On Assignment

Wrapping up towards the end of the semester is one of the busiest days of a university student. Paper work is unforgiving. So is packing up things at the dorm; stalking the registration officers for the fall admissions. Busy. Busy.

Field Day 2: Ginger Field Day

It wasn't until I joined this field day last fall that I really got to understand many information about ginger. I learned that it is a good source of anti-oxidants and has many other tremendous benefits to health.  Yesterday, as I celebrated my birthday (alone "sob") in a Chinese eat-all-you can, I was looking for something that wasn't there. I was looking for ginger. There wasn't a piece of ginger or a trace of it in the food I ate. Or, there might have been - just very faint it was hardly noticeable.

 

 I went out with some staff from university for this ginger field day. They are teaching farmers to grow ginger  in spite of America's freezing temperatures. Marketing ginger was also discussed; and I think it is so much better to classify ginger in terms of size rather than put a big tuber in the vegetable section and let shoppers snap them to pieces.

 

 A dollar an ounce. I could grow ginger in the province in the Philippines and make a fortune out of it.

 Because they thrive in warmer climates, ginger is best grown in heated sheds for the cold months.

 Really love these farm structures here.

 I'm imagining a ginger plantation.

 Ginger as big as your hand.

Gotta write this down in my potential business venture list. :)

Free Stuff for Happiness

While cleaning my room this morning, I accidentally cut my thumb on a protruding screw that I didn't notice. Good thing we have a dorm clinic downstairs with a nurse on duty. She disinfected the tiny wound and bandaged it. And, I got a little bag of freebies from that basket in the clinic. Yay. Don't you like getting unexpected stuff every now and then? :)

Women I Follow: #1- Elisabeth Badinter

"It's very satisfying to promote science and education and see good results. Setting a good example for young people, being a role model, is very important for me." - Yuan T. Lee

 

Elisabeth Badinter, a French intellectual, author, philosopher, historian- and a very rich lady. 

 What she's about:

.... Badinter freely concedes she was a “mediocre” mother to her own daughter and two sons. The Conflict blasts the return to all things natural that Badinter argues is rolling back hard-won freedoms for women. She thrashes “ayatollahs of breast-feeding” who she says magnify “the tyranny of maternal duty.” She bashes cloth-diaper zealots, cosleeping, and epidural-free deliveries. She trashes the dogma of maternal perfection, arguing it ultimately deters would-be mothers. Instead, Badinter suggests fostering “part-time motherhood” is key to boosting fertility. An 18th-century-history buff, she credits a heritage of nonchalant mothers for France’s curiously high birthrate today.

References: 
Here
Photo

Bucket List 2.0

Realizing that, a lot of my dreams come true all the time (yes... I should write about this), I think it is about time again to calibrate my bucket list. I notice that as I grow older, there's this tendency to be complacent about achievements and the real world that I tend to forget that childlike dreaminess that is always so beautiful. It's midweek, and I am feeling in-love and  dreamy. And since I did all my homework today, I should give myself a little reward: daydream.

So, the following are my new entries in the bucket list. First five:

1. To establish a Barbara Cartland collection library. Yes. Really. Been reading this since I was a teenager and they never fail to sweep me off my feet. I must be really romantic at heart. I'm writing down a few titles to order at Abebooks... :) Excited.

2. This one I love. Entry number two: To kiss under the Aurora Borealis.

 

3.  To see the catacombs in Paris.

4. To pick grapes in a vineyard. I'm such in a romantic mood today that Keanu Reeves moves in my head.

5. To own 200+ or more pairs of shoes. (Seriously. My size is 7.5 to 8...just in case donors are paying attention :) who knows :)

Thank you for the photos:
 Cartland
Aurora 
Paris 
Shoes 
Keanu

I. Pick. Them. Up.

Yes, I do. I pick up usable objects around campus. These are the 'stuff' that we see lying on the grass, waiting to be smashed at the parking lot, pavement, half-buried under the snow. I pick them up. I actually have fun doing it. Pens, pencils, sometimes dime or shiny pennies... finding one every so often brings me to a giggly mood, a smile upon my face, "I got a find!" 

