Cilantro-Lime Chicken with Savory Brown Rice

Cilantro-Lime Chicken
Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 chicken breasts, 1in cubes
• 1/4 cup of Cilantro-Lime Dressing  

Directions:

1. Marinate chicken in cilantro-lime dressing for at least 1 hour but for no more than 4 hours.
2. Heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and saute until golden.
3. Add the chicken, cook on each side for 2-3 minutes until golden-brown and the insides are cooked.

Makes 2 servings

Savory Brown Rice
Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3/4 cup uncooked brown rice
• 1 3/4 cups low sodium, low fat vegetable broth (can substitute for water)
•  2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• (optional) 1 teaspoon garlic salt

Directions:

1. Heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic and saute until golden. Add the uncooked rice and saute for 2 minutes.
2. Add the vegetable broth, bring to a boil, cover and lower the heat and cook for 30 minutes. Add the spices. 

Makes 6 servings

Enjoy! 

Wonder Diet

My diet has recently undergone a bit of a makeover. Earlier this summer I posted about having some GI issues; now, I'm officially gluten, sugar, and dairy-free, which makes eating somewhat difficult. However, I've learned to get by (with a lot of adjusting and a couple of bad indigestion days...) and I figured I'd share some of my recipes here on this blog, for anyone interested in making some healthy yet also yummy choices as far as the food they consume goes!

One of my all-time favorite salads as Sweetgreen's Guacamole Green salad. However, not only is the price tag a bit hefty, I also don't know what goes in to the chicken or dressing, so this afternoon I thought I'd be a bit crafty and make my own at home.

Verdict: homemade meals > mass produced food, no matter how "local" Sweetgreen claims to be.

Read on to see how you make my version of Sweetgreen's Guacamole Greens! I encourage everyone to try to buy organic and local, whenever possible. Food definitely tastes better!

Cilantro-Lime Dressing (modified version of this recipe)
Ingredients:

* 2 medium jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped
* 2 cloves garlic
* 3/4 teaspoon minced fresh ginger root
* 1/2 cup lime juice
* 1/4 cup honey
* 4 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
* 1/2 teaspoon seal salt, or to taste
* 1/2 cup packed cilantro leaves
* 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

(Directions taken from the above recipe)

"Place the jalapeno pepper, garlic clove, and ginger into a food processor or blender; pulse until the jalapeno and garlic are finely chopped. Pour in the lime juice, honey, balsamic vinegar, and salt, add the cilantro leaves; pulse a few times to blend. Turn the food processor or blender on, and slowly drizzle in the olive oil until incorporated into the dressing. Season to taste with salt before serving."

I would suggest adding less of all ingredients and then adapting quantities to taste. Personally I found that 1/3 cup of honey was much too sweet for my tastes, and I also like my dressing to be extra tangy, so I added much more lime juice.
Makes 6 servings

Spring Mix Salad
Ingredients:

* 2 cups mesclun salad
* 1/4 cup grape tomatoes, halved
* 1/4 red onion, diced
* 1 avocado
* 1/2 cup gluten-free tortilla chips, lightly crushed
* (optional) 1/2 cup roasted chicken breast, cubed
* (optional) 1/2 lime

Mix all ingredients together.
Makes 2 servings

---

Try making it at home and let me know how it goes! I promise it's actually scrumptious, and not at all healthy-tasting. This is coming from the girl who would choose a Five Guys burger over pretty much anything, at any occasion. I've never been a healthy, "granola" American, but I'm slowly learning that you don't always have to sacrifice taste for health!

There's always room for more nerdy posts!

I'm taking a break from my serious biz real life musings to make a post consisting entirely of GIFS to express how I feel about "A Dance with Dragons," as well as having to wait what will probably amount to another ten years for the next GRRM book. I finished the book a couple weeks ago, but wanted to wait until I had my emotions fully under control before making this post.
NOTE: my emotions are totally, fully under control. It's not like I have incredibly vivid ASoIaF-inspired dreams every night, and wake up crying. Not at all.

