like a popsicle on the 4th of July

Just thinking about fireworks, and fireflies, and freedom...

Source 1 & 2 Source 3

saturday

Today I woke up at four o'clock am. I worked from five until eleven, opening for the very first time. (Also, I had pancakes for breakfast.) I accidentally left my wallet at home. I found lots of goodies at the £ Shop, Tesco's, and Boots (after having gone home to retrieve my wallet). Incidentally, one of the hardest parts of living in another country is having to figure out all new brands of toiletries.

I participated in World Wide Knit in Public Day. Which, I have to be honest, didn't seem that much different than a normal Stitch 'n Bitch gathering, just we were in the museum cafe instead of Starbuck's. But we had a lovely time anyway. I came home, put all my shopping away, and made dinner. I had an orange and a grilled peanut butter and nutella sandwich. I ate it in my pyjama bottoms... in my bed... while watching a chick flick on my computer. (Don't hate.) It is now almost eight o'clock pm. I'm going to do my dishes and probably go straight to bed.

wednesday is the new saturday

Now that I've finished the ICT class I was required to do for my course I don't have to be at college until 2:30 in the afternoon. This is bliss! The same is true on Monday but I usually set Monday mornings aside to do any school work due in during the week. And now that I've started working I don't always have Saturday off, so Wednesday has become my new Saturday. Except for the hour and half I'm in class I spend it doing things like taking pictures of the beautiful flowering tree outside my window. (This is surprisingly challenging because the windows are not clean and they do not open.)

I'm so thankful for this tree! Charlotte, my home town, is absolutely covered with flowering trees and bushes and gardens definitely all spring and to a lesser extent all year long. Having a flowering tree right outside my window helps me feel more at home here, and it has beautiful red leaves in the fall.

I also do things like make big lunches, and then document them by taking pictures. I also baked a cake. A strange cake. A rosemary and olive oil cake. My feelings on this cake are undecided... I do not have any pictures of it because it took longer than expected baking and I had to rush out the door as soon as it came out of the oven as waiting for it had made me late for class.
After my class I head over to Starbucks. Wednesday afternoons are when my knitting group meets. This particular Wednesday was the launch of their new branding. Look at the fabulous new cups! It was also momentous because I discovered a new amazing combination; chai tea and caramel waffles. Y-U-M!!!
Once I sat down to knit I realised that my pattern had not made it into my knitting bag... thank goodness for free wi-fi and ravelry. I was able to pull the pattern up on my iPod and I successfully turned the heel on my first sock.
From knitting group I went over to Boojum's on Botanic to meet my lovely friend Laura for dinner. Boojums is a burrito bar. A burrito bar that actually bears no small resemblance to places like Qdoba and Chipotle. A burrito bar in Belfast. This. Is. A. Big. Deal. The whole time I lived in England myself and my American friend Rosie were desperate for Mexican food. It just wasn't available. But here in Belfast, they have burritos! It was a happy evening.
After Burritos I had home group, it was a lovely way to round out a lovely day, with old and new friends and some good, solid Lenten reflections.

Normally my Wednesday's aren't quite so full. And despite the cold and wind and rain, and the fact that my boots seem to no longer be water proof, it was a good day!

knitting and reading

I missed last week's yarn along due purely to laziness. I'm coming into the last few days of my mid term break and I have done exactly that, have a break, so wonderful. Anyway, this week I'm reading Brooklyn by Colm Toibin. I picked it up in a charity shop last week. Several things about it caught my eye: Irish author, a girl living in another country away from home, the process of making your home in a strange place. I'm not very far into it yet but this quote caught my attention: "...the rest of her life would be a struggle with the unfamiliar." I've very much been feeling like this the last few weeks. Don't get me wrong, I love it here in Belfast and I'm so thankful to be here, and I don't really want to be anywhere else. Just sometimes living in another culture is tiring and I've been feeling the wear and tear of it.
On my needles today is a Jewel Cowl in a lovely shade of green. The yarn is part bamboo and it's so silky and soft! I got it in a yarn swap my local stitch 'n bitch club held at Christmas, bonus! I'm making this for my mom, but it's a surprise so don't tell!

I’m missing the other half of my wardrobe which is packed safely away at my parent’s house undoubtedly being worn by my youngest sister...

a plea for pumpkin

It's October! Can you believe it? The year was going quite slowly for me until August, and now, all of a sudden, it's October. Goodness!This is the view out my bedroom window. I think the grey sky, red leaves, orange brick looks very nice framed by my faded blue curtains. Fall is definitely here, in all it's force. It's getting colder, raining more often, the days are growing shorter. Not gradually mind you, all of a sudden it went from getting dark at 8pm to getting dark at 7pm. Just this week, when I wake up at "half six" it's dark outside.

This has left me craving hearty, warming food. Earthy root vegetables and pumpkin. Mostly pumpkin. Pumpkin bread and chocolate pumpkin muffins and those new pumpkin spice hershey's kisses (which, ironically, I've never had but I still want them!). Only one problem, you can't get pumpkin here. At least not canned pumpkin. And while I have one can of pumpkin left from last year, I'm hoarding it for Thanksgiving. I suppose I could buy a pumpkin, saw some at the market this morning, I'm not sure I want it bad enough to deseed, carve out, roast, and mash in order to make my own pumpkin puree... Not yet anyway.

I've been scouring asian markets and international food shops in hopes I may find some here. I did find teriyaki sauce and cornmeal and large bags of kidney beans, but no canned pumpkin.

So I sent out a plea on facebook: I will very happily trade any requested British goods for pumpkin products from the US!!!

In happier news, bananas are quite easy to get here. Tomorrow I'm making banana bread and chocolate chip banana muffins. That'll have to do!

one good thing

about going home in January...

There's a giant hot water tank and I can lie in on cold mornings without fear of a cold shower!

culture stress

"You feel tired, anxious, discouraged, isolated, angry, and homesick but cannot think of any reason why you should feel that way."

"Culture stress is the stress that occurs when you change to a different way of living in a new culture. It is what you experience as you move beyond understanding the culture to making it your own so that you accept the customs, becoming comfortable and at home with them. If you are trying to become a real part of the culture, to become bicultural, you are likely to experience culture stress as you assimilate some of the conventions to the point that they feel natural to you."

"Culture stress is the adjustment stage in which people accept the new environment, adopting new ways of thinking and doing things so that they feel like they belong to the new culture. This takes years, and some missionaries never complete it."

~from What Missionaries Ought to Know about Culture Stress by Ronald Koteskey

This is why I've been feeling so out of whack the last few weeks...