welcome, o.t.!

My cousin Yenju and her husband Steve gave birth to their first child on March 18, 2009! Yenju was due on April 11th, but O.T. arrived three weeks early without problem (O.T. is their nickname for him since they haven't chosen a name yet--choosing a Chinese name is much more complicated than choosing an English name, I assure you). He weighed just about 6 lbs., and mom is recovering well. O.T. is a lucky baby! My cousin Yenju is going to make a wonderful, patient, and loving mom.

Congratulations to Yenju and Steve!



O.T. on Day 1 an Day 5.

run's house

In case you didn't believe me in my last post that Geoff and Viv were awesome parents...

buy mah papuh!

My nephew Devin is so god damn cute. All little boys should wear newsie hats.

Watching my niece and nephew play this weekend, I realize what makes them such great kids and my brother and sister-in-law such great parents: Jordan and Devin don't like to see anyone upset. They genuinely want everyone around them to be happy, including storybook and Pixar characters, dinosaurs, playmates on meltdown, and Hanlon the dog. Both of them have so much empathy. That sounds weird to say about an almost-4 and 2 year old, but I really believe it comes from them being confident and secure kids. I hope this quality about them never changes.

visiting home

Two weeks ago, I visited my parents for a short weekend. Now that I have class on Saturday, my weekends are abbreviated to Saturday nights and Sundays. My sister, her husband, and baby Hadynn were also in town for the weekend. She is more than five months now, and she's such a happy baby. Somehow, my dad can always get her to relax, and my mom can always get her to laugh.



One of the best parts about being home on the weekends is the leisurely breakfast we often have on Saturdays or Sundays. Growing up, I didn't enjoy eating rice for breakfast (pancakes were so exotic to me, and forget waffles!), but I love eating congee now. It's a long, gingerly-paced breakfast, with soy-sauce flavored pickles, scallions and eggs, fermented tofu (my favorite), shredded dried pork, and whatever else we have (in this case, breakfast sausages, oddly enough) to pick at while slurping soupy rice. Congee breakfasts are never rushed and are often filled with laughter, especially when my siblings are home too.



Whenever I'm home, I always try to make a trip to my favorite cheap eats restaurant in Philadelphia (Pho Ha, 6th St. and Washington Ave. in South Philly). Usually, my sister and I go, but I took Peter since he was also in Philadelphia for this year's Korean American Students Conference. I've talked about this pho place for years (great broth, plenty of thinly sliced beef, a big plate of fresh herbs and sprouts...), and I'm happy to say that Pete agreed that the pho really does live up to my hype.

After I graduate in May, I hope to go home more often. As much as I love the comforts of our apartment in Brooklyn, I do miss my parents and have a great deal of pride in Philadelphia. It's good to be home.

segregation, for the better?

The NYTimes recently published an article about a high school near Washington, D.C. Within the school is a program for immigrants, who take classes separate from the native English speaking population. The program is drawing controversy. On the one hand, the program is designed for students with ESL needs. On the other hand, the students are isolated from the rest of the school. Standardized testing preparation features heavily in the curriculum for these immigrant students.

The article paints an interesting, complex picture. In NYC, there are several high schools dedicated to immigrant ELLs. Students who have been in New York for more than three years are not admitted into these schools, who form the International High Schools Network. While the research on these schools has proven them to be diverse sites of innovative teaching and accelerated learning, do these schools ultimately segregate these students from the mainstream? Or do they, perhaps, protect these students from the subtractive schooling that so many poor-quality high schools in the NYC public education system impose?

Last Wednesday, I helped to host a book talk for the NYU English Language Learner (ELL) Think Tank, which is a fancy name for our small group of academics and professionals who gather once a month to discuss ESL/bilingual teacher preparation and ELL related issues. Our speaker on Wednesday was Kate Menken, a research fellow at the CUNY Graduate Center and a professor at Queens College. Last year, she published a book titled English Learners Left Behind. The book argues that No Child Left Behind, with its emphasis on testing, is a de facto English language only policy.

The financial pressure placed on schools by NCLB to show yearly progress has made standardized testing even more high stakes, particularly for ELLs, whose scores--despite the language barrier--are included in annual reviews. In New York, all students must also pass, at minimum, a set of five state exams to graduate. The combined pressure on students, teachers, and administrators to get students to pass these exams is frustrating and often, demoralizing. It seems that NCLB is having the same effect on schools in our capital's backyard.

Close to 40% of ELLs drop out of high school in NYC. The article doesn't say what the graduation rates are for the Washington D.C. school, but if its students graduate at a much higher rate--for me, for now, the ends justify the means, however debatable they may be.

calvin and hobbes in 10 years

Growing up, I read Calvin and Hobbes every Sunday morning until its final newspaper strip on December 31, 1995 (which I still have filed away in a drawer at my parents' house). There were also many a night when I read Calvin and Hobbes books under the covers with a flashlight until my mom would catch me. Off the top of my head, some of my favorite story lines are...

