DAY 95

Did nothing today! Since Jeri was out with Juan looking at the other horse for Jane and Judy and Laura had already left, it was just me. So since the laptop, the ones for guests, was now working, I decided to do the formidable task of down loading all 300, or so, pictures from my camera to the computer and then uploading them from the desktop to the internet. IT TOOK THE INTIRE DAY, no joke!! Then when it was a little bit before dinner time Jeri came back to the hotel and came to my room were we hung out and went on the computer to look up some things about the horse that she, Jane, had just decided to buy, because it was amazing, which is sort of an under statement. This horse not only is goreous to look and and to see move, but is a 5 year old St. George level horse (which for you non-horsey people, is VERY RARE, most St. George level horses are no younger than 7 years old.) and then went to this cute little restaurant around the courner from the hotel.

DAY 94

OK, so I though yesterday was a long day, HA!!!! that's the understatement of the year. I started out riding Little Banana, since the grey was moving to Los Angeles today so I was just going to ride Little Banana, which was a GREAT lesson, like yesterday. Only this time Juan gave me a little suprise, well big actually, (minus his Olympian horses) he let me ride his favorite horse, the stallion who is a Spanish (that's the name of the breed). Well not just ride it, he gave me a lesson to help with it's training (OMG, an olympian is actuallyletting me train one of their horse, holy shit!) Well I did all the things that I have been doing all week on the stallion, but when I got to the Piaffe, SWEET JESUS!!!!!!!!! that was the most amazing thing I have ever experienced on a horse. First off I actually did a Piaffe correctly unlike on the grey or Little Banana where I could only do about 2-4 steps before they started moving foreward, on the stallion he just stood there doing the Piaffe. I mean it was not perfect and definately not as beautiful as Juan's but I could at least keep him in the same spot for more than 4 steps. After
the lesson Jaun, Jeri, and I took a little road trip to the small town a couple hours south-west of Boadilla El Monte. See one of Jeri's friend, and client, Jane was wanting to get a new horse, except she wanted a Spanish (the breed) horse, so Jaun talked with his horse broker and found a couple horses for us to look at for Jane. We arrived at this stable in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE, think the open space of Montana. We then spent the rest of the afternoon at this place where we looked at this gorgeous horse and this guy rode the horse so Juan and Jeri could look at it move, then Jeri rode him to see how he felt in the saddle. After saying our goodbyes we started out little road trip back home. Jeri and I spent a couple of hours in one of the front parlors just sitting there talking, because we had no energy to go upstairs, even using the elevator was to much. While sitting there one of the man servents, wow that sounds funny,lol, came by and offered us some coffee and a small plate of those one-bite desserts. That was just fabulous, sitting there shmoozing eating dainty little sweets and having coffee in this gorgeous china. Later, we finally got the energy to go up stairs and get changed. We then took another walk, since it was too early for dinner yet, and even after our long walk we got back to the hotel and realized that it still wasn't dinner time, but we were too hungry to wait so we ordered room service from the hotel's restaurant, yoiu know the four-coursed, whited gloved place. Then hit the sacks.

Horse Shopping, right this way......

DAY 93

Today was a better day and a very busy one at that, even though I rode the grey for my lesson (it was much better today) I then got to ride Little Banana. Now I don't like to say bad things about people, but the only reason why I rode Little Banana, was beacuse Laura had a bad lesson on him. Well it started out really good, but I guess she just got tired or something, becuse she started get sloppy, and when giving the commands to L.B. it wasn't a strong "I want you to do this now" command, it was more " please do this,....... but only if you want" type of commands. So Juan kind of got angry (actually more just a little) and had me get on and ride L.B. so he would know that he can't get away with these things and also so he wouldn't get sloppy and not improve in his training. Well I think I got more of a lesson on Little Banana then on the grey. Before I got to my lesson though we got a little suprise, and I mean little, Jaun's 1o yr old son, Jaun, jr. was getting a new pony, since he had out grown his other and he was now sharing with his sister and her pony. We all then spent an hour or so taking the pony to it's new stall and sorting out all the things that came with him. He had just come from an 8 day trip from some where in England. After cooing over the pony we got back to the lessons. THIS IS WERE I MEAN A BUSY DAY. Besides doing all the stuff I have been doing all week I also did some the counter-canter (The counter canter is a balancing movement where the rider deliberately makes the horsecanter with the outside foreleg leading. The horse is positioned to the side of the leading leg.), also some Serpentines (series of equal curves fom one line of the center line to the other,changing direction of the turn each time the horse passes over the center line. while traveling across the length of the ring.), a Volte (circle of 6 meters diameter), a Rein back (backward movement in which the hooves are raised and set down almost simutlaneously by diagonal pairs.), Passage (A trot in which the phrase of support of one diagonal pair of legs is prolonged while there is a hesitation in the forward travel of the other diagonal pair of legs, giving a floating, hovering impression. Also called "hovering trot.") and a little bit of a Piaffe (a movement where the horse is highly collected and the legs move up and down in diagonal pairs, like a trot, while the horse does not move forward. The center of gravity of the horse during piaffe should be more towards the hind end, with the front of the horse highly mobile and light in the hand.) My lesson on Little Banana was probably the best non-jumping lesson of my enitre life, well so far. Today though, Jeri and I went to the tack shop near the riding center, before going back into town and the hotel.

