Being in the moment

Well, this worked well. I enjoy the concept of documenting your life through both photography and blogging. It's a fantastic way to keep your memories to reminisce about, but there is always the conflict of living in the moment versus capturing the moment, and so removing yourself from it. To remember or to live, what a problem. I've decided and convinced myself time and time again that I would rather fully experience a moment rather than worry about getting that perfect shot. Blogging is something I've flirted far more with, as in when the mood strikes. Unfortunately for my readership of 2 those moments are usually onslaughts of very emotional times resulting in either very angsty posts or vague abstractions at how I'm feeling.

Lately I've begun writing again, but this time just for me. I will be thinking through something, an idea or an emotion, and then attempt to put it down on paper (er.. cyberspace?). It's been fairly irregular so far, and I'm sure it's just another fling with this blog, but it's been good. We'll see how long it lasts.

everybody hears but no one listens
everybody talks but no one speaks

You and I

I have a huge back log of food adventures that are begging to be posted so let's get started!

Coconut Red Lentil Soup
This lovely recipe is from 101 Cookbooks, and it was definitely everything that it claimed to be. On the first evening it had the consistency of a nice, thick soup so I had it with some toast and coconut butter.


Lunch! brown rice, The Soup, bok choy and red onion
After a night in the fridge, and each day after that it had the consistency of a curry. It was super addictive. I would say the best part of this soup was how the golden raisins would become delicously plump, giving each spoonful a note of sweetness. They curry powder was very subtle in flavour, and I'm considering doubling the amount next time.

I was also surprised at how this recipe used only green onions instead of a regular old white one. Beware that the amount listed actually uses half in the soup and the other half for the garnish. I made the mistake of cutting everything up at the same time and ended up with a massive pile of garnish. Essentially everything I ate that week was toppped with green onion.

If you have two hours to spare to make a tasty dinner and lunch for the rest of the week, reach for this recipe!

The Hurt Locker

Just watched The Hurt Locker, and am in such a pensive mood. It's kind of the same feeling as when we watched Hotel Rwanda in gr. 11 (I think that was the year). I still remember exiting that dark theatre into the weak spring sunshine, and having that feeling of overwhelming gravity.

Everything seemed so trivial and juvenile. What was I doing? How could I possibly live my life and think that anything I did or thought was important in comparison to the suffering and war-torn lives of others in these countries.

We go about our lives with our eyes half closed sometimes. We go through the motions and fail to think, really think, about what it is that we have in life. How amazing it is to live in the first world, and how much gratitude and happiness we have. Also, we fail to remember just how quickly our lives can change.

In an instant the comfortable familiarity that we knew a second ago can be completely shattered.

The worst part about watching this type of movie is that I will be pensive for a day, or at the most two. I will look at everything with eyes wide open, and feel grateful for the life I have. I will feel wonderment at the bed I sleep in, the cherry trees that I pass by, and the gentle sun that shines on me. But inevitably I will lose that brooding feeling and move on with my life.

Sometimes I think that taking things for granted is the only way we can live without being totally crushed and overwhelmed by everything else that goes on in the world.

Heirloom tomatoes, focaccia and strawberries

I love going to market. Even if it's just going to Superstore, I will get excited by the thought of visiting the bulk aisle. This morning I was so giddy with excitement that I woke up on my own at 7:30am. I am not a morning person. This was an amazing feat.

I made a quick cup of apricot black tea, and headed out the door. The weather was grey and chilly with the clouds threatening to rain. After being here for a few months I am finally gaining confidence in taking transit to unfamiliar destinations. I had a proud moment today where I intuitively found north. Growing up in Vancouver is a treat when it comes to knowing your compass points. The mountains always loom to the north, the ocean is on your west, and the rest is fairly easy to figure out as the streets run as a perfect grid. When I first came to SF my internal compass was completely lost. I would feel disoriented every time I got off a bus, or had to find a transfer. And the streets here, oh my. The streets run every which way but north/south or east/west. So getting to the Alemany Farmers Market this morning was a pleasant surprise.

I staved off breakfast for the specific purpose of eating at the market, and it was a good decision (despite my tummy protesting otherwise). I chose a beautiful, flaky, fragrant cinnamon twist made from puff pastry, and dusted with powdered sugar. Numerous other vendors offered free samples of hummus, focaccia, and fruit, but our absolute favourite was this twenty-something vendor selling bolani. She was by far the best sales person there with a friendly attitude and an insistent nature to feed you every flavour and accompanying stuffing that she was selling. It was delicious.

