Happy Anniversary Vestals!....V2[Squared] and other Holy things

Us on our last day in Service before we left for Europe: Debs eyes were closed but thats not my fault.

Bonsoir! Just wanted to say Happy Anniversary to my sisters Jattira, Leah, Deborah, and Matron Lafleur-  6 years as VV's, almost 10 years being together...sheesh that's a long time! This is the first time that we've been apart [pause for sigh and sad face] ---> =( .  Nevertheless, we'll be seeing each other before we head back to the states! So, continuing with Holy discussions, today, 27 January 2013, Leah, myself, and a host of other St. John Students attended mass at the cathedral Sacre Coeur. This church is literally on top of a hill. We had to climb about 200 steps just to get to the vicinity church, then climb so more just to go inside! This cathedral is really beautiful, and I wish I had some pictures of the interior to post. However, there was a sign that said do not take pictures, and there were personnel going around telling people not to snap photos. Therefore, to respect their wishes I did not take pictures, even though people were being disrespectful. I'll try to sneak a pic the next time I go it's just that beautiful. It's not as overwhelming as Notre Dame. It's simplicity in comparison to Notre Dame's dominance is note worthy, I believe.  Well, that's it for this post, just wanted to post something since I knew I was M.I.A for some time. It's my plan to post my aspect on the French people and the culture thus far, but I think I will wait a few more weeks or perhaps a month so that I have something substantial to talk about. It's almost two weeks that we've been away from home, some days are ok, others are harder than others. Adapting and adjusting swiftly will make this experience all the more better. My goal was to speak more French and I have been sticking to my daily goals. One step at a time, no need to rush. The only thing that makes me frustrated is when I speak for an extended amount of time in restaurants or stores. I'm aksed , Are you from New York? Leah and I went into a burger place on night and I was communicating with him in French and everything was fine. It wasn't until he asked what sauce I wanted, and I responded "Mayo". I mean how else am I supposed to say it? How do they say mayonnaise? It's mayo. That moment a big grin spreads across his face-
"Where are you from?"
 Me: "I'm from New York"
Him: I went to New York in '08
Me: Did you like it (Inside I don't care)
Another customer: I went to New York in 2010
Me: Where?
Customer: 140th!
Me: I'm from 110th
  -------------------- You get my drift? Nevertheless, I'm excited and will try to keep this blog as updated as possible but don't forget that I'm not on a vacation. I am STUDYING abroad and exploring Paris, which means that I will be away from WiFi for some time lol. But anything interesting that I come across, I'll be quick to post it up, if I can. As always, don't forget to check out Debbie's blog - Deborah Loves A Roma, drop a comment, stay tuned and stay tasty!-- Cocabelle.



Just wanted to post some photos of us...

Throwback Photo: Idk why Deb's but knowing Debbie she didn't want to be in it because she hates pictures. Or, she just wasn't around when we took it. I don't even remember when this picture was taken

And Look at us know... We look exactly the same 

 

I really love my sisters... all of them _

Lizzy, Gabby, April, Jobeans, Tamar,

 Anabananas( she's not in the pic), and all the rest! My lovies------------->

Here's some new photos of Leah and I getting ready for Mass today. Yes I know we're a little overdressed but hey that's what we are known to do. In our defense, we did go out to eat afterwards.

Yes my picture is first, it's my blog dagnabit! Lol. We were't planning on going out to eat afterwards, but in Paris do like the Parisians do and dress up for any and everything. Never know who you will meet on the streets or where you will go.

Leah, cool and classy as always

Me again, enough said.

  

Dining Out ....

If you look to the far left corner you will see a small glass filled with rose (pink) wine. Leah and I shared that, 7 euros, just in case you were wondering.

We shared a small bottle. It was really good, light and sweet.

We only shared a small little bottle. See photos

Bon Apetit! 

