I'm preparing for a move.

Not physically, I've had enough of that for awhile.

New blog site coming soon.

macnamania done growed up and got her own domain.

7. The start of school. OK, so it's more than a little cliché to write about the first days of school in September. But I won't lie, I always get excited for the first day of school. When I was younger I used to get so excited that I wouldn't be able to sleep the night before. I've gotten over that, but there's still something about the way campus comes to life, the way everyone is a-chatter over what they've done over the summer and which classes they are taking, and the way the first page of a fresh notebook looks when you get ready to write the first words in it. I've always loved school, and I'm pretty happy to be back at it.

6. Doing something summery for Labor Day Weekend. We enjoyed the farmers market, bought 10 pounds of tomatoes for canning, and ate homemade baba ganoush and stuffed peppers from our other takings.

5. That first crisp fall day. When it's sunny, but cool enough for a sweater. Cool enough to snuggle up with someone. And the wind smells cool.

4. Running in my new Vibram FiveFingers. I'm loving them. They are light and flexible. Sometimes when I'm walking around in them I feel like I should be putting on shoes, because they really do feel so bare. I'm glad I spent 3 weeks running barefoot, because it's certainly allowed me to adjust pretty seamlessly to wearing the fivefingers. Looking forward to my next run.

3. Motorcycle Safety Class. I'm taking it in 3 weeks, and super excited, and a little nervous.

2. The Detroit Jazz Festival. It happens over Labor Day, and it's all free. 3. Free. Days. Of. Jazz. Pretty sweet. Boyfriend and I kind of stumbled into watching Jason D. Williams play, and I think we both decided it's one of the best things we've done in the D yet. Pure entertainment.

1. Going home for the Garlic Party. The other great Minnesota Get-Together

Confession: Until yesterday, I had never poached an egg before.

I know, this is so wrong for a number of reasons.

a) I love eggs in every form, including poached.

b) Eggs Benedict might be the only reason on earth that I'd ever eat ham.

c) I've cooked way more complicated foods from scratch, caramels, a salted chocolate cake that literally takes 5 hours to make, bread baked over charcoal, cream puffs... the list goes on (and doesn't only include desserts)

So why no poaching?I got no good answer for that.

But yesterday the poaching commenced. And let me tell you, it wasn't pretty. Not disastrous, certainly edible, but not pretty.

After some preliminary research I decided to try the cling wrap the egg version. So many people swore by this method for easy, clean, and flawless poached eggs. Really? I wish I had pictures of the egg that I came up with. In my experience, it wasn't easy, in the sense that I was constantly worried that my cling-wrapped-egg was going to topple over into the pot and slowly leak out. That didn't happen, but I was still tense. It was clean in terms of the pot. No egg there, but when I unwrapped my poached egg, the whites were sticking to the cling wrap, leaving behind all its deliciousness. Cling wrap does it's job of clinging to the egg, but I wanted that egg on my toast, not stuck to the plastic wrapper. And what remained of my poached egg was not the beautiful round, white enclosed yolk. The white didn't completely surround the yolk, the yolk came nearly detached from the white, and tumbled out of the plastic separately. The whole thing, while tasty, was completely unappealing in looks.

So this morning, not to be deterred. I tried again, this time using the splash of vinegar, swirl and pour method.

Oh sweet, poached egg success.

I gave myself a blood blister running on the pavement Wednesday and this morning. If you plan to start barefoot training, definitely take it easy on your feet.

Easy. Light. Quick.

I think I'm going the way of the barefoot runner.

After some minor knee pain while running this summer I got a little nervous. I had only just convinced myself that I really was a runner, but I wasn't ready to deal with the inevitable" runners' injuries. Meanwhile, more and more of my friends have been giving Vibram FiveFingers a try, and reading this book about endurance and barefoot running. After the umpteenth mention of Born to Run came up in my facebook feed, I decided to put it on hold at the library and read it for myself.

First of all, the book is ridiculously inspirational. And I typically hate so called inspirational books (Sorry Michiganders, Mitch Albom just isn't my cup of tea). But I devoured it. And I'm pretty sure that every person I talked to while reading it heard me babble on about ultra-runners and barefoot running. Before I read the book I knew a little about the form of running that running barefoot is supposed to bring out, landing on the ball of your foot first rather than the heel, so I gave that a shot in my running shoes. It was a bit of work in those clunkers, and definitely took a lot of concentration on form during run, which got a bit in the way of the head clearing I usually do whilst running.

Being a poor grad student at the moment, I don't really have money in my budget for a new pair of sneaks (or foot gloves, more accurately) so after finishing the book I decided just to give it a go, and started out doing laps around the grassy field at the park behind my house. It felt a little awkward, and was kind of hard to tell if I was doing anything different then I would be doing with shoes on in the tall, soft grass.

I also thought maybe I should look more into how to go about starting a barefoot running regiment, lest I do something horribly wrong because my idea of barefoot running and the actual act of it turned out to be mismatched. After a little more research I found that I should actually be running on pavement to start. Well that didn't seem right, maybe I'd just stick to my grassy field for the next few weeks and let it become less awkward before I hit the streets.

So this evening I head out for a run, and there's a large group of guys playing football in the field. Feeling a little embarrassed about running barefoot laps with so many possible onlookers, I decided pavement it was.

Ah hah! Now I understand the reasoning behind starting on the pavement, and actually it was explained in Born to Run as well. The ball of your foot responds to how hard of a surface it is landing on, and you will land softer on a hard surface than you will on a soft surface, thus barefoot running on pavement is actually easier on your joints (although admittedly a little harder on the soles of my tender tootsies) than running on grass.

Another benefit of running on the pavement was that I could actually feel the difference in my foot fall, which seemed to happen pretty naturally.

My eyes were definitely bigger than my feet though, and initially expecting to do 4 laps around the block (roughly 2 miles) I had to stop after 2 labs. My feet will have to recover, but that is what I expected. The recommendations for starting to barefoot run say only to run every other day at first, and that you should only attempt short distances as your feet and muscles adapt.

Easy, light and quick are the goals in barefoot running, in that order. Right now I'm focusing on the easy and light. I do plan on investing in a pair of VFFs, but I'm also following the recommendation of going cold turkey 100% barefoot for at least 3 weeks to learn the form first.

Barefoot Running University

Barefoot Ted

I first discovered a love for tomato sandwiches in Tanzania. During the end of the dry season all I could get in the market in the way of produce were tomatoes, onions, and sometimes some wilty looking greens. Not too much to work with, but with a good loaf of bread, those tomatoes were turned into something magical, with strange fortifying powers.

