As the Journey of Intermediate Begins…

June 23, 2010

Truly in Life, the Higher you go the hotter it becomes not like physics where it gets colder….*sigh* I haven’t been able to bundle the strength to type a word to post on my blog as I was too afraid that I may slump whilst doing it…because it s always a lot to do and say…and why I'm I so afraid? Because I'm ALWAYS TIRED FROM SCHOOL!!!!!

As the 14th of June dawned, I woke up with a gusto and joy but with a drop of indifference as I was officially stepping into my second level of my diploma…Intermediate
The night before I had spent most of the day with my Friend who came to Paris for a training courtesy his office…he’s hotel was at Val D’ Europe a stop before EuroDisney… way outside the city, mehn dat was some chill part of Paris!! It was beautiful!!! Clean! don’t me started on the shopping outlet…..that is a post for another day.

So after spending the day with him I get home pretty late and I took the flesh route out I lay on my bed and slept off…I was too tired and my mum had called me and told me to iron and prepare well for tomorrow but I gave her the whole “mummy I'm not a baby speech” but painfully mothers always seem to be right (most of the time though…pls mummy don’t be too excited! Lol!) …let’s just say I paid the price dearly in the morning!

In the light of my bad habit of procrastination, when I woke up at 6am…I imagined I would have enough time to iron and get ready and meet 8:30am at school..I decided to do the heinous….I decided to “sleep small” really a little sleep a little slumber….it’s worse than a robbery! To cut a long story short…I was running so late I had to get into a cab and paid 12 Euros for it!!!! What was even more funny when it was time to pay, I realized my wallet was lying calmly on my bed at home KAI!!! I had to borrow money from my school’s till to pay…kai!!! I didn’t have the luxury to be angry I had to briskly rush and get into my class that had already started! But deep down I could not shake the feeling of my self-disappointment...first day of school...late..!!!!?? Not good….

Oh well I rush into class and it just started well I had missed distribution of folders but under 10mins our orientation had finished…briskly….and straight into class!!!! Ahan!! In my mind
“ahan!! Which kain first day of school bi dis na??!!!”
“...no snacks…no juice and Crossiants? Ahan!!! Chei!!! dem don see us finish!!
“We don turn old cargo!”....all this followed with bouts of smiles and muffled laughter at myself and the whole thing...

A few months ago my orientation was all “lets cater to you” “have more snacks” “need any help?” “can I almost carry you?” now it was “oya! oya!! oya!!!..no time to dull… this is your folder!, take it!…listen in class, bye!” on this orientation issue however it was funny to see the new basic students flow into school…we now looked like haggard old students while the basic student were all full of smiles and gleeful expectations of Cordon Bleu…then at that thought the nostalgia hit me….as they filed to pick their uniforms and storm the changing rooms with their try out regimes…I felt so old in the system and it felt like secondary school all over again…even when you just move to JS2…you’re sha a senior to the “new-mumu JS1 students”….lol!!! It was funny to see them admire their knife kits and just looking so generally lost! Ha! Then the usual routine of trying to hook up and make friends, looking for your country people and once again the Brazilians don’t waste time…even Leonado had hooked up with a few of them….(pls this is the beef in me talking…like I said before Brazilians are like Nigerians we hook up shap shap with ourselves…but since it’s not me doing the hooking up…I'm burnt! Lol!) and If you cast your mind back to one of my first entries…you would remember when I mentioned how I looked at the old students (whilst doing my own orientation with all glee and gladness) with contempt and fear of turning to be like him...looking old haggard and nearly tired of the system…sadly I was that old student today and someone or a few others had looked at me with that same contempt and fear…wow…life…constantly ironic!!! But please to that those eyes of fear and contempt…enjoy it while you can…you are next in line…you too would be like me...just a matter of 9 weeks that would slowly but surely come to pass…

On the note of class/Intermediate proper...let me bring you all to speed….Basic cuisine was all about classic-boring-French-food with a lot of techniques that chefs need to know basically (ok…what pun was intended) things like trussing, filleting glazing, cooking a-blanc ,organization when cooking and so on…now Intermediate Cuisine is learning about regional French food, cooking dishes that are a bit more advanced and generally taste better! And with a little more techniques and heavy utilization from what we learnt from basic…are you up to speed now?
The food from intermediate has been great so far...my favorite being the Salmon and Cabbage Roulade with Red Wine Sauce…yes I know it sounds bizarre…but it was amazing….then there was Poulet Basques…Chicken from the Basques region of France…that was great as well…. Its chicken braised with onions and bell peppers and tomato puree and served with saffron pilaf rice and a sauce from the slowly cooking onions and bell peppers as well….that felt like Spanish food to me sef…then another favorite so far was the Red Mullet with Tapenade stuffing with a Royal Savoury
Custard and grilled fennel…hmm that was delicious!!! Something I can create again for my restaurant sef! We had to split the fish open but leave it intact at the tail and make the tapenade…(which a paste made from black olives, parmesan cheese,, garlic, pine nuts and anchovies) to lay in between the fish and oven cook it and serve with a savoury custard! Trust me that was delicious!

