Quick Wardrobe Switch

Hey guys! I’m currently recovering from running a great but intense two-week summer course. More on that soon, but for now I’ll talk about an issue that plagues many geologists and/or people who do a lot of field work: needing a quick wardrobe change! I can’t say how many times that I’ve had a long day out in the field but I need to pop into school or the office for a quick meeting without going home. Here are a few tips:

Opted for my comfy lululemon jacket while I studied.

1.)   Add a formal jacket/blazer and change your shoes!

2.)   Wear jeans if you can.

3.)   Bring extra deodorant.

Wearing my crocs flats!

These before and after pictures were on a day where I needed to study for most of the day but wanted to go out with S later that evening for pho. I just opted for comfy jeans and a shirt for my library time. Then I switched out the shoes and added a blazer to finish a new look, and voila! Date outfit all set! For a more extreme change like going directly from active field work to a meeting, I’d recommend possibly changing the base shirt, too. And, on hot days, that’s when the deodorant comes in handy too!

If you feel like maybe your wardrobe is a bit sparse, here are some shopping ideas for you:

Link to the jacket here.

These flats are so pretty and look comfortable!

I like to have at least one of every clothing item in black because it’s so easy to work with. These jacket and flats seem both affordable and pretty decent quality. So let me know if you end up getting either of these! I’m tempted to try out the flats, and I’ll let you know if I do!

Positive Vibes

Hey guys! You might have noticed that I’ve been a little MIA lately, which is mostly because my thesis proposal took over life. But! I’m almost done with it and I’m emerging with a lot of thoughts that I’m excited to share with you all!

At my cousin's wedding with S!

First of them being: I got a haircut! It’s a really fun change and also a really easy style. I usually just shower in the morning and let my hair air dry, and it’s fun to see how it air dries in different shapes every day. I would highly recommend this cut for busy people!

Ok, so I might be taking a lot of selfies lately! I'm just really into the hair! At Macy's Cafe in Flagstaff, AZ.

Second of my thoughts being: negative energy! I notice that there’s a lot of it, both in grad school land and in life in general. As a young woman in a traditionally male-dominated field, I know there’s a lot of resource and confidence barriers that pop up for women and people of color in particular, and that’s why it’s important to always maintain a positive outlook regardless of how high the odds are stacked.

But despite that, I also know that there are a lot of obstacles that people will put in your way, no matter if those obstacles are intentional or accidental. It could take the form of a friend who asks for a lot but gives very little. It could also be a family member who doubts whether you are qualified to be successful in your field, or it could take the form of a competitive coworker or a colleague.

No matter where you are in life, it’s almost inevitable to encounter negative energy from the people around you. And, no matter how strong and confident you are, it’s easy to let that negativity seep in. You might tell yourself, maybe I am being selfish by focusing so much on my career; maybe I don’t have what it takes; maybe I should stand to the side and make sure my coworker gets that promotion before me.

When those thoughts start to pop up, that’s when you know it’s really important to take care of yourself and surround yourself with positive vibes. For me, I find that positivity from my friends and family who want to see me succeed and truly wish for my happiness. Sometimes, it’s tricky to know how to find that positive energy, because, of course, human relationships are a lot more complicated than being definitively good and bad. But, if you generally enjoy spending time with someone, or if you feel recharged and relaxed around that person, or if you miss that person when they’re not around, then there’s a high likelihood that being around that person will increase those positive vibes that you need during those difficult moments in life.

How about the negative people in your life? Simply put, for me, I’m finding that distancing myself from those needy, exhausting, or negative people is really helpful. In life, there’s always a choice. Let go of those feelings of obligation to someone even if they’re family or a long-term friend. If they’re distracting or dragging you down, you don’t have to cut them out of your life entirely, but you can spend a little less time with them in order to spend a little more time on yourself. It doesn't mean you love them any less; it means that the best thing for your relationship with them is a little bit of wiggle room. 

Maybe there are people in your life that you would happily live without seeing at all. They critique, judge, require a lot of attention, and offer nothing in return. For those people, if you can cut them out of your life, then absolutely, without regret, do it! However, the closer to you emotionally, or the more ensconced into your life, the harder it is to cut a person out. For example, you can't completely ignore someone who lives or works with you. When you can’t entirely disengage, change your perspective on their role and presence in your life. Again, in life, there’s always a decision. You can choose to not actively engage in their criticism, or, in Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s words, you can be “a little bit deaf.” Let those comments pass. Choose to disengage and focus your energy on what matters most to you. If you decide to talk to that person, you don’t have to talk to them, you give them permission to take a bit of your precious time.

