Jason’s Travelogue

During lunch, the lights went out. Or so it seemed, as the lighting in the lunch room became dim in a few seconds.

But it wasn’t a electrical malfunction; what had happened that Education City had been enveloped by a sandstorm. Quietly, suddenly, an enormous wave of brown had crashed over the entire city. For someone as new to this as me, I feel closed off, compressed, unusually claustrophobic. Driving seems even more hazardous than usual, and people are walking out in clad in sunglasses and scarves over their faces. This is going to mess with my outdoor training plan.. well, there were movies I’ve been wanting to watch.

I feel like I’m snowed in by sand. I don’t know when it’s going to dissipate… some say a few days, a day, or until the next (rare) rain clears the storm.

On a lighter note, guitar jam session tonight, plus a run for charity this coming weekend. Vegweb.com still has pretty cool recipes that I’ve tried.. someday I’ll be patient enough to actually take a picture of the food before I devour it. Basketball game went this past Monday, beating a team that that we’ve apparently always lost to. The playoffs start in two weeks. I’ll be sad when the season is over… end of an era.

Great voice + decent acoustic cover. Listen.

Hello.

A few things have happened to me since my last post.

Food- No meat! I’ve had fish regularly, mostly tuna, and dairy, usually in the form of goat’s milk (also soy milk, but that’s not really dairy). I’ve been cooking more often- made myself my own curry concoctions using curry powder, potatoes, brown rice, and all sorts of vegtables. The plan was to replace meat with tofu. However, getting tofu in this country is like looking for easter eggs- you think it’s right there, peeking up out of the wild undergrowth, but the excitement turns to despair once you find that it’s actually just boxed hummus. I’ll perhaps put up a recipe someday, when I feel up to it. Speaking of recipes, I tried Atsuko’s first recipe, Easy Chinese Style Peanut Sauce Noodles, which can be found here. It’s a great recipe, simple, healthy, and tasty! Extremely versatile, as you can anything you want- I added potatoes and substituted noodles for brown rice and burgul, a local grain. Unlike the pictures though, my sauce turned a dark chocolate-y brown color- perhaps my thai brand of soy sauce was overpowering. Any saltiness however, can be diluted using extra peanut butter.

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