Pineapple downs and ups

If you want to feel good about your own cooking skills, please, read on. 

Today, since it is my oh-so-important b-date coming up, I decided to make some pineapple cupcakes (recipe here). The recipe sounded amazing. Low calorie recipe with a lot of fruit! To be exact, it has two 20 oz cans of pineapple in 24 cupcakes, which is slightly less than 2 oz of pineapple per cupcake. I think I did really well in the recipe reading and comprehension. I did excelled in ingredient shopping. 

Then, I made the cupcake dough and exceeded my own expectations. Only, the dough was enough for 23, not 24 cupcakes. I felt pretty confident, given that I had made cupcakes only once before...

Perhaps I shouldn't have.

The cupcakes turned out to be alright. Except.... a bit sticky and chewy and totally didn't rise. 

I felt a little less confident after tasting them, but still courageous enough to whip my first-ever frosting. Now, the pineapple frosting recipe here called for a VERY WELL DRAINED crushed pineapple. I swear, I really tried very very very hard. I may have even gotten a small muscle going from pressing the crushed pineapple. I mixed cream cheese, marshmallow fluff (very tasty by the way) and the pineapple.

The result, needless to say, was very liquid.

I panicked a little bit. I thought maybe it's because the cream cheese is too lumpy so I took a hand mixer and began whipping. Even with having pineapple 'frosting' flying all over the kitchen counter and the mixer speed in the red zone, the mixture was even more liquid to my surprise (next time I need to remember that more mixing means more liquid stuff). I thought perhaps mixing in more cream cheese-y substance would help. Although I was planning to eat my sour cream with salsa and chips, it had to be sacrificed for the frosting. 

With.no.success.

I have never seen a frosting this liquid in my entire life. I thought of boiling it, but then I realized that perhaps there is a reason why very few, if any, recipes call for boiled cream cheese. Then I thought of the all-mighty thickening agent - Mr. Corn Starch. Even he was of no help, even after at least 3 or 4 tablespoons. I may have put in even 5 or 6 tablespoons because after a while, I was just pouring that thing into the liquid frosting hoping that at least some of it 'sticks'. It did not. I was the only thing sticking in our kitchen. I was sticking to everything. But the frosting on my fingers tasted good and I really didn't want to throw it away (I admit thought that this was an already sunk cost).

Then I got an idea!

The liquid frosting very much reminded me of the mixture I poured into a cheesecake once. Now that I had used all of anything that could have been put into this thing, I thought baking it may be the last option. I have never been so thankful for a 24/7-open grocery store. I quickly drove there and bought a crumble crust and a Duncan Hines Cream Cheese Frosting - I think that will have to do for now, besides, it contains "real" cream cheese, right? Back at home, I popped some eggs and baking powder and sugar into the dough, poured it in the crust and put it in the oven. Then I waited, cleaning the kitchen in the mean time...

20 minutes... a liquid cake

30 minutes... still a liquid cake

45 minutes... a less liquid cake (was a bit brown on the top though)

60 minutes... FINALLY! The pineapple cheesecake was done. I have not tasted it yet, but it looks good. To sum up the results of my evening pineapple adventures: I now have 23 Duncan Hines cream-cheese-frosted cupcakes in addition to their BIG sibling - the pineapple cheesecake.

PS: To recap the cheesecake ingredients: Cream cheese, crushed pineapple, marshmallow fluff, sour cream, corn starch, eggs, baking powder, sugar, and a generic graham cracked crust.

Calm my Anxious Heart Chp. 1

Contentment is a state of the heart, not a state of affairs. 
                                                                    - Linda Dillow

Reading about Ella and the apostle Paul, it makes me wonder, how does God see our complaining? Does it make him angry or sad? 


I have always felt like complaining was kind of like saying to God, 'Thank you (for where you put me), but no thank you (I don't like it here).' without the 'Thank you' in it. And based on that, people who complain a lot have always made me angry... especially the ones who do have food, home, family, job/school, etc... But maybe that is not the best reaction.

