Days Eighteen and Nineteen. Wahaca.

Days EIGHTEEN AND NINETEEN. Wahaca. Not to eventfull, so doing both at once. Monday was spent trying to study all morning. I don't know what it is about me, memorization, and ADD that happen every time I try to settle a recipe into my head. I went for a jog in the morning to go to a kitchen supply store. As I wrote in a letter to dad yesterday, "I forgot to mention in my blog that I used the microwave/convection oven combo for dinner on Sunday. I don't know what I was thinking but I put the splash guard on top of my food. And after a few minutes I smelt something burning. Um yah plastic melts in an oven. Ugh. Luckilly the pizza was salvageable, but the splash guard was not. I went to the nearest kitchen supply store [monday morning] to buy a replacement, but they were out of stock." double ugh. Found one at another store on my way to school. School. Made rolls. That's it. No other class. Classic white rolls I find boring and a waste of calories at restaurants and here unless I have a lot of butter with them. These rolls are pretty plain tasting. The funniest part about making them was the kneading process....you slam/beat the dough on the table hard, knead/slide, repeat. Chef said to beat it like you are angry at someone. Some were more forceful than others. It was good fun to watch people's facial reactions. And therapeutic to make little shapes with the dough. We had to show four patterns (knots, S's, cinnamon roll type, roses, village, etc) three each to show consistency. Pretty good. We also made soda bread. For some reason I always thought it had sweet characteristics but this is pretty plain, the raisins jazzed it up. I need some clotted cream or butter to eat with it. Tuesday. Was only a demonstration class, making Madeleine's and lemon cake. The chef also made an almond/pistachio cake, but we are only required to made the first two. I don't think that I have ever eaten a Madeline outside of a Pettridge Farm container. They are amazing light, fluffy little shell shaped cakes that are meant to look like an open scallop shell, with Chantilly cream filling. We had ours plain, but they are so good. Did you know Madeleine's originated out of baking the cakes in actual scallop shells? It got a bit too fishy, hence the bakeware that isn't at all fishy to the taste. There's your random fact of the day. Lemon cake is good too. It's in a loaf pan, brushed with glaze. Pretty light on the lemon side for my preference, but still an airy bite in my mouth. I made have had a few more than one sample today of the three desserts. :) After class a few of us went out to lunch. Same as the pub people plus Maltese and Maine joined us. Maine has lived in Austria for 6 years as an opera singer. Maltese has lived in London for 8 years, she was our tour guide as we went to lunch. "There's this Mexican place called Oaxaca, do you all want to go there?" Um you are speaking to four Americans [and Poland] of course we like Mexican food. I was sceptical that it would be good. When we walked up and the sign said "Wahaca" I thought the phonetically challenged restaraunt would be a farce of an interpretation. To my delight it was amazing food. More on the trendy classy side of Mexican (barrio cafe in Phoenix). I had plantain tacos & sweet potato taquitos. Both were amazing! I know where to go now when I am needing my Mexican food kick. The conversation was lovely, never dull. They had matchbooks by the door on the way out, but they were not matches inside, but little seed pods to "plant your own Serrano peppers" I thought of Ward as it was a cool packaging and design idea. Afterwards we went to a kitchen supply store. Apparently that and school are the places I visit most frequently. I bought a peeler as the one in my knife kit is hard for me to use and a pastry brush. Ooooohhhhh. So exciting. We split up and went our own ways after that. And now I am procrastinating my studies by writing this. Ha! Well, have a great day. Any tips for memorizing recipes? Never done it before and every time I try I easily get distracted. It's hard to do. Leave your ideas in the comments please! I love your comments! It makes me happy that people are reading this thing.

