Off to the South Pacific

Tonight I'm heading down to Raratonga, the capital of the Cook Islands and the first stop on my 3-month adventure in the South Pacific! I'm going on a studio art program that focuses primarily on printmaking and mixed media drawing, but throughout the entire trip we hike and snorkel and SCUBA and explore! Other places on the agenda are New Zealand (mostly the North Island) and Australia. So yesterday I took a flight from DC to LA, and after a brief visit with my family I am flying south towards summer weather. Internet will be intermittent since I am not bringing my computer (instead I have five homemade sketchbooks and flippers), but I will try to post when I am in larger cities, the first being Auckland sometime early next week. Wishing everyone a most joyful 2013!

PS: Everyone should see South Pacific, the musical! It's grand.

A Cuppa Chai

So it's definitely been getting colder up here in Minnesota. We had a beautiful first few weeks of October, and then last week the temperature suddenly dropped. It was an overcast week and weekend, but today (even though it's still chilly) the sun finally came out again!

In celebration of the cooler weather, I've been making more and more warm things to drink and eat. Sunday is the evening that I cook for my house, and two Sundays ago I made my mom's delicious pot roast for the first time! It was the perfect cold weather food, though ironically I think it was rather warm that day...

I also made some delicious chocolate pudding, and in a moment of inspiration added a scoop of peanut butter and some chocolate chips to the middle of each cup. Heated up in a microwave, the peanut butter and chips melted into the pudding, YUM.

This past Sunday I made a traditional Ethiopian sweet potato and lentil Wat (stew) along with some lachha parathas, which were so yummy. I forgot how easy it is to make parathas/chapatis once you get into the swing of them. Definitely going to go back to making chapatis when I want a dipping vehicle.

Over the summer I was making a lot of chai when I got back from India, but I stopped after making it a couple of times at the beginning of the school year. Today I was really in the mood for some nice hot, spicy and sweet chai so I made a cup. I forgot how much I love it: the smell of crushed cardamom, the way the liquid slowly turns from pale white to a creamy gold as the tea leaves boil, and the way the first sip warms your whole body. Drinking chai is almost like a spiritual experience for me. Drinking it immediately calms me. I feel cozy and refreshed afterwards.

If I have learned anything from my attempts at cooking Indian food, it's that there is no objectively "correct" recipe for anything--everyone has their own combination of spices that they use to make each dish. Here's a recipe for chai that works well for me, but freshness of spices, type of milk, variety of tea, and even what kind of pot you are using will change the flavor.


Chai Tea (makes one large mug of tea)

Ingredients:
3/4 cup milk (I have been using 1%)
3/4 cup water
1 1/2 tsp black tea (darjeeling is good)
3 whole cardamom pods
2 small pieces cinnamon bark
1 whole clove
TINY piece fresh ginger (about the size of one whole clove, but add more if you like spicier tea)
Sugar to taste (I use 1-2 teaspoons, depending on my mood)

Put the water, milk and tea leaves in a small pot on stove over medium heat. Crush the spices (does not need to be fine--just make sure the cinnamon and cloves are broken up a little and the cardamom pods are open) with a mortar and pestle and then add them to the pot. Stir. Bring the mixture to a boil and turn heat off or very low. Add ginger and stir in sugar if using. Let sit for about three minutes and then bring to a boil again. Pour and serve immediately!

good song

Made in China

Written September 18, 2010

So I’ve been in China for exactly a week today, and what a week it has been.  I feel like I’ve been here for months.  I’ve strolled along paths lined with willows and lotus ponds, passed by elderly couples dancing the Chinese waltz in the park, climbed the knee-length steps of the Great Wall, wandered through the palaces of the Forbidden City, walked the longest corridor in the world, tried my hand at Chinese calligraphy, navigated the crowded Beijing subway and bus system, eaten five types of dumplings and Beijing Kaoya (roast duck), peed in seatless toilets, and bargained with the vendors in the silk street market.  Every day is new and exciting.  In fact, because each day varies so much from the day before and is so different from what I’m used to, I have no field of reference, making it nearly impossible for me to form a solid opinion about the country and my experience here so far. 

I will write more about daily life later.  Let’s talk about the name of this entry for a second: Made in China.  Most things that you buy in America are made in China.  You go into a store and buy a washcloth or a pair of headphones and you don’t think twice about where they come from, that someone--who probably makes less than a dollar a day and lives in a run-down room in the outskirts of a small town, perhaps close to the Great Wall, halfway around the world, with no clean water and breathing air containing the amount of tar equivalent to smoking a pack of cigarettes a day--made that object available for you to buy.  That one washcloth is that person's sole means of survival.  He or she can’t afford it but can make it for someone else. 

