There Are No Calories While Travelling! (Part 1)

Okay, this is a blatantly false title.  However, as I don’t count calories when I’m home, I found no reason to start while I was journeying around the UK.  Unfortunately, I didn’t start doing all of this while I was in Budapest.  I know that I got some wonderful lunches and dinners, I just forgot to document them in pretty much every way.  Though I did get one picture of a lovely rosemary chicken with fried potato slices.  Now I’m gonna warn you, this will be a long one.   I will never skimp on a post about food.  And while this started off as one veeerrrrrrrrrrry long post, I’ve decided to split this between Cardiff and Bath.  So…you’re welcome.

Nando’s on Mermaid Quay

I was walking around Cardiff Bay (basically fangirling over Doctor Who stuff) and found this Nando’s facing the water.  I realized later I actually had a great view of the Doctor Who Experience as I ate (squeeeeeeee!!).  Since I didn’t figure that out until later, I focused on planning what I would do the following day (well...that and eating).  For the most part, I stopped at Nando’s because I remembered a Buzzfeed article about this uniquely British restaurant.

The Food: Butterfly Chicken; Medium heat Peri-Peri sauce; corn; chips (French fries)

The chicken of this South African-Portuguese fusion experience was juicy and well-prepared.  The peri-peri was initially a little underwhelming, but created a slight burn after a few seconds.  I added a (super small) dollop of the hot sauce.  Using only a touch of sauce on each bite was like being slapped in the mouth with a torch.  It was wonderful.   The corn was fire-grilled to perfection.  While there were some strings still attached, for me this only meant they used fresh ingredients instead of frozen.  The chips weren’t as crispy as I would have liked.  However, I didn’t specify, so for most people they would have been perfect.  In fact, for my grandmother, they would have been too crispy.

The Service:

As someone new to Nando’s, I was a little uncertain of the social norms.  So I’m not sure if this is the practice of all Nando’s, but I needed to go to the cashier to order.  This left me a little nervous because the restaurant is pretty much open to the public, so I took most of my things with me.  The ordering system felt a little like a Dairy Queen, where you order at the front, but the food gets delivered to your table.  The sodas were on tap for the customer, and unlike a fast food place they gave their customers actual glasses.  I didn’t know at first I was responsible for getting my own sauces and cutlery.  I'm a smart girl though (sometimes), so I caught on pretty quick.  The food was brought to me, but with rice instead of corn.  Frankly I can’t remember if I accidently said rice, but the waitress quickly brought me some corn.  I also had at least two people check on me throughout my meal.  When it came time to leave, I wasn’t sure what to do about tipping.  Looking at two other tables, I saw that no tip was left.  As an American I felt like a massive jerk for not leaving a tip, but I followed the social cues as I saw them.

The Price:

It was all a bit pricy.  All told, my meal came to £13.00.  This included my “bottomless” Coke (a luxury I didn’t expect).  However, the combination of taste and atmosphere was well worth it.  This Afro-Portuguese fusion restaurant (which I’m told is a favorite of Niall Horan of One Direction…it’s a British boy band) is definitely on my list of “Will Go Again.”

The Rating: 8 of 10

Missoula on St. Mary St

Frankly, I chose this restaurant based on location.  It was literally right next to my hotel.   I was planning to go to one of the restaurants in the vicinity, and this was just the first one to catch my eye.

The Food: Fish & Chips; Peas

I knew I couldn’t leave the UK without having fish & chips at least once.  The battered cod was flakey and perfectly crisp.  Their tartar sauce was tangy with more of a relish taste than I’m used to.  This complemented the cod perfectly.  The chips were hot and fresh.  I once again forgot to ask for them extra crispy, but I’ve never turned down a fried potato in this lifetime.  The peas were unexpected (I’m sure they were on the menu, but let’s face it, I was blinded by the main attraction), and not necessarily something I would have chosen if left to my own devices.  At first I thought there was something off about them.  Then I realized I’m just not used to fresh peas!  Generally I’ve only encountered these legumes as mushy green-brown pulps from a can.  These were plump and full of flavor.  While I didn’t finish them, I blame this on the fact that I filled up on fish & chips.  Plus, I  don’t think my body would know what to do with the sudden influx of a food that’s technically good for me.  As you might see, I also had a Guiness with my meal.  Sure, it's technically an Irish beer, but it's one I like.  This is a little confusing to most people I know, because I generally dislike beer; people in general dislike Guiness the first tie; and I loved it the first time I tried it!  Either way...beer must go with fish & chips.

