Sweetest Goodbye

Phew, life’s been amazing in the last 7.5 months. How can I possibly finish my blog ? All I know is that with a tear in my eye, France gave me the sweetest goodbye. For now at least!

“Oh today, I finally overcame
Tryin’ to fit the world inside a picture frame
Maybe I will tell you all about it
When I’m in the mood to lose my why with words

You should have seen that sunrise with your own eyes
It brought my back to life
You’ll be with me next time I go outside
No more 3x5’s, just no more 3x5’s”

I’m in the mood to tell you about it! An I promise no more 3x5’s!!

First, I want to take a moment to thank some important people to me that have really help me in some manner or another. Thank you Oli, you’ve supported me from the indecisiveness of coming, to celebrating actually having a conversation with me in French. Je t’aime fort. Thank you mom and dad- You may not have always understood my passion for French but have always supported my studies and life goals. My friends in the states- Heather, Kyle, Janice, Geraldine, Henry … no matter where you were in the world we found a way to stay in touch!

If you remember, I had some goals before I left the states! Let’s see how I did?

From September 4, 2009 :
There are a few things I hope to accomplish or experience before the end of April:
1.) Finally be fluent in French.
2.) Make at least one lasting friendship with a French person
3.) Read 5 classic french novels
4.) See Normandy finally!
5.) Learn at least five new classic french dishes from my area!

1. Be fluent in French? Check.

2. Friends? Let’s just say that I’ve found a corner of the world I’ll always be welcome back and people that I will miss from the deepest parts of my heart.

3. Five Novels? Hmmm….
-Le Petit Nicolas à la rentrée
-Vol de Nuit
-La prochaine Fois
-
-

4. See Normandy? Well….I never did make it unfortunately however I saw a part of France that not even many French people get to visit! La Lozère!!!

5. Five dishes…
-L’aligot (mashed potatoes and la tomme)
- La truffade (see post from march)
- gratin de courgettes
- carrots a la balsamique
- frog legs!

My goals either met or not, have helped me survive the hardest days and enjoy the best this year. I don’t know what the future will bring, all I know is that this year was an incredible experience that I will never forget, ever.

Vive la France!

Last week!

Today is the saddest day yet this year. In just a few hours I am leaving St. Chély d'Apcher, my home for the last 7 months, to start making my way to Detroit.

This week has been crazy good and busy busy busy!

Sunday, S and I built a fence so her horses would be more contained in the pasture and not eat so much.

Tuesday was my good bye dinner at fau de peyre. We had frog legs, salad, aligot and ice cream! Yummmmm.

Wednesday was my last day at the gym and I said goodbye to all my gym buddies.

Thursday I had S and C over for route 66 burgers. I'll see them both this weekend in Paris.

Friday, well today, I'm going with S to Paris. My goal today is not cry too much. God I'm going to miss this place. I'm going to miss the people, speaking french all day long, the part time work that I still managed to do and go places on the salary, I'm going to miss the climate (not too much though), the clean air, the people, the people, the PEOPLE! Already writing this is making me tear up.

Bisous

Frankfurt, Strasbourg and Baden Baden

Greeting from Frankfurt!

Thanks to yet again another one of mother natures gifts, I am still in frankfurt...TBA. I have bought a train ticket for thursday since my flight was cancelled ( Check out the latest on the Ash Cloud from Iceland on BBC) but I still haven't confirmed that I will be traveling this day yet if I find a cheaper option.

Since I have some time on my hands, here is my post on Frankfurt and Strasbourg.

I arrived on wednesday and Henry and I spent all day thursday and friday hanging out in frankfurt, doing touristy things. See photos. Then on Saturday we picked up C and M to come with us to Strasbourg then later that night we stayed in M's hometown since it is pretty close to Strasbourg.

Here is Henry and I on a bridge in downtown frankfurt. :)

This is the group in Strasbourg. It took three french people to not take a photo right (they couldn't understand how to push a button down) and then an anglophone to take this. What a beautiful day!

Above is a giant wine barrel.

Below is the group in Baden-Baden. We went up with beers and saw the whole city from these ruins of a castle. C and I were scared cause it was dark but thanks to M he had a flashlight on his phone or camera.

This is the castle from below in the town and also during the day light. We were really high up!

