I'm back in Spanish classes, and the demographic this time around is about a third Korean, a third Japanese, and a third "Estadounidense". The teachers face an interesting challenge in translating vocab words because there's no common language besides Spanish, so they draw pictures and jump around the room trying to act things out. I just laugh the whole time.
In the afternoon conversation class, our teacher wanted to know about holidays special to our home countries. The Koreans definately won for quantity. They had a day for little girls, little boys, teachers, grandparents... They even split Valentine's Day into two parts: the men give gifts on February 14th, and the women give gifts on March 14th. The Japanese won for "most special". They were saying something about a New Year's tradition where families prepare a special food that keeps for a while, so mom doesn't have to cook so much in the first week of January. Isn't that sweet? They also get an honorable mention for including "Earth Day" in their list of important holidays. Team USA, my team, struggled to produce the variety and nuance of our competitors. On New Year's Eve we get drunk. On St. Patricks Day we wear something green and get drunk. And I tried to explain Groundhog's Day in my broken Spanish
-a total disaster.
As the discussion progressed to summer, things got a little tense. The Japanese brought up Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which made me feel guilty/sad, and then the planets aligned on the date August 15th. That's when the Japanese commemorate the end of WWII in a somber day of reflection, the Koreans celebrate their independence from Japan, and we won the whole shebang (V-J Day). By the time December came around, and class was running overtime, I decided against mentioning Pearl Harbor. We had already been through so much.
-PJ
beginnings of the sauce
I've been trying to acheive a crispy skin on the snapper. This last attempt was better but not great. Flavors in the sauce included citrus, coriander, anise. The kale was lightly sauteed with anise and the carrots were roasted in butter and honey. Dessert was mamay with peppermint and orange supremes and recalled the taste of mint chocolate chip ice cream.
Teva has been scratching the corner of the blue couch in our livingroom. Our roomate said we had to do something about it, so I made a cardboard guard to cover it. Thank GOD I had a background in art and design. She is such a handfull!
In case you can't tell, it's a jumbo-tron mounted on a flatbed truck (stuck in traffic) playing a dinosaur movie. The prehistoric shrieks and growls were deafening and freaked out most of the pedestrians including me.
The public sculptures are so aggressively heterosexual! It's pretty funny. I bet some concerned politicians a while back saw what was happening in the neighborhood and thought that a little art could change the tide. Nice try! 
squash blossom risotto with saffron, sauteed chard, crispy tofu, roasted garlic lime sauce
