All-American Dinner

Tonight we had Keith's students in for dinner. We decided to do something that would be a treat for the students - and for us, too. A meal that's as American as you can get - hamburgers!
Easier said than done. Hamburger is easy to come by - British beef is really good. We buy the Aberdeen Angus beef and it is very tasty. What makes it tough to serve burgers is that finding buns is a bit like the proverbial needle in a haystack.
We visited several stores to find three packages of buns. We bought 18 buns and felt lucky to find them. I had to slice the buns myself and they were a bit more like dinner rolls than buns, but once we slathered them with mustard, slaw, tomatoes and lettuce, nobody knew the difference.
Good old yellow mustard is another hard-to-find necessity for the all-American feast. We had only one choice, a large squeezy bottle of French's. No other size, no other brand. We also opted to cans of Pringle's because you can't find large packages of potato chips (excuse me ... crisps) over here. You can buy a large bag but within that large bag are six small bags. Not the best for a crowd.
These nine kids who have come over from Wingate have just amazed us. They have really taken advantage of their opportunity here in London. They're intrepid as they see the city and they've traveled like crazy on the weekends - the students have been to places like Rome, Barcelona, Dublin, Florence - and they're not done yet.
I envy them so much. They're young and they're enjoying the chance of a lifetime. We're pretty proud of them.