Fooooood

Food food food. I've touched on this topic before, but it's worth revisiting again. Having too much time on my hands, I often find myself trading the local monopoly money for bagels, sushi, and other delicious energy sources while walking around town. It's actually way too easy to find something to eat here, and cheap too. Restaurants are everywhere, and if you're not in the mood for a full meal, fresh delicacies such as fruit smoothies, yogurts, and berries are readily available on pretty much every street corner downtown. Usually draped in sugar. Originally I chose "quater in die" as a quip at the blog's update frequency, but I'm starting to realize that it's actually an underestimation of how often I end up eating over here. Sure, my eating habits are likely to normalize next week when I start working and get back into my routine again, but the fact that today was the first day I cooked since I got here speaks volumes. I move around a lot, walking and running, but I'm starting to doubt it's humanly possible to burn all the calories I'm consuming. It's not all bad though. The fruit selection in the local grocery store is quite impressive, and is complemented by a full wall of trail mixes and nuts. Apparently the season for fresh blackberries and strawberries is close to 12 months long here (as if I needed another reason for loving the climate), and I'm dropping about $3-4 a day in that jar. But yes, most of it is as bad you'd expect. As an illustration, here are some pictures of the delicious sushi rolls ($2.95) I've mentioned, a very interesting orange-flavored chicken ($5.65), and the bad-ass California Club bagel ($5.25) I enjoyed earlier today. So go ahead, start the betting pool on how much weight I'll gain before Christmas, if you haven't already. And put me down for 4 kg. 3 if I find a closer running trail.