raw foodie wanna-be

My first experience with raw food was in 2007 in Kauai, Hawaii at a wonderful restaurant called Blossoming Lotus (which sadly was forced to close its doors this past December because of slows in tourism to the island).

Raw? I thought as we approached the restaurant. Really? Ok, I'll just order room service at the resort later.

Oh, what a foolish raw virgin was I! I had a raw lasagne followed by a raw fudge chocolate cake with "whipped cream". I couldn't even eat the entire piece of lasagna because it was so filling. And the flavors! Oh, the flavors! Everything was seriously so delicious, it was definitely the highlight of my entire Hawaii vacation. For those interested, there's still a Blossoming Lotus in Portland, Oregon and I highly recommend trying it out. I think about that meal a lot and how delicious it was, and for a long time I considered it the best meal of my life (sorry, Anthony Bourdain, but raw food can be amazing).

That is, until I had a raw Greek salad with a raw papaya smoothie, tofu "BLT" sandwich, and raw cheesecake with raspberries for dessert at Radiance Restaurant in Koh Samui, Thailand. I plan on coming back to Thailand in the near future and will definitely be staying at the resort where this restaurant is located.

Becoming a semi-vegetarian has been difficult in China, and becoming a raw-foodie will seriously be near impossible here, but it is something I am considering toying with when I get home in July. I don't know if I will make a full raw transition, but I am going to start incorporating more raw food into my life and start experimenting with raw food recipes, so get ready for that! I'll be leaving the baking up to Twin (who is starting her own cupcakery) and will be doing a lot of raw food "cooking" and "baking". Trust me, raw desserts are out of this world. AND HEALTHY!

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I am participating in a month-long yoga challenge. I have done pilates before, but never yoga and I had always assumed it was simply relaxing and a good way to wind down. Ha! I was so naive. Even in two short weeks of yoga practice I can feel my upper body strength increase and I can even do a few push-ups now. It's amazing.

I think yoga and raw food living complement each other really well. I'd love to start a raw restaurant/yoga studio like Blossoming Lotus when I grow up. When I grow up, gawd, I love saying that.

bite me

Please, Edward Cullen, bite me!

Twin is obsessed with Twilight, not in a weird way, but in a "I bought all the books and read them in 4 days only stopping to use the bathroom or take cat naps" kind of way. Since movies come out here in Shanghai on DVD when they are only available in theaters in the US (thank you, lax pirating regulations), Twin begged me to send her the DVD.

I haven't read the books and haven't decided if I'm ever going to, but since I bought the movie and had to test it out to make sure it was a decent copy, I figured I would make a night of it, pop some popcorn, buy some lemonade, and find out what all the rage is about.

I watched it and absolutely loved it. I really like the Twilight "version" of vampires, they're so much more real than the vampires of the past (fangs, coffins, can't be out in day light, etc). Very clever, in my opinion. I shipped the DVD off to Twin at the beginning of this week and I have to admit that I went straight to the DVD store and bought another copy, and have watched it a total of three times so far. You should watch it, too. And after you do, watch this AMAZING Twilight parody from TheHillywoodShow:

godzilla VS bambi

I referenced the epic Bambi VS Godzilla battle in a post a few days ago. For those of you that haven't seen the glorious short film, here it is:

princess strawberry's throne resides...in a dorm room

Have I ever posted pictures of my living situation here in Shanghai? I don't remember. I live on campus right next to the cafeteria and the gymnasium. Teachers take up the first level of the dorm rooms and students live on the other 10 levels.



FYI I have never watched Breakast at Tiffany's.



There's one shared kitchen space for all of us and it is always super dirty and nasty because mainly the only people that use it are the ayis so they just treat it like it's their personal cooking space, never cleaning up after themselves, never washing their dishes, you all know the feel, you've had roommates.

Way back in October I figured it'd be best to invest in a rice cooker because the one communal rice cooker was always filled with rice. I don't even eat rice that much, but the fact that I couldn't because the ayis always beat me to it, made me want to buy one. As you can see above, our rooms are too small to have a "kitchen area" so the rice cooker was the only appliance I could fit in my room (other than a small juicer), so I've gotten pretty creative with it's usage.