And right now, summer in a mouthful.

7. Good, thick, fresh baked bread, and a good mayonnaise, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Ok, so that's actually 4 things, but these are the essentials. The minimalist tomato sandwich must contain these ingredients, and of course the juiciest, freshest tomatoes you can find. All the better if the bread's still a little warm and the mayo melts down into it. When it's this simple, I like the sandwich to be open faced.

6. Grilled cheese and Grilled Tomato. Grill the tomato just long enough to start to caramelize the edges and get the tomato warm. This way when you layer them on the gooey cheese, it won't cool off the cheese and change it's texture where it's in contact with the tomato.

5. Bacon. Disclaimer: I don't eat bacon. I think it's rather gross. I don't like the way it smells. I WOULD NEVER PUT BACON ON A TOMATO SANDWICH. But I hear it's a thing. Something with initials? And lettuce?

4. Cucumbers. Stack 'em up and enjoy the crunch.

3. Portabello Mushrooms. Grill up a cap and bite into the meaty goodness. My mouth just started watering.

2. Avocado. Sliced, or mashed and spread. The tricky part is cutting open an avocado and not eating it all before you make the sandwich.

1. Good Cheese. My recent favorite has been smoked Gouda, but fresh mozzarella with a little balsamic and basil? Or feta with hummus? Chevre? Even a nice, medium sharp cheddar. Watch out tomatoes.

3rd St. Promenade Dinosaur

Last week I went out to California. My first lab/school trip, so the trip was mostly research and work, but also a little play. We visited a number of different places in the few days we were there: UCLA, HRL, NextGen, all on business. And the fact of the matter is that due to proprietary non-disclosure types of things, I can't tell you anything. But I can share some pictures of Santa Monica pier.

I didn't even notice these 3 sea gulls until I started editing this photo!

Be prepared for a brief flurry of action in the next week or so, I got some photos and maybe a couple stories to share.

July has been a big food and cooking month for me.

Aside from hitting up the farmers' market down the road every Saturday and Wednesday, I also have been frequenting Zingerman's deli and bakery for fresh bread and cheese, and paid a visit to Detroit's Eastern Market last weekend. So much is in season right now, and I've been looking for recipes to use it all and to celebrate the freshness of it all.

So what have I been eating?

Tomato sandwiches left, right and center, but more on these at a later date.A lot of recipes from my current favorite food blog such as Sweet Potato and Chard GratinSmokey Sesame PeasCreamed Chard and Spring Onions over pasta and over riceIsraeli Couscous Salad with roasted tomatoes and fresh parsley and olivesroasted root vegetableskishumba - a dish from the Usambara mountains where I lived in Tanzania, masshed potatoes with beans, green peppers, carrots, and onions mixed in. cherries, raspberries and apricots. all fresh and localAs you can see, I should be paid for all the advertising I do for smittenkitchen.com. But seriously, I love Deb's recipes. They're always delicious and beautiful.

It's only half way through the month, and there is still so much fresh to take advantage of. In the next couple weeks I'm looking forward to finding ways to use green beans, sour cherries, peaches, zucchini, sweet corn and so much more.

I'm already looking at this recipe, and I'm very excited to find more.

Really Michigan, Really? I live here a few weeks and my welcome gift is a mysterious case of poison ivy. Mysterious because I have no idea how I got it. And I've been told it has multiple stages. And can last for a month. Although the past couple days the itchiness has been almost nil, so I've got that going for me.

Should you find yourself with a mysterious case of poison ivy, here are my recommendations:

7. Wash all your sheets and blankets because you might actually just have a spider family living in your bed. Hopefully it's not bed bugs.

6. Call your mom and Boyfriend's mom and consult. Both of them have had it before and will tell you how miserable it is and list a number of different itch soothers and possible homeopathic remedies, including taking a bath in oatmeal. They will tell you horror stories about breathing in fumes during brush fires and having their eyes swell shut, and how you can get it from petting dogs. Most of this information will not be useful at all, but at least you will know that you are not the first person to want to scratch there leg off.

5. Wash the rash with soap and water. This will prevent the rash from spreading. Contrary to old wive's tails, you cannot spread poison ivy by scratching it and touching somewhere else on your body. Or by scratching open the blisters. It spreads in the oil from the plant, so wash away the oil, and you will stop the spread.

4. Wash all your clothes. And then paranoid-ly wash them all again because you forgot one thing, and Boyfriend just told you a story about how a friend of his constantly reinfected herself because she forgot to wash her shoelaces. Wash your bag and your belt as well.

3. Treat yourself to an ice cream cone. If you can stop itching long enough to make it to the ice cream shop, you deserve one.

2. Honker down with a bottle of calamine lotion. Creamy pink spots covering the blisters are totally in fashion this summer. And

1. Wait it out.

cocktails with BC friends

first danceBaldwin cake toppers eating cakeBC girlscheek kiss sandwichBoyfriend and me

My child hood best bud, favorite jeweler, and all around great gal, Jessi Sawyer

is having a give away,

and I think you should check her out:Jessi Makes Jewelry!cholula jewelry

I already own these pretties from her, and would always love to add to my collection.

I generally try to do my Seven Things post on the 7th of the month, which this month happened to also be my birthday. I've been planning this post for quite a while and just haven't had a computer and/or been too busy when I have to actually get down to posting.

So here I am "on the wrong side of 25" as a friend so kindly put it in an email recently. I'm not nearly so negative about it, especially since this year has been filled with all sorts of great (or at least necessary) events.

7. Finding a job (or 2) in a recession economy.

Oh man. After 6 or 7 months of searching, countless numbers of unreturned emails and applications and resumes sent out, and plenty of tear filled and frustrating days I managed to come up with 2 part time job offers within a week. And with them came the realization that while it took longer than I hoped or imagined, I was right where I intended to be: holding down a couple flexible jobs that would allow me to work like crazy for a couple weeks, and then take 4 or 5 days off to travel. While neither job tickled my fancy, they did pay the bills and then some, and forced me to face just what I would take in employment. The results: cleaning up poo, yes dealing with horrible co-workers, no.

6. Re-evaluating what I wanted out of a graduate program.

After a decade of wanting desperately to be a part of the space program, 2 years in Tanzania forced me to rethink what I wanted for the future. While my daydreams will always land amidst the stars, getting my hands dirty and making this plant more sustainable is what is really important to me now. And thus, mechanical engineering with a focus on renewable/alternative energy sources was the direction I decided to go.

