A Farmer's Market and a Meltdown

The title of the post sums up the day just so perfectly considering the later has not ended but the former was almost glorious enough to counter it. Confused yet? Me too, a little, but you will have to excuse the ramblings today as the heat has melted my brain and possibly destroyed a little bit of the love I have for Strasbourg.

The day started out innocent enough. After an epic paper writing session (7.5 pages!) and 6 hours of rocky sleep (because it was so warm) I hopped out of bed and hit the floor for some light yoga to stretch out before rummaging through the kitchen for breakfast. (Cherries, organic yogurt with raspberry jam, 2 (!) types of bread with jam, and a kiwi {that went uneaten FYI. I wasn't feeling it})

I can practically taste my green monsters at this point. Oh how soon we shall be reunited!

Morning class was blah, but that is okay because I had the local farmer's market to look forward too! Each Tuesday, my university hosts a picnic where they give a couple of students some euros to purchase whatever strikes their fancy at the local market to feed the group for lunch.

I volunteered to help gather the fixings this week for selfish reasons. I heard from someone who went last week that there was a vendor who sold every type of dried fruit one can imagine.

Found him!! Along with dried strawberries, bananas, kiwis, coconut cubes, mango, apples, and apricots, he also had an enviable array of spices for sale.

But I refused to be distracted by his goodies (not to be confused with these goodies...) and quickly zeroed in on the dried mango and a little dried kiwi. This stuff is addicting y'all. I bought a huge bag to bring back to the states with me this weekend, but between my snacking and those pesky customs laws I am not sure that they are going to make it.

I also picked up a pint of locally grown strawberries to munch on for snacks this week! How can you turn down des fraises especially after the farmer let's you try before you buy!

Then, I did what all food obsessed bloggers do best. Wandered the market and photographed all of the beautiful, colorful (and local!) produce and all of the other things the vendor's had to offer.

(Fish stand.)

(Fruits as far as the eye can see!)

(Mini pears! These were so cute!)

(A bread vendor of course because no one in France ever seems to stray to far from a loaf. Check out the little tot watching the man cut bread. He is adorable!)

(Lettuce, lettuce everywhere!)

Once I stopped drooling over the produce, we headed back to the SU center to set up. There were lots of vegetables to be cleaned, bread to cut, and meats to lay out (not my job, clearly).

When it was all said and done, I managed to have a glorious lunch chock full of vegetables (I may or may not have bought my OWN crown of broccoli to eat alongside everything else...).

(Plate #1: broccoli, carrots, cucumber, tomato, radish, cheese (brie and some other kind), 1 slice whole wheat bread and one slice sesame seed bread).

After replenishing my fiber deficiency of the past 6 weeks in one sitting, I moved onto the lighter fare (aka dessert).

(Cherries, watermelon, and a taste of apricot and cherry tarts).

I was positively stuffed by the end of the meal. There are plenty of leftovers still at the SU center, which is great, because now I have free and healthy things to munch on between meals.

Our afternoon session was at the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Visiting with a UN representative in itself was beyond cool, as I have studied the work of this agency in both high school and college. The building is adjacent to the Court of Human Rights (which we are visiting tomorrow to watch a real court case!!) and contains A LOT of windows. This is significant because the building also contains no air conditioning.

If you follow me on Twitter, then you already know what comes next. That's right, I had an absolute meltdown. It was roughly 90 degrees and sunny in Strasbourg today and I just so happen to sit with my back to that wall. That means sun was beating down on me for 2 freaking hours!!! At one point I actually considered just getting up and walking out, it was that bad. Somehow (by the grace of God I assume) the two hours passed by and I bolted.

It is currently still hot as Hades, but living on the 4th floor has the benefit of a nice breeze. I am just trying to think cool thoughts.

I'm off to try and bust out a couple more pages of this paper before passing out. The heat has wiped me. Feel free to distract me with loving comments about your meltdowns, because I know I am not the only one out there having them.

Until tomorrow,
~Jenn