Generally, this first week at school has revealed that unconsciously we have become better cooks even if there is a lot more to learn but we are sure evidence that constant practice makes perfect because some things that looked like giant feats are now a walk in the park for us. And we are only going to get better with the Chef who is in charge of us...Chef Patrick Caals…(the skinny fine boy Tom Crusie wanna-look-alike Chef) is a serious perfectionist and has a terrible case of OCD (Obsessive Complusive Disorder) when it comes to organization.

MY LIFE….
Crossing over these last 3 months has not been easy, having to deal with a lot emotionally…especially not just having my people around me…but I have come to recognize it is a period of separation to learn a lot about life, learn to appreciate the friends (true friends that is) I have, the family I have, the Life God has allowed me to live…I have also come to adjust well, I have a few good friends, at least I get to see my cousin Alero but since she works not so often but she has spent a few weekends with me though….that helped and still helps a bit…
My 10 day holiday was mixed feelings though...I was semi-depressed I couldn’t go to London. I didn’t process my visa in good time. Kai! I wasn’t semi depressed who was I kidding!!! I was highly sad! I had dreamed of seeing people like my Mum, Aunty Tosin, My cousin Iyinoluwa, my Trip to Manchester that would enabled me to see all my friends from School (Secondary and Tetiary) *SIGH* I had looked forward to a fun time seeing familiar people, seeing Carol Ofem, Yemi Spaine, Amuche Agu…the list is endless!!!! But oh well I was stuck in Paris!
I decided to stop whining and do something productive..so I decided to take French Lessons…”free” French lessons….so I tried hooking up with Adam from church but he was booked during the week so was Adrian my French dreams were shattered! Then I decided to go the Musee Du Lourve…(a popular museum in Paris) hooked up with a friend from school…and it was the only amazing time I had! I know museums are not everyone’s cup of coffee or sip of Zobo, I know I may be partial if I say this since I like art and sundry but Musee Du Lourve is must see! Ahan!! Oyibo sha!!! It was just aesthetic bliss to see paintings that were as old as 250 – 300 years old! To see artifacts that existed before Christ…but amongst all the ancient wonders my eyes witnessed my “all hail” moment was seeing Napoleon’s Apartment’s wow!!! His bed! His wife’s dressing table! The furniture!!!! I could only think…if they had such taste like this how many hundreds of years ago, what the hell happened to us!!!! Which also made me wonder, to what extent did Napoleon’s power and authority reach?! I mean they had no CAT, no Julius Berger, No Extreme Makeover Home Edition Team, No Big Shot Engineering company how the heck did they build such a monumental structure! And FYI the Musuem was originally built by Napoleon as a castle just for his wife! It cost France half a year in taxes! I mean there was gold everywhere! Mehn in this day and time if u buy a girl aunty Funmi hair, BB and car ur a Don…omo see uncle Nappy Showing boys the way na! Marble I haven’t seen in my life it looked like water! I mean if u see his wife’s dressing table made from crystal and gold!!! Omo even if u no fine If you look the mirror you gast fine!
So the above was the fun part! The rest of my holiday was spent mostly un-bathed, stuck on the right side of my bed with bouts of food ranging from Jollof rice, beans and dodo, water with my laptop entertaining me with all my shows...with major thanks to fastpasstv.com and all the other sites that managed to provide some warmth through the dulling periods of rain that left me stranded at home.
On a day when I couldn’t take it...I decided to go shopping…after calling my aunty to get approval…I go shopping as I didn’t have clothes! So good excuse to spend money and I did get a great deal for all the stuff I got…I won’t be shy to say I respected myself and solely shopped at C&A I mean they had the nice clothes for the RIGHT price…so why not! And again all the other stores are size-ists! So what could your boy do? And most of the clothes I had where cold weather stuff...needed some summer wear.
During this my period of gloom and evading boredom I kept active running almost every day…almost I said because when I wasn’t running I was swimming at least 6 laps…I won’t lie when I attempted my 6 laps….I almost died! On that day I remember I said to myself… I before I commit suicide in the name of losing weight I didn’t even wait to rest and try again…I fled the pool like it was a war zone! I shall live and not die…Lepa won’t kill me! *sigh*
During this period, I also took stock of my life (gosh I sound like a secondary school teacher! yuck) especially on the subject of friendships..who were really my friends and who was not…and I realized I was giving more than I was receiving and it hurt a lot….20 friends truly don’t play for 20 years… personally feel friends should always have you in mind…even if you guys don’t talk everyday but an effort to reach out to say “hey how are you?” “Just checking on you” “please forgive me, its work but you are my homie you know...much love mehn”… but nothing….
Maybe I love too much and it irritates people but I thought too much of love could not possibly be a bad thing!? I think I am just finding hard to accept that life changes people and people change and have new friends….I think…that’s the issue….but please I won’t lie I'm still semi grieving that some friends have just gone like that and we are all at different points of our lives…truly 20 friends cannot play together for 20 years but however the few that have remained all these years…I'm grateful! And I have realized that this has also opened the door to new friends…my destiny is bigger than my friends from 20 years ago really so why not the people I know…?
Enough of me ranting about my issues…back to school notes…I won’t lie I am seriously gunning for best student…yes I have never really achieved some academic top honours…it hurt then somewhat…so now I'm in my element what’s going to be my excuse?! Even if there are people like Won-Hoo who has 10 years Pro experience, Leonardo with 2 years that are in my class that just oppresses one with their speed and sheer show of skill that says “yes we dey learn together bet we no dey the same level” but I have decided to just do ma thing and chase perfection! Top 5 is on my mind….
HILLSONG
I’m sure as you have reached this point of my post you have probably uttered or at least thought out loud or said the following in your mind
“this boy and this eim church sha?!”
“this boy wont let us rest with this his church o!”
“this boy and his Hillsong sha..!”
Yes…at least something amongst those lines… but I can’t help it…week after week..God is just showing up in bigger ways…we have moved to a new venue which a theater and its pretty amazing and the Word is on check…and let me not even start with the worship… well on a church note..my my friends Adam and Aaron just moved to a new apartment and we had the party on Saturday…omo their flat was overballin!! Some Superstar tins!! The view from the flat was breathtaking! Eiffel Tower, Montaparnasse Tower, Monmarte Sarce-Coceur and just the extensive blow out of buildings and grassland that makes it look like something that was painted and placed out of their window. The flat was a very modern one…it was like something out of an Ikea catalogue…and yes when I pondered upon my flat..sorry box I could not help but weep on the inside..they were paying only a 100 Euros more and they had 40m2 and I have 17m2 and just a plain ugly old style house compared to theirs…but oh well…by the time I had consumed excessive amounts of Adams American-chewy-style cookies and the endless spread of snacks that they had laid out, coupled with chatting with everyone else...my sorrows about my apartment left me…up until I arrived home and the reality hit me…again..but I could only take of my clothes and curl up on my bed and sleep…my complaining is not going to get me a new place….i can only be thankful I have a roof over my head…even if it Is an overpriced one….

