My French meal plan

Living in a host family, I have a meal plan arrangement. Host families provide breakfast for the student every day as well as a full dinner twice a week. Breakfast is typically yogurt, fruits, bread and jam, and juice.

I am not sure, but I believe the toaster is specifically extra long in order to be able to toast baguettes.

Dinners provided by the host family consist of multiple courses in order to present a typical French meal.
We typically begin with a salad and bread. The salad is eaten off a saucer, but the bread is torn off the baguette and it rests on the placemat rather than on the plate with your food. That is called the entrée.
Then the main course is dished onto plates. Upon eating all your food, it is perfectly normal to use your bread to wipe up some of the extra sauce that is left on the plate. That is the plat principal.
After the main dish, conversation continues as you choose from a couple different cheeses along with (guess what!) more bread. There are sometimes a pâté or two (a meat spread) to try as well.
Then my host sister will typically grab yogurts and cremes from the refrigerator, along with a couple fruits to choose from, and that is dessert.

I have had everything from a Russian Borscht soup (my host sister's boyfriend is originally from Russia) to homemade potatoes au gratin. I might add that the potatoes were even better than those that typically decorate the table on Thanksgiving, due to the real French cheeses they use here. This week we also had tomates farcies, a very typical French family meal and one of my host sister's favorites. Tomates farcies are large tomatoes stuffed with porc, veal, or beef and bread crumbs or rice. None of the recipes or photos I found on the internet did my host mom's cooking justice, but here is a recipe to give you an idea. The giant tomatoes lined up in a casserole and topped with their little chapeaux look just perfect coming out of the oven.


Other times, I am on my own for meals. I usually stop by the Carrefour grocery store for supplies to make myself lunch or dinner.

When the weather is nice, I can have a snack and work on homework at the table in the garden.

Nuit Blanche

The French expression "passer une nuit blanche" means to go the night without sleeping, and each year Paris hosts an event called Nuit Blanche where museums, food carts, and more are open throughout the night to encourage both citizens and tourists to spend a "nuit blanche" encountering Paris in a new way.
This year's eleventh annual Nuit Blanche was the night of Saturday, October 5. Exhibits and museums were open for free, while DJs lined the Seine river. Fashion, art, music, and cuisine combined to create a big event. TimeOut gives a brief, English listing of events, while the program can be found in French here.

We downloaded the app, checked out itineraries, and planned our night, deciding to go to le Grand Palais to see the Felix Vallotton exhibit "Le feu sous la glace." We waited in line for the museum, entranced by the lights, music, and smoke coming from the building.

 

Imagine the last scene of Night at the Museum where there is a big party inside the museum, and that will give you a good idea of what we got to experience. We went through the exhibit viewing an immense amount of works, all the while hearing a hint of the music coming from outside. As we then stepped onto the balcony of the Grand Palais, we entered the lit up area we had seen while waiting in line.

There was a DJ, strobe lights, and bartenders giving out free drinks. Meanwhile, a slideshow of art pieces was being shown on one of the walls of the balcony. It was an extremely amusing way to view the arts before walking down the street to Pont Alexandre, where we concluded our night by watching a firework show over the Seine river.

Lactose-intolerant while abroad

I am the unfortunate lactose-intolerant person living in Europe, but that does not stop me from trying all of the French cuisine.
Don't get me wrong, I often lay down at night regretting most of what I ate that day. But that is not going to keep me from participating in cheese tastings, getting ice cream cones on the beach of the Mediterranean, trying authentic French Onion Soup, or eating a croque-monsieur at a cafe. I try to convince myself that the delights of the moment are greater than the pains later.

Although there has always been one dairy product I have never been fond of, and that is milk. And if there was any way to make milk even less appealing to me, it would be this:

Unrefrigerated milk

The French do not refrigerate many items that Americans believe require chilling, such as eggs, fruit, and unopened milk. My host family's refrigerator is very small in size in comparison to our giant appliances in the US, so even if they did chill items such as these, they simply would not fit inside.

