Home (Away From)

Ballymaloe Day 0

Cold, grey, rainy, and vibrantly green. If I weren't in an old stone cottage on a dirt road, I'd think I was in back Seattle.

Day 0 at Ballymaloe has been promising, dreary weather aside. I arrived a little past noon, sharing a cab ride from the Cork airport with a woman from South Africa who works on private yachts cooking for and attending to their owners. Spent the afternoon walking through the gardens amongst the cottage dormitories, and meeting the other students whose names I all promptly forgot. They seem like sincerely nice people, all excited to be here (with good reason!). There are a few of us from the States (Wisconsin and Massachusetts so far), some South Africans, an Indian woman, and a lot of UK representation from the students I’ve met. A short film was shown for all of us who happened to be around, giving us some backstory on the founding of the Ballymaloe house and kitchen by Myrtle Allen. After that was some much needed coffee and biscuits.

I didn’t know quite what to expect for my accommodations, but so far I’m impressed. I have a private room and bath, with a nice desk full of stationary and binders that I can’t wait to start filling with recipes and notes. So far all my housemates and I get along, but we’ll see what happens after a few weeks under the same roof. Definitely glad I have a room to myself, at the very least.

Tonight is pizza and more handshakes and name forgetting. Tomorrow morning is an official tour of the farm and school, then our first lecture in the afternoon. Tuesday is our first day in the kitchens.

I think I'm going to like it here very much.