Naive is a French Word

I really do applaud the French. They are an active group- they walk nearly everywhere, they watch how much they eat, and in my six weeks of being here I've seen maybe 2 people that could be classified as obese.
I see many of them on bikes.

Now then, obviously this is a population that thinks through the ramifications of their actions so I am astounded at their idea of "securing" their bikes. Observe:


I laughed out loud when I first saw this. These short poles designed to keep cars off the grass have no top and it would take all of 4 seconds to pick a bike, lift it up four feet from its tether, and cruise away on your brand set of wheels. Many are secured so that they could be easily ridden:



Perhaps they are just a trusting group. Honestly, Angers has a very low crime rate, and if I had never lived in Ypsilanti perhaps I would never have found this peculiar. However, this is my favorite- which I get to see nearly every week parked outside the University Cafeteria:

Brilliant.

One Good Crepe

I've had many inquiries into what exactly I'm eating over here in this land without peanut butter or pancakes.

Here's a little look:
Morning: I normally don't eat b/c I'm ALWAYS running late for class (big surprise) - but if time allows, I take the remainder of last night's baguette and dunk it in my jam 'chip and dip' style.

Lunch: Le Resto-U (le restaurant universitaire) basically a french DC-1 (otherwise known as "The Commons" for all you Eastern young'uns). Its a cafeteria affiliated with the university. For 2.90 euro I get a lil salad or soup, a hot plate, and dessert (which is often whipped cream with sprinkles on top). Bread and water are free. How nice.
Otherwise there's this cute lil boulangerie that sells a pretty good lunch "formule" a baguette sandwich and drink or dessert for 3.60 euro.

Dinner: Many things. A soup-pot portion of cereal (I FOUND SPECIAL K RED BERRIES), baguette purchased on the way home from class w/ butter and ham, couscous w/ soup, frozen dinner mix, nutella by the spoonful...

I have endeavored, on one occasion, to make crepes. When in France, right?

Well, here's what happened:

First things first- crepes are just eggs, milk, and flour. I've watched a real french person make them right in front of my eyes and really this looks like a no-brainer: FIRST MISCONCEPTION.

Mixing the batter is a science. You want to break the egg and mix it up first- so that you don't have tentacles of egg-slime permeating your batter (le pate). Next you add a little bit of milk, and then slowly flour- stir- milk- stir- flour- stir- milk etc until all the flour you want is added and the consistancy is thinner than elmers glue. Ideally without chunks. HOW DO YOU AVOID CHUNKS? I don't know. My batter was chunky. See?

SO- that failed. I added some more milk to try to dissolve them, but in the end, I scooped the chunks out of the batter w/ my fingers (I don't have a wisk - don't judge) and tried again:



Result: Disgusting scrambled eggs. The batter was too thin- or too fluffy after all my stirring- or something. In any case the result was a wet, hot mess that tasted like diluted eggs. Adding nutella didn't help. ADD MORE FLOUR!


Omigosh. Look at the color! Look at the shape! Its a perfectly cooked, golden brown PANCAKE.
I found this particularly spiteful. For a number of years I have tried and FAILED to make pancakes- many of those reading have suffered through (out of the goodness of their own hearts) my undercooked, burnt, dense-as-hell-because-katie-can't-make-batter-from-a-box, pancakes. Now I'm in France trying to make CREPES and the muses of cuisine decide to deliver me the perfect pancake. I slathered Nutella on this and moved on.


The key is to let the crepe cook. Trying to flip it too early (with that pathetic wooden substitute for a slotted turner you see in the pic) invites disaster. Once you can poke around the edges and not get batter- and you can shake the non-stick pan and the crepe moves around- its time to flip- with an elegant flick of the wrist (which often ended with omelette-crepes) and let that side firm up a bit. I think I made one good crepe out of a dozen attempts. I blame the last failure on my host-mother. She came upstairs to grab my sheets (contractually she washes them every two weeks) and we got talking about the words for pillowcase and douvet cover and by the time I returned to my skillet I had one big tortilla chip. I slathered Nutella on it and moved on.

En Plein Air

This saturday morning I found another reason to love France. Every Saturday morning, in TWO places in Angers, there are farmers' markets. Now, when I say farmers' market- I'm not talking about the little collection of stalls in a parking lot that will happen twice a week in Ypsi during the warmer months. No, here in Angers you can buy mattresses, shoes, toys, underwear, lingerie, watches, home goods, cds, unitards, fresh cut flowers, potted plants EN PLUS there's food- fresh baked bread, fresh sea food, skinned rabbits, pickled goods, any vegetable you could want, imported fruit from Spain and Monaco, home made jams, the list goes on... There's really no reason to go to any stores. Just wait for Saturday.

The market was FREEZING cold. It had snowed overnight and traces of snow were still lingering on the sidewalks. Snow doesn't stick here, it melts- but then the air is damp and soon the cold soaks in through your coat and shoes and you're chilled to the bone. We looked around for a good hour until none of us could feel our fingers or toes...

Later that night we had a crèpe making party to celebrate the fact that Nolan's host family is gone for the week. We watched the Olympics, ate crèpes, played cards and savoured the feeling we used to take for granted: hanging out at night with your friends.

All the friends I've made through this exchange program are living in host family situations like I am. Its great for learning the french culture and speaking the language- however, its a little like living with your grandparents. In order to be respectful guests, its expected that we don't make too much noise, invite too many people over for too long etc. As a ramification we all spend a lot of nights alone in our rooms, not making too much noise and trying not to feel too bored or lonely. Going out is always an option- but the cost adds up and none of us here can afford to spend 5 euro each night on top of other expenses. In short, we're all a little socially deprived and a night in the kindred company of college students was well appreciated.

The Market and Crepe Party

Angers at Night

To look at any of these close up, just click on them!

On Being a Foreigner

I cannot say I anticipated this particular learning experience, though I should have expected it. Think back to when you have interacted in some depth with a person that barely speaks english. Perhaps you struggle through the conversation and in the end just give up and stop trying? Or maybe you smile and nod- not understanding and not trying to clarify? If anything the interaction will be very shallow.

Well today, and for the next 4 months, I am that foreigner. Yes I have studied french for 8 years and in a classroom I understand everything- this does not at all mean I understand everything I overhear on the sidewalk, or the colloquialisms used by shop keepers.

The thing is- I'm intelligent. I'm in college. I'm a mostly A student. To be looked at, after a few words, as if I'm an imbecile who can't conjugate her tenses and therefore MUST be not worthy of common courtesy is insulting and hurtful. It is the lack of patience or willingness to try to understand that saddens me.

"I AM smart!" I want to yell. "And that Beyoncé you're playing over your shop's radio comes from MY country and YOU don't even know what she's saying!"

Just because a person lacks knowledge of a language does not make them stupid. You could be speaking to a nobel prize winner for all you know.

All people deserve the same respect and patience. Lesson learned.

A look at Angers...