Castles in the sky

View from Nakagusuku Castle Ruins

Welcome area to Nakagusuku Castle Ruins

I have to admit that before moving to Okinawa, I knew very little about the history of the island and its people. I still don't know much, but I am learning more with each adventure. One of the most striking visual reminders of the history of Okinawa are the beautiful castle ruins found on hilltops throughout the island. These castles are relics of the feudal days of the Ryukyu Kingdom before Okinawa was designated a prefecture of Japan. Shuri castle, near the city of Naha in the south end of the island, was the home of ruling family of the Ryukyu kingdom and the center of its government for centuries. This castle was built in the 1300's and although damaged several times throughout history, was most recently demolished in WW2. Shuri castle was rebuilt in 1992 and is now a park and museum (I have not visited this castle yet, but I will soon). The rest of the castles around Okinawa were homes to lords and the seats of local government. The Ryukyu kingdom was first invaded by the Satsuma Domain (now the Kagoshima Prefecture - the island of Kyushu and the island group that stretches from Kyushu to Taiwan) in 1609 and was taken as a tributary state of Japan. As a tributary state, Okinawa continued to be governed by its royal family. In 1879, Okinawa was officially made a prefecture of Japan and ruled by the central government of Japan. Today, the restored Shuri castle and the smaller castle ruins throughout the island have been dedicated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

The second enclosure at Nakagusuku Castle.

Okinawa is mostly a very busy, very urban place. The majority of the middle and southern part of the island is coated in cement with many-story apartment buildings everywhere you turn. The castles of Okinawa are separate from the hustle and bustle of the city; they are above and away, and are surrounded by green jungle. It sounds cliche, but visiting the castles really feels like stepping back in time. There is an overwhelming sense of peace and enchantment at the top of the hills encircled by ancient castle walls. I have visited two castle ruins so far, and I have experienced the same sense of calm and peacefulness while wandering along the impressive structures at both sites.

Rocks are perfectly smooth on the outside,
but crudely cut on the inside.
Each side of the wall is separate and
the gap is filled with rubble

The first castle I visited was Nakagusuku Castle (gusuku means castle in the Okinawan dialect), which is just north of Camp Foster. This castle is the best preserved of all the ruins on the island and was quite expansive. Because it is large and well preserved, it is one of the most visited, and requires a 400 yen fee to enter the ground. The ruins consist of 3 large enclosures, each a little higher than the one before it, and 3 small enclosures along the side of the main structure. The enclosures are essentially large courtyards surrounded by massive stone walls that organically rise up from the cliff sides. The walls were created by piecing together giant limestone bricks. The bricks are not held together with any sort of mortor or cement, they just fit together perfectly. In one enclosure (technically the 3rd, but the first you reach from the visitor's center), the bricks are hexagonal and the wall looks like a turtle shell or a soccer ball. The face of the wall is perfectly smooth without any gaps, which is so impressive considering the walls were built in the 1300's without modern machinery. It is obvious that a lot of time, energy, and attention to detail went into perfectly shaping and stacking the rocks, but it is still hard to imagine how exactly people were able to complete such a formidable project.

Nakagusuku castle walls

Old foundation of palace at Katsuren.

Sacred cave site at Katsuren. Cement box with sand for incense.

It is fun, however, to imagine what the castles looked like in their glory days. Inside the walls, there were once houses and offices. These structures were built of more temporary materials, and have been destroyed and rebuilt many times throughout history. Nakagusuku was the home of the city offices until WW2 when the buildings were destroyed for the last time. I was obviously not alive during WW2, so that may be one reason that I did not know about the battle of Okinawa. But, I also feel like I received a very European centered education. I have read countless books and seen many movies about World War Two in Europe, but I know much less about the war in the Asian arena. In Okinawa, the effects of World War Two can been seen everywhere. Besides the fact that that war was the impetus for U.S. military bases dominating the island, there was also a huge loss of life and property and the landscape and appearance of the island was forever changed.

Informative plaque about baby skeletons.

Another interesting feature of the castles are the "sacred places." Throughout the structures, there are many seemingly random piles of rocks, or group of bushes, or just a tree that is labeled "sacred place." The south enclosure of Nakagasuku is called holy ground and has 3 sacred places or places of worship. People still come to pray at these sacred places. I am a bit unsure about how and why a place is designated as sacred and do not know the rituals that surround praying and worshiping at a sacred place. I do know, however, that if there is a sacred place in Okinawa, it seems right that it would be in the castle ruins. It has to do with that sense of calm and enchantment that I mentioned earlier, it just feels right that the castle ruins would be a place to come to be quiet and pray or meditate.

I visited Katsuren castle about a week after visiting Nakagusuku. Katsuren is located in a quieter part of the island - on the Yokatsu peninsula, on the way to White Beach. The castle, and the hill it is built on, are smaller and less grand than Nakagusuku, but the structure fits in perfectly with its surroundings. If the two castles switched places, they would be less beautiful. Katsuren is built in much the same style as Nakagusuku, with limestone walls making up 3 main enclosures, each being a little higher and a little smaller. There are many sacred places at Katsuren as well, and some especially interesting archaeology finds. Near the interior wall of the third enclosure (largest, and lowest- the first one you enter), there are many infant skeletons buried in the fetal position facing the wall. Anthropologists are not sure what to make of this find, but it is certainly interesting and a bit creepy.

View of Katsuren as you approach from below.

Katsuren was a bit less impressive, and took less time to explore, but is special in its own ways. This castle does not have a welcome center and there is no fee to visit. When visiting, one kind of feels as though they discovered a secret, enchanted space - even if there are other visitors. Between the baby skeletons and a sacred cave, Katsuren is well worth the visit.

View from midlevel Kasuren. 

View of the first enclose, from the third enclosure of Katsuren.

Farms surrounding Katsuren. 

Me at the base of Katsuren. 

Moving on... down

Jamie and I moved into the apartment that will be our home for at least the next year this past weekend. Are we excited? Well we are happy to be a little more settled and to have more space, but, once again, the Air Force kind of screwed us. On base vs. off base housing has been a major point of contention between me and the Air Force since Jamie and I got married. The AF, being quite infatuated with rules, has a plethora of rules about where you can live and when. For instance, while you are in training, you must live on base, regardless of age, rank, behavioral record, or preference. This rule got us while we were living in Albuquerque. Jamie's career field has an abnormally long training period. While most new airmen have a training period of 3-6 months, the pararescue pipeline is about 2 years long. And that is if you go straight through, it can be even longer if you get set back or are injured. So, when Jamie and I got married and wanted to move in together, we were only allowed to live on base, despite Jamie having been in the Air Force for 9 months.

