Hearts and livers and brains, oh my!

Just a petite update on my first official week in Bordeaux- the city is absolutely beautiful! The buildings are ancient and all lit up at night and it's just spectacular. There are literally remnants of castles hanging out in the middle of streets...it's like Disneyland, but real!! So far I have had a week of Intensive Language Program, which is just as fun as it sounds...but I have a great teacher and the other day she brought in a bottle of wine to to teach us the proper way to taste a wine (vital French knowledge, apparently). Speaking of tasting, the food here is MAGNIFIQUE. Every night for dinner my host mom Nathalie makes magic happen in the kitchen...the highlights so far have been cress soup (some sort of winter vegetable?), duck hearts (surprisingly good), tomatoes provencal, fresh bread, cheeeeeese, and for dessert white cheese with sugar and fruit. I could get used to this :) There are, of course, the occasional culinary curve-balls...such as sheep's brain, which I politely declined last night at dinner. As a recovering vegetarian, I have to ease into organs slowly. On Sunday we went to my friend Coral's host family's house for lunch and it was, in short, a 4 hour food extravaganza featuring champagne, pâté, little sausages, cabbage and potato soup, pasta, chicken, green beans, cauliflower casserole, cheese, bread, 2 different types of pear tarts, and of course many bottles of red wine and good company. The French definitely know how to do meals! I guess it makes up for their completely nonsensical grammar rules...