P.S. Pictures of Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame, the Pantheon and all other trips are coming soon. I took hundreds of photos and need to sort through the best ones. Also, I am here for four months, I will be revisiting these places again before I leave, so don't fret =)

Until the next post.... Stay tasty!
N'Oubliez Pas De Commenter  [ Don't forget to comment]

Disclaimer: it's 1 in the morning so I'm exhausted. Please forgive there are any typos and Misspellings. If it's really bad then send me an email or leave a comment. Constructive criticism is better than nothing. Still new at this so I take any help I can get. Thank you for reading

Future postings

Ok so coming soon are pics from my excursions and visits to different monuments and cathedrals, and my experience with the Parisians this far, which had been positive. Just finished my hair, it's 1:46am my time in France. Yeah, I'm not posting up detailed pics and what not. I wanted to but the day kinda slipped away. Donc, (therefore), I will try my best to post some pics of things other than food I promise. Don't forget to leave a comment or suggestion of what you might be interested in knowing. Until then , stay tasty!- Coacobelle



Here's a picture a pic of my hair washed . I wanted to put the finished product but I couldn't take a decent picture without my face resembling my dad or my brother Michael, Ewww haha.

Title Steal... Being broke in a Foreign Country.. Pas de Plaisir

Being Broke in a Foreign Country... Not fun

Lunch/Snack- Coffee - .60€cents and Madeleines  1euro (Yum!)

Like my sister Deb spoke about on her blog ( Don't forget to check out her postings http://deborahlovearoma.blogspot.it/ ) we need money. Lol. Leah and I have been doing ok thus far. Because we only get four meals per week. The other 3 days we have to get ourselves dinner and for 7 days a week, we have to provide ourselves Lunch and a snack. Last week was oreintation so we didn't have to worry about lunch because the school provided lunch. However this past weekend, we were stumped with nothing to eat so we had to search, and it wasn't fun at all. This week was the first real week of classes and such so we had to find lunch, if we wanted to eat and this weekend Leah and I will have to find something again to manger ( eat). Alors, so what are we going to do... we haven't decided. There aren't many places were we are so we have to take metro's and all that jazz {Stay tuned for a blog on metros}. So we might go to the carrefour which is the equivalent to like a Food Emporium or Dagostinos and get some bread, cheese, and meat and have us some sandwiched for lunch or some microwavable things. We need to go grocery shopping, but we can't pack stuff in the fridge because there isn't enough room for our stuff -___- but we'll make it work.  Also, I didn't know it would be so hard to find sliced turkey meat, everything in the store is jambon, which in translation is HAM, something we can't eat, what are the odds. so that puts another level of stress on us but we'll survive. Today we're being lazy and staying in, so we have no choice but to shop tomorrow, and pick up some snacks if we want to eat. We got this, don't fret parents. Don't forget to post a comment below. I'm new at this blogging so any suggestions, comments are welcomed. Stay tuned and stay tasty- <3 Coacobelle

This is an image of our breakfast we get every morning. Consisting of cereal, bread, jams, coffee or tea. Takes some getting used to, Not a bacon egg and cheese insight but it's cool.  I look forward to eating in the morning, even if Im hungry once  I walk back to my room lol. I'm always hungry but Parents don't fret, we're not starving over here, we have to be adults and make something happen.  This is actually pretty fulling and makes sense because we eat very fulling dinners and Dinner time in Paris is family time. Dad, if you're reading this, France has some great coffee and it's strong. I know you don't like watered down coffee, neither do I. Even with sucre et creme ( sugar and cream) you still taste the coffee.

This is the vending machine in the Lounge on campus. For just 60euro cents you can get you a small cup of expresso or capachino or hot chocolate. There's vending machine next to it with snacks and drinks as well.

Leah and I went searching for a cheap place to eat that is near our home, so on our way home from class we got off a stop before to find a place listed on the school's info flyer on cheap eats. Although we didn't go there we found a place near it that sold pannins. I didn't know that some places puts frites ,( french fries) on their sandwiches. It wasn't nasty. We were hungry and at the point anything would have fit the description as edible.