***needless to say, this post will contain spoilers for the entire ASoIaF series***

Recently I came across this interview with EW:
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So why did you kill Jon Snow?
GEORGE R.R. MARTIN: Oh, you think he’s dead, do you?

GRRM is the biggest troll on the internets.
Thank god I don't live near Santa Fe, or he'd be getting one of these.

I can't EVEN. Like I can't even talk about this. LALALALA Jon is not dead whatever I don't care what you think or the evidence against me. I DON'T CARE. I'm totally apathetic.

 Basically as apathetic as I was about this one dying.

........

..........

Oh you freakishly beautiful man. You know nothing, Jon Snow.

 

.......Okay maybe I'm not totally apathetic.
BRB while I burn all of my books in my grief.
(So you know how I originally said this post was going to be about how I feel about ADwD? I lied. It's about a beautiful man named Jon Snow.)

that awkward moment when you realize you weren't meant to be an economist, after all

I probably spent the last three years in college studying the wrong thing.

You don't know how hard it was for me to type that.

I've always been the model Asian child--academically, at least. I did well in elementary school, middle school, high school. I rocked the SATS. I got into my first choice school. I did well in college. Obediently, I bought GRE books and even signed up for a test date: Friday, September 23rd.

But now I'm kind of thinking. Wait a second. Why am I taking the GRE? Where am I going to apply for grad school? What kind of programs am I interested in? Do I want to study more? If so, what am I going to study?

Economics??

Oh boy. Economics. Everyone I know makes fun of me for being an econ nerd. Not because I am an econ nerd (I'm not. Not at all. I don't even have a favorite obscure microeconomic theory). But because everyone at Georgetown who isn't an econ major hates it with a fiery passion,  people in the SFS who choose to be International Political Economy majors are deemed as insane masochists.

They might not be too far off the mark concerning the last part, at least when it comes to me.

I came into college wishing, like the majority of SFS kids, for my 2 years of mandatory econ classes to be behind me. My worst grade in college was in macroeconomics. Yet, somehow, during that important season of my sophomore year when it became time to choose my major, I realized that the only classes that challenged me were my econ classes, so instead of taking the sane way out (majored in something that came much more easily, such as IPOL or RCST), I signed myself up for the most difficult thing I could: IPEC.

I would be lying if I said I haven't regretted it since. I've regretted it a lot. I regretted it through every PECO-201 lecture, with every page I turned in my econometrics textbook. I regret it each time I look at my transcript and my eyes zero in on my GPA. I regret it every time I see/hear/smell/taste the words: GRETL or STATA.

There are things, of course, that I don't regret. My awesome relationship with Dean Kaneda, hands down the best professor I've had at Georgetown. Reading Hal Varian's "Intermediate Microeconomics"--the funniest textbook I've read to date. TAing for International Trade. Meeting equally insane IPEC majors who would eventually become some of my best friends. And I'm sure there are other good things that I can't quite remember right now.

Or that's what I'm trying to convince myself. It's too late to change my major, regardless. If I could do it again, I would've studied education policy or education administration--things I'm passionate about. But Georgetown doesn't offer these majors, so I would never do it again even if given the chance: one thing I absolutely do not regret is choosing to go to Georgetown. That choice, at least, was right.

So I went to the right school but spent my years studying the wrong thing. s'not so bad, come to think about it. One day I'll look back on these years and laugh over all those tears spilled over bad econ grades and impossible problem sets. In the end I still learned a few things: the value of friendship, to truly believe in the power of my little hands, how to accept defeat gracefully. You know. The important stuff.

It's like freshman year all over again

My absolute worst grades by a longshot in college came my second semester freshman year. It was a difficult pill to swallow, especially being an overachieving 4.0 student in high school (like every other Georgetown kid), and somehow managing to pull the same my first semester in college (those days are long gone). I do have an excuse. A feeble one, maybe, but one I will stand by to the grave.

