Cars

Now I'm not a fan of driving. I'm actually quite scared of driving cars. I blame it on my sight, not having proper stereovision means that I lack depth-perception. Quite inconvenient when I'm driving, trying to watch 3D-films or indeed playing any sort of precision game.

I have always however liked cars. They've been talked about a lot, dad knows a bit about them and then coming from a family of taxi-drivers, cars have always been around.

So I enjoy watching Top Gear for example. Or reading reviews for new cars.

Today I started a new course at uni, motoring journalism. And it's absolutely fascinating! We looked at the car industry, how it's developed, the challenges it's facing etc. It also includes bits of economics and politics so I like it even more. I got a kick out of them using terms like economies of scale and FDI and me knowing what they meant.

I'm wondering whether this is just initial enthusiasm or whether it's something I could look into as a future profession.

But then I wonder how successful of a motoring journalist can I be without driving?

Sleep

My sleep routine is pretty standard for any student. Staying up until 4am, getting up at 1pm. That sort of stuff.

I admit, it's pretty effed up.

So today I wake up around 10.30am for class. And go to bed at 11pm. I go to sleep almost immediately. Sleep like a baby.

Until 2am. That's when I wake up again. Feeling completely refreshed.

I think my body thought I was taking a nap.

I mean business

This post will be a bit of a shocker. It is neither about blogging or the EU. Well it is kinda now. Sorry.

ANYWAY, it's back to work here in Cardiff. We just had a session on what we're meant to do this semester and it seems pretty intense. On friday we're meant to pitch our idea for our own magazine. Mine is, as you might have deduced if you've seen it on facebook, an Erasmus magazine.

The idea is that it's a magazine for all those UK-based people thinking about going on Eramus. So not for example a magazine for all the people on Erasmus at a particular university. So it'll be a rather a lot to cover in terms of people, universities and cities but I envision it to be like an enteraining travel magazine except more in-depth (travellers obviously don't need a "how to" section on red tape in different countries etc.)

If you haven't filled out the survey yet and have been on Erasmus, now is your last chance!

On a slightly related note, I'm now off to see Helen. I met her in Helsinki where she is on Erasmus (her tutor is my friend Reeta) but she's actually from Wales. Funny how things go, we completely crossed our ways there. She's in Cardiff today as she's still on Christmas break but will go back to Finlandia on Sunday.

I think I might interview her for my magazine...

That's what I'm like these days by the way, I make use of all of my friends all the time for my coursework and interviews. And I carry around a notepad to take down notes. As visible from my quote blog.

15 minutes of fame

Yesterday it happened. The Euro-blogging community discovered me. Big time.

I was mentioned in one major EU blog, they dedicated an entire blog post to my arrival in the scene. Then others started noticing and I was all over twitter.

I now know some EU-professionals and even EU professors reading my blog. They commented on how interesting and funny it was.

One girl said, and I quote, that I'm fabulous.

This makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside because I love my EU blog. And the fact they think I know about stuff but tell it in an amusing way is the best.

Blogging, gotta love it.

Something to cheer you up

If you're ever in a bad mood, watch this



Riikka, the girl in the video, was trying to tell a story on how she could hear her father snoring despite having earplugs. Half way through she realized how unfunny the story was but couldn't stop laughing. Jenna and Minna then suggest she should have made up stuff to spice up the story like adding a fart joke or something.

Enjoy!

Failure avoided, success?

I managed to cook everything. I even liked some of them, boys claim they loved all of them. So I am happy with my attempt at international cooking.

On Thursday we had the Nepalese dumplings and Micronesian chicken. The dumplings were my absolute favourite though they took a while to make, Damien's ricecooker also doubled as a steamer but could only fit in three or four dumplings at a time.

Being a complete novice with beers I chose Brains beer to marinade the chicken in (as the recipe only said beer). I thought an ale would be best because we don't need the fizzyness and thought I'd support local beer. I didn't think how well it would go with lemon.

I mean Ole, Chris, Mark and Damien liked it but I thought it was horrible. So either they were being nice (which would be a first) or they just have a different taste palette.


What I did like but thought I wouldn't, was the Macedonian (or FYROM as Chris and I argued over the name - still not convinced it's worthwhile to fight over a name) soup. I had my doubts over boiling the eggs and the soup mainly consisting of water, flour and paprika. But it was delicious. More so than the picture leads on at least.


The Irish dish, beef in Guinness was something your grandparents would make. Real sturdy, that's the only way I can describe it. Again, not really my favourite but I think once again cooking it in beer just wasn't my thing.

Next week will be rather African. I have Tunisia, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Maldives. I'll be making desserts this time. Fingers crossed everyone!

Aside from cooking my life currently consists of articles and thinking about revision. Actual revision will start on Monday. So cooking is the only legitimate form of procrastination I can justify.

Menu

Right, I decided I wasn't going to wait for people to suggest me themes. Instead I picked a random country, thanks to the spin the globe website I picked a country and then googled their food and recipes and I got my menu. It's my turn to cook on Thursday and Friday and the menu is as follows:

Thursday
Nepalese momos (meat dumplings)
Micronesian chicken

Friday
Macedonian chorbur soup
Irish beef in Guinness

So I'm doing a starter and a main course. I have no idea how this will turn out but if I manage to make them and they're edible, I will do this every week.

Food

Back in Cardiff the food supply is low. All I have in my fridge is lactose-free milk. In my cupboard I have remnants of ingredients, none of which constitute a meal.

So we have been eating out a lot. Yet I find it funny how I always go for similar dishes. I would love to try something new but I just know my palette perhaps too well and stick to the familiar dishes. I love pesto, I love cheese, I love beef.

Every time when I'm hungry, I start watching cooking shows. In the past three days I have watched the entire sixth season of Top Chef. This has, as it always does, inspired me to cook so I browse online for all these new recipes.

But there is a problem. I'm not a good cook. I can cook, for sure. But I'm not experienced. I'm scared of cooking meat. And particularly here in Cardiff I don't want to be too experimental as I'm also cooking for other people.

So instead of cooking new exciting things the same thing happens as it does in restaurants, I just stick to the same old stuff.

The favourite thing I ever cooked was for an article, I made Welsh and New Zealand lamb dishes. It was miles off my comfort zone yet I cooked all day and actually enjoyed it. I think other people did as well.

This leads me to conclude that somebody should just tell me what to cook, give me a theme or something and then I would cook it. So I'm going to make this my challenge for this month. Every week I cook one dish according to a theme that other people tell me to took.

I'm not turning this into a cooking blog (heaven forbid!) but just challenging myself and blogging about it. So, fire away, what should I cook?