Thanks to the volcano I got to enjoy the sights and relaxing nature of Frankfurt three days longer! :)

A sunny sunday in Cap d'Agde

The photos in this post are backwards in which I took them!!

This weekend I went to the beach! Mme S invited me to tag along a trip to Cap d'Agde on sunday. I got to try my first oysters, sit in the wonderful sunny 70 degree weather, go on a boat trip where we could see the fish below the boat and lay on the beach while M played in the water. It was a blast! Aside from the crazy 150 km average her husband drove to get us there, the day was so wonderful! I even got to eat at MacDo for the first time in a long time. Here are some photos:

On our way home we stopped for some McDo. Here is something you'd only get in a french mcdonalds. I always find this the most interesting this about McDo's around the world. FYI though, this was the first time I've eaten at any mcdonalds in over a year, maybe more!

This is the beach we went to in the afternoon. It's between Sete and Cap d'Agde. It reminds me of a mix between michigan beaches and florida beaches.
Here is Mme H and me on the beach. Not the best photo of us but I more took it as an "I was there" photo.
These are Mme H's boys and husband playing the water. The water was so cold, I preferred staying right where I was on the beach. :)
This is M and I before he got all cold and wet in the ocean. He's sooo a la mode with his red marine shirt! Adorable!
On the boat cruise we took, we circled this old prison off the coast of Agde. I find it interesting there are lots of prisons like this dating back off the coasts of France. I guess it was their method of dealing with criminals.
This is me below deck checking out the sea life. We saw a few schools of tiny fish but nothing too spectacular. It was more cool to see below the ocean around the prison. The sea floor is made up of nothing but rocks. Cool!
This is the port in Agde. It's one of the bigger ports along the Mediterranean.
This is me eating my first oyster. It's probably not something I'd order, but I wouldn't turn one down if it was offered. It had more of the consistency of salty, liquid jelly. Adding vinegar was delic though and I'd def do that again!

Gros bisous!

Easter Weekend

Last weekend, easter weekend was so wonderfully busy that I hardly had time to snap many photos. On saturday S and I went shopping in Clermont for fun. I'm lucky she doesn't mind driving at all because most french people don't like to drive even for more than 20 min around here. We spent the morning combing through clothes and random stuff and finished off our downtown shopping at maisons du monde where we found this lovely set of martini glasses with effiel tower stems. How french! I almost bought them just because they were so silly but alas, I'd need four suitcases to come home if I bought everything I wanted!

After we went shopping we went to the big supermarket in clermont to get mexican food night supplies. Clermont is much bigger and the products are much better quality in the supermarkets than in St. Chely. If you want quality in where I live you go to the little shops in town and pay 2 times the price. The mexican night was for easter sunday when S invited some friends over to eat and then go out to the Bal at Termes.

I planned to make the guacamole for apero and it was sooo good! Everyone loved it! I used geraldine's old recipe from aix and it worked like a charm. No thank you old el paso packets, I've got my own little secret! ;)
At maisons du monde I found this napkins that were perfect for our soiree so we nabbed those up! We had our fajitas, salade, mojitos and no need for more!
Here is S and E before we dug in for some yummy food.
This is D, B and E after we had devoured the fajitas! What's next? Dessert of course!
E eying the Baba au rhum we lifted from S's parent's house at lunch. Mmmm! More rhum please!

This was the culminating event of the night! The first bal of the year is the biggest and in my opinion the best party I've been to since coming here. There was a live band playing all my favorites in english and in french, good people to dance with (see below) and cheap beer at the bar. The place was packed with people of all ages, including some of my students from the middle and high school and some old old people. I almost lost my blackberry while taking care of business but luckily S helped me find it 20 min later when I realized it was missing. I should really learn from my mistakes but I wanted photos! This unfortunately was the only one I got in before I wised up and put the phone in S's car. Afterwards we danced until 4 in the morning! I was a blast to see a live band and to enjoy one of my last weekends in Lozere with friends. As of today I have three weeks left here!

Gros Bisous

Le poisson d'avril

Happy April Fool's! In France we celebrate Le poisson d'Avril --the fish of april. The kids stick fish on each others backs and laugh. I had one daring student at the middle school try to do it to me but alas... I'm no novice and I saw it coming! ;)

I realized that as of tomorrow I'll have only two more weeks of teaching and two weeks of vacation. Time is passing like mad!

