Yucatecan Delicacies

Every culture has its own way of adding life to its food. In Mexico, the basic beans, rice and corn tortillas are jazzed up with colorful spices and vegetables. In the Yucatan particularly, they take the basic bean burrito as we would call it, and turn it into something incredible by frying the beans inside the tortilla and then loading it up with chicken, pickled onion, tomato, lettuce and whatever else they wanted to add. What some call heaven on a plate...I introduce, the panucho...

Epic Tales and Harry Potter

Thanks to my Spanish Lit. class I've started to analyze stories and movies more when I see them. Last night I went to see the second half of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and I realized why this series attracts so many people from different backgrounds and age groups: the characters.

The plot of the Harry Potter series follows the same basic format of any story with a hero. Yes, J.K. Rowling did create a whole other world which is brilliant in and of itself, but the hero's journey, the fight between good and evil, are the basic factors driving the story.

What really sets the Potter series apart is there isn't one "hero" that she uses to bring her readers in.Classic Disney stories like Cinderella have multiple characters, but there's only one character the audience relates to- Cinderella. While watching the movie no one compares them self to the wicked stepmother or even prince charming because Cinderella is the most rounded character with similar problems, dreams and desires as the rest of us. Yet, even Cinderella doesn't quite relate.

Unlike Cinderella, Rowling doesn't force us to only relate to Harry Potter, an orphan going to school through his teenage years facing extreme problems and choices. Instead, we also relate to Hermoine, the smart, clever, though plain-looking girl who helps Harry Potter time and again. Sometimes Hermoine is our hero. Then there's characters like Luna/Neville who are picked on, ignored and not particularly bright. Yet, at times they're recognized for acts that didn't take any particular skill other than standing up for what they believe in. Sometimes they are our hero. Then there is Snape, mysterious, dark, sad. We hate what he does, but yet can't dismiss him as an evil person like we do Voldemort. There's always something missing. It turns out Snape may be the real hero of the whole story, sacrificing everything to protect the son of the woman he loves. He received no fame or glory, but faced danger, heartache, loneliness and death for the thing he felt was right. Sometimes Snape is our hero.

None of us have perfect looks or a perfect personality and generally we don't just have one giant obstacle to overcome and then live happily ever after. Most of us are plain and clever or have a secret heartache and yet we still do extraordinary things. That is why we love Harry Potter so much. We feel we could step into the story and be one of the characters.

So to all you heroes out there...here's a warm glass of butterbeer. Cheers.

Fall Spirit

Originally this post was going to be about Halloween, but then I realized there are so many reasons I love Fall other than just the holiday on Oct. 31. It's the most colorful time of year with the leaves changing and apples and squashes filling the grocery story. It's no longer hot, but still sunny and warm most days, and with the holiday season approaching there's a happy sense of anticipation that adds a slight skip to your step. 

 Of course one of the best parts of the season is all the yummy food you can start eating again: hot chocolate, pie, pumpkin. A couple weeks ago my husband and I tried making popcorn balls for the first time and with a few additions they turned out pretty well. Here's the recipe from http://allrecipes.com.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil 1/2 cup unpopped popcorn

6 tablespoons butter 5 cups miniature marshmallows

Directions:

1.	Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish. Set aside.
2.	Add vegetable oil to a 4 quart saucepan, and heat over high heat. When oil is hot, add popping corn. Keep pan moving constantly. When corn stops popping, remove from heat. Put popcorn in prepared pan.
3.	Melt butter In a medium saucepan over low heat. Stir in marshmallows and cook until melted, stirring constantly. Pour marshmallow mixture over popcorn and mix with spoon to coat evenly.
4.	Let mixture cool slightly. Smear butter on your hands or spray with non-stick cooking spray. Mix popcorn with your hands so that it is evenly coated.
5.	Form popcorn into 8 balls.

My husband and I added junior mints to the popcorn before the marshmallow mixture, so they would melt and distribute the color/flavor evenly. I think next time I'll intersperse some candy corn too.

 

Finally, who doesn't like pretending their someone or something else for a little while?

 

Planking

The art of planking is to lay horizontally across any object or the ground with their arms by their sides, aiming to occur in daring situations or a brotherly display of core-strength..

In other words a random hobby I found out about through Facebook pictures and an episode of The Office. Todd and I went on a hike up Provo Canyon last Saturday to look at all the Fall colors. I pulled the camera out to start taking pictures, and Todd decided he wanted to try planking, so he did...

 And then he did it again...

 And then he told me to try it...so, after making sure nobody was around, I awkwardly laid across a rock.

  

I've decided I'll stick to taking pictures...

Remembering Summer...

So, to state the obvious I haven't been updating my blog. Something about getting married, getting a house put together, finishing up content for a magazine, and oh school started! I know, it's been a full month, and it's still sinking in. So to catch up, here's a recap of my summer.

I married my sweetheart, Todd, in the Logan Temple

   

Climbed the Y for the first time.

Turned 21!

Trip up the Canyon

Visited the St. George Temple

Went to my first BYU soccer game!

It was an incredible summer. Now time for pumpkins, pretty leaves, scarves, Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Accumulating Knowledge...and other things.

