From Barcelona to Paris...

Barcelona, well what do I say about this city ? Do I say that it reminds me so much of my home town ? Do I say lounging in the beach after 4 months brought about tranquility in me ? Do I say the city make me feel alive ? Lets just say that Barcelona is all that and much more, the view of the city in harmony with the sea took my breadth away.
Eyes refused to look away from the vibrancy of the sun though eventually they overpowered me and made me look away yet leaving me wanting more - This is what I began to write in the post I never finished while in Barcelona, a post that I titled 'Breathless in Barcelona', the post that refused to come alive due to the absence of words in my head. A week has passed since my return from Spain and I am at loss of words yet again, so I am going to settle with writing about my return to Le Cordon Bleu.
Intermediate student, sounds so strange to me, every time people call out for Basic students at the school I immediately respond, still not used to the idea that I am in intermediate right now. A strange feeling of deja vu  and yet so different, the feeling of absolute disbelief that I am a student at Le Cordon Bleu has been replaced with the feeling of ( yet again ) absolute disbelief that I am an Intermediary student at the school. Moving forward but quite not the pace I was expecting, good things come for those who wait, something that I keep telling to myself. All in vain I keep repeating it over and over but the more I repeat it the more impatient I seem to become.
Pastries to my surprise have become the love of my life, still not a dessert person but madly in love with pastries. My brain the constant questioner keeps inquiring how I could be in love with something that I don't even eat. Forbidden love perhaps ? Intermediate is bringing new things to my palate, cuisine keeps getting shunned in the corner and pastries, oh the delicate affair between puff pastry and sweet short pastry ! The fiery passion between raspberry and passion fruit ! How much more can my palate witness ? I hold my breadth in anticipation for the next pastry demo...

El Nivedha...

Yeah so I am soaking in this whole Spanish thing hence the weird title ! But I must say that I find Spain much more fascinating than France, I know people prefer France and her cities and they probably wouldn't understand why I like Spain over France but meh what the hell.
I feel Spain is a very underrated country, we did a walking tour of Madrid yesterday, a strange feeling of revisiting history classes at school but much more fun than school obviously ! Our guide had people volunteer and enact 200 years of Spanish history in a very fun way, I must say that I prefer to learn history this way than sitting in classes while everyone contemplates if they want to just go for it and sleep on the desk or practice the art of sleeping with eyes open.
Now lets talk about food shall we ? After having eaten food loaded with butter with a side of butter in Paris, the explosion of flavors on my tongue is something that I am enjoying right now. After being told by the guide that there is a bar which gives free food for every beer we order it was obvious where we would be going for dinner that night. The tapas that we got for the beer were infused with Spanish flavors that I couldn't help but think that I am Spanish !
The very first day in Madrid we went to a cafe and the waiter forgot to pass on our order to the kitchen and I was super hungry, after the cafe people realized the mistake they gave us free accompaniment with our food, now how is that for a little Spanish hospitality ?
Then we went to San Miguel market which was just food paradise ! The food you get there simply makes you wonder how you managed to survive all these years without having gotten to sample them ! From the succulent Gulas, a fish indigenous to the Northern Spain to the Paella and some sangria for 2 euros ! While I have seen most of the Parisians getting done with dinner at 8 or something, Spanish people start their day at 10 in the night. From what I have noticed the Spanish are more laid back and have a much more philosophical approach to life than the French who seem to be stuck up perfectionists, not that there is anything wrong in being a perfectionist.
My typical day in Madrid starts off by waking up to the considerate noise that my roommates make and after a shower go down to the common room and feast on some churros loaded with oil and sprinkled with sugar, walk around Madrid and gobble anything that looks remotely interesting whenever I feel hungry, walk around more only to feel so exhausted that we come back to hostel and I take a nice long nap and get woken up just in time for dinner and come back to the hostel after dinner just when the entire city is prepping for a long and fun night !
Long story short, I like Madrid better than Paris !

Goals and success....

It's examination time and everyone is busy studying and practicing and what not.
Blindly memorizing has never been my style but if I don't I might be losing marks, so in a bit of a dilemma right now! I look around and see that everyone has the pressure to perform well, I look at myself and think of all that has been sacrificed so that I can be here, doing what gives me happiness and I can feel the pressure too. But this pressure as much as it should be pushing me to perform is also bringing me down, because all that is in my head is to do well and that naturally develops a fear in me, which is preventing me from doing anything. Examinations in 2 days and I've got to conquer the fear first.

I have been questioned on why I chose to do this and I have been answering that cooking is what I have always loved doing, that is definitely true. I don't want to do something just because I happen to be good at it, I want to do it because I love doing it and I am happy doing it, being good at it is just secondary.

I have read a lot of books trying to explain the true nature and meaning of success, a lot of people seeking the ultimate truth about success. To add to the confusion of the never ending quest about the truth of success I am going to state my interpretation of success. For me success is about being happy doing what you love, I know I will be successful when I do something I love and I'll know I have accomplished a great deal in life when I am happy !

Latitude, Longitude and Altitude with a smidgen of Attitude !

First off, I am sorry I tried to make the title as attractive as possible !

Three months in the City of Lights I have been doing nothing but cooking and baking. No sight seeing, no soaking in culture, no nothing ! Three months I have been learning only about cooking and a little bit about life. But there is something I realized today, not only have I been learning how to cook at school, I have also been learning the rich Geographical diversity of France ! Every dish they teach they pose a question asking where the dish is from and they immediately take out this huge map of France and start explaining about the region to us and the other things the region is famous for. I have to say something if I can say something I think I am much better in French Geography than my own country's. Well there is nothing to complain since Geography was one of my favorite subjects at school . But what amuses me the most is that every chef seems to be proud of the region that they are from and when the dish that they cook is from their region they immediately become super excited, like little children ! The pride and the attitude that they have about their region is extremely amusing but also touching I must say. I can see the pressure for them to perform, I mean obviously when you are cooking something from your region it is expected to be really good and of course they cook it really well.

Every time I learn new things when it comes to Geography, I mean I seem to remember the region and the products exclusively from those regions better than the quantity of flour in Gateau Basque or the cooking time of rice "au gras". It is good to have knowledge in things generally, you know when you talk about your dish it will be nice to talk about the region of origin and other factors of the region, but remembering the geography of regions isn't going to help me out much in practical examinations if I don't remember the quantity of ingredients and quality of cooking as such ! So here's hoping that I can remember everything that I am supposed to remember for the exams and do well in it...