Food Coma!

Today was the 32nd Internation Festival (I-Fest) hosted by International Place of the Claremont Colleges! Right now I have a belly full of delicious food! I'll just tell the story of my day through pictures!

Happy camper with his share of kimchi. Aww, look at that smile! :) Dmitri was so excited about the kimchi that we just went straight there. I wanted to stroll our way around to check out some other booths first, but nope, he pulled me straight to the Korean booth.

From the Singaporean booth, Kaya toast (with coconut jam). It was surprisingly delicious, but I couldn't really distinguish any coconut flavor. Just sugary goodness!

Me with my fried plantains and spiced pepper salad from the Africa booth. The plantains were kind of like sweet potatoes. Yum!

Next up from the UK booth, scone+cream+jam with a cup of English cream tea! I think the whole thing was mediocre. What I really wanted was crepe from France, but the line was always long!

From the Taiwan booth was fried squid balls and, of course, boba tea! We got 500 ml cup for friggin $3. It's been awhile since I've had boba tea, and this one was pretty good! The boba was actually pretty chewy, although the tea lacked some milk. The boba tea was from Fruizen. None the less, it was tasty.

The long-awaited Tiramisu! The coffee taste was really strong, which I liked! They even had little recipes printed out for us to take. Being the baker that I am, I graciously took one and observed it. Hmm..maybe my next baking adventure? Not that I've never made tiramisu before, but I'm still on the lookout on the perfect tiramisu recipe!

The tiramisu lacked some ricotta cheese. But all in all it was pretty good. By that time we were both really full (Dmitri got a second round of kimchi). We had to take a rest before we actually finished the tiramisu.



Before we left, we both got figure balloons! They were free so I was very excited. I actually wanted a penguin, but the lady didn't make penguins, so I asked for the bumblebee. Adorable!



Dmitri got a flower, which he also substituted as a sword, a jet, a spacecraft..etc.

Now that I've had my fair share of food, sun and fun. It's back to the long list of work I have to do this weekend. I hate Sundays, but it's approaching fast!!! Ugh, just hold on for 3 more weeks...

Beautiful 70's

Today is such a beautiful day that it calls for lying out on the grass and not doing work. Unfortunately, I have a massive amount of labor ahead of me for this weekend:

• Come up with some sort of rough draft of the Huntington's disease review paper
• Prepare for Beginning Dance presentation
• Read & come up with discussion questions for ASAM 197
• Read and critique TWO grant proposals for Cell & Dev Bio
• Prepare grant proposal presentation for Cell & Dev Bio
• Check out books & articles for ASAM 197
  
• Practice flute?
• Laundry

There may or may not be more stuffs I have to do--they may have just slipped my mind for now.

I had a very satisfying dinner of creamed broccoli made with cooked frozen broccoli, corn kernels, mixed with nonfat plain yogurt, spicy dijon mustard, some artichoke hummus (addicted to this stuff!), and a pinch of raisins. This salad was topped with garden burger original veggie patty. Yummy! :)

I should probably start taking pictures of my daily life to spice up my page. It's lookin' kind of boring with words, and words, and words.

I've also failed to mention yesterday that I had my "informal interview" with Tracy, the recruitment director for Teach For America. She definitely got me excited! Not only do I get a full salary, ranging from $35,000 to $48,000, depending on where you're stationed, you can also pick your location and the age-group you want to teach. At the same time, you'll also be getting two years of training such that you could get a Master's in Education within those two years! How awesome is that? I get to teach kids, and get a teacher's certificate? Hmm, I would have to rethink about when I'll be getting my yoga teacher's certificate though. I have been planning to focus on my "spiritual education" after I graduate. That is, going to India to study the art of Ashtanga Yoga. Maybe I'll apply to the Watson Fellowship? Basically, the Watson Fellowship allows the student a year of independent study outside his/her home country or the United States. Within that year, the student is not allowed to return to either his/her home country nor the U.S:

The mission of the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship Program is to offer college graduates of unusual promise a year of independent, purposeful exploration and travel outside of the United States in order to enhance their capacity for resourcefulness, imagination, openness, and leadership and to foster their humane and effective participation in the world community.

If I were to apply, I would want to study the tradition of Yoga and how it has been passed down for thousand of years, lost for a time period, and reborn into the Asian culture. I would also like to study how Yoga influences the daily lives of the Indian community. Other places to travel to and study: Thailand, Indonesia, Tibet.

Haha wow, that sounds almost like a brief summary for my Watson's Fellowship proposal!

Anyhooooz, better start working again! Dmitri's at a math talk right now, so I want to squeeze in as much work as I can so I can cuddle with my baby later! Movie from the laptop perhaps? :)

Dance the Haitian way!

WOW! I never knew Haitian dance could be so FUN! Colette had us working our butts since right when she stepped into the dance studio. She merely said, face the front of the room, okay, now let's warm up. And was it a warm up! She did not say a word, but had us imitate her. My heart rate was going as we did the crunches, the "back-ups", more crunches, some butt lifts...whew! Once we were on our feet, Colette had us dancing immediately...a warrior dance! Man, those big, percussive movements were really a work out for all of us! We were sweating, huffing and puffing like we've never had before.

So in the end, we had a string of movement strung together, with the cocky warrior walk, followed by two throw and punch, then hop and oomph, hop and oomph, a hitting and slashing circle, and lastly the superman jump.

This Youtube video here features Colette Eloi, who was here with us today, and her dance company. The dance is similar to what we did in class. In fact, we did SOME of the moves shown here too!


Oh, and did I mention the awesome drummer that was with us? His name was Daniel, and he speaks French. Maybe a little English? He was actually in Haiti when the earthquake happened. So him and Colette will be holding a panel later tonight talking about Haitian culture as well as Daniel's earthquake experience. I really want to go, but I don't know anyone who's interested in coming with me :'( Oh well, they'll also be holding a dance workshop outdoors tomorrow afternoon at Pitzer campus. I'm expecting it to be the same dance she taught us, but it was soooo much fun today that I might just go and perfect my moves! :)

Okie dokie, Kacyn is finishing up her confocal imaging. Next up, me and my in situ! I already got a few images this morning from the neuronatin. Hopefully the others work...*crossing my fingers*!

Chaooo~

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