Most things that you buy or use in China are also made in China.  Except these things are different.  China is known for cheap prices but items of often poor quality.  You can probably buy that exact same pair of headphones in China, but rather than producing high quality sound, they might turn fuzzy after a day or two, or one of the ear pieces might fall off.  These items are often the rejects: the ones with defects that weren’t deemed good enough to be exported.  Why is it that the country that makes the items doesn’t even get to have the first pick of them?

Chinese products are full of irony.  For example, one thinks the purpose of a shower is to clean.  Well, your shower head might be functional, but instead of spreading the water out in a flow that easily washes shampoo and soap off of you, it might let the water flow in a trickle that isn’t really strong enough to clean off any bath products, even if the water pressure in your bathroom is generally relatively strong.  The object itself works, but not in such a way that fulfills its intended purpose. 

Someone said to me that the Chinese just have lower expectations for what they buy and that Americans expect more quality for their dollar.  Do we as Americans expect too much? If you buy a lamp and it works but it doesn’t illuminate your desk enough to read, is that okay?

In a way, both societies are materialistic.  The common saying repeated here is that Americans work and live to acquire objects, and the Chinese make objects to work and live. 

Maybe its better not to put so much importance on having things that work.  If your bed breaks, maybe it shouldn’t be such a big deal.  At least you were lucky enough to have that bed.  Or maybe the bed isn’t important at all.

Next time you buy something or use something, look at where it was made. Think about it.

Qingdao Midterm Break

***Written during my trip to China in Fall 2010***

Right now I am in the lounge of Kaiyue International Youth Hostel in Qingdao, China.  Qingdao is a coastal city in between Tianjin and Shanghai known for its beaches and its beer.  In fact, they sell Tsingtao (old spelling of Qingdao) beer in the States.  Everywhere you go, you see tons of kegs of beer sitting on the streets outside of restaurants and little convenience shops.  Our most recent discovery is beer in a bag.  A little old Chinese woman who calls herself “Mama” (we have now dubbed her 'Mama Pijiu') has this tiny little store the size of a small walk-in closet from which she sells drinks, shampoo, ice cream, and cigarettes.  She has a couple of kegs of beer outside and pours it into plastic bags, which she then weighs on a tiny scale to determine how much the beer costs.  She then pokes a hole in the bags with a straw so you can sip as you walk.  The real problem arrives if your bag breaks while you are walking.  

The group with Mama Pijiu

The beaches here vary from dirty sand and cloudy water crowded with tons of people to beautiful light-sandy beaches with relatively clear water and fewer people.  The latter is readily available to us a couple of blocks down from our hostel.  Beach #6 is right next to the train station and a bus stop, and the boardwalk above it is crowded with vendors selling a sort of stale pita bread and fried squid on a stick.  Lots of vendors have loud speakers and shout at you, trying to sell English-speaking tourists boat rides. There are also people dressed up as characters (i.e. sheep) from a Chinese animated children’s show called Xi-Yang-Yang.  It’s funny because even though locals say “hello” whenever they see foreigners like us walk by, they really don’t know if we speak English, or where we are from in general, which is kind of comforting.  I heard someone ask one of their friends if they thought I was French.  My friend was asked if he was Australian.  I’m glad that people don’t look at me and immediately know I’m form the States, though I don’t think being from the U.S. leaves the same negative impression here that it does in other countries, since people here seem to generally look up to the U.S.

Xi-Yang-Yang characters, Beach #6 in the background

On one of the first few days here, a couple of the guys in our group met this Chinese woman named Ping Ping who runs a business that helps Chinese students get into and study in universities in the States.  She lives in Beijing but is currently in Qingdao on holiday, plus she grew up in Qingdao.  She speaks English very fluently because her husband is American.  She sort of took us under her wing since her nephew is trying to learn English and she wanted him to practice speaking with us.  So on Monday we all met at the bus stop close to our hostel and hopped on the 2-hour-long #304 bus (standing the whole way!) to Laoshan, a beautiful mountain on the coast of Qingdao known for its fresh spring water and beautiful scenery.  We all sort of wandered along part of the road until we came to a little pathway that took us down onto some cliffs above the water.  We climbed the cliffs down to the water and sat there for a bit, which was very nice, and the views were spectacular.  We then got lunch, which Ping Ping ordered for us since we have no idea what any of the characters for shellfish are, and sat on the beautiful sandy beach for a while.  I collected some shells and the boys went swimming and then we caught the 2-hour bus back.  The bus was so crowded on the way back that even though I was standing up I didn’t need to hold onto anything because there was no space for me to fall into.  For dinner we went to a place run by a Chinese woman with HUGE hair, sort of like Marge from the Simpsons, but not blue.  Our final dish was a whole fish cooked in some sort of sweet sauce.  Two guys from a group of three other Americans that we have been hanging out with ate the eyes, which are supposed to be a delicacy here!

