Post exams

I went prawning with Sam yesterday. I wanted to go out and do something different for a change because I was bored. I think its been more than a year since I last went prawning and I've lost all my courage in picking up the prawn and getting the hook out, not to mention skewing them from the mouth to the gut afterwards while they were still alive. I apologise for the vivid description, but those thoughts were exactly what went through my head yesterday. And yes, it did creep me out.

Anyway, we caught a total of 14 prawns in 3 hours of prawning and we BBQ-ed them after. It was pretty late by the time we were done so we decided to head home.

Since we're on the topic of food, Sam asked me to cook dinner with him on Thursday since it's a public holiday! We're going to do really simple dishes like the ones we cooked in Iceland. I went to browse some of our dishes for inspiration and here are some of my favourites. Note: Of the 6 of us in our Asian house, none of us has ever cooked before this exchange. Heh. Prior to the trip, I only learnt how to cook vegetables.

Broccoli with shrimp, mushroom and garlic. Somehow, this was Sam's favourite when I decided to cook this for supper one day when he came over to my place. He's a garlic lover so I guess that's how I won his heart. Hahaha. 

Steamed fish. Nothing much but because Sam loves fish and because fish is cheap is Iceland is probably why it was always on the table. I think we could get some fresh cod fish for Thursday! :D

Goreng Pisang! This one was fried by Sam and Kyung Eun so I don't have the recipe but these bananas were really really awesome. 

Mussels! I cooked this with Sam and it was pretty easy, also because the mussels were pretty fresh! There were only 2-3 main ingredients in the pot but I only remember adding celery because I hate celery, ever since they served it to us for the 'O' levels Biology practical (which I mutilated after finishing the paper hahaha). Anyway I was happy that these mussels turned out good and there wasn't too much of a distinct celery taste when I ate it. (:

Okay. Honestly, eggs are one of the more expensive items on our grocery list. With a dozen eggs, we could buy I think maybe 700g of minced meat in Iceland? I'm not an egg lover so I'm definitely for minced meat over eggs but everyone in the house except me loves it so... it's a staple on the table. I think this egg roll was made up of 7-8 eggs. Imagine our faces when we saw the egg tray deplete so fast - it was scary considering we only visit the supermarket once a week to stock up.

Last but not least, we have chicken! After trying different parts of the chicken, I think we stuck to buying chicken fillet because it was easy to handle and tender too. This was chicken with spring onion and ginger, a very simple dish. 

Okay, so if you're unimpressed, don't say I didn't warn you. :P Going to have brunch with Liv tomorrow. Good night everyone! :D

P.S. I'm currently addicted to "My love from another star". I haven't reached the end yet but I think I will do a marathon tonight. Hehe.

Home

I think people have different concepts of what home is and where their home should be. Living in Iceland for half a year has made me realise a lot about what I call home in Singapore. This is something I expected to learn on exchange but maybe not to such an extent.

Being overseas, managing everything by yourselves including the groceries, your laundry, your meals, your homework without your family beside you can really be a very challenging thing. Coming from a generation of youths who grew up in the 90s, I believe we have been extremely fortunate to have been able to grow up in Singapore.

Firstly, every meal we eat at home comes with at least 2 - 3 dishes, complementing rice. This is something that I find rare in the meals of other exchange students. In order to save money, some of them simply eat pasta with sauce, with no ingredients or just bread for a meal. Of course, they do have extravagant meals too but I'm just saying that we have seen them eating simple meals a lot.

Secondly, living with other people creates disagreements sometimes especially when some housemates don't clean the dishes properly or don't ask for permission when they take your food or when they just simply exclude themselves from cleaning the house. This is extremely annoying but we never have to worry about this back at home when someone else takes care of everything and everything is shared. Maybe this has taught me to clean dishes more properly so that I don't annoy others too! This has probably also taught me that maybe the next time I take out the vacuum cleaner at home, I will make it a point to vacuum the whole house while I'm at it.

Thirdly, laundry! In Singapore, whenever our clothes are dirty, we just throw everything into the washing machine, throw in some detergent, wait for everything to be washed and then simply hang them out to dry. In many countries such as Iceland, the washing machines are not cold wash and therefore everyone must make it a point to separate their light-coloured clothing from dark-coloured ones, EVEN if you have washed them a thousand times before. This was something I learned too late when we were trying to save money and time and wash everything in one load. Also, the dryer shrank my jacket. ):

Fourth, groceries! Every time we buy groceries in Singapore, most of the produce is fresh and we have so much variety, with so much convenience with at least one mama-shop in our estate! In Iceland, the cheapest supermarket is 30 minutes away. To get there, we have to drive. Secondly, we must always plan our shopping date because 22 exchange students share just one car. Furthermore, we need to ration our supplies and always make sure we buy the food with the furthest expiry date because we can't afford to go shopping all the time. This week, the school car broke down and so nobody could buy any groceries or go out on any day trips.

Lastly, the weather is extremely unpredictable! In Singapore, nobody bothers to check weather forecasts and some of us just bring small brollies out in our handbags. In Iceland, nature rules. We made the mistake of not checking the weather forecast for our weekend trip and 10 of us had to pay for damages to the car because we were involved in 2 sandstorms and extremely high-speed winds. We were also evacuated to a nearby kindergarten and we couldn't make it back on time to return the car because the roads were closed.

So I guess I can say I've learnt a lot from Iceland so far. Hopefully my road trip at the end of the semester will be safer yet more exciting! :D