:insert something clever:

Oops

2010-07-26T07:34:00.001-04:00

So, I posted the address of our new blog, Pastoral Pesto, but it didn't work. I fixed it, so it should now. But, just for kicks and giggles, here it is again: joelnjenny.blogspot.com

See you there!

Packing up and Moving...

2010-07-15T21:11:00.004-04:00

So, Joel and I decided on a name and created our new blog. This will be the last post here. For further news, pictures, musings, etc, please go to:

joelnjenny.blogspot.com

Over a month!

2010-07-15T15:12:00.003-04:00

This is a bit late, but I want to tell you (if there even is a you anymore as no one had any reason to believe I'd ever post again after the way I've neglected this blog) if you didn't already know, that Joel and I are the proud parents of this little girl:

Her name is Francesca Marie and she was born on June 11th after a relatively easy labor. We love her very much and think she's the cutest baby we've ever seen (without any bias, naturally). She's growing very quickly (almost 13 pounds already!) and she's even starting to sleep fairly well at night (once she finally gives up the fight and goes down).

In other news Joel and I are thinking of starting a joint blog as neither of us are any good at writing regularly enough to keep up individual ones. More info on that when we actually get around to it.

My First Mothers' Day (as a mom)

2010-05-10T21:43:00.006-04:00

For Mothers' Day (I think it's technically Mother's Day, but I think Mothers' makes more sense...) Joel surprised me. :-) He was very sneaky and I was oblivious. He's had lots of papers to work on lately, and consequently many late nights. So, Saturday night after he made sure I went to bed (I looked rather sleepy...and was), he snuck out of the house and off to the grocery store where he bought ingredients and flowers (at least, I assume that's where he got the flowers...).

He had difficulty deciding between breakfast and a late brunch (the fact that the holiday is always on a Sunday making the latter more difficult) and had a menu made out for brunch, but decided on breakfast and the rest for lunch.

So, he woke me up Sunday morning and surprised me with these scrumptious pastries:

(which are scones with apricots and chocolate chips. YUMMY!)

and these: Lilies! Volcano Lilies to be more precise.

With breakfast we also had sausage (one of my very favorite breakfast proteins). And the scones we ate with butter and red currant jelly. There were leftovers, but they didn't last too long...

The rest of the menu included savory crepes with fillings of spinach and eggs and a cheese sauce (which ended up being added into the eggs instead of made into a separate sauce as we last minute invited company over for lunch and felt a bit rushed).

Joel is great. :-)

Another highlight of the day was my dad calling me during his lunchbreak to tell me Happy Mothers' Day. :-)

I think it was nice to be able to celebrate with the baby still snug inside me.

36 weeks (and a couple of days)

2010-05-10T21:40:00.003-04:00

3 Days

2010-03-25T15:21:00.002-04:00

Joel just left for a conference at Yale this weekend where he will get to discuss Dante with other people that want to discuss Dante. So, it should be good.

But what's not good about it is that it means I won't see him for 74 hours or so. That's a long time.

BABY!

2010-01-28T17:32:00.001-05:00

More than a Lamp

2010-01-27T10:46:00.003-05:00

Well, blogger and I have difficulties communicating about the order of pictures. . .so these are in the reverse order of originally intended.

I know it's almost February, but we we just got back from travelling last Thursday and I hadn't taken down our "tree" yet and I got a camera while we were gone and so I thought I would share.

This first picture is the coolest ornament we have. It's a Scrabble board with words relating to us and 2009. My mother-in-law Sue made it for us!

This is another cool new ornament we got this year. It's from my sister and brother-in-law. :-)

And now I present our tree! Not as cool as a real one (cheaper) but bigger than any fake one we'd be willing to store the rest of the year (we're a bit short on storage space). What do you think? I think we might continue with this tree until we're in a house somewhere. . .

This is the "tree" without all of its accessories.

Another new thing we did this year was to use oven mitts instead of stockings (we don't have any of those yet). No pictures for that. It was fun stuffing something little into the thumb!

Christmas present

2009-12-28T09:31:00.002-05:00

I have a rocking chair now! In time to practice with the infant I'll start babysitting at the end of January. :-) And then to rock our baby!

And it's a real rocking chair, not a glider. An old wooden rocking chair. Solid wood...really solid, at least two inches thick!

I have a wonderful husband. :-)

Old News but Good News

2009-12-14T10:34:00.002-05:00

So, after three months of silence on this blog, I thought maybe I should write something. Is it good to write blogs because too much time has passed instead of because of a desire to say something specific?

Hmm, well, maybe I shall say something specific.

On the morning of Monday, October 5th, Joel and I discovered that there are now three of us. :-) The third being a rather small person (though I hear up to three and a half inches long by this point). We get to see the new little one in person early June (around the 4th). So far his or her name is le Petit Chou, or little Cabbage. We're going to wait until June to know the gender.

We're rather excited. :-) We would've blogged about it sooner...but there've been so many other things to do (like eating and sleeping and getting well acquainted with the couch and enjoying each other's company). But now the blogworld can share in the news.

Aristocratic Meal

2009-09-10T14:20:00.006-04:00

So, Katie wanted to know what aristocrats eat. While I can't say
that I'm an expert on the subject, I will tell you what we ate that
prompted the comment.

First off, it was Joel's birthday, so we dressed up a bit (including Joel
donning a vest and tie), and went out to dinner at The Souvlaki House,
home of "Ithaca's Finest Greek and Italian Cuisine".

We ordered fried ravioli as an appetizer, had a bottle of Retsina on the
side, Joel had veal in a marsala and mushroom sauce with a side of pasta
and I had a sausage and green pepper parmigiana. These came with garlic
bread sticks and Greek salad.

As we were paying and leaving, the owner asked where we were from. Joel
said Vermont and I said Oklahoma. He looked slightly and confused and
then asked, "Are you American?" We answer yes, and he says, "Oh, you eat like aristocrat." We mentioned we had both spent a year in Europe and
this seemed to clear up any confusion on his part.

So, what is aristocratic about what we ate? Discuss.

Updates (in no particular order):

2009-09-03T16:32:00.002-04:00

Joel and I are back in Ithaca, in a new apartment and starting a newsemester.

My camera liked Sicily so much that it decided to stay.

Joel hit the quarter-of-a-century mark.

The English department convinced me to work with them for a month.

I planted lettuce!

John and Galadriel are married.

And, of course, Kelly and Alexander are married.

We've been borrowing other people's children and pets.

Marble tabletops aren't as expensive as we thought they'd be, at least not in Italy.

Cornell has a position called Graduate Resident Fellow that is similar to that of Faculty in Residence, but for graduate students, that we are considering applying to for Academic Year 2010-2011.

The absence of a skirt hanger can easily be remedied with a normal hangerand two clothespins.

Joel and I were told that we eat like aristocrats.

The Lincoln Park Zoo has a sun bear that enjoys sticking her tongue out at passers-by.

Joel is teaching an elementary Italian course this Fall.

Most of my plants are still alive after going all summer without me (aided by our friend Jesse).

Freecycle enabled us to receive a nice, new-to-us desk to help Joel in his studies.

We have really deep windowsills that fit lots of plants!

A drying rack and a dehumidifier make a very nice combination.

I think this list is long enough for now.

:-)

Languages

2009-06-12T05:56:00.003-04:00

Today I tried to write someone an email in Spanish. A simple, short email, maybe ten lines long at most. Shouldn't be a problem, right? I lived in Spain for a year. I majored in Spanish. I've even dreamt in Spanish before.

The problem is that I've been in Italy for three weeks. Speaking Italian 80% of the time, or more.

Italian and Spanish are terribly too similar. Deceptively so.

This simple little email took me almost half an hour. I might be exagerrating. But, still, it should have taken less than three minutes. And I still think there were mistakes...Italian words and Italian grammar strung throughout...

Oh well.

Too bad the email went to the person in charge of maintaining a list of Spanish tutors and translators in the Ithaca area... It wasn't about that, it was about babysitting a baby that hasn't even been born yet... But, still...I don't know how much longer I'll be on that list...

Alguien me puede hablar en espanol? Necesito practicar...

No worries

2009-05-26T12:09:00.003-04:00

Hello!

Delta pretty much did nothing to help us (he can't even take the return flight). But, my very clever mother found Joel a flight to Rome on AirBerlin for not too bad considering it was less than 24 hours before the flight. The people at the school were kind enough to pick me up at the airport Friday without Joel, take me to the apartment, and pick me up to meet Joel at the train station the next morning after he took a 10 hour train from Rome.

Now we're both here, have eaten lots of tasty food, been inside a fortress, relaxed, slept, etc etc etc.

Yay!

P.S. Since Delta wouldn't let Joel take the return flight either, Joel's flying back on the same flight with me! Yay!

Please pray

2009-05-20T21:18:00.002-04:00

Joel missed his flight. He was supposed to arrive at Port Authority three hours before his flight was to leave and then take a shuttle (they leave Port Aurthority every twenty minutes) to JFK. Two problems, there are apparently two buses(?) that leave Ithaca at 12:40 on the way to NY, one arriving at 5:55 PM and the other at 6:46 PM. I'm not sure how that works (didn't read that until ten minutes ago), but suffice it to say we were assuming he would get there at 6. He didn't. Then the shuttle took an hour and a half to get to the airport so he arrived about half an hour before his international flight was supposed to leave. They made the last call for boarders before he was even close to half-way through the baggage check-in line.

He was flying into Pisa and the flying RyanAir to Lamezia and then a train to Catania...

We don't know yet when Delta can get him where. I arrive in Catania Friday around noon. I really would like him to be there already...or at least very soon afterwards...

Please pray with us for the trip and the complications and for God's glory to be evident.

Summer plans

2009-05-07T09:16:00.000-04:00

Some of you might be wondering what we'll be up to this summer. Or not... But, if you read on you'll find out anyway.

From May 21st or so, to June 20th more or less, Joel and I will be in Catania, Sicily. Joel will be taking courses of some sort at a school there.

The dates are a bit ambiguous because Joel will be leaving a day before I do and leaving a day later (we bought his tickets before mine). He leaves the 20th and gets there on the 21st whereas I leave the 21st and get there the 22nd. I leave June 19th and he leaves on the 20th. A bit confusing, but it should work out. Funny thing, even though we bought my tickets over a month later than buying his, they were almost $500 cheaper!

Before we leave we have to pack up our apartment. Our current lease ends at the end of May and our new lease, at a new place, starts in August. A kind family from church is letting us use their basement to store all of our stuff in the interim. I took over the first load of boxes today! Mostly books but also some Christmas stuff and our tents. Since Joel still has papers to write...I'll be doing most of the packing. It was good to get started.

So, we'll pack up our stuff and put it in the basement excepting a couple of bags that will hopefully have all we'll need for the next two months. Then, off to Italy! While we're there Joel will study and I will...well, I'm not sure, exactly, but I will. :-) I'll spend at least some of the time teaching myself to knit socks. Also I'm sure we'll spend some time on the beach, maybe go on a couple of day trips to Syracuse or Palermo or Etna, cook a good deal, and hopefully have quite a nice time. We'll have our own apartment the whole time we're there, so that will be good. We're hoping to locate a church in the vicinity as we will be there for four Sundays. If you know of any...please inform us.

When we return from Italy we will wander on to Chicago to hang out with my sister and her husband. Here we come, Windy City! While there we will also go to the Ford Center/Oriental Theatre to watch Fiddler on the Roof (with Topol himself playing Tevye!). I'm really excited about that. :-)

From Chicago we will come to Oklahoma (at some point in the last few days of June). We plan on hanging out with people that we really miss, seeing babies, attending a wedding, eating at the Greek House, and other various and sundry activities.

Eventually we will leave Oklahoma and hopefully head next to Mississippi to see my brother, sister-in-law, nephew, and niece (the last of whom we have yet to meet!). We might even all go camping while we're there!

Then on to Vermont to see Joel's family and to help with a bridal shower for my brother-in-law's intended. :-)

At the end of all of this (early August) we hope to find ourselves back in Ithaca so as to move into our new apartment, settle back in, see people we will have missed, maybe plant some flowers, and get ready for the new semester. Wow...I'm tired just thinking about all of it!

