Pumpkin Carving

Lately, Ali has been the star of 10 Hope Street's Party Planning Committee. Tonight she hosted a pumpkin carving party. A lot of the non-Americans here haven't carved pumpkins (honestly, I've only done it maybe once) or celebrated Halloween, but so many Americans attend St Andrews that Halloween actually a big holiday in this small corner of Scotland. Unfortunately, I've never been a huge fan of Halloween because it means I have to figure out what I'm going to dress up as, and I want to put as little effort as possible into selecting a costume. Someone told me about a shop on Market Street with a cowboy hat- maybe I can do something with that.

So here are some of my "flatmates" carving pumpkins (I actually don't like calling them "flatmates" because we don't actually live in the same flat- I live alone. I share a kitchen with half of them, so they're kind of like my "kitchen-mates"):

St A Lamb Rice

Every time I move to a new country, I have to find out what is available to me and what I can cook. For the past month I've been cooking the same things over and over again. In other words, I've been eating a lot of chicken with either potatoes, pasta, or rice in some variation. When I went to Tesco recently, I just started exploring the aisles to see if I could cook something different for a change. What I ended up cooking was a variation of some stuff I've cooked already. The biggest difference was lamb, which I've never cooked.

Ingredients:

300g of diced lamb

70g of rice

1 red pepper diced

1/2 brown onion diced

3 garlic cloves diced

Olive oil

Butter

Salt

Directions:

Saute the onions, garlic, and pepper in olive oil. After a few minutes, add the lamb. Meanwhile, boil rice (I used boil-in-bag rice because it's so much easier even though I feel like I can do more with traditional rice). When meat and rice are done, dump rice into skillet and add butter and salt. Mix ingredients while keeping the skillet on a low heat. Serve.

Notes:

I was disappointed with this meal. The pepper didn't add as much kick as I wanted, and the dish tasted more like olive oil than anything else. If I make this meal again, I'll probably use something other than olive oil to help saute the ingredients. Maybe vegetable oil or butter? I might also leave out the red pepper or find something else that has more kick. Maybe jalapeños or something from my spice rack? Maybe I can use the juice from the jalapeños to help saute everything? I feel like I'm headed in the right direction with this meal, but I'm not quite there yet.

Here are the ingredients I started with.

I didn't know what I would actually used, so I just played

it by ear and added whatever sounded or smelled good.

I didn't use the soy sauce, worcestershire sauce,

or anything from my spice rack.

I think the olive oil I used added too much of a sweet flavor.

Innocent smoothies were one sale at Tesco

this week, and they're quite delicious.

I obviously didn't use this in my meal, but

it's so good that I had to mention it on my blog.

Pub + Pint + Real Football = me :)

A penalty flag comes flying in as Miles Austin

grabs a reception

in front of Atlanta cornerback

Brent Grimes before

running for a touchdown.

AP Photo/LM Otero

Last week I was drinking a Guinness in the Whey Pat Tavern near the South Street city gate when I saw highlights from NFL games on the big screen tv. Just watching those few plays whetted my appetite, so I had a new mission: watch real football. Recently, Sky Sports signed a deal so that they could play NFL games in the UK, but they only play a couple games a week. I called the Whey Pat and asked them to play one of those games, which was Atlanta Falcons @ Dallas Cowboys. I was able to convince about a half dozen people, mostly Americans, to join me. Some European friends joined us, but I doubt they understood what was going on. I did my best to explain. Some locals (mostly old men because Whey Pat is kind of an old man's pub) came to the back room, but they didn't stay too long. Too bad. They could have learned to love the sport. Since most people don't get drunk in the pub on Sunday night, we were mostly alone in the back room, which is usually packed. It was nice not being there with a hundred undergraduates. I also enjoyed watching Tony Romo play because he's on both of my fantasy football teams. He hasn't done that great all year, but this week he threw no interceptions and 3 TDs. I hope he keeps it up, but I feel like my teams are beyond hope now. Oh well. At least the Saints are doing well. Next week I plan on going back to Whey Pat at 9pm to watch the Minnesota Vikings @ Green Bay Packers. A friend from Wisconsin who was there last Sunday seemed excited about this game because she's a huge Green Bay fan. I'm thinking about wearing a purple #4 Vikings jersey with "Favre" on the back to see how she reacts. She might stop being my friend by the end of the night. Oh well.

From Dixie with Intolerance

Yesterday I ran across an article on ESPN.com explaining how Ole Miss changed a fight song because it was offensive (maybe I should have spent my time reading an article from Journal of Peace Research instead). At the end of "From Dixie with Love," football fans chanted "the South will rise again," which is a racially insensitive reference to the Civil War. Changing the fight song is fine and dandy with me, but the replacement caught my attention. Now fans are supposed to say, "to hell with LSU." It's an improvement, but it's still not very inclusive or edifying. I guess I've been reading too much about conflict transformation and non-violent alternatives to violent conflicts since that was my first thought after reading the article.

But I would like to end with a quick interjection that anyone with good sense and intelligence can concur- to hell with LSU.

I'm an academic, not a machine

A lot of books on our reading lists are in the "short loan" section of the library, which means we can only check them out for 4 hours at a time so that everyone in the class has a chance to read them. Actually, only a handful of people in the class will get a chance to read them. I have a semi-daily ritual of going to the short loan section and looking through the shelves for the books I need, but more times than not a classmate has already checked them out. Since there's no way we can get all the books we need for the week, we have "reading groups". We tag-team so that together we've read all the books, and we get together and share notes about what we've read.