Days FIFTEEN SIXTEEN AND SEVENTEEN

Days FIFTEEN SIXTEEN AND SEVENTEEN. A Polish and Three Americans girls go into a pub. And lightning. My bed is more important than my blog. Sorry for the delay. I moved to Fullham on Friday morning. My amazing flatmate that picked me up on day one at the bus stop offered to help me take my things to my new place. I was floored, seriously such kindness I need to pay it forward. I got there earlier than I needed, but I was glad I had help. It's like a hotel compared to the other place. My room is cheery yellow, high ceilings, lace curtained window, two chests of drawers, a wardrobe, and a double bed....better than the mini single I have been trying to sleep on for the past two weeks that was more like a cot. Anyhow, Sue is nice, she showed me around a bit, showed me how to use the appliances, how to lock the front door, flush the toilet, turn on the hot water for the shower, you know the typical household things. Then I unpacked a bit. I unloaded the big suitcase and was so glad to put things in drawers and not pick things out of suitcases. An hour later i was on my was to school to study a bit before class. The class.....we used the puff pastry we had made the day before and cut it into a tart shell for our fruit tart. Baked it, mine turned out a bit wonky. I think I folded it one too many times the day before. Oh well. It's just a pastry, life goes on. I made pastry cream for the third time in our classes. I have the procedure down, I just need to work on memorizing ingredient amounts. Cut my fruit, assembled, whalla. A fruit tart. In looking at my pictures, nothing but fruit and no chocolate. I want chocolate classes. In demonstration class, we learned how to make eclairs. Chef Touille must really like us because 80% of our classes so far have been taught by him. Attendance wise, I am the last one on the list (last alphabetically in group c). I have to listen to "here" "yes chef" 42 times before he gets to my name. I've been trying to jazz it up by saying, "hello!" "Ola" "namaste" when my name is called. Thursday night I said my favorite, "aloha!" Chef asked me where his flowers were to have a lei, and I told him I would bring them tomorrow. Classmates giggled. He didn't believe that I actually would. Friday night when he called my name, "konnichiwa" came out of me....and "chef is it tommorow today?" He being a bit confused and trying to make a joke back said "I guess so" "Good. Here are your flowers!" And out I popped a small bouquet of carnations. The class roared with laughter and applause as I went up to him and gave him flowers. He thanked me laughing and said no one has ever bought him flowers before. I never bought flowers for a guy before either. Class on eclairs was good. I have made them before in my lifetime so it wasn't as foreign as puff pastry or pastry cream. This is another possibility for our final exam (lemon tart being another). I took a lot of notes. The only thing readable about the class was that it ended at 930, and we had class the next morning at 8am. I feared I would miss my alarm clock. Nope. Got there at 720. Everything was closed so I couldn't grab a breakfast sandwich like I planned on from the corner cafe. All of us were really tired and it was hard to be making a possible exam item so early in the morning. It's like we live in the building. I did alright. They need to be consistent in size, shape, fondant (not like fondant in the states, this is more like Lisa's/Mel's pumpkin cookie frosting kind of fondant) and decorative design on the top. I tried to stay within the 2.5 hour "exam time" so my design wasn't that creative but I wanted to get done on time, and with a minute to spare, I finished. We had a demonstration class afterwards where we learned to make rolls. Not Aunt Erda rolls or aunt Marilyn's either, standard restaurant style white bread rolls. (He did make wheat too, but I forgot to taste it.) He also made soda bread. We'll be making both on Monday. It was an instructor that my group has only had for health and safety so far. These chefs can be crusty one minute and softies the next.....just like the bread. Ha! He asked us how our eclairs turned out and gave some feedback. He asked us if any of us knew what eclair meant in French. No one in all three groups speaks French. Lightning. Eclairs means lightning. I think everyone was excited to eat and eat bread we did. Class dismissed early. Yay! I went to lunch with Vermont and Poland. We walked and walked like the pioneers trying to find a place to eat at. We went to some famous hotdogs and champagne place (bubble dogs) but the kitchen was closing for lunch service. we were not going to wait for 2 hours, so we went across the street to a cafe and ate. We had already made plans to do something for dinner too. We left each other. I knew I didn't have that much time to do anything, but I needed to get groceries and laundry detergent. Got that done, took a shower, and headed out. Didn't know there was a soccer (football) game to crowd my subway ride from 40 minutes to an hour. Boo. I met up with Vermont and Poland and found that California joined us for the night. We were pioneers again and just walked forever before finding a pub with not a lot of people in it. Should have taken that as a sign. Vermont and I ordered nachos to share. The description sounded good. When they came, it was bottom of the bag DORITOS with melted cheese on top and jalapeños. I don't remember the last time I ate Doritos. I don't like them, but I was so hungry I ate them anyway. We both avoided the cup of "salsa" on the plate aka ketchup with onions mixed in it. It was nice just to get out and do something other than cook with my classmates. Today I went to church at the Hyde Park 1st Ward, the ward where I am living now meets there. It's a great building, just south of Hyde Park, Royal Albert Hall, and Victoria and Albert Museum. The ward from the looks of things wasn't as diverse as harrow. A lot of people bearing testimony in American accents. The RS Pres is American, Bishop is British. I met a couple that just moved in the ward. I exchanged numbers with her. Walked through the Victoria and Albert Museum for a brief moment on the way back to the tube. Came home, put my pajamas on, watched general women's broadcast, rewriting some of my notes, wishing I had excellant memorization skills, writing this saga of a novel and have been trying to stay awake so I don't fall asleep before 5pm. Hoping to do some ironing tonight, studying, and watching Downton abbey and facetiming anyone that wants to FaceTime with me. Congratulations on making it to the end of this report. Goodnight....or good afternoon....or good day wherever you are

Day Fourteen. Queen Cocoa

Day fourteen. I got up earlier than I wanted and went back to Buckingham palace. Got to make good use of that ticket (it's "free" for a year..after first visit). Although Monday's visit was rushed, I felt like I had the palace to myself -- being practically the only one in every room. This time around it was for the masses, and only 30 minutes difference in arrival times. nevertheless I took full. Advantage of the free audio guides stopping at every single thing that had something to listen to. Did you know the palace has 775ish rooms and 78 bathrooms....78. That's a lot of toilet cleaners. It also has 400 full time staff. Dang. That is a busy place. I learned a lot more this time around and it was fun to see it again. Seriously the people carved out of the walls (I now there is a more technical name for them) holding banners, seeing the former candlesticks being converted with lightbulbs, the strict attention to detail in everything. That place is more of a museum than home...but kids were born and raised there. Charles was born there. In the childhood exhibit one of the mini kid cars they had was a mini replica James Bond car Charles got in the 60s. It came with the same gadets the real bond car had including smoke shield wall. They are fortunate unfortunate people to have so many cool things but have a microscope on you at all times. I decided to take advantage of the Garden Cafe...whenever can I say I dined at Buckingham Palace again in my life? They have a fully functioning cafe with sandwiches and sweets. I had a hot chocolate and cream puffs. Really good lunch I know. The hot chocolate has a dusting of cocoa powder on top in the shape of a crown. Yep. Living the high life. Met a couple from Canada. They told me about some fancy grocery store they looked in and had tomatoes for £100 a pound.....ah what? Better be a good tomato. Better check that out. School. Pear tart in puff pastry. We 1. Made our own puff pastry, turning it (folding it over itself) every 20 minutes for 2.5 hours and 2. Used premade puff pastry to make a pear tart with a lattice top. It looked a lot fancier than it tastes, but still a lot of work to do. Peel, core, Poach the pears, make the cream filling, roll and trim the dough, etc. it was a process, but a better handling than the day before. Demonstration Class was how to make a puff pastry fruit tart. Combing the pastry cream we've made before, rolling puff pastry, and cutting fruit. If you think Chef Touille lover of cutting fruit was our instructor again, you are right. The girl next to me said "if I have to watch him cut fruit for one more session I don't know what to do." Hahaha. Right there with you. He cuts in silence, and we have to be silent and watch so it is a bit tiring. He does great work though. After class I went home and packed up the last of my things. I move to Fullam tomorrow. A place where I can feel more settled, and not be living out of my suitcases. :)

