Je suis patissiere

McKenzie Pass and The Three Sisters

2008-08-28T14:49:00.002+02:00

This past week I took a three day weekend from work and Matt, my friend Robin and my friends Anya and Stephan who were visiting from Berkeley went on a camping trip to the Three Sisters area of Oregon. I had never been there before and was very excited to explore a new part of Oregon. The Three Sisters area is about an hour east of Eugene Oregon and a 3 hour drive from Portland.

We set out on Thursday and after finding a great camping spot headed off to Proxy falls, one of the most photographed waterfalls in Oregon. It was a short hike to the falls and we soon discovered that this area shows many signs of Oregons volcanic nature. Here's our intrepid group of travelers heading out through the lava.

We were pleasantly surprised to find huckleberries on the trail and Robin and Anya started picking away (the rest of us joined in too). Originally we were going to go camping in the Indian Heaven area near Mt. Adams specifically so Robin could pick huckleberries for canning or winemaking, however with the late snowpack in Oregon this year the huckleberries had not come in yet!

The glory of Proxy Falls:

After Proxy Falls we headed up to the Dee Wright Observatory at McKenzie Pass. There we checked out a 360 degree view of the surrounding mountains. The Forest Service has a great display which identifies all the surrounding mountains and the heights and distances. Unfortunately it was a bit overcast so we couldn't see the Three Sisters very clearly (3 10,000 foot plus mountains grouped tightly together) but we did have a nice view of the lava flows and Belknap Crater.

The next day we headed out to a few of the mountain lakes and were fortunate to get a clear day so we could get some nice photos of the 3 sisters. The 3 sisters from Hand Lake:

And the 3 Sisters from Scott Lake:

Here's Matt and I eating lunch at Scott Lake. Matt's expression says "hurry up and take this picture so I can stop being eaten alive by mosquitos". This was the only place that the mosquitos were bad. Quite a pretty lake though. By this point Anya and Stephan had taken off for California and Robin was heading back to the trailhead to do some painting.

That afternoon we headed over to Linton Lake so that Matt could seek out one of his "holy grails" of waterfalls or Linton falls a series of 2-3 falls that fall over 600 feet (that's really really tall). I submitted to going on this adventure with a few reservations and Robin stayed at the trailhead and painted and read.

I'm very happy I went along because the lake was gorgeous. The prettiest lake of the day even if it had no mountain views. It was a beautiful green color and the forest surrounding it felt very wild and natural.

The hike to the lake was about a mile and a half and half way around the lake the maintined trail ends. At that point we encountered huge amounts of downed logs that we had to navigate over and under.

We finally reached the point where the falls runs into Linnton Lake and headed up to find the lower tier which was about a 90 foot falls. It was a bit too much adventure for me, but I hung in there and climbed up and up over logs. After almost making Matt quit looking we finally found the lower falls. It was quite pretty.

The reward for me was finding this beautiful Cascade Lily at the top of the falls. I stopped to photograph it while Matt kept climbing up to see if he could find the bottom of the upper falls.

Even though I was exhausted the trip down made me feel like I would really like to return to Linton Lake for a backpacking trip because it was so beautiful.

Looking over my photos I'm realizing we really packed a lot of events into one short trip. One the way back to Portland we hit up too more waterfalls that were literally right off the side of the road. Koosah and Sahalie falls. They were powerfull and beautiful:

We ended are trip with a rainbow.

This trip really made me want to spend more time in the Three Sisters area. It will be hard to get back there but I'm already looking forward to the next time.

Creating a Wedding Cake

2008-08-06T02:33:00.002+02:00

This past week I reached somewhat of a milestone in my pastry career. I made my first wedding cake! It may not seem like a lot, but for me it was a big endeavor and challenge to see what I could do. In culinary school I was required to make a wedding cake, so I had some experience with the process, but doing if for a real wedding where so many expectations were on the line was a whole different matter. It was a lot of work, a lot of fun and was definitely appreciated by my friend Jen, whose wedding I made it for. Here's the final results of more than a week of work:

The wedding was on Friday August 1st, and I started baking about two weeks earlier. Cakes hold up very well in the freezer and even gain moisture, as long as you don't freeze them for too long. I baked both chocolate buttermilk cakes and carrot cakes.

The Tuesday before the wedding I came home from work after my 4 a.m.-12:00 p.m. shift and spent the afternoon cutting, layering and frosting all 4 cakes with vanilla buttercream. My 5 lb bag of sugar wasn't enough and I ended up going to the store a second time for more butter and sugar.

On Wednesday and Thursday I went to work making the buttercream as smooth as possible and picked up the flowers from the florist. Friday morning I arranged the flowers, dowelled the cake (inserted plastic straws in the bottom 3 layers for support), and boxed up the cake. Matt helped me take the cakes to a YMCA camp near the site of the wedding (Oxbow Regional Park) and we went to help the set-up effort.

Unfortunately for my friends Jen and Al they managed to pick the one rainy day of the summer for their outdoor wedding day. What a Portland thing to happen! Luckily for them they had great friends organizing their wedding and we moved everything into the covered reception area and the wedding was still beautiful.

After the ceremony I left to pick up the cake and assembled it in the reception area. Matt documented me putting the layers together.

Then I made last minute fixes to the few areas of the borders I squished while putting the layers together, and the cake was good to go.

One of the sad things about being a pastry chef is that you create these beautiful things and then you have to accept the fact that they are meant to be eaten and they will be destroyed! The cake was only up in full form for about an hour before we cut it and distributed. Matt was my sous chef and helped hand out plates of cake. It seemed like everyone was happy and it was a great success.

After all that stress it was time to relax! Wine was the order of the day and Matt and I both enjoyed some and took a stroll through the woods. It's not every day you get to walk down a trail with a glass of wine!

All in all I was really happy to be a part of Jen's wedding. It was a community effort of all her friends to put on the wedding and it just felt really nice to be a part of the process. It was also great to be able to test out my wedding cake baking skills on a good friend that I know and love. She and Al were so appreciative and it was great to see what I'm capable of.

Summer!

2008-07-02T17:18:00.002+02:00

Yes indeed summer has finally arrived in the Pacific Northwest. Every year I seem to forget that it really takes until late June/early July for the heat to set in up here and for the rain to disappear. The weather has been absolutely lovely lately and I was thrilled when we had record 100 degree heat last week.

My summer started with a weekend down to Sacramento to see Susanne, John, my nephews and my parents! It was a short weekend but great fun to see everyone together and have a chance to visit. I played tons of games with the kiddos and they always find plenty of ways to make me smile. I wish I could play with them more often.

Last weekend I got out early on Friday and went hiking to Angels Rest which is a hike very close to Portland that has fabulous views of the Columbia River Gorge. There were tons of flowers up there and I had the trail completely to myself from 7:30 til 10:00 and then was reminded that it is indeed tourist season in the Gorge when I saw about 30 people on my hike back down. It pays off to go early! It was great to get out hiking again as I haven't been much in awhile

On Saturday I went strawberry picking with my friends Lisa and Robin. Lisa grew up on an Oregon berry farm so she looked right at home out in the fields.

Oregon Strawberries only come into season for about 2-3 short weeks. So if you blink you will miss them! I can't count the number of people that went berry picking independently of me on the same weekend! I made strawberry jam and syrup as well as some strawberry lemonade which was just the opitome of summer.

The garden has been looking great and looking at the pictures from my last post I can't believe how much its grown in a month! Craziness. I've been eating salads of baby greens, arugula, spinach and radishes entirely from the garden. My cucumbers and tomatoes are blooming like crazy so in a month the garden will be doing great.

I know for a fact that summer this year is going to disappear before my eyes. Here are some major events coming up:

- Susanne and family stopping by this Sunday
- Matt comes back July 20th!!!\
- My friend Angie and her parents potentially visiting the week of the 18th-23rd
- My friend Jen Sanders is getting married August 1st and I am making her wedding cake, so major work the week before, and major planning all this month
- Reed and Regina (my roommates) leave for D.C. in early August, come back August 10th and then promptly leave for Mexico for a year. They will bring back the Mexican teacher who will be living with us for a year.
- Mid August my friend Anya and her boyfriend Stefan visit for a week. Camping trip to Mt. Adams with Anya, Stefan, Robin and Matt
- Trip to the coast and Neahakanie Mountain September 12th-13th to celebrate Matt and my anniversary on September 10th and my birthday on September 12th.

Whew its going to be a busy one but who can complain about so many great things happening!

My Gardening Obsession

2008-06-04T02:16:00.002+02:00

Every few years it seems that I find some new activity to be interested in. Five years ago that was wildflower photography, a few years ago yoga, and last year it was definitely hiking and camping around Portland. This year I have become positively obsessed with vegetable gardening. I might even go as far as to say that I'm addicted to growing vegetables.

I've always had a general interest in growing veggies at home but either never had the space for it, was in a short term rental where I wouldn't see the end of the growing season, and I generally just didn't feel like I knew what I was doing.

So this year I am living in a house where I will still be living all next year and thankfully living with my roommate Reed who has been my gardening mentor. The past few years I've planted a few things from starts that I got at the nursery...lettuce, basil, chard and herbs. This year however, I tried seeding for the first time and had a great time of trying to get things to grow. I'm very happy to say that everything in our garden at the house Reed and I seeded ourselves (with the exception of one cilantro and one thyme plant). We produced so many plants that we've given away multiple plants to 5-6 friends and still have seedlings left over!

It's amazing the difference this has had on me. It's incredibly empowering to grow things from seeds. And its wonderful how connected it makes you feel to the earth, and how much more aware I am about how long it takes to produce food. I've always had an appreciation for farmers, but my appreciation level has gone way way up.

So shall we take a tour of the garden?

We have 3 main areas where we're growing things. First is the deck. On the deck we have in containers tomatoes, lemon cucumbers, a bell pepper and some basil.

I did quite a bit of container gardening as I wasn't sure where I would be living next year. Happily it turns out Matt and I will be living here for another year. My roommate Reed got a prestigious Fulbright scholarship and will be teaching in Mexico for a year. So Matt and I will be staying here to take care of the house and cats. We will be living with the teacher from Mexico that Reed will switch teaching assignments with. Very exciting!

As it turns out my tomatoes in containers are actually doing way better than the tomatoes in the garden. We also have small containers of arugula and mesclun greens.

The second area is a side yard where Reed has put in yellow squash and zucchini. She plants these every year and they always get enormous.

Then in the back of the yard we have two large raised beds. Probably about half of them are filled with tomatoes and the other half has brocolli, beans, snap peas, radishes, lemon cucumbers, spinach, arugula and bell peppers.

The yard in general is looking very beautiful right now. There is an amazingly beautiful bunch of bright orange poppies, roses of all colors and what I think is clematis. Earlier in May we had probably 10 different colors of tulips popping up all over the yard. It really is a treat to be surrounded by so many flowers.

So there is my current obsession in full color. I'll have to update in a month or two and show the progress. It's definitely been a fun project for spring and summer!

Wonderful Wildflowers!

2008-05-19T01:47:00.003+02:00

Well its that time of year again. Spring wildflowers are blooming all over and I finally made it out to one of my favorite spots, Tom McCall Preserve/Rowena Dell to check out the lupine and balsamroot displays.

Tom McCall is about an hours drive due east of Portland and is a Nature Conservancy Preserve that looks out over the Columbia River.

As I knew the main purpose of my hike was photography and not hiking I invited my friend Lisa to go with me. She is probably the only person I know other than Matt that is as interested in photography as I am. It was really nice to have a someone to take the trip out with. We started in the lower section that is relatively flat and went crazy taking pictures.

Oregon has finally been experiencing some wonderfully sunny hot weather, and being a California desert girl I am loving it. It has been in the high nineties for a solid 4 days now. It made the hike a little rougher and the photography rather bright, but I can't really complain about getting sunshine! We moved on to the upper portion of the trail where there were yet more flowers.

On our way down I insisted on a few photos of each of us in the flowers.

After a hot morning we stopped in the quaint town of Hood River on the way back for mango sorbet at the local ice-cream shop. It was a great day. Getting out into the Columbia Gorge really reminded me how beautiful everything is right now. I really need to make a greater effort to get out and go hiking more often. I have been reluctant both because of gas prices and because Matt my dependable hiking partner is still in France. But I really have to get out there and appreciate the flowers and waterfalls right now.

