Orientation 1

Dear Familia,

Yesterday I had my first official day at the Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government(HKS). It was our first day of orientation :) We were at HKS from 8 am to 5 pm doing various activities, but I was pretty happy because we finally got a better idea of what the program entails. In the morning the large group (MPPs, MPAs, MPA-IDs, etc) got together in the forum (where the most ridiculously amazing speakers come every year) for the Dean's address. They had displayed all the flags of the countries represented by this year's incoming class and it looked very cool. I think there are over 40 countries in our class!

It was definitely a full day...we were at the school from 8 am to 5 pm. I stopped back home for a bit before I headed back to meet up with about half of the class (100+ people) to go on a boat cruise down the Charles River. I definitely had a lot of fun...I didn't get to take a lot of pictures, but here are a few :)

A couple of shots looking over the river from the bridge that meets up with JFK street.

Our boat and the bar on the boat. Still not a drinker, but they set up a snack station after this so you know I was definitely all over that!

The sunset was completely gorgeous!

I got home a little after ten and went to sleep shortly after b/c we had another long day today. Luckily, we had a long break in between the massive amounts of information. A couple of my classmates and I checked out a Harvard staple, Mr. Bartley's Gourmet Burgers.

I got the "Drew Faust (Harvard Prez)" which was a veggie burger with feta and red peppers. It was pretty decent, the bun was buttered and toasted which I definitely liked. It was really nothing too great though and at $10 even for the plain jane burger, I probably won't be going back anytime soon.

At the end of the day all 215 MPPs (master of public policy) got up in front of everyone to do a 15 second intro. Some were funny, some were awkward, most were just normal (mine included). We learn all about registration tomorrow and we have some other fun things planned for the rest of the week so I will be sure to do at least another post about orientation before the end of the week.

Love,

Jem

Sugar Body Scrub

Dear Familia,

I don't think I mentioned this before, but I follow Gwenyth Paltrow's blog Goop. Although really it's less of a blog and more like a newsletter. Anyway, Goop introduced me to the Clean cleanse and also a wonderful Brooklyn based company called Sprout. The owner sells completely all natural skin care products. I have yet to be able to purchase any of them (long story involving me waiting till I went to NYC and then never actually making it up there), but there was a recipe for a sugar scrub included in the Goop article that I was excited to try.

I bought the ingredients at the Whole Foods trip I mentioned before.

• 1 cup organic demerara sugar (or any other coarse sugar will work)
• 1-2 tsp organic unrefined coconut oil
• 2 tsp organic shredded coconut

Then I followed the recipe directions: Mix shredded coconut and sugar in a small bowl, stir until blended. Heat coconut oil in a small pot just until melted. Pour coconut oil over sugar and shredded coconut, you'll notice it liquefies some of the sugar. With a fork or spoon, stir oil into the sugar mixture. It will start to spread. Continue until the sugar is all one consistency.

And you already know what container I used to store the scrub... ;)

I tried it out the other day on my face while I took a shower. It felt nice, but I think it would be a better bath body scrub. It was not liquid-y enough to use easily for my face.

Love,

Jem

The Oil Cleansing Method

Dear Familia,

It's always up and down with my skin. Sometimes it's clear and smooth and sometimes it's a mess. While I was home in AZ I managed to get it back on track, but I was using Cetaphil and with the new "clean" beauty regimen I'm trying to get on, that wasn't going to fly. This articleexplains why even though there are only a few ingredients, they are pretty bad. When I got to DC I went ahead and started using Dr. Bronner's. Although it's "clean," I think maybe it's too much for my skin b/c I've been breaking out all summer. My friend Cali talked to me about the oil cleansing method a while back. I had read about it through some of the blogs I follow, but it seemed very counterintuitive to do something like slather oil on your face to get it clear. I have heard the saying "like dissolves like" though so since I do have some major events coming up in the near future involving lots of picture taking I thought I would give it a try.

I did some light reading on this site and then picked up a couple of bottles of oil on my recent trip to Whole Foods. I mixed 3/4 cup (75%) Sunflower Oil and 1/4 cup (25%) Castor Oil and did my first treatment yesterday. I massaged about a tablespoon in for a good twenty minutes, laid a hot washcloth over my face, let it get cool, and wiped (in an upward motion...I heard this is better than dragging down) the oil off my face. My skin did feel both clean and moisturized when I was done and looked pretty dewy. I'll probably do it three times a week. I'm not sure how it will turn out, but I am going to give it a few weeks or so.

