Chocolate and Roller Coasters

10/24-10/30

Artistic photo in front of Valrhona Chocolate Company

Three major things happened this week.  First was going to Valrhona, second I had a book presentation for school, and third I went to Walibi amusement park.

Beautiful house in Tain l'Hermitage

The trip to Valrhona was for a school project. For this project there are four people in the group including me, and we are tasked with researching and developing a new cocoa bean drying process.  A representative from Valrhona invited us to come and see the production facility and the chocolate museum that they have.  It was so much fun!  The facility was in a small town called Tain l'Hermaitage, an hour south of Lyon.  Valrhona welcomed us and I had a great time learning up close about how chocolate is processed.  While on the tour at each part of the process we got to taste what the product was like at that stage.  Then at the end we got to tastes six different finished products.  Then to top that Valrhona gave each member of the team gift boxes with chocolate in them.  The representative took us out to lunch, to a small restaurant that serves only local food.  I had this delicious fresh green salad,  then white fish with a red wine sauce, plus steamed fall vegetables.  For dessert is was a fruit salad with this chocolate crisp  and walnuts.  After lunch the group went to the Valrhona Chocolate Museum. We got to do a chocolate tasting with four different types of their chocolate (2 milk chocolate, 2 dark).  Then there was a history of cocoa, history of the company, several videos about how chocolate is harvested then processed.  They had another section that was about their pastry schools.  They had different treats for us to taste.  Then there was  a computer game that we could "make" our own chocolate dessert like we were at one of their pastry schools.  After the museum Xiyu (one of the girls in the group) and I went an explored the town a bit.  We found a couple of places to take some great photos.

So the next thing was a book report.  I have not needed to do a book report for 4 years now, and it was a bit weird.  However, I did it and the presentation went really will and the teacher was impressed with how I presented the different topics, and the overall layout of the PowerPoint.  The book I had to present about was Reaching the Top: Factors that Impact the Careers and Retention of Senior Women Leaders by Wanda T. Wallace.  Overall the book was decent, but I did not agree with how the data was presented and the conclusion she determined.

The Eqwalizer!! 

Finally yesterday I went to Walibi amusement park with Clara, her brother, and Maëlle.  Clara and Maëlle both studies at OSU last year as exchange students from ISARA.  So it was nice to get the Oregon group back together.    It was soooooo cold yesterday!!   That aside the day was a ton of fun!  We started with going on a lazy river raft ride.  After that we went on a baby roller coaster that was like a smaller version of thunder mountain.  Then on to a bigger roller coaster called Timber.  This one was a wooden roller coaster with one big drop at the beginning, then a lot of fast turns.  We took a break for lunch then went on a cute boat ride called Tam Tam.  The ride took us through different movie sets in the jungle and we had drums to play along with the beat of the music.  After this nice easy ride I went on a adrenaline roller coaster called the Eqwilizer.  This ride was so scary good! The ride starts out by taking you up backwards, the drop is almost vertical.  Then it releases you and you go into a partial loop-de-loop, then a twist then starts going down a drop still upside down, then into a full loop-de-loop.  Now the ride is shaped like a "U".  So now we are facing up and are taken up the other side of the "U" then repeat the whole ride backwards!  At the end of the day I went on this ride 4 times!!  As a group we went on the ride that is a giant pirate ship that rocks back and forth like a swing.  We went on it two times and on the second time each side of the pirate ship had a screaming contest with the other.   Since Halloween is on Monday the park had a lot of Halloween attractions to go and see.  There were park employees dressed up as scary people walking around the park the whole day scaring people.  The other thing was they had a haunted house.  This haunted house was really good.  They had some really great effects, and a great plan on how to scare people.  The first thing was they did a lot of distracting so you would be being scared by one thing, and then a person would jump out from behind you and scare you again!  It was FANTASTIC,  I think their best piece of work was the last room where the exit was.  We walked into this room, where there was a jail with somethings inside and no one was in there.  Then out of no where a man with a bloody knife runs from behind the bars making a clinking sound with his knife.  This scared the group into the corner and then another man came from behind us to scare us out the door!  There was also a cute 3D movie that was about ghost scaring people.  It was a cute film, and gave us a chance to be inside to get a little bit warm.  We went on a kid roller coaster that was actually fun.  It was not to fast, but still a good ride.  There was also a water slide that you slide down in a blow up raft.  There were four sides so we all raced each other.  At the end of the day there was a firework show, that was set to music.  The show lasted 15 minutes, and was a great.  All in all they day was a great break and i enjoyed hanging out with my friends