- when Calvin clones himself and his clones wreak more havoc than he normally does
- when Rosalyn plays Calvinball and figures out how to win
- when Calvin gets lost at the zoo and talks to the tigers in the tiger pit
- when Calvin has a nightmare about Santa Claus
- when Hobbes writes a love letter to Susie from Calvin
- when Calvin dresses as Stupendous Man at school
- any Spaceman Spiff story line
- conversations with his Dad (when his Dad would give fake explanations for natural phenomena and tell him to "go build character")
- the rainy family camping trip

Pete added...
- abominable snowmen and Calvin's snowmen sculptures in general
- philosophical wagon conversations (that we didn't understand until we were older)

Kottke featured a link to a blog post filled with reimaginings of Calvin and Hobbes, ten years later. Here is one example that stood out.


Calvin and Susie Derkins--it's fate.

my boyfriend likes gizzard

Peter turned 26 on Wednesday, and we celebrated his birthday with a small group of friends at Yakitori Torys. It was a great, memorable night of good friends, good drink, and good food. With plenty of sake and beer, we spent three hours eating skewers of crispy chicken thigh, chicken oyster (specially butchered round pieces off the thigh), chicken offal (intestinal parts and other internal organs), terrifically spicy green peppers, and small plates like sliced frozen squid liver, grilled squid legs, and beef tongue stew.

It's funny that we ate at a restaurant known for its chicken because I rarely cook chicken. There's probably nothing more boring to Pete than chicken breast (come to think of it, I don't think we ate any white meat on Wednesday night). For Pete, chicken breast is the plainest of meats: it's too white to be tasty and has a forgettable texture.

Having dated Peter for almost four years now, I've learned how to eat spicier (I frequently reach for hot sauce) and how to stomach strange textures that used to kick in my gag reflex. Gizzard (a muscle, lined with hard protein, that grinds down accidentally eaten pebbles) is one example--it feels and sounds like your crunching bone. I still don't like it, but I'll eat a couple (particularly in February, when Pete made a gumbo-like rice with gizzard). I still don't like chunks of liver either, but I've grown to like its flavor, particularly in pate.

The food that most people say they'll try once? That's the food that Pete likes to eat, and if you do try it more than once, it does start to grow on you (except for gizzard).

Happy Birthday, Pete. <3


Blurry pics from the night.

kaffny

I'm extremely proud of Peter for his work as the coordinator for this year's Korean American Film Festival-New York. I won't lie--his involvement in so many different creative projects makes me swoon.

KAFFNY took place on Saturday night at the Times Center, a beautiful venue in the Theater District. There were two consecutive two-hour programs, each featuring short films or teasers for feature films. Unfortunately, because of class and the dog, I only caught the second program, but it alone was memorable (in particular, one short film about a grandson who bonds with his grandmother over WWF wrestling--very funny and heartwarming).

Below is a short animation from the first program. The story, set to Chopin's Mazurka in D Major, is lovingly animated. Enjoy!

$100 challenge-done!

These were my last two dinners:


Honey-soy chicken and fried rice with napa cabbage. Tuna melt and tomato soup.

The sesame loaf cost $0.45, so our combined money leftover is $0.84. I could have bought myself a mini Twix.

Oh, happy March! We did it! Pete and I didn't dine out--avoiding the requisite 8.375% tax and 18% tip--for a full 28 days. That's unprecedented. Admittedly, we did cut some corners (friends treating me to happy hour beers, using groceries we already had before the start of February, and mooching). But even with the help, this month was very difficult. The lack of variety (eating lentil soup four meals in a row) and the amount of preparation (coming home after a long day of school/night class and having to stay up an extra half hour to cook for the next day) were the most difficult aspects of the month for me. We're happy we did it. We're even happier that it's over (see picture). Below are some other conclusions from the month.


00:15, March 1, 2009. Kunjip.

I am very surprised by how much we've saved. My current credit card bill is 20% what it is normally. With several added expenses in the past six months (vet bills, car insurance payments), the amount of money saved is very helpful. Pete and I have decided to budget about $200 for drinking and dining out per month. That averages out to about $50 a weekend.

I have been reintroduced to rice. Growing up, we ate rice almost every day. This month, I realized how seldom I've cooked rice since I've lived in New York. I think the perfectionist in me has been shy about making Taiwanese food because it's never as good as my mom's. I'm going to start cooking rice more, especially now that we have access to Korean and Chinese supermarkets. Even if the meal doesn't hit the mark completely, it's still comfort food (and I realize now how much I've missed it).

My social/love life revolves around food and drink. I don't think this is uncommon for New Yorkers. Not being able to dine out, Pete was home for dinner a lot more. If eating a nice dinner at home is a date, we had more dates this month than we've had in a long time. It was a nice, cozy (even if more sedentary) change.

What's on the menu for tomorrow? PB&J like every other day, a pasta with sardines I made tonight for lunch, and maybe an everything bagel (just cause I missed them so).