Week 3: Monday 9-10: Hana’s Birthday!
I talked to Hana and the family early monday morning (2am), watched her open presents and celebrated her birthday and such. After that I didn’t really do much, I waited until 6 and then went to class. Pretty uneventful but it was really nice talking to everyone at home. Especially Hana, it was the first time I have been able to talk to her since I have been here. When I talked to Sara later that evening (my time not bloomington time) I was feeling really sick, my throat hurt and I was really congested. I ended up going straight to bed and sleeping for 13 hours strait.
Tuesday 9-11:
When I woke, I was feeling a little better so I took some medicine and decided to tough it out through my long day of classes. I went to the advisor’s office to order a museum card, then headed to my first class. In my current trends in Italian Cuisine class we made two dishes, a custard similar to flan, and prosciutto wrapped turkey. Below are some pictures.
In graphic design, we got our first assignment...design a minimalistic poster for an item on the list he gave us. The list had some generic things on it, lady gaga, austin powers, homer simpson, the mask, and other things like that.
In pairing food and wine, I was in the group that was in charge of the pairing. this meant that I was wine tasting then characterizing the wine and trying to determine what the best pairing would be. The group of us did this with 3 different wines while the rest of the class cooked the food. We had a pasta as an “appetizer” then finished it off with a meat (I think it was veal and prosciutto). It was all really delicious.
Wednesday 9-12:
I went to class and didn’t do much else. Maybe I worked on some homework but I don’t really remember every detail of the day. I probably slept the rest of my cold off.
Thursday 9-13:
I was feeling much better so I decided to do some work. I did homework, cleaned a little, and went to the market. I decided to try to make the turkey dish that we made in class so I went to the market to gather the ingredients. After getting the ingredients I went to cooking. I knew Catherine had a break at 2:30 so I was trying to get it done in time for her to eat between classes (knowing that there would be extra). I made it and plated it and had it ready just as Catherine was walking through the door. I made four of them so I offered some to my other roommates as well. Jessi also ate with us before her class at 3, I had to laugh because both she and Catherine had only a short time to eat but they absolutely had to stop and take pictures of the dish before they could eat it. I guess it isn’t a bad thing that they are easy to please.
After this I basically just finished up some homework and did the dishes. Pictures of my dish can be seen below.
Friday 9-14:
Catherine was heading off to Paris so I walked around with her a little bit in the morning. We took some pictures out and about before heading to the train station to find the airport shuttle. After this I came back to the apartment and made some food then worked on some homework. Pictures are below:
Saturday 9-15:
I didn’t do much today other than clean, homework, and I may have worked a little on some work for CeMaST.
Sunday 9-16:
I woke up in time to go to church so I headed over to the church across the street. I wasn’t sure if it would be in Italian or English but I decided to give it a go either way. It was in Italian! I was able to follow along a little bit using a “bulletin” that they had with the mass parts and such (also in italian). The only parts I couldn't really follow or say in Italian were the homily, and the our father (i don't know that in italian). Other than that, I was actually able to follow along well enough. I think that going to italian mass may actually be a good way to learn some italian so maybe I will go to the same mass later on. I took pictures of the church and the square see below.
Week 4 Monday 9-17:
Now I am really getting behind, it is hard for me just to remember what I did during the week. What did I do...oh right, watched while Catherine’s hair was cut by our roommate. Catherine asked me to do the honors but I politely declined since I don’t like hair (especially wet hair). So our roommate Jessi cut it for her. She probably cut off about 4 inches or so but Cat’s hair is still pretty long. Naturally I took some photos of this whole process, see below.
After that we went to the advisors office to pick up our museum cards and to buy a hoodie. I got a hoodie and a tee shirt, both were pretty comfortable. Later on I went to class then we went to the market to get some vegetables to put in our stir fry. After cutting up the zucchini, carrots, tomato, and steak tips,we had a wok full of delicious stir fry cooking. When it was done we topped some rice with it and ate all of it, it was really delicious.