How should we react to those for whom a day without some 'good complaining' would not be a good day?

I think that this has always been on my mind as I definitely know more Merediths than Ellas. On the other hand, it seems to me that complaining may very well be a very cultural thing. I have noticed that my Chinese friends and classmates and roommate never complain. Even when they are going through some really harsh times.

What is it about the Western world that we complain so much, yet in other countries, people don't?


I must agree with LD in that the desire to have control over my own life had made me anxious in the past and comes back to my life here and there. I think graduate school has cured me of that very quickly. I still don't know how I was able to pass the first year or my classes last semester. The material, homework, workload and all were impossible. And I was very depressed and anxious at first. Then I realized that from time to time, it is good to remember that it was God who sent me here and that He sure knew what he was doing. And that perhaps he really wanted to teach me that I cannot do things, that only He can. I became content with my bad grades, old apartment, and impossible homework questions. As LD says, the bridge of trust was built, or at least some of its pillars. I think there are still many areas of my life in which I do not trust God

Do you have your own story of building trust in God? 


I have been also thinking about the story of the two monks. Either I did not understand it, or if it is what it is, then I don't really agree with the message it carries. It seems to me that the only difference was that the one was praying specifically while the other one was not.


Is praying for specific things bad? Like praying that someone would be healed? Or should we just pray that God does whatever to this sick person, for example? Or was it bad that the first monk was asking for small things? Would the first monk be not praying if he didn't trust that God would hear him?

Bicycling

Well, it has been decided (or at least I think so) that Atlanta, GA is the

most bicycle-friendly city

I have ever been to. There is a lot of sunshine here, no snow, warm and long falls and springs. Ideal for bicycling. AND... now my boyfriend who understand bicycles lives here too. So, I have decided to start saving for a bicycle. I am not sure, though, how much it will cost, or which one I should get (Any ideas?).

I want a comfortable seat though and good breaks (and a pink pony)! Ha!

Therefore, lately I have been scavenging my apartment and closets for things that I no longer need and I have found some old college textbooks - money well spent/saved! Amazon buyers, be prepared to shop, hopefully before March comes around.

True Dedication

²⁴ And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. ²⁵ God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

So, I buy cage-free eggs (and meat from outside-living animals). I guess some people would find it crazy. Why spend extra 40 cents on 12 eggs? Well, because I would rather not eat an egg produced by some suffering poor bird, who ate c%$p all of her life and never saw the sunlight.

I was particularly happy to find eggs from Amish farms lately at our local farmers market.

To all those who think that people who buy cage-free eggs are crazy, our actions are perfectly rational. My satisfaction from knowing I eat from happy chickens is actually more than those 40 cents so both sides end up better off.

But, to end my aimless talking, here is a story that I wanted to share originally. This man is staying in the radiation-contaminated zone in Japan to take care of some of the thousands abandoned animals after all the people evacuated. The only man living in the forbidden zone. Many of the animals have died of hunger. This awesome man is feeding the ones still alive, the dogs, cats, and others. I have a great respect for him. He is literally giving up his life for these animals (because he will likely die early due to all the radiation). He lives with no electricity, eating only rice and canned food. Oh, and he has an ostrich!

My 40 cents don't compare to his 20 years of life.

Stop Those Credit Card Offers

Lately, I have been getting way too many credit card offers. While this may be sign of my credit score building up, I do not appreciate having to tear up each and every offer into pieces. Time is precious. Maybe I am overreacting, but I would not want someone opening an account in my name... So, I was really happy to find this website of the FTC. It has instructions on how to unsubscribe from the offers of credit cards and insurance using the OptOutPrescreen.com website. You should give it a try! :)

How to cut your hiking supplies' weight in half?

My aunt and I are going on a two week long hiking trip in a couple of days. We will be hiking along the coast of Southwest England, through the wilderness. And we will be carrying everything with us (except for a tent and a sleeping bag).