Other than work I haven't been up to a whole lot lately. My work schedule changed dramatically recently and I've been training to do the morning bake (4 a.m. mornings two days a week!). So a lot of my energy has gone towards just getting used to my new responsibilities and new work hours. Other than work I've been obsessed with gardening this spring and have been planting like crazy. Hopefully with the weather changing and summer coming on I'll have more exciting travels and experiences to write about soon.
Au revoir mes amis!

An Adventure at Timberline Lodge

2008-04-16T18:10:00.003+02:00

This past weekend I was fortunate to have the opportunity to spend the weekend at Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood. Timberline Lodge is a beautiful and interesting place that was built during the Great Depression entirely by the efforts of the Works Progress Administration. Thus the entire lodge and every piece of furniture, light fixtures, curtains, rugs, and paintings in it were made by Oregon artisans in 1936-38. It may look familiar because the exterior of the Lodge was used in the movie The Shining.

The reason for heading up to Timberline was to go snowshoeing with my friend Robin and her roommate Marcellino. Even though its mid April the mountain is well covered in snow. It has been a very heavy snow year and it will be awhile before the mountain trails are clear of snow.

I had never been snowshoeing before and I really enjoyed it. It is something I have been wanting to try for quite some time. We spent about 3 hours Sunday afternoon snowshoeing around the mountain. It was a beautifully sunny 60 degree day, so we had some great views.

And of course we had fun playing in the snow... a few snowball fights, impromptu snow slushies made from Lemon Lime emergency packets and giant snowballs.

Sunday night we stayed in a room on the second floor and the snow reached all the way up to our window. It provided a nice cooler for our wine, yogurt and other food!

The rooms were really quite beautiful. Everything was handmade and knowing that everything was made in the 1930's made it all the more impressive.

The second day Robin and I went snowshoeing a bit in the morning but the weather was far less attractive for outdoor activities (lots of snow!). So we spent the afternoon inside exploring the artwork and handcrafted objects in the Lodge. The downstairs had some beautiful murals, light fixtures and great curved metal fireplace fixtures.

The front door to the lodge had a great Indian face woodcarving, and all of the stairposts on the 3 floors of the lodge had carvings of animals in them.

The coolest part of the lodge is the central room which has an enormous 5 sided fireplace and is held up with old growth douglas fir beams. It was a great place to just sit by the fire and look out at the snow.

All in all it was a very fun weekend and it was fascinating to get to explore the lodge and Mt. Hood during winter. I've been up many times during the summer, but its just a whole different experience when the mountain is covered in snow.

A Frenetic Oregon Spring

2008-04-02T00:04:00.003+02:00

So Oregon is currently having a very frenetic spring. On any given day it might snow, rain, be foggy, be sunny and hail all on the same day. I've begun to take my raincoat everywhere, wear layers and never depend on the forecast.

When I first got back to Oregon it seemed like spring was popping up all over. There were signs of it everywhere. The daffodils were out, the magnolia was blooming beautiful pink petals and tulips were emerging all over the yard.

Indoors my roommate Reeds gerber daisies and geraniums were going crazy with blooms. Reed was already seeding for her garden when I got back to Oregon and she let me use some of her trays and sunlight from the front window to seed tomatoes, arugula, lemon cucumbers and bell peppers. Over the last few years I've been wanting to learn more about gardening and Reed has helped me learn. This is the first year I've attempted to seed indoors before growing season instead of just planting starts that I've gotten at the nursery. About half of my first try came up and it looks like my heirloom tomatoes and cucumbers are starting to emerge.

So it appeared that spring was well on its way, and suddenly the weather got a little crazy and it ended up snowing! That doesn't happen very often at the end of March. It didn't stick for very long, but it was a little bizarre seeing the poor daffodils and magnolia blossoms covered in snow.

Two days after it first snowed I went on a morning hike at a park a mile from my house and snow was in the air again! It was wonderfully foggy and misty but it definitely didn't feel like spring.

I was hiking at Powell Butte, the place I normally go blackberry picking in the summer and saw many leftover berries from last year, frozen in place.

I sincerely hope our weather starts to get a bit more springlike. I'm ready to get out and do more hiking and see some wildflowers. However, as of tomorrow my vacation from work is officially over. I found a great job at a bakery called Baker and Spice Bakery and am very excited to be going back to work. So my hiking and free time will now be limited to Sundays and Mondays.

Yes We Can!

2008-03-23T18:01:00.003+01:00

This past Friday I was privileged to have the opportunity to see both Barack Obama and Bill Richardson speak to a crowd of 12,000 people at the Portland Memorial Coliseum. This was the first time that I have had the chance to see a major politician speak and it was a truly amazing experience.

I say I was privileged to see Obama, because many people wanted to go to this event that were not able to. Portland has a large metro area of over 2 million people and with only 12,000 free tickets being given out, I was extremely lucky to have noticed the announcement of the event right when it came out, and claimed a free ticket. Reportedly tickets sold out in 2 hours. I also say I am privileged, because it was an amazingly invigorating experience to see Obama live and feel the collective energy of 12,000 people who all really believed that they are seeing the next President of the United States and believe in the hope for this country that he has come to represent.

Though the event was at 9:30 I woke up at 5:30 and took public transportation to get there at 6:30 to ensure that I could get a seat. Even though I had a ticket, seating was first come first serve and more tickets were given away then there were seats. Despite the fact that there were thousands of people waiting outside and 10 lines waiting to get in I somehow miraculously managed to find my friend Lisa, who had forgotten her cell phone, and I had no way of contacting. It was great to find her and have someone to attend this event with. All the pictures posted I have borrowed from her... so thanks Lisa for taking great photos!!!

As for the event itself, we first got to hear Bill Richardson officially endorse Obama. I was extremely excited that Bill Richardson happened to chose the day Obama was visiting Portland to do this. I really respect Bill Richardson, and before I was a strong Obama supporter, I supported Bill Richardson. I also happen to think he would make a fantastic Vice Presidential candidate for Obama, and enjoyed seeing the rapport between the two of them. Bill Richardson has great experience in both foreign policy and energy policy and think he would be a great person to have on the Obama ticket should Obama win the nomination.

After some strong crowd chants of "Yes We Can" and "We want Change" and a rousing round of applause, Obama delivered a very solid, inspiring speech. I think I was struck most by his ability to make you feel included in the political process. He really made me feel like the words "yes we can" are all about the "we". That his campaign is not just about him, or his ego, but about the American people and his hope that we as a country can move beyond the past eight years and make positive progress and change.

I was also interested in analyzing his speech for its policy content. There has been a charge that Obama puts too much emphasis on oration and inspiration and not enough on policy. I did not find that to be the case. I thought his speech had a great balance of a message of hope, and specific policies of how to get there. He spoke a great deal about the War in Iraq and really connected how the war has impacted every other facet of American politics over the past five years. The vast impact it has on our budget and economy. I appreciated his feeling that we need to change our role in the world and begin to regain the reputation with our allies that we once had. He also went into his specific policy plans for healthcare, the economic crisis, global warming/the environment, and education. I really liked that he supports a $4,000 tuition credit for college students... but his message was that he expects those students to give back through community service and such programs. What struck me through these comments was that his message is similar to John F. Kennedy's "ask not what your country can do for you... but what you can do for your country". Obama's message was more about what we as a country can do for each other.

I was also struck by the overwhelming positive nature of his speech. There was very little negativity in it. And Obama actually spoke about the type of politics he wants to be involved in. Not the politics of "I'm better than him" but the politics of hope and change and positivity. I really appreciate that and it really does feel like a different kind of political message than any other I've experience recently. His campaign really has an authentic grassroots feel to it. He emphasized again and again the importance of each person, and taking small contributions from "the American people" rather than from lobbyists and corporations. I really believe he has the ability to bring more people into the political process and make more people care about politics. I have seen many friends of mine who previously had no interest in politics, become excited about his candidacy... and for a generation of people that is highly mistrustful and cynical about politics I see this as positive change in and of itself.

Overall I was simply impressed. For the first time in my life I am truly excited about a major political candidate for president. I am filled with a sense of hope for our country. I really hope that my fellow Democrats in the state of Oregon vote for Obama in the May Primary, and that if he has the opportunity to campaign in November that my friends of all parties... Greens, Independents and Republicans included take a serious look at the type of change Obama is offering.

Si se puede! Yes We Can!

Back in the Pacific Northwest

2008-03-17T21:39:00.004+01:00

It's hard to believe it but I've been back in Portland for two weeks now, and by the end of the week it will have been a month since I left France. While I doubt I will be updating my blog as much as when I was in France I'd still like to document some of my travels, recipes and experiences. The last few weeks have however been full of primarily dull activities such as unpacking and repacking boxes, sending out resumes, and going to interviews.

This Sunday however, I finally had a chance to get out of the house and go hiking again. Seeing that Sunday was the one day in the next 10 day forecast to be partially sunny, I convinced my friend Jacqui and her friend Brent to go on a hike to the Clackamas River with me.

The Clackamas River trail follows alongside the Clackamas River and is only about an hours drive southeast of Portland. It was a 7 mile hike, with the destination being pup creek falls. I really enjoyed getting out and seeing the product of Portlands rainy weather: verdant green forests with lots of moss and beautiful streams and waterfalls.

There were many waterfalls along the trail that we had to cross over.

The highlight of the trip was reaching our destination of Pup Creek falls. We definitely came at the right time of year. I think spring snowmelt is feeding this waterfall and gave it really nice volume. I've seen pictures of it from other times of the year and it isn't nearly as impressive

On our way back their were more streams and we re-examined an area that had been hit by wildfires a few years back. All in all it was a very nice trip to re-introduce me to the beauty of Oregon.

Chartres Cathedral

2008-02-26T15:41:00.007+01:00

Whle in France I saw many beautiful sights and many amazing feats of architecture but nothing quite compared to Chartres Cathedral. Chartes is one of my Dad's favorite places in France and I was under direct orders to make sure I didn't miss seeing it. It definitely lived up to my high expectations, maybe even exceeding them.

Located about an hour from Paris Matt and I headed out on a Monday morning and were very happy to find an almost empty cathedral. After the hordes of tourists at Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral, it was nice to have the place almost to our selves.

Chartres is one of the worlds finest gothic cathedrals and is impressive for many reasons. It's vast size, its two towers built in different eras (one dating to 1140 and the other built in the 16th century) in different styles, the insane amount of detail on the interior and exterior walls, and of course the gorgeous 12th century windows(152 of the 186 windows are still originals). The immense detail of the archway as you enter the Cathedral is the first of many indications that you are someplace where artistic style and detail are everywhere.

Upon first entering the Cathedral it feels very dark, but as your eyes adjust it becomes a world of contrast, light dark and shadows. It was really a photographers dream.

Chartres contains 3 rose windows and my favorite was this one facing west. The one facing south was too difficult to photograph due to direct sun and I didn't find the eastern facing rose window as impressive.

After a good long time in the Cathedral. Matt and I decide to go outside and see the flying buttresses and exterior of the Cathedral. The buttresses are simply massive and it is amazing to me that in the 12th Century people could figure out how to build such a massive and beautiful structure. I'm not sure what it took to get this building made but it must have been an immense effort. Once again pictures do not do it justice.

After a quick break for lunch Matt and I decided that it was necessary to get another look inside before our train back to Paris. This time I was trying to get some wider views of the Cathedral and more detail of the stained glass. Not everything turned out but I got a few decent shots.

I loved how these candles looked in the darkness of the Cathedral.

The amount of detail in the stained glass was flabbergasting. I really can't even begin to imagine how long they took to make.

Everything about Chartres was amazing and I obviously recommend going there the next time you are in France.

2 Countries and 29 hours of travel later...

2008-02-22T20:20:00.003+01:00

Hey everyone I just wanted to let you know I am back in the U.S. and enjoying being back in Ridgecrest for the first time in more than a year.

The past week has been very busy, but lots of fun. Matt and I left Privas on Sunday the 17th early in the morning with all my bags and made our way to Paris. We spent the next 4 days in and around Paris until I left on Wednesday night. There were lots of highlights and I'll post photos eventually but the best parts were getting to visit Ally and finally meet her husband Fabrice, visiting Matt's friend Agnes at her parents house and having fabulous melted Raclette cheese with dinner on my last night in France, walking around Paris, eating gelato, visiting the Rodin museum and best of all spending time in Chartes Cathedral. It was a great visit and a very pleasant way to spend my last few days in France. I took something like 300 pictures in Paris (most of them at Chartes). So sometime next week I'll have some up.

