stand and deliver

i think i'm becomming a foodie. i love to think about food. one of my favorite things to do is hang out in bookstores and look at cookbooks. i know, it's sad. i especially love used bookstores that have cookbooks from the past. i bought this great ethnic vegetarian cookbook from the 70's. i also love "diet for a small planet"- an old standard.

i get in phases with food. right now i'm obsessed raw food. i love the colors and textures of fresh fruits and veggies. not to mention raw nuts and raw nut milks. so smooth and delicious! and i am intrigued with the raw lifestyle. i own a couple of raw cookbooks and i can't believe what these people do to create their meals! i can't imagine dehydrating crackers or bread for 8+ hours or making mock sushi rice= grated turnips dehydrated for hours! talk about taking awhile to get dinner on the table! so as much as i think it's fascinating, i couldn't do it as a way of life. i'll stick to friuts and veggies and looking at the books and the beautiful people who eat that way.

i've also been cooking macrobiotic food at home. yesterday for breakfast i had brown rice, gomaisho, barley tea, and denjeng jigae"(a korean miso soup).

i know my friends think i'm a freak. when my husband and i first met, we were on a breakfast burrito hunt. every weekend we'd go somewhere new to search out the best breakfast burrito in the city. we must have gone to a dozen or more places. for any locals out there- our favorites are cafe lula and earwax. we like the simple breakfast burrito. no spinach tortillas, no fancy veggies or sauces. nice and simple and fresh.


on other fronts...

i've been touching base with some old friends. i had lunch with a teacher i worked with for years. he is so good at what he does. he teaches calculus to students in an inner city school- and i think he's one of the most dedicated teachers in the city. he teachers summer pre calculus to students who normally wouldn't get to take calclulus. most of the students would take precalculus their senior year, but with that course out of the way, they are able to take AP calculus instead (which is a huge door-opener for them in college). the program was inspired by jaime escalante's successes with calculus students in an inner city school in southern LA. those of you who have seen the movie "stand and deliver" know the story. jaime escalante gives up his corporate job to go teach math in an inner city school in LA. no one in the school believes the students are capable of taking calculus. no one has any faith in them. everyone thinks he is crazy to want to teach "those kids" calculus. he dedicates his life to the students. they work hard and all of the students in his class pass the advanced placement (AP) calculus test. of course the AP board thought the students cheated because they scored so well on the exam and were from an area of the inner city where the schooling had been less than spectacular. so they made all the students retake the exam! and they passed a second time, with only 24 hours to study! (sorry to ruin the ending, but i figured none of you would run out to rent a movie where the climax is a bunch of students passing a math exam...) anyway, escalente's calculus program continued to grow and he continued to have success teaching calculus to a population of students no one thought possible.

this is what my good friend and colleague is doing in chicago. i'm so inspired by him.

work and the physics of backbends

i've been trying to finish a paper, which is why i haven't posted in a couple of days. writing always puts me in a philosophical mood - or in the mood to cook. yesterday night- arond 9pm i made gazpacho. very simple version... tomotoes, basil, cucumbers and a small bit of green chili pepper and sea salt. i'm on a gazpacho kick. later this week i'm going to try watermelon gazpacho- i'll let you all know how it turns out. i had a version earlier this month at toast, a great local restaurant, and went crazy for it. it had the perfect mix of sweet/salty, sweet/sour. i've always loved the prefect mix of seemingly opposite qualities in things. the ying-yang philosophy. that results in harmonious balance.

backbends:
still building up from what seems like scratch. but i'm refusing to lift my heels, which is making my back feel much better- but not allowing me to dropback or stand up. i can feel that the dropback will happen much sooner than standing. i think a lot of my weight is on my hands, and i can't imagine shifting enough weight to my feet to stand. i can't (right now) imagine not having someone to brace against in order to stand up. i don't yet understand the physics - yet i know it works because i see it happen around me all the time. and because i was able to do it when i lifted my heels -without much effort. (which probably a bad sign, since everyone talks about the leg strength involved... i never felt like i was using my legs to stand). so as i've said before, i have to re-learn.

i'm sure you've all seen this youtube clip of sharath backbending but if not, take a look.

