9:00 to 5:00

Tomorrow marks the end of the fourth week of my internship at the Portland Children's Museum and the end of the first week of PSU summer term. I have yet to do any real reflecting about what I'm gaining from my internship experience. 

Here are some pigeons I drew on Illustrator to get things rolling.

At the beginning of this internship, I knew it was being structured as purely copywriting, but in the back of my mind I knew I wanted to sneak in some graphic design. 

I definitely managed to accomplish that. After writing my first two press releases (the drafts of which the Marketing Director has yet to give back to me), Emily, my supervisor and the Marketing Assistant, handed me her idea of featuring an arts and crafts project monthly in the newsletter. I got to research them, then do them, then lay them out in Illustrator. 

I'm also helping with another one of Em's ideas of making recycled crafts as a facebook promotion for KidsBuild. 

I happen to be at the museum during a very exciting time. They've just added an outdoor feature, with talk of more to come, and the website is undergoing a major redesign, which means it will finally have a PR archive, more photos, and a different newsletter format. 

I can't help but think that there is so much more I could be doing. I'm held back by my limited position, my lack of experience, utter lack of knowledge about the institution, and general timidity. I don't know how to establish my self and I don't know enough to have good ideas for things. I just wait around to be told what to do, and while I'm enjoying laying things out in photoshop and making snowmen out of hot glue, I can't help but feel this is just busy work. I want to be challenged, instead of just being a little bit confused. I want to find direction, not just be directed.

Maybe I could stand to take a page out of the museum's mission... The museum emphasizes that the focus and impetus for learning is the process and experience of... whatever. It's not about the end product so much as what you learn on the way there. 

In the Marketing department, we're very project oriented. We want to do and make things in order for us to look good and be seen, so that people will give us money (a very crude definition of marketing ). My craft projects were all chosen based on whether the outcome was good (I don't want kids making stuff that I wouldn't want to keep.)

But stuff like Ooblek (cornstarch + water = great ) holds a really important spot in a craft time. Crafting, for kids, is about creating quality time, not necessarily quality product.

While that is not really true for what Marketing does, I realize I should really get in to what I'm doing, and look hard, and try harder to ask around for what more I can do. Can I make promotional videos? Can I write more articles? Can I interview children? I don't want to take anyone's job, but I want to do work that I'm proud of doing. I want to do my job, and do it well.

Knowledge is something.

I can never predict how I'm going to feel about my impending study abroad experience. One minute, I'm terrified, nervous about everything, considering dropping out of the program... The next minute I can't wait to get there and start learning everything.

Right now I'm excited because I'm starting to get a feel for the language. Today I learned how to write and say I have diabetes* which is pretty empowering. I imagine I'll be needing to say that a lot.

It's surprising how empowering it is to posses some knowledge. Knowing just a little bit more about Thailand allows me to have just a little bit more control over my future trip and my 4 months away... which allows me to relax just a little bit, and start getting pumped.

*ฉันมีเบาหวาน (pronounced "chan mii baohwaan")

Pad Thai Power!

Since I'm getting all excited about Thailand, I thought I would tackle making Pad Thai, the quintessential Thai dish that Americans know about. I've never really had Pad Thai that I liked, but I figured that it was redeemable, especially if I made it myself. 


The only ingredients that really call for a special trip are Tamarind Pulp and Rice Noodles, or "Rice Stick" as the package says.


The recipe and very helpful instructions hail from SheSimmers. Despite the many explicit instructions, I improvised a lot, including making it vegetarian, and slightly spicier. 

So rice noodles don't actually get 'cooked'. Instead they sit in room temp water.
 I soaked mine for about 45 minutes but they were still a bit too gummy for my taste. 

My sauce was comprised of prepared tamarind, brown sugar, soy sauce and some hot sauce.

I decided to pre-cook my tofu, since it takes a while.

Chinese chives, AKA garlic chives

Adding a lot of oil and keeping the noodles moving is rrl important.
They are vulnerable to sticking to the pan in the first minute or so

You divide the pan in half at first...

