Fall Semester 2009

What a wonderful feeling to be back in Raleigh with friends and all kinds of familiar faces. I knew that was eager to get back, but being here reminds me of just how much I missed everything Southern. The "new thing to do" this semester, however, is to make fun of Ellen and her new found Minnesotan accent (Oh ya, oh no, uff da - haha not really the last one, but it's caught on).

This semester seems like it should be an easy one. Five classes:

- Food Preservation

- Food Microbiology

- Human Nutrition

- Seeds, Science, and Society (my token crop science course)

- Arabic 101 (my token languages course)

It's nice to have the time to take classes that I really want to take but don't need to graduate. I think that technically I'll only have two or maybe three classes left for next semester that I'll absolutely have to take, so I'll be able to take more of what I would like to take. Which of course will be either crop science or languages, but hey, that's me.

I am also a TA in the first-year college/inquiry section of Dr. Patterson's World Population and Food Prospects course. There are actually two TAs (well, maybe three, but that's a long story) so my role is more that of multi-cultural activities that will enhance classroom participation and also teach the students to think a little bit differently than they're used to. I have some pretty awesome activities lined up for them and I can't wait to see how they respond to them. And I'm also excited that I get to share all of my experiences with them and hopefully motivate a couple to help me save the world :)

I have already taken yet another road trip, but this time, thankfully, I didn't drive. A couple food science guys and I went to Atlanta this Saturday (just for the day - boo) to see the live 10th birthday special of Good Eats with Alton Brown. I really don't watch the show that much (or ever) but two of my friends know all of the episodes and really wanted to go. They wore matching shirts, although not on purpose, and brought their cookbooks to get an autograph. It was cute haha. We were in the third tier, but our seats were right in the middle, so I couldn't complain. Since it was live, we had the stage manager telling us when to clap, lots of good outtakes moments, and even a really catty/bitchy fan that just didn't know when to keep her mouth shut. I had a lot of fun and can't wait to watch it on TV (October 10th on the Food Network, if you were wondering).

A couple friends and I have made a Bucket List for senior year, and although I slept through one of them already, we've made a great looking list that I can't wait to finish. We just added losing 1/6 of our body weight haha which will be awesome if it actually gets accomplished. But all in all, I predict that this year will be EPIC.

Peace.

New Photo Website

Since I have completely filled my gmail/picasa photo website, I've started a new one! The url is:
ellensphotos2009.shutterfly.com
Enjoy!

Peace.

South Dakotas: The Land of Big Buttes

The interns took a trip to SOUTH DAKOTA! and Nebraska, but "The Good Life" wasn't all that great. Most of the fun took place in the car, all 12 hours each way... a total of 1512 miles for the entire trip. And more inside jokes than we could count.

We took Friday off and drove all day and most of the night. On the way, we stopped first in Mitchell, home of the Corn Palace. The inside was just a big auditorium with a gift shop, but the outside was made entirely of corn. No joke. They did have some photos of all of the years and the outside of the palace. There was one that had a giant swastika sign on it, but they claimed it was "Indian Good Luck" - okay, Mitchell. Ok. We picked up some trucker hats and took some great photos with a giant corn-on-the-cob.

Continuing, we decided to take a detour and head through the Badlands, which actually turned out to be one of the most exciting parts of the trip. They were so unique, I'm not sure I've ever seen anything like it. And in the middle of nowhere! They kind of sprouted up out of nothing, which makes for a pretty amazing landscape. We also saw prairie dogs! In the wild! They were pretty loud, and dodging in and out of their little holes, so cute!

Next stop was Wall Drug. Ok, so the fun part was actually taking photos of the signs for Wall Drug all along I-90. Alexis had the camera ready and we ending up screaming and pointing if we were about to miss one. Well, maybe that was just me... There were 70-something signs, mostly advertising their free water and 5 cent coffee. Oh, and they're "new" T-rex, which turned out to be a la Jurassic Park and "fed" every 15 minutes. Once there, we took a photo on a jackalope. Oh, and we got our free water. It had a funky flavor.... haha.