DAY 92

Well there is not much to say about today. Well maybe it's because I'm in sort of a sour mood about today lesson. Well nothing went wrong is was an Ok lesson, except for one thing, I CAN'T RIDE. Well, Ok, actually I can but I was put on this other horse, I don't know his name, becasue he was to much horse for Laura to ride, she's a beginner (well sort of, her original training is Saddle Seat on SaddleBreds, which is like no other riding, it might as well be another sport), so since Little Banana is more quite Jauin put Laura on him. So like I said before, the lesson wasn't bad, but the "new" horse is a Spanish, and there very supple and sensitive. It took alot of effert to just keep him in a straight line. So it wasn't like I completely messed up, it's just that I have a hard enough time doing the dressage steps correct and beautiful (remeber I have a thee time Olympian and World Champion watching me) now I also have to worry about the horse as well. Jaun said that I did great, but as soon as I was by myself, I started crying, let's just say I'm glad I decided to put on my water-proof mascara today, because otherwise I would look like I was ready for Halloween. After Jeri finshed her lesson and we stayed to watch Jaun ride one of his Olympian horses, we went back to the hotel, changed and went out for a walk. One our walk we came across this little shopping center and so we decided to explore it, since it wasn't like we had anywhere to go, and it's always the right time to go shopping. Well in our excursion of the shopping center we came across this M&M vending machine. I saw it and was like Jeri, Jeri, look it's M&M's, YAH!!!!!!!!! and then raced to it, I don't think I have evergotten my change out so fast before (just so you don't think that were some crazy people, we have been trying all week to try and find a place that has M&M's, which is nowhere. so we were excited since we had finally found some.) We spend the rest of the afternoon walking around the town, and then go and get some dinner (where Jeri told more of the fabulous horse stories of her and friends horse experiences) and then went back to the hotel.

DAY 91

OK, so feeling like the bad little Jew that I am and forgetting about Tzom Gedaliah and about the fasting part, I decided to do it today. Even though since I didn't fast yesterday so it didn't matter any more it made me feel better that I was going to mke it up today, even though it was pointless. I got to ride Little Banana again :) yah!!!!! We worked on the same things as yesterday, but also added some half-passes (is the same as the leg-yield, were the horse bends away from the direction he is traveling, while in the half-pass, the horse should be bending towards the direction he is traveling.) Unlike yesterday were I was second and then spent the rest of my time at the stables watching the other lessons and looking around the barn. Today I was last, well actually second to last, since Jeri rides 2x a day. This is because Judy and Laura want to ride first so they can have the rest of the day to exploring around with Bill, unlike Jeri and I. So it goes Judy and Laura then Jeri, me and then Jeri again. The realy cool thing was that at the end of my lesson today, before Jeri rode again Jaun got on his chestnut (non-horsey people: a chestnut is the name of a type of color of horse, laymen's terms: light brown) who is one of his O lympic horses and hacked (light riding, without a lesson) around with me. VERY EXCITING!!!!!! After words Jeri and I went back to our little town of Boadilla El Monte and did some more walking around, unlike last time Jeri bought some presents for some of her friends back home in Florida. Jeri and I then hung out in her room and talked horses (what else is new, LOL!) till it became dark. Even though Jeri was very hungry she was very nice and waiting till I could eat till she had dinner. The funny thing was that even after it became dark we still were at the restaurant, and almost done, before the Spanish crowd came in. To break the fast we went to the hotels restaurant, which is a four coursed, white gloved, 1 server per 1 guest restaurant. We first was served water and the wine menu, after picking out our wine we moved on to the regular menu, were I automatically found DUCK!!!!! I ordered this and a few minutes later we were served this, I guess it would be appitizer, there was this shot glass worth of gazpacho and a porcelain soup spoon, with some sort of lentil and something. Then we were brought out our salads, which was exciting, since Jeri and I have noticed that it is very hard to find salads in the restaurants and when we do the lettuce doesn't look fresh, so it was exciting to get not only salads but fresh, crunchy lettuce. While waiting for my duck and Jeri's fish we had some bread and wine and once again talked anything and everything horsey. Our meal came and at once there was no noise except our ambrosia noices. My duck was amazing it had some apricot/peachy flavor with some mashed sweet potato and fruit on it as well. While waiting for our dessert the we were sharing we got this little dessert appitizer thing, I guess you get this whether you order dessert or not. This thing was insane, there were two small shot glasses with this strawberry thing (the same consistancy as gazpacho) with a little whip cream and then in another little shot glass with to tooth picks, with one end of the first toothpick, being this dark chocolate and the other being this white chocolate, but what made the white chocolate so amazing was that there was curry powder in it. You would never think to put curry powder in chocolate but it just gave it this wierd punch, but at the same time not.