mothers and tigers

one of the things i feel blessed about in my life is having had the opportunity to do many different things. i suppose it's a combination of my pita- vata personality and being lucky enough to have the resources to experiment -in addition to knowing a wealth of amazing people. most recently, i've been working on a play with a local playwrite, will kern. he was the author of the fantastic play-turned film- hellcab, one of the longest running plays in chicago. it was actually the first play i saw 6 years ago when i moved back to the city. anyway, he contacted a friend of mine who did a lot of work casting and directing a reading of the play for the asian american theater workshop. since then, a few of us have been reading the play with him to help him write the final script. tonight we are doing a reading of the newest incarnation of the play at the prop theater for their new play workshop. it's called mothers and tigers and is a collection of true stories told by korean women. the author took the stories he heard while interviewing women in korea and put them together into a one act play. this is a picture of the actresses who read the first version of the play in the workshop last spring, directed and cast by the one and only, mia park. such a fun group of girls! it's our korean girl gang.








yoga- i skipped practice today (sorry lisa!). i had to go to a school on the far, far south-west side of the city to observe teachers. so i would of had to get up in the wee hours of the morning (well, 5:30am- which is the wee hours to me!) to practice. i could do it now, but am feeling bogged down with school work (and blogging!). my legs (quads) are so sore from yesterday! they feel like i've been lifting weights. well, i guess i have been lifting the weight of my body struggling to get up from laguvajrasana. so i guess it's working...

pitchfork

this past weekend, we went to the pitchfork music festival. it was great to see so many fantastic bands in one weekend. these are pictures of my favorite band, califone. we were lucky enough to have press passes so we could get close to take these. califone is a chicago band and i've gotten to see them a few times in the past year or so.

we saw many bands including the sea and cake, battles and a metal band, which beez (the hubbie) likes called mastodon.

it was a little heavy for me (i'm not so much into the growling demon voices) but i can appreciate their talent. and of course we saw all the headliners; sonic youth, yoko ono, and de la soul. all fantastic shows. it was an amazing, but exhausting 3 days. seeing all of this music is so inspiring. of all art forms, music has always moved me the most.

speaking of which, i actually played the cello today! it was nice to get back, but, as with anything, it's hard to pick up again after so long. my bowing arm was heavy after the first 20 minutes or so. you'd be surprised how physically exhausting playing the cello is.

i made it to the studio today to practice. for the most part it felt good. i did have a wierd experience as i could hardly balance in utthita hasta padangusthasana. my teacher said it's because it's a tuesday. we're also focusing more on the intermediate series to strengthen my legs. my hamstring is hurting enough that i'm easing off on the last half of primary. my legs feel fatigued as i sit here writing...

i don't know what i'm doing with myself lately. i think the lack of committments in my life right now is screwing me up! i'm sleeping in, taking walks, sitting outside, meeting friends for lunch, meeting friends for dinner... you get the picture. and i haven't picked up the cello in weeks! the lack of structure allows me to create my own schedule... and this isn't such a good thing. i have good intentions when i wake up- or actually when i go to bed the night before- and then i always end up pushing the little work i have off until the next day. mabye this isn't so bad. come september, when i start school again i'll be insanely busy. so i guess a few months off isn't terrible. today i actually got some work done. i submitted some teacher evaluations to the boss. i have mixed feelings about an evaluation where the numbers 1-4 are the primary way to rate a teacher's performance. i often find myself circling two numbers because i can't decide on one. and then i want to justify everything i circled because the context is so lost when the only thing to describe the situation is a number.

i've also been reading some papers for an independent study i'm doing in math ed. the main focus is what's been going on in the recent decade to improve math education in our country. there are so many factors and views on the topic. the image we all had growing up of a teacher- standing in front of a classroom lecturing (and "pouring" her wealth of knowledge on the information-hungry students) is so wrong. very few elementary/ high school students learn well that way. and those of them that do are successful. but the majority of students end up hating math. we, as a society, love to figure things out. we love puzzles, we love mystery and logic. well, that's math--it's really not about the numbers. when i tell people what i do i'm often met with the response "i always hated math" or "i could never do math". it's so sad. ... well, enough about that.


