Olympics Weekend

This has become a two-post night: I felt that summer cooking deserved its own post because I have been so fascinated by making things in the kitchen lately, but also realized that I have the cutest story to tell from watching the Olympics Opening Ceremonies.

Friday night, I went out to a local bar, Joshua Tree, with 5 friends from BC to watch the Opening Ceremonies. In celebration of the Olympics being hosted by London, I ordered Magners hard cider. Although most bars and restaurants list Magners as an Irish cider, the proper name for this cider in Ireland is "Bulmers," and Magners is the name the British give it in the UK. So although it's technically made in Ireland, calling it Magners instead of Bulmers makes it British, and ergo it was appropriate to order.

We began watching the ceremonies with the most confused looks. One of my friends even spent a majority of the ceremonies watching everyone else's faces because we were all somewhere between amazed and appalled by the opening ceremonies. While I understand that the United Kingdom wanted to showcase the history of its country, and that it began as a feudal agricultural society, showcasing peasants might not have put the country in the best light. The multiple dancing Abraham Lincoln looking figures seemed out of place, and suddenly giant smoke stacks emerged from the yard (but only after the peasants carried the grass away). Then a giant blow-up Voldemort appeared, accompanied by a giant Cruella deVille. These villains were scared away by a dozen Mary Poppins figures, and later in the ceremonies, two teenagers danced through the decades to British music. I loved the music but am uncertain what the teenagers signified. The best part was definitely Mr. Bean's involvement in the Chariots of Fire performance. A co-worker pointed out earlier this week that the British are well-known for their theatrics (i.e. Shakespeare), so of course they were going to put on a theatrical show for their ceremony. Once I thought of it like that, I was more ok with the performance.

The other exciting part of the night was seeing my friend Victoria who no longer lives in Boston and watching her be surprised by an unexpected visit from her boyfriend who lives over four hours away. Victoria lives in New Hampshire and her boyfriend, Chris, lives in Pennsylvania. They met through a mutual friend in Baltimore and have been together for six months. I had not yet met Chris, so I spent a while talking with Victoria about him. About halfway through the night I was thinking about leaving, and so was Victoria, so one of my other friends mentioned to me that Chris was driving out to surprise her, but wouldn't arrive until 10:30pm, so we had to keep her around until then. After that, I kept asking her when the next time she would see Chris was (Victoria thought maybe in another week, and if not it wouldn't be for a month), and saying how I had to make sure to meet him: little did she know I would meet him that night. When Chris finally arrived, he was guided over to our table by Erin, with whom he had been in contact, and Mikey, and snuck up behind Victoria and put his arms around her. She was completely shocked and clearly ecstatic to see him. She did not scream or make a huge smile as girls sometimes do, but instead looked completely in awe by the situation and thrilled. Long-distance relationships are tough, and I thought it was the sweetest thing for Chris to drive four hours to surprise Victoria for the night when they might not have seen each other for another month.