Well....I know you are all just dying to know about my first day of school here in London. You're gonna have to wait just a bit longer, unless you scroll down. In my description from the last blog, I forgot to tell you about my neighborhood. There are old facades that run down the whole road. It is very sweet looking. My neighborhood is filled with all kinds of ethnic foods, not your typical English fare. You walk down the street and smell meats roasting or fat frying from the regular fast food chains. The smells are not as great as walking the streets of Paris, but at least I am able to walk through the neighborhood. It is great to walk around and actually understand people; it makes it so much easier to eavesdrop on them. I think this city could grow on me. I might even have to give the Indian food another go - curry is not my most favorite thing to eat. There are of course fast food chains, mainly McDonald's and a KFC and some other chains that are local to Britain, I think. There are few bakeries that can bring anyone off the streets by the sweet smells that drift out of them - fresh baked breads and sweets, YUM. Then there are Chinese restaurants, Lebanese, Indian, Caribbean and lots more. The possibilities are endless!

Now, on to the first day of school. My first class was at 9 this morning. It was on the third floor, with the head of the patisserie chefs. Her name is Chef Julie, I think, but she is fantastic. She made me feel at home at once. She introduced herself and showed me around the tiny kitchen. About half way into the class, other people began to introduce themselves.

We jumped right into the lesson - tempering chocolate to make a chocolate box. We paired off and began tempering dark and white chocolate. It was fun and I learned a new method - using an ice bath. We then began to make our chocolate pieces. We worked from 9 until 12, then it was time to break for an hour for lunch. I went out with four other girls to lunch, just up the road. One of the girls works there, there are only girls in my class - 8 of us. It does not seem that anyone is competitive, so I am my own worst enemy, great. Lunch was great - just talking and them asking me questions about the schools and what not. It was pleasant. Then back to the kitchen. We assembled the pieces and decorated them. Don't worry, I am taking pictures of everything I do this time! I will have slide show later on, at the end of the term for everyone!

Tomorrow we work on filling the chocolate box with different kinds of filled chocolates. I don't know what they will be quite yet, I have not looked over the massive notebook with the lesson plans. That will be tonight and also trying to decipher my wacky schedule. I will not be going to school everyday, thank god, but when I am there for school I am really there all day. I think this is going to be good, hopefully the best yet (save the best for last).

I will be working on 5 different modules: restaurant style desserts, afternoon tea (Mrs, the tea room might just come true), boulangerie (which I will not be assessed on), chocolate and decorative sugar work. These are not in order of how we will be doing the schedule. Superior is graded differently than basic and intermediate, the final counts for a lot more.

The set-up of the school is the same as Paris. There are three levels and a basement for changing. There are 5 kitchens and two demo rooms. The changing rooms are not hooked to a bathroom, those are on different floors. The outside of the building, Paris is better. Paris just looks the part. Well it is only the first day. I will have more to write on as the week progresses. I am glad that I transferred. It helps in knowing what the chefs are saying. I am a little nervous, but hopefully it will fade away as time goes on. The knots and nervousness never really went away in Paris. Well, Cheers.