Felix & Marie's

Poulet avec Champignons 

Matching aprons!

The table that Felix and Marie set up!

Going to work with the potatoes

Felix helping Courtney with the tats

B and Adrienne working on the taters

B being a pro and opening the champagne bottle

Anna opening the champagne bottle like a boss

Adrienne and I ready to cook with our matching aprons

Rob going to work

Emily stirring the mushrooms

table set-up

Marie...needs her own tv show on Food Network

A couple of days ago, I got an e-mail from our activities coordinator, Kelley, asking for a replacement for an upcoming cooking class in Luxembourg City.  I jumped on the opportunity like a cougar and got the solo spot available.  It was a group of 10 students who wanted to learn how to cook a traditional Luxembourgish meal.  We all met up at the train station around 6:15pm and headed to this hidden house in the middle of the city.  It's sad that I cannot describe the house properly because it was probably beautiful but it was too dark to see anything.  It was also raining which means I was running for cover like a corpulent child running after an ice cream truck since I am prone to getting sick.

Kelley rings the door bell and the it slowly opens to a smiling European face.  She was about 5'5", light brown hair, blue eyeshadow, with a white button up shirt and black pants.  Marie, that was her name.  Around 55 years old, this woman was probably the most friendly person I had ever met.  I entered her house with my arms open to give this woman a hug and she laughed and said "Oh! We are giving hugs today?!" and gave me the warmest hug amidst the cold wind.  To her right, her husband waited to give me a hug and two European kisses.  Felix.  He was my favorite.  About 5'11", with a checkered blue button up and a periwinkle cashmere sweater on top.  White hair, frameless glasses and a smile that took up half of his face...this man did not know English but somehow I knew everything that he was trying to say.  He would mumble to get your attention and then the rest was charades.

Felix gave us all mathcing lime green aprons to wear for our kitchen adventure. We made potato pancakes, something that resembled a chicken pot pie, and two apple pies.  While I was mincing apples for our pie, Felix would come up next to feed me apples while making sounds similar to Kermit the muppet.  Oh he was great.

Marie would begin to teach us how to create this chicken dish as Felix would be in the background cleaning up the knives, spoons, and bowls.  She would go on about Luxembourg culture and he would randomly come up, look at her, tap his wristwatch and look at us with a big smile and say "I teach time management and organization", implying that she needed to speed up so we could have dessert in time to catch the last train.

We spent four hours having dinner with this phenomenal couple.  There is something that I will miss about Europe--there are no microwaveable meals, instead families and couples cook together and drink together; they can spend hours over a meal, getting to know the ins and outs of a person's life.  It all makes complete sense.  And that would probably be one of the most beautiful things about European culture that I want to bring back to the states.  It's funny how the smallest thing like a cooking class could completely change your outlook on your culture.

Side note:

There will be no more crazy posts about me getting lost in foreign countries or dancing around in 7 story discotechs since I will be coming home in two weeks and finals are in one week.  I have decided to stay in Luxembourg for the next two weekends for two primary reasons 1) I am broke 2) my life is a mess and projects are piling up.  This doesn't mean that my posts will be insipid and grueling to read but the majority of the photos will be around Luxembourg, or neighboring cities in Germany/France, and more analysis on the difference of cultures since this trip is coming to an end.  Pumpkin and I will be going to the Christmas market in Trier, Germany this Saturday for a day trip to purchase some hand-made ornaments and sip on some hard cider. Yay!  I cannot wait until Christmas!