Oh, AND I'm using one of my Goodwill/Ikea spice jars to store my oil mixture. Nice, right? My trip to whole foods also produced the ingredients for an all natural sugar scrub that I'll post about tomorrow.

Love,

Jem

Thrifty Thursday

Dear Sarah,

I've finally taken the plunge and become a bonafide used store patron. I know you would be proud that it's only taken about, oh, ten years for me to discover what you've always known. Haha. Anyway, we live in this area of Somerville called Davis Square (i'll have to do a post on that at some point) and when I went exploring on Tuesday I happened upon a Goodwill and a Buffalo Exchange. I went in with pretty low expectations and I walked away with:

1. An REI rain jacket for $28 from Buffalo. It has three small (pencil eraser sized) bleach stains on one arm, but they are not very noticeable and it was a steal. I think retail price is around $120. It poured on Monday and I definitely knew I needed one of these asap.

2. A pair of rain/snow boots for $7.49 from Goodwill. I actually saw a girl try these on and walk around the store deciding whether to buy them or not. I quasi stalked her till I saw her put them down and leave. I was super happy. They have a rain boot bottom and then "thinsulate" and suede top. They may or may not be a bit small, but they will definitely work. Also, they look pretty ugly in the picture, but the girl had them laced up over her jeans and they didn't look bad. No idea on the retail price, but I know even Walmart rain boots are at least $30.

3/4/5. Two glass jars for bulk purchases of grains and the like for $.99 each from Goodwill. I discovered when I got home that Amanda has these exact jars from Target. Do they look plastic in the picture? I got the woven basket for $1.99 and I think it will be great for keeping things above our fridge. We have a decent amount of storage space, but with 4 people's food it can't hurt to find other places to stash things.

6. I eyed these babies on that first trip to Goodwill Tuesday, but didn't end up buying them b/c I had already bought some from Ikea that I planned to take back since I didn't have a real need for them. I originally bought them for my desk supplies, but my new desk has 8 drawers for all my supply storage needs. Then I realized later that day that they would be good in the bathroom so I went back today and bought them. They normally retail for $3.99 for 4 and I got 7 (couldn't find the lonely 8th) for $2.99.

7. I don't have a picture of this, but I found a Liz Claiborne leather hand bag for $4.49 at Goodwill today also. It needs to be cleaned so I'll post a picture when it's all pretty.

Anyway, I've been pretty proud of myself for not being the super consumer that I usually am. So far the only brand new things I have purchased (that are not getting returned) are some pots and dishtowels for the kitchen, a shower caddy, and a comforter. Yay for re-usng...remember the 3 Rs? Oh ya, I know you do.

Love,

Jem

Boston Baby- The Move

Dear Familia,

So sorry for the lack of communication as of late. It was a little crazy getting everything ready for the move up here to Boston. Zane and I had originally planned on asking Dean to use his SUV to make the 8 1/2 hour drive to bring my stuff up here. I didn't really have a lot except clothes, books, and a ton of random craft supplies. Then, my roommate Amanda asked if I wanted to go in on a moving truck. She was coming up from North Carolina and would have to go through DC anyway. I thought it was a great idea so that Zane wouldn't have to make two 8 1/2 hour trips in one weekend. I decided it would be a good idea to see what other big items I could procure so that I didn't have to find a lot of stuff up here. I found a bed on craigslist, Mrs. Ramadan gave me quite a few things, and I made an ikea run before we left. I was majorly stressed about finding parking for the moving truck in Georgetown, but it all worked out pretty perfectly (thanks to some hard work from my lovely fiancé). We loaded up on Friday and hit the road at 5:30 am on Saturday morning. Then the fun began...

It was pretty smooth for the first few hours. We stopped somewhere in Delaware for gas and breakfast. We of course went to McDonald's because I think it might be an unwritten law that you have to stop at a McD's at least once on a road trip. Haha.

We made it to New Jersey with no problems. They have ridiculously expensive tolls, but I can't really say that there was anything else of note while traveling through. Oh, it did smell really weird for a 30 minute stretch somewhere in NJ (wait, is that the state abbreviation??).

Really up until we got to New York it was smooth sailing. No traffic even. We should have realized that we were due for something crazy to happen. And it did. We got to the toll to go over the George Washington Bridge entering NYC and there was a sign that said "trucks use upper level." Because we had been warned that these signs usually meant semis and we had had luck not using the truck lane back in New Jersey, we decided to go to the lower level. We were definitely wrong though and the lady at the booth said that her manager would have to stop traffic so we could cut through the lanes and loop back around to get on the right level.

