Forza Buckeyes!

Our first M*ch*gan week abroad. I spent a good portion of the week gathering the necessary materials for what is now a long standing tradition in our house, making candy Buckeyes for all of our friends in preparation for the big game. After many failed attempts in asking for paraffin wax and confectioners sugar, I took matters into my own hands and decided to improvise. I bought a variety of products that I thought looked similar to those I was familiar with stateside and let my taste buds to the rest. Josh even took a break from work to come home and participate in the tradition!


















After a lot of sampling, i.e. eating the batter, to get things exactly right, our results were pretty accurate to our favorite Buckeyes recipe from Aunt Terry. Luckily, we still had a good supply of Jiff peanut butter from our last trip to the states. I'm not sure that the Italian version of peanut butter would have stood up to the test. We packed as many as we could in our tiny little fridge and carefully transported them to our offices the next day. I thought it was hard to explain what a candy buckeye was in Philadelphia! Try explaining to the Italians that your team is a bunch of killer nuts, but here, would you like to taste one? There was also much confusion about the peanut butter, a PB&J simply isn't a part of the Italian diet. Most of my Italian colleagues are convinced that I had somehow sweetened chestnuts, a very popular roasted treat here, to make the inside of the Buck's eye. I didn't even try to explain the part about the buckeye looking similar to the ocular of a strange four legged forest creature.





Although our traditions remain the same, this year in our new European digs we are having quite the global Michigan week, our influence reaching far and wide. Despite our absence from Philadelphia, my beloved friends kept our tradition alive by making their own candy buckeyes in our honor...thanks Kristin and Megan! Much to my dismay, their buckeyes turned out MUCH prettier than mine!

In the true spirit of globalization we are celebrating this game day in an unheard of way... we are going to watch the game with a Michigan fan, along with a couple of Italians who would rather be watching soccer (I refuse to call it football until the season is over). We'll see how it goes, this could be an important step to cultural acceptance and world peace.

Thanks to all of you who have emailed and called this week to show your spirit, Jessie, please promise you won't watch the game. Kristen, thanks for making the buckeyes! Jamie, good luck with trying to knit, drink and watch the game! In honor of new friends and old rivals, here is a little something that my very dear friend and fellow OSU alumnus, Matt sent me this week, the second verse to our school's fight song:


"We'll scatter to the east and west,
When college days are done,
And memories will cling around
The dreams of everyone;
We'll play the game of living,
With head and shoulders high!
And where in wear the spirit of
The Buckeye Battle Cry!"