stanford kids+mafia=trouble

last weekend was the bing-sponsored trip to carcassone. so one night last week my host family and i tried to figure out where the bings got their money. i asked my friend internet, and the most interesting answer we got was this. only number 43. good thing john arrillaga is number 18, otherwise we wouldn't have enough palm trees.

i have a cough. this is highly inconvenient.

my camera was still dead this weekend, so i didnt get any pictures. i know. it hurts so much inside.

first off, food:
friday night:
1) starts off with a salad with this spinakopita-like pastry thing with goat cheese and spinach. delish
2) region specialty, cassoulet, with beans and pork sausage and duck. delish
3) cheese course with mini salad, brie, chevre (goat cheese), blue cheese. delish
4) tarte tatin, special apple pie with vanilla ice cream. AMAZING.

saturday lunch:
1) salad with tinfoil pouch of shrimp cooked with yummyness
2) lamb with delish vegetables and amazing potatoes in fabulous sauce
3) chocolate fudgey mousse with crunchy bits on top that tasted hazelnutty

saturday dinner:
1) raw oysters! first time i had them (i actually thought they were cooked) and they were SO GOOD
2) joue de boeuf. i think this is cheek, so tender and amazing
3) tarte tatin again. couldn't get enough

sunday lunch:
1) endive salad with roquefort and walnuts. i don't like roquefort or walnuts, so...
2) pot au feu! this soupy type dish with duck (!), pork stuffed cabbage (!) and vegetables
3) very mousse-like hazelnut ice cream. amazing.

i need more food adjectives. i wish i could have taken a picture of every course. it was the kind of thing where you were still full from the last meal and feel like you never need to eat again...and then you see the food and it looks so damn good that you EAT IT ANYWAY.

the rest of the trip was much less exciting. there was a lot of mafia playing. i never like actually playing mafia, because it's really stressful having people yelling at each other/me and i get sick of it really easily. but i love watching, because the fun part is knowing what's going on. the first round i was mafia and lost (but it was down to two townspeople and me!) and the second round i was the narrator, but people found my deaths to be too bloody. i mean, i feel like needing dental records is perfectly plausible. and at the end of that one, the citizens of whoville won and the grinch's heart grew three sizes. it was heartwarming.

so we toured the airbus facility. it was REALLY COOL for 15 minutes. the other hour and fifteen were much more painful. the A380 is super big, but if you're not looking at it up close it just looks like...a plane. good thing we didnt actually get up close, but whatevs.

our tour guide for carcassone, sabine, was a very knowledgeable lady. we decided she got paid per word, because she would not shut up. even when we were on the bus, all of us sitting in the back, she was yammering away on the bus microphone. good thing we knew how to turn down the speakers in the back of the bus.

blog posts are depressing without pictures. we had to hike up to these castles. and by castles, i mean ruins of castles. we thought we were going to see some castles. boo.

and in toulouse there were flea markets everywhere, and i didnt get to look around! it was horrible! i had to listen to tour guide lady talk about trash cans and ice skating rinks and i didnt get to look at bolts of fabric aughhh.

but the food was good.