I HAVE A HOME!!!

I just got the most amzing apartment ever!!! I live on the main square of the historic center--full of restaurants and bars and a metro station! I live above a pizza shop :)

The yellow awning to the left, and I'm on the 3rd floor!

An interior view of my 35 square meters!

I get to move in Friday!! Stay tuned for more photos then!



Crêpes, galettes and cider--recipe incuded!

Everyone knows crêpes as the delicious, thin sweet pancakes you can put fruit, chocolate, or anything in! They originate from this region of Brittany, so there are a ton of crêperies (crêpe restaurants) here—on every street and sometimes right next to each other. Their savory counterpart is the galette made with buckwheat flour and filled with ham, cheese, egg, salad, any vegetable or meat really. They are soooo good!

Example of a basic galette with ham, egg, and cheese.

Here is an authentic French crêpe recipe to try! (This is the one I use, so you know it’ll be good!)

2 cups flour
½ t salt
2 T oil
1 cup milk
1 cup water
3 eggs
3 T sugar

-Put the flour in a large bowl and make a well in the center.
-Add half the liquid in the center, and slowly stir from the center out to avoid making lumps.
-When the liquid is well-incorporated, stir vigorously for a few minutes, preferably with an electric mixer.
-Add the beaten eggs, salt and sugar and mix well.
-Add the oil and the rest of the liquid, stirring all the time.
-Leave the batter to rest for at least a half hour.
-To cook, butter a skillet at medium heat and pour a thin layer over the pan. They should NOT be so thick that you have to flip them—crêpes cook all the way through on one side.
-Top with butter and sugar, melted chocolate, banana, ice cream, whipped cream, caramel, or whatever you can dream up!

The traditional drink to accompagny a galette-crêpe meal is hard cider served in a bowl. Both dry (brut) and sweet (doux), cider is made all over Brittany and Normandy.

Exploration photo exhibit

Exploration

Hey all!

Spent the weekend in the company of various assistants! I last left off on Saturday evening, when I left to meet Caely for a (romantic) delicious Italian dinner downtown. We then found Seth at Place des Lices and searched for a bar. I had a glass of wine at a classy little place called L’Endroit (literally, The Place) and then we walked to Republique to await assistant Emma from Maine to arrive via metro. We went to an Irish pub named Kilkenny’s where I had a Kilkenny—delicious dark Irish beer. Emma studied abroad here last year, so she had tons of suggestions on restaurants, bars, clubs, and educational/cultural activities, of course. Good to get to know another person.

Had to metro home, and I was the only one in the apartment that night! So it was kind of a let down to go from socializing to solitude…

Yesterday, I slept in. Caely texted about a lunch/photography outing, so I went to her place right near Parlement in the historic center. It was pretty perfect location-wise and came furnished, but it is on the top floor so the ceiling is half sloping, and you have to bend down to get into the bathroom! Still a nice place for what an assistant needs to live here. Speaking of which, I lost a perfect apartment yesterday but found two more great ones today. I’ve left messages and emails, and one guy responded to say a person ahead of me gets to decide by tomorrow—so keep your fingers crossed that he or she turns it down!!! Or that I hear back on the other opportunity!

So anyway, I wandered around the pretty medieval parts of town with Caely and Seth with their fancy cameras putting mine to shame. I’ll share some of my takings with you in a post to follow. We managed to find the tourist office and got free maps and a look at the little history exhibit inside it. We also found some churches and other picturesque streets I had not seen before. I headed back in the evening to meet PA, fresh from another basketball victory, and we just cooked dinner and watched tv movies until late since he does not have class Monday mornings.

Which brings me to today—I met assistant Katherine at Ste-Anne to walk around some more. Got a kebab, took pictures of the city and the big park, Jardin des Plantes. We tried to go to a hot chocolate place recommended by Emma and Seth as the best in the world, but it was sadly closed on Mondays. Back at the apartment, I’ve been chillin’ and nursing myself to recover from this cold… PA has a class at 6, so I’ll run and buy food for the week and anxiously await responses on my apartment.