Living on base in Albuquerque was not actually terrible. Kirtland AFB is a large base, but most of the area is just fenced off desert. The part of base where people live and work is pretty compact and the housing is quite near the gates. Sure, it would have been great to have a cute little one bedroom with a yard (and chickens!) in the Nob Hill area so we could walk to bars, restaurants, breweries, and The Guild. But, the base really wasn't that far away from things. Everything was close enough that I used a bicycle as my only means of transportation for a whole month after selling our car. So, while I grumbled about our lack of choice, the situation wasn't that bad, and soon Jamie would graduate from training and the Air Force could never tell us where to live again. 

Just kidding. It is true that we were free to live wherever we wanted while we were stationed in Georgia. I think we made the most of it, too. But, the exception to the rule is overseas assignments. Overseas, The Air Force can force anyone to live on base. It seems there is some sort of agreement with the private company that builds and maintains the on base housing that the government guarantees that the housing will be occupied. If not enough people actually want to live on base, then the Air Force will take away your choice.  For us, base housing must be 98% full to receive permission to live off base. We arrived at a busy time and a lot of people were moving on base, so we were hopeful. When Jamie went to the housing briefing, we found out that Kadena, our new base, was in fact above 98% occupancy, but there was a new rule. Now, in order to be allowed to live off base, Kadena and its sister base a couple miles a away must both be at 98% occupancy. The sister base was not at 98%. We were told that we would not be allowed to live off base and that we might even be offered housing at the nearby sister base so that we wouldn't even be living on the base where Jamie was working! Ironically, this new rule is called the "live where you work policy."

Jamie is required to be on alert in case any training flights go awry, and therefore really does need to live near his squadron. The commander signed a letter saying that we should not live on another base, but it wasn't enough to be permitted to be live off base. Eventually, the housing office offered us two potential places to live. Technically, we could have refused these places, but if we did, we would not be offered housing again for 3 months and would not receive money for housing during that time. The kicker to the whole situation? The housing office is not required to offer us pet friendly housing and being offered a place where pets are not allowed is not an accepted reason to turn down housing. We could have been shown two places where Gnasher was not allowed to live. Our choices would have been to give up Gnasher (who we just flew across the globe), or to wait three more months and pay out of pocket for housing in the meantime. Luckily (everything is relative), the housing office showed us one apartment that Gnasher was not allowed to live in and one apartment where Gnasher was allowed to live. So we weren't totally screwed, but we really didn't get to make any choices about where we would be living. 

Our apartment is in a multiplex (2 upstairs apartments and 2 downstairs apartments) in the back corner of the base. We are about a 10 minute drive to Jamie's work and maybe 15 minutes to get off base and go to the beach. Needless to say, that was a bit of a shock after living walking distance to the water for almost a month. While we were living in the off base hotel, we could walk to the grocery store, a convenience store, more restaurants than I can count, the yoga studio, and the ocean. Now, we can't walk anywhere, except around the giant military neighborhood we are living in. There are some positives, our kitchen is pretty sizable. We have a lot of counter and cabinet space, and a dishwasher - all things that are not found in apartments off base. There is also some green space around the apartment, so we can throw the frisbee for Gnash without walking to a park. But really, who minds walking to a park? 

Essentially, I think it is unfair to ask military families to give up as much as they do and then take away basic freedoms like choosing where to live. Especially since these rules are not in place to keep us safe or aid us in any way, but rather to ensure a private contractor keeps raking in the doe. Jamie and I were pretty excited about receiving orders to move to Okinawa, but not everyone is stoked about living on an island in the Pacific ocean half way across the globe from everyone they know and care about. It is a sacrifice in many ways to ask us to move everything we own to another country. I think the least the government can do is allow us to live where we want so we can make the most of the move and enjoy our time overseas. We will still try to make the most of living here, but having to drive everywhere is definitely a drag. The worst part: I can see off base from my kitchen window like a forbidden fruit shining in the sun. But to get there, I have to drive through my giant neighborhood and go through a gate. It is absurd. 

When the sun comes out I will add some pictures of the apartment and the neighborhood. I know you are on the edge of your seats...

Kitchen

Kitchen Window

Back Bedroom

ONLY bathroom!

Living Room

Back doors

Laundry

Foyer Area

"Backyard"

Office

Front yard

We are apartment B

View from the front yard

From limbo to paradise... and beyond!

Life is always a wild and crazy ride, but the last year has been an extra strange one. Jamie left Albuquerque in April of 2013 and started setting up our new life in Valdosta, Georgia. He found the perfect house for us, after extensive house hunting, and made an offer to buy it. I arrived a month later with the moving van, ready (but not enthusiastic) to start settling in. After two weeks on a friends couch, we closed on our house and moved in. One week later, we received a rip (sp?) to be reassigned to Okinawa, Japan in about a years time. It was very much out of the ordinary to be reassigned so quickly after moving to a new base and to have a whole years notice before the reassignment. This rip put me in an interesting situation. I was very skeptical of the reassignment as a lot can happen in a year; I really had no idea whether we would actually be moving in a year, but it was certainly a possibility.

To be frank, I really wanted the move to turn out to be real. I was not impressed with Valdosta as a town or geographical location. I wanted the move so badly, I hesitated letting myself be excited about it in fear of the let down that would come if it was cancelled. And so I spent the year trying to settle into life in Georgia, knowing that I may move soon, but I may not. I mostly tried to grasp every opportunity possible without letting the possible move hold me back, but it was always there in the back of mind. Also, there was limited opportunity in Georgia. I found an amazing yoga community and taught marine biology at the community college, but there was no chance of going back to school or participating in research. Jamie and I held back on doing any major home improvements or landscaping projects because we could be moving soon. Essentially, I was in a kind of strange limbo. I might not move, so I should try to fit in, get settled, make friends, but I might not move so it could end up not mattering very much at all. In military life, you are always going to move at some point, but 9 months in one place is pretty temporary. It was a very strange, uncomfortable time.

