FAIRUZ IN THE MORNING; UM KULTHUM AT NIGHT

Is it really almost the middle of July? This is insane! Summer always feels like it’s flying by way too fast. I feel like I’m losing my mind because I planned a dinner date with S at Sofra, an Arabic restaurant in Watertown, that closes early! I can’t believe I didn’t check when they close. Luckily, while I wait for S to join me so we can figure out a new dinner plan, Sofra has some nice outdoor seating, so I’ll just type away at my computer while I enjoy the balmy evening and watch some Pokemon Go players zigzag around the sidewalks. 


  

So, I want to talk about something that is really close to my heart: the great Arabic singing legends that fill my home with finger-snapping classics. Specifically, there are two of them, and I love both of them dearly as if they were my own grandmothers. Fairuz and Um Kulthum. 

 

I’ll give you an idea of how awesome these ladies are. Fairuz has released over 800 songs in her lifetime, while Um Kulthum is known as the “Star of the East” just because she’s that amazing. Families and public places still play both of these ladies’ classic songs even though they’re decades old. Four orders of generations all around the Middle East listen to and love these singers, knowing all the words to dozens upon dozens of their songs. In terms of their popularity, I would argue that there is literally no equivalent in the western world. Comparatively, the Beatles may come close, but it’s not like every family listens to them weekly, if not daily.

In a lot of places around the Middle East, or at least with S’s family, there is a strict standard for listening to these two melodious ladies. Fairuz is played during the morning, and Um Kulthum is only for the night. At first, I found this humorously endearing, and then I quickly fell in line with tradition because, listening to their repertoire, they each fit perfectly within their allotted listening time frame. Fairuz’s jazzy tone, with ethereal references to long-gone love or dreamily poetic metaphors about eyes of snow, fits perfectly into slowly waking up over a cup of Turkish coffee; Um Kulthum’s sultry voice wavers with the passion of love realized, and her classic Arabic orchestra swells with her crescendos to create a sense of drama that a listener can only best appreciate in a moody, late night café with shisha (or hookah) in hand.

When I hear Fairuz, I think of morning sunlight shimmering through the curtains, hours-long brunches in our garden under the olive vine trellis, and family humming those familiar tunes while sipping from steaming cups of mint and ginger green tea. When I hear Um Kulthum, I think of all my favorite cafés in the Middle East, smoke-filled and bustling with laughing friends as they gather around tiny tables and chat late into the night.

For some people, the distinction of when you can listen to either singer is pretty strong. When I went with S to a weekend away with a group of Arab friends, I tried to be the DJ for an evening. Fairuz accidentally came on, and three different people stopped what they were doing to look up and demand a different song! I couldn’t have pressed the “next” button faster!

And I totally agree with it. So if you haven’t heard of these ladies, I highly recommend a listen, but try to listen to Fairuz over breakfast and Um Kulthum after dinner, and then you’ll see what I mean!

HYGIENE ON THE TRAIL

When a Shower is Three Days Away: Hygiene Tips for the Trail

I’m excited to wind down this Thursday by taking my bro-in-law Jamal out for dinner at our favorite sushi joint in Boston, Avana Sushi. If you’ve never been, I highly recommend! I managed to get to the restaurant a little early, which is great, because now I have a bit of time to chat with you guys about something I’ve wanted to talk about for a long time: keeping up with hygiene while backpacking or on long camping trips.

And it’s really tough! Especially when you’re outdoors in a place where running water is limited. I’ve been through many, many camping trips where showers were scarce and really beautiful outdoor experiences were slightly dampened by the uncomfortable feeling that layers of dirt and grime were caking onto your skin. I will add, hygiene needs depend on the climate. I personally prefer desert climates like California’s Death Valley because the arid environment immediately evaporates any sweat, which prevents bacteria from growing and spreading. No matter the climate, though, there are a few simple hygiene steps that will help you to enjoy the great outdoors even more!

