The Green Hills of Earth

Chris and I wrote a song (the lyrics are derived from the book "The Green Hills of Earth")

Harvested Free-leaf Tea

I am now in Navarre and Christopher Matechik and John Syzdek are hanging out with me. We decided to make some tea tonight and Chris pulled out some fresh dry herbs he picked locally in Florida and also in Wyoming. These included Mint (Mentha species), Yarrow leaves (Achillea millefolium), and Elderflowers (Sambucus canadensis):

 

We also wanted something local (this plant sparked the whole tea interest), so we went out and picked the leaves of a Yaupon Holly (Ilex vomitoria). Ilex vomitoria is the cousin of the common Holly you might see at christmas, Ilex opaca. Here are the leaves after I roasted (read: burnt) them in a pan on the stove top. For better results slow roast at about 400 degrees in an oven until browned to your liking. These are under roasted and Chris tells me that the caffeine will generally come out better at higher temperatures.

We added the Mint, Yarrow, and Yaupon Holly to the pot of pre-boiled water and let it sit for about a minute. At the end of the brew we added some elder flowers for a floral note. 

The tea had a really nice aroma and helped soothed Chris' sore throat. John described the tea's taste as being similar to the smell of walking through a greenhouse garden. Something about smells having tastes. We weren't sure what he was talking about either.

 

A nice spot of tea on a cold night in Northwest Florida.

Cheers!

Dinner For One

The server went down so I decided to make myself a nice gourmet meal. 

I began with some ground beef I got for $2 at the supermarket. I added a handful of chopped spinach, a few sprigs of chopped parsley, 2 diced mushrooms, 1/4 diced onions, 2 cloves of garlic, a pinch of cayenne pepper and salt and pepper to taste.

 

I formed the ingredients into a large ball and pulled off half of it to form into a burger. I flattened the burger out and grabbed a spatula to throw it into the pan. I used olive oil as my non-stick cooker.

 I cooked it on either side for about 4 minutes until it started to brown. At the last minute of the final flip I added a shredded provolone/mozzarella mix to the top to melt. I toasted the bun on a separate pan with a little olive oil spread on the inside. I then put the patty on the bun and topped with fresh parsley, spinach, and yellow mustard.

There you have it! A simple easy dinner I made in less than 20 minutes and for under $5.

So busy!

Xi'an China

An interesting trip so far. I've learned to live without certain things and get used to other new ones.

I am doing a poor job of making updates on my trip but the computer time I get requires fights to the death over who gets to use the computer. Currently about 15 people live in the house and we have one computer between us besides all the people who own laptops.

Also, posting photos takes forever at the volunteer house so I rarely care to put up pictures. This photo took roughly 1 minute to upload so multiple photos is a nightmare.

The volunteering has been great and all the kids are so much fun to work with. They are all so excited to meet an American. They all ask for autographs all the time and the really young ones just come up and hug you when you aren't looking. I taught all of the 4th graders how to write in cursive in class and I have a video of them freaking out when they see the letter 'b'. I will upload it asap.

Downtown Xi'an

If you are having trouble seeing very far, it's the smog. Oh god the smog. I can't wait to see a blue sky again! Every day you can feel the sun beating down but you can look directly at it without sunglasses. When I first landed and got a ride from the airport I couldn't help but cough and the air smelled like blown airbags in a car, yet stale. I have grown accustomed to it but am surely to die of lung cancer by the age of 26.

I'll put up a few videos here as soon as possible. I'm taking a train into Beijing next week and will be seeing lots of famous places there.

OH GOD CHINA

Some chinese tech guy brought over a jump drive that had a proxy application on it.

I now have full access to facebook, twitter, and blogger.

Will be posting in the coming days!

New Blog Due to China's Great fireWall

Hey everyone,

China has seriously cracked down on using sites like facebook and anything google related is completely banned. SO, this blog is completely worthless for the next 2 months until I leave the country. I will be writing my blog from now on at:

jonathanbollhoefer.tumblr.com

Sorry for the change, but I'm not joking when I say its banned. If you go to facebook, twitter, youtube, anything, it will just say the site can't be found and does not exist. Congratulations China!

Enjoy me being able to still blabber about my life though.

-Jonathan

Onwards to the other side of the world

Greetings everyone,

I began my journey this morning at about 4AM Eastern time when Reema and I awoke and traveled to the Orlando International Airport. My flight went out at 6:35AM and I connected in Houston before finally reaching my destination in Vancouver, Canada (about 12:00PM Pacific Time, 3PM Eastern...so yes about 11 hours later).

I have a good 10 photos I want to put up, but the internet here is literally unbearable. I takes 10 minutes to upload one photo. So, I'm uploading once choice photo that I will eventually explain at the end.

Fun fact, I flew into Vancouver on Wednesday June 1st, which is apparently the opening day of the Stanley Cup finals (for those of you who don't know, its hockey). The Stanley Cup final is equivalent to the super bowl in Canada, but I'm in the hometown of the Canadian team AND the game is being played here.

It is a madhouse.

The games been over for 2 hours and people are still running through the streets screaming and cars are honking as they drive by the crowds.

I'll post a full account of my day once I can upload some photos. It mostly consists of me eating a lot of Sushi that cost me next to nothing.

Here is downtown Vancouver 2 minutes into the game around 5:30PM.

(sorry its sideways but I'm too tired to care at the moment)

Cheers!