I've noticed since february break I've become more frustrated when people don't understand me when I'm talking but not because it's my language, because they jump to conclusions before I have even finished and it's frustrating. For example, today I was told to transmit a message to a teacher taking an english exam tomorrow from the one that took it today and he completely misunderstood after two words. He cut me off and told me he didn't need help but that so not what I needed to tell him. I know he didn't want my help because I already offered weeks ago. I needed to tell him that D wanted him to call her about the test and give him some advice. I had to completely restart my phrase and it's quite frustrating! I'm sure I do this in english too but now I get it, and I have to say sorry to those whom I've done this too. I realize how frustrating this can be!!!

Bisous

The rock candy is meltin' and only diamonds remain

It snowed today. I always wonder how they can predict rain when in lozere, without a doubt, it snows instead. They were big, fat, wet flakes. The kind that get you all wet but make you smile cause the landscape is covered in a white blanket faster.

I've booked my tickets for Paris my last weekend with Sophie. We got a great deal because the tickets were cheaper in 1er classe! I just couldn't resist. I'm also hoping we get to see the movie "tout ce qui brille". It seems like my kind of movie and after Arnacoeur, I'm less timid about seeing French films. (It's never the french that bothers me much, its the lame films that seem to come from france that gave me this prejudice.)

Some days are harder than others and today was no exception since I had my favorite (NOT!) class. They test my teaching and discipline to a point where I feel like a failure. It probably did not help my back pain was bad last night thus I got about 5 hours max sleep. I keep thinking ... 2 more sessions, and none of those alone anymore!

Lately, I also been thinking about my return and how much I'm going to miss France. I feel many weird emotions and I can't seem to define any of them concretely other than a general sadness for what I feel is my last time living in France. I hope I can live up to my old friend, chris' quote : "profitez-en". I shall profit, indeed I shall.

La Truffade: My favorite dish

S decided one night randomly to show me how to make La truffade, a traditional lozerian dish. Of course, in France you start with an apero, so we had wine and brebis cheese which is from a sheep. IT WAS AMAZING!

Here is la truffade cooking. It's almost done! Look at all that cheesy goodness.
This is S and I sitting down to eat this wonderfully delicious meal! Merci S!!!

I liked it so much, and as you know one of my goals is to learn 5 lozerian recipes so I thought I'd make it myself last week. Here is how you do it. If you find this cheese in the usa tell me where!!!

Here is my version of La Truffade. Step one: Dice potatoes and lightly fry with oil for about 5-7 min, then add minced, (in my version i cut them), garlic. Lots of it. 1.5 cloves per potato.

While this is cooking some more, slice La tomme du Cantal. This cheese has virtually little flavor and is soft, sticky but actually low in fat!
Then when the potatoes are almost done you add the sliced cheese on top like this and let it melt down.

When the cheese is gooey, melted you flip it over as much as you can and it should be brown like this. Wait until is gooey and brownish.

Then finally, you eat this with jambon sec which is cured ham. SO GOOD!

Some more randoms....

Bonjour! I thought that I'd post some pictures, even though I'm currently against picture taking. (See my post on 3 x 5) Here is where I spend the majority of my time while waiting for my next class or just hanging out talking to other teachers. Here are the regulars.... Mme B, my responsable and the two math/science teachers. I think. lol. In the background there are our"casiers" for each teacher. Mine is to the right-ish and second from the top.

This weekend we celebrated F and B's birthday's chez S. I have a cool video I'll try to upload on how to open a wine bottle with a traditional "tire-bouchon". Trust me, after my 15th bottle this year, I have yet to master it. I dream of the days when I'll go home to the old, easier bottle openers.
On sunday I had lunch chez M. and Mme G. M. G has lots of old cars so I had him take a picture of my on his very very old vespa. I so wanted to ride it but this was the first time it had been out this year so he couldn't verify that everything was in working order after the winter in order to drive it. I also am experimenting with my new camera and the color accent mode. Pretty cool eh?
After lunch we all went for a walk around La Garde (where they live). This little chalet was cute. It's not inhabitable but with the grey sky and trees, this was so typical lozere I couldn't resist capturing it.
Next post: Truffade!

Books and fond flashbacks of Pogs

This week has been quite interesting! I finished my second book, Vol de nuit, which was an easy read but not very good. I found some very thoughtful quotes and things like that but all the same, it was a book about night flights and pilots which don't interest me much. The next book I'm reading is La prochaine fois which is more my style. Its longer and a bit more difficult but I like the story line way better.

