Homesickness

As of late, I’ve become very very homesick. And for many many reasons. I love Europe, and Christmas here was amazing albeit not traditional, but there were so many instances in the past few days that made me really choke up. A good chunk of my family is at home, several people flew in from all over the place, while I’m here in Europe (ahem..). One of my best friends from high school came out to visit and her ability to be homesick after just a few days is infectious. On several occasions the subject of dimsum and Chinese food came up while eating some delicious Spanish food and suddenly my food wasn’t as interesting as perhaps xiao long baos or xiu mais. And I’ll reiterate, I love love love Europe. I loved my Spanish Christmas. I love that my high school friend flew out here to visit. I love the friends we made in our wonderful Spanish hostel. But I miss home.

I miss my family. I miss my friends. I miss my old dog. I miss Californian weather. I miss driving whenever I want to rather than having to wait for the train or the bus. I miss hanging out at my auntie’s flower shop and having to fight for the little heaters she has. I miss her 7am calls to help her at her store. As much as I love Europe and the fact that I’m LIVING in Europe, I really do miss being home.

Only, I realize, once I leave here, I’ll really miss Europe too.

Winter break

Many apologies for not keeping up with my postings!

Just got back from Strasbourg and now I'm off to Barcelona, Spain in the morning!

I promise to update once I get back from all this traveling!

cold weather and thanksgiving

You know it's too cold for a southern californian when you can see your breath and there's dew on the cars and condensation on the windows. But when there's ice? Now that's just a new level of cold. When I was in the Bay Area it was past too cold when there was ice on my car. Now, well... let's just say it's cold.
On a lighter note, Thanksgiving came early for us expatriates here in France. Tuesday night we had a nice American Thanksgiving with some French influences (mainly bread and cheese and wine). Steph made a delicious turkey dish, some mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, and carmelized apples. Yum yum! I contributed with a pumpkin pie that came out rather well without a measuring cup! I should have taken pictures of it prior to eating it, or even leaving to Steph's place, but I was in a rush. Things take a lot longer to get to when you have no car. Très triste, je pense. Aside from that, there was plenty of bread and cheese for all four of us, plenty of wine to keep us toasty, and plenty of food for seconds. And to think that for a moment I thought that there might not turkey on thanksgiving! What's thanksgiving without turkey and pumpkin pie?? And Charlie Brown too =)

I don't have the pre-dinner pictures, but here's some from after dinner, the food coma stage.

a peanuts thanksgiving didn't fully work so we resorted to the halloween and christmas peanuts specials insteadwhat was left of my pie after we all couldn't eat anymoreour obligatory family portrait

our less serious family portrait..splish splash..

and now for christmas decorations and christmas music!

On locals

The one thing that I love about meeting locals and having them show me around is that there are so many places that these locals have never been. Like the Eiffel Tower for one. And a boat tour on the Seine for another. Ok so I understand the boat tour one, that's rather touristy, but the Eiffel Tower? That's like never being to Hollywood, or across the Golden Gate Bridge, or seeing the Grand Canyon. hehe, I like to think that I'm helping these locals reconnect with this amazing city.

"How can you tell how good bread is without tasting it?"

"Not the smell, not the look, but the sound of the crust.

Listen.
[bread crackles]
Oh, symphony of crackle.
Only great bread sound this way."
~ Colette on breads in Disney's Ratatouille

I love buying bread from the bakeries. It's probably one of the simplest pleasures of French life. I'll walk into a boulangerie and ask for a baguette, most of the times just a demi-baguette parceque it'll just be for me and I can't finish a whole baguette myself before it loses its nice crunch crust and it's soft airy insides. With the dozens of loaves of breads standing against the wall with their deliciously warm scent, I order my bread. The person behind the counter then twists a piece of paper around my bread and I watch with anticipation. I pay and take my new purchase out into the streets and back home. Once out into the streets, I smile with my new delicious purchase. What’s the first thing I do? Even before taking a bite out of it for a tiny taste, or to stave off my hungry George till I get home, I give my bread a bit of a squeeze. Not too hard that I crush into the supple airy center, but just hard enough to hear that “symphony of crackle”. As I hear the beautiful sounds that come from my bread, I begin to snack on my bread as I continue my walk home with the nice soundtrack of my regular boulangerie adventure found in my lovely loaf of fresh French bread.

*edit: French baguettes are really meant to be eaten that day. In fact, the sooner the better. Day old baguettes really aren't as good. It's sadly an unfortunate 180 from what it was the day you bought it...

photojournal 3

what would normally be one of the highlights of my day cost me €4.50... *sigh*

new rice cooker!

Beat that silly little "Asian" stores in France! It's still over priced at €31,90, but new rice cooker for Jane Ann! =P

sigh.. €31,90 for a rice cooker that I could probably buy at 99 Ranch for $20....