i'm just here for the food.

[i go to take a picture in front of this butcherie and this old man comes up to be in the picture with me. if you can't tell, i was dying laughing. cutest old man ever. but not as cute as the one on the left. now that's a keeper.]

okay so last friday [yes, i realize i’m WAY behind in blogging, but the internet at these hotels has been sub-par, and I’m totally down-playing exactly how sub-par it's been. let's just say it's sub-par. "sub-par" word count: 4.] was probably one of my favorite days so far on this mini-south-of-france vacation because we got to bake.

 explanation: if you don’t already know, i LOVE baking. ohmygaashifreakinloveit. like, to the point that I was going to drop out of this study abroad after I had already gotten accepted because I wanted to go to culinary school in france instead. long story short, i didn’t end up going [evidement…] but that baking passion fire or whatever is still inside and blaaazin’. and a friend helped me realize the other day that i could just take some cooking classes at a cooking school while i'm here in paris. 

JACKPOT. 

okay, enough with this tangent.

 ANYWAYS…so we went to this little place [don’t ask me what it was called, i could hardly contain myself let alone remember where we were] and learned how to bake “gateau basque” which is basically french for "basque cake". and "ohh daang, that's gooood."

[my baking station.]

[rachel, me, tiff, and sammie.]

 it's this little cake with creme in it. sounds gross, but it was actually yummy and besides that, it was sooo much fun being in a real cooking demonstration. and to top it all off, michael cera taught the class. 

 

[yes michael cera, the actor. or his stunt double. you never can tell these days. also, disregard the cheeser smile on my face. i was overly excited to say the least.]

 he was pretty hilarious. and i guess i did it wrong [it wasn’t my fault though! i asked the people around me and they told me what i was doing was okay.] and used all the pudding and dough to bake my cake, and ended up having the fattiest one. 

 

[yes, that's a bow. not an hourglass. i know i know, i'm such a crafty artist.]

and getting made fun of by cera himself [and by that, i mean i walked up to get my done cake [cake that is done.] from him in front of the class and he had his assistant go and weigh it just to tell me it was “75 grams” more than the average cake. pshh okay, whatever that means buddy. just trying to get my study abroad money’s worth outta this cake…] it was funny though. i thoroughly enjoyed it and it got me excited for the day i finally get to go to a legit culinary school once I’m rich and money’s no object. 

[happy like a fool.]

after that, we made a couple stops in some cities for lunch and sightseeing. the first was euzkadi, where peppers seemed to be the city’s mascot. 

[no joke, they were everywhere. in every form possible. including earrings. which i didn't get. darn.]

[this really cute boucherie we saw and had to get a picture in front of.]

 after that, we stopped in saint jean pied de port which was just gorgeous. see for yourself peoples. 

[yeah, isn’t it a dreamboat?]

[you’re not gonna believe it, but this is a middle school. I KNOW. “oh yeah no big deal, i just go to school in a freakin castle. let me just go to my locker now that used to be owned by william shakespeare…” yeah, I’m jealous too.]

 it was absolutely gorgeous. there’s so many places out here that i just stare at and can hardly believe it’s real because it’s so picturesque and perfect. it’s amazing and incredible and i love it. we stayed there for a couple hours and then got back on the bus to go back to saint-jean-de-luz where me, sam, and tiff went out for a "super!" italian dinner at the don camillo "ristaurante" [bait-a shop-a! only jit'll know.] where we practiced our french. it’s all coming back, but slowly, so ordering is still a funny ordeal for us. I decided to try spaghetti carbanara, which was…interesting. 

[yep, your eyes aren't crazy. that's an egg. with foam? bubbles? who knows. crazy eye-talians.]

i’m a big eggs lover, but i don’t know how i felt having an egg on my spaghetti. it ended up being okay. but weird. all in all, i’m in love with all things french [even though my dinner was italian], especially all things southern french. one day when i’m dirty rich, i’ll have a summer house here. it’ll be totally awesome.

until then, i'll just settle by living vicariously through myself. because oh yeah, i live here now.