I've been doing this since February, and that's a part of my collection- there in the photo. I forgot to photograph the ones in my drawer and in my pen case. So if I started it last February, I could only imagine how many I could manage to have in a year's time. And the pens are still working! I got blue, black, red, green colors, a Sharpie... pencils are still A+ good. I wash them and disinfect with alcohol, and they're ready for use! I think I don't need to buy these things for an entire year.

The Day I Stopped Eating Meat

 It just happened one day that I practically stopped eating meat. It has nothing to do with a personality or spiritual or whatever belief change. I'm not trying to become a vegetarian. I think becoming a 'vegetarian' is an intimidating commitment= it has a title: I'm a vegetarian. I wouldn't think I'd have enough discipline or self-control to fully uphold that title. I'm just a person who does not eat meat any longer. I think this is the most notable last meat I've ever eaten - the lamb chops here. And that was like, many forevers ago. It was true a celebration to the meat-eating life.

 But when I stopped eating meat, I actually felt better. I lost 12 pounds. Yes, twelve pounds. I wasn't dieting; I just stopped eating meat. Every time I line up at the cafeteria, I always look for those meatless dishes, and really, they are quite good.I'm not the type who denies myself - especially food or coffee or relaxation. So if I enjoy food without meat, it's because I really do.

 

 When I stopped eating meat, I felt lighter, like I have enough energy to do things. My sleep has become better and I wake up feeling refreshed. My skin also became clearer; I often go out without make-up as I felt there was no need to cover up. I feel fantastic.

 It's fun, eating no meat. After some time, I realize that even if roast beef is there, I really don't miss it. I get vegetable omelet instead of bacon; vegetable quiche in place of pork roast. Plus. I've lessened eating deep-fried foods.
It's all good. But if we go out and you feel like eating shawarma, sure, I'll join you. I'm not a vegetarian. I'm just a person who no longer eats meat- but still reserves room for a few cheats now and then. :)

Post-Dinner Walks

 Let me tour you around the campus. Maybe it's no longer strange if I tell you that my life here is so far the most solitary life I've ever had. I call it my "One Hundred Years of Solitude". There are days where I don't literally talk to anyone, except people at the cafeteria when I order my food; the cashier at Walgreens to say thank you, have a nice day, after my purchase. But most of the time, it's all quiet. I also have to wrestle with the incessant chatters in my head. To make the most of my self-talking, I try to learn French and Mandarin, talking to the squirrels, "Ni jiao shenme mingzi?" "Wo jiao Enrisa Marie. Wo shi xuesheng!". That. Is. Life. Here.
Solitude is far from loneliness. I do feel lonely sometimes, homesick, and all that, so I believe that going back to blogging and reaching out into the world is a probable cure. Let me take you out for a walk.

This is my favorite path, this tree-lined avenue. I love looking up at the foliage and flowers. Isn't it lovely, the shadows of the trees in the evening sun? 

 There's a football game, over there at the stadium.

 Rounding the bend from the parking lot.

I love brick buildings.

Tres romantique: setting sun, lawn, brick structures.

 I love this bridge too. Like the Bridges of Madison County.

 View from the slope of the hill.

One of my favorite spots- this area overlooking the old town of Petersburg. I didn't visit this site during the winter, but I'm glad it's spring now. There's an acorn tree here on the right side, and on some mornings after breakfast, I'd sit down under the shade. I also find that brick tower surreal, like Rapunzel living somewhere. What a long hair she might have had.

Good evening! 

Total blog time: 21 minutes

Field Day 1: Randolph Farm

I realize that a great deal of my life here looks like some repetition of my business school days many years ago. There are a lot of paper work to do, business conceptualization to think about, professional development plans to make and various academic-related deadlines to beat. I actually find it invigorating (if this is the perfect term) to go back to blogging again after many, many months of hibernation. At least, while resting from all these brain-drain work, I have another outlet for my thoughts.

I try to spend only 3 hours every day in front of the computer - everything I needed to type are already pre-written long hand and the maximum minutes spent on school-work is an hour. Letters to loved ones average to 30 minutes... hence, not much time for staring on Facebook except when I want to see pictures of my daughter from my sister's album.

So, quick! This blog post must be finished in 15 minutes. 