Tuesday 9-18:
I woke up and got ready for my long day of classes. In my first class (italian cuisine), we discussed what will be on our quiz next week. Then we made two different types of risotto with a homemade vegetable stock. We made spinach risotto, and pumpkin/squash risotto and both of them were delicious. I didn’t spend much time making the risotto because I was helping with the chocolate souffle. I even got complimented by the teacher on how well I floured the cups that we were to put the chocolate in. I got to melt the chocolate, help mix the other ingredients (with another girl in our group) then pour the cups. All in all it was delicious, not sure how easy it will be to make on my own but I can’t wait to try it sometime. I tooks some pictures of the teacher’s presentation of the risottos and the souffle, see below.
After this class I ran home, swapped my books out and headed to Publishing Design. I had a couple of posters due for this class that we were supposed to print but the printer was broken so we ended up submitting our files digitally. I made one for Austin Powers and The Mask. We also got another poster assignment, Making a two sided poster from Steve Job’s address to the students at Stanford. I have yet to work on this but I am pretty excited to do so. Below are some images of the posters I turned in.
In my last class of the evening (pairing food and wine), we took a field trip to a gelato shop. What does gelato have to do with wine? very little actually but believe me, I wasn’t complaining. After gelato we went back to the classroom to make some food. Since I was part of the wine tasting group last time I got to be in the cooking group this time. We made risotto in this class as well though in this one we used powdered stock and it didn’t take nearly as long. We also made stuffed tomatoes. I think we stuffed them with risotto and onions maybe a couple of other things. We paired those with two different types of wine (one red, one white) and enjoyed all of it. It was delicious.
After this, Catherine and I went out to Vogue Fashion Night Out. At first I wasn’t really feeling like going or at least not being out so long but the longer I was out the more I enjoyed myself. We stopped at one store first, it had such a huge line of people pushing their way inside that we thought there was something awesome inside. I backed out of line when I noticed it was a lingerie store but catherine stuck with the pushing old people behind her and made it through the doors. She came out 5 minutes later with a bag and a couple of catalogs. We kept walking heading towards the “fashion” district.
We were stopped on the street by a young lady trying to tell us something in italian, I let her know almost immediately saying “um...we don’t know what you are saying” We laughed and she switched to battered english so that we knew what she was saying about the store a short way away with a live band and free drinks. We kept walking and sure enough we found the store she was talking to. Catherine asked a few ladies outside the shop if she could take their picture because she liked their outfits. So I held their beer while they posed for a picture and wrote down their email (to get the pictures). After this we went into the store (totally my style by the way, I loved it), at the back was a live band and free beer (strongbow gold). There was also a side show but I didn’t take any pictures of it seeing as how it was pretty risque.
After this we basically started just counting all of the free drinks and spending less and less time actually looking at the clothes. The next place we went was Tommy Hilfiger. Here we got a free cocktail called “campari orange passion”, it was good but strong. After we left Tommy, we passed this store where a ton of people were trying to squeeze in a picture of a famous soccer player (we didn’t know who it was at the time) so I told Catherine to push her way in there to get some pictures for the both of us (she is so little it is easy for her to get through crowds). I held her drink and waited as she pushed her way all the way up to the front and got a picture with Luca Toni. After this we got champaign at another store then some juice at another. There were so many people out and about, and so many free drinks it was a blast. I took alot of pictures though some of them were on the run so they didn’t turn out that well. See Below
Wednesday 9-19:
Busy...I woke up earlier than usual so that I could do some laundry, knowing that I needed some and had to allow time for it to dry before packing for oktoberfest. I managed to get one load (jeans because it takes longest to dry) done before class at noon. Then I went to class and got some homework for my professional blog design class. After class I hurried home to get a couple of hours of studying in before my Italian quiz. When I got to Italian, the quiz was so much easier than I was expecting and it didn’t have much of what I studied on it.
After class Catherine and I went to hear Andy Steves (Rick Steve’s Son) talk about study abroad and some various other travel tips. This was fun and really interesting, it was nice to hear about traveling from not only someone so experienced but also a past study abroad student who was in the same situation as all of us here.
Thursday 9-20:
I am quickly running out of time to get things done. I leave for Oktoberfest tonight at 11pm and I still have some homework and things to get done. I am packed and have run my errands but I feel a little rushed now. I think I almost prefer having a morning trip rather than late night departure. Updates from Oktoberfest to come when I get back!
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