(no subject)
Hey, so I decided to just cross-post my Europe blog writings into LJ so those of you who are on here don't have to save an extra link to read what I've written (kind of me, I know). Here's my latest one:
Tonight my house is having a party for my housemate Kasi's birthday. I'm making Spanish rice for burritos and am way excited since I haven't had a burrito since June! I'm having Freebirds the MINUTE I get back to Santa Barbara, day or night. Speaking of food, that's one of the main differences I've noticed about living here - they just have different kinds of food available. The basics are the same, but they have a lot of types of curry/Indian sauces available as well as naan and poppadoms, whereas we don't really in the US (or else I haven't been paying attention). However, they only have a TINY bit of Mexican-type food. I had to buy Doritos-brand salsa for lack of any other kind (it tasted ok, thankfully). They have pinto beans rarely and refried beans only in one variety in a special section in the store where they sell the tortillas and salsa and fajita mix all in one (tiny) spot. One last food difference: they have ZERO boxed mac and cheese. They have it in a can, which is frankly disgusting. I dealt with this by making my own mac and cheese last week with my friends Leili and Erin from Indiana - it turned out pretty well and hit the spot for all of us.
Another difference I've noticed (while I'm on differences) is that people park whatever direction they want on the street. They drive on the left but will pull over to the right and park facing that direction, and someone else will park right in front of them facing the other way. I know people do this sometimes in the US, but not nearly as often. Just a random thing I thought I'd share.
I'm getting a real multi-cultural experience over here. Kent is a very international university and so I've met lots of French, Spanish, and German students (with the occasional Belgian or Greek [Grecian?] thrown in). Plus my South Korean housemate who's super cheery and cute. I was going to have her
teach me some phrases but so far all I know how to say is "hello", which is pronounced
something like "Anyong ha se yo". Mental note to have her teach me some more things! My
Spanish housemate Miriam has her friends Isa and Aina over all the time and I like to hang out
with them (and eat the tortillas they make.. they're REAL tortillas made with egg and onion and
potato. YUM). My French housemate Laurene likes to talk about politics, especially how evil Sarkozy is. Of course I really like hanging out with my British housemates as well, they tie us all
together. Well it's probably good that I'm being interrupted by having to leave for an appointment in a few minutes.. my other posts were too long. I'll try to update again soon!
Tonight my house is having a party for my housemate Kasi's birthday. I'm making Spanish rice for burritos and am way excited since I haven't had a burrito since June! I'm having Freebirds the MINUTE I get back to Santa Barbara, day or night. Speaking of food, that's one of the main differences I've noticed about living here - they just have different kinds of food available. The basics are the same, but they have a lot of types of curry/Indian sauces available as well as naan and poppadoms, whereas we don't really in the US (or else I haven't been paying attention). However, they only have a TINY bit of Mexican-type food. I had to buy Doritos-brand salsa for lack of any other kind (it tasted ok, thankfully). They have pinto beans rarely and refried beans only in one variety in a special section in the store where they sell the tortillas and salsa and fajita mix all in one (tiny) spot. One last food difference: they have ZERO boxed mac and cheese. They have it in a can, which is frankly disgusting. I dealt with this by making my own mac and cheese last week with my friends Leili and Erin from Indiana - it turned out pretty well and hit the spot for all of us.
Another difference I've noticed (while I'm on differences) is that people park whatever direction they want on the street. They drive on the left but will pull over to the right and park facing that direction, and someone else will park right in front of them facing the other way. I know people do this sometimes in the US, but not nearly as often. Just a random thing I thought I'd share.
I'm getting a real multi-cultural experience over here. Kent is a very international university and so I've met lots of French, Spanish, and German students (with the occasional Belgian or Greek [Grecian?] thrown in). Plus my South Korean housemate who's super cheery and cute. I was going to have her
teach me some phrases but so far all I know how to say is "hello", which is pronounced
something like "Anyong ha se yo". Mental note to have her teach me some more things! My
Spanish housemate Miriam has her friends Isa and Aina over all the time and I like to hang out
with them (and eat the tortillas they make.. they're REAL tortillas made with egg and onion and
potato. YUM). My French housemate Laurene likes to talk about politics, especially how evil Sarkozy is. Of course I really like hanging out with my British housemates as well, they tie us all
together. Well it's probably good that I'm being interrupted by having to leave for an appointment in a few minutes.. my other posts were too long. I'll try to update again soon!