The Dessert:

I was regrettably unable to get any dessert.  I only mention it because I need you all to feel the tragedy of my dinner.  My first choice was the “Salted Caramel Chocolate Slice,” which offered “layers of chocolate truffle and salted caramel on a chocolaty biscuit base, served with salted caramel sauce and ice cream.”  When I was told they were sold out, I tried to assuage my heart break by ordering the “Cookie Cup Explosion.”  This one seemed like a S’more’s wet dream with its “cookie cup filled with chocolate brownie, marshmallow, and chocolate honeycomb and served with ice cream.”  Alas, this was also denied to me.  While the “Chocolate Fudge Cake” and “Blueberry Pancakes” were both available, my tastebuds were clamoring for one (possibly both) of the first choices.  [Please note, those dessert descriptions were direct quotes from the menu.  I believe that should be a testament to how seriously my soul was wounded by this denial of sweets.]

The Service:

It was pretty slow when I went, so while I wasn't expecting to be waited on hand and foot, I did expect a bit more attention.  Once again, I went to the bar to order.  I didn't feel as nervous about leaving my things at my table this time, as it was an open floor plan and the other two groups in there were nowhere near me.  The two young men who co-served me were nice, and the guy who delivered my meal was kind enough to make a run for more tartar sauce.  The bartender was pleasant and empathized with my dessert disaster.  Overall, I think it's a different experience with service overseas versus in the US.  Everyone's pretty nice, but they're not going to do cartwheels in hopes of a good tip.

The Price:

The prices here were surprisingly low for a restaurant situated smack in the middle of the city center.  My fish and chips - along with my absolutely necessary pint of Guiness - only cost £8.55.  The desserts were £4.45, and what made my above story more terrible was that (had they been available) I could have gotten both desserts together at that £4.45 price.  Sure, I likely would have horrified the wait staff with my overwhelming appetite, but those things looked delicious…and I always appreciate a bargain!  Once again, I was unsure of the tipping policy, but this time I decided to leave some money for whoever cleared my table.

The Rating: 9 of 10

The Royal Hotel Cardiff

Okay, I know what you’re thinking, but no I’m not doing this backwards.  I just caught a small breakfast the first day and decided to have my “Full English Breakfast” before my travels to Bath.  I wanted to try the breakfast at my hotel both because I wanted the experience, and because it fit well with the schedule I needed to hold to.

 

The Food: Full English Breakfast + Continental Breakfast

I’m splitting this up between the two breakfasts, because the FBE was cooked to order, while the CB was normal hotel fare.  The FBE came with bacon, eggs, and a tomato sliced in half and covered with ground pepper.  The bacon was a typical UK bacon, which is thicker than what people in the US are used to.  I knew to expect this from previous trips to the UK.  What I didn’t expect was to find my thick-cut bacon crispy.  As I love my bacon that way, this was an altogether pleasant surprise.  My eggs were a little runnier than I would have liked, but their overall taste was good.  My tomato was pretty fresh.  I believe it was baked, so I had the rare experience of a hot tomato.  As someone who enjoys combining the food on her plate, the overall combination of these three was delicious.  The salt of the bacon enhanced the eggs, while the acidic tang of the tomato gave both eggs and bacon a slightly sweet spice.

The continental breakfast was part of the package when I ordered my FBE.  So I got some tea (it is the UK after all) and apple juice, some fruit, and a piece of toast with honey.  The drinks and fruit were as expected, nothing especially wonderful or awful about them.  However, I will applaud the Royal’s use of fair-trade teas for their guests.  As for the honey, it was absolutely delightful.  It had that perfect taste of clover, like Spring dancing on my tongue.  I was a little surprised they used store-bought honey, only because they had signs everywhere highlighting heir rooftop beehive (in 6B in case you were wondering).  They also had honey-based shower gel and shampoo, but I forgot to check if that was locally sourced or not.  I’m guessing if they didn’t use their own honey, it’s something to do with their health codes or something to that effect.