Now that the move has turned out to be real, I am writing from a temporary living facility (TLF) in Okinawa, Japan. That perfect house that we purchased is sitting empty and lonely in Valdosta. I feel like I am floating around with no schedule, routine, or home base, but I have years ahead of me to settle in and feel at home. Since I will be living in once place for a while, I feel obligated to get to work on finding something meaningful and fulfilling to participate in. My number one priority is to go back to school to complete a doctoral degree. My life goal is to be research professor as a university. I have had great teachers in college, but I have also had many terrible ones. I want to be a great teacher at the college level and motivate and inspire young people to enter the field of science. I hope to mentor and support graduate students so that they can become successful research scientists, but also great teachers. I hope to stay true to the dream of great teaching in college instead of getting caught up in the rat race that university research can become. If I am accepted to the programs I have applied to, I will continue to share about my teaching and learning here on this blog.

In addition to going back to school and reaching for my big dreams, I want to fully appreciate and enjoy living in a foreign country and a beautiful subtropical island. The reefs here are very pretty with lots of soft and hard coral. Some sites are very fishy and others have amazing invertebrate spotting. I have only been on 3 dives and I have already seen this - there must be so much more to see. There are farms, mountains, museums, waterfalls, ruins, castles, caves, and many, many restaurants. I want to explore every corner of this island, leaving no stone un turned. I want to interact with locals, work on my Japanese, participate in the culture. And, I want to write about it all right here.

This entry is a bit of a catch up on what has been happening since I have been off the grid for sometime, but also a recommitment. I am on a serious adventure, in so many different ways, and I plan on documenting and sharing the details. Stay tuned!

Traditional v. Online Learning

As the online learning phenomenon has been taking over the educational system in the U.S. during the last decade, I had managed to remain mostly indifferent to the movement. I didn't think that I would ever want to take an online class, and I doubted that you can achieve the same level of education through an online course as through a classroom course, but I was not vehemently opposed to the movement. That was until many of my middle school students started choosing online high schools instead of the real thing. At that point, I began to feel a little angry; I was beginning to understand that all these online schooling options might really be about making money rather than what is best for the student, as online high schools are now getting state funding put aside for charter schools. Online classes can be great for adults with full time jobs trying to achieve a master's degree, but an online bachelor's is questionable, and high school online sounds like it would be downright detrimental to the student. School is about so much more than just memorizing content, writing a paper, and taking a test. School is about interacting with your peers and your teachers, discussing topics, going deeper, and learning from each other. And on the non academic front, school is about meeting people that are different from you, learning about other cultures, and trying out sports and clubs and extracurricular activities. The idea of high school consisting of a couple hours at your computer each day seems so sad to me.

I strongly encouraged my middle school students to talk with their parents and try to find an actual school that they could attend. I was mostly unsuccessful, though, and many of my students went on to stay home and complete coursework online. These students would come back and visit and gloat about the fact that they didn't have to go to school, and my heart would break for them. I continued to speak out against online high school, but I realized that having never taken an online class, I was at a disadvantage in my arguments. I know all the benefits of traditional schooling, having attended a traditional high school, college, and graduate school, but every single class I have taken has been in a classroom with other students and a real, live teacher. So, when the opportunity presented itself, I enrolled in an online class. The American Meteorological Society (AMS) hosts online graduate courses in climate and ocean science for teachers. The goal is to better educate teachers in the sciences so that they are better able to share information with students and other teachers at their school. Any educator can participate in these pass/fail courses and receive 3 graduate credit hours from the State University of New York at Brockport. My degree is in marine and atmospheric science, but really I haven't taken a single atmospheric course; this opportunity would allow me to strengthen my anti-online learning standpoint (I swear I entered this experiment with an unbiased mind), and bolster my atmospheric knowledge at the same time.

My AMS course started in September with a "gomeeting" with the course instructors and the students. The technology worked fairly well, and I was able to have all my questions answered regarding assignments and sign-ins for information access. There would be two more of these online meetings in the middle and at the end of the semester. Aside from the meetings, there were weekly assignments that were submitted to two mentors by email, who responded with corrections and feedback. The assignments were fairly simple and straight forward. I read one chapter per week from the course text book and there were review questions that went along with the reading. The questions were really just to prove that you had read the assigned pages, however, as they were simple multiple choice questions. The most interesting assignment were the "investigations." These consisted of visiting specific websites to access data sets from different governmental agencies and then answering simple questions about the data. The questions were never difficult, but this did expose me to new sources of information that I do hope to use in the future. Lastly, there was a "current climate studies" assignment that required linking to recent governmental climate publications, finding specific information in the publication, and again answering easy multiple choice questions. At the end of the course we were also required to informally propose a project that would make use of what we had learned in the course.

I feel that the AMS course had a lot of potential; I did complete all assignments and enjoyed most of them, but I do not feel I know much more about atmospheric science now than I did before the course. I think this is because of several factors, but mostly because of the lack of lecture. I am a person that can read from a textbook and teach myself material well enough to pass tests and write papers, but the information does not stick long term unless someone makes it interesting in a personal way. Having a professor relay personal stories and experiences turns academic material into an entertaining experience that lends itself to being stored in my brain into the furture. Reading a textbook just does not have this effect on me. Also, the type of questions in the course did not stimulate thought and critical thinking, they were solely a tool for the instructors to know whether or not the reading had been done, not how thoroughly I had understood what I had read. The email feedback was helpful, and whenever I had a question, my mentor was willing to spend time answering it, but again email is just so impersonal. At the end of it, I did not feel like I had learned at a graduate level and I was left even more disillusioned with the idea of online learning.

In an ironic twist, I am now teaching a "blended" online and classroom course in marine biology at the local community college. I went into this teaching experience extremely optimistic about what I would accomplish during lecture and the types of deep, stimulating conversations that would take place on the message boards regarding conservation issues and policy. My optimism was quickly dissolved and replaced with realism. The course is a five credit course with three credits being considered classroom and two credits being considered online learning. This means that students are meant to do a significant amount of independent learning and complete weekly online assignments. I assigned videos available on PBS.org about ocean conservation in conjunction with several related current events articles each week and wrote a detailed prompt to initiate a hearty discussion on the message board. I clearly detailed what was expected in their initial responses to the videos and news articles and required that they respond to at least 2 other students' responses agreeing or disagreeing with their viewpoint and defending their position. The response to these assignments was a lot of grumbling, complaining, low participation, and pathetic effort. My hopes and dreams of a robust conversation pertaining to relevant, current issues were dashed. I think I can fairly say that the online portion of the class I am teaching has been a fail.

