Adventures in Cooking

I've spent the last month living by myself, but it's a pretty temporary situation and given my training schedule, I haven't been home much to cook anyways. However, since I will be moving over seas and totally responsible for all my own food (eek), I figured it was time to start practicing. Although I have had some cooking successes, I have also had a lot of failures (ie, burning things, leaving out half the ingredients, etc). Well, today was full of successes, and I even have photographic evidence!

Firstly, it's Saturday, and weekends basically call for brunches. Here is my gorgeous omelet (onions, pepper jack cheese, parsley, tabasco), cinnamon toast and fruit.











Next up, was me cooking something from a recipe. I have never had this dish before, but apparently, it is very popular in Peru, which is why I chose it. I am really excited to see what the dish tastes like when I get there, but I think my attempt went quite well. Here is a basic run down:

Lomo soltado is a common dish, and I took several recipes and adapted them based on what ingredients I had available. It's basically a mix of beef (I marinated it with vinegar, soy sauce and garlic beforehand), tomatoes, orange bell peppers, red jalapeno peppers, a little more soy sauce, and some cayenne pepper. There are freshly made french fries on the side (I seasoned  them with some salt and cayenne) and rice.

I used two sautee pans, one pot for the rice and four cutting boards, but this dish turned out really well. In fact, I invited some friends to try it, and they liked it. Yay! Cooking experiment number 1: Success.

Peruvian Independence Day

Happy 189th Independence Day Peru!

Today I had the unique opportunity to attend a reception in honor of this holiday, and it just got me more excited about my living in Lima starting this August! I of course had the chance to drink a pisco sour, which was a very welcome respite to this awful weather in D.C. I didn't make it to the food at the buffet table because I was too busy chatting, but it looked very yummy from afar! I am very much looking forward to sampling all the lovely food Peru has to offer.

There was also some live entertainment with a choir and dancers. Although I couldn't hear the singing very well over the noise of conversation, I did like the costumes. Maybe when I get there I will  track down some dance classes. :)

This reception also provided a nice break from training. Although I have been learning a lot of new things over the past few weeks, it is really nice to just get out and do something outside of the classroom. I got some hands on experience with chatting in Spanish and going through the receiving line, etc at parties, which is something I will definitely have to get used to once I'm abroad.

As far as training goes, my formal class ends this week, and after that I have some other courses (some in class, many online) to complete, and also more time for errands. Tomorrow we are giving presentations on our countries of assignment. Although I created a PowerPoint presentation to go along with mine, I will be very careful to stick within the 10 minute time limit, and for those of me who know my hate for all things powerpoint slide mental torture, be comforted by the fact that it's mostly just pictures. I have a very good presentation worked out completely independently of the slides. I am however, excited to use the Smart Board. :P

Well, until you hear from me again, I will continue buying things I will need over seas (like, an entire household minus the furniture) and finishing up my immunizations!

For all U.S. citizens who travel abroad

Please visit International Travel Alerts (part of Department of State Consular Affairs) before your next trip! In my orientation course today, this is one thing we talked about. If you are traveling out of the country anywhere, this will give you specific information you need to know about traveling in whatever country, and any special issues you need to know about (ie, hurricane season, common security concerns, etc). Also, you never know when something bad will happen, so you can also look up how to register at the U.S. embassy in a foreign country so that, if needed, they can get in contact with you and get you safe. I know this isn't something we all want to think about, but I'd rather have everything in place (such as emergency contact info) beforehand.

Anyways, that's my little advice token for the day. I hope all my friends who are going to travel internationally any time soon (or you are abroad right now) take a look at the site and register yourself at your local embassy asap. :)

In other news, we get our assignments next Tuesday, where we will be given a flag of the country we will be posted at. Also, we will be officially swearing in to the service on Friday the 9th, and my family is flying out to see me! So basically, I am really excited next week and can't wait to find out where I will be going!

Surprise!

