Baking Block

I haven't died.
Not yet, anyway.
I've just not felt like blogging for so very long.
I'm sorry that the above sentence is unintelligible, but it can't be helped. That is how my brain is working right now.
I've come to realize that even though I've subtitled my blog "culinary chronicles" I hardly ever talk about school...at least not the specifics. Its just really hard to explain my day to you all since you don't know my classmates. And sometimes its just very routine. But I'll give it a try.
This week and next I am in the bakeshop. Its downstairs, apart from the rest of the kitchen. Its like we're in our own little world.
I liked the bakeshop right from the beginning because of that. Its so peaceful down there. Just the hum of the appliances, and now and then a voice or two. Nothing like the bustling, noisy, clattering, kitchen.
Its a large room with long wooden worktables, a massive oven at the far end, and a storeroom stocked with all sorts of delicious things! Every kind of imaginable chocolate, flavorings varying from rum to lemon, and other delights.
Our instructor, whom I've introduced to you as "the Grandfather" is a bizarre and hilarious Austrian man, well into his fifties or maybe sixties. He is always making the strangest and most random jokes, I can't help but laugh even if they are TERRIBLE, because he laughs so hard himself.
For instance, he asks us in his thick Austrian accent,
"What is the opposite of Christopher Reeve?"
We're all in the middle of scaling our ingredients, and like...what the heck?
He giggles, and says,
"Christopher Walken!" and howls with laughter. I'm busting a gut, not sure whether to be horrified or what...
Or he says to us,
"In the village where I grew up the population always stayed the same."
I am like, "Oh?" I mean, for all I know he DID grow up in a strange Austrian village!
He giggles and says,
"Whenever a girl had a baby, a man would leave town!", and he howls with laughter.
Its the funniest thing. Only terrible. And funny.
Needless to say, its been an entertaining week.

So far my culinary achievements in the bakery are pretty limited. The first day I made chiffon cakes, the second day I made pie pastry and cheese bisquits and almost burnt them (Grandfather pulls them from the oven, saying, "Black is beautiful, but not in baking!"), I made a chocolate terrine and finished the meat pies yesterday, and today I assembled a Princess Cake, and it was the big Christmas Banquet so we spent the day prepping and serving. Tomorrow my cake will be served to the president of the university...so ya, I'm pretty important stuff. HA!

anyway this is a fairly good-size post, so no complaining.
I might post some wart-age later, but I didn't feel inspired tonight.