15-02-2009 (Week 5) - Random Toulouse

Ok, I know I'm a little behind on my blogs, but better late than never...n'est-ce pas??

So, this was my first weekend back in Toulouse for an actual weekend in a long time....and I just have some general thoughts I'd like to share with everyone.

Food: The food here is very good. Unfortunately for me (or fortunately if you know me well), I've made myself too busy to go out and actually enjoy French meals. However, the few I've had thus far have been very good. It's very easy to walk into a sandwich shop and get a sandwich. And the sandwich isn't like american sandwiches. It's basically an entire baguette sliced in half with meat and cheese. And the cheese is very good here (as long as you don't get a peice that smells like someone just wiped their butt with it - which has happened to me before). The cantine at work is very good. You can get a very well rounded meal cooked up french style for only a couple euro. Sweet deal, right?! WRONG. They charge you like 6 euro just for being a foreigner. If they knew what busch league meant over here, I'd be telling them they were so.

I also drank my first beer while on work hours the other Friday at lunch. I gotta be honest, I was tempted to buy about 12 and get a game of flip cup going, but my better judgement prevailed.

The only thing that you really need to know foodwise though, is the kinder beuno...It's pretty much the most amazing candy bar I've ever had. And you can buy them by the case at the super market....score.

Oh, and don't forget about nutella crepes. Wow, I've been missing out for awhile on the nutella train. Do they even have that in the states? I have no idea.

Brian and I recently went to a place called 'Meet the Meat.' We were meandering down the street and just scoping out restaurants when this guy came out of one and starting talking 300 miles/minute in French. We were a little struck back, but then he explained everything in english. One of his expressions was, 'so tender you could cut it with the back of your knife.' He said this after proclaiming his english wasn't that good. Either way though, the food was good and it was just what we needed to make our decision.

Dog Shit: It's everywhere. Which in general I have no problems with (if it was in a park in some grass). The first part of the problem is that there isn't any grass anywhere. It's all cement sidewalks, roads, etc. So you have to wait for rain for the poop to dissapate. The second part of the problem is that 50% of the dogs are owned by homeless people, who just let their dogs crap wherever they please, even if it's the future place of the bottom of my shoe.

Objects that I miss: Ketchup. I never thought that I liked it that much until they give you a 0.5 ounce packet of it at the restaurant when you want fries. First off, that's way too small of an amount. Second off, they give you the miniscule amount in the most worthless packaging ever. You can never get it all out of the packet, and if you do, you can never scrape it all off the surface you poured it on (complete waste).

Steak. The steak here is ok and you can find good cuts (as mentioned in the meet the meat restaurant earlier), but you just can't get a nice filet when you want it. That will be the first thing I eat when I take my first return visit on April 12th back to Wichita.

English. I find myself totally absorbing myself in books. Two very good books might I add. Jitterbug Perfume (I won't even try to describe it, read about it online), and Still Alice (a book about a woman's life as she tries to overcome Alzheimer's disease). I normally don't read this much so I've found two explainations for this. 1. When I firt got here, I was bored and needed something to do. When I becamse busy I had established a good habit. 2. I miss the english language, and will do anything to get it. When I took my return trip to Chicago I read an entire Time magazine and USA Today. And I'm definitely not chalking that up to Maturity.

Work in general is going pretty well. Staying busy and working late hours. My days are now mostly full. Monday is just work, but Tuesday/Thursday is filled with work followed immeditely with my new French class. That lasts until 9. I tested into an intermediate class, but it was on Monday/Wednesday, and I didn't want class then, so instead they put me in an advanced class. I was very intimidating at first, but I'm starting to get the hang of it and I'm comprehending much better now. I have problems speaking just because I don't know enough vocabulary, but hopefully that'll change as I keep practicing.

On Wed/Fri I have ultimate practice. More to come on ultimate in the next blog...That's all for now. If you guys have any questions that I could write on, please post them, and it'll give me something to write about...peace.