Cooking....

In the first year, I was quite lucky I had Raymond. Raymond was the student from HK who was pursuing business degree, but is an excellent cook (he was thinking of becoming a chef, but his extremely rich parents wanted him to do business degree first before settling down with opening a dine in restaurant). Oh, and Raymond lives with Alex, and Alex is related to Barbara, who lives with me.
So anyway, Raymond had a soft spot for me (no he doesn't fancy me, he bets for the other team, so I was quite safe). So whenever he cooks, he will include me in. After two weeks of him asking me to join them, I insisted that I should be included in buying the groceries. Initially they were reluctant, as they say that I eat very little anyway, and I was providing them with the Instant Maggie mee (sometimes at 2 am, Raymond and Alex will come knocking asking me for my supply of Maggie Mee)...And at that time, Maggie Mee was priceless since you cant easily purchase it in Safeways. :)
Anyway, in the 2nd year, Raymond and Alex went back to Hong Kong, and I moved out of the student flat. So, it was cooking time for me.
And at that point, for at least 2 months, I was basically eating butter with Rice and Fried chicken. I couldn't cook anything else. And instant meals was a luxury - the economy back home wasn't doing too well, and I was working to pay my bills.
So I learned to cook to eat... I tried every single dish by making up my own recipe.(I didn't have any of Mom's recipes) And it was okay if it didn't turn out, because I was living with 3 British people who absolutely love everything (Except anchovies) I cook (they assume it was Asian food).
I survived cooking, and I am thankful that I could cook over there to survive, and it helped with my cooking now.