So I have a confession, a lot of my notes from school this past year turned out be a collection of quotes from my professors. I guess that's what happens when your grades are project based. Here are a few I remember...

Accounting:
"Say nice things about the IRS. They've got microphones all over this country." Kay Stice
"I think I'm a legitimate purple," Norm Nemrow about color personalities.

Research:
"If people go to soccer games purely for entertainment, I'm competing then with Megaplex and the mountains!" marketing REAL Salt Lake

PR Writing and Production:
"If you don't have standards, get some." Mark Carpenter regarding webpage design
"Just because you can have dancing bunnies go across the screen, doesn't mean you should." Mark Carpenter
"Who's your Bubba?!" Mark Carpenter
"I have a fish in my car!" random outburst from a girl in the class.

Media Law
"So don't go outside naked because google earth has sattelites!" Margeuritte Driessen

LatinAmerican Culture
"Is it comprehensible that a country would start a war over a soccer game? It's Latin America!"

Humanities major for two months...

 I never questioned my major in college. I registered for Communications 101 my first semester and never had any desires to leave, but for two months I've found myself a student at La Universidad Modelo studying Humanities.
I've done crazy things like go to a bull fight and walk through a museum of modern art. I have no plans of changing my major, but it's been interesting to learn things from a different perspective. The bull fight was cool, and I even liked the art.
I should try new things more often.

Culture Shock

Apparently the Spaniards didn't bathe when they first came to the Americas. I was shocked to learn this fact in one of the recent excursions I went on during my study abroad in Mexico. Apparently the Maya, who usually bathed three times a day, agreed with me because the refused to go to an indoor Mass with those stinky Spaniards. Schockingly, the Spaniards thought the remedy for this was not to cool off in a stream before mass, but rather to build an open chapel. I guess it solved the problem, but to me the idea of not showering in a place that's 100 degrees is a bigger culture shock than finding out one of the other students found a cockroach in one of her tamales. Either way...Gross!

United Breaks Guitars...continued

For those who might not know, United and Continental are combining into one airline, which means if you fly Continental you're really flying United. I found that out this past weekend when I checked in at a Continental desk and got on a United flight. For those who are reading this, if you haven't watched the YouTube video United Breaks Guitars, go watch it before finishing this post.

As it turns out, United has PR disasters much more often than when someone decides to check their guitar. I just flew from Salt Lake City to Merida, Mexico. The plane arrived 15 minutes late in Salt Lake. Not bad, right? Even Southwest does that. Wrong. We didn't leave for another hour because we had to wait half an hour for a stewardess who was also on a late flight to arrive.Then they rushed us all on board. There was maybe 30 people on the flight, yet they had us all crammed sitting together? ? ? And we waited another half an hour for a part for a different airplane in Houston that was supposed to arrive in five minutes. Then after an extremely long taxi ride we had to stop in the middle of for the pilot to get out and check for ice on the wings, we finally left for Houston.

There was maybe five people on that flight who didn't have a transfer an hour after the time we were originally supposed to arrive. The majority of us were going to Merida, which only has a flight leave Houston once a day at the same time.

So basically all we had to do was run off the plane, wait for our carry on luggage that had to be checked because it was a small airplane, run to the middle of the Houston airport, get on a train to the other side of the airport and run to the terminal where the kind staff informed us they'd closed the gate because we weren't there in person. No, really? Well, next time I'll just fly the airplane myself and use up twice as much fuel, so we can actually arrive on time. Or maybe, send the part on a different airplane that isn't already late. There's only hundreds of planes that go into the Houston airport everyday.

After finally allowing us onto the flight, we ended up sitting for an hour and a half, waiting for a mechanic to show up to fix something that was wrong with the plane. Now, I'm glad they actually fixed the plane, but really? Really.

So, I did finally arrive in Mexico in one piece, but here is my question for United. How on earth do any of your policies help your bottom line? I'd think the airlines that don't even have their planes half full would want to learn something from Southwest. People buy tickets, which mean people give the airline its profit. For people to buy your tickets you need to make them happy. People want to arrive on time and not be blamed for missing their transfers. People get hungry and five bucks for peanuts is a rip off. Oh, and people do actually need to take their luggage with them. No they don't want to pay $50 for it.

Yes, I'm done complaining now.

Goals, life, dreams, etc.

http://www.lanl.gov/csse/merida/

With all the craziness that is my life right now, it's sometimes hard to see past all the homework that is looming for me to have finished by the next day. I lose track of the fact that I've reached the point in my life where I'm actually accomplishing some of my goals that I've been working toward for years. I now have friends that I know better than most of the people I grew up with. Friends I can go to for help and talk to about anything, even when we haven't hung out for months. I've interviewed senators and doctors and been thanked for a press release by a leading psychologist. I'm doing research for a large government agency. I've been published in the newspaper and placed stories in the newspaper. I have a dream job writing for a magazine and giving PR advice. And I'm engaged to an incredible man.

http://www.mexicovacationtravels.com/mexico-cities/merida

The thing most on my mind lately is my trip to Mexico I'm taking this spring. I started taking my prep class for it last Thursday, and well, I couldn't decide which part of it I was most excited about. My professor put it nicely. "It's the dream place to go. It has the ruins and the beaches." Not to mention amazing food, complete Spanish immersion, culture classes, a temple and shopping.

