First Day of School

Today was it - the first day of school! The first day of becoming a certified, professional chef. Kind of mind-boggling when you think of it that way, so I try not to do so. Instead, I try to simply take it one day at a time.

So, there I was back at orientation on the first day of school, which is always intimidating. Of course, I must have it better off than the woman who sat next to me and said she hadn't had a first day of school in over 15 years. Obviously, she is not on the same wavelength as I am when it comes to going back to school. :)

B, the good husband that he is, walked me to school today. What we learned on that 25 minute walk is that one should never be without an umbrella in Paris. I kept hoping for those random umbrella peddlers you see in NYC that pop up out of thin air when even just one raindrop materializes, and they sell you their craptacular umbrellas for the unbeatable price of $25. But alas, in Paris, I guess that doesn't fit into a typical 35 hour work week and so no one ever miraculously appeared to save my hair from complete disaster. Of course, my grandmother would probably say that that would not have happened had I had one of those clear hair helmet things that old ladies wear.

Moving on, the first day was great. There are 24 people in my class and the class will be split into two groups of 12. There are a handful of Americans, several Europeans (France, Belgium, Germany, and an 18 year old girl from Holland who is the epitome of how hip young Europeans are. To orientation she wore red patent leather pumps, MC hammer style pants made out of denim that snapped at the ankle and a bright red Chinese style embroidered jacket. She certainly made my sweater and black pants look ultra lame), several South Americans, and a few Asians. So, it is a good mix. However, girls outnumber boys 18 to 6, which should make things interesting.

In a nutshell, here is what the professors told us today in orientation (say it to yourself in a male French accent): this will be very hard...we will work very hard...you will be exhausted but learn a lot...this is intense. OK!!!!! I get it. Not sure if they were trying to scare us to death, emphasize it for those whose first language is not French or English or are just the typical French men who like to hear themselves speak. Oh, and they also said to get accustomed to the "French" way of doing things, which basically meant this (feel free to use the same accent as before): if you are American or German and we do not do things according to the schedule we have given you, please do not complain about it.

I'm just glad that this is not my first rodeo as far as going to school in France. I feel comfortable and ready to work hard and be flexible to the "French" way of life. You can all remind me I said that in a couple weeks time when I tell you that my head might explode and I am whining about something that is "typical" of only the French.