[Cookies and the cinema]
Yes, it's called the "cinema" here. Well, not even really "the," since that part is usually dropped. It's, "so, I went to cinema" and "are you going to cinema soon?" British English, I believe. Someday I want to go to England and see if they really talk like this.
So, Monday I went back to Erika's house to work more on the cookies. She whipped up the cups of frosting again so I could finish the five or so cookies I hadn't done the day before (only the base layer of frosting, you understand). When I was finally all finished, she made up three tubes of frosting for me, in the same three colors (red-pink, yellow, white). Time for the really fun part! Decorating.
Okay, I thought I made some pretty cool cookies last time. Well, not like this. When selecting cookie cutters this time, I purposely chose a lot of human figures so I would have more to work with. Definitely a good choice! I got to draw faces and clothing and accessories and sign them in cursive... I had so much fun--actually ecstasy would be closer to it--working.
There's this one Madonna and Child cookie I made that is by far the best. I used all three colors of frosting in both the base layer and the decorative layer. The two's base clothing is in red (decorative layer which denotes creases in the clothing is in white), their hair is yellow, their skin is white, their facial features are red. It just turned out awesome. I also had a little surprise-- the figure that I hadn't known what it was when I cut it out of dough turned out to be Satan! I had wondered what benevolent Yuletide character had horns and what looked like one cloven hoof... Maybe a faun from Narnia? Because even though all the evidence was pointing to Satan, I couldn't believe Erika would have a cookie cutter of him. Then she showed me some finished cookies she'd made years before. One of them was Satan, with a wiry broom in hand and a long, fierce tongue. I think it's great, though. I've got like five or six of them to design and I'm going to enjoy each one.
One thing's for certain: I'm going to die a little inside whenever one is eaten. Erika believes you should make them and then give them out as presents or else eat them in your home... I want to respect her wishes, but it kills me. Maybe it won't be so bad if I make sure to photograph them all first. And the Mary and Child is off-limits, no matter what.
I only got through seven or so when it was getting time to get home (I got there at 4 and I promised Ruth I'd leave by 6 so I'd be home for dinner). Suddenly, Erika emerged from the kitchen with a giant platter of food-- dinner for me! It had special Polish sheep cheese, which I've had before (in Poland-- it's very salty); delicious toasted rye bread to be buttered; and some very spicy vegetables: watercress, onions, leeks, and these things which looked like miniature radishes, but which tasted like fire going down. It was so nice of her. And I was very hungry! (The only downer to this is that when I got home I found out Ruth had been planning a nice dinner... So it had to wait til Tuesday.)
And speaking of Tuesday... The next day after school, I took the bus with some friends from school to Mlyny. We went to McDonald's first, since we'd all gotten coupons for there in class (I have no idea why). Then we caught a bus to the Max shopping center. The Max is in Chrenova, and I'd seen it before, since it's ridiculously huge (yes, it makes good on its name), but I'd never been inside. It was a giant mall, and somehow managed to be very labyrinthine inside. Everything twisted around on itself. Interestingly, while Mlyny is always packed with people (I should also note that Mlyny has the reputation of being the coolest, trendiest mall in Nitra-- and I live right next to it! Yay!), this giant center was pretty empty. Except, while next to no one is ever in the food courts of Mlyny, the ones at the Max were packed. Hmm.
We were going to see a movie. According to Ruth, it takes several months for Hollywood movies to show up in Slovakia. But she and I don't understand why, because they just have subtitles. They only actually dub children's movies-- AND Harry Potter. Seriously?? The first part of the last movie comes out next month, and I'm going to have to see it. In Slovak. :(
So, everyone wanted to see The Sorcerer's Apprentice, which is a Disney movie that came out at the beginning of the summer back in the States. (Oh! I saw that Eat Pray Love is playing. I really wanted to see that but I missed my chance in America. Maybe I'll look into showtimes... Movie tickets are only 4 Euro-- though this is considered very expensive by Slovak standards. Ha! Try $10!) I had had no need to see TSA, especially since it stars Nicholas Cage, whom I've always despised, but I was surprised. It was much better than I thought it would be. (Everyone else in the group hated it.) For the first time ever, I didn't hate Nicholas Cage-- I actually appreciated his character! Yes, it had the Disney cheesiness, but it also had the Disney funding, so the special effects were great. There was this one great scene where they remade the Sorcerer's Apprentice scene from Fantasia, this time not animated. I love when the mop (or, I guess it's a broom in the original?) whistles to the other mops. Classic.
So, that was all very fun, and the movie ended at 6:30. We had a bit of a walk to the nearest bus stop, and I contemplated just walking home, since it's a straight shot, but I didn't want to get back too late. I got home just before 7, and Ruth was starting dinner, the one she'd wanted to make on Monday night. It was great! A totally unexpected combination that was wonderful: a peach slice on top of a cheese slice on top of chicken, frying in the pan. It was great. Oh, something I've never mentioned: well, sticky rice is a very common side dish, and the way they put it on the plate is in a perfect little dome. They actually have a special utensil for making these perfect domes, a plastic thing which kind of looks like a measuring cup. I kind of want one.
This is a very short post by my standards, so I'm going to add a completely unrelated, but funny, anecdote. At school, I was playing Hangman on the blackboard with some people. Of course, everyone always guesses the vowels first, but then what letters might you choose? This is very telling about the Slovak language. "Um... C? Z? Y? V? K? L? S?" Yep. We played several rounds of Slovak Hangman, and then one girl decided to do a word in English for me to guess. I got down to two letters and still had no idea what it was. She filled in the last "c." "Tam!" she said. ("There!") "Acomodation!" No wonder I didn't get it...
Much love!
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