American Food

There was an event at John's school tonight for the international students. Everyone was supposed to bring a dish from their country. We decided to try to make jalapeno poppers and Buffalo wings.

Fortunately, our car rental started today, so we were able to drive to one of the larger grocery stores. We found all the ingredients for making Buffalo wings, but no jalapenos. There were some fresh red chili peppers so we decided to try using them instead.

I made some vegan chili poppers just in case anyone who was coming was a vegan. Those I stuffed with a mixture of tofu, garlic, and a little oil and vinegar. I coated them with oil and gave them a light flour batter. This batter came off as soon as John put them in the oil.

The regular chili poppers were stuffed with cream cheese and had egg holding the batter on instead of oil. That batter stayed on a little better in the fry pan. My finger tips still burn from pitting the chilies.

John made the Buffalo wing sauce from the Anchor Bar recipe. It's mostly butter, cayenne pepper, and Tabasco sauce. Then he fried the wings and coated them in the sauce.

At the dinner we had lots of good international foods and our contributions were well received. Pretty much everyone liked the Buffalo wings. The chilies were a little hotter than we imagined. People from European countries had the hardest time with them, but the Nigerians said that they were just right.

As always it was great to share dinner with the other students. I hope we will all be able to get together again before everyone leaves for the summer.

Ten Bells

On Friday night John and I went to a birthday party for Ashby. I didn't write about it on Friday because once we got home the "Peaches" post was about all I could manage.

We started out at a pub near where Ashby and Christine live called Ten Bells. A lot of people from school were there. Ashby and a friend from the US played guitar for a while, which was pretty awesome. My favorite were the blues songs.

I talked to various law school people until the concert was over and then wandered over to the table with John and two of his students who are both Irish and are both studying in the US next year. I think my favorite part of the night was when John interrupted the conversation I was having with one of the Irish guys who yelled at him, "Hey, we're talking about international politics here!" It made me feel smart. (Just don't ask me to remember the specifics of the conversation now.)

The party headed over to Frank's Bar, where Christine works and where we were promised cake. John and I ended up on the patio with the Irish guys where John recounted the "bloody eye" story and we heard all about one of the young men's love interests. "She isn't a wee lass, if you know what I'm sayin'. She's quite busty." (I guess grown men aren't much different from grade school boys.)

Overall it was a pretty good night during which I didn't drink too much, but may have eaten too little.

Halfway There

John took his last final today and is officially finished with his first semester!

He celebrated by coming home and drinking wine out of a coffee cup.

Because we were out of milk, orange juice, and coke.

And he doesn't believe in water.

I celebrated by going to the store and buying milk, orange juice, and toothpaste.

And small sliced bread. The big bread makes big sandwiches and they are too big for me.

People

John told me some people from school were going to eat at the bar where Christine (of Ashby and Christine, the people who let us live with them when we were homeless) works after class today. It took some strategic planning on my part to get there. It starts getting dark at 4pm here and John's class was getting out at 7pm. So, I left the flat at 4 and walked down town. I stayed in the Forum (first the library, then the coffee shop) until John came to meet me. (I took my lap top and got lots of work done, but unfortunately couldn't get internet.) Then we went to Frank's Bar.

I had such a great time talking to people. Real people. Not an interview. Not people I'm volunteering for. College kid people. People like me. Except from lots of different countries. Drinking and talking about the problem with translating jokes into another language people. Oh man, I miss college. No, I just miss people. I need to get out more.

Four Things You Need to Know

1. John is a double esquire because he passed the Georgia and Tennessee bar exams!

2. I finally finished Just Henry and reviewed it in my other blog.

3. John explored our loft. It has a bed pallet in it. Come one come all. We now have two guest beds, one pull-out couch, and one pallet, all in different rooms!

4. About.com has guitar tabs for Christmas music.

Nelsonesque

First things first. From this day forward John shall be known as John esquire because he passed the Georgia bar!!! (We haven't heard from Tennessee yet.)

I took another trip to Thetford today to observe what they do for "Ancient House Alive" days. I've observed a few different events since moving here but this was by far the most fun. I stood drinking tea amongst women in Roman and Iceni costumes talking about everything from Roman Briton to what the locals think of Thomas Paine. I really enjoyed being around the other volunteers and seeing what they do. They each designed their own station. There was Roman food in the kitchen, an olive tree, pipe cleaner torc bracelets, and paper mosaics. I'm looking forward to participating in the coming months and designing my own station! They also have some knitting events that I might go to so I can learn a few things.

As I walked from Ancient House to the train station it started hailing.

After lunch John wanted to go into town to buy some warm clothes and get an iphone. We had a very productive trip. On our way back to the flat we stopped at the co-op to get some candy. I put a pumpkin picture in the window so kids would know we were participating in Halloween. It was worth it because we did get one trick-or-treater. He had on a shirt with skeletons and a witches hat with stars. Not sure what he was other than cute. I think John and I will find a use for the left over candy.

Oh, and I'm wearing the spiderweb tights today with my black dress. Not quite a costume, but Halloweeny.