Before we were sent off to schools
all around the world, Maryville College made sure that we did pretty in-depth research
on our host country. We were made to find out the cultural differences whether
it be food, language, spatial expectations, modes of transportation, body
language, school expectations, or politics. Thus, most of us had an idea of
what we would be exposed to and in turn what we might learn. This being said, I
have fortunately run into an unforeseen benefit of studying away from Maryville
College and Pearson's Dining Hall. I'm learning how to cook! Before departing, I knew Edinburgh Napier University
would be allotting a stipend for food, and I did not expect I would become
tired of microwave meals this quickly. Thankfully, my roommates have an idea of
what they’re doing in the kitchen, so it hasn’t been too bad catching on. We’ve
adopted a system of making healthy dinners in bulk for the whole flat in order
to save a bit of money too. Each week we chip in so many pounds and make a huge
load of food to last us through to next week. Vegetable stir fry with salmon on a bed of coconut rice, mushroom spaghetti, lemon chicken soup, avocado chicken
raps, and baked fish have all been on the menu. Our food boards on Pinterest
are being put to more use than I ever thought I would muster the motivation for.
On top of saving money and eating healthy, delicious foods, cooking as a group
is a really great way to unwind. We all get to hang around with a glass of wine
and pitch in cleaning afterwards (which is so much better than doing all the
dishes by yourself.) Last week we put together a make shift, pot-luck breakfast
dinner for our flat and a few other guests, which was a huge success, now were
planning a giant floor pot-luck in the near future.
In short, eating dinner with my family back
home was a normal occurrence, so I never quite realized how much it can bring a
group together AND I CAN COOK STUFF NOW.
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| I cooked this! Salmon with lemon, stir fried vegetables, avacado and rice. |
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| I baked this! Banana nut bread completely from scratch. |