Vineyard Visit and Wine Tasting

Last Wednesday I had an “animation” (workshop) near Bourgouil, France. Jenny, Devlin, and I accompanied Fleurette to a workshop where we would help her explain the differences between the US and UK. We talked about the holidays from both countries perspectives and taught songs to French teachers who are hoping to become certified to teach English next year.

After the “animation” we all headed to the winery of one of the teachers who had signed up for the session. She was gracious enough to offer all of us (other teachers included too) a visit of her husband’s winery, vineyard, and cave…as well as lunch for a small fee of 10 Euros.

When we arrived at the winery we went into the packaging and labeling area. We saw how their four types of wine were labeled and boxed. Afterwards, we went into the area where the wine was actually made and sat fermenting in huge stainless steel containers. There we had a mini tasting of a rosé and a red. 

The morning/afternoon ended with a visit to their cave where they store their personal wine and also let some of their wines age. The oldest bottles were from 1997 I believe and completely covered with mold. In the cave there was also an open area where we had lunch (featuring a yummy dessert special to the Bourgouil area) and sat by a warm fire.

This wine visit and tasting was much better than Jenny, Miriam, and my visit to Vouvray!

Another Wonderful Sunday Afternoon

This past Sunday I spent most of my day with Chantal and François. I arrived at the home around 10AM so we could begin preparing our lunch. Chantal had shown a lot of interest in learning how to make egg rolls and spring rolls, so we spent part of our day making them.

The day before we went to Paris Store (Asian Supermarket) to get some of the necessary ingredients. We started with the egg rolls. We made pork egg rolls filled with ginger, garlic, bokchoy, and carrots. They were quite good! The spring rolls were filled with vermicelli, cilantro, carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, and bean sprouts. In my opinion, they were not as good as the egg rolls, but still yummy.

For lunch we ate our homemade creations. We started with the spring rolls and then had the egg rolls. We ate the egg rolls differently than in the States. We wrapped each egg roll with a mint leaf and some lettuce; it was like a slightly different take on the chicken lettuce wrap concept and very good. Afterwards, I had some homemade yogurt. Chantal and François make their own yogurt about every other day! They showed me how it was done and it is surprisingly very simple (if you have the machine). All you need is powdered milk, regular milk, and a yogurt from your previous batch…you mix all of that together and then put it into a warming machine for 8-hours. After yogurt, we had homemade compote of apples, prunes, and rum; it was like applesauce on steroids! All in all, lunch was very delicious!

We concluded lunch with some tea before heading out. François took Chantal and I around Tours and showed us the old Roman wall and told us about the founding of Tours. It was very interesting and cool to see how the Roman wall weaves through Tours. François explained the characteristics of a Roman wall (thin layers of red bricks sandwiching uniformly-shaped grayish stones…all mortared together with a red-ish brick-like mortar). When we returned back to their home, François showed me a map of Tours and where the wall is in relation to everything else. He also explained how the two former Roman towns of Tours combined to create modern-day Tours.

I left Chantal and François’ around 4:30PM and headed to The Pale. I met up with some Anglophones to watch some of the Scotland v. England rugby match. I stayed for about a half and hour before Emma and I head to the movies to see “127 Hours”. The movie was well done and definitely made me feel as if I was there. All I could say after leaving the movie was, “I do not think I could EVER cut off my own arm!”

Well, that is all for now. I am off to Barcelona this weekend to visit mi Hermana!

-ALEX

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

Long Overdue Updates

Well, it has certainly been a very long time since I wrote a content filled blog entry. My computer is finally fixed…and after almost one month without a personal computer, it is so great to have it back! A lot has been going on since Kaitlyn left in the beginning of January, and I am going to attempt to summarize what I (and others) have been up to this past month.

-       - Kaitlyn and I rang in the New Year in a very low-key way. We reflected upon 2010 by looking at The Economist and Time Magazine, and we played a game my mom sent me called Banana Grams (essentially a different way to play scrabble). We were in bed before midnight…11:52pm to be exact!

