A Wonderful Sunday Afternoon

Staying up till almost 2AM from the night before meant not waking up until 11AM on Sunday morning. Yet, though my day was slow starting, I was able to enjoy the first sunny day (in a while) in Tours.

 
After eating lunch I went off on a bike ride to Le Parc Municipal de l’Ile Simon. The park is on an island in the middle of La Loire and from there, there are gorgeous views of Pont Wilson (main bridge in Tours), the cathedral, and both riverbanks. I decided to kill sometime before meeting up with Jenny, Miriam, and Emma. We were going to see “The King’s Speech” or for the French, “Le Discours d’un roi” at Le Cinema.

On the island, I managed to take my “monochrome” picture for Jenny and my photo challenge. There is a piece of public art installed on the island called “Le Pata”; it was created by Maj-siri Österling in 2001. The piece is a series of painted wooden beams that form a teepee like structure. The painted beams are primarily red, though there are some black and yellow ones interspersed as well. 

I met up with Jenny, Miriam, and Emma outside of Jenny and Miriam’s place. We walked to Le Studio, which is about a 5-minute walk from where they live, to catch a 2:30PM showing of “The King’s Speech”. I am trying to see as many of the Academy Award nominated films as possible before the awards show on February 27. I am going to go and see Black Swan this Wednesday (I hope). “The King’s Speech” was excellent. I thought Colin Firth did an amazing job a King George VI, as did Geoffrey Rush (Lionel his speech coach). I hope the film wins some awards…though I have not seen too many of the shows nominated YET!

After the movie we headed to a teahouse and got coffee and sweets. I chose NOT to get anything sweet, though the tart aux fruits that Miriam got and the Mocha cakes that Emma and Jenny got did look amazing! I instead got a small coffee. We talked for a bit and then headed out to an antique market on Rue de la Scellerie. 

The first Sunday of every month there is an antique market on the Rue de la Scellerie in Tours. The road is right off of where Miriam and Jenny live and in the cathedral neighborhood. The four of us explored for a bit…and found some pretty cool things. I definitely am going to go antique shopping before I head home in February. I want to get something “French”. Miriam picked up a great book on touring from Paris to Nice. Jenny and Emma got some old postcards dating back to the 1920s and 1930s. I, again, resisted! But, I will head back to the area, which is flooded with cool stores!

Well, that is all for now. This week I am having dinners with Jenna (as usual), may head to Ryan’s to finish off the dumplings from Chinese New Year on Wednesday, seeing Chantal on Wednesday too, trying to go see “Black Swan”, having a Monopoly night at my house….but with the Touraine edition (I hope….pretty please can I borrow it Chantal!?), and doing a Mexican night at Emma’s on Saturday. And, of course, among all of this, teaching! Today, I am going to start evaluations for one of my CM2 classes…

-Alex

Gung Hay Fat Choy! The Year of the Rabbit 4709

The Year of the Rabbit (4709) officially began yesterday, and to ring in the Chinese New Year, I spent the evening with friends. My friend Ryan and I made dinner for a group of 12 friends at his place. A few days ago, we (along with Jenny) ventured to the Chinese supermarket (PARIS STORE) in Tours Nord to get the ingredients for our celebration. We were able to pick up many of the ingredients to make homemade pork dumplings (饺子 , jiaozi), soup, and tapioca. Below are all of the recipes from our feast. The measurements are approximations because everything was done on the whim (no actual recipe was followed).

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**Chinese Longevity Soup

- 4 cups Chicken/miso broth

- 1 Tab. fresh ginger (minced)

- 1 Tab. fresh garlic (minced)

- 1 bag of rice noodles

- 2 cups of bean sprouts

- 2 cups of Chinese cabbage (finely chopped)

- 2 cups of carrots (julienned)

- 1 package of tofu

- 2 cups bok choy leaves (chopped)

- Chives (diced)

Bring broth to a boil. Add minced ginger and garlic. Cook for 3 minutes. Add noodles and cook until soft. While noodles are cooking, fill soup bowls with equal parts of bean sprouts, Chinese cabbage, carrots, tofu, and bok choy leaves. Add cooked noodles. Then bring broth to a rapid boil and add broth to bowls. The hot broth should cook the vegetables just enough that they remain slightly crunchy, but not raw. Garnish with chives.