Do you KNOW the possibilities a rice cooker holds? Because I had no idea they could do anything but cook rice until I started experimenting. So far in my rice cooker I have made:
rice (duh)
soup
pasta
oatmeal
kidney beans with carrots and peas
macaroni and cheese
vegetable samosa
burrito
refried beans and cheese
grilled cheese sandwich
popcorn

I love multi-task kitchenware.

burn me twice, shame on me

Andy had a great point on my post about my massage fiasco. Who cares if going back to Bamboo 7 (the massage studio in question) makes me lose face with all the employees since I had such a temper tantrum the last time I was there? Massages are better than dignity.

With that in mind, I fully intended to get a massage last night. A friend of mine from junior high was in town and asked to crash at my place and the first words I said to her after 12 years were, "So, wanna get a massage tonight?" After a nice dinner with Romy, we headed over to Bamboo 7 where we were told by the same feral cat that was screaming Miao Miao!! after me on Monday that it would be "only 20 minute wait."

"Really? Is it really going to be only 20 minutes? Because you said that last time and it was over a 30 minute wait and my masseuse never even showed up. If it's really 20 minutes, we'll get massages, but if it's longer, we're not interested."

I'm pretty confident she understood about 3 words from my rant and she repeated "Yes, yes!" with a big smile that I wanted to believe so bad. So me and my friend walked down to the DVD store to pass the time and came back.

Apparently there was some kind of confusion, and they thought we wanted foot massages instead of Chinese massages, and we would need to wait another 10 minutes. At this point, I should have known better and just left, but me and my friend were catching up after over a decade of separation, so the time sort of flew by. Before I knew it another 30 minutes had passed, nearly an hour of total wait time.

Feral Cat assured us it would only be "another two minutes", but I'm pretty over waiting ever at that stupid massage studio ever again. So we left. Sans massages and avec major annoyance.

happy birthday dad!

Today is my dad's birthday which of course you are all aware of since it is an internationally celebrated event. My dad is pretty awesome and I miss seeing him lovingly harass all the family pets.

Last year when that Soulja Boy song Superman That Ho came out it was a particularly slow news week for America because they did some big feature on it on MSNBC (my dad's favorite television channel) and showed the whole dance from the Youtube video. My dad saw a clip of it and was thus convinced that he knew how to do it perfectly. Because he was such an expert, he attempted to teach Tater Tot the dance:


My dad's version of "teaching" is a lot like mine: waving your arms around and pretending you know what you're saying.

like a feral cat

The events of the past few days are pretty surreal. Death, I think, is always surreal, suddenly someone is there and then poof, they're gone. Death is especially difficult to deal with when it's the passing of someone young, someone with "their whole lives ahead of them". Daniel was such a great guy and it's hard to cope with the fact that he's gone when so many not great people are still here. Is there any sort of justice in the world? I don't understand what higher purpose would let something like this happen.

Daniel meant a lot to a lot of people. He was the type of guy you instantly wanted to date if you were a girl, or be friends with if you were a guy. He was kind and genuine and smart and handsome and not a single bit arrogant. Pretty much everyone from my hometown had some sort of Facebook status update mentioning him today. I left a comment on his wall, a stupid :( emoticon, but for some reason it made me feel a little better about the whole situation. A little, but not much.

Today of all days the sun finally decided to shine in Shanghai after two weeks straight of rain. Maybe there's something to be said for that, I'm not sure, but I welcomed it anyway because I was in desperate need of some semi-fresh air (by Chinese standards) and a long walk. I walked for over an hour with no particular destination in mind, and it felt nice to just wander around the city.

I just got a massage on Saturday, but I really needed another one to take my mind off things, so I stopped by my usual place and made an appointment with my usual girl, #31, for later in the afternoon, under the name "Miao Miao". A few hours later as I was relaxing in my room I got a call from one of the receptionists asking me if it was ok if I came in one hour later than I had scheduled. Sure, I answered, I had nothing better to do.

I got to the massage parlor right on time and they took me up to a room where I proceeded to wait. And wait. And wait.

It was one of those situations where you tell yourself, "In five minutes I'm leaving..." Then five minutes passes and you tell yourself, "Okay, okay, seriously, in another five minutes I. am. going. Enough is enough." Finally, after half an hour of this logic, I had given up hope on #31 and was starting to get angry. Angry is never a state of mind you want to be in pre-massage, so I figured I should just leave right then and there, even if she decided to show up.

