January 30

I babysat for the cutest kids last night! Their mom is a professor at UGA and is doing research here for the year. Max, 8, and Isabel, 5, were totally adorable and cooperative. We spent like an hour making aluminum foil aliens and having battles with them and then we read stories before bed. Too bad this is just an as-needed thing... these kids are fantastic. Their dad, Michael, walked me back to the métro when I was done; he's a professor of 18th cenutry French history, so we talked a lot about my thesis and the research I was going to do. Very helpful... he offered to read over my proposal before I submit it.

I love making new contacts.

recipes

Feuilleté de chevre aux éepinards et champignons

1 pâte feuilletée
500 gr d'épinards en branches surgelés
25 cl de crème fraîche
6 petits fromages de chèvre frais
1 oeuf
noix de muscade, sel, poivre du moulin

Faire cuire les épinards avec 3 pincées de noix de muscade et un peu de sel. Bien égoutter et rajouter la crème fraishe et la moitié de l'oeuf battu. Poivrer et mélanger. Dérouler la pâte feuilletée sur une plaque allant au four. La poser sur le papier sulfurisé dans laquelle elle était emballée et couper ce qui est en trop. Etaler les épinards sur la moitié de la surface et répartir dessus les six petits fromages de chèvre. Rebattre la pâte et bien souder la partie arrondie avec de l'eau tiède ou un peu d'oeuf. Badigeonner le reste de l'oeuf battu avec un pinceau sur la demie lune ainsi formée. Faire cuire 20-25 minutes dans un four préchauffé à 220*. Manger chaud.

tutoring

I gave my first real tutoring session last night. It was way harder than I expected it to be. The girl is sweet; she's 7 years old and is taking English at school, so she knows some basic words and phrases as well as the alphabet. The difficulty, however, lies in the fact that a) as a first grader she's learning her own language alongside English, and b) when I see her, she's already spent 8 hours at school and is zonked. Anyway, we identified objects in her room - bed, desk, chair, etc. - and taped namecards onto them so she'll remember, went over the English pronunciation of the alphabet, and learned the personal pronouns. She lasted 45 minutes, which is respectable; I just hope she retains some of the stuff for next week!

After that, 11 Victor Cousin had a Grey's dinner party. Jed came over, I made a feuilletée with spinach, mushrooms, and goat cheese, and Alyssa and I got creative with an apple crumble. I got the recipe for the feuilletée from the cooking class I took last week; I was scared to try to make it on my own, but it actually came out really well. I'll post the recipe tomorrow. (The Grey's, obviously, was amazing.)

Tonight I'll be babysitting for the Masons for the first time... wish me luck!

Bienvenue a Paris!

Okay. So. Since I still haven't caught up on the past two weeks of blogging, and it doesn't look like that will happen any time soon, I think I'll just start from now.

Paris is so different from New York that I hadn't been spurred into anything resembling homesickness - that is, until yesterday. Yesterday I went to the American Cathedral (AmCath, from hereon out) in Paris for their 11am Eucharist. I'd been in email contact with the choirmaster there, but we've hadn't actually connected, so I figured I might as well kill two birds with one stone: I could track him down and talk to him about singing, and I could see what exactly I was getting myself into. I arrived a little late (the cathedral is pretty... it's like my cathedral in that it's neo-gothic, but a lot smaller, obviously) and the choir was just finishing the psalm. I successfully fought off rising tides of home/cathedral/choir-sickness as the celebrant celebrated the Anglican service - until the offertory anthem. I totally broke down as the choir sang Mendelssohn's "How Lovely are the Messengers." First of all, I love that piece. Second off all, the anthem leads with an alto line, and they had a countertenor in the alto section. Third of all... well, third of all, it's me, and I've been going through choir withdrawal, so obviously I teared up.

After the service I staked out the choir room - not as creepy as it sounds, as the hall in which the coffee reception was held was right next to the choir room. I introduced myself to Ned Tipton, the director, and within five minutes he told me to come early to rehearsal next Thursday so we could talk more, and that I should just stay for rehearsal and start singing Sundays right away. How sweet is that? The choir's pretty good, actually; they're not professionals, but they are auditioned, and sound like they really know what they're doing. They don't really need another soprano, but whatever.

So... that's cool. Five classes, tutoring a French girl once a week, as-needed babysitting, and rehearsals and services. I think I'm pretty much set.