I am rather amused by this observation, because contrary to American belief, these items will not be ruined if left out on the counter rather than tightly sealed and stored in the refrigerator. Looks like we need to loosen up a bit in the States.

Two week review

To keep track of all that I have seen and done, I have been keeping a travel journal. This has helped me as I download and edit all my photos on my laptop, trying to remember the stories and experiences that correspond with each picture. It is a difficult and time-consuming task, as I have 531 photos from the 14 days I have been here.

So, what have I been up to? Let me review.

Monday, September 16, orientation began but who can focus when this is your view out the window?

Tuesday, September 17, I moved into my host family's home.

Wednesday, September 18, Sadie and I explored the Luxembourg Gardens in the rain. Sadie goes to the same college as I do in the states, but somehow even with a student body of 1400, we did not know each other prior to arriving in Paris.

Thursday, September 19, I climbed the steps of the Eiffel Tower.

Friday, September 20, we crossed Pont des Arts to visit the Louvre.

Saturday, September 21, I finally got to sleep in a little.

Sunday, September 22, I went to the neighborhood market to do some grocery shopping with my host mom.

Monday, September 23, was the first day of classes, which are each three hours long.

Tuesday, September 24, I explored the Sacre Coeur area after class, and I ate crepes for two out of three meals, seeing absolutely no problem with that.

Wednesday, September 25, I unsuccessfully tried to explain to the cats that I do not want to share my bed with them.

Thursday, September 26, class required a lot of effort to keep from daydreaming about the upcoming weekend trip to southern France.

Friday, September 27, our study abroad program traveled to Collioure, France, marking my first trip by train and my first glimpse of the Mediterranean Sea.

Saturday, September 28, we visited the city of Perpignan before returning to Collioure for a fresh seafood dinner along the beach. My main course was a buckwheat crepe topped with penne noodles and covered in an assortment of seafood. I also tried a hermit crab that came with my friend's dinner, and I would not recommend it. The actual crab does not taste like much, but the texture makes it unappetizing.

Sunday, September 29, we crossed over into Spain to tour the city of Cadaques before returning to Paris.

Monday, September 30, it was back to reality with class first thing in the morning.

World traveler

I will use Instagram's "Throwback Thursday" to justify creating this post out of order.

Sunday, September 15th, before going to the airport in Kansas City, we stopped at a family favorite for some barbecue. I had eaten Tex-Mex multiple times that last week, and at Fiorella's Jack Stack Barbecue I was able to get another of my favorite types of food before leaving America for three and a half months.

This is a more condensed version of the day than that of my mom, but after eating we headed to the airport in Kansas City, where I printed my boarding passes, checked my bag, and paid the overweight fee. After finally making it through security, I flew out of KCI to stop in Chicago before flying to CDG in Paris.

On my flight to Chicago from Kansas City, I sat a couple rows in front of former Kansas State point guard Angel Rodriguez.

Arriving in France, I passed through customs without any problems. A simple stamp in my passport and a "Bon voyage" from security were all it took. I then pulled some euros out of an ATM there in the airport, and I made my first French purchase: toothpaste.

Moving in

Today marks day two in Paris. We were all delivered to our housing this morning, and I am getting moved into my host family's house. It is right outside of Paris, in Malakoff.

Since it is outside of the actual city limits of Paris, it is a house rather than an apartment. There is a gate and garden in front of the house, with a sculpture studio attached to the back. I live with my host mother and her daughter, who each live on the second floor. The first floor has the kitchen and a seating area, and the third floor is a finished attic where my room is located.

Luckily, the daughter's boyfriend was there to help carry my luggage up to my room because the stairs up to the third floor are a little difficult to navigate.

My room was where my host mother's son lived when he still lived at home.

It still doesn't feel like I am actually in France, but maybe waking up tomorrow morning and seeing the view from my window will change that.

A Work in Progress

Packing in under fifty pounds is hard, and I hate it. I spend a lot of time thinking about all the things I know I cannot take with me, one of those being my bunny. 

I'll try again tomorrow, hopefully with better luck.