First Seder Away From Home

Last night was the first night of Passover. It was also my first time at a Passover Seder not held by my family. Last year, I was traveling during Passover, so while I missed the family Seder, I didn't go to one either.

The Seder I attended was hosted by Hillel. One of my friends was attending it as well but otherwise, I didn't really know anyone there. Pretty much immediately I started noticing differences. There were circular tables set up separately, rather than rectangular circles set up together. Each table was plague themed, something I assumed would come into play later, but turned out to simply be decoration. The Haggadah was different than the one my family used, though I heard one girl say that it was the same one her family used.

Once the Seder started though, it didn't matter how different things were. Everyone sang along with the same melody for the four questions and everyone went around and took turns reading from the Haggadah. And everyone, and I mean everyone, looked forward to the matzo ball soup. Surprisingly, they ran out of soup, but still had matzo balls left. I was expecting it to got the other way.

After eating, everyone sort of agreed that we were ready to go, so we didn't technically finish the Seder, but as I walked home with my friend, looking at the full moon I sang Chad Gadya (sort of a Jewish "There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly") and thought of home. Happily, next year I should be home for Passover.

Feeling like a Girl

Yesterday I wore a dress, bakes cookies and brownies and finished making a sweater that I've been knitting for months. It felt so girly.

Now to pack, bake more cookies, watch Doctor Who, copy down some recipes and maybe even sleep.

First Time Home

Happy Thanksgiving!

After a long delayed flight I made it home for thanksgiving. Yesterday all I could think was how much I wanted to go home. One of the things going through my head was the song "Gone" by Lauren Fairweather. Although it has pretty much the opposite intention of the original song I ended up making my own version of the lyrics. The original version can be found here.

The dorm is starting to empty

Everyone is heading home

Of course I should pack up but

I know it’s so early so why

Should I do the work right now

It’s far in advance

But it won’t be that long now
Till I’ll be home
I can almost count the hours
I can almost count the hours
Till I get on that plane
And come on home

Will it be any different this time

Just because I’ve been away

I know it’s my family and they

Love me but it’s been so long and

I’m afraid that I’ve changed or that they have

but it can’t be too different

And it won’t be that long now
Till I’ll be home
I can almost count the hours
I can almost count the hours
Till I get on that plane
And come on home

13 hours

Last week was midterm week. There were lots of late nights, lots of studying. There was the smoke detector in my room going off at 4 AM as loudly as possible because it wanted a new battery waking up myself, my roommate and the people in the rooms next to us. All in all there wasn't much sleep being had.

Until last night.

I was reading in bed and fell asleep. I woke up about 3 hours later at 11. I was then faced with a choice. Go back to sleep, or go out. I picked go back to sleep. And I slept until 9. Then stayed lazily in bed until about 10. But in terms of actual sleep I got about 13 hours. This makes me very happy.

I didn't have the greatest week so this was really good.

Science and Baby Chicks.

This weekend was parents' weekend. I went with my parents to the museum of science and industry in Chicago. Can I just say how amazing this museum is? They did a demo with lots of fire. I got to push lots of buttons. We went into a coal mine.

The best part however was the baby chicks. In the genetics exhibit they have this hatchery of baby chicks. They are the cutest things, all fluffy and adorable. They also had a side with eggs that were hatching and two newly hatched not yet fluffy chicks.

Some cute baby chicks.

These weren't the chicks we saw but you get the idea of how they looked.

Anyway, as adorable as the chicks were in general, seeing baby chicks at a science museum had a special significance to me. A few years ago when my sister was in school we went to the Boston museum of Science for parents' weekend and I got a sweatshirt that had pictures of baby chicks on them and said "Science Chick" (or something like that, I don't have the sweatshirt anymore and couldn't find a picture online).

It seems it is my destiny to associate science with baby chicks. To bad I'm not a biologist. Oh and before you go...

From the MSI website

Chicken for dinner anyone?

More baking time

I made brownies yesterday and they are so good guys. They're all thick and fudgey and have a home made frosting that I didn't burn myself making. But I ate to many so I feel a little sick.

Look, not all of these BEDA posts are going to be brilliant. I wrote something today. That's an achievement.

Feel Like Betty Crocker

I made cupcakes yesterday. It was one of those cupcake recipes where you start with a box of cake mix but you add other things so it's not just prepared cake mix (not like adding chocolate chips but like adding some flour and cocoa powder and buttermilk ect.)

I then made frosting from scratch. And burned myself (minorly) on the saucepan. But then I drowned my pain in cupcakes so it all worked out.