International Dinner

On Friday, Emily hosted all the nearby au pairs for an 'International Potluck Dinner'. We each cooked something that is unique to our home countries and took it to Emily's for dinner. I was debating between cornbread and PB&J sandwiches, but after my mom's brilliant suggestion, I settled on MACARONI AND CHEESE! There were about 12 of us there, so there was a LOT of food. My favorite things were German. Maren and Elisa made a very thin crust type of pizza- one was topped with ham and cheese and the other one was topped with apples and cinnamon (so good!). One of the Hungarians made some interesting dish with potatoes, eggs, and sour cream... not one of my all-time favorites.. Some of us stayed the night at Emily's and she treated us to pancakes ('Canadian' pancakes) in the morning. Canadian pancakes aren't much different from American pancakes, so they were very good.

Emily on the phone for the 100th hour trying to give everyone (the lost au pairs) directions.. for a good hour and half we thought we would be the only ones at the dinner!

Franziska and Maren admiring our feast

Group shot

Maren and I after our multi-cultural dinner

Speaking of pancakes.. on Tuesday, we celebrated 'Pancake Tuesday'. Instead of 'Fat Tuesday' (like we have in Americamp), they have 'Pancake Tuesday' here to kick off the season of Lent. Everyone eats pancakes for dinner! Gillian and Kieran don't like pancakes, so Marie sent down some pancake batter for Eoghan and I. Eoghan excitedly topped his pancake with sugar, while I stuck M&Ms in mine (I was giving up sweets for Lent the next day so had to have one last hurrah with my sweets). I have never done Lent before, but I figure I should try it since I am in a Catholic country. So far we're doing alright (but I must say turning down dessert at the International Dinner was mighty tough). Something else I found interesting about their start to Lent was that they are not supposed to eat meat on Ash Wednesday. I think it was the first day of my life I was ever a vegetarian but I did it! I am so Irish.

Random photo: Katie getting a kiss from her friend Tadhg (pronounced Tyge)