I got the swine flu.

No, seriously. May 2009, when swine flu was still mostly just a huge internet joke and didn't actually happen in the US, I came down with it, right during finals week. I refused to go to the doctor, partly because I'm awful about going to the doctor but mostly because Georgetown's student health center is absolutely garbage. I waited until I was safe at home in Seattle, feverish, and too weak to walk unaided until finally agreeing to let my mom haul my sorry ass to the hospital, where I found out that not only did I have swine flu, I also contracted a healthy case of pneumonia on top of that.

I could have died. You would think I learned my lesson. Google sure did:

(I wish this picture were a joke. It's not. Try it in your own google browser!)

I didn't learn my lesson. Just this past semester, I got a sinus infection, and instead of going to the doctor to get a simple round of antibiotics (been there, done that, many times), I thought this time I'd "tough it out". Unfortunately things never work out as planned. I got bronchitis, on top of my severe sinus infection, and couldn't leave my bed for a good ten days. How I did not fail out of college in the process is still mystery to me.

Today is July 18th, 2011. It is not second-semester freshman year. It is also not second-semester junior year. It's "you're about to be a senior in college and people are going to start expecting you to act like an adult" year. Oops.

I'm pretty sick. I started getting really sharp pain in my abdomen area on Tuesday and thought I'd just tough it out (though I have good reason this time--I am constantly plagued with stomach aches of all kinds due to a poor digestive system). It got worse. I reluctantly went to go see my doctor. Appendicitis, he said, and sent me to the hospital to get a CT scan. Drank an ocean's worth of godawful contrast fluid. Got hooked up to an IV. Results: the area where my lower and upper intestine meet (aka where my appendix is) was inflamed, but they couldn't see my actual appendix on the scan. According to my doctor it's rare for someone to have appendicitis without the appendix showing up as inflamed on the scan, no matter how small. Apparently I have a very small appendix (or an appendix on hiatus... where to, no one knows). So the radiologist literally shoo-d me out of his office, and I went home.

Home is where I am now. If I don't get better, I'm going to have to get another CT, and then maybe even a colonoscopy. In light of that, I'm forcing myself to feel better. For now, at least, I'm going to take advantage of this opportunity to curl up in bed with some decaffeinated tea and inhale the rest of George R.R. Martin's epic "A Dance with Dragons." I've learned rather personally this summer that life is always better when you make happiness a choice, rather than a result of circumstance.

And, hey. There are much worst things in life than my current deal. GRRM could've hit a severe writer's block and published the 5th book in his series next year. That would have been real pain. Not this silly mummer's farce of a sick girl.

grass does not exist on the other side

Okay I suck. I got back to Seattle midday Sunday after driving non-stop from Arches National Park for a good part of the night. I realize it's Sunday. I've decided this writer's block is from my inability to describe how awesome and incredible my roadtrip was, so I'll just say this.

The best part of the trip may have been waking up Sunday morning, just hours away from home, to see evergreen trees, rushing, clear rivers, beautiful deep brown soil heavily littered with sinuously soft green, GREEN--did I mention green?--grass. None of that coarse, painful yellow-brown stuff they call grass in the SW, or dusty, red-dirt that gets caught in your nose, your ears, and eyelashes, even. Or those prickly angry little shrubs people who live down there like to call "trees".

Just kidding.

The southwest was amazing. I got to watch the sun set in the Grand Canyon, hike down into the canyon, and almost die of dehydration on the way back up (note to self: you can never have too much water). I saw unbelievable Navajo pueblos at Navajo National Monument--how they're still preserved to this day is a beautiful mystery. I was smitten with flirty National Monument, so easy to love, so hard to part with. And at Arches, I had the opportunity to stand beneath the shade of Delicate Arch and wonder at its beautiful majesty.