so like i said, i slept in. but i did my full practice later this morning. i'm learning a lot about breath in my practice from my teacher. i worked on some of what i learned and the practice had an entirely different feel. that alone is making my it harder... forget about learning new poses! and i'm also learning to backbend (drop-back and stand-up) all over again! i wasn't grounding my heels and when i do it's so much harder but less stressful on my lower back, which i guess is the point. who cares if you can drop-back/ stand-up if your alignment is all off! i'm also finally jumping back. usually my toes touch the floor on the way back- especially near the end of practice, but there have been a couple of times they didn't. i'm hoping that couple turns into more soon. and the straight- leg jump through is close. so close.

fun tuesdays

one of my good friends mia works at a local chicago bar called schuba's on tuesday afternoons. so while i'm not in school, i've been going there and having very long lunches. this past tuesday the photo booth service man was there and we got to take these test picures. i love summer break!!!

when i'm not hanging out at schuba's on tuesdays i am actually doing some work. i'm currenlty supervising student teachers in a local high school. i really enjoy working with teachers in training. they are so cute and excited about teaching~ and they work like crazy!

i hate it when people say teaching is easy because we "leave work at 3pm and get our summers off". yeah, well we also have to be on top of our game every hour, every day, every class. we can't close our office door if we don't feel like talking or are under the weather. we have to put our students first.

...then when we go home, after extra help or coaching- around 5-6pm, we eat and then work for another few hours grading and preparing for the next day. and that's on a good, normal day...

then there are the occasional hour long parent phone calls, the emails home, the dealing with a student who is having a rough time at home...

and there are the weekend sports games and dances to chaperone. if you teach, you must love it. and if you love it and put in the work it is incredibly rewarding.

moon day fast

this is what i did to occupy myself during my water fast yesterday. it's for a good friend whose baby shower is later today.

the fast wasn't so bad. i even went grocery shopping with a friend- there were food samples all over the place! fortunately i didn't feel that hungry, so i wasn't tempted at all. i bought a bottle of fancy, german mineral water and enjoyed that. when i got home i finished crocheting and listened to some music. before i knew it, it was time to go to bed.

this morning i didn't even feel too hungry. i did feel weak, so i ate a banana. this was enough to get me through my entire practice. then i went to brunch and really broke my fast.

i've decided i like fasting. i like being mindful of what i'm eating. sometimes i get carried away with what i eat (and drink!) and fasting is like hitting a "reset" button.

rock n roll kitty

this is one of our cats. his name is sinkowitz. he loves being in and on things. we used to store our band equipment upstairs in our living space. one day he discovered the bass drum. our drummer keeps this blanket in inside to muffle the sound. of course, sink thought this was the ideal set-up for a nap.

these days, since we've moved most of the equipment to our practice space, no longer accessible to him, i occasionally find him here....
on top of my bass case.

so we think he might have been a musician in one of his past lives. at least he is drawn to the equipment...

... and like most cats, he loves to be in the sun. you can see this was a bit of an issue here, as he had to sit on the very end of the case.


i finally went to the new yoga studio yesterday. it was great! beautiful and had a good vibe. the room was a little small, but it worked. i like being in a small room because you can really feel the energy from everyone there. i also loved the heat! nothing like a good, sweaty practice- so cleansing. i read somewhere that to get the full benefits from practice one has to rub the sweat into their skin instead of wiping it off. um, i'll hold off on that for now... anyway, i look forward to going back. it was also nice to see people i hadn't seen for a while.

i started slowly. everything felt great- although i'm a little sore today. i didn't do all of the poses- i skipped laghuvajrasana (didn't feel like i had the energy- and it's been hurting my knees). i also only did 3 backbends and didn't do dropbacks. i imagine by next week i'll be back to my full practice... i'm also trying to be mindful of my hamstring. i thought it was mostly healed, but i could feel a little twinge in it yesterday.