DAY 90

I wake up today and put on my tall boots. Now my boots fit me fine but except for the week that I rode in them in July I haven't worn them them since May of 2005. So natuarally my calves were sort of throbing since they had forgotten what it felt like to be pushed into tight leather and kept there for hours at a time. I go down to the breakfast room and find Jeri there sitting at a table by herself waiting for me, talking to Judy and Laura. I sit down at the table with my plate of food and look around the room. Let me just tell you this room is just as beautiful as all the rest in the hotel. With two chandeliers and gold paint on the walls next to beautiful paintings, I'm thnking, most people when they go traveling around the world or "backpacking through Europe" they are probably not going from gorgeous surroundings to more gorgeous surrondings. We then go outside to wait for our driver to pick us up and take us to the stables. Well actually Jeri and I waited, Judy, Laura, and Bill had rented a car and went to go get it from the parking lot and to follow our driver. See unlike Jeri and I who just came for hard core dressage training the also wanted to do a bit of touristing as well, that's the reason why Bill had come in the first place. We arrive at the stable and, OM MY F***ING G-D, this place is not only beautiful, but insanely big. I'll try and explain this, but also look at the pictures. You walk in through this gate and end up in the courtyard where if you took a sharp right would take you up the stairs to the spectators place for the indoor, if you bear right, instead of the sharp right, it will take you into the indoor itself. If you go straight, instead of going any right at all you will go up this little path that will spit you at three LARGE outdoor rings with a spectator house, yes I ment to say house, in the middle of the first two rings. If instead of going right or straight you go left instead you will look down this path with horse stables on either side. The first place you will come across is this little house that has the bathrooms and vending machines. The rest of the way down on either side of you are horse stables with each stable have about 10 to 16 stall in each stable. The whole facility has about 180 to 200 horses total, and of corse a million dogs, well more like 10-15, but it felt like a million that's for sure. After reading and hearing waht are abilities were Jaun decided to give us 1 private in stead of 2 semi-privates. Jaun Matute is this amazing dressage rider who is on the Spanish Olympic Dressage Team, and has won golds and silvers in three Olympic Games, he was at the Games in Seoul '88, Barcelona '92, and Atlanta '96. The horse that Jaun put me on is named Little Banana, if you couldn't guess, he's kids named it. I had a really great lesson, and he kept complenting me on my hands and how still they were. Which made me very happy to hear since that is one of my problems in riding and I worked on that most of my time at OS, so now I know that all of my hard work actully paid off if an Olympian is saying good thing about them. My lesson consisted of alot of lateral work. Transistions, leg yields (which involves forward and sideway stepping, the horse has to cross his legs while engaging his hindquarters and maintaining forward energy. The horse bends away from the direction he is traveling. The forward steps should always be bigger than the sideway steps, thus preventing the horse from over-bending.) and then doing some collected trots and canters (is the increased engagement and lightening of the forehand. The strides are shorter (and higher in the front legs) than in the other paces of the trot or canter. The horse’s outline appears shorter from bit to hip, with the neck and withers stretched and arched upward.) and then extended trot and canter (stretching and lengthening of the outline and stride of the horse, an increased phase of suspension. The horse covers as much ground as possible with each stride, maintaining nearly the same tempo and relatively uphill balance. After our lessons we all walked over to this Italian restaurant with Jaun and had some lunch, though if you remember lunch time is at 3ish so we were actully early even with 4 privates that didn't even start till about 10am. Afterwards Judy, Laura, and Bill went out on there excursions while Jeri and I went back to our little town and walked aroun just looking at all the little shops and what not. Afterwards, I don't know what Jeri did, but I took the best nap. When I woke up I got changed and went out to dinner with Jeri. The restaurant that we went to was just a little bit further up the small hill than the place that we went to the night before. When we walked in there was this waiter with this dish that looked like turkey with gravy and french fries. So when we go to order, we're like oooo that sounds good turkey with gravy. When the waiter comes around we ask for (and this is our conversation) "the Pollo please with the french fries.... um.... potatoes...um...shit maybe pollo isn't chicken... {Jeri starts flapping her arms around like a chicken}.... {no light bulb goes off}.....wait....... pollo is so chicken.... WTF....... never mind we'll just have the, the.........um...... oooooo, Carne. that's what well have some Carne. gracias........ oh, and a fanta limón and a coke light.... gracias" The funny thing is when we get our food it is what we were wanting from the start. What we had thought was turkey was actually beef. So with all of Jeri's lovely sharades and our Sanish/English/French food explanations, we ended up with what we were trying to get in the first place. Over dinner we laughed about that and Jeri told some FUNNNNNNY horsey stories. We then went back to the hotel and chatted a bit in Jeri's room until we were both starting to fall asleep, which is when I went back to my room and plopped down on my mad and was asleep before I knew it, being so sore and all.

The Equestrian Center

DAY 89

This is starting to become a very annoying trend, this waking up at the crack of dawn for the damn train. But because of the distance between start and finish the only trains that I can get is the first train out in the morning. Thankfully, my trip from Barcelona to Madrid only has 2 stops, one in Lleide and the other in Zaragoza. I get off the train in Madrid into this absolutely beautiful train station, NO JOKE! just look at the pictures. What they did was added on a new train station to the original one, and the old station is where all the things like ticket counters, info booth is. Also there are all these little cafes on the edge of the old station, and then in the middle is this jungle thing, it even came complete with turtles and other amphibious creatures. I take a taxi to my hotel, which is about 30 min from the train station in a small town called, Boadilla El Monte. The first thing that I came upon was this freaking large, salmon pink, building, which looked like it used to be a palace or something. Well I later found out from the front desk that it was originally built and used for an equestrian centre back in its hay-day. HAHAHAHAHA, back in its hay-day, WOW, I crack my self up. A horsey place back in its hay-day ...........um.....yea..... Now that I think about it, it's actually not that funny, I've just been sitting at this damn computer for 7hrs and 34 min and 49 sec at this computer in an internet cafe transferring all my days notes from paper to my blog (it's Oct. 2 in Madrid right now) Anyways, I would just die and go to heaven, probably a dozen times, if that's where I rode. It's now some sort of government building. I arrive at my hotel which I just up the road, named El Antigvo Convento, which was built in 1674 as, if you didn't guess already, a convent. I walk into the hotel and feel as if I have just gone back in time and if it weren't for the little things like lights and the front desk having a computer it would have been back then. This hotel, except for some modernifications that they had to do for safety reasons they have left everything how it was. Let me just tell you this place is gor-ge-ous. When you wake down the halls there are these b-e-a-u-tiful tapestries and oil paintings. That's not including all the other things like some old chests in the hallway and some other furniture, plus a lot of the outside doors are original. I finally get to my room more to get a tissue to wipe the drool off my face. I unpack all my things and fall, and I mean literally fall (I tripped over the carpet) onto my bed were I am fast asleep until I hear this tapping at my door. I go and answer it, I find this middle aged woman extending her hand and introducing herself as Jeri Caprio, from Pompano Beach, FL (later finding out that has ridden with all these amazing people, and that she is at the St. George level, and that she currently rides in Wellington). I’m thinking to my self this is such a small freaking world I’m on the other side of the world from a place that I have only lived in for 10months and at a riding program, that even though is not a small company, by all means is not a huge one either, and now I’m meeting someone who lives 45min away from me. While talking to Jeri in my doorway the other two riders, Judy and Laura (who are step-mother and daughter) and the Bill (the husband and father) come walking by on there way to dinner. So we quickly said hi before going down the stairs. A little while later Jeri said that since it was dinner time and that she was starting to get kind of hungry that we should go out. Well since we didn’t know were anything was since we both had arrived today, we started walking in the direction of the most lights, thinking that a lot of light must mean people, which means things like restaurants, which means food for our bellies. When we got to the top of this small hill we saw this pub/restaurant that looked kind of good, so we popped right in. We look in and there is nobody except for the waiter and some guy and the bar. Well we’re too hungry so we sit down and look at the menu. THAT WAS A JOKE :) I mean it’s not like we know any Spanish, even though we both live in Miami. So between our English and my French and limited (and when I say limited, I really mean it) Spanish we sort of got through the menu and ended up just ordering a mixed salad and pesto spaghetti. When we were just finishing our meal there was this big rush of people that came in to eat. We later found out that people in Spain do everything later. This why nobody was at our restaurant during “dinner time” because it wasn’t for them. This is what we found out; breakfast doesn’t start till about 9:30-10:30am, “lunch time” is at 3pm and dinner is not till 10pm, though some of the “tourist” restaurants will open at 9:30pm. By the time we got back to the hotel we both weren’t that tired, but we knew we would have a big day ahead of us so we said our goodnights and went to bed.

