June 18: Picnic with the Pops

This weekend Dandrich and I went to see a performance of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra at their popular Picnic with the Pops series. Unfortunately, it rained all day up until the concert though luckily it did taper off by the time the concert started.

You can't take pictures during the concert so I only have a couple from before. 

The Picnic with the Pops is a series the CSO puts on through June and July. Each performance includes a special guest performer that is featured in the second half of the concert. For the first half, the CSO played more traditional music that you would expect from a symphony. My two favorites that they played were "Cuban Overture" by Gershwin and "Que Diferencia Hace Un Dia" by Vanacore.

Braving the rain

Saturday's guests were the Jazz Ambassadors of the US Army Field Band. They played some nice arrangements of classic jazz songs by the likes of Duke Ellington and others. I liked the Jazz Ambassadors but I preferred the CSO better. Also, on a side note, there were a few truck stands of food available at the concert: Graeter's Ice Cream, Donato's Pizza, and another with Mexican food.

Sun-dried tomato chicken, garlicky spinach, and Spanish rice

Since it looked like it was going to rain, we didn't take a picnic with us. Instead we cooked a nice little meal at home before we left. We made chicken with a sun-dried tomato sauce with garlicky spinach and Spanish rice. It was quite delicious. Even though it rained, it was still a lot of fun. If we have time, we my try to hit another one before I leave.

June 15: Learning to Cook

I decided to learn to cook, finally. I've never really done that much cooking. It takes too much time that I don't usually have. However, several reasons have forced me to change my mind. First of all, food in the United States is not very diverse. This is especially true if, like me, you are often eating later in at night. By the time I get off work, I am often not eating dinner until around 10:30pm. At this time there are very few places still open to get food. Of course McDonald's, Wendy's, Taco Bell etc are still open but none of these are healthy. (They are, in fact, quite the opposite.) Which brings me to my second reason, which is that food made at home is a lot healthier. It is hard to find healthy food, in general, in restaurants.

To start out my adventures in cooking, I tried to find some things that were quick and easy; something I could prepare and have waiting for dinner when I get home from work. So tonight, I've made two separate things that can easily be packed for a quick meal. The first is a pasta salad with a tomato parmesan dressing. Into the pasta I added tomatos, spinach, mozzarella cheese, and basil.

The other thing I made is not so much of a thing really. I made fruit salad with strawberries, kiwi, and a little bit of mango. I love fruit and it's really healthy for you so it's a win-win situation. Since I don't like most breakfast foods I prefer fruit, so I thought it would be nice to have some ready to go.

Big Changes This Summer

The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live. 

- Flora Whittemore

This last year has been hectic for me what with filling out law school applications, visiting schools, and generally trying to decide what I'll be doing for the next three years of my life. It's not an easy process or decision by any means. If you asked me even a month a go where I would be going I would have given you a completely different answer than if you asked me today. But I've made my final decision and I will be going to American University, Washington College of Law in August. 

I am extremely excited to start school at WCL because they have very strong public interest and international law programs. And I am also thrilled to be moving to the nation's capitol. It will be a slightly different culture than what I am used to here in Columbus but I am looking forward to all the new experiences. 

Now that I've finally made a decision, I will be busy trying to find housing and arranging the move to D.C. It's going to be a lot of work, but totally worth it. 

June 8: Hiking at Delaware State Park

This week Dandrich and I went for a hike over at Delaware State Park. Even though it was hot, it was a great way to spend an afternoon. The best part is it lets you work out and exercise while doing something kind of different. It makes it seem more like an adventure than exercise!

If you stop at one of the little information stations you can get a map with all the trails marked on it which can be pretty helpful.  We took a trail that ran from the campground area to the marina. It seems like most of the trails at Delaware originate near the campground area.

At the marina there was another information station that also sold hot sandwiches so we got some hot dogs and onion rings to refuel for the return trip. The food there was better than I thought it would be. Near the marina there is also a frisbee-golf range that seemed pretty cool. The information/food stand also conveniently sells frisbees in case you don't have any with you.

Overall the trail was not too difficult. It was an enjoyable way to spend an afternoon. I will say it's probably a good idea to either wear jeans and long sleeves or soak yourself in bug spray first. We didn't do either and returned home covered in huge mosquito bites.

May 28: Columbus Asian Festival

Over Memorial Day weekend Columbus' Franklin Park Conservatory played host to the Asian Festival. I was quite excited to check out this festival as I was hoping to chow down on some traditional Asian food. In the end it was slightly disappointing.

First of all there were some positive aspects of the festival. Mainly they had a large performance stage presenting traditional dances and music etc. Before I get any further I suppose I should specify that the day we went was incredibly hot. Furthermore hundreds of people crowded into the little festival, making it seem even more hot. So I suppose this may account for most of negative impressions of the festival. For example these performances may have been interesting but the heat deterred us from watching for long.

As expected the festival included both a food court area as well as various stalls selling 'Asian stuff.' The biggest disappointment was that most of the food stalls were just your typical Americanized Asian food, the same stuff you can buy at Panda Express. We ate at a stand with Filipino food. The food was good but lacked the robust flavor of typical Asian foods. It was most likely watered down for American tastes.

The lines for all the food stalls were ridiculously long. What's more, after waiting in line for 20 - 30 minutes, when we placed our order at a different stand we found they were out of what we wanted. All in all, because of the extreme heat and ridiculous amount of people (especially teenagers) we did not stay long.