Despite the fact that the past two days have been filled with a combination of running (7 miles yesterday and 5 miles today - in the pouring rain), and studying IR theories and Open Source intelligence, there have been a few excellent moments to qualify these as 'decidedly good days'.

First and foremost has to do with the above picture. See those beautiful flowers? Those are currently sitting on my desk. And no, I did not buy them for myself. In order to celebrate the one year anniversary of our meeting at Hallowgreens (October 31st) and our 10 month anniversary as a couple (on Tuesday), my wonderful/amazing/superb/fantastic/thoughtful/caring/charming/*insert other superlatives here* boyfriend surprised me and had them delivered to my flat in London. (For those who haven't caught on, my boyfriend still lives in the US, meaning that this entire operation was no easy matter). I was so surprised and touched!!! I'm not a flower person normally (as in, I don't actively go out and buy flowers/wish to spend lengthy periods of time in gardens), but I LOVE it when I receive them. And these flowers both look fantastic and smell wonderful. I am so lucky to have him in my life, and can honestly say that the past 365 days since I met him have been extraordinary.

The second event to qualify this weekend as 'decidedly good' falls much lower down the totem pole in terms of importance, but is still an exciting discovery. What is this? Savory oatmeal. I had always considered oatmeal to be a breakfast dish, but this is not so! Tonight, dinner was oatmeal with asparagus, zucchini, garlic, and cheese. Absolutely delicious, although I am so stuffed that I may never need to eat again.

Yup...exciting times in the life of Rebecca.

WATCH THIS!!! CAT WITH BAG ON HEAD!!!

Just another video to brighten your day. You really need to watch this. I rarely go for animal videos, but this one takes the cake. Your initial reaction will be to feel sorry for the cat due to apparent animal cruelty (i.e. bag on head), but continue watching!!!

A better post is coming later on tonight, but in the meantime...why doesn't this happen when I go to Heathrow/BWI???

I have a problem.

Yes, I'll admit it: I like to read cooking blogs. I look at the wonderful recipes these bloggers make on a consistent basis and dream of being able to make similar things. I suppose I could attempt to do so here in the UK...but to be honest, it would cost too much to buy the staple ingredients that you only end up using 2 tbsps of, or to buy all the necessary equipment. And so I read these blogs and plan on making some of these recipes when I come home for Christmas break. I've already discovered three Christmas cookie recipes that I want to try, but am going to refrain from mentioning what they are because I want to make them as a treat for my family/boyfriend.

I suppose that is the real motivation behind my recent desire to 'learn how to cook right proper' : my boyfriend. One day I want to be able to cook Drew a real meal - something more than the cheesy bacon & eggs pasta I made him or the haggis. I want to prepare something that says 'yes, I am a modern woman who can travel the world, go to grad school, and have a career...AND I know how cook (which remains one of the chief ways to win over a man -- although I waited until well, well after Drew & I had started dating before I attempted to feed him anything. I'm not stupid. Food poisoning does not bring people together. (Disclaimer: He did not get food poisoning!)) Because, like it or not, one day far, far, far in the future, I may have to feed other people besides myself. And whilst I can survive off tomato, hummus, and avocado sandwiches, I am not entirely sure that others can.

And so I recently attempted a recipe that was something new for me: Lentil soup. I found a recipe on the internet, realized that I didn't like half the stuff in it, and so decided to improvise.

Rebecca's Lentil and Vegetable Soup/Stew Hybrid

Ingredients:
1 onion (with a bit cut off from dinner the night before), thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, peeled, finely chopped
2 1/2 carrots (the other half was consumed during the chopping process due to the chef's hunger), sliced
1 large parsnip, cut into cubes
1 medium sweet potato, cut into cubes
1 cup diced tomatoes (the kind that you get from the supermarket in cans (or, due to the UK's new recycling initiative, boxes)
4 cups water (for broth)
1 cup water (for later)
2 cups red lentils (A nice replacement for the 'Country Soup Mix' from the grocery store, which you found out needed to be soaked overnight immediately before you attempted to add it to the soup.)
black pepper
paprika
thyme
1 chicken bouillon
1 vegetable bouillon

Instructions:
1. In a large pot, heat 4 cups water to boiling. Add chicken and vegetable bouillons and reduce heat. Stir until dissolved.
2. In large skillet, stir-fry onion, carrots, garlic, parsnip and sweet potato until onions are lightly browned and everything else is slightly tender. (I like my carrots to still be a bit crunchy when in the soup, but if this isn't to your taste, cook the vegetables until they are the desired tenderness. Remember: they will cook further when the soup is boiling.)
3. Add onion, carrots, garlic, parsnip and sweet potato into the pot with the broth. Stir.
4. Add diced tomatoes and 1 cup water. Add 2 cups lentils. Stir. Add black pepper, paprika, and thyme to taste. (I lile relatively bland food, but if you prefer lots of spice, go crazy with the seasonings.)
5. HEat, covered, until boiling.
6. Stir.
7. Reduce to simmer for 10 minutes or until lentils are tender.
8. Eat. (But wait a fair bit or else you will end up with a marked lack of taste buds, like me.)
9. Best served with crusty bread.


