The day dawned rainy and black, the sun had refused to come out of hiding from beneath the eery layers of rain clouds. With much irritation, I threw the blankets off of me and headed for the kitchen where I poured myself the remainder of my Cheerios. With a small tear running down my cheek, I realized that I wouldn’t have Cheerios again for awhile–they don’t sell them here. Just those nasty honey coated things.

I headed out into the cold and the rain and put myself onto the busy Metro. There is never a seat in the mornings, and that is sad. In the afternoons, there is always a place to sit, but never in the morning or evening. On the train, I saw the alcohol-fearing classmate that I am both irritated and amused by. She looked annoyed at the world this morning. She was carrying an Ikea bag, which left me wondering if she took the time to bring a paper bag from the United States or wherever she is from, or is there an Ikea here?

I was glad that I left early, because it turns out that I am the assistant this week. That  irritates me. At least I will be done with it all rather early on into the class, but I still don’t like doing it. I don’t understand the purpose of the Chefs’ two assistants. All we are supposed to do is collect ingredients and divvy them up. It’s not that hard if you know where everything is, but when you don’t and you are all alone in a stainless steel kitchen where everything looks the same, it is not at all easy. I only knew where the flour and sugar was, I felt such a fool.

The other assistant this week was Illaria (that isn’t spelled correctly at all, by the way), but she never showed up. So, I was all alone running around like an idiot pouring flour into bowls. Thankfully, most of my classmates, the ones who aren’t a particular nationality I am ashamed of, are nice, so together, we managed to get everything arranged. In the end, I was only ten minutes late in getting started, which wasn’t that bad. I have to do it twice again this week, but then it’ll be over.

By the time everybody was finished with their pastry filling, I was just getting started, but I am glad that I did. It struck me how badly everybody was doing. The cream is supposed to be a pale yellow color, filled with rum for flavor, but a lot of the people had cream in shades of grays and browns that looked repulsive. They all hurry so much and don’t think or prepare when they cook, I feel. Me, I had made the whole cake in my head a few times, so, I didn’t stress to much over it, and, my pastry cream came out just the right color!

Then, Illaria showed up. There had been an accident of some kind on the Metro, and she was stuck in a station with no transfer. I felt so bad for her, not only because of that, but because the office had accidentally ordered here to be the assistant two weeks in a row! That is too much for any person and she is rather unhappy about it.

I made my batter and piped it into the pan, then did everything I was supposed to, and in the end, it looked very nice. When it came out of the oven, it had cracked a bit, but almost everybody’s had, we needed to beat the batter harder, the Chef said. I am happy to say that my cake was one of the most level, some were crazy and wavy and such. I don’t know why.

In the end, I didn’t have the perfect cake, but it was one of the prettiest, I feel! I spent a long time on the pattern, but it didn’t really show up in the end. It was supposed to look woven.

Class was over so quickly today, even though at the beginning, it felt as if it would go on forever. I love short days, tomorrow is a short one as well with no cooking, so I’ll be out even earlier. As I write this, I realize that I sound incredibly lazy, but I’m not. I’m just not the biggest fan of learning in schools. I really do prefer to teach myself everything, but for school, this isn’t half bad.

I was in a rush to leave, so I took my coat with me to put on outside, imagine my complete joy, when I felt that it wouldn’t be necessary. It was ridiculously bright and warm, like a spring day. It was one of those days when people run outside wearing t-shirts because they can for the first time in months. I love not wearing a coat for as much as I love collecting coats.

The trains were empty, but smelled of garlic, for some reason, so I decided to take myself out to lunch later in the day.

At the apartment, I threw the windows open to let in the warm air. Not five minutes later, there was a pigeon perched on my balcony. It looked at me and I looked at it, then it hopped down onto my floor. Not sure what to do, I turned to it and said, “Hello?” It looked at me with confusion and then flew back outside. That was very odd.

My computer then made a sound, informing me that I had email. It was from Aeropostale telling me that they had shorts in and they were for sale for Spring. So, I guess everybody is feeling the end of Winter.

I left to go to lunch and was shocked and appalled by what I saw on the train…Uggs. Those things are so ridiculously ugly and unfashionable that it hurt my eyes. I had to look away, so I played solitaire on my iPod.

When I transferred trains, I couldn’t help but look at this women under close scrutiny. She looked exactly like Kim from Australia’s Kath & Kim, not the crap American remake. It was amazing, the resemblance. I knew that it probably wasn’t her, but still.

I had a tasty roasted chicken with french fries and went out to take some photos of the Eiffel Tower. I was very irritated by the area, there is really nothing interesting here, and the Eiffel Tower is very hard to get a picture of. Plus, when you do get “the shot” it is so trite and common looking that you are disgusted with yourself. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but you have to find an interesting way to do it.

I played my German trick on the Bosnians, really baffled them actually, this time. Then, I went onto a bridge for the first time. Bridges are lovely! They are really ornate and old with amazing views of the river. I’ve never paid the river much mind, but I may have to walk along it if there is another nice day like this.

When I came home, there was a package for me. I was delighted to find it was one that I had sent myself. I ordered the autobiography of Dawn French (even the jacket is hilarious) and a DVD of the French & Saunders tour from 2000. The DVD is different from their usual type of comedy, so it is kind of hard to find in hilarious, but it’s still funny.

My computer is so slow lately, and I don’t know why. It is irritating me.