Getting there gradually

I grew up in a home with a delicious homemade meal essentially every night. Basically, my mom is an amayzing cook. I moved to college and tried to make my own meals. I thought that perhaps the chef gene was simply dormant. I got married and finally I have decided that either I didn't get the chef gene, or there's no such thing. Did I give up? Despite Doug's satisfaction with frozen pizza and/or cereal for every meal, no - I did not give up.

Thrice - thrice, people! - have I made a meal worthy of my mother this week (week is loosely defined as the last 7-9 days...).

1. Pork (well Elk, actually) Goulash. (I'm honestly just relieved I found a way to make the Elk edible!)
2. Shrimp Tacos (surprisingly easy!!)
3. French Onion Soup. Yup, you read right. Care to take a guess at which one is mine?

soup1

soup2

I had to crop the images so you couldn't tell just by the dishes - but maybe you still can? Mine's soup2 btdubs. Doesn't even look better than the real French one? Oh. I am so good.

Anyway, the hardest part about making French Onion Soup is slicing all the onions. Then my friend geniously recommended that I use my food processor next time. DUH. Oh, and if you order this at a restaurant, know that you're basically paying for the gruyere cheese, everything else is inexpensive.

So, I've come to the conclusion that whether or not there is such a thing as a chef gene in my family, I can become a good chef, it just might take a while.

Paris: Food

Ah, the food! Close to our apartment was a Boulangerie (Bakery) and an Intermarche (Market). We ate baguettes, meat, and cheese for half of our lunches and doner kebabs for the other half (per Doug’s request!). 

a doner kebab

At the doner shop

One morning we went to the Boulangerie and I didn’t know what to get. I let about 5 people go in front of me and these were essentially their orders: “Pan de chocolat” “Pan de chocolat” “Pan de chocolat” “Pan de chocolat” “Pan de chocolat.” I knew what to get.

Pan de chocolat

Thursday night we ate at a restaurant close to Form de Halles where I ordered these:

 

Saturday night we walked down Champs Eleesse and did some shopping (shoppin’ shoppin’ too, if you know what I mean). Anyway, we went down a side street looking for a less expensive restaurant and found ourselves in one of the most ritzy places in Paris.  (We often saw REALLY nice cars. Like, I can’t even spell them. Daniel would have had a hay day!) So we picked a decently priced Chinese restaurant in this neighborhood. It was beautiful!

Like Emily Bingham - we haven’t eaten at a bad restaurant yet!

Paris: Adventures

Public Transportation
Because we didn’t have a car, the public transportation system was the best way to get around. It was surprisingly easy to navigate and we didn’t get really lost ever. Aren’t you proud?!

I didn’t take any picture of the metro/RER system for two reasons: 1. I didn’t think of it. And 2. It was filthy. As Doug said throughout the trip, “Urine Europe” (say it out loud). It’s so true, it smelled like urine and alcohol almost everywhere we went in Paris. Gross! Also, more often than not, the floors/ground were covered with trash. Needless to say, Paris is a dirty place.

Doug entertained us with his pronunciation of Paris train stations. My favorite was how he said Chatelet les Halles. It is pronounced “Shut-eh-lay lay all.” He would say, “Chayt-let less hall-ess.” Pricless.

Friends
The Saids met up with us (me, Doug, Miriam, Josh) on Thursday and stayed with us throughout our stay. We were super glad to have them along -  aside from their company, they both are perfectly fluent in French and had a GPS. Plus, they live in Norway, so we’ll take any chance we get to see them :).

Mike and Emily Bingham currently live in Paris and they invited us over for dinner Friday night. She made a delicious chicken lasagna and we relished the American company. Their children are super cute. The oldest boy was best friends with Daniel when they lived in NY and it’s amazing to me how much he’s grown up!! The oldest girl looks just like Emily and the other are just too precious. I’m so impressed with their French also! Thanks for having us over, Binghams!

Getting to Paris

We made it to Paris!!

I am currently eating a banana and enjoying the lovely view from our apartment window:

Taken just a few moments ago. It's overcast today with a high of 65 and a low of 43. Perfect.

I'm in heaven.

Getting here was a little stressful though! I've been traveling since Monday night, and Doug has been traveling since Friday afternoon. Needless to say we are so happy to actually be here.

Once we got to customs, we were in a different country. For example, as we were boarding the plane there were two lines: 1. US Passports 2. Regular Passports. Haha - I thought we were still in NY... On the plane we were obviously in the minority, speaking English, and I found myself wishing that Jesse (and Catherine, of course!!) or John or Ryan (all of whom speak Russian) were with us. Alas, we survived the Russian airport and Aeroflot. I was unaware of a few cultural differences (ie: the toilet paper doesn't go in the toilet) but all that really mattered to me was that we arrive in Paris with all of our baggage (said: be-gej, duh.). Which we did. Hurray!

Let the festivities begin.

And the packing begins.

Here would be posted a boring picture of a corner of boxes that have already been packed. Alas, my computer is not recognizing the SD card and will not upload my pictures. Consider yourself spared. 

Fortunately, most of those boxes are being left for Maria to pick up when she gets to BYU. I can hardly believe that she is old enough for college. And that I'm old enough to be graduating!! Weird. I'm looking forward to being done with my bachelor's degree, but at the same time, I'm really going to miss BYU. Mostly the "bucket-loads of library databases!" Hah, you think I'm joking. 

Seriously though, Doug leaves in TWELVE days to drive out to NY with his dad. And we fly out of JFK in SIXTEEN days to go to PARIS. And then we move on to a completely different chapter of our lives. I'm 8 parts excited, 2 parts anxious.