Cliffs we hung out on at Laoshan

Fish DEVOURED, no eyes left

Yesterday we got up even earlier (my alarm was set for 6:47!) and went to the same mountain again with Ping Ping and her nephew, but this time to a different side. We ended up at someone’s vacation home on a cliff on the mountain.  It’s still unclear to me whose home it was, but  it was one of Ping Ping’s friends.  One of the men staying in it took us all fishing off the coast of the mountain in a little wooden boat.  We didn’t catch very much, but the views were spectacular and it was a beautiful day to spend on the water.  We came back to the house in the late afternoon and the family cooked us a feast of shellfish (I tried some very interesting looking creatures including some sort of very large sea snail in a beautiful shell the size of my fist! It was pretty gross.).  We were then driven back to the hostel in a van (an eventful ride trying to sit on a stool in the the back of a car speeding down windy, rocky mountainsides), and I immediately crashed when we arrived home because I was so exhausted.

The farm of the family that took us around

Our boat for the day

Ji and me, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed

Pablo's huge fish

 

Yummy sea snail.

  Today I think we are going to visit the Qingdao brewery, which should be cool to see!

dawn breaks like a bull through the hall

So it's been awhile since I've written because I've been savoring the last few weeks of summer before heading back to school next Monday. Since I came home from India a little sooner than anticipated, I used the extra time to spend a weekend visiting some friends in New York! I arrived on Friday afternoon and visited Alex at the UN! We heard Beyonce singing through the walls of the General Assembly room, no big deal. On Friday evening I met Jackie (who I hadn't seen since I left India!) at the Natural History Museum and we went out for a delicious dinner (highlights were a watermelon/feta salad and a barbeque buffalo slider). After that we went to a club and danced the night away! It was so nice to see her for the first time in the US :D.

On Saturday morning I took the subway (no mistakes!) from the Upper West Side to Brooklyn to meet Sandra for a bagel brunch (delish)! We then took a long walk through Prospect Park and went to Williamsburg to sight-see (aka watch all the hipsters). We went out for some wine and a late dinner, ending in ice cream just before midnight when the dude at the counter gave us all of the leftover baked goods that he was going to throw away (nice). On Sunday morning I met up with Alex and her aunt and uncle for brunch. Basically the weekend involved lots of eating, lots of subway-ing, and lots of friends, so it was delightful.

This past week I was with the fam + Sara in Rehoboth Beach, where we go every August. We had some nice sunny weather and again more delicious food so it was wonderful as well. Being in Rehoboth always makes me feel so at peace, I think because of my proximity to the ocean (there were some sweet waves this trip). Thinking about the ocean and the beach makes me think about other random things that have struck my fancy recently, so I thought I'd share a few. Maybe they make you happy too! Or at least remind you of things that make you happy. These are not in any particular order of preference, just written down as they come to my mind.

~Water. I just can't get enough. Drinking it, submersing myself in it, throwing it at people, it's just all so good.

~Hindi devotional music: bhajans, qawwali. I recommend Jagjit Singh, especially his version of Dama Dum Mast Kalander (on iTunes). Listening to this always calms me down. I like listening to it when I first wake up, or when I'm doing yoga. I feel like I can always smell a hint of daal and incense when I play it...

~This song when I'm feeling reflective.

~This song to bump to (@1:10). Also this one (yeah).

~This song when I'm just happy!

~Talking to foreigners in their native language. Along with this, surprising foreigners when I can actually say something in their native language (even if I can't understand their response...).

~AVOCADOS.

~Watercolor painting, even though I struggle.

~Trying new recipes. Just tried to replicate this butternut squash/goat cheese terrine the fam had at a restaurant at the beach. It was somewhat successful? I mean, it's hard to go completely wrong with something that involves squash, goat cheese, and butter...