Do yourself a favor and go visit the SW if you ever get the chance (only after you've visited the NW, obviously). I know I'll be back soon. Interested in hiking the Grand Canyon rim-to-rim? Let me know, I want to make a trip of it within the next year.

WA-OR-CA-NV-AZ-UT-ID-WA

Welcome to the next two weeks of my life. We Le's don't mess around.

I'm leaving Monday morning around 8am for Lake Tahoe. My family has been on countless road trips through all parts of WA, OR, and northern CA, so we're breezing through those states and going straight for the gold. Our tentative schedule looks something like this:

6/27: Leave Bellevue
6/28-29: Lake Tahoe
6/29-30: Greater SF area/Napa Valley
7/1: Malibu
7/1-4: Santa Ana
7/4-5: Las Vegas, NV
7/5-7: Grand Canyon (!!!)
7/7-10: Utah, various (Lake Powell, Arches National Park, etc)
7/11: Home

The reason why I say tentative is because my family fails at making plans.  In my father's words: "it's not our style." The advent of the internet (and my father's subsequent recognition of the internet as a necessary evil, decades after its invention) has helped planning somewhat, but we remain people of our roots. The last Epic Road Trip my family took was in 2002, when we took three weeks to scour every major city from here to Phoenix, AZ. My father did not print out directions or make reservations. Nope. We had a US map, more detailed state maps, and my 12-year-old self as front-seat navigator (I thank my dad for my great sense of direction despite being an Asian female). Where did we sleep at night? We camped where we could. And if we had to stay somewhere more people-friendly, we just drove along the highway until we found suitable accomodations. Now that's adventure.

This time around, though, we have a plan. Sort of. Knowing us, two-days into the trip we're going to see a sign pointing left to some cave, and my father won't be able to say no. We'll swerve off the highway, follow some dusty, overgrown road, and take a locally-guided tour down into a damp, dark, cave that will turn out to be incredible and the highlight of our trip.

Case in point: Lake Shasta Caverns on Lake Shasta, CA. Never heard of it? We hadn't either until we drove past it on our way back from Yosemite National Park in 2008. These caves remain the highlight of that trip.

Hopefully we'll make it to the Grand Canyon. And, after that, Utah. Oh, Utah. This has been on my dad's "To-visit" list for years and years now, but he's never wanted to do it without the kids, and I've been an awful daughter in that since leaving for college I've never been home long enough to go on a proper road trip with my daddy. Well, we're changing that this summer. We're going to spend four days in Utah, which, for a Le family roadtrip, is pretty much a lifetime.

You may be wondering, then, why we're spending 4 whole days in Santa Ana. Good question. The real reason why we're going on this road trip is for a Vietnamese Christian Conference in Santa Ana. This month (June) marks 100 years of Evangelical Christianity in Vietnam which is a Big Deal for my family and for the Vietnamese Christian community worldwide. Thousands of Vietnamese Christians from all denominations will gather in Santa Ana from July 1-4 in celebration. Sound terrifying? It will be. Exciting? Even more so!

So there you have it. My itinerary for June 27th-July 11th. Blog updates will likely be rare, but I promise a good one upon my return.

LE is not only my last name

Everyone knows more or less that I work for a non-profit. For the most part, when people catch me freaking out on the second floor of our library ("Nhaca, you live here," I'm often told. True--it's a sad, windowless existence), it's because of something work-related and not school related. I joke with my friends that the reason why I don't panic about exams and school in general (although, as an IPEC major, I have many things I should be panicking about--another post for another day) is because I use up all my stress/panic buttons on LE. Even my darling dean and employer, Dean Kaneda, cautioned me at the beginning of the school year not to "overexert myself with extracurriculars", because my academics would surely suffer.

To that I can only say one thing: oops?

You may be wondering, "What is LE?" The easy answer: my last name. The not-so-easy answer: the acronym for the best non-profit ever, Learning Enterprises.

