South Padre Island

This summer I had the chance to check out South Padre Island and try out a few of the local spots.
Three things I highly recommend in try in South Padre Island, Texas:

1. Cap’n Roy’s 1313 Padre Blvd South Padre Island, TX 78597 capnroys.com 
Fish Tacos Fried or grilled with charro beans & rice. $9.95; blackening $1.00 extra.
The grilled fish tacos were fantastic. Fresh and tender with great flavoring. And I liked the dressing they used with the cabbage slaw. The beans and rice were average.
Camaronitas Diablitos 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 World Shrimp Cook-Off Champion dish! Marinated bacon wrapped shrimp with pineapple cream cheese & jalapeño, wrapped, rubbed, smoked & glazed with sweet BBQ sauce. $2.25 each a la carte.
I like trying out unique specialty items at different restaurants. While this may be an award winner, I found it just okay. I think it was the BBQ sauce that didn’t do it for me. A little too much which covered all the other flavors. Definitely give it a try.

2. Blackbeard's Restaurant 103 E Saturn South Padre Island, TX 78597 blackbeardsspi.com This place was packed. Definitely catering for the tourist crowd. But the food was plenty at a good price.
 Concha’s Jumbo Stuffed Jalepeno – Blackbeard’s house special for over 90 years. One for $3.75
I liked this specialty item. An order of 1 was large enough to split in two for a little tasting. Definitely packed with flavor. I would order this again.  
Fresh Garden Salad with cheese, mixed greens, tomato, egg, cantaloupe, cucumber, mushrooms, avocado, carrot, celery $8
For a basic garden salad, this salad really did include the whole garden. Plentiful and fresh. And we ended up eating the leftovers the next day.  
Broiled Seafood Supreme – Broiled gulf shrimp, scallops, Mahi Mahi, stuffed crab and stuffed shrimp, French fries, dinner roll $22
This meal was split between 2 people. It was plenty for dinner for 2 and with leftovers for the next day. I enjoyed how the scallops and broiled shrimp were cooked. I am not a huge fan of stuffed crab because I hate digging the meat out of the shell. Just make it into a crabcake and keep it simple. Perfect meal though for beach vacation.

3. Sea Turtle Inc. This was my absolute favorite thing I did at South Padre Island (besides hanging out at the beach). I never realized how many sea turtles there are in the region and how basically all the species are on the endangered list. I loved that this organization was basically a rescue center and hospital for sea turtles that were found or hurt on the Island. It is a completely donation run center and you get to walk around and see all the current sea turtles in rehabilitation. There’s even an adoption program and gift store were all the money goes back into the center.

Gerry says Hi

 We also spent a few afternoons on the beach enjoying the sun and surf. A few morning walks collecting shells. A nice boat ride to see dolphins. It was a lovely relaxing vacation. I love that the island was not overwhelmingly crowded or touristy. While it did have those elements, it was more on the peaceful and nature-loving side. However that may be because we went the last week in May and not during Spring Break. I would go back.

 

Wocka Wocka!

DSC_0552, a photo by keenak on Flickr.

In my continuing lust over nail polish, I present Wocka Wocka! - part of the OPI Muppet Collection.

I decided to be extra ambitious and paint both my fingernails and toenails this color. It turned out to be a dark red with orange undertones. It was really hard to take a good picture that captures the depth of the color. It was perfect as an end of December color with a little festive cheer.

Next up I may try one of the more glittery colors since glitter seems to be the "In" thing right now. I want to be all fashionable and trend worthy too :)

Turkey

DSC_0525, a photo by keenak on Flickr.

The photo doesn't do it justic but this turkey was fantastic.

We started with a fresh organic young turkey from Costo. Almost 9lbs since we were feeding 4 people and wanted leftover. It wasn't a cheap bird - over $2 per pound but it was well worth the money.

The night before Thanksgiving, we set the turkey to brine in a large stockpot. Filled it up with:
water - over a gallon and 1/2
1 cup of salt (next time i may cut back the salt)
fresh rosemary leaves
blackpepper
1 orange
1 lime
1 onion
4 bay leaves
brown sugar
And we let it brine in the fridge overnight till around 11am the next day.

Next we thoroughly washed the turkey to remove the brine and placed it into a large Pyrex casserole dish.
Next up was the seasoning rub. Softened 3/4 stick of butter. Mixed it with more fresh rosemary all chopped up, black pepper, and garlic. We took the mixture rubbed it all over the turkey and under the skin.

