Classes and Cooking Attempts

My parents pointed out to me recently that I never say anything about my classes. So. My program is partnered with the European Union, and has everyone take an integrative seminar called From Marginalization to Inclusion: Turkey, the Balkans, and the EU. Then I am also taking an IR elective entitled Politics, Security Issues, and International Relations of the Balkans, Turkey, and South East Europe. (And people wonder why I never remember the names of my classes...) We have one class each day - the seminar is Mon/Wed/Fri and the elective Tues/Thurs. Each day we have 2 sessions of the class - 9:00am to 10:40, then a 15 minute break and class again until 12:40. It's a little long, but surprisingly, it goes very quickly! And this is coming from a girl who sometimes struggles with 50 minute classes, so you know it's interesting. We have our mid-terms this Thursday and Friday, unfortunately enough. There is so much to do and experience that no one ever wants to study, but we manage to squeeze it in! I am learning so much about the former Yugoslavia and all of the problems of that area - which began before I was born. It does lend some hope for the Middle East, though, because the Balkans had some truly horrible experiences what with the wars and concentration camps and ethnic cleansings. The fighting began in 1991 and 13 years later came the peak of anti-Serbian violence in Kosovo. At this point, every country in Yugoslavia had experienced war/violence to some extent. While things are still not entirely fixed in the Balkans, the situation has improved since then, with Croatia even being accepted for EU membership (it will become an EU member on July 1st). So if the Balkan countries can be recovering and, however slowly, starting down the path of increased cooperation and acceptance, perhaps somewhere down the road the ME can achieve the same results. Of course, there is still the whole can of worms with terrorism to think about, but that's another story.

Okay, enough about classes. I've begun to try to cook some meals for myself in an attempt to cut back on spending. My first attempt was pasta last night. Basically I cooked some noodles and heated up some tomato sauce. It was rather flavorless and fairly bland.. So this evening I made my second attempt. I couldn't find celery or peas in the grocery store (part of my dad's famous spaghetti sauce recipe) but I did find peppers! There was a package of one each of a red, green, and yellow tomato, so I sliced some up and cooked them with the sauce, then topped it off with some grated Gouda cheese. It wasn't a masterpiece, but definitely an improvement from last night! It looked better before I mixed it all up, but I forgot to take a picture. I also cooked myself some eggs this morning, which were delicious! For a first attempt, I did a pretty good job if I do say so myself. (I did get one of my fellow program mates to tell me how to cook them, though, so I can't really take too much credit.) The side of fresh strawberries was clutch.

Cooking definitely makes me appreciate my mom more, though. Just cooking for myself isn't bad, because I don't have to be creative at all. I could eat the same thing every night for dinner if it was the cheapest thing for me to make (and that is probably about what I'll be doing!). And as long as I can turn on some music and dance around the kitchen, the cooking isn't too bad, either. But I can't imagine trying to come up with a different meal every day, cooking for multiple people, getting it all done simultaneously and in a timely manner (I put my vegetables in my food tonight, so no sides necessary; and if I'm hungry it's my own fault for not starting sooner). The clean-up is the worst part. I live with 5 other girls, 4 of whom are German students who I think have lived here for awhile, so I don't want to give off a bad impression of Americans or intrude on their space at all, so I make sure to wash and dry all of my dishes right after I eat. And there's no dishwasher - all by hand. So thanks, Mom, for putting up with all of our whining about what's for eating and when and the reluctance to help cook and clean!