It's a bummer that I let the blog go by the wayside these past couple months, but it was pretty much necessary. I did NOT anticipate my work load being so difficult to manage. In one class, I had to write a "life story" that was basically a series of meaningful snapshots from my life, answers to questions about the deep stuff (my identity, beliefs, etc.), and a commentary on all of it! The whole thing was 50 pages in the end!! Good prep for the senior thesis, I suppose. Anyway, once that was combined with exams, an independent research project, quizzes, papers, and the like, it was (sadly) time to give the blog the boot for a while.
But now it's back!! And not a moment too soon!!! Cool things are happening! I will share:
1) I am leaving for France in less than two weeks. My school's town has had this ongoing "sister city" relationship with one of the cities in France, Noisy-le-roi. Many of our French TAs have come from Noisy (say Neuh-wa-zee) and students have gone back and forth between Noisy and here for the past ten years. Noisy is about 15 miles west of Paris and 4 miles northwest of Versailles. While I'm there, I'll be staying with a host family and doing an internship in a junior high school with its culinary/nutrition course track. Other activities will be kind of spontaneous-- lots of tours, walking, and eating good food! Mostly, I'm really interested to see the different attitudes toward eating between French and American people. It seems that the French look at food with more pleasure and ritual than Americans, and I'm excited to be immersed in a culture that fosters a love-love relationship with food rather than a love-hate. You can be SURE I will be making an effort to maintain the blog while I'm there.
2) I was recently appointed to my school's Food Commission, which is basically a forum between our cafeteria's staff and students interested in making improvements in the dining hall. I'm also heading up a communications project for the cafeteria. I will be making a weekly e-newsletter with nutrition articles, spotlight food items, recipes that can be made in the cafeteria, interviews with staff, etc. This is 100% up my alley and I cannot wait to get started!
3) Finals are over and summer is here at last!!
4) I'm 20 now! My birthday was on Monday... which means no more blaming the dumb things I do on being a being a teenager. Sigh. Feels good though-- all mature-like.
As for today's eats, I'll be brief (and without pictures-- I apologize. I didn't know I was doing this today). For breakfast, I just had an apple because I slept until 10:30 after making a Coldstone run at 3 AM to celebrate the end of finals last night!! Lunch was a turkey, swiss, lettuce, tomato, and cucumber sandwich on yummy whole wheat bread, some watermelon, and some steamed broccoli. For a snack I had half an avocado (sooooo gooooood) and a few almonds. Dinner was comfort food at its best: an Amy's Mexican casserole bowl, with a little more avocado and some Pom pomegranate-mango juice. Those healthy fats kept me full for a long time today- score!
