JAMON

Independents day of Estonia was the day when all the MOCOMA students from Estonia got together to celebrate that glorious day. Me, Doris, Riina and Kristina decided to celebrate the day with decent meal which ment pork and oven baked potatoes. Everyone had their hand on something. Doris and Kristina worked on potatoes, Riina on wine and me on meat. Oh and Kristina also made biscuit cake for dessert. At first i thought it won't be hard job to get meat and also with good selection but unfortunately it was a challenge. Because here they don't really sell meat in the stores that you could buy by weight. You have to go to butcher's. Only that I had no idea where to find one. Then I realized I have a good local friend here, Louis, who I also met the other day. So I sent him sms with the question of where to get good meat and price at that point didn't really matter to me, it was independent's day after all. And for my luck it came out that the place is actually 2 blocks away from my house. Oh and how I liked the place, huge selection of different meats, herbs and spices. So I bought a piece of back fillet of a pork. It was 1kg and cost 10 euros. I also found a mixture of herbs. The smell of it was just marvelous and i could already imagine what it could do to my pork when i add it. It is a mixture of: oregano, rosemary, savory (piparrohi), thyme (tüümian) and basil. Ok, i had the meat and herbs and it was time to go girls' home to cook it. I used my inspiration like I always do, I never use any recipes because I don't know how to read them actually and it only takes time. And believe me guys the outcome was awesome. Meat was tender, tasty and it had the smell of the herbs I bought. Everyone loved it and the whole night was great success: good food, tasty wine, delicious dessert and president's reception - all you need to celebrate the independents day.

Another cool thing happened this week. With one course (Social and Cultural Affairs) we went to have a lecture in the museum named S.M.A.K. (Museum of Contemporary Art). The lecture started at 8:15 but the museum opens at 10. Yes we were privileged with the opportunity to be there while no one else could and later we also had a private tour. No, not in the rooms for regular visitors but actually we could see what happens behind the scene, in the "back stage". And it was very interesting cause museum for contemporary art isn't just a regular museum about history. It's a museum of now, present. Art and artist that present their vision and ideas about things around them. So we could see unusual materials that have been used to make art. For example slime from an artist nose or pieces of broken class bottles and so on. But to explain what happened in the "back stage" then there took place the whole preparation and restauration for an exhibition. For example in one room they had grey boxes for each artist with their plans and schemes to prepare their art. In other words to fill up all the exhibition rooms with art you only need this grey box and start building it according to the plan what's in there. It explains what materials to use, how and where you need to paint and sometimes even before you sart working on it you have to tell the artist to come there to see if everything is the way he or she imagined. And that is contemporary art.

One last thing. The other day I felt something that my senses haven't felt before. I had JAMON. It is ham from Spain that Alvaro and Manuel had brought with them when they came to Gent. But it's not just a regualar ham, a very expensive one: 100 euros/kg and the taste was just indescribable. You might think why it is so expensive, well the way it's done and how long it takes to make it. The most important fact about it is that the pig that jamon is made from eats only acorns (tammetõrud). The process is also important of course but to understand it google and read about it, it's easier this way. Anyway I had an experience that I will not forget for a long time.