This is another image so you can see how it looked.  I didn't finish mine and it's still in the 'fridge.

Bolognaise flavored Lays chips. Taste good to me! Another snack! 

Some one had this ands let me try one , it's pretty good. weird eating cheesburger flavored chips. 

Now these little roundies are French donuts. The French and their pastry skills are on point. Madame made an apple tart and apple sauce for us the first night we stayed, the bomb diggity! These donuts are sooo good. 

So this was my lunch yesterday 24 Jan2013, before we went on an excursion. Vraiment ( Truly/ Really)  cheesy. All you do is micro wave for about 2min 30 seconds. You don't have to add water or anything, and the cheese tasted like real cheese which gets me a thinking- it must have been real cheese. Not like that powdered stuff we got back in the States, I'm talking real cheese. Added a little pepper and this hit the spot.

Came with a fork as well! 

Lee and I went to a small cafe, which are everywhere in Paris, after we went to the Louvre. With Matt and Macy, (M&M), this was Wednesday some time around 5p.m. Because we weren't getting an dinner that day Lee and I were hungry. So we popped into this place - was about 7.50 euros. a little disappointed because it didn't come with anything else. It was delicious but after I ate it, I wanted more, felt like eating a snack wrap, you bite and it's gone. This pannin had chicken, mozzarella cheese,  oniions, and red peppers. Tasty

Boire du cafe- you can see I'm bundled up

Haha Dad, this stuff is good! The French make strong coffee but it's so good. And I love me some coffee just like my daddy.

This is a close up, just stopped by a little cafe because it was so cold outside. This was about 1.90 euros, I dranked it in 3 mins. Next time I'm getting the grand and not the petit.

Vivre a Paris pendant quatre mois... Homestay, food, etc

This is my plate after I devoured my food. Detailed Images below entry

Vivre a Paris pendant quatre mois...Living in Paris for four months 

When you reach a certain point in your life, living with your parents and family becomes a challenge, to say the least. You grow older, become an adult, and start desiring to be your own person. That's normal. However, it's much easier living at home with your parents, then living in a different country, with someone you don't even know, for more than 2 weeks! Leah and I are participants in the St John's study abroad program Paris Semester 2013. However, instead of staying on campus and "dorming", Leah and I are doing what is called Home stay. Home stay is when you live with a host family for whatever length of time the program is outlined.  This experience can either be a positive experience, which is the goal, or it can be a negative one. Let me just say that while yes it has been a positive experience, it isn't east to say the least. Don't misunderstand me, our host mom Madame Dupetit is great. She's about 72, sweet as can be and helpful in anyway. However, it's a task adjusting to a new life, and being an extended guest in someone's home. Sometimes, one might overstay their welcome if you catch my drift. We want to be as cooperative as possible with rules and her way of life.  It's just going to take longer to adapt then 11 day's I'll tell you. But, I'm open minded. I'm not closing myself off to any experiences that are to come. I mean it's only been 11 days. Things take time and like I said, we want to be apart of this family, if they'll let us. It's just a little unsettling to say the least.  Let me say that one of the mega plus points in homestay is that we get authentic French meals every night.. well for four nights a week let me say. The other nights Leah and I have to survive on our own which has not been very delightful I'll just say, but we're trying. Hence parents and loved ones, the need for some Euros ($$$) but I digress.

So for four nights Monday/Tuesday/Thursday/Friday, we eat with the family. This is a little weird because when Madame and her daughter, who lives with her, and John, another foreign exchange student, were eating dinner on Wednesday night, Leah and I were in our rooms looking like some children who were sent to their rooms for misconduct . Lol. It's going to take some adjustments, it's hard. But other than that, it's been ok, again it's only been 11 days. 