What are your summer plans?

Shearing season

2009-05-05T20:37:00.001-04:00

Earlier this year Joel and I realized that our pesto stash wouldn't last us until summer. So, we decided to take action.

We worked on two different levels. We bought a bag of hydroponically grown basil from Wegmans (roots included), a packet of basil seeds (Genovese, of course), and a bag of soil. We took cuttings from the grown plants and planted them, along with the stalks that the cutting left behind. We also started some seeds.

This (see below) is what happened.

Yay!

We decided it was pesto time. You will see the aftermath in the follwing photos:

May they triumph through this difficult season and rise again, with more leaves than they had before!

Mmm. Who can complain when they have a pile of basil this high?

The end result. Yummy!

Reading Instructions

2009-04-15T01:46:00.003-04:00

So, there's a little paragraph that has a very important third sentence in the instructions for federal tax form 1040-A:

Scholarship and fellowship grants.
Scholarship and fellowship grants not reported on Form W-2 must be included in the total on line 7. Also, enter “SCH” and the amount in the space to the left of line 7. However, if you were a degree candidate, include on line 7 only the amounts you used for expenses other than tuition and course-related expenses. For example, amounts used for room, board, and travel must be reported on line 7.

While filling out our returns (one federal and three state forms, gleaning information from three W-2's and two 1098-T's), I remembered the first half of that paragraph, but not the second. So, all the numbers seemed high and we owed everyone something. As we were writing out the checks I was double checking to see if we needed to write in the SCH thing or not and re-read the paragraph. Whoa....that changed everything. We re-figured all of the numbers and we only owed two states and the other state and federal owed us refunds. It made for a total difference of over $1400 in our favor! That's a lot nicer than paying so much.

The papers are all being slid into envelopes now and will be mailed in the morning. I sure hope we filled them all out correctly...

A good book

2009-04-04T09:30:00.004-04:00

Most of you probably know what I'm about to tell you. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is a wonderful and must-read book.

I started a recent plunge into Dickens with a book of his Christmas stories that I found at a near-by used book store on their outside one-dollar-a-book shelf. I ended up reading The Cricket on the Hearth, and literally sobbing over the events in the Peerybingles' life (and tears of rejoicing). I convinced Joel to let me read it to him; again I cried and his eyes were not particularly dry either. I wanted more Dickens--I think his only work I had read previously was A Christmas Carol. What we had on our shelves was Pickwick Papers so I started to read it. It probably wasn't the best to follow with. I will finish it at some point, I'm sure (I really don't like not finishing books), but it wandered a bit much for me.

I read a few other things in the meantime (including Do Butlers Burgle Banks?, which was wonderful!), but soon found myself looking for a book again. Joel suggested A Tale of Two Cities and checked it out of the library next visit. I had no knowledge of the story of this book other than having heard it was a good book(on a similar level I had heard that Grapes of Wrath was good and I had heard other sources tell me that that one was quite overrated). Also, having just been wandering about with the reknowned (and quite annoying) Mr. Pickwick I was not terribly inclined to pick up another Dickens (having so quickly forgotten the joy of reading The Cricket on the Hearth).

About a week after we had checked it out, I still hadn't cracked the cover. An occasion presented itself where I was washing dishes and Joel offered to read to me (it makes them go so much faster...well...sometimes slower, but much more smoothly either way). I think we had read two or three of Grimm's fairy tales the night before, so he didn't want to read another of those. And we were both currently reading in Numbers which isn't particularly suited to reading aloud. So, he asked if I had started A Tale of Two Cities, I said no, and he read the first chapter. It was definitely an intriguing chapter, if a bit confusing (especially amidst the sounds of splashing water and clanking dishes). So, I was caught. We continued to read when we had spaces of time (and especially when there were dishes to be washed).

Last night around maybe nine or ten o'clock we started where Mr. Lorry is first proposing to go to Paris to help stabilize Tellson's accounts amidst the mass confusion of the times (about a hundred pages from the end). We finished at three o'clock this morning.

Such a good book. At times I wanted it to stop where it was. I didn't want Charles to go to France. At that point I closed the book and half-filled a bowl with M&Ms and refused to go on for awhile. When I first started to realize Sydney's plans I started making up the story as I went for a little bit (it involved an invisibilty cloak and lots of happily ever after). Joel started to read the next chapter and then couldn't anymore so he handed it over for me to read. There were a few moments I couldn't read, but I wouldn't let Joel take back over.

I wanted to fight the ending, just as sometimes I want to fight Jesus going to the cross. Why did He have to do that? He didn't deserve it and it made for a very, unimaginably so, black day. But oh, what a sunrise on Sunday, and oh, the joyous repercussions for a sinner like me.

That's why A Tale of Two Cities is a good book. It pushes me to the cross.

Knitting

2009-03-26T11:11:00.003-04:00

Recently I've been knitting.

Project one: scarf for Joel. This was to reacquaint myself with basic knit and purl (it had been quite awhile since I'd picked up a pair of knitting needles and I'm not actually positive that I had ever finished a knitting project before...not even a scarf...). I didn't use a pattern, just made little blocks. I think I cast on forty stitches and knit ten, purled ten, knit ten, purled ten, stockinette st for ten rows and then reversed it (for another ten rows...etc, etc, etc).

Project two: coasters.

Project three (work in progress): plastic shopping bag rug. It's not very pretty, but I think that I will be able to tuck in most of those ends once I'm done. I'm cutting the bags into two long strips, knotting the ends together and then just a basic garter stitch. I like the idea of putting more stripes in, but unfortunately about 90% of the bags I have are just clear or white. I also tend to shop at Aldi or use my canvas bags for groceries (a lot easier to handle on the bus) so I'm actually running out of bags already and it's only four inches wide!

Squirrels II

2009-03-10T16:06:00.003-04:00

In my last blog about tree rats the pictures were not the best they could be. So, a few days later I baited them with some bread that I had let rise too long and was thus not very tasty at all (to us). They came and I was prepared with the camera:

The one below is trying to bury some of the bread in one of the pots.

After the event that inspired the last post on these little critters, we put the bag of charcoal inside the grill, out of reach of the squirrels. But we apparently left some "crumbs" that this squirrel was happy to eat (I told you the bread didn't taste very good...but the other squirrels seemed to prefer it to charcoal...maybe this one has finer tastes and was trying to make a point?).

It's Spring! At least it is inside...

2009-03-10T15:36:00.004-04:00

In Oklahoma about now there are daffodils blooming and trees all covered in blossoms (photos stolen from a friend back in Norman - Sally). Not full blown spring yet, but definitely starting.

There is hope here as I have seen a few things starting to pop out of the ground...but just barely and definitely not near blooming yet.

What helps my impatience for spring is my collection of indoor plants. They're green (except for the purple ones), mostly happy and every once in awhile they bloom!

A little while ago, one of my amaryllises bloomed.

Here's Joel holding it so that you can get an idea of how big it is. It had four blooms total.

On one of my other amaryllises a flower stalk just starting coming up. I wonder what color it will be... I have two or three different ones, but didn't label them and some of them died over the winter (they had a mold problem) so I don't know what I have left...

Other exciting plant happenings are the little basil and parsley seedlings! Almost all of them have one set of true leaves already and are so cute! We couldn't wait for the basil to grow up, so we also took some cuttings from a hydroponically-grown plant we bought from the grocery store. I don't have pictures yet...but maybe I'll post some soon.

S'mores

2009-03-08T14:41:00.001-04:00

Before today it had been quite awhile since I last blogged, but I had been thinking of blogging during that time and even specific things to blog about. So, here's one of those ideas from maybe two months ago...

The kit:

Graham crackers, mini marshmallows, chunks of chocolate (and some caramel-filled chocolates), sharpened matchsticks (we didn't have any toothpicks), matches, and tea lights

Execution:

Yum.

Note: Might work better with normal sized mashmallows as it was hard to brown the small ones without them bursting into flame. Fun nonetheless.

Glorious French Onion Soup

2009-03-08T13:33:00.010-04:00

We have a cookbook titled "Glorious French Food" by James Peterson and it's one that I'd skimmed through but that we hadn't actually cooked out of yet, until yesterday. We decided that we should make one of the recipes because, really, what is the point of a cookbook if it's never used to cook?

I looked through it and found a recipe for French Onion Soup. We had recently stocked up on onions to make that very dish. So, perfect.

The recipe makes 10 first-course servings. The ingredients seem pretty basic:

5 pounds of onions -> sounds like a lot...but they reduce, so not totally unexpected

4 tablespoons butter -> if anything, seems to be skimping a bit, especially with so much onion

10 cups broth -> the introduction to the recipe says beef stock is best but that it really doesn't matter because it's going to taste like onions and cheese regardless

bouquet garni

salt

pepper

4 cups bread cubes . . .

What's left? Cheese.

25 cups of finely grated Swiss Gruyere or other full-flavored firm cheese (about five pounds)

Whoa! 25 cups? For ten people? That's half a pound per person! For a first course? And it specifically says not to use the "swiss" cheese with all the holes in it which is actually Emmentaler because it doesn't have enough flavor and makes the soup stringy.

But, hey, why not? So, we halved the recipe and bought enough good cheese for two servings (the rest of the soup we can eat with sliced swiss even if it is a bit stringy).

Here's a spoonful of it:

And here's a bowl:

If you've ever had French Onion Soup before and it didn't have ratios similar to these...you are missing out. It was amazing! Definitely only a first-course serving if you're only having one course. One bowl was plenty for a full meal.

French Onion Soup just got a lot more expensive for us to make...but it's so good.

Squirrels

2009-01-02T14:09:00.005-05:00

This isn't quite the order I wanted these pictures in, but I can't figure out how to move them around... So, we'll start with these two:

I went outside one evening to check the mail...there wasn't any but I did find a curious set of tracks in the snow, with a rather deep starting point (most tracks unless made by birds don't have such clear starting points....). This shot is to show you the lack of tracks to the left of the deep imprint:

Whereas this one is a detail shot.

It appears that one of our many squirrels fell out of the tree into the snow. I've seen them fall out plenty of times, but to see the evidence left in the snow was just too much fun to not be photographed.

(This is where I was originally going to start)

Hello! Sorry about the pictures quality on most of these, but they're fast and flighty, so some had to be taken from inside and in others they were on the move.

So, they look cute, right? Happy to be perched on a branch... Or playing tag...

Running down a tree...

Or running up a tree...

Or hanging out among the fallen branches...

Or looking inside stumps for hidden nuts...

They are also happy to amuse the viewer by hanging upside-down from branches and then falling down for lack of a good grip (too quick and unpredictable to photograph but definitely the cutest view...). Occasionally they'll even look in through the back door, curious to see what we're up to.

This summer we witnessed them amusing themselves more than us by knocking down my plants off of the back porch. They'd chew on some, bury nuts in others, and some, just knock off of the porch, often causing the pots to break from the fall, and killing some of the plants by exposing their roots to the summer sun for too long before I realized what had happened and went to save them.

But, now they've done something we had no category for and would never have suspected.... I don't even think you would believe us if we just told you. So, we got pictures. Not very good pictures, but good enough that you can see what's going on.

They're eating our charcoal!!!!!! What?? Why?? Crazy squirrels.

This concludes Epispode 1 of "Squirrel Watch".

Christmas (food highlights)

2008-12-30T13:57:00.001-05:00

Joel and I decided to make a Buche de Noel (Yule Log) cake this year. Components:
Log

and Mushrooms

together:

The log is a rolled cake with a yummy chocolate ganache frosting and the mushrooms are merengues sprinkled with cocoa powder. :-)

I forgot to take pictures of the rest of the food (too busy eating it). But we had lamb racks , rolls, appetizers, cheese board, un risotto di due funghi, devilled eggs, grilled asparagus, and the cake. Our guests brought scalloped potatoes, a yummy tomato cheese pie, and a berry crisp. Yum Yum. We had many leftovers (pictured below), and even more food from ingredients we bought that we didn't have time to make into something.

