Crispy

        Last night, I made dinner for my flat (tortilla soup). There were no black beans anywhere at the grocery store, so I substituted red kidney beans. And, apparently in England, they don't have tortilla chips. Doritos, yes, but no plain old tortilla chips, flour or corn, anywhere. So, in a fit of inspiration, I bought a pack of eight large tortillas and some olive oil, with which to experiment in the making of chips. Or, I suppose I should call them, crisps.
        The first batch, while definitely crunchy, were also black. I was afraid I was going to set off the smoke alarm. I ran around the kitchen with a pink towel, flapping about. The rest of them were slightly browned, and not as crispy. But still tasty, paprika-ed and salted.
        Everyone helped clean up. Dishes and glasses passed from hand to hand, things stacked neatly, wrapped, stowed in the two small fridges.

        So now I have bottles of rosemary, paprika, cumin, and allspice, olive oil, and rice in my cupboard.
        It's really incredible how much it takes to fill out a kitchen. I feel like I'm going to be spending money every day, accumulating ingredients meal by meal, until I finally have a fully stocked arsenal of cooking necessities. Fortunately, my flatmates are the sharing types, and we cheerfully swap pans and silverware.


        The weather here is like the best days of fall at home. It's almost always blustery (the kind of round bubbles of wind that send coats flapping and hats flying along in sine waves), with high flying, fast moving clouds way up in the blue, and sun. Three layers are requisite. All the girls wear tights. That wind. It's wonderful. It's the kind of weather that pinks your cheeks a little, sends your hair cowlicking all over, and quickens your blood with all that movement.
        I've been wearing jackets every day. And scarves. That fall weather! Those fall clothes! My friend Dave wrote in an email, from home, that the weather at school is finally "getting brisk. Flannel and jeans now...splendid." The tree outside my window is reddening on the tips, going gold from the trunk out, with hints of orange along the undersides of branches.



        One advantage of having no roommate (one of many), is that I've been sleeping with my window open, allowing the temperature to drop as far as I like without regard for another's mammalian needs. I sit reading for a while until the cold sends me into bed, under the covers, grinning. I wake up stuffy-nosed with twin bubbles of cold in my chest; I breathe in, the bubbles expand, and hemoglobin pick up a dot of sparkling cool oxygen.
        Yeah. That crisp bite. I live for it.


        I can't wait for classes to begin. I really do thrive in the academic environment. It's not nearly as exhausting as being sociable. Books! Writing! Studying! I do these things.


        Today: going to check out a local dance studio, browsing the Deptford Market.