In the spirit of making lists, here's an attempt to get over the procrastination hill for preparing next year:
List #1: Things that absolutely have to get done, and get done soon, or else I will be booted from the group
- Retrieve my physical form from Dr. Wang + send two copies to WT
- Get immunizations in line
- Ask for a letter from teaching supervisor + send that in
List #2: Things I probably should do so I won't be screwed when I get to the island
- Visit the dentist
- Visit the optometrist and get a fresh supply of contacts + glasses
- Read over health/travel/life insurance policies
- Get prescriptions filled + purchase some over the counter drugs & vitamins
- Purchase a mosquito net/repellent/tiger balm/whatever works
- Load up on supplies (ie sunscreen, chap stick, contact water, etc) that may be hard to come by on the island.
- Make a separate packing list to make sure nothing that is needed is forgotten
- Research phone/internet options on the island
- Get finances in order
List #3: Things I also should probably do to avoid being a cultural no-no
- Purchase clothing that covers my legs and shoulders
- Being that this island is one of the top surfing destinations, I should at least garner some idea on how to surf
- Learn some basic Kosrean phrases
- Read up on the history, society, and customs of the Micronesia region, specifically Kosrae island
List #4: Things I think I could do to reduce the stress of teaching in unforeseeable circumstances.
- Review subjects I may be assigned to teaching (most likely elementary English)
- Prepare general ideas on lesson plans
- Read over the WT volunteer teaching resources provided
- Sign up for online ESL resources and collect teaching resources that could help
- Prepare boxes of materials to be shipped over just in case
- Talk to returned volunteers for advice
List #5: Things I want to do because they are the most fun and easy of the bunch.
- Purchase a new camera (because if you've seen mine, you would know that it is over due time)
- Purchase a hard drive
- Set up Picasa or renew Flickr account to prepare for the expected increase in photo storage
- Plan my vacation to New Zealand/wherever after
- Seeing as I will soon be sans car, I should not be lazy now and exercise
- Write an email to alert friends/family that I will not be in the States for the year
- Think of goals I want to accomplish for next year and possible side projects to do aside from teaching
List #6: Things in the far future, but in near future I should start thinking about to avoid being in a quarter life crisis upon return from the island
- Job or school?
- If grad school: when, how, what, and where?
- Return destination: ties in closely with grad school and job, but nevertheless deserves its own bullet. Socal, norcal or neither? Home or own apartment?
After reading my own lists, I now proclaim to be in panic mode. ah!
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
Updated countdown
Counting today, there are:
31 more days until work is over
22 more work days
4 more Mondays(+1 starting Tuesday)
5 more extended hour Wednesdays
If I were still in China, I would celebrate with one of these, arguably my favorite discovery in Beijing, aside from popsicles:
Like a true tourist description: Peculiarly sweet yogurt-like drink in ceramic cup. Covered by a square piece of wax paper held together by a rubber band. You pay the equivalent of roughly 25 cents to drink it. Then you return the ceramic cup and get the equivalent of 10 cents back. 25 minus 10 cents equals 15 cents for awesome.
31 more days until work is over
22 more work days
4 more Mondays(+1 starting Tuesday)
5 more extended hour Wednesdays
If I were still in China, I would celebrate with one of these, arguably my favorite discovery in Beijing, aside from popsicles:
Like a true tourist description: Peculiarly sweet yogurt-like drink in ceramic cup. Covered by a square piece of wax paper held together by a rubber band. You pay the equivalent of roughly 25 cents to drink it. Then you return the ceramic cup and get the equivalent of 10 cents back. 25 minus 10 cents equals 15 cents for awesome.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Fried goodness
Once in college, I met a girl who professed a zealous devotion to eating only vegetables and fruits. Serious. While she probably was fudging the truth a bit, there is something to be said about some girls thinking they need to constantly project an image of eating super healthy and well, always eat super healthily (although a vegetable-only diet really is questionable on healthiness). Well, like what my 4th graders say, vegetable girl can suck it. Here are some new and old foods I've recently had the enormous pleasure of devouring.
