Plans de déménagement...and ramen

Bonjour à tous et à tous!

It's been a while, but I thought I'd provide a little update on this fine Sunday morning. In the last couple of weeks, I studied, took, and did very well on my final exams. That being said, the semester continues until the end of next week. I've still been going to class, which isn't so bad I suppose because I'm still learning and there's no more pressure for finals. And a few days ago we registered for next semester's classes. I'll sticking with the 9 hours a week for the general French course, plus 3 hours each a week for a written French class, and a Tourisme and Gastronomie class.

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In other news...I'm moving! Not 100% sure where or even when yet, but I've given it much thought, and I really am paying way too much just to live here. I've given my notice to the landlord, so I will be out of here by the end of February at the latest. I'm currently looking for a place-and possibly a roommate- in the suburbs as most of my friends live in that area, it's cheaper, and as long as it's near the RER B, it won't take me that long to get to class.

Annnyways, that's pretty much it for now, though because I'm the new Betty Crocker now, here's some pics of the dishes I've made recently..Enjoy!

Cajun chicken pasta, mmmm, spicy!:

French-style apple pie:

(Almost) Papa's Man Spaghetti..no chorizo, but ground beef and ham with plenty of spices, so still good:

Finally, a few days ago, I decided to try and make my own Japanese ramen after having had it out for lunch. Little did I know that it's a dish that's notorious in Japan for being difficult to make despite being so simple looking. Well, after 4 hours of watching and re-watching the tricky steps on Youtube, I managed a fiiiiiiine bowl of ramen, if I do say so myself. And it tasted very authentic, too :)

That's all for now, love you all!

Rachael

Losers see barriers, winners see hurdles

Found this on another blog on Blogger, check out the link, there's tons of these inspiring post-its

Now that I've gotten all the event-y posts out of the way, I can now take the time to post about daily life again. Even if daily life isn't always cheery and full of rainbows.

Well, what my daily events are fine: class, wandering the city, grocery shopping, cooking, baking, preserving...(more on that later).

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Let's talk about school and classes. While all of my classes are at least 3 hours long, I've gotten used to them. Wednesday (class from 9-12, 2-6) still makes me want to bang my head against something concrete, but at the very least I don't have babysitting on those days. And then it means I can faire la grasse matinée, or sleep in (literal translation, make the morning fat aha) on Thursday. And now when I think about how I thought 1.5 hour classes were long, I want to laugh.

Anyways, not sure if I explicitly said this previously, but I really, really love going to school here. Despite having two other classes, they're not terribly demanding and I feel like I can really focus on my French. Of course, I am living in Paris and French is kinda a requirement even outside of school, but still. It's nice not having to worry about writing an 8 page paper on rhetoric. Ew.

Me after my long days

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So I don't really stroll freely through the city anymore, but I just love being out and about. Being on errands, or even just admiring the scenery when studying outside (ok, I did that once, and I didn't study so much as feed hungry pigeons). Also, I love love LOVE Sunday market. Yeah, I have the market 6 days a week, but Sunday is the busiest--and therefore best--day to meander down the entire street, eyeing the redness of apples, or the abundance of lemons and clemetines. The excitement of all the people trying to find the best deals is just so...reviving, especially in the brisk November air. It's also times like these though that I really miss Mom and Papa, because I know just how much they would love it too.

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And speaking of fresh produce, what is it that I do with 2 kilos of apples, a kilo of pears, and 4 lemons? (All for under 5 euros, btw). Why, I preserve, of course! Oh, wait, what's that? Didn't you know I was into this kind of thing? That's ok because neither did I! But apprently I am and now I understand how the Martha Stewart and Paula Deen shows could be so popular. I don't know what it is exactly; is it that I'm living on my own for the first time? Are constantly seeing baked fruity creations everyone inspiring me? Or could it simply be that I have too much time on my hands? Whatever the reason, I now peruse my first ever cookbook (in French, but pssh, when it comes to food it's easy to understand in any language) daily, bookmarking recipes that sound good. Already I've made:

-Broccoli, egg, ham, and cheese souflees

-Mongolian beef

-Broiled pork

-Ginger chicken

-Muffins, twice

-Pumpkin pie, twice

-Pumpkin spice cookies

-Bakes pumpkin seeds with my own seasoning combo

-An ok baguette (was my first time)

-Various jams

Don't worry, I'm not quite this bad...

...yet...

Now I'm just gonna mention this briefly because I don't want to dwell on it too much, but I'm unfortunately having a really tough time financially. All I'm really buying these days is food, and even then, not a whole lot. Guess that's one way to slim down, har har. And if my phone gets cut off for a few days, I guess that's not THAT big of a deal...:/

I'm not babysitting as much as I was originally told I'd be needed for, and that's one problem. The major one is that there are some really incompetent people working for important positions at Western, but I'm hoping against hope that everything will be worked out this weekend and I will have money to buy myself a belated birthday gift. And pay for my phone. And maybe a ticket home for the holidays. Because hoping for anything by Wednesday is kinda pushing it. So there you have it, why this post is titled the way is it.

Well, so that this post doesn't end on a sour note, here's another picture of a kitteh!!

You know you love it,

Rachael