Monday, July 7, 2008

Regina: That's All, Folks

It's time to wrap up a few odds and ends. I'll start with my roommates, who were a unique bunch ("Yegor, what did you do today?" "Every good Russian must be a spy, so I spent the day bugging your rooms.") We also had Ewout the MATLAB wizard, and Ortho, who knew how to make homemade pierogies. In fact, that's what we're up to in this photo -- a regular assembly line for mashing potatoes (with a homemade masher... you don't want to know), chopping cheese, putting them in wraps, sealing, and boiling them. The folks are, from left to right, Ewout, Giang (also in our working group), Yegor, Rachel (background, growing out of my head), and me.

I also mentioned crazy Aussies, and indeed here's a photo of the combined forces of Houghton and Australia, outside the dorms on the last day. That reminds me... we had to call a cab to get to the airport at the end of the IPSW. When the fellow picked us up (me, Rachel, and Hu, also flying to the US), he said "So did the folks at the cab service tell you that they were all out of regular cabs?" Of course we were confused, so he said "Yeah, they had to send this special cab instead. It's a karaoke cab! You have to sing a song before you get out, or pay double fare!" He then proceeded to regale us with all manner of songs (mostly oldies) and stories about famous people he'd known. In the end, I got out by singing "Mr. Roger's Neighborhood," and he let the girls go anyhow!

Back to the Aussies for a moment -- here's something useful for all y'all who aren't from Australia. Apparently there is a thing called "Iced Chocolate" in Australia, which is so common that even the Starbucks there sell it. Of course, we have nothing like it in the US. It's a sort of cross between a milkshake and chocolate milk. The Australians decided that we needed to experience the One True Iced Chocolate, so they made some for us. Here below, I give away their secret recipe (shh! don't tell!):

There were plenty of other things going on -- like actual math, but that's boring for a photo blog! Perhaps I'll write about it sometime. But for now, I'll leave you with one last photo -- a 360 degree panorama which I took from the top of The Hill, the one and only hill in Regina (which was formed by dredging Lake Wascana). Enjoy!

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2 comments:

Dark Angle said...

Oooh, that chocolate looks good! Did you just use Hershey's Syrup to coat the glass? How is it "iced"? Is it just that the milk is really cold? I've gotta try this!

DC said...

Yeah, it's really good. The Aussies used a mixture of Hershey's syrup and melted chocolate chips to get the right consistency. Pure syrup ran down the sides of the glass, and pure melted chocolate froze up too hard.

I think it's just the cold milk that makes it "iced"... it's not THAT cold, it's just called "iced".

That's also why they got really weird looks at the Starbucks in the airport when they asked for "iced chocolate". :P