My Pizza, My Love (numero uno)

I just made pizza for my family in Chicago. My sister was able to help and give me some suggestions while I made my famous pizza crust. I've actually never watched anybody make pizza dough before and this was a good chance for me to analyze how I make mine. It actually turned out pretty well, probably the best so far. I've decided that this recipe has been tested and re-tested enough for me post my recipe on the world wide web.

Mix together in a small bowl:
1 Tb. cake yeast or 1 package dry yeast
1/4 warm water
1 tsp. sugar
(let sit while you work on other things)

Mix together in a medium bowl:
3/4 c. water (room temperature)
1 tsp. salt
2 tbs. vegetable oil

In a large bowl mix in 3 cups of flour with the two bowls of liquids. Use a wooden spoon to mix it all together. Once the mixture starts sticking, go ahead and put it all on a floured counter and start kneading it for about 5 or 8 minutes. Make sure you keep kneading the dough until it is nice and soft. Spread oil or butter on the inside of a large bowl. Roll the dough around and make sure it is coated with either the oil or butter. Seal the top of the bowl with cling wrap so that air won't dry out the dough. Let the dough raise for about an hour. I usually warm up some water in pan and place the bowl on top.

Once the dough has risen to about double its size, punch it down and cut it into two balls. Place the two balls back into the bowl and let them sit there for 5 minutes. Set your oven on 350 degrees F. Roll out your two pieces of dough into the shape that you want (on a floured surface) and place on lightly oiled pans. Place into the oven for about 10 min or until the dough is a bit crusty (but not browned!). After taking out the crusts from the oven, decorate with sauce, cheese, and other goodies. After all of the decorating, place pizzas back into the oven for about 20 minutes or until the crusts are slightly browned at the edges. Yum and enjoy! I'll be posting a few other ideas concerning sauces and toppings.

Another Santa

Papa Noel has many faces. Santa can be a greedy capitalist to some, but to others he can be just about anyone with a red suit. I'm trying to become as legal as I possibly can, so I'm going to go ahead and say that I got this comic from here. All other White Ninja comics in this blog come from here as well. There, everyone is happy now. :) Oh yea, if you can't see the comic very well, click on it to get a better view.

Some Names

Some of the names that I've been called within the past week:

• Butch
• Jachi
• Josué
• Josh
• Joshers
• Josuey
  
• Jud
• Lelo (grandpa)
  
• Judson
• Uncle Lio
• Uncle Tio

Some make sense (Uncle Tio, Josué, etc) while the others I've adopted over time.

Feliz Navidad, Jo Jo Jo

I hate watching television and listening to the radio during the holidays. Consumerism is lame, especially when people feel it is necessary to remove words from carols and replace them with: "Buy here and she will love you for ever!" Ha, whatever. I know the original words to that song and they talk of true love, not watches and diamonds. I don't want to sound like a Scrooge, but I really don't think that remembering Jesus' birth should be seasonal.

On a lighter note, I'm having a good time here in Chicago. David, Sara, and I decided that since we were never allowed to open gifts during Christmas Eve as kids, we were now old enough to decide for ourselves. We opened one gift each. :) Maybe when I have my own family we will celebrate in October.

Merry Christmas, and make sure you don't over-do the eggnog.

Going to Chicago/Mexico

I'm taking the train to Chicago to spend the holidays with my sister. This is going to be the fourth house for me to sleep in since break has started. First Soup House, second Grandparents, third Kalamazoo Greenmans, and fourth Chicago. When will I be able to unpack my bag and rest my weary head on a stable pillow? Lithuania in January. :) I won't lie, I am a bit nervous.

Some things that I am looking forward to in Chicago:

• Miriam!
  
• Clean kitchen and bathroom
• Good food
  
• Tasty coffee
• Diverse environment (as long as I can build up my courage to get of the apartment)
  
• Meeting up with friends
• Reading
• Teasing my sister
  

A Day or Two in Michigan

I thought that my time here in Sparta was going to be dull, but it has been quite the opposite. Traditionally this sleepy little town hasn't been too full of activities, and the truth is that it remains this way. My solution to this problem? Get out of town! I've been driving around lately, even getting to Lake Michigan to visit my friend Renee (who taught me English in high school). Yesterday I was able to get up to Sand Lake to visit both my Aunt Leta and Uncle Henry. It's always interesting to visit them since I really don't know what to talk about but always manage to keep them entertained. It should be fun to send them a few postcards from Lithuania, where their parents originally immigrated from. It kind of surprised me when they couldn't find Lithuania on a map. Soon I'll be tromping all over the country-side trying to find my long lost family. :) I doubt I'll find anybody.