5. Planting a wicked garden

And living on fresh tomato sandwiches for a summer. Yum

4. Travel.

Plenty throughout the US. Visiting beautiful places and so many people that I wish I could see more often.

3. Accidentally applying to, being accepted by, and deciding to join a PhD program.

Seriously. I clicked the wrong button. Well not the wrong button, but a button that I thought was going to have a seriously different outcome than this. And in doing so I learned not to underestimate myself, and how to ask someone I love to make a choice for me.

2. Moving to Michigan.

Which included buying a car, starting to learn my way around said car as the battery died an annoying death, packing all my possessions into said car, driving through Chicago at rush hour, having a Police greatest hits sing along with my dad, wandering through Kalamazoo looking for wireless internet service, arriving at my summer house at 12:30 am, buying a new car battery and starting to get my bearings in my new home. Finding the nearest Target and becoming a member of the food co-op have also happened. Next on my list is becoming a MI resident and changing the license/tabs on my car.

1. Starting the summer as a Graduate Research Assistant at UofM.

OK, so technically I started this on my birthday, and was already 26 when it happened. But I'm counting it anyway. Lots of reading. Lots of paperwork. A trip to California in the works for the end of July. I know I'm not always going to be this excited about this program, but I'm soaking it up now.

Oh Jeeze.

I really can believe that it's been 3 weeks since I last blogged, because just so much has happened since then.

Said see you soon to my friends in family in Minnesota, andAte way too much delicious food in doing so.Spent 15 hours driving to Ann Arbor, thanks a lot Chicago rush hour traffic.Moved into my house at 1 in the morning.Bought and replaced my car battery.Met my knew housemates.Introduced my pops to Boyfriend's family.Discovered the Nichols' Arboretum, my current favorite place to wonder around on beautiful Ann Arbor days.Celebrated my birthday with Boyfriend.Washed my current celeb girl crush Zooey Deschanel perform with She & Him.Turned 26.Started research at UMich.Read A LOT about SMA.Learned how to get to Boyfriend's house without reading the directions.Got lost bunches of times.Flew to Connecticut.Introduced Boyfriend to many of my BC friends.Went to a beautiful wedding.Danced the Polka.Became a member of the local food co-op.Hung out with Boyfriend's Ann Arbor friends.Photos from Connecticut Wedding Weekend to come soon.

Every season in the garden is an experiment. New plants to try, new locations for rotation, new techniques, and new weather conditions. Every season comes with success and failure and hopefully something to take away, both knowledge wise and harvest wise.

This season has already come with all of the above. I have all sorts of new varieties of veggies to try my hand at. Some have taken strong root, like fingerling potatoes, dwarf snap peas, arugala, and green onions. Some are just getting started, like mexican sour cucumbers, purple dragon carrots, and hopefully some dill. And some have already bit the dust, like all my cute little varieties of tomatoes, the first round of green beans, and the first round of basil.

I tried starting my seedlings (few this year, as I try and direct sow as much as possible) in toilet paper tubes, which provided a great little space for a single seed to sprout. But after such successful sprouting, ultimately seemed to stifle the growth. Maybe because they weren't transplanted soon enough, or maybe for some other reason. Ultimately it was unsuccessful.

And a beautifully early and warm spring encouraged growth and early planting, only to surprise us with a freeze and even snow flurries in May, which was harsh on all but the heartiest cold weather plants.

In a week and a half I'll bid this garden good growth.

I hope you make it well on your own.

If you're lucky you might get a little help from dad and brothers.

I bought a car this past weekend. With my own money. By myself.

I'm moving to Michigan, into a place I found on my own. It's a summer sublet, but it's a place to stay until I make something else a little more permanant.

I'm starting a PhD program in a few weeks.

And I'm ridiculously in love.

I know it might sound a little strange for a woman four weeks away from turning 26 to only just feel like she's growing up. A woman who has a college degree from a school 1500 miles away from home and has spend 2 years living on her own in a foreign country.

But this time the fall back plan is onto myself.

And it's scary, and exciting, and I know I'm ready because I've had the best people possible to prepare me.

Bombs Away.

(a little late)

I'm moving to Michigan in three weeks, and have so many things to cram into these last couple weeks living in the miplis.

7. Snow in May. OK, so not so sad about saying goodbye to this one. And really, it could snow in May in Ann Arbor, not really out of the question if it's doing it in Minne already. But seriously. Snow? in May? goodbye.

6. The lakes. Boyfriend always gives me crap because of how wonderful we think all our lakes are when really "they are puddles" compared to the great lakes. But I, and probably every other Minnesotan, know the truth. They are wonderful pockets of beauty spread throughout an already beautiful city. And there's nothing like them anywhere else in this world. Goodbye Hiawatha, Nokomis, Harriet, Calhoun and all the others. I'll see you again soon.

5. Mayday Cafe. I'm stopping in at least 3 times a week until I leave. Gotta get my black bean burrito fix. And spinach and ricotta quiche. And turkey and provolone. And salami and olive tapanade. And great neighborhood company. And hippies. And babies. And dogs.

4. Pumphouse Creamery. I can't believe I spent so much of my life without you. And I'm not even an ice cream kinda girl. But this is hands down the best IC in the city. My favorite flavor is all of them, and the cones are to die for.

3. Camp Tamarack. The best two weeks of summer, hands down. And all the summer fairs and festivals. And the winter ones too. And the farmers' markets and basically anywhere us twin citians get together to celebrate being outside.

2. My garden. I hope you prosper in my absence and that lots of bees come buy and roll around in your flowers and make you promiscuous fruits and veggies. I'll be back for some tomatoes in August.

1. And of course all my friends and family that are seeing me off. And Powderhorn Park and the neighborhood. (like how I squeezed like 3 things into that last one ;))

Keep loving this city for me while I'm gone.

The little Mexican Mercado a block away from my house in Minneapolis, I just discovered, sells mangoes for $1.00 or less.

Ann Arbor/Detroit, you'll have some big shoes to fill. I hope your mango suppliers are ready for me.

Also, this could spell trouble for the next 26 days. mmmmm. mangoes.

This past month I managed to spend nine days traveling to visit some of my dearest friends that I don't get to see nearly often enough. Vacation was wonderful, not a negative thing to say about any part of the trip. My travels included 3 days in Michigan, New York City, and Connecticut.

And here is the highlight reel.

