Southern Hospitality 南フランス風のおもてなし

Brigitte's parents live just above Sommieres near the chateau. It's a beautiful area with a fantastic view of the mountains and the sky. Her parents live in a charming house with a astounding garden with everything from olive trees, grapes vines, and even a chicken coop with fresh eggs every morning. Even though my French was not very good at that time (it was my first weekend in France), she kindly welcomed me in and offered me the most wonderful chocolate cake. Talk about being welcomed!

この日はホストマザーのご両親の住む実家に遊びに行きました。車で30分ぐらいのところでとても伝統的な南フランスぅ風の村の外れに住んでいます。ホストマザーのお母様は大きなお庭にブドウからオリーブから鶏まで自足自炊の生活を送られています。ホストマザーのお料理の腕はお母様から受け継がれてるんですね～ ケーキ2種類もご馳走になっちゃいました　笑。帰り際には鶏の卵やら杏子やらメロンなどたくさん頂いてきました♪

Back from MIA Status!

Hi everyone!
I truly apolgize for the MIA state I have in for the past few months.
A lot has happened during April-May and then things got crazy with papers and work from May to July.
Now I am in the South of France, staying with a host family studying French for the past few weeks.

It's going to take multiple entries before I explain everything that has happened to me in the last 4 months and why I haven't been updating so let me just show you that I've been really enjoying my stay in France. My host family has been the most generous and kindest people who truly encourage my language improvement and they have been my biggest supporters. Before I was very timid to speak the language but now thank to them I'm much more at ease. My language school has been really great and I've been learning a lot.

I am living in a city called Montpellier between Toulousse and Marseille and it is a beautiful historical city. The city is a college town so it is full of young people so you can feel lots of diversity and energy. This is my first time coming to the Southern part of Europe and it's like I've been exposed to a totally new culture and I love every single second of it. I will go more into detail in the coming entries but here's a few pictures as teasers ;)

みなさーん、長らくご無沙汰しています　汗汗汗　あれからいろいろありましてね～・・４～７月の間は生活にさまざまな変化や紆余曲折があり、重ねて学業も最高潮に忙しくなってしまって余裕がなくなるぐらいテンパってました！現在は打って変わって南フランスに滞在して語学学校に通ってます（どんだけ移り住むのが好きなんだっっ）。　ホストファミリーさんの元でお世話になって早3週間。フランス語習得はまだまだだけど語学学校は丁寧に教えてくれるし、なんといってもいいホストファミリーに恵まれたのでレベルは向上しているかな？前に比べると少しは楽に喋れるようにはなったものの道のりは長い・・・でも南ヨーロッパ特有ののんびりした感があるので残り後3週間、頑張りつつ夏休みも楽しみます　（＾＾）／

Kids need to have fun on a hot miserable day!

Old City 旧市街

Old City 旧市街

Place de la comédie

Absolutely beautiful day in Motnepellier

My adorable host family　ホストファミリーです♪

Corporate Lunches （勝手に）社食ランキング

After many many weeks of going to various HQs and UN agencies... it's time to rank the various corporate lunches I've had. Just a note: most offices and organizations have their own cafeterias and serve quite nice food. It's expensive for a poor student (10-15 CHF, which is probably nothing if you're earning money) but does give me a good overview of where I want to be eating my lunches everyday in the future... ;)

何度も何度も言いますが、ジュネーブはなぜこうも物価が高いんだ？！前の職場だった六本木でさえ1600円も出せばサラダドリンク付きのランチが食べれたのにこっちでのランチは平均2500円・・・高級取りのスイス人でさえそこまで出して食べる人はそこまでいなく、大抵は職場のビル内の食堂で食べることが多い感じなよう。それでもやはり1200－1800円ぐらいはするんだけどレストランの半額だし結構おいしいしヘルシー。この夏休みは色々な職場を周ったのでそれぞれの社食を一挙紹介♪

UN Palais des Nations　国連本部：中華風豚肉の野菜炒めと炒飯

Red Cross HQ　赤十字本部：キッシュとサラダ

ILO 国際労働機関：ドイツ風ソーセージとサラダ

WMO　世界気象機関：ジャガイモのかき揚げ、ピラフ、サラダ

Palais des Nations - Salad　国連本部：サラダバイキング

Special "French dish"on Bastille Day at the UN　国連本部：この日はフランスのバスティーユデー。チキンのホワイトソース煮込み

So all in all.... my rankings are the following (totally according to my taste and bias of course!)
1. ICRC (Red Cross)
2. UN Palais des Nations
3. WMO
4. ILO

色々堪能したので私の独断と偏見で勝手にランキングさせてもらいました　笑
１．赤十字本部
２．国連本部
３．世界気象機関
４．国際労働機関

Chilling out in the summer 太陽好きなヨーロッパ人

Random post but just couldn't resist.
European people LOVE summer. I mean, L-O-V-E. As a native Californian who gets sunshine (yes we do get sunshine even in San Francisco) all year round, I've never considered the sun to be a luxury. But in Europe, you need to take advantage of the sun as much as possible because you ain't gettin' any for the rest of the year. And they really know how to do it! My Asian side doesn't like to be in the sun too much (sun tan = death) but it's really great to be out by the lake or on the terrace just having a beer and enjoying time with friends.

いつも不思議に思うんだけど、ヨーロッパの人達ってどうしてこうも太陽好きなんだ　汗。
春から夏にかけてこの人達どこから来たんだ？！ってなぐらい公園やら野外イベントを占領してる。そしてスイス人に限ってはどんなに寒くてもレストランやカフェは外に座りたがる。あたしは地元のサンフランシスコは普段肌寒いから外では滅多に食べないし（そもそも一年中寒いので外で食べれるカフェを探すほうが難しい）日本では日に焼けたくないし、外は人が多いといことで中で食べることが多いのでこの文化の違いには戸惑ったんだけど、たしかにヨーロッパ（南ヨーロッパ以外）は秋から春の終わりまで殆ど日差しがないので日が出ているうちはこぞって太陽に当たりたい体質なのだそう。

今年の夏は猛暑な上スイスでは殆どの家がクーラーを置いてないので外で過ごすことが多かったかな。たしかに暑い日に外で冷たいビールを飲むのは格別！

Salève

I realized that I've never done a real "hike"since I came to Geneva and what a better time to do it than during the summer and with a bunch of people? So that is why a bunch of us from the UN program decided to embark on Salève, one of the favorite hiking courses among the Swiss and the French. First stop: going past the border!

With none of us being avid hikers, we ended up accidentally choosing the harder course...and it was quite tough! But the view at the very end..priceless!