Sometimes I really hate chefs...

... which is a bit of a problem considering I would like to be one some day. I am in the process of writing about my adventures in Ireland but until them, let me make a diversion.

This morning I took the practical exam for my Intro to Professional Cooking class and I was running a bit late because sleepy stupor I thought it would be fine it I hit the snooze button four times, making it so that I slept twenty minutes longer than I had originally intended. So I was running late and got there with about thirty seconds to spare and threw my coat and hat on and ran into the classroom where the only available cooking space was with the Canadian of Hispanic descent whom I may or may not have mentioned before in my first post about Italy. Anyway, I've cooked with her before and found her to be a bit difficult to work with. She's a bit bossy (understatement) and thinks that she's the only competent one in the class. So I set my stuff down, washed my hands, saw that the super secret assignment that was supposed to be a surprise was actually Spaghetti alla Carbanara just like everyone in the class had predicted it would be. The hint he gave us last class was that it would be something with egg yolks. Duh. There wasn't really much else it could be.

So she was getting pots and pans and messing with the stove so I started slicing pancetta. The knife I was using was a really dull classroom one though so it was REALLY difficult to cut the pancetta which is difficult to cut in the first place because it's about 50% fat and has been aged. So I finally got the first piece cut from the rest which she took and started to cube. The second piece was particularly difficult but when I finally got it separated from the rest of the pancetta I put the block of it back on the front table so that other people could use it. I was about to start cubing it when she grabbed it from me. Like, literally, my knife was about to make contact with the meat when it all of a sudden wasn't there anymore. I kind of looked down and blinked stupidly like, "did that just happen?". Then I turned and looked at her for an explanation to which she replied with raised eyebrows, "we need to be kind of quick. Find something else to do." and pushed the notebook toward me. We have two and a half freaking hours to get this really simple recipe correct. Whatever. So I read the directions and it said that you had to separate eggs but I guess my head wasn't all there because I was really taken aback and kind of pissed about the whole pancetta thing so I just completely cracked the egg, egg whites and all in the metal bowl. Unfortunately she was fairly close by and watching me when I did this and she was like "NO, NO, NO! Egg yolks! We're only using egg yolks!" and I apologised and became more freaked out that she was making such a big deal about it.

So I correctly separated the eggs and started whisking them with a fork because I couldn't find the whisk. Well apparently that pissed her off too and she said, "no, honey.", found a whisk, put her hand on her hip and gave me a pitying look like I was some kind of 4 year old who had never set foot in a kitchen before and was just wearing the uniform purely by accident. I had had enough by this point so I told her that it really didn't make a difference especially with this recipe but she put the whisk in the bowl anyhow and just proceeded to shake her head at my idiocy. So I whisked angrily and took my frustration out on those poor, innocent egg yolks.

Then the directions said to add the parmesan cheese and salt and pepper so I did that and proceeded to whisk it together. She then came over to see how I was doing slash reprimand me some more. "What did you do wrong? It's not liquidy enough."

"I did what the directions said to do."

"It doesn't look like there's." she said, taking the bowl from me and putting under Nina's nose.

Nina was working with John behind us. She's really nice and one of the only things that got me through that practical was being able to talk to them, Kate, and James who were working at the station next to ours. Nina just messaged me actually and sympathised with my experiences today. She's awesome. : )

"It's because you whisked it. Just use a fork so that it doesn't combine together so much." Thank you, Nina.

Then my partner pushed the bowl into my hands and said, "just start over." as if it had been my idea to use a whisk and ruin the egg sauce. Good one. So I could hardly believe that she did that and took the bowl and threw the stupid crap out. Nina gave me an apologetic look on my way to the trash can but it didn't really help because I still felt like an idiot.

I washed the bowl, got some more eggs, measured out some more parmesan and went back to our station. She told me to wait until the water was boiling for the pasta until I started on the eggs so I just read the directions to see if there was anything to do in the meantime.

It was then that we figured out that our stove wasn't working. Neither of them. She kept twisting knobs and moving the pots around and flipping switches and then proceeding to get mad at me when she discovered that one of the stove tops was off after she had just turned it off. I kid you not, she said, "what are you doing? This one isn't even on!". We ended up using the stove at the front of the room for boiling water and Nina and John's station behind us for pancetta cooking. Finally it was done and the pasta was ready to be added. I made the egg sauce, only this time I used a fork.

At this point I was feeling more than a little discouraged so I just proceeded to do dishes and clean the station. I decided that I would just drain the pasta and that she could do everything else which consisted of adding the pancetta and oil to the egg mixture, stirring so that the egg didn't cook, and then adding the pasta since I really didn't have confidence in myself to not turn it into an omelet and fail the whole exam. So she did and we were done and it turned out fine. It lacked salt which was probs my fault but I didn't even care because I was done and didn't have to work with her anymore.

