Post 7

Tavche Gravche

This weekend, I decided to take on what is arguably the most traditional dish in Macedonia (also common in Albania), Tavche Gravche. Basically, it’s baked beans with meat. And believe it or not, it happens to be one of my favorite dishes.  Although it’s not super difficult to make, it takes a lot of time. About 4 hours to be exact! There are two variations of this dish. There’s the baked version or the stew-like version. The great part is, is that you can make both versions by just baking the stew!

I didn’t have my mom with me this time, so I was on my own. And I have to say, I nailed it :) Getting the right flavor was a little tricky, and required some taste testing, but nothing a stick of butter couldn’t fix! And let me tell you something I learned throughout this process...BUTTER MAKES EVERYTHING BETTER. That is my biggest takeaway. Just add butter.

Anyway, here are some pics of the process:

Overall, this a been a great learning experience for me. For someone who rarely cooks, I'm pretty proud of the dishes I made. And as someone who loves to learn about different cultures and enjoy dishes from around the world, I feel good about being able to share some dishes from my own background.  

Post 6

Tulumbi

This week, I decided to take on making a doughnut-like dessert called tulumbi. Although many claim it to be a Turkish dessert, it’s very popular in many Balkan countries including Albania and Macedonia. It’s always a staple at any Albainian event I go to.  

I figured since I was at my parents’ house, I would try making a dish I wouldn’t attempt on my own. It was nice to have my mom by my side, but (just as I expected) there were some bumps along the way. The toughest part about this process was not having exact measurements for all of the ingredients.  My mother never cooks with recipes, so I found myself getting frustrated when she would say things like, “add enough flour as needed in order to thicken the dough”. On top of that, for the ingredients she did give me, she often used the metric system (2Kg of sugar, 1L of water, etc.)! I like to be precise and do things by the book, but that’s not how my mom rolls! Despite the frustration, I was glad to have her monitoring me along the way. My tulumbi turned out great, and I feel confident I can make them on my own next time :)

     

   

Post 3 - My Sentence

My Sentence

Well...after some contemplation, I’ve decided to switch up my Genius Hour project. After practicing Spanish on Duolingo over the past couple of weeks, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m not going to progress in my speaking skills as much as I’d like to without dedicating more time and money to learning it. I realized that I needed to hear and attempt to speak it each day in order to get better, and I wasn’t getting that conversational piece from Duolingo. In my first post, I wrote that I wanted to do something that would cause me some frustration, and sure enough, that happened. Although I know I would make progress, I wouldn’t make enough in the 8 weeks to make myself feel like I’ve accomplished anything.

So, that brings me to my sentence: 

She tried, she failed, she moved on to something new.

After this little setback, I had to go back to the drawing board. I decided to circle back to my original 3 ideas. The baklava is a bit much to take on, but I figured I could still use the same general concept of learning to make traditional Albanian foods. I’m not really a cook, so this’ll still cause some frustration. The plus side is that I’ll at least see results more quickly and hopefully that’ll keep me motivated.

My mom about fell over when I asked her to help me learn to cook some traditional foods. Let’s see if she ends up eating all her words about her American daughter never being able to cook!

Even though I was keeping up with my goal, I wasn't getting the conversational piece I was seeking.

Genius Hour

Post 1

What better way to end our final class than with the concept of a Genius Hour?! I have to admit, when I initially learned about this assignment, I had mixed feelings. I’m excited about the idea of learning something new, but I also feel a little uneasy about entering uncharted territory. 

I’m so glad I started this process of deciding what the focus of my passion project would be by watching If Money were No Object. I found myself reflecting on his words and pondering the questions he posed. It must’ve been the tone of his voice that really drew me in. He ends the video with, “It’s so important to consider this question: What do I desire?” And at that point, I thought Well, that’s a loaded question! 

I needed a little more guidance to get me thinking about the last question Watts posed, so I scrolled to the bottom of our assignment to reflect on some of the other questions. I found them to be helpful when I started making a list. I learned that many of the things I enjoy doing, are things that I’m good at, which makes sense (no one likes to do things that they suck at!). So, I decided that I’m going to try to pick something I know I’ll have to put some effort into and that I’ll probably get frustrated with at some point. My three ideas are: to learn more about teaching practices in other countries, to learn how to make baklava, and to learn some Spanish.  

Post 2

One of my favorite things to do is to learn about different people and cultures through traveling, so all of my ideas are somewhat tied to that.  My first idea stems from the fact that I’ve always considered teaching abroad. After doing a little research on Fulbright, I learned that the whole process of applying and going through the teacher exchange program is quite involved. Obviously, moving to another country can be complicated, so I might need some time to really think things through! I’ll have to table that idea for now.  

My second idea, learning how to make baklava from scratch (not the kind with store-bought phyllo dough), would make my Albanian mother so proud. However, making that work would be tough. My mom lives about 2 hours away from me and I don’t think I can learn via FaceTime.  Not to mention, rolling paper thin dough takes a lot of time to perfect, and I’m not sure I have enough patience to work with my mom for that long, and vise versa! 

Maybe I'll just persuade her to make some for our final class instead ;)

My last idea comes from my recent struggles to communicate in Spanish during my trip to Colombia. Look, I’m not aiming to be fluent here, but I’d like to improve my conversational language skills. I have plenty of resources (both tech and human) to assist me, so I feel more confident in tackling it. I’m also inspired by my students to learn more. I feel like I’ll be able to connect with my bilingual Spanish speaking students better and even my 5th graders who take Spanish class three times a week. Plus, I’m going to Mexico next month, so I’ll have the 

opportunity to practice! Voy a aprender Español! (Hopefully Google Translate got that right!)