Let's squeeze in another entry...

I'm really tiring of driving down to this weird part of town to use the 2-bar internet signal while rationing out my battery life as much as possible. I thought that if I kept repeating "oh, we'll never get internet" that it would somehow ironically arrive. Some kind of reverse reverse psychology. But who knows? Right now, my room/teammate's younger brother and father are visiting. They're Australian. Brash, Foster's-Commercial Australians. I enjoy having them over...even though our house is tiny enough for 2 people, but hey? And our hot water heater is just about big enough for one proper shower...yeah. Just a couple more weeks. But they do housework, and they eat all the chocolate so I won't have to! The australians like their chocolate...I can almost make that generalization 'cause all 3 of them destroy a bar or two a day -each! I had a bit when I first got here, but yeah...no more chocolate.

I'm finally settling into a nice routine with my diet...when I first got here, I ate like my roommate did. Easy stuff: LOTS of dairy, cheese, bread, chocolate, LOTS of pasta...it worked out, but it isn't the stuff I normally eat. Since arriving, i've been to nearly every market within 10k...checking out selection, prices, freshness, etc etc. This will be a never-ending process that i'll try continually refine and improve as my budget sees fit. I've since [finally] found some soy milk at a nature-mart (also a nice find...but I was on the bike and didn't get a chance to fully explore it) a couple days ago! That's a huge discovery, and the price wasn't too bad either.

For breakfast, it's muesli...aka Oats with dried fruit and nuts. Delicious and pure....and CHEAP. A kilo for a euro. Comes in a no-frills bag. No sugar added. No chocolate (like everrrrything else here)!! "30% fruit content" it claims, but it's really got a whole lot of oats in it...and they're big and chunky oats that take effort to grind and swallow (Low GI?)...and with the soymilk...amazing! I can't see myself ever tiring of it. Sometimes I'll also grill up a diluted scrambled egg side dish (usually 1 yolk for 3 egg whites). Eggs (oeufs) are cheap too, 3 euro for 24! And my roommate doesn't like em! :] Quality protein, negligible amount of fat, tasty. Yeah. Next meal...

Lunch. Lunch is almost always cheese with bread and mustard. Depending on how much i'm riding afterwards, I eat accordingly, and it goes good. I'd like to eliminate dairy entirely, but this is cheese town! Sorry wisconsin...but there multiple aisles at the markets devoted to the stuff. No cheese curds though...Wisconsin wins that battle, hands down. The mustard (Moutarde)...there are two types...."Ancienne", which is dijon mustard with the seeds prevalently left inside. Really good! And the more typical (and cheaper) type is the regular "Moutarde Dijon", and I got this one jar that's really got a nice kick to it...cross between horseradish and wasabi. Fantastic. Also, couscous (for some reason, called "tabouleh" here) makes it's way into our lunch meals whenever we've got it. Conveniently, the cheapest brand of it (500g for 1 euro) is also the best tasting (we concluded), and also is relatively lighter on the oil as well. Perfect! Lots of fiber in the diet already. Pu eloquently, I'll just say that the digestive system has never been better!

Dinner. This one's a toss up. Still waiting on improving upon it. Sometimes we get lazy after a ride and put in a frozen pizza. That's also the choice if the dishes are all dirty. They're pretty good, but probably not the best choice. Pasta is always an option. But I was sick of pasta sometime in 1988. Eh. It's just bland. Still, I eat it from time to time...it makes it easy to nullify the caloric defecit. Other times, we'll eat the bread left over from lunch...and the bread (baugettes) goes stale after only 4 hours, so it isn't a top choice, again. Tonight, I boiled some lentils, mixed it in with some plain couscous, sauteed some onion, and mixed it all up. A bit bland, but really hearty...and yeah...overtime for the digestive system today. Other nights we go to town with thinly sliced baked eggplant (baked with a bit of olive oil). Tasty. Yep. And my teammate has a cookbook issued to him from the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS). Most of the recipes have lots of prep time, a wide range of ingredients, too much meat, and yeah. I'd rather do my own thing. Also...the dagger...those recipes are usually for 3-6 people...not 1-2. So we make it...then have all this food to eat. and so we eat it. Yeahno. And too much to clean up. Routines...food's gotta be somewhat like a routine (except on rides...anything goes there...had a nutella creppe today) for me for it to work. And so far, no problems...Legs are good, weather was good (had some late thunderstorms tonight...fingers crossed for tomorrow), bike...bike descends nice! and i'm looking forward to the 3 hour trip tomorrow morning to see more of this peculiar place. Adieu!

Adieu.

***also...brief captions added to the last entry's photos***