Michigan:

Warm mushroom salad and Shitake and roasted red pepper pizzabeautiful weather and strolling to the store with Boyfriendbreakfast on the patiofinding a house to sublet in for the summertour de Ann Arbor with Boyfriend and Kateice cream x2, praline pecan and blueberry cheese cakeNYC:

lunch and Pink Berry with KristenBrooklyn Botanical Gardens. The lilacs and cherry trees were in full bloom. We made sure to always reroute our walking path back through the lilacs. That scent is intoxicating.Brunch! (srsly, NYC does this right, the rest of the country needs to step it up) at No. 7Brooklyn Brewery Tour. Although I don't recommend their Blast brew. Or the obnoxiously "scene" kids that go on the weekend tours. But our tour guide was hilarious.The Donut Plant. Grace:"I want to take you to this place that has the best donuts you'll ever taste" Me:"But I don't like donuts" Grace:"Neither do I, it doesn't even matter"Dinner with Peace Corps TZ lovesDim Sum in China TownShopping in SoHo on a lovely Sunday afternoonWorking our way through a used book store just to pass the timeWine and good conversation Bagels and lox in Central Park

Connecticut:

Running and kayaking, and watching the snapping turtles sunning on the rocks

UConn Dairy Bar icecreamBuffalo wings with AlCooking out with my CT adopted familyCatching up with my besti whom I haven't seen in far too long

This year I decided to go vegetarian for Lent, and my dad decided to join in. After engrossing ourselves in the six weeks without meat, and learning about how my body reacts to a meatless diet, I'm sticking with being at least a 6 day a week vegetarian for the immediate future.

In a family where we cook every night, and where nightly dinner almost always revolved around what type of meat we were going to pull out of the freezer, eating vegetarian for 6 weeks meant doing some homework to find some new recipes, and supplementing our diet with different forms of protein. Along the way some meals and some additional foods have become staples around here.

As you will see, we do eat dairy, eggs, and even meat flavored bouillon. And now that lent is over for the year, I have plans for a Jucy Lucy. But meat will probably tend to be a special occasion food for the most part.

7. Bean Burritos: While these have been a weekly staple around our house for years, they frequently contained ground beef mixed in with the beans. So we just cut it out, and viola! our go to veggie meal. Tortillas, cheese, beans, lettuce and onions in a pinch, and usually tomatoes, olives, avocado, salsa and sour cream as well. These days we're big into making our own beans of all types as well: a cup in the pressure cooker, some chilli powder and cumin, and maybe some sauted veggies, make this a very veggie packed meal. And oh so filling, as I remarked to my dad the other night, "The one problem with bean burritos is that I always eat more than I should because they are just too good to stop."

6. Fruit Smoothies: Simple enough, and I use both fresh or frozen fruit. Just yogurt, fruit, juice, ice, blend, drink!

5. Yogurt: I make my own, and add a pinch of brown sugar, fresh fruit, dried cranberries, or homemade granola for a sweet breakfast or afternoon snack.

4. Fritatas: I learned about the wonders of the fritata when reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingslover, and am hooked. We tend to make them the night after burritos to use up the left over chopped veggies. The wonderful thing about a fritata is that really anything can go into it. And gosh I love eggs.

3. Seitan Reuben Sandwhiches: With St. Patrick's Day falling solidly within Lent, we found ourselves wondering what to do about corned beef. My dad was looking online for mock duck seitan recipes, and stumbled upon one for seitan corned beef and decided to give it a shot. Turns out it made an excellent reuben. A couple slices of the seitan, swiss cheese, sour kraut, thousand island dressing and some rye bread grilled on the forman and we found ourselves a tasty substitute.

2. Garbonzo Beans: Eat them plain or with a little balsamic vinaigrette or pile them onto a salad. We keep a stock of them in the refrigerator at all times these days.

1. Bean and Barley Risotto: We keep barley in the house, but never made anything with it aside from beef and barley soup, which (sorry dad) I'm just not really a fan of. And then I saw this recipe on Smitten Kitchen (love this blog) and it was love at first bite.

The month of March started out super, got a bit stress-tastic in the middle, but then came back around and finished strong. Because really, who can argue with 75 and sunny on March 31st? You won't find this girl complaining.

Highlights of the month:

dinner at Kafe 421 and the John Mayer/Michael Franti concert with Boyfriendvisiting J and V in Philadelphiaa night on the town with my best buds around Minneapolis, complete with pizza, beer, peanuts and the longest game of darts everThe first Pi Day Party held at Ma's new housetomato seedlings sprouting, including some of the seeds I saved from my Brandywines of last summerplanning my trip to detroit/nyc/connecticutexploring all sorts of vegetarian fare as we eat meat free for lenta lovely walk around lake Nokomisrunning in shorts and t-shirtsdigging in the dirtpulling out the motorcycle engineand making an almost completely official decision about grad schoolApril's shaping up pretty well to; I'll be kicking it off tomorrow at a cook out with all sorts of deliciousness.

Due to Boyfriend's current obsession with bubble tea and the astronomical prices of the shops that sell bubble tea, I've been pursuing a new hobby.

I found boba (black tapioca pearls) at United Noodles, the Asian food market that we frequent, and after some quick research on the interwebs, I was ready to tackle making my own bubble tea.

All the recipes I found online gave the instructions for making the boba read something like boil 25 minutes and then let sit 25 minutes in the hot water. But the back of my boba package said boil 5 minutes and then rinse in cool water. So I set them to boil, tried them after 5 minutes, and deemed my package's instructions correct. They had the consistency of soft gummy bears coming out of the boiling water. Since I like my boba a little firmer, I let them cool in the refrigerator before I used them.

Bubble tea is commonly a sweet milky tea with boba sitting at the bottom. You can use really any tea you like best.

We have a whole cupboard of teas in our kitchen that I'll be experimenting with in the near future. For my first creation I used Caribou Coffee's Spice Tea, left over from my stint as a barista. (And in my opinion the best tea Caribou had as part of their regular stock.) I made the tea hot, and let it cool in the refrigerator as well.

You can make bubble tea with milk or cream or soy milk, or really whatever you like. We happen to also have nearly a cupboard full of sweetened condensed milk, because it seems every time we are getting ready to make pumpkin pie we forget that the recipe actually calls for evaporated milk, and go buy another 2 cans of sweetened condensed milk instead.

Sweetened, condensed milk is really just that, milk and sugar boiled down until it is thick and creamy.



So I added about a tablespoon of that to my tea, as well as about 3 heaping tablespoons of boba, and voila!The fat straw with which to suck up the boba is almost as fun as the drink itself!

Dear March,

I see how you're going to play it this year. You're wooing us with your mild temperatures, whilst pouring salt in the wounds of winter by withholding the sun for 2 weeks at a time.