She left and I finished cleaning off the counter tops and Kate came over to me and asked me how it went. I said it turned out fine but that my partner was a little bossy. She replied with a knowing look on her face and said, "yeah, she can be really difficult to work with. We've all done our time and know how it is." That helped a lot because I knew that it wasn't just me and that I wasn't a total idiot. It also made me mad though that she did that to Kate. Kate is so nice! And so patient and a wonderful cook! She definitely doesn't deserve crap like that. Nina, Sam, and James all agreed about how difficult she is so I was basically fine and was having fun in the class again.

Then Kate invited me to go to coffee so we went to a cafe and I got this Nutella cappuccino thing and it was good. They are really cool people and I'll be sad that I won't get to continue working with them. I wish I could continue my education there and have another year and half in Florence. That would be so awesome.

I am really not looking forward to going home. I thought it was just that I was sad to leave Europe but I really don't want to go home. I mean I miss my friends and my family and all but really I just don't want to be home. I want to keep traveling and keep exploring. I took a walk the other day on the other side of the Arno for about 5 hours. I found neighborhoods and churches and gelaterias and awesome houses. It was so cool. I listened to my ipod but the main songs were Alloway Grove by Paolo Nutini and Hey, Soul Sister by Train. I love those songs. I found another way to Piazzale Michelangelo from this awesome neighborhood on a hill and watched the sunset from there. So pretty. The Duomo looks so out of place from the rest of the city. It's kind of funny. I'll post a picture of that sometime.

OK, this post is ending now. I've ranted enough. Thank you for reading... or not.

Gelato count: 22

Nannertot escapades: 14

Song currently stuck in my head: You Know Me by Robbie Williams. We heard it on our first night in Rome and it's kind of become our song for the trip because we looked up the video which is hilarious and we keep hearing it on the radio. Love it.

Spring Break part uno

I know I said the next post I would I would publish would be about Paris. Well... I lied. You see, procrastination in blogging comes with some negative side-effects. One of them being memory loss. The days have sort of started running together for me and I've kind of forgotten the order of things. Spring break came first so I will post about it before Paris. I will also post about it in two parts so that it isn't insanely long like my last post which I'm sure no one read/wanted to read when they saw all those paragraphs. Sorry. This way will be better though and I will try not to be so detailed. : )

Anna Lee and Michelle left for Barcelona on Thursday the 18th of March before the rest of us because they don't have class on Thursdays. I finished class on Thursday and then packed and proceeded to not sleep at all that night. I was doing other things consisting of listening to Frank Sinatra, custom designing my own Bentley Mulsanne, publishing the pictures on Facebook in an album entitled "The Epitome of Class" along with the following in the description:

One day I will be rich. I will buy a Bentley and I will listen to Frank Sinatra while being driven around by my chauffeur. He will wear a suit, gloves, and a hat and his name will be Gavin.

Scene:
Classy neighborhood

Gavin: That is a lovely dress, Miss.

Me: Thank you, Gavin. It's Dior.
Gavin: Very good, Miss. Where too?
Me: The Ritz.

Location: My near future.

Now isn't that just the classiest car you've ever seen?

I also blogged and wrote most of the last post! I realise I take an unnecessary amount of time on these posts and write an unnecessary amount of detail. I don't mean to. I just can't help myself! I want to write it all down because it's important to me! So yeah, that blog took a really long time because I was writing while at the same time reliving the trip. We left at 6 AM to catch a flight and I was high off of no sleep whatsoever. We got on the plane and I sat between Alex and Kristen and they successfully distracted me by telling me stories and singing to me. It wasn't too bad except that we were sitting in the back of the plane and it was really loud and a stupid flight attendant kept berating Alex and was like, "no, you can't listen to music on your iPhone even if it is on airplane mode". I don't even believe them when they tell people to turn cellphones off. I've forgotten a couple times. There's no service up there and we've always been perfectly fine. It's just stupid. It was also kind of annoying because the in-case-of-disaster-evacuation-procedure is right in front of you on the seat so you are forced to stare at a plane that is on fire and billowing smoke. Nice. We got to Girona and took the hour bus ride to Barcelona and had a hell of a time finding our hostel. It took about an hour and we were wandering around with heavy bags and I was getting really pissed off. We stopped in a Dominos pizza to ask for directions and ended up just eating there because we were starving. First meal in Spain: Dominos pizza. Good one.

We finally found our hostel and it was kind of cool cause it was apartment style. I was staying in Anna Lee's and Michelle's room and when I got there there was a guy sleeping and snoring away. At 1 in the afternoon. Talk about sleeping your day away in Barcelona! After dropping our stuff off we set off to see the Sagrada Familia and some of Gaudi's other buildings. Gaudi was one character who was definitely ahead of his time. You know how some people just seem like they were born in the wrong decade? Well Gaudi definitely fit this category. By about a hundred years, mind you. It was kind of rainy and some of the buildings kind of reminded me of Parisian apartments. It made me happy and made me really want to go to Paris. We saw the magic fountain which was basically a huge fountain that lit up and sprayed water in different formations to different songs. They played Best Friend by Queen at one point so that was cool. Then for dinner we went to a restaurant for some Spanish food and sangria! I had tapas (some small octopuses in marinara sauce and cuttlefish). Alex and Kristen had paella which is this rice dish with saffron and prawns and mussels and it is delicious!! Kristen and I had some sangria and it was amazing! Alex tried some and described it as a Sonic drink for grown ups. Quite accurate. Then we went back to the hostel and went to bed.