Leftovers:

Next post: Squirrels...

SNOW

2008-12-12T13:37:00.003-05:00

It has been snowing. A lot. I was going to go grocery shopping...I decided to stay inside.

Work stuff

2008-11-13T09:08:00.002-05:00

So, the new person in Romance Studies came a week ago today. Consequently, tomorrow was to be my last day at Cornell, and this week I was only going to come in half days to help the new person get situated.

Yesterday when I got to work I was told that I wouldn't be there today nor tomorrow as another office needed me to temp and that also there was an opening in Physics for a part-time job that I might be interested in. So, after one pm (when I would have gone home), I went over to visit the office where I am today and then went over to Physics to talk about the job there.

The job here isn't too bad so far. It's actually two part-time secretarial jobs stuck together, one being Cornell in Washington, a sort of internship program and the other CAPS, China and Asia-Pacific Studies. The phone has only rung twice, first someone from Cornell in Washington giving me a rundown of what I should expect for the day and then someone that I forwarded to the office in D.C. I haven't heard a word from CAPS yet... Mostly I've been catching up on reading blogs, which is nice.

So, the job in Physics.... It's part-time, which is great. 25 hours a week, with maybe a full day on Monday and shorter hours the other days, but still five days a week. The title is Undergraduate Coordinator/Events Coordinator. This means I would help the undergraduate figure out which classes to take when, answer all sorts of questions and be generally helpful, publicize events, organize receptions, book hotel rooms for guest lecturers, etc. I'd also help write up some stuff to attract more students to the major. All in all, sounds pretty good. It would also pay pretty well and I would get benefits.

Downsides: it's a lot closer to a real job than I've ever had before, which scares me. Two weeks vacation time (not counting the week between Christmas and New Year's which I would also have off) for the entire year.... No more summers off. I've been pretty spoiled with the student life and being pretty uncommitted to any job I've had...

The more I think about it, the less it scares me and the more it makes sense to apply for it. But there's still some of me saying "AAAAAAAAHH! RUN and HIDE!!". This is a bit ridiculous, I admit.

More benefits: Benefits, better health insurance. Also, if I do this instead of some minimum wage job for fewer hours during the week we'd save more money sooner...which means having kids sooner would be easier, at least financially. Also the job does seem fun and challenging and having spent much time in department offices asking questions during my undergraduate years, I really think I could empathize with the students.... I'd be much less likely to get bored than in some data-entry or filing sort of job (though I'm sure there will be at least some of that as well).

And, of course, there's always the possibility that I do apply and don't get the job. There will probably be around 60 applicants.

So, those are most of my thoughts for today. Though, if it stays this slow (I've only gotten one more phone call and still no one has actually come into the office), I might post again later....

Ciao!

Apartment 2

2008-11-10T15:58:00.002-05:00

If you're wondering why the post is Apartment "2", go here.

So, a few long-promised, long delayed pictures from our apartment:

Here's one of the kitchen. Note use of vertical space. Don't note sink...
A view from front room looking at kitchen and "stairs". The wine glasses are hanging from the beams...

A view of front room. Door is just slightly to the left of the field of vision in this pic. In case you were wondering about the lack of bookcases, there's another one behind the couch.

Dining room/office. You can just barely see the second bookcase in this shot. It's hiding behind the plant stand. The plant in front of the coat rack is our cacao tree. The cabinet in the bookshelf is extra pantry space.

Here's another view of the Dining room/office. Can you find the monkeys (no longer in their barrel)?

I'll finish cleaning upstairs and then take a pic or two up there. I hope you enjoyed the tour! A little more crowded than the first set of pictures, no?

Snow

2008-10-29T11:32:00.002-04:00

It's snowing today! Snow. In October. Right where we live there's not quite enough to stay on the ground, but on the hills about there's some accumulation.

Better than all of the rain yesterday. Though the rain was helpful in identifying problem spots in our ceiling.

More about jobs...

2008-10-23T13:10:00.000-04:00

I told you in the last post that the job was temporary, right? So, I have until November 5th (with just maybe a bit of extra hours afterwards to help the new person get situated…). Only two weeks! Yay! You see, I really enjoy the job (when I have something to do), but it's just too many hours.

So, the next idea is this one:

"Cornell Law School's Admissions and Financial Aid Office is seeking a part-time administrative assistant whose responsibilities will include data entry, application processing, filing, reception, interfacing with multiple constituencies including applicants, alumni, faculty, pre-law advisors, administration, and current students. Process and respond to applicant requests. Share responsibility for mail and application processing and other responsibilities as assigned. Organize and schedule Law School tours and classroom visits for prospective students and visitors with Law School student tour guides. Part time nine month position (September through May) 25 hours per week, Mon-Fri 8:30am-2:00pm"

Not only part time, but nine months! I'd have the summers off with Joel, I'd have my afternoons free to cook and sew and bake and garden. And I would get health benefits! So, I applied and am currently "under consideration". We shall see.

News

2008-10-08T12:58:00.001-04:00

It's been awhile since I've blogged...hasn't it?

So, to update you a bit: Joel started classes; I started work.

Work. While reviewing our budget awhile back we decided it would be good for me to get a small, part-time job. I looked about on craig's list, sent some emails, filled out a couple of applications, had a couple of interviews. One was looking great. 15 hours or so a week, eight dollars an hour, at a little coffee shop that's maybe a whole three blocks from our house. It would be plenty for what we needed budget-wise; I'd get to see lots of different people all the time; Joel could maybe get a free shot of espresso every once in awhile, etc. It also sounded like they would like to hire me, so I kind of stopped looking around at other jobs. Then during Joel's department's welcome reception I got a call from the manager of the coffee shop. They had gotten in a few more applications and the newer applicants were willing to work nights and weekends (I was not)...so "sorry, but no." Sadness... At the end of the reception Joel and I offered to help clean up and they offered us some of the leftovers (oh, the cheese!! a bit of mozzarella, chevre, stilton, manchego, and more, plus crackers and grapes and veggies and nuts and raisins....). While cleaning up the nice lady who offered us food asked what I was up to in Ithaca while Joel was studying. I mentioned that I was looking for a part-time job. She said, "Really? Would you mind working full time temporarily? We just offered our current temp the permanent position and she informed us that she had just found another job. So, it's the busiest time of year and we have no one in the position and it takes four weeks to two months to hire someone." Stunned, I said, "Sure." I came in the next morning to fill in paperwork and the next day she emailed me asking me to come in the following day (Friday), to start working.

So, I've been working as an "administrative assistant" in Joel's department. The position that is actually open is Graduate Field Assistant, so they can't consider me for it as I would have direct access to Joel's files and there's some whole legal "conflict of interest" sort of thing involved. But, I also wouldn't want it because full time is just too much for also getting done what needs to be done at home. So, it's a temp job that has so far lasted....six weeks. I'm not sure how much longer, but they said probably two weeks after they hire someone so that that person can give two weeks notice wherever they are working currently. And I know they haven't hired someone yet as they're still interviewing.

So, they're paying me twice as much as I was expecting from the other job, and I get to practice my Spanish and my Italian, work on my photo collage skills, learn exciting new programs like Dreamweaver and FileMaker, gain experience in an office setting, meet everyone in Joel's department, see lots of people all day every day (though I've noticed many fewer on Fridays...), make catering orders for events, decide on what office supplies to order (including flower-shaped post-it notes for one of my coworkers), reserve hotel rooms for guest lecturers, and many other things.

I've also learned that if I find a part-time position somewhere else at Cornell and if I work at least twenty hours a week I can get full benefits. So, I'm looking into that.

We're also settling into a new church home. New Life Presbyterian, http://www.newlifepc.net/. We're in a home fellowship group that's going through Screwtape's Letters. The pastor is going through Mark on Sunday mornings. It's great to be in a church. We've made good friends, have been able to serve, and are getting sound teaching. We even get a few RUF songs every once in awhile. :-)

I have a new task at work, so I'll get back to legitimizing my paycheck. Have a lovely day!

Friend went to Market

2008-09-05T21:06:00.000-04:00

So, in Ithaca, Community Supported Agriculture (aka farmshare) is a big thing. You pay a certain amount to the farmer for the summer and weekly pick up a load of vegetables from the farm, whatever's harvestable that week. Some farmshares include an unlimited "you-pick" option where you can pick as many of whatever they have too much of as you'd like (for instance, flowers, green beans, cherry tomatoes, etc). We have a friend who has one of these farmshares for the summer and the food apportioned to her per week is a bit much, so often she has left some of it there instead of taking it home. At the same time, she seems sorry for the tomatoes that have fallen to the ground that no one seems to want to take the time to wash and possibly cut out a few bad places from and then make into endless amounts of sauce (they're one of the you-pick items currently).

She had once thought aloud about the lack of things to cook with eggplant. I quickly corrected her and announced a few of my favorite recipes, namely ratatouille and caponata amidst others. Two weeks later she presented us with an eggplant. She had tried the ratatouille and liked it (the week before), but didn't want to have it again so soon and knew that we would find something to do with it. We were so excited about it and she was so surprised at us being so excited that this started a new phase in our relationship. She has most generously offered to pick up whatever food there be each week at the farm, even if it's not something she likes. And she picks even more tomatoes. Then on her way back to home from the farm she stops by here and gives us what she won't eat. This marks Week #2 of this generous bounty of fresh produce and it was so wonderful that I felt like blogging about it. So, in the picture below you shall see the gift that she gave us.

From the top and around clockwise-ish: teddy bear sunflowers, HUGE head of lettuce, sweet pepper (largest), mild pepper (medium), hot pepper (long and skinny), three large round tomatoes, mixed greens (between the tomatoes and the purple stuff and underneath), swiss chard (the purple stuff), fresh parsley and oregano, two large carrots, and a ridiculously large and heavy bag of tomatoes, a mix between cherry-sized "pear" tomatoes and another variety similar to romas.

The bagged tomatoes are for making sauce. She loves going to the farm and picking vegetables, but is rather busy. She has kind of enslaved herself into making large batches of sauce every Saturday. She was relieved and happy to give us this bag of tomatoes this week so that she can have a Saturday free from sauce-making.

Isn't God's grace shown through his children's generosity lovely and wonderful?

Flower

2008-08-16T16:12:00.004-04:00

One of my flowers bloomed today. :-) Blooms make me happy and this one, I think, is especially nice. What's cool is that soon, on the same stalk there will be up to seven of these blooms. Yay for plants!

Basil+other good stuff=PESTO!

2008-08-11T17:50:00.002-04:00

So, the small basil field that Joel and I planted earlier this summer was quite ready for a harvest today. So, we gleaned the stalks of their top sets of leaves...and ended up with about three wal-mart sacks full of fresh basil...(only one walmart bag if tightly packed...and I mean tightly). So, we just finished the third batch of pesto, each batch making about 16 oz... and we're almost out of garlic and are less than half-way through the basil. Whew! Conveniently, I've heard that pesto stores well in the freezer. And this is only the first harvest....the plants should provide at least a couple more just about as big.... All from two seed packets having cost about...$2.50 total. And, it's not even all of the seeds from the packets. This is one example of why I like gardening so much!

Maybe some pictures later....

Kombucha

2008-06-28T11:41:00.002-04:00

Joel and I started our very first batch of kombucha last Sunday and today we pulled it out to give it a look before bottling it up tomorrow with raisins and possible other additions.... We are very happy with the new scoby's growth (look how thick it is!!!) and excited to enjoy the finished product come next week. Here are some photos!

In other news, here's a "joke" told to me by Joel:

The doctor comes in and tells a woman who has just given birth, "Well, I have some bad news. Your son...is a giant eyeball."

She responds appropriately in horror, "Oh no! That's dreadful!"

The doctor continues, "There's worse news...he's blind."

After hearing this, I apparently did not respond appropriately and failed to laugh. Joel's reaction is that it's because I'm a woman and women can't appreciate high art.

