A mostly foodie update

It's hard to give you all a sense of the 'big picture' here, since we really aren't there yet ourselves. Matt is starting to have meetings for his program, and official classes start next week, but since this week is "Freshers Week" (essentially a week-long party for undergrads) it doesn't quite feel like the town has settled into school yet. I don't have anything particularly exciting to report, but here's some pictures from the last few days. Of course, because I'm the one posting these - they're mostly food and drink themed. I can't help it!



I think we've been to every grocery in town now, just comparing prices and seeing what they all have to offer. At Aldi's, we came across smoked garlic (billed as a Scottish specialty), and from Tesco we procured a British chicken for roasting. Please note the scaly bits on the legs...this thing was practically still feathered it was so wild, but it was absolutely delicious!



It's been really sunny in the mornings (no heat wave though, sorry Northwest folks) and opening the window onto our street is one of my favorite things. We live on one of the main roads here (there's really only about four of them anyway) and there's a boarding/day school down a ways that releases hordes of uniformed children onto the streets at lunch time. Other than that and a few random drunk students later at night, it's actually pretty quiet around here.



Oh, and have we mentioned that we live less than a block from a cheese shop?? You can only imagine how excited I've been about that, and yesterday we finally made it in to pick out some cheeses to try. We got some Cooleeney (a soft Irish cheese), something called Prima Donna (a blend of gouda and parmesan, Matt's favorite), and one other that I completely forgot the name of. They were all tasty though, and we thoroughly enjoyed our first Scottish cheese plate with an episode of "Warehouse 13."



Back in Bellingham, we had a ritual vodka tonic most evenings and we finally got around to purchasing the fixings for making them over here. We also finally tracked down unpopped popcorn kernels at a health food store, and procured a tiny (and expensive) bottle of grated parmesan, so we're looking forward to getting back to our other ritual of popcorn and movies. We couldn't believe how expensive the popcorn and cheese were though, so we'll be adding that to our list of things to buy in bulk when we're home in December.



This brings to me the best part of the day yesterday: Matt finally got his matric card! We spent a blissful hour in the library getting stacks of books and DVDs for our respective research, and I was pleased that the security was lax enough that I should be able to get in on my own.



With all these necessities in hand, we came home and I made soup with British sausage and *gasp* yams (some of you might know about my deep dislike for the 'other' sweet potato). I'll admit they added a nice color, but I don't think I'll cook with them again. They reminded me too much of pumpkin in their color, which is a sore spot for me over here (apparently, they don't 'do' pumpkin: no pumpkin spice lattes or pumpkin butter, and pumpkin puree costs a small fortune in specialty stores).



That's all for now - thanks for reading, everyone!