I bought (all organic):
3/4 lb. golden raisins
bunch of carrots
bunch of orange beets
kale
red fingerling potatoes
yellow onion
madarin oranges
strawberries
kalamata olive and artichoke focaccia
portobello mushroom
shiitake mushrooms
baklava (this was so sweet and tasty and vegan)

I'm off to cook a farmers market inspired dinner with S&J. This week we made beef, mushroom, parsley stuffed ravioli from scratch (J is a pastry chef, which helped a lot), and we'll probably make pasta again tonight. We bought some lovely lemon basil today and are hoping to make herb pressed noodles :)

Happy Saturday!

S's house where the flowers change every week. I think this week's are white lilies.

Ohayo

Changed my blog layout. Do you like? This wonderful new layout is courtesy of yummylolly.com, and was directed to my attention by Jen.

So tonight I planned to sit down and get some serious journal reading done as my genetics journal club is tomorrow. It`s a pretty great paper (The Genetic Landscape of a Cell, Science 2010), but I just haven`t had the time of day to read it.

Journal reading is one of the most difficult tasks I can undertake. They are these unassuming 5-8 page papers with figures and tables that, by the looks of them, should only take about an hour to read. Boy is that a horrible assumption.

Each sentence itself is a minefield of jargon that leaves me puzzled, and itching to search it up on Wikipedia. Every time I finish a paragraph I`ve already forgotten what the previous one was about. If I actually make it through a single paper (a month later), I`m still not sure what the authors were trying to say. It`s awful.

So to motivate myself I made a nice little snack/second dinner. (The first dinner was also an assortment of snacks, but on a much larger scale.)

fuji apple, mini oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, mint tea, choco
And then I went on skype for 3 hours. #fml

Some of that distraction did actually consist of skyping with my Dad. He e-mailed me this morning about some flight deals and my return date in August/September. It really got me thinking about how I`ve almost reached the half-way mark of my stay here in SF, and what it would be like to go home in the Fall. Don`t get me wrong, I love Vancouver, and hopefully I`ll be excited by my upper level courses. However, I don`t look forward to living at home again. It`ll be nice to be around family, and have the luxury of my parents at hand, but I know I`ll miss the absolute freedom.

And what freedom I enjoy living in the foggy city. There`s a lot to complain about what with being underage, and living in the most party heavy house on the block. Yet, I`ve already come to take for granted the simplicity of coming home at the end of a day`s work to a house devoid of parenting. I absolutely love waking up in the morning with the house to myself and making one of my favourite breakfasts.

I guess I`ll just have to appreciate the time I have left, which is a lot, but already my weeks fly by in an instant. San Francisco, I will savour you like being cocooned in a blanket on a chill, rainy morning. Like that first burst of sunshine you taste when you bite into a blood orange. Like a velvet storm of cherry blossom petals in a rain shower.

A few of my favourite things

Woke up this morning to this lovely weather

Om nom nom

All of my housemates were away this week for their spring break, which meant that I got the entire house all to myself. Such solitude.

There have been snippets of time when I would have the house to myself for an afternoon or so, but this was the first time where I would have a solid chunk of that freedom.

At first I was hesitant to be alone at night, to come home to an empty house. But I quickly got over that feeling. I absolutely love living all by myself. It is so nice to wake up in the morning to the quietude of small rays of sunshine peaking through my window. Loafing around the house is a natural event, and doing it in my pyjamas is a common occurrence. Also, there is this satisfaction in picking my own music for the evening to listen to while I make dinner.

Arman and his girlfriend came home last night, and while no loud, drunk, obnoxious partying occurred I was still mildly resentful at having my Friday night suddenly intruded upon. Oh well, what can you do. We ended up watching The Invention of Lying, which was hilarious with Ricky Jervais, and I recommend you watch if you have an hour and half to spare. After that we saw The Time Traveler's Wife. My feelings were mixed about this movie when I first heard about it coming out as I've read the book, and wasn't sure how it would translate on screen. It turned out that the movie was surprisingly good. Definitely a chick flick (as in it made me tear up), but the plot flowed quite well and didn't leave me bored at any point.

I had every intention of going to the farmer's market this morning, but sometimes you just need to sleep in. It's 1pm and I'm still in my pj's. Today is just going to be one of those beautiful days.

My go to breakfast: toast, peanut butter, nanner, raisins, sweetened coconut, drizzle of honey, and cinammon. Mmmm.

When the heart hurts

I booked my flight tickets to go home for a week at the end of April. I'm excited to see what comparisons I make between Vancouver and SF. I want to see if I can, after just 4 months, decide which one I like better, or if one even is better than the other. Sometimes things are just different.

Moving to live in the US all on my own is definitely the most drastic change I've had in my life so far. There's been so much learning through all of it. I think that I've grown.. and changed, but I'm not sure in what way.

I still remember the first few weeks. They were overwhelming to say the least, and full of doubt and uncertainty. Had I made the right decision moving away from my established life in Vancouver? Was I going to be able to make it all by my lonesome?

