School News

You have probably guessed, since I haven't posted any cooking pictures in awhile, that either someone in class finally told me where to put my camera or I just don't go to school anymore. It's the second one. I can't depend on a carpool. To be fair, the second chick didn't volunteer. One of the school administrators asked her to do it. Apparently she did not really want to. My car is getting worse every day and I don't drive farther than the three blocks to the grocery store. I still don't know what is wrong. It has times when it doesn't want to go in gear so I think it's the transmission but it seems to only do that after I've made a turn so I think it's related to the power steering still. I drove it to L'Ecole Culinaire a couple of weeks ago and it shook when I got below 40. Weird! Anyway, Le Cordon Bleu withdrew me for not attending. I am definitely going to go to L'Ecole Culinaire and in the degree program instead of just a certificate (so much better and I wish I'd done that in the first place). The only hangup now is that I don't know when I can start. It depends on how soon I can get financial aid again. I have to take them a statement from LCB telling how much of it they used and how much they sent back. I just got that today. I might have to wait until after my graduation date from LCB in March. If not I will start in November. I'm so excited! I got a very thorough tour of the campus by my admissions rep, Mike. That was cool. I'm excited about the extra classes that are part of the degree program. One is charcuterie and garde manger (cold foods). As part of charcuterie we will butcher hogs and then use all of the parts. We will cure and smoke meats and make bacon and sausage and all kinds of things that aren't part of my normal diet. It sounds gross but I look forward to doing it all once. We will make other kinds of sausage, too. In Garde Manger we get to do ice sculptures! I will get a total of fifteen weeks of baking/patisserie instead of six. I'm thrilled about that! I will be in school for 90 weeks including a ten-week externship. I'm glad that all of our books are different from LCB--not because LCB's aren't very awesome books but because I love books and I like variety. I can hardly wait to get started. Know what else I love? What did I whine about several posts down? This admissions rep showed me PROOF that students CAN take their food home with them! Their bookbags were lined up in the floor outside of the kitchens and many of them had wrapped food on them. Cool! Julianne is ready! I should breeze through the first ten weeks. It will be knife cuts, sanitation, stocks, and mother sauces and I've done all of that. I hope I don't sound like I'm bad-mouthing Le Cordon Bleu. I'm not (except the taking food home part--I was never happy about that). It's a great school. I am only not there because of transportation. I do regret not checking out other options before I commited to it. It was a very spontaneous thing. I should have enrolled in a degree program in the first place. LCB will have one--their other campuses do--but they are brand-new and not accredited for it yet. I don't have anything bad to say about the school. The people there are wonderful.