It's been over 24 hours since I consumed my first bowl (just had my second a few minutes ago) and I haven't died, so I suppose it turned out well.

I'm Not A Superhero, Sorry I Couldn't Save The Day

 As promised, this will be a lengthier post than last time. Mainly because in addition to the race report from Wednesday, the past few days have been relatively eventful and so there are actually things to write about.

My first cross country race occurred on Wednesday, October 20 at Parliament Hill on Hampstead Heath in North London. Although it was unexpectedly sunny, it was freezing cold since winter has apparently decided that it is time to descend upon London. (None of this fall business for the capital city! No! We will go straight from 'sort-of-warm' to 'ungodly-levels-of-wind-and-cold. Of course, I overexaggerate, but since I am always cold, any deviation from the norm spells disaster for me.) But, being the daughter and girlfriend of Eagle Scouts, I was prepared. I arrived at the Belsize Park tube station dressed in no less than six layers. Still, I was a bit chilled by the time we arrived at the changing facilities at Hampstead Heath. And it was there that I peeled away my toasty layers until I was wearing race attire: my new KCL running tank top (they call it a 'vest' here) and black shorts. I carried out a prolonged warm up more out of an attempt to stave off hypothermia than any real desire to loosen my muscles. Despite this, I was extremely grateful when the race actually started.

To say that the start took me by surprise would be a bit of an understatement. There I was at the start line, squished up with 200 other runners (Women and Men start the race together in UK XC races), talking with a fellow teammate when all of a sudden the runners in front took off. There was no 'drop of the flag' or 'sound of the gun' to announce the start...indeed there was no announcement at all. And so in an instance my thoughts changed from 'Gee, it's cold. I hope we st..' to 'HOLY HELL!' (except, perhaps, a less PG version). My thoughts remained much the same during the race itself. I took off at a fast clip in an attempt to regain some ground, and then kept going at the same pace. Most of the course was uphills, with brief plateaus, and then further uphills. Due to the high number of runners, there was no question of my ever slowing the pace for fear of literally being run over. It was terrifying, yet exhilarating at the same time. Unfortunately, a condition associated with my asthma that arises in the winter and is rather unpleasant to talk about resulted in the second half of the race being an attempt to keep breathing. Still, I managed to finish the 2.5 mile course in 17:54; 3rd woman on my team and 28th finisher overall. I was pleased.

Fast forward to today. Today I ventured to East London to attend the Spittalfields Market. Originally a Victorian fruits and vegetables market, it has experienced a transformation to the 'upscale' and 'artisan' in recent years. These days it plays full-time home to a number of restaurants and is Sunday host to a vast array of artisanal stalls. While there were a number of intriguing stalls present today, I couldn't afford anything that was being sold. Or at least I couldn't afford anything that I wanted (but did not need). However, I did leave the market in possession of a new friend, albeit an inanimate one. I struck up a brief conversation with the owner of one of the few unpretentious stalls, Highland Creatures. His stall sold plush toys made of 100% Scottish wool. Among the various items were 'Wild Haggis' (they looked a bit like a cross between a rat and a rooster), cats, and 'wee doggies'. The 'wee doggies' were stuffed with lavender (among other stuff), and I told him that lavender is one of the few things that seems to help (but not cure) my insomnia. This launched into a further discussion of how long I had experienced insomnia (2 years now) and the various methods that I had tried to combat it. I think he felt sorry for me by the end of our conversation, and he gave me one of the 'wee doggies'. To tell you the truth, even if he hadn't given it to me, I would probably have bought one anyways. They were only 6 GBP and fairly cute.

Yes, despite being 22 years of age, I am still satisfied with the simple pleasures in life. In this case, a stuffed toy meant for a 5 year old. Whatever.

On the way back home, I ran into a parade, complete with people dressed in renaissance clothing, the Green Man, and mummers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummers). Further investigation revealed this to be one of the opening events in the October Fest/Apple Day celebration being held by Southwark Cathedral and the Borough Market, both of which are located near where I live. The procession had started at the Globe Theatre, where they paid homage to Shakespeare, and then were on their way to Borough Market. I joined in, snapping a few pictures as I went.

Borough Market is not normally open on Sundays, so to see any activity there at all was a pleasant surprise. Many of the permanent stall-owners had opened and were selling their normal wares in addition to 'autumn' and 'apple' themed dishes. There were cauldrons of mulled cider and wine for sale everywhere you looked! I was in heaven! After grabbing a cup of spiced apple juice (non-alcoholic since it was, after all, only 12:30pm, although most 'cider' in the UK is alcoholic), I browsed the various 'visiting' stalls.Amongst those present were honey-sellers, confectioners, specialty olive and mushroom stalls, and a number of apple-sellers. I bought several Spartan apples and a pumpkin from the produce stand.

Such is my laziness (and lack of sharp knives) that I don't actually intend to carve the pumpkin for Halloween. Instead, I will roast the seeds and make pumpkin soup from the flesh. This will most likely occur tomorrow since I will finally have time to cook the pumpkin and prepare the ingredients for the soup.