The next day we went into the Sagrada Familia and took the elevator to the top so that we could see the city below and the crazy architecture up close. It was really cool. The tops of some of the towers look like lolly pops. They also look like some kind of Dr Seuss building. And there is a Christmas tree on the front. Yeah.

Then we went to meet Michelle's friend Abby who was studying abroad in Barcelona and she and some of their other friends showed us around. We walked down La Rambla and saw cute animals that this person was selling and then went to the central market and saw all this amazing fruit and cheese and fresh seafood. Like really fresh. The crabs and stuff were still moving. Awesome. We had this really good fresh squeezed fruit juice there too. I had passion fruit. It was great. Then we had chocolate and churros and went to the beach... which was cold. Then we went to Parc Guel and chilled at the top of the hill overlooking the city for like an hour and talked about movies and music and stuff. Then we looked at more Gaudi stuff.

Then Anna Lee wanted Paella for dinner so we walked around a little bit before just deciding that the place we went last night was the cheapest and had more of that. Then we went to this Irish Pub thing by Sagrada Familia because Anna Lee made friends with the guy that was sleeping in our room when I got in there who turned out to be Irish and named Ivan and he invited us out to go drinking. I kind of wanted to go back to the hostel because I was tired and because I'm lame like that but I decided to go out because everyone else was. Also because our hostel was like the hostel of requirement and I could never remember how to get back and would've probably never found it on my own.

We went to the pub for a while and it was mostly empty except for the bar which was crowded with men. One of the bartenders was from Belfast and the other one, the only girl in the whole place apart from us, was from Boston but had developed the same Irish inflections in her voice so that was kind of funny. Now that I think about it everyone at that bar was probably really excited when they saw five girls walk in. Anna Lee, Kim and Ivan started talking and the next time I looked over all had drinks in their hands, compliments of Ivan from Dublin. Oh dear. Alex and I talked to the bartenders and I talked to one guy who had an Aston Villa shirt on. Alex and I decided to leave because I dropped the idea of peacin' out to go get a Toblerone McFlurry from MacDo's and she thought that was an excellent idea. I'm pretty sure we witnessed some promiscuous goings on between some boys that looked to be about 16 and some prostitutes but the important thing is we got our McFlurrys. And they were delicious!! Along with the Tolerone candy bits, they also put some chocolate syrup in there which made for some extra happiness. It was wonderful. We got back to the hostel because Alex isn't an idiot and knew how to find it and then went to bed. When I got there Michelle was there and told me about her day. She had gone off with her friend Abby and had dinner with her host family.

I went to bed and woke up to Ivan coming in at what I thought was 2 or 3 but actually ended up being around 7AM. I fell back asleep before I saw Anna Lee come in but I assumed she was still in the living room. Then i actually woke up around 9 and noticed that she wasn't there. I told Michelle and she looked worried and then looked at my phone and noticed 8 missed calls from Kim. I called back and woke her up. They were fine and Anna Lee was sleeping in their room. They didn't have keys and were locked out for about half an hour and couldn't get anyone to answer their phones to let them in. Oops. I found out later that Ivan had really been determined to get with Anna Lee and that's why she didn't come back to our room. Awkward.

We all got ready eventually and set out for this cool caste, fort thing on top of a hill that overlooked the city. We had to take cable cars to get there but we did and we walked around for a bit and took pictures and stuff. Then we walked back down the hill and saw cute kids playing in the park and parrots in trees and statues of flamenco dancers and it was a pretty cool walk. Then I again dropped the idea of Toblerone McFlurrys which just turned into everyone craving MacDo's. So we went to La Rambla and purchased overpriced fast food which led to this slightly hilarious picture of Kristen in a slightly comatose state after eating a rather large portion of food.

That was pretty much our trip and we were really excited to move on to Ireland. We had a second dinner that consisted of Dominos pizza (twice in one trip... yeah, I know. Sad. But hey, Spanish food is expensive!) which we ate at the hostel while attempting to watch the Star Trek movie in Spanish. We gave up on that and decided to watch Father of the Bride instead. Love that movie. One of my all time favourites. And my dad's too! It was nice. Then we turned in so that we could get up bright and early in the morning to go to Ireland!

The end! I'll post about Ireland soon. Hopefully in a day or two. Hopefully this one wasn't too long. Sorry if it was. I'll try and get better at shortening these things.

Until next time...

Ciao!

Gelato count: 20

Nannertot Escapades: 14

Song: Total Eclipse of the Heart thanks to Glee.