To-Do List for Life: Language Edition

I have a running list of things that pop in my head that I want to accomplish at some point in my life. Most recently I have been on a language kick. I speak English, obviously, quite a bit of Spanish because I studied it in high school and majored in it in college, and I understand bits and pieces of Korean because of my husband and having spent 6 months abroad in Seoul. Still, I wish I knew more languages so that I could travel and be confident in my ability to communicate. I hate to be the stereotypical American who goes abroad and expects everyone to speak English. I think it's so elegant when you can converse in a person's native tongue and really understand the nuances of the exchange - it's something to which I aspire.

In my lifetime I would love to become passably fluent in a language from each region of the world. For example, I have the romance languages of Europe covered with Spanish, though I would actually love to learn French. For the Scandinavian languages, I would probably choose Swedish even though I am part Danish, mostly so I could converse with Alexander Skarsgard in his native tongue if we ever met! (Sorry honey). I keep trying to get better at Korean, but it's tricky for me. I would also want to learn Arabic, Swahili and Russian. Obviously that wouldn't get me everywhere, but between all of them I could probably make some conversation in most places I want to go.

Any goals on your minds lately?

Photo Credit: Fanpop.com

Wants: Kitchen Edition

During my time off from school this summer, I have completed many baking projects. I like whipping up muffins or brownies or any other assortment of baked goods when the mood strikes. Most of the time the ingredients are easily mixed by hand, however, some of my favorite desserts require a little extra. Sadly, I do not have an electric mixer. Instead I grab my trusty whisk and set to frothing egg whites by hand. Unsurprisingly this causes me to become weary. With each project I find myself wishing more and more that I owned the classic KitchenAid mixer.

My older sister is an amazing cook and has every kitchen gadget known to mankind, including this iconic mixer. If it wasn't so heavy, I would have stolen it and brought it along when we moved to the east coast! I'm not looking to accumulate too many kitchen tools, but this makes sense. Some things are just too hard to whisk by hand (i.e. cheesecake) and some dishes just don't turn out quite like I want. My tiramisu never quite looks like this:

I simply cannot achieve that stiffness in the mascarpone mixture that is required. Infuriating!

Paying hundreds of dollars for a mixer just isn't in the cards right now, but I think I will hold off and won't buy a cheaper one. I'd rather wait it out and then get the one I really want, which may be a year from now when I am graduated and (hopefully) have a job. Until then I suppose I will just have to buy my tiramisu, which isn't really so bad after all.