Since I am not a good hiker at all, I am concerned about the weight on my back quite a lot. Before I would put anything on my packing list, I always weighted several items on my kitchen scale and decided to take only the lightest of things. To my surprise, the weight was still ending up at 12 kg (more then 20 lbs) and that was quite scary. For two months I was thinking of the tiresome travel with these 12 kilograms of 'stuff'.

Tonight, I made a great discovery! I realized that in the 'Grand total' weight, I also included the subtotals... Yes! I am that bad! I don't care though because this has just cut my hiking weight to only little over 6 kilograms. And that is much better than 12 :)

Climbing up a growing mountain

I have never been a fan of rock climbing and whenever anyone starts talking about it, all of my insides usually start twisting inside of me. It's called 'fear of heights' or acrophobia. Here though, I would like to mention one of my class experiences.

It is good that my professors are very smart. Learning from the smart and knowledgeable people, though it doesn't necessarily 'make' the student knowledgeable, does add something to the knowledge of the student. Certainly, it adds more insight to the lecture and makes it more interesting. Sometimes a professor's intelligence may seem counterproductive especially when the knowledge 'gap' between the student and the professor is very large.

In one of my classes, Statistics and Probability, our professor is Essie, an Iranian genius. He is a wonderful man, with a voice worth using for the recording of children's bedtime stories, good sense of humor, and a great attitude towards econometrics and his students. However, it seems that he was not given the ability to 'come down' to his students in terms of the material he is teaching. And so, much of his lectures are filled with 'random' formulas appearing on the dry-erase board. The formulas have no names (or at least no names that could be comprehensibly written down in my notes for future reference). They are long and complex, something you cannot Google... They come from some unknown spot in the textbook.

However, knowing that we are using the textbook and that the professor 'is' referring to is (but I can't really confirm that), I decided to study the textbook beginning with chapter one onwards. The pace of my studying is very slow - 2 or 3 subchapters per day (including assigned exercises) while Essie is moving at a pace of about 8 subchapters per lecture. And so, this whole process of me studying feels like I am climbing an ever-growing mountain, which is growing at a faster pace than I am able to climb at. I am sure I could even come up with an equation for this :).

For now, I will just keep climbing and hope that one day I will be so intelligent and will be able to catch up with the mountain. I have to by the time our core exams come anyways...

What's New

As I was writing an e-mail to my friend Barb, I realized that perhaps I should share the information here too. Maybe that is what I should have done in the first place. Here is an update on my life:

Atlanta downtown from the Turner Field

The first couple weeks here were very new to me, new people, new professors, new teaching style, new weather, and a new city. Classes here are not like in college, here the professor uses the class time to tell us what we should know and we go home and study that. I was not used to this at all, but now it's ok and so I am fine with having just three classes take up all of my free time. The first exam went better than I thought and I passed my first class (it was only a pass-fail grade). I think we learned about 1 semester of math per day and it was truly a fast pace :D.

Part of our class hiked the Stone Mountain

I also never thought that there were any Christians in our class until I went to the IVCF Graduate Christian Fellowship where I was one of my classmates, Jing, from China. Jing is a very sweet girl and her life journey is very similar to mine. She is also the only child. I have also found out just recently that a 3rd year student in our department (also Jing, but a different one) is also a Christian. However, I went to the concert with the 1st Jing, my classmate. It was a wonderful concert and it was for free (organized by The Fish radio station). Jing, who never had a funnel cake, really wanted one, and I think funnel cakes do go well with outdoors concerts and so we set on this journey of waiting in line for 2 hours to get a delicious funnel cake. So we missed the concerts of Natalie Grant and Big Daddy Weave. We did get to see the concert of Switchfoot which was great and soon e both ended up jumping and doing all kinds of crazy stuff. :D

Jing and I with our Funnel Cakes

Our school year has already started. We have only 3 classes - Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, and Statistics and Probability. Our macro professor has not arrived yet because of some visa issues, so we just have his lecture notes and a very difficult assignment that although is due in two weeks, not even the 5th year students know how to solve - it is a programming problem set.