The staff seemed really confused about what was going on when I asked for my shoes (you have to take them off and put on slippers when you enter), but gave them to me anyway mostly because none of them can really speak English so arguing is pretty much impossible. I put my Uggs on slowly, glancing at the manager from the corner of my eye half-hoping she would try to stop me. But she didn't.

I left the parlor and started walking down the street when I heard someone yelling "Wait! Wait!"

Yes! I thought. They're going to offer me some sort of incentive to come back!

Negative.

"You have to pay!" The lady shouted with a heavy accent.
"For what?"
"Massag-ay!"
"Uh, I didn't get a massag-ay." I was making fun of her because it felt good to make fun of her, even though I knew she had no idea I was doing it.
"You have appointment, yes? For 6:30, yes?"
"Yes, I did have an appointment for 6:30, you are correct." I was talking to her like a child, very slowly and with a lot of hand gestures. Not the most mature way of dealing with the situation, but I had to blow off steam somehow. "And what time is it now?" I asked, pointing to the place on my wrist where a watch would be if I were indeed wearing a watch.

At this point there was a small crowd forming and the woman was getting embarrassed. Losing face is a huge deal in China, and this girl was losing it all over the place with about twelve random people watching.

"It is 7:00. But we busy! Come, come, only five minutes."
"No, I'm not waiting! I've already waited thirty minutes! That's absolutely ridiculous!" I waited for the impact of my words to sink in, but she just sort of stared at me with a hopeful look on her face. Clearly she had no idea what I was saying. "I'm leaving!" I shouted, turning away from her and stomping my way in the opposite direction.

I'm so glad she couldn't see my face when she shouted desperarely: "Miao Miao! WAIT! MIAO MIAO! MIAO MIAO!!"

It's impossible to look angry and upset when someone is screaming like a cat.

Now the problem is that I really can't go back there, which is unfortunate since they're the cheapest massage parlor in walking distance. I mean, technically I can go back there, but I would feel kind of silly after being so melodramatic and storming off. Maybe I'll wait a week or two and hope that they forget about me. Alas, with a name like Miao Miao, you're kind of hard to forget.

absolutely tragic

"This may sound like gibberish to you, but I think I'm in a tragedy." Harold Crick, Stranger Than Fiction

I just found out tonight that one of my friends that I've known since elementary school was killed in Afghanistan earlier today. I don't know any details except that it is so very, very tragic. This guy was seriously the All American Boy. Went to west point and served his country and was robbed of the rest of his life. It's so insanely sad.

I was already feeling down for whatever reason, and I went to visit Saemi in the hospital Friday which was somewhat good, but mostly just upsetting. After this, I need a few mental health days from blogging.

"great", according to my mom

I was talking to my mom the other night about people that like to suck the fun out of anything they encounter in life by over-analyzing every detail and she told me "That's so weird! I just read this great little article about that, I don't remember where it was. I'll have to find it for you."
"Really? What a coincidence, I just wrote about that on my blog."
"Oh wait! It was your blog that I read! Nevermind then, you already know what it says."

WTF wednesday # 3: spudtastic!

The Chinese are all about balance, so since I made a post about being healthy and making good choices for your body, it was absolutely necessary to make a post about being unhealthy and making bad decisions for your body. Which brings me to this week's WTF product, brought to you by the clever chocolate makers at See's Candies:

It's the nougat and chocolate potato treat created for St. Patrick's Day! The spuds are hand shaped and enrobed in See's milk chocolate, then rolled in a special blend of cinnamon and cocoa powder. Finally, the "eyes" of the potato are applied using pine nuts.

I don't know about you, but this looks like approximately 480 calories of delicious bad decision making waiting to happen. Hooray for China not celebrating any obscure American holidays, because these weird little dudes might be too hard to pass up.

hopefully these suckers are around post-lent for all your lenters out there

Coldstone Creamery has out done itself and has unveiled perhaps the cutest and most delicious dessert ever known to man: the ice cream cupcake!! I am so glad I'm not home right now, because these adorable treats are only going to be available for a limited time which would make breaking my dessert fast way, way tempting (hopefully they are gone this summer!). Especially since they combined my absolute FAVORITE Coldstone flavor (cake batter) with PINK frosting and RAINBOW SPRINKLES!!! Please someone go taste test this and let me know how it is.

