I don't know how we did it. We managed to cook an entire Christmas meal for 14 people without a real oven. Our microwaves have a convection oven setting, and you'd be absolutely shocked to see how well those things cook a turkey and potatoes. Our dinner consisted of a roast turkey crown, roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, carrots, pigs in blankets, leeks, peas, gammon, deviled eggs, broccoli, yorkshire puddings, roasted parsnips, brussel sprouts and this awesome mix of rice, beans and tuna that we wrapped in leaves of lettuce. For dessert we had a strawberry cheesecake, a blackcurrant cheesecake, two apple pies, ice cream and custard. It took the use of our kitchen in flat 11, the kitchen in flat 12 and the kitchen in flat 8 (two floors below us) in which one of my flatmates has a friend. I peeled potatoes, chopped carrots, sweet potatoes and leeks, and roasted potatoes and sweet potatoes--and to my delight, didn't mess any of it up! (The potatoes were slightly burnt, but we'll ignore that fact). The whole deal--prepping, cooking, eating and cleaning up--took about 7 hours. We began preparing at 1:30 p.m. and finished everything about 8:30 p.m. It was an excellent break from essay-writing and such, and the entire meal was unbelievably delicious. After dinner I returned to my room and finished writing my final essay. I edited and proofread it this morning, handed in the other two essays I had finished earlier in the week, and e-mailed the last one to Professor Rudalevige and was finished with my first semester of junior year at about 1 p.m. today. I celebrated by going into Norwich and doing some Christmas shopping, which unfortunately wasn't quite as successful as I had hoped it would be. All's well, though. Bought a couple gifts, packed most of my stuff up last night (and had to stuff my suitcase in my closet because there's nowhere else to keep it in my room. Normally I stow it away in my bed because our mattresses lift up and there's a compartment in the beds to provide extra storage room). I'll leave to catch the bus to the train station at around 9:20 a.m. tomorrow for a 10:30 a.m. train. My flight doesn't leave until 5:05 pm, but you never know what's going to happen with transportation, so I planned my trip so I'll arrive at the airport a good three hours before my flight is scheduled to depart. I'm supposed to arrive at John F. Kennedy Airport at around 8:30 p.m. tomorrow, at which time I will probably be exhausted, but incredibly relieved. I can't believe it's time to go home for the holidays. The semester seemed to drag on and on at the beginning, and then all of a sudden it was week 10 in the semester (out of 12). For the record, I'll be leaving on my 114th day abroad. I've been keeping track for kicks. I think it will be fun to know exactly how many days I've spent abroad when I return home for good in the spring.
On another note, if you've checked out the songs on the left side of my blog, you may have noticed there are links to videos for some of the songs. My mother (aka Mom Dukes) brought the awesome video for Since I Left You by The Avalanches to my attention. Take a look at if you have a chance. Here it is.
Well, that's about all for now. Hope everyone is well! If I have time, there will certainly be a post or two while I'm Stateside. All the best!
-ZMG
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