So here are some tips:

1.)  Baby wipes are key! I can’t stress this enough; they’re one of my necessity items for any camping trip. Wiping down the body with just a few baby wipes after a long hike makes a huge difference. Plus, even if there’s access to showers, baby wipes still come in handy in all sorts of versatile ways, including messy s’mores snacks, soothing an injury, or having an embarrassing diarrhea emergency on the trail (hey, it happens!). I even bring these bad boys on backpacking trips, though admittedly in much smaller numbers; I usually will count out 5 per day per person for the trip, and then separate them from the main pack and compress them in a zip lock baggie.

2.)  Do not wear cotton bases. I’m not backing this up with any science, though I’m sure it’s out there, but in general I find that cotton bases (i.e. underwear and undershirts) hold in sweat a lot more than non-cotton materials like spandex. Not only does non-cotton stuff smell better after, say, five days without a wash, but they also insulate and help you regulate your body temperature better. Below are a few items that I use and wear regularly for camping trips.

3.)   Follow your nose; clean your tent when it smells. Bacteria is really helpful in telling us where it’s growing by smelling really bad, so always sniff around when you’re setting up or breaking down the tent. If you have room, and I recommend you make room, try to bring small packages of disinfectant wipes with you as well and wipe down the tent every time before breaking it down. It’s easy for a tent to get stinky in no time, especially if that’s where you’re storing all your stuff, so if mid-trip you begin to smell something, a few quick wipe-downs of the tent, and anything else that smells, really helps against your tent getting that stale body odor smell. As a last resort, you could use odor maskers, but I usually avoid them since they don’t really tackle the stink’s source and are also often carcinogenic. J

4.)  Keep things dry. Everyone loves a dip in the lake, but if you pack a damp towel or bathing suit, your things will smell musty in no time. It’s important to dry out everything that gets wet or damp, even sweaty clothing, before packing them away. If I don’t have a clothes line with me, and I usually don’t unless it’s a very luxurious kind of car camping with family, I like to leave wet things draped over my tent on sunny days. The sun’s UV rays also act as a disinfectant, so you’re technically drying and disinfecting at the same time!

5.)  Separate icky from non-icky. Those plastic bags that inevitably accumulate somewhere in your pantry have a lot of versatile uses, including keeping dirty laundry away from clean and unused clothes. It’s easy for dirt and smells to travel in tightly packed bags like backpacks. Keeping dirty laundry bagged and separated from everything else will help to make sure that your clean clothes stay clean! I’ve also noticed that most back-packing backpacks have two main compartments, which you can also use as a barrier between dirty and clean.

Those are my main five tips! Just remember: it’s easy to get hung up on the little things, but try to remember that the outdoors is meant to get you a little dirty. You’re supposed to get dirt between your toes and twigs in your hair. It’s a part of the experience! So focus more on finding a comfort level that’s right for you rather than being as pristine as possible.

Anyway, let me know what you think! Do you have any hygiene tips of your own? Follow my "Creative Camping" Pinterest Board to get more ideas.

IFTAR FUN & RAMADAN DECOR

I’m taking a quick break from this hectic Saturday to have a little snack in my room while S and his family prepare a ginormous iftar meal that could probably feed twenty people when we’re probably having eight guests. For those of you who aren’t familiar, Ramadan is the holy month is Islam when muslims fast (i.e. consume no food or water) from before sunrise to sunset. It’s a beautiful, prayerful month for the Muslims I know, and I really enjoy it for several reasons. First, I love to decorate for special occasions. As a Christian American who’s used to super commercialized holidays, I show my support by decorating the house and putting up things like an “iftar time” announcement! It’s turned into a pretty serious hobby; I have a whole Pinterest board dedicated to Ramadan and Eid decoration ideas.