Oh wait...there are several Coldstones here in Shanghai, I wonder if they're selling these too. No! What am I thinking?! I can't dare look into it, because if they are selling them, I might blackout from happiness and wake up in a sugar stupor with pink frosting and rainbow sprinkles all over my face, chocolate crumbs littering the floor.

the only type of dog i don't completely adore

I'm a lover of all dogs, regardless of size, shape, breed, or even attitude (though I prefer it if they're nice to me). I am not, however, a lover of the Downward Facing Dog, and can't wrap my head around why they would name such a difficult pose after such an adorable and cuddly animal. Yogi masters are sadists, I tell ya.


Now that I think about it and see that cute little cartoon dog...Tater Tot does the Downward Facing Dog all the friggin' time!! And he makes it look so easy! And so cute! Argh, maybe with time I can master the position and make it appear both easy and cute. That is one of my goals over the next month of participation in Carrot N Cakes 31 Day Yoga Challenge: make the Downward Facing Dog look simple and adorable. Check out the Tot, pwning yoga moves like no other:


And for good measure, here are some extra photos of the Tot being the Tot.

Glam Shot 2007.

Noming down on a Sprinkles pupcake.

I have actually started a Tater Tot-based blog to be ghost written by me for him, I know everyone is just DYING to get into the mind of that little fur ball, so I'll keep you posted on launch dates.

Anyway, yes, I am partaking in a yoga challenge and so far it is going well. After every session I feel sore (I'm doing a body core toning and conditioning DVD) and so stretched and long, I wonder if I could get taller from doing all this yoga.

"Ten years ago I was one and a half inches shorter than I am today. Pure will power."

Name that quote, win a prize.

Back to yoga, I've never done it regularly except for a 2-week stint in summer of 2005, so it has been difficult getting all the lingo down and also just getting comfortable in my own body. I can't wait to see how my yoga skills progress after doing them every day for a whole month.

"we're killing a dead horse to death"

The title of this post is an actual quote uttered by my wanna-be supervisor at an exceptionally horrendous staff meeting. Staff meetings seem to be a necessary evil of any industry, but in my multi-industrial experiences (restaurant, property management, sorority life, couch potato, newspaper, house sitting extraordinaire), I have come to the conclusion that educational staff meetings of any sort (administrative, resident assistant, teaching) have several things in common: they are way, way too long, nothing ever gets done, yet there seems to be a lot of talking from one or two keys players who basically like the sound of their own voice, rinse, and repeat every one to two weeks.

What I wouldn't give for a properly structured, succinct, staff meeting. Mhhh, I imagine it tasting like the nectar of the gods.

Butchered idioms aside, my pretend supervisor did have a point when he said "we're killing a dead horse to death." I don't remember the issue at hand, but we were way overanalyzing it, to the point where it wasn't even an issue any more but this nasty blobby thing nobody wanted to touch by the end of the meeting. That's what overanalyzing can do to an idea, an issue, a concept.

So why am I thinking about cremating some bruised and beaten horses? Because when all you do is talk and talk and talk about something it sort of ruins it. It takes the life and hope and fun that was once there, prancing in a field of long green grass in the crisp spring air, and it SHOOTS IT RIGHT IN THE FACE and sucks all the life and fun out of it.

That's what over-analyzing does to great ideas, my friends, so be warned. Sometimes "trying to figure it out" isn't just "trying to figure it out". Sometimes "trying to figure it out" is the butchering of a poor innocent bambi like horse, who, I might, never did anything to you, man.

rain and lesson plans

Holy crap. It's been raining here for two weeks straight. How is that even possible? Isn't there a limited amount of fresh water in the world? I don't understand it and I also hate it.

When it's raining I have no motivation to do anything but stay in my room and watch movies, which is fine for a couple of days, but by day 9 you start getting cabin fever. The lethargy brought on by the bad weather (I get into a funk if I can't be outside ever) combined with whatever bug I picked up in Cambodia and never completely kicked culminated last week to make for a very sick Strawberry. So sick, in fact, that I called in sick to work.

They don't have substitute teachers in China, so if a teacher is sick the kids just run amok. Which is pretty much what they do even when a teacher is present, so it doesn't really matter much. I thought my kids might have gotten bored or something since I missed two teaching periods back to back, but when I apologized for being sick the next day they couldn't stop excitedly shouting about how much fun they had without me there. It made me feel really important.

