Hello from end of semester hell! I have been barely keeping my head above water this entire semester, and like usual it’s only gotten worse as the semester wraps up. I gave my last formal presentation on Monday, so it feels good to have all of those out of the way (I hate public speaking!), but I have three final papers due next week; a 6 pager, an 8 pager and a 10 pager, all in Spanish. Writing 10 pages in English can be tedious, and it’s much harder in Spanish because my vocabulary is so much smaller. I just keep reminding myself that each week I’ve gotten all of my work done on time each week so far, so everything is probably going to be okay :).
In more exciting news, my study abroad process is coming along quite nicely! Two really exciting things happened in the last two weeks: I bought my plane ticket (!!!!!!!) and I was awarded a scholarship that covers almost half of the cost of the program (!!!!!!!!!!!!). I also have almost all of my paperwork finished. I got a physical on Wednesday, which was the last step required here, I filled out all of the paperwork for my scholarship, and I have almost all of the paperwork filled out for the university in Argentina, save a letter that I’m writing for a program called PAL, which pairs you with a local student who can help you adjust to living in a foreign country. I plan to finish that today and then take a huge sigh of relief. My anxiety about going abroad is nearly completely gone, and I’m getting really excited!
So let’s get to the roundup! I have been making a ton of repeat recipes lately for simplicity’s sake, but here are a few new ones:
Sweet quinoa breakfast casserole from Fit and Free with Emily: I made a few changes to this recipe: I used old fashioned oats instead of quinoa because I couldn’t find quinoa at the grocery store (granted, I was shopping on a weeknight after a long day of classes, so I gave up the second it wasn’t in the rice section, which, in retrospect, might not have been the actual rice section but the ethnic food section) and I didn’t have enough at home. I also only used walnuts because that’s what I had, I reduced the sugar to a scant 1/4 cup since I was using sweetened almond milk, and I left out the chocolate chips because I try not to have any sweets during the week. I was a little worried that the texture would be gross with oats, but it is not at all! This breakfast is awesome. It tastes so good, and I love not having to make a pot of oatmeal every morning. I just throw it in a bowl with a splash of milk and heat it in the microwave. I will definitely be making this each week until I get tired of it.
Soba noodles with Sweet Ginger Scallion Sauce from Simply Reem: I’ve made this twice over the past couple of weeks. It is really tasty and quick to throw together, making it perfect for the nights that I don’t get home until after 6. I made it once with steamed broccoli mixed in, and once with some pre-cut stir-fry veggies, which pumped up the nutrition and made it more filling.
Copycat Pizza Hut Pizza from CDK Kitchen: Yesterday was Dan’s birthday, and he requested pizza for his birthday dinner. I had pinned this on pinterest awhile ago with Dan in mind because he loves pan pizza, and I busted the recipe out last night. I didn’t follow the recipe for the sauce, I just used my fave sauce (Contadina), but it was still really good and surprisingly similar in flavor to Pizza Hut. The recipe calls for nonfat dry milk, which I just replaced with regular milk (1/4 cup nonfat dry milk=1 cup regular milk), and this is the main difference between this recipe and my standard pizza crust recipe.
And one random link that I found interesting:
“But You’re RUINING The Language!” from xojane: I have a constant battle going on between my inner grammar nazi and my inner linguist. I have a keen eye for grammar mistakes in things I read, I really enjoy editing, and I cringe when I see mistakes (case in point, a slide entitled “Summery” during a presentation in one of my classes yesterday) (disclaimer: not claiming perfection here, you will undoubtedly find at least one mistake in this post). That being said, studying linguistics gives you a broader understanding about how language works (obviously) and the socio-political aspects that effect society’s perception of “correct grammar”. It also makes you realize that every dialect has its own set of rules and constraints and is therefore equally complex as the standard dialect, and that English’s spelling conventions are dumb and way outdated so you can’t really blame people for spelling mistakes. I just spotted this article this morning, and it was really timely because Dan and I were JUST arguing about these aspects of language two nights ago (me from a linguistic standpoint, him from and English teacher standpoint). Anyway, if any of this is interesting to you, this article goes more in depth than my summary here and you should check it out.
And with that, I need to get ready for class. Today is going to be rough because I woke up at 3:15 this morning and have been wide awake since. I am not very prepared for either of my classes today, which is a mistake because these professors ALWAYS call on me. Thankfully I get out of class at 10:35, so I can (hopefully) nap when I get home, unfortunately I haven’t started any of those final papers due next week that I mentioned above, so I can’t exactly sleep the day away.
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