the (well all dried up) Spanish Country-Side

DAY 88

I checked out of the hotel and took the taxi to the hostel that was actually in the city, yay! Before I go on I just have to say that this hostel was ABSOULUTELY GOR-GE-OUS. It was originally a Moor monestary, so everything looked like it was from the Middle East, there was even Arabic written on the walls, that is of course the tiles were in Arabic, not that sombody had written on the walls in a pen or something. I put my stuff in my room and then headed out for some touristing. Now that I write this I realize I think that I starting a trend here, Speed Traveling, I noticed more from, London, Monte-Carlo, Berlin, and now Barcelona, that I'm not only do I do all my touristing in one day, but I'm only in the freaking counrty for one day, and It's not like the countries are nieghbors either. Anyways, I spend the day looking at the monuments and what not, getting lost, well actually not lost since I dont have a point B to start with. So I don't think one can get lost if there not trying to get anywhere. Just a thought, lol.......... I also think that when you get "lost" that's when you find the "little jewels" of the place that you are in. By the time I had gotten back to the hostel that night I think I had managed to see the enitre city. Well not it's time to do the traveling version of Rosh Hashanah. I go into the "dinning room" area and take out my apples, honey, pita bread (which is the only round bread that I could find at the gorcery store) and sat sown. At the grocery store they had no wine or grape juice, so the closest thing that I could find at the hostel was Fanta. Even though Fanta is so not a juice I figured that it was probably more a juice than coke or sprite or the other coke products in the vending machine. Being extremely tired after my holiday-ness I went up to my room and wrote some postcards before going to bed.
THE PICS:
~~~visit Barcelona ~~~
~~~El Poble-Espanyol ~~~
~~~The Sculpture Garden ~~~
~~~The Magic Fountain ~~~

DAY 87

Once again I wake up at the crack of dawn, check out, then walk over to the train station, were I have to wait outside since nobody had gotten there to open up the doors. That's when you know you wake up early is when you have a 5:30 train and you get there before anybody else, there isn't even a security gaurd around. Todays train ride is about the same lenght of time as yesterdays, except I'm going down to Barcelona, Spain today. I wasn't originally going to Barcelona, but since the train was going to pass by anyway to my final destination of Madrid, Spain, I thought WTF I don't know when the next time I'm going to be in Spain so since it's not out of the way might as well and I wasn't expected in Madrid till Sunday anyways. My train made many stops before arriing in Barcelona. I stopped in Montauban, France and Toulouse, France where I changed trains, then to Carassonne and Narbonne, France. At Portbou, Spain we had to stop, and wait for the police to check everybody's passprts. After which we stopped in Figueres and Sirona, Spain before finally arriving in Barcelona. I get into the taxi and give the driver the address and he gives me the same look as the driver in Cahors, so i'm thinking OK, how close is this one, come I all ready feel stupid I don't think you can make me feel any more. Well actually it was just the opposite, it took about 30-40 min to drive out to th hotel, which I found out is one of those highway hotels. Now don't get me wrong the hotel was nice and very pretty,and there were flowers and trees outside my window, IT WAS STILL A HIGHWAY HOTEL. Since I didn't want to drive all the way back into the city I decided to spen the rest of the evening at the hotel. Besides the normal watching TV, reading my book, and sleeping, I also went onto the internet to look for a hotel that was actually in Barcelona and not 30 min away, you know something that I could take the metro everywhere and not have to rely on the taxi for everyhting, since that would get very expensive very fast.

DAY 86

I woke up at the crack of dawn, Enghien-les-Bains was a ghost town, just before I got picked up by my taxi came did even the cleaning crew came out. I got to the train statio right at the same time as the train so I had plenty of time to get all my things situated. The train from Paris to Cahors, France was about 5 or 6 hours, I don't remember, lets just say it was a long time. On the way own I stopped in Limoges, Benedictins, and Brive-la-Gaillarde, which are all in France, for a little bitbefore ending up in Cahors. OK, so I only brought one bag and it wasn't even that haeavy except for some of my riding stuff. But of course the station that I had change trains at DID NOT HAVE AN ELEVATOR! I definately got my work out today carrying my 40-something lb. bag and then my "carry-on" which was about 10-15 lbs. it's self from the train to the stairs, down the longest single flight of stairs, under a couple platforms, up the longest single flight of stiars, then across the platform to were my car was. I arrive in Cahors and go to were all the taxis are and show one of them the address of the hotel, he gave me this look that I just asked him to drive me to the moon and back. I thought to myself, aww shit this is going to be a very long and expensive ride. To my, greatful, suprise it was actually just a block down the street and that I could walk to it. Since the people before me checked out late, my room was still being cleaned. So in the meantime I went on to the computer and checked my email, etc... The one and only reason why I am here is to go to this restaurant in Les Arques, but when the lady at the front desk calls the number for me she gets the answering machine saying that they are closed for today. Great I come all the way down here and the only day that I can go to this restaurant, it's closed. W ell I 'm not just going to sit around and do nothing, I go to the front desk and get a tourist map. I saw tourist map, because it is one of those maps that also has the pictures of the monuments and other touristy thing in that town or city and then tell you where on the map they are. I spent the rest of the day touristing around this charming little town in the south of France. Even though I wa only touristing from about 4-5ish till 9-10:30 I had done enough stuff to fill up to days and my feet definatly felt the same as well.

go visit Cahors

DAY 85

So since Sabine was not going to be at home today and neither was here house keeper I couldn't stay at her apartment today, becuase once I left I wouldn't be able to get back in, and Hélêne was getting her apartment cleaned for the high holidays so I couldn't go to her's. In the end Iended up going to their parents house in Montmorency which is a neighboring village. So today I spent the entire day either watching TV or playing with the Hélène's baby, then in the late afternoon playing with Noa, Sabine's oldest daughter. When I returned to the apartment Ipacked up my bag that I would be taking to Spain and then put the rest of my things away in the corner of the room out of the way.

