How to help with the Haiti Earthquake

My internship at MercyCorps is with the recruitment team. And generally I’m sitting in my own little cubicle working on my own little projects, but today I sat fielding calls from donors. The devastating earthquake in Haiti has sprung forth a great response of people who want to help, and MercyCorps is responding to the emergency. It was great to see how many people wanted to help, but a lot of people also don’t know how to help. As crass as it sounds the most good you can do is to donate money, and not just to MercyCorps any international relief organization can use the help. The Center for International Disaster Information has a great FAQ page (http://www.cidi.org/media/faq.htm) that explains why. Just a short message urging you to help, and if (like me) you’re broke then MercyCorps has a page on how to fundraise or you can volunteer locally in the call banks.

Getting more and more exciteed

Wednesday evening I hopped in the car and got my picture taken for my visa and PC passport (I look angry, which, I suppose, is how I’ll look by the time I get to customs) which was a total rip off by Walgreens but done super fast. After dropping off that and some paperwork I felt super accomplished. As I complete each little task this it becomes more and more real and exciting.

Shakespeare action figure for scale

Next stop was this weekend where my Grandpa and his girlfriend took me out to get some Peace Corps gear (that’s what these lovely pictures are of if you couldn’t tell). Seeing as how I’m constantly complaining of the cold in my heated Portland house, I thought it was best to get updated on my winter gear. Now I’m in possession of comfy and warm new snow boots, a sleeping bag to protect me in my unheated new residence, a giant pack that will be most of my luggage, and a nice puffy coat.


Now, I’m a notoriously light packer. I brought for five weeks in Italy in Spain what my oldest sister brings for a weekend in Portland, and I once packed for five days in my handbag. But two years is a long time, and I’m already dreading that challenge that’s ahead. Mostly everyone has talked about how they brought too much stuff rather than too little, so I suppose I’m just getting ahead of myself.


Finally I had the chance to have coffee this afternoon with my uncle’s friend’s daughter who just got back from Peace Corps Armenia. It was lovely to hear her talk about her experiences and it got me thinking about how excited I am for my own. Other than that, I had a nice time hanging out with my cousin going to first Thursday, and some family dinners.

Things to Aspire to

I’ve been given a ton of paperwork, and one of the more enjoyable things was writing my aspiration statement. Though the format didn’t leave a lot of room for creativity, it did cause me to reflect on my goals for service and why I’m doing this in the first place. As I’ve talked with my friend who is considering this herself, if I was doing the Peace Corps for one reason I wouldn’t be doing it.
Reasons to spend two years of my life in a foreign country without constant electricity:
-I’m 19 years old and an idealist and naïve and want to save the world
-I’ve been volunteering since the fourth grade and never regretted taking it further
-I love to travel and hate being a tourist
-I became an anthropology major because I’m deeply interested in other cultures
-I became an English major because I love books, and consequently adventures
-I was born in Renton, raised in Kent, and went to school in Seattle. Besides a brief sojourn in Italy I’ve never had that globe trekking adventure I so crave
-My career goals involve working for an NGO or joining the foreign service, the Peace Corps will help with both
-Learning a language greatly appeals to me
-I want to be challenged, pushed to my limits, and come out a better person
-I genuinely believe in the mission of the Peace Corps
Things I expect
-To develop an appreciation for the Kyrgyzstani culture and the beauty of the people and land
-More competent language skills (though in Russian or Kyrgyz remains to be seen)
-Help my family and friends better understand the Kyrgyz Republic
-Become more patient
-Become more independent and resourceful
-I expect my service to be difficult and frustrating and crazy and to still love it
-I expect that despite abstaining from my alcohol all my life I’ll finally learn to drink
-To come back May 28 2012 and be a different person
-To be constantly surprised, and constantly challenged
-To miss Seattle, even the climate, but mostly the people
-To really miss indoor plumbing

I know I have three months to go, and though right now that seems like a long time, I suspect it will end quicker than I expect. Right now I’m edge of my seat excited, and despite the mountain of paperwork that awaits me and all the things I don’t know, I’m pretty sure that feeling is going to be sticking around a long while.

Resources for my family and friends: This is a beautiful blog about Nambia, and this website will help you find blogs of other PCV. The Peace Corps directs you to this page, and I’d recommend checking out the CIA World Factbook for the basic stats.

