French Food

Cindy's been working through a list of meals we can't get in America to eat while we're hear here in France. We've had quite a few crêpes, French-style calzones, pains au chocolat (we call 'em "chocolate croissants" but they're not a type of croissant here because they're not crescent-shaped), rillettes, pâté de lapin and choucroute. (As for choucroute, normally I don't like cabbage but I've found that cooked with enough bacon, ham and pork it can be good.)

Tonight we're having a special, complicated-looking dish - raclette. It's like a fondue only it's poured, not dipped. (It comes from the region of France near the Swiss border.) There's this certain meat that they pour it on, grisons, which is now made from beef but traditionally was made from donkey! Apparently it's almost impossible to find the donkey version anymore but old people will sometimes search for it at their local boucheries chevaline. That's right, they have specialised horse butchers. That's how they do things in France, a charcuterie sells pork (and sausages, like a delicatessen), fish comes from a fish-monger and horse from a specialised butcher. The real surprise is that the market near Cindy's house has three such horse shops!

Last time I commented on French food I forgot to mention that they never drink fresh milk, it's always UHT. Cindy claims that this is because of the strong influence Pasteur had on the nation. I find this ironic given the state of their cheeses, and how they refuse to pasteurise the milk for most traditional cheeses. "That," she explains, "Is good contamination."

On a positive note, I think I've finally learnt to tell the difference between brie and camembert. But I still doubt I'd be able to pick out coulommiers in a blind taste test as it's about half-way between those two.

Catacombs

I knew Paris was an old city and I had supposed that there would be all sorts of planning and infrastructure issues involved with keeping such a city running. The question that hadn't really crossed my mind before is, "What happens when all the cemeteries fill up?" (Being a mainly Catholic country they wouldn't want to turn to cremation.)

Apparently this was a serious problem towards the end of the 18th century so they dug up all the bones and packed them densely into catacombs. In front of each pile a sign was placed stating from which cemetery the bones were taken; but of course no identification of individual skeletons. It's a little strange when the signs say something like, "Mixed in with everyone else are the bones of such famous people as Robespierre and Lavoisier."

Since the 19th century they've been a tourist attraction so this afternoon we went and took a tour (something Cindy hadn't seen before). There were signs at the entrance warning people that the ossuary was a bit intense so I was a little surprised to see quite a few children down there. At first I thought it was good that they weren't hyper-sensitised to mere bones but then I noticed an English woman forcing her kids to pose in front of the various piles of skulls. I thought that was a bit macabre.

Champagne

Today was Mothers' Day in France so we drove with Cindy's parents to visit her brother and his family in R(h)eims. The first thing we did there was take a tour of a champagne cellar at the Pommery winery. In fact, it was quite busy so we had to wait for a tour to start and the next tour in French was so far off that they actually decided to take the next tour in English. Which was easier for me and fine for Cindy but the other six of us had little idea what was going on. The cellars were all converted from Roman-era chalk mines so they were quite deep and a little chilly. As we walked through the guide gave us a little info on the production of champagne and constantly reminded us that it was Louise Pommery who first marketed brut champagne at a time when champagnes were much sweeter. (They're almost all brut now.) This all sounded very classy until a couple of weeks later at the airport I saw bottles of Pommery's newest blend, POP, which comes in small, brightly coloured bottles with a straw attached!

After lunch we went to see Rheims cathedral, where many of the French kings were crowned. It was pretty but they didn't give us a glass of champagne at the end of that tour.

Scotland

We really enjoyed Scotland. Our advice was to spend as much time in Edinburgh as possible and don't worry about Glasgow; we're glad we followed it. Edinburgh is a lovely city to walk around and having a castle in the centre just tops it all off nicely. Having a guided tour made it worthwhile. Seeing the Scottish crown jewels was interesting but while we were there we were lucky enough to see a re-enactment. It was a military policeman arresting a soldier from the Black Watch, which gave them the opportunity to discuss the military lifestyle at the end of the Victorian period. The best bit for the tourists (something I'd heard about but wasn't too sure of) was when the MP decided to inspect the soldier's uniform. He took out a mirror on the end of a stick and stuck it under his kilt then asked a lady in the audience to have a look. Well, the actor was wearing underpants, which mean he was out of uniform (apparently they were allowed but only for mixed highland dancing or highland games) so he made up a medical excuse.

