After visiting Stonehenge, Lauren and I went to a dinner with our fellow international friends. They have a tradition of rotating preparing dinner for each other, making food specific to their home country and doing a little "presentation" about the food, their country, and some fun facts and things like that.
This week, we had a German feast which was something called quesospitzle (I'm not sure how to spell it, but I tried to write it how it sounds). It was basically home made pasta which came in thick spirals, made of flour, egg, and carbonated water, which was cooked with onions and cheese. It was very very good, and we all really enjoyed it. Then, for dessert, she prepared apples which she had cored and stuffed with a mixture of sugar and butter and egg and nuts and then baked. They were delicious. After dinner she told us a bit about where she comes from in Germany (Heidleburg), some popular dishes there and her favorite German music. It was a smaller dinner party including myself, Lauren, a girl from Finland, a girl from the Netherlands and two Germans. I seem to have a habit of forming friendships with people from the Nordic countries. I'm already looking forward to visiting there! My friend from Norway is going to help me find the Northern Lights when I go!
This past Saturday, a friend and I hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for our international friends (which this time was a group of 16 people!) for our dinner with a USA theme. We made all the works: Turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy. It really turned out well, and we were surprised that everyone seemed to like all the dishes we made. I really didn't think anyone would go for the cranberry sauce or green bean casserole that I had made, but I was plesantly surprised. After our dinner we talked a bit about the history of Thanksgiving, our hometowns and different cultural things that we thought our friends might not necessarily know.
It was interesting the questions that came up. They were very interested in what we thought about Mexican immigration and different issues like that. I was also surprised to know that everyone in attendance thought we had 52 states (I guess they figured the mainland had 50 and then Alaska and Hawaii made two more).
This upcoming week, I have a home volleyball game on Wednesday, which should be fun, especailly since it is our first home game. Then Saturday and Sunday are my concert days for the Southampton University Symphony Orchestra! I'm really excited. It's going to be a great concert, and bunches of my friends are going to come and support us. I hope that a recorded is made so that I can somehow post at least a clip of the performance.
Until next time,
Sarah