I decided to feature here my visit to VSU's Randolph Farm. Since I am majoring in Organizational Leadership, much of my work here is related to business leadership as well. Say, for example, as a project manager of my company's food service program back home, I was inclined to design yet another support program that would further enhance and sustain it in the future. I tagged along with some key staff of the university's agriculture department and they guided me to the farm. 

 I love farms. As a former culinary professional, I'm used to visiting farms before and I admit that they do fascinate me. But Randolph Farm is really impressive.

Wouldn't it be inspiring if our food service department grow its own produce? If it uses hundreds of kilos of vegetables a week, doesn't it make perfect sense that they'd save money on their raw materials by growing everything in their backyard? I recall that the available resources we have back home are: land, labor, capital. It only needs some detailed planning and collaborative work with all those involved. 

Peppers! As far as the eyes could see... 

More peppers for the school children's pasta primavera, pizza, salads... 

Some vegetable varieties in heated greenhouses. This is to bring the "temperature" of the tropics ideal for growing certain vegetable species. 

 Grapes! When are we gonna make some wine? :)

 Raspberries. I actually felt like a kid when I saw these raspberries. I stared and stared. :)

Don't you just love farms? I even saw a papaya growing in one of those sheds. Back in the Philippines, papaya trees grow in everyone's backyard. You have to watch out, though, because sometimes, you wouldn't know that your friendly neighbor has taken a fruit and cooked it. The next thing that would surprise you is that your neighbor is handing you a bowl of cooked papaya (which you'd think was given to you out of your neighbor's goodness), which in fact, came from your own tree.

Total time of writing this post: 20 minutes

To Stay or Not To Stay?

View from my dorm room overlooking the courtyard. 

It could be the most wonderful news, or it couldn't be. Yesterday after receiving a letter from the Provost, I learned that I only got four subjects remaining in my program card to take. That includes my final oral comprehensive exams. Coincidentally, I bumped into our program chair in the parking lot after dinner and asked her that if I could take all of the subjects in the Fall of 2013, then I could graduate by December 2013. But my visa expires on May 2014... and my program actually includes four semesters. If I finish everything by December, then I got one semester extra, or five months short of my supposed entire stay.

Time flies! Couldn't wait to come home for my daughter... and yet, should I make the most of my stay in America? I'm gonna miss my room!

All The Things We Do For Love

I've never dreamed in my life that I would ever be a scholar someday. I thought that these affairs were too intimidating and were reserved for the Stephen Hawkings and Sergey Brins of the world. I was very much content with my little square inch of life, floating around like a butterfly, such that things like these are beyond my comfort zone. But the heart's capacity is infinite, right?

So when my professor asked me if I could present my work at the research symposium, I said...uhm, yes, sure, I'll give it a try. I think that there's always room for improvement- and that I can't be too complacent no matter what I could achieve- I just had to give it my best shot.

I presented last night this professional development plan for my company back home. It was intended for the improvement and motivation of our employees so they'd have more reason to love their work and be happy with it, no matter what. Adapting Ernest Boyer's taxonomy of scholarship, I designed the plan to help our employees find joy in their career, not just for monetary reasons, but for the passion of it. 

Still a long way to go before it'll be implemented- maybe when I get back to the country. More work waiting. 

The presentation was successful -  I didn't come out dead in a question-and-answer bloodshed. In fact, no one even bothered to ask a question. This remains a scholastic mystery: either the listeners understood it completely or they didn't understand at all. I received some thumbs up from the audience and I was just glad to get out alive.

In My Heart, New York

Going to New York is in everyone's bucket list, I believe. It's been in my list since 2008, and finally in 2012 I was able to go there. Not just went there as a tourist, but actually lived for almost a month. 

 

 Cold in the fall; colder in winter: I went around carrying a cup of coffee all the time.

The Mertz library at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. Going around the conservatory, I was such in awe that some common plants I used to see in my mother's flower pot back in the Philippines were prized exhibited items there. 

Have we Met? 

Along Central Park, 5th Avenue Side. Someday... 

 One of the lions of the NY Public Library.

St. Thomas Catholic Church. It was in New York where I first attended my Catholic mass in the US. 

The New York University. 

 Times Square. Blaring lights.

Me, inside the Mertz Lib.

One item crossed off the bucket list.