Jenny Pastor

2008-06-27T18:31:00.004-04:00

We've survived the wedding day, returned from the honeymoon (see picture below for information on who we shared one of our campsites with for a few nights)moved in to a room in a house in Ithaca, NY, went back to Norman for a funeral, visited people in D.C. and Mississippi, and returned to our new home in time to start planting things.....

As for planting things, we also have new friends, Sydney and Erin Penner. Sydney is a farmer and has 6 of the Cornell student garden plots at his disposal (totaling I think he said 3600 sq ft? I'm not quite sure.....). They're about to leave to visit his parents in Nova Scotia and we're going to weed a bit of their garden while they're away, and maybe use a bit of the leftover space (the beans never came up) to plant a bit of our own stuff!

Before knowing this, I had started what I assumed would be a rather meager garden for this year, some zucchini and herbs, and a new addition of some tomato plants. Unfortunately, while scoping out the best spot in our yard for a garden, I was informed that one of the rather large trees was a black walnut....which exudes a toxin, particularly harmful to tomato plants and potatoes. Luckily, they don't seem to harm squash nor carrots.... So, the offer of garden space was great! We'll keep the majority of the zucchini and herbs, and a few tomato plants in pots, but the others, off to the bigger and less toxin-infested garden.

We've also, as of today, started a little compost pile. While raking up some old leaves to cover the kitchen scraps with, I saw some of the biggest earthworms I've ever seen! They're thicker than a pencil and as long as....well...an unsharpened pencil. So, pencil-sized. Anyway, that's pretty big for a worm! So, yay for fertile soil (toxic maybe, but at least fertile for that which can grow....).

More to come, later, I'm sure....

Apartment!

2008-04-10T19:32:00.003-04:00

We signed a lease! The lease doesn't actually start until August because a few complications (the current tenant subleased it until August instead of only until June and the paperwork wasn't turned in until the morning we looked at apartments, thus not seen by the guy showing us around until we were at the office to sign a lease). But, the apartment is connected to the back of a five-bedroom house and it may just work out that we can rent "a room" in said house for June and July, have the whole house to ourselves, and only have to move from there to the back.... We're praying. :-)

So, on to the pictures of the place where we'll be from August until next June....

Here's the "bedroom" which may look strangely like a loft to some of you, but really, it's a bedroom, just without any interior walls.... It's only five feet tall at the peak, but look at all the light from the window and from the skylight!

Moving on down from the loft, here is the kitchen. Quite a few cabinets for its size, a skylight overhead (not the same one you saw in the picture of the loft), a nice fridge/freezer, an apartment-sized oven, and a teeny bit of counter space (but more than some of the ones we looked at!).

Now, down to the first level, ground level. This is the front door, and more windows! On the left, you will see the doors to the one closet in the entire place. The ceiling is the same as the floor of the loft. On the right is room for some bookcases and maybe a desk.

This is the other side of the same room; it's rather a long room, you see. In this picture you can also see how they connect a bit. A few steps up to the kitchen, and a ladder up to the loft. There is a rail connected to the ladder. (Becky is glad there is a rail, for she hates stairs!)

Here is a closer few of the connection between the three levels, and the doorway to the bathroom (I figured you didn't really need pictures of it....). The strange person in the red jacket is none other than my dear fiance.

Here is another picture of one of the skylights. It's the one you saw in the first picture and is directly above the couch (seen in another one of the pictures). We can hang things from the beams!!! Like plants and drying herbs and stuff!!!

Here is a picture of the doors to the back porch/deck! It's huge. There's space for a table, chairs, and a grill, plus more space for pots and the like! They even said I could plant things in the backyard if I wanted to. Yay! This door is located to the right of the couch, if one were sitting in it. Ooooo, and do you notice that the floor of this level is wood? Yay for dancing and the like!

There you go! I hope you enjoyed the tour. :-)

By the way...

2008-02-14T19:02:00.002-05:00

Joel got into Cornell! This is choice number two and we found out a lot earlier than we were expecting. Yale (choice #1) will let him know either late February or early March. So, not sure exactly where, but I'll definitely be moving to the Northeast come late May! Ithaca, NY or New Haven, CT.

Gooey Cake

2008-02-14T18:45:00.003-05:00

93 days until I get married!!! :-) Yay!

Right now there is a "gooey fudge cake" in my oven. Intriguing recipe. You make the main batter, then top it with cocoa-enhanced brown sugar (a lot of it), and then drizzle boiling hot water on top! Afterwards into the oven for forty minutes. I hope it turns out well.

"What's the occasion?" you might ask.... Is it a Valentine's Day treat for my fiance? Nope. Just for fun? Nope. It's for my daddy! Today he gave his two weeks' notice to one of his jobs! He's been working two full time jobs for around six years now (yes, that means 80 hours a week). The one that he's quitting he'd been working at for over 25 years. Anyway, he's been promising to quit for about.....6 years now(to his credit, while stalling he paid off an incredible amount of debt, almost unbelievable). But, today is a day to celebrate! Dad loves chocolate, so why not gooey fudge cake? I haven't figured out dinner yet, but I figure I have some time (Mom and Dad don't get off until 10:45 PM).

In other news, I'm learning a lot about potting soil. Chocolate cake, mud pies, potting soil....all run together, right? No, I didn't put any dirt into the cake. I wonder if cocoa powder would be good for soil.... Anyway, I'm doing an independent study class to finish up my botany minor. I worked a bit with soils last semester, comparing different mixes (Hyponex=eeew!, Expert Grower=strong start, deplorable finish, Miracle Gro=not bad, Cal's=much much better). Cal is the greenhouse manager at OU and is full of plant wisdom. He mixes his own soil and it's quite a good mix. Unfortunately, I won't always be around Norman to get soil directly from Cal. And, although I have his recipe, it won't particularly be practical for me, at least not for quite a few years.

So, what do I do knowing I have to use sub-par soil? I amend it! So, that's my experiment for the independent study. I bought the Expert Grower potting mix, knowing it was not the greatest, but also not the worst, and fairly reasonably priced. We've mixed in various things and potted up some zinnias in the new mixes. Now I have to watch and record any happenings. I'm excited! Did you know that you can tell a lot about soil from how it smells? It's true! Anyway, if you have any soil questions, feel free to ask and I'll be happy to tell you what I've learned so far. No guarantees. ;-)

around 42 hours

2008-02-04T23:05:00.000-05:00

spent in airports or on planes this weekend.

moral: don't fly through Chicago in midwinter.

Semester's beginnings...

2008-01-17T12:50:00.000-05:00

So, the semester has started, as of Tuesday. I enjoy my classes so far and have not yet decided whether or not to clep out of government. In the meantime I'm in Boren's class, along with about....199 freshman. One of these today thoroughly disgusted me. I've seen people text message during class before....especially in a class so large. What I have never seen is this: said freshman was text messaging and did NOT have his/her phone on silent!!! And it wasn't one short little text message. The beeping lasted for well over a minute, with slight pauses. AAAAAGH! *ripping-hair-out motion*

Anyway, I have to pack before going to my next class. My whole (well, not quite, immediate plus a few) family is getting together this weekend in Mississippi. It's Josiah's first birthday on Monday! So, maybe I will post later, but no promises as Josiah's cuteness may keep me far from a computer.

Bread update

2008-01-02T14:36:00.000-05:00

The bread turned out rather well.

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Bread -one 8 x 4-inch loaf

2 cups unbleached white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup unsweetened oat bran cereal
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 and 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 and 1/4 cups water
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, oat bran, brown sugar, yeast, salt and cinnamon.

In a small saucepan, heat the water and butter until warm (105 degrees F to 115), then gradually stir the water mixture into the flour mixture.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 6 to 8 minutes. Cover the dough with a clean dish towel and let it rest for 10 minutes.

Lightly oil an 8 x 4 inch pan.

On the lighlty floured surface, roll the dough out to a 12 x 7 inch rectangle. Beginning at the short end, roll up tightly as for a jellyroll. Pinch the seam and ends to seal. Place, seam side down, in the prepared pan. Cover the pan with the dish towel and let rise in a warm place until it doubles in size, about one hour.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Remove from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack.

From Bob's Red Mill Baking Book, page 90.

Instead of unsweetened oat bran cereal I used Raisin Bran (more or less attempting to avoid adding in raisins) and reduced the brown sugar to about one and a half tablespoons. And instead of heating the water and butter in a saucepan, I just let the tap water heat up until steamy, added the butter and stirred until it melted and let it cool to the point where it was still quite warm, but didn't hurt to stick my finger in it.

Also, who waits until the bread is cool to taste-test? Especially the first time through a recipe? I know I don't have that patience and rather enjoy my bread still warm from the oven. :-) It has a nice dense grainy texture and a good, slightly crunchy crust. Yummy. The cinnamon isn't overpowering and it's not particularly sweet.

Happy New Year!!

2008-01-02T14:06:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been rather a long time since I've written, but rather than trying to catch up I think I'll just write whatever comes to mind.

It is now 2008 and three days until my 21st birthday. Joel's coming into town for a day or so and we're helping host an Epiphany dinner Saturday night. That should be a lot of fun. And there will be champagne. :-)

I've been cooking a lot these past few days. I've baked chicken, made risotto at least twice, some pasta stuff (with zucchini! yay for zucchini!), baked "skillet cornbread", a loaf or two of bread, some muffins, and I have two batches of cookie dough in the fridge chilling. It's been fun, but unfortunately means that I've been washing a few more dishes than usual as well. I've learned that with some things you should maybe make them more than twice using a recipe before experimenting without referencing anything even as a guideline (this comes from the second batch of risotto...quite funny taste...maybe too much chicken buillon...).

There's been some progress with wedding planning and such. I've started addressing "save-the-date" postcards. So far mostly only family from the addresses compiled by my sister, sister-in-law and some additions from my mother(I never knew how many relatives I had!). The date is May 17th, by the way. :-)

One of my Christmas presents was a new ESV Reformed study Bible from my soon-to-be in-laws. I really like it! I had forgotten what it was like to have a study bible. I had a teen study bible but about seven years ago my brother gave me a little pocket sized NASB and that's the only one I'd used consistently since then. With the gift I've seen a surge in reading which I hope I can continue on with consistently. I'm in Deuteronomy right now, as well as the Psalms.

My sister is engaged, her guy gave her a football and she said yes. There was a ring attached. Cute story. She's pretty excited about it.

Work starts back up tomorrow 6:30 AM. I'll miss the free time, but it will be nice to get up early again. I've been getting up around 8:30, but it feels so late. It's good that classes don't start up again until the 14th. I'll have time to readjust to getting up early before having to also be alert and paying attention to lectures.

I'd better go check on the cinnamon bread in the oven. Ciao.

Coming Home

2007-06-29T03:28:00.000-04:00

In less than one week, I will leave Spain. I will arrive in OKC at 11 PM on Saturday the 7th, if the flight is on time. Before that I will be meeting Joel in Dublin and we shall see the sites and fly to New York together. There I will meet Mom and she and I will fly back to Oklahoma while Joel flies back to Vermont. It's hard to imagine that my time here is almost over.

