Think of England

We've Moved

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 21:03:00 +0000

So - I've shifted my blog over to WordPress - here!

For the summer, it's random musings and photos when I can - but two weeks from today I'll be leaving for Athens, and a new adventure in Greece!

Stay tuned.

Retrospective: Lavenham

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Sat, 28 May 2011 17:45:00 +0000

(First things first - I am done with my Arabic orals!! Listening was Thursday and speaking was yesterday. I'm sure both could have gone better, but I was expecting them to be pretty rough. In any case they are now behind me - the focus shifts towards the five, three-hour written exams I have ahead of me beginning a week from Monday. Yay! Until then - literally nothing - no classes, lectures, supervisions or assignments. Just library!)

As a result, I decided to recap one of my adventures from earlier this year, when Dad came to visit me around my birthday in February. A true Poseidon adventure! Dad had originally planned to come for Lent Bumps (which I rambled about here), but I told him the wrong dates (major fail, trust me, I know..) By the time I figured it out, the flights were booked and there was no changing them.

So Dad arrived the weekend before Bumps - with a full getaway planned! On Friday night he treated me to sushi, which seemed like a good idea at the time. We planned to depart earlyish on Saturday morning, but I woke up at ~4am and headed straight to the bathroom to be sick (that is British speak for vomit.. yeah..). So, maybe it was the sushi, who knows, but something wasn't right. After a second trip to the loo, and a small bowl of Jell-o, I felt better so to the train station we went!

Looovely day! (The photo from above was from the next day :) )

The train from Cambridge wasn't running because of 'engineering works,' so after a bus to Bury St Edmunds, and a bit of standing around in confusion waiting for a bus to Lavenham, a friendly bus driver finally explained we were waiting in the wrong station. In any case, we figured it out eventually. By this point I was feeling pretty horrible, and the bus motion and dreary weather weren't helping. I'm sure I was a pretty miserable travel companion.

We arrived at our destination - the tiny town of Lavenham - and made our way to our hotel, The Swan. The Swan is probably the main attraction in the village, and understandably so. The oldest part of it was built in 1400, and the character has certainly been well preserved. Unfortunately, by this point I was in major need of rest and some warmth. I crawled into bed for a short nap - curled between the radiator and a space heater wearing all the layers I had - and accidently slept until dinner time. (Sorry Dad :( )

I crawled out to visit the bar around dinner time, which was excellent. Very 'typical English pub,' with the added bonus of having been the meeting place for British and American service men stationed in Lavenham during WWII. Dad continued to try and feed me, so we got some soup (which was good, even though I didn't eat much). And that was about the extent of our activity for the first day!

On Sunday I felt much much better (for real this time), and we headed to the hotel's fabulous restaurant for breakfast. I have to admit, there isn't much I love more than a really good breakfast. Despite the iffy stomach, I managed to 'force down' quite a lot of delicious toast, tea, and eggs benedict.

After eating as much as possible, we were left with a little time to explore the town. Fortunately, it's tiny, so there wasn't too much to see. Unfortunately, this brief walk was about all I got to see after spending the entire day preceding it inside the hotel. Boo. On the upside, the weather on Sunday was gorgeous, while Saturday was cold (although I think my fever skewed things a little) and rainy - so Sunday was the better day for photos anyway!

Back in Cam I managed to capture the gorgeous view of Great Court that makes up the header of the blog! And Dad and I headed to the Eagle for dinner - probably the most famous Cambridge pub, known for (also) being a hangout for RAF pilots as well as a meeting place of Watson & Crick.

Conclusion: Lavenham is gorgeous, and the Swan is even better. Just try not to be ill while you're there..

The Grind.

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Wed, 25 May 2011 21:07:00 +0000

Back in Cambridge after a whirlwind trip home. Although it was pretty exhausting, both mentally and physically, the unexpected joy of seeing 100% of my mom's immediate/extended family was pretty great. After the grueling study schedule I'd been keeping, an escape was both needed and welcome. The more time I spend with my family, the more I realise how awesome they are. Their presence was just what I needed.

The only issue was the state I found myself in after arriving back in Cam yesterday. Running on who knows how little sleep, the transition from being surrounded by 20+ loving relatives to being back alone in my room with nothing but impending exams to keep me company was tough. I went to bed at 8pm yesterday (English time - my body is so confused..) and feel better after a good solid sleep. For the past few weeks I've been so stressed falling asleep has been tough, even though I've been sleepy. I think it all finally caught up with me. I also had my last lectures of term, and thus, of my undergraduate career. A pretty bizarre concept really.

Now all that's left are the exams themselves! Yay. I have my Arabic listening exam tomorrow afternoon, and Arabic speaking/conversation on Friday afternoon. I'm pretty nervous, but at this point there's not much else to be done. The benefit and drawback of language learning is that cramming doesn't help much. There is always a bit of extra vocab to learn, but again you can only stuff so much in your brain.

For now I'm sitting back, doing a bit of light reading about the 'Abbasid caliphate, and planning on another early night. Tomorrow I'll do some more revision, and spend the day with BBC Arabic in the background - looking forward to 5pm tomorrow when I can take my new running shoes on a spin around Cambridge! (more on them later, but as a teaser - they're bright blue!) Tasty Kakes and tea are sustaining me, as is the thought that all of this will be over in less than three weeks. Totally doable, right?

This sounds really grim - I'm sorry! Things are not as bleak as this post makes them seem. Positive things: my parents sent me back with a suitcase full of food. And I mean literally full. American staples like Reese's Cups, Tasty Kakes, Peanut Butter Puffins, Sunflower Butter, M&M's, Love Grown Granola, Luna Bars, chocolate from the one and only Abington Pharmacy which has been a family staple for years, etc.

Plus, our trip to Philly included not only much needed family time but some delicious eats! First of all cheesesteak, of course from the classic destination, Jim's.

On Saturday we took the entire family to Ralph's - our family's traditional gathering place in South Philly. We've been coming here for as long as I can remember, but I'm not sure we've ever made it with all the aunts, uncles, and cousins at once.

We are many..

A toast, to an incredible group of relatives!

Followed by incredible eats - the classic mussels in red sauce -

I tried Chicken Sorrento for the first time, and man it was good - drenched in cheese, butter and white wine cream sauce. Om nom nom.

Some more tasty things..

And finally.. a cannoli. Apologies for the horrific photo, light was getting bad this late into the meal :)

Driving through Center City/South Philly is always fun too.

On Sunday the parents and I set out to do a little more exploring in South Philly. I was feeling pretty awful - tired and hungry, but the aforementioned cheesesteak cleared things up. Plus this guy made me smile.

We explored the old part of the city, which I loved. History nerd! :)

We visited a convenient store to stock up on the goods - Tasty Kakes! A Philadelphia staple.

I was equally excited to finally get to try the craze that seems to be everywhere in America, but no where in England - frozen yoghurt!

This was A.mazing. Cake batter, chocolate, peanut butter cup, and watermelon flavour yoghurt; chocolate chips, raspberries, mango, peanut butter chips, gummie bears, reese's cups, and more that got buried on top. So amazing.

Overall, not a bad way to spend a few days in the middle of Cambridge exam term, if I do say so..

Snapshots

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Tue, 17 May 2011 18:33:00 +0000

Some brief glimpses of life recently. I've stayed true to my plan to work/live in the library, but that doesn't mean I still don't take my camera everywhere I go!

Sadly this means my little camera - the more I use the big guy, the more inadequate the little guy becomes. So sad - but I still love him!

Last Friday, Julia finished her exams and I spread out my work in the BA Kitchens while she celebrated the best way I can imagine - baking!

Julia made Nanaimo Bars - a Canadian specialty apparently.

I definitely approve - they were crumbly digestive biscuit, almond, coconut, cocoa powder base, some kind of custardy, creamy, sugary middle layer (my least favourite part..), and then a chocolate layer on top - all stuck in the fridge and then cut into bars. Delicious.

The same day I received a surprise in the mail!

I have excellent parents :) Inside were M&M's, Reese's Eggs, Peeps, and LOVE!

On Saturday I took a break from the books to celebrate a tried and true European tradition - Eurovision. Vaguely similar to American Idol, except it began in the 50s! Every country in 'Europe' (extremely loosely defined - Azerbaijan won this year..) submits an act and the rest of Europe vote on their favourite. Both ABBA and Celine Dion began their careers with Eurovision! This is now the third year I've watched, and it is great. Some truly terrible songs, costumes, and talents, so we really watch for the spectacle rather than the music. Plus after each country has performed their song, they go through the votes again by country, and the geopolitical dimension of it is amusing. For example, Britain votes for Ireland, Cyprus votes for Greece, Portugal votes for Spain, etc..

Julia brought the Nanaimo Bars out, and by the end of the night I was scraping out the middle layer to get more of the chocolatey bit. :) Naughty naughty, but they are good!

I always cheer for Greece, of course. There they are, slightly blurry..

Plus, a few weeks ago I was harangued into going down to the river to bankparty one of our men's crews for a race. Not such a bad way to spend an hour or two - cycling leisurely up and down the river, watching instead of rowing.. In the end we had a small emergency that resulted in me having to jump into a boat myself and row a 4k race in denim shorts and a t-shirt. Not ideal, but hey.. At least it was sunny..ish.

