Bonjour!

Hello cowboys and cowgirls! Or something like that. So, a brief update: We're now on our mid-semester/Easter break (halfway through the year? Whoa.), which goes from now until the beginning of May (also whoa)! Class has been going fine, we had our first two pastry classes and a couple of fish classes too. We have a competition coming up in the first two days of May, and I'm *probably* going to be participating in the cheesecake and fruit flan classes. Although the fruit flan one is still up in the air...I'm at least going to be doing the cheesecake one. So I have lots of time to practice! What else have I been up to, you ask? WELL. Uh. Not much? So the volunteering thing isn't going as quickly as planned, but that's ok - one place is full up, and the other's volunteer organizer guy is on leave at the moment so I have to hold my horses until he gets back. The most irrelevant and kind of exciting and scary news is that tomorrow I may be playing in a field hockey game. What? I don't even know the rules of field hockey. It'll be great! Some background: I had been talking with a couple of local field hockey clubs because I figured it would be kind of neat to join a team and just play a bit...I was hoping to be able to learn the game before playing in one, though. It'll be great! I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow! Also, I ate one of these by myself last night, which is probably the most exciting thing to happen to me in a while: http://onlyabox.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/DSC_0274.jpg It's called a "Hoggies Rocky Road Sundae", and the description from their website goes a bit like this: "4 scoops of creamy vanilla ice cream and 4 scoops of strawberry ice cream, on a pile of warm chocolate mud cake drenched in chocolate fudge sauce, plus marshmallows, strawberry topping, whipped cream and toasted coconut. A spectacular dessert to share, or go solo if you dare!" The Hog's Breath Cafe is basically a NZ version of the Outback Steakhouse, minus the Australian stereotypes because Australia is a lot closer to NZ than the US. Ok, I'm going to go read up on field hockey so I don't show up totally clueless to the game tomorrow. More updates this weekend!

Another picture!

Here are more pictures of the long lunch!

All of us! We're the ones in the white uniforms (well, most of them, some of them were from the catering company), I'm a row above the wine bottles.

A wide shot of the entrees (appetizers in the US), it's a lovely tent isn't it?

A close-up shot of the entrees!

Unfortunately I don't have any other pictures - I'm lucky to even have these, because they weren't taken by me. I didn't have my camera that day, but one of the other chefs had one and she was nice enough to e-mail me the photos!

(Thanks, Ute!)

As far as current events go, they're not too unusual! I've been working more, and been doing a little bit more than just washing dishes (I got to make some desserts yesterday! They were only banana splits and finishing creme brulees, but it's still a step forwards). A job change probably won't occur at this point, but I have applied for a volunteer position.

Where, you ask? Well, it's a surprise! It may not work out, because I don't know what's going on with the job at the Old Church - last week I worked Wednesday evening (after class in the morning), Friday and Saturday nights, and then Sunday from 11-4:30. That doesn't leave too much time for volunteering, but if they're ok with mainly just Thursdays, then I'll be doing some volunteering!

Time will tell.

Hmm, what else counts as news? I've been getting into bread baking lately, having made a couple of loaves last week and I made calzone dough from scratch and had a little calzone feast yesterday. I...I think that's about it as far as exciting things go, and those aren't even that exciting. Sorry! There's a competition coming up in May, though, so that may lead to some interesting updates.

The more I think about it, the scarier the competition sounds, though. I need to stop thinking about it.