Desserts

There's something about a sweet little bite after a meal to make the meal whole. I've been know to have a sweet tooth (or teeth, depending on the amount of sugar I consume that day). I love eating candies and I used to buy and eat Chupa Chups daily in high school. When I go out to dinner, I feel that the meal is incomplete if we don't order dessert at the end. Do you feel that way or am I the odd one?

Since there's only two of us in the household, I can't make batches of cookies or pastries because I will be the one to finish them all in the end. Husband doesn't snack and I can't bare wasting food. I have to think of easy desserts that don't take much to make but can last. We've been eating a lot of ice cream lately and you know what? You can be creative with ice creams too! I made affogato the other day just to spice it up. We are a coffee drinking family and I would use as much coffee in my cooking as possible. Curry? Add coffee. Chocolate anything? Add coffee. Ice cream? Add coffee. See the trend?

I was running low on things to make desserts, which usually consists of milk, eggs, and sugar for western style desserts, so I decided to make coffee jelly. Jelly = Jello = gelatin based. This is not the jelly you put on sandwiches for PB&J. It's super simple and I can make 2 cups portion that will last me for a week in the fridge.

On a side-note, I think coffee jelly is a Japanese dessert, at least I've never seen it in the States.

Here's the recipe below. You can eat it alone or with a scoop of ice cream.

Ingredients:
2 cups water
1 packet of gelatin (get it in the baking isle)
1/4 cup sugar
2 tbs instant coffee powder

• Heat 2 cups water to a boil in a saucepan.
• Lower heat to simmer.
• Add 1 packet of gelatin and1/4 cup sugar to the water. Stir until the water is clear.
• Stir in 2 tbs instant coffee powder.
• Let cool till the coffee water is lukewarm.
• Pour the mixture into a container and chill in fridge.

First Semester: Done!

My last paper is still being reviewed right now, but essentially I'm done with the first semester of grad school! I absolutely cannot believe I survived and at the same time getting an A in one of the classes. It's been hard. You can tell by the fact that our home is a mess due to all my readings and research strewn everywhere. I still manage to pick up rock climbing though, so at least I'm not going insane being enclosed at home writing and readings papers day in and out. I've written four 15-20 pages papers so far this semester, excluding ones that were collaborations with classmates. I am so sick of writing them! Sooner or later, I'll have anxiety attacks just by opening up Word. Haha. The one class that I was super nervous about ended up being the easiest class (thus, the A) and the one that I thought I could pull off was the one I had a hard time understanding plus the fear of failing that class. I hope he'll give me benefit of the doubt for the piece of sh*t that I wrote in my final and let me pass!!!

Other than that, I'm super excited to be finally enjoying a holiday! Thanksgiving was horrible because I had papers due before and after, therefore, I didn't actually have much time celebrating it. I can at last do some arts and crafts, clean up our home, apply for residency, and welcome Willbe to our place!!! Yaaaaaaay~ (O, and also watching tons and tons of tv plus Korea drama...)

Happy holidays!

I love school

I don't think I'll ever say this, but I seriously love school at the moment, albeit, this is only my second week into the semester (technically third week, but who counts the first week with just the syllabus as real school?)

Most of my classes are discussion based and in order to participate, we have to read a lot. By a lot, I meant 30 pages of readings in average and we have 4-5 assigned to us every week for every class. This also excludes the supplemental suggested readings that we're meant to read. (Honestly though, who reads those?!) I had a hard time following, let alone participating, my first week's class. This week though, discussions seemed way better and I could actually say what I wanted to say, and that what I said was useful... an important point when everyone around you seemed to have read 300 more books than you did.

I've had people asked me what is the point of studying Anthropology. It's not exactly what that person asked, but basically that's what s/he meant. I... think it's because it's such a philosophical yet so practical field of study that most people think it's pointless. Yes, we can technically study anything and make an argument out of it, but, isn't that what the fun part is? It makes you think!!! Why just sit there and type numbers and reorganize documents? I know you earn more than I do, but ask yourself truthfully, do you feel useful about yourself?

We discussed leading contemporary Anthropologists in class today and the name Graeber came up. David Graeber wrote a lot of radical articles and was one of the first supporters of Occupy Wall Street. He was denied tenure at Yale basically because of what he wrote didn't fit well with Yale... but of course the university denied that. Anyhow, I think his articles are worth reading and below is the link to his latest one, which basically talked about everything I felt while I was a trainee. I also think it's a slap in the face for the 10% of people from our high school graduating class that became lawyers...

Enjoy!