I have a lot of other thoughts to share, but I'll save them for later posts!

Thrifty Travel Tips

Happy hump day, fellow nerds! It's been a while since I posted, primarily because I've been editing my thesis proposal nonstop. Since it's a rainy day and I have a lot of desk work today, I figured I'd take a break to day dream about my vacation with S to Puerto Rico and share some travel tips that we've learned over the years:

A few photos from our trip!

We had a great time in Puerto Rico and I think we were able to enjoy the trip without breaking the bank. So here are our thoughts:

1.)   Choose home rentals over hotels. While a lot of hotels are pricing competitively with the emerging market share industry of home rentals, I’m still getting amazing deals from renting homes. We usually go to AirBnB for our rentals.

2.)   Use budget airfare apps and websites.  S and I used Hopper to get to Puerto Rico for less than $250 roundtrip per ticket.

3.)   Make your own meals. This will be perfect if you rent a place with a kitchen. S and I eat either one or no meals out when we stay in a place with cooking capacity. We usually eat an easy hot breakfast (e.g. eggs, toast, tea, etc.) and we have sandwiches for lunch. It’s amazing how much not eating out makes a difference in a budget.

4.)   Do the free stuff. When I visit a new place, I love exploring and seeing as much of the place as I can. Now that I’m on a budget, I’m realizing that a lot of activities (and in my opinion the most interesting stuff) are free! Outdoor activities like swimming, hiking, or biking are usually pretty cheap with the right gear. Museums often have suggested donations and student discounts. Make a list of all the free and discounted stuff before you get there so you don’t feel unnecessary pressure to blow cash when you’re in the middle of it.

5.)   Visit friends. As someone who deeply values building long-term relationships, I care about keeping in touch with friends and family no matter how far and wide they spread. That means that my door is always open to them, and it also means that I usually prioritize visiting places where my friends and family have moved. A convenient part of visiting friends means that you may not have to pay for a place to stay if they have the room. More than that, it’s a unique experience to catch up with old friends in a new place and to learn about the place they now call home.

6.)   Get TSA Pre-check and/or Global Entry. For $85, you get to forego long lines and you don’t need to take off shoes and whatever else. It’s worth the time you save, so that you don’t have to go to the airport early just to wait in long lines.

7.)   Invest in ear plugs, eye covers, and a neck doughnut. Our budget plane trips often lead to red eye flights, but it’s amazing how easy it is to sleep upright with a few gadgets.

So good luck with your travel plans and let me know if you have any questions or suggestions in the comment section below!

Home Office Zen

 

My desk at home! With my computer screen on my "Arabic Word of the Day" e-mail!

Hey geo-nerds! I've gotten a few questions about my office set up and, since it's Spring Cleaning season and I'm all about revitalizing spaces, I figured that I would talk about how I find my zen in a home office environment. I admit, it can definitely be hard to find focus in a place where there are often so many extractions, but with a little attention to detail you can create a zen-rich work place at home.

As you can see from the photo above, my desk layout is pretty simple and minimalist. I got my desk online on Amazon. My chair is from Target, but I couldn't find my original chair so I'd recommend this one from Stein Mart, and my lamp is from IKEA. I always like to start filling a space with white or neutral colors and then building from there with accents, like picture frames, wall color (my current wall is a mellow yellow!), carpet, and curtains. These are more budget-friendly options for my fellow grad school enthusiasts out there, but high-end style like this is available everywhere.

I had a Chinese-German friend in college who diligently adhered to feng shui, so learning from her, I actually found that following a few basic feng shui rules really helps create focus:

1.) Place your desk so that it is in sight of the rooms doorway. You should be able to move your head 90° or less to see the door. If you need to position the desk so that your back faces the door, hang a decorative mirror so that you can see the door from your desk!
2.) Add a plant or two!
3.) Keep your desk free of clutter. I have a mobile portfolio organizer that I just stick in the closet when I'm not working.
4.) Add pictures or imagery that inspires you or reminds you of the importance of your work. For me, it's photos of my research site in Chile.
5.) Make sure to decorate with a balance of both light and dark colors!

Good luck with your office! And feel free to share your personal tips for working at home in the comments below.

