Thursday, January 20, 2011

make it with a little extra love.

Time : 8:58pm
Location : my side of the couch
Weather : IT WAS SUPPOSED TO SNOW FOUR HOURS AGO! I’m still waiting.

My day really did not get interesting until I left for my class. When I got to Aix I walked right into the market. It was a wonderful surprise. Although the day was a ‘cold’ day, I really enjoyed walking around looking at all the stuff. There was mainly clothing and jewellery, but there was also some other things, like table clothes. Nothing I had not already seen in Gardanne.
Nutella Cookies
Bursting with my secret ingredient:
Love.
To get our conversations going, which is really what I feel that this class is, a talking class, we started comparing manners and customs from our many countries. Some French customs are just, well, French.
To start, yes, it is customary to eat lunch anytime from noon until 3pm and dinner (supper) anytime after 8pm. This made me feel a little better. Let’s say someone invites you over for supper and they say “Come at 8pm,”. What time do you show up? Being on time is impolite believe it or not. What you are saying to them is that ‘you’re here on time, let’s eat’. You have to arrive 15 minutes “late”, giving the host what are called the “15 minutes of politeness”, which gives the host some time to get themselves together (which I guess is understandable).
So you finally arrive, since you are obviously friends or acquaintances (you just know each other period) you exchange bisous; one “kiss” per cheek. Apart from this morning when I saw a policeman, yes this was at the school, plant a very loud bisous on one woman’s cheek, you don’t really touch the person, I don’t think. You are in the house. Do you remove your shoes? No. Do not remove your shoes unless your host asks you to. I noticed this last weekend when Marie-Anne had quests, they did not remove their shoes, but I thought it was just because she was wearing nice boots. Apparently nobody wants to see your socks. Which I find relatively disappointing because you can tell a lot about a person by their socks. Think about it, it’s true.
Time to eat. Everything is on the table, but the host had to run and grab a spoon. Time to chow down? Nada. You have to wait until your host is well installed and ready to eat. You are eating salad. In a rush, your host forgot to rip/cut the lettuce up enough. Should you cut it? No. However, it is acceptable to, with a piece of bread in one hand and a fork in the other, to fold the leaf over and over, as many times as necessary, until you have a rather thick piece of lettuce and  open wide to take it in. Also, since we are so close to Italy here, please refrain from cutting your pasta. You have not eaten all day and are absolutely starving, you already took your helping, but you want more of that deliciousness the host made. Are you allowed to take seconds? No, but if your host insists, and since it was so horribly delicious, well, then I guess you can take some more of the deliciousness, but only because it was oh so delicious. If you take seconds automatically, you’re saying that you haven’t been fed enough (which is fairly obvious).  When the cheese plate goes around, make sure to take all that you want the first time around because it isn’t going to come around a second time. Finally surviving through dessert, what do you do with your napkin? Do you fold it neatly or do you crumple it in a ball? Unless you are at home, crumple the napkin in a ball, otherwise you’re saying (you’re always saying something, its like a whole extra language) that you are right home (kinda like “I’ll be back tomorrow”).
Also, the positioning of your cutlery is key, but mainly in a restaurant. Knife and fork both on either side of your plate means you are not done eating. Both on the plate side by side, you are done. Crossing the two is impolite at home (or at someone else’s) but at the restaurant it also means you are done.
We learned more things as well, but these all seemed to flow together nicely. And I am still yet to tell you about my day.
I rode the bus home with Evelyn again today and turns out we more or less live on the same street, kinda less. AND, I think we also have the same birth month. This is getting weird. But, I think we are going to hang out this weekend, and we are taking the bus together tomorrow again.
Yogurt Bunt Cake
Needs a lil bit of that secret
ingredient..  <3
Afterschool Lou and I were going to go to Carrefour for her watch, but she really needed something to eat first. Turns out we didn’t have anything to eat at home (I had made some cookies in the morning, but I accidentally told Lou I put Nutella in them, apparently that doesn’t sound appetizing. I think it sounds great), so we made a yogurt cake. We finished mixing everything and it was a ball of dough instead of batter. So we added some water, still doughy. So we started eating it anyways, yes, I now have a stomach ache. I think we ate almost half of it when we realized we forgot the eggs. After we added the eggs, and some more flour, we baked it. It turned out, ok? Between the three of us I think it nearly got fully demolished this evening.
I made pumpkin soup for supper. I saved the seeds and baked them in the oven while the soup was cooking. Marie-Anne and Lou were both really surprised by that and were a little wary of them, but I showed them how to eat them, explaining that sunflower seeds are a lot more popular and what not. I really did not expect Lou to like them, or even try them. Turns out she loves them. And my soup was a major hit.
But I have a really bad stomach now.
Like really bad. Haha
9:35pm

5 comments:

  1. I must take a course in "dining" etiquette before I arrive in France. Their guest and being an invited guest etiquette are exactly opposite to ours'. I will embarrass every one. Myself included.

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  2. Mmm, roasted pumpkin seeds.. reminds me of halloween

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  3. tell me about it, but as we were going around learning all this in class, everyone was surprised by something here or there. the napkin thing really threw me off haha
    and thus i love halloween :)

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  4. Wow, you know how I love rules of etiquette. Those are great, can we send Frazer over there?

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