I applied to teach English in Thailand as a wee little freshman nearly four years ago with LE. Back then, Learning Enterprises was a fee-free opportunity to leave the country for the first time since I was brought to these shores as an infant and engage in meaningful service. I lived with a host family, gained weight on authentic Thai food, and taught English at a tiny rural school in Sanamklee, Phitsanulok, Thailand. The experience, to this day, remains one of my best and most-cherished (you can read about my experience on change.org, where I served as a guest blogger for the summer, here).

 Everyone, in unison: "awwwww!"

 My sophomore year I served as LE's Georgetown Campus Director, where I recruited, interviewed, selected, and trained volunteers for service. It was a difficult and frustrating experience, for sure, but definitely, in the end, worthwhile. In summer 2010, I directed LE's program in China, and also spent 4 weeks with LE's Cambodia program.

At Nanjing Train Station with my good lookin' bunch of kittens

And, this past school year, I served as the Executive Managing Director of Learning Enterprises. Aka I don't sleep and run shit.

Running a non-profit has been the single-most worthwhile, rewarding, and painful experience I've had in college. On lucky days I wake up thinking "Wow, I'm the shit!" Most of the time, however, I wake up with a panicked stone lodged deep in my chest, thinking "Whose awful idea was it to put me in charge of this crazy thing?"

This "crazy thing" being an entirely student-run US-registered 501(c)3 education-based non-profit that sends 100+ college-aged students annually to 10+ developing communities to teach English for 6-8 weeks abroad. We charge our volunteers no program fees, and our entire organization is run on the generous donation of family and friends. It sounds crazy and impossible, but it is possible. So possible that it has totally changed my life

LE has given me the opportunity to push myself beyond anything I knew was possible, make a difference in the lives of children thousands of miles away, and create real, lasting relationships with people who do not speak the same language as I do. My goal as a silly little freshman embarking on her first real adventure was to empower and inspire a small group of children in rural Thailand. In the end, I was the one who was empowered and inspired to believe in myself and believe in the power of these little midget hands creating change.

Now that's something money can't buy.

But money can help! I turn the big TWO-OH (21) this Saturday and the best thing you could possibly do for my birthday is consider donating $21 to LE. Within the next couple of weeks over 100 volunteers will be going into close to a dozen countries to touch the lives of over 5,000 children, and countless others. As Managing Director, I am directly responsible for ensuring that these programs have the necessary funding. 21 dollars goes a long way in a small non-profit like LE. In giving, you do not only make my 21st birthday the best ever (undoubtedly it will be), but you also ensure that we, humankind, are taking the right steps towards a future where children worldwide are afforded the same opportunities to access quality education.

=)

Mount Si + Lake Serene

My dad is my outdoors inspiration. When I was younger, he'd take me and my siblings on camping trips and hiking trips and beach trips. I'm honestly not sure if he knows what a hotel is. Whenever we'd travel somewhere far away enough to need overnight lodging, we always pitched a tent. In a camp ground, in the middle of freaking nowhere. Whatever. If there was a patch of dirt big enough for our tent, we would pitch it. My mom constantly bemoaned, "Why do we drive miles to sleep on rocky ground when we have perfectly comfortable accommodations back home?"

Why, indeed. My mother raised me to be a fashion-savvy, modern, capable-in-the-home city gal. My father raised me as a rugged, mountain-climbing, tent-pitching, outdoorsy tomboy. Typical. My mother was born and raised in a modest town with comfortable amenities in Vietnam, whereas my father was born and raised among rice paddies.

In anycase, this is the first time since I graduated from high school where I've had enough time at home to really get back in touch with my more rustic roots. In DC, mommy's influence easily won. Here in the Pacific NW, daddy definitely takes the cake.

I've been on two incredible hikes since returning.
1. Mount Si:

2. Lake Serene:

It really doesn't get better than this.