The Service:

The servers were pretty aloof, so I didn't feel too bad about not having some extra cash on hand for tips.  I think part of their attitude stemmed from the fact that I came in toward the end of breakfast time, so they were all ready to stop serving.  Once again, they were nice enough and answered questions if I had them, but my American brain wasn't quite awake enough to deal with aloof.

The Price:

My full breakfast came with an equally full price.  The total meal was £11.50.  I would assume that is in part because a guest can choose more from the FBE menu than I did.  The fact that the continental breakfast was a buffet (from which I never get the full value) should also be taken into account.  Really, the full breakfast was only £1.60 more to get the bacon, eggs, and tomato.  Like most buffets, I think they raise the price a bit to offset the people who (unlike me) try to “get their money’s worth”…and then some.

The Rating: 7 of 10

As you can see, I kept myself pretty well fed as I walked around Cardiff.  And when I say “walked,” I mean I averaged 8 miles a day (so sayeth the Fitbit).  For someone in an office job, I can tell you my feet were KILLING me by the time I came home.  But even taking all of the awesome food I’ve detailed above out of consideration, I wouldn’t trade my experience for all the foot rubs in the world!  Now, I don’t want anyone to think I was overly frivolous whilst traveling.  I did have a few cheap, on-the-go, meals and snacks to keep me going as well.  Next I'll detail some of my meals in Bath…and I’ll hopefully have that up in the next couple of days.

Until then, stay happy, and eat well!

Using Technology Abroad

I do not—nor will I ever—pretend to possess a great deal of knowledge when it comes to technology.  However, I am always willing to learn.  On this trip, I got quite the education.

First, I learned that the iPhone 6 is unlocked and ready to use a foreign SIM card.  Of course, this meant I had to call Verizon to confirm that info, and then learn how to eject the card already in there.  That last bit required a touch of Google research.

Now, this is not the first time I’ve gone abroad.  However, it is the first time I’ve ever used a foreign SIM in a US phone.  When I studied in Ireland, I just bought a local phone and learned how to use it.  When I wanted to talk to my family and friends back home, I just jumped on my laptop and used Skype or Yahoo! Messenger (which makes me feel old).  And during my 2014 trip to Budapest, I was given a local phone to keep in touch with the church people.  Communicating with family friends was once again done on my laptop through either email or Facebook.

Once I learned I could use my phone on this trip, I rejoiced in knowing that meant one less bag to carry.  That's right, I left the laptop at home and relied solely upon my phone.  Unfortunately, this meant writing down any blog ideas and rough drafts by hand before getting to type them out (oh, the old-school horror).  Then again, that also meant I got to feel especially artistic on the occasion I sat writing whilst drinking a Guinness in a Welsh pub (and yes, I'm well aware that was an Irish beer I was drinking in that Welsh pub).  To be honest, I feel that if I were to actually live in the UK or Ireland, this would be a regular occurrence for me…though I would probably choose tea if I became a regular.  

So, while I was in Budapest I could use my 1 GB of data to call or text people within the country, and I could still post the occasional pictures to Facebook.  I even sent a few Snapchats to friends…mostly because I like casually tormenting them :P  I even got the occasional WiFi signal, so I didn’t have to constantly worry about using up my data package for the week.  I turned the cellular data off for some of my apps so I knew they wouldn’t run in the background, and I could still use them when WiFi became available.  As I discovered, I could even have my phone in airplane mode and manually turn the WiFi and Bluetooth features on to prevent any chance that I’d use my cellular data.  This came in particularly handy once I gave my Hungarian SIM back and had my US SIM back in place.

However, once out of Budapest, I became entirely dependent upon the fickle nature of WiFi signals.  Throughout my trip, only the Heathrow Airport gave me the best and most reliable service.  The added benefit of their service was the fact that the first four hours were free.  Thankfully none of my layovers were nearly that long.  Even their underground train to the other terminals and Paddington Station offered a wonderful signal. 

