groceries & basketball

friday morning i head over to eboni at about 10:30 to trek out for some groceries.  she goes to a different grocery store than ben & i had been, and said that they had a lot more "american" options and selections, and i was really excited about some normal mustard (the stuff we had was terrible).  irie stays with kevin, and eboni & i hop in the car and are on our way.


i guess there's not really too much excitement that i can write about regarding grocery shopping, but it was definitely a nice switch to not have my 5-year-old in tow.  ben's hilarious when we're shopping.  he's the kind of guy that thinks if we have three apple juices in the fridge we're low, and comes to put three more in the cart.  i say no, ben, we have three at home, and he replies, "oh okay, so just two then?"  you catch my drift.  it's also torture trying to explain why we don't need five cadbury chocolate bars, four nestle crunches and a bag of sugar coated gummy things.  i literally have him saving his change now, and he can count up his pennies and buy candy bars when he gets enough.  seriously.


we grab some groceries, grab some coffee, and head home.  i'm really excited because i bought a roast pan & a casserole dish to add to the massive collection of two pans that they gave us in our "furnished" kitchen, and i can't wait to cook something fun.


eb drops me back off and mister benjamin comes down to help lug the stuff up the stairs (i'm afraid of elevators).  the plan is that eboni will come back around 6:30 ish to pick me up for the game.  she drives... i'm too scared.  cars here are on the wrong side of the road, the driver sits on the wrong side of the car, it's just a mess.  so basically she has driving duty.  it's probably better that way, too, because i wouldn't want the responsibility of irie's life while i was trying to figure out what side of the street oncoming traffic is coming from.


benboy & i relax for a bit, have a quick bit of food, and then he's off to the gym to get ready for the game.  eboni comes a bit later, and we head that way, too.  i asked irie where we're going and she gets all excited, "baball!"  eboni says, "who are we going to watch?"  i'm expecting "da da" but instead, we get "ogo, nen (ben), jb, da da..." i told you she knows everyones names!  seriously this kid is a child protegy.  she's not even two yet!!


the game starts off well, but it's not long before i'm not paying as much attention to it as i am to miss irie.

 seriously, tell me she's not precious!!!  eboni too.... ;)

i forget the rest of the game, really, but they won and then we went out to dinner on the committee at a yummy place that i have no idea the name of.  whenever we've been taken out with the team, food has just continuously piled onto the table in massive quantities.  i think they must pre-order what they want served and just say not to stop bringing it until they tell them to.  that being said, i got a little nervous the first time because i'm such a picky eater (i don't eat animal products) and i didn't want to offend anyone by not really indulging in the foods they were so proudly offering us.


what i've found, though, is people are very, very accommodating to other people when it has to do with food.  remember when i said they do what they want and don't care?  i was kind of exaggerating anyway, but it definitely doesn't apply to eating.  one of the guys on the committee picked up on the way i eat the first time we went out, by noticing what i was choosing from the table, and then it was game over.  he ordered up another feast for me that was completely vegan-friendly, and it was unbelievable.  this time when we were out, he again came up to me, "you're vegetarian, yes?" and then had the owner of the restaurant (i think) come by to tell me what they could make up for me.  it's been amazing! 


i am slowly starting to stray from my vegan diet, though.  i've found that there are so many traditionally greek and cypriot dishes here that i really feel i should try in order to completely throw myself into their culture.  i think that a lot of the reasons that i began the journey with the vegan diet were very much revolved around the american meat & dairy industry, and don't necessarily apply as strongly in other countries.  i do still very much believe in the reasons why i began the vegan diet, and i'm not completely giving up on it, i'm just working on finding a balance, i think, between being true to what i feel and believe about the animals, as well as what i believe about learning other cultures and traditions.  that being said, i still have zero intentions of eating meat.  after seven years, i think it would take a lot more than a change in culture to get me to change my mind on that one.


speaking of food, eboni and i decided over our wine the other night that we are going to put on a big thanksgiving meal for pretty much anyone on the team that wants to come.  i'm excited.  kind of strange to think that this will be my first self-prepared thanksgiving dinner, rather than being home with my parents!


guess we're growing up...


xox k