Just a strange fact: NOBODY picks up their dogs poop here, they just leave it. Even if it is right in front of your gate!
Thurday was a long day, because I ended at six for the first time all week. I got my physics test back, and got a 1.5/20! I guess it can only get better from there!:) Friday the English teacher was missing, so for the first two hours of school my whole class went into this recreation room where we studied for the next classes test, Chemistry. Even though I have already taken chemistry in AK, its a bit different here. The names of the elements for one thing, and then also the method of the teacher. I didnt understand, so Laurie spend 1 hour and a half going over all the problems with me! Though some people were studying, most were not; playing music on their ipods or cellphone, or messing with the radio in the room. So, when our crazy CPE (principle-ish position) man walked in, he saw the majority of us playing instead of studying. So this is what he told us: since most people were playing, we all had to play! And he made everyone put away their homework and folders. I didnt understand, and didnt see everyone else put away their stuff, so then he came over to me and started talking really fast in french, and I just smiled at him because thats what I normally do when I dont understand:), so then he got even angrier, until Laurie told me to close my book and put everything away! I had heard he was crazy, but never though he would forbid students to do their homework!!
Anyways, I realized that I have not been talking much about French food, and that is a big part of the culture here!! So, I think I will start writing down what I have for dinner each day, because that is the most French of all my French meals. Breakfast here is usually the same, we eat fruit, cereal (Special K with chocolate:)), or hard commercial bread with homemade jam (fig, apricot, strawberry) or butter. Then lunch at school is French, but the main course is pretty much like anyother highschool. You can get yoghurt, a dessert, bread (they have huge baskets of it!), cheese most days, fruit, and then the main course which usually is a hot vegetable and meat. You eat at tables with your food on trays, and real silverware, real plates, and real glasses (which someone breaks about once every day). Okay, dinner:
On Wednesday night, we ate whole artichokes first, we pealed them apart and dipped each individual leaf-thing in a redwine vinegar-olive oil sauce. It was my first time eating a whole artichoke, and I though it was pretty good, though the heart was the best part! Then we ate a plateful of black mushrooms (sorry for my poor discriptions and lack of knowlege, I always ask what were having, they my host parents say the name so fast, I forget it right after they say it, and if I didnt I would have no idea how to spell it correctly, I will work on that though). Like always, we ate bread with dinner, and after the mushrooms, we had cheese and/or yoghurt.
On Thursday night, we ate rabbit with mushrooms, olives, and it was all in a red sauce. Then we ate noodles with parmesean cheese, and of course, bread and cheese/yoghurt/fruit.
Last night, we ate a greek salad, though it was not really salad as I am used to with lettuce, it had a creamy white sauce (I think maybe crème fraiche) and then ground up cucumber mixed in, and then chives on top. We ate most of it with bread, and then we ate a plateful of greenbeans, which they eat a lot of here, though I am not sure if it is just because they are in season or not. Afterwards, we ate cheese and bread.
Last night, Claire told us she was going to the outdoor market that happens every Saturday and Wednesday morning. (Claire always goes on Saturday mornings, and Michel goes on Wednesday mornings). I asked what time she was going, and she told me 8:30, and would like it if I went too! So, this morning I got up and went to the market, this time, I did not forget my camera, so I will download pictures soon. I asked her a bunch of questions, and found out that they always buy their bread, fruit, and vegetables at this market, never at the grocery store. The market is called Le Petit Marché de Monchat (Monchat just one small region of Lyon), and that it continues through winter and summer alike. There were mostly small tents of fruits and vegetables, but also about 3 or 4 stands of bread, 3 or 4 stands of flowers, 3 or 4 stands of cheese, 3 or 4 stand of meat, and one stand of woven bags and carpets. Claire told me that there is a larger market where there are more stands of material items, rather than just fresh produce, bread and cheese. We got our bread first. Surprisingly, they dont buy many baguettes, though there are plenty of people walking about the streets with one or two baguettes under their arm! They buy bread with poppyseeds or nuts in it, though it is always freshly baked and crusty, not like the smooshy wonderbread in the US. Claire bought about a foot long loaf of nut bread (fact: in the french language, they do not have a word for 'nut', you have to say the specific type of nut, though I am not sure what kind is in the bread), one long and skinny (though not a traditional baguette) loaf of poppyseed bread, and then one croissant, one pain au chocolate (croissant with chocolate in it), and one brioche. Before this, I had never really known what brioche was, it turns out, that it is a very light and fluffy bread that is put in a small starish shaped pan with a little ball of dough stuck on top to bake, its good, but I like croissants better:) Then we bought lettuce, potatos, apples, avocatos, cheese, and meat. There is a type of cheese here called Comte, it is a hard cheese and it is deeeeeelicious! We also eat Brie, Camembert, and a bunch of other cheeses I have yet to learn the names of.
This afternoon, we are going to an art exhibit and then my host dad bought the movie 'Fame' so we will watch that tonight. Tomorrow, we are going biking again, though definitely ON the road this time, I told my host dad that I would never again go off road biking with him:), to a restaurant that serves frog..
.at least t
hat is what 
I understood.