No photos of me, sadly. Not one of my finest rowing moments in any case so I'm fine with a lack of documentation..

Finally, on Sunday the Student Union Welfare people hosted some kind of relaxation afternoon. I wasn't going to go, but met a friend who was on her way, as I was on my way to (guess where! it starts with L!). So I turned around and just went to see what they had conjured up.

Yes, that is a bouncy castle! Across the river were inflatable Sumo suits - I'm not sure how to describe it..

You can vaguely see the people in the massive suits. I think the point is to hit each other with something, but obviously wearing an inflatable sumo suit is unwiedly.. I have no idea, but it was funny to watch from a distance.

And, on that slightly bizarre note..back to important questions like the religious fabric of pre-Islamic Arabia!

Hold the Bus.

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Thu, 12 May 2011 17:03:00 +0000

(First of all, I'm sorry if this appears twice anywhere. Blogger has clearly been having some issues.)

The above expression was something my high school geometry teacher used to say. I always thought it was weird, and I still do actually. But it works sometimes. Like today.

Something happened today that I never expected. And in my last post I said nothing interesting would be happening in the next month - ha!

Anyway, I'm sure you are on the edge of your seat in anticipation. Allow me to set the stage. I dragged myself back to my room at 1 this afternoon after an hour of Arabic and two hours on the Sunni Revival of the 10th century. Hungry, braindrained already and dreading the two hours of anthropology ahead of me in the afternoon, I made myself a cup of coffee. One of my exam term presents to myself was a lovely little French Press coffee thingy, so I can caffeinate myself in style. Anyway, I have a designated tea mug and a designated coffee mug (the cafetiere doesn't make enough coffee to fill my giant Starbucks mug I use for tea). Today, however, the coffee mug was in the sink to be washed so I made do with another coffee cup. I filled it up and realised the mug was too small to fit my usual generous portion of milk. I figured I would just man up and sip it down and then could top it up with milk. I took a sip. And. It wasn't awful. Actually (and this is where things get life changing) I enjoyed it! I'll say it again - I drank black coffee and it was good! What has happened to me?!

To top off this incredible experience, I did something even more radical. I put a marshmallow into my coffee. Why? I have no idea what possessed me. But it was a good decision. Yum. And on that note, back to the pious Shi'i women of Beirut. Joy of joys.

Sad Face

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Sat, 07 May 2011 20:20:00 +0000

That title is a little dramatic. I'm sorry. I'm not actually sad, but this post is a little less upbeat that usual. This is simply because of the E word. Exams.

Cambridge exams are a beast unlike any other really. The entire degree structure is different, and exams occupy the central position. Throughout the year we do receive assessment, but it's all unofficial feedback to prepare us for, you guessed it, exams! What this means is the official academic result I will leave with is the product of five written and one oral exams over the course of a week in June.

I'm sure you can imagine how unpleasant this is. The entire year's material - three hours for each exams, three questions, one number, one result. That's it.

In the last three years I've been here I have pretty much come to terms with this system. It's not great, but that's how it is. So the sad face isn't really accurate. I'm working a lot, but finding it pretty satisfying to get the chance to consolidate everything I've learned. The only issue is we're still being taught new material, for the next three weeks. (This is a complain against my faculty, not the university. Most courses have already stopped teaching. Grr.)

Anyway, the point of this rant is to apologise for my blog absence. To be honest, there is nothing interesting happening in my life. I've decided not to row this term, as it just took up too much of my time at bad times of the day. I'm now in the groove of lectures, library, classes, eating, running, sleeping. That is pretty much all I do, but I don't really mind. I've been pretty much cooking for myself and living in my room, but I'm enjoying being completely independent and not being accountable to anyone except myself for how I spend my time.

So that is the situation. The 'sad face' in the title is not related to my work, but rather the holiday coming up tomorrow in the US, Mother's Day! We already celebrated 'Mothering Sunday' in the UK, and it happened to fall on the day I went home, so I did in theory get to spend a mother's day with my mom. However, that doesn't make me much less sad that I can't spend tomorrow with my most marvelous mummy, who I love very much. (I think she knows this, but just in case: Hi Mummy, I love you!)

And just on the subject of awesome women - I was lucky enough to have the two best grandmothers anyone could ask for.

Happy Mother's Day!

Wedding, Continued

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Sun, 01 May 2011 10:14:00 +0000

So, we left off with the arrival of the Princes! (I can't believe I'm actually typing that. I saw Princes?! What?!)

The in-laws were next to arrive - a blurry Camilla.

With Prince Charles (my co-Trinitarian)

Absolute madness in the crowds.

Various clergy waiting for the Queen!

Refuse :(

Still waiting..

Aaaand... the glimpse of a yellow hat!!

Her Majesty :)

The news people are in full gear.

The time is approaching!!

Bridesmaids!

Very, very cute.

Kate arrives...!

Accursed auto-focus preferred the police officers..

But managed to capture a blurry wave!

During the ceremony we tried to watch it on the screen. They also broadcast it on speakers, but it was quite difficult to understand what was going on. Fortunately, Liz had a radio tuner on her phone so we kept up to date with everything. We could hear the music quite well on the speakers, and the crowds joined in for 'Jerusalem' and 'God Save the Queen.'

As things were winding down, the procession gathered outside.

And here they are! The new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. (This is immensely exciting - maybe they'll come visit!)

This horrible blue arm is in way too many of my photos..

Getting in the carriage..

We noticed the flag on the abbey changed, but couldn't figure out why. This flag was waving for most of the morning.

But then.. it was this one during the service:

We realised it changed because the Queen was in! This was an exciting revelation indeed. :)

After everyone had left the Abbey, it descended into insanity.

We headed towards St. James's Park to attempt to find toilets/somewhere to sit down. Looks like this guy got a little lost..

We found an American woman with a Phillip Tracey - watching in style.

The one bridge across the massive lake that divides the park had been limited to one way traffic - the opposite way we were headed. So we walked rather a long way to get around it.

But we did get a view of Buckingham Palace!

Hordes.

A surge of people heading towards the Palace.

Finally we found refuge under a tree, and enjoyed some of the masses of food we carried with us.

We managed to make it onto the Mall to see the flyover.

Tourist!

At this point there wasn't much else to see, so we made our way back to the Park. We hung around there for a little while whilst trying to get up the energy to move again.. Finally we propelled ourselves back across the park, and walked past Clarence House where there was some kind of official something happening!

Wandering in the streets of London!

We took the Tube back to Liz's flat, and we were impressed at how quickly things had dispersed. There were still a lot of people in St James's Park, but the Tube was running smoothly and wasn't horrifically crammed. After snoozing our way back to the flat, we drank a lot of Coke to keep us going back to Cambridge. Highly caffeinated, we headed back to King's Cross on the Tube to get the train, and stocked up on souvenir newspapers. These kept us occupied all the way back to Cambridge, and once I made it back to my room, I crashed hard at around 9!

Overall, it was an amazing amazing day. The entire experience was seriously surreal. Standing outside Westminster Abbey for 7 hours? Seeing the entire royal family? Actually witnessing an essential moment of history? People have been standing outside in hordes to catch glimpses of the Royal Family exactly like we did for centuries. It was at times painful, uncomfortable, and boring, but it was worth every second. As Kate and Wills grow up and eventually become King and Queen, I'll have been present when it all began.

My Royal Wedding Adventure

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 22:16:00 +0000

Well, I can now say I have the seen the British Royal Family, sort of up close, sort of personal.

The adventure began on Thursday night - I headed into London to stay over at a friends. We got in the spirit early.

And began celebrating with chocolate cake. As you do.

The next day began way too early - 4am.

It was dark outside.

But I was excited and ready!

We got a night bus to Ealing Broadway to get the first train of the day into the city.

Excitement!

Liz was appropriately decked out.

The train journey into London was uneventful - we were curious to see how many there would be. The tube was certainly lively, but by no means packed. It was pretty obvious that everyone on the train was headed to the wedding: flags, fold up chairs, picnic baskets, etc.. We were fortunate that everyone seemed to be getting off at the stop before ours, St. James's Park, presumably to find spots along the Procession Route. We decided to be brave and go one more to Westminster, despite hearing people had been camped there since Tuesday.

When we came out, dawn was approaching.

(Note the time here). There were indeed campers everywhere, and an obvious crowd forming. We decided to continue along to attempt to find a place across from the door to the Abbey. And so we pressed on!

We discovered the temporary structure that had been built to accommodate the press, and assumed that they would have a pretty good view. With this information, we attempted to smush ourselves into the group of people massed beneath the newscasters and cameras.

The view was indeed great!

Once we established a spot. We settled in for the wait..

Light still dim enough for blurry pictures. Not to worry, we brought sustenance!

Liz demonstrates classic Britishness with a Hot Cross Bun!

And I sustain myself with my new favourite granola, brought all the way from Atlanta to London, via Cambridge. (I am completely obsessed - so delicious).

Note the time on this clock:

Only five more hours until the wedding starts!