My travel home all went smoothly. I wish it hadn't taken me 29 hours to get home... but really it was the only affordable option. For anyone travelling to France anytime soon I highly recommend flying through Ireland like I did. It saved me at least $500 if not more. For whatever reason flights out of Paris direct to the U.S. were at least $1000 for one way tickets. My ticket from Ireland... around $300. Even with the flight from Paris to Dublin which was around $150 I still saved a ton. The only downside of this plan was that I had to take the last possible evening flight on Wednesday and then a mid morning flight from Dublin on Thursday thus necessitating me spending the night in the airport. That was not a pleasant experience but I got through it and I suppose thats what matters.

I flew Aer Lingus and highly recommend them. I've had all good experiences with Aer Lingus. Great in flight entertainment (I actually managed to watch 2 Oscar nominated films while in flight), Atonemnet and Michael Clayton, and would have watched Into the Wild if I hadn't just seen it. The also had really good food which was a big surprise.

Despite the fact that I got about 1 hour of sleep combined between the night in the airport and the 11 hours on the plane, I somehow feel pretty good. I slept fairly well last night and don't seem to have much jet lag so far. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Anyway now I'm back in windy Ridgecrest, where I will hopefully be able to enjoy the sun for a few days after the current rainstorm clears out. I'm looking forward to cooking for Mom and Dad, organizing my things hear and just relaxing a bit. I'll be here until Thursday and then its back to Portland.

A Fun Final Weekend in Privas

2008-02-12T09:37:00.000+01:00

Last weekend one of Matt's friends Agnes came to visit us. Agnes grew up near Paris, and despite being French had never been to this region of France. We had a good time showing her the town on Saturday and going for a long hike on Sunday. In the process we found some roman ruins and waterfalls, which we have been searching for for some time.

It was nice to have a visit in town... because it gave me an excuse to go on one final tour of some of the sites around town. Here's Matt, Agnes and I in and around Privas.

On Sunday we went on a hike down a country lane that we have gone down many times. This takes you to a mountainous area with lots of ravines. As you can see from Agnes's picture this area is extremely dry at this time of year and is so dry it reminds me of Ridgecrest.

For several months Matt has been trying to figure out how to get to waterfalls and a roman aqueduct in this area. The first trail we tried was very pretty and we eventually found a side trail that led us down to the creek.

As we were searching for a place to eat a picnic lunch, I found one of the first wildflowers of the season. Spring is definitely on its way here. Every day I hear more birds and see a little more green in the landscape.

We did a bit more searching of the creek after lunch and then headed back down to look for the aqueduct and waterfall.

We had almost given up finding the waterfalls and aqueduct, when we decided to hop a fence and try one more path. Luckily this was the right way and in less than a quarter mile we had found what we were looking for. The first picture is of me standing on top of the aqueduct. It was difficult to photograph from below because it was so overgrown, but the two waterfalls were very pretty.

It was a very pretty little canyon.

It was the kind of hike where even at the end we just couldn't stop taking pictures. Here's a wide view of the canyon.

This was a very nice way to spend one of my last weekends in France.

The Good the Bad and the Ugly

2008-02-05T16:42:00.001+01:00

As I'm preparing to leave France I thought it might be time to write a list of what I'll miss about France, what I won't miss and what I am looking forward to returning to in the U.S.

Things I will miss about France:
1. MATT (obviously)

2. Cheese...roquefort, cantal, forme de ambert, brie, chevre...oh I will miss you

3.Fresh baguettes from the bakery every day!

4. Cheap wine that actually tastes good... its been nice to be able to afford wine once a week instead of once a month

5. Old buildings, old bridges...the sense that history is all around you. The narrow streets, stone buildings and interesting archways that seem to pop up out of nowhere.

6. Dark chocolate- from the artisan shops that are truly one of a kind (BERNACHON!)to the unique grocery store chocolate filled with things you just don't find in the U.S.

7. Saying bonjour,au revoir, bonne journee etc when entering and leaving a shop

8. Ornate Cathedrals

9. High Speed Trains and train systems that are efficient and well-used.

10. The pretty countryside and villages and cities

11. One and Two euro coins- there's just something nice about having 10 euros in coins in your pocket... seriously I don't understand why the $1 coin hasn't caught on in the U.S.

Things I will NOT miss about France:
1. Having to avoid the copious amounts of dog crap on the streets

2. Worrying about being hit by the speedy speedy drivers

3. Constantly being surrounded by people that I can't quite communicate verbally with

4. The lack of interesting vegetarian ingredients to cook with

5. People parking on the sidewalk

6. Feeling like I'm never dressed up enough... and don't have cool shoes

Things I'm really looking forward to enjoying in the U.S.
1. The mountains and forests of the Pacific Northwest

2. All my kitchen equipment and working as a pastry chef again (I've missed my pastry!)

3. Thai Food, Cuban Food (Pambiche happy hour and dessert), Chinese Food, Mexican Food, cheddar cheese, peanutbutter, Trader Joes, Burgerville

4. Vanilla Lattes

5. My friends in Portland

6. Sleeping under my Grandmas quilt again

7. Wearing clothes other than the 6 shirts and 2 pairs of pants I always seem to be wearing here

8. Living with cats (especially a certain fluffy cat named Serena)

9. Being able to drive to trailheads instead of walking or taking the bus

10. Cheap second run movie theatres like the Laurelhurst

11. Seeing my family...and enjoying the California sunshine before returning to rainy Oregon

12. Getting back just in time for wildflower time of the year!

I'll be leaving France exactly two weeks from tommorrow and as you can see from my lists I have rather mixed emotions about it. I'm sad to be leaving Matt and the little joys I've come to love about France but I am also happy to be returning to Portland and working again. So two more weeks to enjoy all the things I love about France!

Primary Predicament and Election Addiction

2008-02-01T09:22:00.000+01:00

Disclaimer: If you don't want to read about politics don't read this. These are simply my opinions and thoughts about the state of POLITICS in the U.S. right now.

Lately I have become a political junky once again. A year ago when it seemed that fifty different politicians was starting their presidential campaigns way too early I felt a bit disillusioned about the political race this year. However now that the primaries are actually occurring, the field has narrowed and the race is on, I've become genuinely excited about how the primaries are turning out.

After 8 years of somewhat unexciting political options I'm pleased with some of the possibilities this year. The top of the list for me is Barack Obama. From the second I heard him speak at the Democratic Convention in 2004 I knew that Barack Obama was the future of the Democratic Party. I think a lot of other people who saw him speak then felt the same way. After watching boring speech after boring speech he was a speaker who was actually charismatic, interesting,and passionate. Honestly I think he's the kind of candidate this country needs and can provide CHANGE to a country which I believe is faltering in major ways. Caroline Kennedy who normally stays out of the political limelight endorsed Obama last week, and her op-ed in the NY Times compared Obama to her father JFK. I didn't live through the JFK years but honestly this cynical 26 year old wants a politican to believe in the way people believed JFK and Robert Kennedy could transform this country. I believe that Obama can provide the kind of change and inspiration I think this country needs. Hillary Clinton can go on and on about experience all she wants but she'll never be inspirational to me... you can gain experience, you can surround yourself with advisors and experts but inspiration is hard to create. Does anyone know who the last President from Illinois was who had only 2 years experience in the Senate? That's right one of our greatest Presidents Abraham Lincoln.

Obama's top three priorities are getting us out of the War in Iraq and improving out status in the world, combatting global warming and gaining energy independence and providing all Americans with health care. He's one of the only candidates to oppose the war in Iraq before it actually began and for that I have a great deal of respect for him.

I believe that I am among a generation of voters that is 10% idealistic and 90% cynical. Most people in my generation are highly cynical about politics and really don't believe that their voice is being heard. Personally, I have become very cynical watching national politics over the past 8 years. Two election cycles in a row I was faced with Democratic party candidates that I wasn't overly enthused about (Al Gore and John Kerry). I was faced with having to vote for which candidate was slightly better than the other rather than vote for someone I was genuinely excited about. The only alternative to either one was George Bush whose 2 wins and various policy decision over the past 8 years (the ill fated war in Iraq among many others) has made me believe that there aren't any politicians on the presidential level that really speak for me. However through these 8 years there was always that 10% of me that was idealistic, patriotic and believed in our system of government. Some part of me continued to be hopeful and believe that someday there would be a candidate who represented my beliefs.

Separate from just Obama, I'm excited by just the general tone of POSSIBILITY this year. The possibility that an African American man could be president of the United States (Obama), a woman (Clinton), a Morman man (Romney), a Hispanic (Richardson), etc. We have had many great presidents who were white anglo saxon males, and I have nothing against any current candidates who are white anglo saxon males, however it seems time that this country have a leader who is symbolically represents some of the other subsets of America. We are a huge melting pot... and while women, African Americans, Latinos, Asians and people of non-Christian religious beliefs, have risen to the ranks of Senators, Representatives, Governors etc we have never had a president that has fallen outside the particular WASP mold other then JFK(as a Catholic).

I am also excited that John McCain seems to be gaining momentum in the Republican primaries. I like John McCain and more importantly I respect him. There are few Republicans on the national scene that I like and respect more. John McCain has impressed me by being one of the few Republicans to take Global Warming seriously (he and Joe Liebermann have had a bipartisan bill in the Senate for years trying to take action on Global warming), and one of the few Senators of either party to try to take on campaign finance reform. While I disagree with many of his positions including the War in Iraq and some of his social positions, I still respect him. I probably wouldn't vote for him, unless the Democrats come up with a candidate I absolutely can't stand but if he did end up winning the presidency I wouldn't be disappointed and I would at least be able to know that we had a president I could respect.

Why do I care about all this and why do I think its important? Over the past year I have become highly concerned with the state of the United States and increasingly fearful about the future. I'm scared about the state of our healthcare systems, retirement-Social Security, the decreasing worth of our currency, our ENORMOUS debt, the worldwide threat of Global warming and our decreasing status as a world power. Living in France these past 5 months has only made these worries all the more clear. The U.S. dollar is no longer the dominant world currency. It is slipping and slipping fast. The Euro and Pound have both gained a great deal of strength versus the dollar. The U.S. is getting itself into major major trouble as our national debt grows and grows (9 TRILLION and counting). None of us would run our households this way (continually borrowing unending money from the rest of the world) and yet our government continues to run this way. Someday the bottom with fall out. The U.S. is no longer the worlds economic superpower and increasingly in the next 10 years China will become that superpower. I can't count the number of news reports I've heard about China this year and the 2008 Olympics is their coming out party. And guess who owns 44% of our debt? Foreigners, that largest percentage being China and Japan. All of these things scare me. Trying to count on a government that is not willing to be fiscally responsible or right the social programs that our citizens need scares me.

We need a president who can set a new course, maybe inspire us to believe in our government again. That maybe be Obama, McCain or someone else in 4 years 8 years or 12 years but I hope for my sake and the sake of everyone growing up in my generation today that someone comes along who can right the ship. The U.S. now is like a ship with many holes. We may be plugging the holes and bailing out the water... but at some point soon we need permanent solutions to very real problems.

The 10% of me that is still an idealist believes that the American political system can and will solve its problems and create an America that lives up to its ideals. I really hope that idealism will win out over cynicism.

The Best Books I've Read in France

2008-01-22T17:28:00.000+01:00

Well its January and theres not much going on, so I have been doing a lot of reading. Really the whole time I've been in France I've been doing a lot of reading. Frankly its been wonderful to be in a mood to read again. My whole life I've been a voracious reader (I think it must be inherited!) and always had to be reading something. That was until last year when I somehow was never in the mood to read or never had time. I think part of it was that after working long hours in a kitchen I was usually too exhausted to read much at night. But whatever the reasons I'm glad to be back in the groove of my reading addiction.

Being here in France my options have been somewhat limited to the books Matt and I brought with us and the English section at the local library. Matt and I both brought some of our favorites that we could see reading again (Into Thin Air, Sometimes a Great Notion) and new books we hadn't read before. The selection at the local library has been quirky to say the least, but I've encountered some enjoyable books that I don't think I would have ever picked up before.