I'm on to you. I expect a snowstorm in full effect in about 2 weeks.

Love, Clare

This past week I started my first seedlings of the season. Every day that a little more of our blanket of snow melts I get more excited about what the garden will hold this year.

7. Bachelor's Buttons: I love these cute little flowers. So many gardens in the neighborhood have them and everytime I saw them last summer I thought how much I wanted some for my own garden. I have mixed seeds, but I'm hoping for many of the deep red ones. Also, I love that these flowers bloom forever, reseed themselves and are very easy to collect the seeds from.

6. All sorts of little blue flowering herbs to attract the bees. Hyssop, Lavender, Bee Balf and Borage will all be scattered throughout the garden to welcome all my little polinating friends.

5. Variety: I'm planting 4 different varieties of tomato, 4 of potato and 2 of cucumber. Variety keeps the garden healthier and makes salads more exciting.

4. Organic, open pollinated, and heirloom varieties. Take that Monsanto. You won't be involved in my fruit and vegetable choices if I have anything to do about it.

3. Compost: Last fall I was really excited to see my compost so full of worms. We do pretty well around the house about composting as much as we can. In a successful and sustainable garden, it's all about the soil. I like my gold to be black.

2. Sweat: This will be my second year double digging my main garden bed, so it shouldn't be nearly as much work as last year, but with all the new varieties I'm adding, I'll be adding more beds as well, which means a couple days of breaking soil.

1. My hands. I love getting in there. Checking out the leaves and pulling the weeds, picking off bad bugs and manhandling the new fruits and vegetables.

Dear Boyfriend,

I broke them in for you.Happy Birthday!

On Friday I was inspired, and baked up these bad boys

Cut in half and stuffed with whipped cream and mixed berries:

Piped with whipped cream:

Powderhorn Park is hands down my favorite place. Not just in Minneapolis, but anywhere.

7. Art Sled Rally. Powderhorn park now has a great winter tradition to balance all of it's summer activities. We like our winter sports in Minnesota.

6. The park has 4 playgrounds. And each one has something different. That's like little kid playground heaven.

5. Late night walks. In the summer. Especially when the sprinklers in the baseball fields come on. Every time I've left Minnesota for any great length of time, I've gone for a late night walk in the park the night before I left.

4. May Day. Love the Parade. Love the welcoming of the sun back to the earth. Love the first roasted sweet corn of the year.

3. Fireworks on the 4th of July. I go early, camp out with a book and some snacks, and watch the park fill up around me. I always watch from under the big tree; I love seeing the colors shimmer through the branches.

2. The Powderhorn Art Fair. If you know me, you know this is my favorite weekend of the summer. I walk through the booths at least 3 times, wishing I had money to buy whole sets of dishes, wind chimes, photography. This year I bought my first real piece at the fair, a stone and iron crane to watch over my garden.

1. It is the perfect place to go running all year round. Every season brings something new and beautiful to enjoy as I loop the pond and the baseball fields. Trees in different stages of life. The frozen pond. Youth Farm. The heron that lives on the the island. Dog walkers. Teens holding hands on the dock.

shamelessly stolen from minnesotaalamode.blogspot.com who also shamelessly stole it. I needed something to blog about

Current Books: I'm currently kinda in book limbo. I have a handful on hold at the library, but the waiting lists are long, in the meantime I'm thinking about rereading Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory McGuire, and I'm reading a kinda cheesy book called Relax, You're Already Home, about incorporating Taoist habits into your lifestyle. (Cheesy in writing, underlying content I'm into.) I'm a strictly one book at a time kinda girl. And I devour everything, so if you've got any new must-reads, send them my way. I'll start placing library holds.

Current Playlist: I've been listening to a lot of Owl City, John Mayer, and Jack's Mannequin, also starting to listen to some Lady Antebellum

Current Guilty Pleasure: Cupcakes! and catching up on all the seasons of House that aired while I was gone. That's a lot of House.

Current Color: Dark green

Current Drink: Cocoa

Current Food: Cupcakes! dried cranberries, and oatmeal, oatmeal, oatmeal.

Current Favorite Show: Top Chef is over, Gossip Girl is over and Glee is over. Guess I'll watch some more house

Current Wishlist: Good news from med schools for the boyfriend.

Current Needs: I need to go buy a new bicycle helmet and to change my inner tube. It'll happen sometime in the next couple days.

Current Triumphs: Getting invited to U Mich for a PhD program prospective student meet and greet and wine and dine! Wowi, talk about an honor to even be considered for this program.

Current Bane Of My Existence: I hate not being able to go running due to weather/road conditions. Maybe I'm just not hard core enough. :(

Current Celebrity Crush: Zooey Daschanel and Lady Gaga. lovelovelove

Current Indulgence: Good skin stuff, especially burt's bees milk and honey lotion. And spending all my spare change on nice yarn and more needles and hooks.

Current Blessing: My confirmation kiddos, they make me smile.

Current Slang: I know, right? or in honor of the conf kiddos, "trounced" and "beast".

Current Outfit: Jeans and a fleece. Slippers.

Current Excitement: Neil is coming to visit and interview at the U. NEXT WEEK.

Current Mood: Accomplished.

Current Link: www.etsy.com/shop/cholulajewelry www.jessimakesjewelry.blogspot.com

So one of the items on my life to-do list is to teach myself to knit.

I know what you're thinking:

"But clare, crocheters and knitters just aren't friends."

"Why would you want to use two sticks to make rows, when one hook can make lace and flowers?"

"Why do you choose hobbies that will make you the coolest grandma around?"

"Get back to making cupcakes, those are delicious."

And the truth of the matter is, cupcakes are delicious.

But seriously.

I've been thinking of this for the past year or so, and cute knitting patterns are just so much more accessible than cute crochet patterns. I love crocheting, and will always be a hook user first, but I'm looking to expand my horizons.

And, since I seem to have seriously misplaced the hook I was using for the current crochet project, it seemed like now was the right time to start.

So I bought a couple needles and read through a couple tutorials, and let me tell you, picking up a second stick is not easy when you're used to one. I keep trying to do everything with my fingers instead of letting the needles do their jobs. But it's coming. I've mastered casting on and knitting and purling, and am trying my hand at a simple hat before I move on to the things I really am learning for: socks and sweater dresses!

2009 was certainly a year full of adventure. I can't complain too much about getting to visit Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Colorado, Fargo, Detroit and Detroit some more. :)I honestly wouldn't recommend cultural readjustment to too many people. It's been difficult in ways that are hard to articulate. And now I want to go back to Tanzania so much. But whatcha gonna do?