Also, I have been trying to go to different churches around. The first church was quite unwelcoming, but the other two (all PCA) were good. The church that I went to yesterday is my favorite so far. There are perhaps 3oo people at the service, they worship with both hymns and contemporary music and the pastor is very much awesome. His message was so deep and yet very well understandable and applicable. I think I really liked his teaching. They were also baptizing babies yesterday, which was really cute :). After the service, I joined the 'Young Singles' group for a bible study and talking. It was very good to see some people of my age who were all so friendly and godly :) I think I will definitely go back to this church.

As for exercise, I have joined the girls' ultimate frisbee team and also our department's soccer team. This way, I 'tricked' my body into exercising while having fun :) I also went to see the Braves yesterday, but that is no exercise and the cheesy nachos I ate were so good!

At the Braves' Game

Also, I forgot to mention our hummingbirds. I bought them a feeder so that they would come more often. I even took a picture of one :)

I don't like complaining but...

I arrived at Emory University at the end of July 2010, all pumped up about the new school year. That's when I didn't know all the problems that were to appear. Here is just one of the frustrating things with Emory that I had to deal with:

Driver's License

In Georgia, an international student is eligible to get a driver's license only after the school registers the poor student's SEVIS number in the immigration system. Knowing that my PA DL expires on August 14th, but not knowing the GA rules, I attempted to get my DL at the end of July. I was told that I was not registered in the system yet by my school. So off I went to see my international advisor and ask her to register me. My advisor, Angela, told me that the 'standard practice' is to register all new international students in the system 2 to 3 weeks after the school year starts (1 month after the PA license's expiration date).

WHY? Because some students may withdraw in the 1st few weeks.

OK I get it, but why me? I was already taking a full time class, which started on August 2nd, and I had paid the small $256 bill that was left on my school fees. I was fully registered.

So, the ISSP department decided that upon attending a check-in session (90 minutes of a silly presentation and the filling out of 3 forms - at least one of them with full contact information), a student can e-mail Kate B. in the department who will then register the student.

I attended the session on August 9th and e-mailed Kate B. on August 10th. Because I received no reply to my e-mail, I also e-mailed Angela to see if something went wrong. Again, no reply.

On Friday the 13th of August, I decided to visit the local DMV (a 20-30 minute drive) thinking that my now my SEVIS would of course be registered (it couldn't possibly take 4 days, right?). I waited in line for 45 minutes at the DMV to get a paper with a number on it. Then I waited 90 minutes to see that number appear on a screen. Window 4! I gave the lady at window 4 all the materials, she took my picture and my signature and then... " there is a problem in the system." she told me. Great, no license for me.

On Tuesday, I e-mailed Angela again to see what went wrong. If my SEVIS was registered, or was it!?, I should have had my license by now.

On Wednesday the 18th, I receive the following reply at 8:38 am: 'Send me your local address by noon today and I will register you in the SEVIS system'.

But, here is the problem:

1) At 8:38 am, I was already on my way to a class that goes from 9 am till noon - how am I supposed to respond to the e-mail in time!?

2) Why can't Angela just open one of the numerous forms I had to fill out during the check-in session and FIND my local address on it!?

Should I complain to the head of the department about the way people there work? How is this even possible?

When church makes me cry...

Last night, all pumped up, I started to search for churches to go to this Sunday. I looked at all the PCA churches around and found one of a modest size. It actually seemed like a very great church. The pastor seemed like a great guy, the website looked welcoming, the church supports a lot of missionaries, has a choir and a young adults worship service on Sunday evenings. So, basically everything I ever wished for in a church.

