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