On Failure

Happy March, guys! I don’t know how many of you have managed to take a vacation lately, but I took Spring Break as a chance to recharge after a very hectic couple of weeks. I’ll talk about how to get great travel deals for a grad school budget soon, but in the mean time I’ll touch upon an important point that I think is great for every grad student, scientist in a cut-throat culture, or basically any person who takes on a challenging career. The big take-home message: Failure is not only inevitable, but it’s necessary. 

 

A shot during one of my sailing trips out in the Boston Harbor. Sailing has taught me a lot about navigating around and beyond mistakes.

I know this is a common message in a lot of popular graduation speeches (e.g. J.K. Rowling and Oprah Winfrey) but it’s important. We can’t celebrate success if we don’t embrace failure. You can argue that failure is an integral part of the human experience, and is just as important as success in any career and/or life journey. I’m talking about this now because I just received a “no” when I was really hoping for a “yes.” I am definitely bummed, but it’s nice to remind myself of how those icky “no’s” can be useful. Really, it’s all about perspective.

So, when we get a dreaded “no,” what are some guidelines we can use to find the hidden benefits? For simplicity, I’ll focus on career-defined failure, but I think a lot of the tenants in these guidelines can serve for any facet of life. Here are my thoughts on dealing with failure:

1.)   Don’t let the “no” define you. Perhaps you didn’t get the result that you wanted, even after so much effort, but that doesn’t mean that either you or your work is subpar. This is just one “no” out of a series of “no’s” and “yeses” that you’ll receive in your life. Just one “no” is not enough to decide the value of your effort, so don’t let it affect how hard you try in the future.

2.)   Statistics are always in your favor. No matter how much you fail, every time you try gets you one step closer to a success. It’s like playing the lotto, except your chances are better. Do a quick exercise: in one category of trying (e.g. applying to graduate school), how many tries ended up in success? Twenty-five percent? Ten percent? Five percent? If the answer is yes, then congratulations! Your odds are a lot higher than the lotto! And all it takes is four, or ten, or twenty times to get what you want! I love playing the lotto, but I love the chances of success even more, so don’t let one number in your statistics bring you down.

3.)   Embrace the negativity. Understandably, if you’ve worked really hard on something, you’re absolutely going to feel bad about a “no” after so much effort. Not everyone agrees with me on this, but I personally think that it’s great to embrace that upset because those feelings of disappointment are valid. That being said, it’s important to be gracious to yourself and move on after acknowledging those feelings. For me, moving on could mean crying it out, going for a walk, or grabbing a drink with friends or family.

4.)   Talk about it. Don’t be ashamed of any failure you receive in your career. Be open to discussing the difficult moments because it will help you process and connect with peers and mentors.

I hope this was a helpful read! Feel free to share strategies in the comment section below!

A Foodie's Thanksgiving!

Happy Thursday!

It’s been a really ideal week for the foodie in me, thanks to Thanksgiving and family shenanigans, so I figured I’d share a bit of my meals with you all, plus a recipe from the Syrian family.

My dining room table!

I had a great time making the American-style Thanksgiving meal this year. This is my fourth time making it without my mother, and this is the first time that I feel like the prep work for the meal went smoothly. I think that partly has to do with my familiarity with the timing of everything. Now, I just know when the turkey and all the sides should go in and out of the oven without having to look it up.

My pretty hilal turkey (and the cranberry sauce to the left)!

I had a few people comment that this was an exceptionally tasty turkey, and asking me what I did to make it so juicy. For me, I think the trick is to brine the turkey for at least two days prior to Thanksgiving. Then, first thing in the morning, I pop the turkey (covered!) into the oven at 300° F and just forget about it. I’ve even put the turkey in at 250° F the night before, and the meat was really falling off the bones by dinnertime, it was that juicy! Americans tend to freak out about whether the turkey will be cooked enough. My logic is that anything in the oven for eight or more hours will most definitely be cooked enough. And, to my knowledge, no one has gotten food poisoning from my turkeys! We got a 12-pound hilal turkey that, surprisingly, was more than enough for eight people! 

Mr. Hilal Turkey taking a brine bath.

I also made sweetpotato casserole, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, and two types of mashed potatoes (the traditional American kind and then the Middle Eastern olive-oil-and-garlic kind for the lactose intolerant at the table). 

For dessert, I made my mummy-in-law her favorite treat: apple pie bites. They're so easy and fun to make, plus they look like pretty, dainty pastries at the end! 

This week's dessert: Apple pie bites!

