First Day of School

~ Highlight of the Day: Seeing all my Jerusalem people on campus - so good ~

First day of class down, many many more to go. I think this will be a good semester though. If I can only figure out how to not freeze solid before getting to class, I think I'll be set! :)

First day of class story: 

I'm a Junior now. I've been attending the good ol' BYU for two and a half years now, and would count myself fairly familiar with my surroundings here. I may even allow myself a bit of pride in knowing where the Cluff building used to be (like the old timer that I am :). 

So I wasn't too worried about the fact that I had no idea where my first class was. Surely, I thought, I can figure it out on the way there. So off I went, decked out in two coats, a big fuzzy hat, and perhaps (as the morning would shortly show) a little too much confidence.

I met up with my roommate (also taking the class) and we set off for the Wilk. We had about 8 minutes before class started, and in those 8 minutes we managed to walk the entire building, but didn't manage to find our class. We were getting a little desperate (almost-willing-to-ask-random-strangers-for-help desperate) when we ran into our RA from freshman year.

She informed us that the room we were looking for, 'EXTENDED IPF', was in the IPF building. Not the Wilk. 

And so began our quick, and slightly embarrassing, trek across campus to the Intramural Practice Fields. Upon getting there (only 12 minutes late :) we saw a group of students just beginning to disperse, and assuming it was our class, walked up and took a syllabus from the pile.

 It wasn't our class.

 So we put the syllabi's back and took a last desperate look around.

That's when we saw the other group of students sitting about ten yards away, listening intently to our professor.

So yes, I am a Junior, and I totally got lost trying to find my first class.

It's been a good semester so far :)

And this was dinner tonight. I was rather pleased with how it turned out, so I thought I'd share:

(tilapia!) 

Arab Dinner Night!

~ Highlight of the Day: Matching perfectly all day long. . . and dancing like a maniac. ~

 

Guys. I have wanted one of these scarves ever since my senior year of high school when the foreign exchange student I sat next to in Chemistry (from Bahrain) gave one to Chase Adams. And now I have one. And it's yellow.

 

(this is our model pose. . . )

 

You can't really tell in this picture, but my outfit today was quite awesome :) Not only was it yellow and blue (the two colors, out of all the colors ever made, that were made for each other :), but I had my yellow scarf, yellow nail polish (left over from two-ish weeks ago - let's not get too crazy here), my yellow watch, and yellow socks! Seriously. It's not very often I get excited over an outfit.

Ironically you can see none of that in this picture. . . :)

 

Also, we learned an Arab dance, which was really cool. Fortunately for all of you there is not a video of me trying to dance it . . . besides, I'm still working on getting that talent show video up. . .

 

And Arab food is really good. I'm going to have to learn the names of these things so I can google recipes when I get home. I probably won't ever be able to make it authentic, but maybe I can figure out versions that are close enough.

 

I'm going to miss the yogurt here. It's half as sweet and twice as runny as American yogurt, and when you put it on cereal it's the best breakfast ever.

 

Well, I'm going to go write a short paper on the Cyrus Cylinder, and finish reading Nehemiah and Malachi. Then I'm going to sleep, because sleep is soooo good, and I don't get nearly enough of it!

 

 

 

Field Trip!

~ Highlight of the Day: Singing reggae and bluegrass songs (about Jerusalem) at the top of my lungs on the bus ~

 

We did a lot today, and because I did a lot yesterday as well, I've still got a lot of homework. So here's the reader's digest version of today: we drove around and looked at Jerusalem from nearly every angle, and learned how to point out several other landmark buildings (such as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Russian Orthodox Church of the Ascension, the Hebrew University tower, etc.) We did a lot more. . . but I'm sunburned and looking at a full night of homework (the yucky kind too. . . reading textbooks and writing papers . . . blech. ) I wouldn't be so opposed to it if I was going on a good eight hours of sleep. At least that's what I'm telling myself :)

Oh! Yesterday I ate my first falafal! I think that's how you spell it. . . it's pita bread stuffed with everything. Pickles, french fries, cucumbers, and fried who-knows-what all topped with some sort of dressing. It's delicious.

