French Food and FUN!

Yesterday (Tuesday) was an excellent day!  I woke up and got to Skype with my Mom for over an hour.  It was so good to catch up and just chat!  I’m not aching to go home as is the typical idea of homesickness, but being away has made me appreciate my family and home even more.  I can’t wait to live there this summer and get to spend two full months with them!  After I finished talking to my Mom, I chatted with Kim for a couple minutes and then walked to K-mart.  I needed a few small things, but decided the round-trip full hour walk would be a good way to wake up and stretch my legs in the morning.  When I got back, I immediately left for the ten-minute walk to the grocery store with my housemate Camille.  Michael gave us the list of ingredients for homemade French Crepes for our house dinner and it was our job to make sure we had everything we needed.  I came back from that trip to the store, got my things together and headed to class.  My first tutorial was for American Foreign Policy.  The class period was pretty painful.  A PhD student is the leader for my section and he really didn’t have a clue what to do with us.  There were a LOT of awkward silences and him asking “are there any questions about ANYTHING?”  It was pretty painful.  He seems really knowledgeable, though, so hopefully once we begin studying actual class material, it will go more smoothly.  Fingers-crossedJ.  I am the only American in that class, which is much more intimidating than I anticipated.  The material covered will be VERY similar to other classes I have taken throughout high school and at Whitworth University, but the perspective will be completely different.  I’m excited to hear what they think about America in terms of her dealing with the rest of the world.  It should be interesting!  My second tutorial was Middle East Politics.  I sat next to friend from Norway againJ.  This class was interesting despite the fact that almost 40 of the 50-minute class was spent on housekeeping items – the professor is just awesome!  Once we finished looking at the syllabus and getting to know one another, we had about 10 minutes left and she asked, “Okay, what’s going on in the Middle East right now?  What do you find interesting?”  We just talked and discussed situations, issues and events in that region until class was over.  And when I say “we”, I mean, I listenedJ.  I didn’t have a lot to contribute at this point… time to read a newspaper!  I’m excited for this class to give me a strong foundation so that in the future when I do pick up a newspaper and read about the Middle East, I’ll have a much better idea of the situation and consequences for the region of any particular action.  It should be great!  Once I finished class, I came home and got caught up on emails for a couple hours.  By then, it was 6pm and I decided that I should probably get the brownies started so they could cool while we had dinner.  Michael and Camille got home about 7:15pm and we started our House Dinner Night!  It was SO fun!!  Stephanie (Michigan) was feeling sick and Kevin and Amanda (China) weren’t home, but Amar (Indonesia), Camille (London), Michael (France) and I had a great time preparing and eating homemade French Crepes and just hanging out.  It was so comfortable and just fun!  Michael showed me how to prepare the batter and cook the crepes.  I’m so excited to know how to make them.  I LOVE crepes and now I know the French “secret”J.  We ate them with ham and cheese (almost like an omelette) and then with cinnamon sugar as well.  They were delicious.  After we finished crepes, we had brownies and ice cream (my contributionJ).  That was delicious as well!  We laughed a lot and explored a lot of our cultural differences throughout the night.  It was fascinating and fun.  Amar has lived in Australia for the past eight years, so he was an excellent source of travel information and Camille and Michael were a riot to listen to.  Camille’s mom is French so she is fluent in both languages.  She serves as a sort of translator for Michael when he can’t think of certain words.  Occasionally, they get into some sort of heated discussion in French and I have no idea what they’re saying, but I can’t help laugh when they break out the nasal “huh huh huh” that is so stereotypical of French people.  It is really fun to listen to and pretty entertaining at times.  Everyone had such a great time and was so excited to have dinner together again and explore another global cuisine that we decided NOT to wait… Kevin is cooking traditional Chinese food for us tonight!  We’re all excited.  Amar is cooking Indonesian food for us next Tuesday and then Camille or I will take a turn.  I am SO excited about getting know my housemates better!  They are really cool and fun.  Last night was great and I’m excited for more fun times this semesterJ.  I’m learning so much about Australia and the WORLD!  I’m truly being “cultured”.  This is really an incredible experience and I’m just soaking it up.  I’m off to a 9am lecture… it feels so early!  I can’t believe this is what time I start everyday in the States… now I know I’m getting spoiledJ.