Random Facts:

-China has more English speakers than the United States.

-The name of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with.

-Coca-Cola would be green if coloring weren’t added to it.

-Coca-Cola- Coca-Cola's name is derived from the coca leaves and kola nuts used as flavoring. Coca-Cola creator John S. Pemberton changed the 'K' of kola to 'C' for the name to look better.

-The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.

-A woodpecker can peck twenty times a second.

-The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days of yore when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.

-The longest one-syllable word is "screeched."

-The French words 'eau' [water] and 'oui' [yes] have no consonants.

-The word 'rhythm' has no vowels.

-The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.

-American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first-class.

-111,111,111 multiplied by 111,111,111 equals 12,345,678,987,654,321..

-The human brain is about 85% water.

-Human teeth are almost as hard as rocks.

-You blink about 25,000 times a day.

-Dolphins sleep with one eye open.

-Pencils contain graphite or carbon, NOT lead.

-Peanuts are one of the ingredients in dynamite.

-The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

-The phrase "raining cats and dogs" originated in 17th Century England. During heavy downpours of rain, many of these poor animals unfortunately drowned and their bodies would be seen floating in the rain torrents that raced through the streets. The situation gave the appearance that it had literally rained "cats and dogs" and led to the current expression.

-Bananas don’t grow on trees.
HOW DO BANANA PLANTS GROW?
Most people assume that bananas grow on trees, but this is not true. Bananas actually grow on plants that are giant herbs. These herbs are related to the lily and orchid family. Banana plants are perennial plants that produce fruit for many years. The plants are among the world's largest plants without woody stems. The plant’s gigantic leaves can reach up to 30 feet in length and the stems can weigh up to 100 pounds.

-There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos.

-There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball.

-Giraffes & rats can go without water longer than a camel can.

-From space, the brightest man-made place is Las Vegas, Nevada.

-Saturn is the only planet that could float on water.

-The lightning that we see actually goes from the ground to the sky.

-Lightening is 3 times hotter than the surface of the sun. The surface temperature of our sun is around 10,000 degrees Farenheit, while lightening is 30,000 degrees.

-A dentist invented the electric chair.

-Our eyes never grow, but our nose and ears never stop growing.

-No word rhymes with month, purple, orange or silver.

-The dot over the letter "i" is called a tittle.

-No president of the United States was an only child.

-Apple- For the favorite fruit of co-founder Steve Jobs and/or for the time he worked at an apple orchard. He was three months late in filing a name for the business, and he threatened to call his company Apple Computer if his colleagues didn't suggest a better name by 5 p.m. Apple's Macintosh is named after a popular variety of apple sold in the US. Apple also wanted to distance itself from the cold, unapproachable, complicated imagery created by the other computer companies at the time had names like IBM, NEC, DEC, ADPAC, Cincom, Dylakor, Input, Integral Systems, SAP, PSDI, Syncsort and Tesseract. The new company sought to reverse the entrenched view of computers in order to get people to use them at home. They looked for a name that was unlike the names of traditional computer companies, a name that also supported a brand positioning strategy that was to be perceived as simple, warm, human, approachable and different. Note: Apple had to get approval from the Beatle's Apple Corps to use the name 'Apple' and paid a one-time royalty of $100,000 to McIntosh Laboratory, Inc., a maker of high-end audio equipment, to use the derivative name 'Macintosh', known now as just 'Mac'.

-In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts. So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them to mind their own pints and quarts and settle down. It's where we get the phrase "mind your P's and Q's."

-Stars twinkle because the light we see coming from the stars travels through the atmosphere around the earth and there is turbulence in the Earth's atmosphere.

WineInProvence

Brian and I have been preparing for the Wine & Cheese class that we're offering next week, as well as getting ready for the Wine & Food class after that. Apryl Anderson led us in an aperitif tasting out at her house in the country (she makes her own!), and we cooked with her, as well. Last night I tried a bit of what I've learned on a couple that was taking Dom and I to dinner. I made them Caramelized Ginger Champagne & dates stuffed with almonds and rolled in bacon. It worked! The Champagne was what I was most worried about. I had to make this syrup with crazy spices, but it turned out nicely. Here is the recipe if you are interested...

Ginger Champagne Cocktail:
(Serves 8)

½ chopped fresh ginger root
2/3 cup sugar, plus 2 tbsp sugar for later
¼ tsp Chinese five-spice powder
3 tbsp chopped crystallized ginger
8 whole star anise
1 bottle champagne or sparkling wine

Bring ginger, 2/3 cup of sugar and ½ cup water to a boil in a small saucepan.
Reduce to a simmer; cook until liquid thickens to maple syrup consistency, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat; let cool. Strain syrup; discard ginger. Combine Chinese five-spice powder and remaining 2 tbsp sugar on a shallow plate. Moisten the rim of champagne flutes with water and dip in sugar. Drop anise into each glass. Add 1 tbsp syrup and about 3 oz champagne.

This Weekend...