...then into three parts to accommodate cooking all of your ingredients,
while keeping everything moving all the time.

Action shot!

Ta Da!

Mini-Limes and toasted peanuts for garnishes.

Clearly a success.

It was pretty empowering making this dish. It's stressful putting it all together, but very rewarding in the end. I'm excited to try it again.

In order to get a feel for how stressful the cooking part can be, here's the SheSimmers video of the process.

Ow

It's not summer unless I get some kind of scrape that will probably turn in to a scar.


In 2010, the summer before I started college, two years ago (what??) I got road rash after my friend turned in front of me and I crashed in to him while we were biking. Then I go scratched climbing over a wire fence on a farm.


2011, the summer I started my sophomore year of college, I burned my wrists on an oven rack because the oven rack was put in freaking upside-down. Then I fell down some stairs and scratched my arm. (both of these injuries happened in my new house, which we all quickly learned was much more ramshackle than the exterior led you to believe.)


These marks are all still visible. The sad part is that most of them were pretty minor scratches, yet they still left scars, so I'm going to guess the ones I got today will stick around.


I decided that climbing over a pile of bricks would be a good idea as we cleaned up our back yard. The last bricks on top fell over as I cleared the pile, and came down and grazed my leg. It stings, but doesn't look that bad. I'm just going to bet it will be hopefully my one and only summer scar of 2012.

An Open Letter...

Dear anyone writing about the state of Obesity/Healthcare/Food in America,


When you say that everyone is getting diabetes, or will get diabetes, or that diabetes is a sign of poor health, or that all the diabetes is a terrible sign of the times, would you please, please SPECIFY THAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT TYPE 2 DIABETES.


No Type 1 Diabetic wants to 1)get wrapped up in your disease/body size shaming, or 2)loose faith in your competence as a writer because you don't know the difference between type 1 and 2 diabetes... or worse, that you don't know there even are different types. 


We Type 1-ers work really hard to stay healthy, and we have been inflicted with this disease through no fault of our own, or of the modern food system. 


I'm sure it's not intentional, but by associating diabetes with unhealthiness, you're creating a stigma for my disease that is completely unwarranted. It's hurtful to all of the diabetics out there (both types), and it sure makes trying to be healthy seem a heck of a lot more difficult, if not impossible.

Thai Tastiness

Hey Blog... Hope you don't think I've forgotten about you. I've just had a lot going on. For example: Working from 9 to 5 makes it hard to do anything else. Or maybe I'm just not very ambitious. Either way, I haven't been reading as much as I would have liked. I also didn't expect to be working from 9 to 5. I also haven't spent much time learning Thai, but I managed to do a little this weekend. 


Speaking of Thailand, I'm really getting really nervous/excited. I'm nervous because there is so much planning that needs to be done, especially in regards to me getting all of my perscriptions to last 5 months, and keeping them safe while I'm there. Then there's also the part about it being so so hot there and I'm going to die. Outside of being nervous, I'm so excited about all that I'm going to learn and experience. It's going to be so overwhelming, but so rewarding. 


In preparation for these new experiences, my folks and I went to a Thai restaurant that has been literally blocks away for almost two years and we've never gone. It's called Chiang Mai, named after the city, which I'm quickly learning is totally the cool place to go. They have TIGERS. 


I'm pretty inexperienced when it comes to Thai food, but I had some tasty bites this afternoon. Everything was so new and mysterious, even the water, which was flavored just enough to be almost imperceptible but totally enchanting. 

After devouring a good amount of my Pad Mee Lueng I realized I should probably  take a picture of it.
It was incredible. Glazed Tofu with Chinese broccoli and egg. I can't even describe it. 

I'm motivated to try and cook my family a Thai meal, possibly Pad Thai. After a trip to Uwajimaya to procure the more mysterious of the ingredients, I think I'm all set. 

In all my excitement I've been avoiding filling out my visa application. Oops... 

In other news, I'll make a post about how my job is going soon!