Choc full

Our breakfast du jour: Zingerman's chocolate cherry bread. Made with Valhrona chocolate and cocoa. When warmed gently in the oven, the chunks of Callebaut chocolate ooze into the plump Michigan cherries.

And the New York Times reports on a study revealing that 80% of University of Michigan law professors are Democratic Party donors. Just as Gerard's academic advisor was named, a professor of Ethics at the U of M Law School.

Happy hour for $6.99

Actually this was one of the pricier bottles we picked up in our shopping expeditions - we've also got a few babies for $4. It was pretty thin. Reminded Gerard of the wines we drank in the Greek Islands. I thought of sangria. Not a bad drop for a hot summer's night at the end of a weekend, and it was alcoholic.

Paired nicely with Gerard's bowl of chilli (our third Mexican meal in a week - obsessed, us? nah). He was taken with the array of fresh and dried chilli varieties on offer at the Produce Station, so brought a selection home to experiment. Also threw in some bi-colour Michigan corn for good measure, and served it with blue corn chips.

Not the ocean, a lake

Drove west on Saturday until we hit the Great Lakes. Lake Michigan, in fact. Didn't look like a lake ought to look - it was huge, for one thing. And it had waves, a sandy beach, and a horizon. The town of South Haven, where the above photo was taken, is full of sprawling summer houses with decks and porches. Can't imagine what it looks like when snow meets the beach. A few miles further north is the cutesy resort town of Saugatuck - unfortunately packed with way too many slow, dopey Americans, but one has to expect that here. Its a sweet little harbour full of ice-cream parlours, fudge shoppes, homewares boutiques and art galleries, given its reputation as an artists' colony. Most likely the 'artists' are talentless hobbyists who fled the cities for tourist towns where they can fleece the unsuspecting and drink in the sun all day.

Rural Michigan is quite picturesque - think red barns, cornfields, and u-pick fruit orchards (chiefly berries, peaches and cherries). And then there are the Goodwill stores and Family Dollar discount supermarkets, and the ubiquitous pizza joints and liquor stores. Even trailer homes fly the American flag. In these parts you're hard-pressed to find anything on the dial other than Christian radio stations.

Returned home to Ann Arbor by midnight, and cruised through downtown to see how the city amuses itself on a Saturday night. Seems the students have returned to town, as the streets were deep with tables of diners and drinkers all making the most of a balmy night. Parties spilled outdoors of the student houses, with groups of kids in inflatable pools or hanging out on their front porches, paper cups in hand.

Fully sick

How do I go through a Sydney winter only to come down with a flu when it's pushing 30 degrees in Ann Arbor? I blame Gerard. He'd been sniffing earlier this week having picked up something on one of the awful American Airlines flights across the continent, and now, after stealing some Ben & Jerry's butter pecan from his spoon, I've got it too. Bugger. We rented a car yesterday and are supposed to be on Lake Michigan now. Instead we're at home.

On the plus side, the DSL wireless internet is finally working now, after no less than FOUR visits from the service blokes. Scary how inefficient this country really is.

Feathering the nest

More housekeeping. Trekked along a freeway to the big shopping mall (boy, did we get some funny looks) to bring home some simple essentials not in the professor's apartment: eating bowls, water tumblers and wine glasses (we're fussy), wooden spoons, lemon juicer and an oil burner so I can purify the air. Had a little splurge on a Microplane grater from the kitchenwear emporium Williams-Sonoma.

Cleaned out the bathroom cupboards and loaded my potions inside.

Cooked our first dinner at home - a creamy tomato-based pasta sauce with a kick, Penne Alla Vodka, using a bottle of Absolut procured from the Rite-Aid chemist (it does serve a medicinal purpose!).

The velvety milk chocolate sofa is a very nice place to be - whether in daylight or in the evening with the lamps on and the crickets singing in the pond.

Settling in

A big day. Our first glimpse of Ann Arbor and the campus, and we were feted at Wallace House.