It was a strange world full of foggy weather, palm trees, and the American attitude. The culture was dense, and the diversity was astounding. I naively thought that living in Vancouver exposed me to diversity, but boy was I wrong. Being here made me fully realize what a range of culture and races there exist in North America. African Americans, Mexicans, Latinos, Filipinos, Vietnamese, Koreans, Japanese, and a lot more I'm sure I failed to categorize would be crammed onto every street I would walk through.

It was all the little things that would always get me. People in my house insist on using the word 'bathroom' as the only means of describing what I was raised to call the 'washroom'. The first time I ordered deli meat I had to catch myself and order in increments of pounds (or in my case 1/4 pounds). What I think of as common courtesy and politeness is largely ignored here, and more often than not completely replaced by rudeness.

When I was living with my boss during that first week I was fairly miserable and pessimistic. I would wake up and go to work each weekday, return in the dark of the evening, think about any groceries that I needed, make a bland dinner, and then hide in my room. I was timid about going out and exploring the neighbourhood. The places that I needed to go to buy food were barely familiar to me, and the Mission District where I was living was sketchville in itself. The Mission is this up and coming trendy neighbourhood that is half-full of amazing restaurants, wine bars, and shops that insist on quirky originality. The other half is entirely devoted to government housing projects. It's a very confusing mix of affluent hipster foodies, poor immigrants, and crazy homeless people. Not the best place for a young female to wander around by herself at night.

And then I moved to my current abode...(to be continued)

Where breakfast is always for dinner

Attempting to carmelize some Fuji apple slices

We ran out of maple syrup so we decided to make our own vanilla syrup

Oh dear...

Why is it that despite all of my rationalities I still get freaked out so easily?

Here's the story: For the past two months I've been putting off getting my social security number. I had decided in all my wisdom that it wasn't that high of a priority, and I was getting around to doing it.. honest!

Well, it all came to a head this past week where the secretary for my lab began sending me "URGENT: social security number needed" e-mails. Again, I stupidly ignored the seriousness of the issue, and continued to drag my feet.

In my defense, I did go to the Social Security Administration building to try and apply for my number a total of 3 times at 2 different locations. Unfortunately since I'm not a morning person, my timing would always be poor and the line up would be a ridiculous 2+ hour wait. What with my working, there was no way I could be in there for that long.

Yesterday my co-worker, Sam, found out some dirt from the HR person in charge of our hiring process when he submitted his social security number. Apparently our lab is getting audited, and so everyone within my lab is technically under scrutiny. I am a resident alien legal to work in the US, and my documents are all in order except for one tiny detail. I don't have a SSN yet. Without one, I stand the risk of being in breach of my contract, and would get deported if someone of US authority were to find out. Oh wait.. shit.

So logically all I would have to do is get my act together and apply for the damn thing. It's free of charge and processes in the database within a couple of days. I would then get my SSN card in the mail in about 2 weeks. Even if something did happen I'm sure the university could figure something out to resolve it.

I knew all of this. I knew that the next morning I would just wake up early, go downtown, and get my application submitted. So what did I do? Freak the fuck out, of course. As in I wanted to cry at work, stop everything I was doing, and just already have my SSN dammit.

*breathe*

(And a chocolate bar later)

I finished my work for the day, which took an hour longer than usual (making me end at 7:30pm) due to multiple people asking if they could use my scheduled time on the robot so that they could finish their stuff and go home. WTF. Okay yes, I am a junior researcher here and you have shiny doctoral degree but I want to go home at a reasonable hour too. So after my long day and stint of emotional eating I went to the gym for a quick run (I make some healthy decisions too alright?).

It's weird I never used to be a fan of going to the gym. I dislike the monotony of just being on a machine and not going anywhere. Usually, the only way I get exercise is if I play a sport. But oh man, these gyms have individual tv monitors embedded into each machine so I can distract myself however I want. Cable is a scarce commodity for me.

Anyways, end tangent. I got my ass out of bed this morning, waited in line downtown, and got my application submitted! Everything instantly became better. The funny thing is that along with my relief and return of gratitude for life one of the first things I though was, "Man, I feel like doing some science today".

The moral of the story is...

I wanted to run a few errands today that badly need to be crossed off my list. Bank, groceries, pay my bills, laundry, get a social security number - all the things that make your life run smoother once they're over and done. The funny thing is that I actually love running errands. They are necessary, doable, and give you a sense of definitive accomplishment.

Today turned out to be a gorgeous, fluffy white cloud day. The perfect weather to go out and about, right? But then all my housemates decided to leave me one by one whether for work or visiting family. Along with finishing off my To Do list I planned on going to campus to read some papers and maybe get to the gym, but the allure of having the house all to myself was just too tempting.

