Second Day of Work

 July 2, 2013. 11:09pm.

Well, I survived Day 2! That makes it sound so much worse than it  was...it was so much fun! Like I said, I was pretty scared about today since Jean-Baptiste wasn't here...I was a little nervous Youaine and Battiste not being fond of me or getting annoyed by me. But they really didn't seem annoyed one bit!

I was Youaine's...assistant, I guess I could say - basically I was under his direction. But since we're all in the kitchen together (it's not that big) and there were just 4 of us (Chef, Youaine, Battiste, and I) it's not like he was the only person I interacted with. Battiste and I actually talked quite a lot because he was really into asking me if I knew all these American rappers. He's really into rap. He kept naming off various ones, and it usually took a few tries before I could understand who he was talking about through his thick French accent. Ha! He asked me about Flo Rida, Wiz Khalifa, Snoop, Diddy...some others I knew, and some that I've never heard of - then again, I'm the worst American to ask about pop culture, let alone rappers. Still, it was fun for both of us. He started asking me about them while we were eating dinner and Chef hadn't started eating yet. But then he went on naming them while we were working. And Chef was hilarious. He looked very condescendingly at Battiste and said "c'est de la merde!". I was pretty excited because I just learned that expression yesterday from Alison! It means "it's shit". Merde literally means shit. So when people see or hear things that are really awful, they use that expression all the time to say 'this is shit'. Anway when Chef said that to make fun of Battiste I laughed and Chef said, "ah, elle comprend ça!!", or "oh, she understands that!!" I was pretty pleased with myself and told him I learned it yesterday. Then every time Battiste went on to me about music/rappers, Chef looked at me, shook his said, and said "de la merde".

There's so much joking and mocking in the kitchen! It's really fun. And being the only intern, as well as only one of four in the kitchen, means I'm so much less of a nobody than I was expecting to be. At some point I'm almost positive Chef said to Youaine, "it's good having Monisha here to help you, no?", though of course it was in French and he spoke fast, as usual, so I can't be certain. Still, I'm sure enough that I'm pretty pleased about it.

I had one kind of terrifying mishap in the kitchen today. At the end of the day during cleanup, I was using the broom thing to scrub the floor. You have to scrub all the way under all the counters, so when you do it the stick end is basically horizontal and sticks out into the kitchen, pretty much to the other counter. Well I was scrubbing as Chef walked past behind me....aaaaaannnndd yeah...I jabbed him right in the leg...pretty hard. I was so embarrassed, and he said something I didn't understand that started with oh la la you are going to (I'm assuming an expression like you're going to kill me. Ooooooops. Well he was totally joking and not at all mad or annoyed, but I very emphatically apologized. And Battiste jokingly said something like, 'on the second day...fired!' but not to me, just to Chef, talking about me of course. Ohhhh boy.

Today I started out cutting mozzarella into slices, cookie cutting them into tiny like circles, and then placing one on each plate that already had a little spoonful of this choped strawberry...something or other. Anyway, it was very pretty, like everything...as well as delicious - there was one extra, which Youaine said I could eat if I wanted. There is so much tasting you can do! Since they make everything look perfect, they cut off a lot of pieces, etc, and you're allowed to eat any of them. None of them ever really do because they've all eaten it all maybe a lot I guess. I don't want to overdo it, so I'm not eating...everything, but I'm tasting a lot. I mean, they sometimes tell me taste this, and sometimes I ask, can I taste it, but it's become pretty clear to me that pretty much I can taste whatever. I asked Youaine if he's tried every dish they serve though, and he said yes. So I guess it must be normal for me to try lots of things now. And man everything is good. Like wow. Today I had some of this raw tuna dish, the mozzarella with strawberry thing (as well as lots of mozzarella scraps - I was afraid that was going to go to waste, but to my relief Youaine cut it up and put it in the dinner for the personnel, some chard, a taste of mackerel, this puréed asparagus sauce...life in the kitchen really isn't so bad :)

I also washed and cut 11 leeks today. Chef himself came and showed me the correct way to cut them. Although maybe I should be embarrassed, I was more just happy that he was taking the time to bother with and talk to me. (Especially since this was before the mocking Battiste thing, so I really had barely interacted with him, especially in the kitchen.) He was explaining it slowly, talking about having your fingers on top and vertical, kind of pushing on the side with your thumb, and always keeping your thumb behind your fingers. And then told me to tell him if he was speaking too fast. I was pretty touched.

