That important Day - ENSP

First week of Chocolate class :)

The interesting part of this week was the Food science homework. We have a small tube to test the dirtiness around and we all are checking the tube after the test to see micro organisms grow. It looks gross and I cant believe we live with so many ugly micro organisms. The lab sessions were nervous as this is my first proper pastry class. The chef is very helpful and knowledgeable. We made bon bons , Pate du fruit and Gianduja.

Pate du Fruit

For the chocolate lovers, Gianduja is something we always look for. I couldn't resist tasting one after making and I popped one into the mouth and just said ‘mmmm’ like a kid. I am happy about the techniques learnt and they are very intense. The unexpected part of the week was another long weekend in Yssingeaux. Many of my class friends planned their trip outside the town like Avignon, Paris , Lyon. I had three of my class friends stay back here.
We had students from all over the world and there was a Chile girl who gave commuting tips from here to Lyon. She was very nice to talk and fun to be with. When she explained about the way things are here it reminded me of a Tamil movie Vikram where Janakaraj explains about the Salamia people. I laughed inside and feel good when I write about it with an ear to ear smile now :D
The Johnson &Wales University students were more like our seniors to the school as we check with them about what they did during their course and the funny part is we often meet in the kitchen as it’s a shared kitchen for a while in the castle. I wasn’t happy about waiting to cook but surprisingly we all bonded well in the shared kitchen talking about food back in home, memories , stories, chefs, classes and more. At times, I started looking for those girls from the America while I am cooking and just start talking about the day. Amie (One of my class friends) and I met Samarah from Johnson & Wales University, USA and she took us to the market on Thursday during the long weekend. While walking towards the market Samarah told about the English Coffee shop and the owner speaks good English. That’s it. Amie and I wanted to go the one coffee shop in Yssingeaux where they speak English. We felt relieved. We met the owner and Oh man he spoke good English and free Wi-Fi. I was like little Chandramukhi looking excited and sat to drink something. As usual I wanted to drink the cheapest drink as I wanted to buy more in the market .Silly huh? The cheapest drink was some alcoholic one for 2 euros. I was very happy as it is cheaper than India and had the drink. Without saying, the owner here is very helpful ☺ She took us to her favorite Jam shop and the lady was trying hard to talk to us in English and we loved her for being helpful in explaining her Jams.

Jam lady

Samarah bought some Jams for her mom in America as one of the Mother’s day gifts and I am not a Jam person but l loved the shop and the lady  The Jam lady gift packed Jams for Samarah and we explored more in the market. The market is huge and we were happy that we could spend more time of the day here. After few shops, I saw some Hindi letters flying in the air and smiled . There he is! A French shop guy selling Indian clothes, our traditional clothes and most of his clothes had hindi letters. It is expensive for me to buy as I know it is cheaper in India. This is one of the common mindsets I had where end up converting euros into rupees for every purchase and this thought would change when you live longer abroad.
Market is colorful here and I compared it with the Mountain View,California farmers market that happens every Saturday. The tasting the free sample part was more in Mountain View market than here. I thought euros are never easy :P I saw more clothes shop here and they were priced starting from 20 euros . Most of the students told about animals being sold in the market. We saw them caged and being sold. I saw huge hens, rabbits, geese, and few other birds I cant name. Rabbits are so fluffy and huge. They don’t move when you touch :P I felt like hugging them tight but you know rabbits stink 
It was about lunch time and we saw the grilled Poulet and potatoes. We ordered one full poulet and three plates of potatoes. Now, the tough part of walking back to the chateau carrying all we bought. That was tiring. Its like walking up hill from the town to the chateau. We packed the poulet and potatoes to the chateau and I ate our heart out celebrating our first market  Next day was Samarah’s graduation and we felt ‘Aww’ looking at the students with chef hats and the Certificates ☺ Amie and I spoke a lot this weekend as we were alone and understood our similarities . I thought this was the bond the American girls were talking about. We took long walks. The more you explore in this little town, better is the experience. The last day of the weekend, Amie and I were happy to see the other girls returning from their long weekend. I watched some unpopular Tamil movies :P as I miss talking in Tamil. Never thought this would happen :P Now here I talk in English, try to learn French but deep inside my thought process in Tamil .
Our plan was to shift to our apartments from the Chateau. We had people helping us in moving things. They are very helpful. Our International team SPOC arrived in the morning and she carried my laptop and some folders and walked with us showing the route to the apartment. I hardly felt this in India where your manager kind of person trying to help you in your way  She is Monique MARGERIT . We all love her as she is always helpful for us to sort out things. She was carrying my ‘I am Malala’ book and asked me if this book is in Hindi. I told her that it is in English and once I complete the book, she wanted to read it and she knows Malala and her thoughts were nice about it. As a women , I felt very proud about Malala being borderlessly loved by all women  We had Audrey, the lady incharge of the apartments helping us as well. Brenda and I went with her carrying blankets for her in the car. We spoke about our pathetic French and she told about her pathetic English :P we laughed and as usual the topic was food :P I told her I love French food and their pastries. She told that she loves Indian food ☺ Audrey also told that there are good Indian restaurants in the nearby town called St Etienne and that’s her home town. She also told about the Chinese food is also good there . It was like ‘kanna innoru ladoo thinga aasaiya?’ . The little chandramukhi was very happy now. Amie and I played the Billiards that afternoon, which in Tamil Cinema was always portrayed as the villain’s game. Especially my favorite Raghuvaran’s game :P . Amie taught me the game and we played :P She won :P We also played the fuss ball which I love. We ended screaming as we were about to hit the goal :P and again she won :P All our class friends planned to step out for dinner. We had good food in a place called L’open.