Waterfornt in Tain l'Hermitage

Cocoa Pods at the Chocolate Museum 

Caracel (me, Maëlle, Clara)

Dead Logger ( Maëlle, me)

Watching 3D film (me, Clara, Clara's Brother,  Maëlle)

Fall photo

  

Another One Bites the Dust

10/17-10/23

Chocolate Brownie Truffles from Brazil

This week was a bit more exciting then the last one.


I have a group project that is looking at designing a new way to dry cocoa beans for a chocolate company called Valrhona.  I will be traveling to Valrhona on Tuesday to meet with a representative and talk over what they expect from the group as a final product.  This week the final report and the presentation of the production line for the Chocolate Gelified Milk was this week.  It was a little stressful, but it is over now and it is now time to move on to other projects that are due.

At school we had a Buffet des Saveurs du Monde.  This was a buffet for all the students at ISARA to come together an try food from other countries.  My favorite part was these chocolate brownie truffles from Brazil.  I also tried this Durian coconut candy from Vietnam, dumplings from china, and another dish from Brazil with chicken and cheese.

Appetizers

This week I also went to a Lyon restaurant with my host sisters and we had a lot of Lyon specialty foods. The restaurant is called La Mère Jean.  I ate way to much (but #worthit)!  The first part of dinner was lentils, ham with a mustard sauce (bottom left), this yogurt sauce with herbs with vegetables (dish at the top), then an onion tart (bottom right).  The main dishes were served and I have scalloped potatoes, beef with a mustard sauce, chicken, liver, and this fancy fish stick with a cheese sauce (not pictured).  Then for dessert I had a lemon tart, and Praline.  This was a fun night of trying a lot of different foods.

Dessert + cheese at Clara's 

Another thing that happened this week was I was invited over to Clara's house for lunch.  I got to meet her family and have a wonderful meal.  For lunch I had blanquette.  It had carrots, mushrooms, and calf in a soup with rice.  Then we had cheese that her mom had gotten at a farmers market.  I really liked this cheese with ashes that are rubbed on the outside.  After the cheese we had a dessert called île flottante (floating island). Her mom was a fantastic cook, and everything was amazing.  To top the afternoon off, Clara and I planed at three day vacation to Barcelona!  I am so stoked that I get to travel a little bit while I am abroad!

Today I cooked pancakes and bacon for brunch.  I was a bit worried that the pancakes would not turn out well, but they ended up being really delicious.

Another amazing thing that happened this week was that I got to skype two of my roommates back home and chat with them for one and half hours.  It was a lot of fun to catch up with them and talk about life!  I can't wait to have our roommate movie nights/dates again when I get back.

This week at dance there was a substitute teacher and he was crazy.  The bonus side is I learned a new word.  He had us doing crazy combos with weird transitions between moves.  On Saturday morning I could barely move. I haven't been this sore since my last state practice for dance team.  He was also the type of teacher that didn't consistently count for each exercise.  He would start off counting, then switch to saying tiens (this was the new word), then just to sounds.  He would also switch from showing the combo with his feet, to just using his arms.  Those of you who are reading this and have danced before understand the struggle.  It also didn't help that I didn't know what tiens was for most of the lesson.  

Well this was my week, I hope you enjoyed reading this!

The main course 

Pancakes + Bacon for Brunch

#theschoollife

10/10-10/16

This week was just a lot of long school days, hense no pictures :( sorry....

Monday was the last Chocolate Jellified Milk trial run.  The group was on top of it and we were able to finish everything with in 2 hours, and start on the final report.  I also got to go to the movies with some friend.  I went to see Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. It was such a great movie!  Before the movie I went to an early dinner with Clara and had some sushi.  It was delicious!!!

