Pancake Day

Today was Pancake Day (also known as Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Pancake Tuesday, and probably other things). This is a really big deal in Ireland, way more so than back home. The grocery stores have been selling pancake mixes in massive displays all week (which is a big deal because I haven't seen any other big displays yet) and local stores, even convenience stores, made and sold pancakes. I'm pretty sure every single person in Ireland ate at least one pancake today, probably several.

Irish pancakes are different than American pancakes (which people here actually call american pancakes). Theirs are kind of a mixture between crepes and our pancakes. They are thicker than crepes but are filled with yummy things kind of likes crepes are. They can be sweet or savory, but we mostly went with the sweet :)

I went to two pancake parties, one with the frisbee team and one with my room mates. One of the guys from ultimate was making pancakes at his apartment on campus so we went over and helped cook and eat said pancakes. Me and one of the American girls here for grad school made american pancakes with blueberries or smarties (which are more like m&m's, not the little pellet/disks) and the more traditional pancakes with jam or lemon, then just hung out for a bit. We then decided to go get actual food (which was probably a bad idea for my stomach) and walked over to Eddie Rockets for hamburgers, fries, and milkshakes. Tasted delicious, but I didn't want to move afterwards. I did manage to walk home though, to my next pancake party!

My room mates had a massive pancake feast planned. Katie made pancakes for everyone and we had lemon and sugar, bananas, nutella, ice cream, candy bars, and chocolate to put on them. I spent a lot of time taking pictures of people; I'm still excited about my camera and am trying to learn how to take pictures of people. We ate lots of pancakes then sat and talked for a bit until we felt we could move again. It was a good day, with quite a lot of pancakes :)