By the way, it is so cold here already! It only gets into the 60s here, so I'm wearing layers. I'm pretty sure it is still in the 80s and even 90s in Knoxville... :(

I promise my life will be cooler when I get a place downtown and start working. Then I’ll have anecdotes from working city life to share! ;)

Ces soirées-là (Oh What a Night)

Yesterday, PA went to Vitré for his basketball practice/game this weekend, and I stayed in Rennes to organize a soirée of assistants! Using facebook and texts on the phone I had just purchased, I invited everyone to meet at Place Sainte-Anne at 7. Five of us dined at Creperie Ste-Anne, and a sixth met us afterwards. We roamed the streets in search of a bar, and we even sampled some light French beer at the one we chose. Three people left by 11, so us three leftover night owls found a hookah bar to chat some more. I was home by 12:30 so that I wouldn’t miss the metro closing for the night at 12:45. The newbies I met were Katherine of Chicago, Caely of California, and Seth of DC/Montreal. Of course, we had to exchange basic info on our first meeting, but hopefully our conversations will warm up soon :)

I think I’m still rather stressed out here in general… Just having to deal in French. Like this morning I had to go to a laundromat where I had to decipher the machines and systems just to get my laundry done. I ended up jamming the payment machine with a 5 euro bill (which was recovered by a woman half an hour later who gave it back to me) and had to go to the Subway next door to beg for coins to use. I eventually asked some guys for help on how everything worked and that solved my problems.

I really do need to get better about using my French confidently and asking for help from strangers. One of the other assistants stopped to ask a woman for directions on the street yesterday and ended up with an apartment at a good price! Lucky break!

Today, I looked at more apartment announcements, but since it is the weekend, I cannot really contact anyone. I found a PERFECT place that the individual was selling herself (as opposed to an agency), so I did try to call and email her. I hope I can get it because it is gorgeous, furnished, and in a perfect location! *fingers crossed*

I was just invited to crepes for dinner made by Alexandre, but I am headed downtown again tonight after organizing another assistants’ night out via a massive facebook and text recruiting campaign. I have one confirmed for dinner, and three interested in drinks afterwards. I hope to convince everyone to go to O’Connells for Irish beer—oh, Smithicks/Kilkenny, how I miss you!

Until tomorrow my faithful followers!

Of Grey Skies and Orange Umbrellas

A rainy afternoon in Rennes—the beginning of fall, I suppose. Unfortunately, I too am feeling under the weather with a poor sore throat :(

I braved the grey skies and wind earlier today to meet another assistant who arrived in town on Tuesday--Mark from New York--at Place de la République. We got to chat as we dodged the parade of people on strike downtown protesting the raising of the retirement age from 60 to 62. According to PA’s mom Claudine, France has the lowest retirement age besides Italy at 57! I was supposed to meet the teachers at my school this afternoon, but the meeting was cancelled because the teachers themselves were out protesting! I’m sure it won’t be my last brush with a grève (strike), but at least the metro here is automated, so I never have to worry about it shutting down ;)

Mark and I wandered up through the old city through some of the main squares and shopping streets. We ended up at Place Sainte-Anne where there is a small mall, tons of restaurants, and the famous Rue de la Soif (Street of Thirst) lined with tons of little bars. We grabbed tuna salad baguette sandwiches and sat on the church steps to chat. His girlfriend, Tara of New Jersey, joined us after she did a visit to an apartment, so we visited some more. They were both International Relations majors in college, and Mark is actually applying to some of the same grad school programs for next year that I am. They are both Jewish, so when they got to Rennes, they called up the synagogue and found local families that were willing to host them until they could get on their feet. How nice is that! I'm glad I had PA to do that for me too.

