On the Road…Not So Much

Well, there are no excuses I can make. I lied, and I am very sorry. I just have to admit it to you guys and move on.

I did go on the road again – that wasn’t the lying part – but once in Tunisia, I just couldn’t find time to record all the amazing things I was seeing. I told myself I would write them all down when I got home, but between finishing up my internship and cranking through my senior capstone project, it just didn’t happen.

Fortunately, I again find myself with time on my hands and the itch to write. Read along if you dare.  Coffee is entering the scene yet again, and I think blog entries will tend to center on that. But I’m also going to be searching for a new pad in Washington, D.C., and that will certainly be an adventure in and of itself.

To kick off, let me tell you my dilemma. My best friend from home, who is also a coffee-loving little woman, is moving to the city at the end of May. She and I will be staying in my current place until the beginning of August, when we plan to move in with our other (male) friend and as of last night, potentially his largely unknown, ginger-bearded friend. While as a newly-hatched adult, I’d like to find a place where I could have my own room, D.C.’s rent prices often make that pretty difficult. We also don’t want to live in a place where we have to walk a mile to the bus/metro or carry a machete (it really clashes with our going-out-attire).

So ultimately we’re three-to-four recent college grads trying to find a three or four bedroom apartment in a decent neighborhood with metro or bus access for close to $2400 or $3200 (depending on how many people live with us) per month.

To give an example of what this might mean, trawling Craigslist this morning, I found a 3-bedroom, 1-bathroom apartment for $1850 – score! The pictures looked nice, there was a washer & dryer, and the ad said it was one block to the bus. Perfect, except…I google-mapped it and realized it’s on what my former coworker outlined for me as the sketchy side of H-Street. Not the up-and-coming cool side, but the murder-before-midnight side. A couple blocks away from emergency psychiatric services.

Another great one for $2350 looked nice until I checked it out on OneCityMap and found there had been an assault with a deadly weapon right next door in the last month.

And so the search continues…but not without coffee:

For the Record: Starting a Food Log

Leaving Morocco meant a change of scenery, but it also meant adjusting to a completely different lifestyle.

In Rabat, I had four meals per day, plopped on the table in front of me with no question as to what I wanted and no required thought on my part.

Now I have to feed myself, and let’s be honest: so far, it hasn’t been a pretty sight. Goldfish crackers, PBJ and cookie dough ice cream are staples of my diet. It doesn’t help that I’ve yet to get my first paycheck, so grocery shopping means watching my balance shrink and shrink.

Fortunately, I found this wonderful place called “Trader Joe’s,” where I can buy anything from sushi to frozen corn to  organic carrot sticks for amazing prices. With my cabinets and fridge full of food, I thought my work was basically done. NOT.

Turns out you have to actually keep track of what you’re putting in your body and how much you’re exercising, if you want to live better. On top of that general guideline, my doctor recently put me on a strict diet, because of the damage my GI track sustained thanks to the infection I contracted in Morocco. So in a matter of weeks, I’ve had to go from an apathetic eater to a conscious consumer.

That’s where MyFitnessPal comes in.

It’s a website that combines my two favorite things: social media and food. The main idea is to log your foods and exercise for the day, and it calculates your nutritional intake as well as what you’re lacking.

What I like about it: I can be very specific with the foods I log. Instead of putting in “peanut butter sandwich,” I can log two pieces of Market Pantry Enriched White Bread and two tbsp of Skippy Chunky Peanut Butter. That makes it more accurate than many sites I’ve seen.

What I don’t like: The exercise calculator seems questionable to me. Did I really walk 3.0 mph for my entire walk from Loehmann’s to Chipotle last night? How about between the Metro and the Travel Clinic? I have no choice but to guesstimate. (My friend, Tess, doesn’t have this problem. With her iPhone, she can track how long she walks/runs and her speed, so no guesstimation for her!)

I also don’t love how diet-centric the site is. My purposes are more for keeping track, not for losing weight, but the message boards and inspirational phrases on site all revolve around shedding pounds.

Something to think about: The site says people who diet with friends are more likely to lose weight. Translate that to people with healthy friends are healthier themselves. It makes sense to me — Tess was the one to tell me about the site in the first place. To help users be inspired by their friends (or incite a little healthy competition), this site incorporates Facebook-like status updates, telling all of your MyFitnessPlan “friends” how many calories you burn and how much weight you’ve lost. It feeds into the Millenial Generation’s obsession with making their private lives public.

Despite its flaws, I’ve decided to give the site a two-month try. That will get me through the doctor-prescribed diet with an idea of what I need to do to keep myself on track, nutritionally.

What do you think? If you want to join me on my trial, sign up and add me as a friend. We can go through this epic journey together 😉

Free Coffee!

Just a quick shout out: What’s better than buying a delicious cup of coffee on a Saturday afternoon? Drinking free coffee!

The Latin American Student Organization will offer free coffee at Cafe Cultura the second Saturday of every month (a.k.a, two days from now) in the School of International Service Atrium on American University’s campus. Drink up from 3-5 p.m.

My coffee-loving friend, Lauren Aitken, handed me a poster promoting this, so I thought I would share the wealth with you readers.

Coffee’s Best Friend: Nutella

Forgive me, friends and followers, for being away so long.

In between writing plenty of papers en francais and turning 21, I have discovered coffee’s one true love this semester. It is nutella.

First off, the colors compliment each other quite well. The rich brown of the hazelnut is still slightly lighter than the deep mahogany of a good cup of java. Both emit an aroma that contains hints of nuttiness, but with different flavors coursing underneath. Both have a chemical make-up that guarantees happiness: the chocolate is said to mimic endorphins, and caffeine acts as a stimulant.

And so I’ve incorporated both into my morning meal of the day. I enjoy toast with nutella. When my wonderful mother sent me a loaf of pumpkin bread in the mail, I paired it with that. I feared the sweetness of each would overpower the other, but in the end, both were subtle enough to please my palate.

In a moment of pure decadence, I even spread nutella on a chocolate chip Eggo waffle.

“How awful!” my former roommate cried, upon hearing of this combination. “How can you eat chocolate for breakfast?!”

That tale dates back to Easters of old when my mother told us that the one day each year when my sister and I were allowed to eat chocolate in the morning was on the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection. But I digress.

My discovery wasn’t truly that unique. Everywhere in Paris, the most clueless of les touristes can find a crêpe au nutella. In Adam’s Morgan, even, there is a cute café where diners pair the two for a delicious (and cheap) meal.

I’ve seen recipes using nutella for all sorts of goodies: pumpkin-nutella swiss rolls, banana cupcakes with nutella frosting, nutella cheesecake — there is even a World Nutella Day!

In my heart of hearts, I’m just waiting for Starbucks (or some other well-known coffee chain) to get smart and pair up with the makers of this rich, delicious substance. Nutella lattes, anyone? They have something of the sort at a coffee shop on American University’s campus, but a mixture of hazelnut and mocha syrups simply can’t compare with the real thing.

To all you nutella lovers out there, how do you enjoy your sweet treat? Do you make nutella brownies, spread it on your carbohydrate-goodies or simply eat it by the spoonful?