Then took more rosemary, oranges, limes, and onions to stuff in the cavity. As well as celerary and carrots - to help give the turkey some extra flavor while cooking.

We cooked the turkey at low temperatures - between 275 and 325 for 3 and 1/2 hours. (First time cooking something this long in our new oven so had to play around with the settings a bit to find the right setting) making sure to bast frequently and cover the top breast area w/ foil to it wouldn't overcook or burn as the rest still needed to cook. We took it out after checking the internal temprature with the meat thermometer. This is vital for ensuring that you have a properly cooked turkey.

It was our first time trying an organic turkey so I'm not sure if it was the turkey itself or the combination of the brine/seasonings/rub etc that made it so good. But it was juicy and lacked the gamey flavored. No part was overcooked which is typical when cooking turkeys. I hope this method will pay off when cooking with a larger turkey. For once I could not stop eating - kept on going back for more bits to nibble on.

I love Thanksgiving dinner. Probably my favorite meal of the year.

Animalistic from the OPI Muppets Collection

DSC_0538, a photo by keenak on Flickr.

I am not much of a make-up person overall. I keep it simple - some eyeliner, mascara, maybe a dash of blush and lipgloss - and that's my going out look. I love the idea of eyeshadows and lipsticks but after years of experimenting, I have determined that neither are a good fit for my features.

However, I have found my real love to be nailpolish. I love a good nailpolish color. When I need a pick me up - I buy a seasonal nailpolish. Compared to most other nailpolish lovers - I'm very much a beginner - less than 15 bottles at the moment. For years, I relied on manicures and pedicures from the Nail Salon. Recently though due to economics, I have been spending more time trying to do my own nails and starting my own collection of good staple nailpolishes.

When I found out about the OPI Muppets (http://www.opi.com/) collection, I knew I had to buy at least a few bottles - I've loved the Muppets for as long as I could remember. But that plan became quite the challenge for they were sold out everywhere. Who knew they would be so popular? I finally had to drive 30 miles to JC Penney's and Ulta in order to find a few bottles. And I am so glad I did. The names alone are great. But as someone starting a collection - the various shades of red, purple and glitter is a perfect fit for all seasons.

I decided to start with Animalistic - a bright shimmery red - very cheerful. I love how it came out - brightened up my mood immediately. I think this would be perfect for the toenails.

I'm excited to try rest of the colors immediately. Maybe I'll do one a week.

(P.S. I never figured it would be so hard to take a photo of my right hand using my left hand to hold the DSLR)

Reflections

(originally written on August 2, 2011)

It has been exactly two weeks since I have left Madhya Pradesh. In that time frame, I took a few days to visit Mumbai, London, and finally come back to the States. Additionally, I have been able to spend a lot of time reflecting on my experiences (long plane rides do have their usefulness). Two weeks ago seems like a lifetime away.
Everyone is asking me about my summer. How was my internship? How was India? Did I like it? How do I even try to explain? Just saying "Oh, it was great" seems too shallow. I feel the need to give hour long speeches on the specific details of life and how it is so different and how it really touched me to experience something like this. But is anyone wiling to listen past the general points? I am stuck in this weird world where I want to share so much with everyone but also keep so many of the moments private because they are so meaningful to me. How do I make people understand what it was truly like? These are the dilemmas I am facing now. I feel that unless you have had a similar experience, you will never truly understand. And to be cliche, it was a life changing summer. I will never be the same. I never thought I would say those words but it is true.

One thing for sure, even with the frustrations and obstacles that occurred periodically, I do not regret the experience for a moment and if I had to do it all over again, I would. The good outweighs the bad. Plus, I really miss everyone. As I am slowly going through my 1000+ photos, I am smiling to myself as I relive various memories. The people who shared in my experience is what really made the difference.

Here's a link to my flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/atraxia/sets/72157627309689958/
I am still in the process of uploading photos - so it's a bit of a mess right now.