Eyal; Hélêne's baby

DAY 84

I woke up about 9 am and headed over to Sabine's apartment, if your wonderinng why I would be going over to her apartment since that was were I was staying is that I had fallen asleep at her sister's in the apartment building next door. Sabine and I then get in the car and head out to this store to get some fresh fruits and vegestables. It was one of those organic places. After which we went to the regular grocery store to get the rest of the food. The one thing that amazes me is that the amount of food that we get per grocery trip and the amount of times we go in one week you would think she was living in a house with 8 teenage boys, though the funny part is that it is just her, Luc, and there two little girls. Also the amount of milk and yogurt that this family consumes bewilders me. For example, we bought about 18L of milk a little under a week ago and not only is it finished bought today we got 48 freaking Liters of milk!!!!! they go through about 2L of milk just for breakfast, so you do the math. And don't get me started on the yogurt they have a very large fridge, yet there is 1 1/2 shelves reserved just for yogurt, seriously I think they should move to a dairy farm, because they also love cheese and butter. Anyways after we got back from the grocery shopping spree, no joke on the "spree" part, Sabine had to go to work and I went and laid down on the couch. I have been on many couches all over the world is this is by far the most comfortable, insanly........ well everything one would want in a couch, couch!!! Because of the aformentioned I took a 6 hr nap. When I woke up it was time for dinner, after which Sabine and I went for a walk down my the lake.

DAY 83

Didn't do much today; i first slept in and then had a late breakfast, most would call it brunch, but that would mean I also ate lunch food as well as breakfast food, which would be a lie, because I only ate breakfast food. Getting back to what I was talkking about, after "breakfast" I then went over to Jérôme's, he is a friend of the family and owns and works in his bakery. So naturally I would want and go see "behind the scenes." I then spent the rest of the afternoon with him and his "parnter in crime," who is an American, originally from San Fran but moved here 20 yrs ago with his wife. I then left a little bit before dinner and went back to Sabine's to help with making dinner.

DAY 82

Didn't do anything today, just hung out around the apartment playing with Noa and Eva. JUST A NICE RELAXING DAY!!!!!

DAY 81

Today we, being Sabine, Noa, Eva, and I, went to the Hippodrome. When we got there we found out that it was closed today since the horse were racing on a different track today, so we could only look around from the outside. I felt like one of those people who first surveys a place and takes down information and pictures before planning there way in to steal XYZ. Anyways, since that was a bust we then went back to Enghien-les-Bains and took the kids to the playground were the palyed and rode aroung on there bikes.




SEE THE PICS!!!

DAY 80

During the day I helped Sabine around the house, played on the computer, and watched some "24" In the evening we went over to Sabine's parents house in Montmorency for Shabbat dinner. It was a nice little Shabbat dinner, with Sabine, her 2 kids, Hélêne, her baby, and her husband Frank, and then Sabine's other sister Alexandra. We stayed for a while even long after we had finished dinner, I guess it had been a busy week for everyone and they were all in the socializing mood.

DAY 79

I finished all my sortting and packing up so now all I have to do is send it, and I plan on doing that tomorrow. Well the first thing that I actually did today was go to the grocery store with Sabine. Though this was no ordinary grocery store, OK... visualize this, the size of a Costco, but 2 floors, one being the grocery store and one being like Costco. Plus it was coneccted to a mall so when we got the shopping cart in the parking lot we had to walk through the mall to get to the grocery store. That was OK , but when we were going back to the car we were walking around the mall with all our food in a grocery cart, but the funny thing was nobody was looking at us funny...... but then they see it all the time and we weren't the only one either. We got back to the apartment and put the groceries away, after which I finished the packing of my box. Later in the evening Sabine and I went to go see My Super Ex.

DAY 78

Didn't do much today. Sabine had to go into Paris to get some books at this place, sort of like a convention center. It was this Arabic convention center though. Not that everything that went on in there had to be Arabic, just the building was. The outside of the building was really cool it was all these mettel squares and stars, very, of course, Arabic. So wz went inside and spent about an hour or so before heading out and walking down the street to which on our right across the River Seine, was Notre Dame and then in the distance we could see the Effiel Tower pepping up over the trees. We then stopped and got a sandwhich to go and went to a book store so that I could get some more books to read, since it is, of course, very hard to find pleasure reading books in English, when your not in English speaking counrties. After this we had one last stop, to go to Gare du Nord. This stop was to get my train tickets to Spain. Now having my tickets we took a direct train back to Enghien-les-Bains. We get back to the apartment and have dinner, after which Sabine and Luc went out to the movies while I staid back to watch their kids and be a geek and watch the first 3 movies of Star Wars.

DAY 77

Today was simular to yesterday, but I did do a little work. I slept in then went to work seperating all the stuff from what I'm keeping and what I am not. This might not seem like that much, but it actually was. I spent a couple hours lifting boxes of books, and 35 and 55 pound bags up and down the stairs around the room, etc... You get the point. So anyways, after that I took another nap since it had ired me out and when I woke up Sabine had come home from work we went out for a walk and she should me all around the town. This town has everything, and Iam not even exagerating, think of everything in Paris, now squish it into a town were you can walk to everything, and from that Ladies and Gentleman you have Enghien-les-Bains. It even has a casino and dinner theatre that could have come staright from Las Vegas, by the scale of it. The also really cool thing that I just love about this city is all the fountains that is has. I'm not talking little whipy fountains or something that could come from Versailles. These would come from an architectures dream book of fountains, and none of the fountains are the same.

DAY 76

I was very tired today since Sabine (my friend) and Luc (her husband) didn't get back from the wedding till 2:30 this morning, and apparently it still was going on till something like 5 something almost 6ish in the morning. They had to get back though because they had work this today. I was so tired, not just from yesterday, but from being a little tired adding up of many days. From the stress from class, studying and taking my exam, the death of Lili, and then packing and moving, so today was dedicated to catching up on much needed sleep. So I'll some it up in short what I did today, actually one word: SLEEP!!!!!!