Once I left the purview of Heathrow, however, I struggled to find a reliable signal.  Though one was offered on the train from Paddington to Cardiff, I got nothing but the spinning wheel and a message that “the connection has been lost.”  That turned out to be okay though, because it meant I had time to work on my (handwritten) blogs as we sped along to Cardiff.  The city of Cardiff itself was rather sad in its signal reliability.  Though I applaud their city council for offering free WiFi in certain parts of the city (mostly the city centre), I had a lot of problems even getting connected--let alone having access to anything online once I got connected.  My hotel was another source of disappointment.  While the man at the front desk kindly got me onto their network, I would occasionally lose signal while simply sitting on my bed.  What made this even more frustrating was the router sitting not five feet away, blinking merrily at my scowls.  I began to suspect my router wasn’t networked with the hotel (though I have no idea if that’s even technically possible).

By the time I got to Bath, I sort of gave up caring about any of it.  I must say there is something absolutely calming about that city.  Maybe it’s the Georgian architecture, or perhaps walking the streets Jane Austen and other classic writers have walked, but I suddenly didn’t care to be connected.  That doesn’t mean I completely gave up technology.  As always, I had my camera clicking away to capture the sights, and even brought my phone out on occasion in anticipation for when I would be back in Heathrow and could upload more photos onto Facebook.  Technically, my hotel in Bath did offer free WiFi, but I never bothered to ask for the password.  Instead I chose to end my days sitting quietly in my room and reflecting on the day (admittedly, I only spent two nights in this kind of quiet.  I think that’s a record for me). 

Overall, I learned some new things about technology, and especially learned some of the quirks of my new phone.  While I appreciate being connected when overseas, it was also nice to be unplugged once in a while.  I think I’ll have to do that more often when I’m home as well.

Tell me about some of your adventures with technology in the comments below!

My Week as an English Teacher

For the second time in as many years, I have traveled to Budapest to teach English.  Despite the fact that this would be my second time at the Forrai School, I still felt nervous about how the week would turn out. 

This was partly because our group was different this time.  Instead of going with my two pastors and their wives, I was to travel with only one pastor, a couple from O’Fallon, and two older people from elsewhere in Illinois.  The two older people each ended up dropping out.  One because her husband fell ill, and the other because he had an unexpected surgery.  So then it was just down to me, Pastor Ken, Steve (a pastor and counselor), and Mindy (a newly retired teacher).  Though we met twice as a group and exchanged some emails, I didn’t know what to expect from my new travel companions.  I didn’t know if we would work well together, or even enjoy one another’s company.

I was also nervous because I wasn’t sure how my new students would react to my teaching.  Last year I had six incredibly quiet girls.  I didn’t know if I would get the same kind of students, if they would be hyper-active, or if they would fall somewhere in the middle.  Not to mention I don’t think I did a great job last time.  I didn’t know what to expect, and I didn’t prepare nearly enough material or activities.  I’m certain my students last year were either totally confused or bored out of their minds because of my lack of preparation.  I could only hope that my experiences from last year would help me engage my students better this year.

One thing that didn’t worry me was getting to see all of the people from the church again.  Pastor Feri and his wife, Sara, once again opened their hearts and home to us.  Robi, one of our helpers and sometimes tour guide, once again helped us to understand our students and get around the city.  And I was able to impose upon Nora and Robert once more and stay in their home.  Their children, Andris and Balint, were shy of me again, and unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to spend as much time with them.  All of the members of the Pest UMC were warm and welcoming.  Their church is already beginning to feel like a second home.

Now, about my worries.  When it came to Steve and Mindy, those worries quickly disappeared once we set out.  Not only were they great traveling partners, they were just plain fun to talk to.  Mindy and I agreed that the best part of going to new places was experiencing new food.  We certainly agreed that Kürtőskalács (traditional Transylvanian funnel cakes-pictured left) are by far the best pastry out there (especially when it comes straight off a wood fire).  We also found the best (and cheapest) place to get gelato.  It was just north of the Oktogon, next to a Turkish restaurant (also a great place to eat).  Steve was asked to do two presentations about counseling.  The first was about understanding teenagers (a subject we all need a little help on), and the second about general counseling concerns.  Though I’d gotten to know Steve a little through regular conversations, those presentations really helped me understand him better.  It was especially interesting watching the way he and Mindy worked as a team when he spoke.  She helped him gauge time and the audience.  I could see that teamwork also went a long way toward teaching and helping their students.