The second picture me look like I'm wearing a little dress or something, right? Well, actually I wasn't. Ha! I was actually wearing my grandmother's apron so that I wouldn't get flour all over myself while I made pizza dough. :) I was disappointed with the dough though, it didn't raise! I'm not sure what went wrong. It could have been that the water I used to activate the yeast wasn't warm enough. No se. Instead of two pizzas I ended up making one large one. It turned out pretty yummy because I loaded it with cheese, corn, red peppers, and some ham. Yum.

I leave for Kalamazoo tomorrow. Please pray while I look for a place to park my car.

Visiting in Michigan

I got in to Michigan last night at around 6 pm. The trip up from Indiana was long, but overall quite restful. Our expected departure time was 10 a.m., but because of a huge amount of snow and ice we weren't able to leave until 11 or so. It was kind of funny and frustrating at the same time because I couldn't open either the front doors or trunk.

Because of an all-nighter which I had pulled off to complete my packing, I was exhausted all day Monday. My brain was still alert, but my eyes needed to be rested. Of the four hour drive, I must have slept two. I used to be able to sleep quite easily during car and plane rides, but now I find it quite difficult. It was good that I had kept my goose-down coat with me because it served as a wonderful pillow.

Rachael (a friend who needed a ride to Michigan) and I ate at a little restaurant called "The Blue Dolphin." By the time that we made it into the restaurant, it was 3 p.m. and we were the only customers. I ordered a french toast sandwich with ham which could be dunked in a bowl of maple syrup. It was actually pretty good.

My cousin Ben's family had just got in from Argentina on Saturday and it was fun to hang out with them. The last time that I had seen them was one year ago for New Year. It was fun to tease my cousins while they tried to make Christmas cookies. My quota was one, but I got away with three. :P After dinner we all trekked over to the dollar store where I found some great colognes that were only a few dollars (their original price was a lot more). I am currently thinking about taking a few to Lithuania with me and give them away as gifts.

Ben and his family left this morning for Kentucky to spend Christmas with their family. My to-do list while I'm here includes: eating lunch with Renee (my English teacher in high-school), maybe hanging out with Amy Laur (who is going with me to Lithuania), delivering gifts to my aunt and uncle on my mom's side of the family, figuring out where to leave my car for the following 9 months, changing my insurance (parked status), making sure that my banks know that I will be abroad, resting and relaxing. :) Amy lent me a few books which I am looking forward to reading. It's been a while since I've been able to just sit around and read for fun. I should be heading out to Kalamazoo this Friday and then to Chicago on the 24th. Chaucito.

Why am I still in Upland?!

I'm sorry if I haven't been updating very much lately. As you already know I just finished finals, which were actually quite difficult this semester. Thankfully, I didn't have to move out of the dorms right away since I have been living off campus this semester. I've given myself until Monday to pack everything up. I really hate packing, and this is a lot harder than usual. I've decided to get rid a lot of my "junk" to relieve myself of some of the clutter that has been accumulating over time. You know how that works though...it might be useful down the road someday. I want to get rid of stuff, but I'm not sure where to draw the line between "junk" and "usefulness." I have a bunch of notes that were given to me while I was in Argentina last year. They ask me how my day was going, why I was so quiet at the time, etc. Good memories...but they take up space! Nah, I'm keeping them, including the postcards. I've decided to get rid of all of my sticky notes and other bits of junk though.

Once I sort through all of my things, I'm supposed to decide what to take to Lithuania. I'll be gone for 9 months (I'll be back at the end of August) and in three different continents. The thing that I most worried about is the temperature change. The other students who are going with me to Lithuania only need to worry about cold weather, but I need to be prepared for all sorts of temperature changes. I think I've finally convinced myself that no matter where I am, I can always buy warmer weather clothing.

As you can see from the photos above, my friends and I spent a day in Indianapolis yesterday. We got to climb to the top of a huge monument that commemorates some solider guys. I'm surprised that I didn't pass out on the way up. I had my big wool coat on plus I was carrying my maté bag. We all made it though...thankfully. After that we sat on the steps in the front of the monument as I prepared some good matecito. I got yelled at by Amy for wanting to throw the yerba out on the grass (where it would be invisible to everyone). Instead I had to run down to the sidewalk to through the yerba in a real trash can. Good thing my friends look out for me, or else I would have ended up in jail. After the monument we headed out to a huge mall where the girls shopped their hearts out. Ben and I just chilled and walked around for a while looking at the stores.

