More about my friends in Stratford

I met Lissy while waiting in line for student tickets to the Royal Shakespeare Company when I went to Stratford the first time. Turns out we are both paranoid about getting there early enough before the ticket office opens at 9:30 to get spots. As it happened, no one else showed up for another hour and a half. We hit it off, which is why I was so excited to spend the weekend with her and her mum Jan. When I said I was from Minnesota, Lissy started talking about the movie "New in Town," which I had not seen. It's about a Miami girl surviving a winter in small-town Minnesota.

Tapioca pudding plays a crucial role in the film actually: one of the main characters makes masses of it (using a secret Atkins diet recipe she keeps from her snooping neighbor Trudie). Lissy had no idea what tapioca was and asked me if it was real. That was of course funny to me, so my mum mailed a tapioca pudding mix to me so that I could make it for Lissy and Jan when I stayed with them. They were so surprised! And the best part was that I got to see that movie while I was there. It was unsurprisingly a quirky version of all the stereotyped Minnesota attributes. At the same time, I thought it was sweet, and saw a bit of the real quality of my home state through the humor and over-done accents. So, the picture below is of me making tapioca pudding, which I've never done before but went quite well. I haven't had tapioca in years.