The night before I drew this little Greek flag, just in case, and found a crumpled Union Jack behind the cupboard in my room...

Now approaching 7am, and spirits are still high!

TV coverage began and we got to witness BBC interviews. No idea who these people were though..

Now approaching 8am...!

Things were starting to happen by now - police officers moving around.

Some hats began appearing.

And some dignitaries - but no idea who they were!

Time ticking on..

Time for the princes to arrive!

Next to arrive were the Middletons

And with that elegant hat, I will have to leave it for the night. The 4am wake up has messed up my sleep schedule a little bit. Will provide the second half tomorrow!

On Royalty

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 15:59:00 +0000

Apparently there is some kind of big something happening tomorrow. Someone's getting married..?

I know the Royal Wedding has escaped no one. But everytime I think about it, something gives me pause. My strange perspective as an American in England has allowed me to see both the American and British build up to the whole thing. Basically, everyone is excited. What's strange to me is that along with this excitement is something else, which I think could be called embarrassment.

Hear me out.

While I was home for a week earlier this month, I was legitimately surprised at how coverage of Kate and Wills was literally everywhere. I knew that Americans like the royal family - I remember the reaction when Princess Diana died. But I really didn't know it was on this scale. I'm sure everyone knows what I mean - magazine covers, mentions on every news show in existence, etc.. But while everyone has noticed this proliferation of memorabilia and stalker-like coverage, no one will admit to being part of the intended target audience.

Follow me now across the Atlantic to England. I honestly think there is just as much coverage here, if not more. I don't watch the news, so I have no idea how things compare on that front, but the BBC has a designated Royal Wedding page, any shop that sells anything gifty has Union Jack merchandise displayed in the window, and this morning on the river I saw a pleasure boat cruising with a Kate and Wills flag billowing behind it. I get it. I think. It's their royal family, and they love them.

The Queen herself was in Cambridge yesterday, and there were certainly crowds here to meet her. (Note: these photos aren't mine. I had a class :( But I made sure to give my camera to a friend who was going to go and try and catch a glimpse! )

However, a lot of my friends/classmates were grumbling about how they closed the roads, it was so inconvenient, etc..

There she is!

(obviously not my photo)

One of the reasons I wanted to go to university in England was just because I love this country. However, my enthusiasm for the royal family/wedding is really not anything remarkable. My friends consistently make fun of me for a) taking pictures of everything and being a massive tourist and b) getting excited about little things. So, my excitement about going to the wedding has been the target of many a British joke, but what annoys me is that they won't admit their own excitement. Plus, my excitement isn't limited to the royal family - I want to experience this because it's a once in a life time chance, not because I love the monarchy.

Of course, it really doesn't matter why people show up. But both my British and American acquaintances are poking fun at the hubbub. Why? I don't know what's wrong with admitting that this is something fun and interesting. For Americans, monarchy is the stuff of fairy tales. For the Brits, it is an essential element of their identity. Either way, what's wrong with embracing it? I have long ago relinquished all dignity, and plan to fully embrace the experience.

Off now to catch a train to London, stay over with a friend who lives there, and catch a night bus to the first train of the day into Westminster - look for me on TV!

Easter

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 22:30:00 +0000

My Easter weekend has been..diverse, but wonderful in its own way! For Maundy Thursday I went to the Russian Orthodox church in Cambridge for vespers with the reading of the 12 Gospels. This service is looong. And involves standing the whole time. But, it is quite beautiful in the dark candlelit chapel. There were probably about 30 people there in total, about a third of which were either clergy or chanters.

This church shares the chapel of Westcott House, which is one of the theological colleges affiliated to the university. The main thing this means is that the church itself is very different from most Orthodox churches. It is completely plain, with white and undecorated walls. The contrast between this and nearly every other Orthodox church, richly decorated with icons and goldleaf, is dramatic, but the effect is really lovely. In addition, the chapel is local in this mysterious courtyard, that reminds me of the Secret Garden. It really is an oasis.

When I came home, I found that Trinity's Great Gate was floodlit - and beautiful! So I had to snap a shot!

On Good Friday I started out by going to Choral Evensong at King's College Chapel. Sadly I have no photos, as they aren't permitted. I admit I was tempted to play the ignorant tourist and take photos anyway, but wasn't brave enough. Anyway, the music was Tallis's 'The Lamentations of Jeremiah' and it was melancholy and dramatic, perfect for Good Friday. Plus, the choir is absolutely heavenly. This particular service was only the choral scholars - in the other words, the students at the college who are in the choir only, not the boys, so the voices were more mature and serious, which made the effect that much more serious.

Later in the evening I went to the Greek Orthodox church for the service of the Epitaphios, where we processed with the Epitaphios around the church, through the streets of Cambridge. This service started small, but I think most of the Greeks in Cambridge showed up for the procession. The looks on the passer-bys faces were hilarious. :)

A blurry photo of the Epitaphios

The crowd.

We are now in the middle of a street, and the Epitaphios can be seen in the distance.

A bus attempting to navigate the crowd. Poor bus driver didn't realise he was dealing with Greeks here, who were certainly not jumping to get out of his way.

Continuing along, still in the middle of a street! At this point, we passed a pub and a friendly neighbourhood drunk joined in and 'chanted' along with the priest for a bit. The congregation handled it with good humour though, and he drifted away soon after.

My candle

Back inside the church, another cheeky photo. This church building is shared between the Greek Church of Sts Anastatios and Clement, and the Anglican church of St Clement. The building is 13th century I believe, and beautiful. It is a little bit dilapidated, but that adds to its charm. In this church, however, there are icons everywhere (although not visible here!) and these two churches seem to coexist quite well.

On Saturday, I embarked upon my last (maybe) baking adventure of this term before exams. Tsoureki - Greek easter bread. I also wanted to dye eggs - both the traditional Greek red, and the American way with fake bright colours!

In order to get the deep red I was hoping for, I used onion skins to make a dye. This should have worked well, except at the same time I started hard boiling other eggs for American dye. Partway through, I realised I hadn't counted how many to leave for the Tsoureki. I had just enough, but that meant I didn't have any left over for boiling in the red dye.. I ended up just putting the already-boiled eggs in the dye and hoping it would work. It didn't really..

The tsoureki operation began with a few issues. First of all, I was missing several key spices - mastiha and mahlepi, both of which my Yiayia used in her recipe. I found a recipe online that used anise seed, which I also didn't have, so I went with just orange zest. Second issue was the yeast I bought from Sainsbury's (the only type they sold) was 'fast-action' and I wasn't sure how this would translate to my recipe. Seems to have worked though. Third mishap - no mixing bowls. In this photo, that is my dough... in a wok. It did the job!

Rising, rising...

Meanwhile, preparing the egg dye. I bought a pack of PAAS dye in Atlanta and brought it back for egg adventures. During this process, I learned the English don't dye eggs. I was explaining what I was doing, and no one understood! I had no idea this wasn't done here..

The dough rose!! Yes that is in a sauce pan. I won't get into the nitty gritty of the recipe because I really didn't follow it very well. I am kind of sad about this because I was envisioning a beautiful food-blog style post with a recipe and lovely pictures of tasty food. Sadly, I really don't have the facilities. This kitchen is great, but dragging all my stuff there is a whole day affair. Plus, there are no mixing bowls. Ah well, my food/cooking blog dream will have a chance at life over the summer when I am finally back in our beautiful and fully equipped kitchen at home!

I am quite proud of this lovely braid. This is first rising, getting ready for another round. Again, in the meantime I had to do something so I attempted to make cheese. I know how random this sounds, but I had come across directions somewhere that basically said - heat milk, add yoghurt, add vinegar and salt, drain. This is what I did, and it worked! I ended up with a soft, sort of feta-like cheese, that I think is probably closer to ricotta. It's not very salty, but mild and not bad at all.

Tsoureki post second rising, and ready for the oven. They are being cooked in roasting trays because there weren't any baking trays.. Poor guys.

And....success!!

The second loaf smushed into his tray. They really should have had a bit more space.. Oh well!

It turned out to be delicious. Probably not as flavourful as tsoureki should be, but still sweet (but not too sweet) buttery/eggy delicious. I shared some slices with my friends who had come by to watch the drama.

This entire cooking adventure took me until about 4pm. By that point, I was in desperate need of a shower, so headed back to my room. Soon after I received a call from Sainsbury's delivery, passing along a message from a mysterious Easter Bunny who communicates to me via my father. In any case, a delivery was on its way! So I met the Sainsbury's man and unloaded a huge stash of edible goodies. The Easter Bunny knows me well..!

Greek Yoghurts and Cheese


Smoothies, veggies, humous, shrimp (AH!) and smoked salmon (ah!)

Cereal type goodies, granola, flapjacks, oatcakes - yum!

And the Easter basket I made for myself, complete with Peeps that travelled with me all the way from the USA, as well as the basket and glass bunny from the parents.

There were a lot more chocolate goodies than could fit in an artistic easter basket photo. Here is a shot of the spread..

Another version of my easter basket, this time with a Greek red egg. Sadly, this egg was dyed with my American stuff..