I've wanted to be fluent in Spanish ever since I was 11 years old, and I've pretty much been working toward that goal ever since. I've taken so many grammar classes, I know more grammar terms in Spanish than I do in English. Studying abroad has been one of the biggest goals I've ever had, and I've been saving money and planning toward it for so long, it's almost weird to be actually doing it. I've had so many challenges and obstacles trying to accomplish this goal, but it is possible to accomplish your dreams if you decide to do it.

An Engaged Woman's Distractions

Shoes, white dresses, flowers, bird-feeder card-holders... I've suddenly found a step-up distraction from Facebook and Hulu when I'm avoiding my homework.
Wedding Planning.
Not only is it something I "need" to do, but pretty lace and bright colors just have this certain appeal.
Shoes.
I might be doing my homework on blackboard and then all of a sudden be looking at one of the numberless wedding blogs.
Shoes.
I've learned about timeless traditions, pointless traditions, cakes, flowers and over-priced wedding venues.
Shoes.
But, as a girl who finds ways to get around paying for shipping and handling, I have not been taken in by all these vendors wanting to celebrate my day with me.
Shoes.
At least not to the point where I plan on actually giving them money...
Shoes
So far my wedding plan consists of getting married in a castle that doesn't cost a thing, having an amazing dinner with my family, dancing with my friends and Most Importantly, marrying the man I love.
Everything else is just logistics.

Valentine's Day

In high school I agreed with the multitude of other people who promoted for Single's Awareness Day on Facebook Feb. 14, but as I got engaged the weekend before Valentine's Day this year, I was a little more excited for the day than I was before. Ok. A lot more excited.

As both my fiance and I are starving college students, I knew we weren't going to do anything elaborate, but it ended up being a wonderful day. We cooked dinner together and then had a picnic in our living room, since it was dark by the time I got out of class. Then we gave each other our valentines. The beauty of it was neither of us got each other something extravagant or expensive, but got something simple that actually meant something to the other person.

The paper rose in the picture was brought to me my home teachers along with a granola bar. I don't know which was cuter, the fact that they took the time to make something like that, or the fact that when they delivered it they both had huge smiles on their faces and looked like two little boys who had picked their mom a flower.

In both cases I think it shows Valentine's Day doesn't have to be about winning someone's heart through an expensive gift, but showing them you care enough to think about them on that special day.

E-mail

My life is being taken over by e-mail. It seems like it should be one of the requirements in college courses to check your e-mail every two hours, or you will fall behind or have no clue as to what is going on. Plus, if you wait til the end of the day to check it, you find you're e-mail has practically exploded, and you now need to pick up an rearrange the fragments of your life.
My biggest pet peeve about this, though, is people have become lazy. Teachers, groups, friends whatever think they don't actually need to decide anything when they're actually right there talking to the person because they can just sent them an e-mail or a text the next day. And then the next day. And then, oh wait, can I change that again? For heavens sake people, is it that hard to figure out when homework is due and where to turn it in at? Or what time you can go bowling?
Better yet are the e-mails that tell you there's something coming up in the future, but we don't have any details yet. Then why the heck did I just waste my time reading this? And then over the course of another 5 e-mails, if you don't lose one of them, you find out, hopefully, all the details. If I really needed to know about what was going on in the first e-mail, then the details should have been figured out already. If not, send me one e-mail 5 days later with all the details. Oh, and professors who send out extra homework via e-mail the day before class better have a darn good explanation for it. I understand people are busy and sometimes forget to mention things, but I think everyone ought to try treating other people with a little bit more respect and take responsibility for the fact that they forgot to put the homework on the syllabus, so they should be the ones to deal with it. Not the poor people being attacked by their inbox.
One more thing, DON'T cancel via e-mail. Honestly, it's just rude.

One of those faces

The first two weeks of school are always interesting. Between figuring out your schedule, not panicking every time you look at the syllabus and generally having a headache from having to think again, it's the most stressful time for me except finals week. The other thing that keeps those weeks interesting for me is keeping track of how many people recognize me when I've never met them before in my life.
In my very first class, latin dance, a guy sitting a few seats down waved and said, "I don't remember where I know you from."
I took one look at him and said I have no idea either. Then, my boyfriend took me to Texas Roadhouse for dinner, and the server took one look at me and thought we were regular customers.
We'd never been there before.
The strangest time, though, was when I was waiting for my luggage at the airport and a girl came up to me and told me she'd been staring at me the whole flight trying to figure out how she knew me. I had no idea who she was.
This has become such a regular occurrence I've kind of come to expect it, but I still have no clue why people think they know me. I can't think of anyone in particular that I look like, except the few people who tell me I look like Pam from the Office.
Whatever it is, it makes young children smile at me and random dogs start following me down the street. It was one of those miniature dogs, and it was outside with it's owner when it just latched onto me and followed me whichever direction I went.
Needless to say, I've been feeling a lot of love from complete strangers, human and nonhuman.