Thursday, February 5, 2009

la famille



I know I have mentioned my family, but I don't think i every really described my family. I live with Véronique, who is a psychiatrist and she sees patients at the house. Christian is a consultant for artists, performers, musicians, etc. and he travels a lot for work to Paris or around France. So a lot of times he is not here. He has been everywhere in the world almost! They traveled a lot together before they had kids - Veronique worked as a "hostesse de l'air" or a flight attendant for an Italian airline before going back to school.

I have three French sibs: Manon, Charles, and Eve. Manon is super smart, she's 15. She loves Bob Marley and playing guitar! Usually I wake up/go to sleep to Bob...Luke and Manon should go out! She's single and she's really pretty Luke! She loves basketball too :) But she's chatty so I don't know if that will work. JE RIGOLE!

Charles and Eve are two peas in a pod. They fight horribly but they cannot be separated and they adore each other. The whole family is very animated; they love singing and dancing and being goofy. So I obviously fit right in! I wish I spent more time with them - everyone is so busy, the only time we are together is for dinner during the week. On Thursday and Friday morning I get to have breakfast with the babies because I have early class, I love it! We somehow always have the best discussions over breakfast. For example, who knew that Véronique was on a French game show, where she was tested on general knowledge against French stars. She won three times, bringing home a TV, a phone, and a vacation. And Christian's grandparents started UDF, Union pour un Democratie Francais, a recently retired political party. Cool, huh?

Tonight we had my favorite dinner yet! Everyday there are fresh, delicious vegetables and fruits for sale in the city. This equates to DELICIOUS! meals chez moi. Last night Christian made sushi! I really want to learn how to make that when we get home. The kids helped him make it because they each have their favorite kind. Anyway, tonight we had salad first, with this delicious spicy asian sauce and little tiny tiny shrimps in it! Then we had this gratin with cheese and some mystery vegetable that I don't know the word for in english. Apparently it belongs to the onion family, but the only thing I could think of was shallots. They were very dark green, so I don't know if it was exactly the same kind of shallot that we have in the US. With the gratin Véronique got jambon italien, prosciutto! I love prosciutto. Then we had steamed potatoes, but I have never eaten this kind before; they were brown on the outside and yellow on the inside, and almost sweet tasting. And for dessert delicious oranges. yumm :) Hopefully I can recreate some of this back in the US!

Side note to Julia and all other lovers of the Melting Pot: Eve got a fondue set and the other night we had some fruit kind of like grapefruit but more sweet and less bitter and oranges in dark chocolate. We MUST have a fondue party this summer!

Donc, je mange très bien ici. In conclusion, I eat very well here!

Here is are some photos of me and Eve goofing around. We both love to dance - she is a very good actress. They were taken by another American student who lives in my house, Lilli! Lilli is awesome, she's from Arkansas and super nice. She's also a very talented photographer. I'm lucky to have such a great homestay.

4 comments:

  1. Hi Bren,
    Love to hear about your food and family life! You are well taken care of that's for sure! I think the onion vegtable you are talking about is the LEEK. Very popular in French cooking.
    Miss you lots!
    Mom

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  2. thanks for keeping us up to date on things. Its great to hear that everything is going well. We love to read about your adventures. take care.

    love,
    uncle matt,
    aunt jen,
    frances ann and
    carey elizabeth

    P.S. 2 co-workers of mine from Cephalon were just in Paris this week training some users at Cephalon's Paris work site. They had a really nice visit. Maybe I can go next time??? I can dream ....

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  3. anonymous said...We are so loving your writings and pictures from Aix..We went to see Luke,s game last night and his fans were chanting "he is our freshman" over and over when he made a basket. It was thrilling. Keep us informed of your doings. Love, Gram Nora

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  4. Hey, I can live vicariously through you - it's that good!

    Enjoy every savory morsel!!!

    Aunt Nora

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