Updates, Announcements, Housekeeping and Such

So my blogging has consisted mostly of my weeks at school and, as fabulous as it is, I feel like I haven’t really had a chance to blog about anything else. And there are other things I must blog about! And so, an I’m-finally-going-to-update-you-on-my-life-and-whatever-it-is-that-I’m-doing post.

Randomness:
*I totally broke the showerhead in one of our bathrooms a couple of weeks ago and it is finally fixed! Just so you know, I was trying to be responsible and I was cleaning the shower when I broke it. I guess I just don’t know my own strength ;) I’m REALLY glad I ended up choosing this apartment with two full bathrooms. It took forever for maintenance to get up here and fix it.

*I had a day off of school on Monday -  NOT for memorial day, I get ANOTHER three day weekend for that! woot! Anyway, it was a good day. My friend Jill and I went to check out a food service store called GFS. It’s kind of like Costco for food service, but you don’t need a membership. We were drooling over the commercial sized plastic wrap. No joke. We also looked around a place Jill had told me about called Home Goods. It’s kind of like a high end TJ Maxx. Jill scored this SWEET cupcake “carousel” that carries 24 cupcakes and…here’s the kicker…it’s SHAPED like a cupcake. I wish I’d snapped a picture to show you. It’s awesome.

I also took the time to be a little crafty on my day off :) You know me! We (finally) finished off the gallon tub of vanilla ice cream we’ve had sitting in the freezer for who knows who long (I’m thinking Thanksgiving?). I was craving my hot raspberry sauce on ice cream on Sunday, and I happened to have everything that I needed, so I pretty much had ice cream for dinner ;) Anyway, John washed out the ice cream bucket and I knew I wanted to use it to store some of my cookie cutters. I’m amassing quite the collection (much to John’s chagrin). I tried a color scheme I’m starting to become slightly obsessed with and tried to make some kind of pattern that kind of looks like argyle…?

Cute, huh? Unfortunately, it only holds about half of my cutters. What? They’re bulky! I guess that means I need to get more ice cream ;)

I also made cupcakes from the leftover cake batter I had from making Asian Themed Cupcakes. I still had some buttercream frosting and the cake recipe I use makes a LOT of batter and it freezes really well, so I thawed it out and it was a pretty quick project. (And satisfied my need for a cupcake that day – it was on the brain, thanks to that cupcake carousel) And since I wasn’t going to eat them all…I made John take them to work with him. I’m becoming quite popular over there ;)

*We have had some CRAZY weather around here. We were on tornado watch on Sunday and we had a crazy 5 minutes of hail the size of marbles, followed by a sweet thunderstorm that night. Then we had a nice day or two, and then Wednesday, the heavens opened and DOWNPOURED. More thunder, more lightning. Was awesome except we had to walk around in it. Now were back in the 40s. Ridiculous? I know. We’re a week away from June!

Announcements and General Updates:
So. I’ve been getting a lot of questions about what I’m going to do after school. Well, I have an answer! But first, a story:

About halfway through May, I got the chance to interview with this amazing company:

(that’s Disneyworld, by the way) EEEEE!!! I know, right? SO COOL. Disney was recruiting at another culinary school downtown called the Le Cordon Bleu. My school had been invited to choose some students they would recommend for the interviewing process. We’re talking a 4-month paid internship in ORLANDO, FLORIDA. Awesome? I know. I was pretty excited.

Well? I had my interview. And it went horribly. No really, it did. It wasn’t entirely my fault though. The interviewer/recruiter was a chef from Disney, and to my dismay, I found him to be rude, abrupt and demeaning throughout my interview. I was already nervous, so this didn’t exactly help my performance, and I freely admit I didn’t do that great of a job, but I was very unsettled at how I was treated. I also was not prepared for any of the questions I was asked. I was asked very technical questions, like, “what kind of flour do you use for this product?” or, “what temperature do you set the oven to for this product?” A lot of the harder questions I just didn’t know, and the interviewer made it clear he was unimpressed. I left the interview thinking “that was weird.”

Turns out the interviewer was this way to all of us students from my school. I cannot say whether or not he treated the Le Cordon Bleu students in this manner, but there was definitely a trend for those of us from the French Pastry School. The head chefs at school are very upset with the feedback they received from us and I understand that they are taking action in response. It was so disappointing! Now, I love Disney, and will always love Disney, but now every time I think of Disney, I’ll always have in the back of my mind the memory of this negative experience. After my interview, I was pretty disenchanted with the whole thing. I mean, the interviewer was a chef at Disney! Aren’t they all supposed to be happy and friendly and cheerful?! It’s the happiest place on earth! What if there were more people there like him? But given my interview experience, it was no surprise when I received a rejection letter last Saturday. Oh well. I have other plans :)

Not too long after my interview with Disney (we’re talking the same day here) I was called into “the principal’s office” (Co-owner/Founder of The French Pastry School, Chef Jacquy’s office) and after talking to Chef Jacquy for a few minutes, he asked me to consider the internship that the school offers. I had considered it before, but wasn’t really sure that I could make it work. I was also waiting to hear about Disney of course. So, feeling overwhelmed with not knowing what to do, I thought, and thought, and prayed, and thought some more. Who knew so many opportunities would create such confusion?! I talked it over with John, I drew up a little chart detailing the pros and cons of all my options (complete with post-it notes :) and finally, I applied for the school’s internship. And I got it! I will be one of 8 interns working from July until December. That will put me at 4 months in cake, 6 months in pastry, and 6 more months as an intern! I just can’t stay away! ;) It’s going to be crazy! But I’m really excited, and I’ve totally prolonged having to figure out what to do with my life for at least another 6 months ;) And I love the school and all the chefs there and I think it’s going to be a great experience.

Whew! I think that’s all the important stuff I needed to cover. Anyone want to know anything else? ;)