So, there hasn't been an update on here for awhile, and that's because I haven't been traveling. I've been staying put and enjoying life here in beautiful Colorado. I went downhill skiing for the first time ever this winter, and managed pretty well after a couple lessons! I also went hiking a couple weeks ago, and will be heading to the Colorado Renaissance Festival next weekend. Maybe I can squeeze a day in of white water rafting up the Poudre River too. In the last few weeks I also started dancing again, and was part of the entertainment for the Bolder Boulder. I will also be gypsy dancing at the Boulder International Festival next weekend. So- why am I trying to fit all of this stuff in right at the beginning of summer?Well....


That Foreign Service job I applied to last year (16 months ago) panned out! I have orientation starting on June 21. It's coming up fast and I can't believe it. I am super excited, but also sad to leave my job here. I've really enjoyed my new job since February. Well, this just comes to show you can never plan too much, because life might throw you a curve ball!

I am flying out to D.C. right after (literally) my friend Carrie's wedding. I have three weeks of orientation, at the end of which I will be given my assignment. After that I will have one more month of training, which could be more depending on where I am sent. After that, I will most likely start a two year assignment over seas.

Thanks to everyone who has made my life here in Colorado so far such a blast, and I will miss you all. Of course, I will be updating this blog as much as I can (depending on what my internet connection is like where I'm stationed) to keep in touch with everyone.

Jessie- reporting for duty!

Washington, D.C. December 2009

Recently, I spent a week in our nation's capital. It was an interesting place in early December. If you are planning a trip there, I would say it's definitely I nice time to go! Since it's the off-season as far as tourism, I got to see a lot of things and barely waited in line anywhere. It snowed one day when I was there, but it wasn't like Colorado snow. The rest of the time was pretty good weather, although it is a lot more humid than I am used to, so it felt a lot colder than it was. Other than that, though, all the seasonal decorations were up, and the town looked beautiful.

I toured the White House, and had an amazing time. There is so much history in every room (or at least the rooms we were allowed in)! There were displays of old Christmas cards from different presidents and other mini-exhibits, but just walking the halls was neat by itself. After that, I ventured to the Capital for another tour. I also got to sit in on the senate. If you have the opportunity, I highly suggest it. All I had to do was walk across the street to my senator's office and get a pass from the receptionist there, and I could sit in the Senate Gallery and watch the proceedings. It was truly amazing to be so close with our nation's governance.

In addition to touring around town, I also went to Arlington Cemetery, Old Alexandria and Georgetown. The last was really an amazing neighborhood to walk around. There was tons of shopping, but still felt very homey. I had the chance to eat at Martin's Tavern, a favorite of a few of our presidents. Old Alexandria was also charming, and went to the water front. It was great to walk around, and had a nice variety of things to do. We missed the parade of lights, but considering how cold it was during the day, I'm not sure I could just sit at night and watch the boats without freezing!

I have uploaded some photos, so take a look at my Facebook album for the best pictures of my trip so far!

I also got to wander around the Library of Congress, which was quite awesome. I have an online account and will be reviewing all the historic pieces of art I saw there (including the Guttenberg Bible). I also was able to meet up with some of the local NaNo WriMo folks for the Thank Goodness It's Over party, and talk novel writing shop with lots of nice people. We had a blast, and it was nice to visit with people from a different area about their experiences writing a novel in November.

As far as the city itself, I really enjoyed walking around D.C. There was too much to see in one week, but I did get a feel for the town. It's impossible not to be involved in politics, but it's also a great place for young professionals. I got around the metros OK, but I think Barcelona's Metro system was a little easier to navigate and had better signage. Other than that, though, I found it fairly easy to get around. We stayed at The Quincy, which was downtown and close to a lot of what I wanted to see. Although it didn't have a lot of standard amenities such as a pool or breakfast, the rooms were awesome and great to go home to after long days of touring around on my feet! I would very much like to go back to D.C., and for a longer period of time.

NaNo WriMo

Hello all!

This post isn't necessarily travel-related, but I'd like to post it anyways!
I worked pretty hard for four weeks, teaching, going to class, planning lessons... when I got back I ended up being  bored!

However, another activity came in to play, with prefect timing: I am participating in National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel by November 30. I am doing pretty well, and have about 19,000 words written so far. I am very excited, and have been having a lot of fun with it!