Its Official

As I anxiously stood at the window waiting for the mailman to show up, I remember that last year hanging out by the Space Needle for New Years fireworks a radio reporter asked me what my resolution for 2009 was. I responded to join the Peace Corps. And when the mailman finally came at five o clock (!), and handed me (because of course I opened the door to rush out and meet him) my packet it looks like that has officially come true. I have been invited to serve in the Kyrgyz Republic (also known as Kyrgyzstan), leaving for my staging (this part is in a US city, though I don’t know which yet) is on March 26th, 2010, and three days later I’ll be chilling (literally, also as an English teacher I should probably practice less vernacular based vocabulary) in the Kyrgyz republic. I come back May 28th, 2012.

As my friend Sarah eloquently put it: “Didn’t we know that eight months ago?” While I was pretty confident, I got more and more nervous when my invite didn’t come. Three and a half weeks ago I received an e-mail saying 400 positions had been cut and all the invites for the program I had been nominated would get invites in the next three weeks. By the time Christmas rolled around and I was invite free my slight anxiety had built up to pretty high levels. Now though, all I have to stress about is packing. It should be noted (in case you haven’t figured it out) this is going to be my Peace Corps blog, so when I’m gone I’ll be able to post updates on this.

Thoughts about Kyrgyzstan: Bordered by China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan; the type of government is a republic; 75% Muslim, 20% Russian orthodox, and 5% other; 64.7% speak Kyrgyz and 12.5% Russian; Slightly smaller than South Dakota; temperate in Northern foothills, subtropical in Southwest, dry continental to polar in Mountains; it is referred to as the “Switzerland of Central Asia” sadly not because of chocolate or world peace, but Mountains; the international airport in the major city of Bishek serves London, Moscow, Istanbul, Delhi, and Beijing; I’ll be there.

A roundtrip flight in late June costs 1359, so start saving your money so you can come visit me. And also, happy New Years! PS All pictures are lifted from Wikipedia who probably lifted them from someone else.

Let it Snow

Last night there was fire. The cousins have been clamoring for a fire for quite a while and we got a pretty good one going, sitting super close and drinking hot chocolate. A few renditions of ‘Let it Snow’ were even sung.

Oops. Because it did snow, as I was getting ready to leave work, and it is still snowing. Snow used to be something that I loved and wished for every year without fail. My parents and other adults would complain, but me? A half inch and school was canceled, streets were blanketed in a much prettier way than asphalt, and hot chocolate was almost always guaranteed. Then last year, when I was stuck in Vegas for several days (mind you I’m not even old enough to gamble) and the only place to stay was in Newf Rescue. Mind you, more eventful than the entire tour bus confined trip I was just coming back from.This year though not even the long walk with flats that clearly are not waterproof could bring me down. Part of that, I imagine is snow in its all its cliché white goodness falling in what seems to be slow motion.

The other part is that my invitation is in the mail! That’s right, I’ve been invited to the Peace Corps! For those of you that have been following along, I got nominated to serve almost a year ago, medically cleared several months ago, and have been waiting on edge the rest. In a few days (my guess is Saturday) I will know when and where I am going 100% sure.

As I’ve been freaking out about not getting an invitation this is extremely exciting. I’ll post an update once I get the packet in the mail!

PS Getting back with sopping wet shoes is made better when you find a note like this on your bedstand)

Pasta Addict has moved!

An outcome of Apollo and Daphne if Apollo hadn't been a pyscho rapist

Squirell!

Swing

Not domains or anything, I have officially lived in Portland for a grand total of three days now, and the first was spent mostly driving the car. I’ve been to Powells, the best place on Earth, I’ve been to Vodoo Donuts, and I’ve walked the 20 odd blocks from my new place to the electronics store to buy a charger. Besides that, mostly just work and back.
Which is nice, my commute is about forty minutes but half that is walking slowly. In the neighborhood side I pass by everything stereotypically Portland, bikers, dogs, children, etc. Once I’m over the bridge though everyone seems to be smoking. Maybe I’m just in the sketch part of town (the first day my boss explained to never come too early since we’re a hotspot for the homeless), but either way it seems sort of odd. Even on the Ave it wasn’t this prevalent.
My first few days have been smooth other than the absence of my phone charger. It was a lovely walk to radio shack though (that’s where these pictures are from). I could have driven but I was looking for a photo walk and this one took me by the post office too. Plus it was the first dry day, and not even too cold.
Why, you may ask, is this post not about food? The answer is that my Aunt whom I’m living with is such a good cook and doesn’t want any help in the kitchen. So this will be getting a little more personal, though hopefully still as photogenic.

Turnip Souffle

Turnips are a stranger to my family. As we sat reviewing what we would get in our CSA box this week, we debated for a while wether to change them out or not, before deciding to keep them in and try them. They’re strange looking things, tinted with purple but mostly white, and when I searched for recipes a soufflé caught my eye. It sounded bizarre, but so was this vegetable to me and so I tried it. Overall, positive response. Not ‘I want to eat this every day’ but ‘I’d have this again.’ I even cut up the greens and added them to a salad, its awesome when you can use all of the vegetable. And while I should be working on my last final (ever!) I’m writing this instead.