Day THIRTEEN. Apple Tart. Today's classes started with a lecture class on how final exams will be held. Yes there are exams. I wish they had a way to take classes here with out tests, like an audited class or something, but they dont. Enter Panic Mode. I've said before that 50% of the test is 1/3 dishes (lemon tart being one) randomly being selected for us and we have to do the entire dish from start to finish from memory and within an alloted amount of time. Tons of pressure. Plus there is a written part, where multiple choice, true false, and fill in the blanks on any recipe we have completed over the term. Memorization is like halusinations for me.... unheard of. This should be interesting. After a good chat with the school principal, she said not to worry, that it will all come with time, give it a month and I will be surprised at how much I know. Apple Tart time. if I have certain classmates around me, I tend to do better and am calmer through the process of creating things. My crust was not so calm today. It was a sweet crust, with lots of butter, super delicate to the touch. I figured patching it up in the pan would do the trick, but my patches only made canals for the product to drain out. It turned out lovely on top, hiding my crusts mistakes. They had us use a mandoline to slice our apples, without a safety on them. I didnt go as far down as others did as i did not want to get too close to the blade. My apple layering 'was excellent' according to the chef. My crust, not so much. At night we learned how to make our dish for tomorrow, puff pastry.....from scratch. I will be forever greatful for store bought puff pastry as I got to see all of the many layers that go into one sheet of puff. Its going to be a roller pin of a day tomorrow. We actually got out of class early tonight. I was so excited, I neglected to notice that the train platform I use every night has 2 train lines on it. I got on the wrong train, and noticed 5 stops (twenty minutes later). Nice one Michelle. I made it home eventually, started packing up my things to get ready for Friday morning's move. My fabulous flatmate has offered to go with me Friday morning to take my things. Bless her forever. I gave her half my apple tart as thanks. No shame that I at the other half all by myself as a 11pm snack also known as dinner time. Oh! I saw Chef Arizonna today in the hall...I only looked up from my notes after hearing, "There she is Miss Arizona."

Day TWELVE. Lemons make lemonade

Day TWELVE. Not to much to report today. We made Lemon Tarts. Aka a sofisticated Lemon Meringue Pie. It is one of the three exam dishes we will have. We had the demonstration the night before, so the train to and fro my flat was spent studying/memorizing the recipe. Only when I got to class it left my brain, and i put too much water in my crust and had to start over again (10ml vs 100ml is quite a difference. 100ml was sugar. 10ml was the water). Luckilly there were a couple of cuts on other people that delayed them, so I caught up to everyone else pretty quick. Chef Tuilee did the first row of meringue on my tart to get me going and show me how it is done. Only it was a bit scewed/not straight so the rest of it was a bit off. Then he graded me and told me my lines werent straight....uh thanks boss you started it. The girl who has a locker next to me is in Cuisine Program with her sister. I asked her in the morning if she liked Lemon Tart, as for me it is down there with meringues in my preference for desserts to eat. She said that she loved it. I told her I would give her my tart as I had no intention of eating it. She was so excited. The sisters found me after my class and were amazed that I handed the whole thing over....I had two bites just so I could see what it tasted like, and the rest was for them. It was good, but I prefer chocolate over fruit desserts any day. Sitting in class today i thought. I am not working. I have no income. I am paying to be here. I paid a school how to teach me to bake better. I need to take advantage of the moment and learn as much as I can without getting overwhelmed. I want to love it as much as Chef Tuliee loves plating fruit. This is going to be a good time.

Day ELEVEN. Miss Arizona.