By the time I got back to school, I was already missing Syrian food, so I made fetty. You can translate fetty from Arabic to “torn up;” the dish gets its name from the pieces of bread you tear up to create the dish’s base. Specifically, I made fettet djaj which is the “torn up” part of the dish topped with chicken.

Fettet Djaj

To make fetty, you first boil the cut-up chicken (I prefer sizes of one inch or less) in either a pressure cooker for thirty minutes or in a regular pot for 2-3 hours. S has our pressure cooker, so at school I use a regular pot and study while the chicken simmers. Anyway, in the boiling water, add salt, cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, and an onion. Then add the chicken. Towards the end of the boil, fry up pieces of thin, white flat bread for about five minutes and then put them into a pie dish. Fry enough bread to cover the bottom of the dish.

Then you make the rice. I usually fry up vermicelli (“shariyya”) with olive oil at the bottom of the rice pot under the vermicelli is a light golden color, then add soaked short-grain white rice with two parts water to every part rice. I also add a teaspoon of salt for every cup of rice. Stir the rice and then wait for the rice to boil, then bring it down to a simmer, cover the pot, and only open the pot to check on the water level. If there is no visually apparent water, I usually tip the pot sideways to see if any excess water is around. If you taste the rice and it is undercooked, just add no more than a fourth of a cup to the pot and let it simmer covered for a few more minutes. Then put your rice on top of the fried pieces of flat bread in the dish.

Then create a yoghurt sauce. For a pie dish-size meal, go with about a cup and a half of plain yoghurt (“kasi wa nus leben”), one or less than one piece of garlick (“toomi o nus toomi”), and a little bit of water (“shwayyat mai”). I know the measurements sound strange, but this is literally the family recipe passed on orally since forever, and measurements of the recipe is all based on the experience of simply making it! Anyway, pour the yoghurt sauce over the rice and make sure it sinks into the rice and reaches the bottom of the dish. Next, garnish with chopped parsley and top with your drained chicken, and then enjoy a super tasty meal!

A quick note on portion size: I find a pie dish size plate is more than enough for three to four people, depending on how many of those people will want seconds just because they love how tasty it is! To double the size, you could easily use a casserole dish to feed 6-8 and just double the amount of everything in the recipe. Like most of my mummy-in-laws food, this is a non-measuring kind of recipe, so the proportions are very flexible and in the end, the amount of parsley, chicken, or yogurt all depends on your preference! But definitely don't go overboard on the garlic, otherwise no one will want to actually eat the fetty (or kiss you!). 

Anyone who tries this recipe, please let me know how it turns out! Cheers!

October Fun

Happy Autumn, everyone! I’ve been pretty busy with TAing two classes, taking two full classes and two seminars, on top of my research stuff and traveling to see S and family (who are all two hours away… sigh). But I’ve also managed to enjoy autumn a bit. Here’s a little bit of what I did:

My bunt cake!

I’m not a big cool weather person, but there are a few things about the fall season that I love, including PUMPKINS! My mother knows how much I love pumpkins and baking, but as a grad student she knows I don’t have much time to bake these days, so she sent me an amazing care package…

Thanks Mom!

 

… That included spice cake mix and cans of pumpkin puree! I’m so into this recipe: add a can of pumpkin puree to cake mix and, ta-da, you have pumpkin spice cake. I made a bunt cake out of one batch, and I can’t wait to make some cupcakes soon.

I’ve also been doing a bit of shopping. I noticed that vests have been really popular up here in New England since forever, and so I finally caved and got one:

Along the CT coastline!

There was a great sale at Gap last weekend ($20 for vests that usually cost $50), so I splurged and I’m so happy did. I’m love how my vest keep my core warm! It makes romping around in the leaves, or hanging out by the wind-chilled coastline, so much more pleasant.

Climbing up Long Mountain!

 I’m also very lucky to TA a geologic mapping class. It’s so much fun to have my job be adventuring around the Pioneer Valley’s mountains, especially with the foliage being so colorful these past few weeks.

Me with my pumpkin spice latte!

And, of course, I had my first pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks this weekend while I graded homework. And I was so snug and content in my sparkly scarf from Damascus. I can’t believe it’s been over six years since my trip to Syria. I wish I could go back so much.

Well, it’s been a whirlwind adventure learning how to be a grad student. More news on that to follow, I promise. Meanwhile, enjoy autumn where ever you are! Even if the air isn’t cool and crisp, maybe you can sip a pumpkin spice latte!

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!

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.