And trying to find a job in the height of the recession also wasn't the most fun I've had in a year, but things seemed to have worked out ok.

I've loved more than anything this year getting to visit with friends that are not living near by. I've loved getting to show my city off to those who have come to visit me. And I will continue to wish we could all be geographically closer, but I wish more that you all will follow your hearts to whatever end of the earth they lead you to.

I've loved getting to run around my park for 4 seasons and watch it come to life in the spring and go to sleep again in the fall. I don't think I can choose a favorite season to run through Powderhorn. Each one is so beautiful and inspires me to keep running.I'm proud of myself for getting all my grad school applications in early. And for starting a very fruitful vegetable garden, and for biking Minneapolis (and St. Paul) instead of using an engine.

I'm proud of myself for taking an engine off a motorcycle and for quitting a job because the environment was too negative.

I'm proud of myself for managing my money well,

and slowly working myself out of debt.I will remember 2009 as the year I fell in love.

I hope it brought as much blessing to you.

Happy New Year.

Happy New Decade.

Happy 2010.

Peace.

After going through the pictures on my camera that I had yet to upload to the computer and realizing that they were nearly all of food, I've made the new year's resolution to take more photos of people.

But in the mean time, here are some of the things I've been cooking up.

Back in October Neil, his brother David and I had a cupcake baking extravaganza. We made vanilla, pumpkin, and apple cupcakes, and frosted them with chocolate, maple cream cheese, and brown sugar walnut frosting.

I managed to bake my sour dough starter at the beginning of November, but luckily my mom had some about the same age that is pretty active, and makes a nice loaf of bread that always manages to get eaten before I take pictures.

This holiday season I taught myself how to make caramels, and have made both salted caramels and cinnamon caramels with mostly successful results. My next goal is to make caramels using honey and beet sugar in place of the light syrup and cane sugar.

And as usual I kicked off the holiday treat season with a day of cookie baking with my mom and our friend Annette. We made lots of different varieties, using lots of different ingredients, but my favorites are always the fresh ginger cookies.

raking leaveshot apple ciderhot apple cider and donuts

finding lots of worms living in my compost pilesquashmaking soupeating soupperfect crocheting weathersurprise 60 degree dayscostumescandy cornnew sweatersmorning runsleaves blowing across the road

Way back towards the beginning of October, when early frost warnings were threatening, I decided to try my hand at canning the lovely harvested veggies that I had sitting around in piles to big to hope to be eaten in time.

All I did was hot process, the pressure process is still a bit intimidating to me, and all of the produce I had only required hot processing anyway. After digging out our old canner, making sure we still had all the pieces, scrubbing away the bits of rust that had taken to it, and stocking up on canning lids, rims and a jar tongs, I set to it. I turned this lovely basket (minus the green pepper) into tomato sauce, and a paper bag full of pears from the neighbor tree into pear sauce (which has already been sampled and is delish). I haven't tried the tomato sauce yet, as I've been working and traveling and sleeping and applying to grad school in every second of time since. But soon.

And while I was at it I finally revived my sour dough starter and baked a delicous loaf that disappeared altogether too fast.

Around here we always celebrate the last bit of summer and onset of fall with a Garlic Party. That's right, folks. A party dedicated to garlic. Pot-luck style.

This year my family contributed fettuccine alfredo with bacon and spinich, deep fried ravioli, papaya-lime-garlic goat kabobs, pesto stuffed mushrooms, and garlic and apple pie to the table.

Other highlights included rulon, Brussels sprouts, garlic and balsamic infused butter, ice cream, and macaroni and cheese. And as always, there was far too much deliciousness to even taste it all.

Now the last of the tomatoes have to come in, and I have to decide just how many more tomato sandwiches can be eaten before they go bad, and how many tomatoes should be frozen for soups and stews and sauces. We've been enjoying the last throws of the green bean harvests. And I'm interested to see just what exactly my Brussles sprouts decide to do now that the weather is cooling

I'm still confused as to why the CW (which I'm pretty sure was the WB before I left, and so continues to be in my mind) has decided to remake all of those mildly trashy teen and twenty-something night time soap operas from the early nineties - 90210, and now Melrose Place?

I rarely watch tv. And even more rarely do I watch the CW. But really? Did the world run out of material? It seems to me they have decent original shows. Or, at least, I love Gossip Girl.

Am I missing something?

Starting two jobs two months ago meant I had to put a lot of things on hold as I got my schedule figured out, adjusted to longer days and less sleep.

Now things are a bit more comfortable, and I've found time once again to run, read, garden, research grad school, keep up with friends, nap, study for the GREs, eat tomato sandwiches, finally start working on the motorcycle again, conduct cooking experiments, and put up new curtains.

And so it goes.

The neighbor house has been vacant for a year and a half. Years and years ago, an elderly woman with a green thumb lived there and kept a wonderful fruit garden, the spoils of which she would often send over to my family. Now all that remains is two very prolific pear trees.

One wall of my bedroom windows (it's a sun porch, so it has three walls of windows) overlooks these trees, and for the past 4 months I have been watching the trees sprout leaves, flower, and start growing pears. Now the fruits are ripe, and my brothers and I were on a mission not to let them go to waste.Now to decide what to do with our booty.

While the weather in Minneapolis this summer has been cooler and drier than usual, the plants in my little backyard garden soldier on, and bounty is forthcoming!

Thursday, after returning from a Detroit/Love getaway, I returned to these beauties in the garden.

Unfortunately, I think that may be the total of the broccoli that I get to harvest this year. The other 4 plants haven't shown any interest in turning out heads yet. But maybe they'll surprise me in August. A little late for broc, but I wouldn't complain.

Meanwhile, the rest of the garden is looking something like this:Cucumbers crawling everywhere they can find an inch of roomZinnias drowning in tomato plants, and hey, those are some actual marigolds deciding to flower after all this time. These one's are real marigolds, not those psych out cherry tomatoesUnruly tomatoes breaking free from their cages and taking over the gardenGreen beans climbing right off the pole and into the lilac bushesPotatoes that are finishing up I think, and will soon be wilting their goodbyes and allowing me to harvestBeautiful basil bushes that I'm trying to keep from going to seed so we can use them for pesto in a couple weeksMore cucumber plants with lots and lots of flowers

Fresh asparagus growth after the rain

An old rhubarb plant that I'm slowly coaxing the new growth from. No harvest this year, but I'm hopeful for next yearSpearmint starting to take hold

A blooming bicycle. I can't take credit for this one, it was a donation from my neighbor's ridiculously beautiful garden which he is spreading from his corner onto oursStrawberries sending out shoots

The earth box tomato. With just the hint of red starting to break through

Peppers. Anyone know which sort?

