Thursday, May 23, 2013

Bonjour! Ciao! FRIENDS!

Oh my goodness! It's the eve of my big trip!

It's surreal that it's already time! I remember planning this part of my adventure (what, 5 months ago?) and knowing that I would be ready for a break at this point in my time abroad, particularly one that involves meeting up with two of my best friends in Paris and traveling through France and Italy with them for 16 days!!

Boy oh boy! Cay & Alex are on their flight to Paris by now, which is crazy to think about, as my flight isn't even until tomorrow night. Time changes will mess you up, no?

So, on the eve of this fantastic and much anticipated rendezvous avec mes chéris (it's funny how little yet how much high school French will stick in your brain), I can be found languidly packing for weather ranging from rainy to sunny and 50° to 80°. Fun, fun, fun! My sissy gave me some good advice: "Who cares if you wear the same thing the whole time?! Just throw some shit in a bag!" Shocking, if you know my sister, who rarely cusses. Someone's cutting loose, eh?

You can also find me frantically trying to prepare all perishable foods I have around the flat, including: 2 eggs, sauteed peppers & onions, half a kelbasa, some grapes, a bag of sugar snap peas, some ancient beets that are starting to grow hairs, a few sweet potatoes, and a 1 kilo bag of carrots. Needless to say I've been eating some strange meals for the past few days. After work today I made roasted beets & curried sweet potatoes and decided a little brown rice would bring the meal together.

It didn't.



Looks yummy, no? The sad thing is that I was actually paying attention to this. I had just put some extra water in the pot, and not 10 minutes later start smelling smoke through my (open) bedroom door. Panic ensued. Luckily we have a huge window in the kitchen that opens up into an empty courtyard, and whenever I burn something, I simply stick the offending pot out on the ledge to cool off. I was strongly considering simply leaving the pot out there - forever - but I decided to not be a total jerk and clean it (5 hours later). Unfortunately, my hands now smell disgusting and I can't get the stench out of my nose. Yay. In my defense, I have never in my life burned rice before - scout's honor!

Truthfully, just the other day I was thinking about how awesome I am at making rice in a pot, because normally the pot ends up like this:

 Perfection!

Needless to say I am looking forward to the next 16 days of relatively little cooking, and there definitely will not be rice on the menu. I'm thinking wine. A lot of wine.

So, where will we three peas be for the next 16 days? Ah, put your sasspants on because you will be jealous, my friends! We'll begin our little expedition in the classical city of Paris, of course. Then we will move to the region of Tuscany in Italy to visit Pisa, Florence, and La Spezia & Cinque Terre. Next comes a night in Genoa, rounding out our Italian adventures before we move on to Nice for a few days, then one last night in Paris before the girls head back across the Big Blue and I return home to Prague (yes, home). While I don't expect to do much blogging during these travels, I'll try to post some pictures and a few updates on all of the fun we're having (and food we're eating, wine we're drinking, clubs we're hopping, and beaches we're lounging on).

For now, enjoy yet another inspirational video I've found below, and if you didn't catch the link in my last post to "Last Days: Meet Zach Sobiech," you should check his story out, too (I accidentally hid him beneath Imagine Dragons' "Radioactive."


Au revoir mes petit choux! Ciao! I look forward to blogging to you again!

1 comment:

  1. You are so funny, mon petit pois! 我小的豌豆

    Ancient Chinese secret from Ancient Chinese Mother....if next you burn lice (or bok choy or chop suey), and wok bottom extra crispy, scrap out & roosen what solids you can,stick some water in the pot, sprinkle in some baking soda, bring to a boil for a whire, then ret sit. After hour or so, burned lice will loosen so less scrubbing needed! Risten to ancient Chinese Mother...she berry wise & has many berry good tricks up her sreeves! She one smart fortune cookie!!!

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