We ate a lovely Mexican dinner in Rapid City before ending up in Hot Springs at a very quaint hotel on the river. We missed a lot of landscape on the way in since it was dark, but upon waking up, we saw that we were in the mountains! Such a nice change of scenery from the "Great Plains" in my opinion. We started our day by heading out to the Crazy Horse monument. We passed through some really small towns (ie. Pringle) and had a great time when we drove right through bison crossing the street! They're pretty ugly animals, but they were so close to my car! Crazy Horse was pretty impressive, but we were all pretty sure that they are never going to finish it. The family of the sculptor who started it refuse to take any help/money from the government and so they're pretty slow-going. Crazy Horse also was the home of some MARMOTS!!!

Next was, of course, Mount Rushmore. We wanted to eat lunch before taking some time with the presidents, so we drove to Keystone. On they way, we knew we were close to Mt. Rushmore but couldn't quite figure out where it was. We turned around a corner and, jokingly, I told the girls to look behind us, and there it was. In all its glory. In Keystone, we ate some pretty tasty pizza right next to a helicopter launching pad - not the quietest experience, but we were just happy to be eating. Mt. Rushmore was pretty cool, and of course, being very mature young adults, we each took a photo picking on the presidents' noses. Heh heh.

It was pretty late according to our schedule, so we headed back to the hotel and took a rest before heading off to Nebraska for dinner. The drive to Nebraska was only about an hour, but it was seriously the most boring hour OF MY LIFE. There is absolutely nothing there. Not even houses or farms. There's just grass. No hills, no nothing. Gahh. We found the only restaurant in the town of Chadron, so we settled down into a booth in Helen's Pancake and Steakhouse. Yum. They had Rocky Mountain Oysters, which aren't oysters, and therefore we didn't eat them. Jackie had Crow's Butte which started a ripple of giggles out of us mature young adults :)

The next morning we decided to just head out and drive home. I'm probably forgetting some things, but that was our road trip in a nutshell. It was really nice to get out of the Twin Cities for a little bit. Next adventure: we're dyeing our hair tonight! Ahhh!

Peace.

KOOOOOOOZA

Two updates today: the circus and the global market.

First, the global market. Today, all of the interns were invited to go to the Global Market in Minneapolis as part of a larger intern exchange program called MIX. There were about 100 (ish) interns all working in the Twin Cities region at a bunch of different companies. We arrived to the market at about 9:00 am and received our "itinerary" for the day along with $20 that could only be used at the market (think gift certificate). The Global Market is truly global, with shops from cultures such as: Mexican, Vietnamese, Hmong, Mediterranean, Tibetan, Swedish, Caribbean, etc etc the list goes on. I started the day with some jamaica juice that never tasted so sweet - I drank a lot of jamaica in Nicaragua and Costa Rica... it's hibiscus. We were all squished into a little part of the building for Latin dance lessons with the bubbly Veronica, who incidentally teaches Salsa Aerobics every Sunday morning. We listened to a guest lecturer about diversity in the workplace (after all, the whole day was supposed to be about exploring diversity). And we were going to attend a cooking workshop but it turned out that the person mixed up the dates or something. So the day was basically spent wandering around the shops and trying to fill out the scavenger hunt answers. I ended up buying a set of three bamboo bowls, some hummus and pita, Pop Rocks, and a $1 pin that says "UFFDA" - if you don't know the significance of uffda, look it up :) It turned out to be a very good day... and what's more, we got paid to have fun!

Kooza: Cirque du Soleil never fails to amaze. Kooza was set in a yellow and blue striped tent that was set up in a parking lot in downtown St Paul. We bought the worst seats and ended up being about to see everything since there wasn't a bad seat in the house. And let me tell you, Kooza amazed me. The back story was beautiful, about "The Innocent" trying to find his place in life with the help of other characters such as "The Trickster" and "The King." The music was great - there was actually a live band! They were fantastic at syncing with the performers even if a mistake was made. And of course the acts were superb. My guts wrenched while I watched the contortionists (that's just not natural!) and my heart leapt out of my body at least 15 times during the Wheel of Death (see movie link below). I can't believe the strength that those people have and the courage to be jumping around and leaving their lives in the hands of others and very flimsy looking safety nets. They are truly daring people. The clowns were hysterical! They were so goofy, a little bit over the top on the sexuality (lots of leg humping...), and overall so entertaining. Let's just say, it will probably be a highlight of the summer.

