101 in 1001 #68: Find a church to attend and love.

For as much as I love to share here, I’ve been fairly reserved on a few big topics. I have always, always ascribed to the notion that there are four things that shouldn’t be discussed in casual society: religion, politics, sex, and money. To be fair, I talk about all those things with my closest friends, but putting it out on the Internet is a totally different story.

Now, with that caveat, I’m going to break all my rules and talk about Catholicism…specifically, my brand of/relationship with Catholicism. Before I proceed, however, please note: I’m NOT saying  that I agree with 100% of the Catholic Church’s teachings, beliefs or approaches to certain social issues, or that I am by any means a perfect Catholic. My beliefs diverge wildly from the Church’s on certain points, and this blog will NEVER be a place where those points and beliefs are shared or up for examination. All I do, and all I think I can do, is do my best to believe faithfully and worship honestly, and I still find I'm most comfortable doing that through the Catholic Church. It’s the faith I was raised in, and I cherish it very deeply for very personal reasons.

During my time at Notre Dame, one of the areas I found the biggest/most satisfying personal growth was in my religion and faith. Religion was as much a part of Notre Dame as football and academics…the place seems to breathe it. There are chapels in every dorm and crucifixes in every classroom, and the spire of the beautiful Basilica of the Sacred Heart soars above campus even higher than the Golden Dome. I mean, we have Jesus on our library. It doesn’t get much more prominent than this:

That said, I found that Notre Dame’s particular approach to Catholicism made me fall in love with my religion in a way I never really had before. It was accessible, it was candid, and it was tailored to its demographic in a way that I think would be impossible to recreate elsewhere. Homilies and masses were relevant to what we as students were going through every day: midterms, homesickness, making friends and struggling to figure out who we wanted to be.

I was a regular attendee of dorm mass in both of the dorms I lived in, and senior year my friends and former roommates Theresa and Melissa joined me in an effort to hit all 27 of the dorm masses. I also loved attending Folk Choir Mass at 11:45 on Sundays in the Basilica…stunning music, stained glass windows and the beauty of the ceilings and walls just enhanced the elevated sense of joy I always left church with.

After college, I really struggled to feel the same way about Catholicism, and I blame in large part the parish I grew up in. My family and I had all grown very disillusioned with the way the Church’s message was communicated there, and the fact that, for many, Sunday Mass seemed to be more about keeping up appearances and being one of the elite “first families” of the church than getting anything meaningful out of the service. I attended more and more infrequently, and eventually stopped altogether when I started dating a guy who was actively questioning his faith in organized religion in general.

Subsequent to that breakup, I found myself craving the comfort and peace I had found in Mass during college, and upon my move back downtown I found myself close enough to three different churches to hear their bells every day. The beautiful Basilica of St. Mary is directly across the park from me, and I decided to try to hop back into the swing of regular Mass attendance.

Friends, I’m so in love with it. While it lacks the collegial feel of a dorm mass at Notre Dame, it offers so much of what I loved about mass there…the stunning environment and heavenly, wonderful music, priests who relate the church’s message to the real world in a cogent and relevant way, and an atmosphere of welcome and acceptance. Due to its location right downtown, it’s very much a “come as you are, stay as you please” type place…perfect for my desire for a laid-back, diverse population like my college days.

I’m happy to say I officially attend the Basilica’s services almost every Sunday, and that I think I’ve found a church I love. I keep my faith very private, and tend not to talk about my church attendance because, for me, it is deeply personal. I’m really loving the weekly presence of Mass in my life again, though, and am so happy to check this one off my 101 in 1001 list…it’s enriching my life in ways that will last far beyond the end of my 101 in 1001 challenge! 

101 in 1001--a double-header! #53, #62

Lately it’s felt like I’ve been powering through my 101 in 1001 list, and I’m completely loving it! Last week, Hannah and I enjoyed a night that quickly became one of the highlights of my summer as we checked off not one, but TWO of the items on my list: learning to grill, and taking a cooking class with a friend!

We signed up for Kitchen Window's “Party BBQ: Summer Cocktail Party” class way back in June, as soon as it became available. It sounded like the perfect class for us…alcohol, lots of munchies, and a foolproof forum to expand our novice cooking skills! Last Monday we showed up starving and ready to go. 

Oh my god, this class could not have surpassed my expectations more extremely. Upon check-in, our first stop was the bar, where we picked up the first round of the evening’s drinks before heading out to the beautiful rooftop deck, where our class would take place. 