This past year I have(in no particular order):

Walked through Park Guell (by architect Antoni Gaudi) in Barcelona (and plan on doing it again on Monday with my sister!)
Overheard (and understood) or participated in conversations in four different languages all in one day
Learned to make authentic Indian curry and chapati to go on the side
Fallen down a few steps on a four century-old bell tower
Hung every load of laundry out to dry either on my roof or in my balcony
Had a roof to hang clothes on
Packed up a rain-drenched tent about three or four times
Been given a free pastry along with a cup of hot chocolate in a city known as the end of a pilgrimage centuries of years old
Seen ruins and artifacts less than two miles from where they were found, that date from the 3rd or 4th century B.C.
Taken a picture of the Sistine Chapel (bird's eye view)
Spent the night on a cliff overlooking the Ionian Sea
Translated from English into Spanish a short message during a church service
Walked along the Mediterranean on the way home from class
Ridden in a horse drawn carriage in Sorrento, alongside my fiance (the day after he proposed)
Eaten a potluck meal at a small church in Rome after having arrived at the church 10 minutes before the morning service started
Slept in an airport
Not slept in Florence while stuck there overnight after missing a train to Bologna
Taken a class on baroque art
Seen many of the major works that I studied in that class, in various museums
Spent 8 hours in the Prado
Gotten a 5 out of 10 as my final grade in a class (but it's a passing grade!)
Had to come to grips with the fact that I will never see my maternal grandparents again until I arrive in heaven
Participated in a televised interview
Played a card game with four Australians (and Joel) on a train from Paris to Venice
Learned a bit about patience, even if maybe only in waiting for buses instead of being able to go where I want to go when I want to go
Eaten rabbit
Cooked rabbit
Bought non-refrigerated milk
Played volleyball on the beach various Sundays after church (and after lunch, of course)
Introduced peanut butter into the lives of a handful of europeans (and ranch dressing!)
Attended a church service in the first protestant church building ever built in Spain
Learned humility, forgotten humility, learned more humility...
Developed an interesting accent in English where I over-aspirate and h's or wh's
Missed home
Wondered what "home" is to me
Baked yeast bread from scratch

And a lot of other things....but I have to get ready to go to the beach. Have a lovely day and I'll see a lot of you soon!

Procrastination

2007-05-19T10:56:00.000-04:00

So, here I am, back in sunny Castellon (the rainy season ended while I was out of town). In about seven weeks I should be home in Norman. That's very hard to grasp. It's been awhile. The weather here is fairly nice, though it could easily turn oppressively hot. While this makes drying clothes easier, it does make me wish that I had a fan.

For those of you that don't know, I recently got back from a quick trip stateside. My grandmother died and I was able to make it to Arizona for the memorial service. Taking advantage of the trip, I also went to my sister's graduation from Illinois Tech. During the trip I got to see my nephew, who is adorable, currently aging three and a half months. I spent a lot of time with family, blood-related and otherwise (the otherwise including a family friend Anna, my best friend Dakota, and my future brother-in-law John). I also got to know the family of my sister's boyfriend, which was fun. Before I came back I was sure to buy peanut butter (four large jars), packets of dry ranch dressing mix, barbecue sauce, and butterfinger bars.

It was sooooo weird being in the states again... The money is rather boring looking, in my opinion. And everyone speaks English!!! Everywhere. I guess this is normal, but it took awhile for my ears to get used to it. I'm used to zoning in on a conversation in English when I hear it, because it's nice to hear something familiar. But while I was waiting for a connecting flight in Newark, I was attempting to read, but couldn't at all because there was so much being said in English. It was rather overwhelming. One amusing occurence included hearing a family speak in Catalan from the row behind me during Katy's graduation. I chatted with them for a bit afterwards and found out that they are from Barcelona. While they don't speak Catalan here in Castellon they do speak Valencian and they are quite similar, so I was able to recognise it. That was fun.

Anyway, after lots of flying and lots of waiting in airports, I am now back in Spain and getting ready for four final exams that will occur within about the next two weeks. The first of these is Spanish on Monday, the one that I should currently be studying for... Then Chris comes into town, shortly followed by my dear fiance and we shall travel about Spain for a few days. It should be a lot of fun.

By the way, does anyone have any suggestions for recipes that would fall under "american cuisine"? Roommates and friends keep asking and I often have nothing to say more than peanut butter and the various things that can be made with it.

I'm off back to study.....at least for a little while...

Second chance

2007-04-29T11:00:00.000-04:00

At one point last semester while waiting for my bus to Benicassim a young man came by and asked if I spoke English. His name was Stanley and he was trying to get to a certain bus stop in Benicassim but wasn't sure which bus to take, when the bus left, nor where to get off. And he didn't speak Spanish. I helped him out and while waiting for our respective buses to come (he needed to take the other one that went along the beach instead of mine that goes through the center of the town) we chit-chatted about where we are from and what we study. He is from Nigeria and is here for a two-year Master program in Peace, Conflict and Development Studies. During the conversation I felt the urge to share with him about Christ, or at the very least to mention church or ask him if he was a Christian. But, as too often happens, I resisted and didn't bring it up. Afterwards I felt as if something were quite unfinished and prayed for another opportunity to speak with him (though slightly unwearily as I was worried I would again chicken out of saying anything).

Fast forward some months...

I have a friend Jitu who is here to finish his thesis for the Master of Peace program. He is a Christian and goes to the same church as I in the Grao. At some point last week a student that he did not know came into his room while he was talking with his professor, looked at the books on his desk, saw "Come Holy Spirit" and asked Jitu if he was a Christian. This student's name is Stanley (yes, the same one).

Apparently Stanley grew up in a Christian home but his beliefs have been rocked by his time here, especially under the influence of the professors in the Masters of Peace program. Last week he prayed that God would bring a group of Christians into his life. When walking past Jitu's room he saw his professor and went in, though not sure why he was doing so. When he saw that book he knew that he had found a Christian. He stayed and talked with Jitu and came to church with him this Sunday where I saw him again. He was amazed that I had remembered meeting him before and is very excited to have found a group of Christians. We didn't have much time to talk but he collected our email addresses (and shortly after I got home I had an email from him). I am not sure if he is lost and searching or if he is a Christian and just hungering for fellowship. But either way I'm excited to see what God will do and thank Him for another chance to speak with Stanley.

Greek House!!

2007-04-03T09:07:00.000-04:00

So, soon I am off to travel for eleven days or so. Part of getting ready for this length of trip includes getting rid of food from the fridge. Since this is a process, as the departure date nears, the creativity level on meals often must go up. This was the case for me this evening. Wandering about on one of my well worn recipe sites (allrecipes.com, if anyone wonders), I found a recipe for "Sean's Falafel and Cucumber Sauce". Looking through the ingredient list, I had everything except an egg and an onion. Those are cheap and should last until I get back... So, I decided to try it out. At least, I would try the falafel part of the recipe. For the "cucumber sauce" I quickly ditched the recipe given and decided to attempt to re-create an old friend and staple for many years...the tzatziki sauce of Angelo Dimas, co-owner of THE GREEK HOUSE. Having worked there four years or so, plus many more years as a loyal customer, I had seen Angelo make the sauce countless times so I know the ingredients pretty well. What I don't know are the proportions. So, according to what I remember, mine turned out a bit more garlic-y than his, but otherwise pretty much the same (and the extra garlic reminded me that much more of the sensation of just having eaten a meal from the Greek House). I miss the Greek House!! Can someone go by and ask for me when they're going home for the summer? I get back in Norman around the seventh of July and want to know if I should go by the first week I'm back in order to not miss them... The gyros here just aren't the same... They all call them kebabs...so confusing....

The falafel turned out decent, as far as falafel goes and it made a handy amount of leftovers that will keep me from having to cook again before I leave, except for maybe a salad and/or some rice to act as a side. Actually, I've never had falafel before, so I have no idea how it compares with that of someone who knows what they're doing. But, it was a nice way to use up some garbanzo beans and dried out bread...

Some of you might be wondering...."Of all of those ingredients, the only ones you lacked were onion and egg? Those would be the only ones I would have...." This just goes to show that I'm weird. When I am "low on food" I have things like cucumber, old bread, beans or lentils, plain yogurt, and lots of spices....

And, in case anyone doesn't know why I am having to use up random ingredients before a trip....I shall tell you. In one day and about twenty hours I will arrive in Pisa, Italy. There I will meet up with the wonderful Joel Pastor and we will start our adventure to southern Italy... I will be gone eleven days and when I get back I will have seen two volcanoes, wandered about cities like Syracuse home of Achimedes, Rome, Napoli, Palermo, Catania, and others, and will have spent lots of time with the wonderful Joel Pastor, whom I miss quite terribly. I am quite excited. :-)

Reflections and/or comments

2007-03-28T16:28:00.000-04:00

In Spain it is abnormal to eat raw spinach. Thus, it is never used to make happy green salads and it took quite a bit of convincing for my roommate to believe that those were in fact spinach leaves that I was eating mixed with tuna, corn, tomato, cucumber, sesame seeds, and dressing. This same roommate reads The Onion to keep up to date on American news and culture.

Italian is a fun language, though rather confusing at times.

Have I mentioned my grand plan for peanut butter in Europe? I am slowly convincing all the Europeans I can that peanut butter is a wonderful product. The best way to start this is with sweets, specifically Reeses-like chocolate covered peanut butter balls, hopefully eventually getting to the point where they will enjoy it in its most natural state, with jelly on two slices of bread, but that isn't as important. The important part is that they start consuming it at a higher rate and sharing with their friends. Then demand will increase, production will increase and prices will be forced down! Then if I ever come back to Europe I'll be able to afford to buy it more often. :-) This comes up today because I gave a presentation in my Spanish for Foreigners class on the subject and posted on the class's blog. They all enjoyed the chocolate covered peanut butter balls and many want the recipe...

Don Juan is a jerk. I read Don Juan Tenorio by Zorilla for one of my classes. It was a fun read, but I just want to say that he really is quite a jerk.

I'm slowly working through Don Quijote... He's not quite a jerk, though sometimes he can be. Mainly he's just a very odd man.

It's been fun reading a lot in Spanish lately. I've finished at least six books (all in Spanish) during my time here, two of which during the last two weeks.

Speaking of reading...I should go study.

El Rey Leon

2007-02-27T19:09:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to mention that one of the best times I've had in Castellon was tonight. What made it great was listening (and participating) to a group of college folk singing along to The Lion King, in at about four different languages all at the same time. :-)

Pancakes, Paella, and Pesto

2007-02-23T16:16:00.000-05:00

To follow along the theme of food, I will talk of today and its culinary events. This morning I made pancakes! There were rather tasty considering I used a recipe I had never tried before and then didn't follow the directions ("umm...I don't feel like opening another bag of flour, so how about I replace half of it with oats...and I think I should add more flavor!" extra sugar, a splash of vanilla and a healthy amount of cinnamon....and "I have no shortening and don't want to replace it with butter because that is expensive...oil!"). Anyway, they were quite edible, the first time I had had them in six months or so, and it was small enough of a portion that I didn't get tired of flipping them before the batter was used up. :-) Yay for a proper breakfast!

Next...paella! While I have eaten this Spanish dish a number of times during my stay here, I have not in fact made it (excepting the times in Vermont with Joel's family and those weren't quite the "traditional Valencian paella" though they were tasty, too). So, today was the paella festival in my university. All classes were cancelled and everyone gathered in groups varying from six-ish to eighty (I think our group was the only one anywhere near that size, actually) out in the fieldish area behind all of the university buildings. The little tent handed out bags of rice, wood, and iron ring-stand things while everyone brought the other ingredients and of course, the ingredients for sangria, this is Spain we are talking about. I convinced the paella maestro that I could be of help and began the feat of helping make two forty-person paellas.

First, the fire must be built. The paella pans are then set on the little iron stand things over the fire. Much oil is poured over them and the edge is sprinkled with salt. While the oil is heatingthe meat is opened and also salted. The meat for a paella valenciana is normally pork ribs, chicken, and rabbit (and sometimes meatballs, though those would be added later). The meat is placed in the oil and cooked. Then it is pushed to the sides to cook the veggies (snap peas, red bell peppers, and a bean that is large and white, kind of like butter beans maybe....). After these are nice and cooked they are also pushed to the sides. Now comes the tomato sauce and garlic. This is cooked until it has changed to an almost purple color and the texture has changed. Everything is happily mixed together and cooks until there isn't much liquid left. Then lots and lots of water is added. If you are using meatballs, this is when you add them. This boils until enough has evaporated to be the right amount for the rice (at least fifteen minutes). You add more salt at this point and test the liquid to see how it tastes. Then you add the rice and hope the fire is at the point where it is even and not too hot so that the rice doesn't burn. It burns anyway. Then you wait a tortuous twenty or thirty minutes while the rice cooks, keeping the fire even and hopefully not too hot (even though the rice already burned). When the rice is done, you take it off and let it cool for a bit, soaking in any leftover liquid. Then you serve, attempting to avoid the burnt rice and to not put the rabbit's head on anyone's plate (it is used while cooking to add flavor, but isn't actually eaten).