I decided to go to the morning service, since this is what I am used to. I arrived at the church parking lot about 15 minutes before the start of the service. On my way to the building door, I saw this old lady, who apparently was having a hard time walking. First I was looking to see if anyone from the inside would come (someone could see her through the glass door) and open the door for her. No one was coming so I ran forward to open it. She was so happy!

This made me think of why so many churches I know have greeters at the door, but PCA churches don't.

Then I proceded to find the nave of the church. That's when I realized that I probably didn't come in through the main entrance, or at least I thought so. There were exactly no signs to the pews, so I walked through this long hallway with offices and some classrooms. It took me about 5 minutes to find where the service was actually held. The church was a medium size, 300 people could be easily seated there. I took a seat in the back row on the side and began watching the people around me.

There was just something sad about all the people there. No one ever since I entered the building said hello to me, not once. In fact the only people after the old lady who said anything to me were the ones who with 'Excuse me!' were rushing past me into the pew to get to their seats. And this made me cry. Why are people like that? I so wished I could be back in Erie, going to church with friends again.

And so I cried through the first half of the service, wondering whether I should just leave now or wait for the actual sermon. Then I decided to stay and the sermon after all wasn't too bad. The pastor was quite energetic and his thoughts were all over the place, but the message was worth it and completely made me stop crying.

Now I am just wondering whether I should go next week to the same church to the young adults worship or not. Will those people be so unwelcoming as their parents/older church members? Or should I just try a non-PCA church knowing that no church could possibly be less welcoming than this one?

The Likes of Georgia

I thought that since I live in Georgia now, I should count all of its blessings, or at least try to mention some things I like about it.

1. I get to 'visit' the tropical pavilion of my hometown's botanical garden every day.

2. Green everywhere!

3. Kroger's employees who not only bag your goodies, but they also help you unload your shopping cart at the cashier register and then take the shopping cart once you put everything in the car.

4. The Fish! - local Christian radio station.

5. Great classmates. Although I currently have only about 19 classmates, the hours of homework and seemingly impossible math assignments seem to bring us together.

6. Having my own bathroom.

7. The joy (and thrill) of driving somewhere without a GPS.

8. Emory library with its moving shelves that look like from some Sci-Fi movie.

9. I finally appreciate airconditioning. (I used to hate it in Erie)

10. An IVCF staff worker that actually has office hours and answers e-mails.

11. Panera Bread right on the corner.

12. Sweet tea (I forgot about it, Moll Moll :)

13. Thunderstorms every other day and all of them when I am at home!

14. Farmer's Markets!

15. Great professors :)

Happy Fathers' Day!

Psalm 143:8 *NKJV

Cause me to hear Your loving kindness in the morning, For in You do I trust; Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, For I lift up my soul to You.

Away from life for a while

So, this is probably my last college-like summer. Summer, at least for now, filled with nothing I MUST do. I can sleep until 10 am with my puppy dog warming up my feet. I can spend time picking up wall paint for my room without feeling like I am wasting time that should be spent on homework or studying. Although there is research that I MUST do this summer, let me pretend for now that I do not have to do it (at least for another week). No calls, no homework, no friend 'duties', sweet nothingness of living.

As one of my friends would say, a dry season, a season that had lasted throughout the entire last semester due to lack of time, fellowship, and also some Christians whose shallowness was, looking back, quite contagious, seems to be coming to an end. I am looking forward to a new life in the south. New people, new friendships, new weather, leaving the past behind and running towards the future.

It may, on one hand, be tough to keep in touch with old friends. But, on the other hand, the ones I do keep in touch with are those who really matter. So, if we matter to each other, let's keep in touch. I will be here, happy, sad, lonely, overwhelmed by people, missing you and not missing someone else, or just me and God.

Coming back :)

I realize that I should come back to my blog... so here I am :)

On constructive criticism...

Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.
(Pro 9:8-9)

It seems to me that many Christians do think that we should never rebuke each other in any way or that we should not rebuke a brother or sister in Christ if we encounter their sin. I am not sure where these beliefs come from.