Led by Jonathan Gans, one of the head chefs at Kitchen Window, the class was an open-forum style where the chefs and assistants walked us through each of the dishes we’d be making up front before letting us loose to cook and graze at our own pace.

Six stations were set up around the rooftop, and we were split into teams named after celebrity chefs. Hannah and I were "Team Rick Bayless," which just made me crave the tortas from his restaurant at O'Hare (if you EVER fly through there, it's a must-stop). We were thrilled to be assigned to the station we immediately thought sounded yummiest: grilled avocados stuffed with homemade crab salad! 

Look at that concentration! Hannah was the perfect person to take a class like this with--she got just as into it as I did, but we joked around and laughed like lunatics through almost the entire thing. We're also similarly novice cooks, so it was great to be able to get excited about basic things like learning a new knife technique or figuring out how to tell when meat should be flipped. 

Clearly we got pretty excited about our first finished product! I'm fairly sure we were already the joke of the entire class at this point because we got so enthusiastic about everything...especially the breaks between cooking to get to eat our appetizers! 

One of the highlights of the class, for me, was learning about the different types of grills and various techniques associated with each. We tried out three different grills over the course of the class...the famous Green Egg grills, a high-tech gas grill, and a coal-burning grill. We also worked a bit with pizza stones in the grills, which opened up a plethora of other grilling possibilities! I loved the fact that the class took things outside the classic grilling box, really hammering home that grills aren't just for meat. We worked with ramekins of potatoes, the aforementioned avocados, puff pastry, and even grapes directly on the grill: 

While we did get really into it, we had just as much fun talking with the amazing volunteer assistants at each station as we did actually pretending to be good cooks. The volunteers were so patient with the two of us, and I loved chatting with them about how they got involved with Kitchen Window and what other classes they recommend. Turns out that volunteers get a free class for every four classes they assist with, and they always get to eat at every class! Hannah and I were immediately all about signing up. I mean, imagine this face of joy all the time: 

Enough rambling though. Without further ado, here's what we made: 

Our grilled avocados and crab salad...

Grilled tomato-and-herbed goat cheese tart...

Smoked sweet potato and Gruyere stacks...these were SO good and so cute they merited a before and after! We prepared them in layers like classic au gratin potatoes, but they were cooked in mini ramekins that were pre-heated on a pizza stone in the grill. They were to-die-for...so good I'm planning on persuading my parents to let me make them for Thanksgiving! A fun bonus: since the ramekins were hot, the first layer of cream made an awesome sizzling sound that Hannah and I, being a bit buzzed on wine/cider, thought was super hardcore and worthy of filming: 

I fully know we're a bit ridiculous. Especially my wanna-be Emeril Lagasse "BAM" in the background as I, oh-so-anticlimactically, place a potato in the ramekin. That, my friends, is what pro chefs are made of. HA. 

We also made BBQ mango chicken sliders with grilled pineapple, which gave us the opportunity to try out an awesome, super-precise digital meat thermometer. I think that'll be the first thing I invest in if my new obsession with all things culinary continues...I'm always afraid of undercooking meat, so I inevitably overcook it. 

Our second-to-last station was possibly the most unique: grilled grape mascarpone crostini! We tossed the grapes in a little grapeseed oil with sea salt and threw them right on the grill for a few minutes...it blisters the skin and makes them extra-sweet. In the meantime, we grilled crostini and mixed up mascarpone cheese with a little thyme, lemon, and salt and pepper. The cheese on the hot crostini got deliciously melt-y, topped with the hot grapes for an absolutely insane sweet-and-salty combination. I thought it was going to be my favorite of the night until we (rolled over to) hit up the last station: 

GRILLED LIMONCELLO SHRIMP. Excuse me while I go wipe the drool off my chin. I don't even know how to describe how insanely delicious this was...fresh shrimp tossed with cane sugar, butter and lemon juice, grilled, then topped with a sauce made of limoncello, olive oil, garlic, lemon zest and fresh herbs. As full as I was, I couldn't stop myself from dragging my fork through every last drip of the sauce. 

The best thing about this class, in my opinion? As gourmet as each appetizer sounded (and tasted), each was easy to prepare and comprised of pretty basic ingredients. Nothing took longer than fifteen minutes start to finish, and everything was laid out, explained, and demonstrated in an incredibly comprehensible manner. It made everything feel really accessible, even for someone who hardly knows how to scramble an egg. 

