Learn Something New

 D: 

However, despite me being a clumsy, walking disaster, I still try to learn to cook now and then. My mom always encourages it and tries to teach me her recipes. She got me a crockpot in the hopes that I would become a better cook. Last week I finally got to try out my crockpot and I made chicken Parmesan. It actually wasn’t a complete disaster and I successfully managed to make something that tasted pretty good. I started by placing two chicken breasts into the crockpot and sprinkled seasoning into it like saltbae(: For seasoning, I eyeballed amounts of salt, pepper, oregano, onion powder, garlic powder, and crushed red pepper. I also added in some canned diced tomato and stirred all of that together. I set the crockpot on high and left it covered for 4-5 hours. The thing that I love about the crockpot is that I can set everything up ahead of time and then leave it, go to class or work or just dance around in the kitchen, and when I come home, my dinner is all done and ready to eat. Now, as this was my first time using it, I was pretty nervous about just leaving this pot out at home alone, and when I was getting home from class, hours later, I half expected the kitchen to have flames erupting. Luckily though, the only thing I was greeted by when I got home was the amazing smell of my chicken dish in the pot. A rare success story for Anita’s cooking. 

Another tip was to pretend to be a tourist. Tourists are always looking around and are always fascinated by everything around them. I think that tourists notice things that people who actually live in the town probably wouldn’t. Gretchen said that another way too see the world differently is to draw. I think that this will show us how our perception works with our creativity. I am not too good at drawing so my drawings wouldn’t be as accurate a depiction of my perception as others who can actually draw.

Portugal has many historic sights like medieval towers, monasteries, and palaces. The buildings are huge and absolutely magnificent. There is also a lot to see in nature like the rivers and flamingos. Hopefully I will get to see many of the sights around in Portugal and put my these phrases to good use. (:

I am working towards becoming a doctor so of course, I absolutely LOVE the show grey’s anatomy. It isn’t all that accurate, I know, but it still makes the idea of becoming a doctor exciting. I am currently working as an EMT which can be pretty exciting at times. Just last week when I was on a call for a patient with chest pain, I felt exactly like the doctors in this picture. The woman who had chest pain had had a heart transplant years ago and from the way she was looking and the pain she was describing, we think that she was having or had a heart attack. Paramedics came so that they could hook up their machines and monitor her heart. Myself, and two other EMT’s were running around getting her vitals, getting her list of medications, and helping the paramedics. One of the paramedics threw me a little bag that had a few capped needles and a syringe attached to a tube and he said “set this up.” I had no idea what this was and I had absolutely no prior training in setting anything up with needles. The other paramedic saw me staring at the bag and she took it and showed me how to set it up. Apparently it was an IV and setting it up really wasn’t all that difficult. I have seen IV’s before but I have never set one up myself and I didn’t have any desire to touch needles yet anyways. The paramedics taught me a lot that day about the medicines that they used to bring her heart rate and blood pressure back to normal and how they monitored her heart. I was thankful for the learning experience, even though it made me look pretty dumb at first. 

So what did I learn from this experience? Well, I learned that I do not like pilates and will probably never subject myself to such torture again. I think I’ll stick to yoga haha(:

I am currently taking an economics class that incorporates the role of people and the environment in economics. It is a very interesting and stimulating class that has taught me all sorts of things that I never really thought about or had any interest in learning about before. For example, one article that we had to read was about sweatshops. I already had some knowledge about sweatshops and the negative connotations around them. Numerous companies state that they “do not contract sweatshops to make their products” because in the past, companies have been exposed for the harsh working conditions of sweatshops. This article explained why by not contracting sweatshops in third world countries, they are taking away jobs and leaving women and children with no other choice but to work in dangerous garbage dumps scrounging for metal, or to join the sex industry. Working in a sweatshop is seen as a luxurious and sought-after job to those in third world countries. The “harsh working conditions” are exposure to chemicals that could have long-term effects, however, this is not nearly as bad as what these people would come in contact with if they earned their living searching through garbage dumps filled with toxic waste. Rather than completely discontinuing sweatshops, companies could make the adjustments needed to make the working conditions safer. This would result in a beneficial outcome for both the workers and the companies that contract these sweatshops. 

 These past two weeks we have been working on this “chair dance.” We rarely use props but our instructor decided to work with chairs this time. We had to dance around the chair and incorporate it into the choreography. It was overall a really fun dance to do. I hope we use props more often in the future or do another chair dance. 

This past week I tried yoga for the first time every. Now I consider myself to be a somewhat flexible person, as I did different kinds of dance for about 8 years. At my peak, I could do a full split. But that was all a long time ago and what I assumed was just easy flexibility stretches turned out to be so much more. I found out that yoga takes a great deal of physical strength and flexibility, as well as balance. You really need to also have a calm mind for this too. So I showed up to my first-ever yoga class, overly confident of course. We set up our mats and started off with simple breathing techniques and the well-known, downward dog. Everything was going fine until the instructor told us to raise our leg up as far back as we could while still in the downward dog position, and hold it there while breathing deeply. The hard part about this was holding these positions. They were supposed to help your muscle strength and stretch out your muscles to increase flexibility. But as it turned out, I pretty much had no strength. The balance exercises weren't too bad, as long as you kept your eyes fixed on a point. My point happened to be the back of someone's head, so every time she lost her balance, I would lose mine. It was also very tricky when the instructor told us to see if we could keep our balance with our eyes shut. I could not. The second I would close my eyes, I was falling all over the place. That really showed me how hectic my mind really was. I found it difficult to slow my breathing and focus my mind while also focusing on the exercises. Now, after the yoga class was over, I actually felt amazing. I felt like my limbs were all stretched out and my head was overall clearer. Even though I probably looked like a fool, falling all over the place, trying to do yoga, I genuinely enjoyed it and was glad that I tried it. I would definitely try it again and recommend it to anyone. (:

So after that, I insisted that he teach me, no matter how difficult and stubborn I got. And yes, the process of learning was frustrating here and there. But overall, the ukulele is a pretty easy instrument. I am enjoying it and I would definitely recommend getting yourself one and learning to play yourself. They can be as cheap as $20 and it is definitely nice to be able to take it with you places, or even show your friends some cool songs that you’ve learned and that they can sing along to.