I tried a yoga class with Andrea. It was fun, but now I am sore! And a group of us went biking again. We rode out to Pey Blanc- a little winery outside of Aix. I talked the owner into a sneak peek of the fermentation/barrel room, and he was nice enough to let us fill up our containers with wine directly from the tanks! John Brubaker (a Westmont grad) was visiting, and I cooked lunch for a group of people on Sunday afternoon, including my French host mother from last year and the yoga instructor! I also sang in church (Dom played guitar) and I played the piano during Communion.

Bike Riding Through the Vineyards

Yesterday, I rented bikes with 5 friends and rode out to a 'Co-operative'. We filled up a plastic gas can type container with wine, carried it home in my backpack, and bottled it together that evening (Dom and I have a bottler and corks). It was so much fun! Perfect weather for a bike ride, I saw the sun set on the way home- beautiful views of Mt. Sainte Victoire, and the wine just tastes better when you've bottled it yourself. =) We had a little assembly line going of people pouring the wine (using a funnel) into the bottles that we had recycled, putting in on the corker mechanism, and then pushing down on the lever that fits the large cork into the small bottle neck. We peeled off the old labels and decorated the bottles with silver and gold pens. The Co-op is in the small town of Eguilles (right next-door to Aix- it's about 11 or 12 kilometers to get out there). It cost 11 euros for just under 8 bottles of wine, and it wasn't heavy to carry home on my back at all because it was just the liquid in the plastic jug and no glass bottles. I want to do this with all future visitors!

Wine Tastings

Last week we were hired to put on the CEA (Cultural Experiences Abroad) student orientation. There were 23 students the first night and 28 the second. During one of the tastings, a young lady in the back raised her hand and said..."Hilary! It's Melanie Lyeth!" I couldn't believe that a girl I grew up with- knew her from Sunday school in Healdsburg, CA- was sitting in my living room on the 5th floor of an apt building in a foreign country! She is studying in Aix this spring semester and we will see each others families when they visit Provence in a few months. I couldn't believe it...I rode horses with Melanie's older sister Margaret in Pony Club, Heather worked at the same Bed & Breakfast, we had pool parties at her house. Small world.

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Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
~Thomas Edison

I stole this quote from off of my aunt's blog www.suzannewoodsfisher.com

Le dejeuner ce weekend

I am very excited because this Sunday, I am finally having all of the French families I know with young children over chez moi for lunch. I have been trying to organize this 'connection lunch' for months, but OH MY GOODNESS everything is harder with kids. It's a miracle that all of these families are free on the same day. One of the families I know from church (I did Sunday school last year with their two children and have babysat for them a bit and give them piano lessons- the mom is American, the dad is French. The owners of Pasta Cosy (an italian restaurant in town) are coming with their two children. Fabien and Cecile are both French. Fabien speaks english, Cecile does not. Cecile is the chef at the restaurant, so I am a bit nervous about cooking her lunch- ahahah! The rest of the families that are coming are all French and I teach English to their children every Wednesday morning- mainly through music. I am hoping that either some of the children and/or parents will like each other. I know the kids will definitely have fun playing with the kitten!

Loving the Countryside

Dom and I had lunch with Marie Francoise (my host mother from last year), and we went on a walk through the hills near her house. It's one of my favorite areas in all of Aix. Just a few minutes walk outside of the city center and you are surrounded by olive trees & vineyards, and have a fabulous view of Mount Saint Victoire. It's quieter in the country and you have more sunlight. In town, all of the tall buildings cast shadows on the maze of streets. Marie Francoise loves parties, and she opened up her home last night for a Birthday party. She hadn't even met the Birthday boy, Riahd! Riahd is a restaurant owner some of us have gotten to know, and he is one heck of a jimbay player! He brought some of his drums last night and people were dancing- African style! Different people played music and it was a great time. Dom and I have been looking at apartments, and after last night's late night loud partying, I realized that only if we lived in the country could we throw a party like that. The neighbors in the buildings in town would have been fuming. It was a great mix of friends from work and church and locals.

Quick Update

My grandma, Honey, broke her hip over the Christmas vacation. AND my grandpa, Poppy, got lost (Alzheimer's). Not the funnest of times. Please keep them in your prayers. Check out my aunt's blog (suzannewoodsfisher.com) for more details. So I gave my first piano lesson today in a long while that didn't involve Christmas music. A nice change. But the season isn't completely over for me yet since just last night my roommates and I finally opened our gifts for each other that were still sitting under the fake tree that the cat keeps attacking and knocking over. Today, Dom and I started looking for our future apartment (this whole 'getting married' thing is starting to become real). The *No Smoking Inside* law has taken affect here in France. It's so odd to see people standing outside of bars and restaurants to smoke.

Christmas music BLITZ!

The best thirty euros I ever spent was buying santa hats. I cannot believe the mileage I got out of those things this holiday season! I must have used them at at least six different venues.
As you can see from some of the pictures below, there were a ridiculous amount of Christmas conerts this year. It was a lot of fun! I will try to get a few recordings of some of the actual live music up on the blog soon.

HEATHER CAME TO FRANCE FOR 2 WEEKS! We spent one of the weekends in Paris (check out the restaurant 'Dans Le Noir'). Then Heath and Dom and I flew to Cali together. I have just returned to France and have the worst jet-lag ever! ahahaha!