Final grad school day

I am officially done being a grad student. I submitted my last two papers today, 14 hours before they were due, and felt good being finished, though, admittedly, it all felt very anti-climatic. As I promised when I started my graduate program, I would get back to writing this blog when school was over. So, here it is. And, what better way to reacquaint myself with Susan's Daily Eats than to write about my final meals as a graduate student? It's actually amazing how embarrassing and slightly pathetic my meals were today.

I first need to start by saying that I've put on about eight pounds during the last nine months. One pound for almost each month of graduate school. I sometimes wonder how that was possible, but when I think about days like today I realize how very possible it is.

I started the morning healthy enough with yogurt, fruit, walnuts, and some Kashi Go Lean Crunch all mixed together. I had an early start to the day, read the paper as I ate, then started writing again. I had two more research articles to write about as well as a conclusion, then needed to edit. Though I knew what I needed to do, I took my sweet time. Write a little, check Facebook a little, write a little, check email a little. It's an easy way to while away the minutes.

Then, was I hungry again? Probably not but I wanted something salty and I didn't want to sit at my computer, even though I had only been attempting to write for probably two hours. I went downstairs and made myself two cheese quesadillas in the shape of half moons. They were simple, just cheese and Tapatio in between a folded corn tortilla, but perfectly satisfying. They were salty, spicy, fatty, and extra toasty. Some of the cheese also oozed out of the sides of the tortilla when cooking in the pan and formed a cheese chip that hung off the edge of the half moon; it was the best part.

Then, it was time to go back upstairs and sit in front of my computer again. The words were slow-going. I felt no pressure to finish, but I was envious of all the little kids having a birthday party outside my window and their parents who lounged in the shade. I tapped away at the keyboard.

I felt unsatisfied. Did I want to eat again? Yes. Back down in the kitchen, I opened the refrigerator to find a little bit of brown rice still left in a tupperware container. I poured the rice into a small bowl, heated it up in the microwave, sprinkled some Japanese rice seasoning over it, and ate again as I watched the kids outside jump in the inflatable house jumper thing (apparently, you can have one of these delivered to Stanford's graduate student housing if you're throwing a birthday party). Brown rice and Japanese rice seasoning has become one of my new favorite snacks. I also ate two Newman's Own Hint-o-Mint sandwich cookies since I needed something sweet.

Back upstairs, I finished my research paper and sent it off. Now, time to start my final reflection piece on my experience volunteering at a college outreach program in East Palo Alto. I actually had to finish soon since I had a movie date with Raja later in the evening. We had a 6:45pm movie to make. It was about 4pm. I typed away, thinking about the past several weeks with these students. 5:30 rolled around, and I figured I should eat before I met up with Raja. I headed back downstairs, made two more cheese quesadillas, and opened a bottle of Red Stripe. Beer will help the writing process, of course. Plus, it was a warm Sunday evening. I deserved one. And, of course, I finished that paper too and happily sent it off to very little fanfare. I was officially done with graduate school work, and had to a date to get to.

I absolutely adore Raja. She's so much fun to be with and it's so easy to just hang out with her. We were going to see Get Him to the Greek, which seemed both awful and perfect at the same time. But, with half an hour before the movie started, we had enough time to get a little food. After circling the downtown Redwood strip, we decided that Chipotle was our best option. I had a single beef taco with guacamole, lettuce, and salsa. The meat was surprisingly good.

At the movie theater, Raja bought popcorn and peanut M&M's. She said that I should eat them together. Of course, I did as Raja instructed, and it was a fantastic combination. Salty and sweet. It was like Cracker Jack but with chocolate instead of caramel. Sitting there, watching movie trailers, and shoving this strange combination of salty and sweet into my mouth, I was reminded of the bus ride Ian and I took on our way back to Beijing from the Great Wall. We were exhausted and hungry, and the only food we had left with us were crackers, dark chocolate flavored with chili, and crunchy, spicy peanuts. We put all those things together into one bite and were surprised at how good they were together. Back in Redwood City, I had the same revelation: peanuts, chocolate, and something crunchy and salty taste good together. We finished those M&M's and popcorn just a few minutes into the movie, and I was happy to be there, done with school, and enjoying summer.