~Green things, especially dark green things. Or this new dune sage-scented candle that I just got which makes my room smell like an evergreen forest and which also happens to be green.

~Crunching leaves! I'm so excited to have a real fall! I haven't been in the US for fall since freshman year, and that's all a blur since I was so preoccupied with starting college. Favorite season, I can't wait. Also I have a kitchen this year so I can go to the orchard and pick tons of apples and make pie and applesauce and everything else apple, hooray!

Okay well I hope this makes everyone think of some recent favorites :). I'll post some pictures soon!

sailing words on conjured ships

Kochi Sketching

So since I am technically here to draw and paint, everyday I try to do some sketching. It's currently monsoon season in Kerala, which means it can start raining and any time and there are multiple-day periods of overcast and dreary weather, which can make it difficult to do any drawing outside. However, there are breaks in these rainy periods. I think I've figured out a pattern: if it rains during the day it will be pretty clear at night and vice versa. Usually it comes in 3-4 day periods, so it will be rainy for a few days and then clear for a few days. Anyways, the point is that I have to take advantage of the sunny days to sketch outside. Since kochi is on the coast and is renowned for its huge old school Chinese fishing nets, I go sit on one of the benches that overlooks the water/nets to draw. There is a little pathway that runs along the coast with a bunch of benches on it. This is a favorite spot for locals to come sit or walk. At first I found it dfficult to do any artwork here and limited myself to very quick watercolors because people would come and stand next to me and sort of bother me (and as a result my first few watercolors are pretty poor). Now I've sort of gotten used to the passersby, and I've come into a rhythm where if I am focusing intently enough on my drawing or painting, people still come and stand very close next to me to watch me draw but they typically don't bother me. Instead they chat amongst themselves and look at/gesture towards whatever I'm drawing. It's a very strange experience, mostly because there is a lot of pressure on me to be doing a good drawing! But I'm hoping that what I'm really doing is causing people to take a look at something that would otherwise have gone unnoticed (like a tree) and contemplate its beauty.

Kochi

Okay so I am writing this from my phone so I don't think I will make it very long, but just wanted to give a few updates :). So I was having major stomach problems (typical) and was taking cipro but it was doing like absolutely nothing so on literally my first full day in Kochi I decided to go to a doctor. I'm staying in sort of a homestay situation (i.e. a family rents out rooms to people) so they were very sweet and drove me to a doctor. Unfortunately the doctor was away for the week, so then we went to a different one which was across the street. This was just a woman sitting in a rundown building. She talked to me for about two minutes and then wrote a prescription for something I had never heard of. I tried to get her to tell me what exactly it was and gathered it was some sort of all-purpose fever reducer/painkiller/probiotic/antibiotic that would solve all my problems NOT. So I didn't get that filled and instead my host dad drove me to a hospital that was close by. This was a truly Indian hospital, like no foreigners at all and I don't really think they knew what to do with me. Anyways finally they got a doctor who spoke some English and he just basically had a meeting with me (didn't examine me or anything) and then prescribed a whole bunch of things, none of which was an antibiotic or anti-parasite (he actually got annoyed when I asked him to explain what the drugs were supposed to do). Finally after I reiterated that this had been going on for a week he prescribed an anti-parasite, and since then I've been feeling better each day. So that was longer than anticipated and all about health problems haha sorryyyy. Anyways Kochi is absolutely beautiful, full of green coconut palms and brightly-colored tropical flowers. It is right on the coast, and though the ocean itself is not so nice to look at, it really feels like a cute little beach down (in India though of course). It is monsoon season right now, so the first few days here were pretty downcast and rainy, but the past two days have actually been quite sunny! My host family is so sweet and feeds me so much breakfast. My favorite thing that they've made was this warm, doughy coconut flour pancake-ish thing dipped in fresh coconut milk. SO delicious, and easy on the tummy! There is more to say but my thumbs hurt so I'm gonna go, but lots of love to everyone!

Ajanta

Isn't it strange how some things never change and some things will never be the same?

