À La Française

So last night I volunteered at the Alliance Française because turns out if you give the French some of your time, they'll instruct (and feed) you for free.

"Alors", yesterday there was a French cooking class-movie screening event so I stayed after class and this is what happened:

5:30pm
I showed up at the organizer's office, Xavier (za-VYAY for the "French impaired") where he points me to my first assignment: Cutting bread. WITH KNIVES. Gulp.
I said Ok ("Volontiers, Xavier") while a crazy twitchy feeling started developing in my left eye.
Hey, I'm no quitter, quitting cutting things is for girls! So I swallowed all my screaming instincts and began cutting the damned bread while unsuccessfully trying to remember all the ways I knew to ask for help in French. Stressing moments.

5:45pm
I finished the life-threatening bread-cutting task and moved to the main room to welcome the peeps and help out with drinks. French heaven. My specialty: champagne, merci beaucoup.

6:15pm
While movie times...

Jocelyn- Est-ce que je peux faire quelque chose pendant les "peeps" regardent le film? (Can I do something while the peeps watch the movie?)
Xavier- Oui, allons à la cuisine. Vous pouvez m'aider là-bas. ("Oui", let's go to the kitchen. You can help me there")
Jocelyn- [Gulp again. Tu plaisantes?! (Are you kidding?!)] Ok
Xavier- Alors... ici vouz avez du fromage, du pain et des fruits qu'on va occuper... (So... here you have some cheese, bread and fruit that we're going to need...)
Jocelyn- [Double gulp] ...
Xavier- ...Et ici vous avez le tiroir des couteaux (...And in here you have the knifes drawer)
Jocelyn- [Gulp Gulp Gulp]

6:45pm-10:00pm
I helped to cook, learned a couple new tricks (tricks not to get burned, of course; not cooking tricks) and successfully made my first cheese soufflé.

10:30pm
All done and done! Nutella was eaten, soufflé was devoured, wine was solemnly absorbed, mini-muffins were packed into our backpacks, and I got ready to catch the EL.
I went out after saying Au revoir to my super cool new friend Nicole; my ipod's earphones froze because it was -23ºC outside and I couldn't feel my nose for 45 mins, but I had fun.
Oh, I also signed up to do it again next Thursday. J'adore.


PS. I forgot! So... the last thing I did before leaving?? Washed all the knives jijijiji :)