When the French strike, Make spaghetti and meatballs.

Madness, once again. France is under attack and by none other than its own citizens. At the moment, the government is trying (who am I kidding, not trying, but are going to, whether the citizens like it or not) pass a law that will increase the retirement age from 55 to 62. As a result, the French people have united and decided to terrorize the cities in France until the government changes their mind, which of course, is improbable.

The strikes are not like strikes back home in California. There are no petition forms or "peace" rallies. It is all action, mostly violent action at that. Crowds of people (young, old, retired, students, parents, children, you name it) have been gathering for the past week or so in efforts to protest the law. Their demonstrations are not quiet, and they do not disperse quickly as some do at home. They last for hours and can become incredibly physical. Police will and have already taken action by shooting rubber bullets, tear gas bombs, and down right beating the protesters into submission. But with this many angry Frenchmen, I doubt that the police will even be able to dent the rallies let alone stop them. The French have retaliated against the city in a way that I actually believe neither helps them, or the government. They have started destroying public property (smashing down bus stops, random car windows, etc) and have even resorted to flipping police cars and setting them on fire. They have even destroyed the doors and windows of many small business shops that have not done anything wrong. The whole reason for trying to pass this law is because the country is running out of money, yet the country is protesting by damaging public property which will just take more money to repair. Truly a shame.

As a result of these protests, I have spent most of the past week indoors in order to avoid falling in the line of fire accidentally. A few other exchange students have already been tear gassed and it just doesn't seem pleasant. Some of the University campuses have also been shut down due to the increasing violence. What is even more crazy is that Super Markets and Gas stations are literally running out of certain products/supplies. Many shelves at the super market are out of stock at the moment and 1 out of every 4 gas station has run out of gas to sell. Why? Because even the truck drivers who ship the supplies are protesting and refusing to work.  Hopefully, this will not affect my trip to Belgium and Amsterdam this coming Thursday. I have read some articles lately about planes being cancelled throughout France. YIKES!

Picture courtesy of Elliot Stevenson

To cope with the insanity, I have been cooking non-stop. In the past few days, I have made:
-Pumpkin country loaf
-Rum raisin apple bread pudding with a maple custard using left over country pumpkin loaf
-Maple cinnamon granola with almonds, raisins, and coconut
-Strata (savory version of bread pudding. I put caramelized onions, sautéed bell peppers and tomato, thyme and sage, left over pumpkin country loaf, and topped it with Gruyère, Parmesan, and Mozzarella cheese.
- Rigatoni pasta rolls stuffed with eggplant and Zucchini rolled and baked in bread crumbs, and topped with a pumpkin Bechemel sauce.
- Pumpkin Marscapone Bourbon sponge cake
-Chicken Saltimbocca
-Garlic Bread made with three heads of garlic
-Crab stuffed mushrooms with a white wine, dill, and lemon sauce

I made more but they were just simple things I whipped together in hopes to clear out my fridge in time for the week long break.

And of course, as my title suggests, I made Spaghetti and Meatballs. Super tender, and tasty. Voila. Enjoy!

Here is a picture of the leftover fat I had from baking the meatballs. 

Summer...a distant memory

60 degrees and below this week. 50 degrees and below next week. The warmth of the sun on my face last week now seems like a dream, a dream that I would like again, but have been forced to wake up from and face the reality of this cruel cold world. Nonetheless, France is enjoyable whether my feet feel like they are going to fall off or not. The past week has been a productive one. I have finally met some French people. The past month has been filled with my ever reliable Californians and other International students, but I was really getting worried that my French would really never improve because all of them speak English. So, two weeks ago, I decided to take a step forward. I answered an ad of a  French girl looking for an native English speaker to exchange language lessons with. To say the least, she is absolutely amazing. I love all my conversations that I have had so far despite my lack of vocabulary and my struggles with grammar. The topic is always interesting and its fun teaching each other slang in our respective languages. She even invited me to a "petite soirée" tonight and I was introduced to many of her friends and her fiancé.

