Highlights: Aniseed Vegan Cake and YES MEN!

OK! I return.

The weekend à la campagne was great! I got to chill with the bébé and Ghislain's family (who still lives in this little town in the Lorraine region). He had apparently spoken to like everyone in advance so as to make sure everything was vegan. It's pretty convenient to have a vegetarian to speak for you because, well in France, it seems, vegetarianism is about as alien as veganism. We had some pretty delish food there though, i'm not gonna lie. Brussel sprouts were def at the top. (Sorry all my friends who wonder why I'm so obsessed with food. Go vegan, and your love for food shall blossom!)

We walked around the petite village and I got to see all the beautiful greenery. Saw a few pastures -- cows, and lambs, all of whom seemed to be beckoning for me to open zee gate. We ate fruit directly from the trees, and it was marvelous. Organic at its finest. It was beautiful, but also mighty quiet. (Said town has about 100 inhabitants, max. It's so isolated that the boulanger comes by car to sell bread to the town.)

After chilling with his family on Saturday and then staying at his sister's on Sunday for food (and so much wine! agh!), we headed home. Got in about 6:30pm, promenaded with my friend who lives in the same quartier, then had some delicious pumpkin-carroty soup made with a fresh pumpkin we had stolen from Ghislain's sister's house earlier that day.

MONDAY:

Mildly freaked out because my friend said classes WERE starting today (monday) at Paris 7, contrary to what a random woman in the Sociology Dept. said. So after a short-lived hour or two of concern, I figured out my stuff. (No class at Paris 7 until next week.) I went to Reid Hall, hung out with some friends, got some déjeuner (lunch), then sat in on a class I'm considering switching in to (namely L'idée du monstre, The idea of the monster). As an AR-person, I think analyzing animality and human fear of animality could be quite an engaging endeavor.

Speaking of AR, activism-withdrawal is seriously kicking me in the balls. I'm trying super hard to connect with orgs, but no one responds to my emails, and i've emailed dozens. Agh! Cracktivism.... Must have... orgs! (Oh well, i'll make my own activism.)

Another Highlight: More vegan cake is made! This time, slightly too dry because Ghislain didn't use soy milk or even anything to remplace les oeufs (eggs) -- you don't need it to actually cook it, but sometimes it helps create a nice texture if you add banana or apple sauce or tapioca or flax seed or the official egg-replacer (which i have yet to try). We threw some soy yoghurt on there and we were happy campers.

TUESDAY:

9h00-12h30 Orientation at Paris 7. Lots and lots of french. Met nice french folks. Got free crap, including a smoothie. (Random, I know.)

14h00-17h00 Run around quartier latin, finally cave in response to apparent caffeine addiction for a café ... in a café, of course. Watch people gorge themselves on shopping.

17h45-19h45 Globalization of sub-Saharan Africa Class. Prof gives us a paper and asks us to label all the African countries. Shame is felt.

19h45-20h00 People look at their watches a lot - class is supposed to be out, but this dude is pretty bavarde (chatty)

20h25 Ghislain calls me and asks where I am...

20h26 I entre dans la maison

20h30 Orgasmic food is consumed, including Samosas and Samir's famous Ramadan Moroccan soup. Oh and leftover vegan cake. I feel like I am going to vomit from all the deliciousness.

21h00 Samir has to leave for work because he got screwed over this week.

21h30 See Yes Men! for the first time, on French TV. Ghislain thinks they are genius. I tell him how we wanted to bring them to Vassar, and he is impressed. I also now remember Gene Baur raving about these dudes.

22h30 Watch TV show on the politique of La Gauche (the Left) in Germany and France.

23h00 Conversation with Ghislain about the mediocrity/shittiness of capitalism, but the difficulty in determining the most effective replacement on a large-scale.

C'est tout!

Oh here's a link on veg budgeting:

http://hungryhungryveganos.wordpress.com/2009/07/06/vegan-on-the-cheap/