Awesome Sauce

Last night, I made the best spaghetti sauce I've ever had.

It was our week to cook dinner, and I decided to attempt to make spaghetti sauce from scratch, without a recipe. And it was awesome!  The actual spaghetti part was only mediocre, because the pot couldn't handle the amount of noodles that went into it.  And the garlic bread was only decent because we can't figure out how to use our oven so I cooked it in a frying pan on the stove.  And the meatballs were from IKEA, so I can't take credit for those.  But, I did also get experiment-y with that as well, as I cooked them in fresh tomatoes, onions, and green peppers, which ended up turning in to a sauce of it's own.  I didn't eat this one because it was all chunky and I dislike chunks, but Laura said it was good, so yay, it has been proven that I am not a complete culinary failure.

So, to backtrack a bit, let me catch you up on what happened since my last post.  Thursday did not go according to plan, as Olga cancelled her dinner and Alfonso got really sick.  Dani and I went to his apartment because I wanted to give him a packet of emergen-C and some tea, and we ended up staying for about an hour, since there were crazy landlords and inspectors and people arguing about the moldy walls and poor state of the building.  Or at least, I'm assuming that's what they were talking about, because they were shouting at each other in Hungarian.  Alfonso's apartment scares me.  It's falling apart.  So, he had a fever of 39 Celsius, which is high.  We accompanied him on his journey across the city to get to the clinic until he made it to his sister, who met us in Buda somewhere.  I'm glad we went with him because he was not looking too good.  Turns out he has bronchitis.

So that night was exhausting, because we didn't get home from school until 4:30 and then didn't get home from our adventures until 8:30, because after dropping him off, we went to Kaiser's for groceries.  We were so hungry by then.  I had hardly eaten all day, and was feeling wobbly from it, so we went to a Burger King conveniently located by Kaiser's, and it was the best Burger King I've ever had.  As we left, we noticed they had a walk-thru!  It was so cute.  There aren't drive thru places here, so a lot of restaurants have walk up windows.  I really want to use one someday.

Friday morning, Dani and I went to IKEA with Laura and Julie.  It's was Julie's first time.  I got a bunch of stuff I needed, like a cookie sheet and a spatula and desk organizers and a car-shaped rug for the front door.  It was lovely.

After dinner that night, everyone went to a club for a Valentine's Day party that was being held.  I didn't go, because the way it was advertised was as a get-together for single people to meet each other and I had no interest in that.  Also, I felt weird about going to a Valentine's Day thing without my boyfriend.  But no worries, I'm sure there will be plenty more opportunities to experience the nightlife.  I played the Sims instead.  I know it sounds pathetic, but it was relaxing and I was tired from cooking for 3 hours, and it was the first time I've played in quite a while.  It's not like I was gonna go out and explore the city by myself at night.

I woke up at 1:30 pm today, and after cooking a very healthy brunch that included all of the food groups (lol), Dani and I went to West End Mall to go to the stationary store.  The binders here are weird because they have either 2 or 4 rings, rather than 3.  I bought cool folders instead, as well as a day planner because I'm sorely in need of one.

Two things I noticed more acutely than in the past-
1) Homeless people sitting outside drinking huge plastic bottles of wine- I guess that's how they keep warm?  I don't know.  I did give 100 HUF (50 cents) to a homeless man in a wheelchair later in the day, though.  I couldn't help but feel bad.
2) People here make out in public all the time- In IKEA there were people getting it on on one of the display couches.  There was a couple frantically kissing on a bench at the mall.  There was a couple with their arms around each other, standing up making out in the middle of the walkway.  I don't get it.  That doesn't happen in America, or at least, it's not as frequent or ignored.  Nobody here seems to care when a couple snogs passionately in public.

Tonight, I attempted to make mac&cheese from scratch.  It didn't work so well.  I had looked up instructions online and had even bought white wine like they recommended to prevent the cheese from getting clumpy, but since I couldn't get the bottle open, that was pointless.  And since I can't turn my oven on, I couldn't bake it.  So I ended up just cooking noodles and pouring the cheese sauce on top, and it was alright.  Not amazing, but edible and vaguely pleasing.  Only thing is that there were huge gobs of clumpy cheese in it, which wasn't appetizing.

The rest of my night will be filled with cleaning and organizing, because my room is a mess, I still haven't unpacked my suitcase, and I need to put my new IKEA organizers to good use.

On a side note, I finished the Girl Who Played With Fire, and started the Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, and it's really good.  My Kindle is being weird, though, and I need to look up troubleshooting online to fix it, since it won't save my place when I turn it off like it's supposed to.  Now if only my internet would work better....