Thanks to Jonathan and Kitchen Window's amazing team of staff and volunteer assistants...

...and of course to BFW and partner-in-all-adventures, the lovely Hannah, for an amazing evening! Just so you know, we're available for hire to grill for any of your upcoming social functions...it's dinner and entertainment all in one! (I kid, I kid...but seriously, who wants to come over for dinner sometime?!)

For more information on Kitchen Window's classes and offerings, head here. Check out the rest of my 101 in 1001 for good measure to see what other adventures are on the docket! 

101 in 1001 #34: Mentor someone, in or out of the workplace.

Thus far in my professional career, I’ve been fortunate enough to experience some really good and some really bad mentors. I say fortunate because the good ones have taught me and helped shape my career and my development for the better…and the bad ones have shaped how I in turn mentor (rather, don’t mentor).

As far back as staff 1 busy season at EY, I had opportunities to step up and coach, train, and mentor interns. That responsibility grew as I advanced through the firm, and it was something I knew I’d miss when I left. At my current employer, though, I’ve gotten lucky and quickly involved myself with the E-Mentors program.

E-Mentors is a program run through BestPrep geared toward exposing high school students to the professional world early on. Geared primarily toward students identified as needing a little extra help, BestPrep offers a variety of resources for students around business, career and financial literacy skills through hands-on experiences. The E-Mentors program pairs each student with a mentor in the professional world to exchange emails over a 12-week period, with a meet-and-greet at the professional’s workplace partway through.

Travelers has been a longtime partner with BestPrep, running mentorship pairings every fall and spring for groups of around 40 students. I participated last fall and this spring, and am looking forward to this fall’s upcoming cycle! Each of my students was enrolled in a special, business-focused class that incorporated E-Mentors into the curriculum, and we exchanged emails every Monday over the course of their semester.

I always kind of thought that a mentor-mentee relationship was one in which the mentor gave and the mentee took, but Olukayode and Terriona both took me by surprise. Their emails were funny, both based on content and form, and their genuine curiosity about life in a professional workplace was unexpected. I probably totally overwhelmed them with the extent and depth of the responses I sent back, but I loved getting to share (and, hi, long-windedness has clearly never been a problem for me).

The meet-and-greets were easily the highlight of my experience thus far with E-Mentors. Both sessions featured a quick pizza lunch and some icebreaker question and answers, presentations by a few of the student mentees, a tour of our building, and an in-person session on résumé review. It was hilarious and nostalgic to watch the high-schoolers interact with each other and with their mentors, and seeing their reactions to my workplace kind of helped reaffirm how lucky I am to get to be where I am every day.

Having a chance to act as a mentor is something I value, and I’m grateful that my employer has made the opportunity available. If you’re interested, see if your employer offers something similar…BestPrep is all over the Twin Cities and is super active with most big companies nationally!

To see what else I’ve been up to on my 101 in 1001, pop over here!

101 in 1001 #72: Learn more about my family tree.

In the wake of my Grandma Lois’s death, I ended up spending almost ten days basically living at home with my parents helping them get prepped and ready for the funeral. My biggest role in all the folderol has always been helping my mom with the memorial photo-boards that my family displays at the wake and “after-party,” scanning in old photos, putting together a slideshow, and helping prepare the displays. This year, I ended up on Google somehow looking up the spelling of my great-grandmother’s maiden name: some derivation of “Clausen” that nobody seemed able to agree on. I ended up on Ancestry.com, and eventually found it… “Claeson,” a unique Swedish spelling. At that point, I ended up falling down the rabbit hole and pursuing a goal I’ve held for a long time…tracing my family tree.

Clearly we were born and shall remain forever really, really ridiculously good-looking. 

My siblings and I are classic mutts, with a mixed-bag heritage combining Italian, Swedish, German, and French in near-equal parts. This made the adventure of digging back through the generations extra-fascinating, leading me all over the world in the process. Since Lois was at the forefront of all our minds last week, I started with her. Grandma Lo was an only child born and raised in Saint Paul, the daughter of two Swedes who were born and who died right in “Ward 1” of Saint Paul.