There were a lot of tartan shops but not many touristy things to see apart from the castle. (We didn't see the royal yacht Britannia that was recommended.) But we did visit Greyfriars Kirkyard and saw the statue of Bobby.

After a day and a half in Edinburgh we caught a train through Glasgow to Prestwick (a RyanAir hub; it works out cheaper to buy the train ticket just to get on the cheapest airline) to fly back to Paris. Cindy didn't try to bring any knives on board this time but they did insist on confiscating my jar of English marmalade, despite the fact it seemed quite solid to me. Still, I managed to get a fair bit of Cadbury chocolate (which Pat insists is better in England than in Australia).

The North

So after eventually getting the car we drove east to see Stonehenge, where we only stopped for a little while before turning north.

On the plane from America to France we watched (half of) a new French comedy called "Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis". Basically the whole movie is a series of jokes about someone from the south of France not wanting to move to the cold north where people are backward and talk with a funny accent.

All that made me worry a little about visiting my cousins in Yorkshire. Likewise, on their side they were worried about having a French girl stay with them. "Park your Citroën out in the driveway so she feels welcome," they told their grandmother. But all went well. I've heard enough Yorkshire to cope well with the accent. The only thing for me is that, with no definite articles, every noun sounds like a proper noun; "go to fish shop" sounds like there's a town called 'Fish Shop'. But Cindy found it easier without all those superfluous little words getting in the way of the meaningful part of the sentence. And of course our hostess (my third cousin, twenty-eight times removed) was very welcoming and fed us well so I was very happy that I got in touch with her.

The next day we went to York with her and a grandson. The best part of that town was a mediaeval street called "The Shambles".
And we also went to a Viking history centre to learn about the North's Norse heritage. It was quite an elaborate animatronic ride with commentary in several languages and even smells piped in. The smell was a novelty at first but it soon wore off when they showed us a mediaeval toilet. The straining animatronic face was going a bit too far.

We had dinner at the local pub with plenty of family that night and generally felt like we got a good taste of England.

The last thing we saw in England was Hadrian's Wall. For such a long wall it was hard to find! And once we found it we were a little underwhelmed.

London

Like our visit to Italy last year, we're taking a short side trip from our stay in France, this time Britain.

We had a bit of bad luck with the underground. We chose a motel out in the suburbs of north London but near a metro line. Yet when we arrived that line was closed for repairs. (The same thing that happened to us in Rome!) So we had to walk a couple of kilometres from another station, but we made it.

We had two full days there and managed to see plenty - the Tower of London, with a Beefeater-guided tour; Houses of Parliament; Trafalgar Square; St Paul's Cathedral. We didn't get time to go inside Westminster Abbey but I did get a chance to cross Abbey Road.

On the third day we went to pick up the hire car only to find that Google maps had sent us on a wild goose chase. We wasted an hour or two looking for something else. But at least we got to ride some double-decker buses.

Paris

So I'm in Paris with Cindy's family for a few weeks again this summer. I think I'm getting used to French culture; I'm not so surprised now when I see them dipping bread into their bowls of coffee and eating their mouldy cheese.

This time I'll be doing some work while I'm here, some research in the archives of the Académie des Sciences. In the period I'm working on it was called the Académie Royale des Sciences but Cindy tells me I mustn't ever call it that in front of French people, "We behead our royals," she explains proudly. It's going to be interesting when I take her to London to visit the Queen.

Earthquake!

Apparently there was an earthquake last night. I slept through it. It was 5.2 on the Richter scale; that sounds big but I guess I am a heavy sleeper.

The epicentre was not that far from Bloomington:

They say it was felt widely - all the way south to Atlanta and north to Michigan. But not in my bedroom.

