. So there we have it. My last day on the farm and I had cow’s tongue and some very salty ham cut right off from the pigs leg. It was some pig, I thought it was a deer’s leg!
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.
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.
Day 130: A Day to Myself
8 janvier 2010 (Day 130)
For all of you who read this (aka Dad) I finished! I have no written all about Sweden, so feel free to go back into the 50s and read all about it. My New Years vacation is also all written about as well and as usual there are loads of pictures in the photo albums on the right hand side of your screen.
Today has been a pretty productive day. I woke up with a cold around 9am (after I went back to bed at 7:30 because it was cold) and took a shower. I came up and had breakfast. It snowed last night and it rained on and off for the rest of the day. The organic brown bread today for breakfast was SOO delicious. It has a great taste. I also tried some of the spice and honey bread that Flo makes. It is pretty good as well. The parents left to go to some meeting about raising organic sheep (I decided to skip out). Instead I put labels on honey jars and cooked the rest of the cookies. I added more flour and they turned out a lot better. Now I just need to stop eating them! I have been catching up on my journaling and talking to my dad. I just had leftover couscous and some bread (and cookies) for lunch.
I played some English games with Antoine and Juliette before dinner. First we played Pictionary with fruit (you had to say the name in English) and then I had Antoine act out different animals and Juliette had to guess what he was. For dinner we had chicken, potatoes, and a green salad. It was quite delish. Tonight we watched two episodes of Veronica Mars and they were crazy! I can’t believe that all that happened did, and in just two episodes! I was going to talk online to some friends, but the wifi stopped right before I started, so I just went to bed instead.
For all of you who read this (aka Dad) I finished! I have no written all about Sweden, so feel free to go back into the 50s and read all about it. My New Years vacation is also all written about as well and as usual there are loads of pictures in the photo albums on the right hand side of your screen.
Today has been a pretty productive day. I woke up with a cold around 9am (after I went back to bed at 7:30 because it was cold) and took a shower. I came up and had breakfast. It snowed last night and it rained on and off for the rest of the day. The organic brown bread today for breakfast was SOO delicious. It has a great taste. I also tried some of the spice and honey bread that Flo makes. It is pretty good as well. The parents left to go to some meeting about raising organic sheep (I decided to skip out). Instead I put labels on honey jars and cooked the rest of the cookies. I added more flour and they turned out a lot better. Now I just need to stop eating them! I have been catching up on my journaling and talking to my dad. I just had leftover couscous and some bread (and cookies) for lunch.
I played some English games with Antoine and Juliette before dinner. First we played Pictionary with fruit (you had to say the name in English) and then I had Antoine act out different animals and Juliette had to guess what he was. For dinner we had chicken, potatoes, and a green salad. It was quite delish. Tonight we watched two episodes of Veronica Mars and they were crazy! I can’t believe that all that happened did, and in just two episodes! I was going to talk online to some friends, but the wifi stopped right before I started, so I just went to bed instead.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Day 129: On The Battle Front
7 Janvier 2010 (Day 129)
Boy was breakfast “fun” today. We woke up early because we had to take Brooke down to the bus. We were all tranquilly eating breakfast when Jean Claude brought up how you can’t say that you are a friend of the environment and take and airplane, anywhere. This turned into a semi-heated debate that got talked about for quite some time. At least we got to eat cookies for breakfast. Due to said debate, we thought we were late for the bus because it wasn’t there! We had already descended partway down the mountain, and Jean Claude went even faster, thinking we could catch the bus at the next city. We didn’t catch the bus, but we saw it on its way up (it was late), so we had gone all that extra way for nothing! At the stop Jean Claude was backing up and hit the barrier (that thankfully kept us from going over the mountain). Cursing insued. Everyone, including the car, is okay. We said goodbye to Brooke and then it was back up the mountain, talking about hiking the Alps (they have cabins you can stay in along the way hiking all over), parachuting, rock climbing, Alp skiing (no lifts involved). Life sounds pretty cool!
We finished breakfast more mellow-ly (I had to get help yet again with the gas stove to make my hot cocoa). Well actually, I did. The adult persons (*cough* Jean Claude) were hollering at Antoine to hurry and at each other. I’m glad I’m normally asleep for this part of the day. Antoine, “our little bunny”, got to school on time. It was so cute to see him out waiting for the bus with his lunch and the dog by his side. It was too classic.
After washing the dishes I went out and fed the sheep by myself. They were awful today, as was Jama (apparently the horse’s name is NOT Jean…oops). They were very hungry so they were going nuts. I did get them fed, although moving hay bales over fences without them touching the ground is a lot easier with another person on the other side of the fence. I went and helped Jean Claude do some plumbing. By help I mean I put some Teflon tape on things and learned the word for screwdriver (tournevis). We got the system working though (after more cursing!). Jean Claude is a true MacGyver. He rebuilt (and enlarged) their house by himself as well as built the mielry. The dogs stole my slipper, but luckily I found it outside before they ate it.