Here's some of the Books I've enjoyed most in the past 6 months:

1. Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
Maybe this book was made more poignant by the fact that I am actually living in France but I think reading about the Nazi invasion and occupation of France from the point of view of someone that was actually going through it would have been interesting at any time. This book was written by Nemirovsky in 1940-1942 while she was experiencing the same events that she was writing about in her fictional novel. She intended the book to be a 5 part masterpiece that chronicled the invasion of France, occupation,war and eventually peace. Even while she was writing it she had no idea what her fate or the fate of her fictional characters would be. She was sent to Auschwitz in 1942 and the 2 completed parts of her novel was not discovered by her daughters until a few years ago. Really a fascinating read.

2. The World According to Garp by John Irving
I've always enjoyed John Irving. He has an odd quirky sense of humor and makes characters who are truly unforgettable. The World According to Garp is about T.S. Garp, a writer, and his family. You never really know where this books going to go and it almost always makes you laugh. Definetly the best humorous novel I've read in quite some time.

3. Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey
This is one of the best books I've ever read. It doesn't hurt that it was written in and about Oregon, a place I love. I love this book not only for its story about a independent family of loggers living on the Oregon coast and for its vivid imagery of wet and wild Oregon, but for its unique narrative style. Kesey uses a narrative style that is hard to get used to but traps you in its beauty. Throughout the entire novel he abruptly changes narrators 3 or 4 times within a page or a paragraph without much indication of who is speaking. It sound difficult but just makes this story of a standoff both between Hank Stamper and the town of Waconda over a timber strike and Hank Stamper and his own family all the more interesting. I've read it twice this year and just want to keep reading it again and again. ( I believe its a far better novel than Kesey's most well known work One Flew Over the Kuckoo's Nest, which I incidentally also read while here. I enjoyed it also, but its style and content is completely different from Sometimes a Great Notion)

4. Into Thin Air by John Krakauer
I don't think I will ever get tired of reading this book. John Krakauers account of the doomed 1996 expedition to Everest is such addictive reading. I think it was one of the first books that ever kept me up late into the night reading. Something about Everest is just mesmerizing...in its beauty and in the great risk that people take to climb it.

5. The Stand by Stephen King
I've always been kind of biased against Stephen King. I don't like horror and have assumed I would dislike most of his books. Matt however really likes Stephen King and clued me into the fact that he also writes fantasy and interesting fiction that isn't always scary. The Stand is an epic 1000+ page novel about a superflu which wipes out 99% of the world population. The survivors of that flu and the battle for the fate of society that will exist in the new United States. Really a gripping and fascinating book. A little overly long with an ending that could have happened 100 pages earlier, but great characters and an interesting story.

6. Emma by Jane Austen
I am a huge fan of Jane Austen and while no Jane Austen book will ever be more loved by me than Pride and Prejudice, I did thoroughly enjoy Emma. Emma is conniving and self interested and plays games with peoples emotions but becomes a better person by the end of the book. Like most of Jane Austens novels Emma is all about marriage, and the social role of women in the 19th century England. The 1990's movie Clueless was based on Emma and it was fun to read the novel and note the comparisons.

7. The Lying Days by Nadine Gordimer
I hadn't even heard of Nadine Gordimer when I stumbled upon this novel at the Privas Library. It was an interesting read about a young white woman growing up on a mine in South Africa in the 1950's. The story focuses on her growing awareness of race and her role in the world. This is Gordimers first novel, and she later went on to win the Nobel Prize for literature and write extensively about South Africa.

8. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
I first picked up this novel years ago and couldn't get past the first 50 pages. There was something about the magical reaslism and all the hundreds of names that all sound the same that I just couldn't get. This time I really enjoyed reading the novel, which chronicles 100 years in the life of the Buendia family. It involves love, war, everyday life, and lots of magic. Not like any book I've ever read

I've read many more books while here, both those 8 are the ones that really stick out. Hopefully I'll keep reading more great books the rest of the year. Suggestions are appreciated!

Belle of the Ball-Annecy

2008-01-15T16:38:00.000+01:00

The final stop on our New Years Travels was to the beautiful and charming French city of Annecy. Annecy has a very picturesque and quaint old town. The town features a series of canals, filled with swans and in the summer lined with flowers. We had to do without the flowers... but instead were treated with beautiful and majestic snow capped mountains. Annecy is definitely a must-see if you are in eastern France or the Alps.

Annecy's downtown was so pretty that it was hard to stop taking pictures!

We left the downtown area for a bit and hiked up to a castle above the city. After looking at the castle, we looked down upon Annecy's rooftops.

After getting our fill of downtown we went down to the lake to try to get some pictures of the mountains. The first afternoon it was fairly overcast, but the lake was still beautiful.

The next morning the sky opened up quite a bit and we were able to get some better shots of the mountains and the lake.

And no trip to Annecy would be complete without a couple pictures of swans. This one swam up just as the morning sunlight started hitting the lake

And that is all she wrote. Finally the end of our vacation pictures. The last day of our vacation only involved sitting on trains, in train stations or gross bus stations so I didn't take any pictures! This was our last major trip before I'll be going home on February 20th. Matt has vacation time around then, so we are planning on going to Paris for 3 days before I fly out. There are several sites including Chartes Cathedral and Versaille that I have to make sure I see before leaving France. I feel fortunate for all the interesting and beautiful places I've seen so far and I'm looking forward to seeing Paris again.

Montreux Switzerland....Vacation Part III

2008-01-14T17:33:00.000+01:00

Well another January day of torrential rains in Privas, and another day of pictures. These are pictures from our second day in Switzerland. We took a day trip to Montreux, a little city on the eastern side of Lake Geneva. It was a beautiful day with lots of sunshine and we were happy to finally be able to see the Alps.

One of the major sights in Montreux is this statue of Freddie Mercury of Queen who apparently spent a lot of time there the last few years of his life.

We took a walk along the waterfront of the lake and enjoyed seeing the mountains, the sailboats, and all the rich people. Montreux seems like it is probably a retreat for the rich and famous in the summer, but was pretty quiet in winter.

We walked about a mile down the lake to the Chateau de Chillon which is a castle sitting out over Lake Geneva.

We were very happy to see the sun during a week that was extremely cold. Next up the best stop on our trip. Annecy!

Mountain Adventures Part II: Geneva Switzerland

2008-01-11T11:09:00.001+01:00

Today in Privas we are having torrential downpours. Apparently it has been raining on and off ever since we left on New Years Eve. So it is a perfect day to stay inside and post some pictures.

The second part of our New Years Travels were to Geneva Switzerland. Geneva is located right across the French border and was a two hour train ride from Grenoble. The train ride gave us a great chance to see the snow covered mountains, endless vineyards and canyons and lakes between Grenoble and Geneva. We got into Geneva around 3 p.m. on New Years Day.

Most of these pictures are from our second day in Geneva as we spent the entire first afternoon trying to find an ATM and a place to eat dinner! Note to anyone going to Geneva in the future, change money and bring it with you. ATM's are next to impossible to find in Geneva. The one in the train station would only give us 100 Franc notes (not very useful) and every ATM we passed on the street belonged to a private bank that required their bank card to enter. Another note... in our entire time in Switzerland we found it impossible to find a regular grocery store... all that we could find was little corner convenience stores. Weird.

On the whole I enjoyed Geneva, but wasn't super impressed with it. Our time their was very cold, overcast and many of the things I wanted to do were either way too expensive (museums with $12 entrance fees per person) or closed for the holidays (The UN center on Jan 3rd). We were actually very surprised that many businesses and attractions were closed long after Jan 1st.

However, there were some memorable attractions. Our first stop was to the flower clock which lies near the waterfront of Lake Geneva. It was impressive and I was happy to see planted with winter plants. Both in France and Switzerland there is this odd obsession with continuing to plant flowers (usually pansies) even though the cold weather cannot support them. You constantly see government workers replanting pansies over and over as the old ones die from the frost.

As you can see from the close-ups it was really really cold out. Through our entire day we did lots of walking and its always nice to see what random sights you can find in a city. I really enjoyed seeing all the Swiss flags, the pointy rooftops and this pretty archway.

We walked through old town Geneva in search of St. Pierre Cathedral. This is a Protestant Cathedral (and thus much less ornate than the many Catholic cathedrals we have seen in France). It was interesting because Geneva was the center of the reformation and there were monuments and exhibits relating to the reformation.

The waterfront of Lake Geneva was quite pretty and we walked along the lake every morning trying to get pictures of the sunrise over the mountains. Sadly it was too overcast every day to really see the Alps. But I did get a few nice boat pictures.

So those are most of my Geneva pictures. Next up our day trip to Montreaux Switzerland... a very pretty little lakeside town.

Mountain Travels Part I : Grenoble

2008-01-07T11:46:00.000+01:00

Well I haven't blogged much lately because I've been so busy entertaining friends and traveling. It's been a fun couple of weeks. First my friends Reed and Regina visited Matt and I in Privas for 3 days. We had a good time taking them to the sites in Privas and Coux, going on walks, making great meals and playing board games. It was really nice to have friends visit us here.

Then on New Years Eve all four of us traveled to Grenoble to spend the day/night. We were very lucky with the weather and were able to see the mountains all around Grenoble. On New Years Day Matt and I traveled to Geneva Switzerland, followed by short trips to Montreaux Switzerland, and Annecy France. It was a nice week away. I took nearly 300 pictures and have so many I want to share, that I'll probably split the pictures up into several blogs, one for each location.

I hope everyone had a nice New Years!

Here are pictures of our New Years Eve Day in Grenoble.

This is a view from our nice little hotel located in downtown Grenoble. From this vantage point we got to watch a caravan of drunken French teenagers drive down the street waving champagne bottles out their windows, do Chinese firedrills, party on top of their cars and drive down the street backwards. It was funny only because we were above their cars and not on the street! Definitely one of the most entertaining new years sites I've ever seen.

We wandered around downtown a bit and found this beautiful church. Matt was happy to see the church. During the whole summer he lived in Grenoble he had never found it open.

We rode the telepherique up to the Bastille, which is an old prison and fortifications high above the city of Grenoble. Matt used to climb up to the Bastille a lot during his time in Grenoble so was a very good tour guide. The sky was absolutely gorgeous when we got to the top and we had amazing views of the 3 mountain ranges that surround Grenoble.

On our way down the mountain we stopped in a series of caves that peered out onto the city. The caves led down into staircases built into the mountain. We then proceeded down the mountain and the views of the city just kept getting more and more beautiful.

When we were down from the mountain we were lucky to catch a bit of alpen glow on the mountains as the sun was setting. Quite a pretty scene in a beautiful city.

I enjoyed Grenoble a great deal and really understand why Matt loves this city so much.

Snow in Coux!

2007-12-21T17:02:00.000+01:00

So for whatever reason, I'm not really in a mood to write much. However I did want to post some pictures of a hike Matt and I took to the next town over called Coux. It's has a very adorable downtown that looks like its straight out of a movie. The town is tightly packed together and has all kinds of neat passageways and arches.

We hiked in the hills above Coux and went to see the grottes, or caves. The caves have been around for a very long time and were fortified sometime in the last couple hundred years. I believe they were used at hideouts at one point. They are tucked away in the mountains and would be good hiding spots.

When we were up in the hills it started to snow and made a very pretty scene. Sadly the snow didn't stick much and didn't stick at all back at our house. It has been cold enough to snow all week, getting well below freezing. However, there hasn't been enough moisture in the air.

Matt,being a mid-westerner loves the snow and was very happy to see some. Getting that little bit was almost cruel, because it made us hope even more for some real snow. Oh well, it might happen. I always hope for a white Christmas even if its completely unrealistic!

Rodgers Family Christmas Traditions

2007-12-13T11:27:00.000+01:00

My friend Lisa wrote a wonderful blog a few weeks back about her Christmas traditions and considering the fact that I love Christmas so much I thought this was a wonderful idea. I think part of the reason I love Christmas is that I love tradition. Doing the same little fun things every year just makes me happy. I continue to insist that Christmas is a magical holiday even if certain people around me insist that it is overly commercialized and goes on for entirely too long. I don't care. I just choose to celebrate the way that makes me happy and ignore all the rest.