As I interact with more and more young people, I have noticed that many of my students are great in class, but really don't want to put in much time outside of class. They love technology, but really enjoy using technology for fun, fleeting endeavors, not prolonged or challenging efforts. Technology has made life much more convenient, everything is available with a finger swipe, but actually spending time to read a whole article is not convenient and does not hold their attention. Doing homework, reading, writing, and having academic conversations through technology seems to be the antithesis of how students expect to use their devices. I don't think that it is impossible to have a quality online learning program, but I don't think that online is the right platform for high school and I really believe that undergraduate and graduate students are missing out and getting a lower quality of education when they take online classes instead of traditional courses. I am nervous that the online learning movement will continue to push forward and the next generation is going to be even lazier and less knowledgeable than the current one.

What have your online experiences been like? What do you think the world would be like without actual schools? I am curious if others have had better experiences and have different points of view.

Eating and Cooking in Thailand

This past summer, I was extremely lucky to have the opportunity to travel to Thailand and teach a session of college level fish biology for a group of American high school students. Together, we trekked throughout the country from Bangkok to Koh Tao, Khao Sok, Koh Lanta, and Ayutthaya. I also had some time off to see the country without a group of teenagers trailing behind me and visited Chiang Mai, Pai, and Koh Chang. Throughout the course of the summer, I learned about a new marine ecosystem, a new country and culture, and a fair bit about myself. I rode elephants, went scuba diving, taught amazing students, participated in organic farming, and made new friends. But, of all these new and exciting experiences, the food (eating and cooking) may have been the most valuable and enduring.

Before going to Thailand, I loved Asian food and enjoyed eating at Thai restaurants in particular - I was really looking forward to having Thai food day in and day out, all summer long. I especially appreciate Thai food for the curries with coconut milk instead of cow's milk. Curries are undoubtedly my favorite meal to consume, but when eating out at Indian restaurants, I always worry about cream and ghee. At Thai food restaurants, I do consider how much chicken stock I am ingesting in "vegetarian" dishes, but at least I know I am safe from dairy. I love all the vegetables and spices and the light fluffy rice noodles that do not bog down my belly with gluten. As I prepared for the summer, I read two versions of Lonely Planet and perused many blogs and websites. In my reading, I kept coming across curious proclamations about great "western food" joints for when you are sick to death of Thai food. I thought this was absurd! How could anyone become sick of Thai food? I did not think that this would happen to me, but I conceded that I would not know until I had actually spent sometime in Thailand.

It turns out that the notion of becoming sick of Thai food really is absurd. After being in the country for almost 2 months, I was more obsessed with Thai food than ever. As the end of my trip approached, I dreaded returning to the U.S. for fear of missing many things about Thailand, but the food was at the top of the list. While in Thailand, I both sought out and stumbled upon experiences that deepened my appreciation for Thai culinary culture. The most prominent, I am sure, is the first cooking class I participated in at the Thai Farm Cooking School (ThaiFarmCooking.net), just outside of Chang Mai. I participated in this class on one of my very first days in Thailand and it ended up improving my whole trip; throughout the rest of my trip, I was able to distinguish flavors and ingredients and had a better understanding of food culture and customs. A second cooking class, eating meals with locals, and visiting several food markets continued to expand my interest in and passion for Thai food throughout the summer.

Pern Teaching our group about different types of rice

That influential first cooking class started with a tour of a small local food market in Chiang Mai. Our teacher for the day, Pern (pronounced as a punctuated Pon), paraded us down the aisles of the market, stopping whenever anything caught her eye. She showed us different types of rice and explained the variation in texture, use, and preparation. I can remember learning about white rice, old rice, and sticky rice, but there were several more varieties that escape my memory. Old rice is yellowish in color and has aged for up to a year; this type of rice is used to create rice noodles and rice wrappers for spring rolls. Sticky rice and regular rice are harder to tell apart just by looking looking at them, but they are prepared very differently and easier to tell apart after they are cooked. For Regular rice, you simply rinse it, put in a rice cooker with water, and press "cook." Sticky rice must be soaked for 24 hours and is then steamed in a straw basket. We also learned about palm sugar and the different forms in which you could purchase it; there was liquid, syrup, crystals, and solid blocks. Palm sugar comes from palm trees on large palm plantations and is boiled down to varying densities and concentrations that are used for different purposes. Initially, I thought palm sugar would be just another sweetener, but it is not; it is has a sweet, savory flavor that has hints of vanilla, but cannot really be described with words, at least not by me. But, I did find myself ordering "palm juice" - basically sugar water - at the markets on several occasions.

Pig Head at food market. Spinning plastic bags for
fly prevention can be seen in the background.

After walking around with Pern and learning about different ingredients, she released us to explore on our own for a bit before we headed to the farm for the actual cooking class. To say that the market was diverse and colorful is something of an understatement. There were fruits that I had never seen before piled up high in beautiful arrangements and there were animals I was familiar with, but had not seen displayed in such a way before. Every part of the animals was used: there were hearts, stomaches, feet, tongues, kidneys, livers, intestines, and heads on display for purchase. None of this meat was refrigerated or covered, but there were plastic bags attached to fans being spun above the food products to keep flies away. I also saw tanks full of fish and buckets full of blood cockles, a mollusk that is dredged from the Andaman sea, which surprised me since we were rather far from the sea. I think the animal product that most alarmed me was a large bowl full of frogs covered with a red plastic net. These large frogs looked terrified and their faces were bloodied from jumping up against the walls of their container. As appetizing as the fruits were, the animal products were equally unappetizing, but I appreciated the realness of it. These animal parts were not wrapped in plastic, pretending they were not parts of animals that used to be alive. Buying these animal products meant understanding and appreciating where they came from - a far cry from supermarkets in U.S.

Organs at Chiang Mai Food Market

Blood cockles at Chiang Mai food market.
Dredging for these shellfish is extremely
harmful to near coastal ecosystems.