Day ELEVEN. Miss Arizona. Saturday I bought a ticket to go inside Buckingham Palace today (Monday). I thought that it was my late start with 3pm classes. After purchasing the ticket and coming home i discovered my classes started at 1130, and my ticket was for 930. The website said it takes 2 hours to get through the palace. I thought I was doomed. I called the tiketing office to see if I could swap/trade days but they said its not swappable as I had the actual ticket in hand. The lady did say that I could go Monday, and get my ticket stamped, for a one year pass to come back to the palace for another visit. The palace is only open to the public for two months when the queen is away. It closes this weekend. I got up this morning, and ....went inside dun da duh duhn da dah da doo do doo... Buckingham Palace. [If you made it through that paragraph bless you.] I got there early, but so did 50+ other people. I was in the second group to go through security, get my headset, and head in the castle. It was amazing. It actually felt like I was on a set, and not actually in the real thing. The ornate ceilings, chandeliers, carpets, paintings, were clearly all one of a kind. One of the rooms is where the formal wedding portraits take place. Crazy to think that Will & Kate, the Queen and King, and others had all been in that same room, or all the rooms. In another room, they had the baptismal font that royals had been baptised with, and the bapismal dress of William/George in a glass case. Crazy to think that living peoples items are incased in glass for others to see, and they are not even dead yet. There was a display of "Childhood in the palace" with some amazing photographs of the Queen & other people as kids in the palace. They had a room that was set up just for all the toys/gifts that had been given to the kids. There was the coolest kid size airstream trailer the Queen had when she was little. There was an Alpaca blanket given by the Obama's to George at his birth. I was walking constatly, never stopping for longer than 5 seconds at anything. I have no idea how many rooms I got to see, or how long the tour was going to take. Before I knew it the tour was over. I blasted through the castle in 30 minutes. Ha! I wanted to go backwards, but people were giving me the stink eye for reversing my course. I asked a worker where I get my ticket stamped and she said at the end of the tour, a ten minute walk through the garden grounds. What? 10 more minutes of walking? Oh. my. goodness. As much as I am a lover of history. I am a lover of nature. This was like the palace's own Central Park. It was amazing. A big long green grassy area, about the size of a football field or two, a trail with a pond and the prettiest dripping trees reflecting in the water below. Sigh. When I go back, not sure if I want to stare at the yard or at the walls more. Wow. Again if you made it this far, go grab a glass of water. I made it to class with plenty of time. We seem to have the same chef teaching all of our demonstrations. He is new to the school, and very fast at times, and slow at other times. He spent 2 hours on one task today, making Tuiles, decorative cookie like things for our creme de caramel and creme brules. Two hours. It was painful, as the schedule showed that he had much more to show us, including plating, negative space on plates, fruit slicing, and he took 75% of the time to show us one thing. I finally spoke up and asked him as he worked in silence, and asked if he would talk to us about something else on the schedule as he continued making Tulies. He said he would in a minute. He kept going. He went over by 20 minutes, and that meant no lunch break, we had to rush, and get ready for our practical with no food in our bellies. Many of us had dampened spirits with no food, especially going to make something and get a critique from another chef when we werent trained properly. Practical. I walked in and to my surprise, it was a chef that specializes in Sugar Sculptures. My flatmate said that she has not even had a class from him yet and she is going into third term. He's done competitions for sugar work arround the world, so he's pretty legit. I was washing my scissors off in the sink, and sliced my thumb. I had to go to chef to get a bandaid. Once he heard my accent, he asked where I was from. I knew he was american by his accent. Arizona. "Arizona? What? I am from Tucson. I've been teaching here for two years, and never have had someone from Arizona before you." Wow. I am a rarity. We had a nice little chat. He was really nice, and patient, showed me how to make a sugar bowl by shaking the sugar by shaking my hand like I am 'ringing a bell.' When Chef came around to me for my review he called me Miss Arizona. After my royal morning I felt like a beauty pageant contestant, only my work today was not up to my standards. My creme de caramel plating was terrible. I didnt even take a picture of it. My chocolate piping, and decoration was a bit too over the top. My Creme brulee did not look like it does in my instagram picture at the time of my critique. The chef suggested to have the fruit flow from the brule down to the plate, as I only had it on the plate. I knew my caramel had too much going on the plate, so i tried to go simple is better approach. We had a third class, from 630-900 tonight. Luckilly Chef Arizona kept us on time, so we actually got to eat our lunches before our final class of the night. Tarte au Citron. aka Lemon Tart. This is one of the three dishes that will be for our examination. 1/3 is randomly picked and we have to do it step by step from memory, have it be edible, and decorated exactly like the chef shows us. I took more notes on thie Lemon Tart then any other dish so far. Three pages. Luckilly it was a new Chef tonight (not our slow Tulie maker) who kept us upbeat and entertained. There are lots of steps to make a Lemon Tart. He also showed us a Tarte au Chocolate. You can all guess which one was my favorite when we got to taste them at the end of class. It was simply devine chocolate, fluffy yet thick, creamy, smooth, amazingness with all of my senses getting rewarded for a long long day of classes. I am in night classes all this week. Should be interesting. There she is Miss Arizona

Day TEN. How did I miss the premiere??

How did I miss the Downton Abbey premiere?!? I live in London for crying out loud you think the premiere would be bellowed from the rooftops, but no. I simply forgot. Ugh. Sad day. Even trying to find it on the internet here is a pain. Nevertheless, Day Ten. Sunday. Church here is fasinating. Everyone has a different accent, no two are alike. The first speaker was from Mexico, who is married to an Englishman. The second speaker is from Columbia and is Married to a Bulgarian. Third speaker, from England somewhere not from around here. In Sunday School the teacher had 10 scriptures she wanted read ....it was so cool to hear everyone's accent. I didnt try to hide mine with a bad british accent, I just was full on American. I wonder if my accent sounds as cool to them, as theirs do to me. After church chatted with my flattmate who got me this place to begin with. Somehow we got on the conversation of Chirstmas. Once she found out I wasnt going home for Christmas, she said, "Well then you are coming to Wales with us!" Apparently she and 4 friends are all meeting up in Wales where 2 are going to school and invited me to come along. So we'll see how that goes. A Welsh Christmas in the land of ancestors. Our Relief Society President told us that there was a Single Adult Fireside. Me, being a hermit for years and my flatmate supportive in the adventure, decided to go. It was at the Hyde Park Chapel in London, so a 45 minute tube ride each way and the 75 minute meeting took up the evening....and probably helped with me forgetting about Downton Abbey. Had lovely chats with the Parents and Mel & Co this evening. Then I wrote my recipes up nicer than my chicken scratch and off to bed. Winds in the east.....a weather change is starting to get things colder......