I am, by nature, fairly shy and am introverted when left to my own devices. However, my secret is that I love being around people, but often need incentive from others to be social. The one exception is when I want to bake. I am one of those people that can't have other people in the kitchen otherwise I get grumpy and OCD. When I bake I need the lighting to be just right, some good music going on in the background and time to myself to figure out how I want to do the recipe.


So with an empty house and some beautiful afternoon sun streaming through the windows I decided to bake craisin almond scones. This was a pretty on-the-spot decision as I originally wanted to use raisins, but the lovely produce store across the street from me were all out. The recipe was coming along fine despite my lack of a sifter and white sugar, and I was becoming excited to find out how my flavour combination would work. On the last step as I stirred in the milk I knew something was wrong. There was just too much liquid, and the dough which could not be over-mixed was not coming together. So much for scones.

For some reason I thought that adding some whole wheat flour would be a good try at thickening the dough. And so I proceeded to try rolling it out. No such luck. I ended up having to drop-dough it onto the baking sheets cookie style, and crossing my fingers that this wouldn't be a total disaster. It kinda was.


I have a couple of hunches on why these turned out to be a bit like the consistency of corn bread (not enough flour), and with a bitter after-taste (raw whole almonds). Despite everything, I still ate two, and will of course slowly eat the rest. Oh living by myself and learning how to bake.

Ah well.

Happy Saturday!

The weekend where I asked to be carried up every hill

City Hall


I can't believe that this is their city hall

The Forever 21 and Gap downtown

Fisherman's Wharf (Pier 39)

Harro

Climbing up Lombard St., the crookedest street there ever was

I want to longboard down this

View from the top

I bet him that he couldn't balance the pomelo on his head all the way back down. He did.

The Academy of Sciences

turtle turtle

come to meeee





His attempt at being emo


this is a fish...

Chinatown!



somewhere between Chinatown and Japantown


Grace cathedral

Badger, badger, badger!

I got my second ever visit by someone from Vancouver! It was this boy:

Hello.

This past weekend was my most tourist-esque yet, but I definitely saw a lot of SF finally. Here's the breakdown.

Thursday
- city hall
- little Saigon
- walked around downtown SF
- Fisherman's Wharf
- Ghirardelli Square
- Lombard St.
- Coit Tower
- North beach

Friday
- Golden Gate Park
- The Academy of Sciences
- Bison paddock

Saturday
- Chinatown
- dim sum
- Tea Ren
- Golden Gate bakery
- Grace Cathedral
- walked all the way to Japantown

Sunday
- Palo Alto
- Stanford University

And then it was good-bye... forever?

Oh, Saturday

Woke up this morning with another random person sleeping in our house. Okay, that's a bit of an overstatement, but really our house plays host to so many people.

Over the past two weeks Curtis' brother, Max, along with one of his work buddies has been staying with us sporadically. Max is a 30 something-year-old road surveyor who lives well outside of San Francisco (about 2 hours east of here in the foothills as he puts it), but his work takes him all sorts of places. So when he's working in the Bay area it's most convenient for him to stay here.

And it is so nice to have Max around. As a married man and father of one, boy does he know how to cook. I think in the first 2 weeks that I've been here Max made dinner at least 3 nights of the week in huge portions, which meant lunch for the next day too. I am so spoiled, hehe.

Last night Curtis' friend from high school was in the area so the boys went out to the bar, while Channing and I stayed in and watched Grey's Anatomy on her laptop. Oh, America, why am I not legal here.

This morning was amazing. Us girls were not hungover so we decided to make waffles from scratch. Luckily Arman has a waffle iron so they turned out beautifully.

Saturday Morning Waffles
1/2 Cu. all purpose flour
1/2 Cu. whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp. sugar
2 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
1/2 Cu. milk
1/4 Cu. oil

1. Mix dry ingredients together
2. Mix eggs, milk, oil in a separate bowl
3. Combine wet into dry
4. Put in waffle iron
5. Eat six of them in a row with butter and maple syrup





In the afternoon we all went to Ikea for 3 whole hours where I didn't have anything I needed to buy so I slowly lost my sanity walking around showrooms for that long. buhhh. I mimicked this johnny wander comic perfectly.

Hello there

This is where I will be living for the next 7 months. My address is:

1225 Capitol Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94112

Send me some mail =)



View down my street

My 'hood: Ingleside

This is Muni - one of 3 different companies that run transit around here. It's the equivalent of our translink but much less reliable and pretty oldschool. It does the whole thing where it accepts dollar bills and the driver hands you one of those transfers made from newspaper paper that are ripped according to your transfer time. Do you remember those from the 90's? Plus it's a tram car and often gets stuck behind a pile up of all the other different lines. I take the "K Ingleside"