the hills are aliiiiiiive...with the smell of onions.

Seriously. There's this type of wild onion-relative that lives on the hillsides, next to water, and since they're in bloom right now, the creek trail and the Botanic Gardens smell like onions right now.  It's WEIRD, and oddly delicious.

All these little white flowers? Onions.

In other news, today's the royal wedding over in the UK. Last night, before going out for our girls'-night Indonesian food, we met up at the Viaduct market for some cheese sampling and discovered that a big group of English ex-pats was having a wine-and-cheese-and-fancy dress party to celebrate the wedding, complete with giant foofy hats. Sadly, I didn't get any photos of the hats. Happily, here's a photo Jen took of me with the royals.

They're much shorter and more two-dimensional than I had imagined.

My only regret is that I can't be in a pub somewhere in the UK right now, watching the whole thing go down. How fun would that be?? It's a singular cultural event that's totally unique and interesting, that happens maybe once every thirty years or so, and I'm SO CLOSE, and yet so far away... But practicality prevails. I have my German test today, and goodness knows I'm not going to miss that.

So. On to dinner last night. We ate at Dapur Indonesia, a cool little place up in Oerlikon (north from here) that's only been open for a few months. Jen and I both had a chicken dish that had been cooked with onions and red peppers and some sort of herb in coconut milk, then grilled, and it was delicious. (I ordered mine spicy, and it started out fairly tame, but got HOT towards the middle. Still good, though!) Our friend Eva ordered a fried fish with some sort of peanuty, curry-like sauce, which was also quite fantastic. We had fried rice on the side--very different from its American version, but still good. The service was truly great, and they actually offered to package up the leftovers for us to take home! This was a momentous event, as I've learned that in Europe, they really don't do doggie bags. Which saddens me to no end, 'cause I LOVE leftovers, but also leads me to overeat, since I feel compelled to at least attempt to finish whatever's in front of me. At any rate, yaaaaay, leftovers!

Finally, I FOUND THE SHEEP. They are on the hillside which is one row of buildings away from my apartment. You can actually see them from my balcony, provided you know where to look and they are standing in the right place. Apparently, that's just where they live and graze in the summertime. And I thought we lived in a CITY. It's utterly bizarre.

This is maybe a third to half of their total number...!

AHHHHH, LITTLE BABY SHEEPS!! 

And this is what I've been hearing from my house. And am still hearing, even to this day.  These guys were all KINDS of noisy and interesting, until I started videoing. Naturally. But you get the idea.

 

Wish me luck, people. I'm off to study for my test. And while I realize that your wishes for my luckiness will occur approximately eight hours after I need them, here's hoping it's all retroactive.