I kind of wish I felt it, I've never experienced an earthquake before.

P.S.
Please, Cameron, no bragging about the size of earthquakes in Japan. Or, if you can't help yourself, at least spare us the numbers - no one really understands the Richter scale, it's just something that geologists tell newspapers so that they can sound scientific.

More things Americans don't have

I have tonsilitis. So I went to the pharmacy, that is to say, to the supermarket. Every supermarket has a small pharmacy built in with a proper pharmacist on duty for prescriptions and a small range of non-prescription medicines etc. Conversely, there are stand-alone pharmacies, not usually shop-fronts in malls but free-standing buildings. Having so much floor space, they are led to stock all manner of snack foods, cleaning products, alcohol, you name it! One of the rare occasions I was in one of those, I overheard someone ask if they sold ping-pong balls, and the shop assistant told them which aisle! Anyway, maybe I should have gone to a huge pharmacy because my supermarket pharmacist had never even heard of Betadine gargle. The only iodine he had was for cuts etc. and I don't feel like risking that. And they don't have anything like Butter Menthols either, so I have to make do with honey-lemon flavoured stuff.

In other news, yesterday Cindy's professor made fun of her for saying "poo"; he seemed to think that "poop" is the only acceptable variation in these parts. A quick Google search confirmed that "poop" is far more common in America but the only site that had these under dialect comparisons said that both are acceptable anywhere. I'll have to run it past my friends next time we're down at the pub.

Cricket

The weather is getting warmer here now so yesterday we went for a picnic in a local park. It was a big open space so I took along a little cricket set I bought when I was in Australia.

The Americans all found it a great novelty. They couldn't quite get the point of bowling (they kept saying "pitching") and I had to keep telling them to hold the bat below the waist but the funniest thing was the way in which they all dropped the bat and ran in an arc to the other end of the pitch!

Another Easter

I've mentioned before how Americans don't eat Hot Cross Buns. You can get them but they're iced and you certainly can't get choc-chip ones. So I made some chocolate Hot Cross Buns myself; two batches, in fact.

I don't know if I've mentioned but they don't have large Easter eggs here. The largest ones are about 10cm tall, most common are the little 2cm ones. Certainly no 1kg eggs. I thought everything was supposed to be bigger in America. Maybe they have 3lb eggs in Texas.

Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Was it something I said?

Today we went to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles so that Cindy could do her driving test (she passed). While I was there I decided to update the address on my licence. As she was processing it on the computer, the woman asked me the usual questions, "Do you still want to be an organ donor?"

"Yes," I replied.

"Would you like to register to vote?" she asked.

"I can't," I explained, "I'm not a citizen." Then, being too curious for my own good, I asked her, "What would you have done had I said yes? Would you have asked for a birth certificate or would my licence have been enough identification for you to enroll me?"

"That's a good question," she replied as she walked away to confer with her supervisor.

When she came back she informed me that, as an alien, the documents I had brought were insufficient to change the address on my driver's licence. I would need not only the old licence and proof of my new address but also all my immigration documents, despite the fact that they sighted them when giving me my original licence. I never did get an answer to my question.

It'd be nice to get a say in who will be elected king of the world in November this year but I don't think it would be worth the risk of getting deported.

Glossary of Academic Terms

I wrote the post below in normal English but I could also have written it in 'Merkin. Here's some of the differences I've noticed:

American	English
college (abstract)	undergraduate education
grad school	postgraduate education
college (concrete)	institution that awards only undergraduate degrees
university	institution that also awards postgraduate degrees
commencement	graduation
regalia	academic dress
diploma	testamur
B.S., M.S.	B.Sc., M.Sc.
M.D.	M.B. B.S. or M.B. B.Ch.
J.D.	L.L.B.
dissertation	doctoral thesis
faculty	academic staff
staff	administrative staff
school e.g. School of Business	faculty e.g. Faculty of Science
department e.g. Philosophy Department	school e.g. School of Philosophy
department chair	head of school
professor	lecturer of any rank
assistant professor	untenured lecturer
discussion section	tutorial
letter grades: A, B, C, D, F	grades: high distinction, distinction, credit, pass, fail
Fraternity/Sorority	combined residence hall and drinking club
proctor	to invigilate

I Am the Master

I picked up my testamur today. I opted out of the graduation ceremony. Apparently I'm not missing much because they don't even call out everybody's name (not unless you're getting a doctorate).

