end of three weeks

hi fam and friends!
there hasn't been an update in a while because we have be super busy here! Four days a week we have class, with Mondays usually being the most free, with only one lecture or special presentation. Today, we had a presentation at 7 am on "ingredient functionality". Today, at the end of three weeks, also marks the fact that new youngin's are coming in, and so my group is no longer the youngest group here. Yay!
So far, we have had four culinary fundamentals classes, or "skills" classes. These are the non-academic classes where we actually do some cooking. Every class, we make huge vats of stocks, chicken and beef, which are used throughout the school's restaurants. Then, we also turn in a "knife tray", which include many different vegetables which are meticulously cut, as in potatoes "julienned", aka 1/8th inch by 1/8th inch by 1 and 1/2 to two inches. And the chef will measure them! So you learn pretty quickly to be accurate. Then we also make something else, like last Friday we made French Onion Soup with gruyere and parmesan croutons. I am excited every day that I don't chop off my fingers, or totally mess up what I am supposed to make. So far, I have been doing very good on both these accounts.

Otherwise, school is very fun. Living in upstate New York is a far cry from living in the city, as there is no real "town" where we are, in order to go to somewhere more "townish" we have to drive to Poughkeepsie which is about ten minutes down the highway. There is a mall which is 20 minutes down the road or so. The train station isn't too far away either, which is good. On campus, we have a gym, and so far I have been going nearly every day which is good. Also, we have Zumba classes two nights a week that a couple of us attend, as well as some other events on campus every few weeks, such as a Clam Chowder cook-off which was fun, and a pizza making contest coming up next month, which a few of us will be competing in. I can't yet tell you our top-secret recipe (I'm pretty sure we don't even know it yet!)

the mighty hudson 

campus: there should be some geese, somewhere around there