I actually don't really care. I know my kids like me because I bring them snacks and let them eat in class, which is so un-Chinese of me. Most of their teachers are super strict, so I'm like a breath of fresh air 4 days a week since I'm a total push over. You guys aren't ready for the quiz? Fine, ok, we can do it tomorrow.

My favorite thing about teaching is I can teach these kids about WHATEVER I want. For my 8th and 10th grade literature classes I have a textbook to use and choose stories from, but I'm not limited to it and can supplement readings with fun movies or activities (like Madagascar 2, for instance).

For my 12th grade essay writing class I don't even have a book, so I pretty much get to do whatever the hell I want, which includes lessons on Ugg wearing in the United States (yes it is true that girls wear them with skirts in the summer), LOLcats (it's this great website with cats that have their own language and use really bad grammar), and pogs (they were these round big coin like things that people collected and traded for fun). Technically it's an essay writing class, but since all my 12th graders have major senioritis and never come to school/do their homework, it's pretty much become American pop culture 101. This semester we're trying a writing workshop style class and tomorrow the first series of short stories are due. I'm hoping at least one student turns something in. Oh who am I kidding, I'm hoping at least one person actually shows up to class.

i still love you, dave

I don't really know how I feel about the title for Dave Matthews Band's new CD coming out this June...Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King. Really, Dave? First studio album in four years and that's how you bring it? Hmm, I'll just have to trust you on that one.

Check me out front row in Sacramento pausing in between singing along to songs and screaming "DAVE I LOVE YOU!!!!" to take a picture.

walking around the city

When the weather is nice I love to walk around Shanghai listening to my "Sleepytime" iPod mix. It's such a great juxtaposition, hearing the soothing voice of Jack Johnson sing softly about banana pancakes while dozens of taxis are honking their horns, weaving around pedestrians and bike riders and running red lights. It makes it feel like a dream when I'm strolling around with the words of Death Cab for Cutie buzzing in my ears, seeing people spit on the street and pick their noses, watching street vendors sell warm sweet potatoes steaming in the winter air. Days like this I love Shanghai.

I went by my usual massage parlor, which was closed for renovations, but luckily they opened up a brand new shop right across the street with all the same employees (I love my #31). My girl was busy for the next 1 1/2 hours so I made an appointment for tomorrow afternoon, they had me write my name and number in the appointment book, so I used to opportunity to write my Chinese name since I rarely ever get to use it. It was wonderful. All the employees began to giggle. Meow Meow? Hehe, ohhhh that is such a beautiful name! Very beautiful Chinese name! Yes.

Of course, that don't really think it's a beautiful Chinese name. They think it's a silly Chinese name and they think I'm a silly American. But that's okay, because I am a silly American. And I friggin' love my Chinese name.

6 monthiversary with shanghai

WOAH. I've been here for six months. It blows my mind to think about it. Six whole months? I could be 2/3 of my way toward giving birth to a child! Insanity.

So how do I feel now that I've lived in China for half a year?

I feel that I saw a man in the supermarket today in the bakery section pick up a cookie/baked good from each stall, put it right up against his nostrils, smell it deeply, then put it back. I also feel that immediately following that I saw another person do the exact same thing. Which is why I feel that you should try to purchase pre-packaged goods from the supermarket in Shanghai whenever possible.

Thanks for the last 180 days, China. They've been interesting.

an argument for cupcakes

I'm pretty steadfast in my No Dessert 2009 campaign, but this Atlantic article makes a pretty good argument as to why cupcakes should be considered a "not so guilty pleasure".

My favorite part? A good cupcake has all the frosting you really want at a birthday party but can’t ask for. It’s celebratory but restrained, a suitably small indulgence for tough times. And, surprisingly, a cupcake can be a smaller indulgence than a wholesome-seeming muffin: under the icing, as any baker knows, there’s practically no difference.

Mhhh, 2010 is so close I can almost TASTE IT! Which reminds me, my top five favorite desserts OF ALL TIME, in order, are:
5. Peanut butter fro yo with Reese's Pieces
4. Cake batter ice cream with brownies from Coldstone
3. Strawberry cupcake from Sprinkles
2. Banana cream pie from Rutherford grill
1. Giant chocolate chip pizookie

Yes, I will be consuming all five of those desserts in the first 24 hours of 2010. GET READY, WORLD.

goat breaks into home, eats cake

It's articles like this one that make me miss the good ol' U. S. of A.

