step 2
Back in February, when my original summer plans started looking completely infeasible, I had to sit down and ask myself what I really wanted out of the summer. Heading the list was "get out of the U.S. for a while." But also pretty high up was "living situation." I knew I wanted to live more or less on my own, in an apartment, and get a warmup for the adult life I'm warned I'll have to deal with two years from now. I wanted to be in charge of myself as much as I could.
The main change in living in an apartment, I knew, would be that I'd have to budget for and deal with all my own food. There would be no dining hall 100 feet away with a prepaid buffet 3-meals-a-day plan. It was a challenge I was looking forward to.
Tonight, I made an inventory of what my roommate and I had in the pantry; then I went to the grocery store around the corner, bought a few more things (olive oil, almonds, bouillon cubes, turkey slices, pepper), and then came back and started cooking dinner. I had to time boiling two different dishes, use a plastic ladle to prop up the cover from the crockpot so I could use it to cover the pan, and manage with approximately a cutting board's worth of counter space.
In the end, I had 4-cheese risotto and and sautéed green beans with almonds and a glass of cloyingly sweet wine, and it tasted good and I was proud.
I even did the dishes afterwards.
The main change in living in an apartment, I knew, would be that I'd have to budget for and deal with all my own food. There would be no dining hall 100 feet away with a prepaid buffet 3-meals-a-day plan. It was a challenge I was looking forward to.
Tonight, I made an inventory of what my roommate and I had in the pantry; then I went to the grocery store around the corner, bought a few more things (olive oil, almonds, bouillon cubes, turkey slices, pepper), and then came back and started cooking dinner. I had to time boiling two different dishes, use a plastic ladle to prop up the cover from the crockpot so I could use it to cover the pan, and manage with approximately a cutting board's worth of counter space.
In the end, I had 4-cheese risotto and and sautéed green beans with almonds and a glass of cloyingly sweet wine, and it tasted good and I was proud.
I even did the dishes afterwards.