 

The Sabbath

~ Highlight of the Day: That big glass of water I had after hiking to Gethsemane and back on a Fast Sunday. . . Saturday* ~

 

Today I:

 

 went to ward choir

 looked out at the city of Jerusalem during sacrament meeting (no big deal :)

walked to the Garden of Gethsemane

walked back from Gethsemane

survived the walk back

had the best ice cream ever

wrote 3 letters

and

played an intense game of catchphrase

 

And tomorrow I will make it to the Hebrew University and will post pictures. As long as I can convince two other people to come with me. . .

 

*We have church on Saturday here. It felt just like a Sunday except I had to keep fighting back the panic of having none of my homework done. I have an entire day tomorrow! Woohoo!

Gone!

~ Highlight of the Day: comming home to the Fishbowl :) ~

 

I'm packed for Jerusalem, I'm in Provo, and I'm happy. It's so good being back. Even if it's for only 2 1/2 days.

I quickly packed up the bonsai stuff, and dug up my daffodils (the ones I started from seed 5 years ago. . . they were supposed to bloom this year. . . )

 

It was like a treasure hunt digging for these :) Maybe I can get them to bloom this year.

 

We cleaned out the pantry, including the pickles I pickled forever ago. 

 

 

One jar ended up being edible.

 

 

Aaaaand one last look at my phone. . . I won't be seeing it again for 4 months!

 

 



Short and Sweet!

~Highlight of the Day: Talking to my sister about Doctor Who for way too long :) ~

Ok. I think most of my posts are a little long winded. Who would've guessed? I hate essays with a passion, but apparently not blog posts. So without further adieu, a short (and hopefully the beginning of many) blog post.

Today I made Raisin Sour Cream Pie. It sounds gross, but it's actually not!

I was going to make pumpkin pie, but misplaced a can of pumpkin and a can of sweetened condensed milk (you know, the two most important ingredients). So I turned to the almighty interwebs for a solution, and here it is!

(blurry picture of pie in the oven :)

One whole pie

What's left of it! (I shared :) 

(In case you are interested. . . )

Raisin Sour Cream Pie

1 cup sour cream

 1 cup white sugar

 1 cup raisins

 2 eggs, beaten

 2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar

(I used apple cider vinegar. . . it's what we had)

 1/2 teaspoon salt

 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

 1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crust

 Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. In a large bowl, mix sour cream and sugar. Fold in raisins and beaten eggs. Stir in vinegar, salt, cinnamon and cloves. Pour mixture into pie crust.

3. Bake pie for 40 minutes, or until knife inserted in center of pie comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool slightly.

Ummm. . . does this count as short? Perhaps not. . .

South Korea and a Typewriter

~ Highlight of the Day: Finding awesome stuff in a dusty old closet ~

I honestly did not expect this day to be this cool. It completely took me by surprise!

So, first things first, I got to spend all morning in my PJ's (that right there is enough to make any day a good one :) and then I got these leftovers for lunch.

Then I actually did something productive (I helped a friend in her garden).

My Korean roommate made an exquisite dinner of stuff I'd never seen before.

That was enough to make my day great:)

We had all sorts of stuff. I'd name some of it but I can't pronounce half of it, nor can I remember.

It was all delicious. I'll leave it at that!

Then, because it looked like it was going to rain, I was rooting around in our upstairs closet (the one I've only looked in once before) for raincoats and I found the most amazing thing:

A TYPEWRITER!!! It's from Sears. It's electric. It's perfect. I think I could type on this guy all day!

What are the odds that I'd find an old typewriter my last week here? So cool.

And, of course, to wrap things up, I went with a group to watch the firework show at Longwood. It was 80's themed, which means I had to keep myself from singing along with everything :) It was great fun. After the show ended all I could think about was how I'd soon get to go home and type!

Bring back typewriters. Yes? No? :)

Livin' Off the Land

~ Highlight of the Day: learning about bad bugs and the good ones that eat them! ~

I got to hang out with the IPM people today! I always thought I'd hate an IPM class, and that it'd only be difficult and gross. But I found it to be absolutely fascinating and so very useful.

And having not photographed any mealy bug or mealy bug destroyer (it's like a super hero bug :), I will now go on at length about that most fascinating topic: dinner.

 I'm actually rather proud of what I made tonight - everything was from my garden except the oil, noodles, salt, and cheese. I used quite a bit of produce, which is excellent because I need to finish it all in less than a week! Produce used in dinner included: four different colors of peppers, chives, basil, zucchini, and a ton of tomatoes.