On Thursday, I visited my second group of cave temples. Ajanta is much farther away from Aurangabad than Ellora (103 km as opposed to 36 km--took a little over two hours to get there) and consists of 30 Buddhist caves all carved into the side of a cliff. From the outside as a whole, I think the Ajanta caves seem more impressive since they are all high on the same cliff face right next to each other, looking down into a valley where waterfalls cascade over their edges during monsoon season. Ellora is more spread out, so one does not get the same feeling of complete awe. On the inside though, I was rather more impressed by Ellora with its towering stone carvings of gods and goddesses. Ajanta is more well-known for its paintings, and what remained of these were beautiful, but they are much disintegrated. Sher-Gil wrote, "A fresco from Ajanta or a small piece of sculpture in the Musee Guimet is worth more than the whole Renaissance!" I can see these figures in Ajanta in her work, but I wonder how different her Ajanta is from my Ajanta, nearly 80 years older than hers. How much have these paintings changed since she saw them?

It is amazing that the paintings are still here at all. I enjoy visiting historic sites like Ajanta and Ellora because I can feel the continuity between the past and the present. What always drew me to history was feeling tied to the past, feeling like I am a part of something bigger than myself. History allows us to feel a closeness with each other simply because of our existence as people. People painted these caves and lived in them and worshiped in them. They had hopes and dreams and trials and losses just the same as we do. We are all connected. And in this way it is impossible not to feel moved by Ajanta and tied to Sher-Gil.

In Delhi, I was surprised at how quickly things came back to me. I would find myself answering people in Hindi phrases that I forgot I knew, and not even realizing what I was saying until after I said it. I found myself returning to old habits and finding places to be like I never left them. However, it is this lack of change that reminds me how different things actually are, as I am so changed. As much as we would like to and maybe even try to relive our memories, we cannot, and we must create new ones to appreciate equally as much.

The part of Ajanta that struck me most was the brilliant blue that remained in some of the designs of the caves. While most of the other colors had faded, this blue still seemed to glow as brightly as if it were painted but a few weeks ago. I hope to use this blue in later paintings. I suppose the key to a happy memory is to find the common thread that runs through our experience, just like this blue.

Aurangabad

So yesterday (Tuesday) after a week in Delhi, I hopped on the plane to Aurangabad!  I wasted most of the day yesterday sitting in the airport because I got my flight time wrong. Luckily I thought it was earlier than it was, so I didn't miss it but just had an extended period of reading time...

The flight was Air India, and I was amazed because they served a full meal on a flight that was less than two hours! I didn't actually eat this meal because I was not expecting it and had already eaten lunch by 3:00 PM, but it smelled pretty good. We flew over some beautiful, fluffy clouds once we got out of the Delhi smog.
Yesterday I was exhausted after sitting around doing nothing in the airport for so long, so after arriving at the hotel I pretty much just ate dinner and went to sleep after meeting with an overzealous hotel employee to arrange a trip to the Ellora cave temples for today. There is a beautiful, big pool in the center of the hotel though, so I might jump in for a swim later.

Woke up early this morning to shower and prepare to go to Ellora. Got down to breakfast a little after 7:00, as the buffet is included with the room. I wasn't really sure what was included in the buffet and what was separate, so I stuck to some chocos cereal with milk and a cup of fresh nimbu (sweet lime) juice. I've since come to the conclusion that the whole thing was the buffet, so tomorrow I might try some freshly chopped mango! We are in the heart of mango season right now.

Hopped in the car to Ellora at about 8:15 in order to get there by opening at 9:00 (morning is best because it is less hot and less crowded). The temples were remarkable. There are about 35 of them, with a mixture of Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain caves. They are all carved into the stone in the side of a mountain. It is sort of like an Indian version of Mesa Verde, but more spiritually centered. My favorite was probably Cave 10, which was a Buddhist cave with a huge domed meditation hall surrounded by thirty pillars. There was an older man there who had the key to the upstairs balcony and he took me through the hall and even sang a little chant to show me how beautifully the hall echoed.

Tomorrow I will head to Ajanta to see more caves temples and cave paintings, Sher-Gil's true delight!
Lots of love to everyone.

Sup Delhi

I'm back! Landed at around 8:30 PM today and got my bag, got a simcard (though unfortunately not for iPhone, but at the very least I am able to use wireless connections on iPhone, hence I'm writing this post), got a taxi to the hotel and checked in. It's so strange and wonderful to be back. In line to board the plane at the airport I caught a wiff of cardamom, and on the flight I chose the veg dinner option and ate some surprisingly satisfactory palak paneer, so I was already starting to smile before I even got here. On the plane I was sitting next to a girl who happened to live in the same neighborhood that I was living in with my host mother Sunita, which was funny and a nice coincidence. When I exited the airport the heat and the smell hit me tenfold and I probably looked like an idiot cause I couldn't stop smiling. It's good to be back. I can't wait to revisit the old places and ride in rickshaws again. Little details that I had forgotten are coming back to me, memories resurfacing (the power has already gone out once, very briefly, in the two hours that I've been in the hotel :)). Tomorrow the adventures begin! For now, I'm gonna read some more of the hunger games and try to get a few hours of sleep before my body wakes me up at five tomorrow morning... Lots of love to everyone!