Dragon Fruit at Chiang Mai Food Market

Once at the farm, the lesson started with a tour of the garden. Throughout this tour, I was able to see how the different ingredients grew and what they looked like before they were cooked and ground into pastes. Eating the mini chiles straight from the plant was actually very intense, even though the spiciness they impart on a dish when cooked is usually quite mild. Perhaps the most interesting plant in the garden was the loofah plant. I had no idea that these skin polishing products, available at every wal-mart across the world, actually grew on tropical plants. I just never really thought about it, which I believe is common for most Americans - we buy things without stopping to consider where they come from or how they are produced. A close second was the different varieties of eggplant. There are Thai eggplants that are not much larger than peas! Another popular Thai eggplant is the size and color of a tennis ball. Previously, it had not occurred to me that the fat purple eggplants I know, are not the eggplants everyone knows. Now if only I could find these treasures in my local super market...

Following our garden tour, the class got down to business and started pounding out our own curry

Enjoying the open air kitchen and the simplicity of Thai cooking.

paste. We had the choice to make red, yellow, or green curry and I chose green curry. Green curry uses more fresh, rather that dry ingredients, so the paste is a lot mushier. To create the paste, I sliced 2 long green chiles, chopped a shallot, a small piece of galangal, kaffir lime rind, garlic, lemongrass, and Thai ginseng. I added all these ingredients, along with roasted cumin and coriander seeds and some salt to a huge stone mortar and pestle, and got to work. The grinding takes time and a fair bit of effort, but is not too taxing. Thai women have spice grinding down to a science, but what I found to be key is to not be shy and to really bash the spices. My curry paste turned out very fine and was validated by Pern with an approving smile, but others in the class were not able to get their curry paste to be quite a paste, per se. Pern told us that it was fine if our paste was coarse, as long as we liked it that way, but that Thai people prefer a very fine curry paste.

Once the paste was finished, we set it to the side and prepared some delicious Tom Yam Soup. An

Pad Thai from the restaurant associated
with the Chiang Mai Women's Prison.

important lesson in the preparation of this dish was the 4 major Thai flavors: Salty, Sweet, Sour, and Spicy. Different people enjoy these flavors in different proportions so food is actually usually prepared rather bland and these four flavors are provided on the side in the form of chile powder, salt, sugar, and lemons or limes, so the eater can add them as needed. Each of these flavors was incorporated into the Tom Yam Soup and since we were preparing single portions, we could add them in whatever proportion we preferred - I added quite a few chile peppers. After eating the soup, I was full and satisfied, but we went on to finish preparing the curry, steamed spring rolls, and made traditional Thai Papaya salad. After eating all this, we also made dessert. Most of my classmates chose to make mango and sticky rice since this is the most popular Thai dessert, and it is delicious, but I decided to try something new and opted for bananas boiled in coconut milk. This turned out to be a good choice. The dessert is so simple, it is almost humorous. To prepare the dish, simply boil bananas in coconut milk and add palm sugar to taste. Simple, but perfect, and a new favorite. I ordered this dish every chance I got while in Thailand  and have even made it at home, although the bananas here really are sub-par.

The simplicity of my new favorite dessert is a common theme in Thai cooking. I was surprised by how simple all the dishes prepared during the class truly were. The secret to Thai cooking is not complicated recipes and expensive ingredients or a fancy kitchen, it is super fresh, healthy, simple ingredients. It is no wonder that Thailand is considered the country of smiles! I was happy to learn this secret, but sad, too, because it meant that the food I was eating in Thailand really could not be completely recreated in my kitchen. But, I knew I would try!

Sowing soy beans outside of Pai

Throughout the rest of the summer, I had many more formative experiences relating to Thai food, cooking, and eating. When I travelled North to Pai, I had the opportunity to volunteer my time assisting local farmers in planting several soy bean fields. Soy is an important crop in Thailand; it is eaten as sprouts, tofu, milk, and beans and is exported both whole and as prepared foods. A group of other young travelers and I rode out away from Pai, past a small village, and onto a very rugged dirt road that eventually faded into a foot path. None of us spoke Thai, and none of the village people spoke English. We communicated mostly by the village people demonstrating what to do, and then we tried to copy them. If we did it right, we received smiles, if we did it wrong, we were corrected. We worked side by side all day planting soybeans in rugged, rocky, uneven terrain.

When it came time for lunch, the locals cooked rice and soup in large pots over an open fire. The meal was served in hollowed out segments of bamboo stalks with no utensils. It took some effort to overcome the filthy state of my hands and dig into the food with my fingers. It is relatively easy to eat sticky rice with your fingers, but it is difficult to eat soup with your fingers. I tried to have mostly

Eating traditionally prepared rice and soup in bamboo bowls

rice in my bamboo bowl, but the nice older women who did the cooking wanted to fill my bowl with soup. It was challenging to eat, but it tasted fine and it was fun to have lunch with the local people the way they usually eat during their mid-day break. After we finished eating, we rested for a while longer, most of us taking naps, before heading back into the field. In the afternoon we planted soy beans on a steep slope that was very difficult to navigate. One of the locals even took a tumble - it was that hard to work there. We moved much slower on the cliffside and planted a significantly smaller area after lunch than before, but we all bonded more as we really needed to look out for each other on the dangerous slope. This day of hard work again demonstrated to me the simplicity of Thai food and rural life and allowed me to be part of the food production process. I really value this experience and would jump at the chance to do this type of work again if I have the opportunity to return to Thailand  (If interested in volunteering, visit Tacompai).

Demonstration of what these spices (left to right: galangal,
chile, lemongrass, kaffir lime) look like when you should
and shouldn't eat them

Another interesting experience was my second cooking class at the Time for Lime Cooking School (timeforlime). This class was with my students and was in Koh Lanta, a long distance South from Chiang Mai, so was different from my first class in many ways. The food we prepared was slightly different than the recipes I had learned up North and I was in the position of teacher and chaperone so I could not completely relax and enjoy the class. I have to say, my high school students were very engaged and interested in cooking their own Thai dishes, but their enthusiasm only lasted through one course. At the opening of this course, the teacher gave an introduction to Thai food and explained some important ingredients, including fish sauce and curry paste. She also showed us common examples of the products that are exported to the U.S. that we might expect to find in our local Asian grocery store. I found this very helpful, but the best piece of information she gave us was a simple and perhaps obvious tip for eating Thai food: some ingredients are only meant to be eaten if they are chopped very small - if they are left in large chunks, they are there only for flavor and should not be eaten. As this was being explained, I wished someone had filled me in on this earlier, because I definitely had tried to gnaw on many large pieces of lemongrass and galangal. Apparently Thai people find it rather comical to watch foreigners trying to eat stalks of lemongrass. For anyone traveling to Thailand, heed this warning: trying to eat large pieces of these flavorful but tough plants is quite unpleasant!