Thurday was a long day, because I ended at six for the first time all week. I got my physics test back, and got a 1.5/20! I guess it can only get better from there!:) Friday the English teacher was missing, so for the first two hours of school my whole class went into this recreation room where we studied for the next classes test, Chemistry. Even though I have already taken chemistry in AK, its a bit different here. The names of the elements for one thing, and then also the method of the teacher. I didnt understand, so Laurie spend 1 hour and a half going over all the problems with me! Though some people were studying, most were not; playing music on their ipods or cellphone, or messing with the radio in the room. So, when our crazy CPE (principle-ish position) man walked in, he saw the majority of us playing instead of studying. So this is what he told us: since most people were playing, we all had to play! And he made everyone put away their homework and folders. I didnt understand, and didnt see everyone else put away their stuff, so then he came over to me and started talking really fast in french, and I just smiled at him because thats what I normally do when I dont understand:), so then he got even angrier, until Laurie told me to close my book and put everything away! I had heard he was crazy, but never though he would forbid students to do their homework!!
Anyways, I realized that I have not been talking much about French food, and that is a big part of the culture here!! So, I think I will start writing down what I have for dinner each day, because that is the most French of all my French meals. Breakfast here is usually the same, we eat fruit, cereal (Special K with chocolate:)), or hard commercial bread with homemade jam (fig, apricot, strawberry) or butter. Then lunch at school is French, but the main course is pretty much like anyother highschool. You can get yoghurt, a dessert, bread (they have huge baskets of it!), cheese most days, fruit, and then the main course which usually is a hot vegetable and meat. You eat at tables with your food on trays, and real silverware, real plates, and real glasses (which someone breaks about once every day). Okay, dinner:
On Wednesday night, we ate whole artichokes first, we pealed them apart and dipped each individual leaf-thing in a redwine vinegar-olive oil sauce. It was my first time eating a whole artichoke, and I though it was pretty good, though the heart was the best part! Then we ate a plateful of black mushrooms (sorry for my poor discriptions and lack of knowlege, I always ask what were having, they my host parents say the name so fast, I forget it right after they say it, and if I didnt I would have no idea how to spell it correctly, I will work on that though). Like always, we ate bread with dinner, and after the mushrooms, we had cheese and/or yoghurt.
On Thursday night, we ate rabbit with mushrooms, olives, and it was all in a red sauce. Then we ate noodles with parmesean cheese, and of course, bread and cheese/yoghurt/fruit.
Last night, we ate a greek salad, though it was not really salad as I am used to with lettuce, it had a creamy white sauce (I think maybe crème fraiche) and then ground up cucumber mixed in, and then chives on top. We ate most of it with bread, and then we ate a plateful of greenbeans, which they eat a lot of here, though I am not sure if it is just because they are in season or not. Afterwards, we ate cheese and bread.
Last night, Claire told us she was going to the outdoor market that happens every Saturday and Wednesday morning. (Claire always goes on Saturday mornings, and Michel goes on Wednesday mornings). I asked what time she was going, and she told me 8:30, and would like it if I went too! So, this morning I got up and went to the market, this time, I did not forget my camera, so I will download pictures soon. I asked her a bunch of questions, and found out that they always buy their bread, fruit, and vegetables at this market, never at the grocery store. The market is called Le Petit Marché de Monchat (Monchat just one small region of Lyon), and that it continues through winter and summer alike. There were mostly small tents of fruits and vegetables, but also about 3 or 4 stands of bread, 3 or 4 stands of flowers, 3 or 4 stands of cheese, 3 or 4 stand of meat, and one stand of woven bags and carpets. Claire told me that there is a larger market where there are more stands of material items, rather than just fresh produce, bread and cheese. We got our bread first. Surprisingly, they dont buy many baguettes, though there are plenty of people walking about the streets with one or two baguettes under their arm! They buy bread with poppyseeds or nuts in it, though it is always freshly baked and crusty, not like the smooshy wonderbread in the US. Claire bought about a foot long loaf of nut bread (fact: in the french language, they do not have a word for 'nut', you have to say the specific type of nut, though I am not sure what kind is in the bread), one long and skinny (though not a traditional baguette) loaf of poppyseed bread, and then one croissant, one pain au chocolate (croissant with chocolate in it), and one brioche. Before this, I had never really known what brioche was, it turns out, that it is a very light and fluffy bread that is put in a small starish shaped pan with a little ball of dough stuck on top to bake, its good, but I like croissants better:) Then we bought lettuce, potatos, apples, avocatos, cheese, and meat. There is a type of cheese here called Comte, it is a hard cheese and it is deeeeeelicious! We also eat Brie, Camembert, and a bunch of other cheeses I have yet to learn the names of.
This afternoon, we are going to an art exhibit and then my host dad bought the movie 'Fame' so we will watch that tonight. Tomorrow, we are going biking again, though definitely ON the road this time, I told my host dad that I would never again go off road biking with him:), to a restaurant that serves frog..
.at least that is what I understood.
Great pictures and yummy food. AB
ReplyDeleteYay, more pictures! That's a LOT of bread. >.< And Mr. Principal sounds mean. : ( What kind of principal yells at kids for studying?
ReplyDelete