Turnip Souffle
Adapted from Back to Bakas
Serves 4

3 medium turnips
2 cups of chicken stock

2 TBSP butter

1 TBSP brown sugarpinch of salt, pepper

1 TSP baking powder

2 eggs

3 TBSP butter

1/2 cup fine bread crumbs

Peel turnips, cut into ½ inch chunks. Boil in chicken stock like making mashed potatoes. Drain chicken stock (I turned mine into gravy), and mash turnips. Saute bread crumbs with butter in separate pan, and add all other ingredients but egg whites (beaten till fluffy). Fold in the egg whites and spoon into soufflé dishes, put bread crumbs on top. Bake for 25 minutes at 350, and enjoy!

I mixed my bread crumbs in instead of puting them on top and it worked just fine.

Pickled Carrot Sticks

I don’t really like carrots. I’m still getting over my childhood aversion to anything that seems like it might be remotely healthy to me (the last time I ate a carrot it had more ranch on it than carrot), but these make my Mom ridiculously happy and are also ridiculously easy to make. A win win situation for everyone.
This is the third time making them, and my first with baby carrots (which apparently are grown less healthy?), for an appetizer to my pre-Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. Since I didn’t have to peel the carrots it took me about one minute of prep time and however long it takes liquid to boil to make this. It really doesn’t get much easier.

Pickled Carrot Sticks
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

1 cup cider vinegar (or ½ cup normal vinegar and cider each)
¼ cup sugar
1 ½ tablespoon dill weed
1 ½ tablespoon salt
2 garlic cloves slightly crushed
1 ¼ cup water
1 pound carrots

Peel and then quarter carrots, if using baby carrots simply halve them to make thinner sticks. Place in Tupperware container that will fit in your fridge. Boil remaining ingredients, then bring to simmer for two minutes. Pour over carrots, let cool, stick in fridge. Eat after 24 hours, keeps for a month.

Chili, Coffee, and Steak; oh my!

This steak was a huge hit. It had a little too much of a kick for me, but I also fail at eating spicy food. It was however, delicious, and for the second time of using coffee I once again did not taste it. This is also a blog I haven’t tried anything from before and it got raves. I used it on steak, but originally it was used on pork. I think serving it with sweet potatoes would be great, because with the cauliflower it was a little much.

Coffee-Chili Steak
Adapted from Tasty Eats at Home

1 T canola oil
1 1/2 T finely ground espresso powder
1 1/2 T ground chile powder, such as ancho or cascabel
1/2 T dark brown sugar
1/4 T dry mustard
1/4 T ground coriander
½ T garlic salt
1/4 T freshly ground black pepper
1 ¼ lb steak

Combine all spices and oil in a small bowl. This will create a coarse mixture, which you then spread on the steak. Refrigerate for 3 hours. Heat up the grill, it should take about 8 minutes to cook, but because the rub is so dark is a little hard to tell. Serve and enjoy.

As you can tell this is a fast and easy rub, and you an even skip the marination process.

Fall Cauliflower

It’s fall. And in Seattle this means two things, one being that the rain is coming down in droves, and the second that it is unbelievably beautiful out. This recipe just seemed so fall like that I had to try it, and it was good. I’ve never had cauliflower not with cheese, but this topping was delightful. The one thing I wasn’t in love with was the texture of the cauliflower, I don’t like it baked so much.



Cauliflower with Raisins
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Yield: 3 servings

1 head cauliflower, trimmed of leaves
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons fresh soft bread crumbs
1 tablespoon plus
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons whole almonds
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons raisins
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon capers, rinsed and drained
1 teaspoon finely chopped parsley
1 teaspoon finely chopped tarragon
1 teaspoon finely sliced chives.



Sauté bread crumbs in 1 tablespoon butter for three minutes until toasted and golden brown. Set aside, and put in almonds and 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Toss until lightly browned and then remove from pan. Roughly chopped (we pulled out the wooden bowl and chopped used to make charoses), and then also set outside. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Wipe out pan and add remaining olive oil, cut cauliflower into slices (which I was less successful at) and sauté until lightly browned on each side. Since I don’t have an oven proof skillet, I transferred everything onto a pan and baked that for 12 minutes which worked well.

So I busted the pan back out, poured the vinegar and remaining butter and raisins, and cooked until plump, about five minutes. Then add the drained raisins, almonds, capers, and spices together. Once the cauliflower is cooked pour this on top, and then spread over the bread crumbs. Serve immediately!