The photo above makes it look like perhaps there wasn't a lot of traffic and it wasn't a big deal. Well the manager had actually made an announcement that we needed to pass and for about 30 seconds people didn't go...and then they went...and we hadn't made it through! There was a lot of honking and near accidents, but we somehow made it in one piece to the other side where the was a police officer waiting to check out cargo. For what? I have no idea, but he must not have found anything good b/c he let us pass through.

Then we were able to cross the GW bridge and it was gorgeous and the views were amazing. See exhibits above and below :)

Anyway, after the bridge snafu, things were good through New York and into Massachusetts. We stopped somewhere outside of New Haven I believe to get subway. They were not stingy with the veggies which always makes me happy since I'm ordering a veggie sub. It kills me when they put literally 3 slices of green pepper across my sandwich or 5 olives or what have you. So annoying.

Massachusetts definitely gets the best sign awards. Their interstate signs have pilgrim hats on them! What the heck adorable. Amanda had to kinda pull over/drive really slow so I could get this shot. I'm sure the other cars on the road loved us ;)

We made it all the way to our exit off the interstate without getting lost, but we got lost pretty much as soon as we got off and got into Cambridge. I thought DC was a mess road wise, but Cambridge is ridiculous. It would have been a lot easier if we had known that even though we were heading East on Mass Ave that would still somehow get us to Somerville (my town) which is West of Cambridge. Don't ask me. Pure craziness.

We made it to house in decent time even after the detour. One of our other roommates (there are 4 of us) Thomas came over to help us unload and pick rooms. That took a long time and we were sweaty and nasty and tired when we finished. We ended up eating at the closest non-fancy restaurant...Chipotle. It was delicious and definitely hit the spot. Did you know you can get brown rice?? After we got home, I put my bed together, took a shower, and went to sleep. I was tired!

The next morning we went to Thomas' house (he lives in Cambridge right now) so that he could move his big stuff while we had the truck. On the way we stopped by this furniture store near our house and ended up walking away with a free desk and chair for me. I was super excited. Amanda also found some very cheap chairs for her room and a screen thing that she is going to get crafty with and do some sort of photo display. I'm excited to see it. Thomas didn't have that much (boys definitely live light) so it got done pretty quick and we then we decided to make an Ikea and Target run. I loaded up the things I needed to take back (since I ended up with the free desk and chair and had picked up some other things we really didn't end up needing) and we hit the road. Of course we get there and I realize I didn't have my dang receipt! Ikea can't look up receipts so I was a bit angry, but then I let the wave of mass produced cheap furniture euphoria wash over me. We spent far too much time there (is it even possible to get out of Ikea in less than 3 hours??) and I was so fried at Target I ended up getting 2 things...one that I didn't even need.

On the way back to get one more thing from Thomas' house we were asking him why exactly he wanted to leave since his place was nice and close to his work. And then we turn on to his street and see...

Some sort of drug bust type situation. Less than a block from his house. We understood completely after that and were happy that he decided to stay at the new place that night. When we took the moving truck back and witnessed a possibly bike theft. A nice enough looking girl and guy were very rapidly disassembling a bike that was locked up. I asked them what they were doing and they said they had lost the key, but I'm still a little sketched out. On the way back I got to take my first official ride on the T as a Harvard student from Harvard Square. Oo la la, no??

For dinner Sunday we wanted to step out of the big chain box and used an iPhone app (not sure which one since I don't have an iPhone but two of my roommates do) to find a delicious Thai restaurant called...Yummy Thai!!! It was indeed yummy. I accidentally left behind a piece to my bed that had been in the truck when we dropped it off and it was pretty hilarious when I called back trying to explain it to the server that didn't really know that much English. Amanda was laughing really hard as I said "It's a silver stick thing" when he didn't understand my first description.

So that was moving-in weekend. This post was entirely too long, but I hope you enjoyed it. Miss everyone very much!

Love,

Jem

Hello Fax

Dear Familia,

I know it's been a while, but except a barrage of update posts soon. For now, check this out: online faxing! HelloFax is this great service that that allows you to upload a document to your computer and send to a fax machine. Super easy, super quick, super cheap (first 5 are free!).

Love,

Jem

My Tiny House Dream

Real Simple

Dear Familia,

This is going to be a bit of a long story, so get comfortable. It all started with this article I came across on Real Simple's website. The article tells the story of a family that has just finished renovating their 1,400 square foot ranch when disaster struck and a fire destroyed their home. They had a couple of shed/cottages in the back that they were going to use for either a guest house or home business, but they decided to live in them instead. At 351 square feet, every single square inch is used to it's maximum potential. Read the article, it's great.

