Potluck Last Week - What I Made

Last Saturday, John, Jess, and I had a potluck dinner. We each made a dish and pretty much hoped everyone else would appreciate it. At least, Jess and I were pretty self-conscious. This was the first time anyone outside of myself has ever tasted my cooking. Rather than chickening out and making pasta, I decided to be a little braver make the only somewhat original thing I knew how to make that other people might be able to appreciate -- rice noodles with Creamy Coconut & Thai basil sauce.

Ingredients:

• Rice noodles: about 200g, soaked in water for about 2 hours (though it only needs to be soaked for 30 minutes)
• 2 sliced onions
• 200g chicken, cut into bite-size cubes
• arbitrary quantity of shrimp (ie: whatever I had left), de-veined and cut into halves
  
• one 425g jar of Creamy Coconut & Thai Basil sauce
• 350g Family Stir Fry mix from Asda: bean sprouts carrots, Chinese cabbage, spinach
• garlic salt (for lack of real garlic)
  
• Sriracha sauce
• vegetable oil
• soy sauce (not pictured)
• curry powder (pictured, but not used. Could be used for a more Singapore-style taste, though)

1. Turn on the stove to medium heat. Pour some vegetable oil into the wok. Allow to get warm. Dump in the chicken and shrimp. Cook for a bit until chicken is mostly white, but not completely.
2. Add about 1/3 jar of Creamy Coconut & Thai Basil sauce.
3. Allow the chicken and shrimp to cook for a bit in the sauce, ensuring that every piece is coated.
4. Add onions. Stir around, making sure the onion slices separate from each other.
5. Add stir-fry mix. Mix around.
6. Toss all the ingredients in the wok. I was using a fork and knife because I don't have the right utensils, but optimally, spatulas or tongs would work best.
7. Add water if things start to get dry. Periodically perform this step throughout the process.
8. Add the rice noodles.
9. Add the rest of the sauce. Toss like a salad.
10. Add some garlic salt. Keep tossin'. Change heat to medium-low setting if things at the bottom of the wok are browning quicker than you can fold the mixture. Taste and tweak by adding more garlic salt or anything that might help.
11. Mix some Sriracha sauce with water so to make a mixture that spreads more easily and evenly. Pour onto the noodles. Taste and tweak by adding more Sriracha sauce for a spicier taste or water to water it down.
12. Keep tossing, attempting to achieve a homogeneous mixture.
13. Remove from the heat after reasonably homogeneous mixture is achieved. (Optional) Add some soy sauce for coloring or taste. Of course, mix it up.
14. Finished! Transfer to a plate or casserole dish for neat presentation. I lack a large enough plate or a casserole dish so I just transferred to a medium-sized pot. Garnish with some spinach, cabbage, and bean sprouts from the stir fry mix.
15. Enjoy!
    
    

March 29 - April 1: Austria (Innsbruck, Salzburg, Vienna)

It was a long train ride from Basel, Switzerland to Innsbruck, Austria, our first real destination on the trip. I was asleep for most of the 6 hour train ride but I didn't miss much. I did wake up to see the snowy countryside and villages, very beautiful but my camera could not do it justice.

We finally arrived in Innsbruck, but it was rainy and gray. Innsbruck is a very small town so we were able to cover most of the attractions in Old Town (Altstadt), including the Golden Roof (Goldenes Daschl) and the museum inside it.


Emperor Maximilian ruled the Holy Roman Empire at some point. He also commissioned the Golden Roof to be built. He was kind of an asshole, based on what I learned in that museum, but I don't remember any specifics, other than some questionable affairs with women...

Innsbruck is very well-preserved, historically speaking. The buildings themselves are still pastel-colored in what seems to be the Tyrolean tradition. The streets were narrow and cobble-stoned, housing many tiny shops. One store had the largest selection of cuckoo clocks I've ever seen. Cuckoo clocks are an Austrian specialty.
Found a special deck of cards.
Gotta love the juxtaposition: Golden Arches and the Golden Roof
As a generally frugal Asian, I couldn't help but get excited when I saw an Aldi, or Hofer in German-speaking countries.
The color-scheme of the shutters was pretty common in Innsbruck. Also, depictions were found on some other old buildings as well. The Austrians were quite artistic.
The mannequins were hilariously posed. This would become the norm for the rest of Austria. Also, gotta love the traditional Germanic attire -- lederhosen!

