I didn’t have to go to class until 12:30 in the afternoon today, so I was pretty thrilled with that. I had forgotten how painful it is to wake up every morning before 7:00. Nobody should have to go through that every single day of the life, it’s inhumane and Hellishly cruel. Either that, or I’m just not a morning person, and I have a feeling it’s the latter.

The time to leave arrived, so, I left for the train. The whole way there, I was dreading the practical class, not because I found it particularly difficult or anything like that, but because these things were so uninteresting. We were making little balls filled with raspberry jam, little circles filled with icing, and little “batons” dipped onto chocolate. And, everything was made with almonds! I am so freaking tired of almonds.

Creating these little monsters wasn’t very hard. The only difficulty I had today was when the dough began to get a bit too warm, so, my “batons” spread out way too much. After making the batons and baking them, you have to coat one side of them with chocolate. This is done rather simply, by piping chocolate onto a sheet of plastic, placing the “baton” onto the molten chocolate, then popping them into the refrigerator. I thought this had all gone well, and that part had, until I was finished and noticed that there was chocolate everywhere around me, as if I was bleeding chocolate.

Apparently, there had been a microscopic hole in the piping bag, so every time I squeezed on it, the hole got bigger and more and more chocolate gushed out. It was an awful mess. All over my towel, my apron, the marble counter, the refrigerator, my left shoe, and the floor. Every time Chef would walk by, Jongin and I would slide closer together to hide the mess as we worked quickly to clean it up. It was very funny trying to conceal the massive quantities of chocolate that were everywhere. But, Chef either didn’t notice, or didn’t care.

By the time we got to the chocolate on the floor, it had hardened and was impossible to remove, so, I got out my scissors and scraped the chocolate off of the floor. Before then, I had no idea that these scissors were double sided. Even now, I don’t quite understand the purpose of a double sided  pair of scissors. Needless to say, when I went about washing up my chocolate covered hands and scissors, they filleted my thumb. Not at all deep, but I lost a chunk of skin about two centimeters wide, the new flesh that had been revealed was not at all comfortable and enjoyed bleeding without stopping. So, I grabbed a towel and applied pressure to stop the bleeding, already formulating a plan.

My baked goods had been finished and artistically arranged before I had cut myself, and I knew that the “batons” were much too big from spreading in the oven. So, I got a smaller towel out, and put it over my cut so that it would be fairly apparent that I was bleeding. I held it up and made a tense face while Chef critiqued my food, and took sympathy on my poor, painful hand, just the way I had wanted him to. He said that everything was very good. Who knew that a mortal wound could be so helpful?

Now that I know my classmates better and vice versa, we finally are able to complain freely, which I think is rather nice. I had a long discussion with one of my peers about the shortcomings of the school. We are both rather annoyed that we are never allowed to use the ovens, thereby not letting us learn about proper cooking times. During demonstrations, we are never allowed to feel the textures of the various doughs, which is very important. Oftentimes, the Chef will say, “You’re looking for a firm texture that isn’t too soft.” That makes a ton of sense, doesn’t it? Also, almost all of us find it unfair that we are judged on our very first attempt, which is never going to be anywhere as good as your second, third, or hundredth attempt. Even though we all are beginning to feel a little cheated by the school, it’s nice to know that everybody is thinking along the same terms.

Today was a double day, so we had to go to a Demonstration as well. Our regular chef was back today. For the past two or three classes we have had a new teacher. He prepared for us a pear tart, which has many almonds in it, and an almond boat which is basically an almond dough filled with caramelized chopped almonds. Either I never knew about the vast amounts of almonds required to bake, or it’s just a French thing. Either way, I am really, really, really, tired of almonds.

After the demo, we complained a bit more, then headed home. The trains were so crowded that I almost didn’t get off of the train in time. Exiting my Metro stop, I found myself in the center of a very crowded market. I don’t remember them having markets on Friday evenings, but I looked for some plates that I meant to buy, didn’t find them, so just looked around. The whole thing had an awful smell. Fish sitting out all afternoon next to smelly cheeses. If you could get past that, it was quite nice. I thought I had finally found white fleshed potatoes, but no. Lots and lots of flowers and octopi and even skinned rabbits with their eyes still in. This grossed me out, so I headed up the street to my apartment.

Back home, I had some alfredo (it’s too good, really, to be true) and caught up on my TV shows, 30 Rock and Kath & Kim.

30 Rock was hilarious, probably the funniest episode of the entire series, even though I appreciate anything with a good Telenova plot. Kath & Kim was rather amusing as well even if it was just a shameless promotion of Wynonna’s new CD. I have a problem with the American version of Kim though. The Australian version is fat and thinks she’s not, which makes her funny and likable, the American version is not fat or very funny, which makes her hard to like or relate too.

Anyway, I enjoyed catching up on NBC even though television generally sucks.