So after my name I can write: B.Sc., B.A.(Hons) UNSW, M.A. Indiana. More importantly, Cindy no longer outranks me so I don't have to salute anymore. Now I just have too keep working on the PhD bit.

After I mentioned not bothering with the ceremony, Cindy told me that she never got one. They don't have them in France, or academic regalia of any sort. They're missing out on a fun costume party! But she'll get her chance in a couple of years, it can go on the list of American experiences (along with Halloween, rodeos etc.).

We don't have a pool room but Cindy and I were wondering about how to display a testamur without seeming like a tosser. We decided that in a house with a water closet, that would be the best place. But our apartment has the toilet in the bathroom and I don't think shower steam would do it any good.

A Week of Festivities

Living a multi-cultural life means a lot of different festivals to celebrate.

Saturday was the French festival Chandeleur. Originally a Catholic festival, it's now about eating crêpes. So I cooked Crêpes Suzette and some savoury buckwheat crêpes that the French call galettes. Apparently the best way is with ham, Swiss cheese and a fried egg; but blue vein cheese and walnuts is also a popular choice.

Sunday was the Superbowl, which in American culture is as important a moveable feast as Easter. We went and watched it at a friend's place. I know more of the rules now but I still don't understand the appeal of gridiron. Still, a meal with friends is always fun. One instructor was complaining beforehand that he knew that Superbowl meant all his students would do badly on Monday's exam. I overheard another American explaining to some international students, "If your team is in the Superbowl, it's perfectly acceptable to be drunk at 10 am." (Kick-off is not until 6.30 pm.) You probably don't remember that last year's winner was the Indianapolis Colts. Well, apparently in the last 12 months the #1 male baby name has been "Peyton", after the Colts' quarterback. (They then tried to tell me that the top girl's name was "Neveah"; I immediately told them about this terrific idea.)

Today (Tuesday) is Shrove Tuesday. I made pikelets. But here no-one knows what Shrove Tuesday is; Americans don't shrive. (That's right, "shrove" is the past tense of "shrive" but I can't remember what it means.)
Instead, because of the Louisiana celebrations, Americans have Mardi Gras. (I even heard one girl use an English translation, "Fat Toosday"!) With the Louisiana Mardi Gras they eat what they call a King cake, based on the French Galette des Rois (which the Frogs eat on 6th January, the Epiphany). It's the same in that they bake a surprise inside (always a baby Jesus in Louisiana, random trinkets in France) but Cindy assures me that the cakes themselves are very different - almond in France, cinnamon in Louisiana. They're in all the supermarkets so I bought one to try, it was ok.

And this Thursday is Chinese New Year. That lasts a few days so Sunday we're going to a festival on campus with a Chinese friend.

More little quirks

I noticed a while ago that Americans eat a lot of apple sauce. For example, it's in those snack boxes that you can buy on domestic flights (which I never buy). I dunno what they do with it, eat it with a spoon like baby food, I guess. I do know that Jews put apple sauce on potato pancakes (which they call latkes) but when I asked someone why they couldn't tell me. But here's the strange thing: when I commented, 'The only thing I associate apple sauce with is pork chops.', they were shocked. None of the Americans in the room had heard of putting apple sauce on pork! One said, 'I've heard of mint sauce on lamb.' but they don't even eat lamb! How can they, with so much apple sauce around, not have discovered the combination of pork and apple sauce?