Foods #1 and #2: Haagen Daz Baileys and Coffee
Food group: Ice Cream
Calorie count: who cares
Comments: While vanilla bean ice cream remains in a resolute position for first place, the combination of Haagen Daz Baileys and Coffee ice cream put up a remarkable fight. The caffeine is at a tolerable level, and the taste is supreme.
Food #3: Smokehouse burger
Food group: Big Burgers
Calorie count: ate it too fast to count
Comments: This one was really good. It had chicken, ham, bacon, onion rings, cheese, tomatoes and lettuce with BBQ sauce. It was a really good night.
Food #4: Funnel Cakes
Food Group: Carnival food
Calorie count: probably the same number as the temperature of the oil it was deep fried in. but then again, that is probably erring on the conservative side
Comments: Due to its rarity and only seasonal appearance, I think the funnel cake can trump foods 1 to 3. In eat-ability, it should also receive the highest stars in being a "sometime food." I'm a little biased toward funnel cakes because eating one stirs up memories of carnivals (hence its food group categorization), theme parks, city fairs, etc. Today, on a beach in Oceanside, I was lucky enough to come across this:
5 minutes later, lo and behold (well, not really, you all knew it was coming), the fried mess of artery clogging goodness:
Sprinkled lightly (or heavily) with powdered sugar and maybe some strawberries, funnel cakes are without question one of the best foods created.
Foods #1 and #2: Haagen Daz Baileys and Coffee
Food group: Ice Cream
Calorie count: who cares
Comments: While vanilla bean ice cream remains in a resolute position for first place, the combination of Haagen Daz Baileys and Coffee ice cream put up a remarkable fight. The caffeine is at a tolerable level, and the taste is supreme.
Food #3: Smokehouse burger
Food group: Big Burgers
Calorie count: ate it too fast to count
Comments: This one was really good. It had chicken, ham, bacon, onion rings, cheese, tomatoes and lettuce with BBQ sauce. It was a really good night.
Food #4: Funnel Cakes
Food Group: Carnival food
Calorie count: probably the same number as the temperature of the oil it was deep fried in. but then again, that is probably erring on the conservative side
Comments: Due to its rarity and only seasonal appearance, I think the funnel cake can trump foods 1 to 3. In eat-ability, it should also receive the highest stars in being a "sometime food." I'm a little biased toward funnel cakes because eating one stirs up memories of carnivals (hence its food group categorization), theme parks, city fairs, etc. Today, on a beach in Oceanside, I was lucky enough to come across this:
5 minutes later, lo and behold (well, not really, you all knew it was coming), the fried mess of artery clogging goodness:
Sprinkled lightly (or heavily) with powdered sugar and maybe some strawberries, funnel cakes are without question one of the best foods created.
#26 and #21
Spotted on my morning cup of coffee from Starbucks. And by coffee, I really mean hot chocolate. But I can at least pretend to be grown up right?
Spotted on my friend's cup, which had real coffee in it:
Spotted on my friend's cup, which had real coffee in it:
Friday, May 15, 2009
Are "C"s the new "A"s?
As I sit here snacking on some good old fashioned instant oatmeal, I can't help but do what I do: contemplate over the recent events of life and try to make sense of the mess of it all. Not unlike traditional schooling and, well, in the spirit of final exam season, maybe it is time for an evaluation of post-grad life. How are we doing?
Unlike traditional schooling, I think it's time to throw out the As, Bs, Ds, and Fs. It seems like what a fair amount of twenty-somethings want (and some have attained) are "C"s. Big, fat, red "C"s written on the exam paper of life using the permanent marker of success so the whole world can see.
