A great "first" week

So, we have just successfully completed our first week of our fall routine!  And I am in such a good mood about it. Here's how things work:

7:00 AM - Sophie and Andrea leave for work.

7:15 - Wake the boys up, get them dressed, then fed. 

7:55 - The 3 of us are out the door, headed for school. 

8:15-3:30 - The boys are at school. (except for Wednesdays, 9:00-12:00)

3:30-7:30 - Get the boys from school, play time/activity of sorts, bath, dinner. 

7:30ish PM - Sophie and Andrea get home  from work.
8:30/9:00ish - Dinner for the 3 of us, boys are in bed. 

So yes, that means that I have from roughly 8:30-3:30 for myself, except for Wednesdays.  Not this coming week, but the week after, my french lessons will start on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  They're a little less than an hour away, so by the time I get there, have my lesson, have lunch, drive home, that will take up most of my day.  So, that really only leaves Monday and Friday as my "free days".  So I can do laundry, exercise, clean up around the house, bake, whatever I please on those days.  It's a pretty good deal!  

Alongside of the regular challenges that have already been presented, a couple new ones surfaced this week.  Yesterday, I wanted to make cookies with the boys celebrating them completing their first week of school.  I looked around the kitchen for what I thought were items that were in everybody's kitchen: measuring cups and teaspoons.  The whole idea of baking with the metric system had not even crossed my mind yet.  (I mean, I know they use the metric system.  I've been driving and following directions in kilometers and meters.)  But I could not find either of those things, later to realize because they don't own those, because you do not use those when you cook with the metric system.  Duh.  Feeling discouraged, I went and just bought a box of cookie mix at the grocery store, thinking that would suffice for today.  The only things I needed were an egg and 80g of butter.  80 grams of butter?  What the heck does that look like?!  I googled it, and it turns out that 80g of butter is equivalent to about 1/3 of a cup.  Great!  Oh wait, we don't have measuring cups...so that was a fun little guessing game.  The cookies turned out fine regardless, and everyone enjoyed them.  The boys enjoyed helping me make them, so I want to make them from scratch with them next week.  I just need to figure out how to do it with the metric system.  

So, this morning, I started looking through some of the cook books in the kitchen.  They have one really cute one for cooking with kids.  I was looking through it and there are a lot of recipes that seem easy enough to master.  (Aside from the fact that the recipes are in french and use the metric system, it should be a piece of cake...)  

This is the first recipe I want to try.  I love breakfast foods and it only has 5 ingredients, so I figure it's a good place to start:

Barres de cereales banane-raisins

150 g de beurre

150 ml de sirop d'erable

125 g de raisins secs

2 grosses bananes écrasées

375 g de petits flocons d'avoine

(Banana-raisin cereal bars: butter, maple syrup, raisins, mashed bananas, oats)

So I can understand how to measure out milliliters, because we have one large measuring cup that shows milliliters, and ounces, on it.  But I was still really confused about measuring the grams.  I asked Andrea, and he answered "you use a scale, of course!"  Oh, of course.  But then it made sense.  He showed me the small food weighing scale that they have.  You weigh the bowl, or whatever you're going to put your ingredient in, then measure the bowl with the ingredient, and then subtract the difference, so you know exactly how much you have there.  It seems a bit tedious to me...but that is the metric way, apparently.  I assume maybe if I buy just a stick of butter, the conversions will be on the paper, the same way that it shows 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 on the butter paper in the US.  The raisins and the oats I should be able to measure out easily enough.  I'll have to enlist some assistance from google translate to make sure I follow the directions properly, but I think I'll try to make these in the coming days. 

Also, on the teaspoon/tablespoon front, this is the equivalent:

c. a c. = teaspoon

c. a s. = tablespoon

For example, the recipe may call for 2 c. a c. d'extrait de vanille (vanilla extract)

Challenge #2: Dropping the boys off at school and attempting to communicate with their teacher/other parents.  Obviously, it is a french school.  98% of the people around me are speaking french.  And I would say that at this point I can understand about 33% of what they are saying.  I did luckily meet another woman who is British!  She heard me talking to the boys and started talking to me in English.  So, if I ever need to ask something important, I can probably have her translate for me to the teacher.  Because until my french improves, it will be a bit difficult to communicate with their teacher.  So far, so good though.  The boys and their teacher have seemed happy each day I have picked them up.  

On a different note, I was however able to effectively walk in to the nearby beauty salon and make an appointment to get a pedicure speaking only french!  Sophie told me that there are two places in town to go.  This one, is owned and operated by only one woman.  It is a small studio with only one room.  I made an appointment for Monday, and can't wait.  Even though it will cost me 35 euro as opposed to the 25 dollars I am used to paying, I don't really mind that much.  I am beyond excited, not to mention in desperate need of a beaute des pieds.  The other salon apparently is even more expensive!  It is bigger and has more employees and space and what not, but if this woman turns out to be good, I think I'll stick with her.  We'll see!

And in my final piece of news to share, I have officially eaten at a French McDonalds!  There is one about 20 minutes away.  I went on Thursday, more out of curiosity than actually wanting McDonalds.  It is inside a mall, and both different and the same as one you would find in the US.  

• It was clean.  Very clean, and at all times there were people shuffling around bussing the tables.
• You had to use a code to get into the bathrooms, they were otherwise locked.
• There were two counters, one for your typical food ordering, and another for ordering coffees, pastries, and other desserts.  At the food counter, they had everything you would expect from Big Macs and fish filets to wraps and salads.  But at the dessert kiosk, they not only had coffees and lattes, but croissants, macaroons, cheesecakes, etc!  
• There were about 6 little walk up kiosks that you could use for easy ordering, and then go and pick up your food at the counter instead of placing your order in person.  The kiosks also had language options, so you could read the menu in french, english, spanish, or dutch.
• My chicken nuggets and french fries tasted exactly the same.
• I had the worlds cutest caramel macchiato, pictured below.
• It was packed!  Granted, I was there at lunch time, but people kept streaming in wanting their Big Macs.  People all around the world love McDonalds. 
• It was ridiculously expensive.  7.50 euro for a 6 pack of nuggets, medium fry and medium drink.  I probably won't go back any time soon for this reason alone, but I am glad I got to see what it was like!

It was a good week!  

xo, Jillian