And cucumbers that are hailing the start of pickling season.

Not too shabby for a girl's first real attempt at backyard farming.

Once upon a time a girl was planting her starter seedlings in preparation for the upcoming planting season.

As she rummaged through a junk drawer, she came across a packet of cherry tomato seeds and thought, "Hmm, I'm not sure when these were even bought, but I like cherry tomatoes. I'll give them a pot and some soil and see if they are still any good."

About a month passed and the pot of cherry tomato seeds showed no signs of germinating, so the girl re-loosened the soil and planted some marigolds instead.

Within a couple weeks sprouts were healthily growing in the pot. The girl planted the marigolds along the edges of her garden and waited for nature to do it's work.

Spring passed and summer came, and the garden was growing quickly. But the marigolds weren't flowering. And they were growing much larger than the average marigold. The girl thought maybe the problem was with the soil. The marigolds had been planted in an area of the new garden that had been reclaimed from the charcoal grill. Maybe it was possible that the charcoal ash mixed into the soil was causing the plants to grow large, but not reach maturity.

At the end of June the girl took a few days of vacation, and when she returned she was excited to see how much the garden had grown. The potato plants were huge, and ready to have soil added to them. The green beans had reached the top of their poles and had grabbed onto the lilac bushes to continue to climb. The tomatoes were flowering, and the one in the earth box already had fruit growing on it. The broccoli was being attacked by caterpillars, but was doing well despite some holes in its leaves. The chard was ready to be harvested, and the cucumbers were growing steadily.

And the marigolds were huge. And had flowers. But not marigold flowers. Tomato flowers. Surprise! There will be cherry tomatoes. And mistaken identity.

Finally, the crochet project I have been working on for the past 3 months is complete. And I'd say it turned out pretty hott.

Although it's the same shape as all the sweater vests I made while in TZ, it took much longer because of the color pattern. I had to completely develop the pattern myself, as I could find no argyle patterns for crochet work online. For this pattern, one color is stitched a MAX of 6 stitches in a row before a color change, and more often the color changes happen every 1-3 stitches. So lots of color changes. A lot of keeping different colored balls of yarn from getting tangled. Phew.

It was surprising to me that even though I'd made 8 sweater vests previously, this one was still such a learning experience. I'm super proud of it though. I think it shows off my skills as a serious pattern builder and crocheter quite nicely. I have a bunch of new projects lined up, so it'll be exciting to see how they each shape up.

After a very dry month of may, we finally got some solid rain yesterday. The garden is happy, and rain was a swell birthday present.

Happy 25 to me.

I visited my grandparents earlier this spring, and my grandpa told me about growing his tomatoes in an earth box, which helps regulate the amount of water that your plants get. He had a spare set up for a box, so he sent me home with it.

The earth box consists of a large plastic bin with some holes cut in the top to space the plants, and another hole cut for a water pipe. This is where the water comes into the box. In the bottom of the bin there is a small hole drilled about 3 inches from the bottom which allows excess water to drain from the box so you don't over water your plants. A base made out of pvc pipes on the bottom supports a screen which holds the soil up above the water reservoir. The first couple times I tried filling the box with soil the screen collapsed, so I attached it to the base using some twine. So we'll see how the earth box tomatoes compare to the tomatoes just planted in the regular garden bed. Unfortunately the little one didn't survive the transplant, but the big one is doing quite well.

We kinda love middle eastern food around here, and as I dabble with turning my family into make it yourself foodies, we've taken to making our own from scratch.

Actually, the whole bit of this project started when shopping at the coop. There was plenty of pita, but a packet of four ran for over $2.50! And to top it all off, they didn't split very well. So we decided to try to make our own.

At first I was a bit hesitant, because the few times I had tried to make them in tanzania they had turned out to just be flat bread. No beautiful pocket formed in them at all. But all things are a bit more difficult to bake on a charcoal double pan oven.

After a bit of recipe research, I decided to try my hand at this recipe, but I added a couple tbsp of olive oil to the dough. Because really, what is middle eastern food without a little extra olive oil, right? Oh, and last time I made pitas, I used whole wheat flour. Mmm Mmm healthier.

The key to getting the pocket to form nicely is to roll out the balls after they've risen a bit, and right before putting them into the oven.I'm not afraid to get a little messy when I bake.

They cook quick, we flipped ours after just 3 minutes in the oven, and they already had gotten golden and crusty on one side and were forming the pocket bubble.After just another minute or two on the other side they are ready to be taken out. After taking the baked pita out of the oven, we flattened it down with a spatula. Gotta watch your skin though, the air coming out of that pita is hot hot hot.

They taste as delicious as they look, and the pockets were beautifully formed in 10 out of 12 pitas. But the other two are still great for scooping up humus. And some rough calculations suggest that these 12 fresh from the oven pitas cost us less than a buck for total ingredients. Not too shabby.

After spending the past 6 months in radio silence when it comes to the blogging world, I decided to pick it back up.

I do lots of things. Lots of things people are interested in. So I'm going to show you some of the lots of things I'm up to.

Welcome back.

While I have been working in my garden for the past month and a half, visible signs of the new garden season are just starting to show their faces now.

I double dug my beds in early April. It was clear the soil had been quite packed down, because after digging it rose up about 8 inches from the surface of the ground. With no additional soil or compost.

Here's a bed I dug and planted just today. I small plot for a wild flower seed mix. So we'll see what pops up in the coming months.

Oddly, I found a pot of rhubarb planted (yep, pot and all) next to our other, large rhubarb patch. So I dug up the little plants that had no where to grow and gave them their own roomy locales.

Other, early sprouts are showing their leaves to the sun these days.

okay, nothing too exciting yet, because the upload process is ridiculously tedious, but here are, in fact, the first pictures I took of my peace corps tanzania experience. Backwards, because I can't figure out how to change the order. Ha.

The outer area of Dar es Salaam. Houses, in the middle of the city people live in apartments, but in the outer area they live in these brick houses with tin roofs. The houses throughout the country range from brick to mud and sticks, some with doors, some without.

The hostel we stayed in our first two nights in DSM. We definitely eased into living in the bush (and are still easing into it, seeing as how we haven't gone to site yet.)

