Yogurt! And other things, but mostly yogurt.

Hello again!

Today I want to talk about something that doesn't, in my opinion, get enough attention. People talk endlessly of France's cheese, wine and bread, and don't get me wrong, that stuff is amazingly delicious and deserves every credit it is given. All I am trying to say is that there is another star in France, and that is yogurt. When you go to a grocery store in France, there are long aisles filled with cheese, but the aisle next to that one is filled with yogurt, in almost as many varieties. There are all kinds of brands and types. There is also fromage blanc and faisselle (both thick cheeses that are a like more yogurty ricotta in texture and are very rich), and very interesting flavors that I had never seen before, like prune, mango and pineapple. Yogurt is eaten more as a dessert in France than as a snack or a component of a sack lunch, but while I have been here I have tried many kinds of yogurts as often as possible. My favorite yogurt by far though was the yogurt that Olivier's mom makes in her yogurt maker. I love the little glass jars they are made in and how much thinner and more tart the homemade yogurts are compared to store bought.

When I was visiting France over the summer Olivier's mom generously gifted me with my very own yogurt maker when I exclaimed over one in the store. I wanted to wait to use it in my own place for the first time and I dilly-dallied on getting good yogurt for starter for way too long. Luckily when I visited Olivier's family a couple weeks ago, Marie (that's Olivier's mom) gave me a little bottle of powdered yogurt starter. Less than a week later, I had made my first batch of yogurt, and it was way easier than I thought!

My yogurt, cooking away!

All I had to do was mix the powder with a cup of milk and wait and hour or two before stirring in the rest of the liter of milk and pouring all of that into my little glass pots. I turned on my yogurt maker and less than nine hours later I had seven pretty little yogurts waiting to be eaten.

Right now we are starting to eat our third batch, which was made by mixing one of the pots of yogurt with more milk and starting the process over again. I usually eat one for breakfast and sometimes with sugar for dessert after dinner, so they go pretty fast. I am loving it!


Ok, enough about yogurt for a second. I just want to update you on how school is going a bit. I haven't gotten to work much yet because teacher's are not totally used to having me around and haven't worked me into their schedules, but what work I have been getting has been really great. One of the highlights was helping two girls put together a power point presentation for their pen-pals? partners? (they call them correspondents) in Sweden who they visited in March of last year, and who are coming to visit them in France in a couple of weeks. They had me look over the grammar of the captions for some of the photos, and they made some very cute mistakes. One picture of a landscape said simply, "What a wonderful world country" and one said "Thank you for these memorable memories" which I thought was super adorable. One of the girls has a hard time expressing herself, but she really wants to get better, and she isn't afraid to try, which is really encouraging to see. Next week should be a little more busy for me, and tomorrow I am going to Caen (the big city! ish) for my orientation with other English assistants who work in middle and high school. I'm a little nervous, but also kind of excited to be on my own for a day and to meet some other Anglophones!

I will tell you all about my big trip to Caen soon, hopefully with pictures!

Have a great Sunday!

Shoshana