Last night I sort of signed up on the 'market place' for exchanging magnets for le gaulois boxes. I realized that I have eaten about 480 nuggets so far. Grossss. Suddenly after signing up and marking my doubles on my map people started emailing me to exchange. It was quite wierd and then I really started to get into it. I've traded with 6 people and I expect 9 new ones to come in the mail monday or tuesday. Cool eh? I should have 38 more to go after I receive them. Mme S and Mme H have more to give me too!!! I am so close yet ...so far away! After forgetting to eat dinner and freakishly obssessing over people emailing me, I realzed this reminded me of my 'pog' days. For those of you who never had them, they were a fad in the mid nineties of little flat discs with designs on them that you played with. I never knew how to play so I just traded all the time....oh memories.

I have about 5.5 weeks left till I get home which is making me sader by the day. I remember back in the beginning how excited and nervous I was, then lonely and sad but now that things have gotten wonderful with friends, activities and work I really am going to miss everything about St. Chély d'Apcher. I relish this experience for giving me the confidence to speak in French no matter how bad I was to begin with!!! I have learn a lot from being in the hospital, to playing the french paper work game to questionable and questioning kids that I will never, ever forgot how much I've grown and succeeded on my own in France. Thank you Oli for giving me the push I needed to do this and always supporting me in every way imaginable!

Bisous all

Oh soleil, promise me more!

The sun was amazing today! The sky was cloudless and I went to the park to finish vol de nuit, a book I had been reading. I ran into some students who invited me to have sit with them and drink coke cola and smoke cigarettes. I promptly thanked them and declined. I think it's funny that the french kids smoke and drink coke on a regular basis after school. I see them all the time at 8 à 8 buying stuff for their afternoon snack.

This friday I am going to clermont with S because she has a car thingy and an apt at her family's store there. I hope I get paid before that!

Oli's company kind of screwed him over and he can no longer take the may vacation with his dad. I have mixed feelings about this trip mostly because it's nature and rving and he has no experience or any clue what this is going to be like. He told me today there are no bugs in the mountains of colorado. You could probably see why I am worried after this statement....

My nose got some redness from the sun (sorry mom! I put 30 on before I went out!!). I hope tomorrow is the same. I'll wip out my bathing suit by saturday if the weather continues this way...

Spring has finally come!

March 20th, 2010 ....

I’ve found the theme song for this year finally. I find that every year of my life there is a song that represents it or reminds me of that period of my life because it was on the radio so often. This year, it’s more the lyrics that attracted me to it as it is quite old but all the same how I felt about this year : 3x5 by John Mayer. I encourage all of you to go out and listen to it, and maybe, think of me. J

Today I’m able to sit in the courtyard where it’s not that windy and the sun is coming and going. I wish I had brought my book out to read too ! I could definitely spend forever outside on days like this.

This past week I went to Montpellier with Mme H since she had a formation on “the voice” within the classroom. I thought it would mostly be language teachers and that we would learn how to effectly teach pronunciation but alas I was wrong. It was how to get the students to effectively listen to us teachers while we are teaching. I don’t really need help on that front as my voice can carry pretty well but I could definitely see why some of the teachers were there. I spent all of Wednesday in seminar and the Thursday I told Mme H that I preferred sleeping in a little and going into town all day. On Wednesday night we decided to do a little shopping and see a movie. The movie was so funny and cute! I definitely recommend L’Arnacoeur to everyone! It was just like a normal American chick flick but in French! (this is jackpot gold for me.) Since it was St. Patrick’s Day everyone was out about in the streets and Mme H really wanted to find this pub and have a beer. I wasn’t really in the mood but I went along anyways since it was only 10 p.m. We found this brasserie and she seemed so disappointed and wanted a pub but this place was packed and I said if anything this is the place to be! We each had a pint and after that decided to head back to the hotel since she had to get up early the next day.

Thursday morning at breakfast we decided to meet up for lunch at the seminar building cause the lunch there is cheap. We took our teas in town though since it wasn’t that far to walk. I bought two more books at fnac during the morning. Vol de nuit and la prochaine fois. I am almost done with the first and I’m sure I get to the second this week. After tea I stayed and read a little while Mme H went back to her seminar. I had been looking for this used bookstore all morning and after I left I finally found it. Needless to say I spent about an hour in there (I bought la Chartreuse de Parme) after which I went on my search for the carafe d’eau that Mme M has. I had no luck on this front but I figure that I’ll find it somewhere soon. She said she got it long ago at some random cheap store so it’s got to be sold somewhere!

