Kitchen Party

I think I can say I really love St. Andrews. It's been a busy but very good week here. I have another lengthy and weighty Virginia Woolf essay I'm working on for Monday. I've reached a point here that while I'm here for the year, it's becoming tough to think of leaving this place and just how fast the first semester is moving along. In about a month, I'll be flying back to the states (only to return, though!) I truly do miss Saint Michael's, but I think this year abroad is teaching me that I will develop a love for both places. They're so incredibly different but so special to me in completely different ways. Studying abroad is truly leaving everything and everyone you know behind for a time and sculpting a new, short-term experience elsewhere. There have been days when I feel like nobody else in this small town is like me at all, but there are just as many days that prove to me that I fit right in. I often wonder if I will be back here someday or what will happen as I leave, what will I take with me? How is this changing me? It seems to be in the little bits though. While everyday unfolds differently, just so many of the small events, words and friendships are touching and completely stick with me.

I met with my Creative Writing tutor Jacob Polley this morning. It was a really wonderful meeting/critique about my poetry thus far. Office hours here are much more formal and require an appointment in advance, but the review was so worth it. Although he always refers to me as "Lizzie" rather than the name most use, I really appreciated his feedback. While I think I have other dreams and ideas for a profession, in the back of my mind writing as a profession continues to be there. I like to think that if I really want this (do I?) maybe I could do it through a lot of work and applying myself. This certainly is the location to reform all of it too. This is completely the place and the education that serves that dream/idea.

Last night was our kitchen party! Oh, dear. It was so incredibly fun. And hilarious. Our kitchen should be equipped for eight to twelve, but there are only five of us. Joseph, Justin, Samuel, Conor and myself. The last couple of months between cooking, cleaning, eating and spending time in there we've gotten to know one another pretty well. I invited three friends and several of the girls who are friends with Joseph, Justin and Samuel came along. I had met I think everyone before, and everyone is so sweet. In addition to the five of us, I think we had fifteen other friends attend. Justin, Joseph and Samuel cook a lot of authentic asian food in our kitchen and for the kitchen (dinner) party this was no exception. They ordered mass amounts of Chinese and Japanese meats and foods from Dundee, the closest city and Scotland's fourth-largest city. Using two 'hot-pots' set up on our kitchen table surrounded by twenty students, the meats and soups and vegetables cooked all together. Conor made a banoffee pie which I had never had or heard of but it was quite good! Justin suggested to me a few weeks ago after seeing me cook pancakes that I should make some for the party. I created a triple batch of my Dad's (famous!) recipe and added coconut to each one. As the hot pot was off to a slow start and more food had to be bought, I made the pancakes first at the beginning of the party. I think I made nineteen in all throughout the night and they were such a huge success! Just as I marvelled at the seemingly confusing process of the hot pot and how that all works, Joseph, Justin, and Samuel had the same questions and interest with the pancakes and how they're made and what's in them.

This picture was taken of myself and Justin when we realized he was enjoying a pancake I had made and I was eating some Asian food (I think rice and satay sauce and dumplings) he had made.

While I worked the pancake grill, my three friends Marissa, Hannah, and Allison arrived. Hannah attends UCLA as a student (like me with Saint Michael's) and has been sorely missing Asian food - I know she really loved everything. The evening was really filled with so much laughter and food. As I tossed out pancakes to the next waiting person, the Asian girls were choosing food for me to try and reserving different specialties they were afraid "would be all gone!" Everyone I live with also know that I'm mainly-vegetarian and were so sweet in continually checking if I was okay with different meats being cooked. I think ultimately I tried everything and didn't mind at all. Vegetarianism out the window. :)

In between talking, laughing and eating, Sake, a warm Japanese wine was unveiled. Justin travelled to London yesterday and while there picked up some Sake. I was handed a tiny ceramic glass with different figures and characters painted onto it and it was quite good. It's made from rice rather than grapes giving it a very different but sweet taste.

The evening continued to progress with laughter, talking, dancing, and at the very end of the night - the five of us in the kitchen doing some massive cleaning. :) It sort of felt like the end of a Thanksgiving dinner celebration. At one point, I commented during the (large, traditionally Asian) meal to Conor (who is English), "Oh man, the pressure is on now for me to make Thanksgiving dinner next week!" Immediately, Joseph, Justin, and Samuel responded with, "What's Thanksgiving!?" Ohh dear, hahahaha not sure if that will happen at all...but the pressure is (slightly) on.  Some "family" photos are below:

 

Joseph, Justin, Samuel, myself and Conor.

:)

One of the two hot pots.

Allison, Hannah and Marissa:)

The "inspiring" portrait.

 

I'll be away for the weekend for a retreat with the Christian Union. I'm looking forward to it! I've heard how we'll be in Scotland's countryside staying in a large estate/historic house. :)