That's paella! It took about three hours once we finally got started. It was a lot of fun, but I was so tired by the time it was done that I didn't actually eat very much of it. And personally, I thought it had too much salt...oh well. :-)

Since I hadn't eaten that much, I decided to go ahead and eat dinner (this is rare for Spaniards to do after having eaten a paella). But dinner was simply spaghetti with a bit of pesto. I know, boring compared to the rest of the day. Still tasty, though. :-)

So that was today. :-) Now I think I might go to sleep. Ciao!

FOOD

2007-02-19T15:47:00.000-05:00

I just found tasty yoghurt at Mercadona. It has bits of fruit and has flavors of desserts, like apple tart and lemon creme pie. It is very very tasty and worth the extra eighty eurocents.

Speaking of me eating yoghurt, I wanted to talk a bit about the "Mediterranean diet" and its claims of being the healthiest diet on earth. I must admit it seems to be having healthful effects, but I think that a lot of it has to do with the Mediterranean climate, and not just because of the growing season's length causing fresh produce to be more widely available. The climate is such that it is very very rare that it is not good walking weather. And the way that the city is set up, all of the dialy necessities are within walking distance of everything. There is no driving across town to go to Walmart or the like. You walk a block or two away. So, while the food is wonderful, I think the climate and organization of the cities has more to do with the healthful results than just the food itself.

But going back to food, I find that my tastes have been changing quite a bit. I now love olives, specifically green ones stuffed with anchovies. I buy pickles willingly. I have climbed trees to pick almonds and then ate them fried with a bit of olive oil and salt. I've eaten pizza topped with tuna and salmon. I really like salad! It's best with tuna and corn with a dressing of olive oil with balsamic vinegar. I understand how important bread is for life, :-) and rarely buy the sliced kind that is normally consumed in the States. Eating in a restaurant rarely rarely happens (a meal for one person is the equivalent of a week of groceries most of the time!). I'm starting to feel weird about eating eggs for breakfast... Brussel sprouts and cauliflower with bits of bacon can be considered a main dish and a tasty one, at that. Red bell peppers from the fruit stand a few blocks away are wonderful eaten raw. That's about all I can think about right now, but yeah...lots of changes.

I'm enjoying buying groceries now, but am still having problems figuring out how much to buy, in what sorts of amounts and how much I should spend. I haven't had to throw out much food yet (a tiny bit of a green pepper that got ignored a bit too long and there was some bread I probably should have thrown out but ate it with onion soup instead as it was conveniently the hardness of croutons). I ran out of bread Saturday night and couldn't buy any more until today (I didn't try hard enough to find an open bakery on Sunday. My Mercadona and Consum were both closed so I didn't think of other options). It's fun to deal with the responsibility of making sure I eat. Heh. Right. Zucchini is wonderful cooked in olive oil with garlic and lemon juice! Tuna is a staple.

So, that is my blog about food. I hope you enjoyed. I'm going to go eat a piece of chocolate (which is so much better than the majority of chocolate you can find in the States...yummy).

Humility, Changes, and Cake

2007-01-27T11:31:00.000-05:00

So, Doug wrote awhile back about slavery, specifically to things like good grades. Yesterday was a day that God used to help with the process of freeing me from that slavery. My final grade for a class was 5 out of ten. This is a passing grade here, so I did pass...but barely. So, yay, I passed my first final in Spain, but in a very humbling manner.

I have decided to move into an apartment for second semester. I've really enjoyed my time with the family I have here, but I'd like to try a semester of a bit more independence and closer to the university and other students. So, I am currently hunting for an apartment, which has been a bit of an adventure but I'm sure it will work out well. I'm excited about cooking every day!

Speaking of cooking, I currently have two layers of a cake cooling, waiting to be smothered in a lemon cream cheese frosting, yum. This is a late birthday cake, for myself. Begona said she thought about buying one, but she thought I would enjoy baking one and that it would probably taste better, so Danny picked up ingredients today. I hope it turns out well!

So, there are a few little blips of what's going on in my life. :-) I'll try to write a little more often....

The best part about presents....

2006-12-16T04:13:00.000-05:00

So, around Christmas sometimes businesses send home with their workers large boxes of goodies (chocolate, chorizo, wine, more chocolate, other sweets, a leg of dried ham, and other such things). This was the case here this past week. So....what did the boys and I proceed to do? Eat lots of chocolate? No, that was later... Instead, we transformed the box into a magic carpet...errr...box... :-) It conveniently fits both Alex and Hector and has a handle to which we added a long plastic cord for easier pulling.

While it was already bringing lots of excited squeals, laughter, and clapping, the job was not yet done. What's next? Coloring our new vehicle!!!

When I got tired of pulling both of them, Hector decided he would take over. He needs to work on his driving skills a bit, but overall it was a lot of fun. :-)

So, all in all, this just goes to prove that the best part of presents is quite often the box they come in. :-) The contents happened to be good too, and helped us wind down after playing so hard. Yay for truffles!

Thoughts

2006-12-06T16:24:00.000-05:00

Who am I?

I've always thought I loved learning...but looking at my habits...do I? I tend to do enough in my classes to get by...getting by might mean an A for me most of the time, but that doesn't mean I actually ever delve into the material. I always have ambitions and talk big about how much I enjoy one thing or the other or some subject....and then I find myself writing my paper last minute, knowing that if I had spent more time on it not only would it be easier to write, but I would understand my subject and the paper would reflect that, rather than being a sad attempt at clever choices of filler words with just enough subject matter that the emptiness either isn't noticed or is generally overlooked.

And when I start out to learn something that isn't in a class...well, there isn't much to say there. I start and then it just becomes a lower priority and drifts off into forgotten plans... This spans from Koine Greek to knitting, origami to pie baking, gardening to sewing and any number of things in between.

Even Spanish, which I really enjoy...I don't work at to learn. Thus, my grammar is terrible... I know enough for people to understand me in conversation and to write a paper, as long as I have someone edit it before I turn it in, and to watch a movie or read a book. But there are so many things that I should have learned so long ago...I even remember doing worksheets on them, but I never took the time to actually learn them well enough for the knowledge to last. And, I know this and have a grammar book from classes past across the room in my bookshelf...but there it stays.

In conversations, I tend to sit and listen to what everyone else has to say, maybe adding a short comment every once in awhile. While this is more excusable here in Spain as it takes more energy to follow the conversation in the first place, thus rendering responses less obligatory, I know that I do it in English, too, most of the time.

I feel like I'm empty of things like knowledge and ambition and motivation and opinion... I know that it's not completely true, but it's truer than I would like for it to be...yet with the lack of motivation to finish things that I start...it doesn't get me very far. How do you fix a habit of not finishing well? Or rather than "finishing", continuing? Hmm....

Anyway, for now it is time to sleep. Cooking tomorrow. Peanut butter chocolate balls and some sort of cookie. I'm excited. I want to buy cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and vanilla to make the house smell like Christmas. Baking bread earlier today helped... They don't drink hot spiced apple cider here, so I'm also on a mission to teach that to my host family. Unfortunately, the mission was thwarted for the day by something called a holiday...something like Constitution Day or the like.... Anyway, all of their stores, with the exception of some restaurants, actually close on holidays (and every Sunday), so food was not to be bought today. Maybe tomorrow.

See what I mean about continuing though? I can't even write a contiguous blog post... I start pensative (or whiny, as you like), and have to add in a happy bit about baking. Oh well...

Names

2006-12-06T15:31:00.000-05:00

So, what's in a name?

Here in Spain, many people have four names, though some only have three, but the structure is different than in the U.S. They have one or two first names, neither of which is quite like our middle name, and then two last names. The first last name is that of their father and the other that of their mother. And, women do not change their last name when they get married, at least no one that I've met so far(though I haven't asked at my church, it might be different there...). When asking my host mom about this she got rather upset and asked why would she want to change her last name to Rokiski? She's not a Rokiski; she's a Belles Fortuno (forgive the lack of accents). "And the children? The father's last name? What about the mother's? That's very very misogynous, isn't it?"

One of many conversations lately that has shown me some of the differences between our cultures... And I think she doesn't think too much of me, at least in reference to any sort of world view or the like... She gets frustrated that I don't know much of anything about politics and the like. We watched La Vita e Bella the other day and afterwards she said, "You know somewhere where lots of people are dying senselessly nowadays? In Iraq. Doesn't anyone in the US say anything about it? Do the churches do anything like protest, or write to the government to change things?" To say the least, the majority of the people over here are really quite upset with American politics. I don't know how to respond. I don't really know anything about politics... I know my president's name, I know that there's war going on... Much more than that and I just shrug my shoulders. I should probably try to read up and expand my knowledge base in that area....but where do I start? And who do I listen to?

Anyway...I also learned that the dating/engagement/marriage process isn't the same here either. So, after explaining how it goes for us, I think I'll be asked a little bit less about when I'm going to get married. As that was getting to be rather frustrating, this change is a good thing.

Christmas plans aren't going as smoothly as originally anticipated, so be praying for wisdom in that area for me if you think about it. But, it looks like Venice will be added to the list of places I'll be going... That sounds fun. :-)

I made bread/cake today! We have a crate full of oranges so I've been searching for orange recipes and foound one for orange honey muffins. Lacking muffin pans it became more like a sweet bread..almost cake. Tasty and it made the house smell nice. Yay for baking!

Blue

2006-11-19T14:59:00.001-05:00

Since yesterday evening I've been rather...blue. I've been in Spain for a bit over two months now and as warned by many pre-trip discussions and the like...the newness of Spain is starting to wear away and homesickness is starting to set in. Being around the time of the "Holiday Season" starting up and talking to people about Thanksgiving plans and family gatherings exaggerates these feelings. More than the general "home", I miss community. I have a lovely church here, but I'm still a "visitor" and living in the next town over, it's hard to come to more than just Sunday morning service, so graduating from "visitor" status is a bit tough. Yet, this morning I was given a beautiful reminder that Christ loves His children and hears them when they cry out to Him.

I tend to arrive about half an hour early every Sunday morning, as that's when I get there after the bus drops me off half an hour's walk away. This morning I decided to pass the time writing in an ongoing letter to Joel. Writing to someone you care about that's far away when you're already a bit melancholy doesn't tend to put a smile on your face...at least not often for me... So, when the band was finished practicing, my eyes were about to spill over into tears. One of the jovenes (literally "youth" but they use it normally for folks in their mid-twenties..), Fran (short for Francisco, so male), came over to ask me how I was doing. Whenever someone asks me how I am while I'm on the verge of tears...I can't handle it and rather uncontrollably break out into sobs. I think this surprised poor Fran, but he waited until I had almost collected myself and then asked what was going on. After listing off a multitude of things from missing home to being frustated about not having "comunity" and being so far away from everything (Benicassim to Castellon is twenty to thirty minutes and on top of that, only when the bus is scheduled to come by), he nodded in understanding, added some encouragement, and mentioned that the church "youth" are at the university most days and I could eat with them or just generally spend time with them sometime if I would like. Then he asked if he could pray for me. It had been so long since someone asked if they could pray for me right then and there...I had forgotten the wonderful encouragement and refocusing to Christ that it brings. I'm still a bit melancholy, but now my sky has turned bluer, with the clearing away of some clouds.

This is a photo of part of a really high, pretty scary, but rather fun ropes course. And of course, some lovely sky.

Here's a pic of a lovely castle I saw yesterday... El castillo de Morella... You can see so much from up there. As we were going back down the mountain the sun was setting. Beautiful.

My room

2006-11-17T12:15:00.000-05:00

These are my closet doors, along with decorations provided from the friendly tourist information office in Benicassim. They give away posters at the tourist offices here. Isn't that cool?
This is my bed and slightly cluttered nightstand. Note the bunny on the pillow and the box of crayons next to the lamp. How old am I? Heheh.
More free posters and maps on the back of my door, and my bookshelf!!
This is my cluttered desk! It's littered with postcards I'm attempting to write, a rather large dictionary, my agenda, water, and Joel's laptop (he's letting me borrow it...so nice of him). :-)

So, this is my room, in case anyone wanted to see what it looked like! I also have some pics of me with my Spanish family that I'll try to post sometime soon.