Interesting flyer.
View from the top of a church tower. There's a badass ski-jump stadium in the hills, but we didn't have the time to go there.
After slightly less than 24 hours in Innsbruck, we hopped on the train for Salzburg, the birthplace of Mozart and the setting of The Sound of Music.

First stop after checking in: Mirabell Gardens. Not nearly as pretty when blanketed in snow, unfortunately. The Hohensalzburg Castle (Festung Hohensalzburg) is visible in the distance.

Did a bit of walking towards the fortress and came across this interesting piece in a square.
Hiked the hill to reach the Hohensalzburg Fortress. Here's the lovely view of Salzburg, including the Salzach River.
A 10-minute timeout in the Torture Tower was probably much scarier than a timeout in "the corner."
Austria had a lot of intense statues. None of the average "Hey I'm standing regally and admiring my conquests" statues. Here's an angry baby doing his momma's bidding?!
We found Schatz in Salzburg. Little did we know that we'd continue to find Schatz throughout Germanic Europe. Schatz means "treasure." Oh the irony! Also, gotta love the ironic pairing with "A1."
Peeking into a random alley in old town Salzburg (Altstadt).
Ordered hot chocolate at an Italian café. Mine was the #13, with coconut shreds. Delicious! It was literally melted chocolate with a tiny bit of milk added to it, thus it was thick.
Being enthusiastic tourists because it was still early in the trip, we decided to be very tourist-y and eat at the oldest restaurant in Europe, for about €27 a person. We ordered turkey wiener schnitzel and beef goulasch, the previous being a glorified breaded turkey patty and the latter being a fairly decent stew with a bit of a sour kick (I think there was sauerkraut). We ordered red wine because it was cheaper than ordering water. This would continue to be the case in most (if not all) of western Europe. Delicious meal and wonderful conversation was had, partly due to the alcohol. The waiter was so nice and considerate despite us being clearly impaired and talking nonsense.
Red wine at dinner wasn't nearly enough. We stopped in a liquor store and helped ourselves to what we thought were free samples. However a shop lady eventually found us and told us it's only free to members. But she was nice enough to let us go without paying. Salzburgers are so nice! But we still bought a bottle of chardonnay because we felt bad.
Wandering back to the hotel, couldn't help but notice an Asian supermarket.
We finally wandered back to the hotel (a really nice one, btw) and proceeded to play Egyptian ratscrew with Chardonnay. Also did some channel-surfing and noticed some risqué public television programming, like strip poker! Uhh, changing the channel...

Got up early the next morning to catch the The Sound of Music bus tour. Remember, we're still enthusiastic tourists wanting to do everything, so we didn't mind dropping €37 to do this...

And it was well worth it! For one thing, our bus got hit by a negligent sewage truck backing up. Yes, we were still in the bus when it happened!

Everyone took pictures of the damage, so I didn't feel so bad!

The Sound of Music tour was excellent, but I'm too lazy to upload any pictures here, since I already uploaded them on Facebook.

Off to Vienna we go! Pretty much hopped on a train right after the The Sound of Music tour ended.

Had breakfast Austrian-style the following morning in a bakery. Supposedly Austrian coffee is special, though I don't think I got the specialty coffee (n00b). However, it still tasted better than most coffee I've ever drank! I paired it with apple strudel (apfelstrudel).