On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs

Picking up bits and pieces

Been back in the States for around 2 months now. Orientation starts next week and then school starts a week later. I'm already frustrated by the International Student Office and school books prices. I just don't understand why International Student Offices have to be so unhelpful when we need the help most. I seem not to be able to find the right people or ask the right question or something because I do know others that swear by them... Whether it was at Penn State or here, I felt so rejected at the office and they seemed so unhelpful! I didn't know the time for grad int'l students orientation because they gave conflicting information and didn't let the students know. Even after I asked, they only gave me a start date and time. Hello, I asked about all the locations and time. I'm pretty sure you're not just going to fit everything in on one day! Argh~

My school's orientation will be on Friday. Kind of scared about it but at the same time I'm interested in meeting my classmates. I wonder whether I'll be much older than my Masters classmates since a lot of kids in my field go straight to grad school after graduation from undergrad these days. I am excited about class, but at the same time, why are books so expensive!!??!? I'm trying to borrow books from the school library at the moment. Not sure how long their borrowing time is and whether I'll need to give them back mid-semester. *sigh* These things happen when I don't have income and am no longer supported (heavily) by parents. I am, very grateful, that I don't need to pay tuition, again. However, I will need to support myself outside school, which I think is fair, considering I did work for 3 years and saved a bit.

Currently renovating our home one small step at a time. By renovating, I meant moving furniture, throwing out (lots of) stuff and hopefully being able to fit two people worth of junk in a tiny apartment. So far, we've successfully did the living room and now it's the closet. May be I'll take some pictures later.

My body-clock's been all kinds of messed up but I don't think anything I do will fix it until I go back to school. I've been setting my alarm to wake up earlier, but I just keep snoozing it. I know at the back of my mind that I don't need to wake up as there's really nothing important to do, so, I don't wake up. O well~

Guilt from a dream?

Is it weird that I felt a little bit guilty after waking up from a dream?

In my dream, I was dating my coworker, I think. I'm saying I think because I can't be sure whether we were really dating or not, but definitely had affections for each other. I felt guilty waking up because I definitely wanted to keep dreaming that dream. I felt like I was cheating on my husband, indirectly. If this happened like a week before, I would feel even more weird because I would see my coworker at work and then I wouldn't know what to do around him, especially when he's one of my good friends at work. Actually, I just remembered something like this happened to me before too when I was still at Jockey Club. Hm.... I really should stop dreaming about my coworkers...

On a side note: I'm now unemployed! My last day was this past Friday and it seemed surreal to have left a job I held for 1.5 years. I'm not ready for the academia either. I'm so nervous having to go back to school!!! *runs around home* ahhhhhh!

Random rants

I was going to write a post about regrets... but, I thought of my regrets, cried a little about them and let them go (or as much as I can let go). My most recent one is about not being able to take pictures while wearing the Chinese wedding dress with my friends and family. First world problem. I know. I think I'm mostly just jealous. Jealous that Pete's family got them and my family and friends didn't. Jealous because I felt like his side dominated the morning when it should be how I wanted it. I think this kind of jealousy won't end because Pete would never stand up to his mom and I would always have to compete. Every time I see his parents, my stress level increases by 100%. It sucks. I think if we ever get a divorce, it'll be because I can't stand his parents anymore.

Next topic.

I must say, I know that I'm really fortunate to be born in Hong Kong and had been to other parts of the world. Since I went to Penn State, which is in the middle of Pennsylvania, I've met people that had never left the States. To me, that's weird. How could you NOT have been to any other country and how small is your world? I'm glad I got to explore, I'm glad I knew people from many different countries and I'm glad that I'm not stuck in the middle of nowhere's-ville and settled down to have a life like that for the rest of my life. At least I saw some.

Next topic.

I want to help you, Debbie, I really do. But, this tiny bit of technicality called geography is keeping us apart and making this traveling thing kind of difficult. I wish teleportation exists. I wish you would've talked to us when you were here even though you decided to hide in the end. I also wish that you would've listened to your heart in the first place and came back home from the very beginning. You need help. Get help.

Next topic.

I CAN SLEEP IN!!! (Read the last 50% of LOTR by tonight??? Maybe???)

C25K!

SUCCESS!

I finished my first 5k last night. I wasn't going to run since it was slightly drizzling but just like a quote I came across somewhere, there will never be perfect weather. Thankfully I did run because it's raining tonight! I didn't start running to join any competition but it was more than what I've ever ran in my life. I started using one of the c25k running programmes and just listened to the music and sessions that people made. It took me longer than the suggested 9 weeks to finish this 5k training since I had surgeries and traveling and such. I realized that the hardest part about 5k for me is that running itself gets so boring if you're running along a track. My mind started drifting and I wasn't concentrating by the end of it. Haha. How can people run marathons!? Yay to one accomplishment this year!