Wheel of Death: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4DfSBnBR08

Peace.

Funny Monkey Viruses and AC

Unfortunately my laptop was attacked by a killer virus that learns and understands that you're trying to get rid of it so it adapts and changes so basically you can't remove it. Long story short, don't click on a link to watch a funny monkey video on rapid share, or something like that, because ten bucks says that it's the virus. I was able to save all my files, thank goodness, but they're on my dad's external hard drive... which is in Michigan where I am not. Instead of fussing with wiping out and reformatting the hard drive I decided that it was due time to get a new computer. My old one was pretty much a piece of crap, keys missing, wobbly screen, about 15 lbs. My new and shiny HP is only 14" and less than 5 lbs. It's a very nice computer, although I really can't wait until Windows 7 comes out because Vista kind of blows. Oh well. I was even considering a Mac for a while, but then remembered that all my Latin American friends only use Windows Live Messenger to chat, so I couldn't abandon them. I'm happy with my choice to say the least.

Today, after six weeks without, I have air conditioning in my apartment! A colleague at work heard that I was roughing it and said that she would be happy to let me use hers that she wasn't using! I am so thankful, because now I can actually wear clothes in my apartment and host guests! haha...

Tonight, fellow-intern Alexis and I are going to downtown St Paul to see the cirque du Soleil performance "Kooza." I am beyond excited. When I saw "O" in Las Vegas I wanted to join the circus... or at least become a traveling circus-fanatic. These shows are spectacular and will blow your mind with the acrobatics and make your sides stitch with laughter when you watch the clowns. And it's not crappy like Barnum and Bailey or whatever, it's pure art and so gorgeous to watch. No corny elephants and ladies dressed up in sequins... it's all award-winning costumes and true athleticism. Like I said, I'm beyond excited. We do have rather terrible seats, BUT I DON'T CARE!! :)

Work is work, just a lot more of it now. I actually was able to have a down day today and work on my final project, but tomorrow I'll have to pick up where I left off. Ahhh work.

Peace.

The Dreaded, but Beloved, Routine

I thought I would share with you exactly what I've been doing every day for the past week or so. It's a lot of prep for a whole of garbage, but what's new in the food industry, really? Here it goes:

1. Find 15 1,000 mL beakers.
2. Take beakers to analytical labs and turn on the magical reverse osmosis water machine.
3. Measure 1,000 mL into each beaker using 500 mL graduated cylinder (remember, there are 15 beakers and the water comes out at an extremely slow rate).
4. Bring beakers back upstairs to sensory lab and label with tape.
5. Measure out allotted amounts of salt, sugar, and citric acid for each of the samples.
6. Stir in powders to the correct beakers with a spoon.
7. Print off labels for all of the samples (15 samples x 20 people = 300 labels). References say what taste they are (Sweet 10, Salty 4, etc) and unknowns have 3-digit codes.
8. Put labels on 2 oz. souffle cups (remember, 300!!)
9. Lay out cups for selected sample and fill with about 25 mL of solution (remember, times 20 and then times 15).
10. Put lids on all of the cups.
11. Lay out 20 empty trays all around the sensory lab.
12. Place one of each solution onto each tray.
13. Clean up mess that has been made because spilling is inevitable.
14. Put tin foil on the beakers and the remaining 500 mL and place into fridge.
15. Next day, repeat steps 7-13 again, 300 little tiny souffle cups.

And that all takes about, oh, four hours working at a steady pace. Can you say tedious? Then, turns out, only about 11 people show up for panel and I just dump the rest of the samples. All that work for nothing :( The paradox of my day.