kind of homesick, again?!

My flatmate Kelly's parents are in town for the week and it is making me more than a little bit homesick.  This is unusual for me, as when I am at Notre Dame I am rarely if ever truly "homesick," as in longing for Lakeville and the comforts of my house.  But seeing how excited Kelly is about her parents being here is making me want MY parents.  Or even just to be back in a country where I can get Caribou Coffee, or go to a Target, or place an online order at jcrew.com, or see cars being driven on the correct side of the road.  Or to not have to look at the labels to see what way I have to check before crossing a street.  Or to watch "The Bachelor" and "The Office" and proper Olympic coverage with the John Williams fanfare and all of NBC's pomp and circumstance.  Or shower in a shower with water pressure and sleep on a bed that's soft.

Done whining now.  Here's a total digression: as I am in London on a student budget, I am going to talk about food.  Specifically, the food we are eating, the food that is different here, and the foods I like and dislike.  This blog post has been ruminating in my head for a long time so here we go:

1. TWININGS TEA.

-I should really just write a whole entire blog post that is just an ode to Twinings and how much I love, worship and adore their different varieties of tea.  I actually really just love tea in general right now...not that stupid frou-frou Chai-blend crap Starbucks sells Stateside (I've always hated that, hmm), but proper tea, with tea bags that have to steep and sugar and milk and lemon.  I love classic Earl Grey with milk and sugar (a drop of milk, two sugars).  I love Lemon-ginger with a slice of lemon floating in it.  I love peppermint tea with sugar.  I love raspberry-pomegranate tea with nothing added to it because it is just. that. good.  Mmmm tea.  Since we got here, I've been working my way up in tea dependence.  First few weeks I had maybe a cup every few days.  Then it was a cup every day.  Now it's up to about four a day.  Oh dear.  I'll come back to the US and be a tea-monster.

2. Weird chip flavors.

-As BBDO does the marketing for Walkers, the British version of Lays, we get a lot of free chips in the office.  British chips (crisps, to be truly proper) are not like American chips, as in they come in weird, weird flavors.  Some highlights:

1. tomato ketchup.  Tastes like eating french fries with ketchup; I like these.

2. Bacon-and-cream cheese.  Tastes like eating, well, bacon.  They're...interesting.

3. McDonald's Cheeseburger.  Very odd.  Because it tastes just like a McDonald's cheeseburger and I don't know if that's a good or bad thing.

4. Prawn Cocktail.  Prawns=shrimp and that= a weird-ass chip.

5. Paprika.  These are kind of sweetish and spicy.  Good.

6. SALT AND VINEGAR.  I remember when I was little my dad tried to get me to eat salt-and-vinegar Pringles and I hated them.  Now I love salt-and-vinegar chips.  Go figure.

3. Chicken tikka.

-The Brits think this is Indian and Indians in Britain think this is British.  I think it is delicious as it is sort of the most Westernized Indian food possible...it's sort of a curry-ish spiced chicken that you can eat in a variety of ways.  And it's sometimes served in a good sauce.  Yum, basically, because as I have previously gushed, I am in love with Indian food.

4. Digestives.

-I don't recall if I've already rhapsodized over the yumminess that are digestive biscuits, but they have nothing to do with aiding digestion.  They're basically graham-cracker style cookie-things with a coating on one side of a hard milk- or dark-chocolate shell.  Meant to be enjoyed with tea, we culture-less Americans choose instead to enjoy them with, well, everything.  

5. Leek-and-potato soup.

-I was devastated to find that one of my staple cheap-foods, chicken-noodle soup, is as unheard of in Britain as grape jelly or good dental hygiene.  Luckily my brief experimentation with different soup flavors led me quickly to a new stand-in for the semester: leek and potato.  It's creamier, a little garlicky, and has leeks (like onions) and potato chunks floating in it.  I like it very much.  

Top 5 Letdown/Gross Foods:

1. white sauce.  Their version of Alfredo sucks, which is sad because pasta is such a go-to food here.

2. raspberry jam.  I like strawberry jam now (because they don't make grape jelly!!) but raspberry jam is seedy and nasty and just ick.

3. bread.  I like wheat bread at home, whatever kind my mom buys anyway, but the wheat bread here dries out or goes moldy within a span of three days.  BUMMER.  I've been forced to get nutrient-enriched (read: chemically-enhanced!) white-bread if I want it to last through even half a loaf.

4. cereal.  NO CHEERIOS.  I am on the brink of breakfast-death.  Also, no Special K Vanilla-Almond, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Lucky Charms or Kix.  Basically, none of my favorite breakfast cereals.  I'm making do with Special-K Red Berries, which I have never really liked because the "berries" are like dried-fruit-sourness-turds instead of actual strawberries.  

5. Diet Coke.  IT TASTES DIFFERENT HERE.  Enough said.

Okay now I feel much better and am going to go eat some fake Ritz crackers with some fake British-ized peanut butter and pretend to be productive.  :)