Wandered to the 1st-ish district in Vienna and into Parliament. Some traces of Eastern European design were apparent, like in this archway...
Had mid-afternoon snack at Demel, one of the most highly-regarded dessert shops in Vienna. Also quite pricey. We tried the Austrian specialty chocolate cake (sachertorte), but it didn't taste very special to us.
Because we had a good bus tour experience in Salzburg, we decided to do the one in Vienna, but it was really overpriced (€37) and lame. We didn't stop anywhere, so people were hopping across the bus to snap pictures of famous Viennese landmarks. So dumb (I'm guilty of this too, since I figured I needed to get my money's worth somehow). We did stop at the Schonbrunn Palace (Schloss Schonbrunn).
And it was all yellow...
Again, Austrian statues don't depict ordinary scenes...
Made it back to town, but Franz Josef doesn't seem very pleased...
Stephan's Church (Stephansdom). Probably the pointiest building I've ever seen.
Opera house at night.
Opera toilet in one of the metro stations!

Vienna actually was a letdown. Sure it was pretty, but it didn't have much uniqueness to offer, probably because it's a major city, thus making it more tainted by modernism. Although, I did find it strange that the proprietors near our hostel could not understand English. If anything, I thought Vienna was probably the best city to communicate in English in Austria, but not the case. I had to break out the German phrase book for the first time here, which led to John learning how to say "I'm pregnant," and "I'm breastfeeding." Good to know.

March 28 - March 29: Ireland, Switzerland

First Saturday of Easter holiday: I flew Manchester to Basel, Switzerland via Dublin, because I was flying Ryan Air, the lovely "budget" airline that becomes less and less budget as your dealings with them increase (after dropping an additional €50 on checking my bag in, I might as well have flown British Airways for the same price).
I didn't leave the Dublin airport, but I got a pretty good sense of Ireland from the Guinness Store in terminal.
...And of course the gratuitous Jameson's Irish Whiskey samples offered in the duty-free alky shop directly across from my departure gate. It was my first time having whiskey and I actually liked it more than I was expecting to!

After getting whiskey'd, it was time to go to Switzerland. I was only there for the evening and left at 6am the following morning for Austria. Consequently, I didn't see much in Switzerland. I thought the Basel train station was pretty, but eventually I realize that all old-ish buildings in Europe look like this. We ate at McDonald's for dinner. Paid about €2.50 for each of the Dollar Menu (US) hamburgers (I had two hamburgers). It was ridiculous. Switzerland is mad expensive and probably overrated. I only include "probably" because I was only there for 12 hours.

Anyway, Basel train station. And a Mongolian BBQ and what appears to be an American-style pizza place on the way to Austria (in Switzerland).

Back from Spring Break!

I have returned from 3 weeks of backpacking through Europe. Needless to say, I'm pretty tired and disappointed about returning to class, but I'm also glad to be back in England. This place has really become a home to me, especially since, out of all the places in Europe I've visited, this is the one that most closely resembles the US. Oh home sweet home!

I'm going to write about my trip in upcoming blog posts. For now, I'll just go do some more sleeping and start studying for my Stat Meth midterm on Wednesday -__-.

Spring has arrived!

Daffodils in St. James's Park. London.

These past couple of weeks have been pretty great.

Spring comes a little earlier here in the UK than back in the states, though so far the weather's been so much milder anyway. Lovin' the sunshine (or cloudless days). It makes waking up and walking to class much more bearable.

I've found that the attitude amongst students here is much more relaxed. Of course, I'm comparing it to CMU's. But it's really nice and refreshing to be around people who aren't completely stressed by their studies. Instead they take time out to enjoy life's finer things, or just to take a break. When asking my friends what they did over the weekend, or even since last class, I don't get replies along the lines of "Oh I was working all night on my Algebra problem set" or "I was revising for my Algebra midterm exam." Instead I get replies like "I was out drinking with my mates for St. Patty's" (mind you, St. Patty's fell on a Tuesday this year) or "I was out clubbing." I'm impressed by how laidback British students are, but I think the education system lends itself very well to letting students discover themselves on their own time, and pretty much just grow up with their true passions as their guide. Students at the most competitive colleges in the US are drowning in problem sets in classes they don't even like, in a major they also don't even like but would get them a decent job after graduation. Yes, those things are important, but it's important to pay attention to the self and what makes it happy. If you required every British and American student at a top university to keep a twitter and aggregated the tags, the most popular tag for the British would be "fun" whereas the American one would be "fml."

