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The View from the End of the Road

April 20, 2012 in Alumni Blogs by npadilla | Permalink

 Lowell House Courtyard

Spring has sprung: see the flowers blooming! It was almost 80 degrees and warranting more classes to be outside. Less than a week left of classes, the last official classes of Harvard, and I can’t believe it!

The senior class committee has been sending out impending countdown announcements: 36 as of now. The days are still filled with last minute study, delving into extracurricular, and preparation for graduation. I’ve been attempting to take advantage of the local surroundings while I’m in the area; particularly study breaks in local cafes!

 

 Diesel Cafe, Davis Square, Cambridge

As for extracurricular, it’s been a Food Literacy Project heavy week. This Tuesday FLP hosted our annual Top Chef competition—teams from each of the Harvard houses (and the freshmen) who won a preliminary cooking competition came together in Annenberg (the Harvard freshman dining hall) and were each given thirty minutes to make an entrée and dessert to be judged by the Harvard dining services, including Executive Chef Martin Breslin.

The event was high energy and full of creativity and food passion. Check out some of the great dishes from the event:

 

Adam House Dishes

Leverett House Dishes 

Currier House Dishes [the two kids of a house tutor were the team!]

The winner was Winthrop house with a fattoush salad and apple tart. Check out the winners and their meal below:

 

In the meantime, I’ve been working on sales and marketing with a local company, helping put on events. With that, fellowships for the summer, and an offer to get trained in yoga with a Harvard community program (!), it looks like at least the next few months post-graduation are coming together, the first couple of which will be in Boston.

 The view from a dorm room in the Leverett Towers, featuring the Charles River

~Natalie

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A Cultural Exchange

March 30, 2012 in Alumni Blogs by npadilla | Permalink

Cultural Food Demonstration with FLP

One of the things I feared as I clicked the accept button to confirm my attendance at Harvard College was that I would be the odd one out at a school full of well-off families and ostentatious students. But I was happy to find that was not the case. Even from my first day upon meeting my roommate I realized students were just like me, from schools and backgrounds like me or diversely different in a great way.

 

My freshman roommate & best friend, Anita, & I [Harvard-Yale Football Game Day]

Even with the discussions of continental philosophy and solving problem sets (or, psets) over dinner, there’s a great diversity of opinion and culture. This week with the Food Literacy Project (FLP) with me and a few other house representatives put on an event with HPACE that celebrated cultural exchange. HPACE is the Harvard Program for American-Chinese Exchange and “aims to bring together top students from universities across China and Harvard students in a weeklong series of events and activities to promote mutual understanding between the students of both countries.”

 

FLP provided a typical American dish and how-to course, and HPACE did a dumpling demonstration. We ended up going with guacamole making both for ease and deliciousness but I was surprised to learn that avocados are rare in China—most students were loved to try the guacamole with chips, having never tasted avocado or tomato people except here in the U.S.

A How-To Guac’ Demonstration

The dumplings as well were equally delicious. One of my favorite things about food is the ability to bring diverse people together in conversation and to create a community. The event was about more than just food literacy, but cultural literacy and just fun. It took place at the Mather House Junior Common Room (JCR) and the people playing on the foosball table and piano provided a nice background against it all.

FLP & HPACE

After the event I headed to Clover Food Labs in Harvard Square. Clover really wants to connect to the local community, including Harvard, and so I work a there for just a few two hour shifts a week. There’s always something going on in the square, which is great and yesterday was not exception. Clover was having a launch party for one of their new vendors, a common happening featuring samples and conversation that happens for example each time a new coffee roster is featured at the store. Even though Harvard’s embedded within the city of Boston, Cambridge often feels like an exciting home away from home where you see old acquaintances at these events.

 

Tonight my friends and I are doing dinner in Cambridge at Inman Square near Harvard to celebrate my boyfriends 22nd birthday. I’m looking forward to the social outing before locking myself in the room for the next two days (midterm on Monday). After that, freedom (until finals at least…). Until then, hope you all have a great weekend!

 

~Natalie

 

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Good for your Health, Good for your Brain

February 24, 2012 in Alumni Blogs by npadilla | Permalink

For better or for worse, in a week and a half my thesis will be in, done, gone, and sweet sweet spring break will be the reward! For once the description is perfect as spring seems to have come early here to Cambridge this year (almost 60 in February? Amazing–though I hate to think of what summer will bring…). This spring break I’ll be sticking around here but my friends from California will be visiting complete with tour of Boston and New York City.

As for now, the week has flown by as I really get started in this semesters extracurricular. Tonight I just held my first Food Literacy Project event in Lowell House, a Superfoods Tasting. With the sudden ’bout of sickness that seems to be transversing around campus this antioxidant filled event was just the recipe. Lowell house students and friends came by and were able to sample a variety of healthy fare including cacao nibs, spirulina, coconut water, and roobios tea.