On to a more depressing subject...I am HOMESICK. I miss the people honestly. I miss you people back in California reading this right now. I also miss the food you're eating. I wish there was a super cheap plane that could just fly me back every weekend, but then I suppose this wouldn't be a total immersion program if I could just go home when I wanted. Don't get me wrong though, Lyon has quite a bit to offer and I don't think I would want to go home early if I had the chance just because I know that I have this once in a lifetime opportunity to embrace these experiences. Not to mention meet new people and create new networks which I am sure will come in handy in the future. If there is one thing I could change though, it would be the amount of strikes that go on in this country. There is a strike for everything and anything. Masses of people will gather in an area and literally march all through town. All the while they strike, they also interfere with the public transportation system and make it near impossible to get from place to place. I couldn't even get to class today!

Alrighty, it has been a long week. I have barely had enough sleep all week and have had way too much alcohol (which isn't very much at all if you know me.) I will leave you with a few pictures of Lyon. I expect the next blog will have a few pictures of the autumn themed food I am planning to make. Stay tuned.

And here is another picture of Beaujolais that I think better represents the sunshine last week that has now gone to play hide and seek:

Life on a Vineyard

Cheese, baguettes, butter. All these things tend to associate with the country of France. But perhaps one of the biggest things that the French are known for is their production of fine wines. This past weekend, the UC EAP program took us on a field trip to the Beaujolais region of France. It is well known for it's wine production and looks like the Napa of California. However, there is something about the French air, the French region, and the French people that make it so much more beautiful. Pictures can literally do no justice. The image of the sun setting past the vineyard is a memory that I hope will stayed ingrained into my mind for many years to come.

We headed off to the region at 11:45am on Saturday morning. When we arrived, we were welcomed by the owners of a medium sized vineyard in the region. They fed us for 3.5 hours and gave us an introductory lesson in the wine making process. The lunch was held in a beautiful cave where I suppose they usually put barrels of wine to age in. They also let us try a variety of wines that they produced. I particularly liked the last wine I tried which is the freshest wine available. The yeast is still active and it almost looks like strawberry champagne. It tasted citrusy, sweet, and bubbly. A beautiful combination. However, you can not drink too much or the yeast will activate certain things in your stomach that you may not want to smell. The meal was fantastic too. We started off with 4 types of bread. A rosemary bread, pizza like bread, fig and hazelnut bread, and raisin bread. The raisin was my absolute favorite. It tasted as though they used the same grapes that were used in the wine. We also had a pate which wasn't the best I ever tried but it was tasty nonetheless. It was accompanied by a salad of fresh lettuce and chives grown on the owner's farm and covered in a homemade vinaigrette dressing. The next course consisted of stewed meat and rice. It seems like they killed a cow just to feed us. It was SO much meat. The meat was cooked perfectly texture wise but I believe the seasoning could have been adjusted a bit. In between our main course and dessert, we were served three types of cheese. A hard goat cheese, a soft goat cheese, and a cow cheese. The soft goat was by far the least pungent and probably my favorite. The stronger cheeses are more of an acquired taste. Dessert was the part i enjoyed most. They served us a sugar coated eggy bread and a super buttery chocolate chip cookie like dish. It was accompanied by shortbread cookies and coffee. DELICIOUSNESS :).

After lunch, they showed us how to make bread! They baked each of us one loaf in a super old oven that still uses firewood. It was amazing. During the baking time, I went to run in the vineyard, buy some of their wine, and play with the farm dog. I also went to frolic with a few friends in the vineyard. Overall, it was probably the happiest I have felt since arriving to Lyon. The feeling of peace and joy literally enveloped me as I stared out towards the vineyard.

Other things i did this weekend:
-made apple fritters
-took a walk through random parts of lyon with friends and discovered some cool spots
-exchanged some pretty dumb jokes
-fell into a water ditch and disappeared in the Vineyard for a few minutes. and got surrounded by bugs. BAH

PICTURES FOR YOU: