Wednesday, July 9, 2008

She's baaaaaack

Guess what time zone I'm in!

Yes, that's right, good ol' ET. I made it here to NYC safe and sound today, thanks to Lufthansa, a most enjoyable international airline.

I am writing a quick note at 11:00pm ET while my body thinks it's 5:00am. That's what time I woke up this morning. In France. Which means I've pulled another all-nighter and I didn't sleep at all today. Things are getting a little hazy now and hallucinations might soon set in so I think it's best if I get to bed.

But I'm in New York. In my 'new apartment.' It is awesome. I went to Park Slope for the first time today and saw Rachel Paneth-Pollak! wtf? Awesome.

TIME FOR BED. Vive la France and vive mon retour!

Monday, July 7, 2008

In 24 hours I'll be sittin' at the airport

It's my last day in France.

I'm sittin' in the Brasserie de Conservatoire, chattin' it up with my cafe man. Turns out he's done three (3) three-month tours of the South of the US. Whatthebananas! His favorite state? Arizona. His favorite city? New Orleans. He rocks. Also he just made me the most chocolatey hot chocolate I have ever tasted... I can't even finish it (THIS, we all know, is HUGE)

Moving on...

Yesterday I went to the Mediterranean one last time. Specifically, I hung out at the Calanques (remember? The place with all the rocks and the water is this beautiful blue-green and everyone gets naked? Yup. There). I decided on a day-trip to Marseille to visit Emilie (daughter of Francoise, sister of Sandy) and Robyn and Brian who were finishing up their bike-tour of Provence there. Emilie took me to the beach where we se bronzered and then Robyn/Brian/I said adieu from their hostel.

I'm no good at goodbyes and I have been doing them since May. It's so weird to hear "au revoir" instead of "a toute a l'heure" or "a bientot." Because, nope, I won't be seeing anyone later or "till next time." I'm bouncing out, peace-ing from la France and everyone's wishing me a "bon voyage" and a "bon retour."

Luckily, with a few people I've been able to say "quand tu viens aux Etats-Unis on va..." ("when you come to the US we will...") because, for them, a future trip (hopefully in the near-future) is possible and in the plans. Emilie wants to study for a year in the US and if she does, it would be GREAT if her mom and sister visited and I could see them again. One of my students is going to do a tour of the Northern states of the US but he has no idea if Michigan is in his plans. Everyone I've met here knows I'm moving to NYC so I think I'll be getting hit up with CouchSurfing requests pretty soon/often :)

It's been amazing. Tonight's my last Red Sky night and I hope to drop some new covers and to sing with my fave guitarist. Fingers crossed that Celine and I sing together and that it's a good time.

Ok, I'm going to go start crying my eyes out now (mind you, I'm still at the cafe... I'm so classy). Catch you latah.

Saturday, July 5, 2008

C'est QUOI ca?

It's midnight on Saturday. I'm not sure when was the last time I slept... Thursday night, I think?

Yup.

Why is it that, when you're just starting to wrap something up somewhere, things actually start going? C'est quoi ca?

First off, last weekend I went to Grenoble (a beautiful town surrounded by mountains). It was a beautiful and wonderful and super fun weekend and I'm glad I took a chance and went. It further confirms the fact that I have had the chance to meet some of the greatest people around.

Yesterday I went to a concert with a friend who was playing with his 20-piece orchestra at an outdoor concert/cookout thing.

This is the part where I tell you what we ate!
On the menu? Sardines, mussels, and french fries, natch.

The music? Medleys of everyone from Celine Dion to hard rock, music of Frank Sinatra to Michael Buble, Yannick Noa, Josh Groban, etc. It was an AWESOME concert and I didn't get back to Avignon till... 3 o'clock? At which point I did not sleep like normal people would. Instead, I made pancakes and walked around my lil' walled-city, waiting for it to wake up. I absolutely could not fall asleep after all of that so I've been fueled on adrenaline/caffeine the rest of the day.

I have just come from a Provencal BBQ at Francoise's house. Ahhhh I love that family. I keep meeting the most amazing people and then dang, I gotta bounce. Watched some "Prison Break" with French sous-titres and then sat down to a delicious meal.

This is the part where I tell you what we ate!

Whte rice, tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs, onions
Grilled chicken (I gave up the vegetarianism for a night - didn't want to be rude and it was SO GOOD. I have a feeling this will have MAJORLY horrible consqeuences tomorrow)
ratatouille (vive les legumes!)
apricot sorbet (made from apricots from her friend's garden)

Francoise is an amazing cook.

It was all delicious, of course. What I loved was just sitting around with everyone, catching different conversations here and there (due partly to my questionable comprehension of spoken familial French and due to the fact that there was a lot going on), piping in when I had something to say, and watching the Provencal life roll on.

Tomorrow is a day-trip to Marseille. Monday is holycrapthedaybeforeileave Day. I shall spend it freaking out, closing my bank account, chanign money, packing, guitar, and Red Skying.

It's all ending. As sad as I am, I'm totally geeked for the return to the States!

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

I wish I had a food blog

Not that this France blog isn't fun, it's just... 101cookbooks.com has stolen my heart! As has postpunkkitchen.com! And so many others!

This post's for Jenny Yee.

Since I've stopped working and I have mucho free time on my hands, I've been surfing the internet for recipes that look delicious/might be vegan (ok, stop freaking out, everyone - I'm not vegan, I just like toying with the idea.)

Anyway! I've been cookin'! And here's what I did the other day:

This would be my 1/2 and 1/2 pizza I made the other day for myself and Amy. Left side: black beans, corn, red onion, red pepper, cheese. Right side: the same but no cheese. The crust: homemade! It was DELICIOUS, even if I accidentally undercooked the crust a little bit.






Dough is hard to make












And then I just had to make M&M/oatmeal (nothing-vegan-about-em) cookies.

Ooh but the other day I made the greatest breakfast cookies: vegan oatmeal/almond cookies.

Countdown to the US: one week.