Here a few pictures of what we've eaten thus far. BTW, i just got my camera on Saturday, so our meals last week when we first arrived are not going to be posted up. The meals are from Lundi- Jeudi, (M-Thrs) with the exception of Mecredi (Wednesday). Tonights meal will be posted up later if Lee lee lets me. Everytime I try to go on the internet on my NEW COMPUTER, it keeps restarting so I have to use lee's.   Posting about excursions and lunch later today. Stay tuned and...Stay Tasty! - Coocabelle

This is post is heavy with images and details. 

This is what we had on Monday 21 Jan. 2013. Madame forgot the name of it but as you can see, it's half way finished. It's like a potato bake with pulled meat or almost ground beef textured. It was really delicious. I believe we had bread, bien sur ( of course) and a side salad but we finished the salad. 

                                                  Here's an other image of dinner. Yum!

  Now this here... let me tell you was Délicieux! OMG! It's like a crème brûlée without the brûlée toped with raspberries. It's has a real creamy flan like texture but not like a gelatin. Tasted similar to like homemade whipped cream, smelled live wonderful! 

                                                

                                               Here's another look at it... Just look at it! 

This is dinner the following day . Tuesday 22 Jan. 2013. Madame wasn't feeling well so her daughter A. cooked us a meal that night. It's funny because earlier that for lunch I had like a pasta salad with Salmon and what do we have for dinner ladies and gentlemen... Pasta and Salmon. Hold on though, this was really delicious, my family back home knows i love some smoked salmon and thats what we had. It was a pasta wiith a creamy dressing with salmon fillets mixed in. Then we topped with Norweagean smoked salmon. Yummy Yummy!

Here's a closer picture of my plate I mean look at it, there was celery and other types of flavors but not too strong so that it didn't over power the fresh taste of the pink salmon on top! This was my favorite thus far.. Or so I thought.

Then after the pasta dish or plat  , we had a lentil salad which was interesting... not my favorite but not disgusting either. It was very different. There's this vingarette salad dressing I believe she used. It had a very vingeray ( not a word but work with me people) which I think was due to the duh vingarette dressing lol.

And for dessert....crème glacée à la vanille et aux fraises- Vanilla Ice cream and Strawberry Sherbert. Enough said. Two for the price of one. The sherbert was like ice, like an Italian Ice texture, but it was awesome! 

                                      Again, just look at it, melts right on the screen doesn't it ?!!

Now, let  me tell you... This right here.. This meal right here was soooooo goood!  A. made this last night 24 Jan 2013 because Madame was still a little under the weather. I thought the Salmon was my favorite, nope! It's this and everyone who knows me well knows that my favorite dish is Steak, anything that resembles steak, we got a thang going on lol.

 

Also with this the steak, which was medium well, look at the pink in the middle if you don't believe me, was paired with a casserole that reminded me of scallop potatoes- cheese and potatoes, with cauliflower. Now Leah hates cauliflower but this girl didn't act like it last night. I tell you, I will be getting the french name of it later to post up, mom you got to make this

 Here's a closer look of the dish. Just look at it! 

This is my plate, and btw, I had seconds it was just so good. I just wanted everyone to see how the plate looks with all the dishes together. So again ladies and gent's ... Just look at it. 

 

I saw A. scrapping some of this on her potato dish and steak/ roast beef so I did it too, not knowing what it was. It smelt like nutmeg. And it was.. muscade which is nutmeg in French. I was little hesitant at first but I'm here to try different things and to my supris, it heightened the flavor! 

 

 Here's the container. It comes in a full nut not grounded 

Dessert... self explanatory. Ggrape fruit which was actually light and refreshing after such heavy meal. The French know exactly what they're doing.

 

 Here's another image. I normally don't add sugar on my fruit but i saw A add some Vanilla sugar so I did it too. Pas Mal ( Not Bad) 

Here's an image of the packaging. Sucre a la Vanille Bourbon. It was different but it a sweet way!... Stay Tasty.