End of School

So school is almost done! Finals are Saturday-Monday and then Tuesday I head home! It was a hectic beginning to the week because classes were still going up until Wednesday and I had my Chinese final project due on Tuesday, but now all that stands between me and summer is a 6-page paper, an exam, and a whooooollleee lot of packing and storing and mailing things.

This year I'm feeling more sentimental than usual because a few of my close friends will be graduating :C. But I'll just have to have faith that I will keep in touch with them. On Wednesday evening one of the male acapella groups had their final concert and a few of the seniors were crying at the end of the performance and it made me so sad. I felt like I was graduating, which is not true at all! So just trying to treasure these last few moments with the seniors.

Since tonight is the night before finals, we have late night breakfast and silent dance party! I don't know about breakfast, but definitely going to silent dance party. For those who don't know, on the night before finals in the fall and the spring an hour-long playlist is sent out to the students. Everyone who wants to participate downloads the playlist onto their ipod and brings it to the libe. At exactly 11 PM on the bottom-most floor of the libe (aka the most quiet floor), everyone starts the playlist simultaneously and then proceeds to dance up through the libe, silently, and across the rest of campus. So much fun!

Looking forward to finishing up work.

For Emma

Beautiful.

Wolves

This is a beautiful version of the song Wolves by Bon Iver sung by the Accidentals, one of Carleton's acapella groups. The original is also amazing.

I leaned on the wall and the wall leaned away

I wanna hurry home to you, put on a slow dumb show for you and crack you up...

SEESTAH

MY SISTER IS VISITING ME THIS WEEKEND!!!!!! WHOOOOOOOOOOOO
I'm so happy! It was so surreal when she drove into campus yesterday. We did one of those run and hug things, it was pretty good. It's just really nice to have her here. I feel like my Carleton world and my outside-of-Carleton world rarely collide, so her being here sort of helps me merge the two and realize that both actually exist. Sometimes I think I get so caught up in the Carleton bubble that I forget about my outside self.

So VZ came in at around 2:30/3:00, so we took a quick tour around Carleton and went into the buildings that I spend most of my time in (aka my favorite buildings aka boliou duh) and then we were feeling a little tired so we went to Blue Mondays for some coffeeeeee and felt much refreshed after an iced americano and caramel latte mmmm. Then we came back to my room and I changed for dinner and we checked in to the hotel where VZ is staying and drove to the Ole Store for dinner! It was soooo yum. I was a little disappointed at first because they had changed their menu so they no longer had the delicious beet and goat cheese salad that I had the first time I went, but we still got some great food. We split coconut shrimp, and then VZ got a nicoise salad and I got a pear/blue cheese/walnut salad, and both were really good. And then we got some warm fudgey chocolate thing for dessert. We also had like literally 8 different glasses/cups on our table by the end of the meal because we each had coffee and water and I had two different iced tea glasses and VZ had a hot tea cup...hey, at least we're staying hydrated!

After dinner we went back to the hotel to relax for a bit and played pictionary. Then we met up with Megan back on campus and headed into town so I could show VZ the Northfield bar scene (which is obviously hoppin'). It was a good night to go out because it was this townwide event called "Girls Night Out" when apparently all the older women in Northfield decide to put on heels and get really drunk and go dance at all of the three bars in Northfield. It was pretty great. A Carleton student band called Ova Yonder was playing at one of them so we went there. We met Lindsay and other Megan and her sister. We jammed and danced and it was really fun! I got a g&t though and it was glowing florescent blue...hopefully not toxic!

So this morning (actually in a few minutes) we are going to an intermediate vinyasa yoga class in town (should be interesting...I haven't done yoga in quite a while...) and then we'll probably get some brunch at the Tavern! Yum breakfast. And then we'll see what the day brings us.

I popped two blood vessels in my eyes, one in each eye. Scuba? Maybe. One you can't really see though cause it's sort of below my eye lid. And the other one really isn't that bad, but I feel like I look like a zombie! It's sort of scary looking. The corner of my eye just looks really bloodshot. Too bad it's not Halloween! I think I scared the waiter yesterday. Everyone probably thinks I have pink eye.