The second and favorite thing about Ramadan for me is the mouth-watering, unparalleled array of food. Oh, the food! I get hungry just thinking about all the amazing food, I write as I reach for my fourth caramel delite out of my secret girl scout cookie stash. So, for those of you who don’t know, the word “iftar” literally means the breaking of the fast. That means, when Muslims break fast at the end of a long day, and especially after a grueling fifteen hours of sunlight during the summer, there has to be some amazing food to fill those grumbling tums. Seriously, foodies, if you don’t have any Muslim friends, you need to make some fast and partake in the mind-blowing culinary phenomenon that is an iftar.

Iftars are usually tons of dishes of food. I calculate one 16-inch platter-sized (i.e. huge) meal for every two people. A lot of these meals also involve a lot of time, and often days in advance, of food preparation. So, despite the hunger and the thirst, there are so many tasty treats to look forward to at the end of the day. I know that, for me, the memories of late-night dinners with friends, lounging in our moon-lit back yard under our grape vine trellis, is priceless.

Below are some photos of our food and gatherings! Enjoy!

A lower-key iftar with just S's immediate family: lentil soup, which is a very common iftar appetizer, with just one entree!

Can you handle all this goodness? This iftar had lentil soup again, with fattoush (a popular iftar salad), stuffed grape leaves, and mouttabal (i.e. chopped-up grilled eggplant with lots of yummy things mixed in).

I'm going into a food coma just looking at this photo. From closest to farthest, we have kibbeh, makloubeh (which exactly translates to "upside down" because the recipe requires flipping), my pretty Le Creuset is hiding a bomb ass meal called shish barak which is meat dumplings in yogurt sauce, then there's ground beef-stuffed zuchini, and finally stuffed grape leaves with the most tender lamb on top. 

We made only an average-sized meal (i.e. still more than enough) because we invited our guests very last minute. This is a famous dish called kebseh, which is basically very spiced chicken and rice. We also added little plates of moutabbal on the side.

I am absolutely enamored by this fetteh, which is a word that you can translate as "torn up" because you tear pieces of flat bread into little bits before you pour an amazing yogurt sauce over them. I'm used to mummy-in-law's fetteh which has chicken on top, but this version that our friend from Damascus makes is vegetarian with pomegranate seeds and melted semini (purified butter) on top. There's also chickpeas and parsley.

MY THESIS WORK: LITHIUM-RICH WATER IN CHILE'S ATACAMA DESERT

 It’s been kind of a wacky but beautiful week for me. After returning from my Father’s Day camping trip with Dad, I’ve been exhausted and sleep looks so good but the energy from Ramadan lures me into staying up late. So now I’m nursing endless cups of chai tea at the office just to keep myself awake! I’ll press the reset button with a long sleep-in this weekend.

Anyway, it’s getting to that time where I’m preparing to return to school for my graduate degree! And I figured I’d share a bit about my work to see if anyone’s interested in learning about it, discussing it, or even potentially collaborating on it.

A photo posted by Robert Andreu Ferrer (@isard_pel_mon) on Jun 23, 2016 at 12:03pm PDT

Basically, I’ll be studying the lithium-rich waters of an aquifer that’s located in the Atacama Desert in Chile. This whole project is cool for a number of reasons, the first being that this happens to be the driest desert in the entire world second only to Antarctica. Yet, it happens to have a bunch of springs that have created these small pools all over the place. If you calculate the evaporation rate on these suckers, you’d see that the spring has to be pulling in a mind-blowingly huge amount of water from the ground (cuz it ain’t coming from the sky). My advisor has already worked with a previous student on calculations for the size of this aquifer’s watershed, and it’s calculated to be so big that it stretches into Argentina. It’s bananas.

Random fact: This one pool in the Atacama is a big-time breeding ground for flamingos. Seriously. So random. 

So what am I going to do in this super-cool-freak-show of a desert? I’m basically going to help to figure out where the lithium is coming from. This turns out to be an important question, since this one spot happens to be one of the biggest sources of lithium in the world. We all need batteries! And, on top of that, I get to learn Spanish!

I’m excited to share more about how my research is going as it progresses. Stay tuned!