I had a little accident...

The universe must have listened to my last blog post and was apparently pissed that I didn't think my life was eventful. Because Tuesday morning the universe gave me all sorts of exciting things. Blood, fireman, ambulances, hospitals, and stitches just to name a few.

Tuesday was supposed to be an very normal day, busy but normal. Normal for me here in Paris is usually about 9 hours in the kitchen. So when I was beginning to de-bone my lamb and prep my vegetables for of first dish of the day I thought nothing was going to be too interesting. The recipe  called for tomatoes, and as I have learned here in France all vegetables are peeled and seeded, I began prepping my tomatoes. This is where my little oopsies happened. My tomatoes has just come out of the fridge and were slightly damp, my paring knife had just been sharpened and when removing the last stem and core of the last tomato my knife slips and the base of my thumb caught the brunt of my blade. 

Everything happened very quickly, I managed to grab some paper towels and not get blood on myself, anybody else, or anything else. We quickly realized that it was not going to be a simple band-aid, rubber glove get back to work kind of cut. The long and short of it is school was obligated to call the firemen. Here in France firemen are the ones who take you to the hospital. I would like to go on record saying that I asked if I could walk to the hospital instead of going in the ambulance, when they said no, I tried to see if I could ride up front of the ambulance and not in back on the gurney, another "no",  but on a positive note I am still stacking up evidence for the French that I am one crazy American.

After arriving at the hospital I waited for a little less than a half hour, saw a doctor, and was stitched up and out the door. All in all from cutting myself, getting patched up, and walking back to school I only wasted 2 hours ... and a little blood.

Oh and it only cost me 25 euro, thank you socialized medicine. So take that France. Just when you thought it was safe to let me handle knives I make you think twice.

I think they did a pretty good job don't you?

 

So ha ha Pam you are not the only Brewster with stitches.... and mine come with a better story. 

Quotes

Terribly sorry there has been a lull in the posting, I have had really nothing exciting to say. Well mom got a knee which is awesome but other than that my life had been cook, study, gym, sleep and repeat. 

So since I have no fun stories and no life advice I am passing along words of wisdom from others...

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

-Michael Pollan (In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto) A great book for anyone who is curious about how food has changed in the developing world, and more applicable than his first book An Omnivores Dilemma

If you can’t dazzle them with dexterity, baffle them with bull.

-P.T. Barnum

Don’t sweat the petty things, and don’t pet the sweaty things.

-David Broadfoot

Be who you are and say what you feel ‘cause people who mind don’t matter, and people who matter don’t mind.

-Dr. Seuss

When you were born, everyone around was smiling and you were the one crying. Live life so that when you die, everyone around you is crying and you are the one smiling.

-Unknown

Kate and Laura Anthem

My beloved Laura will be leaving me and Paris tomorrow and I thought I would share our new favorite creepy song by this guy ....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7GhrUaNDAI

Bubbly

The story goes that when Dom Perignon first tasted the mistake that began Champagne he exclaimed "come brothers I am drinking the stars" Laura and I decided that after the adrenaline rush of the morning jump we would give our taste buds a little bit of the action.

So we ventured to Pommery and Tattinger, you all know how I love the individual bottles of POP and Laura is a Tattinger fan so we covered our favorites. We learned about the Champagne process and the history behind the houses. Laura was ready to jump our tour guide at Tattinger, sadly no pictures but imagine Cornell hotel school of management, a year at the Sorbonne, perfectly coiffed hair, preppy ties and large side order of douche-bag. Just her type...

But beyond that, our tours were informative and different from what we have in the U.S.  The vineyards are not part of the grounds where you go to have your tasting tours, as these are outside of the city (Reims).  But, it was still a fascinating place to go visit and learn about the history of the town and their champagne house.

So some of this champagne is so good, it can make you believe in God.  Speaking of God, we went to a church.  To be fair, it's not just a church but also a stunning cathedral that history dates back to approximately 409 A.D.  It's seen multiple coronations, and its stained glass windows are designed by some of the renowned French artists spanning the Renaissance to Modern era.  

I jumped out of a plane and landed on my ass

Laura and I started our adventure off with a bang.... or a really long road trip in a nugget Mercedes (i.e. a sexy bitch) car.

Also, a quick side note.  To say "exit" in German, you say "ausfart".  I'm sure you can hear our giggling all the way from France.

I will sum it up by saying that Laura's plane landed 4 hours late and then we got in the car and drove 8 hours to Interlaken/Lauterbrunnen Switzerland.  It was just the beginning of our lesbian honeymoon.  We drove through some of the French countryside, and all the way into the Swiss Alps.  Just imagine little Swiss country houses dotting a green, rolling hill.  All of a sudden on our drive, BAM MOUNTAIN, in your face.  Let's just say, the Swiss Alps went "boo-yah bitches." 

Truly one of the most spectacular things I have ever gotten to see in my life.  We got to drive around a big lake that was one of the most gorgeous blues and different blues I have seen.  (See skydiving pictures to see what I mean).

We found our way to Interlaken, and found our way to the valley where Lauterbrunnen is.  It took us 20 minutes to find our way up to our hotel, a quait Swiss chalet on a hill, right next to a big gondola that takes you to the top of the alps.  Sadly we did not have time to go up to the top of the Jungfrau Glacier (which Laura has been to, but not in 21 years), so guess who's coming back to Switzerland to do that... and some skydiving again.

This leads us to the second part of our trip.  After a relaxing evening, we crashed early and woke up to wander the town of Interlaken until we had to meet up with our skydiving unit.  Sadly, our dive was canceled for Sunday because of intense weather.  So we were torn between keeping to our schedule and driving out to France that day and not diving at all, OR finding a hotel to stay in and dive the next day.  After driving for over 8 hours to Switzerland, we decided that there was no way we weren't going to go skydiving.  So for the first time in my life, I went to a hotel and said "Do you have a room for the night?"  Luckily they did.  And let's just say the decor was... interesting.

Case in point: our artwork special person bed.

However, the sheets were clean.  The bathroom was lovely and pink.  And the beer was cold in the downstairs bar.  Laura and I wandered to a restaurant for a fantastically healthy Swiss fondue dinner, followed by a few drinks at the bar.

Some of us may have had a few too many (Laura.......). 

But we went to bed filled with excitement about jumping out of a perfectly good plane with a random man.

We were planning on waking and following a big bus full of fellow skydivers to the drop site, and were told that the bus would be across from the main office.  Needless to say, we followed the wrong bus (note to self, skydiving does not equal paragliding) and the diving instructors were in awe of our brain power.  After heading back to the main office, a man flags us down and tries to open the door to the car.  We figure out he's an instructor (who Kate ended up knowing intimately by the end of our skydiving jump), and he just jumps into the car to drive with us to the drop site.

Laura and I were on the last of 3 planes for the morning.  I think the pictures explain it all. 

 According to the guys in the plane Laura has a "set of lungs on her" (see above)

We then drove the 6 and a half hours to Reims.......

Quote of the Day

"There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love."
                   ~Washington Irving