Arrived at our new digs, The Ponds at Georgetown, around 11pm Sunday night. Had a quick poke around the apartment, recoiled at the smell of mothballs, then padded out down Packard Street keen to see something of our new home. Being close to midnight on a Sunday during uni break, there wasn't much action. Soon enough we stumbled onto Marco's Pizza and Gerard perked up. As he ordered a pepperoni to go, I enquired how far away downtown was from there.
"You mean downtown Ann Arbor?"
I didn't take that as a good sign.
He and his equally vague co-worker decided it was about 4 or 5 miles away (it's actually a little under 2 miles). There certainly wasn't any sign of interesting college life nearby. A little disappointing to be so far away, but for now we had bigger fish to fry: settling in to the apartment.

The first thing to go was the pack of mothballs from the hall cupboard. Took the pizza outside to the balcony and made quick work of it. Not bad, but very doughy. The cheese and the crust were almost one.
Rewired up the stereo to stream some soothing music from the iPod (Angelique Kidjo, Madeleine Peyroux, Toumani Diabate and Kora Jazz Trio, thanks Jemima!). Started unpacking our bags. Claimed a bathroom each and began to make them our own. The professor had left the cupboards full of his stuff, so we first had to move it out of the way to squeeze ours in. Memories of our superb Saturday cleaning job in Bronte came swimming back as we steeled ourselves for a repeat performance.

Up early after a decent sleep on a real bed, and rushed eagerly to the window to take in our new surroundings. Saw a long pond quite close to our window, a tall jet fountain, and some families of ducks swimming around the reeds. Scooted across the road to the supermarket, Kroger's. Ashamed to say the first items in our trolley were two tubs of Ben & Jerry's. When in Rome, I suppose. Our first impressions were of a convenience food mecca - a bit low rent with little fresh produce. But they do have rice milk, which we brought home for a plate of cereal (no bowls to be had in the professor's cupboard). And they have the New York Times for sale too - bliss!

Jumped on a bus and headed to town - only 2 miles away. Walked all around downtown. Joined the People's Food Co-op for discounted groceries, and for a sense of instant belonging! Thankful to spy some favourite macrobiotic foods to keep me healthy and alive. Got our first sniff of the divine and overwhelming Zingerman's deli, with its crowds, awesome cheese cabinet, and $20 jars of lavender honey from Provence, and left with half a loaf of sourdough. Took our first look at campus and its majestic, ivy-shrouded buildings.

Walked along pleasant South University Street lined with timber houses with steeply pitched rooves and wide front porches to Wallace House, the headquarters for the Knight-Wallace Fellowships which brought us to the University of Michigan. What a warm welcome! The house is divine, sprawling over several levels, and smelling of timber. It has cosy reception rooms and reading nooks downstairs, a large banquet table, and a piano. We were also told help ourselves to the "free pop" in the fridge and to the computer lab and telephone to call Australia.
Also met a couple of fellow Fellows - Thomas from Rwanda and Vindu from San Jose.

Sampled the nearby Chinese restaurant for dinner. Why does Chinese food taste so different in the US? It's more than the serving containers, and please don't say MSG. Well, many of the dishes were invented in here, that's why. Tried General Tso's Chicken (dreamt up by a NYC chef in the 1970s) - battered chicken in a hot red sauce on a bed of broccoli. Teamed it with a French red, Le Pigeoulet en Provence (vin de pays de Vaucluse), from the nearby Big Ten Market- which also sells Fox Creek Vixen Sparkling Shiraz! Hallelujah!

Farewell, Sydney

After a full day of cleaning up the house for our tenants, we said our hurried goodbyes to Bronte and spent our last night in Sydney in the inner-west, with Sandra and Pete. Knowing it would be our last chance for a decent meal for some days, I wolfed down a delicious Lebanese banquet at Fifi's on Enmore Road. Mmmmmm, mouth bliss. And an evening wouldn't be complete without my favourite tipple, a bottle of sparkling shiraz. Possibly the best thing to come out of Australia after Naomi Watts. I was mocked for forgoing Gerard's selection of a Sorrenberg gamay, but what can I say, I have cheap tastes. The stuff gives an instant mood lift and who knows if I could ever find it in the US?