The Scorching Heat of New Brunswick

I am back in New Brunswick, where the sun is blazing and the cheese selection is minimal. I have not blogged on account of spotty interent. However, I will make up for it by post-blogging my experience, complete with accounts of the bizarre and reflections upon them. This will take a few days, for me to compose my notes and thoughts, finish up my report, and get over a sudden attack of jetlag.

Your understanding and patience is much appreciated.

The Digital Age: How Everything Shuts Down Without Wifi

For the most part of the day we huddled together in the living room of Dr. Häggblom's Bed and Breakfast for the wifi.

To be fair, we were all researching our selected cheese and wine for Saturday's final exam. It was quite fun and nostalgic to go through concise, thick guide books and encyclopaedias for information, but ultimately they did not provide enough information.

I took a gamble and brought only my iPad along, even buying a blogging app for this blog, but alas! The thick walls of the re-purposed abbey section that served as our lodgings made access to internet or wifi impossible! Two sweet weeks of no internet and no contact with the outside world! Also, an iPad meant I couldn't create a neat presentation with lots of pictures and fancy fonts. Time to dig up my old-school chalkboard and hand-waving presentation skills.

Food

That evening we went to the fanciest restaurant (in our judgement) with three stars. 'The White Horse'. Shenanigans ensued. It was quite early for dinner, I believe, so the restaurant was relatively quiet and we with our foreign ways lightened up the space.

Following are food pictures:

Obligatory bread basket. French bread baskets are the best.

My starter course dish. I regret not writing the name down. It tasted like very soft cold pizza. But it was nice cold pizza.

Not food, but our lovely classmates

Soup!

Lamb! I think.

Some white wine. I should get more meticulous on name-recording.

The unbeatable cheese carriage

Our impeccable selection

It was, to date, my most informal meal with a professor.  Coming from a culture where your elder - or someone who is your educator and by default knows tons more than you - should be feared respected from afar I was quite apprehensive and uptight at the table. The interaction was warm and nice though, and we debated whether to call Dr. Häggblom 'Max' (as he insisted) or 'Dr. Häggblom (because he is Dr. Häggblom, with all our respect and admiration) and we settled for 'Dr. Max'.

Admittedly, the wine did serve to lighten up the atmosphere, and Wei Jie and I started behaving like silly old Malaysians. This produced a comment from Dr. Häggblom, something along the lines of 'those two are usually so serious in [Applied Microbiology class]'. Ahaha silly Malaysians.

Finished off the meal with rum and ice cream. I prefer wine still.

Beaune

Beaune, North to Cluny, is situated in the Côte d'Or department and home to wine négociants. Négociants are like distributors, who buy and accumulate wines from smaller vinters and then sell them under their own name. 

The morning bus ride was cold and rainy and involved a lot of sleeping.

Rainy morning of Beaune

Rain does not deter tourists or students from documenting their trip

 We visited a wine museum that contained lots of things. They were good and relevant things, and it was exciting for a nerd such as me to finally see in person the historical wine-related objects that we learned in class:

Old structures and wine presses

A Greek pot-thing which is probably related to wine

I'm not entirely sure what this is, but it is possibly a statuette of the patron saint of gardens/vineyards/agriculture

Old little vineyard boots

Grape-baskets!

Barrels! There was a good documentary about barrel-making playing in the museum

Old, old wine bottles

Also not to be missed, the tapestries famous in the region

 Our next destination was the historical Hospice de Beaune, an almshouse founded by Nicolas Rolin in 1443. It also served as venue for annual wine auctions that brought in money and fame to the region.

The Hospice's beautiful tiled roofs; they were a later addition, though

Hospice interior 

 Lunch-time ensued, and followed by a stroll through town. Beaune is decidedly larger and more tourist-oriented than Cluny.

Hunks of beautiful nougat. Tragically, I forgot to buy some

 The next agenda had us descending into the depths of a wine cellar filled with thousands of aging wines from various times. It was quite the spiritual experience.

Obligatory tourist shot

Wine barrels

The chapel in the Patriarche Wine Cellars

Within the cellars

Slurp