Tamarillo

So I've had lots of class the past two days (like every Monday/Tuesday coming up)

I found these really good microwavable vegetarian soups that I can now have during out 20 minute dinner break on Monday nights, so that will be much simpler than shoving a sandwich down my throat as quickly as possible.

In wine class we've been learning about different types of grapes and what wines to pair with what foods (we basically learned it mostly is about personal preference, with a few hints here and there- we were told to learn the rules and then break them).  For example, one rule is pair by region, aka an Italian food with an Italian wine, but that was mostly done at first because that was just convenient, it does not always make for the best tastes.  Also, fun fact, your wine should be sweeter than your food (even for desserts).  We were told we should be drinking wine 3-4 nights a week so this should get interesting (as well as expensive, but I'll obviously share bottles with kids from my class).  We have also learned that our very cheap wine (which tastes surprisingly good) does not have all the criteria we need in order to write about it, so unfortunately it won't cut it for our wine journals for class.

This morning we had wine tasting at 10 am (till 1 pm).  It was pretty cool despite how early it was for drinking.  The first thing we had was not wine, but water with sugar, acid, and alcohol, in order to figure out how they each feel on our mouth so that we can later taste them in the wines.  Then we had 3 whites and 3 reds.  I found the whites much easier to distinguish the aromas and flavors.  It's fun learning all the terminology, and realizing that I need to start smelling foods more often to really know how they smell, which will make it easier to smell them in the wine.  We got a bunch of charts to help us know how other people describe wines.
Here are some of the weirdest descriptions we found: cat urine, gun powder, sweaty, wet dog...

Between classes I went to the Food Co-op, which I think I'm going to join and volunteer at, which will allow me to get cheaper food! For now, I got a box of fruits and veggies and a loaf of bread for my apartment.  The food looks good but I think in the future we might need more for all 4 of us.  I'll probably be ordering weekly, so I figure I might as well volunteer and get the discount!

Then in Australian culture class we continued with Australia's history.  There was a cool documentary more from the Aboriginal point of view about the British convicts colonizing.  Small Pox wiped out tons of Aboriginals, and apparently in the British journals they were shocked and saddened.  Fun fact, toward the beginning of the colonization, one of the first nights the Aboriginal people and the British all danced together.
I also learned that the platypus is one of 5 monotremes, or animals that are between mammals and marsupials, having an external birth.  Most of those 5 animals live in Australia.

I tried a new fruit! There are these cool fruits called tamarillos that I saw in the supermarket and they're inexpensive, so I bought one and Kate and I tried.  Here's a whole website (it's pretty short and easy to read) about them http://www.tamarillo.com/

Sorry this post doesn't flow too well.  More adventures coming up soon!