Mount Si is a hike I know rather intimately. It's about a 25 minute drive east of Bellevue, and my daddy took me and my siblings up this mountain many times in the past. I even went up it once with my best friend and hiking partner-in-crime, Kayla. Every time I've been it's been very crowded, which can be a little annoying when you run into rude hikers. According to the WTA, land managers estimate that Si draws between thirty thousand and fifty thousand visitors a year, making it the most heavily used trail in the state.  It's a long, totally uphill hike, with not much to see or do until you get to the very top. But the top is so worth the 2 hours of trees and trail. There are views of the Upper Snoqualmie Valley, the Puget Sound basin, and far beyond. The WTA cautions not to try to climb the haystack for obvious safety reasons, but my baby sister is a nimble little adventurer and forced me to climb climb climb. Well worth it in the end.

Lake Serene is new to me. Kayla found it on the Washington Trails Association (www.wta.org). We hiked it on a Thursday morning, so the hikers we ran into were few and far between. The hike to Bridal Veils Falls was comfortable enough, and well worth the work. The falls were absolutely deafening and incredibly beautiful. But they were nothing compared to Lake Serene, nestled in a deep basin beneath the spires of Mount Index. Jeez. I could've built a house and lived the rest of my years up there. It was awe inspiring, majestic, beautiful.

Up there, I couldn't imagine living my life comfortable in some city and be content in never venturing out into the natural wilderness that is so available to us. It's funny how living and loving DC almost tricked me into forgetting how much more formidable and magical God-created landscapes are than man-made ones.

So maybe I'm not traveling thousands of miles away from home this summer to scale the walls of Angkor Wat or run my feet through the blinding white-sand in Pattaya. There's beauty everywhere. You just gotta remember to look.

Rooted

I can't help but be struck with an incredible, all-consuming jealousy each time I talk to a friend who has summer plans to leave the country. It's not lady-like, it's not becoming, and--hell--it's not really even rational. But I CANT.HELP.IT.

Notice the title of my blog? "Knock Around the World." Very apt for my blog last summer (nhaca.tumblr.com), when my itinerary was: DC > Seattle > Taipei > Saigon > Nha Trang > Hoi An > Da Nang > Hue > Saigon > Shanghai > Hangzhou > Nanjing > Guangzhou > Saigon > Siem Reap > Phnom Penh > Saigon > Taipei > Seattle > DC. There was not a second for rest last summer, and I loved the fear of not knowing what tomorrow would bring just as much as I hated it.

Now, the most exciting question I ponder each night before bed is: "WHO DIES NEXT IN A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE???"
(When creating this blog, I should have changed the name to "Knock Around the Seven Kingdoms". Hah.)

Now, don't get me wrong. I love that I have the time to read for pure pleasure again. I haven't done this in what feels like decades. Everyone I know at Georgetown is beyond stressed and over-committed, but I probably take being over-committed to a new level. Rarely does a day pass during the school year where I don't go to bed exhausted, but I like it this way.

Case in point: I have zero commitments this summer. I'm not even responsible for making my own bed or for feeding myself. And I'm going insane.

How did I become this person??

I remember in high school and middle school and from what little I remember from elementary school the lead up to responsibility-free summer being full of a certain type of impatient, bone-gnawing anticipation. I remember being stuck in god-awful physics class as the fake-Seattle-sun shone dreamily through ceiling-high windows, counting down the days until June-whatever when I wouldn't have to get up at 6am. When the answer to "No plans?" was always "No problem!"

Lucidly, I remember this. But in my brain and in my heart I've forgotten the feeling of being excited for freedom from responsibility.

Again, I ask: HOW DID I BECOME THIS PERSON?
Who is this person who needs to be worked to the bone, who needs to travel thousands of miles to be satisfied? Who refuses to be happy at the prospect of sleeping in late, spending quality time with her family, and breathing in crisp Northwest air?

Me, apparently.