DAY 75

So I finish all my packing and look at all the stuff I have. Well keeping in mind that most of the stuff I'm sending home because it's stuff like my cookbooks from the Ritz, some things that I got in my travels so far, and some clothes that I needed in Europe but don't need know and need get rideof some of the weight in my bags. In the evening I took some pictures of the apartment and 2 of the 3 cats and then took the taxi to Enghien-les-Bains, which is a small city about 30 minutes just NE of Paris. I get to Enghien-les-Bains and the taxi driver sort of finds the place where I'm supposed to go. See the problem was that he could see the street sign that we wanted but we couldn't find the street. We eventually figure out the reason for all this, the street that we were looking for is a service street. Not that my friend lived on a service street, it's just that the only way to get to the front door of the apartment building is by the service street, there is another way, but it is only a foot path. I get all my stuff unloaded and into the apartment have some dinner and hang out with their children and the babysitter till my friend and her husband came home from this wedding they had gone to.

DAY 74

Didn't do much today. Basically just hung out around the apartment cleaning and packing. See I'm not leaving Paris for like another 2 weeks but my lease is up, so I'm moving in with one of my friends. She actually started out being Erin's friend, but since I grew up with her around, when I got older I started a friendship of my own with her. So I'm moving in with her fo my last 2 weeks.

PICS OF THE APARTMENT

DAY 73

We made Boysenberry Lolliepops, 3 different kinds of chocolate bars, hollow eggs, and then with the left over chocolate (because in a professional kitchen you always use everything up) made a little chocolate sculpture. We started with the boysenberry lolliepops, putting the water and sugar in a pot. After the wate/sugar mixture came to a boil at 140°c we added the glucouse and added the boysenberry essence, and the blue and red food dye. While that was on the stove we took the plastic for our molds (the same plastic as the ones used as barriers in walk-in fridges) and cut the shape that we wanted in it, then put the sticks in. Taking the hot mixture, once it reached 152°c, putting into a paper pastry bag and pipped into the molds and set aside to cool and harden. Especially cool, even holding it with a kitchen towel the hot liquid was still burning my hands and after I quickly poured my lolliepops and to rush to the sink and let the cold water run over my hands. Next was the chocolate bars, we took the Ivory, Chocolate/Coffee, and Jivara chocolate and put them on the stove to temper. First we cleaned out the molds with a cotton ball, so there is no fingerpints, then poured in the chocolate, that is after is was finished being tempered. Then just like yesterday tapped the sides, to get ride of the air bubbles, then scraped off the excess from the top and the chocolate that was on the side of the mold. Putting the molds on a rack, before setting aside, added the chopped hazelnuts. With the same Équatoriale chocolate that we used with chocolate/coffee bar and poured them in the egg molds. Just like with the Mont Blancs, we tipped them over so it only coated the side of the mold. We put to layers on the egg mold so when it was time to take them out they would be thick enough and wouldn't break while taking out. While everything was on the racks hardening we took this time to clean up, which took no time at all, since we had Siran Wrapped the table tops again. After out tea and coffee break we took the chocolate bars out of the molds and then finished the eggs. First we put a cookie sheet on the stove and let it get warm. Then taking two egg halves put them on the cookie sheet moving them around so the edges melt a little bit, one thing that you have to remeber is not to leave the eggs on to long because then when you put them together they won't be the same size, since one of the halves will be smaller than the other one. We put the eggs aside to quickly harden in thier new form and then put them into special boxes. With the leftover chocolate eggs chef made a little sculpture that was kind of cool. Then after putting out all our creations and taking some pictures, we had some champagne and then the people who were leaving recieved their certificates and then I GOT MY DIPLOMA for passing my exam. Then just socialized till the end of class.


****CLICK TO SEE THE PICS****

DAY 72

Another busy day ahead, todays reciepes are: Raspberry Jivara Milk Chocolate, Guérande, Carmel, Chocolate Carmel, Ritz Squares, and Mont Blanc. We started with the first two since the first step, for both, was to take the chocolate and put it into a mold to make a large square. For the Raspberry Jivara Chocolate took the raspberry pulp and the trimoline (inverted sugar) and put it on the stove till it boiled, then poured it over the chocolate and mixed. When it went down to the temperaturethat we wanted added the dry butter (dry butter has 84% fat content, unlike sweet or "normal" butter, which has only 82%) and the raspberry alcohol, then set aside. For the Guérande, we took the Jivara chocolate and cooked it with the sugar and the special salt from Guérande. Then in another pan boiled the cream and the trimoline (inverted sugar). Then when the carmel boils and it with the other pot and then whisked in with the chocolate and butter. Afterwhich put it into the mold and set it aside. After both chocolates had harden put a thin layer of extra bitter chocolate and let it sit, this is for a "bottom". Since we had made to much of the carmel mixture we took the leftover and put it into two, taking one and pouring it into a mold and the other, adding cocoa powder and then putting into the mold. We then quickly did the Ritz squares, taking the tempered chocolate and pour over the sheets. Then with this really cool contraption, that spreads the chocolate out evenly, and then put it into the fridge to harden. The last thing we had to do today was the mont blanc. With this special machine took our mixture of cocoa butter and 70% covering chocolate (the 70% is the type not the amount) and, with the machine, spraying the chocolate on the molds and then putting in the fridge. Afterwards taking the ivory chocolate and filling up the molds then turned them over so the chocolate just lined the molds and weren't filled. Taking the tempered ivory chocolate and added it with the glucouse and Kirsch and mixed. Putting into a pastry bag filled the molds and then put a Eau de Vie fruit brandy soaked cherries on top. Then putting a layer of the chocolate ontop and then putting in the fridge to harden. We then took out the raspberry jivara milk chocolate and the guérande and then cut them with the guitar (see pics). Afterwards, dipping them both in chocolate and letting them harden. At this point we cleaned the kitchen and had our tea and coffee break. After the break we put everything into the special plastic bags and then went down stairs to the Ritz's chocolate room. Here we got a little tour of the room and then got a little demonstration of the tempering machine. This machine does exactly what we do up stairs by hand. There are many different little button and knobs on the side, they are what set the spesifications. The red numbers are what the chocolate is at now and the green numbers are what we want the chocolate to be at. After the little tour we went back upstairs and changed. Though since it is Thursday we didn't leave, or if we left it was just to get something to eat. Then we all got together in the parlor and disscused chocolate for 2hours, OH F***ING YEA!!!!!