Really random

2006-11-07T16:52:00.000-05:00

My school is just a little bit crazy... These pictures are from a random theatre troupe...band...thing... that happened to find themselves in the lobby of the humanities building doing a show. They then proceeded to the cafeteria where my friend Ilea and I were waiting to get food. A prime time for photos, no? Then, one of the members of said group took my camera, gave it to Ilea, picked me up, and waited for her to take a picture. After setting me down he motioned for me to give him a kiss on the cheek. As this is standard practice here, I thought nothing of it and proceeded... He turned his head and kissed me on the lips! Terrible trickster! Now Joel is complaining to me for giving him yet another thing to do, tracking this guy down in order to plan the "disposal" of him... So, here's is the photo of him, in order to more easily ID him. He's the one holding me in the last pic.

Frustrations

2006-11-01T08:29:00.000-05:00

So, I'm in a class called "Philosophy of Peace". For this class we were to buy the professors book and read through it, go to class once a week for two hours to listen to him recite it (and sometimes start discussions), and each week answer six questions in an online forum(and by six questions I really mean about twenty, as each has nmerous "sub-questions"). Also, the questions he only posts in Valencian, which I don't happen to understand very well, so I have to wait for other people in the forum to answer the questions, hopefully in Spanish, and then try to derive what the question actually was from their answers, or have my friend translate them for me each week, when he has the time....

This is all well and good until I get to trying to answer the questions... Where is the balance between telling the professor what he wants to hear, picking a fight, and trying to answer the question as best as I can from my still-developing Christian world-view? All of this in a language whose intricacies are about as clear as mud to me, while also trying to dedicate enough time to my other classes, let alone dwelling the Word of God to continue shaping that world-view of mine... I want to answer the questions in a way that will engage the other students into thinking about the only true peace and our inability to alone accomplish what the class is attempting to guide us toward. At the same time, where is the balance between working towards peace and knowing that because of sin it will not come about through changes in government or new philosophies?

So, I spend hours trying to answer these questions, reading and rereading the text, the questions themselves (or rather a translation of them from Valencian to Spanish and then often another translation into English, though that one is only mental...), and other students' answers while eventually squeezing out something that might be recognizable as an answer, though with poor Spanish grammar and a limitted vocabulary and never to my satisfaction. I always feel as if all I've done is regurgitate the professor's own words, even while trying to do the opposite, or else not even answering the question itself.

But I have to have the questions done by tomorrow, at which point I will be assigned a two page paper to summarize the first two chapters of this very same book, along with another set of six questions, which I will have one week to complete.

Another problem is I'm terrible procrastinator, especially when I have multiple things that have upcoming deadlines. I have trouble deciding where to start, so I get lots of other things done, like cleaning my room, updating my blog, catching up with my parents on Skype, etc...

"And He has said to me, 'My grace is suficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.' Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me." 2 Cor 12:9

I'm going to get back to my homework now.

2006-10-29T13:19:00.000-05:00

And now you can see both the odd thorns that adorn the trunks and the fruits that hang from the branches.

2006-10-29T13:06:00.000-05:00

Oh yay! Two more happily decided to upload...

To the left, behind the flower, is Joel's hand. Isn't it lovely?

2006-10-29T12:50:00.000-05:00

According to what I've found online so far this tree might be a "Floss silk tree" either Ceiba speciosa, Chorisia speciosa, or Chorisia insignis. Also, it seems that eventually the fruits dry up and the seeds are released to float about freely, so I'll have to wait a while longer before I can collect some to send home. Does anyone know where I can find the explicit rules about transporting seeds or such into the US? I have more pictures, but blogspot and my computer aren't getting along, so I may have to wait a bit longer to post any more. I'm going to post this one by itself before it's deleted...

This is also a picture of Joel's hand, the flower was in the way.

2006-10-27T07:26:00.000-04:00

I´m still here in Spain, merrily wandering about...or not particularly wandering about, as the case may be. Anyway, I´m here still. Joel was here too, but left as of Wednesday following a lovely afternoon walking around Valencia together while eating clementines, white chocolate, and bread. And in two weeks I go to Bologna! It´s all quite exciting.

Today I discovered the inner workings of the postal system...rather, I discovered that I can in fact buy envelopes at the little bookstore on campus and that I can buy stamps at the tobacco store a few blocks away. I have not quite figured out what to do with the sealed and stamped envelope that I now have, but plan on figuring that out within a few hours. I know that I could take it to the post office, but that´s inconveniently far away and would cost a bus trip. I think there are little boxes into which I could drop said envelope, but I haven´t found one since I´ve started actually looking for one. The stamps for the US are a different price than those for Italy, and I haven´t asked yet about postcards, but eventually I shall figure it all out and start sending postcards to all of those people I promised them to.

It´s less than two months until Christmas! And then I will come back, have a couple of weeks of class and then I have to take finals! Some of the classes I still don´t quite know what is going on and that´s kind of scary... I started playing with the idea of dropping my Letters major the other day. Why am I trying to graduate with both Spanish and Letters? What am I going to do with either one of them? And what would Letters add that I can´t accomplish with only Spanish and carefully chosing my free electives? I guess part of the answer to any of those questions lies in the answer to the question of what is my goal for my college education. The problem is, I don´t know the answer to that question. I mean, college is what you do after high school, right? Especially if they offer you a pretty shiny scholarship that effectively means that four years of going to college will cost you less than four years of living would... I knew I wanted to study abroad...so I´m doing that now. But after college? The rest of college? How much longer should I stay in college? I could probably graduate in only one more year after I get back to the US, but if I didn´t feel like it I would have scholarship money for three more years (the whole package only for two more, but still a significant amount for another after that). I know that I´m supposed to trust God with the plans for my life...put I always get confused on how to live that out. So, "Live today and deal with tomorrow as it comes..." But part of living today involves making choices about tomorrow. Oh well. I just felt like ranting about that for a little bit.

In other news, there´s an interesting species of tree that I have found here in Spain. I have no idea what it is called, but it is very intriguing. The trunk is a sort of lime green with greyish spikes, similar to the thorns of a rose bush. The trunk is always swollen near the bottom of the ground and sounds as if it is hollow. The branches don´t start until rather high up the trunk and look a bit scraggly, at least on the younger trees. The most intriguing things is the tree´s flowers. They look similar to stargazer lilies. Those are the ones that have the dark pink in the middle softening to a pale pink or white at the tips. They seem to have two types of flowers, one having longer, more scraggly-looking petals while the other type is smooth and rounder and normally brighter in color. The leaves are palmately compound with something like six leaflets per leaf. It produces a fruit almost resembling a pear, but longer and not as shapely. The fruits are either not yet ripe or just happen to want to stay attached to the tree as our efforts of retrieving one to investigate the seeds were to no avail ( and, yes the "our" does indicate that I dragged Joel into the observations). I took pictures and will load them on soon so that you can see what I´m talking about and maybe help me identify them. I guess I could try google...or ask someone that lives here..but it´s been fun just wondering.

Anyway, I should get around to studying as that was my original goal in coming to the university today rather than staying home...

10.10.06

2006-10-10T12:30:00.000-04:00

Today is Tuesday, and one of the only two days during which I have class this week. Yesterday was a festival and Thursday is a festival and Fridays I never have class. Yay for no class! Yet, speaking of classes, they are going well for the most part. I have all of them approved to count at OU as what I want them to count for except for the botany course. And that one shouldn't be a problem. And if it is....I'll be okay with that. It only meets once a week and is a bit on the difficult side, one reason being that it doesn't start until 5:30 PM and my only other class that day is at 10 AM, so I'm a bit tired by that point and concentration is hard. Also...I don't know any of the other students in that class and it only meets once a week and I don't have any of the vocabulary that would be helpful for talking about medicinal and aromatic plants... On a happier note, I'm starting to understand the prof in Baroque Art. That class meets three times a week, so I have ample time to get used to his voice. I actually took some notes in that one today! The other ones are going well but no particular news.

I've hung out with the Italian bunch a little bit the past day or so. There are a lot of them and they quite often slip into Italian, so I never quite follow the conversation completely. I'm also bad with names...so if I see them across the way but they don't see me, getting their attention is a little hard. They're nice though.

I have a Spanish friend now! His name is Rafa and he's the only Spaniard friend I've made that doesn't work at the international office and/or isn't married with children. Living in Benicassim with a family is wonderful, but it makes it harder to get to know other students. Rafa is in two of my classes and has now met a nice little bunch of Erasmus students and taken us under his wing. I say Erasmus because the majority of the international students are in this program called Erasmus, which is actually only between European contries. So, technically I'm not Erasmus, but it's just easier to go along with that label because everyone knows what it is.

Yesterday was Begona and Danny's 7th wedding anniversary. (They are the husband and wife of the family of four with whom I am living.) We drove into the mountains and ate at a lovely restuarant on the side of one of these mountains along with Begona's parents and another family. I enjoy spending time with Begona's dad. I think he reminds me of someone, but I'm not sure who. Anyway, he's fun. Before eating we walked around the village and picked some almonds. Having tasted almonds freshly picked off of a tree, I have now decided that I like them...a lot. They're even better toasted with a bit of olive oil and salt. After eating we went to another mountain and watchd the munchkins play in a park. From that mountain you could see for miles. It was quite a view. I had left my camera at home, though.

After we got back from this adventure, I joined some friends on the beach at Benicassim. They had been there since one in the afternoon, so they were about ready to go. Wanting to spend time with them I walked back towards Castellon with them and then took a bus back home. It was altogether a long, but enjoyable day.

I'll try to post some pics of my room, house, family, and campus soon. For now, I'm off to eat some freshly toasted almonds. :-)

2006-09-28T17:36:00.000-04:00

Caracoles...snails

Tomatoes!!!

Paella!!!

Jenny with umbrella and cool camera effects in the rain.

Some pictures

2006-08-30T17:26:00.000-04:00

This is a sunset over Lake Erie.

Niagra Falls!! It's breathtakingly beautiful.

This is Joel's family and me; Sue's taking the picture and John couldn't make it on the trip, but it's everyone else.

Joel and I dancing on a rather lovely deck at the home of George Hill on the shore of Lake Erie.

Working out details

2006-08-30T17:15:00.000-04:00

So, I leave town in one week. I'll be in Spain in a week and a half. Am I packed? No. Am I excited? Yes. Will I be ready? If not, it doesn't matter.

It looks as if I've found a church. They have 75-80 people and are also involved on campus with a student organization boasting 30 members. One of the elders has a daughter who is a student at Jaume. Yay!

Jaume is starting a homestay program this semester. They emailed us this morning with the information and application. Not only would I love to stay with a family, but the price sounds very reasonable and includes food! To be in a Spanish kitchen everyday with someone who knows how to cook (instead of with other exchange students in an apartment)...I think that would be good. And family is so important to me. I would have one there. :-)

Before finding a family I will spend one night with a friend since middle school who's studying in Valencia. Then I know another girl studying at Jaume who already has an apartment and has offered to let me stay there until I find a place to stay. So, good news all about and things working out quite smoothly.

I had a lovely trip to Vermont, New York, and Pennsylvania with Joel's family. I saw Niagra Falls! On the way home I flew to Phoenix, AZ and visited with my grandparents for a few days. That was nice. :)

I'll try to post some pictures soon.

Tomorrow is Joel's birthday. I wish I could be there with him.

From the Green Mountains

2006-08-18T12:09:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone! I'm in Vermont and it's lovely here. I arrived Wednesday afternoon and we leave tomorrow morning for family vacation on the shore of Lake Erie until Joel and I get dropped off at the airport in Buffalo, NY. He'll be headed straight to Italy and I'll be coming back home to Norman.