Piles of luggage at the airport. This is what 80lbs * 41 volunteers looks like

We are in JFK airport, hours early, waiting and very much in the way with a kajillion bags to board a plane bound for Amsterdam

ok, so here's the skinny. We're done with training in 3 days, and then 39 of us will officially be new peace corps volunteers. I will be teaching at a co-ed school in the Tanga region in the mountains. I have a new address, but for security reasons I cannot post it here, so if you would like it drop me an email and I'll send it your way.

I'm super excited to move to my new house, to start experiencing life with no electricity or running water, and to start preparing to teach and meet my neighbors, fellow teachers and students. Oh, and to enjoy weather that calls for long sleeves and blankets rather than constantly wishing I could take off more clothing and still be culturally appropriate. Also, I know you are all eagerly awaiting pictures, and I have been promising that they are on their way. In fact, next week when we are leaving for site, all of us headed north will be spending a few days in Dar es Salaam (DSM) and will have access to the Peace Corps office computers (free internet!) so I will be posting pictures then. I know you will all wait with bated breath.

Last week I traveled to the Tanga region to shadow a current volunteer, L. We took a bus to the nearby city, and then a dala down the dirt roads for 2 hours to her village. We spent two days in her village meeting the other teachers, eating dinner with neighbors, seeing the materials she had available to teach with, meeting her students, and we also got to visit the local health center where they were caring for HIV/AIDS patients. As PCVs we receive money from PEPFAR and are supposed to be involved in programs to educate, prevent and possibly even care for those suffering with the disease, and so L wanted to start getting involved with the local clinic. One of the biggest struggles for these clinics in the villages in eastern africa is that they are severely understaffed and the staff they do have frequently do not have adequate training.

Over the weekend we headed into the main city again to relax for a couple nights before L returned to her village and we moved on to DSM. The city was right on the Indian ocean, very tropical and heavily populated by Arabs, Indians, and also predominantly Muslim. We ate all sorts of delicious Indian food, got to swim in the Indian ocean (!!!) and bought gifts for our homestay families to thank them for putting up with Americans for 2 months.

The trip to DSM was highlighted by learning where everyone would be posted for their two years of service, eating ridiculously good food (Lebonese, Tanzanian, American), bar hopping, visiting the embassy, and eating Thanksgiving at the ambassadors house. I learned some important info on how to become an ambassador, either spend 25+ years in the foreign service, raise a shit-ton of money for the prez, or go to school with the prez and stay on his good side. Rahisi sana! (very simple!) haha, it was a good time, although lacking in pumpkin pie and stuffing.

Ok, stay tuned for pictures next week.

Surpisingly enough, one of the most difficult things for me to get used to in Tanzania has been the smells. Not that they are bad- some are, many are not- but the familiarity or lack there of often messes with my head. The scents that are not familiar are easy enough to deal with, I am after all thousands of miles away from home, of course it is going to smell differently. However I'm always thrown for a loop whenever I smell rain or onions and garlic cooking, because these scents that I so readily associate with home don't seem to belong so far from home.

Tomorrow is our last official day of language training, and within 2 weeks I will know where in Tanzania I will be spending my next two years. Life is going well, and I promise there are pictures, but I am not even going to attempt to post them until I get to site, so you'll just have to wait. Think of it as a learning experience, I'm on African time after all.

Morogoro is dusty. Red dusty. And windy. The kind of dust that coats your shoes and your skin after a short walk down any road. The short rains are on their way and they are very welcome, not only because they keep the dust down and allow for planting, but also because they provide a wonderfully cool night. It's funny, my family always asks me if I'm cold in the evenings if the temperature drops below about 78 F, and are always so surprised when I say no.

Training is pretty much the same ol' same ol'. I go to school every morning, learn Kiswahili for anywhere between 5 and 7 hours, and then return home, study some, write some, and play "lasti cardi" with my little brother and sister. lasti cardi is essentially uno, and always a great time. I finished up my internship teaching this week, and gave my form 3 class a test, which they did fairly well on. They also especially liked when I pulled out my harmonica to demonstrate the difference between musical pitches and sound wave frequencies. Next week we wrap up our Swahili classes and visit some NGOs (non-government organizations, usually involved in humanitarian work) and start preparing for shadow, where we get to go stay with volunteers at their sites and see what life as a PCV is really like. I think we're all pretty excited to see more of Tanzania and get a feel for what life will be like for the next 2 years.

The week before we went on Safari the mama who brings my trainee group and the other trainee group near to us lunch lost her baby son to malaria. It was my first real touch of how near death is here. We all went to her home to pay our condolences. In Tanzania when there is a death all of the women sit together inside and all of the men sit together outside in mourning. Visitors come by to sit for a period of time to, and make an offering of money to help the family with the costs of the funeral and burial.

well I'm at the internet cafe instead of sitting in my families courtyard doing laundry today, and while I'll probably be regretting this decision later on this week, it seems like a good way to round out a vacation weekend. We visited Mikumi national park yesterday and got to play typical American tourists in Tanzania. We went on safari and saw hippos, wildebeast, zebras, giraffes, elephants, gazelle, baboons, possibly some rhinos and various other animals that I am unable to name distinctly. The Tanzanian savannah is much more a place of beauty than I ever expected; long greasses and immense trees fill the land and there is pretty much the sense of wild that one would expect in Africa. The sunset was gorgeous over the mountains, and it was a wonderful opportunity to take a break from the crazy training schedule we have been on.

We are officially more than half done with training, and after taking our mid-training tests I have been told that I am doing better at speaking Kiswahili than I thought I was. I'm also nearly done with my internship teaching, which has been very informative and a lot of fun. I even completed my first successful demonstration in my form 1 class this week, which seems to have helped them understand how light moves at least a little more clearly. They were all very excited to hear that I had a demonstration of an experiment for them, which suggests that they frequently just copy down a description of the experiments, never getting to see how they actually work. I hope that I can utilize my materials and show them as many demonstrations as possible over the next two years. I may be asking for suggestions.

The education system is loosely based on the British system, which is also heavily test based. I guess no matter where you teach you are teaching for tests. While I am less frustrated with the system this week than I was last week, I know that this, among other things, will be an ongoing struggle as I teach in Tanzania.

My health is still holding strong, despite the fact that my liver is pretty much swarming with malaria parasites, but the drugs have been doing their job thus far. Unfortunately my dreams are starting to get more boring, but such is life. My Tanzanian mama has taught me to cook all sorts of Tanzanian food, and has promised to teach me how to cook rice bread before I leave, so that's exciting.

Oh, and I finally bought stamps, to letters are on their way stateside. If you want to be one of the lucky ones to receive one you need to a) send me your mailing address and b) write to me.

Ha. until next week/sometime in the next month depending on our ever changing schedules.