Day NINE. Sweets of London. After my lovely awakening at 10am I decided to take it easy in the morning and plan out my day. I mapped it all out & was off. Tube closed for maintenance. Free bus to nearest tube station on another line and I was really off. I decided to be a tourist today. First stop, St James Park. It was a lovely walk. Flowers, lakes, swans, people watching people, good times. I headed over to dun da duh duhn da dah da doo do doo... Buckingham Palace to take picks and be with the tourists. I got stopped twice by people asking me for directions....uh yah my i dont care what i look like apparently translates to must be a local. After wondering a bit around there, I headed off for a treat. Last night I texted my now older and wiser sister Lisa asking her where she'd like me to go for her birthday. "Just eat something yummy for me." The school has a booklet they give with recommended vendors/deals for students and in it was a chocolate shop 1/2 mile from the palace. I decided to give it a try. I got off the main streets and walked the little side roads, these are my favorite roads. The light colors of the houses, the flowers hanging from light posts, the quiet in the middle of the hustling city. When I got to the address of the chocolate shop, it was a hair salon. Nice. Luckilly there was a screamingly cute bakery on the corner, Peggy Porschen Cakes, of which I gave a go. I had a Banoffee Cupcake, a spin off of the pie it was amazing. (Arizonan's the pie is at Cornish Pasty). Today's cupcake was a toffee/molasses cake with a caramel filling, toffee buttercream, and a banana on top. I love the pie, and now the cupcake too. A delicious treat to celebrate my sister Lisa. Happy Birthday! Next years cake from me will be great! After that, I daringly proceeded to another recommended place from the book, a cake decorating supply store, to buy disposable piping/decorating bags. [The school gives us two bags, but the chefs say they are a pain to clean & reuse, so they recommended us buying disposible ones for ourselves....um hello school that made me pay lots of money please give us free piping bags please...and thank you.] This place was actually there :) it was a cute shop with everything for just cake decoration, so it was dreamy so walk through. Took a walk trying to find my next bus, got on one to see the outside of .... Royal Albert Hall. Never heard of it before last week when I turned on the TV to see "The Proms from Royal Albert Hall" [apparently it is a fest, and the last night it is televised, classics, orchestral, I am amazed at how culture is loved here]. The inside of the hall itself were closed, but they do do tours so perhaps I will be back. Walked through Hyde Park. Seriously I am loving seeing all the green and trees and people out enjoying it all. Peeked through the trees at Kensington Palace, as my friend William is out of town, and Kate is a bit under the weather, I didnt stop in for a visit. The park was lovely, and I am glad I will get to see a change in weather with the leaves changing. Not so glad for a change in temperature. Took the metro back home, got groceries on an empty stomach. Bought too much stuff. Hopefully I can eat it all before I move to Fulham next week. Got home, met the roommate who has been gone all week travelling who goes to the same school as I, but was her break, and she is full of information, and loves to talk. Super friendly people in this flat. And with that. Goodnight.

Day EIGHT. Creme. Chhhrrehem. Crahrem.

Day EIGHT. Creme. Chhhrrehem. Crahrem. In the morning we had a lecture class on how to organize ourselves and write recipes properly in our books. That would have been nice day one of class. Ha! After that we had a demonstration class for Creme de Caramel (aka Flan), Creme Brulee, Creme Anglaise, Fruit Coullis (Fruit Sauce) and Tuiles. In demo we discovered this is a two day class. We prep/bake everything today, and then finish.....on Monday. We baked our creme caramels and creme brulees. they looked lovely, but no, we could not sample or eat anything at all. Tuiles are cookies I believe, but we only made the base for them, so it will be good to see how they turn out on Monday. I had nothing to take home with me today. Weird. I decided to take myself out for dinner to celebrate the first week being completed. On my list of things to do in London (compiled by the Andrews/Tarwater clans) was to go to a famous chef restaurant. Jamie Oliver teamed up with Phoenix phenom Chris Bianco to make Union Jacks restaraunt. It had been a rainy day (although it rained while I was in class all day so I missed walking in the rain) so soup sounded like a great option. I am a huge fan of homemade tomato soup. Tomato Soup is probably in my top 3 soups preferences, and this one did not dissapoint. Creamy, smooth, with the slightest skins of tomato for texture. It was so good. The bread was amazing too. Cheesy, warm, crisp, crunchy. Yummy. Perhaps I loved it so much because it was the first restaraunt I have eaten at since being in London (not counting my sandwhiches at Pret a Manger that I grab and go for lunch) or because my tase buds have been lifted after hearing/tasting things at school. Nevertheless it was delicious. What was not so delicious, was a tube line being closed that i needed to take home after my lovely meal. After going the wrong direction once (ahem twice) I finally made it back home. I was soooooo tired. My roommate was trying to talk to me and she could tell I was going to fall asleep standing up. I dont know what it is, but I am tired everynight, but by the time my head hits the pillow I am wide awake most everynight. I didnt want to take any chances of another sleepless night, so I took a sleeping pill.....and woke up at 10am!!! I thought it was 6am judging by the light outside my window....it was a cloudy Saturday....and needless to say I am catching up on my sleep :)

Day SEVEN. Meringue or Merenge.