Strange.
Sometimes I look back and don't recognize the girl I was at 14, and other times I look at myself now and don't recognize the woman I've become. I admit to loving the fast-paced, driven, incredibly successful and materialistic east-coast that has become my second home (and perhaps my second identity). But at the same time, I love this slower, dreamy, rugged and all natural west-coast that is my first and true home with a fierce, passionate, and loyal kind of love.

So, in this moment, I will embrace the fact that I am not yet a professional jet setter (though I aspire, I truly do!), go on walks my mother, curl up on my leather poang with a cup of ginseng tea, cry when ***** inevitably dies in "A Clash of Kings," and learn how to be content.

And if I have to force it, I will.

Minds in the Making

Last week I had the incredible opportunity to sit down and talk with the Co-Directors of the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences at the University of Washington, Patricia Kuhl and Andrew Meltzoff. It was a very intimate setting-- me, a good friend of mine Alexandra, her mother Maria Eitel, some family members, and Pat and Andrew.

Though I frequently belittle my math skills, no one ever believes me (and rightfully so--I'm indeed very good at math). Less frequently do I belittle my science skills. In truth, I am pathetic at science. Looking back at high school general chemistry class makes the hairs of my arms rise. The thought of taking another physics exam sends a chill down my spine. The other week, my good friend Megan had to explain to me what a proton was.

I know. I wish I were joking too.

Why do I suck at science? Do I suck at science, or is that just something someone told me and I for whatever reason believed them? Like most Georgetown students, I got straight-As in high school, which included all my science classes. I was at the top of my biology class in the 9th grade. My sister wants to get her PhD in biology. We share the same genes, right?

Pat and Andrew may argue that society has stunted my belief in my ability to succeed in this area. In the United States, math and science are "boy" subjects, whereas reading and the arts are "girl" subjects. Girls on average consistently score lower than boys in science and math.

In Singapore, girls and boys score, on average, the same. In fact, girls score a bit better than boys.
Huh. Interrressting.

Pat and Andrew believe that little boys and girls are taught through social media their place in the classroom. Pictures of girls reading outside as the sun shines a golden halo onto her hair. Pictures of little boys with huge safety goggles and bubbling test tubes. Who's at the front of the classroom doing math problems? The boy. Who has a paintbrush in hand and a smear of pink on her cheek? The girl.

If at 5 years old she is taught that she's not good at math and science, and she takes this belief with her into middle and high school, why, as an 18 year old, would she choose to devote the rest of her academic career--and the rest of her career, period--to these subjects?

Economically, this is absolutely disastrous for girls, especially in a world where high-paying jobs are becoming more and more high-tech-centered.

The solution? Change it up! If girls in Singapore are succeeding at levels equal to boys in math and science, there is absolutely no reason for why girls in the US shouldn't also. Pat and Andrew have done a ton of research on this subject, and they're working closely with policymakers to understand the policy implications of their findings.


Sitting in the room with Patricia was extremely eye-opening, but admittedly it made me uncomfortable. Her research is incredible, and something I would've absolutley loved to be a part of. BUT, I thought to myself as I said my thank yous and left, I know nothing about science, I'm crap at it, I haven't taken biology since the 9th grade, what could I possibly contribute?



Huh. I guess I didn't learn anything, after all.

Paschimottanasana-- what??

I have defied all things status quo and have signed up for a bikram yoga class.
Rebellious, I know.

Case in point:







I don't exercise. Except, now I do! Take THAT lazy body of mine.

I will admit, bikram yoga was probably not a great idea. I'm an amateur at walking. I have no experience with regular yoga. Hot yoga kicks my ass. But BIKRAM yoga? A whole nother level. Yikes.

 My best friend Kayla and I signed up for Bikram yoga our junior year of high school (four whole years ago). I found a coupon for $40 unlimited monthly access to the yoga studio. How could I say no? I couldn't. So, I convinced Kay to sign up with me. We made it through one session and never came back. A tip to those marketing exercise coupons: it works. Keep it up. People have way too much faith in their ability to persevere. People also give up really easily. I paid $40 for one 90-minute yoga session. Hot yoga studio: 1. Nhaca: 0.