These were posted in the Maths building. This made me smile and love this school/study abroad experience slightly more. If you ignored the paragraph before this, this pretty much sums it up:


School aside, I've been doing some light traveling on some weekends. Last weekend I went to Cardiff, Wales. I have mixed feelings about Cardiff since it was just like any other British city I had visited already, but at least it had a very picturesque bay that we were lucky to visit on a sunny day.


All in all, Cardiff Bay reminded me very much of the Jersey Shore. In fact, there were so many swanky boutiques, small chocolate shops, and restaurants that I thought I was at Pier Village. Alas, it was still very relaxing to be near the water. I do quite miss the beach.

As if the spring-y weather and general laid back attitude here weren't enough to make my time here so much more enjoyable than if I were back at CMU, my two friends from high school decided to spend their spring break in the UK! I had a blast seeing them and I was quite flattered that they came to visit/go to the Dr. Who museum but that's irrelevant :P.

As a result I returned to London to hang out with them after classes finished on Wednesday (at 11am btw :) )

London Eye, as seen from St. James's Park. Disappointed that they drained the river/lake and the trees haven't regained their leaves yet, but still pretty.

Obligatory Big Ben picture.
Tower of London! Unfortunately it was closed by the time we arrived there.
The Tower Bridge. Even though it was twilight, there were still a ton of tourists snapping pictures on the bridge.
I'm currently less than a week from spring break ("Easter holiday" as they call it here), which also means I'm less than a week away from the crazy backpacking trip through Europe for 3 weeks. It's going to be intense and frankly it hasn't quite hit me yet. Of course, I have to get through two midterm exams before I leave. Boo. But the one nice thing about CMU is it has more than prepared me for the academic challenges here.

On Education and Meeting People in Academia

The British academic system differs significantly from the American system.

This was emphasized several times during various orientations. Mostly the fact that the British system expects students to figure out how to study independently instead of issuing homework to force them to learn. I was kind of scared by this. Also, this means that the semester final grade entirely rides on the midterm and the final exams. Mmm. OK, that's it for boring details.

I'm taking 4 math classes here. They each meet twice a week for lecture, and once a week for tutorial. Tutorial is the equivalent of recitation in the US, except they're run more like office hours in the US. Basically, you work on math problems in the classroom and if you're stuck, you raise your hand and either the professor (yes, the professor is present at tutorials!) or one of his TA-like grad students comes over to help you. Because of the nature of tutorials, they're sometimes referred to as examples classes. This is how the math courses roll here. Or should I say "modules"? Yea. Other notes:

• Module = Class/Course
• Course = Major
• Faculty = Department
  

I didn't know what to expect during my first few examples classes. I did not print out the handouts containing the problems, so I showed up to class unprepared (gasp!). I asked the grad student on duty what I should do, and she suggested I could review my notes or leave and go do something else. I then asked, "How about I look on with another [prepared] student?" She looked at me funny but then said OK. Odd. It would've been the first thing I suggested if I were her. So I looked on with another student. Some inferences from this experience: groupwork not explicitly encouraged in the UK.

This actually goes along with another observation: all the students in university housing have single bedrooms(!). Supposedly, this is standard across all universities in the UK. Another American student remarked that this is either the cause or effect of British students not knowing how to deal with other people in their space. I don't recall which, but both are plausible.

So everyone seems to be on their own. Funny, this goes against their beloved John Donne's saying "No man is an island."

Which leads me to the main point of this. It has been a challenge for me to meet British people in my math classes.

Of course, I can't blame it all on the ~(No man is an island) -ism of the British students. Most/all of my reader(s) are aware of my general personality. Therefore, double whammy. Of course, I had to start changing things about my SOP, because that's easier. Besides, I have a wonderful excuse if they look at me funny for striking up conversation during examples classes -- I'm an American, therefore I don't know better. Disturbingly, this increases my confidence. But hey, whatever works.

In case you're wondering, I've made a small handful of friends here, the vast majority of whom are American. As for non-Americans, they are Asians and also study abroad students. So really, I haven't been getting a British perspective on things, unless you count my British flatmates, though I don't see them very often.