Monday, October 15, 2012

Survival and Sappiness

Hello again and welcome back to my blog, faithful followers! This is the post you've been anxiously awaiting for the past four weeks. Yes, dear readers, in this post I am going to describe all the food that I've been eating in Ireland. It'll probably be really exciting.

Those of you who've had the privilege and honor of living with or near me probably know that I choose not to cook. (This choice, by the way, is heavily influenced by the fact that I cannot cook.) My lovely mother is a ridiculously good cook, so naturally I just mooched off of her culinary creations for the majority of my existence. So, theoretically, can I cook? No. But could I? At this rate, the world may never know. In any case, Irish universities don't do the whole magical meal plan deal, so this semester I've been forced to fend for myself in the kitchen. I wasn't really looking forward to that aspect of the study abroad experience, but I just figured I'd somehow know what to do when I got here and got hungry. Right? Wrong. Maybe (definitely) I'm just lazy, but cooking for one seems to be a lot of effort for not a lot of result. Therefore, I have become a sort of scavenger and hunter/gatherer who also occasionally eats things that cannot be found in nature.

Here, have a list of things I eat on the regular:
-grapes
-carrots
-apples
-hummus (except for some reason, the Irish choose to spell it 'hoummous')
-turkey sandwiches
-lots and lots of cheese
-cheese again
-tea (Earl Grey's my current fixation)
-rice
-Greek yogurt
-Nature Valley bars (delightful)
-plain toast (no butter/jam because I have no fridge-room)
-digestives (a seriously delicious cookie/biscuit with dark chocolate on the bottom)

How's that for a well-balanced diet? (Really, I'm asking. Suggestions are welcome.) Luckily, there's a Subway right underneath my flat, so I 'eat fresh' on particularly lazy days once or twice a week, too. On a related note, I have recently discovered an infatuation with crisps (Americans, read: chips) of the salt and vinegar variety. Take notes, everyone, because I am always accepting gifts of food and money with which to buy food.

Where do I obtain this food, you ask? It depends, my friend, it just depends. Tesco is a big supermarket chain over here, and there's a Tesco Express (read: small but sufficient) less than ten minutes from my flat, so that takes care of a lot of my required goods. However, there is an adorable English Market in town about twenty-five minutes away, so we also try to make it there fairly often because it's sometimes cheaper and, well, always more adorable. In fact, it's so very adorable that Queen Elizabeth herself graced it with a visit on May 20th, 2011. I'm crossing my fingers that I'll bump into her there soon; she's bound to run out of groceries sometime.

A fountain in a market?!?! I KNOW.

If I were the Queen, I'd just buy the whole market and have 
my fancy chefs make me delicious food and then give my 
delicious leftovers to hungry university students.


In other news, I really, really, really like my fellow IFSA-Butler programmers. I expected to have friends here, but I didn't expect to like them so much. I am thoroughly impressed by the tiny amount of time it took me to like everyone and want to be all of their best friends. (By the way, if you're in my program, I want to be your best friend.) Simply put, I am overwhelmingly grateful that they are the way they are, and I couldn't be happier with my group.

Okay, that's enough of that. You may carry on with your lives now, peasants.

4 comments:

  1. The markets look very different than I was thinking!! They are beautiful. I like your food selections. Great post!xo

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  2. Becky may choose not to cook, but she really can if she wants to - she makes the best Chicken Provolone that I have ever tasted! <3

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  3. My second attempt to get a post posted, dear niece. What a blast you are having. I'm so envious. I can crack up for no apparent reason when I call to mind your seat in the business class at the wrong time. HMMMMMMMMMM Method to your madness. --Glad for the friendships to blossom so wonderfully.

    Love,

    Aunt Susie

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  4. UPDATE! I need new material!

    Love (and I really mean it),
    Leah S.

    ReplyDelete