On her dad’s side, Lo’s heritage is actually Czechoslovakian…both her grandparents (my great-great grandparents) were born in Slovakia in the 1870’s. She’s pure Swedish on her mother’s side, with grandparents born in Vasterlovsta and Sodermanland, Sweden, respectively. I was able to trace her mother, my great-great-great- grandmother, up to her parents, but unfortunately hit a dead end there…every record at the “four-times-great-grandparent” level was in Swedish and, since my only working knowledge of the language centers around Ikea’s product offerings, there wasn’t much more I could decipher. Here's one of my faves: my grandma with my great-grandpa Clarence on her wedding day:

From there, I hopped from Sweden to Italy and started digging on my grandpa, Ledio “Leo” Mariani. I knew a bit more about his childhood…his sister, my great-aunt Claudia, was born in Ancona, Italy, and my great-uncle Mario, his brother, was born in Connecticut and died in active duty in World War II in Burma (now Myanmar) a day after his twenty-first birthday. My grandpa Leo also served in active duty in WWII…we’re lucky enough to have some of the photos taken on their aircraft carrier in the Pacific theater.

Fun fact: his Navy nickname was “Irish!” As a proud Domer, I love that.

His father, Ulderico Mariani, was married three times to native Italian women…Nadalina and Dusolina were his first two wives and the mothers of his children. Ulderico and Claudia, along with either Nadalina or Dusolina, emigrated from Italy around 1920 through Le Havre, France, Liverpool, England, and eventually Canada before boarding a ship to New York City…arriving on the ship “Dante Alighieri.” I found the actual passenger register he signed…what a cool discovery!  Below, an old photo of Grandpa with his mother, my great-grandmother Dusolina: 

Again, my ability to trace far back to Italy was near-impossible…the record-keeping was apparently subpar compared to our American approach to recording everything! All I was able to find was that my great-great grandfather's name was Antonio Mariani, and that there are dozens, if not hundreds, of Mariani relatives still living in Ancona, and a nearby town called Mariani, in northern Italy today. (Off the record, the real reason I can't trace us is totally because they were Godfather-style mobsters. Kidding? You’ll never know, but hopefully you’ll also never cross me!)

On my dad’s side, I started with his father, Wayne Schwegman, and tracked his family to Stearns County, MN. Wayne was one of at least six kids, and his father was a mechanic. Somewhere between my great- and great-great grandfather, the spelling of “Schwegman” was born from an amalgamation of “Schweggeman” and “Schwegmann,” both of which mean “a man from Schwegge” (a town in Germany). Knowing that, I was able to follow the Schwegmanns back through the ages. Here, I made possibly my favorite discovery of all. Every time I Google myself, I find one other Elizabeth Schwegman in the results…a woman who died over a hundred years ago. I’ve always wondered if there’s a connection there, and it turns out there is…she’s my three- or four-times great-aunt through my grandpa’s side. Kind of a fun link to have! Below: random, but one of my favorite photos of my dad's parents, with baby brother Jonny. 

My other favorite find in the Schwegman branch has to be the draft cards for World War I filled out by my great-grandpa, John Benerd Schwegman, and my great-great grandpa, Bernard Schwegman. Both were of draft-eligible age for WWI, and I think it’s so crazy to think of a father and son going off to fight together. I wasn’t able to find out if either of them served…but how cool to discover these.

I followed Grandpa Wayne’s side all the way back to this fox on the left:

This is Heinrich Schwegman, my three-times great grandfather, and his wife, Carolina Macke. He was born in Dinklage, Nordhalen-Westphalen, Germany in the mid-1800s, and is pictured with his five sons and their wives. My great-great grandfather, Bernard, is pictured in the middle, and it’s crazy how he resembles my grandpa Wayne. Links like these are what made this research so much fun!

On my grandma Loretta “Marsh” Marchildon’s side, the wealth of information I uncovered was more than double my other three grandparents combined. Marsh was French-Canadian, with family roots dating back over three centuries outside Quebec. They emigrated to the Red Lake Falls around my great-great grandparents’ time, and Marsh trained as a nurse, eventually running the nurses’ ward in Kandiyohi County. Look at her gorgeous graduation photo!

My whole family agreed that my dad and I both look like Marchildons. See a resemblance?

