Anna's Adventures Abroad

22 Feb. - quick catch-up

So it's Wednesday night and here I am with my cup of peppermint tea, thinking how catch-up sounds like ketchup, and how its like gold here. If it's even provided, most places you have to pay for it. You can buy it in the supermarkets and stuff, but in terms of being available as a condiment, well, good luck, ketchup lovers. Don't plan on coming to Europe anytime soon. (Usually it's called 'tomato sauce' and it tastes different... its thicker or something.) Thankfully Molly had a bottle from Tesco on hand so we could have it with our fish & chips tonight.

Fish & Chips... whew. I'm still full. We went to a take-away (take-out) place on Bath Road, which is about a 20-minute walk from where we live. But apparently this place was good & cheap, and a few of us were feeling like we were missing part of the whole British experience without having eaten a meal of fish & chips.

• pies & pasties are pretty popular. steak pies, pork pies, mince meat, lamb, you name it. you can find a nice variety in the fridge section at Tesco, and they are sometimes buy-one-get-one free. you can tell how I've been doing my grocery shopping.
• since we are responsible for our own meals here, my meals have mainly consisted of normal "college student" cuisine. pizza, frozen stuff, pasta... you get the idea.
• there isn't a cafeteria like the colleges back home. most students don't live on campus; actually only "first-year" students do. so that means no meal plan where you can just go in and get your card swiped. the cafe here, called the "refectory", is about it. we have some credit on our ID cards to use at the refectory but it's only enough for about 1 meal/day we are here. some of the BCA students have already written off the refectory, calling it "panini hell." they have cold subs (baguettes), a limited salad bar, various hot meals (the other day I had lamb & guinness stew, it was interesting) and paninis paninis paninis. cheddar & tomato, bacon & brie, pepperoni & mozarella, ham & cheese, coronation chicken... the panini possibilities are endless. sounds good, I'm sure, and they were at first. but ugh. I am on a nearly 1 1/2 week panini hiatus and I think I might be able to get one tomorrow and actually enjoy it.
• Indian food is pretty popular, too; I might have mentioned that in an earlier post. it only sticks out to me when I see frozen chicken tikka meals & such in the TV-dinners section at the supermarket (I hang out in the freezer aisle a lot, ok? It's cheap.)
• so far I've seen McDonald's, Burger King, Subway, KFC, and pizza hut here. My cousins were telling me that you see KFC knock-off's here too, with names like "Dallas Fried Chicken" or "Tennessee Fried Chicken". If you think about it, why would people here know the difference between Kentucky or Dallas or Tennessee?
  I bet you have to pay for the ketchup packets there, too.

here's Andy with some of the American girls (& 1 British)

Some of the girls helped him make some make-shift "braces" with brown packaging tape.

some of the GIRLS sitting in Merrowdown kitchen. (Jamie, Georgiana, me, Stephanie)


After dinner and after most people were off to the disco, Leslie, Molly, Stephanie & I decided to watch a movie.. err... film. But not until we acquiesced our chocolate craving. So we made a quick run to the convenience store at Texaco (yes, Texaco) across the street and bought some of the biggest swiss cake rolls you've ever seen!

Molly, me & Stephanie with our "choc' rolls"

Nothing like chocolate, friends & a good chick flick! It was a good ending to a great day (you'll have to click on the link of "pictures from my trip to Gloucester" on the right to see more! But I'll just leave you with this to make you want to check them out...)

Harry Potter was filmed here!

posted by Anna K @ 6:20 PM