Oh, and I got a new number plate for my car in the mail today. Strange, they allow me to renew my rego online -- convenient -- but insist on giving me a new plate, even though the other is less than two years old. Sounds like a waste of aluminium, having just insisted on giving me a new plate when I bought the car. Whatever, I never learnt the old number anyway!
The old one looked like this:

A nice field of corn, with a barn in the background, which is what the state actually looks like. The new one is uglier:

But, better still, there's a new style coming out next year that you can request at no extra cost, which will last until 2013:

I'll probably get it if it's free. But I don't see how it's Lincoln's bicentenary, if he was born in 1816 but the plate can only be retained until 2013. The other question is, "Will the Illinoisans resent it?" because they claim Lincoln too. I think he's on all their plates.

Back in the USA

The time is about the same in either direction but coming from Sydney to Indiana is worse. That long leg across the Pacific leaves you feeling completely buggered just when you're trying to stay away to get on and off planes.

I think it might have been a little longer door-to-door because we had to get to the airport so early. We weren't able to check in online so we got there 3 hours before the scheduled departure. Then when we checked our bags they told us we'd only get seats allocated at the gate because they had overbooked -- they were offering people $800 to come back the next day. So when we got to the gate half an hour earlier than the boarding time, the woman told us to go away and come back at boarding. Worried about getting seats, we kept coming back and asking, which I'm sure annoyed her, but we were worried about overbooked flights.

Oh, and when we were going through security something in Cindy's bag attracted their attention. It was the mini leatherman knife (geologists need these things) she had got for Xmas, she'd forgotten to take it out. We apologised but they weren't worried, they kept the knife and that was all. (I have to wonder what would have happened had we tried that at an American airport.)

So eventually we got into Indianapolis at 11pm, where a friend was waiting to drive us back to Bloomington. That was Monday night so we missed the first day of classes but it was worth it.

More Adventures in Australia

Our holiday went basically as per the schedule below. I think we did quite well to combine my need to see friends with Cindy's need to do touristy things.

Tuesday we went to Muru Mittigar for boomerang lessons etc. We took a little tour of the centre and learnt about uses of various plants. When we spoke to the guy making didgeridoos, he explained that he still uses the traditional method of letting termites hollow out the branches. I figured that he must have grown up in a rather traditional community because he spoke with that stereotypical aboriginal accent. Cindy commented that that the way he spoke English sounded just like the rustic accent from central France!

Wednesday went to Featherdale with Lisa and Jezebel, as planned. So Cindy and the little girl both got to pat all the animals. Cindy was eager to see wild kangaroos too, so we went up to Euroka clearing for those.

The BBQ lunch at Steffan's was great. As well as seeing old friends we ate kangaroo. Cindy said she prefers it to beef (but it's not quite as good as horse!).

Saturday we went to the Opera House to see a carols performance. It was an interesting mixture of traditional, formal carols sung by professional opera singers and some more modern numbers. Erin got all excited about the sleigh-ride song.

Then Xmas day was a big deal. We had all my mother's family and some of my father's over at our place for lunch (17 people in all).

Boxing Day we drove up to Wooli. Traffic was ok, got there at a decent time. But the weather was not great. At first it was just a little rain, but after that cyclone came down the Queensland coast the storms became quite violent. We still managed to swim between showers. We'd go in the water, it would start raining so we'd just stay in until the rain stopped!

Back Home

We're now in Australia.

We left Bloomington, Indiana at 11.30 am local time, drove to Indianapolis, flew to Chicago (waited there a few hours), flew to San Francisco, changed planes and then flew to Sydney. My parents picked us up at the airport then drove us out to Penrith. About 30 hours door-to-door.

After dumping our bags and taking a much needed shower we all headed off to my father's family Xmas party at Bobbin Head (another hour in the car!). It was a BBQ picnic, it was a good spread. Got to see lots of family that we haven't seen in a long time. Everyone seemed pleased to got to meet Cindy and I had to explain some connections that she's surely forgotten.

Then today we did some shopping in Penrith. A lot of little things have changed but nothing major. The main thing I noticed is that I now hear accents on everyone (not just the bogans). I feel like the kid from The Sixth Sense, hearing something no one else hears.

And I'm surprised at just how much of a reflex it has become to drive on the right hand side of the road.

Apart from that, it's been pretty easy to settle back in.