Smorgasbord

• I have been feeling terribly homesick lately. I think it's easing up, especially since school is back in as of today and I really do have a bunch going on in the next couple weeks, but even still this is the longest I've ever gone without seeing family or friends and it's hard. So... if you ever feel like e-mailing, calling, sending a card... none of that could ever hurt, and I promise I'll write back!
• I've been combating my homesickness by cooking. I cook quite a bit anyway, but I took it to new heights this weekend. I made veggie casserole, southwestern burritos, granola and caramel-filled chocolate cookies. On Saturday, I went to the store in morning and spent the entire rest of the day cooking. Everything turned out, and I have all kinds of stuff to eat now. I did give the most of the cookies away though; love to make them, would love to eat all of them, but that's not really a great idea. My veggie casserole recipe strangely grew to three casseroles as I chopped, and chopped, and chopped veggies. Therapeutic, but that was actually the point I started to wonder about my mental stability: as I looked around a disaster of a kitchen with enough food and dessert for at least 15 people. Oh well, I decided, a taste of home is always good for the soul.
• I came down with a no-good flu when I got back from Nicaragua and spent 3 days doing absolutely nothing, going only from my bed, to the couch, to the kitchen and back. I'm all better now, but I had time to watch many a rerun of Friends and begin a new obsession with allrecipes.com and joyofbaking.com...great sites, you should check them out.
• I'm considering retiring when I get back to the U.S. and just becoming a cook/baker. Man, I think I would love to spend all my time cooking. I spend hours looking at recipes, and if I do say so myself, I'm not too bad at preparing them. I even made marshmallows today. Who knew you could do that? You can, it's very simple and they are delicious, way better than store-bought. I found out you can also very easily make ketchup. I'm gonna give it a try, as I'm not a big fan of the ketchup here, it tastes quite different.
• My host family returned this Saturday night from a trip to New York. I'm glad to have them back and I honestly missed them. It's really ironic to me that they went on vacation in my country while I was here in theirs. They did invite me, which was even more ironic, but I didn't have a lot of interest in going to New York instead of say, Nicaragua or Panama. So, they made it back, with a whole bunch of new clothes, electronics, perfumes, jewelry, shoes and everything else. It's really common here that people who have the means travel to the U.S. just to shop, go relatively often because what they like (i.e.-latest fashions, newest electronics, etc.) is usually about half the price there. This was my host family's first time there and I was really interested to see what they thought of the U.S. I wondered what they would say about the distinct differences between here and there. It turns out that they really haven't had a lot to say about it. They said it was nice...they liked it...the houses and buildings were big...the ocean was really cold...and really that was about it. I'll keep my ears open, but I'm just surprised they didn't have much to say. I think it also has a lot to do with how much information exchange there is between the U.S. and here, through internet and T.V. so most of the things weren't that novel because they'd been seeing them for years in movies and on the internet.
• My host mom, Sandra, brought me a t-shirt, a nail polish and a pair of undies from the U.S. While it was weird getting souvenir gifts from my home country, underwear nonetheless, I have never been more excited about such gifts. First of all, my other undies are getting lots of holes in them because the little ants and other bugs eat my clothes. Second of all, the quality of nail polish here is not even close to that of nail polish there, unless you buy expensive imported stuff. Third, I have a favorite green v-neck t-shirt that also is getting holes in it and now I have a great new green v-neck hole-free replacement. Sandra is really thoughtful, and though I thanked her I don't know if she'll ever understand that these little things really meant a lot to me.