My Tuesday started off a bit rough.  Those of you that know me, know that I sleep like the dead.  Well I had set 6 alarms going off every 10 minutes for Tuesday's early morning.  However, I did not wake up to a SINGLE one.  I finally woke up when the class was scheduled to start, so I proceed to dress and run out the door to catch the bus.  What also sucked was that I had to give a presentation that morning with another gentleman and we had and hour and a half to work on it before giving the presentation that day.  By the time I finally got to school we only had 35 minutes to prepare.  Thank goodness that he was a flexible partner and did most of the prep work for the presentation.  The presentation went really well and we were able to do the write up for it that evening.  At the end of the day all was well.  

I also didn't have school on Wednesday so I was very happy. I used my free day to VOTE!  Oregon is the easiest state for voting.  They allowed me to email my ballot to them, instead of having to go to a consulate to mail it back.  Now that I have voted (from France), no one has an excuse not to vote in this election.  

Thursday and Friday were just some lectures.  Friday we had a lecture on proteins.  It was basically the spark notes version of Food Chemisty (FST425).  I still had my notes from that class on my tablet, so I pulled them up and was able to answer the teachers questions.  I also was not paying attention during some parts of it.  I have decided that I want to learn how to play the Ukulele!  I saw this video on YouTube of a guy playing Disney songs on his ukulele and decided I have to learn how to play it.  I felt like Hero from Big Hero 6 after he saw his brothers lab, and now if I don't at least try to learn I am going to go nuts!! Thus during class I was online researching about ukulele's.   

Saturday went by so fast for me, and all I did was homework! 
Now we are at the end of Sunday and ready to start another jam packed week of school!

Learning New Things

10/3/16-10/9/2016

Favorite Sorbet!  Mango and Grapefruit.

This week has been interesting at school.  This week has been about how to be an innovator.  The professor giving the lecture was from Germany, and was very into having the class participate in the lecture.   I learned about the processes of creating/changing a product/process/ or service.  It was a very interesting lecture series. We also visited a pasta, and biscuit company called Ekibio.  Ekibio is a company centered around lowering their environmental impact. I enjoyed hearing about their company and all the ways they are working to make it the most sustainable it can be.  They had this issue with their refrigerator rooms consuming more energy in the afternoons than in the morning or evening.  So to fix this problem and lower their energy consumption they installed solar panels on the roof above the refrigerator rooms.  This helped the company in two ways.  The first was that they have solar panels to help generate energy, and two they created a shadow that helped keep the refrigerating room cooler.   They also do a lot to help with their employee's happiness, and working conditions.

Honey (left), Brooklyn (Right) 

This week I also started taking ballet classes again!  I am taking a ballet class at the Academie de Danse Lyon 7.  The instructor talks in french (really fast)!  It's a good thing that the dance moves and names are the same as in the US, and I can count to 8 in french.  Everyone is so nice, and the class is challenging. I am looking forward to this weeks class!

Today I went to a flee market with my host family and their dogs.  It was so big, with a lot of stuff that looked like it cam from 1950-1960 America.  

I had a great week of learning, and now on to the next!

It's Adventure Time

Vineyard in Beaujolais 

This week has been super fun, but so exhausting!  

The Alps just on the other side of the Italian boarder

To start off the week I went on a school field trip to Italy.  We went to Italy to look at four different companies (one was still in France).  The drive to Italy was breath taking.  There was A LOT of pristine mountains and streams, with tiny towns tucked in between them.  The first day we stayed at a hostel in Parma, Italy.  We had dinner at the hostel and it was so good.  We started off with gnocchi with parmesan cheese and tomato sauce,  then it was chicken with potatoes, followed by a apple cookie tart for dessert. 

On Tuesday we were off to visit two different companies.  The first company that we visited Parmigiano Reggiano.  The parmesan cheese was cool to see.  When we got there they were manually cutting the curds.    After the production floor we went the different aging rooms.  The first aging room was for the first couple of days.  Then it moves into the salt water room where it sits in a brine for three weeks. Then it is transferred to the last aging room where they stay till they are ready (roughly 2ish years). To check to see if the cheese is ready they wack it with a hammer.  The cheese master knows the correct sound the cheese should make.  

parmesan cheese in salt brine

The second company made Parma Ham! All I can say about this facility was that there was rooms upon rooms of cured ham in different stages.  The things that surprised me about this company was how strict the regulations are for them to put the Parma Crown on their product.  There are strict rules for the pig farmers to follow, processing parameters for the company, and final product standards.  There has to be a certified person to come and  stamp the ham to officially say that it can be cut into ham slices.  There is also some one at the packaging end that has to make sure that the packaging complies with the Parma standards for the countries that it is sent to.  

