Today is July 23, 2010. It has been exactly two months since I graduated from that " highly selective, residential, liberal arts college located in the heart of the Hudson Valley in New York State" and one month since I finally set foot back in Ecuadorian soil for the first time in six months. At the risk of sounding really cliched - tempus fugit, eh? The weird thing is that graduation also seems like forever ago. I think that's because I've been keeping very busy these past two months and particularly the last few weeks. Putting together budgets and business plans for two separate film projects is long and time consuming and stressful. Especially when you've never taken a business class in your life, and your knowledge on real-working mathematics and economics comes from an "Intro to Microeconomics" class I took way back in freshman year and quite frankly, don't quite know how I passed with a sound B. The people that have read my business plans say they're quite good - solid pieces of work for someone who has never really made one before. I take that as a good sign. They're not quite ready yet I suppose. They're being edited by actual investment professionals who happen to be blood-related to me so when those things come back to me on Monday, I'm hoping that I'll be able to have something quite killer to be able to present to potential investors.
But recently discovered that the business plans are not really the hard part about financing projects - the actual finding and convincing investors is the hard part of financing projects and it is the unfortunate phase I kind of find myself having to face right now. Oh, I'm sure I can do it, it's still a very frightening prospect to have to face. I guess I'm afraid I won't be taken seriously because (1) I am 21 years old, (2) I just graduated from college, and (3) I look like I'm 17. Seriously, I've had people congratulate me on my graduation from high school (because my parents, when introducing me to people, say "Oh this is our daughter, E, she just graduated" and neglect to mention that I graduated from College). I'm like...hmm...nope...did that four years ago! (Actually, I'm going to my graduating class's 4-year reunion tomorrow...another scary thought....) It also doesn't help that most people don't believe that my mother has a 21-year-old daughter because she looks a lot younger than she actually is too. Good genes I suppose...genes I'll be thanking when I reach my mother's age, but which right now are really irritating and sometimes prevent people from taking me seriously. I guess that's what I'm scared of - not being taken seriously, which is why my business plans have to be absolutely killer and knock people's socks off. Also, being an entrepreneur is scary in itself...I didn't think I would really become one until much later in life so sometimes I second-guess myself when I shouldn't.
On other subjects, my dad and I went out to eat at this new "oriental cusine" restaurant in Quito called "Zao (早)". One of my friends, G, said it was really good and I've been craving good Asian food since I left the States since the city doesn't have much to offer in the Asian food department. Oh, it has excellent sushi places though. Noé is my personal favorite and the one we always go to. They have really fresh seafood (you'd think that wouldn't be the case, with Quito being 8,000 ft above sea level) and the pricing is not bad at all. Four people will eat well there for $70-$80. Most sushi rolls don't go for more than $8 and they have premium ingredients. The other places where sushi is good in Quito are Sake and Tanoshii, but I've heard they're slightly pricier. But back to "Zao (早)". Upon arrival, the environment and atmosphere seemed really cool to me and upon looking at the menu, I thought that the concept was really good too. They had basic popular, mainstream dishes from different parts of Asia that had been altered slightly to make them a little more gourmet. I kinda wanted to eat everything on the menu. My dad an I agreed to order a bunch of dishes and share them (most of them were starters). We went with some siu mai, summer rolls, samosas, wonton soup (I can never eat it usually because it has pork! I was really excited!), and orange peel chicken. Unfortunately the food was unimpressive. It was ok, don't get me wrong...I definitely enjoyed the Orange Peel Chicken in particular and the summer rolls were pretty decent too, but they weren't exactly the best thing ever. To be fair, I'm very particular about Asian food in general and Chinese food in particular. Mainly because I was in China and the food in China was always fantastic. But last night's dinner was a bit too westernized and mainstreamed for my taste. Also, it didn't help that something I ate last night must have been either prepared with or on the same surface as pork because I definitely felt the allergic reaction coming on as we left. My dad thinks that it might have been the stock from the wonton soup. This makes me very sad because I thought I finally found a wonton soup I could safely eat. Darn.
Friday, July 23, 2010
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