Flying Bento Box

From March 2nd to March 31, 2012, I volunteered for Peace Boat in Ishinomaki, Miyagi, Japan to help with the relief effort after the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami. One of Peace Boat's projects is in Funakoshi, a small seaside village in the Ogatsu peninsula, north of Ishinomaki.There, volunteers support and help the "Funakoshi ladies" make pendant necklaces and paint pictures on the Ogatsu stones while sitting on the third floor within a partially destroyed school building. These stones hold special meaning as they used to be part of roof tiles of houses that were washed away by the March 11th tsunami. This is a piece of writing from my dream book. It tells of my renewed love for art and painting as a result of the volunteer experiences I encountered in Funakoshi. Additionally, it offers a small window into understanding the human condition, in particular, the Japanese effort to rebuild their lives after the earthquake/tsunami natural disaster. ~~~~~  Frozen in Tim

06/30/2017 Hello my friend! How are you? I hope you are doing well. I am doing pretty good myself here in Vietnam. Today was my last day volunteering at the Orthopedics and Rehab Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City and I just wanted share with you about what I’ve seen and learned here.             If I were to describe my experience here in one or two words, I would say it is eye-opening. I suppose I’ll need to talk a little about my daily life here in Vietnam you can get a sense of why it was eye-opening. Every day, my alarm rings at 600 in the morning. I get up quiets and tip toe to the bathroom so as not to wake up the other volunteers that shared the room with me. I put on my blue scrubs and dark brown Birkenstock sandals. They aren’t as pretty and feminine as the sandals the nurses at the hospitals wear, but they will do. I grab my bag with about 40,000 Vietnamese Dong—$1.75 in US dollars—more than enough to spend for the day, a tiny tube of hand sanitizer, and a generous pack

This is an essay I wrote for a writing course during my third year at university. Parts of it are truths and parts of it are fictional but that doesn't really matter because the message, the meaning behind this is important.  Women. Strength. Confidence. and Beauty. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~             I was four years old when I first wore makeup. “Look how beautiful you were!” my mother said. She showed me an old, slightly creased photo. In it, a bewildered little Vietnamese girl stood next to an untamed rose bush, holding a giant red rose.  Perplexed, I studied the picture a little longer, a little closer to make sure she was really me. She had a pale, white face tinted with slightly pink blush on her plump round cheeks. Bright red dainty lips completed the image—a true, living doll. “She can’t be me,” I thought.   Growing up, I was quite the tomboy. I ran wild like the wind, laughing while chasing butterflies and blowing soap bubbles under the bright bl

I feel like we've lost ourselves. All those products to clear away all the dirt on our skin, then to moisturize  because the last product stripped off the natural oils, and then on top of that, only to layer it with separate oils from a bottle. And what if you got acne? That means you must take extra good care of your skin, spend all your money and effort to get rid of the pimples on top, and obsess over your red bumps: touching it, looking at it, squeezing it, covering it with layers of make up to seem "normal." Because the flawless skin you see on T.V., in the movies, or on YouTube is "normal," right?  Let me tell you, I've been an acne sufferer for 12 years. It started when I was in middle school; my first self conscious moment was when my friend pointed out the gigantic volcano forming on my nose. I went home that day and popped that thing like no tomorrow (still have a scar from it too) and from that day on, I found myself standing in front of the mir

So I've been a real health nut lately. I once craved chocolate cakes and pies but now, I crave vegetables and cherry tomatoes. Yep... Salads. Lots of salads.  I have gigantic salads 1-2 times per week in order to use up leftover fresh vegetables and fruits in the fridge before they go bad. Here's one with leafy green lettuce, carrots, sugar snap peas, cherry tomatoes, navel oranges, black plums, apple slices, walnuts, gouda cheese, and also baybel cheese. Seriously. The salads are up to 500-600 calories each! I love them... especially with juicy fruits. I've learned that to make spinach and greens less "dry," you just need to add fruits to them, especially fruits with high water content! No salad dressing needed. :) Here's one with lots of black plums from my backyard tree.  Now what is this?? Ever tried a wrap made out of nori, lettuce, red bell pepper and carrots? Extremely high in nutrients and they are so yummy! I eat it with a

Protein : Sweet and sour pork stir fry with red and green bell peppers and onion; Vegetables : Stir fried veggies, steamed broccoli, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, steamed snow peas; Rice : Tanuki onigiri (white rice mixed with bits of fried batter, green onion, and soy sauce). Protein : Salmon again! Seriously, I love salmon. This one is honey-soy sauce baked salmon;  Vegetables : Steamed broccoli, cherry tomatoes, cauliflower buffalo bites (yum), pumpkin, edamame, and sliced red bell pepper; Rice : Brown, short grain onigiri and wrapped in nori. Protein : Salmon! Vegetables : Broccoli, Cauliflower, cherry tomatoes, kabocha pumpkin, edamame beans, and potato-carrot salad; Rice : White, short grain mixed with furikake and wrapped in nori. Protein : Salmon;  Vegetables : Baked asparagus and rainbow carrots, heirloom tomatoes, pickled radish, kimchi, and grated daikon radish seasoned with ponzu sauce;  Rice : White, short grained and topped with chia seeds (that looked lik

Well, it's certainly been awhile since I posted. A lot of things happened recently and I've been feeling stressed but that didn't stop me from making bento! I've just not uploaded them yet. Here's tomorrow's bento. I'll be having an outside "picnic" type of hangout with my co-workers; a rare occasion but I always look forward to them.  The other day, we all were invited to the 23rd floor of our workplace building for a small party celebrating the promotion of our department's head. There was a balcony on that floor and oh my gosh, the view!! My co-workers and I spotted what looked like a small garden on top of a car garage building so we decided to have our picnic there! How exciting!! I'm always looking for new spots to enjoy my bento lunches. :D Proteins : Pan fry Salmon Vegetables : Pickled radish, Hijiki and carrot salad with a purple carrot piece carved into the shape of a flower (<3), Mini heirloom tomatoes (red and