Food Interests

I know that my posts have been short and lame as of late, but I find that when I only have a half hour of internet time I become really not funny at all. So I’ll spare everyone that.

I had two small misfortunes yesterday at the Mediathèque. The first was when I received my carrel number from the librarian (mediathequarian?). I had told her which movie I wanted (Citizen Kane) then she told me that there wouldn’t be French subtitles, and I told her that they weren’t necessary. She then picked a station and said slowly, like she was talking to an idiot, “okay, you’ll be at number forty – four” (she also held up four fingers twice just to make sure that there could be no confusion, since she obviously found me mentally challenged). Come on! If I could understand how to work the admittedly confusing movie system as well as sustain a conversation with her, I have made it past the ‘oh god, what number was that, I can’t figure out anything higher than ten?’ stage of the language. Argh. That’s worse than the French people that try to answer my questions in English.

The second misfortune was that I somehow managed to lose my card in the short hallway dividing the screening room and the DVD rental room. Not only did I feel like a moron when I got to the check-out and had no card, it was nowhere to be found anywhere. So I have no movies or CDs until Tuesday, at the earliest! That is tragedy.

Making my way through their feeble (compared to Penn State) selection, I’ve just finished the first eight hours of 24. At first, I was a critical fiend. In the back of my mind, I kept comparing it to Alias, which I still consider much more quality. I think that 24 is more like a soap opera, with events that unfold sloooowly, rather than wonderful action-packed spy-fi glory each episode. I almost stopped watching after the first disk (00:00-04:00) because I frankly did not care for any of the characters, no matter how much woe befell them. But after the card disaster, it was my only DVD left, so I was driven to desperation. Luckily, 04:00-08:00 was a lot more interesting. It’ll probably take me weeks to get 08:00-12:00 since the TV shows are always missing sections of seasons. I am still waiting for disc one of Deadwood to be returned.

I feel really lame that it’s so important to me.

I have also been reading a lot, which is good. I just finished Charlie Chaplin’s My Autobiography, which took longer than I had expected, and I can’t get myself to keep on The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas Freedman. That one is engaging, but it just seems like a momentous task to actually pick it up and keep reading. And, of course, there’s the old standby, Miss Manners’ Guide to Rearing Perfect Children. I thank my lucky stars that I had the foresight to bring that along. I’ve read it more than anything else.

Now onto food...

This tiny little bottle cost me 2.97 euros, or about four bucks. It’s so wee! But… so worth it! Oh. I guess you can’t really tell scale from the picture. Well, it’s about six and a half inches tall. And, it’s imported from Canada, which was really the selling point for me. Hmm. I just got inspired to photograph my other foods.

The only reason that I bought these pizzas was because they were less than an euro each, and I like the combination of basic, mozzarella, and tomato. I wasn’t expecting quality, just edibility. However, they are divine. Words don’t do them justice. I went out and bought more yesterday. We now have a freezer-full. How can such cheap pizza be so good? I won’t question it.

This carton of orange juice, or Sinaasappelsap, or Orangensaft, was great in its own right. But note how resourceful we are in this apartment – we converted it into a measuring cup, as we were stuck without one. The Sharpie marks don’t seem to be very accurate, but it’s not like we’re making anything more difficult than pasta or pancakes.

Speaking of pancakes, here you go. I put it against our living-room wallpaper to give you an idea of the décor. Not only is the wallpaper on the walls, but the ceiling as well. That’s true for every room. Anyway, the pancakes were marvelous. It was 92 euro-cents for two packages, so I figured it was worth the risk. And, indeed, it was a pleasure to prepare.

Ah, my Crusty Muesli. I had only heard of this breakfast item back in the United States. It’s very, very good. There are actual bits of chocolate all through it. Despite the presence of the coconut on the box, I have never tasted anything even remotely like one in this cereal.

Yoo-hoo! I really like this box. The monkey is way too busy eating the generic Smacks to even think about talking, so he has to imagine that he is calling after us in a joyful manner.

It’s a lot better than my Corn Flakes. Yawn. It makes me want to go back to bed in the morning. It would be hard to come up with a worse box. No wonder kids don’t like them.

Oh, yes. Five bars of chocolate for a euro. Can’t be beat.

Here, I managed to create a scale of sorts. Here is my bottle of syrup when compared to a pack of batteries. Like I said, a wee bit o’syrup, eh?

While I was at it, I wanted to get a picture of our barometer that I just noticed. At the moment, our temperature is ‘variable’. Thanks, trusty barometer.

The prices here are
shockingly high for ramen – this little package was the equivalent of about fifty cents. But sometimes I just want simple dried noodles and seasoning packets.

My poor camera batteries are on their last legs. They’ve been going for ages! I first got the warning ‘bip’ back at the Lunaret zoo, which was at least three weeks ago. I bought that major battery pack in preparation for the inevitable, but so far it hasn’t been necessary. I will wring these dry.

By the way, as I type this some guy keeps walking past with the most heinous body odor imaginable. I keep getting a noseful and it's grossing me out.