Something, however, went wrong in the process. Possibilities: 1) the eggs started off brown. 2) I used white wine vinegar, instead of plain white.

Fail.

This is the PAAS fake red egg, up close.

And the 'naturally' dyed egg. Oops.

On Saturday night I headed back to the Greek church for the Pascha service at midnight. I sneakily took this photo after the light was brought out and the Priest announces 'Christ is risen!' Right before this moment, the entire church is darkened, and we wait in silence for a moment. Then the solitary light emerges, and soon everyone has lit their own candle and the light is everywhere! I think this is my favourite moment of Easter.

I brought my candle home with me, although this was a little scary. It was windy and I hadn't brought anything to protect the flame. But we both made is safely back to my room!

I set up the candle in my window (in a pint glass - is that bad?) while I had a sneaky 1am chocolate binge and got ready for bed. I was quite worried about the newly-installed smoke alarm, so I had my window open, but had to blow it out before going to sleep.

In the morning, this wreckage greeted me.. I went slightly crazy, I will freely admit..

I did, however, have a very civilised Easter breakfast - a tiny salad (with cheese!! oh yum yum), one of my unfortunate red eggs, a slice (or two, or ten) of my tsoureki with homemade cheese, and smoked salmon(!!!!). Plus some smoothie.

The problem with this delicious plate, however, is that there is no chocolate. Never fear, I took care of that too. This, my friends, is banana dipped in melted dark chocolate. Excellent breakfast food.


(had to make this photo extra big to do justice to the chocolate drip. mmmm)

I went back to King's Chapel for the Easter service, which was both a good and bad decision. Bad first.

Yep, that is a giant queue. I ended up only getting a seat the ante-chapel (and I got there twenty minutes early!). The good part was the service was incredible, and a lot of it happened in the ante-chapel so I really didn't miss much. I had a view of the organ screen which was something like this:

(source)

Pretty incredible if I do say so. The service itself was nice, and started off 'Jesus Christ is Risen Today,' a classic Easter hymn that - with a huge congregation, that organ, and the King's Choir was glorious. Sitting where I was, I got to see elements of the service that I don't always - for example, the Gospel reading and the procession into the church. The ceremony is actually very similar to Orthodox tradition - a priest with a censer in the procession, censing the Gospel book before the reading, etc., which I found to be pretty interesting. Sometimes it amazes me how little the Reformation changed some Anglican churches. I managed some sneaky shots - this one I took with my camera in my bag, so sorry about my face in it!

At the end of the service, they opened the huge doors at the back, which I've never seen before. It made everything even more gorgeous, if possible.

Anyway! After church I wandered through town for a little while, enjoying a glorious day and the joy of Easter. Back in my room I headed for chocolate, round two. Chocolate porridge with raspberries, dark chocolate chunks, and bits of dark chocolate chips.

It tasted as good as it looks. Sadly, the stomach was not ready for this. There was no actual illness, but I felt pretty awful.

I was also greeted by a lovely surprise sitting outside my door.

Julia's mom left this sweet surprise for me! (REESE'S YUM)

The rest of Easter Sunday I spent... in the library. Which is what I did today as well.. On the upside, I did manage a delicious salad, in between all the chocolate, taking advantage of some of the Easter Bunny's goodies.

A slightly stained egg makes an appearance, along with some little pieces of smoked salmon just peeking through. Delicious Easter remnants. Actually, I think I'm going to be eating Easter remnants for a very long time. There is another full loaf of tsoureki in my room, plus the remainder of the first one, not to mention about 10 hardboiled eggs and approximately my body weight in chocolate. I won't be going hungry, that's for sure!

Happy Easter!

Tidbits, Tasty and Otherwise

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 12:32:00 +0000

A week back in Cam. Not much exciting to report. Except! Yesterday morning I got an email informing me that I will not in fact be unemployed next year! (I meant to post this whole thing yesterday, sorry..) Excellent news, I'll be a Teaching Fellow in Greece! The school is great - Dad went there, Uncle went there, cousin went there, Aunt taught there. It's been a pretty important Poseidon institution, and I'll be there next year!

Of course the main point is that I'll be in Greece! After countless summer vacations, two summer language programmes, and a lot of Greek lesson time, I will finally get to live there, and spend time with the family I usually only see for holidays. When I think about the experiences I will have the people I will meet I get ridiculously excited. And then...

..I remember...

...exams.

Ugh.

I'm glad I got that email because I was planning on posting something along the lines of 'my life is really not going to be very interesting for the next two months.' This is of course, still true, but now at least I have something worth sharing. I am being a little dramatic I suppose, as there are a few exciting things coming up. For one, this is Holy Week, so aside from a lot of church there will be one last, brief, baking adventure before I put away the pots and pans for exam term. Plus, (and I'm sure this has escaped none of you) there is that whole 'Royal Wedding' thing. And yours truly is going to be there. I will be your own private correspondent on all things royal. How exciting!

Anyway, I'm going to share a few images from the last week that pretty much sum up what's going on. First of all, food. Lauren keeps telling me I should re-purpose this as a food blog, and I can't explain how happy that would make me. Sadly, no such possibility, at least in this stage of my life. My kitchen consists of a fridge and a microwave. This has certainly helped me get creative (I can cook eggs (most types), pasta, cookies, and cupcakes in the microwave) but I don't have the time or space (or money) to cook nearly as much as I'd like to. Instead, I amuse myself by trying to create the cheapest and healthiest meals I can to help me maximise my concentration/rowing potential. A few samples:

Grown up ants on a log.. The attractive brown lump is sunflower seed butter, one of my discoveries I brought back from Atlanta. It is. Amazing. I'm already worrying what I'll do when it's finished.

This is a magpie! On the roof across the street, as viewed from my window. One by itself is not an exciting event of course, but two is worth a photo. There is a British superstitious rhyme about magpies that goes something like 'One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl, four for a boy, etc.,' thus, two magpies=joy. Yay! Obviously I'm not really superstitious, and have seen plenty of single magpies without the sky falling in, but these guys did make me smile. They stayed outside my window bouncing around across the street, and are actually quite cute, I think.

Another delectable item that has been tiding me over. Peeps! Hehe just look at him, so adorable! I said in an earlier post that I really didn't think I liked these. I think the problem is the sugar on the outside. I really don't like sugar. However, if you shake him over a bin, a lot of the sugar comes off, and the marshmellow stuff is delicious. (Side note: Brits say marshmAllow, not marshmEllow. Strange, no?) Anyway, Peeps have been sustaining me. Mm.

When I'm not eating Peeps and other junk, I have been making some pretty amazing salads. This is probably one of the more picturesque, and I was very proud. Incredibly tasty.

When I'm not eating, I've been working.. I have spent rather a lot of time in various libraries, me and the books. Wahoo. This is what I'll be doing for the next two months! Yay.

The University Library!!

Some more window bars. Lovely, no?

Slightly more cheery : there was a wedding in Trinity last Saturday! This meant there was no food in Hall, but as I still haven't been to Hall once this term, not a problem for me. Plus it means there are people wandering around college in top hats and morning suits. I approve, most definitely.

This photo is from Palm Sunday! I had hoped to go King's Chapel for some classic music, but since it is not yet official term they weren't doing a service. So instead I visited Great St. Mary's, the University church, and not only did I see quite a lot of the Fellows who have lectured me, it was really lovely. The service began in a tiny church down the street, and then processed to Great St. Mary's singing 'All Glory Laud and Honour.' It was really lovely.

I came downstairs the other day to see this on my way to the library. Encouraging sight, isn't it?

A pot! There is a saga behind this thing. My crew and I won it last year in January or February (I can't even remember anymore). It was the first time I had raced off the Cam, and it was miserable. Absolutely freezing, and no shelter at all. The 5k stretch of the river was completely straight with one landmark, a bridge. The race was grim, but we won our category! We should have received these pots at the time, but we went back to Cambridge before they had calculated all the times. We found out afterwards that we'd won, but to get the pots someone had to go to Peterborough to get them. We were planning on picking them up at the same race this year, but it was cancelled due to bad weather. Finally, my friend/crewmate Julia went with her family (they live in Cambridge) to Peterborough to pick them up for us. She brought it to me in the library, isn't it beautiful? I'm very pleased :) So I finally have a proper pewter pot to show from my rowing efforts. It joins two medals and some glassware. ;)

There you have it. The happenings of my life. There will be some Eastery goods to share in the next few days too!

Words of Wisdom

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 11:45:00 +0000

'Always bear in mind that your own resolution to success is more important than any other thing.' - Abraham Lincoln

Thank you Abe, this pile of books is a little daunting.

Interesting? Yes. Manageable? We'll see..

Travel Adventures, and Other Stories

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 14:27:00 +0000

Well, I am back in Cambridge! I will recap my travel adventures after I finish with our Vermont trip. I like chronological order.

Thus. Sunday morning in Middlebury. First of all, excellent breakfast. Possibly the best packaged yoghurt I've ever had?

Mom and I decided to go to church, but I had not packed for anything more than lazing around with Nana and PopPop. Lucky for me, Dad had brought three of Mom's dresses from the dry cleaner in Cleveland for her to take back to Atlanta. (Yeah, it's complicated). What this meant, however, was that I had a dress to wear! Not one I would have picked out for myself..but whatever. The only problem was footwear. I hadn't brought anything except converses and boots. So I went to church like this.