Day SEVEN. Meringue or Merenge. Once upon a time Michelle stayed after school to use the wifi to write about her day. Once it was all written, she thought that she clicked select all, but instead clicked delete accidentaly and it all disappeared. As she did this in "Notes" on her iPad, there was no undo button. Lesson learned. Use google docs or evernote from now on. Now, shall we dance? Today was all about Meringues and Pastry Cremes. There are three types of Meringues, French, Italian, and Swiss. Italian is also known as Seven Minute Frosting from Grandma Lewis. I never knen I was making a meringue this entire time. Ha! Funny side note, tonight after coming home, I realized that my recipe instructions I had written were backwards. In the section for Swiss Meringue, I wrote the process for French meringue and vise versa. No wonder I was so confused in cooking class when I wondered why everyone was making what i thought was french, but it really was italian. For our observation classes, we only have a sheet of paper with the name of the recipe and the ingredients. It is up to us to write the process/instructions down for each. Let me talk about the baked kind of meringue. 1. I will never understand people who like light airy bits of nothing to eat. 2. whomever invented them must have been pretty bored and needed to make a time consuming product for not much satisfaction. Nevertheless I made my first cooked meringues today. I need to work on my piping skills, there is much need to practice on those. A girl in my class told the chef that she had been practicing before coming to school. I didnt know meringues were on the list and thought piping skills would be taught. Another girl asked how to crack and seperate an egg. Ahhhh, what? True. It happend. Lets say I am in the middle of these two girls. Pastry Cremes. Did you know there is Pastry Creme that is the base for at least four more cremes? We made them, other than putting them in between meringues I wouldnt know what to do with them, as they are all different textures of the same thick pudding. At least they tasted better than the meringues. Oh! Let me just say I love my kitchen Aid! It is an Aid for a reason. I did however manage a lot of whipping by hand today, and whipped cream by hand...a task only left to mixers in the past, only needed an ice bath and some muscle development to work. Kitchen Aid. You're great. And there you have it my delightful day of things I will make the rest of my life for people with no taste buds prefering the weaker flavors of the universe.

Day SIX. Behold the Fruit Salad.

Day Six. Behold the Fruit Salad. After getting up before the birds the day before you think I would have been exhausted. First day nerves spilled over to the first night of school nerves and I was restless all night. Up again before the birds wasn't fun, but off I went to class. It was our first demonstration this morning. Fruit Salad and Sugar Syrups. Wow. I know. Pretty exciting right? All 48 of us were in the demonstration room, taking notes on how to cut each kind of fruit in different ways. Thank goodness for Ina gartens grapefruit salad as I have peeled and cut in between the membranes plenty of times before. Did you know that if you cut through 2 grapes almost in quarters and lay them on top of each other they make a cool looking flower? Well there's your tip of the day. I must say that I could truly see that the instructor showing the cuts loved his craft. Seriously he plated fruit on a plate like I had never seen, it was a piece of art the way that the colors flowed through the plate with caring heights and textures. Then he made the fruit salad in a bowl and that was nothing in comparison to his work of fruit. After learning about the stages of sugar, thread, soft, hard, hard crack and how to make a simple syrup, class was dismissed. Sounds simple enough? Well he did show us over 15 kinds of fruit so three hours went by very quickly. Then it was a three hour break. I was barely awake for the break I didn't know if I was going to be able to do it. I kept myself tolerably busy rewriting my notes into a more format-table way. Then it was time. Time to make the salad. I got energy from somewhere because because I was so excited to be in a kitchen. I didn't know if I would like it and sure enough I do! It was like playing a role in a movie, only I wasn't acting. We worked in teams of two to make the simple syrup for our fruits. Then we each cut our own 10ish fruits for our fruit salad. Kind of silly to be so precise when we poured chilled sugar syrup all over them. We then arranged/placed fruits on top. My first piece of patisserie art. All in a fruit salad. Plums, oranges, kiwi, pear, apple, grapes, strawberries, mangoes, currants, and a couple more that I am too tired to remember. Then we went back to teams of two to make the stages of sugar. In demo, our instructor showed us something I thought I would never want to do. Feel the differences of the changing sugar straight from a very cold hand that came out of ice water into the boiling sugar ....very fast....moving it back to the water & making the correct stage of sugar. Do not try this at home. It takes practice and a way better description of it than this to attempt. My ring finger tip will feel better tomorrow. Did I ever mentioned got a knife kit the first day? Today was the first day I actually opened it up. Used it. And didn't cut myself on anything the first day. Plenty more chances for that to happen. Well the internet is down at my flat tonight so I'll post this tomorrow from school where I finally got wifi. Yahoo! I guess all of that watching dancing with the stars on YouTube used up too much of there pay as you go internet. Londoners have pay as you go cell phones, pay as you go internet, tube stations, weekly rent, not monthly, and so much more. The internet/cell phones kill me....it's like we're living in 2000 or something. Or is it London is still partying like its 1999?!? Ttfn-mi

Day five. Up before the birds.

Day FIVE. Up before the birds this morning, and off to catch the tube before much of Harrow even thought if getting out of bed. Got to school early, and was dressed and the third one in class. It was a lovely day of Health and Safety classes...for six hours. I'll spare you the details and just pray that I passed my first exam of the course. I should have spent my lunch reading the book, but I was hungry so sill me for not reading up. I have to get 20/30 right to pass. After that school was dismissed. I hoped to do something fun afterwards, but getting up so early and the fact that I am always sweating everywhere I go...even at 630am puts a damper on bring adventures. Where would you like me to go for you?? Leave a comment on a cool London place. I was in kings cross today wishing I remembered anything about Harry Potter to find his platform he leaves for school on. Don't worry I found it in my tourist book that's at my flat.... I leave it there to not look like a tourist :) On the way home I stopped by the shopping center/mall by my place just to do something....I was excited to see a cookie shop with cookies! I decided to treat myself to two cookies for taking my first exam....and I need to find a new cookie shop. :) can't bake at this house because the landlady/roommate is gluten intolerant, so baking at home will have to wait for the next house....even though I will be baking plenty at school I know. Since today wasn't that exciting Ill leave you with two things I failed to tell about yesterday. One. When they brought us up to the room for orientation, they had a tray of pastries to eat. I am not ashamed to say I are three. I didn't have time to eat breakfast before I left so eating the buttery layers of chocolate croissants was certainly deserved. Two. Have you ever heard the trick for taking a good picture of yourself is to first make a silly face, and try you will smile more naturally? Well before I got here they asked for a photo of me. I had no idea what the picture was for, I took a silly shot, and then a couple regular shots before sending one off in an email. I should have paid more attention to the picture number I sent because that is my badge picture. The one I wear on my uniform everyday. And they didn't get the normal serious picture I thought I had sent, nope they got my silly one. It's I between a fish face and a Zoolander modeling pose. Pretty ridiculous. Pretty hilarious that's the pic they got and did not ask me to send another one. I smile and laugh inside every time I look at it. And with that.....goodnight.