Jean Claude offered to drive me to Grenoble because he is going to work there. He is not only a farmer, but some nuclear electrician or something really cool sounding like that. Not only will my train ride be 9 hours shorter, I will also be several dollars richer! I made some celery salad and a couscous/tuna/onion/corn salad for lunch. Jean Claude kind of freaked out that I put corn in it (that is what chickens eat. He is also against eating oats as homo sapiens. I didn’t have the heart to tell him I normally have them every morning for breakfast.) I thought it was really nice though. I think the highlight of the awkward lunch (since I had cooked it) was the cat barfing. We had some pate that they made. Florence gave some to the old half blind cat and she puked it up about 90 seconds later and then proceed to eat the foamy spit.
After lunch I learned how to put the honey in the jars. I am totally a pro now! I didn’t spill that much, and what I did spill I got to taste test. After filling honey jars (relatively uneventfully) I proof-read my two articles for The Statesmen. Quite the productive day!
So, as I am typing right now, the parentals are getting lice and nits (the eggs) out of Antoine’s head. At the kitchen table. With food on the table. Not only do I find this disgusting, this house is not at all sanitary. I worry for my head. Luckily it hasn’t started itching. I’ve just been tapping away, taking occasional breaks to play the guitar and the piano.
For dinner we essentially had mushy peas, sausage they made themselves from their pigs (it was delish). Today wins for awkward dinner conversation. Somehow we got on the topic of killing people, the best way, the most efficient way, how you would want to die, etc. Jean Claude is quite brutal. He said we didn’t kill enough people in the Reign of Terror (by we I mean France) and that we should have had something more efficient, though the guillotine was, but he prefers different ways to exterminate mass quantities of people, like burning or bombs. He did give props to Hitler though. I just thought of how much Jean Claude would get along with Thomas Malthus, lol.
Boy was breakfast “fun” today. We woke up early because we had to take Brooke down to the bus. We were all tranquilly eating breakfast when Jean Claude brought up how you can’t say that you are a friend of the environment and take and airplane, anywhere. This turned into a semi-heated debate that got talked about for quite some time. At least we got to eat cookies for breakfast. Due to said debate, we thought we were late for the bus because it wasn’t there! We had already descended partway down the mountain, and Jean Claude went even faster, thinking we could catch the bus at the next city. We didn’t catch the bus, but we saw it on its way up (it was late), so we had gone all that extra way for nothing! At the stop Jean Claude was backing up and hit the barrier (that thankfully kept us from going over the mountain). Cursing insued. Everyone, including the car, is okay. We said goodbye to Brooke and then it was back up the mountain, talking about hiking the Alps (they have cabins you can stay in along the way hiking all over), parachuting, rock climbing, Alp skiing (no lifts involved). Life sounds pretty cool!
We finished breakfast more mellow-ly (I had to get help yet again with the gas stove to make my hot cocoa). Well actually, I did. The adult persons (*cough* Jean Claude) were hollering at Antoine to hurry and at each other. I’m glad I’m normally asleep for this part of the day. Antoine, “our little bunny”, got to school on time. It was so cute to see him out waiting for the bus with his lunch and the dog by his side. It was too classic.
After washing the dishes I went out and fed the sheep by myself. They were awful today, as was Jama (apparently the horse’s name is NOT Jean…oops). They were very hungry so they were going nuts. I did get them fed, although moving hay bales over fences without them touching the ground is a lot easier with another person on the other side of the fence. I went and helped Jean Claude do some plumbing. By help I mean I put some Teflon tape on things and learned the word for screwdriver (tournevis). We got the system working though (after more cursing!). Jean Claude is a true MacGyver. He rebuilt (and enlarged) their house by himself as well as built the mielry. The dogs stole my slipper, but luckily I found it outside before they ate it.
Jean Claude offered to drive me to Grenoble because he is going to work there. He is not only a farmer, but some nuclear electrician or something really cool sounding like that. Not only will my train ride be 9 hours shorter, I will also be several dollars richer! I made some celery salad and a couscous/tuna/onion/corn salad for lunch. Jean Claude kind of freaked out that I put corn in it (that is what chickens eat. He is also against eating oats as homo sapiens. I didn’t have the heart to tell him I normally have them every morning for breakfast.) I thought it was really nice though. I think the highlight of the awkward lunch (since I had cooked it) was the cat barfing. We had some pate that they made. Florence gave some to the old half blind cat and she puked it up about 90 seconds later and then proceed to eat the foamy spit.
After lunch I learned how to put the honey in the jars. I am totally a pro now! I didn’t spill that much, and what I did spill I got to taste test. After filling honey jars (relatively uneventfully) I proof-read my two articles for The Statesmen. Quite the productive day!