tomorrow is my water fast. my teacher has given me some advice to follow- i have very little experience with fasting. today i'll cut back on food. tomorrow, the fast. i'll spend the day crocheting and studying. the idea is not to do too much. then sunday i plan to eat all raw- lots of fruit! i'll try to continue raw monday. if it feels right, i'll continue to eat raw for a while. i won't force it, but i'll see how it goes. updates to come...

what are these?!?

i got these in an organic veggie box we got from some friends. i've never seen anything like them... i'm thinking they're of the chive, onion family, but i'm not sure. i haven't tasted them, yet. i imagine they'll end up in some salad tomorrow...

practice today was very rushed because i got up late *again* and had an hour fifteen before i had to get out the door. that set a bad tone for the entire day. things kept piling up... you know those days, where nothing seems easy!

i did have a nice lunch, though with friends. pizza and ice cream. ice cream always helps cheer me up! especially when it has peanut butter cups in it! actually, anything with peanut butter cups cheers me up!

one more thing about paris

before we went to paris last summer, we saw a fun little movie called "le chat". it was an independent film that was centered around a cat that vandals had painted on buildings and structures around paris- apparently a political statement. when we got there i eagerly anticipated my first "chat" sighting. i ended up seeing 3 or 4 on random buildings. this is one. i think this is the first one i saw.

monday starts my detox. i plan to eat fruits and veggies during the day and brown rice/ soups at night. i'm mixing recipes from a couple of detox books and a gourmet raw book i bought (mainly for the beautiful picutres) called raw food real world. these cooked recipes include an indian cleansing stew called kitchari as well as some other soups- a beet soup, and a veg soup. tomorrow i'll make the kitchari because i have tons of mung beans in my pantry. it's so good with brown basmati rice!

today i practiced full primary with second up to laghuvajrasana- for the first time in over 2 weeks! backbends were great, but i felt a little sore later in the day, so i need to be mindful of that- i.e. i need to keep my heels down. i got a late start, though, because i slept in and went to brunch with friends. i really need to get up earlier. that will be the next step. once i can combine the two- full practice and not sleeping in- i'll be back in action!

crazy experience and perpendicular parallel parking

i've never been a fan of big cars. big, gass guzzling cars.-- i was going through some old pics from our trip to paris last summer. i love the smart cars they drive in europe. and i HAD to take this picture of one of them "parallel parked" perpendicularly. AND apparently they're going to be offered in the US in 2008! in addition to being environmentaly friendly, they're super cute! the obvious drawback for most, however, is the 2 person capacity...

today was unseasonably cold. we went to the first ever "BAM- belmont arts and music festival" tonight. got to see bob mould, the bon mots, and the redwalls. all fun bands.

i also had a crazy experience... last night i went to a friend's b-day party which included live band karaoke. (i'm a huge karaoke nut- it must be my korean heritage!) anyway, a random guy there (i.e. no one i knew) sang "welcome to the jungle". that was late last night. then today, we were having dinner at one of my fav places "cho sun ok"- completely different part of the city- and he just happened to walk in! kind of freaky... we decided NOT to say anything to him, lest he'd rather forget the night before drunken axl rose imitation... so i didn't mention it. but tonight at the BAM, there he was again (!!), standing next to us watching the bands play! so i HAD to say something. he was as freaked out as we were! and to think, we never would have known if he hadn't gotten up to sing the night before! we never would have recognized him! which makes me wonder if this has happened before and i just never noticed. weird.

so no yoga today (saturday) but i'm going to try to do my entire practice tomorrow- including what i did before my long break. i've decided to go on a water fast this friday (moon day) and a juice fast the following two days. one of my teachers is doing this- as part of a longer fruit/veggie diet and she has inspired me to clean up my act, too!

slowly getting back

last night we watched "the motorcycle diaries" a fantastic movie based on journal writings by Che Guevara. it was one of the better films i've seen in awhile. i didn't know much about his life and this film has inspired me to learn more. a couple years back i had a student write a brilliant poem about him for "louder than a bomb"- an annual poetry slam contest for chicago high school students.

