New Blog

Peace, Love, and Camels has moved!

New site is www.jetlagandwanderlust.blogspot.com

All the old posts are imported to the new site, and I will be updating from there.

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P.S. Y'all are awesome.

Home Depot

Ah, more reverse culture shock.

Although, considering I spend more time each year outside of the US, I am technically an expat. So I have adopted many cultures as my own.

None confuse me more than the US.

I was never intimidated/freaked out by big box stores before spending time abroad. But now a NYC Trader Joe's was almost overwhelming after shopping for a year in small stores like Al Safa.

Home Depot the other day was more foreign than it had ever been.

We were looking to get ideas for new carpet. What I failed to comprehend was why there were so many choices, many of which were the same color. The same color with illogical names such as "Peace" and "Copyeditor".

It was overwhelming and confusing, and another reminder that the notion of 'home' and 'home culture' is transitory and multilayered.

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Recipe #2 - Sauteed Peaches

Ingredients:

1 peach, sliced
Honey
Fresh ground pepper
Butter

Instructions:

1. Heat a small nonstick pan. Add 1 pat butter and sliced peaches.

2. Add drizzles of honey and a little fresh ground pepper

3. Sauté until peaches are cooked but not mushy

4. Enjoy!

Serving suggestions:

With a fork
With brie and bread
Over ice cream

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Recipe #1 - Grilled Brie and Caramelized Onion Sandwich

Ingredients:

1/2 of a medium onion, sliced
2 slices of bread
Brie cheese
Butter

Instructions:

1. Preheat a small non-stick pan (big enough for the bread)

2. Add 1 pat butter and the sliced onion. Cook the onion until caramelized (after translucent, before burnt). While the onion is cooking, butter one side of the bread

3. Transfer the onion to a plate, and place one slice of the bread, butter side down, in the same pan. Put the caramelized onion on the bread, and slices of brie on that. Add the other slice of bread, butter side up.

4. Cook until the bottom slice of bread is golden. Flip, and cook until the other side is golden.

5. Enjoy!

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Cooking

One of the reasons I love being home is my ability to cook things.

Things I have made so far:

Sauteed peaches
Grilled brie and carmelized onion sandwich
English muffin pizza
Homemade mac n' cheese

Something I am planning to start for this blog is a series of recipe posts - both the 'real' cooking I do at home, and the dormet cooking that is done at school.

Look for the first set of recipes in the next few days!

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Things that Might Make Responsible People Cringe Vol. 4

I have henna'd my hair before, and it turned out to be a lovely copper/red/brown. When I dyed it, I used a Rainbow Henna mix that had other herbs in it to tome down the orange/red factor.

I underestimated how important those other herbs were. Today, I tried dying my hair with pure henna, mixed with coffee and lemon juice (coffee to help push it darker, lemon to help activate the henna).

My hair is a lovely shade of orange right now - thankfully darker than when I first washed the dye out. Then it was a scary clown orange. It is starting to deepen, as henna does, to a more red-orange-brown.

Hopefully it will darken more overnight, otherwise I will layer a mixed henna over it to darken/help the brown notes.

But for now, I have orange-red, short, faux-hawked hair.

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Changing

I have just over two weeks until I return to NYUAD for my sophomore year.

Just enough time to relax, reconnect, and reflect on the past year.

My friends say that I have changed - and I knew that, because I don't think you can be away from home, being independant, for a year without changing. My question to their comments is always - "I think I've changed - but what I want to know is if it is a good change"

And I think so. My friends, those who know me best, and who have known me with all of my ups and downs, say that I am calmer than they have seen me. My energy is more relaxed. I am happier.

Adjusting to college was hard - with classes comes independence, distance from home, a new beginning.

As I get ready to start my second year of school, I am excited, like I was last year.

But this is an excitement that holds the knowledge of the challenges I have faced, and those I will face again, and the knowledge that I am one step closer to conquering them.

I am ready for school to start - ready to read, study, perform the RealAD show (so pumped!!!), to intern, learn, grow, and change.

I won't pretend I have everything figured out - quite the opposite. But I am ready (and excited) to keep exploring.

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