I looked like a crazy person. But I refused to go to church in jeans, so for some reason this seemed like an appropriate alternative. Fortunately, they still let me in.

Back at Nana and Poppop's house, I had lunch.

This bowl was one of... four or five.. The Ben & Jerry's making an appearance from the night before. Yes I did eat the entire pint. No not entirely on my own. But pretty much. It would have been wasted otherwise!!

Also set out a plate of leftover goodies. The Greek response to family gatherings..

After visiting for a while, we stuffed ourselves back in the car and drove back to Burlington.

Provisions.

Scenery.

Back at the airport, we headed out separate ways. While we were taxing in JFK, we saw this giant out the window.

It's hard to see in this photo (but you can click on it to make it bigger!) but this is an Airbus A380, biggest passenger jet in the world. Also amusing that here we were at JFK the day before one of these beasts would whack a little Delta plane (like ours!).

The highlight of the trip back was... Mum and I were upgraded!! On our flight from New York to Atlanta. It pays to be a frequent flier apparently!

Check out that leg room!

Cheers!

Mummy's meal. Nom.

And mine.

Just kidding! Mine, for real.

The whole flight was excellent. It was less than two hours, so I didn't really need to recline and sleep, but I put my feet up, reclined my seat and curled up with my book. There are worse ways to travel, I must say.

Also, a side note. I sat in the same seat on both my flights! I am probably the only person in the world who would find this noteworthy. Still, how often does that happen?

We headed back to Mom's apartment, with gummies for sustenance!

Also noteworthy: Sunday was the first day in a week I didn't cook/bake anything! Trying to wean myself off kitchen access. :( On the upside, I still have delicious adventures from last week to share! I left off with Thursday baking adventures. In addition to these whole-wehat fig newtons, I also made a version of beignets, baked, rather than fried. I'm not a big fan of greasy sugary things, so this recipe was appealing. They came out of the oven looking like yummy little rolls.

I just ate them like this, since I really dislike sugar, but they a look a lot better with a little powdered on top.

That evening, we met up with good friends from when we lived in Dayton, and tried a vaguely Spanish/Mexican/Southern tapas style place, which turned out to be pretty decent. Plus we got to sit outside. The South is good for some things.

Started with queso (YUM CHEESE).

A southern classic, shrimp and grits. Also delicious.

Mussels.

And another Southern staple, Fried Green Tomatoes. Good, but.. why? Why fry something that is already good?

Good night, with great company.

Friday was a short day, as Mom came home early from work to get us to the airport. Still, I couldn't resist the kitchen and made a second batch of muffins. Some had jam on the inside, a few I stuffed with blackberries, and three had peanut butter chips inside. :)

Right, now jumping back to this week. Monday was a pretty uneventful day. I took Mummy to work, ran 3.13 miles on the treadmill (yay!), and then ran a lot of errands for things to take back with me. I bought a lot of stuff.. Tea, cereal bars, pens, Peeps, gummies, Easter egg dye, grits (I know, so southern!), cereal, granola, etc etc. Too much.. I went to get Mummy from work and she took me on an exciting adventure!

For our last night, we decided to go for Mexican, something I find is completely lacking in England. I entrusted us to the internet, and we found a little hole-in-the-wall near the apartment that ended up being pretty decent.

YUM.

On Tuesday morning, the travelling adventures began. Mom was flying to Florida for work, so we went to the airport together. We got the MARTA (the train) at 8AM. This was perfect for Mom's 10am flight. Not so perfect for my 7.15pm. No matter! Extra time with Mummy was good. We got there with no issues, and while Mom checked in and hit the gift shop, I tried to get on an earlier flight. After dealing with possibly the slowest Delta woman I've ever encountered, it was established that I could not get on an earlier plane without paying a lot. Fine. Then she starts looking through my passport, asking me about my return flight. I don't have one, since I bought this round trip ticket from London. She finds my student visa, which I let expire last year since I have a Greek passport and can move around/stay in the EU. She starts whispering worriedly with her colleagues, without actually asking me anything. Then finally one of them says, I'm sure she has it worked out, she must have citizenship or something. So I flash the Greek passport and all is well.

We head through security, find Mummy's gate, and I saw her safely onto her plane. (This is actually it! I know, it could be one of literally hundreds of Delta planes I saw that day..)

After saying goodbye, I settled in for a very long day. I started with Starbucks and Time magazine.

(An excellent cover story by the way. I really loved this photo series. Seriously powerful, check it out).

I got out my laptop (no free WiFi alas) and got some reading/notetaking done. I did a lot of terminal walking too! Went to another terminal for lunch at Au Bon Pain. Then walked to another for a mid-afternoon snack of frozen yoghurt! I was really looking forward to having some while in the states. This trend hasn't quite hit Cambridge yet.

I read, and read some more. And then read just a bit more. Around 4 I decided to head back to my gate. There, I (guess what) read some more. I kept myself sustained on a huge bag of grapes we picked up the night before, an apple Mummy had lovingly chopped up for me, and a microwave oatmeal cookie I'd made that morning. I also walked past a Ben & Jerry's, and, lo and behold, it was free cone day! So I had a second dessert.. I mean.. they were giving out free Ben & Jerry's!!

This is my 'predatory' face.

After what seemed like no time at all, it was time for my first leg to Boston! After a brief panic in the airport when I thought I would have exactly 11 minutes to make my connection (I actually had 50, it was fine), I got on the plane, got out my book, and settled in. Somehow I seem to always sit near the people that MUST put their seat back. We hadn't enough reached whatever altitude was required before he leaned back and squished my legs. Sigh. Legs have gotten used to it now though, and can contort quite effectively.

I was a little worried about getting my flight to London, but it was in the same terminal. A bit of quick speed walking brought me to the gate where people were still boarding. I got on and found myself with the two seats by the window to myself! Score. Again though, I had the crazy person behind me who kept tapping the bag of my seat. For a while, I was seriously freaked out. I mean.. who does that? An occasional bump I can understand, but a continual tapping? I decided eventually he must have been playing a game on the screen.. so I moved over to the window seat, where I wanted to sleep anyway. Soon after, the tapping began ON MY NEW SEAT. What?! I was creeped out. I leaned against the window rather than my seat and was soon asleep. But it was weird. I slept through pretty much the entire flight. I missed breakfast, and literally woke up as we hit the ground. Not a bad way to spent a flight.

Customs was easy (I like being an EU citizen :) ) and my bags came out quickly (I also like being a frequent flier!) and I settled down to wait for my coach. Only.. 3 and a half hours. Blah. By this point, I was a pro, so I...got out of my book and did some more reading! Also snoozed a bit.

Coach ride to Cambridge was uneventful, but I got some nice(ish) pictures.

Overcast, obviously, but still pretty! It's also rather cold. Slightly unpleasant after Atlanta. I am all settled in now, and am back in my spot in the library! A long few months lie ahead..

The Green Mountain State, Part One

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 19:16:00 +0000

Friday afternoon we set off for Vermont. We got to enjoy Atlanta traffic on our way to the airport. Joy.

After cutting it very close, we managed to get our bags checked and were on our way to the plane.

Good plane provisions.

Ah, JFK. Lovely place.

We managed to find a tasty dinner during our New York layover, supplemented by piles of my baked goods.

As we boarded our plane to Burlington, somehow we were there first ones on! I'm not sure I've ever seen an empty plane before.

We arrived in Burlington around 11, and met Dad whose flight from Cleveland had landed slightly earlier. We headed straight to our hotel near the airport, and crashed hard.

The next morning we loaded into our little rental car..

..oogled the snow..

..got provisions..

..and were on the road!

We arrived in Middlebury.

We arrived at Nana and PopPop's cottage, said hello and visited for a little while before heading to the grocery store for lunch goodies. Bertolet family staples:

A shared love of mine and PopPop's.

After lunch, we went back through Middlebury to visit Otter Creek Brewery.

We got a sampler to taste the goods.

After a brief stop at our hotel for a nap, and grocery stop number two, it was back to Nana and Poppop's, where we made dinner (Jamie Oliver's Broccoli & Anchovy Orecchiette, along with Aunt & Uncle.

Finished off with carrot cake! (I had to bake something..)

And some of Vermont's finest..

Further update to come later!

Edible Atlanta

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 19:31:00 +0000

I've been in Atltana now since Sunday night, and pretty much everything I've done has involved eating. Story of my life I suppose.

On Wednesday, however, I ventured out of the apartment, and drove to Norcross, which, as it turns out, is a lovely little town along a railroad. My destination was actually this place:

A British store! I just went in to have a look - it's strange how what's found in every corner shop over there is a novelty here.

I walked down the street to look for a coffee shop, and found one without any trouble.

Had a coffee and did a bit of work while watching the trains go by.

A train!

I went to pick up Mummy at work, and we drove to our favourite Sushi place, Mori House. A side note: on Wednesday, I drove on four separate streets all named some variety of Peachtree. Creativity at its finest. Anyway, this is now my second trip to Atlanta, and my second trip to Mori House. So, so, soo delicious.