I left them around 3pm to head back to Villejean, do some grocery shopping, and get back to the apartment before it started to pour. I even bought myself a bright orange umbrella to represent the Volunteer state and shine a little color into this grey city. Pierre-Antoine was back from a long day of classes soon after and we both just relaxed in the living room. I was excited to be able to make some sweet potato fries for dinner because PA’s mom had a little, old oven that she let us bring to the apartment. A little taste of home can bring so much comfort.

The other two roomies are out at a party, so PA and I just ate our dinner and watched his favorite news program. Then there was a show on called “Tellement Vrai (So True)” with the subject “Cougars: Femmes mûres cherchent jeunes hommes (Cougars: Mature Women Looking for Young Men).” Documentary style, it showed us the lives of a few Frenchwomen in their 50s who were looking for guys in their 20s! It was kind of funny but also informative, I suppose. Goes to show that people are the same everywhere… looking for companionship.

Tomorrow I have another meeting with another recently arrived assistant in the morning, and then a dinner and drinks party with the six or seven assistants now in town. I’m so excited to meet everyone! And since I know by default that these people share my love of the French language and travel abroad, we already have a nice common ground on which to build. This year keeps getting more promising as I adjust to the lifestyle and make connections with more people here. Stay tuned!

Bisous!

The French lifestyle myth

The view from PA's apartment balcony--
the building in the center is part of the University of Rennes 2 where PA studies

For those of you who imagine me sitting at a cafe every afternoon with an espresso and a croissant, I will have to disappoint you. If I go out, it is for Subway, McDonalds, Chinese food, or maybe crepes if I’m hankering for some traditional French food. You can also have pizza delivered, just like at home. Otherwise, Pierre-Antoine and I just cook simple meals of pasta or rice, meat, veggies. He does insist on putting cream sauce and/or cheese on most things, which takes some getting used to. It can be delicious, yes, but also very heavy on an American stomach accustomed to sandwiches and salads for meals. And for breakfast, everyone here eats bread! Brioche (loaf of sweet bread, often with Nutella spread), croissants (not from the boulangerie bakery but bought in bulk bags from the supermarket), pain au chocolat (same as the croissants). Lots of carbs and fat, but I guess the walking (and the 80 stairs to the fifth floor where PA’s apartment is) help keep one in shape.

I miss the varieties of foods in the US—Mexican the most, cheap Asian cuisine, even American-style café foods would be nice. The spices are just not the same and are usually more bland. Hopefully, I will be able to piece together and French-ify my recipes to work here. I think cooking is my best way of de-stressing and feeling comfortable here; I can have total control of the kitchen for a few minutes, and I can do something productive, as opposed to sitting around the apartment all day.

For example, yesterday I tried to make my famous oreo cupcake recipe, but I had to convert the measurements and reduce the quantities from 24 cakes to only 6… I forgot baking powder and they came out as short, super-dense cakes of an almost flan-like consistency. PA reassured me that they tasted just fine, but they could not in all honesty be called cupcakes :/ Trial and error with ingredients and figuring out the little table-top oven I have. At least my buttercream icing tasted the same, even though I had to stir it by hand for 10 minutes for lack of an electric mixer!

The Oreo Cupcake attempt

I’m still waiting for work to pick up… So I’m still trying to listen to French tv and the conversations of my hosts to learn more French. Last night was spent comparing childhood cartoon theme songs in English and French (Pokemon, Digimon, Denver, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), listening to music (French and American), laughing over youtube videos, assembling shelves for PA’s room, seeing Alexandre and Wajd have a boxing/slapfight, and watching Wajd burn himself, the table and the carpet by dropping a hookah coal. No baguettes or berets in sight! ;)

Cultural note: Have you seen those Windows 7 commercials where the person tries to convince you that Windows 7 was their idea? They have them here too, and the premise is that a French exchange student is at a barbecue in Texas and created Windows 7 to show them what good food was… snails! Haha!

I'm only updating because I'm bored and pensive at the moment. Enjoy all my attention while you can ;)

Bisous!
L