Tuesday is Pancake Day!

Apparently, Shrove Tuesday/Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras is called Pancake Day in the UK. I went to the grocery store the other day and they had a display of different pancake batters, lemon juices, and sugars (which is what they top their pancakes with instead of maple syrup). I bought a package of batter. After eagerly awaiting the gloriousness of pancakes, they turned out to be crap. The English make neither fluffy buttermilk pancakes nor thin French crepes. Instead, they make a conglomeration. They make pancakes like colonial pancakes, except worse (because I’ve tried colonial pancakes and they were pretty good). They are too thick to be crepes, but not fluffy so they end up being rubbery and kind of doughy and a little gross. Although, the thin parts did taste quite good with the lemon and sugar. We took our creation down to the boys’ flat and let them try the glory of an English pancake. Brian refused to even touch the thing, but Greg and Jon bravely tried a bite, and Gabe even liked it. Seriously, they weren’t that terrible, but I think we had a preconception about what a pancake should be, so we made them too thick instead of thin and papery. Oh well, I guess we know for next time…if there is a next time. Hmmm… In other news, I decided to give up soda for Lent.

Today was also my first day of classes since December! I had The Tudors and Stuarts and Irish Literature. Tudors and Stuarts seems like it will be really spectacular. The professor looks so typically Oxfordian, and he’s very kind and knowledgeable and all around he seems great. Irish Literature…not so much. The professor is young and scatter-brained, but I think the real killer was that he showed up late then kept us twenty minutes after class should have ended …and the classes are already two hours long. He said that that wouldn’t happen again, so maybe this week was just strange and things will look up by next Tuesday. I hope. I’m considering switching classes, but there’s nothing that I want to switch into, so I think I’ll stick it out. It has some potential, and the kids in the class are all really great.

Tomorrow is my first tutorial with Leslie, who I’ve met once, and of whom I’ve heard so much. I should get some reading done for that before I fall asleep (though I plan to read more on the train to Oxford—eeee!). I’ll keep you posted on that one.

And finally, I saw a rainbow today out my window; it was joyous.