After this we drove to Torino where we ate a Pizzeria.  I had lasagna and a couple of pieces of pizza from others at my table.  The lasagna was so delicious!  The pizza was different then what I am use to, but is was still delicious.  For dessert we had ice cream with strawberry or chocolate sauce.  We ate at the same Pizzeria the next night, and I had pasta with bacon and tomato sauce.  Then for dessert we had chocolate ice cream with a marshmallow filling.   There are different foods in Italy that I had never tried before, and those that know me know that I love yogurt.  In Italy I tried some pistachio yogurt.  It was great! There was actually pistachio's in the yogurt, and just not flavoring.

Some Pama Ham

The following day we drove to Turin where we went to Lavazza coffee.  When we got there we got to have a cappuccino made for us.  It was so good!  I did have to put two packs of sugar in it, but once that happened it was good.  The tour started with a presentation about the company.  A couple interesting facts that I leaned was that the top consumers of coffee are Finland, Norway, and Denmark.  The US was 18th, and France was 11th.  Next was how they use the silver skin from the coffee beans to make pellets to help fuel a fire.  They also have most of their facility automatized.  I think I only saw one person working on the production floor.  There was this giant warehouse where the coffee is stored before being shipped off has three giant robots that go and place/retrieve the products.   

Now it was time to go back home to France, and see one last company.  Before we got to our last company we got to eat lunch in Chambrey.  There was this elephant fountain in the town.  There was also a castle, but I did not go inside.   However, I did get to walk around the outside.  After lunch, we got a tour of Alpina Savoie, which is a pasta company.   A couple of cool facts that I learned about the company was that they sell their left over pasta to pet food makers to have them incorporate it into a different product.  Also one thing that the company does to make their facility more sustainable is to use 100% durum wheat produced in France.  

Me outside Lavazza

On Friday I had school, but afterward a friend and I went to a Science night.  There we took part in the physiological excrement about word association.  There where four choices the top two were categories like a dangerous animal and a docile animal.   Then below were two option that were sounds.  These sounds were not in any language, so I didn't have to worry about not understanding them.  Afterward we got an explanation of what they were testing.  The experiment had to do with your dominate hand, how one hears inflections, and the association one make between the categories and the sounds.  Another booth we went to was about fermentation.  We had to smell different vials of things that have been fermented and guess what they are.  They also had different cultures spread out across the table.  We could also look at some under a microscope.  Then we listened to a presentation about muscles and how our brain signals to our muscles to contract.  There was also a lecture on the new "plastic" that is not plastic but casein (a protean in milk).  They had different samples of this milk plastic for us to see.  It was super interesting to see this great alternative to plastic.  

cultures of different fermented things

Saturday was another trip!  This time it was the a vineyard in the Beaujolais region.  At this vineyard we were greeted by the husband and wife that run the vineyard.  This Vineyard had been in 9 generations of this family.  When he started the presentation about the different wines that they made he handed us a chardonnay, and then a red wine.  Then we were off to lunch.  For lunch, the first course was salad, with pâte, and bread.  The main dish was this beef stew with potatoes.  We also had another one of the red wines that they make.  Next was the cheese plate with bread, followed by our dessert.  For dessert we had cookies, cake, espresso, and an amber wine.  After the conclusion of lunch we got to make bread!!   We just had to shape the bread into loafs, then they were placed into an outside oven.  While the bread was baking we got a tour of the fields.  There were heard a story about how the husbands great grandfather met is great grandmother.  After the tour we went back and got to take the bread out of the oven with one of those long wooden spatulas (not the correct terminology, but I don't know what it is called).  Before we left, the husband then said this "Il y a trois choses importantes dans la vie: le pain, le vin, et les copains.".  This means, "There are three important things in life: bread, wine, and friends." 

Well this was my week!  I have had a great week and can't wait to see what fun happens next!! 

Waking the cheese to see if it is ready

Parmigiano Riggiano Production floor

So much cheese

Aging Parma Ham

Lavazza Cappuccino

Roomies in Torino

Elephant fountain in Chambery