I have discovered that I will eat just about anything if I grow it in my garden. If you had told me a few years ago that I would eventually be choosing to put chives and peppers in my meals I would have laughed. But this summer I grew peppers, so eat them I will! There's just something different about eating things you've grown in the garden. So I'm thinking there will be personal gardens for my kids who don't like their veggies :)

The red ones are hot, which I suspected but did not think to confirm until after I cut one up.

Yep. And back to the book. I'm so close to being done, but I'm not sure I'll be able to finish in the next week. . . keep your fingers crossed, because if I don't finish it now it will be at least 4 months before I can!

Busy Day

~ Highlight of the Day: Discovering that ginkgos make beautiful carving wood ~

Today I did a lot.

I went to my first All Staff meeting.

I explained Temples* and General Conference*.

I watered a bajillion salvia while wearing awesome sunglasses.

I learned how to recognize the mosaic virus in cannas

I got chocolate milk at a local dairy

(it was 5 minutes away,

it took us 40. )

I sent important emails.

I swept our nasty floor, and lots of spiders.

I ate dinner with 5 British, 1 Japanese, 1 Korean, and 1 American.

I taught someone to play three chords on the ukulele

(I bet you can't guess which ones :)

I did the dishes.

I asked "how do you play Cricket?"

I tried to understand Cricket. . . I'm not sure I do yet. . .

I stayed up way too late, and then decided I wanted to still post something.

*Temple: LDS building dedicated as a House of the Lord, has the Angel Moroni on top.

*General Conference: Big church wide meeting held every six months in which the Prophet, Apostles, and other leaders of the Church speak. In other words, my two favorite weekends of the whole year!

Angel Food Cake: Success!

~ Highlight of the Day: Eggplant Parmesan Caprese Salad. 'Nuff said. ~

Operation Angel food Cake: Success.

Yes. After beating the poor egg whites for what must have been a half an hour yesterday morning, while fasting, and whipping up some dream whip and sliced strawberries today after my mad dash to the post office, the angel food cake was pretty much perfect. And I even have some left over!

I would explain to you why there was a mad dash to the post office, but it's too late to tell the whole story tonight. Perhaps I'll tell it tomorrow when I'll miraculously become a great time steward and actually head to bed/blogging at a decent hour! 

So. . . Tired. . .

~Highlight of the Day: Successfully making a lovely angelfood cake, and successfully not consuming a single drop while doing it! ~

So I've always been somewhat of an avid journaler. I got my first journal for my 8th birthday, along with a selection of gel pens, and would write/draw all sorts of great stuff. I remember writing about a boy in my 2nd grade class that I thought was funny, and that President Clinton went on a date with a woman who was not his wife (that's as much of that story as my young brain could understand. . . or that my teacher would tell me), and I drew pictures of my sister being annoying, and of horses, and almost every thing else.

In middle school I wrote all about my boy troubles (soooo fun to read now :) and homework. When I got to high school my sleeping habits really declined, but I still managed to keep a somewhat regular journal ( I think I really enjoyed writing about myself. . . still do actually. . . ), and I would often write in it right before going to sleep. As you can imagine this quite often resulted in me waking up around 2 or 3 with my lamp still on and a lovely pool of drool on the journal page. More often than not I would be writing, and then have to give up because I could no longer form coherent sentences and my handwriting became illegible. Several times you can see exactly where I shut down, because halfway through a sentence the letters get tiny, and then become scribbles, and then just stop.

Now, in the great golden age of blogging, I am still dealing with the same issues. Unfortuately the deteriorating handwriting does not express itself, but oh boy do the sentences become interesting! If I begin my post after midnight there is no hope. I usually end up waking up and editing my post in the morning.

For example: My last post currently ends like this, "So here's to technology, a sport I've never played, and the moon. :) ", but it originally ended something like this, "So here's to technology and a fledgling industry. " . . .

Fledgling industry? I remember struggling with that last sentence. I zoned out several times before deciding it was long enough and I just needed to end it and sleep in my bed instead of at my desk, but I don't even know where I was going with that. . .

So there, behind the scenes of 'Of Strings and Green Things' with Rachel :)

Also, my camera is having a midlife crisis. So pictures may be not as often ( sad, I know). I did manage to get a picture or two of my angelfood cake though!