Of other note: I have officially registered for the Shakespeare Marathon on May 8, 2011. Why? Well, as always, 'it seemed like a good idea at the time'. But more than that, this is probably one of the last times of my life that I will have completely to myself. Family and boyfriend are currently back in the States and so my training for a marathon will not inconvenience them like it would if I were physically a presence in their lives. In early May, I will be finishing the taught portion of my master's degree and completing a marathon (one of my life goals) will be a nice accompaniment. As I will just be coming off of spring break, my marathon will not interrupt my studies at all. And it was fairly cheap, which is something that can rarely be said about a marathon. My plan at the moment is to take the train to Stratford-upon-Avon, where the race is being held, on Friday, May 7, spend Saturday seeing the sights since I've never been to Stratford before, and then run the marathon on Sunday! And then it will be back home to London for exams!!! Thrilling! In addition, I will once again be using the marathon to raise money for WaterAid, a non-profit organization that seeks to improve water standards and hygiene in the developing world. It is with this in mind that I ask that instead of receiving any presents or cards this year, I would be most appreciative if my friends, family, and relatives would consider making a donation to WaterAid. I can provide the details later once I set up my donation page and work out target goals. Every donation, no matter how small, really does make a difference.

My pumpkin (soon to be reincarnated in the form of pumpkin soup, and my newly acquired 'wee doggie' (whom I have named 'Atholl')

Better update coming tomorrow with a more thorough account of the race.

The overall result:
I came in 28th place out of 91, 3rd woman on our team to finish, which meant that my score counted towards our league standing

Next race is at Richmond Park, which has 650 free-roaming deer that we have been told are occasionally prone to chasing people during mating season. It will be in the middle of mating season when our race occurs in a fortnight, so I have images of myself being chased by giant lust-crazed red deer. It will certainly add an unusual element to the race.

'Oh I'm running but you're getting away'

I am now the proud owner of a blender and a stock pot. I predict large amounts of soup/stew being made and consumed in the future. Pumpkin soup, if one wishes to be precise. The Borough market has an amazing fresh produce stand and I spotted pumpkins there a few days ago. I think making pumpkin soup will be my project for this weekend. For those who know me and the state of my current culinary abilities (which is largely limited to sandwiches, quesadillas, and, if I am feeling particularly fancy, stir-fried vegetables), this is a daunting prospect and will be a challenge. Still, it is imperative that I learn how to cook if I ever wish to live alone/feed mouths other than my own. (As I have told my boyfriend, it is fine and well for me to survive on chicken and avocado sandwiches or cooked vegetables, but I don't think it would be sufficient to keep him alive.)

In other news, I had my first classes of the my optional modules last week. Thursday was International Politics of the Middle East. Since it was the first week, we only had lecture; seminars will commence November 4th. The class looks like it will be interesting but intense. We have 150-200 pages of required reading a week and, since my professor is an expert in his field (The fact that he has a Wikipedia page of his own is a clear indication of this), I will really have to come prepared so as not to thoroughly embarrass myself. On Friday, between my Theories of IR lecture at 12 and seminar at 3 I had Open Source Intelligence. It is a class that has no counterpart in other universities. This term will provide the theoretical grounding and practical skills in OSINT collection/analysis while next term we will apply these skills to case studies. I am looking forward to how the course develops.

Friday also brought the arrival of my friend Veronica from the depths of Wales, where she attends university. After an initial poor start (it took me an hour to find her at the enormous Victoria Underground/Railway station), we had a wonderful dinner at the Founder's Arms under Blackfriar's Bridge. Saturday's highlights included shopping (i.e. fighting a war) on Oxford Street and at Primark (which constantly seems to exist in a state similar to Best Buys on Black Friday), eating lunch at Marble Arch, seeing the Royal Albert Hall, and visiting the V&A museum. Sunday brought an early morning visit to Westminster/Parliament, lunch in Hyde Park, a trip to Harrods, glance at Buckingham Palace, tour of the GLobe Theatre, and a Jack the Ripper tour that left us in the back alleys of Whitechapel and forced us to jump over chainlink fences in order to find our way back home, It was thrilling.


Veronica left on Monday and I spent the morning running in Regent's Park, attempting to convince my computer to give up its death grip on my ethernet cable, and begging the internet gods to work their magic on KCL's network. While my laptop still remains firmly in possession of the ethernet cable (a fact that I am willing to let slide until December when I suppose I will have to address the problem in order to pack the computer into my backpack), the other two events were successful. Today was spent comparing blender prices and properties at Argos, buying aforementioned kitchen implements, going to the gym, and reading about liberal theories of IR (and why they are criticized by basically everyone). Tomorrow is my first cross country race of the season at Parliament Hill. It is a short distance, less than 3 miles, but with my achilles tendon the way it is at the moment, every mile seems like 3. Still, there is no rest for me until December (at which time I plan to not run at all and instead TurboJam it up in my basement) and, as always, I will give tomorrow's race my best effort. Despite the fact that I have raced before, I am quite nervous.

Check back tomorrow to see how things went. In the meantime...keep it classy, readers.