My fears about teaching were the hardest to get over.  Though I learned a lot from last year, the first day or two were still pretty rough.  I had to learn what worked for my students, and what didn’t.   And I definitely didn’t prepare enough for that first day.  Hopefully they enjoyed my lessons; though I could never tell if they hated or loved the idioms I taught them.  They definitely preferred “Man Bites Dog” to other games I suggested, and they reveled in telling gruesome stories in English (the one about the cute little monster that eats faces is probably still my favorite).  They were also quite good when I adapted “Telephone” as a translation game.  Sara (who helped me throughout the week) gave me pointers as we went along.  I’m going to be optimistic and say that meant my teaching got better each day.  Overall, my students were an even mix of reserved and outgoing this time.  I think part of that was due to the fact that we separated the students based upon their level of English.  I frankly begged for the higher-level students.  Given how much I like to talk, I knew I needed the students who would struggle the least to understand me.  Technically, I think there were students in the lower-level classes who understood English well enough, but it was probably good that the other classes had some higher-level students who might have been able to help others. 

By the end of the week, I had a new-found respect for my high school Spanish teacher, Senora King.  I only dealt with my talkative teenagers for a week, whereas she’s been teaching for years.  Though she technically has an advantage because she can at least understand when her students began cracking off in their native tongue.  Though with Sara there, I could at least trust they were only goofing off and not insulting me or each other.  I do hate missing a good joke though.  The solution for that, of course, would be to learn Hungarian before my next trip.  I can just imagine the shock on my students’ faces when I answer some quip or jibe in plain Hungarian.  Sure, they’ll probably make fun of my accent, but at least they’ll assume I understand everything they’re saying from there on out.

We did have a couple of troublemakers this year.  Last year we got very lucky in that department.  Other than the usual youthful exuberance inherent in all teenagers (especially boys), they were all respectful of what the camp was trying to do.  My students this year, while generally talkative, did at least try to listen and learn.  Other classes were not so attentive.  With only four boys in the camp, one seemed to find the very idea of our camp repellent.  He appeared to find a kindred spirit in a young lady in his class, and they proceeded to feed off of whatever the other would instigate.  I find it unfortunate that neither of them found anything useful in our (non-compulsory) camp—other than new friends for the upcoming school year.  Those two certainly lived down to the “bad apple” stereotype.  Though I could be entirely wrong, I think it was their influence that kept some of the other kids from coming to the graduation recognition we held Friday night.  All I do know it that I went from having 4 of 7 students in my class saying they were coming, to having none show up.  While they could have all had valid excuses for bailing, it still felt like our bad apples convinced the others that the camp and subsequent graduation weren’t worth their time.  Well, to be honest I think one girl decided not to come because her new friend (entirely separate from the apples) wasn’t going.  Whatever their reasons, I confess to feeling hurt.  While I don’t regret the time and effort I spent that week, it is upsetting to think that none (or at least very few) of my students appreciated that effort.  However, I was mostly sad that I didn’t get to give them a proper goodbye.

Lucky for me, I bounce back quickly.  The ceremony was fun, especially the presentations by the students from each class.  We had two skits and a musical presentation.  The kids played games and got fed before the graduation, and I got to learn a couple of new games.  The kids playing cards with me also got an intriguing look at both my competitive side and extreme lack of Hungarian skills.

All told, this was yet another wonderful trip.  I got to see friends from last year, and made all new ones.  We saw some of the same sights, and also saw new views.  I’m grateful to my family, friends, and church for their support.  I appreciated all of the time, effort, and support from the people in the Pest church and the Forrai School.  And most of all, I thank God for His protection and guidance throughout my trip.

God Bless!!