I would just like to say that cooking on a Fast Sunday* is just difficult.

*First Sunday of every month in which we pray and go without food for two meals in order to grow closer to our Heavenly Father

Rehoboth

~Highlight of the Day: Talking and listening to music on the way to (and from) the beach ~

I have now swam in both the Pacific and the Atlantic! Only three more to go :)

I can also say I have experienced Wawa, the great convenience store that is, in so many ways, so much more. It is apparently the place to know out here in the East.

Me at Rehoboth beach. . . with a Wawa sub :)

It's been a long long time since I've been to a sandy beach you swim at. I think it's been about 7 years actually. So I'd forgotten some important things like:

1. Sand gets everywhere.

2. Shaving right before getting into salt water has never ever been a good idea.

3. Walking in sand takes effort. Running in sand doubly so!

4. If you don't jump with the big waves you'll be getting a face full of sand.

Rehoboth: It's  a weird name - It's also biblical. I was actually just reading about this the other day - Isaac dug a well, and a neighbor's men claimed it. So instead of fighting over it he moved away a bit and dug another well. His neighbors claimed that one as well, and did the same with a third. Finally he dug a well that they did not bother him about, and this one he called Rehoboth. It means something, but I forget. . .

In town we saw all kinds of brightly colored houses and shops. I think I could see myself living in an obnoxiously painted little shop on the waterfront, selling ukuleles :)

Blue and Yellow were made for each other.

Garden Dinner

~ Highlight of the Day: Being caught in a text war between my dad and my sister ~

I love to cook. I could cook all day long (and sometimes do), and dirty every dish in the kitchen (too often do). Same goes for baking. So if this starts to feel like a weird-stuff-Rachel-cooks blog, I apologize :)

Today's dinner:

I may or may not have added more
cheese after taking this picture. . . gotta
balance out the veggies!

Woohoo! It actually turned out well! This meal had one goal - use as many things out of the garden as possible. So it includes one large Brandywine tomato, one awesomely orange mystery pepper, some chives, basil, and zucchini. I was very pleased with myself, and even more so when it actually tasted good :)

I think using bright colored ingredients is just plain fun.

Summer Reading

~Highlight of the Day: Falling asleep on the porch on a perfectly lazy summer afternoon ~

It was quite a perfect day today. Hot enough outside to make you appreciate air conditioning, but not so hot that you couldn't enjoy a nap in the shade (which I did :). I also did a lot of reading. I have a lot of reading to do, and there's no way I'm getting it all done in the next three weeks, but I'm going to try!

Here's some of the lighter reading I've got, along with my lunch of leftover french toast:

I remember when I used to just read all summer long. . . I remember when I had time to just read all summer long back in elementary school when all I wanted to read were the books with horses on the cover . . . those were the days! :)

Zucchini!

~ Highlight of the Day: coming home to zucchini bread ~

Zucchini. I am up to my eyeballs in the stuff. I mean, this always happens, so you'd think the surprise would wear off and I'd learn to deal with the huge influx of it. . . but  apparently not. So I think I'll have some zucchini and eggs, and zucchini bread, and steamed zucchini, and fried zucchini, and boiled zucchini, and then maybe some more zucchini bread :)

This morning's harvest. . .

This morning I whipped up a double batch of zucchini bread. It was a lot. Of everything. But it only called for 4 cups of grated zucchini, and I'm pretty sure I got away with 5 1/2, so it did put at least a small dent in my zucchini problem.

I had to use the biggest bowl in the kitchen. . .

At least I know I won't ever run out of veggies for the rest of the summer :)

And it Begins!

~Highlight of the Day: sleeping in, under both my sheet and blanket, with my favorite pj's on! ~

I have only 27 days left in Pennsylvania. . . which means I have a lot of food in my cupboards that needs to be eaten. So here's to creative cooking for the next month!

I began on the right foot I think - I made buckwheat buttermilk pancakes for lunch.

I like using spices. They just look so awesome in all their rich-brownness,
like a lovely color scheme for a painting of a nice warm barn
with horses in it or an old tree in the rain.

I've been meaning to use this buckwheat for more than half a year now. . . I got it at the WinCo in Orem, in kernel form. It took me at least a semester to get around to grinding it, and then the school year ended and I packed it up and took it home to Washington with me. It spent three weeks in the hallway in my unpacked 'kitchen' box, and then made the cut (along with some choice spices and oatmeal packets) for being carted to Pennsylvania with me.