So without further ado here are the Rodgers Family Christmas Traditions and reasons why I love Christmas:

1. Presents
At this point in my life I care much less about receiving presents than wrapping them. In my family wrapping presents is kind of like creating works of art. This is all due to my dad who has truly raised the bar as to what makes a beautifully wrapped present. First off, it is an unstated rule that no two presents under our family tree can be wrapped in the same paper. This is entirely possible because of the fact that my dad has an enormous store of wrapping paper (we're talking about hundreds upon hundreds of rolls of paper here). Secondly, lining up the design of the wrapping with the box, creasing corners, and making a nice looking box are all essential. If you really want to go all out, special presents can be adorned with decorations such as flat ornaments superglued on (stars, bells, snowflakes, santas,etc), cutout Christmas cards (such as doves on a sold background) or ribbons and bows. I love the challenge every year of creating beautiful presents. Sometimes on Christmas day we don't even want to open presents because they just make the room look so beautiful!

2. Present Clues
So one unique thing my family does is write clues on all of our present tags. I'm not really sure where this tradition started, but I love it. It makes all of your presents like a puzzle. Plus thinking up clues is also fun. There is a challenge in finding an appropriate clue that doesn't completely give away what the gift is. The best clues have you completely flummoxed for weeks and then when you open the gift you're like Oh duh that was obvious!

3. Decorating the Tree/House
As a kid I always enjoyed helping to decorate the tree with ornaments and put up our decorations all around the house. We of course at this point have many boxes more ornaments then could ever fit on one tree, so my parents now have to pick out their favorites every year. Some of the ornaments that always have to go up include our 12 days of Christmas silver bells, my and Susannes baby ornaments, ornaments from my parents travels all around the world, snow flakes and stars we get every year from the Metropolitan Museum of Art Collection, beautiful blown glass ornaments, an angel made out of Mt. St. Helens Ash, ornaments from my Dad's mom, and a crepe paper wedding bell from my parents wedding (which was 5 days before Christmas some 30 something years ago). And of course plenty of cute Hallmark santas and animals.

4. Christmas Cooking/Eating/Baking
We always do a lot of cooking around Christmas but only have a few steadfast traditions. One is making homemade Orange Juliuses on Christmas Eve. This stems from the fact that we usually get boxes of wonderfully sweet oranges from Bakersfield from Shuperts orchard, just a few blocks from my grandma's house. There is nothing like homemade Orange Juliuses and no oranges that quite compare to Bakersfield oranges. We also have a longstanding tradition of making Christmas cookies every year... though we've been slipping in recent year. We had fantastic cookie cutter collection including a very detailed Santa and detailed angel that my Dad would decorate.

A more recent tradition when my sister and I are both home is to make Chicken Chimichangas. I think the recipe came from either Sunset or Bon Appetit from the 70's but its a great recipe. However its one of those recipes that none of us really want to make alone, so with 3 of us in the kitchen it usually works out well. It involves boiling chicken, making a tortilla dough, creating a chicken filling, wrapping and then frying. It's amazingly good and I'm sad I won't be doing it this year.

5. Extended Family Gatherings in Bakersfield
Every year when I was little, after our Christmas in Ridgecrest we would head over to my Grandmas in Bakersfield and meet up with my Mom's side of the family...my Aunt Debby, Uncle Mark, cousins Matt, Stacey and Danni, Uncle Earle and my Grandma Barrall. There were many great things about these gatherings, but the best was that sometime after Christmas we would all go out to eat at a Chinese restaurant called Yen Ching. I know this sounds like a weird family tradition, but I loved it. The restaurant would usually put us in its private back room, and we would get a huge spread of food, including dishes such as crispy duck and prawns that we wouldn't normally get any other time. I have very fond memories of those meals, and I'm very sad that Yen Ching closed a few years ago. It was probably the best Chinese food I've ever had. I'm also sad that as all of us cousins get older its pretty much impossible to all gather at my grandmas anymore. What with jobs, marriages, and children added to the mix, its hard to keep every tradition going.

6. Toys R Us
So this isn't so much of a tradition anymore, but when we were kids my Uncle Earle used to give all his nieces and nephews the best present ever. He would take us to Toys R Us give us a 10 or 20 dollar spending limit and let us pick out whatever we wanted as our Christmas present. As a kid this was truly the most awesome thing ever. Our other Toys R Us tradition was a little kids (6-10) our parents would take Susanne and I separately to Toys R Us to pick out presents for each other. This tradition one year resulted in us buying the exact same present for each other!( a bright pink stuffed my little pony with blue hair if you're curious). Fond memories.

7. Christmas Movies!
Then of course no Christmas is complete without watching Christmas movies. Some of my favorite Christmas movies are also probably some of the cheesiest worst movies every made, but I'm still attached to them from watching them as a kid. For example you have The Night They Saved Christmas. Set in the 80's this is about a family of kids who to save Santa Claus and North Pole City from being blown up by dynamite and oil drilling done in North Pole by their fathers oil company. My other favorites are National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, Miracle on 34th Street, All I Want for Christmas and The Gathering. It's hard to be unhappy after watching a Christmas Movie.

Anyway, I'm a little sad I won't be getting to do participate in most of these traditions this year, but I guess I can live with a one year hiatus. Matt and I will still going to try to make Christmas cookies and figure out some sort of interesting Christmas dinner. And then we get a great treat on Dec 27th of a visit from my friends Reed and Regina. So while it won't be a traditional Christmas, it should still be lots of fun.

Food Blog!

2007-12-09T09:46:00.000+01:00

Food is something I consider to be a highly important element to my life. I don't just eat for nourishment I eat also for the enjoyment of eating. Last year one of the assignments Matt gave his French students was to write an essay on whether they "eat to live or live to eat". I definitely fall into the category of living to eat.

So coming to France I was expecting to be blown away by the food. And in some respects I have been amazed. The vast amount of patisseries and chocolate shops truly demonstrate that the French see pastry as an art that should be appreciated. Likewise the ever present boulangeries that all seem to have cheap wonderful bread is another wonder.

I also love the fact that so many different kinds of cheeses are available here. I have tried so many different kinds of cheese in the past two months that I don't even know where to start. I'm especially enjoying blue cheeses, which a year ago I never would have thought I would enjoy. Roquefort is my clear favorite, and I also love Fourme d'Ambert which is a creamy mild blue cheese (so good!). I'm also enjoying cantal, various goat cheeses, gruyere,and comte. It's amazing the variety that can be found here at relatively inexpensive prices. One of my complaints about cheese other than cheddar in the U.S. is that it is so expensive,that is feels like you are splurging to buy any kind of decent cheese.

One thing I appreciate about France is that good bread, wine and cheese are considered necessities and are often given government subsidies to remain cheap. Consider the fact that I can get a baguette for 55 centimes-1 euro depending on the size!

So I was stating earlier that I was expecting to be blown away by French cuisine, and despite what I just stated, in many respects I haven't been. Here's a few reasons why:

1.The French love Meat. Every kind of meat, especially ham. Their cuisine is highly meat centric, and while I am not a vegetarian, I definetly lean in that direction and the over emphasis on red meat especially I find a bit disturbing. For example in the weekly grocery store advertisements we receive, the first 4 pages are huge pictures of all kinds of meat. In the grocery store there is an entire aisle comprised solely of sliced ham and lardons. When dining out vegetarian options are extremely rare.

2. There seems to be an unwillingness to branch out and explore the cuisines of different cultures. In the U.S. I am used to being able to find a variety of ingredients from Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Thai, Spanish, Indian and various other cuisines, even in the most basic grocery store. Here Mexican and Asian foods are considered more of a specialty and are all rather expensive. There are even boxed taco kits you can buy, but they cost the equivalent of about 8 dollars. Tofu, which you could find in great quantities for say $1 in the U.S., costs 4-5 dollars here for a very small box. I think the U.S. because it is an immigrant nation has adapted and grown in a way to be inclusive of world cuisines. France is a very insulated nation, and despite its growing Muslim/North African/Middle Eastern population is very insistent on keeping its longstanding traditions.

When going out to eat the cuisine other than traditional French that you see in the largest quantities is Italian. There are pizza places everywhere! In fact in our little town there are probably more pizza places than actual French restaurants. We were lucky to have a Chinese restuarant in town and were amazed to find that it was actually really good.

3. The inability to find certain key ingredients. This relates to number 2. I in some ways find the French narrow minded in what they are willing to eat. I suppose all cultures do this to some degree. For example some foods that in the US are seen as basic the French find appalling. The biggest example is peanut butter. While you can find peanut butter here it is extremely expensive, and the French just find it odd. You will not find any kind of peanut butter flavored candies (i.e. Peanut butter cups or butterfingers). Matt LOVES peanut butter so this is a bit of a tragedy for him.

Another example is whole wheat/grain bread or sandwich bread. It is very hard to find any good bread here that has much nutrition. While I love baguettes and all the fresh bread, it really doesn't have a great deal of nutritional value. You can find pain cereal (bread with grains) at boulangeries but it is pretty much impossible to find sandwich bread other than a gross looking "American sandwich bread" that looks like white wonder bread. Matt and I tried to explain to Matt's advisor Yvonne that it is possible to have good tasting packaged sandwich bread, and she just didn't believe us. Back in Portland I became addicted to a bread called Dave's Killer Bread that was expensive but chock full of grains and so so good! I love baguettes but sometimes I just want a sandwich or some whole grain toast!

The inability to find cheddar cheese, mozzarella or parmesan (especially when Italy is so close) is a bit unfathomable. I mean they put emmental (swiss) cheese on their pizza! Yuck!

Well I suppose I'm starting to sound a little whiny so I should stop. I love a lot of what I've eaten here so far, but sometimes I just want more options of what I can make for dinner and the appreciation of other cuisines beyond French. I don't mean to say that I dislike French cuisine, I like many elements of what I've experienced here, but I also appreciate the openness and variety that can be found at home.

Getting out of town...

2007-12-03T11:02:00.002+01:00

Due to various reasons Matt and I haven't left Privas in awhile. Between the transportation strike, and wanting to conserve our money we haven't really been anywhere since we went to Lyon 3 weeks ago. So this past weekend we decided to take a little trip to one of the nearby towns Le Pouzin, and do a hike on the cliffs above the Rhone river.

Le Pouzin is actually quite close to Privas... maybe 10 miles but when you don't have a car everything seems far away. In addition, its pretty much impossible to walk/hike to nearby towns because the highways/roads are very narrowly cut into the ravines and mountains making it impossible to walk along them. So far we haven't managed to find any backroads to even get us to the next town over Coux, which is less than 3 miles away.

So we dragged ourselves out of bed early on Sunday and got ourselves to Le Pouzin around 9 a.m. It was quite fortunate that we got up early becuase we were treated to a beautiful view of the Ouveze river, and an old roman bridge which goes over it cloaked in fog. This provided many great pictures:

As we were searching for our trail we walked to the other side of river and got some nice pictures of the bridge as the sun came out:

I should note that we really did have to search for our trail. The French system of trails is quite different than in the U.S. They don't have such things as trail parking lots or trailheads and trails usually wander through town, through peoples back yards,and through peoples property. To find the trail you have to keep a lookout for yellow and white marked rocks/telephone poles, trees. Sometimes the trail goes off in random directions and its almost like your on a weird treasure hunt for the yellow and white signs.

We finally found our trail after getting lost a few times, and hiked up a steep incline. We got high up above the city and were treated to a beautiful view of the fog covering the Rhone. The hike was nice up until the point where we started hearing the jingle of bells and saw a hunter. Remember how I said French trails often go through private property? Well this trail, which I might add is advertised by the local tourist offices, runs right through the Le Pouzin local hunting club lands. We initially thought it was just a sole hunter, but quickly discovered about 10 hunters with what seemed like 20 dogs roaming all through our hike. Lets just say these conditions made us a little paranoid and somewhat hampered our ability to enjoy the surroundings. Luckily we made it down without getting shot and or losing the path.

As we returned to Le Pouzin we were looking forward to some French fast food (Kebab). Kebab shops (middle eastern food) are usually about the only food places open on Sundays. On Sundays in France almost all restaurants, shops and markets are closed. So looking forward to a nice hot lunch, we discovered that the shop in Le Pouzin was closed, for that day only.

