So since last week a lot has happened. One of the boys in the house had a birthday, I tried to bake, the first group of volunteers has left, and I played the piano in church (poorly).
The baking incident was, as some of you know, related to the birthday. We tried to make Fancy Birthday Brownies for Ollie (the Aussie) but we encountered a host of problems in our attempts. First of all we didn´t have a decently sized pan, and in guessing we (ahmm, I) chose one that was much too large. We left about a 4 inches of empty pan, instead of spreading our brownies too thin. Then, I didn´t know how to turn on the oven. So I asked for help, and one of the ladies who works at the house, Margo, turned it on for us. The brownies had only been in the oven about 5 minutes when I smelled burning. Alysen said it was probably just something that had fallen into the bottom of the oven that was burning but I checked them anyway. The broiler had been turned on! To be completely fair to Margo, she is not one of the cooks and it really was not her fault. Our Fancy Birthday Brownies were burned on top and liquid on the bottom. We scooped out the burned layer and reset the oven. We renamed them the Disaster Brownies despite their eventual salvage.
To make matters even worse, Ollie only got one piece! Everyone else ate them before he really even had a chance. How rude.
His birthday party was quite the success and everyone had a good time out on the town for the evening. Australians have a "speech" tradition at birthdays which consists of some gentle hazing by friends, and was quite revealing.
We went out again on Friday night because Ian, Alysen, and Chris were leaving. It was fun, but not quite as energetic as Ollie´s party. We got home late and they left Saturday night. On Saturday Levin and I tried to make them cookies, snickerdoodles, but we couldn´t find all the ingredients so we settled for Betty Crocker instant cookies. Apparently snickerdoodles are not well known. None of the Canadians or Australians had ever heard of them. It´s weird because I didn´t know them very long, but the whole dynamic of the house seems to have changed.
I am trying hard not to compare Kate, my new roomate, to Alysen. Kate seems very nice and chatty and I´m sure that before long everone will have adjusted to having new people around.
Yesterday I went to church three hours early. Somehow I had gotten the time wrong and church was starting at 2, not at noon. I got there early to practice the piano before everything started, which I had plenty of time to do. So I played for them... I don´t exactly measure up to anything I´ve ever heard before, so I´m not sure if it´s worth it. On the last hymn I only played the melody! If nothing else I can at least say that it keeps my pride in check.
Today is back to normal, spanish classes and project. I am taking in the books that were donated little by little and today I am taking the Dr. Seuss books. I hope that they will provide a new dynamic to the English studies at the school. I think we will go out tonight, to some tourist retreat, to celebrate the 4th of July. However I heard that our cooks are making tacos tonight and despite what some people might think, that sounds pretty American to me!
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