Goat breaks into home, eats cake

Aaron Martin
Capital Newspapers — 2/17/2009 9:02 am

TOWN OF WESTFORD -- What do you get when a goat follows a dog into a house?

For Sherry Shirley of Westford, the answer is a big mess.

When she opened the front door of her home on Lake Road to let her dog in Saturday morning, a full-grown goat burst into the house, jumped onto a kitchen counter and helped itself to a freshly baked chocolate cake, according to the Dodge County Sheriff's Department.

Deputies responded to a call from Shirley at 11:43 Saturday morning, but a neighbor had dragged the goat from the home by its horns before officers arrived, patrol captain Molly Soblewski said.

"The goat didn't do a lot of damage. It knocked some dishes to the floor that broke and began eating the chocolate cake she had just made," Soblewski said.

The chocolate cake caper, however, was far from a perfect crime. Deputies followed the goat's tracks to a nearby farm on Mill Road and had it behind bars by 12:35 p.m. Saturday.

Soblewski said the owners of the goat will not be cited.

"It was just an unfortunate circumstance," she said. "I feel sorry for the lady, but it is kind of funny."

LOL, that article is so hilarious. They make it seem so serious that the goat ate a cake she had just made. Here in China the article would have ended with "And then the Soblewski's ate the goat."

Do you guys remember when my family had a goat? Man, those were some good times! And by good times I mean "annoying times."

The thing pooped EVERYWHERE (and Tater Tot loved to nom on said poop), ate all of my mother's plants and flowers in the backyard, and figured out how to get into the house using the doggy door so my dad had to add a big piece of wood that made it smaller so the darn thing couldn't fit.

Though, I must say, that goat did bring my family hours of entertainment. Personally, I liked to have broom battles with Tina Bonita (MeiMei named her "Bonita" to which Twin and I added "Tina" because, duh, Napoleon Dynamite), as pictured below:

And then we ate the goat. No, just kidding, we gave her away to some family that had a farm and were much better equipped to deal with a rhinestone-collar wearing goat that thought it was a dog.

it's all about the rmb, baby

Teaching doesn't pay. I could make more per hour tutoring kids than I do teaching. However, you can't get a Chinese working visa from tutoring, you need to have an actual company employ you, thus I have a crumby teaching job.

It's actually not that crumby. I like my kids (for the most part), the administration is pretty nice, and we get a ton of holiday and vacation time. The only part of it that's crumby is the fact that I make 6,500RMB a month (about 950 dollars). For being in China, it's a pretty decent chunk of cash if you're living like a local, i.e. NOT getting 4+ items hand tailored every week/eating cereal and sandwiches every day. I tried that whole "living like a local" thing, and it just didn't work out for me. I don't like baozi enough to eat it daily, even if it is only 1RMB. I also really, really like getting things hand made at the fabric market.

But I digress. Pay day is on the 26th of every month, which is coincidentally also my Monthiversary with China, so I always have two reasons to celebrate the day. Currently, I have about 21RMB in my wallet to last me until Thursday. It definitely won't be a problem since my fridge is fully stocked, but I was sort of looking forward to buying a few new DVDs (16RMB each), which I guess I'll need to hold off on.

I don't have any real monthly expenses except for my Metro card which I need to re-charge about once a month with 100RMB, my cell phone minutes which are usually around 50RMB, and international calling cards (four for 100RMB). Everything else is just play money, for shopping or going out to eat or traveling.

Except this month. This month I want to play Survivor and try to NOT spend more than 500RMB (75 USD). I told my mom this and she seemed very distraught, Strawberry, that's no money at all! What are you going to do? to which I replied, "Mom, I'll be able to spend more money if I need to, it's not like I'll blow up into flames if I spend more than 500RMB".

So why am I doing this? Because I'm bored and it seems like a fun little game to play. My goal is to spend no more than 500RMB, but if I do go over that amount, I would like to keep my expenditures under 1000RMB. I don't plan on making any real changes to my monthly budget except maybe cut out a few restaurant dinners here and there, and definitely cut out shopping (if anything because I will have no room in my suitcases when I eventually come home if I continue buying new clothes). By no means am I going to cut out anything essential like my weekly massage or DVD store trips. I'll keep ya'll updated on my progress.

Here goes [spending] nothing!