-       - On Sunday, January 2 Kaitlyn and I ventured out to Le Musée des Beaux Arts in Tours. It is free the first Sunday of every month, so we took advantage of this. It was a smaller art museum with an interesting collection of pieces/paintings/etc. All in all, it was a great way to get out and spend some time together before her departure. Though it was quite cold!

 

-       - The Wednesday before Kaitlyn left, we went to Azay-le-Rideau. It was her second chateau visit, and very different than the Chateau de Langeais. Azay-le-Rideau essentially sits in a pond and is decorated in a 16^th century Italian Renaissance architecture…Langeais sits in the middle of a village and is a medieval castle.

 

-       - I have also had my fair share of “Kings Cakes” too…or “Galettes du Rois” in France. They are so delicious! The first one that I ate was with Kaitlyn, Jenna, and Jenna’s friend from Chicago. We all had crepes together one night, and I decided to buy one…good choice/job Alex! The second one was given to me by Miriam and Jenny….thanks! And the third by my landlords after a party they had. They are filled with an almond-like paste and surrounded by layers of flaky and buttery phyllo-pastry. They are fortunately only made until the start of Lent…

 

-       - The Friday before Kaitlyn left, we invited a bunch of people over to my place for a fondue night. It was a lot of fun…as usual! We had a cheese fondue with bread, sausage/salami, apples, broccoli, carrots, potatoes, and grapes…and an amazing chocolate fondue (spiced with cinnamon and curry powder) with apples, bananas, marshmallows, and grapes. Thanks all for a fun time of fondue, friends, and WINE!

 

-       - The night before Kaitlyn left, we went to the cutest creperie in Tours. It is called “Mamie Bigoud” and is decorated like a house….meaning that you might be sitting in the bathroom, closet, kitchen, dining room, living room, etc. Each room is decorated accordingly. Kaitlyn and I were sitting in the bathroom. Anybody who comes and visits me will get a dinner on me at this restaurant…incentive? I hope so!

 

-       - Other exciting things that I have been doing include dinners with friends! I was at Jenna’s after Kaitlyn left and we had a “Blanquette de veau”…yes I ate veal! It is a veal dish served in a creamy sauce and is traditionally served over rice. I had Miriam and Jenny over one night (they did laundry…) and we made pizzas together. Oh the joys of having an oven. A bunch of us went to Ryan’s for dinner one night too. We ate lamb shoulder in a tomato and pea sauce and for dessert we had flambéed nougat. INCREDIBLE! Emma, Jenna, and I have also had a couple of dinner dates…the first was at Emma’s and we made Jambalaya and had crepes for dessert and the second was at my place and she made us a yummy chicken and tarragon dish with sundried tomatoes. Lastly, I made some Ma Ba Tofu at Chantal’s one night, which was as usual very tasty.

 

 

-      - January 15-16…protests and demonstrations in Tours! The XVI Congrès du Front National (right-leaning party) held their conference in the city. The star of the conference was Mme. Le Pen (for the French and politically minded that means more…). Nevertheless, there were fires in the streets, people protesting, tons of police, the army, water cannons, and streets closed off.

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       - And, my place is finally “done”! On January 15, my landlords had a “Galette Party” to celebrate the completion of their work. They have been working on this place for 18-months! It is incredible the work that has been done…WOW! Now they are doing little things here and there.

Well, those are my updates for now…there is always new stuff happening and going on, but I think that should give you all an idea of what I have been doing lately. School is also going well, just wish I was in the classroom more. I have started pen pal letters with one of my classes at Ecole Victor Hugo. They are going to write letters to Kaitlyn’s old class (student teaching) and are very excited about it. I am helping another class prepare for a trip they will be taking to England at the end of the year…maybe I will get to go too! And, I am reading “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?” to my little ones.

It’s great to be reconnected with you all…via the internet and my blog! I have 25 days till I return to the states for a “working vacation”…

With love, Alex