Working

Yes, the fun is now over and I am rolling up my sleeves and getting things done. The good news is that I've moved up in the world -- my first internship in 2000 at the "M" company required that I share a cube and this cube was actually smaller than any regular cube because of its location. Now at the "R" company I get to share the break room! My project is huge and I only have 10 weeks -- two of this week require me to work offsite while the rest of the company shuts down for vacation (we are in France remember). So no time to chat!

Apart from that, this region is obsessed with meat-- seriously. I can't recall the last time I had a meal without meat, or bread, cheese and wine for that matter.

Special Guest

My uncle and aunt have a fabulous restaurant/hotel in Molsheim, France. They recently hosted a very special guest... Can anyone guess who is the middle of this picture?

New Housing

When my unlce told me that my summer accodomations would cost 12 euros per night, I became suspicious. My gut feeling was right, the place was the pits. Stuck in the middle of the woods and far from the main house, a call of nature required me to brave the elements as well as a construction site. Enough said. Luckily I have found a new place to call home -- a 2 star hotel, restaurant and bar only 10 minutes from the office....

Vinexpo

Blame Vinexpo (the biggest industry tradeshow in the world, this event is held in Bordeaux every two years and requires one to fight his/her way in 2 hours worth of traffic every morning and every night) for the lack of a recent blog. So here is a run down of the week long events:

Saturday: the kick-off cocktail party at Chateau Haut-Bailly--http://www.chateau-haut-bailly.com/. The night included a 2004 tasting of the Graves, a champagne toast and dinner prepared by famous French chef. The dinner was concluded with a Brazilian dance show.

Monday and Tuesday: booth duty for the Union des Grand Cru tasting (10am to 5pm); we served our latest vintage -- 2006. Most of the attendees where members of the press or buyers.

Wednesday: booth duty for the Grand Cru Classe de Sauternes; we served our 2002 and 2004 vintages along our colleagues (aka competitors). Again, the attendees mostly comprised of the press and buyers.

Thursday: I babysit while my uncles dressed up like penguins (picture taken in front of the chapel) and went to the finale -- la Fete de la Fleur -- where the menus where typed on Hermes leather. They came home around 3am and felt obligated to open a bottle of Mouton Rothschild to properly end the night! I was the designated driver to bring the one of the right to the airport the next morning.


Friday: a rare opportunity, a visit of Chateau Yquem....the view is just fabulous!

Convertibles and champagne

Within my first 24 hours at Coutet I was already sunburned. Unfortunately the result is a farmer's tan! This happened while sharing an aperitif on the terrace with the owner of Pompei restaurants (Chicago, IL) and his wife (my first guests of the summer). We had a lovely tour of the grounds and chai followed by a glass of the 2005 millesime (which is scheduled to be bottled sometime this fall).

If anyone has any suggestions how I might even out my tan before Saturday so I don't look stupid in my dress for the upcoming black tie event --- I am am ears.

I arrived in Strasbourg late Saturday night, joining my grand-mother for 3 days. She is now in a wheel chair which she calls her convertible! For Sunday lunch we went to the Hotel Diana where we had ourselves a glass of Chartreuse de Coutet (1999) and some champagne (more specifically, I sipped and she drank). After our four hour celebration we headed home for a much deserved nap. We've been catching up on the past year; she has been patient enough to look at the gazilion photos from Kellogg. This short trip is also giving the opportunity to catch up on sleep :) The weather is fantastic in these necks of the woods -- although last night we had ourselves a nice thunder storm.

I hope everyone is doing well!

Finally here

I made it to the vineyard yesterday!!! The trip went very well. Today I have my first visit which will involve a tour and tasting. This evening I'll head to Strasbourg to see my grand-mother. As predicted my email access is unpredictable, therefore I will be using this blog to keep in touch with everyone. Leave a message. (Gosh darn it, I hate these French keyboards!!!!)

Priceless

1,000 miles
$32.80 in tolls
3 tanks of gas
4 toasted bagels and bottled water from various service stops


Spending 15 hours with your younger brother driving cross country and keeping track and spotting licenses plates from 36 different US states and 2 Canadian provines...PRICELESS


And here they are in order of appearance: Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Minnesota, Michigan, Florida, North Caroline, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Iowa, Mississippi, Maine, Oklahoma, Georgia, California, New York, Colorado, West Virginia, Texas, Connecticut, Oregan, Ontario, Utah, Virginia, New Jersey, South Carolina, Kansas, Kentucky, Montana, Massachusetts, Quebec, New Hampshire, Vermont, Arizona, Tennessee, Rhode Island and finally, Maryland.

Voulez-Vous Coucher...(you can finish the rest of the song...)