A pretty thorough effort.

Thursday continued with more baking adventures. I started the day with whole wheat fig newtons.

Our lack of a food processor meant this was a slightly chunkier interpretation, but they still taste delicious.

In the afternoon I explored local coffee offerings, and walked down the street to Library Coffee Co. The place had library in its name, it had to be good!

It was good, and a really easy walk from Mom's apartment. Plus, there was a Greek flag right outside!

Now off to the airport for a weekend jaunt to Vermont.. Hopefully I'll be able to internet from the hotel!

Hotlanta!

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 18:40:00 +0000

So the 'getting there' process was probably my easiest trip back to the States..ever. Like I said, I had a non-stop flight for the first time, so when I got off the plane that was it! Well, wasn't quite it.. There was an absolutely massive customs queue, but I did my standard anti-social thing and just stuck my head in my book and ignored everything going on around me. Eventually made it through, and then found I had to recheck my bags and then re-collect them at the main baggage claim.. I still don't understand this. Whatever. Also, I got up/left Cambridge at a civilised hour. Made a big difference to how I felt the whole trip (alive, in other words).

I was met by the parentals at the top of the escalator, and they promptly greeted me with a mini pre-Easter basket with food. I have excellent parents :) (Blurry photo because I couldn't be bothered to stop and let the camera focus).

Included gum, gummies, Silly Putty (for stress relief) and purple Peeps! Peeps! They are actually kind of disgusting, but.. I still eat them and love them. Why..? I don't know.

Anwyay, we took the MARTA (the public transport train thingy) to Mom's new apartment.

Strange that I was on the London Underground the day before. I always have a few days of disorientation - not because of jet lag, but because of how different when I am is from where I've come from, and how easy it is to get from one place to the other. Won't get too existential - back to food.

We dropped my bags off at the apartment, and then walked literally next door to check out Mellow Mushroom Pizza. A funky place with a pretty delicious looking menu. I just noticed I failed to take a picture of the pizza. I was that eager to dig in.. I did manage to snap a shot of the pizza we got to split. It was better than this photo indicates.

The next day, Monday, I was ready to get my hands dirty in the kitchen. Dad and I walked down the street to Kroger, where I wandered around and oogled for a while (such abundance!! such variety!!) Mummy always knows best and had stocked up her pantry with a selection of literally all my favourites, so I only needed to get specifics for the pile of recipes I've been accumulating.

Day One baking adventures :

Savoury Greek muffins, with black olives, a bit of onion, and the occasional sprinkling of feta.

Second round: soft pretzels!

The delicious day continued with sushi for dinner.

Right behind the sign for the restaurant was this gem. Ah, the South.

One of the things I never really eat while I'm in Cam is sushi.. too expensive, not enough substance. However, when I'm with the parents..it's usually the first thing I ask for when I'm home. (That, and Mexican).

We started with Kalamari (an essential).

Seaweed salad, another staple.

And the Sushi itself! After a lot of snacking on my goodies, I wasn't hugely hungry, but this was still delicious.

The next morning, I got started early, right after hitting the gym in the apartment complex.

Blueberry Muffins a la Betty Crocker. Betty knows what she's doing. Delicious.

Dad and I had a morning jaunt to Starbucks for some internet and caffeine.

Afternoon baking success as well:

Wheat Thins! These taste just like the real thing, and are completely delicious. Mmm.

Mom and I decided to stay in for dinner, and walked to Kroger for some more tasties. Pretty scenery.

The British section of Kroger. Heh.

And

Dinner was our take on this rather delicious recipe - pasta with asparagus and lemon.

Looks appetising in the flourescent light, no? Well, it was.

Day three in Atlanta (today) and the culinary adventures continue.

We woke up slightly late this morning, and I drove mom to work, came home and needed something sweet. Thus, peanut butter cookies. Found an easy recipe, and they were delicious.

I have literally eaten half the batch. Note the gaps on the trays. And this was while they were still hot.. Peanut butter for breakfast is healthy right? :s Blergh.

Post breakfast binge, I decided to attempt something I've wanted to make for a while, but have been limited by my lack of electric mixer. Not keen to beat egg whites into stiff peaks by hand. I wanted to make Macaroons. And used this excellent step by step guide. Despite a number of rather basic errors, something vaguely passable resulted.

For one thing, I think I actually beat the eggs to much, as I ended up with quite a few pointy pieces. Plus, the almond meal I used had the skins as well, so they didn't look very pretty. Plus, the jam I used for the filling didn't quite.. mix in.. I'm not sure.. but! These look cute, right?

The colours are..distinctly off. Not sure why, as I used more food colouring than the recipe calling for and although the egg whites looked nice and pink, these don't. But the filling is purple? Oh whatever. They taste surprisingly nice.

Ok ok, I know they look nothing like macaroons. In fact, when I stepped back to look at this scene I actually laughed out loud. There is something kind of endearing about their ridiculousness though.. They really are ludicrous.

It was a fun attempt..

Anyway, that's all for now. Further foodie adventures on the cards for tonight as we meet up with family friends. I'm sure I'll have recovered from my current state of food coma by then!

ManHoRR

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 02:25:00 +0000

Finally made it to Atlanta, and after some internet issues in Mom's apartment, all connected and ready to blog.

First things first - recap of London adventures on Saturday. Our 1st Men's VIII was competiting in the Head of the River Race, the men's version of the race I competed in two weeks ago. (Man HoRR.. Get it?) Since I am basically a groupie, I went along with a few friends. We decided to camp out on Hammersmith Bridge to get the best view of the river.

So much bigger than the Cam!

The second reason we wanted the spot on Hammersmith was because I brought along our club flag to hang off the bridge, so the boys would see it as they came under the bridge.

That's our club emblem, the 'cat and buns', along with the motto, 'Fama super aethera notus' (Our fame is known to the heaven's above) which comes from the Aeneid. Modest I know. :)

We arrived in plenty of time to make sure we got a good spot, and thus got to see the boys rowing up to the start.

We cheered to make sure they knew we were there. Hammersmith is about 5k into a 7k race, so it's nice to have something to push off for the final (horrific) 2ishk.

The bridge filled up, as crews continued rowing up to the start.

When the race started, we proved to have an awesome view. I put on the zoom lens and proceeded to photo-stalk. A selection:

These two crews are Leander and Molesey - probably the two best clubs in Britain.

Our boys.

For some reason someone had hung a Union Jack on the bridge..

There were over 400 crews competing, so after about 250 we decided to start walking down to the finish at Putney to meet the guys after their race. Plus, the path was along the river so we got to continue watching the action.

When we managed to find the boys, we loitered for a while as they put their boat back on the trailer, got changed, etc., and then we set out in search of a quick bite to eat before heading back to Cam. As we walked, the sun set.

Last picture of the night...Earl's Court Underground station..

Holidays..?

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 09:47:00 +0000

Friday! The end of this week marks my second official week of Easter 'holidays.' Ha. Holidays. Cambridge really doesn't understand this concept very well. Every break I've had since being here, I've had some form of work to do. This includes the summer holidays. To be fair, we have huge breaks. Summer is three+ months, while Christmas is 6 weeks, and Easter is 4/5. However, 'break?' Not really.

I've now spent the first two weeks of my holiday still in Cambridge, rowing, and living in the library. It's been pretty nice actually - not too many people around, most of my friends still here, going to the Boat Race, enjoying the sun (from the window..), etc..

On Saturday, I'll be going to London yet again (third week in a row!) for the Men's Head of the River Race. Now, I am obviously not a man, but I am going because the boys are going. As in, First and Third are sending a Men's VIII, and since this is made up of my friends, I'm going to tag along and be paparazzi-y some more.

The more exciting news, however, is that I'm going home on Sunday! Well, 'home' being a blanket term for 'back to the States.' I'm actually flying to Atlanta to hang out with Mom while she works, and then heading up to Vermont next weekend to visit the grandparents and other various family members. I'll be back in Cambridge middle of next week, but this means I will get a holiday! I will probably spend most of next week in Starbucks/various coffee shops with my nose in my books, but I've decided not to take any work with me to Vermont. We're only going to be there for two days, but I am giving myself a proper break.

The main reason I'm excited to get down to Atlanta (aside from seeing my parents, of course) is my mom's apartment has a fully stocked kitchen! (I debated writing that in capital letters. That's how exciting this is.) I have a ridiculously long list of everything I want to cook, and haven't been able to since all I have in my room is a microwave. (This hasn't stopped me though - I have perfected the microwave oatmeal cookie. Mm.)

Other exiting things to do with my trip:
1. I am flying directly to Atlanta. As in, no stops. This is immense. I always ALWAYS have to change somewhere when flying to Cleveland. This is annoying, but not a big deal. The main high point of a direct flight is that I leave Heathrow at 2.30PM. In the afternoon! Because I usually have to make a connection, the latest I think I've ever left is around 10 in the morning. This sounds reasonable, before you think about getting to the airport two hours before the flight, and the fact that Heathrow is a 3 hour bus ride from Cambridge, and that the buses don't leave that often. (not to mention Gatwick is four hours away). What I'm saying is, I usually get a bus that leaves Cambridge at 3AM. Literally 3AM. I cannot express how miserable this is. It's like sneaking away in the middle of the night. HOWEVER. This time around, I get to leave on a coach at 9. What a civilised hour!!

