Hello Friends, Family, Teachers, and aquaintances.

       Well Its been a while since I have written but I guess I have been a little too busy or a little too lazy. Life is excellent here. Everyday I find myself sinking deeper and deeper into this life, and the farther I sink the more I feel I have progressed as a better person.

       The weeks at school seem to be getting longer and longer and the weekends shorter and shorter. I keep questioning why they dont celebrate thanksgiving here. They seem to celebrate everything else. My next vacation is Christmas and it looks so far away sometimes. I am learning a lot in school though and am enjoying it so much, its just when I have those 11 hour days at school that tire me out.

       I am working at a fabulous restaurant in the center of the city. Sometimes as I am hunched over my working table placing escargot and muscles on a plate, or plucking feathers off of a recently killed pigeon or quail, or slicing foie gras, or grilling bone marrow, or dicing truffles. I am blown out of mind. This kind of food is the stuff I have only read about. And sometimes when I am being yelled at to move faster, or when I see a sauce pan thrown across the kitchen by the Chef, or I slice my hand with a really sharp knife. I am also a little blown away. These are the kind of battle wounds that I have only dreamed of. And sometimes when we are having our staff dinner together and everyone is laughing, or when the chef tells us we did a good job that night, or I am refered to as Mister Ness, or everyone is telling off colored jokes, I am of course blown away. This kind of comeradary between cooking workers is truly universal. I find when I am in the kitchen I am always happy.

       Family life is good. This coming up weekend I am moving into my second host family and I am pretty excited. I find this family more similar to my own back in the states and my room is already decorated with the posters and soustasses I have collected for the past three months. I stayed with this family the first 3 days I was in France so its not really moving into a new host family its more like finally getting to come home. I will miss my first host family. We have had our little character conflicts and small disputes, but I will miss them nonetheless. I will especially miss my host brother Guillaume. He was a brother but even more he was a truly good friend.

        Well france life calls. I hope to hear from some of you soon. Take care and enjoy thanksgiving. I missing it.

 

Bisous

 

Elliot

Salut,

      It seems that the French are celebrating something or other all the time. With a lot longer History than the US I guess they have racked up more things to celebrate. Maybe I miss understood but I think they even have a holiday for a special wine that comes out every year. Unfortunatly I forgot the name of the wine, but the holiday if I understand right its in April or March.  Tomorrow Is a holiday celebrating the liberation of France in the first go around with Germany. Tomorrow is a Tuesday, but everyone decided that today would be a good day to have off as well as to make the weekend extra long. The only thing that seems to be open is my internet cafe and the restuarant where I work. My boss thought that it was unfair to make a poor american boy work on such an important french holiday so he told me to scram when I showed up to work this morning. So here I am writing to the masses.  

       This last weekend I went to the town of Pau which is about an hour and a half away from Toulouse. I went with my family to help a friend of theirs move from her appartment to a house on the outskirts of town. Most of the weekend I was busy helping out where I could. My family's friend was a complete blast. She was so kooky so it made it really fun to help her out. I did however get to see a little bit of Pau, which although overrun by the bourgeoise tourists from England, is a very beautiful city. I visited the Enormous Chateau of Pau which was incredible. Its built on the most elevated part of the city. As I stood on the ramparts, I could see the jagged edges of the Pyrennes on the horizon. You can see 3/4 of all the Mountain tops from the castle on a clear day. it was absolutely spectacular

      I went to a gift shop to buy the coat of arms patch of the city (l'eccuson). I told the lady behind the desk in my most perfect french I wanted to buy one. She responded in english. It almost killed me. I long to pass for (un garçon francais). thats all for now.

Elliot

Salut toute le monde

       This past weekend I took a much needed vacation. It was the perfect vacation. The weekend finally came and my family and I were of to Aix-en-Provence. Thats all I knew when we left our house in Toulouse. No one cared to tell me what we were doing and I didnt care to ask. I was ready for a surprise. And surprised I was. After about a four hour drive across france we came to a grand house at about 8 o'clock at night. It was a mansion but with a typical style of Provence. When we arrived i figured out very quickly that there was going to be the largest party in the world at this very mansion and that we were attending. My host brother, Guillaume and I explored the house and the property; The house was on a large hill were all provence could be laid upon your eyes. It was truly magnificent. The party was being thrown by three very chipper sisters. One of there beautiful daughters showed us around and filled us in on why the re was going to be the biggest pary in the world. and the answer was for no other good reason than the french like parties. The party was utterly amazing and for all time will be the recipe in my mind for any good party: A beautiful house (preferably in Provence), 150 beautiful and smiling people with big hearts and quick minds, tables and tables of food, and lots of music and dancing. I unfortuantely I dont have the stamena of the french so I went to bed at 2am. When I woke up in the morning the party had died slightly but everyone was happy. Thats all that matters. We all ate lunch together and left the poor three sisters to clean the house all by themselves.

        My family and I were of to Borgogne, just north of Provence. My brother and I sang and laughed the entire two hours it took to get there. We arrived at the house of Guillaume's father in a small village called Courmatin. (His parents are no longer together). The house was more like a hunting lodge. I met Guillaumes father, Alain his stepmother, Cuna and half sister, Diane. They were very energetic and took me in with open arms. The first day there they took me to Cluny, which is famous for its horses. I took English horseback riding lessons and completely made a fool of myself. the next day we spent in Lyon meandering about. My brother and I sang and laughed the entire time. That night we went to the Opera house in Lyon and watched the Lyon school of Ballet, which was fantastic. We returned to Cormatin and got only a few hours of sleep because the next morning we got up at 6am to go on a traditional french hu nt. Who ever said there is nothing like the thrill of a hunt must have witnessed something very similar to my experience. There were 20 men on Horseback, 20 on foot, and about 30 or 40 dogs but they were hard to count because they seemed to be everywhere. Before the hunt was a large hunting mans feast. We ate out of control. I loved it. then came the music. All the hunters played their tradtional french songs on their traditional hunting horns. All the dogs got really excited and then everyone took off in a hundred different directions. My brother Guillaume and I were on foot. We ran wherever we heard horns or dog barks. We really wanted to see some dogs take down a deer. (there are no guns involved in this hunt). Unfortunatly nothing was caught and the blisters on my feet seemed to be a big waste. But then we ate a big hunting mans feast again and I loved it. That night I slept very very well. The next day was a resting day and I think everyone slept till about 2pm. We lulled around all day. Alain claims that Great men need a day of rest every week. Hes a great man so I didnt disagree. The next day Guillaume and I rode our bikes to a neighboring village called Teize.  We sang and laughed the whole way. Teize is famous for a large commune of young people so we fit right in. The church there sponsors a free hostel for anyone so there were over 400 people from all over Europe there and they were all under 21. We had a fantastic time talking with everyone. Such a fantastic time that we went back the next day. That night Guillaume and I flew out of Lyon and back to Toulouse. Vacations are great but its always really nice to come home.

      With the end of vacation, I have begun a new job in a 3 star restuarant according to Michelin. Its called 7place de Saint Senin. And it is a fine gastronomic restuarant. Come to find out a friend from school works there so I was very excited to work there. I was thrown in the kitchen and given a nice beating this morning and im sorry to cut this email short but I have to return now to get a little more. I love it.

Elliot