The More You Know

   

 I FORGOT TO TELL YOU A FUNNY STORY!    

     So, the first day of orientation, I sat down in a lecture hall waiting for the presentation to start. We were all international students in that room so chances were that I was sitting next to a fellow American student. I overheard someone mention Kansas so I turned around and struck up a conversation with those sitting behind me. It went something like this:
Me:(interjecting into the conversation) "Oh? My brother was born in Kansas!"
Guy: "You're from the States? Where from?"
Me: "Chicago" (Because nobody really knows where Aurora is...)
Guy: "Get out, I live in Chicago--well, work there, I live in the suburbs"
Me: As do I, though you probably don't know it too well--Aurora?
Guy: *intense stare* "What? no. way. What school do you go to?"
Me: "Aurora University...you live in Aurora too?!"
Guy: "I live not five minutes from AU, near Orchard Road"
      I can't believe it. I am practically neighbors with this kid and didn't meet him until we were at UCC, going to school in Ireland. Weird. So Mark, if you ever read this, you're invited to come over for a pint when we're back in the States! Maybe I can get a picture of us holding the Andy Aurora sign for the Historical Society? That would be a fun story.
     Also, for those of you who don't believe me when I tell you how small our apartment is I will be posting pictures of the shower, fridge, and oven in particular. The average sized kitchen fridge looks like some dorm-fridges and they are meant to be shared between 6 people or more. The shower seems to be 2 feet by 2 feet--barely enough room to turn around--as if getting my hair tamed in the morning wasn't difficult enough! The oven is closer to an EZ-bake oven... it's tiny. I bought some frozen fish and a frozen bag of chips to make with the fish this afternoon and while I thankfully found some room in out tiny freezer to keep 'em until I make it all up for dinner I'll probably have to do them one at a time. It's take about 3-4 hours. 1 hour each per fish fillet, and 1 hour each per handful of chips.... this will be an adventure...

And no, that isn't just the fridge, the section below is actually the freezer. Things aren't chilled as cold here. Sometimes you can barely tell something was chilled at all. fruit, eggs, butter, milk (in most cases) and things of that nature usually aren't chilled altogether!

Oh, and what will make baking really difficult is the striking lack of any sort of pan or dish to bake in...yup.

Oh, to add to the previously made point that my school is essentially Hogwarts, (and therefore better than yours) this is the hallway in West Wing while waiting for my history class to start--Religion and Magic in Reformation Europe: Witches, Demons, Jews, and Heretics.

The picture shown bottom-most is Lemon Curd bought at the English Market (great on toast) which is wonderful and it is joy and magic and summertime in a jar--it is lovely and I hope I can find it at home...