So a lot of you have asked me: where are you going to live this summer?
Well I knew that on weekends I'd be staying here: www.chateaucoutet.com. But this is actually quite far from my summer internship! So during the week, I need to a room about 20 minutes away from the office. And here we go: http://perso.orange.fr/real-en-medoc/. Not bad I would say (although the true test will be the room I actually sleep in versus the living room -- but there is one thing for sure -- the bed couldn't be as hard as the McManus Mansion mattress!!). A special thanks to my uncle who conducted the onsite search to confirm cleanliness.

'Ray Bucknell

Apart from being finals 'weekend' here at Kellogg -- this weekend is also my 5-year college reunion. Wow! Five years -- that's half a decade! It was like yesterday that I was studying for some final or other on the ground floor of the library (far left corner cubicles). Actually, by this time of the year I was already home for the summer and hostage in a real cubicle (doing endless hours of data entry -- think Office Space).

So let's take a break from wine today and dedicate this posting to all the Bisons from class of 2002 who made it to the Bull Run --and Chi Phi (as I understand this was the only place to be this weekend)! A special thanks to Liz for keeping in the loop to the weekend's events.

Ode to Bucknell

Back in the days (pre-college basketball miracle -- us winning Patriot league and making it to the sweet 16) -- no one knew of Bucknell. "Where do you go to school?" "Bucknell U." "What?" "Small school north of Penn State." "Penn State you said? My niece/nephews/wife's cousin, etc. went there! Great school, great football!" "No no - BUCKNELL -- home of the bison, and no our football team is definitely not that great -- but the pep band rules!" Yes, our dear Bucknell is located in the middle of nowhere and easy to forget...

But thanks to alumni donations and super basketball team -- our school is now on people's radar. Today, everyone walks around cell phones amongst a new gazillion brick buildings -- new homes to the geology and pyschology departements (while I never had a decent classroom at my frequent home: Coleman Hall)! Verizon had still to come out with its "Can you hear me now?" campaign -- and thus, cell phone reception in the Susquehanna Valley was scarce. But being an alumn from a small school, stuck in the middle of nowhere is, in my opinion, the best. It means you actually get to know your classmates, who are too far away to go home for the weekend.

So what did the Bisons do for fun in the middle of nowhere? Gosh, we must have been easily amused. I remember a wide array of fraternity parties, even a foam party behind the Smith Hotel and Vedder, movie nights in the Langone Center, bowling night with CALVIN & HOBBES! We had trips to New York, DC, even Quebec City. Football games on Saturday nights, basketball games on Wednesday nights (when no one even knew we had a basketball team good enough to make it to the sweet sixteen). Performances at the Weis Center. To be honest, it wasn't hard to keep busy -- every club and their mother was organizing something.

Some of my favorite memories: Roser 130, Smithopoly, The Bloomsberg Fair, The Aline gravity test -- courtesy of Rob, Line dancing on 2B, Feo: Liz and I should have really charged people as it became somewhat of a therapist's chair -- home of the broken hearted, Moving a loft exactly 1 foot to meet the fire marshalls approval, Jay's sophomore roomate - BT -- what would BT do?, Devin's maps, Easy to open coconuts, Sleeping on a bunk bed that wasn't too stable (ahh Galloway), French toast sticks with the best cheese omelet known to men, Tuesday night stuffed shell night, Turkey & cheese bagels at Larson on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Threatening anyone who slamed doors (you know who you are!), Orange cards at the mailroom (and anthrax threats).

Schwa

According to the Webster dictionary, Schwa is an unstressed mid-central vowel (as the usual sound of the first and last vowels of the English word America). Schwa also happens to be a BYOW&WG (bring your own wine and wine glasses) establishment in Chicago, http://www.schwarestaurant.com/index2.htm.

Last night 6 of us took over the place and toasted to the end of the school year, new friends, etc. Over the course of the evening (actually it was more like the night since our reservations were at 9pm) we tasted 9 different dishes, each paired with its own wine (DANGER DANGER). While some prefer to follow the Wal*Mart approach, this team believes in low volume, high quality (see photo to get an idea of the portion sizes.)

Here are some of the memorable eating highlights (and since I left the menu copies on the table this is all from memory):
- Fried oysters in oatmeal with a shot of oyster
- Strawberry risotto
- Raviolis with goat cheese

- Halibut

- Flower petals

- Some yummy meat with root beer

- Chocolate mouse and strawberry sorbert (they also had some pretzels for the guys)

As for the wine...our wine list consisted of: champagne, Meursault, Reisling, Pinot Noir, Shiraz, Brunello, Disznoko. My favorite had to be the Brunello.

Overall, if you are looking to celebrate with something a little different but with your own wine cellar-- I recommend Schwa!