Included are 3 photos:
A group photo on a field trip to Mandu, Madhya Pradesh
the "Queen's necklace" Mumbai
the London Eye, London

Last week at Samaj Pragati Sahayog

(originally written on July 12, 2011)

It is officially the last week of our internship with Samaj Pragati Sahayog in Bagli area of Madhya Pradesh. I'll be honest, in the first few weeks during the intense heat - it felt like this internship would last forever. However, now that only 5 days remain - I can't not believe it's almost over.
The turning point was around week 5. We seemed to hit a certain comfort level with the area, with the projects and most importantly with the people. And in turn the people seemed to hit their comfort level with us. We developed some amazing friendships, had some great times and now have several new facebook friends. That is what I am going to miss the most. The amazingly dedicated people who work for SPS that took the time to befriend us over the past 7 weeks, took the time to make us feel welcome, and took the time to arrange their schedules and work to accommodate our internship. We have spent many evenings joking around in the mess hall after dinner, went on a few adventurous roadtrips, watched movies together, and just bonded over our differences and sameness. But thanks to facebook and email we will hopefully keep in touch and see everyone again soon.

Another amazing thing that occurred over the past 7 weeks is the transformation in the scenery. As you may recall from my earlier blog posts about this area is called the Drylands. When we arrived in May - it was completely dry and dusty landscape - almost barren. With the monsoon, everything has beautifully transformed to lush greenery. It is unbelievable to think that this is the same place. Even though the heat was extreme in May, I am so glad I came then otherwise I wouldn't have understood the extent of the dryness/lack of water and how much influence the monsoons has on the local economy.

The last few days will be tying up loose ends - finishing up my project, paying the bills, meeting with our visiting Penn coordinator Aparna for a special project, and saying sad goodbyes to everyone.
Next on the itinerary is Mumbai for a week and then London for a few days. It'll be interesting to see how I acclimate to city life after so long in rural India.

Attached are 3 pictures - one of the greenery and low lying rain clouds on our campus, one of our neighbor Pooja dancing in the rain, and one of the fabulous Mehndi that Pooja did on my hand.

Friendly Villages

(originally written on July 6, 2011)

The interesting thing I've noticed when visiting various women at their homes in villages is the apparent lack of privacy. My intention is to talk to an SHG (self-help group) member, 1 woman, about her income and expenditures or loan usage - pretty private financial household data. However, many times her husband is there, a few of her own children, many other children from the village who are curious, curious neighbors, other ladies from the same SHG, or relatives that end up sitting in the meetings as well. Many times, the woman is still willing share this private data in front of all these people. My cynical side does come out a bit and wonder how truthful are these families when they are talking in front of other people but it seems to be pretty honest stories. It is eye-opening to realize that the village is a very intricate community made of relatives and friends who share in many parts of their lives and help each out in the times of need. All of them contribute to child care or chores. Many provide financial assistance, which is very relevant to understand when thinking about loan repayments and defaults.

The other reason many people show up to the meetings is because they are curious about me. Here I am, a complete stranger and different looking person coming to talk to a specific lady about her SHG participation. They want to know why, which is understandable. One of my favorite visits was to talk to 2 ladies about their loans. However, we never even got to talk about the loans in the first visit. So many people showed up - kids, husbands, wives, neighbors. And they peppered me with questions. It was really fun to interact with them and engage in their curiosity. I showed them what an American Dollar bill looks like and they showed me what a 10 Rupee note looks like. They wanted to know about poverty and farming in America. What do we grow? What was my village like? Am I married? How long did it take to come here? After two hours, we realized that we wouldn't be able to ask about the loans - especially since one of the ladies disappeared half way through - we decided to come back the next day.

The next day proved to be a bit more productive. We did talk about general loan issues and what the SHG group dynamics were like. But the same crowd showed up with even more questions. I was okay being distracted from my initial goal because they were so cheerful and friendly and amusing. They went out to buy milk only because they wanted to make me tea - an otherwise not common expenditure. They invited me to stay the night for dinner. It was lovely interacting with them and getting to know them. Many of the visits feel one-sided because I do majority of the questioning - so it was nice to see this two-way dialogue.

To get to understand some of the issues and see the full picture, it is important to develop a relationship with the people you are visiting. You can't just show up with a sheet and start interviewing them. You have to sit and chitchat, maybe for a couple of hours, maybe for a couple of visits before you can get to the pertinent questions. While this may seem time consuming, it is a valuable experience because you get to learn so much about daily rural life and many other things that they deal with other than the things you were focused on asking them about in the first place. Everything is so interconnected in village life.

Attached is a photo of the friendly village. Hopefully I'll get to go back and see them one more time before I leave.