Island food!

Today was the first in a while that I actually felt the warmth of the sun! Obviously it made me miss my home, but I soon realized that what I miss even more is the FOOD. 


SOME of the things I miss include: fungi, oxtail stew, goat roti, spicy doubles, saltfish pate, puerto rican seasoned rice, fried fish, johnny cakes, peanut punch, sorrel, tostones, ginger beer (carbonated ginger tea, no alcohol), guava berries, souse (not the cold, lunch-meat type thing in the states), lobster, curry goat, breadfruit chips, blood pudding, cow tongue, dumplings, conch ceviche, tamarind balls, callaloo, purple tania, beef tripe, chicken hearts, and passion fruit


Only 2.5 months until I begin the feast of champions! Can't wait.. :)


Here are pictures of some of the foods I mentioned.

 Tostones (twice-fried green plantains, dusted with adobo and served with a garlic/lemon juice sauce.)
 Sorrel (tangy fruit typically used to make juices or tarts.)

 Blood pudding (yes, it has real blood, and rice in a sausage casing.) Sounds gross, but everyone that I have introduced to this delicious food agrees that it is something amazing!

 Oxtail stew (much-like beef stew, but with pieces of beef tail.)

 Spiny lobster (possibly the most delicious thing on the face of the planet!) This is one that I baked myself :) 

 Breadfruit chips (sliced and fried in vegetable oil, dusted with adobo.)

 Chicken hearts (typically fried, they have a delicate flavor. Yum!)

February 17

Guess what Friday is? Yep...Global Village! The country that I am representing is India, which means that there will be scrumptious food at our table! I'm in charge of food and henna with some classmates, so that should be really fun. I've never worked with henna before, but always have found it really interesting. We will have 3 people working on henna sitting at the table, also there for conversation and fun :) If you're looking to get some henna and REALLY good food, then come visit INDIA in the morning! 

Friday, February 19th in the Cass Gym! See you all there :)

Is it finals yet?

This week has been absolutely insane for me. I'm preparing for a lot of tests, quizzes, projects, and future assignments that will come my way. I have my first two tests of the semester (already taken 2 quizzes this week) and 1 quiz tomorrow. I've been doing papers all weekend, but just haven't seem to catch a break yet. There's not a moment that I'm not busy anymore. Sometimes I get all my work out of the way early, but I just get tons more piled on, so it doesn't even have an effect. I'm overwhelmed! 

I apologize for not writing earlier, although I had every intention to Monday--but I felt a nap was more crucial. It's 10:15, I've been doing homework straight from 1:30 this afternoon, and I'm still not done. It was the same story last night, the night before that, and will continue to be for the rest of the semester. Hopefully I'll make it out alive and with a worth-while GPA. I sure hope that not everyone else has the course and stress load that I have this semester because it will just leave everyone in a bad mood--and who wants that? Anyhoo, I need to get back to my work before I lose focus. Tomorrow I'm in class from 10am-4pm...wish me luck! I'm going to need it..

February 3

    I have had so much work to do this weekend/week, as you probably could have guessed. I hate being swamped with assignments, but it feels SO GOOD once they're all done and out of the way EARLY! That means that I have the rest of the day to relax, eat food, go shopping, and watch Flamenco dancers right?! Now I won't have the rest of the week to relax since tomorrow is another one of my hectic days, but after that I'll be free! :)

    So I'd like to share something cute with you guys. Everyone should know that I have 2 main obsessions: squirrels and turtles. I collect turtles whenever I find one worth buying (my collection is back at home, but my new collection in Florida has 2 baby turtles already :). Anyway, so my dad sent me an email this morning with a whole bunch of cute turtle pictures, and I figured I'd post them because they are simply...adorable. Enjoy!

Gasparilla Weekend

As we all know, tomorrow is the *big event* = Gasparilla! Sadly, I won't be attending due to the massive amounts of homework I was assigned this weekend. Thanks teachers! But that's okay, there's always next year and pictures to live through (it would probably be too chaotic for me anyway..) Most people will be dressed up in their free t-shirts that they received from Pirate Fest downstairs of Stadium this afternoon, adorned with pirate ships, skull and crossbones, and "Gasparilla '10", but a lot of people will be dressed up as pirates, or simply wearing red/white/black. 

I really hope that everyone enjoys the parade, but I don't want to hear about anyone I know getting arrested for whatever reason. Stay and be safe! 

SO BUSY!

This week has just started, and is already extremely chaotic! Today alone, I've spent 8 solid hours doing homework due for the next two days, and last night I spent 6 hours alone reading. OVERLOADED! However, I will see it as a learning experience :) Because I arranged my schedule to have no classes on Friday, I realize that I should take advantage of this free day to actually get some work done. I cannot have it build up on me like this or I will crash! And that would not be good for anyone, especially me! But I can finally wipe my brow, because I'm DONE for the week! Why is that?

Ohhh, well it's because I now have a 4-day weekend rather than my usual 3-day weekends. President Barack Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden will be at the university Thursday afternoon to hold a town hall meeting, which is open to the public. I know that some people are excited, others not so much, but think of it this way--if you are excited, then attend! if you're not particularly thrilled, then enjoy a day free of classes! Either way you put it, it's a win-win situation :)

http://eurthisnthat.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/obamabiden2008-med-wide.jpg

FRIDAY yayyy!

I'll just start by saying that one of my classes is going to be absolutely dreadful. I have never enjoyed English, and I've just been reminded of why.. But I'm not going to go into detail. My second hardest class will be College Algebra, call me a sucker, but I also have a major love/hate relationship with math. The rest of my classes will be just fine though :) I'm looking forward to Global Issues, Gateways (who isn't?), and Criminal Justice. They should be fun.

It's been really dark all week. Not so much cold or even rainy, just windy and dark, which I LOVEEEE! People always ask me why I came to *sunny Florida* if I love dark and stormy weather...but they'll understand come summertime when it's super stormy each afternoon ;)

I no longer have classes on Friday, which is ABSOLUTELY a dream come true. The main reason I didn't want classes on Friday is because I wouldn't get any sleep Thursday night because everyone wants to go out and party, except for myself, and then I would get awoken. I have a hard time falling asleep if I'm awoken in the middle of the night, so I changed things around to better suite the floor's schedule. Tonight I'll see if it was worth while (even though I already know it was), because everyone is going to The Kennedy to see this Situation guy or whatever...I don't care about that at all!

My buddy Tyler drove his car down from Connecticut, so now I have a ride and company to go to the zoo! I know that he's excited to take me, RIGHT Tyler? He probably won't read this, but that's alright, I know the zoo will be fun regardless :)

HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND EVERYONE! And stay safe please!

The sky currently..