So I know I haven’t written in a long time, when my blog isn’t part of my recently used documents on my start up menu. My apologies friends. I must admit that it is more ennuis that has caused this lul in my writing, rather than a jam packed schedule. My battles with the French immigration system continue and seem to be sucking up my time, but that is for another blog.
We are starting to settle in here. There is no schedule for me as such yet, but everything from books and pencils to various computer and camera wires now have permanent homes and I am not losing my mind thinking that I have misplaced something. During our couple of months of chaos setting up the apartment, I thought I lost some earrings I got as a birthday gift and I was constantly unsure of what clothes I had actually brought. In the process of this disorganization, Keith and I both actually shrunk sweaters that should have been hand washed and I have now inherited Keith’s marino wool sweater, whereas my sweater is beyond help. Now that everything has its place, thanks mostly to some Ikea bookshelves, we have actually started on doing a bit of decorating.
I picked up these cards at a tourist shop for 2€ each and they have really given our kitchen more of a lived in look. Aside from adding some artistic pieces to our kitchen, each card contains the Latin name for the Provençcal tree shown as well as the different stages of bloom and fruit for those more scientifically minded.
I have also printed up a few of my photographs and framed them to brighten up the walls of our apartment. The bonus of this is that as I take more (and hopefully better) photos we can simply rotate them through the different frames. In the office, I am hoping to create a wall of photos of all of the places we have and will visit while we are here. Once again, I have to say how much I love Ikea and their cheap frames!
Over Christmas break Elise started working on painting for us as well. It is not done, but we hung it up anyways as we don’t have anything else big enough to distract from the total whiteness of our living room. We are hoping she will be back to finish things up and maybe add a bit more to our walls.
With our apartment now more up to entertaining standards we decided to have our generous friend Pierre from leboncoin and his girlfriend Salha over this past weekend. We have always enjoyed having people over for dinner, but are finding quite a bit more nerve-racking than dinners in Canada. Firstly will people like what we cook? Is it going to be too spicy? We made tacos the other week, and after the lack of spice in our diet and Keith adding way to much chilli powder our taste buds were toast. For this meal we stuck with a roast with a mild curry glaze, Sioux Lookout Salada, potatoes, carrots and an apple crumble for dessert. Everything went over well and we have been invited back for dinner at their place and for a cooking lesson using a tangine! - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangine
The conversations was all in French and with a strategic nap in the afternoon I was able to keep up to the conversation even after 10:00 p.m! We learned a bit about how much some people respect Napoleon and also found out a bit more about Corsica. Including this:
We have seen this emblem around on car bumper stickers and on flags that people fly from their house. Keith thought it was some sort of militant union symbol. The French ceraintly are militant about their unions here. I thought it might be a symbol for some marshal art which was popular here. We were both wrong. It symbolizes Corsica and the independence of its people. I guess there are a lot of Corsicans living in Marseille, but they are still very proud of their heritage and home “country”. Pierre and Salha have convinced us that is an island worth visiting for its natural beauty and its friendly people, even if has a reputation as the Sicily of France.
All in all it was a successful evening and hopefully we will have more to come. The only thing that is continually bothering us is what do we cook for people? If we want something really “Canadian”, what do we do? We have not found bacon, and I can’t make Nanaimo bars because we can’t find custard powder. Please if anyone has suggestions about possible Canadian dishes let me know.
How about the French Canadian dishes like Tourtiere with scrambled eggs or Poutine - yes, I know, but we've actually gotten really weirdly creative with our Poutine making like beef stew on fries with mozzarella on top. (No, we didn't eat this when you were still here, it's a new thing.)
ReplyDeleteMac'n'cheese is probably quintessentially Canadian and so are mashed potatoes. Believe me we didn't eat this stuff as kids because it isn't done in my parents' homeland! Peanut butter cookies are probably scarce in France too. And finally, how about indian food? Butter chicken seems like a Canadian staple these days!