Cooking

So I'm using all my free time these days (and all the great recipies I pulled out of my mom's Good Housekeeping mag) to cook. I've made some EASY, GOOD food.

Recent dishes:
Portabello mushroom burgers (nice, light lunch)
Pan-fried salmon with mango-cucumber salsa (soooo good)
Chile steak with corn salsa (need to get a better cut of meat--75% of the time the meat turns out really tough)
Jerk-seasoned pork loin cutlets (mmm, pig meat)

I am just trying to eat better--more veggies, less carbs. I'm trying to cook things from scratch so that I know what is in them. Less perservatives, more organic. I need to slim down, Sasha needs to bulk up, but in a healthy way. I hope that I can use my free time to test recipies I know that I like, that are easy and can be made without thought.

What's on the menu for tomorrow? Easy lasagne-toss (it's what you actually eat when you have lasagne--the mushed, broken, tasty pile of meat and noodles, without actually having to make the dainty layered dish in the first place) or ginger salmon and cole-slaw. All I can say is that I'm having fun!!

The Best Christmas Ever!

We had one fun Christmas--I'm sure the mulled wine helped, but we had a great time with friends and family.

Christmas Eve-day we met up with some old friends, and met some new ones :)




Phil and Emily, who got engaged Christmas day--Congratulations!!




Courtney and her boyfriend Rob, who is one cool guy.

That evening we had our usual clam chowder (with spicy wings on the side) and opened presents.

We laughed a lot, mostly because of the new rule (that I made up) that you must wear any clothing you receive :)





Simon enjoys a warm fire and his new cat bed

Christmas day was quiet--we had a big ham for dinner, went to a movie (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). Overall, it was a snowy, yet warm, Montana Christmas. I'm so glad we made the trip!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Yellowstone!

We went to Yellowstone National Park for a pre-Christmas adventure with my family. We spent one day in the park on a snow coach, the next day Sasha, Mike and I went cross-country skiing (for the first time ever!). It was great fun--enjoy some photos!

White Christmas

It looks like this Christmas is going to be very white. Which is great, and I was initially excited by the snow in Seattle. But now that we need to drive to Montana in two days. . .I'm getting more and more worried. I'm stir crazy, Sasha's going crazy, and I know that there's lots and lots of terrible weather in front of us.

I wish that there was some kind of transporter that would just pick us and our car up and take us to Montana. No travel time required, no risk. Just 1, 2, there! Wouldn't that be fun?!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

It snowed last night in Seattle, and the snow stuck. Sasha took some photos (I didn't want to leave our warm apartment). It is so pretty. And as of right now (12:30 pm the next day) there's still 2-3 inches standing.


Winter Wonderland!


Poor Spider!


Poor Scion!

I'm guessing right now that the doors are frozen shut. Sasha said there's a layer of ice under all the snow. All I know is that I'm not going anywhere today--we're going to enjoy our winter wonderland from inside :)

Crisis hits Ukraine - hard

This hit my yahoo news ticker today:
"Panic as Ukraine's currency plummets"

When we were in Ukraine in August, we got less than 500 hv for $100--now Sasha's mom can draw money (we occasionally deposit money into an account for which his mom has an ATM card) at 7.5:1! It is crazy how the hryvna has fallen in contrast to the dollar, and people are worried. One friend worries about how to pay for his car, bought by credit in dollars. Many people are selling off their fancy cars for whatever they can get so they can pay back the bank. And people are beginning to lose jobs as industrial plants close.

I don't think Sasha's family has any debts at the moment, thank God. We try to help when we can. I am worried for Ukrainian politics. . with this kind of crisis and an election coming, I can't imagine how bad things might become. . .

I'm Done

Tuesday I finished my last project . . . I'm done with my first quarter as a MA TESOL students. I actually did a lot this quarter--both school related and life-related.

We moved from Tacoma to Seattle.
We filmed 5 weddings and a 50th Anniversary.
I wrote one big paper and 2 small papers (in English), and several essays in Russian.
I did a whole lot of translating (which still makes my brain hurt).
I taught a class of 16 students; approximately half from Korea, half from Japan and one student each from Taiwan and Saudi Arabia. It was fun!
I've made some friends :) We went out for happy hour last night.

I think I have found a way to combine my interest in the world and in politics with the practicality of teaching. I really like this program, we'll see how I feel about the topics next quarter when I'm in methods and linguistics (intro to phonetics/phonology). It has been a good quarter (can I mention how wierd it is to be on quarters? I'm very used to the nice semester system at most other schools. It is odd to start in late September and finish at the beginning of December. . .but I'm not complaining!).

What will I do with my month off?
Today: clean, unpack boxes I still haven't dealt with after moving, maybe do laundry.
Maybe put up some Christmas decorations.
Go to Montana: visit Yellowstone in winter with the fam. Open presents/celebrate Chrstmas with the fam. Go to a movie. Come back to Seattle.
For New Year's go to Victoria, BC.

It is nothing thrilling, but it is nice to have mini-escapes. I'm super excited to go to Yellowstone and see it in winter. I've been there 3-4 times, but always during summer. It is such a cool place. . I can't wait to see how it changes into a winter wonderland.

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II Dies

Interesting.

I don't actually have anything to say about this, although we are Russian Orthodox. When I get into the politics of Orthodoxy, I'm usually frustrated. Questions of faith are a whole new conversation.

The BBC gives the history behind the man:
Russian Orthodox Church head dies

While this is an interesting article about the relations between Russian Orthodoxy and the Vatican.

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II Dies

This is Rad

I haven't really said anything about US politics recently. Like my disgust with Prop 8 or Hillary's appointment as Sec of State (awesome). But this is a funny, smart video and you should watch it.

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Updating

I feel like I'm doing a lot of updating these days . . I updated the look of my blog (you like?), I updated our website to have a new color scheme (zinchukvideo.com)... That was another step in the Zinchuk Video Studio style update I've been doing since August. I designed and bought new business cards. . . We're hopefully getting new equipment over this holiday break--i.e.a new photo camera! I'm excited to be officially getting into Photography. Wedding videography and photography go hand-in-hand and we've decided to go for both. I've been reading and reading more about cameras to get the best quality I can with every click.

All of this to avoid writing my final paper :) Tomorrow is my last day of fall quarter. I've survived! I'm tired of Russian at 9:30 am, I do still have a paper to write and a project to do, but I feel done. I gave my final exam yesterday for the class I teach (still to be graded). I just feel done. I'm not worried about finals or grades or anything, just looking forward to a couple weeks of relaxation.

We're going to Montana for Christmas, and we're going to spend a couple days with the fam' in Yellowstone! I'm so excited to see Yellowstone in winter, AND to practice more taking beautiful photos. Another winter adventure for the Zinchuk family :)