Chaetau Rouge….
On my way from my famous ghetto district Chateau Rouge…I had gone to buy some credit for my LeBara phone…desending the stairs of the metro I heard “u no wan go again! Mo we dey rish Gare Du Nord na!” like my spines nervous reaction I turn to identify most definitely with my country people…but hence…after looking at the speaker of the pidgin..i turned back..faster than even my involuntary nervosu system and hurried dwon towards the stairs…call me judgemental or whatever….that is not the level of person I must be found with..before I know it I would be sending school fees money to his brothers at home or worse he would robbed me of my passport sef! because I doubt he had any papers….

In Closing…..
My exercise is paying off!!! I have lost some weight…*somebody shout halleluyahhhhh!* it not so much that I have defied gravity or something but little enough to respect my hours of running and swimming and sheer denial of food most of the time!

I'm looking forward to my trip to Madrid, Spain and possibly Switzerland….this my Shengen visa must work for me…or I must use it wella! I should be going sometime in July….i’m soo excited! 
So that’s the story of my life so far…I have recently become a twitter addict and I won’t lie I'm loving it! I have also moved much closer to God and I feel so good about that!

okay lemme confess.....I miss home terribly…I would give anything now to be in Lagos…even though I hear its raining like as if Noah needs to build a new ark…I miss home…I miss my room, my car, Iya Ruka’s rice and stew, my mum’s Jollof Rice, my mummy…(yes mummy’s boy :p) my church!!! My Best Friend!!! Ah!!! But it is well….the plan of God for my life is taking place…it has to cost me something…I know I would smile in the end and be happy and joyful!

To my family and everyone that made sure they were a part of my awesome destiny….God will surely reward you and honour you! The works of your hands shall always be blessed! And if you ever prayed for me or even just wished me the best…same goes for you…as far as you support me…God bless you

Too much Amour!

A Bientot!!!!