Hot Blooded!

Title for Stephanie S.

Fantastic Strike

Well I should be put away for negligence, shouldn't I? There's much to fill you in on. First, school is going fine. These weeks have been filled with grèves, or 'strikes,' and manifestations, or 'protests.' Mainly due to the changes being made by the government over France's retirement age, but these protests are about all the changes the French wish to see. For us students, it basically means that the tram isn't running the way it should and it's harder to get around.

Let me start with last weekend. The first night of the weekend, my friend Carrie and I went to the wine bar that I've mentioned before, Le Tord Boyaux, in search of lavender flavored wine. First of all, lavender is not only a flower, but also a cooking spice. Indeed, good ladies and gents! I've never had anything with lavender cooked in it here, as I believe it's mainly used in the south of France, but lavender ice cream back home is delicious. Anyway, somebody from our group said that this lavender wine exists at the bar but indeed it does not. We were flabbergasted. Instead we got some apple cinnamon to keep up with the autumn spirit, but it didn't taste as great as the liquid gold that is lavender wine would have been. After finishing we called it a night.

Jack, Rachel, and Nick

The next day I hung out with my friends Allison and Rachel, mainly walking to the movie theaters to find a good movie to watch but we found ourselves disinterested, and instead went to Rachel's to watch a movie on her computer. Before that, though, we went to Allison's and played with her dog, Jack, for a bit.

That night I got home and as I was sitting on my bed I realized that my bug friend was hanging out on the wall above my door. I wasn't going to make a fuss myself, so I waited until my host mom popped in to say goodnight. She went into my host brother's room and asked if he wanted to kill it but he declined so she got out some spray from the bathroom and sprayed it on the bug. It did a lazy little dance and then fell on the floor, at which point she stomped on it and cleaned it up with some toilet paper. The spray is now in my closet but hopefully they leave me alone for good.

The day after that, I hung out again with Rachel and her very nice friend from Paris. The day wasn't so nice so we stopped in a café and had coffee and talked. Allison showed up too. The rest of the weekend I watched movies and did homework.

This weekend:

Yesterday my program went on an excursion to Voiron, where they distill Chartreuse. Long ago some monks made this "elixir" of what's supposed to be long life, and that elixir is Chartreuse. It has a nice green color (there's also a yellow kind... more on this later) and how the monks obtain that is a secret. In the cellar of the distillery there were gigantic barrels of both green and yellow and on the big barrels they have written the percentage of alcohol, color, and quantity. It was a huge cellar.

La Jaune

Then we got to taste it. First of all, I wasn't too thrilled about this because 1. the whole cellar smelled of it and I can tell you... It wasn't bad but it wasn't at all enticing. 2. 55% alcohol content... no thank you. So I tried the yellow, while some others had green and we shared to see which was better. I chose right. I can describe the green as having a very strong alcohol taste that was bitter and kind of tasted like flowers or plants, but also had a cinnamon or nutmeg taste. Yellow was the same except it was a little less tart and a little more sugary. I'll never enjoy it, I'm sure.

After the distillery we were headed to the monastery and Chartreuse museum which was opened as a special treat to us, as they aren't usually open this time of year. However, on the way (scenery was absolutely beautiful. Fall is the best time of year for nature views) there was a blockage in a tunnel due to a car accident so our bus was parked on the side of the road for an hour or so. When it was clear we had to turn around and go home. Although this was disappointing, I do like a nice relaxing bus ride. Road trips are the best.

Today I had a picnic with some friends by the river, then some ice cream, and I believe later I'm going out to a café. I'm also writing a second post as a treat and to update you on a bomb that has recently been dropped.

Special thanks to Molly P., and Allison L. for pictures.