It was wonderful to spend some time in a city but I was glad when four thirty rolled around and Mme H and I headed back to St. Chely. I haven’t done much since because all my classes on Friday were cancelled due to an internship with the 3emes. I had a pretty relaxing weekend because no one was really around to go out which is fine with me cause I spent way too much in Montpellier!

Bisous!

Restos du coeur

I've got to preface this post by saying the following is utter ridiculousness.

Tonight, I decided to put tf1 (principal television channel in france) on in the background while I messed around the apartment. When star academie (french idol but way better than american idol) stopped I went through a sadness of the loss of my one favorite french t.v. show and I haven't really connected with any shows since but tonight, god must have been smiling on me cause "restos du coeur" was on! I must explain: all famous old, young, recent and past songs and singers are sung by alllllll my favorite french stars. I love french music and when every single one of my favs are on t.v. on stage doing their thing- I'm in 7th heaven. No joke here. I don't care what anyone says cause I love french music and musicians. The thing that got me into french to begin with was their music so naturally I'm a little obsessive. So tonight, I get from 8:40-11:30 goodness, frenchie goodness. :)

Surprise Surprise! There's no food in the fridge!

Today I had a wonderful surprise at the middle school! Mme G prepared a surprise birthday party for me with les 4emes. (equiv 8th grade) All the kids brought little treats and drinks from home and we had a little "gouter" before lunch. I was amazed, shocked and so happy! Mostly because I didn't tell anyone it was my birthday last sunday at the collège.

This first photo is of some of my 4emes in the section euro. This class is a special test in english class so all these kids want to be there and have a higher level of english than my regular 4emes. That doesn't always mean they behave but they are a great group of kids.

These boys are so funny. They like to joke around with me a lot and they make fun of my accent sometimes but its all good natured. We're missing one because he was off winning the champion de france running competition in Corsica! Congrats to Collège Haut Gévaudan for winning over all schools in france!
This a group photo. I'm in the back and Mme G is off to the right.

On a completely separate note, here's a photo of the sorry state of my fridge. I cleaned out the bad stuff tonight in a fit of cleaning everything I could get my hands on and then realized that all I had to eat tonight was pasta and pesto or pasta and butter. Notice how much freakin' butter I have. I'm not sure why... I bought it before the vacation and I think I thought I'd make cookies or something. Nonetheless this is a very typical french thing to have bricks of butter. (the 2L is not mine mom! Mme G gave it to me today!)

For the next couple of weeks I have class on friday with the 3emes at the middle school. They are working on a theatre production of love songs transformed into poems I think and Mme N asked me to help them out working on theatre techniques, pronociation and the like. I really have fun with them despite having to be there at 8 in the morning! I technically don't have to go since my hours are full but I want to and the kids I hope benefit since Mme N is the weakest english speaker of all my teachers. It's not a rag on her cause she's fluent for sure but she's also THE youngest teacher in St. Chély therefore it's logical that the others would be more fluent than her if there are degrees of fluency. I really love working with Mme N too cause she always does fun activities and I never have to prepare for them. I guess that makes me lazy but when I see a kid every other week for an hour and I have no idea what theme they are working on, it just makes it easier if the teacher gives me ideas or lessons and I can adapt them to my personality.

I don't have plans for the weekend but next week I might be going to Montpellier with Mme H. She's got a formation training for two days and asked if I'd like to come down with her. I have to see about rearranging my classes on thursday so I'm still undecided. Also, Oli was upset about me going so I don't know if I will either. It's completely unfair of him to deny me any opportunity for amusement since I rarely get that here but I don't want to start another lipstick war.

Bisous

An Unforgettable Birthday

The pictures are a little out of order so I'm going to start with the end of the night and then go backwards. Mme H invited me over for a soirée pizza to celebrate the birthdays of her husband, my birthday and little Paul's. (He's the son of Mme I) It was the perfect party to warm me up from my busy day with S and I'm starting to feel quite at home here in St. Chély.

Here is a photo of all the older guys at the party. The guys like to make fun of me cause I'm american but it's all in good fun. Here we have all the husbands of my women friends here in St. Chély. Aren't I lucky to have some good guys to watch out for me?

Here are my two of my birthday gifts! I got flowers from Sab, the sister in law of Mme H and a beret from C. They handed me a baguette and a bottle of wine and I started to feel french....NOT! lol. I love the photo cause it shows just how much I love french!

Here I'm blowing out my "happy birthday" candles and the 24 candles. The cake was sooo good even though M. L and I were the only ones who ate it. The others wanted my apple pie which was fine with me! Less to take home!
All in all my birthday was great! I got a manicure gift cert from Mme H, a lozère recipe book from S and E, 3 bottles of wine from the Languedoc-Roussillon, the region where I'm living (lesser known for its wines but all the same they are amazing!) among other things I'm sure i'm forgetting.

I really feel like I'm becoming a part of something here in St. Chély and though I count the days (54) until I got home it's almost as if I'm counting them because I don't want to go home and I want to stay here. I'm sure that I'll be content at home but this year, I've changed a little (hopefully for the better) and I've made myself a little life here. I'm really going to miss the people that have welcomed me into their homes and took care of the little blonde american english assistant.

Bisous

The real Lozère

This post is long, mostly filled with photos but this is what I did on Saturday before the big birthday bash. The weather was gorgeous and not that cold and S and I had a blast seeing the wonders of western Lozère. Her parents invited me to lunch with them and then we embarked on our adventure as follows.

These are S's horses. I've seen horses before but never this close and never horses this gentle. They are old she said but still it was a pleasure to finally not feel fear whenever I see a horse. Next project-get on one and ride! (Hopefully in april when the weather is nicer!)

This was the first place that S took me. This is a lake that is very deep and looks sort of like a river because its squeezed between two gorges. The water level was pretty low but that allowed us to go a little further than normal. She told me that this is her favorite place to go in the summer and enjoy the water.

All my pictures look like its warm but this is just a reminder that it is still very cold in Lozère. Look at the ice accumulating in the boat. Definitely not time to go swimming!
I sort of look like I'm conquering the lake but I'm not. I'm try to balance on the rocks so I don't fall in the mud. There is a spring behind me mucking all the dirty up and I really didn't want to get stuck in the mud so early on our adventure!
This is on the way up from the lake. See how it looks like a river? We had to weave and climb on this small road to make it back up the mountain and on our way to the next destination.

We started out our hiking here. The woods are a little dry and barren now but that makes for better hiking. This is S and scott. Scott is a border collie and he lives with S's parents.

Woah. We made it! Look how big the rocks can get here. This is proof at how rugged the terrain is here in Lozère. I felt so small under the big rocks.
At the top! There were three crosses side by side at the top of this mountain. It was fairly windy but it felt nice after the little hike. Look at how blue the sky was!!!

S and I went to St's village since it was on the way to the volcano. St was supposed to come with us today but something came up I guess. He did manage to join us when we visited the church on the hill by his house. I asked if anyone he knows is buried here and he said said he has some family members, grandparents and such. The graves were gorgeous! Unfortunately the church was closed.

I saw these people down at the ledge that is "interdit" or forbidden to go there and it was so tempting that I hoped the barbed wire fence once they left. S and St thought I was nuts but they of course joined me.
Here is S and I on the ledge. We could have easily fallen into the gorge below but it was so much fun to feel on top of the world.
These crosses are typical of the lozère. I saw at least a dozen during the day.

Here is the Volcano that we have in Lozère. It's dormant and they are pretty sure it won't erupt again. (The others in le puy de dome will erupt in the next couple hundred years!) This view is from Sophie's pasture where she keeps her horses. I really wanted to climb to the top of the volcano so we did!
Here is the opposite view from the top of the volcano. This is S's village. It's about 15 km from St. Chély.
This is about 45 degrees to the left of the other photo. Still from the top of the volcano. In the distance the snow covered mountains is the Super Lioran Resort where everyone goes skiing around here. It takes about 1.5 hours to get there because their isn't a highway there.
This was the last thing we did. I got to visit S's uncle's cow farm. Unfortunately these cows are grown to eat, not make milk so soon they will be on some french person's plate. All the same, this experience was interesting for me and also a little gross. (I won't go into details)

The next post will be my birthday dinner! Stay tuned!