On the other end of the spectrum, I’m about to finish my second article for The Crimson today. I’m currently writing as an arts columnist about Culinary Arts in a postmodern era. You can find my first article here and another great column from a fellow writer here. It’s odd to think that The Crimson is over a hundred years old, but its the sort of place that when you walk into their headquarters to certainty feels established (in the best possible way). I’m excited to see how the column develops through-out the semester and am getting teary eyed already at the thought of this being my last semester to do extracurriculars such as these.

So in an effort to make the best of it now, I’m going to go finish the article before burying myself in the library for the weekend, hoping to emerge with a more finely edited thesis (i.e., readable). Have a great weekend!

~Natalie

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Follow Your Passion

February 3, 2012 in Alumni Blogs by npadilla | 3 comments

One of my favorite things about Harvard is the vast array of extracurricular to get involved in—you have a passion, there’s probably a place for it. If you haven’t noticed, food is one of mine. Not just the taste but also the ability of food to bring together community, create dialogue, and allow us to aid the world through a meal. And, indeed, at Harvard there’s a place for that passion—a group called the Food Literacy Project (FLP).

 

Created and funded by Harvard University Dining Services, this unique group hires student representatives from each undergraduate house—as well as a few additional representatives—to increase food literacy on campus.  We host study breaks in the evenings, lectures on the weekends, and community dinners whenever. Whether the subject is the question of the ethics of Genetically Modified Foods, or helping soon-to-be-leaving seniors learn how to shop & cook for themselves, students around campus help facilitation discussions on the important issues.

I’ve been so lucky to be part of this group of individuals truly excited about what they’re doing. And the energy was once again flowing this past weekend at our semester’s first FLP retreat, where we generate great ideas and made and devoured fresh vegetarian sushi (see pictures below).

 

As the Lowell House Representative, I’m currently putting together plans for a community dinner series featuring some of my favorite professors. One I’m hoping to host an event with in Professor Ted Bestor, an expert on the Japanese Tsukiji Fish Market and the Political and Economic effects of the global fish trade. Perhaps another vegetarian sushi night will be in order.

 

Speaking of passions, the beginning of the semester has been a torrent of applications and meetings and interviews, all maybe, possibly, hopefully. The Culinary Society (of which I’m the Vice President) is currently underway planning our big event for the semester—a guacamole making contest and festival (Guac’ Off), a previous smash the last few years. The whole planning experiencing has been overwhelming and emotionally rewarding at the same time as we it has become time for those of us who are seniors in the club to hand off the baton to the next officers.

 

And then there’s that pesky thesis.  When times get rough, the best thing is knowing you have a friend’s shoulder to lean on. My friend Anita has been invaluable in our mutual venting, crying, and oh-my-gosh-we-can-do-this experiences through our own push to write a thesis. Her block-mate Angelia has been great in realizing I’m not alone when it comes to uncertainty in our writing. I realize now that the greatest value of writing a thesis is in the process itself, of following through, of learning to create something full, and of how to deal.

 

Perhaps that’s one of the greatest values too of Harvard as well—I sure have learned a lot on that front. Academics aside for the moment, it’s now officially Friday evening and time for a movie with friends at our local independent theater, The Brattle Theatre. Hope you enjoy you’re weekend too!

Ps. Here’s a picture of my house cat that I just couldn’t leave out—adorable or what?

 

~Natalie

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Back to Our Roots: Harvard Community Garden Harvest Fest

November 4, 2011 in Alumni Blogs by npadilla | 5 comments

As fall begins to approach Boston and the leaves start to change into magnificent shades of orange and red, farms and gardens across New England also slow down.  Our Harvard Community Garden is no exception—and what better way to do so then with a great celebration?

So for the second year in a row—our garden being just two years old—we had Harvest Festival. I’ve worked on the Harvard Garden since last year and its amazing how its grown. And students have been at the forefront of this growth, planning, planting, and establishing everything from compost to a set-watering schedule.  There’s nothing more fun to me than getting your hands in the dirt to start the weekend.

So this last Saturday we put together Harvest Fest to celebrate community and sustainable food. Kids from the community helped us carve pumpkins and set-up scarecrows. Student bands performed everything from folk music to motown. We had two local food trucks including Lefty’s Silver Cart and Katalyst Kombucha. Additional food included freshly pressed cider and samples from food demos by the Harvard Food Literacy Project (FLP).

One of my jobs on campus is working for the FLP as the Lowell House Representative. In addition to educating students on food literacy, we also get to take part in fun events like this. At Harvest Fest I cooked up a sautéed apple cider kale with rosemary, garlic, and onions. My favorite though was the freshly popped popcorn made with heirloom corn.

As the day winded down, I was struck by the beauty of the fall season, something we in Southern California rarely experience. But most of all I was grateful that even in the stress of midterm season, there are great opportunities to relax with friends. A much-needed break is just as essential to Harvard life as the academic rigor. As such, this weekend, right after classes today, I’ll be taking a trip up to New York City where my brother lives–a great local trip that can cost as low a $10! Hope you have a great weekend too!

~Natalie

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