Come with me, let's sail the seven "C"s! (har har)
1. C for COLLEGE: College (or education in the way that best applies to your life) is like the freebie of the bunch. It's like the GO--> square on the Monopoly board. You've worked hard in school for 2 decades. You've paid your dues in pencil lead and all nighters. Hopefully, you got something in return. Despite the possible brain cell decline from excessive alcohol consumption in recent years, you know you're smart and you've made it to a level where you can contribute meaningfully back to the world. Good job. Go you!
2. C for CAR: Pragmatically speaking, as a working "adult" (because we totally are), it just makes sense to have our own vehicles; especially in our area since freeways basically strangle us from head to toe. Un-pragmatically speaking, do you honestly want your hot date to sit on top of a seat stain caused by you puking as a child on the way back from apple-picking? Or worse, fear that when he/she opens the car door, the handle will fly off? Then again, that's probably just my car.
3. C for CASH: It is inevitable that a twenty-something living in a metropolitan area is going to be introduced to some pretty cool young "adult" (again, the quotations) things to do. You're going to want to take your new, sexy car out to some places besides your office. Weekend trips to Vegas or San Francisco; clubbing in LA or SD; baseball, basketball, hockey games; wine tasting in Napa; a vast sea of untasted restaurants; concerts; traveling during vacation time; music and film festivals; the list can go on. But, what CANNOT go on, unfortunately, is one's attendance to such festivities if one does not have the cash.
4. C for CAREER: Okay, money and fun isn't everything. Hopefully, you would have built your work around a passion, a dream/ambition/cause you can devote your life working to achieve. It would be nice if the cash flow came from you doing what you actually loved; adding value to society, reshaping the landscape of your chosen industry, leaving the world a little better than how it was previously.
5. C for CONDO: Do I really need to touch on this one? Who WOULDN'T want to live in a place where IKEA threw up in a way that was conducive to your liking, martini glasses lined the windowsill, and 10 types of cereal sat on top the fridge? More important than aesthetics and autonomy over cereal control, having your own place (be it a condo, house, houseboat, shack, whatever) is often seen as a symbolic marker of true independence. You've officially moved out of the nest and are "on your own." Not in a college kid "I'm on my own but I have meal points and I still go home to do laundry" sort of way, but legit on your own.
6. C for CREW: Even if you have the hookups to the best hot spots in town, the sexiest bachelor(ette) pad ever, and an equally sexy car, it would be no fun if you didn't have some people to share it all with. As with pretty much everything on here, the definition of what constitutes as one's "crew" is subjective to the individual. For me, I think a good crew would be similar to the layers of the Earth: a small but awesome inner core core, a larger outer core of people to feel comfortable around at social gatherings, the quasi new people/friends of friends which make up the mantle, and the occasional contact with the crust: strangers, random cool people. Like a crust, they can flake all they want, but it doesn't really matter because they really aren't that important.
7. C for CUPCAKE: ... or Cutiepie, whatever you call your significant other. Twenty somethings can get by, and actually go a long way with just their crew. However, while friends are fun and all, it's unlikely you'll get your friends to hold your hand during a scary movie, take a bubble bath with you, or make you a candlelit dinner (you must be some amazing friend if you contest). But for the masses, I think that those activities are reserved for you and your Cupcake: your boyfriend, girlfriend, special friend with possible benefits, wife, husband, life partner, whatever.
So here are the 7 "C"s. It's eval time. Make like Monopoly and GO!!! How are we twenty somethings doing? Wait a second. Even after listing it down, it still isn't clear on HOW a proper evaluation should take place. Should grading be curved and just relative to how our peers are doing? Or should we take the aggregate score? Should the rigor of grading be directly proportional to the age of the twenty something? Can, and should we control bias?
So many questions, it is admittedly overwhelming. I think I'll have a cupcake.
Unlike traditional schooling, I think it's time to throw out the As, Bs, Ds, and Fs. It seems like what a fair amount of twenty-somethings want (and some have attained) are "C"s. Big, fat, red "C"s written on the exam paper of life using the permanent marker of success so the whole world can see.
