The Adventures of Brae

July 27, 2007

make it new, day by day, make it new

I've got a new bloggy! Check out the ways of brae on blogger

Love.

| By Brae | 04:02 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

June 27, 2007

ginger-licious

ginger tea.jpg

A few days ago I made a bunch of ginger tea at the house where I nanny. Ginger tea is a delicious and simple thing to make. My students in China made it for me when my stomach felt a bit uneasy. To make it, chop lots of fresh ginger and boil it with water for 30-60 minutes. Whatever. You can also add some slices of fresh lemon.

Irina thought up a wondrous drink with the leftover ginger tea I'd made.

Mix:

1/2 a glass of cold ginger tea
1/2 a glass of mineral water or seltzer or bubbly water (whatever you like to call it)
a few tablespoons of pure maple syrup

Drink it out of a wine glass if you like. That's what I'm doing.

| By Brae | 06:29 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

June 03, 2007

Japanese food and Russian baby

My silly zoo job is oVER! No more ringing up sales in the mad house gift shop full of screaming parents and screaming children.....(really! I never knew gift shops to bring out the devils in people like I saw at the zoo! The average amount a person spent in there was $40 and they'd wait in a line for 30 minutes to spend it!) and no more taking cheesy souvenir pictures of people around the zoo and no more 40 minute bike rides to work.

On my last day at the zoo my Japanese friends came to visit me and brought me a lavish, beautiful picnic feast. This beautiful display is just about 1/6 of all the food that was brought. My half hour lunch break turned into 1 hour in a split second. I wanted to sit at our lovely picnic the whole afternoon.

Now I'm a part time nanny for an interesting Russian family in my south Philly neighborhood, and they're also training me in HTML so that I can help them a bit with their web design company. It's be a good skill for me to have in this modern day. The baby's name is Lev. It means 'lion' in Russian.

Today I am going to the Art Star Craft Bazaar in Northern Liberties with Yoriko, Yoko, and Matty. Local artists will be selling their hand made masterpieces. Yay.

| By Brae | 12:17 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

May 16, 2007

my transcultural Philadelphia

After reading Sienna's blogs about Norway I began to feel rather jealous of her international opportunity. As much as traveling stresses me out, it totally creatively inspires me too.

But then I thought about what I did right here in Philadelphia yesterday and concluded that I couldn't be more immersed in international opportunity.

I woke up at 8 and took my 40 minute bike ride over to Tremain Smith studio, who I assist on Monday mornings. After building a panel for her and staining and sealing another, I got back on my bike to begin my new part time job of nannying for a Russian family while getting a web-design internship from them too. But on my 40 minute bike ride back to their adorable little south Philly house, I ran into my Japanese friend Yoriko who was on her way to Yukari's house for a homemade feast, to which I was immediately invited. I told Iria I'd be a little late and I ate a delicious meal on the floor of Yukari's home, and our friend Toshika joined us too.

Then I biked over to Irina's house to help her with her baby and housework and I took the baby for a stroll over to the park where I hung out with some sweet Mexican girls who were studying Chinese at school! We spoke a little to each other.

After my nanny job I biked home and dressed up a little to go to a wine and cheese gathering of about 6 female photographers who do a lot of shooting abroad, but who live here in Philly. I was invited to this gathering by a photographer friend of Tremain's. I sat with these fine women for 3 hours laughing and telling and hearing stories and eating hummus and pita, olives, white bean soup with roasted red peppers, peach apple crisp, chocolate covered almonds, etc.....yUm!

So after thinking about these several experiences, I felt aptly international, but still felt a little jealous of Sienna.

| By Brae | 01:05 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

May 03, 2007

my days

This city is fluttering with people and happenings and good food and lots of other things I don't even know about, which excites me. Here are the happenings of some of my days, which hardly have consistency yet. This lack absolutely excites and creatively stimulates me at times, while at other times it has me in tears. So it goes.

Yesterday I woke up early and hopped on my bike at 8 to run some errands around the rainy city in my green raincoat. I picked up sushi at Trader Joe's which I pass everyday on my way to work, and spent the day stocking the zoo shop with more stuffed animals and books and talking to funny kids and my funny co-workers. On my way home I called my friend Bronwyn who lives a few blocks away and was invited over to dinner at once. We sat on her roof and dined on white bean and mussel salad with spinach and grilled lamb sandwiches with homemade fruit-nut bread. oooooooh yum.

I met Aaron Stewart later than night in center city at a tiny, quaint little hole-in-the-wall theater called the Roxy. It's the very theater Quentin Tarantino would have wanted us to see his new film. And we did. I was doubly impressed with Grindhouse. (hee-ha.) I am convinced that Tarantino thrives by making films that are creative as possible and as offensive as possible. But hiis creativity will never cease to captivate me. I fear the sorts of things that he throws into the minds of the general public, but his work fascinates me on so many levels. His characters are extreme, but always desperately human too. The first film opens with a go-go girl dancing around provocatively in a strip club. Her moves are sexy, but far from perfect, and as she's dancing, tears are streaming down her eyes. (I know the first film was Rodriguez', but I'm sure the two influence each other heavily.) I'm always interested in the side characters in his films also. He's so incredibly attuned to detail. In some horror scene, there'll be a dorky fat person who looks like a random crew member running in the side of the frame. I love that junk.

So, enjoyed the mess of a movie incredibly, though I'm not sure I'm allowed to say that. Aaron and I both agreed that we were shown simply too much, as one always is when subjecting oneself to Tarantino's films. I am a discerning viewer though, and have so many thoughts hopping around in my head about what I saw. Call me if you want to have a discussion!

Woke up early this a.m. to eat breakfast with a cool woman and her kids in my neighborhood and biked to work again where I roamed around the zoo talking to people and snapping cheesy pictures of them, which some of them bought, and some of them didn't. Arrived back home to a delicious meal of veggie french onion soup and home made bread and iced licorice tea with my host family and now I'm chilling in my room.

I really wanted to go hear Barbara Kingsolver speak tonight at the big beautiful library about her new book, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life", which is all about the year her family spent eating nothing but locally produced food. But the talk was 12 bucks and I'm tired and feel that money is flying out of my pockets accidentally all the time. It's so hard to save when one is surrounded by such delicious food, amazing clothing, fun events, and places to buy drinks, which are absurdly expensive.

So I'm messing around in my room.

Anyone want to come visit me? I have millions of ideas of ways to entertain you in this sweet city.

| By Brae | 09:41 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)