A Patisserie, a Chinese/Danish tragedy, some Cheesecake and Curry...

Life is so fun at the moment... I have to admit I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Not working makes everything SOOOO easy! I'm actually on top of, even a bit ahead on some of my hw, a wonderfully stressless, joyful sensation. I'm still working hard to fit German 201 prep. into my schedule, because even though Professor Brewer has the main topics planned, she has left the details to me. I'm hoping to spend some time on that tomorrow (I love holidays!!!). My other plans for tomorrow include an excursion to SL with Eleanor, Christine, and a few other girls from the RS to see a movie about Queen Victoria, and practicing the foxtrot with one of they guys in my ward who goes by the name of Brad.

Now that the future is taken care of, I turn to the past...

Tuesday night I cooked an amazing taco soup for 30 people, accompanied by a beautiful salad and mouth-watering toffee bars. Toffee bars are now officially one of my very favorite desserts - quick, easy, and incredibly scrumptioous.

Wednesday afternoon I went on a date with Jonathan... he made me lunch, then took me to a French bakery (patisserie) for a heavenly raspberry mousse/cake creation. We've know each other since my first semester freshman year, so it was really nice to spend some time talking, laughing and catching up.

Later that day I sent Professor Brewer an email asking her how she taught vocabulary. Her reply was that she assigns them the whole chapter, but only requires passive knowledge of the words. I have to admit that I strongly disagree with this idea... in my opinion, the only reason to learn vocabulary is to know how to use them and be able to use them. I'm not often angry, but this grand injustice of busy work did rile my temper... it was actually more just utter frustration, but it was so strong it felt almost like anger. The German program could so much to improve the lower level German classes and it's not being done.... ahhhhhh!!

Thursdays are my favorite day of the week - I don't have class 'till 2pm, so I can get enough sleep, get a lot of school work done, and go to the temple after the morning rush is over. At dinner that evening Phil asked me what my plans were for the weekend. I told him I had none aside from homework. As if that was the magic phrase, I got asked out once for Friday and once for Saturday within the next 3 hours...

Friday I went with Jeffry from the German house to see Living Legends - a Native/South American/Polynesian dance performance that was absolutely fabulous. My favorite pieces included a native American dance where the dancers used wooden hoops to create intricate shapes, the mystical circle symbolizing eternity. I also loved the fire of most of the Polynesian dances - the cat-calling, hand slapping, feet-pounding energy and vigor of it all. I feel like we could use some more of that in our straight-laced straight-faced culture... :).

At 11:00 Zach came by dropping Hillary off, just as I was assembling the ingredients for chocolate chip cookies. He suggested we make some cheesecake, because I had mentioned I had been wanting to make some. Our tiny brave group of three invaded Macy's to obtain some elusive cream cheese and graham crackers, then stayed up till 1am concocting a cheesy delight. Our only mishap occurred when I attempted to blend the cream cheese mixture and shaved of a good chunk of the wooden spoon I was using to stir with. Naturally the wood splinters ended up nicely distributed in the creamy delight... with pained concentration I was able to fish the worst of them out, and assumed the rest of them would just add to the flavor.

Saturday morning I added the layer of sour cream to the cheesecake and spent most of the day reading Tartuffe by Moliere for my English class. Andy, another guy from my ward, took me to the international cinema to see a tragic but excellent Danish film, then to participate in a curry night with the French house.

Alack, it grows late, and my tales are running short... but never fear! Next week promises to be just as good... so stay tuned!

Love you all!

Margaret