Then we discovered that both due to the fact that it was Sunday and a new transportation schedule was posted because of the strike we would have to wait at least 2 hours and possibly as long as 5 hours to get back to Privas, only 10 miles away! Luckily the buses were running on a normal Sunday schedule again and it only took two hours.

So to put it mildly, we had quite an interesting day away from Privas. Next week I think we're going to try and explore Aubenas, a town in the opposite direction.

A French Thanksgiving

2007-11-23T11:49:00.000+01:00

So having Thanksgiving in France didn't end up being all that different from having Thanksgiving in the U.S. Though there was a definite lack of turkey, pumpkin pie,cranberry sauce, football and sadly family,we still managed to have a huge meal and stuff ourselves to the brim. I haven't really felt too homesick since moving here, but I definitely felt a little wistful yesterday to not be preparing a turkey in my grandma's tiny kitchen, or making pies with my mom. Thanksgiving truly is my favorite holiday ( I mean its all about food, family, and tradition, three things I love)and it felt weird not being home for it.

However, I can say that after last year, where I was voluntarily in charge of a meal for about 14 friends it was a relief to be cooking for 3 people and not be in charge of turkey roasting. Even if I had wanted to roast a whole turkey it would have been very hard to find one here. However since Matt's vegetarian we opted for a menu of roasted butternut squash with chestnut stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy and green beans. It's also impossible to find canned pumpkin here, so I opted for an apple pear pie.

Matt was dismayed that he had to work Thanksgiving morning (it's obviously not a holiday here) but I was content to have the kitchen to myself to start baking my pies. So I started my pie and watched the downpouring of rain from the kitchen window. Now that the leaves have disappeared from the trees. We have a nice view of the river 50 feet from our appartement. Since its hard to find vegetable shortening here, I made an all butter crust. I found a great recipe and I've decided I'm never using shortening in my crusts again. I've used this recipe a few times and have never had a problem rolling it out.In addition, I made some fantastic cinnamon sugar butter cookies with the leftover dough. It's something my mom always used to do with pie dough. I just re-roll the scrap dough spread with melted butter, sprinkle on cinnamon and sugar, roll up, cut into sections and you have a tasty cookie. They were so good I want to make them all on their own, even without a pie!
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Butter-Flaky-Pie-Crust/Detail.aspx

I have had an interesting time baking in our ill-equipped kitchen. We don't want to buy too much kitchen equipment because we won't be here for long, so I ended up rolling out my pie dough with a long canister of salt.I felt quite silly but it was effective.

The rest of the day was spent preparing the stuffing, prepping food and oddly enough spending 2 whole hours of our afternoon with an energy auditor who was sent to inspect our house by the rental agency. In one of the more bizarre events to ever occur on a Thanksgiving in my life, we got to sit around while this odd Frenchman took measurements of our apartment and told us how inefficient our apartment was. Of course we have not control over what kind of insulation they put in the walls,or the fact that there is an empty barn next door, or that they inexplicably located all of the wall heaters under windows! Really we just live in an old building and we loose heat easily! Anyway a visit that I thought would take 10-20 minutes took 2 hours of our day, and it was all quite bizarre.

He finally left and I was able to make dinner which turned out wonderfully.I made Matt be my sous chef which was fun. I was most pleased with the Chestnut Stuffing. I had only made homemade stuffing once in my life and it was a bit of a disaster, so I was a little scared of attempting stuffing without a box of Stovetop. However it was a great success,and I'm sharing the recipe because I think everyone should try it next year. So tasty!

Though we only had one dinner guest, it was still nice to have company and use our proper dining table, instead of our kitchen table. Matt's friend and fellow Language Assistant, Fiona an Irish woman, came from about 30 miles away in the pouring rain to celebrate her first Thanksgiving with us. She brought us these lovely flowers and entertained us with her stories about travelling all over the world.

Dinner was great,dessert was great,and all in all it was an entertaining and interesting day. This ended up being quite the long blog, but I guess I just can't resist talking about food. Here's the fabulous chestnut stuffing recipe that everyone should make next year:

Chestnut Stuffing
1 lb chestnuts
1 cup butter
1 cup minced onions
1 cup celery
2 tsps. Herbs de Provence (thyme,rosemary,marjoram mix)
1 cube vegetable bouillon
salt and pepper to taste
1 loaf day old french bread cubed
2 eggs
1/3 cup milk

1.Cut slits in chestnuts and boil in a medium saucepan for 25 minutes. Drain peel and chop.
2. Melt butter in saucepan and saute onions,celery, herbs, and vegetable bouillon. Add salt and pepper to taste. When onions are translucent add in chopped chestnuts.
3. Pour butter mixture over cubed bread and coat thoroughly.
4. Beat the egg and milk mixture and drizzle over bread.
5. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35-45 minutes until top is crunchy.

Some Views of Privas

2007-11-19T09:18:00.000+01:00

I've been meaning for awhile to sift through the hundreds of pictures I've taken of our town and put a few up, and now I'm finally getting around to it.

Privas is a town of about 15,000-20,000 people and is the Prefecture for the region known as the Ardeche. Being the prefecture is akin to being the capital city for the region, and means there are a lot of administrative/bureacratic offices here. The Ardeche is one of the more rural areas of France and is known for its physical beauty. If I was internet savy I'd find a map to put up here, but alas this link will have to do: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ard%C3%A8che

Privas is set in an area full of ravines, rivers, and hills. Here are some wide views of town:

There are several large bridges in town,and the two above are on the North side of town and lead to the village of Le Petit Tournon, which is the small assemblage of houses across the river you see in the photo. We live on the South side of town directly between the two bridges at this edge of town. Privas is kind of centered between two ravines, and in fact this whole region is known for this type of environment.

Here's another view of town from the North end:

Now for a few landmarks around town. The most significant are the Trois Croix, or 3 crosses which sit on a mountain overlooking Privas. It's a short hike up to them and they are quite pretty when lit up at night.

This church tower, is probably the second most identifiable feature in town. Sadly it belongs to the mental institution and is closed off to the public. Still the bell tower looks pretty from far away.

There are many hidden staircases in town, and this is one that Matt and our friend Joe were hiking up to reach the Trois Croix:

Some colorful and old buildings:

Another identifiable feature of town are the many billboards and refrences to Chataigniers or Chestnuts. There is a major chestnut manufacturing company just outside of town, and apparently they having been making chestnut cream, and chestnut ice-cream for over a hundred years. As I've posted in earlier blogs chestnuts are kind of a big deal here.

Well after putting up the chestnut man, I just couldn't leave out this photo. I know baguettes aren't exactly specific to Privas, but they are specific to France. Walk down the street in any French town on any given day and probably at least 25-50% of the people you see will be carrying a baguette. I can't even begin to tell you how wonderful it is to be able to buy cheap crusty fresh bread every day.

Finally two pictures from some walks on the south end of town. It's very pretty and pastoral at this end. A little flatter than the north side. When we go for walks we see cows, donkeys, sheep and farmhouse cats.

Well that certainly isn't all there is to see, but I suppose its a decent review of it, for anyone that was curious what this place really looks like.
Au Revoir until next time.

Scrabble Sorrows

2007-11-13T13:38:00.000+01:00

So anyone that knows me well (or has ever played board/card games with me) knows that I am very competitive and absolutely hate to lose. This side of me probably comes from my perfectionism and wanting to be good at everything I do, and from the most major sin I possess...pride. I know I shouldn't have so much pride, but I do and that is reflected in really wanting to win when I play Scrabble.

Unfortunately for me, Matt happens to be a very good Scrabble player. He's been playing for a very long time, and I'm assuming taking lots of language classes doesn't hurt. I feel like I am constantly cursed with being around good scrabble players. When I was younger I would occasionally try to play with my Mom and Grandma and would always get frustrated by how good they were. They have been playing together for many many years, and know most if not all of the 2 and 3 letter words by now.

Well to get to the point, Matt brought a travel Scrabble board with him, and we have been playing at least once a week since we arrived here. In all our games I have only managed to win once. And Matt won't even let me have satisfaction in that by noting that unlike our other games it was a 3 person game, with his friend Joe.
The next game we had after I won Matt bet me two euros that he could beat me by 100 points. I thought there was no way I could lose that bet even if I lost the game. Sadly I was wrong and lost by something like 150 points. It was very sad. Here's me after that loss:

So now I have resigned myself to losing every time we play, even though I still try very hard. In the process I am hopefully learning more about the game, and improving my playing skills. I've looked up the 2 letter words online and that you might be interested in some of the acceptable 2 letter words:
AA- lava
OE- a whirlwind
ZA- pizza
MM- I don't know what it means but apparently its acceptable
KI- vital force in chinese thought
UT- a note of scale

Lyon Part II

2007-11-09T14:01:00.000+01:00

Well its been a week since we were in Lyon. So I suppose I should get around to posting my pictures from our travels there.

The first day we arrived in the afternoon and spent our time checking out the Roman Ruins in the city, which were built in 15 B.C. It was pretty neat to walk around in 2,000 year old ruins. There were two roman amphitheaters, roads, columns and a few old building walls. You can see from the tree leaves that its definitely beginning to look like fall.

Here's the one picture I have of Matt in Lyon. I must have caught him in a distracted contemplative mood. Somehow I managed to not get a single picture of myself the whole 4 days!

Up on the hill from Vieux Lyon (Old Lyon) in the Fourviere where our hostel was located we were in easy walking distance of the Roman Ruins and this new Cathedral, the Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourviere built in the 1880's. We had a nice view down into the Presqu'ile, or the section of town that lies between the two rivers that flow through town, the Saone and the Rhone. In the city view you can see the Place Bellecour, which is the largest clear square in Europe. In the center of the square is a statue of King Louis the 14th.

The second day we did a lot of walking around the city. It happened to be All Saints Day, a national holiday, so almost everything was closed. But having a shut-down city makes for nice photo opportunities. Here's some of the city:

One of the parts of Lyon I enjoyed the most was just wandering the streets and finding random staircases and traboules, or covered walkways. The traboules were thought to originally have been created as part of Lyons silk trade as means to transport silk from looms to storage rooms without being damaged by weather. The were used by the Resistance in World War II as escape routes and for information gathering.

Staircases:

Traboules:

On the third day we went to the Cathedral St. Jean and saw some wonderful stained glass and a 14th Century Astronomical Clock with automatons. The Cathedral was finished in 1476, but was built on the ruins of a 6th Century church. We happened to visit when the afternoon light was streaming through the windows and it was quite beautiful.

I really enjoyed seeing Lyon at night. Cities always somehow seem more elegant at night, all lit up. And Lyon with its restaurant scene seemed to have a more energetic and interesting atmosphere at night.

Dessert First!

2007-11-05T07:37:00.000+01:00

Matt and I just returned from a 4 day trip to Lyon and had an interesting time there. We both took so many great photos, and theres so much I should show you, however the highlights of the trip for me all involved chocolate, marzipan, and a nice dinner out, so I have to start with: Dessert!

Lyon is known as France's "second city" even though it has the third largest population in France. It is also known as the culinary capital of France. Thus there were major reasons for me to want to visit.

The first culinary location we visited in Lyon was Bernachon, one of the best chocolatiers in the world. Matt and I tried two different kinds of chocolate and were simply blown away. Matt had been a little skeptical at my desire to visit all sorts of pastry shops but when he walked into Bernachon and smelled the chocolate in the air, I think he was converted. Bernachon actually roasts their own chocolate, which is extremely rare. It would be the equivalent of a bakery milling their own flour. One of the chocolates we tried was a pistachio/praline filled dark chocolate almond truffle. It was one of the best chocolates I've ever eaten, and I immediately wanted to go back and buy more. They also had a fantastic display of pastries and cakes that we didn't partake in but I really wish I could go back right now and buy something every day. It was that good!

Our next stop was Voisin to check out the coussins of Lyon. Coussins are famous marzipan candies, which are as far as I know have been made only in Lyon since 1897. They are definetely some of the most interesting candies I've ever tried. Shaped like little teal pillows they have a soft chocolate center covered by marzipan. They were a little odd at first but I became addicted very quickly.

Even though we were on a tight budget, I still insisted that we go out for one nice meal in Lyon. I mean it is the culinary capital of France after all. We did a lot of research and ended up at a place called Le Layon. I was very impressed by their menu and was finally able to order duck in France and had: Magret de canard au jus parfumé à la coriandre. It was absolutely amazing and I was completely happy eating it. Matt had a satisfactory salmon for dinner, but he definetely got the better of the two desserts. I settled on the standard creme brulee because not much else looked good, but Matt had a fabulous and interesting nut cake in a berry sauce which I was very impressed with. It was an enjoyable night out for me.

