Lingua Franca?

Today was Williams second last day...he’s still waiting for his visa for USA but he won’t be working at the bakery after this week. There was also a Japanese lady who’s working and observing for a few days. Chef told me she’s going to open a small boutique in Japan and wants to just get some more exposure to thing here. She speaks really good French. It’s a bit of a mindf*** hearing people of other nationalities speaking French to me...really weird.

Otherwise the day was pretty much the usual.

Starting to look forward to coming home though...

New kids on the block

Today I just stayed in and did some recipe costing..it’s quite a schlep on the laptop since the mouse doesn’t

work and the track pad is slow to work with...but seeing everything really  nicely lined up feels gooood. I love order with some things, and chaos with others. Weather was crappy and cold so really no motivation to go outside. Can`t wait to get back to Cape Town so I can use my cat as a furry hot water bottle (not by pouring boiling water in her!!, just using her body heat)..

Kind of over Lyon when I’m not working, the social scene is different here. People my age just don’t do the same sort of stuff as they do back in Cape Town.

Just realised I`ve been in Lyon for 3 months now...feels like forever...just under 2 months left to go...so many new, exciting things to look forward to in Cape Town when I get back home.

Today we had a guy doing a stage which will last about 2 weeks...he`s French, but has been working in a French restaurant/bakery in French, USA for the last 3 years and wants to learn a bit more about the baking side (he isn’t a chef or baker). He`s a decent guy but he obviously struggles with shaping and general basic baking things take him a while to do, so I had to carry him this morning while doing other stuff as well. Benjamin, the guy who`s replaced Yann is ok, but he just doesn’t have that second gear yet...he works just a bit too slow.

So this morning I had to run around a bit...but in the end it all worked out fine. We also had a 15 year old kid called Izam/Izzam who`s doing an apprenticeship at the bakery. Nice kid, I just have to speak to him in French, as he doesn’t really understand English at all...but I think I did ok explaining everything to him.

We gave the place a good clean after the work was done and then Benjamin, William and myself went for bagels. I think we were discussing them and Benjamin was saying how they`re not good and William and I were disagreeing. So we chilled and ate and chatted a bit...it`s nice to have down time after work...low maintenance downtime... just chatting, not like dealing with people`s shit at all.

Tongue Tied

Crappy weather today. Stayed indoors and slept and vegged out. There is a Spanish girl named Natalia staying here who wants to teach Spanish in a French high school. She came yesterday with her friend Macarena (yep, like the song) who is an au pair for a French family in Croix Rousse.

It’s pretty strange that with most foreigners here the only way I can communicate is in French as they have their native language and French and sometimes a little English. So I speak French with Spanish people...yeah never would have guessed that.