Day FOUR. The day it all begins.

Day FOUR. The day it all begins. Went to the tube and there were train delays. I thought that I was going to be late for sure. But somehow managed to get to the school 30 minutes early. Got my fingerprint taken, as the only way to enter the school is by fingerprint, not badge or face. So techy secure. eventually they called us up to a room where we were given a bag with all of our uniforms and gear. When I saw my hat size as small I thought the rest of this bag is sure off. Sure enough later in the day ingot to exchange my pants one size up (the originals fit fine, but a bit tight in certain places. Ahem. The outfits are made for men so having hips = going up two sizes in coat to make me feel more comfortable. There are only two sizes in hat small or large...it still doesn't fit even with the Velcro completely loosed in the back. Back to orientation...we got our things...signed off that we got them. Then the school principal talked to us on all sorts of things that she deals with (learning disabilities, boyfriend drama, moving campuses for boyfriend drama, and a whole lot more. I'm too tired now to remember it all. Then the scheduling lady came and told us how to read the outrageous calendar. It is organized by day, time, class, and room. All lectures/classes start at 800, 1130, 300, or 630. I have 4 classes this month at 800am, 7 at 1130, 8 at 300 and 6 at 630. All on random days, but this is only an example. I am sure it is very intense. Speaking of intense. This is an intense course for 6 months. Meaning that what normally takes 9 months, we are doing it in 6. There were four groups that started today, one in cuisine & three pastry classes. There are 16 in my class and only one guy. John from Hong Kong. It rhymed so it was easy for me to remember. The others are from all over the place. India, Vermont, California, Japan, England, Bulgaria, Norway...yeh all over the place. Back to orientation. The tech lady came in and made it sound super easy to sign into the email program (I finally got in after downloading the app to my phone. She never mentioned that in her speal. She also made it sound so easy to get wifi. Nope. More on that later. After that we got a tour of the place. Shown where to go for the fire drill (British museum anyone?), the cafe [aka cafeteria that costs $10 for a salad...to eat in ...grrr. I need trader joes butternut squash salad please for 3.99 thank you] and all of the classrooms. For cuisine prep is on the outside counters and cooking done in the center. For patisserie prep is in the middle (on marble) and ovens are on the outeredge. We also have stove tops. Mom said mentioned that I would probably be cooking on gas ranges....we'll the wave of the future is induction cooktops (look them up) so induction is all there is here. Next up: tried on uniforms, waited in long hot halls to exchange before eating lunch. I ate with Bulgaria, Norway, and England. We were a multicultural table. It was nice to get to know some people better. I tried to get help with the wifi, but didn't have enough time for some techy to come help me. We got dressed in our uniforms and went to class. First class: super exciting. Health & safety, fire safety, hazardous equipment. Not exciting at all. Learned the proper way to pick up a box, move the box, protective equipment, substances, preventing burns/fires/falls/cuts/injury. You know the super fun stuff. Looks like tomorrow is more of it....including the metric system of which I did not study up on before getting here, so I may take a look at it tonight to prepare. After that we were done for the day. Changed back into our street clothes and were off for the night. I decided to give the wifi hookup one more chance....after 45 minutes of trying the lady at the front desk told me tech had gone home for the night, so I was going home for the night too. The sounds, smells,buildings, and action of people here is quite amazing. There is always the hint of cigarette smoke in the air. Usually a siren of some sort bellowing in the distance, the grinding of gears changing on the double decker buses, the clack of heels on the sidewalks, the smells of foods coming out from their shops, and a hustle of an ever moving crowd. Came home put on my pjs, ate some dinner, and this is where you find me. Writing all you magical people. Goodnight and tell next time ttfn.

Day THREE. Church. I didn't sleep well last night, I kept the window open and it got down into the 50's. I was frozen. If you know me well enough you know that below 70 and I am freezing. Pat has told be that there were extra blankets in the cupboards but 2am is not the time to be adventuring through closets. I knew where my jackets were so I piled them on me & put my legs through one of my sweatshirts arms and kept better warm through the night...but not really. Only I got to see my ridiculous look in action. Oh well. Church. Wembly Ward. Pat took Dierdre and I in her car. It was about a 12 minute drive. I thought we were going NW, but according to the map, it is SW from Harrow. It was through quaint little towns, open fields, real tudor style homes, and all the way a personal Pat tour guide showing us the way. I was so tired at church. People came up and introduced themselves, all very friendly, and I was looking for the nearest wall to perch myself on. Luckily Pioneer47 does work world wide for wifi for church & i was able to keep pace with the lessons and speakers. The bishop is Brazillian, his councilors are African and British, the Relief Society President is American. It is truly a multicultural ward. Dierdre was meeting with the bishop after church I debated staying, but Pat found me and took me home. I took a three hour nap & decided to get up to eat something & I am still tired. Dierdre was at the church tell 4pm when the bishop met with her....church was over at 1pm. She got home at 5pm. i am glad i did not stay with her. That nap really helped. We three chatted for a bit before I determined to get my London phone situated & get my things ready for tomorrow. Another girl that lives in this place is going to the same school, but she is on break right now so I cant enamor her with questions lucky girl. Pat has been able to answer some of my questions. Now I am trying to settle down before another round of sleep comes of me. what am i saying? Good night all.