I honestly can't remember if I brought it with me in my luggage or if Mom mailed it in a box of things I forgot. . . but some how it got here, and was promptly put on the top shelf of my allotment of cupboard space (the one I can barely reach, even when I'm on a chair).

And now, finally, after months and months and months of delicious-breakfast-potential, it's become a meal! Now I just have to do the same with what ever else I have managed to acquire and not ever use. . .

Kohlrabi!

~ Highlight of the day: harvesting mostly everything for dinner from my garden! ~

This purple beauty is a Kohlrabi. My neighbor gave me six tiny little starts of this in May, and now they are ready to harvest! I honestly had never had it before and I didn't know how to cook/eat it, but today I decided to give it a try. So I turned to the oh-so-dependable Wikipedia for guidance. Did you know this was related to cabbage and broccoli? I had no idea. And sure enough, it smells like broccoli. Exactly like broccoli. So here's my first kohlrabi attempt:

From left to right: lemon balm, mysterious peppers (all 3 kinds),
 kohlrabi, and basil.

I can't wait to have this as my veggie for
lunch on Monday! It sure beats carrots.

I made fried egg-something-flour pancakes. It's awesome how well that recipe lends itself to experimentation, I was totally making it up as I went.

I would just like to state that kohlrabi is delicious. It has a sweet, crisp broccoli flavor. Just a random connection - the scientific name of kohlrabi is Brassica oleracea, which is the same as ornamental cabbage, and what my house on the row is labeled as!

I also finally found the answer to a matter that has been weighing down on me quite a bit lately. What is the plural of 'fez'? Well, I was reading my O Jerusalem book and came across it:

My fruitless attempts at coming up with a correct-looking spelling are finally at an end!
Fezzes are cool. :)

Needless to say, today was quite productive! I've discovered a tasty new vegetable and learned how to spell 'fezzes', what more could I ask for? :)

I Woke Up Thursday Morning. . .

~Highlight of the Day: Seeing the brand new air conditioner that's going to be installed in the dining room tomorrow - it was indeed love at first sight. ~

Just look at this beauty! It brings tears to my eyes!

Today our weekly intern field trip took us to the Ambler campus of Temple University (about an hour away) for a lovely tour of  their beautiful gardens. It was a small but well landscaped, altogether an enjoyable place :)

 I will someday (when I have the space and time and money) have one of these in my garden:

And to top off an already good day, I used chives out of my garden for dinner!

I think I might be sad my internship is ending soon, now that I can come home to an air conditioned home. . . :)

Kimchi

~Highlight of the Day: Finally catching up with my best friend of 12 years (not that it's been twelve years since we've caught up. . . :) ~

I remember my first experience with kimchi. My siblings and I were watching my uncle with a mixture of awe and disgust (he was known to eat odd and dangerous things, like whole dried fish ) as he took out a jar of brightly colored something, loaded up a bowl of it, and started digging in. He listed off the ingredients (a bunch of which I didn't recognize at all, or didn't sound safe) and offered the jar up for our curious noses. It definitely did not pass the nose test, so I didn't venture to put any in my mouth (this was my uncle we were talking about after all. . . )

Fast forward maybe six or seven years and I'm in my dining room, eating a fabulous South Korean dinner made by my fabulous South Korean roommate. I forget what she called it, but it included ground beef, green onions, and sweet potato noodles, and it was delicious. But then she disappeared into the kitchen for a minute or two, and came out with a small bowl of kimchi for all of us to try. I immediately got nervous. I'd heard of the stuff once or twice since watching my uncle eat it, and I'd seen my roommate eat it several times in the last two months living together. . . but it still wasn't passing the nose test, and looks were still not helping. But I took a deep breath, told myself there was a glass of water less than 6 inches from me, and, after a substantial amount of hesitation, ate it.

It wasn't horrible. It was mostly like a spicy, strong sauerkraut. Apparently they use the same preservation technique - some sort of fermentation? I think it was a bit on the spicy side for me, and quite strong in flavor, but I definitely could learn to love it if I ever live in South Korea :)

the kimchi resides in the fridge, right next to my gallon of milk. . .
doesn't that look intimidating?
I think it does.