Taste of Thailand in one bite

Of the dishes that we prepared at Time For Lime, my favorite was a little appetizer described as "a taste of Thailand in one bite." To prepare this tiny dish, fold a wild pepper leaf to create a little cup, fill it with crushed peanuts, chopped chiles, diced red onion, diced ginger, and roasted coconut flakes. Squeeze some lime juice into the leaf cup, spoon in some honey, and eat it all in one bite! It is delicious and can be found in many Thai food markets. If you buy it at the market, it will look like a small kit with cups of ingredients and stacks of leaves. Knowing how to make this little snack allowed me to purchase the little kits and enjoy this cheap and tasty little meal throughout my trip!

Writing this post has made me so nostalgic for Thai food! Buying food at the markets or eating meals at inexpensive little cafes proved to me that healthy, fresh, simple foods can be available cheaply and readily. This really made me wonder why it is so impossible to have similar experiences in the U.S.. Why do all our food vendors need to be huge chains and why does our food have to come from so far away. The way we eat in the U.S. is destroying the health of our land and our people. I learned so much in Thailand, but the lessons in eating and preparing food really stand out. I have enjoyed trying to cook Thai foods at home and am happy to have been inspired to grow my own herbs, but I am really looking forward to returning to Thailand to learn even more about the food, culture, language, and ecosystems. 

Long Run Food

Here is a well-known personal secret: I am not a morning person. I hate waking up, and I especially hate waking up earlier than 9am. I'm not a night-owl either; I don't like staying up later than 11pm. Basically, I am a sleep person - I may like being asleep more than being awake. I really do need to sleep 10 hours a day in order to feel fully rested. This may sound absurd, but the average amount of sleep needed by adult humans is 8 hours - if 8 hours is the average, some people must need more. I need more.

The reason I bring this up is because as much as I really love to sleep, I also love to run and be otherwise productive throughout the day. Many runners love getting up before everyone else to get some miles in before most people have even rolled out of bed. I don't really enjoy this. I do occasionally have to get up early in order to fit a run into my day, but I don't like it. Here in South Georgia, I really need to start runs at sunrise or shortly after if I want to run outside. I have been waiting and hoping for the day that it would be less than 95F at mid day so I could enjoy an afternoon run. This week it has been rainy and overcast everyday, and I have been so incredibly grateful. I started a 12 mile run at 4pm on Monday and smiled throughout the whole distance, because I had been able to sleep in that morning. I have always been an afternoon and evening runner, that is just my style, and I am ecstatic to get back to my regular schedule.

The problem that comes up with afternoon and evening running, is that you will have to eat at least 1 meal before you head out for the run. My stomach is generally grumpier than the average stomach, and sometimes very bad things happen on runs when I am not careful with what I eat beforehand (think about your worst running nightmares, they have happened to me). I have found that salads and smoothies are my best choices for breakfast and lunch if I am planning a longer distance later in the day. But, sometimes I just really want something warm for breakfast, especially if it is chilly and overcast for the first time in months. This is the way I was feeling on Monday, so I started going through my cabinets looking for something that would satisfy my craving and keep my belly happy on a long run. My eyes rested on the quinoa - perfect! 

At first, I considered just making quinoa the way I normally would, which would make for a savory dish. But, really, I was in the mood for something a little sweet. I did a little googling, and found that breakfast quinoa is usually made with vanilla milk-substitute instead of water. I decided this was something worth trying. I combined a 1/4 cup of quinoa with one cup of unsweetened vanilla almond milk and a generous sprinkling of cinnamon. I let the mixture come to a boil and then lowered the heat until the mixture simmered. I kept the quinoa covered and simmering for about 15 minutes before adding chopped apples. After 5 minutes, I served myself and added a dash of cinnamon and maple syrup for presentation and sweetness. This was honestly one of the best all-day foods I have ever prepared (I had the leftovers for lunch).

Later in the day, I was feeling like I needed a snack. This is reasonable considering I spent the day doing homework for my online climate science course and studying makes me just as hungry as running. I considered my options carefully. I knew my breakfast quinoa would be gentle on my belly - what could I snack on that would not ruin my good choice that morning? Based on what I had available, I decided to have an avocado, but I jazzed it up a bit. I put the avo in the food processor with some garlic and lime juice. I applied the avo spread to wasa whole grain crackers. The gluten in the wasa crackers may not have been the best choice, but it luckily wasn't bad enough to ruin my run. 

Around 4, Gnasher and I set out for 12. It was cool, overcast, and drizzly, which made the weather as good as it gets in South Georgia. The first 6 miles went swimmingly. I had that feeling that I could run forever. At the 6 mile turn around point, I even found some stray watermelon growing at the edge of a cotton field. I bashed one open on the road and Gnasher and I enjoyed some refreshing watermelon. I hoped that this good find would rehydrate us and give us the sugar that we needed to stay energized through the rest of the run. I am notoriously bad at hydrating and fueling during runs. I love running because you really don't need anything but a pair of shoes (and many would argue you do't even need those). I resent carrying anything extra with me and would rather enjoy the freedom of heading out with just Gnasher's leash in my hand than bringing water and energy bars. I often suffer for this stubbornness, but sometimes I get lucky and find watermelons (or water fountains). I don't think Gnasher and I started feeling dehydrated until mile 9, but we still finished strong and I did not have any stomach issues (Thank Quinoa!). 