Today, though, after doing the mozzarella, cutting and washing 11 leeks, I pretty much did very minimal amounts of work today, doing tiny jobs here and there when they asked, trying to clean up or help with what I could - but they didn't seem eager to give me any more jobs. I think since today was a slow day they just preferred to do it themselves to keep busy. I don't know. But by today was a slow day, I mean there was a period when literally none of us were doing anything. Chef and Battiste were sitting on the ground talking. Youaine was actually washing a few dishes. But I said something to Youaine about it being much more calm than Sunday. And he said it's never like this - that it's really weird. Interesting.

Oh I almost forgot - I also bag squeezed this avocado purée (maybe it was guacamole) into tiny bowls and put olive tapenade in other little bowls to go out as appetizers, or entrées as they call them. But as I was saying, I didn't do a whole lot more. Even though there were some things that Jean-Baptiste taught me and had me do yesterday that I offered to help with, but Battiste declined my help - his reasoning was he wanted to do it very quickly. He really wasn't doing it that quickly though, and since there were 6 to do, it would obvoiusly be quicker with me helping - even if it took me the same amount of time to do 1 as him to do 5, which it wouldn't. Anyway, I'm not actually upset. I also got to watch a lot. Which is good, because I'm learning what and how much of each vegetable, herb, sauce, etc to put on each dish. I get to watch Chef do his final garnishing and presentation. I also observed Chef cook several things (I also saw Jean-Baptiste do them yesterday). One thing we do for all the meats and fishes here is put them in a tub of what I thought yesterday was just oil. Turns out...it's oil and DUCK FAT! WIN! No wonder the meat is so delicious. It makes me kind of excited because at home we cook lots of things in duck fat too. But at the restaurant, they actually soak it in melted duck fat with oil for several minutes. And oh my god it's good. Like I said, the lamb I tried yesterday...out of this world.

So that was my day in the kitchen. The rest of my day was pretty calm. But I'm actually quite comforted. I was kind of afraid about there being nothing to do. But the tourism office is in a little courtyard that also has a shop, a garden, and a café/restaurant. So it's a very pleasant place to be. And what I did today was get a coffee at the café, sit outside where I could see the garden, and use the Internet to learn French! Which was really perfect. I have SO MUCH more French to learn, and I would really love to improve as much as I possibly can. So what I'm thinking is in all my free time that I have nothing else to do, I can just go to this little café and study!

The other thing I noticed is that there was a group of four French girls at the café who I'm quite positive are locals. There are also two or three young waitresses and one young waiter who work at the café. I didn't talk to any of them (except to one waitress and the waiter to order/accept my coffee) but I think if I become a regular I may potentially meet them sometime.

There's something I learned about here. Nobody puts cream or milk in their coffee. Nobody. Like...it's weird to add it. The first time it came up was at the restaurant I went to Sunday. I got a coffee and it came with sugar on the side only. So I asked the waiter for cream to add, and he paused for a second and then said yes of course. But then he came back and asked, 'for your coffee?'. I confirmed but it clearly wasn't that typical. Then at the café today I got a coffee and again it came with just sugar on the side. I went back and asked the waiter for cream to add. He repeated, looking a little confused, but kind of seeming like he thought I was using the wrong word and meant to say something else. But I repeated, "uhh, oui, de la crème?". When he still looked bewildered, I said, 'or milk? To add to coffee?' I guess he thought that was a little less strange, because he said okay, and asked kind of clarified that I wanted heated up milk (I didn't necessarily mean heated up but sure, so I said yes - though I ended up burning my tongue on my coffee so I kind of wish it was been cold). But he still thought I was pretty weird I think. At work everyone had coffee and of course I was the only one who uses milk, so I asked where it was. And I guess they all think I'm weird for it too probably. The second cup of coffee I had later was with Battiste, and he shook his head at me mockingly and said "les Americaines....". I laughed and asked if he'd tried it before. He said yes, and then said indicated that the French was is more manly or strong or something by showing/jokingly flexing his muscles. Ha!

OH! Good news, Nadia has a bicycle that she barely uses and says I can borrow whenever! She doesn't have a lock so I'll have to keep watch over it when I borrow it or else buy a lock (unless she does - she said she just hasn't gotten around to it yet). But I'm really excited because this means I can go into Vernon whenever I want! And quite easily! It's only about 2 miles away, which is far for a walk but not for biking! Charcuterie, fromagerie, and chocolatier, here I come!!!!

Ohhhh I'm so excited about my life here!!!!!!!!!!!! This new idea about studying French at the café all the time is making me very pleased because I really, really can't wait to actually be able to speak and understand decently. I just hope that will happen in a timely manner...I really don't know how long it will take.

Well tomorrow I start work at 9:00am. Yay!!!!! =D

(12:30am, July 3)