But apparently I don't learn my lesson. Last week I was snooping around on Groupon (I have an unhealthy obsession with Groupon. But that's a post for another day) when I found an incredible Groupon: $35 for 10 yoga classes at the same yoga studio that Kay and I went to four years ago. $3.50 a class? How could I say no? I couldn't. I called up Kay, and the very next day we went to our second ever bikram yoga class.

Bikram Yoga Bellevue is literally around the corner from my house, which is convenient. It's a nice little place equipped with showers and yoga mats and deafening zen-like silence that I assume characterizes all yoga places. Kay and I exchanged "if you don't give up, I won't either" looks of encouragement before entering the yoga room.

Dim lights. 105 degrees. 40% humidity. Shirtless old men stretching.
GET ME OUT OF HERE.

But the first rule to bikram yoga is that you're not allowed to leave before the 90 minutes are up. Oh boy.

Posture after posture. Tangling my limbs like a pretzel. Sweat dripping everywhere. Nearly passing out from heat exhaustion. Dehydration. Dizziness. Nausea.

 But I did it! I survived! Somehow! And when I left the room, the cool air outside hit me like an avalanche, and I felt empowered. I smiled. I laughed with Kayla.

And of all things unreasonable and insane: I'm going back tomorrow.

Hot yoga: 1
Nhaca: 1

Graphic of Wisdom

Via: Medical Billing And Coding

Unrealistic Goals that will become a Reality. You just gotta Force it.

My goal this summer: to run.

The honest-to-God-truth: I suck at running.

By suck, I mean I can't run a mile without feeling as though my heart is going to burst out of my chest, without my knees aching and my throat closing up. I'm just not athletic. This tiny body you see? 100% because of the magical midget Asian genes bestowed upon me at birth. 0% to do with working out in any sense of the word.

My friends know this well.

Me: Yo, dinner?
Friend: Yeah, in an hour? I need to hit up the gym.
Me: ... WHO ARE YOU? Why do you exist?

Contrary to popular belief, this disdain for exercise does not come from me believing that I'm above it. I'm not proud of the fact that a 50-year-old man in too-tight jogging shorts passed me twice on my run this morning and had the audacity to smile the second time. No, this disdain comes from a very ugly and all-too-human emotion: fear of failure. I do not exercise because I am no good at it. I fear that by putting on my running shorts (who am I kidding? I do not own running shorts. Let me amend this to: by putting on my shorts sans the running prefix) and dusting off my running shoes (these I do own, purchased years ago in a misguided attempt to 'shape up') I will go to the gym, get on the treadmill, and fail.

I'll pass out after 15 minutes.
People will laugh at me.
I must be doing it wrong.
My mother runs faster than I do.
Goodness I look stupid doing this.
What if what if what if???

Yeah, what if? Life is full of these 'what ifs' and if I hadn't challenged them to the breaking point I would not be where I am today. This is why I run. Not because I want to be athletic (I never will be) or because I want a stellar hot bod (okay, I do want this, but that's not the point). I am running this summer because I have recognized running as something I have always wanted to integrate into my life but have always been too afraid to do due to fear of failure.

To this fear I now can only say one thing: BRING.IT.ON.

Each morning I step out of the shower completely naked, no make-up, hair a stringy mess, and I look at myself straight in the eye. I don't smile, I don't laugh, I don't reach for my towel. I say, completely serious: "You the sh*t." I am THE SHIT. And people who are the shit can do whatever the hell they want. Including running.

If I, a 20-year-old Vietnamese-American, born on a rice-paddy in rural Vietnam, raised in an impoverished community in North Seattle, can not only say this out loud but believe it, so can you.

Follow me this summer as I run. As I sign up for a Bikram Yoga course (eek!). As I spend some serious quality time with my crazy family. As I eat sushi. As I try not to go insane in rainy Seattle.  If you have any questions: ask away!