So, as I am typing right now, the parentals are getting lice and nits (the eggs) out of Antoine’s head. At the kitchen table. With food on the table. Not only do I find this disgusting, this house is not at all sanitary. I worry for my head. Luckily it hasn’t started itching. I’ve just been tapping away, taking occasional breaks to play the guitar and the piano.
For dinner we essentially had mushy peas, sausage they made themselves from their pigs (it was delish). Today wins for awkward dinner conversation. Somehow we got on the topic of killing people, the best way, the most efficient way, how you would want to die, etc. Jean Claude is quite brutal. He said we didn’t kill enough people in the Reign of Terror (by we I mean France) and that we should have had something more efficient, though the guillotine was, but he prefers different ways to exterminate mass quantities of people, like burning or bombs. He did give props to Hitler though. I just thought of how much Jean Claude would get along with Thomas Malthus, lol.
Day 128: Biking Cooking and Hiking in Sallagriffon
6 janvier 2010 (Day 128)
Today was a fun day! I helped Florence clean the kitchen and dining room. I haven’t seen that many spiderwebs in a long time. It did smell nice like lavender once we were done though. After helping Florence clean the house, we went and fed the sheep. Jean Claude put the baby ewe who had jumped out back in with the other babies. He grabbed one hind leg and let it walk around on the front two; it was quite humorous Around 11, Jean Claude, Florence, and Antoine left to go down into the city, which means Brooke and I had the day for ourselves. Brooke did some house cleaning (since she was asleep for the first part) while I heated up leftovers. I am so glad I grew up with a microwave in the house, because reheating leftovers on the stove is tedious! I made cinnamon couscous, warmed up some cauliflower, and had pork and lentils. Brooke had the rest of the potato omelet. After lunch we went out for a walk because it was such a beautiful day. We were walking in the hills behind the property, but Brooke isn’t much of the mountaineer, so after a while we turned around and went back. It was fun on the way though because three of the dogs (there are four) followed us and were leading the way. We tried to clean the rug, but I don’t know if we did much. I have never seen such a disgustingly dirty rug in my life. I beat it for five minutes straight and there were still giant clouds of dust whizzing off the rug turning the snow brown. We then grabbed the bikes and went for a ride! The dogs chased us and we went who knows how far, but it was gorgeous!!!! The bike ride convinced me that I need to find a bike in France.
We came back and decided to make some cookies. We rounded up all the ingredients and then we heading off to the industrial kitchen. We made honey cookies and chocolate chip cookies. Man did that dough taste good! In between changing flavors, we went out and fed the sheep. Brooke secretly hates sheep, so it is totally entertaining to watch her freak out about them. The sheep got fed and so did we later that night. Before the family came home while Brooke was packing (she leaves tomorrow) I played Colorblind by Counting Crows on the piano and some songs on the guitar like: Country Roads (which I had sang to Brooke earlier on our hike in the mountains), Nantes, Goodbye My Lover, and Picture to Burn. I am still sad about losing my only plectrum (aka guitar pick) somewhere in this house.
We had pork roast and pasta while we cooked some cookies. It was an adventure because we didn’t use a cookie rack and some of the cookies slid off the parchment paper and were baking on the bottom of the oven! Brooke freaked out enough for everyone and we got it fixed several minutes and some parchment paper on fire later. The cookies were pretty good. French butter does strange things to cookies though and the butter taste is very strong. During dinner we talked about lots of random trivia like who invented what and discovered where. Antoine asks the greatest questions really randomly. It will have nothing to do with what anyone is talking about and then he will suddenly ask, “What is malaria?” “How many English people are there?” “Who discovered Australia?” Brooke corrected my paper after our dessert of cookies and milk, before which Jean Claude asked if we were allowed to dip the cookies in milk, lol. Yes!! We also had another practice at learning the moves to “Laissez-Moi Danser” which is only the best French disco song. EVER. (Watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYduBo6gqYk)
Day 127: Oh My Hay
5 janvier 2010 (Day 127)
We had another fun day working on the farm. Brooke and I helped with the labeling until lunchtime. After watching a drole argument about grated carrots, celery and mayo, we had said grated veggies and some fish. We went with Jean Claude and helped feed the sheep and then move the hay bales. It was a lot of fun trying not to fall in the holes and heaving the bales up. I am not quite sure that Brooke is quite cut out for farm work. The highlight of this definitely happened when Brooke and I were feeding the sheep later in the day. We keep the younger ewes from the older sheep so they don’t get trampled. Sheep are really dumb and fidgety so they run all over like chickens with their heads cut off when you are walking amongst them. This scared one ewe so much that he hopped the fence. Brooke ensues, searching for the ewe while it is practically dark, screaming her head off that sheep are dirty and smelly. She also hates the sound they make, lol.
We had dinner around 9pm: soup and creamy cauliflower. I’m now correcting my articles that I am writing for the newspaper. They emailed me yesterday and want me to write an article for the paper on Monday. It should be fun! I’ve written two so far because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to say.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