I sadly must admit that Matt was far less thrilled by Lyon's culinary traditions than I was. As a vegetarian and even one adapting to eat fish while in France is was hard to find meals he could eat in Lyon. One thing I've realized since being here is that the the French love their meat: ham, veal, steak. And in Lyon the emphasis on traditional food meant a lot of things like gizzards, pig snouts, foie gras, etc which even make me squeamish, so I can't imagine what the thought of them does to Matt. It really is hard for a vegetarian to get by here. Especially at more upscale or even mid-scale restaurants they simply do not have vegetarian options the way we do in the U.S.

Quite a few of our meals we ended up eating in Kebab shops, i.e. France's version of fast food, because it was one of the few places Matt can find a vegetarian meal. Kebab is essentially warm fresh pita bread filled with fries, lettuce and usually some sort of meat, though in Matt's case eggs or cheese. Its very good for a cheap fast meal.

We decided to cook in the hostel a few of the nights there, something which usually isn't too hard, but this time resulted in the worst meal of both my and Matt's life. It all started out very simply and just went so so wrong. All we had planned was some pasta and a salad. The salad was fine, the pasta was not. We had bought a package of fresh ravioles, essentially very tiny raviolis and a jar of pasta sauce. It seemed simple enough. After waiting for something like 45 minutes for our water to heat up (the burner kept getting turned off) our water was finally boiling and Matt put in the pasta. Unfortunately he did not notice until a few minutes later that the package said to only boil the ravioles for 30 seconds-1 minute. Thus we ended up with slimy slippery pasta. No horrible in and of itself, but somehow the combination of that with some of the worst pasta sauce I have ever tasted resulted in the worst meal of our lives. Matt's exact quote was "vile doesn't even begin to describe how bad that was". It's been a long time since I've had a meal that I couldn't even bear to finish. It was not a happy night and we both went to sleep hungry,queasy, and greatly looking forward to going home to cook for ourselves in our own kitchen again.

So sadly our culinary adventures in Lyon ended on a very sad note. However in general we've eaten very well in France, and I enjoyed a great deal (especially the pastry) that we found in Lyon. I highly recommend Bernachon chocolates if you ever get a chance to try them!

My address

2007-10-30T12:41:00.000+01:00

Hey everyone,
I know almost no one every actually uses snail mail anymore, but in case you should desire to, here's my address:
13 rue de Tanneurs
07000 Privas
FRANCE

Well thats all for today. Matt and I are off to Lyon tommorrow for 4 days. Matt has two weeks off from work for All Saints Day, so were taking a mini-vacation. I'm looking forward to it. Lyon is the third largest city in France, and is known as the culinary capital of France. I've already researched chocolate shops and restaurants to go to. I'll post lots of pictures when we get back.
Have a good week!
Wendy

Les Chataignes et la foret de Privas

2007-10-27T12:07:00.000+02:00

Matt and I went on a hike to the Privas town forest a few weeks ago. It was the first real hike we've been on in months. Hiking in France is going to be far different than hiking in the U.S. Half of the hike was just getting from our house to the edge of town, which meant walking down streets. And let me tell you this town was not built for pedestrians. Or maybe it was 300 years ago, but those paths that used to be nice wide paths for horses and people are now roads for cars, without any real sidewalks. But there is a nice simplicity in walking down old roads past french farmhouses, grape vines, gardens and horses to get to your trailhead.

The forest was nice in that it was full of deciduous trees... and amoung them Chestnut trees. I can't say these forests could compare at all to the forests of California or Oregon, but there are reasons for that. Part of the beauty of having a country as young and as big as the U.S. is that by the time the West was being developed an environmental ethic had developed to protect the major forests and natural areas in the west. Here in France, a country the size of Texas with a history of civilizations that go back a 1000 years, you can only imagine what happened to the forests.

However you can tell that the government is trying to re-establish forests and each town seems to have their own town forest. All the kids in Matt's classes have been up to he forest, and they have started an arboretum up there. Here are some trees from the arboretum.

The best part of our hike other than eating lunch, and actually getting to be in a forest again, was picking chestnuts. Each region of France has specific foods and dishes that they are known for. In the Ardeche where we are living that specialty is chestnuts. You walk down any country road around Privas and you can't help but stumble upon the fuzzy prickly chestnut balls. And once you've seen them its really hard to resist picking them up. You crack through the prickly exterior and find big plump chestnuts.

The town forests was literally exploding with chestnuts. They were everywhere. You could barely walk for a few steps without stumbling on them. And we started collecting them, because they were just fun to hunt down. And quite quickly we had filled our pockets and eventually a bag we had with us. The experience made me think of my friend Robin who is constantly picking up fruit, nuts, and the like when out hiking so that it not go to waste (and making things like apple cider and blackberry wine out of it!).

When we got back home, we had to figure out how to go about making roasted chestnuts. I did know that you can't eat chestnuts raw and they have to be roasted or boiled. I figured sticking them in the oven at around 350 degrees for half and hour or so would do it. Our one mistake was not thinking about the fact that a chestnut in a shell with moisture in the nut, heated up just might explode. We're sitting playing cards and suddenly our oven is popping and exploding. So needless to say it took me two more tries to figure out how to roast chestnuts. The most important part is scoring the nuts so they don't explode and then baking for 20 minutes or so on 350. They are actually quite tasty, sweet and earthy, but they do take a lot of work.

We may roast a few more, but I think I'll just be buying the prepared chestnut cream from the farmers market. It's some amazingly sweet vanilla chestnut cream that you serve over ice-cream. They make a fantastic dessert served everywhere in town called a Coup Ardechoise, that is vanilla ice-cream, chest-nut ice-cream, chestnut cream, chuncks of candied chestnut and whipped cream. It's enough to put you in a sugar coma for life, but boy is it good.

Anyway, its been fun seeing what can be made of chestnuts. I've never really considered using them and have only seen a chestnut tree in the states once, so its been an experience.

The "New" Appartment

2007-10-24T14:06:00.000+02:00

Well I was hoping to be able to share some pictures of our new apartment with everyone say two or three weeks ago when we moved in, however the lack of internet access prevented that from happening. Luckily we are finally connected, so I can stop spending my money at the internet cafe and stop going insane using french keyboards where the letters are in different places.

Anyway, back to our humble abode. So the apartment is really quite grand. It far exceeded my expectations of what we would be able to find in Privas for our budget. Not only that its fully furnished! We have furniture that is old and beautiful, a real kitchen, a real bed, a dining room table that seats 6 and a kitchen table that seats 3!, a shower and a washing machine. And I'm not being facetious in my amazement here, I really didn't know if we'd be able to find a furnished apartment in Privas at all. I had nightmares of sleeping on the floor, of one room studios with no kitchen, of cooking on one burner and not having an oven and various other horrors. Matt can attest to the fact that when Madame Cruz the property manager brought us in to sign the papers, my jaw pretty much dropped in amazement.

A few other notes... as you can see from the pictures of the outside, our apartment is in a very old building. I'm not sure how old, but the exterior is made of stone, and less than 100 yards from our house there is a bridge called the Pont Louis XII that was built in the 12th century. The exterior door to our foyer looks like a castle door and we get to use an old-fashioned long key on it. We have a small courtyard thats shared with the other 3 apartments, and windows that looks out on a small creek. The only downsides so far have been that there are lots of creepy crawlies about (small scorpions, spiders, millipede like bugs), all the locks to the doors and cabinets use old fashioned keys, and we don't have a couch. However, in the greater scheme of things I'll take the downsides.

Anyway I took lots of pictures so you can check it out for yourselves. Here are the main rooms:

We have a very nice view from our livingroom/kitchen and can see down to the stream/creek below our house and to the houses across the ravine from us. Next door there is an empty stone building that looks like it will be made into usable apartments at some point. We also have a nice little creek and waterfall next to the building, which increases greatly in volume during rainstorms.

Well thats all for now. I'm sure I'll post more in the next week or so about our adventures here in Privas over the past few weeks. We've done lots of hiking, chestnut gathering, fromage eating and so much more... It's nice to be back online to be able to share my photos.

I hope everyone back in the US is doing well.

Un Vrai Repas Francais

2007-09-30T17:32:00.000+02:00

So Matt and I are currently knocked out from our first really true French meal. And by true French meal, I mean a meal with many many many courses. Matt's advisor here in Privas, Yvonne, invited us to lunch today (Sunday). I figured a lunch would not be as overwhelming as a French dinner. That was not the case!

So the meal started with appetizers of olives, french toasted almonds, and pumpkin seeds... with cider to drink. Then the real meal began with Italian dry breadsticks and an aubergine (eggplant) spread, followed by salad and rye bread. Then came the quenelles, which are a specialty of Lyon, where Yvonne is from. They were so different I don't think I can even describe them. It was almost like a mix between pasta and quiche, with a tomato sauce. They were very very good. When we were done with the quenelles, I was sure they were our main dish, but no there was more. Then came the fish course of sole with lemon. I loved it, though was served a lot of it, and felt I had to eat it. Of course french bread, and a local red wine came with the meal. Next came the cheese course of 3 local chevre's. Then finally was a fruit and dessert course with some kind of spanish pastry and coffee. Whew, it almost knocks me out just thinking about it again. It was truly amazing. I puts all of my past dinner parties to shame. I will definitely have to step up my game when doing dinners here.

After lunch, which lasted 2-3 hours, we went for a walk in the hills above Privas where Yvonne and her husband live. It was very beautiful and seemed very French. Lots of stone houses, chestnut trees, roosters roaming about, etc...

Well this shall be my last post for a little while. We're leaving the hotel and its free wi-fi for a place of our own finally. I'm very happy to finally be able to unpack my bags, a month after leaving Portland! However, the internet access may take a week or two.

Enjoy the coming week!

Ups and Downs

2007-09-28T15:40:00.000+02:00

Trying to exist in a country where you don't speak the language well is hard. It doesn't feel very good. I'm really hoping that this feeling of alienation will pass eventually. I really thought that the French I knew before I left the U.S. would at least get me by in basic situations. And I suppose it has to a degree. Where I am really having problems is understanding what is being said to me. Everyone seems to speak so fast, and an aspect of french that makes this harder is that words in a sentence tend to be blended together when spoken. It's also plainly obvious to anyone that I speak to that I'm a foreigner and can't speak very well. It doesn't help that I'm an introvert who doesn't really like to speak to people in any language!

Oh well, C'est la vie! I'm hoping this will get easier with time. Matt of course is having a grand old time speaking French, and that makes it easier on me, when we're together, but also makes me more dependent on him for understanding and communications. He really enjoys speaking French and its fun to watch him. However, if I'm going to stay here I'm going to have to learn more of this on my own.

On the upside I have been greatly enjoying the fact that pastry and baking is given great reverence here. There is literally a patisserie on every block. I couldn't believe how many we passed when we were in Paris. There are also Boulangerie and Chocolatier shops all over the place. I love it! I can't wait to go into the local places here. I've already had many great desserts in the past week. In Paris I tried a Glan (eclair with pistachio glaze), in Grenoble we went out to each in the Italian district and I had the best Tiramisu I've ever had, and here in Privas, Matt had an amazing ice cream dessert with chestnut puree (apparently chestnuts are a local specialty).

This whole past week has been full of ups and downs. I think this has been a very emotional experience so far because I left my whole life behind to come here, and its difficult to realize that I might not always be happy here, and its going to be a struggle to fit in. But I'm hoping that the beautiful sights and yummy pastries, and good company will get me through the down times.

The best news of the day is that Matt and I have a place to live. This was a big worry for both of us, so we're both feeling really happy about it. Matt has a wonderful school supervisor/advisor who is helping him with administrative issues and she took him out to appartments this morning and helped him find a place within 3 hours! Renting appartments is apparently much more difficult here than in the U.S., so it was wonderful to have her help. It's also inexpensive ($350 euros a month for a one bedroom appartement) and fully furnished.

Anyway, so things are looking up and down and up and down and I never really know how I'm going to feel, but hopefully once we can move into our new place and get settled things will mellow out. All I can do is keep trying to learn the language and try to find a place for myself here.