I'd already started down the path of trying to figure out how to reduce my carbon footprint and this idea of living in a much smaller space went hand in hand with that lifestyle. Growing up in Arizona, well in the United States for that matter, when it comes to houses...the bigger the better, right? A mansion is the ultimate status symbol. Even middle class families end up with way more house than they need. People have dining rooms, and formal dining rooms, game rooms, family rooms, home theater rooms, guest rooms, offices, the list goes on and on. Most of that space goes unused for the majority of the time. However, building these spaces uses an incredible amount of resources. Heating and cooling these giants is another financial and environmental burden.

After a bit of roaming around on the good ol' internet (you know I was interested because I spent hours using my slower than dial-up internet while in Peace Corps to check it all out), I stumbled across the tiny house movement, specifically the work of Jay Shaffer at Tumbleweed Houses. Jay has lived in tiny houses most of his life (one at just 89 sq feet) and considers his current home that he shares with his wife and baby to be big (500 sq feet). While down in Guatemala I downloaded the pdf version of his book and the free pdf version of some tiny house blue prints. I was totally hooked! Check out the video on the latest creation a Tumbleweed Bungalow that can be customized to a home owner's needs. I love the japanese style tub.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wci9ab8P0eI&feature=player_embedded

Over the course of the last year or so I've visited hundreds of tiny house sites and follow a handful of tiny house blogs. I also have at least 50 bookmarks of interesting/creative/amazing tiny houses. For example, this guy lives in the most beautiful and tiny Airstream trailer I have ever seen. And this floating guest house could easily serve as someone's primary house. Projects like this mining hotel got me thinking about how tiny homes could be used as temporary shelter in disasters or even as permanent housing in developing countries. That is something I will definitely have to explore while I'm in school over these next few years.

Anyway, fast-forward to last Friday while I was at work. I see this guy walk in that looks very familiar, but I can't quite place him as he walks past. About 15 seconds later I realize that it's actually JAY SHAFER...what?? I totally freaked out and even interrupted him as he worked with another Specialist. I told him what a big fan I was and how great it was to see him on this coast (he lives on the West coast). He told me he was in town for a workshop and I was totally bummed that I had somehow missed that he was going to be in town. And then he INVITED ME to the workshop. I spent the rest of the day telling all my coworkers about Tumbleweed houses and being unbelievably excited for the next day! I learned so much in the workshop...I'll share the highlights another day though b/c I have to head out :)

Love,

Jem

Exhilaration

Dear Familia,

Zane's favorite artist of all time is Lupe Fiasco so I hear a lot of songs of his and stories about him (he's crazy on the twitter front). However, my favorite tidbit of information that Zane told me just tonight is not really about Lupe at all. I'm sure everyone has wondered what it would be like to hear yourself on a CD...Nikki's reaction is beautiful!

Love,

Jem

Arizona Dust Storm

Rudy during the storm

Dear Non-AZ Familia,

Totally forgot about the craziest thing that happened while I was home. We got hit with an armageddon style dust storm. It was complete madness. Cassi came in telling us how crazy it was so her, rudy, johnny, madi and I went out through the garage to check it out. At one point my Mom and Abbi went out the front door and were at the end of the driveway and it was so dusty we had NO idea they were even out there.

Check out this video with an aerial view of the storm:

Love,

Jem

Visit Home

Working Hard...

...or hardly working??

Dear Familia,

My recent visit home to AZ was very productive wedding wise. Zane and his Mom flew out for a weekend and we got busy! We decided on a reception venue, booked a rehearsal dinner site, took Zane and his Mom to see our Church, found a house for Zane and his groomsmen to rent, updated our wedding website with accommodation information, and looked at houses for Zane's family to rent. I'm really excited to work on the details of the wedding now that we have the big things set. The best part of the weekend was having Zane's Mom meet the Garcia clan. It gave me a little taste of what the wedding will be like...bringing all our family and friends together for a once in a lifetime event :)

My trip home was also great because I spent a lot of time with my siblings. We watched a ton of movies, ate a lot of junk food, and tried to keep cool in the AZ heat. Unfortunately there was not a lot of picture taking happening, but it was very fun. Kaiya had her first birthday while I was visiting. On her actually birthday, Tara and I went to get her first pedicure and then out for a birthday cupcake. A couple of days later, on my last day home, she had a pool party. Definitely a great way to end my visit!

Birthday girl and her Mom in the pedi chair :)

Toes all done

Cupcakes by Roberta!

"Reading" her card, precious!

Love,

Jem

PS Zane actually did an incredible amount of work for the wedding, but I loved that picture and had to post it <3