Sometimes what you eat after a run can be as important as what you eat before a run. I know 12 miles does not seem very long, but it is the longest I have ran in over a year, so I was expecting some aching and soreness the next day. Whenever I am training for a long distance race, I try to eat a good deal of spicy red pepper and turmeric for dinner on long run days. The capsaicin in chili spices reduces muscle pain and inflammation and turmeric further aids in reducing inflammation. I find that a good, spicy curry can make me feel a lot better the day after a long run than if I had pigged out on something less beneficial. For this evening's curry, I processed a white onion and 5 cloves of garlic in the food processor. I cooked the onion and garlic with coconut oil until they started to soften. For spice, I added copious amounts of cumin, curry powder, turmeric, and red cayenne pepper, and splashes and sprinkles of red pepper flakes, powdered ginger, and allspice. I let the spices simmer with the onions and garlic until my whole kitchen smelled strongly of curry. Next, I added carrots and cubed and pressed tofu. I allowed the tofu to brown a bit before adding a can of coconut milk, green peas, and chick peas that I had boiled for 10 min. After the coconut milk came to a boil, I lowered the heat to allow the curry to simmer for about 10 minutes. I poured the curry over some white jasmine rice we had left over and dug in!

I feel pretty pleased with the meals I prepared for this long run day, but I am most excited about my discovery of breakfast quinoa. I can tell that this will join the other staple dishes in my cooking repertoire. I am filing this one away in my brain, right next to raw green soup and pizza rainbows. My next long run is 14 miles on Monday and I have not yet decided if I will stick with this menu or if I will try some new pre-run meals, but I am definitely considering planting a water bottle and a larabar at the mile 7 turnaround. Here's hoping it is a miserable, chilly, overcast, and drizzly day on Monday so I can sleep all morning and head out for my run in the midafternoon! 

I can can.

As proclaimed, I headed to the Valdosta Farm Days downtown grower's market this Saturday set to buy all the tomatoes available and can like mad. Strangely, it seemed my friends and I were the only people in town interested in the market this week. Almost none of the usual vendors had showed up and the town square was a ghost town! Only one vendor had any produce at all, and when it was my turn in line, there were only 5 tomatoes left. You know it is a strange day when there are not even onions or collards available at a growers market in southern Georgia! So, I bought my five tomatoes, along with some zucchini, peaches, cucumbers, a baking pumpkin, and local pork and venison sausages. It was better than nothing and I figured it was good to start small.

After being let down by the market, there was plenty of morning left, so we went searching for a local produce store we had heard rumors of: Carter's Market Produce and Meats. This store is like an organic and local food oasis in the Wal-Mart driven food desert of Southern Georgia. As I walked in, I immediately felt gratitude and excitement. There were some favorites like Rudi's organic bread, Bragg's apple cider vinegar, and Justin's Almond Butter that I had not been able to find here, but there was also a plethora of local organic zucchini, pumpkins, onions, tomatoes, meats, eggs (!!!), and cheeses. In addition, there was local honey, local olive oil, and locally roasted coffee. I am beyond ecstatic to have found this market!

In a moment of self-doubt, I decided to stick with the five tomatoes I had already bought (what if I made gallons of sauce that tasted terrible or went bad?). I had originally planned to use Barbara Kingsolver's family tomato sauce recipe from her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, but her recipe calls for 30 lbs of tomatoes! My tomato cache weighed closer to 2.5 lbs, so I worked from several recipes I found on the internet along side Kingsolver's suggestions.

The first step in canning my own tomato sauce was to sterilize the canning jars and lids. There are several ways to do this: boiling them, running them through the dishwasher, or using a sterilizing solution. We use iodophor to sterilize everything when brewing beer and I assume that this would work for canning as well, but I could not find any sites recommending it, so I stuck to the traditional boiling for now. In the future, I think I will use the iodophor, it is much quicker and uses less energy (does not need to be heated).

Next up, the tomatoes needed to lose their skins and seeds. I found a site that suggested cutting an x on the bottom of the fruit and blanching them (dropping them in boiling water for 30 seconds and then in ice water for 30 seconds). I kind of couldn't believe how well this worked; the skins literally fell right off the tomatoes. Next, I cut them in wedges and pushed the seeds out and into my countertop compost container; turns out, canning preserves food and gives back to the soil. I chopped the tomatoes up a bit - how finely you chop them is a personal preference - and the tomatoes were ready for the pot.





Before I cooked the tomatoes, I softened some chopped onion with just a tiny bit of water in the bottom of a large pot. Once the onions were soft, I added the tomatoes to the pot, sprinkled in salt, pepper, garlic powder, thyme, cinnamon, and nutmeg. I brought the tomatoes to a boil, lowered to a simmer, and left for about 40 minutes, stirring occasionally. I have to admit, I was surprised how much water came from the tomatoes; when I read instructions to let the tomatoes reach a boil, I really thought it would be necessary to add water. As the sauce was approaching completion, I opened the sterilized jars just long enough to add 1/4 teaspoon of citric acid to each jar. When the sauce was done cooking, I ladled it into the sterilized pint jars with the citric acid and quickly covered them with the lids. I ended up only filling 2 pint jars with sauce, but there was some left over that Jamie and I gobbled up with a spoon as a sort of tomato soup. I was impressed; the sauce tasted really good at this point - the nutmeg and cinnamon brought just a tad of sweetness to a traditionally more savory flavor.

Finally, I put my two jars of tomato sauce in the giant enamel pot that we use for brewing, and filled it with enough water to cover the jars by one inch when they were standing up. Once the water reached a rolling boil, I started a timer for 35 minutes. I have to admit, I did stare at the the jars intermittently. Part of me was sure they were going to explode, but tiny air bubbles were released from the inner rim of the screw on ring relieving the pressure inside the jars. It was probably more than a little wasteful to boil that much water for two measly pint jars, but it was an experiment! In the future, I will do much larger batches at a time. Look out friends and family, jarred goods are coming your way for the holidays this year! After what seemed like forever, my timer went off and I pulled the two jars out of the boiling water and set them to cool on the counter top. Their tops were vacuumed down strongly and they were sealed shut! It had worked. My two beautiful jars are in my pantry right now, waiting for a future pasta night!

After finishing this project, I was feeling quite prideful. Canning was simple and straightforward, but it was something that I never did before and never really expected to do. I did not grow up in a canning household. In fact, this was the first time I even made tomato sauce from scratch. Usually, I cook onions and garlic in olive oil and then add carrots and some other veggies like zucchini or whatever we have, pour in a jar of store bought sauce, and finally stir in some spinach until it wilts - voila! tomato sauce! Despite everything that I add to it, my recipe relies on a $3.50 jar of Newman's own sauce. I just can't believe how easy and affordable it is to make my own jars of tomato sauce. And, in doing so, I am supporting local farmers and decreasing the carbon footprint of my meal. I have the canning bug now; I want to can everything! 