We arrived home exhausted, but happy. This morning both Ben and Ruwe left and it's just Amy and I left. I really hate that feeling...one by one my friends leave. I need to look on the bright side of things, I'll be in Lithuania in 24 days.

Finished

Yep, I'm done w/ finals. My Reformation and Enlightenment final took me two whole hours to complete. Now to see what I got on it.

I'm going to start packing soon. Not yet though, I'm too tired to even think about that.

Thanks for your prayers.

Finals

Current status: studying.
Tomorrows status: studying.
Tuesday's status: studying.
Wednesday's status: studying.
Thursday's status: FINISHED (by 2 pm).

Things today and yesterday

1) Morning Dew. We had a good number show up this morning. Not sure if it will continue on next semester, I hope it does. My friend Amy noted that different TCKs (and non) showed up who do not usually attend MuKappa events. This is great because M. D. is not a MuKappa event.

2) Ivanhoes. Mr. and Mrs. Aguilar took me out to Ivanhoes to discuss a trip to Jujuy, where I grew up. This was my first time to Ivanhoes, a popular restaurant in the area. I can't say I was terribly impressed, but then again I got a pasta salad and not one of their famous sundaes.

3) Potosi. My paper is finished and turned in. You can read it here. I feel pretty good about it, even though my thesis statement could be a bit stronger.

4) Immigration to America. I had my last class today. We had some great discussion concerning illegal immigration. I made a few good comments (at least it made the teacher and others think a little) defending immigrants.
One person was stating how illegal immigrants take advantage of the U.S. American schools and don't contribute to society. I replied, "Are they taking advantage of us...or are we taking advantage of them?"
A different person was expressing that she thought that people should have to speak English to be able to vote. I replied, "We had better make sure that they are land owners too."
Smart? No. Did I feel like we had a good discussion today? Yes.

5) Guyana. Jeff, Fernando, and I are giving our presentation tomorrow. It needs to go for 50 min. since it is in place of a final. It's going to be fun, even though a lot of work. Click here to see a video that we are showing. Yes, I know it's cheesy.

6) Study. I'm starting to study for my finals, which are next week. I still have to watch a few videos (three hours worth) for History of England but I should have those completed tomorrow.

It's that snow time of the year

It's been snowing for the past four or five hours, and should keep snowing until later today. I really hate being called a "trend setter" but sometimes I notice that once I do something...people sometimes copy. In the past, the Soup House has been a "no shoe" house. You could always find a pile of shoes by the door. If you were good, you could tell who all was in the house by just looking at the pile. This shoe removal ensured that the carpet stayed nice and clean. This summer I started keeping my shoes on while in the house...and have since then noticed that only Anna Perkins and a few other visitors take their shoes off now.

Where I grew up, we never took our shoes off indoors when visiting people's houses. It's rude, and your feet would get really dirty and cold (no carpet). I will admit that I would get BLACK feet during the summers when I would run around barefoot in my house, but I have since outgrown that practice. I've always felt uncomfortable visiting people's houses and having to take my shoes off. I do realize that I might get their carpets dirty if I don't though. I do suffer from chronic flat feet, so after a while my feet start aching and it is extremely painful to walk.

So, two excuses as to why I don't take my shoes off in the Soup House: 1) I have flat feet. 2) I'm Latino! Others though have been blessed with good arches, and can afford to walk w/ out shoes on. Keeping those folks in mind, I printed this out a few minutes ago and plan on sticking it to the front door:


Time to start up old traditions...

Saying Good-Bye to China One

I've had to say a lot of good-byes in my lifetime and I'm sure that there will be quite a few more down the road. I've heard quite a few people tell me that saying goodbye and taking pictures of the places that you will miss actually helps with the process. My friends and I decided to head over to China One for one of my potentially last visits before my trip to Lithuania. That restaurant holds a lot of memories and deserved to be photographed.

While I was at China One, I ate some delicious noodles. Well, I thought that until I felt my lips swelling up and my throat started getting a little scratchy. Interesting sensation really. I went back to the buffet and realized to my horror that there were a LOT of shrimp mixed in. I'm extremely allergic to shrimp and almost died when I was in 5th grade. My cousin Ben called campus-safety to see where the closest ER was, just in case I have a fatal reaction. I guess I didn't eat enough shrimp because my lips didn't swell to enormous proportions and I only got a few hives. :) I had the hardest time digesting the food last night though, my stomach felt full until 2 a.m. or so.

I guess China One didn't want to see me leave either.