YOGGGGGAAAAAA

Basta Corazon--No Llores

So this is my new favorite song. It's so beautiful. This is not the best quality vid, but it's a version of Basta Corazon by Eddy Navia, which is on iTunes. Enjoy!

CERTIFIED!!!

Scuba

So today I went scuba diving for the first time ever! Okay, well actually I've been diving in the pool for the past five weeks now, but today I had my first two open water dives in Square Lake (which is, in fact, not really shaped like a square...).  We got up at about 7:30 this morning and drove an hour and a half to the lake, which is a little bit north of Stillwater, MN. There were ten of us in John's (the instructor's) camper! I've never really been in one of them before, so it was pretty cool, and cozy with all of our gear and tanks! Tried to catch a few more z's on the ride over.  When we got there we found out that there was a triathalon going on, so we had to park a little bit away from the spot where we were actually diving (we parked very smartly next to the "No Scuba Diving" sign). The lake was really pretty, but it was a cloudy day and a little chilly for swimming (55 degrees outside, 40 degree lake wooo). The lake had a relatively long beach though, and I can imagine it being very beautiful and refreshing on a hot day.

So we took all of the stuff out of the camper and divided into three groups. Cassie and I were in the second group, so we had a little bit of down time.  But I have to mention it takes SO LONG to put on scuba gear. Especially the wetsuit. Ours are two-piece wetsuits, and I can't decide if they are easier or harder to put on than a one-piece would be. So scuba gear includes: wetsuit (overalls then jacket), boots, hood, gloves, weight belt with about 20 lbs worth of lead on it, BCD with attached tank and valve (we attach them before putting them on), fins (put on in the water), snorkel and mask. WOAH. So much gear. And altogether it is probs around 60+ lbs, plus once you get wet your wetsuit has a lot more weight. So we trudged along from one side of the lake to the other with our gear. And let me tell you, it is difficult to walk in these wetsuits. Especially since they don't really fit right (the crotch on mine has a good 4 extra inches of room...). So it's pretty funny to see us all walking out there. It took at least 40 minutes to get everything together for dive #1. We were in the water for approximately 30 minutes. And then we took it all off! And did it again an hour later! But with wet wetsuits this time! Hooray.

It was pretty scary going in the lake for the first time. The visibility was really poor (maybe I could see 2-3 feet in front of me?) and so we didn't see very much.  Saw a few smaller fish and a lot of seaweed on the bottom, but not much else. The water was also very cold, but once the water in my wetsuit warmed up it was really not bad at all.  Just my lips were really cold ahaha. And it was a little more difficult to equalize cause I couldn't really feel my nose. We all held hands while we were underwater (because honestly we would have gotten lost SO easily. I thought it was gonna be awful and so stupid at first, but once we got in the water I was really happy about it, even though it was super inconvenient for manoeuvring). The first skills we practiced were clearing our masks under water and octopus breathing (everyone has an extra valve on their tank to give to their buddy in case the buddy runs out of air). Then we "explored" and came back up. We also tested for neutral buoyancy when we first went in (You are supposed to float at eye level with everything on except the BCD). Then we got out and changed and group 3 went in, and then when they were done we had lunch. John brought a grill, so we set that up next to the changing tent and had a nice little cookout. Everyone in the group was really chill, and it was nice to get to talk to some new people. There was this one older guy (who was part of John's community class) who had been to India and China, and he was really eager to talk about Shimla with me.

So after lunch half of us put our gear on for our second dive (maybe a little harder than the first time) and got in again, this time practicing the "tired swimmer" carry, in case of the event that your buddy experiences overexertion and you need to get them back to the boat/beach. It was so hard! I was actually shocked by how tired I was after such a short period of swimming. I generally consider myself to be a relatively strong swimmer, and in lifeguard training I have swum carrying someone in a spinal clamp (aka not using arms to swim) for multiple lengths, and so I was not expecting this to be difficult, especially since you can use your arms in this type of carry. Even when we practiced in the pool (so still wearing the 30 pound air tank, but less extra weight) it felt pretty easy. But this was really tiring! So we were pushing our buddy halfway out to this diving platform, and then our buddy pushed us the other half. I went first, and by the time my half was up I really did need the "tired swimmer" push haha. It was sort of disconcerting though, since I usually feel so comfortable in the water. At this point it started to rain, and the day sort of went downhill.  We dived for a little and practiced some more skills, and then went back to shore and the second group went in. By this point it was raining pretty steadily, and a lot of our stuff was still lying around outside, so we were rushing around trying to carry all of our gear back to the van and putting away what we could. We were all pretty soaked, and not from the lake. I felt really bad for the group that was still in the water, because by the time they got out it was raining really hard and they still had to get changed and everything.

