Post-Christmas Excitement!!!

There was a book exchange up at the ski resort during Christmas, and I got this:

SUPER DUPER LOVE!!! (Haha there's my Singaporian english coming out le ;p) I've already started browsing through it, and not only does it contain tons of awesome-looking recipes, the commentary is fantastic! Plus THERE'S LOTS OF PICTURES. Hehe. Okay just kidding, I'm an avid reader of just about anything, especially history or satire. One of my fave authors of all time is probably Jonathan Swift. If you think you've already read Gulliver's Travels when you were a kid, go back and read through it again. It's the greatest piece of satire ever.
#tangent

I've been experimenting with hashtags lately, without too much success... maybe I need to improve my sense of timing ;p

Source

And sorry guys about not posting a WWS!!! I'm still trying to figure out how to make them using a Mac. #technologicallychallenged

Asian Day

We went to my little bro's performance last night. His saxophone teacher hosted a reception for "Asian day," a series of performances by various Chinese people. That's a fantastically descriptive piece of writing, ain't it. You'll have to excuse me for my total lack of focused writing today- I've got trillion things on my mind and plus it's just kind of a lazy day for me. ;p
Anyways, my former piano teacher is his wife (I'm talking about the sax teacher, not my brother lol) and since she was in charge of the catering I helped serving the hearty Chinese food they were prepping in the kitchen.

It was in a vineyard about an hour's drive up north, with gorgeous views. My blurry photos really don't do it justice...

 

 

 

I had three spring rolls, which were crunchy and delish,

a Chinese pulled-pork sandwich,

and one or two potstickers.

I came home uber stuffed!

China Part 3: Xiamen & Beijing

The beautiful city of Xiamen is situated on an island in southern China, close to Taiwan. In fact, you can even see the coast of Taiwan from the beach. (This is actually a shot of Xiamen University from the topmost floor, but you can still sort of see the coast in the background.)

Street eats on Gulangyu island, a small island that's about 5 minutes by boat from Xiamen

Sesame balls, a specialty from Taiwan. And yes I said "sesame balls" with a straight face."

Pics from a famous temple near the university

Beijing: The air was smoggy the whole time we were there, and I felt like I was swimming in pollution. But apparently it's better now than a couple years ago...? My little brother got sick the day after we got there thanks to the condition of the air. I didn't get any ill effects but it just felt icky. The city itself is pretty much how I remembered it from my last visit- busy, busy, busy. I'm not going to lecture about the crazy societal norms there, but it was definitely very different from the more laid-back cities we've been spending most of our time in.

The Bird's Nest and the Cube

Blown-sugar creations

This is fast food in China:

Ooo I loved these...

(Pic actually taken in Xiamen but the same brand is sold all over the country.)

China Part 1: Xinjiang (Plus WWS)

Oh, my laptop, how I have missed you.
Now I can actually attempt to organize the oodles of pictures I took on the trip. Guess what the first thing I did after I got home two hours ago was? Workout. All that black coffee made me uber hyper and sitting still has never been my strong point, so you can imagine my agitation sitting on the plane for another three hours... AFTER the 10 hour flight we just got off from Beijing to Seattle. I feel sorry for the people sitting next to me.
So although the main subject of this post is my trip to China, I will add in my workout schedule for the remainder of the week. For the next four weeks, I'll be doing the Iron Body 700 Workout Plan from the Iron Body Club here. Free extreme bodyweight workout videos- honestly, it's a goldmine!!! Perfect for my level; just a bit too difficult so I have room for improvement, but I'm still able to get through the workout.

Now we can move on to my trip.
Let's start from the beginning: The first stop after we landed in Beijing and rested for a few hours in a nearby hotel before boarding our next plane to Urumqi. I need not explain the horrors of airplane food, though I must say that it wasn't half as terrible as I expected it to be.
At the Beijing airport:

Chinese fast food at the airport! Veggie noodles in a very suspicious-looking broth. My motto for eating while traveling: Eat first, ask later.

I don't feel like explaining the interesting middle-eastern influence and cultural blending in North-Western China right now, so if you're interested then go here. In Xinjiang, I visited both of my parent's hometowns, which are next to each other.

Scenes in Urumqi:

And of course.. Ethnic eats

Ladies and gentlemen, I invite you to look below and gaze apon the closest to perfection that humankind shall ever get.

Layers of doughy perfection with meat in between... perfect blend of spices and crispiness. Heaven. Pants. Which one to choose???

The International Bazaar (not the one at the state fair) where Uyghurs hawk their wares.

More eats in Kalamayi:

The Monster mountains. Kind of like the Black mountains in one of the Dakotas. Can't remember which.

Old people rockin' it out: (if you go to any park in China, you'll find droves of senior citizens dancing, singing, and practicing their kung-fu. No joke. I walked past old ladies waving wicked-looking blades every morning in Shandong.)

This is my Xinjiang.

Healthy Choices

Sitting comfy right now enjoying my oats...
Went to my friend's birthday party last night. It was a small celebration, just some girlfriends from school. Her aunt rented out the movie theatre of the apartment complex where she lives, and we watched the horror film Hide and Seek after swimming in the pool.
Dakota Fanning wa probably around ten or so when she starred in that movie, but looked exactly like she does now. Weird. I did like the movie, but thought the ending was a bit improbable.
Plenty of pizza, chocolate, and popcorn to pig out on!
I had a medium slice of veggie pan pizza, several handfuls of popcorn, 3 hershey's kisses, and 3-4 chocolate truffles.