THURSDAY NIGHT CLASS:
We first talked about the extensive history of chocolate, with how it started with the Aztecs, then how it spred to the rest to the world, etc.... Then how chocolate is made, from the tree to the table. There are many different kinds of chocolate, but here are the three basic one and what they consist of. DARK CHOCOLATE: it includes bitter and semi-sweet chocolate and contains between 35 - 70% cocoa as well as cocoa butter, sugar, and sometimes emulsifiers. MILK CHOCOLATE: it includes powdered milk, sugar, and vanilla, which is added to the cocoa butter, whiches what gives it that sweet taste and creamy texture. IVORY (or for you non-culinarians "white") CHOCOLATE: it is made from cocoa butter, with added, either, consentrated milk or powdered milk, along with sugar and vanilla essaence. Then we talked about what happened to chocolate and how it evovled once it hit European soil.

A LITTLE CHOCOLATE TIMELINE:
3,000+ years ago- Aztecs are cultivating the cocoa bean and making it into a "drink," consisting of the crushed cocoa beans, dried fruits, hot pepper, musk, honey, vanilla, and reed juice.
1527- brought to Spain by Cortez.
1647- the first "eating" chocolate was made in London, under the name Spanish-style chocolate rolls.
1680- the word "chocolate" entered César Pierre Richelet's Dictionary of French language.
18th century- chocolate had conquered the whole of Europe, but still remained an extremely luxurious product. 2lbs of chocolate cost 60 coins, the equivalent of four days work.
1705- a rule was drawn up allowing drink sellers to sell it by the cup like coffee. However, it is only during the Regency and under Louis XV that chocolate is definitvely adopted.
1737- botanist, Carl von Linné classed cocoa as theobroma, meaning "divine nourishment."
1776- a certain Doret invented a hydraulic machine for crushing cocoa and redusing it to a paste. Until then the beans were grilled in a basin before being redused to a paste by hand.
1780- the first mechanical chocolate factory was built in Bayonne, France.
1847- first chocolate bar appears on the market, by the English company, Fry & Sons.
1888- Milton Snavely Hershey opened a small factory in Pennsylvania (now that which is the Hershy monstrosity today).


Now Comes The Good Part

DAY 71

Today is the day that we are using all the chocolate that we were working with on Monday. Todays goodies consist of Candied Chestnuts, Whiskey Truffles, Montélimard Nougat, Black & White Rock, and Muscadines. It was a very bust day ahead of us but thankfully alot of the steps were the same between them and with the same chocolate. Before we did anything we put a double layer of Siran Wrap on the table. We put the first layer on so it would be an easy clean up since we were going to get very, let me say it again VERY, messy. Then the second was for when we used a knife, so it wouldn't mater if we sliced the top layer of Siran Wrap. We started with the Montélimard Nougat, since it had the most parts and would take the longest. We put the water, sugar, and glucouse on the stove and boil till 150°c and in another pot heat the honey till 130°c. While those were on the stove we took out the hazelnuts, pistachios, and almonds and cut them to the size of a pea. When the honey was done we added it to the egg whites, and sugar like we did when we were making the Italian Meringue. Then adding it with the other pot, added the nuts and left to sit a bit. We moved onto the Candied Chestnuts. The chestnuts that we had gotten in syrup, we had put them on a rack to drain them. We then took the fondant icing and some water and temper this mixture. While tempering, we added the powdered sugar and the trimoline (which is an inverted sugar). When this was all done we dunked each chestnut into the glaze and then put them back onto the rack and put into the oven and steamed them for a little less than a minute. This steaming process is to seal the glaze onto the chestnut and so it just wont drain off when cooling. Going back to the nougat we took it out of the bowl and put in between two sheets of rice paper. Rice paper is so cool, it has the consistancy of litely waxed paper (apparently like the communon wafers) but when you put it into water it become lie wet balled paper, but a little stratchy because of the gluten in the rice. After struggling to spred it all out and then putting the top layer of rice paper put some icing sugar in top. The icing sugar, in the case of desserts, serves the same purpose of flour when your trying to roll something out. To help maintain a leveled nougat we put to sticks on either side and rolled out till we were satisfied. Afterward we cut around the edge so we had a nice rectangle without any rice paper sticking out, then into bit size rectangles and then wrapped them up. The last three things that we had had some simular steps. We started first with the whiskey truffles, taking the cream and trimoline and boiling it then adding it to the chocolate. After the chocolate was fully mixed and had almost cooled added a couple shots of whiskey. When it was about 95% or so cooled we put it into a pastry bag and made little ball on the parchment paper and then set aside to completely cool and hardened. Moving on to the black & white rock we melted the cocoa butter and then added to the pralines. This made a dough like mixture, which we then cut into little cubes and rolled in the finely chopped waffers and then set aside. Then the last the muscadines, we melted the cocoa butter and mixed with the pralines. Then took the single cream and boiled it then added it to the praline mixture. When cooled we took a N° 7 tip and pipped it out onto parchment paper, in a shape like a small slug. After all of this we tok our tea and coffee break. Then taking the other two desserts and the chocolate and the chocolate for the "rocks". We then spent some time in rolling them all in the chocolate. Unlike the black & white rocks, which after the chocolate coating were done, we then added the third and final stage. Oh, I forgot to say, the Black & White rocks taste exactly like Ferrero Rocher. For the whiskey truffles the last stage was rolling in cocoa powder and for the muscadines was icing sugar. We then put everything into little bags and cleaned up, which didn't take that long because of the Siran Wrap.

LITTLE CHOCOLATE HEAVEN...

Lili was one of the cats that was born in my walk-in closet when I was 1 yrs old. She died on August 19, 2006 at 18 yrs old, after battling cancer for 3 yrs. I don't know my life without her, literally. She was a beautiful cat and the warmest heart of any living creature I every knew, even including people. I WILL TRUELY MISS HER TREMENDOUSLY! I LOVE YOU LILI!!