Serves about 4-5 people

**Pork Dumplings (饺子)

Dumplings:

- 1 package of wonton skins

- 1 lb. of ground pork

- 2 Tab. fresh ginger (minced)

- 2 Tab. fresh garlic (minced)

- 2 cups Chinese cabbage (finely chopped)

- 2 cups of carrots (finely chopped)

- Chives (diced)

- 2 Tab. of Oil

- 2 Tab. of Soy Sauce

- 1 egg (beaten)

Dipping Sauce:

- ½ cup of soy sauce

- ¼ cup rice vinegar

- ¼ cup oil

- 1 Tab. garlic (minced)

- 1 Tab. ginger (minced)

- 1 Tab. crushed red pepper flakes

- ¼ cup chives (diced)

Defrost wonton skins 24-hours before making dumplings. In a large boil, mix ground pork, ginger, garlic, Chinese cabbage, carrots, chives, oil, and soy sauce with hands until well combined. Next clear enough counter space to make the dumplings. Add about a teaspoon size of the meat mixture to the center of the wonton skin. On two adjacent sides of the square add the beaten egg mixture so that the wonton will close. Fold the wonton over so that it forms a triangle. Seal the wonton skin well. Fold the wonton into what ever form you would like. Continue this process until all the wonton skins have been used. In the meantime, bring a pot of water to a boil for cooking the dumplings. Use a bamboo steamer to cook the dumplings; it should take about 8-10 minutes. For the dipping sauce mix all of the ingredients well with a whisk. Serve dumplings over dipping sauce and garnish with chives.

 

  
Makes about 50 dumplings.

**Coconut and Jasmine Infused Tapioca with Mango

- 1 package of small white tapioca pearls

- 1 can of coconut milk

- 3-4 Tab. of Jasmine flowers (for infusing)

- ½ cup of granulated sugar

- 1-2 ripe mangos

- Boiling water

Bring 2 cups of water to a boil. Add jasmine flowers so that the water is essentially turned into a Jasmine tea. When the jasmine begins to infuse the water take out the flowers and add the coconut milk. Stir mixture and add uncooked tapioca. Stir and add sugar. Continue to stir for 20 minutes, adding small amounts of boiling water so that the mixture does not thicken too much. When the tapioca is cooked remove it from heat and add diced mango. Stir in and cool the tapioca. May be served cold or warm.

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So, that is what we ate for dinner! It was very yummy and I think that everyone had an enjoyable time. Also, in addition to dinner, I was able to give everyone a “hong bao” (red envelope)…but not with money! I made everyone a card and put it inside instead.

Wishing you much happiness, good fortune, and wealth in the coming year and always! -Alex

Sleepover and American Breakfast

This past weekend a handful of my friends and I got together chez moi to have a sleepover and make a proper breakfast. We decided that my place would be the best because it is the largest of all of our places and has enough places for people to sleep.

Jenny, Miriam, Jenna, Ryan, and I spent Saturday night until Sunday early afternoon together at 280 Rue Victor Hugo. Everyone came over after dinnertime on Saturday night for a night filled of games and fun. We played a couple of games of monopoly. The best one was the second one when people started to get married…thus combining their property and money. It was Miriam and I who started the trend…we were immediately followed by Ryan and Jenny…and then Jenna and Adeline (Jenna’s teacher friend). Miriam and I hoped that we would be able to survive by combining our stuff because we had the least amount of money and were losing…unfortunately, our marriage did not change things and we remained the poorest and weakest. However, at the end we found out that one of the reasons we were doing so poorly was because three of the other four players decided to steal 1,000 Monopoly dollars each! But, it is JUST A GAME! We also played some Banana Grams….which everyone loves and is hooked on, as well as charades and catch phrase. We all fell asleep after an episode of Glee. So exciting…huh!?

The following morning, we were all up around 10AM. We made three courses for our “American Breakfast”…though the first two were not quite “American”. We started off with some cream cheese, capers, and smoked salmon on flax seed covered crackers. Then we had a quiche Lorraine…onions, ham, and cheese…as usual, it was delicious. We took a food break for a bit and played some Banana Grams and then we moved onto the main event! Jenna and I made pancakes, sausage (chicken…yuck!), and bacon. We had bananas and syrup to put on the pancakes…SO GOOD! All in all it was a HUGE hit…we are definitely planning on doing it again.

Other news, I am starting a “Photo Challenge” with my friend Jenny. For those of you that do not know or do not have access to my Facebook, I have been taking a picture a day to document my experience as an assistant in France. My album is titled “287 Days in France”…yes, I will have been here for 287 days when July 5, 2011 arrives. Anyways, Jenny and I are both doing this picture a day thing so we decided to spice it up a little bit and make it more interesting. Over the course of February we have a list of 15 things that we need to take pictures of. At the end of the month, we are going to compare our pictures…picture to picture based on the thing photographed. The person who has the “better” photo will get a point; we are going to see who will “win” this challenge at the end of the month. We purposely left 13 days without a thing to photography….we want to still be able to capture photos of our choosing. So, here are the 15 things that we must attempt to capture in our photos of the day:

(1) Bicycle

(2) Umbrella

(3) Iconic French

(4) Faux Pas

(5) The Letter Q

(6) Reflection

(7) Monochrome

(8) Music

(9) Self-Portrait

(10) Damaged/Broken

(11) Coffee

(12) Diamond

(13) Architecture

(14) I am here

(15) Trust

As you can see, they are not all physical objects and there is some imagination and thinking that will be needed/used to get good photos. Nevertheless, we are both so excited to get started! I am sure that I will post an entry at some point with all 15 photos.

Well, that is all for now. It is time for bed.

-Alex