manger manger manger (mahnjay x 3)

All you've missed in my life is eating, eating, and more eating. (Lol- just kidding, but that's what it has felt like).

Yesterday, I left my apartment at 11:30 to get to the pedagogical advisor's apartment located in the Croix-Rousse area. After my 50 minute bus-metro trip, I found her apartment no problem, arriving right on time. (Side story- while I was on the metro, I was interviewed by a TCL employee who asked me how many times I use the metro a day, where I was going, what I did for a living, how old I was, etc. I'm now part of some statistic somewhere!) The pedagogical advisor's name is Agnès and she's a very nice woman that has a high appreciation for food, wine, and other cultures. She speaks French and German fluently, she knows English well enough to teach other teachers how to teach English, and is taking Italian (for her upcoming trip to Rome). Her apartment is in a very old building, with high ceilings and tall windows. When I got there Agnès was very busy in the kitchen!

I was invited over with two other language assistants, a guy from Ohio and a girl from Canada. I got there second, after the guy named Zane, and we sat and chatted with Agnès in the little bustling kitchen while we waited for Magda, the girl from Canada. I also helped whip together the egg whites for the fondant au chocolat (our desert).

Once we were all ready to get the feast started, Agnès poured us an apèritif, a kir (made with cassis liquor from Dijon and sparkling white wine). For our first course, we had a simple, but tasty salad with avocado and balsamic dressing with some petits pains (little baguette like rolls). For our main course, she made tomates à la provencale (sautéed tomatoes with garlic), haricots verts (green beans), poulet à la crème (chicken in a cream sauce), and un gratin dauphinois (similar to au gratin potatoes or scalloped potatoes). With this course, we were served a fort red wine... which I guess translates to a robust red wine. Next came the cheese course, with a plate of 5 different cheeses (brie, compté, some sort of chèvre, and 2 others that I can't remember). None of them were too strong.... and were all quite delicious. These last 2 courses were of course served with the traditional French baguette. For desert, we had the fondant (a flour-less chocolate cake), vanilla ice cream with pecans, and orange slices.

Needless to say, I felt like I was going to need be rolled home. It was an amazing meal... Agnès went above and beyond, but I'm not complaining! It's always nice to have a good meal and some afternoon company! Agnès would go in and out of the kitchen often, forgetting things and cleaning things, so the three of us assistants would go back and forth between speaking English and French. The other two have better French speaking skills than I do, Zane having lived here since 2009 and Magda being from Canada... but I didn't ever feel lost and had fun talking about travels, future trips, where we were from, and of course, the food:)

I got home around 5:30pm, and had a hard time doing anything else but laying on the couch, slowly digesting. French food is yummy, but it can sure take you out of commission for a few hours after such a large meal. I got myself ready for school, watched the Simpson's for a few hours (a show I rarely watch at home, but am quite enjoying in French lol), and tried to get to bed.

School went well today. I did breakfast food in most classes, except for doing one lesson on age in the CE1 class and the Hokie Pokie with my CP class. They were soooo cute, as usual. The older classes had a lot of kids absent today with the flu. I hope I don't get it!!! I came home feeling a little drained of energy, but I think that's just because I didn't sleep well last night.

I stayed for lunch, which was a fried cheese patty and spinach, carrot and cucumber salad, baguette, applesauce, cheese slice, and a cup of sparkling wine (brought in by Vincent, the director). He said we were drinking it to expand my knowledge of French wine.... but I think they just wanted an excuse to drink a glass during lunch;) Also during lunch, I helped the CP teacher to translate some random marketing vocabulary from English to French (no easy task, and I'm still unsure why she needed it) and I had a pre-meeting meeting with some teachers about the language festival. Turns out they didn't have everything they needed for the meeting and so they said that we'd have another meeting after the March vacation.

Once again, I feel like I won't need to eat dinner. I guess this is why the French don't eat dinner until 8 or 9pm, but I feel weird eating dinner an hour or two before bed. So we shall see.

Hope you all had a nice lundi!

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