The fun never stops!

     Monday, we had a special workshop in which we carved designs onto soap bars to make “soap sculptures.” Vanessa, one of our Abbey Road teachers, does this in her free time and passed the hobby down to us. Apparently, soap sculptures are a specialty of Thailand, where they can make beautiful soap sculptures in ten minutes. Unfortunately, the same artistry was not endowed to me. I tried to carve a seashell into my soap bar, but I thought it was really bad (trust me, I’m not an artist). Others, were more artistic—Damiana drew a woman on hers which was really good, and Rachel carved a really neat pineapple.  When I first heard of soap sculptures, I thought it was weird, but it’s like any other art: like snow sculptures, wood sculptures, etc… It’s so simple: you just need a bar of soap, a petite carving knife, and your imagination and at the end, you have a masterpiece (well…not in my case). Although it didn’t have anything to do with French, I liked the workshop (despite the fact that it occurred at 10pm at night…)

     Tuesday, we went to St. Jean Cap Ferrat, a beautiful peninsula near Nice. Like all of the other places we have gone to, St. Jean Cap Ferrat was gorgeous: mountains/hills, clear blue waters… I really liked St. Jean Cap Ferrat’s beach because I could see little sea anemones and fish swimming along with me in the water. And the water felt so good…I literally felt like I was a mermaid. Of course, we also saw expensive yachts (with water slides) floating along the bay and castle-like houses along the peninsula—all the girls were claiming these buildings as their houses haha.

During our time at St. Jean-Cap-Ferrat, we also had a cooking workshop where I helped make un gateau chocolat (chocolate cake).  Others helped make une salade niçoise (cucumbers, olives, anchovies, tomatoes, eggs, olive oil, etc.), rice with fish, sausage with a tomato sauce (a specialty of Réunion, an island of France), tarte aux pommes (apple pie), fruit kabobs, etc. It was pretty delicious.  As they say, the best meals are the ones you prepare yourself.  Okay, maybe that isn’t exactly true, but I felt good eating what I had made.

     Here’s a little side note about la cuisine en France—I noticed that French people do not snack. What’s more, they eat in smaller portions and they like to have time to savor everything. In cafés, young people like to lounge around with their cafés and food…during dinner time at my host family’s house, we literally spend two hours eating and talking (well, 15 minutes eating and 1 hour 45 minutes talking) from 8pm to 10pm.  It’s definitely different, but it’s cool.

     Oh, and speaking of French cuisine, they have magnificent boulangeries et patisseries with various assortments of croissants, pain au chocolat, macarons (I tried them for the first time…sooo good), other specialties…I love going to these small shops in France. 

     Anyway, that’s enough of talking—I know there’s still so much more to say, but I have so little time (so much to do here in France!)