2. I visited the Cambridge normal library and have an exciting stack of non-academic books to feast on during my trip. This, along with treating myself to way more food than I need in the airport, is probably the highlight of travel. I get myself something from Starbucks, that I wouldn't normally splurge on, and then take advantage of the '3 for 2' deals at WH Smith in the airport and buy more books than I need. I'm being sensible this time by taking library books!

I've realised there is pretty much nothing interesting in this entire post. No photos. I will finish on a tangent that includes photographic evidence.

For some reason, the British make really strangely shaped gummy candy. You know, like gummy worms? Except weirder. I love them, don't get me wrong. Delicious and tasty. But, this is kind of bizarre, isn't it?

Smile!

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 10:04:00 +0000

I'm in the library. Again.

However, procrastination has won, at least for a minute.

This made me smile!

Little things in life..

80-76

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:11:00 +0000

Well, Cambridge didn't win the boat race. The series now stands in total 80 wins for Cambridge, 76 wins for Oxford. Although the result was a little disappointing, the whole day was great.

We met at the station Saturday around noon, and stocked up on edible goodies for the train. By 'we' I think there were about 12 of us travelling together, and we met more friends along the way. This time around, the ticket buying process was straightforward and we weren't harassed by any angry people. Always a plus. We managed to get a compartment on the train literally all to ourselves, so spread out our food and settled in.

Yes, that is beer. I know people who like to start early. I should note, however, it was at least past noon by this point. The whole journey was fun, while I played paparazzi with my friends.

Through the tube, a quick stop for food, and a walk to the river. We settled down to eat and wait, and situated ourselves in front of one of the big screens.

We staked out a spot by the wall so that we'd be able to actually see some of the racing as it went by! Since we were there so early we got to hang around there for a while. Fortunately, it was relatively warm (and dry!) so was quite pleasant.

Edibles along the wall. That meat was actually pork tongue.. Not mine, I hasten to add.

We waited and slowly but surely the crowds grew and grew.

I got decked out in Cambridge blue..

The helicopters started circling..

People used every possible vantage point.. (Sadly, I even know these guys..)

And the first race came into sight!!

First view coming under Hammersmith Bridge, and our boys are down. This is the reserve race, Goldie (the Cambridge crew) vs. Isis (the Oxford crew). The guys in the Gold are Goldie. Surprise.

Things aren't looking so great for the Light Blues..

The fleet that follows..

Between races some kind of James Bond boat went by..

We watched the rest of the race on the big screen, and sadly Isis won. Not be deflated, we turned our attention back to Hammersmith to wait for The Boat Race to come around the bend.

First view - see if you can spot the actual crews!

Here they come! Cambridge slightly behind.

But they were still in the game!

The fleet that follows..try and spot the Cambridge blue beanies, denoting old Blues who represented Cambridge in the Boat Race.

We watched the rest of the rest on the screen - although it was slightly obstructed..

After the race, we loitered for a while, watched the rest of the coverage on the big screen, and then headed back to the Tube to find a pub! We ended up going to Fleet Street, which is a lawyery, bankery district. Here are the Royal Courts of Justice.

View down Fleet Street, St. Paul's Cathedral in the dark distance

The pub we found was perfect, old and creaky and cramped, just how I like. Of course, that means it was very dark, so no decent pictures. Just a snap of us proclaiming our loyalty!

So, although it wasn't a great day for Cambridge, it was certainly fun. On Sunday, the rest of the university crews (Women, Women's Reserve, Lightweight Women, Lightweight Men) raced in Henley, and put in a good effort for Cambridge.

Since then, I've been living in the library. On the upside, I stopped in the local library today, and stocked up on non-academic goodies for some brain recharging. I just finished the book I had been working on for a while (The Yacoubian Building - I recommend) and want something that is distinctly unrelated to my looming exams. Trashy historical fiction it is!

GDBO!

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 10:49:00 +0000

Today's the day - the 157th Boat Race. Oxford v. Cambridge, the Championship Course, slightly more than 4 miles, from Putney to Mortlake, on the Thames in London.

The Boat Race is a huge piece of Oxford/Cambridge lore and tradition. First raced in 1829, when Cambridge challenged Oxford, it has been raced almost every year since, and is now a major sporting event, with around 250,000 lining the banks of the Thames to watch.

For the first time, I'm going to be one of them! In my first year, I watched Cambridge lose in an English pub in Paris. In second year, Cambridge lost whilst I was on an airplane. Last year, Cambridge won as I jumped up and down alone in our living room in Cleveland, streaming the BBC on my laptop. This year, I'm going to be there.

I am so so excited to finally get to experience this in person. I'm about to head down to the station to catch the train into London - cameras fully charged and ready to go!

GDBO.

(--- ---- bloody Oxford)

Library Love. Sort Of..

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 19:12:00 +0000

This topic falls under a more general catergory of 'things I love. Full stop' rather than things I love about England. The problem is, however, that my relationship in this case is slightly more complex.

Historically, I have always loved libraries, since I knew what a book was. I have vivid memories of visits to the local library in Dayton, where I always took part in the summer contests they hosted to get kids reading. During holidays, even now, I head to the library and come back with stacks of books, way too many for me to ever get through, but I just can't resist! Anyway, my love of reading is something that's been a huge part of my life, and I'm sure will continue to be.

Since coming to Cambridge, however, the library has taken on a somewhat different persona. It is now a place of occasional stress and doom. To be fair, I can't usually spend more than an hour in here without getting distracted by an exciting book, so I certainly still get enjoyment out of it. The problem is that, for example, today it looks like this outside.

Yes, those are bars on the window. Only a little depressing, right? Here's a better view:

By the way, the library I'm talking about is the Trinity library, my college library. As college libraries go, it's a pretty good one. Bright, spacious, etc., but the bars on the windows take it a step slightly too far in my opinion. In addition, someone failed pretty spectacularly in printing out the labels for the different sections:

I suppose I'm feeling affectionate toward the college library right now, as it is officially the Easter holidays and so it's not full of first-years who think they should be in here 24/7. Granted, when Easter Term starts it will be crammed, and I will probably be keeping my distance. Fortunately, there are about 15 other libraries in Cambridge I can legitimately use. For one thing, every college has their own library, although obviously we don't use others'. Each faculty also has their own, which most anyone can use, as long as you can pretend to have some vague connection with the subject. (I'm an (occasional) fan of the History Faculty, Divinity Faculty, and Classics Faculty. My own, the Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Faculty, has a horrific library, with a central working area with tables surrounded by books, which creates some kind of unpleasant fishbowl effect. Blergh.)

There is also the University Library. Once you get past its rather terrifying appearance (I'm always struck by it's resemblance to a concentration camp. I don't say this in jest, it really is scary. It was used in the filming of 1984 apparently.) Anyway, the thing is huge. And as such is filled with lots of little corners for quiet working. Still, the place stresses me out in general. But, there is a tea room attached, so at least food is easily accessible.

(Side rant: WHY must people wear flip flops in the library!?! Our library is pretty silent, so people tramping back and forth is slightly disruptive, people flip-flopping up and down the length of the library is seriously irritating. RAGE.)

Ok, feel better having that out of my system.

Anyway, I love libraries, I really do. And I love the Trinity library. Even when it's busy, at least it's filled with geeks like me. On Wednesday I was working here in the morning, and the fire alarm went off. After about 20 seconds of extremely loud wailing, it stopped. The entire time, no one moved. A couple people looked around, but no one was hugely concerned. We are such nerds.

(Another rant: If you have a cold, and still need to be in the library, PLEASE BRING TISSUES, so everyone doesn't have to listen to you sniffling!! Gah!)

(Final rant: If you need to talk to yourself while you study, please stay in your room!! I spent a few hours this afternoon across from a guy who was literally reading his notes to himself under his breath. Not ok.)

Conclusion: I love libraries. I really do. I'm just grumpy sometimes. It happens :)

Women's Head of the River Race

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 11:53:00 +0000

Recap from Saturday's adventure - my crew and I ventured to London to race the Women's Head of the River Race(WeHoRR), 7k on the Thames.

We met for crew breakfast in hall, and then proceeded to the station to get the train into London. The adventures began right away, as we had an altercation with some people in the queue for tickets. It turns out you can only buy tickets one at a time on the machines, and there were seven of us. The plan had been for one person to get all the tickets to save time, but once we realised we had to get each one separately, we figured it made sense for us each to pay for them individually. Three separate people in the queue saw this and started freaking out, yelling at us about queue skipping, being foreign and not understanding the concept of queues, not considering other people's feelings, being inexcusably rude and ignorant, etc. It was really quite unpleasant. I'm not sure I've ever had anyone have a go at me quite like that. In the end, Julia ended up buying each ticket individually herself, because they couldn't handle us 'skipping the queue,' although it of course made no difference to the amount of time we had to wait. Three of us tried to explain to these people the situation, but they were having none of it. It was quite horrible actually, but we eventually got our tickets, although we missed the train we were aiming for. Fortunately, there is no shortage of trains on Saturday morning, so we hopped on the next one.