DAY 70

Today was jelly day, we made Raspberry Fruit Jellies, Raspberry Jelly, Strawberry Jelly, and Pineapple - Star Anise Jelly. We took out three pans and put each mixture into each one and then onto the stove. With both the Strawberry and Raspberry jams we took the fruit, the special jellifing sugar, lemon, and with the Strawberry one also adding some vanilla bean, cooked them on the stove till they reached the disierd temperature. With the Pineapple - Star Anise jelly, the only added thing was we had to cook the raisins in another pan before adding to the mixture. This was really cool, beacuse right before we took it off the stove, and now this was of course on purpose, set fire to them. So for a couple of seconds there was a flame inside the saucepan (in the pic you can see it but you might have to click on the pic, so that it will inlarge). One thing that we had to do was wrap our stirring hand in a towel. This was because while the mistures were on the stove we couldn't stop stirring, and at that hot temperature of heat and steam, well you get the point. At this point when the fruit mixtures have now turned and are Jelly we pour them into jars, close the lid, turn them over, and put them into the fridge.The reason why we have to turn them over is so that when the jellies are coolin, in the closed jar, that there is no air bubble between the jelly and the lid, otherwise it becomes a luxury spa for micronisms. Before starting our last reciepe we had our tea and coffee break. After the break we made our last thing for today, Raspberry Fruit Jellies. We put the fruit pulp, sugar, pectin, and glusouse and put it on the stove, then whisking it till the sugar and pectin dissolve and is boiling. Then we had to keep it ata boil till it reached 110°c on the cany thermometor. When it reaches this point you have to take it off the flame and then quikly (and I mean quickly) the citric acid. The reason why I'm stressing on the quickly part is that the the first time we made this we had whisked it in, but then it started to congeal in the bowl, then, because of a question, we found out that if we added the citric acid to early in the process, lets say like when were still cooking it, it won't congeal at all and the mixture will stay liquid no matter how long it's in the fridge. Anyways, we then poured it into the mold (oh, if your wondering about the picture, the sugar around the mold is to make sure that everything stays in, and if not the sugar would catch it) and then let it sit for a bit. While it was sitting there congealing, we cleaned up the rest of the kitchen so when it was time to go, we wouldn't have to stay behind and finish cleaning. The last thing we did was cut the big mass into little sqaures, roll them around in the sugar and them put them in their pretty little Ritz plastic bags. Instead of going home I had to stay afterwards for my exam, UGH!!! I had an hour after class to clean up my uniform, go to the bathroom, and do a little last minute studying (well I knew all the reciepes, for me it was more just repeating them in my head than actual last minute studying). So before entering the kitchen I had to pick from one of the envelopes and then took out the paper inside to see which reciepe I had gotten. Thankfully we were allowed to write whatever we wanted on the paper, well that's because I had already given in my notes. So, before forgetting, I wrote down the reciepe and someother things like what order I was going to do everything in, including washing up. I had picked the Milk Chocolate Tart, thankg-d. I mean I knew al the recieps, just of the 5 this one was the most simple, but still not being plain. The only realy scary thing about the exam was that I was the only person. The reason this was scary was because I was the only one taking the exam this week so it was dead quite. The wasn't even any noise outside the kitchen since it was like 8 at night and most people had gone home and the other kitchen for the school had even been closed up for the day as well. Well after the exam, and about 100lbs had been lifted from my shoulders, I went home.


Get Some Bread and a knife....

DAY 69

Before I start this week I would just like to make my second PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Before going anyfurther, please get a tissue to catch any future drool. Now back to today. Today was mostly just starting some reciepes that are coming later in the week and then two reciepes for today. We started out day with a little lesson in chocolate tempering 101 and then went back into the kitchen to start our day. We got out some saucepans and put in all different kinds of chocolate, and I'm not refering to white, milk, bittersweet, and dark. I'm talking about équatorial, jivara, guanaja, caribbean, ivory, etc.... These types are what the chocolates are really named and the previous names are more like catagories rather than names. So the two reciepes that were doing today is the Fruit and Nut Chocolates and the Almond Rock. Both are relativley simple and not that much time, but that's why were doing them today, because the other chocolates that we have to get ready for the rest of the week will take up the rest of the time. While this was on the stove we got cracking on all the fruit, nuts, etc... that we had to cut for both reciepes. Once the chocolate, for the first reciepe, was ready we poured some of the chocolate into a pastry bag and then on parchment paper made little circles of chocolate, the circumfrance and height of a quarter. Then before the chocolate cooled placed the the white almonds, pistachios, cut candied orange peels, hazelnuts, raisins and walnuts. Popped them into the fridge and then got out the almond slivers, chopped candied orange, and rice crispies (and yes I'm talking about the whole "Snap, Crackle, Pop" one). After mixing in the butter to the tempered chocolate we then added the aformentioned. Then putting them into little balls and putting them into the fridge to harden. We then had an extremely late tea and coffee break, afterwards put all the chocolate that we were working with during class away. We cleaned up the kitchen, put our two goody yumness into bags and then talked about chocolate for the last couple minutes of class. Afterwards I went home and went back to studying the reciepes.

Fruit & Nut Chocolate


Almond Rocks

DAY 68

I'm starting to sound like a broken record. Still on the coomputer but now naming the pictures. After finishing the tagging of all the pictures I moved onto more importatnt things, LIKE STUDY FOR MY EXAM! Here's the deal with the exam, on wednesday I got a piece of paper with 5 different recipes, all of which I had done sometime in the past 5 weeks of school. I then had to memorize everything about the recipes, except for the measurements since of course they would be smaller on the exam. Oh, just in case your curious the recieps that I had to memorize were; Lemon cake, Milk Chocolate Tart (with a hazelnut cookie dough), Mini Fruit Tartlettes, Orange Eclairs, and Lemon Meringue Tart (made with Italian Meringue). So normally you get a week to study all this, but since I had been working on the pictures and blog all that time, I had to cram a week's studying into 2 days.

DAY 67

Still on the computer, but today was dedicated to finishing the uploading and then starting to tag everything. This took longer than it should have. This is because I had a list with what picture number went with which description. But for some reason when I had uploaded them to the computer they didn't stay in the same order. Thankfully they weren't to much off, like 3 would be in the 6 or 7 spot, and 4 would be in maybe the 2 or 5 spot, etc...

DAY 66

Was on the computer the initre day down loading all 500 pics. It took the whole day even with a really fast internet. Then at the end of the day started the upload to the internet.