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Pancake Day!

March 12th, 2011 amguar12

Ciao everyone!

Welcome to the end of week 9 at Sussex, where one week from today the spring term will be over and I will be home in America! First things first, before I get into the main message of this post, my thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Japan for the horrendous earthquake and tsunami that hit there yesterday. One of my neighbors at Sussex is from Japan, so I’m hoping for the best despite the circumstances.

Anyways, although Holy Cross was on spring break this week, Sussex has been in full swing this week. I for one was travelling this past weekend in Spain (my next blog will report all this). Tuesday, March 8th, was a day with different meanings in different cultures. In America, this is Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday. In England, Pancake Day! And also in Italy, because it was March 8th, l’otto marzo is ‘women’s day’, in which women traditionally receive cute yellow flowers! How nice!

Now, Tuesday, March 8th is known as Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Day, here in England. Similar to the idea of Fat Tuesday in America (Mardi Gras), Pancake Day is an opportunity to eat certain things that may be given up during Lent. The Christian Union at Sussex hosted ‘Dial-A-Pancake’, in which you place an order for a free pancake over the phone, and then it is delivered right to your door! The facebook group had over 700 people attending, and the whole time I was wondering why the Christian Union would randomly give out free pancakes (this was before I heard of Pancake Day clearly).

A few interesting things to mention about pancakes in England, in case you were wondering. For one thing, what we call a short stack of pancakes with maple syrup is what they call ‘Scotch pancakes’, and that is not the same thing that the Brits are referring to when they are making pancakes. Actually, pancakes here look more like crepes, and they either roll them up or fold them over to eat. And what about the maple syrup? Well, maples are not really that common in England, so often times people will use golden syrup (a thicker consistency and lighter color than maple syrup). However, the most popular pancake toppings, believe it or not, are lemon and sugar. Very interesting!

Ok, hopefully everyone is having a nice weekend! Pancake Day was 4 days ago now, and today (Saturday) I just spent in the library and in Costa coffee (a great coffee chain like Starbucks) in Brighton. Oh, and I went for a walk along the seafront, because that really is one of the nicest things to do in Brighton, and there are usually lots of people there! Ok, look for my next blog on last weekend’s adventure to Spain!!

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