Paris, Grenoble!

2007-09-25T10:24:00.000+02:00

Well we have been in France for about four days now, though it seems like weeks at this point. We have done so much, and been to so many places in those four days that its hard to believe we just arrived on Friday.

On Friday we arrived on our flight from Chicago at 8:30 in the morning, and were kindly greeted by my friend Ally, who drove us to our hostel so we could avoid rush hour on the metro. She informed us that we were on the same plane as Segolene Royal, candidate for President of France this past year.

We were tired Friday, but checked out Notre Dame Cathedral and Ste. Chappelle. They were both beautiful and had amazing stained glass windows, but I preferred Notre Dame.

On Saturday we had a lot more energy and had a day full of art, going to the Musee D'Orsay which houses impressionist and post impressionist art, and the Pompidou Center, which houses modern art. I really enjoyed both, and liked seeing the Monet's, and Degas the most. At the Pompidou I enjoyed about half of the art and was perplexed by the rest. But seeing Matisse's cutouts made it all worth it. We went out for a nice dinner that night and I had some of the best salmon I've ever had.

On Sunday, Ally acted as our tour guard and took us all over Monmartre, and to the Eiffel Tower. She also made us an amazing French dinner which included Apertifs Peche, Chevre Chaud (goat cheese salad) and Tarte a la Orange.

Monday we lugged all our bags on the Paris metro (not fun!) and got ourselves to the train station. Then we took the TGV (one of the fastest trains in the world at 180 mph) to Grenoble. I have certainly never gone that fast before, and it was amazing to watch the landscape go by. Grenoble is an extremely beautiful city surrounded by mountains. Matt calls it the French Portland and now I understand why he would want to live here. So now Matt is leaving for a 2 day work retreat/orientation in the mountains and I will be on my own in Grenoble until Thursday. It seems like a friendly city so I think I'll be fine.

I'll add some pictures to this when they finally finish downloading.
Bonne Journee!

My Silly Nephews

2007-09-10T00:13:00.001+02:00

I have very silly nephews and every time I go to visit them we play very creative and interesting games together, whether they involve trains, star wars legos, deep dark jungles or light saber battles.

This last visit the main game we were playing involved them being groundhogs who were hiding under mounds of pillows in the living room. I would have to try to take their pictures as they popped up out of the pillows. An entirely silly adventure, which really didn't yield very many clear photos, but fun photos none the less.

Simon, whose about 18 months was getting into the pile of pillows with his older brothers and was having a fun time of it.

I love the fact that whenever I play with Jaron (6) and David (4), they always make me the bad guy. When we play light sabers I'm always Darth Vader! I also love the fact that I always end up "dying" the most, but after about 10 seconds I get to come back to life so that I can keep playing. Sometimes I'll play dead for a little longer just so I have a chance to rest. Kids have endless amounts of energy to be creative and I just can't keep up.

All I can say is that I may not want kids of my own yet, but I really like being an aunt and I'm going to miss those 3 kiddos this next year.

France Pre Trip Part 2- The Bay Area

2007-09-09T23:47:00.000+02:00

Well this week of travelling around the Bay Area has been quite busy. When I planned our trip, I wasn't quite anticipating how tiring it would be to sleep in a different place every night. But at the same time, there were a lot of people I wanted Matt to meet and places I wanted to show him.

On Monday (Labor Day), we gathered together all of our Bay Area friends and went on a hike to China Camp State Park. It was nice to spend a day with my friends from college and beyond and to meet Matt's friend Kirsten from Illinois. We all had a picnic lunch under an oak tree and enjoyed views of the bay. Matt and I then headed over to San Anselmo for dinner with my Aunt Debby and Uncle Mark. I hadn't been to their house in at least two years, so it was fun to visit. Both Matt and I got to ride in my uncle's electric car on our way to and from a Mexican restaurant. It was a very busy day but lots of fun.

On Tuesday Matt and I braved San Francisco to get his VISA from the French consulate which was a success. So I guess that means we're really going! After the consulate we took a tour through China Town, and checked out City Lights Bookstore. I think we both figured out that we really don't like being in big cities. Despite Portland being the largest city in Oregon, it doesn't feel like a big city. You never really have to worry about traffic or parking all that much.

On Wednesday we headed to my sisters house for quality family time, and Aunt Wendy time. Matt enjoyed seeing me play star wars and read to Jaron, David and Simon. My brother in law John grilled Portobello mushrooms for dinner and pinneaple for dessert.

On Thursday I had the pleasure of taking Matt to see the Santa Cruz campus. He had no idea such a beautiful place could exist as a college campus. We toured the campus, went to Mariannes for ice cream and Vasilis Greek food for dinner. The next morning we checked out Natural Bridges State Beach, where I used to volunteer.

On Friday we drove up Highway One to San Francisco, stopping for lunch at one of my favorite beaches. Then we headed over the Golden Gate Bridge, stopping for close-up pictures directly across the bridge. After getting pictures, we headed up to Marin Headlands for a more complete view of the bridge.

Now I'm enjoying some time off from being a traveller and spending time with my sister, grandma and parents for the next week.

France Pre Trip- The Pacific Ocean and the Redwoods

2007-09-07T15:43:00.000+02:00

Before Matt and I headed off over the Atlantic Ocean we decided to take a trip down the coasts of Caliornia and Oregon with the ultimate destination of San Francisco. We needed to get to San Francisco, so Matt could get his VISA from the French Conulate, however we decided that since we were going there anyway, we may as well have fun on the way, see some sights we've never seen and visit friends and family. The first 3 days of this part of the adventure (August 31st-September 2nd) were occupied by the Oregon Coast and Redwoods.

Friday we drove down the Oregon Coast from Newport to Coos Bay and camped at Sunset Bay State Beach. We spent the evening watching the sun go down over the Pacific at Cape Arago, and I begrudgingly agreed to get up at 3:30 in the morning to watch a once in a lifetime meteor shower. Depsite there being a very bright moon we saw more shooting stars than I've probably seen in a lifetime, and I appreciated seeing them. But believe me it was a struggle to get up that early when my vacation from 4:00 a.m. work mornings had just begun.

Saturday we got up early and stopped at Cape Blanco about an hour into our drive. It is the westernmost point in Oregon and the site of one of the oldest still functional lighthouses on the Oregon Coast.

However, the focus of our day was on the Redwoods, so we drove most of the morning, and reached Jedidiah Smith State Park. There we saw some of the largest and most beautiful stands of Coast Redwoods that I've ever seen:

On Sunday, we left our campsight at Prarie Creek Redwoods State Park as early as we could, and drove out to Gold Beach and Fern Canyon, an 8 mile trip down a dusty dirt road. And as Matt aptly said in the car on the way there, it wouldn't be a normal trip for us if he didn't want to get to some beautiful destination that requires me to drive on a crappy road. But luckily the end result is usually always worth it, and Fern Canyon was definitely worth it. Fern Canyon, is pretty much what you would expect from the name, a narrow canyon, located just off Gold Beach that is filled with ferns.

Just as we were leaving fern canyon, the sun broke through some trees at the top of the canyon and created this beautiful sight:

The rest of the week has been quite busy as well and filled with other great adventures, but this is a very long blog already, so I'll leave it until later.

The Things I'll Miss About Portland

2007-08-30T20:06:00.000+02:00

So in this last week of rushing around, trying to get my stuff together for France, I've been thinking about both what I'll miss about Portland, and all the things I'm looking forward to. I'm a little sad to be leaving Portland, but at the same time I know I'll return, so I'm not too sad.

Things I'll miss about Portland:
- The Mountains! Having 3 large cascade peaks towering over your city is pretty amazing. Mt. Hood and Mount St. Helens are the closest, and Mt. Adams can also be seen on a clear day (Occasionally you can even see the tip of Mt. Rainier and Mt. Jefferson). It's an amazing site when after days of cloudiness suddenly this huge mountain appears out of nowhere.

- Hiking in the Cascades, The Columbia River Gorge, Mt. Hood, Mt. Jefferson.... I could go on forever. The Pacific Northwest is just simply beautiful.

- The Laurelhurst Theatre. Sometimes I don't think I'll ever want to go to a multiplex again. At the Laurelhurst you can see a relatively current movie (3-6 months behind the multiplexes), for $3 in the evening, and have beer and pizza while you watch it. What more could you want?

- The fact that when it gets about 85 degrees, 99% of the people in Portland complain about how hot it is, and I can just sit back and enjoy it and laugh at them.

- The roses that everyone in this city seems to have in their yards

- The insane amount of great restaurants in this city, and going to my favorite one Pambiche (Cuban food) for happy hour and desserts.

- Powell's books- there's nothing quite like living in a city that has the largest independent bookstore in the U.S. The perfect place to go on a rainy day.

- My great friends. It's amazing both how many interesting and wonderful people I've met in the past 2 years. And equally amazing how many people that I've known from other times in my life have moved to Portland recently.

Seeing the Best of Oregon

2007-08-11T16:24:00.000+02:00

So in preparation for the fact that Matt and I are about to leave Oregon in 3 weeks and leave the country in about 6 weeks, we have spent a great deal of the summer trying to see some of the beautiful places that Oregon has to offer. Despite us both being very excited to be moving to France I think we will both miss Oregon and her mountains, forests and crystal clear streams dearly.

There are just too many amazing places to include them all here, but the three most scenic hikes I’ve been on this summer were to Iron Mountain/Cone Peak in the South Santiam River area, Lookout Mountain on the east side of Mt. Hood, and the South Breitenbush trail to Jefferson Park… one of 3 ways into Mt. Jefferson. They are all worth going to and had amazing flowers and views.

So in preparation for the fact that Matt and I are about to leave Oregon in 3 weeks and leave the country in about 6 weeks, we have spent a great deal of the summer trying to see some of the beautiful places that Oregon has to offer. Despite us both being very excited to be moving to France I think we will both miss Oregon and her mountains, forests and crystal clear streams dearly.

There are just too many amazing places to include them all here, but the three most scenic hikes I’ve been on this summer were to Iron Mountain/Cone Peak in the South Santiam River area, Lookout Mountain on the east side of Mt. Hood, and the South Breitenbush trail to Jefferson Park… one of 3 ways into Mt. Jefferson. They are all worth going to and had amazing flowers and views.

Iron Mountain/Cone Peak Loop
This was the perfect little hike. Around 7 miles through amazing wildflower meadows and forests, up to an old lookout tower, with a view of the Three Sisters, Jefferson and Hood.

We saw these little while flowers, dogwood and tigerlillies on the way up.

Lookout Mountain
Lookout Mountian was an 8 mile hike, to the east of Mt. Hood, with amazing views of Mt. Hood. This hike had some steep sections, but the view at the top was definetely worth it.

On the drive back from the hike we saw two amazing sites from the side of the road. First a few avalanche lilies, which pop up right after the snow disappears. I had been looking for these guys all season long and was very happy to find them. We also saw a view of Mt. Hood that was almost dumbfounding. Clouds were rolling over Mt. Hood in a way that made it look as if were erupting. It was beautiful, but quite creepy. I'm glad it didn't really erupt.

Jefferson Park via South Breitenbush Trail
Well I definitely saved the best for last. Ever since Matt took me up to Mt. Jefferson last October and it was so foggy we couldn't see the mountain that was 5 miles away from us (Argh!) we have both been planning to go back. It's Matt's favorite mountain and he spent a lot of time hiking around it as a kid, so he knows that area better than almost any other in Oregon. I have to say I was a bit skeptical about a 13 miles hike with around 3000 feet of elevation gain, but I knew the views and the wildflowers (my true motivation would be worth it). We left the trailhead around 7:30 a.m. and hiked steadily for several hours. We got our first view of Jefferson, somewhere around 10 a.m. and reached the gorgeous wildflower meadows of Jefferson Park by noon. The flowers around the South Breitenbush river were some of the best I have ever seen. The area was awash with lupine, pink monkeyflower, red and pink paintbrush and so many other kinds of flowers. The pictures say it all....

he next day we were very tired, but having the opportunity to see Mt. Jefferson up close was well worth it. It's a beautiful mountain and I was glad I was able to see it before leaving Oregon. Just three more weekends left to see Oregon and then its off to California, Illinois and France. Hopefully we can fit in a few more hikes before we go.