Day Two

Day TWO. Portabello Road. Dierdre had told me the night before that she was meeting a friend at the Portabello Road markets, I invited myself along to (1) do something and (2) to see the city for a bit as a tourist before school takes me away starting Monday. We met them in the streets. Dierdre and friend were very bubbly and enthusiastic. While me and friends sister were both recovering from jet lag, she having a days advantage on me. I didn't want any knickknacks because (1) I don't have room for them and (2) I don't need them. It was nice to get out, walk, and see that all accents could be heard, and the girls I was with were just as comfortable speaking American English as everyone else was in their own tongues. As the song goes "anything and everything the street can unfold" was certainly found on Portabello Road. After a three hour adventure on the road, we split up, Dierdre to work, me to go see where the school was & get my bearings around there, and the sisters went to another market. No thanks I had had my fill. It was time for me to be a tourist. A stop after the sisters, I got off, and found my way to the school. Its across from a park. Only half the maps I used failed to show the park existed. It looks like it will be fun and good place to go to schoo. I am still in denial that I am going back to school. After that, I went to the British Museum. I had been 10 years before but remembering everything in there was lost with time. I saw the Rosetta Stone, Easter Island Statue, a ton of things that belong[ed] in Eygpt, and a ton of things "when England will give them back to us" from Greece. An impressive collection I do say. Then I walked and walked and walked and walked, tried to find a bus, but eventually the road I landed on became familiar of Trafalgar Square, and the National Museum. I stopped there to eat a sandwich I had picked up along the way. They charge you $1.50 more if you are going to eat in, rather than take away. Im a girl who saves a dollar when I can. From there onto see Ben, the Big Ben and Parliament from the outside. As I was walking there, I wondered why everyone was stopped at a gate guarded by 4 police officers. I looked up to see the street name. It was Downing St. where the prime minister lives. Ha! Carried on. Saw Ben/Parliament and decided to walk the bridge. Never did that before. Then walked passed the London Eye and back over the Thames on the Millenial Bridge. I was going to attempt to find Dierdre and friends for dinner. But (1) I needed to get a local phone and (2) I was in no condition to be social, I was super tired. I went home to get my ID incase I needed it to get a cheap cell phone. When I told Pat what I was doing, she gave me a phone she bought for someone that died in the hospital a week after she bought the phone. It was never used. It is pink. I could see why it was never used. I went to the grocery store to get a SIM card for it, and ended up getting 3 TV dinners. Apparently the household does not use the oven. I am in trouble. I came back, tried to figure out the phone, but my tiredness got the best of me and I took a shower, talked to M&D, and watched a little bit of a concert (I found out from Pat was held the night before when we were up on the hlll at the church that a live/free concert was happening) and went to bed.

Day One

Day ONE. Landed in London. After eating a meal on the flight at 10pm AZ time that was 6am London time that was more suited for 6pm anywhere (veggie pasta, roll, salad and another one at 11 London time that was more suited for 8am (muffin, fruit cup, orange juice) it was off the plane and into a long line at customs. Well actually 2 lines, i got into the wrong one, and had to start over again for non Euro Union. The very nice young man had only been working there for three months. He was very nice and friendly. Once I got the student stamp in my passport I was off. Off to find an Oyster card and a bus. Three people gave me the wrong directions on where/how to get the Oyster card that will take me anywhere but finally found someone who helped me out. Found the 140 bus and was off to see... a Texaco, a McDonalds, a Marriott, a Hyatt, a Fairfield Inn. I had just taken a long flight to see exactly what I already had in America. Nevertheless moving forward 40 minutes into my bus ride and i realized that we were driving on the opposite side of the road. Yep 40 minutes for me to have an ah ha moment of that. My directions told me to all get off at one stop so i did, I didn't know that one stop further was my flatmate waiting for me. I thought she would be at this one, as I followed my instructions from 2 different websites. Luckily it dropped me off by a mall, and there was Starbucks. Starbucks = Wifi. I face-booked Dierdre to see where i could meet her as I was in the mall's Starbucks. While waiting for my response, she came and met me there. tada! Instant friend and helper. She self proclaims to be a hippie. She only wears reds and oranges and has black hair curlier than mine. We rolled along the right path. She pointed out where she was waiting and I tried paying attention to where ever we were going. We made it to Crescent Hill and in we went to the flat...to meet Pat. The Landlord and flatmate. She's an older than me about 50+ish and is really nice. They both are actually. They showed me around the place. I am in the upper room that will be someone else's in 2 weeks, then i move to another room or move out ...probably out as its a closet with a bed in it. This room though has a fridge, piano, closets, table and chairs, closets, TV, and twin bed. It has everything and more that I need. After I ate some of their leftovers, the two were conversing about a church on Harrow on the Hill where we live, and before I knew it we were off in Pat's car to see it. It was a lovely church. After that Dierdre was going to show me how to walk to the supermarket but Pat offered to take us. So off we went again. It looked american, with a multi cultural spin on it with more of a variety in the indian, and asian areas. I was able to focus on getting some groceries in my cart, breakfasts, salad, almond milk, yogurt, cheese, etc. By the time we made it back to the house I was exhausted. I settle in a bit, and facetimed home to see Dad, Mom, Devin, and Melanie...then I went to sleep. Or tried to anyway. ***there will eventually be pictures on here, but for now enjoy he written word.

Testing 1.2.3. Testing...

I've told people I'm bringing the blog back to life. So here it goes! I've made some fancy things sinceast being on the blog. Hopefully you'll be able to catch up with me.