Top Chef (or as its called here, "Top Chef")

Finally, due to the kind heart of one of my lab mates, I now have a TV tuner for my computer! What does this mean? Well, it means I can finally watch live French TV!!! So yesterday, I got it all hooked up and channel surfed over to M6. I don't know what the M stands for, but that's the name of the 6th channel. Anyways, on the recommendation of the same lab mate, I watched Top Chef (the French version). Having enjoyed the American version in the past, I thought I knew what I was getting into. Well, I wasn't quite prepared for a 3-hour episode (really, it went from 9pm to midnight and that was "normal"), nor was I ready for a challenge involving cooking desserts from fish or a challenge to cook tête-de-veux (veal head). Plus, you can get all the recipes online! Oh, the joy! :-P

The good news was that I was actually able to follow a surprising amount of the show. It was unclear how much of that was due to my listening abilities vs the inane dialog of reality TV. Also, in the end I found out that I liked the same chefs as my lab mate, and we both disliked the same ones. Once again, I'm not sure how much of this was me understanding them versus the subtle shift in music when each on of them was talking. I probably wouldn't have noticed the music change if I could listen to what they were saying more. So I wonder how much "free will" we really have when watching reality TV!