Kingsolver's localism, sweet as zucchini cookies

I just finished reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (Animal, Vegetable, Miracle) and it has inspired reflection, cooking, and future projects on the horizon. I am a long time fan of Barbara's (I feel like she is now my pal after reading this year long journal); I was first introduced to her writing more than ten years ago, when I read The Poisonwood Bible for a High School english class. Over the years, I have devoured her other books, enjoying the mix of human relationships, science, environmentalism, and feminism. My obvious favorite is Prodigal Summer, and this novel likely had a role in my fascination (obsession?) with farming. In AVM, Barbara in effect plays out Prodigal Summer and moves her family from the urban desert of Tucson back to her roots in Southern Appalachia to embark on a year long hyper local eating project.

The book begins as Barbara, her husband Steven, 18 year old daughter Camille, and 4th grader Lily pile into their family car and start driving East. Upon leaving Tucson, Barbara waxes poetic on all that Tucson has to offer. Basically Tucson is a pretty fabulous place to live, if it only had more water. As she mentioned universities, museums, and other urban treasures, I couldn't help but feel a little bitter that Jamie and I were stationed here in Georgia rather than in Tucson. But, here was Barbara Kingsolver abandoning Tucson and heading to the American South!

Once at the Farm house in Virginia, the family set to work fixing up the house and preparing for the upcoming planting season and the commencement of their year of eating solely local food. As the spring began and crops began being planted and harvested, the book became part garden and farm journal, part food diary, and part exposé on the cruelties of industrial farming. I have to say that the book was rather winding and there were a lot of tangents. Occasionally, I found myself a bit distracted, wondering if I would ever finish the book. Part of the problem for me was that the majority of the shocking exposed secrets of industrial farming and U.S. farm policy were not new news for me. The first time that I learned these truths, however, I was rapt, so it is not fair to hold this against Barbara. The information is of high quality and well presented, just nothing novel or terrifying. Upon further reflection, I also realized that this book is chronicling an undertaking that required a huge amount of physical labor. From my experience working on a farm, I know that type of work can often feel like drudgery. So, I suppose that it makes sense that reading about it can sometimes feel similar.

Despite respites of boredom, I did enjoy the glimpse into Barbara's family's dedication to a noble cause and all the hard work that went into their success. Not too secretly, I long for a homestead that is self sustainable and this book deepened those longings and also made me feel a tad guilty that I was not doing more now. I have a ton of land in my backyard, mostly full sun, that is not being used for anything, save for my dogs stomping ground (he really likes stomping). My garden is rather pathetic, with only a few plants, and my 3 chickens are not even laying eggs yet. My excuse has been that we are moving soon and it is not worth all the work to create growing spaces. The next family that lives here would probably prefer grass, anyways. But, the book provides some really fabulous ideas about living more sustainably and eating locally that would not require me to till my entire backyard.

Two of the ideas that appealed to me most, that would not be terribly difficult or expensive and could make a big difference, are canning and baking bread. The book correctly identifies that for many of us, it is relatively easy to eat mostly local in the summer, when farmer's markets are in season, but it is more difficult to eat locally in the winter when markets are closed. The Kingsolvers can their own vegetables, but it would be just as local to buy up all the tomatoes at the farmer's market and can them, so you can have local tomatoes and sauces in the winter. The Kingsolvers also grew a huge over-abundance of zucchini. They tried their best to eat it and give it away to friends, but there was just too much. Not wanting to create waste, they shredded the zucchini and stored it in freezer bags to be used in breads and cookies all year round. In addition to specific instructions on how to can tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, chutneys, and salsas, the book also included an amazing recipe for zucchini chocolate chip cookies (see below). Other vegetables, like greens and broccoli, can be blanched and frozen in freezer bags. Tomorrow is the next farmers market in downtown Valdosta (Valdosta Farm Days), and I plan on stocking up on local veggies and trying out the canning process for the first time this weekend.

I am also looking into buying a bread machine. It appears that I can buy a decent machine for about $60, which is the price of 20 loaves of bread at $3 a loaf. If Jamie and I eat a loaf of bread every week, the machine will pay for itself in 20 weeks, or 5 months. Furthermore, we are having trouble finding bread without high fructose corn syrup and specialty healthy breads like spelt or whole grain in Valdosta supermarkets. Baking our own bread would solve that problem, as well. I haven't placed the order yet, but it is on my mind and there is an amazon tab open in my browser.

Since I couldn't head straight to the farmer's market or start baking bread as soon as I finished "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle," I decided to try out the zucchini chocolate chip cookie recipe instead. I am glad I did. Jamie was skeptical of these cookies when he observed the bits of green, but seemed to forget all about them once he indulged in a cookie (and then another). I modified the original recipe to be dairy-free and only used white flour, rather than half whole wheat, because I did not have whole wheat flour in the cabinet and wanted the cookies right away. The modifications worked out deliciously.

Ingredients

The wet stuff
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup honey
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract (real)

The dry stuff
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

The good stuff
1 cup finely shredded zucchini
12 oz. dark chocolate chips

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 350F

2. Combine the wet stuff in a large mixing bowl; I used my new Kitchen Aid mixer bowl for this (thanks again, Mom!). I used honey that we purchased from an apiary near Jamie's grandparents house in upstate New York. This honey is extra flavorful, and I attribute at least part of the success of this recipe to the magnificent local honey.

3. Combine the dry stuff in a separate mixing bowl. Stir the ingredients with a fork until they are evenly mixed.

4. Stir half the dry stuff into the wet stuff. Mix thoroughly before adding the second half of the dry ingredients, and again mix thoroughly.

5. Add the good stuff into the mixture and continue mixing until evenly dispersed.

 6. Drop spoonfuls of batter onto greased cookie sheets (unless you have parchment paper handy, which is a better choice). The recipe should make about two dozen cookies, if you don't eat too much batter. I only got 20 cookies out of the recipe...

7. Cook at 350F for 10-12 minutes or until brown around the edges.

8. Remove cookies from cookie sheets and place on cooling racks to prevent burning.

9. Cookies will be soft, spongy, and cake-like. Enjoy!! Share with your friends... or eat them all.