It's funny because now that I allow myself to eat anything, I don't really want junk food. I seriously (and I know some people would brand me criminally insane for this, not that you wouldn't brand me thus regardless) would choose steamed broccoli and shrimp over pizza hut pizza.
The chocolate though, I always crave...
And I do have a lot of chocolate. As seen through my chocolate smoothies, chocolate yogurt parfaits, and my daily dosage of dark chocolate.

I've talked about these food issues here. (Yes I know there're so many run-on sentences and typos that an English teacher would faint.)
Anyways, I guess living healthy is super easy to me- as long as there are healthy choices, I can count on myself to make them. At least for the savories. My biggest weakness has always been sweets, but if I allow myself to eat as much as I want, my brain simply says "I can always have some more later, so I don't need to cram my face right now."
It's a no-fail trick. If I make low-cal, nutritious choices on my regular meals (since I grew up on healthy chinese food, I'm used to a fiber/nutrient rich diet) I can have chocolate whenever I feel like it. Plus if you eat healthy, a lot of your junk food cravings go away naturally just because you're satisfying your body's demands for nutrients.

Now that I'm heading to China in a week, I've been planning and researching what restaurant meals might be the most nutritious and least greasy. Of course, I'm a dedicated foodie and will always sample the local cuisine, but I know that there'll be a loooot of run-of-the-mill restaurant meals during my visit. I'm almost positive that we'll be invited out to dinner pretty much every night of the month we'll be there by my parents' friends.
A post on making healthy choices while traveling in China is probably overdue, lolz, since I'm boarding the plane on Friday.
Will make sure to do that soon!

Life in School- Update

As the end of the school year is creeping up on us with a startling abrubtness, the hallways, bathrooms, and doors are being pasted over with a wallpaper of notices and sign-ups. Students are rushing to get their forms in on time for next year's activities and clubs. Since I'm too lazy to join student council and get up at 5:30 every morning, and Diversity council applications have already passed the deadline, I only applied to two positions in other clubs.

Obviously, the Ivy Leagues have a voracious appetite for devouring the precious sleeping hours of students, so I need to throw myself headfirst into the lion's den and be in at least two extracurriculars. In addition to schoolwork, next year I will be the co-president of Synergy (a volunteer recycling group), a possible member of the Leadership Team for Volunteer Club (membership pending), as well as keeping up with piano and exercise/school sports.
Sounds harsh, but I really shouldn't be complaing. Compared to some, (V, cough cough, 4.5 GPA on a scale of 4.0, cough cough) I am quite the slacker.
I blame my aptitude for procrastination on being stricken with a truly unfortunate case of "senioritis," minus the school spirit, about three weeks into my Freshman year.

Anyways, here's what you actually came to read about, since you probably hear enough bitching about high school at home or from acquintances...

My workout today wasn't fantastic, though I did sweat a helluva lot. I started in on the bodyweight strength workout routine, but overstretched the side of my hamstring (the area in the inside of the thigh right under the groin). My leg felt fine when running and jumping, but squats are probably off limits for now. I compensated with a 60 minute bodyweight cardio routine finished with 5 minutes of sprinting intervals on the treadmill.

Dinner was a muy delicioso shrimp, celery, and tofu stir-fry:

(I feel bad because I haven't taken/posted pictures in a while... and with my current schedule and finals looming ahead, can't promise I'll be able to make it up... but I will try my best and not let my photography skills get too rusty!)

Five Mile Run

I've done it. I've finally run over 4 miles! I have never run over 4 miles in my life without stopping, and yesterday I did a tempo run for around 5 miles.
I started out around a 9 minute mile, but overall pace was probably aound 8:50-9 minutes. I clocked in at running 5 miles in just under 45 minutes. This may be a lap around the park for seasoned runners, but since I spend more time doing high-intensity bodyweight cardio interval training and pilates, it's a first for me!
Surprisingly, I barely felt tired at the end of my run and not much soreness; I feel ready to tackle another 5-6 miles today, but will go the wiser route and take a rest day. I just have a one and a half hour dance class tonight, and it's not super strenuous (it doesn't make me break much of a sweat) so it should be fine.
My appetite wasn't really up after that either, as usual, since running at a steady pace (not interval treadmill) seems to be the one form of exercise that doesn't excite my appetite... interesting.

The only thing I was really craving was protein, namely, red meat- hey I'm a huge carnivore. I mean, I eat lots of tofu and looooooove me some veggies, but I don't remember how much I love red meat until I have it again and it's in front of me. I'm not that into hamburgers and the such (though as we all know I'll eat pretty much anything) as I am to meat that looks like it isn't suspiciously ground up and could have anything in it, like my mom's pot roast or stewed pork or mutton...
I respect your choices, veg/pescaetarians(/atheists), but if God didn't want me to eat meat then why'd he make it taste so damn good?
So it's a great thing my mom made one of my all-time faves; Uyghur lamb and rice!

Needless to say, my love affair with organic, freshly cooked mutton began anew...

Maybe I'm missing B6 or B12? Idk... we just had beef soup with rice noodles last night (yum! Love your cooking you mom) , and I had peanut butter with veggie sticks as an after school snack today, so it' probably not that. Oh well- the important thing is to listen to your body and honor your cravings.
Though you're probably needing calcium when you're craving ice cream, at least you're getting some through a pint of Haagen Daz caramel chocolate chunk. And Chocolate, btw, is a food group.
Just so you know. ;p
Crowd out the bad stuff with the good, but nooooo deprivation!