(yoga)
i'm getting back into the swing of things after a 2 week long vacation. i'm trying to get back into a 6 X per week practice schedule. i'm also trying to eat better. i'm researching a few detox styles. i know the "master cleanse" is popular with a lot of people but the thought of drinking only a lemonade concoction for 10 days sounds a little extreme... i've also been looking at "the raw detox diet" by natalia rose. it looks good, and more importantly, it looks like something i could stick with for awhile.

today i just did primary again. it worked out well, because i only do primary on fridays. then tomorrow, rest. on sunday i hope to do my full primary along with second series- up to laghuvajrasana. i'm still working to get up from that pose. most recently my teacher told me to go back as far as i can without disengaging my legs- and then come up. that works- and i can feel myself getting closer with practice.... however, now that i took a couple of weeks off, i've probably taken a few steps back.

chia lemonade

i can't believe i'm still sore from primary series on friday! didn't practice this morning... had some friends over for brunch- chilaquiles and bloody marys. and this crazy drink called chia lemonade. it was amazing and refreshing. who knew the same seeds that created those silly chia pets could taste so good AND be so good for you! you must check out the recipe!

last night i went with some friends to this italian festival in the city. it was so great- i haven't seen so many mullets (that weren't jokes) since the 80's! there was lots of cheese such as fake statues of the leaning tower of pisa and a copy of the david statue. there was also this great band that played covers of bobby darin and the buckinghams!

ahh, the weekend...
today i have to get back to work. i meet with some other grad students to discuss some math tomorrow and i should be prepared. so today i'm going to resist the urge to go out and enjoy the beautiful (!!) day and instead study until my brain is full. then tonight, we're going to do our ritual "movie, chinese food night". tonight it's "midnight cowboy" (with jon voight) and general tso's fried tofu. yummy!

happy happy weeekend

this was a happy weekend. the weather was beautiful. in a place like chicago you learn to really appreiciate the sunny mid 70 degree weather. yesterday i started tearing up my lawn- i want to expand my garden. i met some great neighboors who i'd never met before. we had a great time talking in the sun. one of my best friends came over and we sat on the front "stoop" (that's what we call the tiny front porches in chicago) and had a couple of mid-afternoon beers. perfect.

last night i went to a friend's housewarming party. it's funny, while everyone else in my life is getting more and more settled, my fiance and i are doing the opposite. i'm back in school and, if all goes as planed, he'll be back in school soon. studying to be a luthier so he can make instruments in the violin family. we'll sell our house and go back to apartment living so we can afford it. owning a house, as great as it is, carries with it a huge amount of cost and responsibility. i just realized yesterday that we're paying almost $500 a month, just for the gas bill! i can't wait to be living the simple life again. starving artists and students...

today is another gorgeous one! i plan to go to breakfast once the fiance wakes up. by the way, am i the only one that doesn't like that word, fiance?--- so i'll call him the boyfriend. so once the boyfriend wakes up we'll go eat and then i have a lot of studying to catch up with today.

home practice

i practiced at home today. funny, how when your car's in the shop my daily routine changes so much. i rely on my car too much. i'm going to try to ween myself off it in the next few years. well, not completely off it, but i just don't want to rely on it as much as i do now.

i had a relatively short practice. my hamstring still hurts. really hurt in Trikonasana today. i used a block because it hurt too much to go all the way down. after the sun salutations, i worked on second series poses. Laghu Vajrasana is seeming next to impossible now. this was probably my 5th or so attempt, and i can't understand how anyone can lift themselves out of the pose back to kneeling. well, as guruji says "practice and all is coming". i have to trust that.

joining the blogging world

so i'm doing it. i'm starting a blog. i'll use this as a space to talk about life and my yoga practice. i've been practicing ashtanga yoga for a little over a year. last july i switched from led classes to mysore style. i love it. i love the silence and moving with my breath. today's practice was ok. i injured my hamstring about a week ago, so i'm treading lightly. i started the second series about 6 months ago- still struggling with getting heels to the floor in pasasana. i was given Laghuvajrasana last week. i love the backbending. it must have to do with my few years as a gymnist as a child.

other things... i'm finishing up a master's degree in mathematics. next year i'll start a phd program in learning sciences. i was a high school teacher for 10 years. i miss it, but i felt like going back to school. it's been a whirlwind of a year, that's for sure.