I traced the Marchildons (her paternal line) back to the early 1800s, but through her mother, Mary-Blanche Baril, I was able to follow the family roots back to the 1500’s…an uninterrupted line of Barils that have called Batiscan, Quebec their home since 1709. My 9th-great grandfather, Jean Baril, was the one who made the leap from Saintonges, France to Quebec…married a pimpin’ three times and living to 77. Quite the feat back then! Before Jean, the Barils can trace back to Poitiers, France…a pivotal site in the Hundred Years’ War, in which the Barils played a part…and Champagne, where my mom, sister and I toured on our Paris trip in May! I’m secretly hoping there’s an ancestral champagne house that’s just waiting to be claimed by the two of us, its long-lost descendants. A girl can dream, right?! Here's the oldest photo I could find: Henri Baril and his family, which would mean this is my 5th-great grandfather, his wife Madeleine Doucet, and three of their eventual 13 (!!!) children. 

As nerdy as it sounds, I absolutely loved playing with Ancestry.com and tracking my family back through the ages. It was a great source of closure and gave me a very peaceful sense of being part of a chain of family members linked through time. I found the whole process extra-special and sentimental, knowing that all four of my grandparents are gone now. Hopefully I’ll be able to continue research over the years and keep on learning more as time goes by.

To see the rest of my 101 in 1001, head here and follow along as I check off the list!

101 in 1001 #66: Re-learn French.

Let's talk about French, baby, Rather, let's parler de Français, okay? 

As I made my 101 in 1001 list, I wanted to focus in part on rounding out my skills and talents...one of which is speaking decent French. Little did I know that almost exactly a year after I put this goal on my list, I'd be IN France, with the perfect opportunity to use my language skills! Our trip provided a great impetus to check this one off the list early, and was an equally great litmus test of just how far I came in my efforts. 

For background purposes, a little info on my previous French education: I started taking French in seventh grade, when all middle schoolers took a series of seven week "wheel" classes to try out languages, arts and other "random" classes. I fell in love with the language instantly, and took it from eighth grade all the way through college for a grand total of ten years of study. During that time, I spent a week in Paris while studying abroad and discovered just how awesome it is to speak the language in France. After I graduated, though, there was little opportunity and even less reason to speak French...it didn't exactly come in handy at Ernst & Young in my audit role, after all. Once our trip became official, I started to worry about how much of the language I'd lost in the four years I hadn't spoken, read, written or studied it. 

I started looking at the best tools to self-teach/re-learn the language around Christmas 2014. At first, I was considering Rosetta Stone, but it turns out that's best suited to language novices and wouldn't teach me much on the level at which I could already speak the language. I wanted to focus more on re-learning the grammar and expanding my vocabulary than on basics.

Emily and I looked at a wide variety of sites and programs, but ultimately I ended up downloading the Duolingo app to my phone around mid-January. The app integrates translating, writing, and speaking by using the phone function to record and rate your pronunciation. Awesomely, it lets experienced speakers test out of early levels with an initial assessment...which worked perfectly for me! From there, users can set a desired time commitment per day, and the app will send reminders to practice. Users level up as they complete "concepts" focused around vocabulary or grammar themes, and skills need to be "refreshed" by continuing to work levels. 

I tested out of the first fifteen-ish levels and ended up committing to twenty minutes a day, which I did more or less hit from January through late April, when we left. Some of the levels and sentences the app taught didn't make much sense or seem super user friendly (I definitely didn't need to know how to say "The big bear is wearing a yellow vest" while in Paris!), but it did force me to brush up on basic sentence structure and really helped with consistency. 

How'd it work out? Um, amazingly. I'm not trying to brag, but, actually, I'm going to brag for a minute here. I apparently speak awesome French, based on the outcome of our ten-day trip. I could communicate more or less fluently with about 90% of the people, in 90% of the situations we found ourselves in, for the entire trip. From simply ordering in restaurants and directing cabs, to carrying on full-fledged conversations about the cultural differences between different countries' tourists or the growth methods of different varietals of champagne grape, I did absolutely fine.

Even more exciting was that the French people I found myself chatting with regularly commented on and seemed surprised/impressed by my French. Not gonna lie...those compliments totally made my day every time I got one. Being told I had a great accent or an awesome vocabulary, or that I spoke French better than any tourist a person had encountered, was not only flattering but made me want to continue to practice and try harder. It may not be the most practical language, but I was absolutely thrilled to be able to truly converse with Parisians while in Paris. I definitely hope I can continue to retain my re-awakened French ability in some way in the future, but even if I can't, I'm so glad I took the time and put in the effort to improve my skills before our trip!