So it got pretty cold, especially with the rain at the end. But we made it out! Got back to campus around six, went immediately to dinner with Cassie, and then took a LONG, hot shower and it felt sooooo good. And now I'm so sleepy and sore! I'm gonna be so sore tomorrow...but first repeat! Getting up at around 7 again for round two. But after these two more dives tomorrow, I will officially be certified! Hooray! Great Barrier Reef here I come!

In a way it's a really good thing that I had a ridiculous amount of work last week because now I have basically nothing this weekend, which is almost necessary since I'm not really functioning as a normal human being right now...not even trying to do work tonight, but hopefully I'll be able to force myself tomorrow...

SO EXCITED TO SEE MY BEAUTIFUL AMAZING WONDERFUL SISTER NEXT WEEKEND!!!!

Bedtiimmmmmme

I love this song. It's so good. I just wanna dance every time I listen to it. Why is Latin music so good? Makes me dream of summer. I don't want to write this research paper, I just wanna go have a bonfire on a beach with tiki lamps and listen to this song and salsa dance.

Emily and I made our avocado pasta yesterday and it was so good. And so easy! Also made some edamame mmm.

Avocados and Midterms

So along with beets and goat cheese, avocados have been added to my list of current food obsessions. I was looking at foodgawker per usual and saw this recipe for avocado pasta which sounded amazing to me. Why have I never thought of this before? Avocado is good on everything! So Emily and I are going to make some pasta this weekend. This was on Monday though, and Saturday seemed like too long a time to wait for smooth green deliciousness, so on Tuesday I went to the co-op to buy some avocados! I got two and I just had one spread on a toasted wheat bagel for dinner YUM. Yup, I brought my own avocado to the dining hall, no big deal. Also picked up some delish organic mint dark choc.

Anyways so this weekend is midterm break (aka we get Monday off, woohoo...) which is much needed, but unfortunately all of my profs decided to assign stuff for tomorrow, so I'm currently writing this blog post instead of studying for my religion midterm and writing my deconstructive essay on Murakami's Sleep. Good job me! Definitely looking forward to being done tomorrow afternoon. Still got lots to do though!

I've been looking through old pictures and realized today that exactly one year ago I was starting my self-portrait for my painting class! I remember Natalie and I going outside on a freezing cold/rainy day and her taking pictures of me to try and find one to use for the painting.

Also stumbled across this treasure

Miss ya so much Costling! Gotta head back to Europa.

Waltz

April 22

Cupcakes!

Irish Car Bomb cupcakes for St. Patty's day! Guinness chocolate cake, Irish whiskey-infused chocolate ganache filling, and bailey's frosting :D

India Round 2: Kerala Edition

So I'm trying to start up this blog again because I think I'm going to delete my facebook.  I've been thinking about it for awhile, and have deleted it on and off, but I think it's time to get rid of it for good (at least until graduation when I freak out about losing touch with everyone).  It's just such a waste of time, and I feel that it's a poor substitute for real, genuine human interaction (at least in my case).  It's sort of sad because I will inevitably lose touch with some people, but those relationships probably weren't real in the first place right?

This summer I am heading back to India! This time I am heading to South India, primarily Kerala, to follow the path of the artist that I researched in the fall (Amrita Sher-Gil).  I will visit the same sights that she went to on her own tour of the South and record my experiences through painting and drawing along the way.  I am thrilled to be going back, but also a little nervous since I will be traveling completely by myself this time.  Also it will be monsoon season in Kerala, so it should be interesting trying to deal with all the heavy rain...but it's an amazing opportunity and I know it will be an amazing trip.  Hopefully I'll do a lot of drawings and meet a lot of new people!

This term is going by so quickly.  Tomorrow is the beginning of fourth week, so crazy! So much Chinese to do.  I've been keeping up with my usual distraction of food blogs, and my latest obsession is anything and everything with beets and goat cheese (like this). Yummmm.

Also, I have a radio show from 11AM-12noon on Tuesdays (Minnesota time--aka 12-1PM east coast, 9AM-10 west coast). Listen to The Merry Troubadour here!