Randomness

Just thought I should give a little update:

1) The pecan pie turned out absolutely black on top, but we ate it anyway. It actually was quite good, if you didn't mind having a little burnt taste every now and then...I took a picture but can't load it just yet (see previous post about my compy problems) so I'll be sure to put it up eventually.

2) There were no Cadbury Creme Eggs for Easter this year...I don't understand it. The UK is practically our neighbor and yet Cadbury's chocolate is nowhere to be found! I told my sister to buy all the Cadbury Creme Eggs they could find and then hide them away in the closet so that next time I go home and I can bring them back with me. I hope she did it.

3) I talked to my friend Derek today and he was eating girl scout cookies. Tagalongs. My favorite. Obviously, they don't have those here, either. What's a girl to do??

4) I discovered a new restaurant! It's a salad bar/buffet! Fresh veggies are hard to find here - they love their bread, ham, and cheese, and everything else they fry. I've been craving veggies (Jason's Deli used to be my second home - their salad bar is the best!) and therefore I've been going to Maoz several times a week - so much so that the people who work there know me know and when they're not busy we just talk and talk and talk...almost everybody who works there is Italian, which I find interesting. Anyway, I haven't been to this salad bar place yet but it's on my list of places to try!

5) For Christmas I told my mom I wanted to take guitar lessons. After months of searching for teachers/prices/deciding what style, etc, I finally had my first lesson today! I'll be learning the Spanish guitar, so ya know, flamenco and all that stuff! My first lesson was really fun (and challenging!) so I'm really looking forward to it. My mom will pay for 2 months worth and if I like it, then I'll pay for it myself, or else ask for money for my birthday (September 9th if you feel like sending me something!) At some point the shop keeper accidentally left the door open (all of the shops have little buzzers on the door so it's constantly locked unless you buzz) and some dude walked in and was trying to steal stuff while he was in the back talking to me and the guitar teacher. Luckily he caught the guy in time and he didn't get away with anything.

6) People always tell you, "watch out for the gypsies!" Well..they're right. I'll not re-tell the whole story, but basically, a few days ago a few gypsy kids (probably 14 and 12 years old) tried to rob me when I was at the ATM. ATM's are not exactly safe places around here, but usually it's only the ones in the tourist places you need to be worried about. Not the neighborhoods, so it really caught me off-guard when all of a sudden this girl popped up out of nowhere and pushed the "300 Euros" button. I did what I could to tell her to go away and put my hands over the place where the card and the money comes out, but if it hadn't been for this old man that came by and chased them away, I don't know what would have happened. They weren't going to hurt me - they just wanted my money. And I'm not about to hit a kid over some cash. But I'm going to do my best to never again go to the ATM alone.

7) I can't think in English anymore. My vocabulary is lacking even more-so than before. I thought being a math major made me lose a significant chunk of my vocab, but that's nothing compared to what living in a foreign language will do to you...and I'm about to start learning another, so ya know...I'm really thankful for spell-checker.

That's all for now.

LB