Even when I do get a book from the short loan section, I only have 4 hours to read it before returning it (there are stiff fines for turning it in late). I've never been a fast reader, and whenever I skim a book I remember nothing from it. I have to read it slowly and digest it. Once I've digested it, I'll remember it for years. For the past couple days I've gone to the library to get different books and read them quickly. Both books I found were about 150 pages long, which is really short compared to others. If I was to start reading those books immediately after checking them out, I would have to read a page every minute and a half in order to finish it before turning it in. I know some people can do that, but I simply can't, especially since some of the arguments and theories are complex and confusing. I also have to take longer on sections with which I strongly disagree so that I can better understand my position and why the author is wrong. On top of all of this, I'm making notes so that my reading group will understand what's going on. Naturally, I didn't finish the books but only read about half, which I consider an accomplishment. Ten minutes before I turned the books back in, I quickly chose a last chapter I want to read and make a copy of it so that I can finish it at home.

I'm not sure how well this whole system works. So many people in the class are reading different things, and there's no way for us to read everything. We get comfortable with only reading as much as we can, but the final exam may require us to have read something we missed along the way. I wonder if a better system would be if we were given a reasonable required reading list for each week, and these would include articles we can find online or important chapters to books. Everyone would be able to read everything from this list. A suggested list would supplement the required reading, and this list could include whole books.

Well, I should probably stop blogging and speculating about how academia works and get back to reading another book.

The library- perfect place to get a book... or a cold

The library- the ugliest building in St Andrews.

I've mentioned this place a couple times and

figured I should post a photo of it.

The university uses a prettier picture on their website,

but I don't feel like that picture does justice for how

awful this building really is.

I haven't written a post in the past couple weeks because I've felt rather miserable and didn't want to write a post about a wicked cold. I started to feel better last week, but I never felt 100%. When people who knew about my cold asked how I felt, I just said "medicated." Since I felt better, I figured I was good enough to go running last Friday afternoon. That was a mistake. The cold air and wind ruined my sinuses again, and I've had a horrible cough ever since. Today I bought some cough medicine from the "chemist." When I paid, the checkout lady gave me a voucher for Ruby & Millie cosmetics. She told me, "They have stuff for guys." Really? Like boy-mascara? I probably won't use it because their lipstick doesn't match any of my shoes. I still hate the idea of it going to waste, but if I give it to a girl I'm afraid she'd say, "What makes you think I need a makeup voucher? What are you trying to say? Is my face not pretty enough for you?"

A couple weeks ago when my cold was getting real bad, I was reading in the library and listening to everyone coughing and sneezing. Those sounds made that miserable place feel more miserable. As we sneezed and coughed into the books we were reading, we shared our disease with the next person who would read that book.

The university put posters all over town showing a student cough into his hand. It's disgusting because it shows all the gunk coming out of his mouth. Even though the poster says I shouldn't go to class if I feel sick, I still go. I can't justify skipping class because I have the sniffles and need to blow my nose. But then I'll have a horrible cough right next to the poster. That's a rather conspicuous place to sneeze or cough.

Hope Street Fiesta

Ali, a former writer for The Frisky and current philosophy student from New York who lives in my flat, decided we should have a dinner party for the building. She did pretty much all the work and cooking, and the meal was quite delicious. Along with couscous, we had a mozzarella/tomato/crouton dish with olive oil and vinaigrette poured on top. I can't remember the name, but it's allegedly Italian (though I've seen the same thing in France). I give kudos to Ali for the fine meal.

Ali making the croutons while Lilit watches.

The Italian dish.

Remy looks like he's about to hit

himself in the head with the spoon.

The dinner party sans moi.

A bunch of Ali's philosophy classmates

who don't live in our building came to the party, too.

The wind almost blew me away as I took this photograph

Catholic church overlooking the North Sea.

Just some snapshots I took while on a stroll around the block

St Andrews Old Course 18th Hole

There's a celebrity golf tournament

here this weekend. I heard Hugh Grant

is somewhere around here. He has a reputation

for hitting on 18-year old girls in the pubs.

Creepster.

West Sands

Right next to the Old Course, this beach

is about 10 minutes walk from my apartment.

This is the same beach used in the iconic scene from

Chariots of Fire. I went running on it this past

week. The wind blows the sand so hard that

it stings while I run here.

Today the wind gusts are about 40 mph.

Crab Poll Explanation

I should probably give a brief explanation for my last poll question, "Where do you keep your crabs?" The possible answers are: A- "On the kitchen floor in a dark corner where people can't see them until they step in the bucket." B- "Under your pillow so the tooth fairy can switch them for a puppy because that's what you wanted in the first place." C- "In your friend's bedroom so that he/she can have company while you're away."

The evening I posted that question, I had dinner at a friend's house where I helped cook the chicken and vegetables a little bit. While mixing the tomato sauce into the pan, I looked at the floor because I accidently dropped a piece of pepper. That's when I noticed a small bucket next to my feet pushed against the wall in a dark corner. There were two huge dead crabs in this bucket, but there wasn't enough water in the bucket to cover them. They were so close to my feet that I could have very easily stepped on them before I knew they were there.

I asked my friend, "Do you have crabs?" Friend: "WHAT?" Me: "I think you might have crabs. You should come over here and check." Friend: "Excuse me?" In hindsight, I should have chosen my words differently. When she saw them, she explained that those crabs must have been her flatmate's crabs. We never quite realized whether or not the crabs were still barely alive or dead, but I think one of them moved just a little bit. I personally think it'd be awesome if they were still alive, got out of the bucket, and walked around the apartment in the middle of the night.