It's always so wonderful to come here. It is normally when I haven't seen Joel for an extended period of time and before the trip anticipation gets to build up. And then he picks me up at the airport and we hug and stare into each other's eyes for what seems like some combination of forever and only a fraction of a second, for it's never long enough. Eventually we slowly wander off to find my luggage and then drive the two and a half hours back to Essex Junction, USA.

This time we decided to see the sunset over Lake Champlain...but we got to the shore right after the sun had dipped behind the mountains. The sky was still beautiful hues of purple and orange so we found a swing and conversed and enjoyed the long-missed company of each other. When all of the hues were gone leaving only a dark yet starlit sky, and when the mosquitos were getting a bit too annoying, we left the lakeshore and meandered back towards Church Street.--This is a lovely little strip in Burlington of quaint stores, coffeshops, etc where the street has been blocked off to cars permanently and there are outdoor portions to all of the restaurants and street performers and vendors and lots of people.--Unfortunately we had stayed just long enough at the lake that everything was closed or closing, even the hippy-esque tea shop "Muddy Waters" that Joel had wanted me to experience.

So, back to Essex Junction and home of the Pastors to find out in which bed I would sleep and what was in store for the following day. The bed was nice. It was the first time I've had a bed to sleep on in the last few weeks. As comfortable as couches can be, beds are better.

There's a synopsis of day one. It's day three now, and a lot happened day two as well, included dinner cooked by none other than Joel and myself, but I think I'm going to see what productivity I can get in on and post more another time. Have a lovely day!

Intense

2006-07-23T02:16:00.000-04:00

Read Cry, the Beloved Country. It's really good.

Other news: Folks from my church have made it to Juarez, Mexico. I've gone with them for the last five years, but this time I'm still in Norman. My roommate Kim went for the second time this year and was kind enough to send me a text message saying that Maria had asked about me first thing. Maria helps out in the kitchen and with the children at the orphanage and is very dear to my heart because of the memories built one week each year. One time when I was there I got very sick the day before we left. Maria came to check on me repeatedly throughout the day, she gave me her blanket to keep warm when I developed a bit of fever and later asked someone to drive her to a convenient store so she could buy me gatorade and yogurt which actually did help my stomach, as doubtful as I had been when she suggested them. She has a daughter, Adrianna, and a son, Jorge. She understands English, but doesn't speak it very well and was always there to help when I didn't know how to say something or was obviously confused.

Last year I was really stressed out because we were doing two vacation bible schools instead of one and we hadn't brought anyone that year who was fluent in Spanish... She came and sat by me and listened to me and not only comforted me, but redirected me to trust in God and not to depend on myself as I was trying to do. It ended up being my favorite year of all five that I gone. God did amazing things and showed himself faithful in so many ways. I could write so much more, but I don't think I will tonight. I need to learn to help out on the trip through prayer instead of sulking and revelling in the memories of years past. :-)

Goodnight.

Consulate, Paperwork and Funny Kids

2006-07-20T22:01:00.000-04:00

It's been awhile since I've written, so I thought I might give an update, not that many will read it. ;)

Today I was at the Consulate General of Spain in Houston, Texas from 9:30 AM until 12:55 PM. They are only open from nine until one. Unfortunately, they cleverly disguise the necessity of extra documentation in invisible ink and unspoken instructions even though they have lovely smiles and cheery voices coated in a wonderful Spanish accent. They informed me of the missing documents and gave me their fax number to send them to. I made multiple phone calls to Norman, attempting to have these various documents sent before they closed today at one so I would be sure that they received them and that they didn't need anything else. While waiting, and to be honest--not too patiently, I met many people from Spain and a few students that will be travelling to Spain. There were even a couple of families with small children to play with!

So, while I waited for faxes and the parents filled out paperwork, I played with kids. I was able to practise my Spanish and hone some oragami jumping-frog folding skills that I had been getting rusty in. One girl's grandmother attempted to take photographs while the nymph raced her newfound toys and then spotted the camera and dodged over to the sofa, sinking her giggling face into the cushions. Nevertheless, there were at least two good pictures of girl and frogs. :)

When all of the faxes came in, at about 12:45, I went back to the counter to make sure that this was all they needed from me. Alas, the letter that they had me call my education abroad office to type up, notarize and fax was "not an original" so they need me to mail the original and then they can get started processing the visa. Also, the bank statements from my parents--that notarized letter that the checklist had requested was not enough so I had to have my dad get off work early and go by his bank and then go by his second job to fax these documents--were apparently not completely satisfactory either, so they will be calling in another three months to check their bank statements again???? I will hopefully already be in Spain by then. I'm not sure on that one, so I think I'm going to gather up scholarship information and mail that to them as well to show them my financial resources that I will actually be drawing from. I could have done that originally, but was told that the notarized letter from my parents assuming financial responsibility would be most simple. Anyway, this was rather frustrating, as was my flight being delayed one hour after already having to wait in the airport for two hours.

Yet, to show God's hand at work, as it always is, if I had not been there all day, I would not have met so many charming people who were able to tell me things about Spain and the area that I was going to and encourage me about my trip (and warn my great aunt not to expect to see me again, as I wouldn't want to leave Spain). I would also not have met the adorable young children who are the easiest to practise a language with and whom also encourage me in the idea that's been nibbling on my brain of possibly teaching in some capacity someday, somehow incorporating Spanish.

One of the other students applying for a visa will be in Barcelona in the fall and happened to be at the airport when I got there after lunch. She was also flying Southwest and her gate was near mine, so we were able to talk about studies and churches and exchanged email addresses (yet another contact while abroad!). And if I had not stayed at the consulate so long, I would have taken an earlier flight, thus not seeing this girl at the airport and not meeting the interesting boys I sat with on the plane. They were named Ricky and ....well the other one had a name too, but I've forgotten, how about Fred? Fred is going into the fifth grade, very interested in video games and more video games and a bit of dragonballz. Typical boy of his age. Ricky an incoming high school freshman and is into drama, specifically musicals. He likes to sing and dance and has been both a salesman and village boy in his school's production of The Music Man. So, what does he want to do after high school? Culinary school!!! Isn't that great? So we talked about cooking and his ideas of how to learn some cooking skills from his father and get into contests and win scholarships so it won't be too terribly unaffordable. I told him about all the wonderful ingredients and interesting recipes that Joel has introduced to me. He is from Houston and was on his way to visit a friend. Not so typical of a high school freshman, but delightful conversation.

This entry is getting towards the lengthy side of things, so I thing I shall lable it sufficient for the evening and retire to conversation with roommates and then some much longed-for slumber. Goodnight my reader(s).

Weeping

2006-05-09T12:11:00.000-04:00

Sin is to produce sorrow in our hearts and with that sorrow we are to repent and turn from our wicked ways. The sorrow comes, the weeping is there, but how does the repentance work? I thought I knew, but repeated sin of the exact same sort too often to mention...surely I haven't grasped the word "repent" and definitely not the turning away. Yet, I know what part of the problem with that is. I know the answer is within the pages of His Word, but do I open it? Do I seek refuge there? No. I pray a distracted prayer and cry myself to sleep... and still feel terrible in the morning, but continue to leave my bible on my little table, unread, unsearched, unknown. I am a sinner. A wretched evildoer that ignores any voice that tells me not to do what I'm about to do. And in God's mercy He has forgiven me. How great is our God.

Plants and Spanish

2006-04-03T00:39:00.000-04:00

In my lovely Spanish conversation class our next assignment is to talk for ten minutes about a subject. This can be just about anything we like, but we must write up an outline and give five or so vocab words with definitions in English and Spanish. I decided to talk about plants and my love for them. :) Unfortunately, plants don't come up too much in normal introductory conversation, so I had to learn a lot of new vocabulary. Also, the vocab list for the handout is a bit long and doesn't include half of the words I will have to define for the other students to understand what I'm saying. Heh, this should be fun. I present tomorrow, first one of the group. I think I'll bring pictures of my plants. The outline is pretty... I have some flowers in grayscale as a background.

Speaking of plants, if anyone besides Joel already reads this and has any desire for a basil seedling or two, just let me know (I'm not excluding Joel, I already gave him some). I planted a whole seed packet's worth and am running out of room. They look a little pitiful now, they still have their original seed leaves, but will eventually be happy robust plants that shall provide you with fresh herbs for tasty dishes. :) If they survuve... But they should. I will have oregano soon as well. They're still a little too small to transplant into larger pots, I think.

I found out that you can grow your own pineapple plant using the green spiny part of a pineapple from a grocery store. It has to be grown inside and will only produce a pineapple once a year or so and not until after it's been growing for a few years...but still, that's pretty cool.

Maybe I should rename my blog something about "plant musings".

To change the subject, The Wedding Singer is a great movie and you should watch it if you haven't or watch it again if you already have. I was introduced to this phenomenal work by Joel and am very grateful to him.

Joel and I went to the Med Fair on Saturday, as well as half of Norman, I think. It was altogether a jolly time. We were given colorful seashells by a mermaid friend who couldn't speak in anything but squeaks until we found her later de-finned with a skirt that was mysteriously the same color as said fin.... Then we walked around with some RUF folk and found the wee Tooks (younger Servens). We actually found them after the most amazing performance of Hamlet, staged by young'uns from Cleveland Elementary who were decked out in a range of simple to elaborate costumes with anachromatically shod feet (one had lime green flip flops, a lovely compliment to her red velvet gown). After watching Anna and Julie ride a camel, we proceeded to wander about the plethora of colorful booths. We discovered nylon snoods, expensive cotton twirly skirts, and very nice smelling oils and incense, among other things. People were seen, laughs were had, funnel cakes were eaten and traffic was avoided by traversing on foot.

I had rather get around to finishing my homework and getting a few winks before morning. Goodnight all!

Spanish and Letters double major, minor in Botany?

2006-03-26T23:53:00.000-05:00

So, yeah...I like plants. I was curious about what sorts of botany courses are to be had at this university and while looking around discovered that I would only need 15 hours to get a minor... I will have four already, and four out of fifteen is a lot, right? I know of at least one more I definitely want to take, a three hour course, seven out of fifteen is almost half.

Anyway, I've had a lovely day. Though, in terms of comparison, yesterday was more of a lovely one while today was cold and windy, but relaxing. Had breakfast with Mandy, went to church, skipped lunch, relaxed and read about plants. I used a journal abstract assignment for my botany class as an excuse, reading much more than was necessary... Currently I am avoiding reading different opinions on the death penalty. And, of course, thinking about changing my mind in what I want my degree to look like, if I ever get around to deciding and subsequently doing all that is required. That will be awhile, though. I'm wondering if I really want to do the letters route and wondering why I wanted to besides just taking really cool classes and being a well-rounded person. Maybe those were my reasons and are sufficient. Botany just seems neat. Definitely the minor over the major, though. I don't care too much about chem and other stuff required for the major. Just the stuff that applies to plants. To be fair, I admit that it all does, or you wouldn't have to take it, but I still think the minor would be sufficient to make up for my thumb not being as green as Elphaba's. Is it sad that when I saw a humidifier being sold for cheap I considered buying it for my plants?

If you've never carried a picnic blanket off to a park along with a couple of board games and an opponent--though it might be easier if you let the opponent walk instead of carrying him/her--then I suggest you do so on a day like yesterday. If it's more like today, make sure that you have the special travel board games equipped with magnets in the movable pieces. Actually, I recommend those type whether it is windy or not.

I think I had better get to those essays on the death penalty before morning.

Jumping on the bandwagon

2006-03-22T01:07:00.000-05:00

So, yeah...I got a blog. I'd been reading other people's blogs and I just thought "I need one of these..." And, this is silly, I was looking at some of my seedlings (I'm growing herbs) and I was thinking to myself, "Chives are so funny." And I wanted to tell someone...but...who wants to hear that? So...if I write it on a blog, maybe someone will read it. So, yeah. They look like grass, but they grow folded and then eventually unfold.... They're just a long skinny piece of grass, folded in half... I thought it was amusing.

We just played charades for z-group tonight. Some of the challenging phrases/words/etc included quid pro quo, imitation almond extract, Newt Rockney, and Ikia. Great times were had by all.

I think that's all for post #1. I hope you enjoyed.