Shouldn't we strive to help each other overcome that sin, to become better and thus make God look better in the eyes of nonbelievers?

Constructive criticism, I believe, does have a place in Christian life. I do not mind when my family tells me that I am doing something wrong and that there are ways to overcome that. I actually quite appreciate that. There are many things that I think are not a problem, yet may hurt others around me.
Destructive criticism on the other hand can be compared to throwing a stone at a sinner. You won't accomplish anything except a death of that person... I do not claim that I have mastered any knowledge of anything, but reading the verse above made me think...

I wonder, what to think of a person who rejects any kind of constructive criticism... Are they too proud and full of themselves? Or do they not strive to become better people and Christians?
Is a friend who offers constructive criticism a good friend or do you think it's the same as throwing a stone at someone?

Big Impact

The Bathroom and the Human Nature

This is a story of something I witnessed going on in the apartment I share with 3 other roommates. I think it applies to everyday life of almost every person...

When we moved in, we cleaned everything in our apartment, including the bathroom and our shower. Everything was squeaky clean and so all of us felt free not to use any shower shoes in our shower. Why should we, if it was so clean?

Now, some of my roommates had shampoos and soaps on the floor of our shower. As days went by, a mold began to form underneath these containers .

Suddenly, a couple days ago, I noticed that someone had removed all of their shampoo and soap containers from the showers floor. This is when I actually saw the mold and it didn't look very good. A pair of flip flops was chilling next to the shower meaning that one of the girls began using them to wear in the shower now. Things went without change for a couple more days... moldy shower floor, flip flops next to it, all shampoo and soap containers removed...

Did you notice anything? Any questions?

My question was this: Why didn't the person who removed the containers from the shower clean their 'mess' (i.e. the shower floor)? Why couldn't someone take those 2 minutes to put things into their original state?

What will happen if no one ever cleans the floor? The mold will grow, we will all star wearing shoes to shower, the shower will develop this moldy smell to it... Is this really where we want to end up?

And this is not where things end... numerous other examples pop up in my head when people try to protect themselves from the mess they made rather than try to clean it up...

...like ...

...living as far as we can from the city dumpster instead of recycling our waste

... giving a professor bad ratings because his exams were too hard instead of admitting that we should have studied more

...the relationships we have with others

...denying our sins instead of asking for forgiveness

And you know where this will end? Things will get moldy, they will be disgusting to us, and we will have to find even more protection from them and move further away. Unless we clean up our mess, it won't go away. It is one thing to pray for the world, or to pray for the shower to be clean (and don't take me wrong - I love prayer and believe in its importance), but things won't change unless we actually get out of our comfort zone and make an effort.

Polamalu's Testimony

Our world has created so many stars, idols, and celebrities. People believe in them, dress like them, talk like them, party like them, and do all the things they can to be like their favorite celebrity (Hannah Montana is a great example of how far things can go these days....).

This is why I am always very happy when I see someone, who is portrayed by the media as an 'idol', yet in reality the person is very humble and a believer who is not afraid to admit to their faith. I love when Troy Polamalu talks about serving God through football. Amen! It is so clear that he puts his heart into the game, but it is not for the money, or the fame, it is for God, for his team, and his coach :). There are so many ways to serve our Lord!

GO POLAMALU!

Wonder what would happen if we treated our Bible like a cell phone?

What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?
What if we turned back to get it if we forgot it?
What if we flipped through it several times a day?
What if we spent and hour or more using it each day?
What if we used it to receive messages from its text?
What if we treated it like we couldn't live without it?
What if we gave it as gifts?
What if we used it as we traveled?
What if we used it in case of an emergency?
This is something to make you go
Hmmm... where is my Bible?

Oh, and a few other things;
Unlike our cell phones;
One plan fits all.
Unlimited usage.
No roaming charges.
You always have reception.
You don't have to buy batteries.
No weak signals
AND you never have to worry about being disconnected.

Our SAVIOR already paid the bill