A beautiful day for an adventure

Obviously, we had provisions for the train. Percy Pig makes an appearance again

It was an absolutely stunning day

From King's Cross, we grabbed the Tube to Hammersmith (I love the Tube! I love London!)

We walked from the station to Hammersmith Bridge/the river - the tide was up and the river was sparkling!

We were using the facilities of Auriol Kensington Rowing Club, which is where we had a week-long training camp at the start of this term. (Actually, that is blog worthy, at some point). In any case, we were pretty familiar with the area, and the boathouse. It's located in between two pubs, and lots of people were out enjoying the weather and activity.

Once we had settled in, we had to deal with our boat. In order to get it from Cambridge to London, we had to de-rig (take off all the metal bits, etc., and take the boat apart (it divides into two halves)), and put it on a trailer to get to London. Unfortunately, the trailer was parked very very (very) far away from where we were putting the boat on the water, so there was a lot of carrying to be done.

Putting the boat back together

Look what I found!

Our blades, ready to go

Getting on the water (this was so much easier than on training camp, when the tide was always out. Will do a 'then and now' picture for side-by-side comparison)

(in January)

A) Note the weather. B) Not sure you can quite tell from the photo, but that is a metal grated ramp at about a forty five degree angle. When carrying a boat that weighs rather a lot, this entire process was pretty unpleasant. Going straight out onto the pontoon this weekend was a treat! (Of course, by the time the race was over, the tide was considerably lower so we did have to go up the ramp.. but that's another story).

On the water - my blade. Notice how flat the water is. This is not normal for the Tideway! Because it's such a big river, it's usually pretty choppy. We were very lucky.

Whole crew while we're waiting for the start. There are more than 300 crews that race WeHoRR, so there is a lot of loitering while all the crews get into position.

Whilst we were waiting around, I took advantage of the opportunity to recline. Yes, I am lying down in the boat.

Obviously I don't have any photos from the race, but because it's quite a big race, there are a lot of professional photographers taking pictures for purchase. Here are a couple links to some of these.

The race itself was ok, ish. We were missing 3 members of our Lents crew, and had about three outings together before the race, and our lack of experience and consistency showed during the race. Of course, we knew going into the race that we didn't have the experience in the boat, so we didn't have huge expectations. At least it was sunny!

By the time we got off the water, the sun was setting, and the river was even more beautiful.

Once we had dealt with the boat (de-rig again, carry it back to the trailer, etc.) we got changed and joined current and past members of First & Third for a pub crawl. There is an annual 'Boat Race pub crawl' (usually nearer to the actual Boat Race, but whatever), which visits pubs along the Boat Race course (the reverse of the WeHoRR course). They got started whilst we were racing (this meant we got a massive cheer as we rowed past them during the race :) ), and we joined them at pub number six, The Old Ship.

By this point, my camera battery was dying, but I did manage to get a photo of the 'super moon.' (I didn't actually know about this in advance, but I certainly noticed once the sun had set!

We continued on to The Black Lion, The Bull's Head, Ye White Hart, and ending at The Ship. This was quite enough for me, no lunch + racing meant my pint or two (or three) of cider was felt quite quickly. Nevertheless, wandering around London was awesome, as was pub crawling. At the end, we stopped for food at a Thai/curry place, as by that point we were all very very desperate for some sustenance. I had some simple egg fried noodles, which were tasty and did the job. It was a good way to finish off the night!

All in all, it was another surreal experience - visiting lots of British pubs with lots of British people, just one of the crowd! It was really great fun. There was, however, quite a lot of walking. The boat race course is 7k long, and we joined in about 2k in.. We also had to walk probably another 25-30 minutes to get to my friend's car. (She drove down from Cambridge and volunteered to take me back, as I wasn't hugely keen on cycling back from the Cambridge station post-several pints, plus I'd forgotten my bicycle lights). When we finally reached the car, I promptly fell asleep until we were essentially outside my door.

Yesterday was spent sleeping, eating, procrastinating, erging, and hanging out with friends before I begin the serious holiday work. (I've inaugurated that today by writing this mammoth post.. Hmm..)

This afternoon the plan is to attempt to go out (rowing) in a double (two people, four oars, high likelihood of falling in. Yikes). Will see how that goes!

Foodie Friday

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 23:33:00 +0000

I've had a strange day that has involved pretty much nothing but rowing, sleeping, and eating. After our outing this morning, I went back to bed, and crashed until nearly 3 o'clock. I suppose that's my body telling me it really needed some rest!

In any case, I've had some exciting food exploits.

First of all, this mysterious thing

What is this strange creature? I suppose it just looks like water in a blue cup. However, it's not. It's blue Jell-o! I've become a little obsessed with Jello (or jelly, as we say here) recently, and I'm not sure why. It's an easy snack and I don't feel guilty if I eat three helpings.. The thing is, I usually buy it here, and Sainsbury's sells three flavours of the powdered stuff: Strawberry, Blackcurrant, and Raspberry. All three are good, but they're getting old. I did, however, have an actual Jell-o brand box hiding in the my cupboard, and I decided to make it yesterday. So, today I had blue Jello!

The strange thing is, I think this is the first time in at least ten years I've eaten blue Jell-o and the taste was so instantly transporting it was quite odd actually.

When I woke up from my basically day-consuming nap, I was hungry, obviously, and wanted cookies. (I know that doesn't really follow, that's just how my stomach/mind works). I don't have any cookies in my room (I try and avoid buying them, otherwise I just eat the whole packet. Seriously...) so got creative and googled 'microwave oatmeal cookie.' I have attempted this before actually, but somehow managed to fail. So I tried again! Using this recipe, I managed to produce something pretty delicious. I used frozen fruit instead of raisins, which made it look quite pretty too!

For dinner, creativity was also required as hall was closed this evening for another function. I had booked the BA Rooms (a big room with a massive kitchen for grad students to use. I count as a grad because I'm a 4th year!) so Julia and I decided to cook. We wanted to make soft pretzels using this recipe I stumbled upon, but I failed to read the fine print that asks for the dough to rest for an hour. And we were hungry. So, made some easy pasta - tagiatelle with spinach, garlic and cheese. Yum. (As per usual, this looks distinctly less appetising than it actually was).

At this point, my cooking juices had just been awakened, and I wasn't going to be satisfied until I had used my favourite part of the kitchen - the oven. Baking!! So, I quickly looked through the huge collection of recipes I've bookmarked, and found this one for Fudge Striped Shortbread cookies. Since we were hungry and mooching ingredients from the communal stores (the room is quite well stocked actually), I made a few adaptations/omissions, the main one being that rather than let the cookies cool and drizzle them in chocolate, we just dipped the warm-ish cookies into melted chocolate. Also by this point in the evening, other friends had arrived lured by the promise of baked goods, so I didn't manage a very decent photo. Still, they tasted incredible!

A pretty delicious day!

Tomorrow, I'm off to London with my crew to race the Women's Head of the River Race, down the Thames! It's the same course as the Oxford/Cambridge boat race (which is next week!), except the opposite direction, and it is long. 7k in total, although it's more like 5k of racing because the stream is so fast. Still, not hugely enjoyable on the body. In any case, rowing in London is always really exciting, as is a day out from Cambridge!

I will certainly be bringing my camera! :)

The End.. ish

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 22:32:00 +0000

So, Lent Term is officially over tomorrow. I've been so caught up in just getting there in one piece that I haven't quite realised that this is my last non-exam term in Cambridge. Yikes. To be honest, I'm not sure I'm ready to reflect on it quite yet. For one thing, I'm not finished.

My day today has been nonstop (probably my favourite kind of day actually). At the boathouse at 7.30, straight to a very quick breakfast in hall, straight to two supervisions back to back. Stopped to pump up my bike tyres and buy some grapes from the market (yes, very random), met a friend for coffee, library, gym for weights, and now here I am!

There are a couple of things about this day that have made me happy.

1. An early outing! By this point in term, I am rather sleepy most of the time, so getting up at 6 something isn't hugely appreciated. Once I'm up and on the river though, it's quite lovely. Plus, the days are getting longer so it is actually light when I get up. Nothing like making one's way to the boathouse in the dark..

2. Coffee with friends. Always good to catch up.

3. Weights session. I know this sounds kind of weird, but earlier in term we (my crew) started doing weekly weights sessions in the college gym, and I'm really enjoying them! I'm still not really accustomed to thinking of myself as an athlete in any sense, and strength training makes me feel powerful! Plus, I've been having some weird knee/hamstring issue for quite a while now, and the trainer gave me some exercises and things which have already make it feel better! I'm encouraged.

4. My lunch! I splurged in Sainsbury's yesterday and went on a healthy food kick. I was very proud of the lunch I managed to concoct today.

Spinach, broccoli, Greek olives (all the way from Greece!), and pearl barley, which I 'cooked' by soaking it in hot water, since I don't have a stove top.. Om nom nom!

Bedtime now, 7 o'clock at the boathouse tomorrow!