Eggs & Catch-up

"The best cure for an off day is a day off." ~Frank Tyger 

March 8, 2013
I was up and down a bit in the night with what felt like a slight fever. I couldn’t tell if I was the one that was hot or if the heat was just cranked up too high in the building. Either way, I got up a few times to drink some water and try to cool down.

I decided that today would be my “catch up” day. I had a number of things to work on for school, as well some laundry to finish, and a probable trip to the grocery store. The first thing that I caught up on however, was sleep. After getting up and down in the night, I slept till well after 11am.

When I got up, I folded and put away my laundry. We each have some closet space out in the shared apartment area, but I’ve been keeping all of my clothes in a drawer under my bed. Some of my shirts were still wet around the collar so I moved them around the drying rack and left them to hang a bit longer.

I’ve wanted to film some video to post on the blog, but I haven’t really had a chance to figure out how my little GoPro works. I used it briefly before leaving for Prague. It is very durable and produces very high quality footage, but it is also smarter than I am, so I have hesitated about using it. I decided with the extra time I had today, I would play around with it.

I turned it on and filmed about 10 seconds of quick footage. Plugging it into my laptop, I was surprised at how easy it was to upload the footage. I played with adding pictures, captions, music, and transitions and found that none of it was as hard as I’d thought. It wasn’t perfect and didn’t look exactly the way I wanted it to, but I could practice with it a bit more and try to get some video on the blog in the next week or so.

I next headed off to the grocery store. My list was pretty much the same as the week before (pasta, peanuts, yogurt, bread, and granola bars) although I’d added two important items. The first was eggs. At home I make scrambled eggs pretty often, especially before going to work. Since all I have to cook with here is a pot, a wooden spoon, and a fork, I haven’t made eggs. I thought I might be able to pull off poached eggs since they only require boiling water.  

I also needed some lotion. I’ve been using hand sanitizer as I travel around, and the skin on the palms of my hands has become so dry it is starting to crack.

Getting off the tram, I started walking around the sidewalk to the front of the store, when I realized that most older/local people just cut across the grass into the parking lot. I followed their lead, although everything was sticky and muddy from the rain the night before.

I was pleased with myself at how fast I found what I needed. I grabbed a few things of pasta, found the granola bars (deciding the chocolate banana flavor are the only ones worth buying), grabbed several new flavors of yogurt, two loafs of bread, and a can of peanuts.

Finding the eggs was a bit trickier. They don’t refrigerate eggs in Europe so I knew they wouldn’t be back in the frozen dairy section. That was where I started though, and sure enough, they were just across the aisle on a separate display.

The lotion was a lot harder. Walking through the aisles of toiletries and cosmetics, I couldn’t read any of the labels. Identifying shaving cream and deodorant was easy, but I couldn’t tell lotion from soap or conditioner. The brands were the same as back home, but the actual labels were in Czech. Just when I’d find a bottle of what looked like lotion, I’d see fine print on a bottle next to it saying “soap.”

I’m sure I looked like an idiot smelling bottles and staring at products that 19-year-old males normally don’t purchase. After walking around for about 10 minutes through various aisles, I found a bottle that was literally just branded “lotion.” I chose a brand right next to it, and bought it.

I also bought a box of chocolates…just as backup in case I start running low.

When I got back to the dorm, I made a sandwich for lunch while talking with my roommate Bjorn about his week. The sandwich tasted great, although I still felt a little feverish. Going into my room, I started blogging and working on some stuff for school.

I also started researching travel. There were several places a bit further away that I wanted to see, but I was having trouble finding people to go with. I emailed a few people to see if they’d want to join me, but by the end of the night, they told me what everyone else had…too expensive, too touristy, and too far away.

Aaron came back from class but left right away. I realized I’d had the drying rack for almost 24 hours and I had to return it to avoid getting a fine. I folded up the rest of my clothes and took it back to the receptionist at the front desk.

For dinner, I set about making poached eggs. I’d asked my parents for some tips a few nights back and I checked a few articles online before I started. I brought the water to a slow simmer, and cracked an egg into my mug. Pouring it gently from the mug into the water, it floated slowly to the bottom of the pot.

All of a sudden, the water started to turn grey and foamy. It made a little exploding sound, and I used a spoon to keep track of the yolk. I timed it for three minutes (as the website had instructed) and then used my spoon to fish it out.

It looked a little distorted, but overall the shape the right. I took a picture of it, and took a few bites. It was way over cooked and a bit chewy, but tasted ok. I decided to try a second one.

This time, I poured the egg from the mug into the water first and then put the pot on the heat to bring it to a slow simmer. When the water was clearly hot, but not quite boiling, I started the timer for only two minutes. When I scooped the egg out, there wasn’t much egg white left, but the yolk was perfect! The color was bright orange, and I ate it on a piece of bread.

Testing my luck, I went ahead to try and make a third one. This time, the yolk ruptured as I poured it in the water. While I tried to use a spoon to contain it while it cooked, I’m not sure what happened. After the two minutes were up, all I had was a pot filled with grey boiling water. I couldn’t find any resemblance of the egg anywhere.

After dinner, I cleaned out the pot and washed my dishes. My friend Torey was online and we Skyped for a bit. After we hung up, I finished blogging for the day and got ready for my trip to Kutna Hora.