1. Food I miss back home
There is no Easy Mac. Making mac and cheese is not the worst thing in the world, but easy mac is just so... easy and delicious.
I'm still not over the fact that they don't have anything that even resembles Alfredo sauce. Why is that a thing not to have? They have so many tomato sauces but not a one cheesy Alfredo sauce. I thought I'd be clever and get something like cheesy lasagna sauce... it looked like it might have potential for what I wanted. Nope. It was so bad, Leila and I made the executive decision just to toss it. Looks like that's another thing I'm going to have to make from scratch. Just like pancakes...
I'm still confused over their lack of canned soup. They have a lot of cooking broths but no actual soup. All I want is Campbell's chicken noodle soup but it looks like, again, i'll have to make that by myself. They do however have a lot of soup in a package things. I wasn't expecting that. They have a lot of instant soup like pour milk or water and heat it up and bam, you got your self some soup. But that kind of weirds me out. I might as well be a little more domestic and just make it myself.
Another thing that mind boggled me is that I couldn't find chocolate chips ANYWHERE. It's strange to see what foods they don't have.
There's also only three brands of microwave popcorn. And they aren't even that great. For everyone that knows me and my love of popcorn, it's torturous.
On a happier food note, they do have bacon. Though it is called rashers here. And it's not as popular in bacon strips as it is in thin slices of ham. And the chocolate is better.
2. Restaurants
I actually really like the European style of restaurants. You seat yourself, and order... sometimes you would order at the bar. And then you enjoy the wonderous food and pay at the bar (or sometimes you'd pay when you ordered you food in the first place depending on where you are). The only thing I feel weird about is getting up and leaving all your dishes at the table. I mean in a normal restaurant that's obviously what you do, you pay the check and then get up and leave. But in some places here it's more of a Panera style. Where you get your food and then when your done you take care of your dishes. But here you just get up and walk away. It just feels weird that's all.
I do love that you don't have to tip though. It's a lot more convenient. I don't have to attempt to figure out 15-20% I can just pay the price and no one is offended. Unless of course they serve you and stuff... But I feel like we should have that at home, the waitresses get paid normal wages and bar tenders hate when you leave a tip... apparently they won't take it. I can't stand when the waitress/waiters at restaurants come over and ask how everything is, cuz I usually have a mouth full of food and it's just awkward.
3. Classes
Those are strange here. Just very strange. Everything is so laid back and there's no homework. Which makes me feel like I'm forgetting to do something but in reality I'm not. Although, it does give you that extra time to actually learn things on your own time. It's a bit weird to get used to. For the first time the other day I started to do my Chemistry work. But that's the only work I've really had to do. I'm actually confused as to what I have to do for my other classes...
4. Heat
There's not enough of it. Heating is expensive in Ireland and when you do turn on the heat... it really doesn't do a whole lot. The heater in our kitchen is the best, and sometimes I'd come in here close the door and turn on the heater just to be warmer. But I do have a great blanket (the tog) that I never want to leave because I know it's only going to be 10 degrees colder once I get out. Also, the shower is never hot enough. It's always warm, but then steadily cools after 5 minutes. It's not a fun time at all. I've never appreciated how easily heat is accessible at home. But I am learning to conserve a bit more so that's always a good thing. And its not incredibly cold here, I'm pretty sure most days it's warmer outside than it is in Victoria Lodge which is very odd.
That's about all I'll burden you with today.
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| The American breakfast my roommates and I made. The pancakes are made from scratch! |
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| My room now with all my decorations |
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