Come with me, let's sail the seven "C"s! (har har)
1. C for COLLEGE: College (or education in the way that best applies to your life) is like the freebie of the bunch. It's like the GO--> square on the Monopoly board. You've worked hard in school for 2 decades. You've paid your dues in pencil lead and all nighters. Hopefully, you got something in return. Despite the possible brain cell decline from excessive alcohol consumption in recent years, you know you're smart and you've made it to a level where you can contribute meaningfully back to the world. Good job. Go you!
2. C for CAR: Pragmatically speaking, as a working "adult" (because we totally are), it just makes sense to have our own vehicles; especially in our area since freeways basically strangle us from head to toe. Un-pragmatically speaking, do you honestly want your hot date to sit on top of a seat stain caused by you puking as a child on the way back from apple-picking? Or worse, fear that when he/she opens the car door, the handle will fly off? Then again, that's probably just my car.
3. C for CASH: It is inevitable that a twenty-something living in a metropolitan area is going to be introduced to some pretty cool young "adult" (again, the quotations) things to do. You're going to want to take your new, sexy car out to some places besides your office. Weekend trips to Vegas or San Francisco; clubbing in LA or SD; baseball, basketball, hockey games; wine tasting in Napa; a vast sea of untasted restaurants; concerts; traveling during vacation time; music and film festivals; the list can go on. But, what CANNOT go on, unfortunately, is one's attendance to such festivities if one does not have the cash.
4. C for CAREER: Okay, money and fun isn't everything. Hopefully, you would have built your work around a passion, a dream/ambition/cause you can devote your life working to achieve. It would be nice if the cash flow came from you doing what you actually loved; adding value to society, reshaping the landscape of your chosen industry, leaving the world a little better than how it was previously.
5. C for CONDO: Do I really need to touch on this one? Who WOULDN'T want to live in a place where IKEA threw up in a way that was conducive to your liking, martini glasses lined the windowsill, and 10 types of cereal sat on top the fridge? More important than aesthetics and autonomy over cereal control, having your own place (be it a condo, house, houseboat, shack, whatever) is often seen as a symbolic marker of true independence. You've officially moved out of the nest and are "on your own." Not in a college kid "I'm on my own but I have meal points and I still go home to do laundry" sort of way, but legit on your own.
6. C for CREW: Even if you have the hookups to the best hot spots in town, the sexiest bachelor(ette) pad ever, and an equally sexy car, it would be no fun if you didn't have some people to share it all with. As with pretty much everything on here, the definition of what constitutes as one's "crew" is subjective to the individual. For me, I think a good crew would be similar to the layers of the Earth: a small but awesome inner core core, a larger outer core of people to feel comfortable around at social gatherings, the quasi new people/friends of friends which make up the mantle, and the occasional contact with the crust: strangers, random cool people. Like a crust, they can flake all they want, but it doesn't really matter because they really aren't that important.
7. C for CUPCAKE: ... or Cutiepie, whatever you call your significant other. Twenty somethings can get by, and actually go a long way with just their crew. However, while friends are fun and all, it's unlikely you'll get your friends to hold your hand during a scary movie, take a bubble bath with you, or make you a candlelit dinner (you must be some amazing friend if you contest). But for the masses, I think that those activities are reserved for you and your Cupcake: your boyfriend, girlfriend, special friend with possible benefits, wife, husband, life partner, whatever.
So here are the 7 "C"s. It's eval time. Make like Monopoly and GO!!! How are we twenty somethings doing? Wait a second. Even after listing it down, it still isn't clear on HOW a proper evaluation should take place. Should grading be curved and just relative to how our peers are doing? Or should we take the aggregate score? Should the rigor of grading be directly proportional to the age of the twenty something? Can, and should we control bias?
So many questions, it is admittedly overwhelming. I think I'll have a cupcake.
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